Chapter 5
Small curls of dark smoke snaked underneath the false stonewall in the back corner bedroom on the second floor. Within seconds more smoke came from underneath. A section of the wall flung open as people charged up the stairs and out of the room. The sound of a fire extinguisher hissed from below in several pulses before the smoke stopped and dispersed.
Lucrecia coughed waving at the air. "What on earth happened?"
Professor Gast shook his head unsure what caused the small fire below.
"I would say that the bumpkins that did the wiring don't know how to even plug in a lamp let alone set up a proper outlet." Dr. Hojo followed by Vincent emerged from the basement coughed and hacking. "Though that would have not been a problem if Dr. Honestas didn't try to plug that burner..."
"I mean no offense, Dr. Hojo, but you were the one who told me to plug it in there..."
Hojo waved his hand. "Dr.Honestas simply heard me wrong. But she insisted in crawling underneath the table..."
Lucrecia fought from snapping back at Dr. Hojo. 'He just wanted to have a look at my ass again, that impious pig.' She knew it would do her little good to fight back. Lucrecia just hoped it was not the beginning of things to come.
Gast reached into his vest pocket pocket and produced a pocket watch. "Well, its almost noon now, lets take a break and let the lab clear out before we begin again."
Everyone agreed to return in an hour. Gast pulled Lucrecia to the side.
"I was hoping you can finish running those tests for me."
"Of course, Professor. Would you also like me to prepare some glass slides?"
Gast smiled and clapped her shoulder. "Of course." He then turned and went toward the office room on the left wing of the mansion where Hojo stood waiting. The two men entered and closed the door. 'I wonder what they are up?' Curious, she quickly, but quietly approached the close door and leaned in to listen.
"I have the papers here for use to start using Mako."
"Why do we need to use Mako?"
There was a pause and the sound of someone pacing. "I thought your work has shown use enough for us to start exposing the cells to the radiation."
"So you wanting to make a trip to the reactor then?"
"Mmmyes, Gast. Besides, I need to gather some specimens that we can test on."
"Then, lets plan for tomorrow to do that then."
"What about your assistant, Professor? I can scarcely have confidence she could handle such a long, treacherous hike."
"Dr. Honestas has gone on many dangerous trips with me, I see no reason she should not come."
There was a pause and Lucrecia could not gather why they stopped talking.
"I feel she would be a hindrance, let us proceed without her, especially since that Turk is here..."
Lucrecia pulled away from the door and turned only to run directly in Vincent. Her hand flew up to her mouth to keep from yelping aloud.
"Mr. Valentine! What do you think you are doing?" She inquired as she glanced back at Gast's door. She tried to move away, but the Turk stood in the way. She clenched her jaw.
"I could ask the same, Dr. Honestas." They studied each other in silence. Lucrecia was annoyed that he would be so cocky to spy on her while she was eavesdropping. Suddenly she realized how foolish her anger was and gave a nervous laugh.
"I was getting..uh,.." She gestured at the door and then looked back at him. "Never mind it. You probably already know anyways." Her shoulders dropped in defeat.
Lucrecia walked away from Gast's office and back to toward her room.
'Not that I can blame you for that, Doctor. Hojo is up to something…' Vincent lingered for a moment before following quietly behind the young scientist.
Taking a seat infront of her computer Lucrecia started up a program. The analysis began giving a finishing time between forty to sixty minutes. Seeing that there was little else she could do during that time, she reached into the top drawer of her desk and pulled out a small, worn pack of cards. She sat back and casually shuffled them. Though it only seemed the more she shuffled them, the more aggravated she got.
She glanced up to see Vincent standing outside, his back to her. She was unsure whether he was there out of suspicion or boredom.
"Mr. Valentine?"
"Doctor?" He responded over his shoulder.
Lucrecia continued to shuffle the cards. "Do you play?"
Vincent turned around. "Play what?"
She held up her cards. "Poker of course. Unless you can't play?" She challenged. Vincent tucked his hands in to his pant pockets. He glanced to the left and then to the right of the hallway before returning his attention back at her.
Lucrecia rubbed at her lips looking at her hand and then looked up at the Turk. 'Damn, he's good.' She pondered. This was the third game in which he had won the first two. Lucrecia was not about to lose to him a third time. However, her hand was not strong. She looked up and tried to see anything that might indicate what was in his hand. For a brief moment, his left eyebrow twitched. She recalled seeing that before in the first game where she almost won.
Vincent glanced at his hand. He found that Lucrecia was a strong opponent then first thought. He almost lost the first round, but a minor habit gave her away. She tended to have a habit of biting her lip when she was nervous or in deep thought. Vincent waited t, but she never bit her lip, instead she upped her ante in an almost easy eloquence. If he admired her in anything, it was she knew her way around a game of poker.
Lucrecia's small computer beeped, announcing the analysis had completed and was ready for review. Vincent met her and raised the ante. Lucrecia glanced at her cards and then at him. Being self-assured about the eyebrow, she raised the ante once more. Vincent finally folded, laying his cards out. She followed and showed her hand with a certain amount of confidence. Lucrecia won the game by default while Vincent had the strong hand.
She smiled. "I'm impressed, not too bad for a corporate thug." Lucrecia gathered up the gil and placed it away into her pocket. " We should play again sometime, Mr. Valentine." She muttered as she sat down at the desk.
'"You can count on it, Doctor." 'I intend to win my money back.' Vincent gathered the cards together and handed them to her.
Professor Gast and Dr. Hojo sat across from Lucrecia and Vincent in the pub. The two men reminisced about the past adventures and research projects over there ale. It almost seemed as though they were parading their conquests and treasures they seized. Lucrecia sat quietly while she half-listened to the men in their conversation. Their thoughts suddenly turned to Mako radiation. Gast glanced over at Lucrecia.
"Why don't you tell Dr. Hojo about some stuff you came across recently?"
Lucrecia blinked, unsure where to begin. "Well, I found this curious relationship between radiation and cancer..."
"I have found something similar myself. Even though it may seem that the radiation, in small amounts, may provide some benefits, they don't seem to last long..." He continued to ramble on about his exploits in Mako energy, leaving Lucrecia cut off in mid-sentence. She then clenched her jaw shut in annoyance.
"But what about those who didn't die?" She finally managed to ask, only after cutting off Hojo. He glared at her and leaned in closer.
"What do you mean? Those who lived might as well be dead. But I suppose I can't hold your ignorance against you..." Hojo launched into a new ramble about the inadequacy of the university system in producing component future scientists.
Lucrecia wanted to try again, but her heart was no longer in it. She glanced over at Vincent briefly before looking back her drink. Despite not having eaten all day, she lacked an appetite for the meal she ordered.
Vincent sat back and watched the conversation in silence. He found it interesting the relationship between the professor, director and the assistant. Vincent did not know Dr. Honestas enough to fairly judge her capabilities, but he could assume that she was component enough to be this far and working with such prominent people. However finding her eavesdropping on a private conversation did leave a certain impression of the divisions between her and the two other scientists.
He watched Lucrecia as she stared at her drink. He saw her lips twitch as though she was planning her next move. It seemed she was not quite done taking her part in the conversation.
The woman looked up and kept her attention on Gast and completely ignored Dr. Hojo.
"Professor, I hoping that might be able to go see Jenova up at the reactor tomorrow. I would like to take some tests and see how well the body is dealing with the radiation."
Gast blinked while Hojo looked at her and then at the Professor. Vincent caught a brief expression of smugness. Gast studied her for a moment before speaking.
"What are your thoughts, Dr. Hojo?"
The man clenched his jaw, obviously annoyed. But quickly the annoyance slipped away and was replaced a calmer presence. "Well if Dr. Honestas is so inclined, she can march up the mountain herself."
Lucrecia remained unmoved. 'Does he know that I spied on them for that information?' She wondered.
"I think Dr. Hojo could use another drink." Lucrecia rebutted, avoiding the subject. The conversation dropped shortly after that.
Staring at her screen, Lucrecia watched the schematics of the chemical reactions and formulas. Readjusting her reading glasses, she reached back and released her hair from the red clip. Today, as much as any other day, she felt like she was beating her head against a brick wall.
Reaching over her small desk, she pulled out a small piece of white paper. One it was the results of the tests run on her mother. Lucrecia had been aware for a while that her sole parent was dying, one cell at a time. It started out first with fainting and lost of memory and it was not until she had tests run to find out what was causing the degeneration of her mother's general condition. Her mother was dying from cancer and nothing could be done to save her.
It was that very news that drove her ambition for private study. During her time with the study of Mako radiation, Lucrecia found something bizarre. Lucrecia had begun her studies in Nibelheim, especially those who did the construction and mining work for the Mako reactor. While many ended up dying for the radiation, it seemed that having constant exposure to small amounts did not cause one to die, but to cure them.
Once particular case always haunted her. It was a man in his twenties, with a wife and a child. He complained of terrible headaches followed by the fading of his vision. It was not after the reactor did these things begin to either stop or even disappear. After reviewing his records, is when Lucrecia found what he had suffered from was a malignant brain tumor and after the exposure to the radiation had caused the tumor not only to shrink, but also to disappear altogether.
Lucrecia stared the screen, pulling up file after file with the various reports of people who shared their information for further study. Many were hesitant when she mentions anything of Shin-ra, but there were a few who felt her work was honest and offer whatever information she requested.
'When I get that money I will perform fuller research and then will I develop something that is of use.' Lucrecia pondered while looking over several other reports.
Gast promised her that if she participated on the Jenova project, she would be guarantee that money. However, now that Dr. Hojo was involved and she knew he had little love for her and her work, she doubt she would even gain a nod as an assistant.
Lucrecia saw one piece of paper sitting on the left of her laptop and growled. Crumpling it up, she tossed it into the trashcan.
"That was quite the conversation, Dr. Honestas."
She sat in silence as Vincent stood in her doorway. Lucrecia was far from being in the mood to talk to anyone.
"Well, you learn to play a few dirty tricks to get to where you need to go, especially being one of the few leading female scientists working for Shin-ra." She muttered bitterly. "And no, I was not compromising information, just a simple eavesdropping..."
Vincent crossed his arms and leaned on the threshold of the doorway. Lucrecia pursed her lips finding his lack of words and even facial expressions only aggravated her. For some reason, she felt she had to defend herself to the Turk.
Lucrecia stood up. " I have a degree at my apartment that states I graduated with top honors in biology and Mako Radiology. I was first in my class, Mr. Valentine. But Professor Gast sees me only that and that I am just a student. I doubt he will ever see me as a colleague. Don't get me wrong, I like working with the Professor, he is a good man, But Dr. Hojo..." She rolled her eyes. "He's a spiteful, conceited pig of a man. If it were his way, I would be warming his bed instead of participating in this project."
She stopped realizing her aimless rambling to a complete stranger. She looked at Vincent and sighed.
"Mr. Valentine, I am so sorry... that was so unprofessional of me to have said all of that in front of you."
He uncrossed his arms and placed his hands in his pockets. "What do you have to be sorry for?"
Lucrecia fell silent, still feeling embarrassed. She turned back to her computer where her research and prepared glass slides sat waiting.
The Turk glanced at his watch and shrugged. "So you know, I agree with conceited part..." Vincent turned around left the room. Lucrecia listened for the footfalls, but all she could hear was the occasional creak of a floorboard. She rubbed her face with her hand. Even though they had only been there for a better part of the week, it seemed Mr. Valentine knew more of what was going on there then she did. Shin-ra had it's reasoning for sending that particular man to the mansion, but for what, Lucrecia had no clue beyond the typical explanations.
Looking up at the door, she sighed. 'Is Shin-ra that paranoid about their details of Mako or is it something else? Better yet, someone else? Is it Hojo by chance?' She was aware of previous projects that had fallen to the wayside due to the scientist's involvement. Lucrecia heaved a sigh, hoping that Professor Gast could keep hold of his goal and keep Hojo's sticky little fingers off of it.