Belize

Chapter Four

Serena Alcevedo squinted her eyes and peered into the microscope. On the glass slide was a blob of tissue, and she watched carefully as the cells slowly broke down. The tissue had been exposed to an enzyme called TL-7-Z, and Serena’s assignment that day was to study the effects of the enzyme on a huge variety of different tissue samples. She checked the timer on her lab table and typed in the results on a laptop computer. Seated at the table beside her were her three other lab partners, all of them looking into their microscopes and doing the same work, but with different enzymes.

She rubbed her eyes and checked the sample once more. The tissue had degraded almost completely, and all that remained was a formless bit of biological slime. Each tissue sample had yielded similar results, but at varying time frames. Sometimes the enzyme took ten minutes to break down the sample, sometimes it took fifteen seconds. Serena dutifully wrote the results down each time, even though she didn’t know exactly what any of them meant. She didn’t even know the real chemical name of the enzyme she was working with, just its label designation.

“What do you think that was all about?” her coworker Paul asked, leaning over next to her.

She glanced over her shoulder at their Lab Manager’s office. Dr. Garcia had stormed into the lab just a minute before and went into his office without talking to anyone. Now the window to his office was a dull gray color. Normally he only turned the window opaque when he had one-on-one meetings or performance reviews with the workers in the lab. Everyone seemed curious about why he seemed so angry, but for now everyone just continued doing their work assignments.

“I have no idea,” Serena replied. She removed the slide and placed it into a disposal tray. She wore tear-proof latex gloves when handling the samples, just to be on the safe side. The rack next to her held twenty-six more samples she had to get through, hopefully before lunch. After that she was scheduled to do chemical analysis, which was a far more interesting job.

She had been working for Umbrella for barely over six months. At the time she was hired, she was excited at the prospect of working for such a huge company. And then three days after she started, the disaster in America happened. Ever since then, her enthusiasm for the job had dulled somewhat. It was almost hard for her to comprehend how so many people could have died because of something her company was working on. Several times she thought about quitting and finding work elsewhere, but she decided to stay at her job a little while longer. Of course, pretty soon it might be a moot point, since there were whispers and rumors that the lab was getting shut down soon anyway.

“Got any plans this weekend?” Paul asked idly, looking into his microscope.

Serena looked over at him. When they started working next to each other, the first few times Paul had asked her that, she assumed he was trying to set her up to ask her out on a date. But he never did, so now she figured he was just making small talk to pass the time.

“Me and my friends are probably going out if the weather’s nice,” she said, taking a new sample and sliding it into place. She picked up her syringe of the TL-7-Z enzyme and carefully squeezed two drops onto the sample, checking the exact time as she did so.

“That sounds fun,” Paul said. “I’m going to be stuck with my parents. I wish they weren’t coming over, to be honest. They always try to ask me what kind of work I’m doing, and I never know what to tell them.”

“My friends don’t know where I work,” Serena said. “They know I’m a scientist, but I’ve never told them exactly what I do. It’s just easier that way.”

“I wish I would have thought of that,” Paul chuckled.

Serena studied her sample. Two minutes later, the cells began to dissolve. She noted the time in her laptop and checked the sample again.

She would probably enjoy her work more if she even understood what they were studying. What was the purpose of an enzyme which did nothing but destroy cellular tissue? Why would Umbrella bother funding such research? When Serena first applied there after getting her Masters degree, she expected she would be working in a chemical lab of some kind, making drugs or doing other medical research. But ever since she started, she had worked on vague projects studying the effects of various biological substances – enzymes, proteins, hormones, and even bacteria – on all sorts of blood and tissue samples. As far as she could tell, the work was basically pointless.

Umbrella probably used it as a way to test new employees and weed out people who couldn’t handle the monotonous day-to-day work of the lab. She hoped that soon she’d be promoted to a different lab where she might actually do something worthwhile. In the six months she’d been there, at least three or four of her coworkers had been transferred to the other labs, so she just did her work and waited for her chance.

She knew there were at least three other main labs, but she had little contact with the scientists who worked there. All the labs were color-coded, and she was assigned to Blue Lab. The others, as far as she knew, were Red, Green, and Yellow.

The labs were surprisingly segregated. If she happened to bump into another scientist in the elevator, they didn’t talk about their work. Serena didn’t know if they kept quiet because she was still a recent hire, or if the labs competed with each other somehow and they didn’t want to give away what they were working on.

She worked through a few more slides. About twenty minutes later, she heard Dr. Garcia’s office door close, and turned slightly to see him leave the office. He didn’t seem angry now, at least. Whatever he was so mad about earlier must have not been that important after all. He put his hands in his lab coat pockets and made a slow circuit around the lab, checking to see how much progress everyone had made.

Serena didn’t like him very much, if she had to be honest. Dr. Garcia seemed like a genial grandfatherly type of manager, but he had a short temper and didn’t like to be contradicted on even the most minor issue. He was the kind of person who thought he was smarter than everyone because he’d worked there longer than them. He also flirted a bit too much with some of the women in the lab, most of whom were young enough to be his granddaughters.

He walked past her work station and looked over her shoulder. “Hmm, good job,” he muttered. Moving over to Paul, he nodded approvingly.

One of Serena’s other coworkers, a mane named Antonio, came over. Technically, he was the lab team leader, but it was a rather meaningless title. Every Monday morning it rotated to a different person, so that everyone got to be “team lead” for a week.

“Dr. Garcia?” Antonio asked.

“Yes, what is it?”

Serena wanted to keep her eyes on her work, but she turned slightly to see Antonio and Dr. Garcia talking. Antonio seemed like he had expected Garcia to snap at him. When he didn’t, Antonio seemed relieved. “Well, sir, you looked pretty upset when you came in earlier. We were just wondering if … if it had anything to do with our work here. I heard that some big shots from upper management were here for a meeting with Dr. Saldivar.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Garcia said. “I heard he was meeting with some people from another lab. I don’t think it’s anything important.”

He’s lying, Serena thought. She didn’t know how she could tell, but she could.

Antonio apparently didn’t notice it. “Okay,” he said, “We thought you heard something about the meeting.”

Garcia shook his head. “No, no, I was angry about something else. I received a phone call, and … well, it’s a personal matter. I’d rather not discuss it.”

“Oh, of course, sir,” Antonio said quickly. “We were a little concerned, that’s all. I just wanted to ask.”

“Well, I apologize if I was short with anyone,” Garcia said. “I have to talk with the maintenance department about something, so I’ll be gone for a bit. I’ll back in the lab before too long.”

“Okay, sir. I’ll keep an eye on things here.”

Garcia walked off and left the lab. Antonio noticed that Serena was watching him and he stepped over, breathing a sigh of relief. “Well, that’s good news.”

Serena nodded. “Yeah, good news,” she said, but she was already thinking it was time to start looking for a new job.

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