Primate Quarantine Laboratory
Cyclops Intelligence, Hatemoor
9 February 2157
07.30 NPM
Rachel has been smiling ever since she entered the large glass-walled room where eleven orangutans live. Rachel had wanted to interact with the cute brown-haired animals for a long time, even since their first arrival from the south. Over the past three years, they have grown up with Rachel, becoming Cyclops' most supportive business partner as a test animal willing to die without compromise. Without their role, of course, those fancy gene and microchip research would not be successful, at least until the current process.
"Oh?" Lars, who was walking towards the neurosurgery room, stopped, "Hey? What are you doing there?" he asked.
"Me?" Rachel replied, holding hands with the herd's largest and oldest orangutan. Rachel even has a name for her: Lamika.
Lars smirked, crossing his arms across his chest, "Is this how you celebrate success? Do you want something else?" he asked.
"You want to bribe me? Don't forget that I'm still mad at you, Lars." The vengeful Rachel hadn't forgotten their conversation this afternoon before Niels contacted her.
Lars nodded, "Yeah, that's why I wanted to apologize and talk. Shall I get you a bottle of wine and a box of your favorite cheese?"
"You forgot? I can't eat anything until tomorrow, and for the next few months if the final stage experiment is success."
"What if it doesn't work?"
Rachel glared sharply, getting up from the previous squat, staring at Lars from behind the glass wall, "I seldomly heard you doubt the success of our experiments. Was that Philip's order?"
Lars raised an eyebrow dramatically, "Did Niels say such provocative things to you this afternoon?"
"It's none of your business to know what he's talking about to me. Why are you asking? It just makes more sense than you're hiding things from me, Lars. I' was disappointed." Rachel was honest to the point that it was not enough that he had silenced Lars all day, avoiding the man with prestige.
Lars lowered his hand, moving to his pocket, "You always say not to make assumptions, don't you? You'd better hear an explanation from my point of view."
"What do you want to explain? Did Philip even allow you to speak to trick me even more?"
Lars sighed, smiling tiredly but not giving up. He then walked over to Rachel at the entrance to the primate quarantine room, and held out his hand, "Come with me, you need a lot of rest for tomorrow, don't play too much," he ordered half forcefully.
Rachel finally accepted her friend's outstretched hand, descending from the original small mountain rock that had been her foothold while intimidating Lars. "I'm bored, I don't want to rest in the surgery room."
"So where? Unfortunately, you won't be able to get out of this lab for another two weeks, Rachel."
"Just in your room."
Lars frowned, "In my room? Why not in yours?"
"Tired. I've never been in your break room either. Have I?" Rachel finally walked ahead of Lars, leaving the man who couldn't help but smile at his barefoot steps. His neat clothes this afternoon had even been replaced with a thin, green uniform, typical of the surgery room.
"He's innocent to walk like that," he mumbled as he followed. Lars smiled, even more amused when he saw Rachel's bald head moving with her stomping feet.
****
Lars' Private Room
Cyclops Intelligence, Hatemoor
9 February 2157
08.40 NPM
An hour had passed, and the few things Rachel did in Lars' room were just lie on the bed, waiting for a small bottle of intravenous fluids filled with nutrients and sedatives to fully enter her bloodstream, and watching Niels devour his dinner in his lounge chair. overlooking the open sky at night. A fine mesh automatic air filter is attached there, bringing only fresh air into the room. It was Rachel's request that Lars then granted with much deliberation. The reason for that was because Rachel, she said, had not calmed down by looking up at the sky.
"I think it's going to be over soon," Rachel said, pointing to the last small bottle of vitamins.
Lars looked over as he chewed on his roast bird, "Yes. The tube and needle will come off on their own when all the fluids have been absorbed in your body."
"I've tested how effective intravenous liquid food is in providing nutrition. The results have not been satisfying."
"Hm, maybe it's because the concentration isn't quite right. The nutrition and medicine I give you are always twenty percent above the normal dose, in the hope that you'll respond to the effects more quickly."
Rachel just raised an eyebrow, fiddling with her nails, which weren't attractive at all, "On what basis are you considering it? Was it Philip's orders?"
Lars paused, disgusted by the barrage of accusations from Rachel today. "Rachel, let me tell you, don't trust anyone too much, including Niels, the guy you like," she said, half annoyed.
"Do I look like I trust him? Right now you're the one who feels so insecure when I keep offending Philip," Rachel said, glaring at Lars. "This is just a psychological game on my part, and you've been misinformed, Lars. Why do you keep avoiding the question by accusing Niels of provoking me?"
"Fine, then let me answer the question as you wish. I'm not siding with Philip, and the reason I have so much doubt about the success of this experiment is that I'm so worried about you!"
Now it was Rachel's turn to be silent.
"You're not wrong, I did see Philip that day. But that was only as his doctor, nothing else. Philip indeed asked me to thwart your experiment, but do you know what my response would be?"
"What?"
"I'm mad, Rachel."
Rachel fell silent again, while Lars gulped down his saliva, holding back the anger that was getting more and more enflamed. "I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to think about things that would only worsen your mental and nervous health. Doesn't that make sense?"
"It's Niels..."
Rachel narrowed her eyes sharply, "What's wrong with him?"
Lars smiled mysteriously, "My advice, be careful with him first. The criticism he gave you after the parliamentary congress was the criticism he demanded to do."
"What does that mean? Don't beat around the bush."
Lars sighed, "He would never support your experiment, Rachel. He will neither support nor like this experiment, no matter how successful it is.
"Do you get what I mean? In whatever way, and at some point in time, he could be your opponent."