att(pirated)

You know, even though I've lived through three lives, I don't think I've ever been in a laboratory before.

I mean, sure, I've been in what various madmen have called their labs. But calling Schugel's shed of half-baked experiments a "laboratory" would be a bit of a misnomer. The sheer mess was an affront to good health and safety practices, which lined up with his general attitude to the subject. And given how a good percentage of the Empire's magical research and development division was made up of his students, the habit traveled far and wide.

But the facility I was currently being dragged through put my previous lives to shame. Clean white tiles lined the walls and floors of every corridor, each one polished to almost a mirror shine. The air was crisp and well ventilated, with a slight breeze that indicated active circulation through each corridor. That part was probably overkill, if you asked me, as the various labs that lined each side of the corridor were entirely self-contained environments. But given that the company behind all of this had decided that the best location for their premier European labs would be a damn tower in the middle of Paris, money was probably the least of their concerns. That, or their acquisitions department had one hell of a budget ceiling and a "use it or lose it" mentality when it came to funding.

Umbrella Pharmaceuticals. Well at least I could put a name to the logo on that drugged bottle of water.

"On this floor, we have our research labs. A lot of our work here isn't just based around making drugs for use over the counter, but also to try and figure out how various bugs and viruses will evolve, and to stay one step ahead of the curve." The man giving the tour, Doctor Oskar Gräfe, explained as we passed the various clean rooms. The doctor claimed to be an old friend of my handler, Ludmila. And when the two of us had arrived in Paris for a day out, we just so happened to run into him at the train station.

What an incredible coincidence. One which had instantly set off my alarm bells.

You could smell the bullshit from a mile away. Hell, you could probably have picked up on it from the moment Ludmila told me that I'd been given a reward for bringing Jonah in unharmed. There were dozens of other ways you could reward a child, ranging from sweets to play time, and even short trips to local attractions. And given how long it'd taken to get to the French capital, it certainly wasn't local. Putting all of that together and day out in Paris was, to put it simply, utter overkill for what I'd done. But if the aim had been to carefully shape my future career prospects through a memorable day out, then having us run into an old friend who just happened to work at a major pharmaceutical company was a bit on the nose.

"The work we do here involves taking an existing microorganism, and deliberately introducing mutations into it. We do that so that we can see how the organism might evolve out in the real world, and then we can create medicine that's going to be better at countering it." Gräfe said with a smile, boiling down what happened within the building to its simplest form as we passed a series of clean room labs. Each of the rooms on this floor was fairly standardized, consisting of a roughly L-shaped main area, with a small changing room that acted as an airlock between the individual room and the rest of the building.

"That sounds very complicated. How do you do that?" I asked with feigned curiosity. While I was certainly enjoying the change of scenery from the Henry Estate, and part of me was impressed by the Umbrella facility, I didn't care too much about what happened here. The only thing I cared about today was spending some time in the city, walking around and enjoying the sights and sounds.

"Well, the easiest way to do that is to find a similar organism with the traits we want, isolate the part of that organism which is responsible for the trait we want, and then implant that part into the microorganism that we're actually researching. That way, the organism that we're researching gains a function that we're looking for, hence the name, 'gain-of-function' research." The doctor explained as we passed a series of clean rooms. Each of the rooms on this floor was fairly standardized, consisting of a roughly L-shaped main area, with a small changing room that acted as an airlock between the individual room and the rest of the building. Each room could be viewed from the corridor through a large glass window, which probably helped the people in each lab from feeling claustrophobic.

I nodded, satisfied with the doctor's response, before considering my next question for a few seconds. Eventually, I gestured to the various labs we were passing. "There's a lot of labs up here, is this floor dedicated to this 'gain-of-function' research, or do you do other things up here?"

"Well, yes and no." Gräfe shook his head, before continuing. "This whole floor, and the one above, are dedicated to virological research. But a lot of that work is 'gain-of-function' research. Most of that research is focused on one of two areas. The first is looking at pathogens that we already deal with, but could evolve to gain new functions or be harder to defeat with modern medicine. The second area is for pathogens that exist in the animal kingdom, but could make the jump to humanity if they mutate in a particular way."

"That's a lot of work to handle, it must cost a lot, no?" Ludmila asked, her tone a bit stronger than before. If I had to guess, a lot of the science stuff was going over her head, while finances could be something easier for her to quantify.

And from the looks of it, Gräfe was just as happy to move onto the topic. "Oh, absolutely. But a lot of our work here is financed by government grants. It's not immediately valuable, and the best thing we can do is produce work that will never be touched again. But if the AIDS epidemic has taught governments anything, it's that it's better to have a cure and not need it, than to need a cure and not have it."

"You sound very happy about that." I pointed out, and the doctor nodded at the comment.

"We're very proud of our work here, we've been a major contributor to protecting Europe from future pandemics. And our work is recognised by the fact that we're the first choice of the French and West German governments for this kind of research." Gräfe smiled as he led the small tour towards one of the labs on the outer areas of the building, as evidenced by the fact that the labs had windows rather than being fully enclosed and cut off from the outside world. In contrast to the deeper-set clean rooms, these labs were furnished with enclosed workstations, with integrated gloves so that the people working at the station could interact with whatever was inside.

But the expensive equipment wasn't what interested me the most. The fact that the people working in the room weren't buried under multiple layers of gowns and coveralls meant that I could clearly see them. One of the people in the room was some guy in his mid-fifties, but the one that caught my attention was the almost child-like figure sat in front of one of the workstations. If I had to guess, she was maybe around 10 or 12. She was tall enough to be older than me by a few years, but she was still too short to have experienced the growth spurt that comes along with puberty. She had blonde hair like me, but had let it grow long while I kept mine short. And her blue eyes were almost an exact match for mine, even if the color was off a bit. It was almost like looking into a mirror.

Ok, maybe one of those weird fairground mirrors that stretches your reflection. But still, the analogy stands.

I was so caught up in assessing my corporate counterpart, that I almost jumped when Doctor Gräfe rested his hand on my shoulder. He must have seen me notice the unknown girl, and gave me her name. "That, little Tanya, is Doctor Ashford. She's only a few years older than you, and she's already working with us."

"Really? I didn't know that umbrella did work experience placements in the lab." Ludmila asked with a mix of surprise and curiosity in her voice. At the very least I wasn't the only one who was surprised by the young girl.

"It's not work experience, Doctor Ashford is on loan to us from one of our sister branches. She's a prodigy, and actually runs her own project here. Give her a few years, and she'll probably have my job, I'm sure of it." The doctor remarked, though I got the feeling that he was probably a bit unhappy at the prospect. I'd encountered similar sentiments in my previous life, from older mages who were unhappy at a young girl stepping into their domain and showing them up. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to reminisce much more about that life, as the doctor had something that could be charitably called a bright idea. "Hey, would you two like to go in and have a chat with them?"

"Are you sure that's a good idea? I'm sure that they've got more pressing work to do, than talking with us" I turned to the doctor, and raised a skeptical eyebrow. Personally, I just wanted the visit to be finished as soon as possible, so that I could spend as much of the day as I could in the city. But if I could argue that the visit would be unproductive, then hopefully the doctor would see reason, and forget this stupid idea.

But the man simply smiled and shook his head. "It's fine. I've already checked with Doctor McGee, the other man in the room. They're not running anything too important today, so he's willing to handle the visit. As for doctor Ashford… well, I'm sure that she'd be interested in talking with someone closer to her age."

"Don't worry, misha. I'm sure that Herr Gräfe wouldn't have suggested this if we would get in the way of their valuable research." Ludmila assured me, placing a reassuring hand on my shoulder, and slowly leading me after Doctor Gräfe, and into the attached changing room. Her words did soothe me a little bit, but given the fact that we were about to enter a lab room which dealt with virological research, a healthy dose of concern was entirely warranted. Even if we were entering a room where all of said research was contained within especially designed air-tight work units.

Entering the changing room, the extra lab wear that we had to put on over our clothes was fairly minimal. As I'd noticed earlier, and Doctor Gräfe explained, as all the work in the room was contained within sealed workstations, the clothing standards in the room were heavily relaxed. According to the doctor, the lab we were about to enter was compliant with a class-9 lab, which meant that the air was unfiltered, and we only needed a lab coat and some gloves in order to enter. And aside from a comment from Ludmila about how the coat "suited me" the whole process was fairly unremarkable.

As soon as we were dressed in our lab coats, Doctor Gräfe opened the inner door, and stuck his head into the lab. "Hi, do the two of you mind if I step in with some guests?"

"Not at all, come on in!" The older man, Doctor McGee, replied almost instantly. Part of me suspected that he'd probably answered so quickly so that Doctor Ashford wouldn't have a chance to decline the visit, but that inquisitive part of my brain was quickly silenced as I followed Doctor Gräfe into the room.

"Thank you, Aaron. I was just showing a friend and her daughter around the labs, and I thought that the two of you wouldn't mind a visit." Gräfe said as he led our small group into the room, introducing us as we stepped in. "This is my friend, Ludmila Czerwińska, and her daughter, Tanya Wesker."

If McGee was surprised to see us, he certainly didn't appear so. Which was something that set off alarm bells in the back of my mind. Meeting Gräfe just after we arrived in the city had been one thing, but this was another thing entirely. My mind raced with uncomfortable possibilities as the man spoke. "It's a pleasure to meet the two of you. What do you think of the Paris branch?"

"It's very interesting, I'm sure it's useful for your valuable research." I said with a smile, and a hope that I'd be able to curry favor by being appreciative of just what the doctors were doing here.

And almost instantly I regretted speaking, as Alexia turned her icy gaze to me. I wouldn't say that her look was particularly threatening, but the fact that I'd felt more warmth from someone looking down a rifle's sights at me was never a good sign. And the dismissive statement that followed didn't help the situation. "Flattery is unnecessary. If you are here for a tour then observe, but do not interfere."

"Of course. I'm sure that you have important work to do." I assured the cold girl, who I quite easily surmised wanted nothing to do with me. That was perfectly fine, as far as I was personally concerned, but I introduced myself regardless. If nothing else, it let me gauge her reaction. "I'm Tanya, by the way."

But the other girl had gone back to her work, only showing her back to be as she replied with a single word. "Noted."

"Don't worry about her. Doctor Ashford is a driven researcher, she just gets a bit preoccupied by her work." McGee quickly took over, frantically moving to get the visit back on track, rather than focusing on the young doctor's hostile stance. "So, I'm sure that Oskar has already given you a rundown on what we do around here. So, is there anything you'd like to ask me?"

"What do you do here? Oskar said that the labs handle all sorts of research, but we'd like to know what you're doing." Ludmila asked, leading the conversation. That was something I was perfectly willing to let her do, as my brief interaction with Alexia left me none too interested in trying to continue the conversation. I'd never liked it when people acted superior to me, and the fact that it was coming from some stuck-up brat in a lab coat didn't make it any easier to swallow.

"For us specifically, we're looking into a dormant virus that was recently found in queen ants. Given how there are trillions of ants in the world, and this virus can be found in most species of ant, the French government asked us to research what might happen if the virus reactivated."

"That sounds like a very complex job." Ludmila idly commented, only for an annoyingly uptight giggle to waft over from the other side of the room.

"Yes. And it is far beyond the comprehension of most." Alexia spoke up from her work station. Even though she was still acting aloof, the simple fact that she was willing to speak up in order to point out how complex her project was proved that she was proud of her work. That, or she was trying to emphasize its complexity in order to prove that she was my intellectual superior.

That… that annoyed me. If she wanted to sit there and get on with her work, that was fine by me. But she didn't just get to fire off barbs at either me, or my handler, without some level of pushback. Thankfully some files on the project had been left out, which I quickly started to scan through for some flaw that I could rub the young doctor's face in. And even though burying my head in boring biology books and scientific magazines had already started to get old, it gave me access to concepts that I otherwise would have never encountered unless I undertook a scientific course at university. A prospect that was getting a lot more likely than I really cared to think about. So it didn't take too long for me to figure out what the jumbled mess of words and numbers meant.

The report was on the results of a recent test. They'd managed to reactivate the virus, and had injected it into a rat embryo to observe the results on a large cluster of stem cells. The document contained a lot of data, from multiplication rates to the recorded temperature of the sample at various stages. While a lot of the background science went over my head, especially the names of certain proteins and their listed effects, I made use of one of the shortcuts I'd learned for simplifying the subject. I translated biology into chemical reactions, and chemistry into mathematical equations. Once you boiled everything down into math, it was easy to break down complex data into a string of equations. And that tactic proved it's worth here, as I worked through the data while Ludmila and the two other doctors chatted.

Looking through the data set gave me a few ideas about what could be going on with their ant virus, but my lack of experience with the subject meant that I had no idea what was going on. So I instead focused on the one problem that I could easily identify, at least, when compared with what I knew about conventional cellular research. "I have a question. Why do you conduct your experiments at room temperature, rather than at colder temperatures?"

As expected, my question instantly got everyone's attention. The small group of adults, who I think had been discussing some personal bullshit, instantly turned their attention to me, even as doctor McGee spluttered out a response. "That's an interesting question. What makes you say that?"

"Well, from what I've read in biology reports, labs like this usually conduct their research with samples that have been cooled down. But your experiments use samples at room temperature, so I'm a bit curious about why you're doing that." I clarified my question, doing my best to sound as innocent and curious as possible. This way, it would be more difficult for the adults to realize that I was only bringing this up to bring Ashford's intellect into question. After all, she was the one responsible for this project.

And sure enough, I quickly got a response from the girl herself. She didn't sound angry, but there was a definite edge to her tone. She didn't like her work being questioned, and it showed. "If your only experience with lab work comes from things that you've read in a report, what makes you think you understand the intricacies of my work?"

"Well, looking at these figures, I think that your containment parameters could be the cause of the instability during your tests." I said in a calm and measured tone, one that I had to put a lot more effort into than I would have liked, if only to keep the smugness out of my voice at the fact that the 'Child Genius' had messed up. "I noticed the cellular mutation rates on your report. As the cells multiply, their multiplication rate grows exponentially, rather than linearly. But as that growth increases, the number of cells that die off also rapidly increases."

"Yes. That's been one of the main barriers to our research. In order to assess how the virus would affect developing cellular structures, we have to work at room temperatures. Whatever this virus is, it causes runaway cellular mutation, followed by a rapid cellular die off. Which is a good thing if the virus ever reactivated on its own, as any affected ant would probably just die. But from a research standpoint it's infuriating, as we're not able to keep mutated cells alive long enough for us to research what's actually going on." Doctor McGee explained, though I wasn't interested in what he was saying. Instead, my focus was entirely on the other child in the room.

The weird girl -and yes I understand the hypocrisy of me calling anyone else weird- studied me for a moment with a detached mix of skepticism and intrigue. It was an odd thing, she looked at me as if I was a peculiar bug, rather than someone who'd just found a flaw in her project. Still, she was at least interested enough to continue the conversation. "You presume much for someone on a mere tour."

"I presume nothing. It's all here, in the data you recorded." I pointed out, holding up the report to illustrate my point. If Alexia wanted to act superior, the least she could do was come up with a better excuse for it.

"What is your basis for your hypothesis? Tell me, what other insights do you have regarding viral adaptation?" Doctor Ashford asked, and I had to do my best not to snort. She knew damn well that the most training I had was what I'd picked up on my own. But given how she was apparently the one with a university qualification, and she'd missed this basic point, I decided to hammer it home.

"It's a well known fact that environmental changes can cause useful changes in cell reactions. A low temperature environment can slow down cell multiplication rates, so it's entirely possible that a lower starting temperature could result in a slower and more controllable multiplication rate." I suggested, putting on a firm tone to imply that I knew what I was talking about when in reality I was talking out of my ass. Still, oftentimes the best way to cover for a lack of knowledge is to say something with enough confidence that people believe that you know what you're talking about.

"Hmm. Reducing the temperature of the samples could be detrimental to them. It would be a delicate process, but it could yield interesting results." Alexia pondered, finally giving me the satisfaction that I'd managed to beat her. Unfortunately, that warm feeling was quickly dashed, as a smile spread across the young girl's face. "You have a very interesting perspective. Come, let's discuss this further. Perhaps your visit won't be a complete waste of my time after all."

Damn it! All I wanted to do was to prove that this girl wasn't as smart as she was cracked up to be. I don't want to be her damn lab assistant!

"Would it be possible to have that discussion over lunch?" Ludmila spoke up, interrupting the young doctor's plans, and freeing the remainder of my day from being sacrificed in some lab. "I'm sorry, but we have a bit of a schedule to keep, and it would be a bit of a waste if we spent all of our day out inside of a lab."

The smile on Alexia's face dropped almost instantly at the news. "How unfortunate, as I have some work that I need to finish. Still, I will take what you've said into consideration. And maybe if your suggestion proves correct, I'll have further need of you."

"If you'd like, we could arrange for us to meet up another time? It could be useful for you to bounce your ideas off someone, to get a different perspective." I suggested, both to try and placate the displeased doctor, and to try and open up a chance to have consistent days away from the Henry Estate, rather than it being a simple reward. I doubted that I'd be able to actually provide her with anything useful, but in all honesty I couldn't give a rat's ass about her project. I just wanted more time out in public.

"Perhaps. We'll see how well your… suggestion works when implemented. Doctor McGee, can you please load the samples for tomorrow's test into the fridge in lab seven?" Alexia replied, before turning to her labmate and giving him his marching orders. It was a bit surprising, for such a senior researcher to be handling the grunt work for the young girl. But given how quickly the older Doctor nodded and accepted his orders,

But if McGee had been looking forward to the chance to get away from the weird girl, it was dashed as Doctor Gräfe spoke up. "I can handle that for you. Ludmila is right, they do have a schedule to keep to, so I'd prefer it if we moved on. Unless there's anything else?"

"No, I don't think there is." I shook my head, before turning and saying goodbye to the Doctor Ashford. "Goodbye, Doctor Ashford. And good luck in your future experiments."

Alexia maintained a carefully neutral expression, though one that was noticeably softer than the one she'd given me earlier. After a few seconds, she simply nodded at me, before saying her own goodbye. "Goodbye, Tanya Wesker. I get the feeling that we'll see eachother again."

For the sake of my sanity, I sincerely hoped not.