Chapter 17

When Adam came out of the office, Sarah was standing inside the room where they kept the queen. he leaned against the door and stood there in silence for a while.

"Did you ever wonder what would happen if she just disappeared?" she asked in a quiet voice that still had yet to recover from her crying session.

"you mean, did I ever wonder if I could just burn the damn thing and be done with it? No, not until today."

Sarah looked back at him, curious at the change in his tone. he was looking at the plant with the same hatred she had.

" There are some interesting files in Wattani's office," he said quietly

"He knew, didn't he?" she said realization filling her.

"If only it was that," Adam said with a grim look on his face, " He was experimenting with it"

"What do you mean experimenting, did he research the drug? was he aware of our work?"

"He wasn't experimenting on the plant, Sarah. He was experimenting on people, with the plant. and yes, he knew about our research. Damn it! he was experimenting on us too."

Adam's hands were clutched into fists as he took deep breaths trying to control his rage. Sarah felt the same rage burning through her. Pr. Wattani was treating them like test tubes, and who knew who else.

"he wrote notes on our behavior as he administrated the drug into our systems. he'd stopped doing it when we realized that we were getting addicted to the perfume. It wasn't the perfume, Sarah. it was him all along."

Sarah left the room in a daze and went into the office, everything was spread on top of the desk. she reached for the journal that she knew the professor kept with him most of the time. there were some details on daily dosage. she flipped through the journal until she reached a date she knew pretty well. she saw the marking S as subject and read.

"This date," Adam said from the other side of the desk, Sarah nodded not bothering to answer him.

'Subject S unsuspectingly took the administrated dosage for 3 days. even though the effects were less remarkable compared to the first round a few weeks ago, I affirm that it's due to the diluted amount that she's been given. Her comportment is slightly different and more disorientated, I was not able to make her take my idea but it's having the desired effect, and the subjects starting to feel shakier and less sure about what she's thinking."

"It's the day you broke up with Elias," Adam whispered and she nodded again unable to lift her eyes from the page in front of her. "Were you having withdrawal symptoms that day?"

"I... I don't know. I can't remember. I was..."

" you were out of it."

"I remember going back to my apartment, and sleeping through the next day. I'd requested time off after that so I didn't come near the lab or the professor for a while."

"That must be why his notes about you stopped after this." Adam said "Sarah, we need to let Austin know about this. it's becoming too big of a crime by the minute."

"Do you think that he'd contacted that organization when he realized that he could sell the plant for the drug?"

"I don't know. maybe he got mixed in with them and then ran away when he realized how dangerous they were. letting us take the burn.

"He'd been planning this for so long. Making you break up with Elias when he started asking questions. Drugging us, and then leaving us like this to hang."

"If so, then why leave all this for us to find?" Sarah whispered, "Unless he planned this too... Oh my god, Adam, he's planning to kill us!"

Adam took her bicep and strode toward the door a fierce expression on his face, "We need to get out of here." he said

Sarah grabbed the journal as she started following him, she grabbed her phone and started looking through her contact to call her brother. Adam opened the door to the lab and as they were both starting to leave a gun was shoved into their faces

A squeak escaped her mouth as she was pulled forward into the tight hold of someone. Her mouth was firmly covered, and something cold was over her temple as a frantic male voice grumbled behind her.

"Step back," he said and Adam did as he was told raising his hands into the air, seeming to sense how agitated her holder was.

"Shut the door, or she dies."

From the man's voice, she could tell he was as scared as she was. Scared and desperate, a dangerous combination, from which came Adam's conclusion to do as he said. The sound of the automatic lock rang over the room, and with it, Sarah's despair grew.

Sarah looked at a stone-faced Adam, her mind on the sharpness against her throat, and the phone call she wished she'd dialed a few seconds earlier.