Agent Rogue

Chapter 7

            Then I was given an opportunity to explore and did so without a second thought of the consequences I risked putting myself through.

            Marcus was out. It was parent's evening at school and, despite his lack of communication with me personally, he made a point to go. I considered offering to accompany him to get out of the house for an extra hour or two – in which Marcus was forced to be nice to me – but decided against it when he came booming up the stairs like a storm-cloud, finding me in the kitchen. I was not keen on facing his criticisms in the car, and instead told him I had a biology project to finish. He hated leaving me in the house alone, labelling my curiosity as 'a deadly curse' but knew how devoted I was to my school work, even at twelve years old. Thanks to Marcus, I had no friends to call on to distract me from it. He believed me when I told him I needed time to work on the project, and told me to behave when he snatched his keys from the wall and left for the school.

            I sat down at the kitchen table, flicking through a textbook to find some form of entertainment to distract me from Marcus.

            Then I was beckoned.

            As I glanced at the door leading downstairs, I was struck with the sudden realisation that I was alone in the house. Father was on his way to the school, the Doctor had been and gone for the day, and the beautiful young woman I had seen occasionally rarely paid a visit. Even then, she preferred turning up in the dead of night when the house believed me to be sleeping.

            I was alone. And more powerful than I ever had been since the day I was born.

            He had been gone for ten minutes by the time curiosity consumed me and I went down the stairs. I calculated that, with the length of the journey there and back and the minimum amount of time elected with my teacher, I would have, at the very least, twenty minutes to explore the lab. I made the decision to return upstairs ten minutes early to make sure Marcus would not find me rummaging through his work, and to erase all ounces of guilt from my face as he arrived.

            Sterile white cut through the room as all traces of metal shimmered under the dim ceiling light.  Everything I could see through the shadows was clean, the air stinking of bleach and acid as my shoes stepped on the white-tiled with a squeak that made me shiver.

            Marcus couldn't hear me,I reminded myself. Marcus was away.

            The only strike of colour caught my eye first. Test tubes had been lined in holders on the left side of the room – dozens of them. I narrowed my eyes to read the labels on the blue, purple, red and orange liquids varying in shades and quantities: adrenaline, noradrenaline, testosterone, thyroxine – all hormones.

            I didn't dare touch them.

            There were others I did not recognise, but I needed to be quick. I memorised the names of a few and made a mental note to check my biology textbook when I had a spare moment alone.

            I opened the glass cupboard above the test tubes to find it filled to the brim with files. I scanned a few: genetic modification, single-cell cloning, virus and bacteria, the immune system... subjects. That was the biggest folder. Subjects.

            I pulled out the folder. Within it, were smaller paper folders each labelled with a number from one to twenty-four. What struck me as odd, however, was the one sticking out at the back. It was newer than most of them, the edges not crinkled or worn, but flattened and shining. I lifted the others to read the label: subject zero.

            A groan made me swiftly put them back. I spun around, expecting Marcus or the Doctor, or anyone to scold me for snooping but found no-one.