Chapter 2

Three months.

Elizabeth Diamond.

Area/Time: NYC 2013.

“THREE MONTHS?!” Sarah Reyes yelled as she burst into my office, her footsteps echoing off the walls as she speed walked towards my desk. She was dressed in her white lab coat, her black hair tied into a bun instead of her usual, messy hair over her brown skin. Sarah was quite the active girl, even when I knew her in high school.

“Oh,” I said, “Hello Sarah, how was the party?”

She sighed a great sigh as she slumped into the chair across from me, “We only have three months to make a magical gas?!”

I rolled my eyes, “It’s not magic..but yea, you get the idea.”

Her eyes were coated with fury, “did you tell him that we have a sample?”

I took off my glasses and folded them in my lap, “No, best not to show all our cards just yet.” I advised.

She calmed down a bit, “Okay good, but three months isn’t enough time for safety tests if he wants this to work on humans.”

I nodded, “ I know.. I think we should skip some of those tests.”

She gasped, “You want to test a stress dependent gas on humans without safety tests?!”

I winced, “We would still do some of them...just not the long ones! And the way you say it makes us sound evil.”

Sarah looked like she was about to lose it, “THE LONG ONES ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT!”

The only reason I was letting her yell at me was because we were pretty close... and she was basically my only employee,

“Well I am not letting this project slip away!” I said defensively, “The good news is that I have a monkey test already approved and ready. We can do up to two months of safety testing in cell culture, then in the third month, the monkey should arrive and we can start the primate studies.”

Sarah thought about this for a moment before replying, “Fine. Let’s get to work.”

I tied my blonde hair into a bun, like Sarah’s, before checking my reflection on my desk mirror for any loose hair. It was kind of hard to see on my pale skin but I looked neat. We both stood up and began walking down my office hallway to the lab door. Halfway through the walk I looked down at Sarah by my side, “You know,” I said, “I’m supposed to be the one who gets to say ‘Let’s go to work.’ ”

Sarah smirked, but didn’t say anything.

I smiled as we reached the door.

“Three months,” I said, placing my hand on the door knob.

Sarah followed me inside the lab and cracked her knuckles, “Starting now..”