Rust On The Astute Sword

Chapter Two

Sun Laboratories, Mumbai:

Two chemists were busy with a pipette, blowing some foggy chemicals into a testing kit. Their bodies were cloaked with white gowns and a protective headgear rested over their neck.

Sun Laboratories collaborated with the Maharashtra Government in testing the people of the virus, LycoV-I. It was afternoon and most workers had gone for lunch.

A loud knock on the door, made the chemist spill the chemical. The area quickly turned moist, bubbles escaping frantically. Both of them turned to look through the plastic headgears, eyes locking at the door.

The door opened and three people wearing masks and donning black suits stared at them from the gaped door, gesticulating to have a word.

The lead chemist asked his partner to stop the work and both strode out. Removing their headgears they inquired about the untimely and unusual visit.

The taller man among the three motioned something to his two companions by the blink of an eye and next moment everything happened in a blur.

The two men swiftly stationed themselves close to the two chemists and clogged their mouth with a heavy cloth sprayed with chloroform, another hand strangled their neck firmly.

The chemists tried to kick free and grab their attackers' hands in defense mumbling vacuously but they held an iron grip over their mouth. The strangling redoubled and with every passing second their countering dwindled in intensity and finally they turned limp.

The two men dragged them through the corridor into the back lobby linking with the garden where some more men with automated small machine guns scanned the perimeter.

The taller man entered the room and rummaged through some papers. Finding what suited his work, he ticked all patients positive. Then he took out all the test tubes and small vials which were filled with saliva collected from patients and emptied all of them in a large beaker.

He churned the mixture vigorously with a glass rod and then produced a small vial from his own pocket and initiated an experiment. He heated the beaker in an electric induction on low heat.

Half an hour he waited. Then adding the last foggy chemical which the chemists previously were using, he moved the beaker into a bucket full of ice, cautiously preventing the beaker from close contact with the ice cubes. After five minutes he noticed a slow change in hue.

Subdued by excitement he phoned his master and informed, "Looks like the Chinese didn't bluff us. It worked."

A robotic voice from the other end spoke, "Okay...But still we need to test it on humans. Did you send the chemists?"

"Yes. But what if the other people find these two missing, then?"

"We have papers to prove those two were infected." The voice was nonchalant.

The tall man considered for a moment and then asked with concern, "You sure we should do it?"

The man on the line spoke with frustration, "Do your work without questioning. Throw it down the drain now." The line went dead.

Only the symbolic meaning was more complex. A successful experiment never went down the drain, did they?