Chapter 19
We found Alice in the cell culture room, looking intently through a microscope. She didn’t notice us walking in and she started when she heard me asking if there were any news.
“Look for yourself!”, she exclaimed excitedly, eyes strained but beaming, and a broad smile spread across her face.
Tiny dots wiggled in my field of view, crowding around the void spaces of what appeared like a foam.
”Wow!”, I said, making room for Brad so that he could see what was happening
“Is this the yoghurt or the milk?”, I asked
“The milk”, said Alice, “I’ve been monitoring the sample in time, what happens is very strange”.
Brad and I looked at her questioningly. The bacteria had multiplied quickly and had fast movements in the first couple of hours, after which they had begun moving very slowly, Iris explained.
“I bet that if we wait until tomorrow these guys won’t be moving around at all”, she said
“I wonder why…”, Brad said pensively, almost talking to himself.
“I would love to know myself”, Alice replied, looking again into the microscope. We decided to leave the bacteria to their own business till the next day and see how they would behave then.
“By the way, Mc Murrich wants to know if the polymer can change the shelf life of the products. Do you think the growth of these bacteria will affect it in any way?”, I asked
“I am still not sure”, said Alice, “These bacteria are probably like the ones usually present in the yoghurt, they shouldn’t cause the product to deteriorate”.
“So, what type of bacteria are in there?”, Brad asked
“This is the weirdest part”, Alice said, “I cannot recognize them. They are different from all the bacteria I know about. I also checked their characteristics against those of all the bacteria in the database. The best I can get is a match on about 90% of the features, but a perfect match is impossible”.
We stood there thinking this over. After a pause Alice said, “As a matter of fact I don’t think we should circulate the polymer out of the labs before we understand all this. We don’t really know what these bacteria can do to people, all we say with certainty is that the polymer triggers their growth”
“Oh oh”, Brad said, “Mc Murrich won’t be happy to hear this”
“We have to tell her though”, Alice insisted, and I nodded.
“But you heard what she told us today…”, he said, looking at me, “She wants to sell the polymer without worrying about possible risks”.
I was uneasy, for the first time since I took the job I fully realized that what we did in the labs could have an impact on real life and that I was trapped in a ruthless game where I was no longer controlling my moves.
“I’ll tell Mc Murrich anyways”, I said.
But when we walked to Mc Murrich’s office she was gone. Strange, I thought, Mc Murrich never left that early.
Brad shrugged, “Let’s leave this for tomorrow”, he said, “why don’t we just go home now”
I couldn’t wait to go myself. I wanted to leave the alienating atmosphere of the labs behind, go home, perhaps drive to the lake for a swim. But at the same time I was afraid to face the loneliness, to be confronted with the dead point where I had landed. I had been after this polymer for months, and now that I had found it I wished I never had. I had set in motion a mechanism I could no longer stop, and I knew that at this point I could not avoid that the polymer was released. Or maybe I could…I would have to wait till the next day to know.
“So, are we going?”, I heard Brad say.
I started, wondering for how long I had stood there, my thoughts wandering.
“Sure thing”, I replied, and we walked out, our feet leaving their imprint on the parking lot asphalt, melt by the burning Californian sun.