Allen and the party were leading a leisurely life right now,if they did not enjoy as much as they could then what was even the purpose of them joining here. Couldn't they just start a shop.
They did not completely stop their work though. The matter was...the feat that president had performed was not very achievable by them(anytime soon)
They had tried to do experiments in same specie of pig, but instead of flat, strong teeth his teeth....Well, no observable effect(or maybe had grown weaker)They could not continue the research with their current tech(more of a torture than anything to the animal). It seemed more advanced technology was used by top researchers of institution or it was just their gathered knwolege on the topic.
Seeing that they could do nothing about the tools they had become less enthusiastic(about that area of research) Allen and the others except Tim would return to their home every ten or so days later.
Like this a few months had passed. The official announcement to the World mentioned about Project "Evolution" achieving some level of advancement. The president had also given a public speech which told the public about its possible applications(also how to prevent negative ones)
The speech was seen by billions of people. They as always were appreciative of Institute's effort(time to eat modified meat now)
The tasks given to them were focused on small applications, it seemed the top researchers did not want to waste time on them so they gave it to them which left a bad taste in their mouth.
After the first demonstration by the president there were no more public demonstrations and the research was done behind closed doors for now.
The quartet as a main contributor were sometimes given updates but never invited anymore.It seemed like they did not want the quartet to disturb them so sent them some information.Their value had visibly decreased now.
While the quartet were busy in their own matters,meanwhile somewhere within the institute a middle aged man with brown colored hair could be seen talking to some others who seemed to be respectful of him"What has become of the snake and the lizard specimen. "
A man who seemed the head of group replied to the person in question"Sir Charles the research was not for not.The lizard and snake specimen have given us valuable data.We have come to understand them more thoroughly.
It is estimated that if we could complete our research on our new specimen now,we would have gotten our desired result"
Sir Charles said"Good job Thomas,if the result is as you have described you shall not go unrewarded."
Thomas didn't try to reject the generosity and replied"Thank you sir for your kindness"
Who knows when the president might change his mind.It had happened once before,someone was bootlicking instead of just accepting gift of president so the president out-rightly too it back due to irritation.A little was fine but,showering him with too much praise and flowers had little to no positive effect.
As expected the president just simply said"No need to be humble. it is due to your hard work and not because of my kindness.You reap what you sow. Nothing more and nothing less.
And when will the research you say will take place"
I believe it will be very soon.We will accomplish it as early as possible.We shall not disappoint you."
Good to know that you understand what you are doing,you can tell any detail to Steven instead of me.You should know when to come to me right?"
"I shall come with news of success"
Hearing this Charles left the place towards an unknown location.Seeing he had left the crew heaved a sigh of relief.They were not criminals being afraid of being caught,it was more of a tension a junior would have towards his superior.
The head of crew dismissed them and they returned to duties they were doing before the president arrived.
Meanwhile at the president's office the conversation of president's with Thomas was playing.After it finished the president asked"What do you think about it"Steven replied"I believe it will be accomplished within a decade of days"
The president said in response Ten days it is then. I want to see the result by next Friday.Steven said"it's believed it will be difficult but we will do as you say"He was quite frank about it.
"You may go now " Steven affirmed and left the room after closing the door. The president looked outside the window as he had always done in the past, but this time he had a strange glint and myriad of emotions hidden deep in his eyes that no one but he would know what were they.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
None of the researchers ranked below first division were privy to information about anything related to this.And even 1st division members only knew because they had taken part in the research.How would they not know of something they were researching themselves.
It might be to prevent spread of information that may result in chaos or to make monopoly of the information.However the second option seemed more likely.
But they did deserve the right to do that for their hard work.
The quartet were sitting together in the cafeteria eating food when Luke said"Aren't they quite slow,we might have already finished the research right now."
Tim said " don't shoot through the skies.If even they with more personnel couldn't accomplish it how would we have accomplished it earlier than them."
Yushin interrupted him"But they really are taking too much time.Either they are hiding the result or have failed in it.What do you think Allen "
Allen said"In my opinion the result would be out in a week."
All of them had their own opinions about it,who was right who would know.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Steven lifted his head after reading something from his watch and said"Sir the research is at its final stage.Thomas has invited you to come and watch it just now"
President replied"Let us go then".
At the experiment area exclusive to the every generation's president of Excel institute,Thomas was observing something that was trapped in a cage when the door opened.
He looked towards the door and saw the person whom he had invited had arrived.He said"Sir the experiment is ready to go at anytime,we are just awaiting your command when to start"
"Good,you can start right now"The president took a seat in the area with Steven sitting in a seat slightly behind him.
Thomas didn't waste any more time and gave some orders to his subordinates.They used a machine to inject a injection in the animal present in the cage,the syringe contained an almost similar looking fluid that was seen at the first public demonstration.
The animal that was in the cage reacted the moment the injection got close to it,it tried to resist,but a single machine could single-handedly take down 10 elephants,a monkey's struggle were not worth a penny to it.
The injection got close to the animal with the machine bounding the animal,they were not making the monkey sleep because they wanted to get real time reactions.
The moment the liquid was inserted into the monkey,its eyes started to spit blood as well as its pores.Its blood vessels couldn't be more visible and bigger than they were right now.
Its howl seemed more like a lion's than a monkey's.The monkey jumped around and literally smashed its head against strong glass walls around it.The glass was not affected but the monkey was.They needed the monkey alive to get data,how wold they get anything out of a dead animal.
But they didn't try to do anything except watching,restraining it might cause loss of valuable data.And now it was not simply a matter of more time,the research results were everything they could achieve right now.If this failed,
the project was going down the gutter again.
The monkey stopped its mad activities after half an hour,its face was difficult to distinguish right now.It had lost some part of fur, and its injuries were more than just simple scratches.
The monkey stopped at a place for a minute then fell down.The researchers started taking health tests with machines.They didn't go into the cage personally.
Previously there were some enough intelligent animals that had tried to fake their death.But they were easily caught by scans of latest machines.
Thomas was heading the scans and different crew members sent him data"It's heartbeats are zero" "oxygen concentration is the same" "Its irises are dead" "Its brain is not receiving signals".
That was the last stamp on the failure report.If the brain was not receiving signals,then it meant the animal was not in coma or sleep.And if it was not sleeping then the other state was obviously death.
Steven asked after sighing"Sir should we go now?"
The president squinted his eyes and said after a moment" We should wait for a while"
Steven went to the back again.
They waited for more than half an hour,during the duration different means were used but they resulted in nothing.
The president didn't say anything,his facial expressions seemed to be saying that he couldn't care less about this,but was that really the he case.Steven left after the president.
Thomas was also disappointed at the failure of experiment and as well as for his now unachievable promotion.But what could he do?
The crew left the area while some machines came to take the dead animal away.They were simple cleaning machines that could do some labor also.The machines had just neared the animal when the supposedly dead animal opened its eyes,which seemed to be glimmering in the dim lights of the cage.
Two people calmly walked through a hallway one ahead and other behind.There was silence kept between them and only the sound of their shoes striking the floor could be heard in this long hallway
Due to the closed area the weather couldn't be seen.
But the light in the area was more than enough to highlight expressions of the people present in it.The man with white clothes in front seemed completely calm while the person behind him also donning white seemed troubled or worried.
In the end they passed the long hallway without uttering a word.
In the president's office the president said"Leave me alone for now"A superior showing his emotions to Subordinates was not good after all.
Steven asked "Sir should we announce failure of the project."They had announced about revival of the project after all.If they just failed it wouldn't mean much.But if they didn't say anything then it would matter.So Steven had to ask of this.
President said"We shall announce it tomorrow."
Steven left and leaned on the closed door,he had served Charles since he was just a kid.So he felt melancholy at sadness of the president.But he couldn't do anything about it,he was after all just a caretaker.
Meanwhile other researchers including 1st division members were unaware of the results.John a first division researcher asked to his fellow researcher"Hey Jack what do you think would be the result of this project."He had asked to satisfy his curiosity and to pass the time.His friend didn't know the results either after all.
Jack said in response"I think the research would succeed"
John asked again"And why do you think so?"
Jack said"Because hard work begets success"
John looked at Jack incredulously to which Jack said"Just kidding.The main reason is that the research was backed by sufficient logic and data both of which are necessary. Failure is a small chance.At least I feel that the failure has a small chance.So saying preparation as hard work is not wrong right."
John said"I think the research will fail though"
Jack said"Why think so negative?"
To which he got reply" Why should I tell you"
Jack said"Damn you played me.It's unfair"
"You didn't need to tell me the answer,you told at your own volition but I don't want to so not unfair Just drop the topic"
"I will see you"
"Okay,but first see to your work"And they continued joking like this.This was all the entertainment they needed.This was their enjoyment as well as rest.
Different people had different thoughts about it but Allen's group didn't care much about it.Even if there was success this time,it didn't concern them,did it.
Their contribution would only be written in a dark corner of a page of a book.
But they did think that the result would be positive.Excel should exceed right.
The next day at exactly 10 Am,approximately only ten minutes later the Announcement would be made.More than a billion people tuned in to watch the Announcement.
This was one of the few times the institution had made a public Announcement in this century,so it was a pretty historic moment.Seeing it live was worth to brag about.
The clock continued ticking and it was approaching the stated time.The suspense was at its peak when the live broadcast signal went out.
The moment it went out,people lamented their bad luck.Almost all thought there was either breakage of T.V.,cable,circuit or other things.And few thought the institution might had a load shedding.If the institute was short of electricity then you may think end of the world is near.Such a big organization that would have at least 5 layers of backup in store could have load shedding.No way,the chances were 0.01%.
The remaining 0.01% was because of different circumstances like a giant meteorite fell,a very big earthquake etc.All natural disasters and nothing man-made.
And if the channel didn't mention about that,that seemed unlikely.Though people had to wait,they didn't leave and even more didn't complain.If they wanted to leave they just leave,but complaining was not a matter left untouched.
Billion of people continued to wait for minutes,then a static signal started to return.Only blur images and near indistinguishable sounds could be heard but the sounds they heard caused their hairs to stand on end.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
An hour before the broadcast went online,in someplace within the institute,a thing could be seen slowly moving in a place that the security measures could not cover properly.
The thing seemed very agile and flexible.A moment it's here and the next moment it's nowhere to be seen.But when it stopped its movement,it could be almost clearly identified as the same monkey as in the cage.
The cleaning robots that were supposed to dispose of the dead body were nowhere to be seen.There were different surveillance systems but minimum patrolling robots.In case a threat was found most of the robots could be instantly dispatched from their hiding place.
All living beings be they cold or warm blood animals,all would have a detectable heat signature.The security in hallways mostly checked that.It was effective against all.
But the monkey seemed unaffected by it,he was passing but surveillance couldn't catch him.Cameras were not made in most hallways in here to protect privacy.But instead it seemed to work in favor for the monkey.
The monkey arrived at the surveillance center by following the source of electricity.It sneaked about but could not enter it nor could watch inside it.
The monkey was just standing when the door was opened from inside by someone.The person opened the door and came near the monkey without noticing the monkey there.
His eyes fell below and he thought"Wow what a big monkey.Might be a new specie...wait a minute,what's a monkey doing here..."
That was the last thought the man had at the end of life.There was much blood flowing on the ground while he lay there dead.
A voice from the inside asked aloud"Hey Mell,what's taking you so long.Let the door close already.And tell someone to check what was the source of that noise...Mell!!!...Hey!!!"
The person arrived outside and talked without thinking"Haha Mell, you have done it now.You as a newbie are ignoring us seniors now..."The person stopped, seeing Mell laying on the floor.He was about to open his mouth but the monkey didn't allow.Now he could never open his mouth again.
The monkey went inside.There was noise of machines breaking and soon a layer of blood started gathering outside the surveillance area.
There were scream's but none present to hear them.
After a small mountain of bodies had been piled up inside the surveillance area,the monkey looked at the screens. It saw other animals in most of the screens.And in some, humans.
It was very angry at humans for caging it and was gonna go fight them,when it suddenly stopped.After a thinking motion,it seemed to have gotten an idea and started grinning.
It went outside the surveillance area without delay to carry out its plans.