Second Nature

Chapter 3

3 

Gen jolted awake to a noise like a dragon's angry hiss. She knew the sound: The first airlock door had opened in the outer vault. She sat up in bed. 

Ceiling lights in her isolation chamber glowed dimly like distant moons. Wall-mounted video cameras monitored the room in infrared mode. A digital wall clock read 23:50 hours; military time for ten minutes to midnight. 

An electronic keypad chimed in the access panel of the isolation vault's air lock. An indicator light on the inside door turned from red to green. Someone was coming through the off-limits air lock directly into her quarters! 

Gen swallowed hard. Only Eberhard had authority to enter the innermost isolation unit itself. But why did he arrive now, without switching on lights? Had he scheduled a test for the middle of the night?  

She hopped into fresh clothes from a shelf stacked with identical orange nylon jumpsuits. As she zipped up the suit's front, the airlock door seal popped open with a loud hissshhhh!  

A figure too small to be Eberhard stepped through into her quarters, silhouetted by the green glow of the airlock console light. Gen gasped and covered her mouth. The man was not wearing a biohazard suit. 

"Gen!" he whispered. 

"Toshi?" Her heart made a squirrelly leap inside her ribcage. Toshi was inside her room-dressed only in black denim jeans and a black T-shirt. "Toshi, are you crazy? Where's your suit?" 

He crossed to her, eyes shining wildly in the dim light. 

"Where's your suit?" she demanded. 

"Shhhh." He glanced up at a security camera. "I'm going to take you out of here." 

"What?" 

"You heard me. You've got to leave this place. I'm here to help you escape." 

His words hit her like an earthquake, with her heart as epicenter. The air itself seemed to echo with the shock of what he'd said.  

"Escape?" She whispered the next word as if it were a holy name, forbidden to be spoken, "Outside?" 

"Yes. Come on." He eyed the security cameras again. "I drugged everybody and his brother, we don't have much time." 

"But..." Gen's heart pounded. "I can't. You know that. I could destroy the world. A plague. That's what everyone says." 

"I don't believe that." He reached out quickly and grabbed her hand in both of his. 

She yanked away in horror and stepped back. "No! My God! What are you doing?" The warmth of his hands had shocked like electricity. Skin to skin! She clenched her fingers where their hands had met. She had always longed to be touched, yet it had been the most frightening thing that ever happened to her.  

"What were you thinking?" she said. "I can kill you with one touch." 

He nodded. "Maybe. But I don't believe so." He inhaled deeply. "If your mitobots are floating loose in the air I'm already infected anyway." 

Tears ran down her cheeks. "Why are you doing this to me? I thought you were my friend." 

His eyes shone. "I am. More than you know. Look, I don't have time to explain. It's a scientific hunch. I don't think the mitobots inside you are set to destroy life. That's the real reason I smuggled the bonsai tree in here. It was an experiment." 

Gen thought of the red-leaf maple. Toshi had hidden the tiny tree in a sealed food bin and passed it through the airlock. She had handled the tree secretly, while unpacking groceries from the bin. Such a beautiful living creature! Touching it had been the greatest sensual delight. But it had sickened her to think that Toshi would have to incinerate the tree later for safety's sake. She had not meant for Toshi to let her touch the bonsai, only to see it through the glass; she'd actually been upset with him over the best experience of her life.