Page 41 of Convergence

“For financial gain from the research or for prestige?” I asked.

“Neither,” Nate said. “Especially not from unfinished research.”

“We’re not listed as students and Daisy and Hoffmann don’t exist. Um,” Everett said, and ran his hands through his hair while he thought.

“Pharmaceutical companies?” I suggested.

“Would they really pay students to do what they have their own teams of scientists doing?” Everett challenged.

“The uh, the- government?” I asked, my mouth void of all moisture again.

Silence. Nate stopped pacing.

“Don’t they have their own people?” Nate asked.

“They do,” Everett said confidently.

“Yeah, but this is a shady and unethical study if it’s cut off at creating the illness. They wouldn’t do that,” Nate said, his voice trailing off as basic US history filtered back into his brain.

Silence.

“Well, whoever it is, I don’t want to do this anymore. If they feel the need to spy on us and create this web of fake people and degrees, then I want nothing to do with it,” I said after swallowing a few times.

“Agreed,” Everett said, and Nate nodded.

“We’ll sign more NDAs. We’ll give up the alleged degrees,” I added. “We’ll even give back the paychecks.”

“Let’s go home to call Hoffmann and pack up. We can go to a hotel to plan out how we move forward,” Everett suggested.

“Sounds good. It's fucking cold out here,” Nate grumbled as he took my hand and we headed back to the truck.

“I guess that’s how Daisy knew we had hooked up,” I said quietly as Everett drove.

“Huh, I guess so,” Nate said with a humorless laugh.

Once we were back home, Everett called and left a voicemail for Hoffmann about discussing the termination of our project. We went our separate ways to pack bags of our essentials, hoping we could send for our things once we had gotten back to our homes. Everett invited us back to his family farm to avoid being separated as we planned our next steps. Nate had music playing in his room, but I could hear when Everett’s phone rang.

“Hello Professor Hoffmann,” I heard Everett say as he came up the stairs to meet me and Nate.

Nate turned off his music and met me in the hallway as Everett reached the top of the stairs. Everett had an angry expression on his face as he pulled the phone away from his ear and pressed a button to put it on speakerphone.

“-will stay where you are. There will be no more digging into the college or the project. You will complete your assignment or forfeit your degrees and place at Truman College,” Hoffmann said sternly.

“Sir, with all due respect, we’ve decided that because of the secrecy and deception, we would like to step down from the project and agree to forfeit the degrees,” Everett said into the phone. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders as tears formed in my eyes. I had worked hard to get to where I was in my education, and giving it up was painful. “We understand the generosity of the college and will be out of the home by morning.”

“You will remain in place or face severe consequences,” Hoffmann spat.

“I don’t understand, sir. We agree to give up the degrees, and stipend,” Everett said, locking eyes with Nate as he spoke.

“I have men on their way-”

Everett hung up, cutting Hoffmann off.

“We need to run,” Everett said abruptly. “Grab your overnight bag, leave everything you can’t run carrying.”

“Why? What do you think he means?” Nate asked.

“Whoever he is, he’s not letting us go without a fight. Get your fucking bag and meet me at the truck,” Everett shouted and ran down the stairs.

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