Maria pictured the little girl, her hair in a ponytail, dressed in a skirt and a really cute tank top. A really familiar tank top, come to think of it. 'I think she had the same shirt as me,' Maria said.
Michael frowned. 'Then maybe she is dangerous.'
For a moment, Maria gave him her meanest glare. Then she pounced on him. Really, she never could resist him.
'Two hundred thirty-two one hundred by fifteen millimeter petri dishes,' Liz said into the mini-tape recorder Dr. Sosa had given her. 'And, for the record, no scholarship is worth this.'
Liz hit play, listened to her last remark, and then erased it from the tape.
She put the newly counted carton full of petri dishes onto a shelf labeled PETRI DISHES. She had never been so bored in her life. Dr. Sosa had left for a meeting about an hour before, leaving Liz to take inventory of everything in the lab. He'd said he wanted to make sure he'd accounted for every piece of equipment in the move. But Liz thought he really wanted to drive her crazy. Maybe he was trying to get her to quit.
Her stubborn nature arose at the thought. She wasn't going to quit, no matter what kinds of menial labor he gave her. This job was an important stepping-stone to her future, and she would stick it out.
'I work in a famous cancer research lab,' she said out loud. That made her feel better. Maybe this was what lab assistants did… count and label and organize. She'd done a lot of actual research on her own, working on all sorts of alien-related chemistry. But Dr. Sosa didn't know that. He thought she was just a typical high school student, and that's how he was treating her. She would simply have to prove him wrong.
Liz picked up the box cutter and opened another carton of petri dishes… this time the thirty-five by ten millimeter ones. She ran her finger slowly over a stack of dishes, counting. She lost count by the time she got to ten.
I need a break, she decided. She made her way out of the supply closet where she'd been working, and wandered back into the main lab. It was deserted. Dr. Sosa didn't seem to have any research assistants except her. Liz didn't know what to make of it… a world-famous doctor, a brand-new lab, groundbreaking research. There should be about thirty people working round the clock on this project. But she'd met no one other than Dr. Sosa.
Liz stretched her arms in the air, trying to ease the stiffness from squatting all day, counting things. She glanced around the lab, reveling in the neat chrome countertops, the high-powered microscopes, and the centrifuges. She loved laboratories, the way everything was in order, everything was under control. This was her natural environment, she was sure of it. All her life, she'd felt most comfortable in a lab.
Until Max. With Max nothing was under control… least of all her own feelings. She simply melted whenever he was near her. As if he were my destiny, she thought. Too bad I wasn't his.
Liz shook off the bitterness. Tess was Max's destiny. Liz had known that for more than a year now. Max hadn't asked for it. It wasn't his fault Tess had turned out bad. It wasn't even his fault that he'd slept with Tess. Well, not entirely. After all, on their home planet she was his wife.
None of that helped. The pain was still there. Liz still felt betrayed by Max. How could he have made love to anyone other than her?
I've got to focus on something else, she thought. I'm here at Meta-chem, and there's only me. No aliens. Nothing to worry about.
Her gaze fell on Dr. Sosa's work station. He'd put everything away before leaving Liz alone, but she'd seen where the most recent samples were kept. Maybe she could take a peek at some of the mutated cells he was working with. It wouldn't do any harm… these were just basic samples. The important materials were kept under lock in a small chamber at the back of the room.
Liz pulled open a long, flat drawer at Dr. Sosa's workstation. Inside were several small boxes of slides. One box was labeled PATIENT X and dated yesterday. Liz opened the box and removed one of the slides inside.
'Okay, Patient X, let's see your cancer cells,' she whispered, putting the slide under the microscope. She leaned in, brought the slide into focus, and saw large, five-sided cells. Green cells.
Liz's mind flew back to that day two years earlier when she'd first learned the truth about Max's alien nature. She'd swiped some cells from his cheek and looked at them under the microscope in the high school lab. His cells hadn't looked like hers. They hadn't looked human. They were large, and shaped like little pentagons. They were green.
They were the same as these cells.
Liz's head spun. These cells, here in Dr. Sosa's lab. These cells weren't human.
Did Meta-chem know about the aliens?
4
Kyle sloshed the mop around in the pail of semi-sudsy water. With a yawn, he lifted the mop out and splashed it down onto the already-spotless floor of a Meta-chem hallway. He'd mopped about seven identical halls since he'd started his shift. His basic plan was to work his way down to the employee kitchen, where he could finish his night by raiding the fridge.
'Working for the man,' he sang in a falsetto voice. 'Yes, I am wor-kmin!'
'Kyle!' a voice broke into his wail. Kyle, mortified, spun toward the doorway behind him. He was shocked to see Liz standing there. 'What the hell?' he cried. 'It's midnight! I thought 1 was alone.'
'I need your help,' Liz said. 'And I already know you can't sing.'
'Okay then,' Kyle replied. 'What's up?'
Liz glanced around suspiciously. 'Do you think there are security cameras?' she asked.
Kyle sighed and stuck the mop back into its bucket. 'So it's that kind of problem, huh?'
'What do you mean?' Liz asked.
'I mean it's a drop-everything-and-risk-getting-arrested-to-save-the-aliens kind of problem,' Kyle explained.
Liz nodded, biting her lower lip. 'Sorry,' she murmured.
'No problemo,' Kyle assured her. 'Let's go talk in the kitchen. If there are cameras, it will just look like we're stealing food.' He led the way down the hall. 'Why are you here so late, anyway?'
'Because I needed to see you,' Liz said. 'I told the security guard that I'd forgotten something in the lab, so I don't have much time. I'm sure eventually he'll come check up on me if I'm gone too long.'
Kyle pushed open the door to the employee kitchen. He gestured for Liz to take a seat at the small Formica table, then he opened the refrigerator and peered inside. 'So what is it?' he asked.
'I was snooping around in Dr. Sosa's lab.'
Kyle rolled his eyes and reached for an apple someone had left in the fridge. 'Don't you run into enough trouble without going around looking for it?'
'I didn't think it would cause trouble,' Liz protested. 'He has me doing such boring stuff! I just wanted to get a look at what he's actually working on. You know, real scientific research material, not just stacks of inventory.'
'Whatever,' Kyle said. 'What did you find?'
'Alien cells,' Liz whispered. 'In his cancer cell slides.'
'No way,' Kyle whispered back. 'Are you sure?'
'I've seen way too many alien cells in my life,' Liz pointed out. 'I know what they look like.'
'Fair enough. But what are they doing here? Do you think Meta-chem knows about our aliens?'
Liz shrugged. 'They were labeled 'Patient X.' I thought maybe Dr. Sosa had stumbled across a cancer patient who'd turned out to be an alien.'
Kyle thought about it. The aliens they knew of were the so-called Royal Four; Nasedo, who was dead; and the Skins, who were also dead. Was there another one? 'I don't think I can take another new alien,' he murmured. 'What if it turns out to be like Tess?'
Liz fixed him with a hard stare. 'You mean an evil, murdering bitch?'
Kyle looked down at the table. 'I wish I could think of her that way,' he said. 'But it's not that simple.'
'She killed Alex. It is that simple,' Liz said.
