Queen

Chapter 2

Queen- Chapter 2

"Got anything interesting for me, Agent Saunders?” Agent Flores leaned on the doorway to the lab, displaying his best swagger. He didn't know he had monkey poop on his coat. "Yeah, but change your lab coat first, will 'ya?” Nan replied casually with a smile into her microscope. “And call me Nanette.”

Flores looked down. "Oh gross! I was wondering if I'd managed to duck behind the partition in time! Guess not..." Flores had been monitoring the primate wing for the last week, checking vitals and marking progress from each specimen. They were measuring the satiety levels of the monkeys after ingesting different protein compounds. The point was to see if soldiers could maintain satiety levels better with one kind of protein versus another. Not very exciting until one of your test subjects throws poop at you. "I'll be right back..."

Nan knew he liked her, if he was trying to hide it he was failing. He had never said as much directly, but workplace fraternization was discouraged understandably so she doubted he ever would. She liked him too. He was kind and respectful. He was one of those rare colleagues who recognized and appreciated the work of his female counterparts openly. Most men were too competitive to acknowledge the accomplishments of their co-workers, much less the women. He had told her once she was brilliant, and he learned something new from her every day. If it weren't for that stupid fraternization policy...

He returned a minute later with a clean coat. As he crossed the floor to approach her, the stiffness of the new coat made a swishing noise under his swinging arms. She saw a hint of self-consciousness, which surprised her. He didn't seem too embarrassed to have monkey poo on him, why start now? "Have a look at this." She moved over to allow him to roll in front of the microscope. "Huh... what the heck kind of messed up experiment was this from?" He asked incredulously. "What makes you think it was a past tense experiment?" She asked. "Because there's no way a combination this diverse could occur naturally in one organism. Past tense because either way, I can't imagine it would last too long."

Nan considered this for a minute. "I'm not so sure of any of those assumptions, but that would make the most sense. If it weren't for a couple of things I've overheard between Smith and whom I'm assuming was O'Kelley on the phone I would leave it at that. They were talking about something serious, Stanley. Something about the specimen is dying, and they need to capture as much material as we could salvage before it was dead." He looked pensively at a pencil he had begun twirling from the desk. "Maybe they were talking about a different project." He said. "No” Nanette replied confidently “I know it had to be this one because he had just asked me for my report. He was looking at it while he was on the phone."

"Does he know you overheard him? Or saw what he was reading while he was on the phone?" Stan looked concerned. "You know Smith is weird about his information." Agent Smith was, in fact, weird about his information. He kept his cards very close to his chest. Some of the other supervisors and senior agents weren't so secretive, making them much more approachable. Smith was definitely not approachable. Nan began to wonder if that's why he was assigned to monitor a project in the lab. Smith wasn't a scientist, he was a goon.

“I don't think so, even if he did what's he gonna do? I was the one who wrote up the report for him to begin with, he knows what I know about it. I just wish they wouldn't keep us in the dark over what this is and where it's kept if it is still alive." Again, Stan furrowed his brow pensively. "I don't know Nan. I think this is another one of those where we're not going to get any answers other than the ones you already have. I'm sure it's military related, and you know how tight lipped they are about those. Probably should play it safe and feign ignorance." She knew he was right. "Are you familiar with the electroreception trait? The kind you see in some species of sea animals?”

“Yeah, I've heard about it. Why?" He was wondering where she was taking him next. "Look again." Nan said, gesturing toward the microscope. Stan pressed his bespectacled eye against the eyepiece again. He looked for a long time, the rise and fall of his chest was smooth with his breath. "Is that what we're looking at? A sequence from an aquatic animal too? Because if so, this poor animal is a mess." He made her smile. "Not entirely. The trait for electroreception also exists in a few other animals, including some insects.” Stanley looked up at her. “Moths? That would make sense given the other ingredients of this freak soup we’re looking at.” This time she laughed out loud. “I don’t know about moths. Not yet anyway.”

Stanley rubbed his eyes underneath his glasses. It was getting late, Nanette hadn't noticed until now that she had been sitting at this station for three hours. She should've been out of the lab and into a hot bath by now.

"I'm starving. Want to grab some dinner somewhere?" Stanley asked her nonchalantly. "Um... sure, let me get changed and get my stuff together. Where do you want to go?" Nan couldn't believe he had actually summoned the courage to ask her. "Meet me down the street at Maloney's. That's on the way home for you, isn't it?" He immediately looked uncomfortable "Not that I've been stalking you to find out where you live or anything, I just see you walk in that direction when you leave most days... ok now it sounds like I'm watching you at work. I'm not a weirdo I promise." Nan smiled more broadly than she meant to. "I know you're not a weirdo. You're not the only one paying attention." She winked at him in spite of herself, this flirting business came way too naturally when it came to Stan.