Chapter 40 Emery
With sleek, aerodynamic lines, glass walls (I always wondered if they were bulletproof), and a modern aesthetic that feels more spaceship than corporate office, the waiting area outside the Innovation Suite looks nothing like a holding cell, but it might as well be.
There are guards stationed at the door. Guards.
And not the harmless kind like sweet Carl or Michelle with her giant Stanley mug. Real ones, with guns.
On the plus side, I’m pretty sure I remember one of them wearing a Santa hat and tossing back more than a few Mistletoe Margaritas at the company Christmas party.
Even so, I’m experiencing a sensation that is becoming all too frequent: the feeling that I might throw up. I have no idea what’s waiting for me in there.
I startle when the outer door opens and a wide-eyed Annie is escorted inside. “Oh my God,” I say, rushing toward her and wrapping her in a hug. “I am so sorry. I hope this isn’t about Luca. I shouldn’t have gotten you involved in this.”
Annie doesn’t reply until the door is closed and we’re alone again. She sits in the chair next to mine.
“Careful,” she says under her breath and glances pointedly around the room.
And I understand: We have no idea who could be listening.
“And shut the fuck up with all of that. I wanted to save him, too. I easily could have left.” Sitting back, she smooths a hand down the fabric of her skirt.
“Did they happen to tell you what this is about?”
“Just that Leonard needed to see me today. Shandra was very clear about that.”
“Same,” Annie says with a sigh.
“And they took my phone.”
“Yeah. Mine, too.”
My internal doomscrolling kicks into overdrive.
Is this a good meeting or a bad meeting?
It definitely feels bad. Maybe they’re continuing the BioVIVE but taking me off the project.
Maybe they gave it to Vince. Maybe Annie was right, and they’re terminating it altogether.
All of those options are terrible, but there’s one that’s even worse.
My heart rockets up to my throat: Maybe they know about Luca.
My gut says no. The data log is gone, and if they somehow did find something, they’d probably do a lot worse than call me into the principal’s office… with armed guards.
Shit shit shit.
I’m about to throw myself off the proverbial mental cliff when the conference room door opens and Shandra steps out.
“They’ll see you both now,” she says, and my brain snags on a single word.
“ ‘They’?”
I follow Annie inside, and that’s when I realize the situation isn’t as bad as I feared. It’s much, much worse.
Conversation stops and twelve pairs of eyes swivel to us from around the enormous rectangular conference table: the entire BioNEX board.
Whatever is happening right now is so big that people with more money and power than I can even fathom just flew thousands of miles to be here in person rather than conference in virtually.
If I wasn’t ready to throw up before, I really am now.
“Dr. Martín,” Leonard says. “Dr. Rodriguez. Please take a seat.” He motions to two empty chairs—the only chairs on this side of the giant table.
Quietly, we sit down. I tuck my hands in my lap to keep them from shaking. Leonard nods to a man I recognize as the head of security.
The man, Jeffrey Lopez—whom I’ve known for years and who joins me for lunch at least once a week in the break room—taps a few keys on a laptop before clearing his throat.
“During routine decontamination and disinfection of Labs One, Two, and Three on Wednesday, July twenty-second, a member of the cleaning crew found a cellular phone near the wall under one of the workstations.”
Oh God. They have Luca’s phone. How stupid can I be? I must have dropped it in all the commotion of moving him into the BioVIVE.
Lopez gives me an apologetic smile before confirming: “The battery had been crushed, but when we were able to power the device on, we verified that it belonged to Luca Martín.”
I try to breathe and tell myself that if I go to prison it will have been worth it because Luca is alive.
I wanted to save someone from having to watch the person they love die, and that’s exactly what I did.
The science is sound and BioNEX will continue to work on BioVIVE and Compound Y and eventually make it available to the masses, even if I’m not around to see it.
It will save millions of people. There’s nothing to regret about that.
“Thank you, Jeffrey,” Leonard says, making a note on a pad in front of him before addressing me.
“Dr. Martín, can you explain why your husband’s phone was found in your lab despite the on-site use of personal cellular devices of any kind being explicitly against BioNEX policy?
A policy, I should mention, that you signed as a condition of employment. ”
I briefly consider lying. I could say that I accidentally had Luca’s phone with me when I came into the lab to check on the subjects and must have misplaced it somehow. If I managed to convince them, I could still lose my job but might not face further action.
Unfortunately, given the people who are here in the room with me, I’m positive the phone isn’t all they have.
Lying isn’t going to help me here.
“First, I want to say that Dr. Rodriguez had nothing to do with this. I forced her into cooperating with me. Violently. Any and all guilt here is mine alone.”
“Emery,” Annie hisses at my side.
“Noted,” Leonard says.
“I had the phone in my jacket pocket,” I say.
“I see. And what day was this?”
Again, I could lie, but they already know the answer. “July seventeenth.”
“This was the day of your presentation to the board where it was revealed that you have been doing research on resurrection.”
Fucking Vince.
Tightly, I answer, “Yes.”
Leonard nods but doesn’t look up from his paper. “Jeffrey, please continue.”
“My team was instructed to analyze security data from the night in question.” Lopez taps another handful of keys, and a monitor flickers to life on the wall behind him.
“At first glance, there were no events that flagged the system. In fact, there was nothing in the system. But when searched manually…” A few more keystrokes and the video monitor flickers to life.
On the screen is security footage of Annie and me looking like a couple of cartoon characters maniacally rolling a blanket-covered gurney down the hall.
It is very clearly not a Great Dane under that blanket.
Carl really isn’t that great at his job.
Leonard squints up at the screen. “Dr. Rodriguez doesn’t seem to be under any duress here,” he says, before peering at me over his glasses. “Unless I’m missing something?”
“I wasn’t,” Annie says before I can stop her.
“I see. Jeffrey, what did you mean when you said there was nothing in the system?”
Lopez points at the monitor. “AISS records visual footage from several vantage points. But those feeds seem to have been wiped. Fortunately, we were able to recover them in the Delta drive.” With a few more keystrokes the screen splits into a collage of squares, each showing a different angle of the two of us rolling Luca’s body down the hall.
I narrow my eyes. “Holy shit,” I whisper to Annie. “I look unhinged.”
“You’ll get no argument from me.”
“Along with visual data,” Jeffrey continues, “the system also documents vital signs of each person passing through the sensors. On July seventeenth at approximately 9:19 p.m., AISS registered two people going into Lab Two. But approximately four and a half hours later, it registered three people leaving.”
Fucking Robert Pattinson. I knew he’d get us in the end.
A murmur of hushed conversation fills the room.
“Was there documentation of any other staff currently in the lab, Jeffrey?” Leonard asks. “Perhaps someone who might have been in the building and exited with them?”
“No, sir. Every BioNEX employee is accounted for.”
Leonard turns to me, lowering his glasses on his nose. “Care to explain, Dr. Martín?”
“After I left Friday night,” I say, closing my eyes, drawing in a breath, and trying to calm my racing heart, “my husband was out jogging and was hit by a car. The vehicle fled the scene. Luca sustained several injuries, including a severed femoral artery that proved to be fatal. I witnessed the accident and immediately began emergency first aid.”
“And did you notify the police?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because he was technically dead and I didn’t have time.” I take another deep breath. I can practically feel the pressure of Annie’s gaze on the side of my face and her silent Don’t do it, do not do it is screaming in my brain. “I initiated the BioVIVE protocol.”
Annie’s head falls forward and the room erupts in chaos. Leonard has to shout above the noise to get everyone under control.
I mean, how bad can prison really be? I’ll finally have some spare time. Maybe I can even pick up a hobby. I hear crocheting can be very relaxing.
“Emery,” Leonard says evenly, “I’m sure everyone here is interested in knowing how you had Compound Y readily available to you at that moment, but first I want to make sure I understand. You initiated an unproven, experimental, and largely untested procedure on a live human subject?”
“He wasn’t a subject, he was my husband, and he was fucking dead,” I say, and regret it immediately, owing to the way the room falls silent in a shocked hush. I take another deep breath. “As you can imagine, I was desperate and not thinking objectively.”
He stares at me, disappointment turning his features down at the corners.
“Leonard,” I say quietly. “It fucking worked. Luca was clinically dead, but Compound Y kept his body stable enough for the BioVIVE protocol to repair the damage. His heart started again on its own and he’s alive.
And not just alive but thriving. We brought him back.
You’ve seen the data,” I remind him. “You know I’m telling the truth. ”
Even I can see the flicker of interest—and dollar signs—in Leonard’s eyes. It’s mirrored around the table.
“How do you know he’s thriving?”
At the sound of his voice, my eyes swing to Vince at the far end of the table.
Anger floods my bloodstream. I hadn’t even realized he was here.
“There is absolutely no way of knowing what will happen to him now,” Vince continues, without waiting for my answer, “or what hidden problems might be lurking below the surface. This is the most irresponsible, possibly criminal, and blatant disregard for scientific and medical ethics I have ever been witness to.”
I want to argue, though if I’m honest, he isn’t wrong. But I don’t have to say anything, because Annie speaks up first.
“Was this unorthodox?” she asks. “Yes. Was it bordering on manic? Also yes. But Luca is not a zombie, Vincent, and frankly, I will tolerate those kinds of accusations from anyone else here, but not you. Do not talk to me about ethics. You don’t want me to open that can of worms.”
Vince seethes at this as Annie addresses the rest of the room.
“And let’s not kid ourselves. The sign outside says SURGOPTIX, but we all go into a secret elevator and work for a company none of our families have ever heard of called BioNEX.
Nothing here is on the up-and-up. Every one of you is here to make money, and with Emery’s technology proven, you stand to make a lot of it.
But not without her bravery and innovation. ”
There’s more murmuring, and Lorraine, a stern woman with a severe gray bob, speaks up. “You say Luca Martín suffered no negative effects from the procedure?”
I tilt my head from side to side. “There were some memory issues, but they’re resolving. His thigh injury healed within a matter of days. The BioVIVE treated the rest of his injuries. Physically, all his systems appear to be functioning normally.”
“And you’ve documented all of this, as well as the procedure itself?” she asks. “Do you have proof?”
“Yes, all of it,” I say. “And proof? I have Luca. You can see for yourself. He’s a miracle.”
“Have him here in three hours,” Leonard says, leaving zero room for argument. “You were unable to attend the meeting this weekend, but we received notice that the US military is interested in discussing your project. They would like us to move forward.”
“The military?” I ask, my heart sinking.
“Three hours, Dr. Martín,” Lorraine says. “And I hope you’re right. The stakes have just been raised, and if you’re wrong and he begins to deteriorate after this reckless and unapproved use of a largely untested BioVIVE protocol, it would be catastrophic. For all of us.”