7

"This is escalating beyond what i thought" The Institute's director said with a pensive tone.

Sarah and Adam went to see him to let him know about the changes, that man was silent for a while before he spoke almost in regret. It wasn't like the professor left any of them a choice, the director can't really do anything to help them. they just had to tell him out of courtesy and he knew that.

"your first priority should be to protect the research, you need to change everything about your security system and information access. We have to assume that the professor was in a situation where he thought about protecting himself but couldn't make arrangements for the plant. so you need to make the necessary arrangements." He said his demeanor looking resigned. As they sat in front of him, Sarah could only wonder when had things changed so much that a possible kidnapping didn't even seem like a surprise to them anymore. Have they been living on the edge for so long that it became normal to them?

Seeming to sense her inner turmoil, the director said" Both Professor Wattani and I seem to put great burdens on you all the time. I wish i could help you out in this situation especially since i was the one who introduced you to his project in the first place. but i'm legally bound not to pry into any of your lab's activity"

"No, Director, we all knew what we were getting into. so don't blame yourself. i had many opportunities to draw back but i made the decision to stay and finish what i started. Besides, this development wasn't exactly unpredictable, it just took us by surprise and we weren't prepared for it" She said hoping to ease the man's guilt, he tended to take this kind of responsibilities too seriously, which made him a great mentor. but he didn't need to shoulder a burden that wasn't really his.

Director Walter Rone had been her supervisor on her Doctorate program. While Adam had been recruited by the professor himself from the university, Sarah had been a doctorate program student when she first met him through Director Rone. This one had invited her to join him at one of the institute's most beautiful gardens, the rose garden, where hundreds of rose species resided colorfully adorning every inch of the square covered space, the place was a collaboration between all the coming and going students of the institute who often got assigned to play around with the flower's varieties to create new ones. That day, the Director had told her that he wished someday, someone would put a black rose in this garden, making them the first to create one in the agronomic industry. Back then, Sarah had thought that it was possible, with such a place filled with student's hopes, success and hard work, it wouldn't be surprising that someday it would be the birthplace of a new specie.

With those thoughts, she'd met the professor, and it had been the start of a long roller coaster journey, that turned their lived upside down. What Professor Wattani had told her had felt like the realization of her prediction from earlier. A completely new species that held characteristics that have been seen on different families gathered in one plant, a species that hasn't been man made but exclusively created by nature. He'd told her about the queen, she'd been in awe, she didn't need to think twice to accept the position he was offering her in studying the rare specimen that probably no one knew about. she would be among the first to peek into the secrets of this strangely combined plant, or so she'd thought.

As they left the director's office heading toward the labs, something struck Sarah, turning toward Adam she asked "did you get to review the data and samples we got today?"

"No, i thought i'd wait for you to come back from meeting with Elias before taking a look together," he responded "it's going to be another contamination anyway"

"Not necessarily," she murmured speeding up her steps toward the labs "the last samples were starting to look like actual plants when they got contaminated."

"we've been trying nonstop for a while now, every time the samples end up being ruined before we could use them."

"Contamination doesn't mean that the experiment is a failure, it just means that we missed something about the cleanliness of the lab." she said continuing toward the door and proceeding to open it. " if the problem was in the leave parts we got from The Queen, we wouldn't be getting any results at all."

"True, but our process was double checked and careful."

"I've been wondering where the defectiveness was so i tried doing one of the samples and disinfecting everything by traditional methods using fire and Alcohol, it completely slipped my mind, i had put her in room temperature and didn't send her to the incubation room, in case the problem is from there."

"How long has it been," Adam asked sounding excited " can we see the results soon?'

"two weeks, it should be starting to form into a plant. If we start now, Maybe we could get some results by this evening."

They entered the lab and Sarah took out the Petri dish where her plant was forming a tumor-like green cell cluster.

"It worked!" Adam exclaimed in disbelief "I can see some traces of contamination but it's far enough not to affect our results. oh my god Sarah you're a genius!"

Sarah smiled at the child like excitement that Adam was showing, he was genuinely smiling for the first time since all this started, and she couldn't help but feel relieved seeing his contagious happiness.

"i am not, We still need to figure out why our other attempt got contaminated " She responded pitting the Petri dish under the light and examining the colorful fluffy bacterial colonies the started to form on the sides.

" I don't even want to consider the options," Adam said deflating "Why don't we start checking this out first, we need to determine the addictive substance in this plant and find out its molecular components."

"did you narrow down the list?"

"yes, between our symptoms and bits and pieces from our previous research, Before the professor took the samples away, i was left with around 10 options, one of them is that it's a completely new substance created by this new specie."

"let's hope it turns out as that in the end, since I bet that most of the nine left options we have aren't exactly Aromatic, flower scented Molecules."