✔ Far Cry | JJK x OC

Chapter 68 // Breathe

"And then— And then— Get this, the bitch really thought I—"

Leah huffed and turned the radio off with a scowl. Her wrist quickly stopped a drop of sweat on her chin from contaminating the powder she was refining with a mortar, which soon she found was fine enough. She positioned the mold for the pill under the press after filling it with the powder, then pulled the lever to apply the strength needed to compress the powder into a tablet. The pill slid easily from the crevice and she repeated the same procedure, getting one white circular pill each time.

"You're the only one I know that doesn't pull the lever two or three times."

She turned around to find Ella at the door of that room in the clinic reserved to make and prepare medicine. Leah wanted to finish that batch of powder so she kept going while Ella observed for a moment.

"Why don't you need to do it more?" She was intrigued — Leah didn't have more strength or—

"Because my formulation is perfect."

Ella grabbed a tablet and tried making it crumble between her fingers only for the little thing to stay exactly like it was. Put and with zero friability.

"It definitely is."

Leah didn't answer and only continued her work, alternating between arms so she wouldn't feel as exhausted after hours of doing each pill one by one.

"Are you going to tell the others?" She raised an eyebrow at Ella's question. "About what you found in the laptop."

She almost lost focus and had to wipe her forehead of sweat again with the back of her arm; it was particularly hot despite it being the end of the day.

"Yeah, I should. Though," the lever seemed to get stuck and she had to pull harder to set it free. "I'm hesitant to give anyone even more leverage over me."

"What do you mean?"

Leah poured and uniformized the distribution of the last bit of powder, making sure the tablet would be just like any other before pressing it. She got the pill out, then pushed the lot of them inside a bottle that she had already properly labeled and set it to the side to join the other medicines she had made that day.

"Look, I know you like Ethan—"

"Wow, like?"

Ella seemed defensive and Leah just sighed, "Like, admire, have a thing, I don't know. I'm not judging, I'm just saying that he and many others are going about this like it's a power thing. And I get it," she stopped. Ella had a hardened look to her brown eyes and Leah was not trying to antagonize her. "But I feel protective over this," she confessed. "I don't want to risk compelling anyone into believing that selling me is worthwhile. Or that since there is something I want, that there's a chance for blackmail."

Ella was frowning deeply, "You're overthinking this."

"I'm not sure," she looked away, then shook her head, convinced. "I don't even really know what my role is in all this."

"I think at this point it's pretty clear they want you to work for them."

"Yeah, but on what? Why go this far?"

"I don't know, for drugs? Look at how good you are at making them, you could make them a shit ton of money."

"Any good professional can do this," she pointed at the counter with her work of the day.

"Yeah, but you're not just good. Head of R&D means something."

"Yes, well," Leah shrugged. "I don't really remember it all that much." Ella's eyes were stern but she sighed, "I just prefer to stay quiet for now. It's not just Ethan. It's feeling like the tide could turn and I could be swept away all of a sudden. You remember how it was when they thought I had caused Omani to fall."