Page 40 of Convergence

They stared at the small, round and discreet camera. It was nearly the size of a pen, but had been fastened to our cabinet with what looked like a clear zip tie. It was wireless and didn’t have any lights to suggest it was on or off. They had painted the camera to match our cabinets except for the lens.

“Field trip,” Everett barked out before we raced to pull on shoes and coats. We took Everett’s truck to our park. The parking lot was plowed, and the tree covered path had only a few inches of snow covering it, having been clearly travailed many times today. We made our way as quickly as we could to the field house. The little path leading up to it had a drift of snow and was too buried to get into the building. We stood outside of our secret sanctuary and looked at each other, panting from the exertion of getting there.

“What are we thinking?” Nate asked, his hands on his hips as he caught his breath.

“The simplest answer is typically the correct answer,” Everett stated.

“The simplest answer to me is that we’ve hopped timelines and are in a different universe,” Nate spat sarcastically. “What the hell doyouthink is the simplest answer?”

Everett stepped up to Nate, his shoulders back and chest forward, his face like angry stone. “You watch it-”

“Stop it!” I shouted at them. “This is not helping. We need to step back and- and form our questions. So, my first question is why aren’t we students?”

“Why were we bugged?” Nate asked.

“Who are Daisy and Hoffmann?” Everett added.

“Is this a real program?” I asked.

“I think these questions can be summed up into one question: We’ve been tricked, but by whom?” Everett summarized, his hands on his hips.

“Then narrow it down to who would benefit from our research?” Nate said, pacing next to me.

“Even further; what part of our research is the intended project?” Everett pushed. “Our assigned project was so broad and far-fetched. Create the illness causing bacteria and then the cure? Not likely in the time span I assumed we were given.”

“Then why didn’t you say anything?” Nate asked, his face looking defeated as he paused his pacing.

“Oh, because you two didn’t also have doubts about it?” Everett asked us and ran a hand over the back of his neck.

“I did,” I said. “It seemed too good to be true.”

“Same. And I also thought the secrecy aspect was a bit much,” Nate added, resuming his pacing.

“The project seemed a bit over our capabilities, but I figured we’d get as far as we could and pass it on to the next PhD students,” I said and sighed. “Out loud, I realize it makes little sense why we’d still get our diplomas if we didn’t finish the project they tasked us with.”

“It also still doesn’t explain why we were bugged,” Everett added.

Nate continued to pace the snow-covered ground around us, the crunch of the snow and ice almost echoing in our silence.

“What if-” I started and swallowed a few times. “What ifweare the product?”

“Like our labor in the project?” Everett asked.

I nodded.

“Again, that leads to what part of the project? The illness or the cure?” Nate paced faster, kicking up snow. “Because they could get any grad student or even undergrad student to mess around with different bacteria and phages.”

“Do you think someone wanted us to create an illness that wouldn’t have a cure yet?” Everett asked, his voice stoic.

Nate nodded after a few seconds of thought. “I think so.”

“Who would want that?” I asked, feeling small and used.

“Who would have the money for it?” Everett added.

“Who has the money and power to get us degrees, a house, a top-of-the-line lab, credit cards, and everything else?” Nate listed.

“The college,” Everett suggested.

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