Répandant les haricots (cont.)

Saturnine, Dan inquired:
- There was nothing... you could do..... at all?
- It was a lost cause. The modified genetic code affected the host like a fast-growing metastatic cancer. Unknown causes; as such, idiopathic. We had studied the forming chains to its Metaphase stage and weren't able to obtain firm conclusions. Nor a could we find a healthier hybridization, to somehow nullify the Protogenos.

The old man reached into his waistcoat's pocket again, in order to get another smoke. After a few seconds of fondling, he pulled his right hand out, surprised.
- My cigarettes... not here! They must've fallen somewhere in the field, during the ordeal of earlier.
Dan never lost sight of this weary man, a scientist, who had been all but abandoned by the very dear science he regarded so highly, and had devoted his entire life to uphold. For a man who gave his all to science, the shocking notion of losing control would of be something overwhelming. He handed him the letter, found randomly earlier in a topsy-turvy situation.

- So you're Doctor Sagi. Lydia Sagi....
The old man had a rather weary, but sincere scoffing smile:
- No - he looked at the letter - Lydia was my aunt's name; my mother adored her sister and promised that if she ever had a daughter she'd give her this name. Unfortunately, I came instead. It became my second name. Eventually, though, I honoured that wish: "Lydia" is my only daughter's name. If it had came a boy, I was thinking of naming it Peter....; How I'd love to give an account of this tale in a more proper context, not this horrible setting. I guess it's irrelevant, now; these are, now, nothing more than the reminiscences of another lifetime..... - the last sentence was spoken in a noticeably wistful manner.

- The Stoichiometry of life is still a few steps behind in complexity, compared with some human idiosyncrasies.....
He was intently focused on the letter, probably still wondering how Dan could of had got a hold of it.
A thought crossed Dan's mind; that it was Sagi that was in need of painkillers, not himself.
- Was that why? That is why "anything short from mind-blowing success is disappointing", as your friend puts it?
- Amin was a 'gentle' friend, if I can say so. It's just that he was always a bit of shady soul. He was, always, sort of fighting an invisible enemy, that kept crushing him like inhuman. Him against the whole world. - again, he let out a bit of expectoration - I now understand that we never should have been blinded by our lack of team spirit. A person alone crumble in himself. He was convinced that the best way required independence.

It was time to get an end to the pseudo-metaphysical discourse. Dan's sympathy was starting to give way to more pressing issues.
There was one survivor in particular, of whom Dan was interested in more than anything. Sagi must of know something.
- What about the survivors of the V wing. Any news? My sister?
- Very well, I'll concede.

[When I received that letter, the investigation was well under way, and we were obtaining notorious results. We had inserted the combined gene pool on a vulgar rat and, there were visible alterations indicating an evolved state. By July 14th, we were having significant data to process -- but only information regarding failures, as these states were chaotic at best. Not only it had propagated to the whole of this region, but by yesterday communications had been lost with exterior regions.]

- But before I continue, Mr. Medetre, may I ask how did you became in possession of this letter, as well as that lab coat you're wearing?
- The reason is a freaky as everything else. I met the strangest of your acquaintances... He was the one who first told me about you...
Dan told the man his own story, of how he he had met Vincent Sadha at the train station, who was supposedly his sister's envoy, but ended up being this deranged maniac. The visit he had made to the dorm's complex; the violet liquid; how he was almost injected with an amount of that gooey: and the lab coat containing the letter.
The mention of that name almost threw Sagi into a trance. At first, he stood motionless, then we began gasping for air.

Dan noticed his sudden change of behaviour, and promptly asked:
- Are you..... alright?
Shadows were etched on his wrinkled face, becoming pasty like wax....
- You've met him..... So, he's still around....
[He's, was, the most enthusiastic scientist working on the project.
An incredibly dedicated and helpful aide......He was always confident that we would eventually find a possible application for all those analyses; a way to enhance humans and eradicate the limitations of anthropic biology.
We came to discover that he was conducting testing in subjects all through his inconspicuous means. Somehow, amidst the confusion, he managed to amass the power of the toxin into a modified solution.
That much was known by me. Notwithstanding, he became unlocatable even before the outbreak. That whole wing is now dire to circulate...... Somehow a paramount quantity of radiation began increasing, at an enormous rate.]

- I'll resume the story. But what did the man told you, when you apprehended him? In such a broken state, surely you've must have only heard oddities, from that lunatic, a man broken by the pressure he imparted onto himself.
- You're right - Dan chuckled - He didn't tell me a single useful, or even coherent for that matter, sentence. However, I'd found this.
And Dan showed the carmine notebook to his companion.
- Where did you...? Ah, Mr. Medetre, I don't know what to expect of you. Digging out well-hidden, and important, relics.
- A deer is most resourceful when he's cornered, or so they say.
- Undoubtedly.... You had also told me that the letter was within the lab coat? Well, yes it was. I was the one who had put it there. Nevertheless, could you permit me access to the data imprinted in that notebook? Any unknown information in there, that I'm unaware of, might be of help for us to get out of here.

Dan, wanting to diminish any chances of future setbacks to the minimum, placed it on the scientist's hands, whom, without wasting a second, examined it carefully:
- I see it now - he quickly wiped his glasses' lenses clean, and adjusted it back on his nose - Sadha was able to compound it into a stable; yes, quite stable, injectable solution via combining it with an excipient. It's activated at the body's own basal temperature, though requiring another process as a catalyst. How he did it.... Expectable from a mad genius.... And it doesn't completely overwrite the host's genetic code.
- Yeah, as they say: Talent is, often, inversely.....
- ............proportional to one's character. - Sagi finished his sentence, abruptly.