“For God’s sake Jim that’s the second time in as many hours. What is wrong with you? You’re meant to be the bloody genius around here and you can’t even type a line of code into a computer. We’ll be doing this for real soon and stupid mistakes like that will cost someone their life. Now get in there and clean up that bloody mess.”
The professor threw down his papers and stormed out of the lab. They were at a critical point in the testing program and he needed everyone to be completely focused on the task. Jim had been acting strangely for days now. He seemed to be distracted somehow. He was one of his brightest students and always keen to please but of late a kind of apathy seemed to have engulfed him.
Jim looked to the others for support but they just shrugged and carried on with their own tasks. He turned his attention to the mass of blood, guts and pink fur in the tray at the bottom of the Harmoniser that used to be a guinea pig. The irony was not lost on him.
Despite the importance of the work they were carrying out Jim could not stop thinking about Lucy. He had never met anyone like her. He had completely underestimated her the first time he had met her at the zoo. He had her down for a bit of an airhead, an easy conquest, but the more he had gotten to know her the more he realised he could not have been further from the truth. They had been out a couple of times since that first night but they were never out for long. All Lucy wanted to do was go back to his place and go to bed. That’s where she really came into her own. She was incredible in the sack and she knew exactly how to get him going. It was almost agony the way she could bring him to the brink before backing off again at the final moment. She would do this three or four times before finally letting him let go. They would then just lie on the bed for hours, smoking weed and talking. She talked a bit about herself, her life in California, her studies and her travels but mainly she just liked to listen. She clearly found him fascinating and seemed to have a hunger for physics and the work he was involved in. He probably shared with her more than he should but he didn’t see any harm in it and doubted she understood much of it anyway. It was just nice to have a girlfriend who did not yawn at the very mention of string theory or particle accelerators. He even told her about the Harmoniser and what it could be used for. He led her to believe it was mainly theoretical but he could see she was genuinely enjoying his explanations. To the point where it would turn her on and they would end up wrapped around each other again.
“What the hell Jim?”
He was snapped out of his daydreams by one of his colleagues. Dr Marks stared at him with a sickened look on her face. Jim had blood all over his hands and was knelt in the remains of the guinea pig. He pulled himself together and finished off the grisly task of cleaning up the dead animal. He cleaned himself up before the professor returned and the whole process was started again. Another guinea pig with dyed pink fur was placed into the Harmoniser tray. Jim put on his UV visor, typed the code into the controller and placed his finger over the send button. His colleagues carried out the same procedure and were both poised with their controllers. The professor put on his own visor and gave the command. The three research assistants pressed the send buttons at the same time. The Harmoniser immediately filled with light that grew in intensity until all that was visible was a mass of brilliant white light. This lasted for about thirty seconds before the light dulled again revealing the booth of the Harmoniser. The guinea pig was gone. “Finally!” the professor exclaimed. “Ok, let’s not get complacent.”
He was cautiously optimistic but they would have to wait another six hours before they would know if it had worked. He instructed them they did not all need to be there as long as someone stayed to monitor the Harmoniser. Jim immediately volunteered to do this by way of apology for causing them the earlier setbacks. Besides, he would be left alone to anticipate his next meeting with his little American beauty. A thought occurred to him. Why wait until tonight? If she was turned on when he talked about his work what would she be like if she saw it? He took out his phone and called her. He would only have a couple of hours but that would be long enough for him to impress her and for her to show her gratitude. He felt like a teenager going on a first date knowing he was going to get lucky. He was getting aroused just thinking about what they would be doing when she arrived. He had to try and control himself or it would all be over too quickly. He busied himself going over the figures of a formula written on a whiteboard on one of the walls. It was a relatively simple algorithm that allowed them to calculate the amount of energy converted in the formation of the wormholes. By processing the data from the satellite image showing the black spots caused by the quantum activity, and by adding the distance from which the image was taken, the algorithm could work out how much light was being absorbed and hence how much energy. The Harmoniser could then generate the energy required to recreate the conditions of a quantum event and open up the resulting wormhole.
The intercom by the door buzzed. He walked over to it, pressed the talk button and stated his name. A voice crackled through the speaker announcing there was a lady at the security office asking to see Dr McGonagall. Jim instructed the guard to let her through and direct her to lab number 12 on the second floor. His heart raced and his groin stirred as he inspected himself in the mirror making a few last-minute adjustments to his hair. There was a light knock on the glass panel in the door before it swung open revealing Lucy looking every bit as sexy as he had been fantasising. She was wearing a white lab coat buttoned up to her chin and a pair of shiny, black stiletto shoes giving her the appearance of a much taller woman. She had a pair of black-rimmed glasses perched on the end of her nose. She looked at him seductively over the rim of the glasses and swaggered toward him like a model on a catwalk. Reaching him, she removed a handbag from her shoulder and placed it on the floor. She reached out with her arms and embraced him with a long, slow, sensual kiss before pulling away from him to survey the surroundings. “So, this is where my clever doctor spends his days. What does all this stuff do?”
Jim gave her a tour of the lab explaining the function of the various items of machinery and banks of computers. She listened intently, showing no signs of boredom. In fact, she stopped him a number of times asking him to repeat or elaborate on something she had not quite grasped. When it came to the Harmoniser Booth he hesitated from giving her a full description of its purpose, stating instead that it was an x-ray machine designed to record molecular activity in living things. She asked him to give her a demonstration but he told it was in the middle of a calibration and could not be interrupted. Instead she settled for a run-through of the operation sequence on his laptop. He didn’t tell her the sequence involved sending three simultaneous coded signals from three separate laptops, but she seemed suitably impressed by what he did share. Despite her enthusiasm he was getting bored with talking about his work and wanted to get down to the reason he had invited her. He kissed her lightly on the lips and gave her a knowing look before going over to the door to lock so they would not be disturbed. While he had his back to her she reached into her bag and removed something. Jim turned away from the door and walked back toward her full of anticipation. She waited for him to get closer before removing a revolver and silencer from behind her back. Before he had chance to register what was going on she shot him twice in the head. He was dead by the time he hit the floor.
Lin Lee put the revolver back into her bag and took out a camera. She took several pictures of the equipment and one final shot of the formula on the white board. She took Jim’s laptop and put it in her bag before unlatching the door and leaving the lab. Once in the corridor she smashed the “break glass” fire alarm and left the building with everyone else via the fire stairs at the back. Within minutes of the alarm sounding, the building had been completely evacuated. The only living thing remaining inside being a white guinea pig running around in the tray at the bottom of the Harmoniser.