Before The Beginning

Chapter 10: The Immunizing Projects

Begin!

~Beatrice's POV

"Do you want to come with us Hector," I asked.

Hector shook his head, "I want no part of this... I just want to be away from him even if it means leaving the organization entirely..."

I couldn't blame him for acting that way. Ike and I understood him, Hector would end up putting in an early retirement because of these events. He never worked in V.F.D. again after that, and went back to living in that village with his mother; presumably because it was land-locked and he wanted to be as far from the water as possible. If he didn't want to be a part of this then we wouldn't force him to. Hector left us, while Ike and I hurried to find the Duchess.

We knocked loudly on her office door, praying that she was still awake. We got an answer from Jacqueline.

"Ike, Bea, what's wrong?"

"We need to speak to the Duchess, it's urgent."

Jacqueline looked concerned and allowed us inside where her mother was still at her desk with a mountain of papers beside her.

R looked up, "Yes, what is it?"

We quickly explained what Gregor was doing at his facility. We watched as R's aging face darkened with rage and horror. Jacqueline looked distraught as well.

R stood up and started pacing around the room, "We need to put a stop to him. If he's crazy enough to come up with such a volatile concoction then one wrong move and he could snap... he could set it loose anywhere."

"He says the only cure is horseradish and anything with horseradish in it. But we can't just get everyone to carry a jar of wasabi and a spoon in their pocket for the rest of their lives, we need a cure that's inconspicuous," Ike said.

"How inconspicuous," R asked.

"Why can't we just shut it down," Jacqueline asked, "The whole facility. Purge the mushrooms from existence if we can with some sort of chemicals?"

R shook her head, "That won't do... a cure that destroys those mushrooms entirely would take a very capable mycologist; we don't have one and we don't have time to find one. As much as I hate saying it, we need our science officers, and Anwhistle Aquatics provides valuable research in other areas. The kind that we can't afford to lose. No, we need a better plan. Something that will circumvent his motives. Preferably in secret so that he can't think to make some sort of countermeasure."

"Something that will save lives rather than take them," Ike said.

"Exactly."

In that moment, I looked over at R's desk and saw a small teacup. And I had at least one crazy idea.

"What if we make something that can immunize us?"

Everyone looked curiously at me so I continued. "Think about it, if... if we could make some kind of hybrid of something that isn't horseradish but give it the sting and properties of horseradish by mixing them together in a natural alternative, we could make an immunization with it... Something simple that anyone could have, like sugar cubes. You put at least one in your drink and you're immune. He'd never see it coming."

"That would be a great undertaking, but it would take a very capable team of scientists," R replied.

"We have other facilities," Ike said, "We could send one of them instructions and hope for the best."

R contemplated my offer. "It might work... but on the chance that it doesn't we should have a back-up plan. I agree with you, Beatrice, mixing the properties of horseradish into something else in a hybrid is not easy but it would be doubly effective at not rousing suspicion. What about fruit? Make a botanical hybrid between a fruit and a horseradish, learn to grow it and you could simply take a bite and be cured."