Dr. Vella Memoris's Arc

Chapter 2 of 3

The line connected faster than she expected. Before Vella could speak, a voice cut through. "We're tracking your location now, Dr. Memoris. Stay where you are." Not emergency services. Not the medical team she'd called for. Her family's security division. Vella stepped out of the moss-covered phone booth and scanned the clearing. Through the canopy she spotted the stone tower she'd passed a dozen times without thinking twice. A light pulsed amber from its upper window. They'd been watching. The whole time. She had minutes, maybe less. The hybrid was still alive in the barndominium behind her. She could destroy the specimen now, scrub the enclosure, hide the documentation in the wooden chest. Make it look like she'd stopped months ago. Or she could let them find everything and lose any chance of protecting the data from attempt three, from attempt four, from every calibration she'd spent sleepless nights perfecting. Vella pulled the comm device from her pocket and crushed it under her boot. Then she ran back inside, unlocked the chest, and pulled out every file. The hybrid's gills fluttered weakly behind the glass as she spread the documents across her workstation. When security arrived, they'd find her standing over a dying specimen with four months of research laid out like evidence. No more gaps. No more pretending she'd stayed within limits. They would shut her down, but they'd have to see how far she'd gotten first.