If Masae were another person in another life, she would have climbed out of her chariot to enjoy that Asian microcosm having nothing more to do than watching the time pass by, discovering the secrets of the place. But she knew who she was. Before she became the most influential businesswoman in the world, the queen of Pharma-NorTech, had known the roughest parts of the city. She experienced it as a woman who had done what was needed of her to overcome the streets. She had followed the scent of wealth from Japan to Singapore, shooting always for higher targets. Always refining her intelligence and sophistication to match her beauty, not to blend in with the powerful, but to outshine them and sit at the head.
Masae’s highly secured car zigzagged through the three-lane narrow roads. and passing by multicultural neighborhoods and streets. She closed her eyes and inhaled the sweet aroma of success, running through her mind all the possibilities available for Pharma-NorTech with the current research. Their products were everywhere. From remote pharmacies to military treatment centers and experimental bioweaponry facilities in secret corners of the world. Her late husband, John Norfolk, the heir to the pharmaceutical family legacy, was too hesitant to incursion into those fields. But she knew their competitors didn’t have the same scruples. The Chinese corporations were competing for global dominion, and they certainly didn’t abide by the same rules as the Brits, Americans or Germans. If not for her and Shinji, Pharma-NorTech would continue to be one of many pharmaceutical companies, trying to establish visibility. She caressed gingerly, the soft leather case settled by her side, it contained signed transactions and special orders for Mila to deliver.
Masae gazed out of the window and grimaced, it was bad timing. They passed by the temple she always made a point to ignore. It was a few blocks along the way to her laboratories. The sight of the old building triggered in her memory the smell of incense burning, chanting and prayers offered and made her feel sick.
“Mr. Chang, I’m not a tourist enjoying the view; faster please!” she called the driver through the intercom by her seat.
The bird’s-eye view from her private jet and the drive to the facility were more than enough. After all, she had the Merlion, half lion and half fish as her good luck charm. Although she didn’t really believe in esotericism, she had its replicas in her office and her mansion for sheer eccentricity. No invisible force had pushed her to the summit where she was. No cosmic game had catapulted her to the most desired peak of power from which she would make sure never to descend. She had built her high-tech facility in that enclave of trade routes and solid economy. No incense burning in a temple prayer or ivory Merlion brought her luck, but her insatiable thirst for success and her debased sagacity to achieve it. And to make true her personal promise, she had biological weapons to ensure she was in control, not just of her destiny but of the world’s. That was power—not having a crown or title but having the means to reduce the planet to ground zero.
“I’m disappointed with your handling the last networking opportunity you were handed in D.C., Why leaving the exhibition so early?” said Masae, approaching Alexander in his office. She arrived unannounced and speaking her mind as always.
“It wasn’t early.” Alexander replied, taking his eyes off the virtual screen. He was more than used to her impromptu arrivals. “We made the delivery, we swept the place for anything you would like us to acquire, and we found nothing new. Nothing we’re not already developing in Pharma-NorTech labs. So, after the deal with the US Department of Defense was signed, we rewarded ourselves with a couple of drinks like normal people do,”
Masae got closer and peered into his eyes. Alexander kept his eyes on her fearlessly waiting for the rest. “Falling in love with a research specimen would never end well. But to be honest, I’m not surprised.”
“I wouldn’t think too much of it. It’s just an affection growing in the closeness you’ve pushed us into. We submitted to your laws; neither of us have lives of our own, do we?” he ventured frankly, knowing that Masae was hearing it with her special ability.
“We mingle with our experiments…” She scoffed, shaking gently her head.
“Well, if you don’t object,” he said, trying to calibrate his answers. He didn’t need to add fuel to the fire.
His intelligence and efficiency in his work made him a difficult instrument to discard and replace. She had invested too much time and money on him. She was a practical woman with a single devotion. “She is all yours. I have no intention of causing trouble in paradise. Experience has taught me that the spell doesn’t last long. Six months, tops, experts say, and maybe less in your case. Her missions and deliveries are getting quite hazardous. Anyway,” Masae sat on a chair next to his desk and continued to probe Alexander’s mind. She searched for anything that would suggest deception or a switch in his loyalty, finding nothing she attempted to provoke him. “Have you thought about how Mila would react if she knew the entire truth?”
“I would ask you the same. How long will you keep pretending to be her loving mother who in a moment of desperation to save her life, turned her into a lab rat.” Alexander spoke frankly, as the thoughts also appeared in his mind. Insolent transparency was better received than fake meekness by the woman who trusted no one. “As far as my feelings are concerned, my relationship with Mila is the natural response of the creator and the creature. It’s a normal progression after all we’ve been through during her transformation. If memory serves me well, I think we had this conversation when you dropped her in the laboratory. And I would dare to say that your affection towards her is similar. Mila is a tool that obeys your command as you expect her to do. No one here is talking about love, as none of us really knows what that word means,” the scientist replied with a chilly voice, hoping the answers would buy him and Mila time.
“Yours, my dear, is more than just the creator’s admiration. Your eyes give you away when you’re with her and I have the evidence.” Masae went to the computer on Alexander’s desk and entered her codes. The virtual screens projected photos from South Africa. “That’s what I see in these photos.”
“Beautiful pictures! Look at her, even a blind man would be tempted.” Alexander appealed to Masae’s instinct. He used an irrefutable weapon, the typical male behavior that was something Masae thought she was an expert at. “Ad libitum. We are in this at will, aren’t we?” He concluded with Shinji’s motto, no one is forced in any way because everyone is equally corruptible when given a chance.
“Very wise, dear,” Masae said, walking to the glass refrigerator where the morphogenesis was kept. She stare at the little vials. “Mila is a powerful specimen, we cannot deny it, but she is not indestructible!”
Alexander received the warning. He felt his heart sinking into the depths of his stomach.
Masae approached him, regarding him with fiery eyes. “You should learn this lesson if you wish to continue climbing the ladder I have provided for you as promised to your mother. In our business, Alexander Lyashenko, there isn’t room for sentimental burdens or liabilities of any kind, it will only make you weak. It will turn you into a man without control over his own life. Do you understand me?”
“Loud and clear.” Alexander answered, looking at the images of both of them in South Africa. Controlling with great effort the anger rising in his heart at Masae’s mention of his mother. Their debts had been paid hundred fold as far as he was concerned. He decided to change the subject because the fire creeping inside of him was too great and threatening to disarm his insensitive-man façade. “I am glad we have refreshed our memories,” Alexander said, turning to his work. The virtual screen appeared and he continued to save his annotations in the corresponding files.
Masae settled into her seat on the other side of Alexander’s desk. “Well, I’m not here to discuss Mila’s existence. We’ll cross that bridge when we have to,” she said, placing her leather briefcase on the desk and extracting some other files. “I have news to give you and an additional request. While you were on romantic holidays around South Africa, I received a report from the brothers.”
“The Swedes?”
“That’s right. I’ve had them watched since Shinji’s death. My son lost his life for an archeological artifact found in French Polynesia by the professors. An object that apparently led everyone to Peru.” Masae’s voice trailed off as she gazed at the images of Peru. She seemed transported to another time, a period of her life where she lived in an ambassy home in Miraflores with her husband Hiromasa Sato and Kei. Peru called her to return again and again. It was the land where she had loved and had been loved, it was a land of longing, but also a land of death. It was the place where she abandoned a son and lost another… both by her own doing.
“Are they also in the cloud forest?” Alexander briefly glanced at Masae. She seemed meditative.
“Yes, those treasure-hunters made it to Peru as soon as they found out about Shinji’s death.”
“But, they are archeology and anthropology professors. There is nothing strange about them working over there.” Alexander stopped writing and faced her. He offered Masae his undivided attention for Mila’s sake.
“Shinji was after something of great importance for Pharma-NorTech and it wasn’t old ruins. I’m thinking it’s something inside the jungle within a construction…but what kind of building was it?” She looked to be chasing something with her gaze, she frowned and nodded as if realizing something or agreeing with her own intuition.
Alexander studied the images on the screen, exercising all his might to conceal what he had seen in Mila’s dreams that now were saved in the files of his own memory. The extraordinary house in the forest that blended with the vegetation, the graceful lady guiding Mila through the largest garden he had ever seen…He repressed his thoughts, changing quickly the subject as Masae was emerging from her ponderings.
“My instinct didn’t fail me. Now they are doing me the favor of lifting stone after stone until they find what Shinji was after, and once they find it, I will be there to take it from their dirty hands.” Masae brought to mind scenes from the last few days in the life of her son, the world’s leading pharmaceutical entrepreneur, Shinji Norfolk. She sighed with bitter resignation as she spoke. “I’ll send Mila to play archaeologist over there.” Masae pointed to the images on the screens. “So far they have only uncovered these huge walls. You see? I think it’s only part of an even bigger building, but due to the heavy rain, there hasn’t been any other progress.” She caressed with her gaze one of the very detailed photos. “But look at the reliefs and inscriptions on the walls. I wonder what is written there…”
“Excellent work!” Alexander cheered to avoid thinking of Mila’s ring which had the same tree and the inscription. And he knew that it said: Choose life so you may live. Life over death, a concept Masae wouldn’t appreciate.
“I know that Mila will have more understanding of the subject.” Masae commented, closing the images.
“Does she know she is going there?” Alexander asked, pretending not to know her whereabouts.
“Yes. Ian, the man I have in the field, will guide her when she arrives in Peru. Now, Dr. Lyashenko, I need updates on the virus and antidote production.”