Agent Reptilian: Exploiting Gold|editing

Chapter twenty: "Remember, when your health decreases, my wealth increases."

"...it's important to feed your body the nutrients it needs for it to function properly. Your body does amazing things for you such as homeostasis, maintaining a balance. When you sweat, it is your body cooling you down. When your blood sugar levels are low, your pancreas releases glucagon, which in turn causes your liver to turn stored glycogen to glucose and release into your bloodstream to bring the..."

"I think my blood sugar has significantly declined listening to this." I groaned and my fingers found their way to my temple and gently rubbed them, trying to erase the headache that was beginning to form.

My mind had been zoning in and back out during the past hour. Today was health day in gym and I couldn't have resented it more. While physical exercise was something I enjoyed, learning about health was plain boring, especially healthy eating habits.

We had a guest speaker for the first hour of the class, some fitness fiend lady with slicked back pony tail and wearing expensive yoga gear who was educating us youth on mindful eating habits. She had even brought a tray full of granola yogurt cups which had been hard to chew let alone swallow. I could spot the trash can sitting in the front of the room, overfilled with the brick hard treats she had created.

I sighed as the lecturer continued and I slipped my hand into the pocket of my navy blue, cheap quality gym shorts they had provided us with and pulled out the scrap paper.

It was filled with more scribbles than before, in colors of pink, red and blue. Andrew's name was written at the bottom in block letters with a big circle around it. Arrows were pointing from the circle to the edges of the paper where we wrote-or should I say, I wrote all the information I found about him while Nix was slumbering away. In her defense, the library chairs were more comfortable than the beds we had been provided with.

At the thought of our beds, I stretched my back and neck, hearing multiple cracks break out.

There was a lot about Andrew out there on Secretum's database that Adams had not mentioned. Granted there was a lot of information that they had discovered after we had arrived in Miami but I doubt he would've told me anything had I even asked-which I had. 

I went back to reading the information on the paper. I had memorized most of the stuff about him. Whenever I felt anxious, I would get the paper out from my shopping bag and read it over, again and again, as if learning the facts would automatically glue the puzzle pieces together of his motive.

Only child.
Mother's status: dead.
Father's status: Alive but no contact in years.
No spouse or kids.
Height: 193 cm
Weight: 200 Ibs
Eye color: Green
Hair color: black,
Education background: BA at Rutgers University in Kinesiology but never finished his degree.
Career information: worked at Denny's from 2011-16, unemployed since '16

While most of the information we had found about him was personal, I was still glad we had discovered it. It didn't exactly tell us his motive but I was trying to piece together how he had met the other scientists. I knew that one of the dead scientists, Johanna Heidi, the geneticist had also gone to Rutgers although she was studying genetics, perhaps they had met in classes...but what made him want to kill her?

I had a feeling Johanna was a big part of this. The others Andrew may not have known, the other scientists were in different states but Johanna and Andrew were the same age and went to the same school, that couldn't have been a coincidence. Perhaps Johanna was trying to warn the other scientists or something. Perhaps she traveled with them because she knew she could protect them. I closed my eyes and thought of her face, her light brown skin and her small face with a pixie haircut. She was an innocent. She must've had a family, maybe even children and just like that, Andrew had taken her life.