"After three years, you decide to open an investigation?", Natalia asked him suspiciously. "There were few complications that prevented this from happening sooner", Mr. Yahontov justified. Natalia steadied her hair getting restless. Mr. Yahontov studied Natalia just like how he studies his suspects, Yes! For him, Ms. Jennings was a suspect. "Ms. Jennings, I wish to know everything that happened in the due course of your time spent there", he said.
"Where?" Natalia asked boldly, after recovering from the initial shock. "The picture of the place I showed you a few hours back. Do you know where that place is?" he questioned her. "I wasn't lying before. I really do not recall any such place", she answered back. Natalia was smart, she immediately understood the things this inquiry was going to lead her to. She has been anticipating this moment for three years now. She knew that she would be put into this crisis someday.
"Okay, Ms. Jennings say I trust you. Will you please shed some light into the matter then?", He asked her. "I will start with the details I am aware of and you could give me your part of the story wherever needed okay? We shall work on this together. How does that work with you?", He asked her and Natalia nodded slowly agreeing to him.
"I'm aware that you and your nine other colleagues", Mr. Yahontov started reading from the file again. "Were selected for a secret government project", he said and raised his head up to have a look at Natalia, who nodded agreeing to him. In her mind were other concerns now. She was not aware of how much to reveal and how much not to. No one instructed her about this certain situation that she has been put into. And where were the others? did she keep wondering. "Ms. Jennings, would you describe the moment when you all first met?", He asked her. Natalia looked up at him and nodded slowly.
*Five years back*
Natalia had finished her doctrine just months back, and she was already working on a fresh new research project. She has been working that whole day in her lab when she suddenly received a call from her mentor. With a huge grin on her face, she answers it. She got informed by her mentor that he had suggested her name for a top-secret project and that this project would be a very big one. Natalia showed mixed feelings towards the new information she had just received. No matter how big a project she had got (for what she wasn't ready, she believed) she couldn't just give up the one she was currently working upon. It was not possible, she thought.
She did not know of how to reveal her thoughts to her mentor, whom she regarded with huge respect. "I do not think I'm suitable for this Professor. I am still not that experienced and I still do not have the possible skills required for this project", she had told him. But her mentor was determined on Natalia taking up that project and so she finally agreed after a lot of persuasion from his side.
The next day she had to meet a certain person, for further discussion and details, and so Natalia left her home filled with more doubts and uneasiness in what she was about to take. However, she became more clear as she reached there.
Mr. Dashkov an old man, who was the head of the project she was going to take, met her at the entrance itself "You are Natalia Jennings I suppose?" he had asked her extending his hand out, Natalia took his hand with a smile. They both then walked towards the room where the meeting was to be held. Around the table were ten seats, nine of them already occupied. Mr. Dashkov gestured Natalia to take her seat. Natalia took her seat silently and then quickly took a glance at the people around her. Most of them were older than herself. People in their thirties or forties, some maybe even in their fifties. Natalia immediately felt out of place, as she was the only young person present in that room, (except for two other people). She started feeling a nervousness, that she had experienced never before.
Mr. Dashkov walked in front of the semicircular table and then switched on the projector to start with his presentation. "Scientists all around the world have been always intrigued by the secrets that our world has contained" he started. "The secrets of the universe, the secrets of life. These questions have always proved as a drive to keep pushing ourselves ahead. To challenge our own limits. Who could have thought of the technological and medical advancement that we have achieved today years back? Questions", he stopped for emphasis. "Is what we ask. And answers are what we run behind", Natalia sat upright on her chair. Something in his words caught her special attention.
"If I ask you today how life was formed. What would you tell me?", He asked his audience. "Probably the same theories we having been making since the beginning. The 'primordial soup' formation and blah blah", he said. Natalia couldn't hide her smile now. "The truth is that we haven't found the answer yet", he said and looked up at the ten bright faces in front of him expectantly. "How did life really form? We do not know the answer to it yet? But that's not the question I am going to ask you now. The question is can we form life?", He had asked his audience, with a huge smile.
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YOU ARE READING
The Vanished
Mystery / Thriller"Three vanished and one suicide on the same night, it cannot be a coincidence"- Mr. Yahontov. As Natalia a brilliant young scientist gets selected for a secretive project, she takes on the opportunity with big dreams and aspirations. Little does she...
