Chapter 2
JEKYLL
Three days earlier
It wasn’t right.
Dammit.
It wasn’t right.
I took the glass vial of noxious crimson liquid and flung it against the wall. A grotesque blood-like stain oozed down the cinder block wall of my lab.
I turned away in disgust and snatched up the pile of files and my research journal.
“Oh, my!”
I turned back to see the most beautiful woman I had ever laid eyes on standing on the threshold.
She had pale skin so delicate it appeared almost translucent.
Her silky mink-brown hair was piled on top of her head in a fetching old-fashioned style.
The kind you saw in old movies where the women wore dresses with bustles and carried parasols.
Her dress was black with the kind of skirt that swung out and swished around her knees.
Covering her bare arms and dress bodice was a thin black gauze cape.
The hand she held to her heart was covered in a small black lace glove with a cute ruffle around the wrist. Perched on her nose was a pair of silver wire-rimmed glasses.
The glare from the laboratory lamps was reflected off the lenses, denying me a true look at the color of her eyes.
She looked like a gothic librarian… and was staring with shock and horror at the dripping wet stain I had caused.
Startled by both her reaction and her beauty, I dropped the files I was holding. The endless pages of reports, bar graphs, lists of chemical compositions, and military memos scattered across the pea-green linoleum floor at my feet.
I fell to my knees, wincing at the pain as my body made contact with the hard, unforgiving floor. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know anyone was standing there.”
Uncaring about their order, I grabbed at the papers and shuffled them into a chaotic mess of a pile.
As I kept my head lowered, her pale, black-lace-covered hand appeared within my line of vision. “Let me, Dr. Jekyll.”
Her voice was like a dark sonnet on an overcast day, sweet with just a hint of sadness.
I inhaled her perfume. It smelled like white lilies.
I shook my head. This was madness. Sonnets? Lilies? What the hell was I thinking? I was a scientist, not some addled schoolboy trying to write tortured lines of poetry to a pretty girl.
Not knowing how to respond, I just nodded my head.
In silence, we gathered up the papers together.
Several times our hands brushed one another as we did so.
I gritted my teeth against my body’s reaction to her innocent and unintentional touches.
While on her knees, she bent low and reached under my mass spectrometry bench for an errant sheet.
Against my will, I noticed the round curve of her ass and glimpsed her slim thighs as her skirt hiked up in the back.
She glanced over her shoulder and caught me looking.
I coughed as I looked away, pretending to be preoccupied with retrieving a particular memo.
Several agonizing seconds later, I lifted the haphazard pile of documents and files into my arms and tossed them onto the top of my workbench.
The beautiful woman rose with me. She laughed as she patted the protruding corners of the papers in her hands, forcing them into a neat, if disorganized pile. “I guess this will be my first task.”
I stared at her, saying nothing.
The welcoming smile on her pink lips faded. She gestured over her shoulder. “Unless you wanted me to clean up that mess on the wall first?” She started to pull off her black lace gloves.
I placed a palm over her hands, stopping her.
Her eyes widened as she turned her face up to meet mine.
Green.
Her eyes were green.
A stunning, deep emerald green with tiny flecks of gold.
They sparkled like some unearthly gemstone.
At her questioning look, I pulled my hand back, clutching it to my chest as if I had been burned. “I’m sorry, but who are you?”
She blushed. “No! I should apologize for just barging into your lab like this.” She held out her hand. “I’m Catherine. Catherine Poole, your new lab assistant. The university hired me.”
I shook her hand as I processed the information.
I had specifically told the dean of my university that I did not require an assistant.
My work was in too delicate of a stage for any form of distraction or interference.
Besides, I was working on a highly secretive military project for Her Majesty’s Government.
Bl88dX# was a formula I was creating that would temporarily inhibit a soldier’s natural response to violence.
It was to be used as an effective tool in warfare by creating an immunity in soldiers to any hesitant reaction when faced with the threat of death.
Essentially it would be extra bravery in a vial.
It worked by superficially inflating both adrenaline and testosterone in the blood.
At least it was supposed to work like that.
So far, my tests had proved frustratingly inconclusive.
I needed to advance to human trials if I was going to complete my work.
So far, testing with rabbits had been a disaster.
Two white rabbits that I had given a moderate dose had torn at each other’s throats.
Bile still rose in my throat at the memory of the sight of all that matted white fur covered in blood.
The rabbits had clawed and scratched the hell out of my hand as I desperately reached into the cage to separate them before they killed each other.
Clearly, my formula required human testing. I was wasting precious time with animals. My research was intended to tap into a soldier’s natural instinct of bravery and fortify it. How was I to achieve this without testing the formula on the human brain?
However, up until now, the university where I worked had refused to submit my formula for human trials, repeatedly contending that more research was required. If I didn’t present something within the next four weeks, I was in danger of losing funding for my lab.
I couldn’t let that happen… not when I was so close to success.
I focused my gaze on the seemingly innocent woman before me.
She obviously was a plant by the university. They’d probably hired her to spy on me and my research. They knew how strenuously I had objected to having an assistant—no matter how pretty—in my lab.
My research was at a crucial stage and highly confidential. I couldn’t let some random graduate student looking for a break on their tuition into my inner sanctum. It was unthinkable.
She awkwardly pulled her hand from my grasp when I held on to it for too long.
Filling the tense silence, she continued, “I have my credentials here.” She reached into her purse and pulled out a white, neatly folded piece of paper.
“The university asked me to assure you that I am not a graduate student. I have advanced degrees in chemistry and bioengineering from both the Imperial College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States.”
I continued to stare at her, not reaching for the piece of paper she offered.
After a long pause, she opened the paper and held it up for me to see. “I was also given the necessary top secret clearances by the military to work on this project with you.”
I blinked several times, trying to gather myself together. Finally, I spoke. “I’m sorry, Miss…”
“Poole. Catherine Poole.”
“Yes, I’m sorry, but you’ve been misinformed. I do not require a lab assistant on this project.”
“Please, Dr. Jekyll. If you’d only give me a chance. I’ve read into the details, and I have to say I admire and respect what you are doing here.”
My eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”
She held her hand to her heart. “Why, creating a formula that would enhance the bravery of Her Majesty’s soldiers, of course.
Allowing those men and women to set aside their fears and focus on protecting our country will probably save thousands of lives.
Just think of all the deaths that could happen if a soldier hesitates, even for a split second, before pulling a trigger or giving the all-clear for a drone strike. ”
She was lying.
I could tell.
She was just telling me what I wanted to hear, trying to get me to trust her.
Turning my back on her, I gathered up the papers and held them close to my chest. “As I’ve said, there has been a mistake. I do not require an assistant.”
Catherine’s shoulders slumped. She neatly refolded the paper and tucked it into her purse. “Thank you for your time, Dr. Jekyll. I’m sorry to have disturbed your work.”
Without another word of protest, she turned and left.
The floral scent of her perfume lingered long after she was gone.