Dr. Winslow leaned back in his chair, nodding thoughtfully. “You’re suggesting that if we understand the triggering mechanism… perhaps the same trick could be pulled with our own genome.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Juan said. “But we won’t know unless we continue my research. Ideally, I’d like to move on to some laboratory trials. I need to test some of these sequences to understand what they do.”

The director chuckled. “Well, this… this changes things. Juan, I like the direction you’re going with this. We’ll arrange for those trials. Make sure you document on the server all that you’ve done, especially that algorithm you talked about, and I’ll talk to the other research leads and see if we can get you some more help on this.”

Juan felt as if a load had been taken off his shoulders. “Sir, I’ll get right on it. I’ll submit my plans to the Ethics Compliance Review Board—”

Winslow help up a hand and smiled warmly. “No need for the ECRB. Send your plan directly to me. I’ll look it over and fast-track it through the hoops for you. I have a good feeling about this, Juan. A very good feeling.”

He stood, walked to the door, and opened it. Then in a lowered voice he said, “But Juan—please keep everything to yourself for now. Don’t share the details of any of your work with anyone. You have a real opportunity for advancement here at AgriMed. More than that, you have an opportunity for true greatness in our field. We can’t let talk of this type of thing leak out before we’re ready, you understand?”

“Understood, sir.”

They stepped out of the office, and Winslow addressed his admin. “Sheila, can you call Jenkins, Ratheblume, and Marty Cohen and get them over here? I need a face-to-face with all three, ASAP.” Turning to Juan, Winslow shook his hand and asked, “You’re all set with transportation to the airport and such?”

“Yes, sir. It’s all taken care of. Regarding the genetic—”

“Uh, uh, uh.” Winslow tutted at Juan and shook his head. “Let’s not talk about that anymore for now. You get me the details we talked about, especially your algorithm and any other related research notes on what you’ve learned, and I’ll take care of the rest. You’ll hear from me tomorrow.”

With a friendly pat on Juan’s shoulder, Winslow turned back into his office and shut the door.

Juan stared at the closed door and silently wished he could be a fly on the wall when the director met with the advanced research leads.

###

“Hey, Nate, it’s John Hendrickson over in the evidence lab. I just got done processing the evidence pouches you brought over from Nevada. I think you need to come over here. Some of this is… well, it just doesn’t make much sense.”