Missions in the Dark

Chapter 6

The formerly locked lab was, to both you and Leon's dismay, not as exciting as you were hoping. However, you noticed a number of odd looking plants scattered around the room, many of which had little thermometers and monitors sticking out of the soil. The whole ordeal was odd, but didn't prove anything.

Walking over to Leon, slightly brushing your shoulder with his, you spoke, wanting to see where his head was at. "Could they be using plant cells to aid in the virus's creation?

"It's possible, but doesn't seem likely; what would plant cells bring to the table?" Leon responded, scratching his chin.

"I really wish the universe would just throw us a bone."

"I could throw you a bone." Leon remarked, smirking toward you.

Repressing a laugh, you scoffed, "You're terrible."

"That's no way to talk to your superior."

You faced him at that.

"I will never call you my superior. We are from different squads. You may be ranked higher, but you're not my boss."

He stepped closer to you. "While we're here, I am."

You shook him off and went back to searching the area. There were a few more computers in this lab room which you raked through quickly. You also used the computer's internet to do a little research on the usefulness of plant cells.

You found that it was quite common for plants to be infiltrated by different viruses. While the plant itself isn't the creator, its cells can become a host to pathogenic bodies. Now, of course, these viruses are really only bad news for other plants, but maybe they were trying to mutate the harmful plant viruses so they could host inside and affect humans. One plant virus, the cucumber mosaic virus, causes stunting and distortion among plants. You continued to look into viruses similar to that one. You felt weird about this. You had no doubt in your mind that there were people smart enough to mutate a virus to cause harm to humans. With viruses like the cucumber mosaic virus, it seemed possible to cause distortion through the human brain.

You had been silent for longer than he liked, so Leon came over to you.

"I think I might be onto something."

You explained what you found, getting increasingly more passionate about this hypothesis.

"Even if this is what they are trying to do, how far are they? We haven't found anything more than plants being monitored; it's possible they haven't even begun mutating these viruses."

You spun around to him. "Yes, but we have to stop them before they can."

"You're talking about too many theoreticals."

"All we need to do is bring back these plants to HQ where they can–"

"Where can they do what? See if these plants turn funky? This isn't enough. The rumored virus has to be far along enough for someone to know what they were doing. It has to be further in the works than studying plants."

You knew he was right, but his mild dismissal of your theory hurt.

"Well what do you want to do then? I doubt a finalized virus is just sitting around. I say we take a plant sample. It's a start, plus I don't know what else we would find."

"You're being stupid."

"Excuse me?"

"We can't leave yet. It's possible there's more proof further in the lab."

"You don't have to be so rude."

Leon tilted his head to the side, displaying faux sadness. "Oh, I'm sorry sweetheart. Did I hurt your feelings?"