Wen Shen addressed Malik. “Young man, please come here.”
Malik blinked, and there was another chair at the table, steam curling into the air from a hot cup of tea positioned in front of it.
Malik slowly walked to the chair and sat down. He looked into Wen Shen’s eyes and took a deep breath.
“Malik,” Wen Shen said. “You’ve been hesitant to accelerate this invention, and I’m not sure why. I need you to be honest with me. What drives your fear?”
“What do you mean?” Malik replied. “I’ve been honing the technology for years, trying to do all the right things. What fear?”
“Let me start with an easier question,” Wen Shen said. “Do you believe your solution works?”
“Absolutely,” Malik said without hesitation.
“Then, what’s driving your fear?”
“I just haven’t found the right sponsor to help scale it. That’s all.”
Wen Shen gave him a skeptical stare, and asked, “What’s stopping you?”
“Nothing. I’m working on it.”
“I’ve been watching you, Malik. I see the fear in you, deep down. You fear being wrong, and even worse, you fear being right.”
“You’re wrong.”
“Oh, am I?” Wen Shen’s eyebrows rose, prepared to challenge his statement. “You’re telling me that you aren’t afraid that you’ll get to the end of this road and nothing will happen? No widespread cure? That you’ll be ridiculed?”
Malik stared at the cup of tea, no longer able to hold her eye contact.
“And you also have a thought in the back of your mind that if you are successful with the cure, that if you would’ve pushed a little harder, a little faster, then maybe, just maybe, you could’ve saved your friend?”
Malik felt his stomach clench. “You don’t know me.”
“I know you much better than you think.” Wen Shen paused, letting Malik think for a moment before continuing. “Between your and Callie’s families, you could have found a way to file for a patent based on what you currently have. You had come far enough to post your findings online and let others help take it further, but you chose not to. You’ve hidden under the excuse that you want it to be perfect, to ensure that it works before you tell others. So now you tinker with this gift all alone in the woods.”
Malik steeled himself and looked back up at her. “What do you want from me?”
“Your friend Callie lived far longer and far better than anyone else who contracted that strain of the virus. You had a brilliant scientist take an interest in and help you develop your work. When you pursue something that you are passionate about, Malik, something from the heart, I promise you, you’ll never be alone.”
Malik cleared his throat. “I know it works, but I’m worried I won’t be taken seriously on a broader scale without a PhD. I don’t have the time to do that; that was Callie’s job.” He continued, “It took us so long to sequence each tree species to produce for the strain of the virus that Callie contracted. I always figured that there would be a magic frequency to get to, and once there, everything would unlock. But what if there isn’t? I’m afraid that I don’t have what it takes to keep going that long. Even more, I’m afraid of what will happen if I stop.”
Wen Shen nodded. “There’s a lot to understand about our ecosystem. Since the very beginning, humans have acted as gardeners for the planet. In exchange for tending to and caring for the trees, they in turn provided humanity with what was needed to live a long and healthy life. Since the trees absorb carbon dioxide from all the air humans exhale, they are the best at identifying respiratory issues. They know what clean air should be. Your grandmother knew this and made sure that your mother Nia had early exposure so that it would be ingrained in both her and your DNA. Why do you think you developed immunity?”
Malik pondered this for a moment. He had always thought it was genetic but hadn’t thought about it much further.
“But trees adapt and react more slowly than you do. And if you move tree-by-tree, species-by-species, it’s hard to get the speed and scale you need. But above all, if they are under strain, it’s hard for them to care for humanity as well, and they have been increasingly under strain with each passing generation.” Wen Shen sighed, then took a sip of her tea. “Zach Carver, he was brilliant, and on the cusp of a critical moment for humanity.”
“His Global Breadth system?” Malik assumed. “I can’t tell how it fully works yet.”
“He figured out that one must find the hub trees and then tap into the mycelia there. Then you are connected to what connects all trees. It’s like a back door. His technology could propel human civilization to an entirely new level and lead to a new wave of thinkers and thinking. It could be used as a template for how to think differently about a problem.”
“If only I can figure out the password,” Malik said.
Wen Shen took another sip of her tea. “Remember, you’re never alone, Malik, not when you are pursuing great things.”
“You can’t see it all yet, but we can,” said Ori. “Now’s the time to be brave.”
Malik glanced at Magaly, who had been quietly watching, then looked back to Wen Shen and Ori and nodded.
Wen Shen got a twinkle in her eye and asked, “Was your plan to just continue to create these bootleg atomizers?”
“As many as I could,” Malik said with a smile.
Wen Shen laughed. “We can’t allow that, can we? Not if you’re ready.” She closed her eyes and rubbed her temples in small circles. “All right, all mutations are temporarily paused. If you can find a way to get the antidote you’ve created into distribution in the next forty-eight hours, I’ll maintain the pause long enough for appropriate balance.”
“Excellent,” Ori said.
“What?” Malik said. “That’s imposs—”
“Have faith,” Ori said. “I have a plan.”
Wen Shen looked at the clock. “It’s after three in the morning,” she said.
“That it is,” Ori said.
“What are you leaving behind?” she asked.
“I’m not sure yet,” Ori said. “I’m open to recommendations.”
“You should include—” Wen Shen started to say, but Ori interrupted.
“Hold that thought, I’m expecting one more.”
“Two in one?” Wen Shen said. “That’s pretty aggressive.”
“It’s out of necessity.”
Malik opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out.