Rey Lima went back inside the lab to salvage any valuable information, but the room was designed to destroy anything within its premises. A well-controlled fire ignited on all corners. He saw the water sprinkle on, but as the fluid fell on the floor, it gnawed anything that it touched, and the smell was particularly suffocating. The doctor knows what he is doing, and he certainly prepared for the eventualities of anyone that will invade his privacy.
Rey then ran down the stairways, and went back inside the conference room on the 22nd floor, and disposed of Bob Lenel's body by throwing him out of the window.
---------
The local precinct call was urgent, and Lyca and Miles were dispatched to the BEB building and local firefighters. The smoke from the burned room on the 77th floor was toxic, and so Lyca and Miles had to don an oxygen mask and thick protective gear before they could examine the surroundings.
"Is this a lab?" Lyca asked. She was careful not to step in the scattered shard of glass. There was not much left of the furniture, and all the lab equipment was burned beyond recognition.
"Looks like … the fire gutted everything here!"
Lyca went to look inside the open window and look down below. The large outside room was intact, and the fire was confined inside the entire laboratory.
She went near the mangled remnants of the aluminum table where the burned lab machine was stacked side by side, and while the machines were destroyed, she had the sudden hunch to pull one of the trays and found a couple of capsules still intact inside.
"What is this?" Lyca asked, thinking.
Miles went over to Lyca's side.
Miles guessed, "Looks like they are manufacturing some form of drugs."
Lyca was somewhat confused. "What for?"
Miles examined it closely. "Let's sample this so we can examine it back."
Anything intact had to be bagged. Lyca carefully placed the capsule inside a plastic bag.
"This can probably give us an answer, but we got to look for more clues, Miles."
Miles took off his mask to remove the dripping sweat on his forehead. Lyca was aghast.
"Are you crazy? What are you doing?" She tried to pull Miles's protective mask back to his face, but he resisted.
Mile sniffed the surrounding air. "The smell....it had the scent of chewing gum. And reminds me of...." Miles put back his oxygen mask for fear; it was toxic.
Lyca was curious, so she took her mask off briefly and sniffed the air. Indeed, it smelled of chewing gum.
"What does it remind you of?" Lyca asked.
Miles had an epiphany, and the percentage of assurance is high. "The scent of the bottle we found at Colonel Rivas apartment!"
"The purified ether?" Lyca hinted.
Miles nodded.
"Could this be the hub where it was manufactured?" she again asked, worried.
Miles looked for answers, but there's nothing much left to read on the piles of damaged documents scattered all over. However, something piqued his curiosity.
"It could be. Look..."
Lyca went to see what Miles had to show. They were looking at piles of burned beakers and glass pipettes on the floor.
"Yes, I remember my chemistry class," Lyca remarked. "I wasn't even good at mixing what compound should be added to another."
Miles hunched, "Whoever burned all this doesn't want any of us to find whatever secrets they may have."
Lyca showed me a small plastic bag.
"Maybe these capsules are all we need to find the answer."
Lyca received a 55-K radio call from her police walkie talkie radio.
Lyca looked at Miles.
"They found a body at the side of the building. Let's go."
They went out of the lab and returned their gears to the firemen.
Lyca interviewed the staff who saw the body fall from the building's top.
"He just came out of nowhere and fell on that spot," pointing at the police cordoned area. She was fidgety and spoke rapidly.
"What's your name?"
"I am Linda Sartre. " She was a young 25 years old mild-mannered woman.
"Do you work here?"
"Yes, I am a cashier in the administration department."
"How long have you been working here?"
"I've been here three... for almost four years."
"Do you know the dead man over there?"
"Yes. That's Mr. Bob Lenel. He is the building's incorporator. He managed the BEB Corporation."
Lyca and Miles looked at each other. Why would he kill himself? Or is he a casualty of the fire?
"Do you work for him?" Lyca asked.
"No. The administration office is an outsourced company. He holds office on the 22nd floor, and it's off-limits to most of us."
Lyca and Miles looked up to gauge how tall the building was. They went to check the position of the body and smell any hint of alcohol. The body was pale, and the dryness of the splattered blood residue gave them the best clue that it may be dead for quite some time.
The two went back to Linda and asked a couple more questions.
"What time did you say you saw him fall?"
"Just about the time the fire broke out. I came out on this site to go see what the fire alarm was all about."
"When was this?"
The time is almost 10:30 pm.
"It was around 9:00 to 9:15. I just arrived at the office, and I hadn't done anything really when the alarm went off."
"Thank you, Linda. You have been very helpful."
Lyca wrote down the time in her notebook.
---------
Lyca dialed Jorge's number. It rang a couple of times before Jorge picked it up.
"Lyca, what's happening over there?" Jorge was still on his table, viewing the remaining videos.
"Lots... And I can't even begin where to start." Lyca was browsing over her notebook.
"First, there's a fire that looked arson. And second, a man fell from the building and is making our head spin. Possible homicide. We might need you here to verify."
Jorge felt exhausted. But he tried to focus his mind on what Lyca just reported.
" Where did the fire started? " He asked.
Lyca flipped her notes.
"Some laboratory. "
Jorge fell silent.
"Lyca, is it possible that it was the same lab…. Colonel Riva referred to… as the former military installation at the top of the BEB building?"
It took a while before Lyca made a response.
"I can't possibly confirm that because everything is badly burned. But the place looks vintage. Why?"
Jorge sighed.
"Colonel Riva mentioned it in his video diaries that it is the same place where an experiment took place 15 years ago. "
Lyca's interest heightened. "What experiment, Jorge?"
"Project Blue Shadow," Jorge replied.
Lyca remembered what it was all about. "I heard about that program in the academy. That is one lethal experiment."
Jorge recalled what happened, "Yes, some of the participant's head exploded from the chemical that was injected into them. They manufactured ether in that laboratory."
Lyca looked flushed. "That's what Miles and I talked inside when we went there. Because the smell is funny."
"Like fruity flavored chewing gum?" Jorge guessed.
Lyca agreed. "Yes! You are right."
Jorge was thinking. "Hmm...that couldn't be right. Everything in that project already stopped."
Lyca was hooked on listening to Jorge that she started to drift away from her own thoughts.
"Lyca? Are you there?" Jorge woke her up.
"Sorry, I am so taken aback by what just happened here. Look, Jorge. I found two capsules in the burned lab. I just have a feeling…"
"What is it, Lyca?"
"That Project Blue Shadow… somehow continues."
Jorge had the same sentiment as Lyca.
"You might be right. And Colonel Riva is still out there, telling us the same thing."
A theory wandered inside Lyca's mind. What if the death that happened here were still part of the project?
"Will you still be coming over, Jorge?"
Jorge replied he would be there by 3:30.