CHAPTER 2: THE INFECTION
After a long flight up in the sky and drive through the city, the girls soon reached their destination: a building of white bearing the name ‘North Dakota Health Research Lab’. The girls told the receptionist their reason to be there and the receptionist called for a few guards to lead them to the base lab just right down at the basement.
As they went in, they were sure that this place was where the real work was done. There were dozens upon dozens of scientific gizmos filling up the whole place and there were loads of animal cages filled with animals that were ready for any kind of animal testing on their latest drugs or so. While the girls (especially little genius Sam) feasted their eyes upon everything there is in display, the guards continued to lead them until they entered an office where an old man greeted them.
“Good day, spies,” the old man shook the girls’ hand. “I’m Prof. William Gus, the head of this research lab. I’m the one who contacted Jerry at WOOHPS. We really need your help; you’re the only higher authority we could trust.”
“Why don’t you show us the crime scene, Prof. William?” Sam said. Prof. William nodded and dismissed the guards, leading them to the far back of the lab. He used his pass card to open the door and did a retinal scan through the scanner at the right side of the door. As the door opened, the room revealed a stand where the drug was supposed to be.
“There you have it, spies,” he said as he gestured them to the stand. “We had the drug on this stand, fully secured under lock and key, that is, until now. We created this drug so that we can totally eliminate severe depression and cure them entirely. The normal drugs could only keep them in control, but this drug was going to revolutionize all depression drugs in the world. No one would ever have to suffer this emotional disorder and can be free from drug-dependence. A pill a day for a week and you’re no more a walking zombie anymore.”
“Cool,” Alex said. “That would definitely work great if I ever get sad about failing my mid-term.”
“Oh, please, Alex, don’t get started,” Clover said with a frown. “That’ll only remind me of Mandy’s stupid stink bomb experiment and this afternoon’s practical exam. Let’s just get this over and done with.”
The girls got into work. They checked around the perimeter and looked for clues. They put on their heat-sensor and fingerprint scanner sunglasses and turned it into fingerprint mode to search for any fingerprints left behind. No luck; there wasn’t any fingerprints lying around for them to see. As they took off their sunglasses, they saw that there was a small piece of torn garment on it. Sam picked it up, slipped it into her Com-powder and called Jerry at the same time. While she was doing it, Alex turned to Prof. William and asked some questions.
“You told Jerry that you suspect that this theft could be done by someone inside the lab. Who do you suspect it is?”
“We have no clue,” Prof. William said. “I’ve sent some of the guards you just saw to check everyone of my staff that is involved in this drug experiment and we even went to their houses to interrogate them and check their houses but we couldn’t find anything. We have no proof to pin-point anybody.”
“What about the cards?” Clover asked. “I mean, if you can’t find anyone inside the lab who might be the thief, then it has to be someone outside who has the card.”
“Unfortunately, that would be impossible. This pass card is specially designed for members of the lab. It is colour-coded, configuration-coded and ID-coded. There is no way you can duplicate it because we made it as complicated as possible.”
“Unless that thief ‘borrowed’ the card from the owner,” Clover muttered.
“We have thought about it, but it is also impossible, because retinal scan is needed even if you want to enter this place or almost everywhere here.”
“So I see,” Alex remembered the retinal scan Prof. William did before entering this secret room.
Meanwhile, Sam has got through and was talking to Jerry. The other girls moved towards her to hear any further instructions from their head.
“Hello, girls,” Jerry’s face appeared in the screen of the Com-powder. “I’ve just checked the piece of torn garment Sam had scanned through the Com-powder and the analysis showed that it happens to be made from the same material the members of North Dakota Health Research Lab. This is, as proven, an inside job.”
“But Prof. William said that they couldn’t find any evidence to pinpoint anyone that were involved in this experiment,” Clover replied.
“And it couldn’t be an outsider either,” Alex said her share of information. “Their pass cards are specially designed and unable to duplicate. And the room only approves people who are involved in this experiment to enter with their retinal scan.”
“I see,” Jerry replied thoughtfully. “Well, is there anything else you have found?”
“No, unfortunately,” Sam replied. “We couldn’t find any fingerprints or anything else suspicious or out of place either. Not even a footprint. Whoever it is, this guy is good.”
“Alright, girls,” Jerry said. “We’ll have to put this case on hold for a while. Why don’t you go back to school before your professor starts flunking you out of science?”
“Oh no, the practical test!” Alex exclaimed, snapping back to reality. “We promised we’ll be in the lab at 1 o’clock!”
“We still have 10 more minutes,” Sam said as she looked at her watch. “Come on, girls, let’s go!”
“Oh yeah!” Clover squealed with glee. “After that it’s heavy duty shopping!”
“I’m glad that you girls are able to make it.”
Sam, Alex and Clover were barely minutes away from being late for their practical test. The professor was looking at them disapprovingly through his thick glasses and motioned them to take their places at their lab table. It was an individual kind of work, so the girls had to stand at separate tables.
“Right,” the professor said as soon as the girls were at their places. “We shall begin the test. There are the question papers on your table. There are 3 experiments written on the papers. Choose one, and don’t peek. You can start right now.”
The girls picked up their question papers and scanned through the questions. They made their choices and started their experiment with the lab ingredients and utensils right before them. Alex, the not so bright one, was beginning to scratch her head. Sam has already started mixing and matching her stuff. Clover was getting started, but her eyes were still seeing red just thinking about what Mandy had done to her that mid-morning.
“That darn Mandy!” Clover muttered to herself as she started pouring hydrochloric acid carefully into her test tube. “What exactly do I have against her? She has been going up and down my nerves and constantly taunting and raving at me and my friends! What does she have that we don’t? We’re equally as beautiful as her, we’re equally popular as her, we’re getting as much boys as she does and we’re as great as she is—no, maybe even better than she is! Further more, we are highly-secret government spies! Who is she? Just a common Miss Popular of Beverly Hills High, nothing else! Why is she looking down on us while we are the ones far more superior than she is? Just you wait, Mandy, just you wait! Someday, somehow, I’ll…”
Her mutterings stopped abruptly when she suddenly felt her heart skip a beat. The heartbeat skip slowly turned into a gradually painful heartburn. She could feel her simple lunch of strawberry yogurt and cocoa latte she had together with her friends in TINY TIM on the way to school was going up her throat. Her heartburn got worse and worse until she had to drop her experiment and double over on the cold lab floor. She felt herself suffocating, unable to breathe, and she knew that it had nothing to do with the smell from the lab chemicals.
There was something wrong with her. Something very, very wrong.
Her girlfriends were so shocked that they couldn’t care less if their experiment was complete or not. They stopped whatever they were doing and rushed over to Clover who was already on the floor clutching her neck, trying to breathe. The professor noticed what was going on and dialed 911 on his cellphone. Sam and Alex quickly carried her out of the lab to the corridor to give her more air. Clover started coughing blood while she still struggled desperately for air. Tears flowed out of her eyes. She was suffering terribly.
“Hang in there, Clover, hang in there,” Sam said, trying more to calm herself than Clover. “The professor has already called 911. Just hang in there.”
“Yeah, Clover,” Alex said, her copper-brown eyes close to tears. “You’re the strongest member in our team. You can’t just die! You gotta hang on!”
“The paramedics will be here soon,” the professor said as he hung up his cellphone. “Let’s take her to the sick room first and try to give her some oxygen. I think there’s a breathing mask and an oxygen tank in that sick room. It might do her some good.”
Sam and Alex nodded and carried their girlfriend all the way to the sick room. The nurse in charge was shocked at Clover’s suffocating and bleeding condition and quickly fitted the breathing mask over Clover’s nose and mouth and turned on the breathing mask.
Throughout the hustle and bustle, Clover slowly slipped deeper and deeper into unconsciousness…
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