Page 7 of A Lab Rat’s Guide to Fated Love

Three

The Scent of Sabotage

Nori

N ori left the conference room with Vir right as the sun began to set outside.

“There’s a café two blocks away from here,” Vir said, pausing a few feet into the corridor. “We can sit there to discuss and get some dinner, too, if that’s okay with you.”

“Works for me,” she said, pulling the strap of her bag over her shoulder.

As they wove through the corridors, a scattering of solar-powered streetlights flickered on in time with the dimming sun, illuminating the perfectly manicured campus lawns outside with a warm, tangerine glow.

The café was located right beside the psychology department’s library. Unlike the other cafeteria she had been frequenting for her meals all week, this didn’t have loud groups of college kids hollering about. She made a mental note to revisit the place later, provided the food was good .

Vir excused himself while she settled at a table by the window, feeling the crisp aroma of freshly roasted coffee beans sink its wisps into her lungs.

She loved the fragrance, but wasn’t much of a coffee drinker.

The caffeine somehow made her too relaxed instead of waking her up.

But after listening to Amit and Hina’s incessant yapping for the past hour, she could do with a cup. Or a bucket.

She glanced up from her laptop in time to watch Vir saunter towards her, with two mugs balanced on top of a brown plastic tray.

He seemed to be roughly a foot taller than her, with a plain face—clean shaven today—with bruise-like shadows kissing his gaunt features.

As he reached the table and took a seat opposite hers, nothing really stood out or was memorable at first. But despite how pale and exhausted he looked, there was something about him that made her stare grow curious.

Was it his eyes? So dark, they appeared almost black. There were no such things as black eyes in human genetics. His could be a deep brown, dark enough to look black unless you noticed the lighter tint in them up-close. And she wanted to look up-close. For science.

Vir’s hand dipped into his pocket and came out with a pair of round gold-rimmed glasses. As soon as he put them on and faced her again, the intense gaze from earlier was back.

She cleared her throat. “Mr. Varma, you… stare a lot. It reminds me of my cat. He stares at me like that when he wants something.” Mostly when he wanted to sit on her lap, but she wasn’t going to say that.

“Sorry.” Vir blinked and quickly looked away.

Nori shrugged, finding it strange that she didn’t mind.

“Call me Vir, please,” he said, before adding, “What are you thinking?” with his head tilted to the side. Like a curious cat.

She bit back a laugh.

Vir

N ori talked him through the procedure, trying not to use the more technical vocabulary he’d seen earlier in the documentation. It was most of what he’d already read, but she kept trying to dumb things down for him. At times, she’d pause to squint at the screen, her mouth pressed into a thin line.

“Please interrupt me if something isn’t clear,” she said after a while. “I can explain again. As many times as you need me to.”

“Okay.”

“Okay…” She bit her lip. “Should I start from the beginning?”

“No, please continue,” he said. “I already went through the paperwork earlier. It was mostly easy to understand, except for a few things that you’ve just explained.

So…” he trailed off at another purse of her lips while the rest of her features remained almost comically blank.

He tried getting a read of her emotions, but all he got this time were random spurts of irritation piercing through a blanket of amusement.

Was he making her uncomfortable? Maybe it was his staring. He peeled his eyes away again.

“Tanya mentioned you were a PhD scholar here.” Nori leaned back in her seat, crossing her arms against her chest.

“Parapsychology,” he answered before she could ask. “But I was a third-year medical resident before that.”

“A medical doctor?” She frowned. “Why the switch?”

“The uh… ambience didn’t agree with me,” he replied. “I took a break after my residency to be away from hospitals and… patients for a while. One thing led to another and here we are…” he trailed off again

“Okay then, let’s continue.” Nori nodded after a pause before she straightened in her chair and resumed going through the procedure with him, no longer bothering to dumb things down or skirt around the more technical stuff.

“I’ll ask the medical team to schedule some tests over the next few days.

After that, you’ll start a daily dose of p-biotics—the Phage based antibiotic-replacement that I mentioned earlier—so your body gets used to those first.

“Then we’ll do the chip insertion. Well, the team of medical doctors will do it while I watch from the viewing gallery.

I’m not a surgeon. And once you’re awake, I’ll administer the mites to carry my code through your system.

They’ll work together with the chip and stabilize your heart.

Once this works out, there won’t be a need or market for bionic hearts at all. Or for regular pacemakers. ”

“You mean if I make it out alive with your work, Dr. Hina and Amit’s work would essentially go down the drain,” he said. “That explains the hostility.”

“There are plenty of other fields they can pivot to with their expertise in bionic devices. I’m sure they’ll get over it soon.” Nori shrugged. “Anyway, what’s good here? I’m starving.”

They ordered two portions of pasta and soup that were marked as chef’s special on the menu.

As Nori blew on a spoonful of soup before putting it in her mouth, a stray curl sprung free from her bun to bob around with each subsequent movement of her head. She looked up from her food, and her eyes widened as they met his.

He’d been staring again.

Realizing, he hurried to duck his head over his plate.

Nori

A fter an anxious couple of weeks of prep work, tests, and more prep work, it was finally D-day. If Vir was nervous, he showed no signs of it as they wheeled him away for surgery.

Nori’s eyes met his briefly, and the corners of his mouth lifted in a reassuring smile. He was trying to reassure her .

Excuse me?

Nah . Some people were just weird like that, smiling randomly for no reason at all. It made her want to smile back, nonetheless.

She pressed her lips into a thin line and waited till Vir was fully out of sight before starting for the viewing gallery. A little way away, she turned at the sound of her name to find Fehim sprinting through the corridor.

“Nori!” he huffed, coming to a halt in front of her. “Did I miss him?”

“They just took him away, sorry.”

“Ah, I wanted to wish him luck.” He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “Well, you too, actually. Good luck.”

“Thanks. I’m on my way to the gallery. I’m sure they’ll allow you in, if I ask. ”

“I’ll walk with you.” He grinned. “You look pretty relaxed, though. I would’ve been a ball of nerves if I were in your place.” He did look nervous.

“I’m not.” Nori shrugged, glad she was born with the outward emotive range of a rock.

Nobody other than herself needed to know how she was mere seconds away from barfing out the single burnt piece of toast she’d managed to force down her food pipe earlier.

“There’s nothing to be nervous about. It’s a high-precision job but minimally invasive; won’t even take that long.

The real challenges lie in the next few months, depending on how his body responds to the mites. ”

She kept talking, more for her benefit than anyone else’s, explaining little details to the guy like they were actually important to him, while they took the lift up to the viewing gallery.

To his credit, Fehim listened attentively, bobbing his head the entire time.

It wasn’t long before they stepped out of the lift and reached the end of the second-floor corridor.

Nori paused in front of the door labelled, “Cleaning Supplies.”

“Wait.” She turned, confused. “It was supposed to be right here. Second floor, last door on the left.” The only other door there was the fire exit nearby.

“It’s my first time in this building.” Fehim rubbed the back of his neck. “But I’m pretty sure the viewing gallery is on the third floor.”

“An intern told me earlier it was on the second floor.” She was sure she hadn’t heard it wrong. Or had she? The contents of her stomach swayed dangerously near barf-zone. “Let’s go.” She pushed through the fire exit, scaling the steps two at a time, with Fehim right behind her.

The suspicion that Hina and Amit had something to do with this squirmed uncomfortably at the back of her mind.

They’d been relentless the past two weeks, jamming their disapproval down anybody’s throats who’d stop long enough to listen.

After the first few days, she’d disengaged and just settled for ignoring them.

What would they get out of delaying her reaching the gallery by a few minutes? She wasn’t the one performing the insertion, the laparoscopic surgeon and their team were. It was so silly. She pushed the thought away.

“Over there.” Fehim exclaimed, pointing towards the correct door as they burst out of the fire exit and onto the third-floor corridor .

Nori peeked down at her watch while marching ahead in quick, short strides. It was okay. She’d made it in time.

The door swung open right as she reached for the handle. Before she could move out of the way, Dr. Hina Mohan’s petite form slammed right into her, and the overwhelming scent of white floral perfume— jasmine —filled her sinuses.

“Argh!” Something small slipped through Hina’s fingers, meeting the epoxy floor with a muted thunk , before it went rolling down the corridor.