The Virus Within: Third Wave (Book 2)

Chapter 31

We walked to the lab and descended the stairs in companionable silence. Nina must have already brought Luke and Jess up to speed, because all three were bustling between the lab rooms.

"What can I help with?" I asked Nina as she came out of one room with an armful of equipment.

She jumped, so distracted she hadn't noticed us until I spoke. "Um." Her eyes flickered between Daniel and me. "Can you look at the setup in that room, and duplicate it in the room five doors down? At least as closely as you can? All of the equipment you'll need will be in the room beside it. Daniel? Do you mind helping me move some of the larger machines?"

"Just show me which ones and where you want them," he replied simply.

"I'll see what I can manage," I said as I went into the specified room to see what sort of setup I was supposed to be copying.

Had I not known the disaster on the counter was a very carefully arranged production line of beakers, vials, tubes, and burners, I would have assumed it was where they piled all the dirty stuff until they had a chance to wash it.

I'm supposed to replicate this? In a different room where I can't even see it? I stared at the long counter and the variety of objects spread across its length. I don't even know what half of these things are called, let alone what they're supposed to do! I asked if I could help, not that I was looking for a herculean chore!

Resigned to my task, I walked closer and scrutinized the sea of glass and tubing. I'd have to start at one end and attempt to memorize a few things, then go find the objects and set them up in the third room. After that, I'd have to come back to see if the comparison looked halfway similar.

I checked a few drawers and found a blank notebook and a pen so I could sketch a rough layout. Okay, let's start with the first five items. Let's see... I need two 500ml beakers, some sort of vapor thing with a hook top, whatever that weird elephant trunk glass flask is, and a round beaker the size of my fist.

With my sketch, a vague description of the items I needed to find, and my dignity in hand, I went to see what kind of chaos I could manage in the room down the hall.

~

       Nina glanced into the room and did a double-take. "How..."

I shrugged as I shifted a small burner a finger-width to the right so it lined up perfectly. "The sink was on the wrong side of the counter, so I had to do everything in reverse, which wasn't exactly an easy task."

She came over and gazed at the jumble of science supplies arranged on the counter in a very precise order. She mumbled, "I could have just run some long hoses to the sink."

"That would have saved me a ton of time and effort," I grumbled back, still tweaking things a bit so the distances between the pieces matched what was in the other room.

"I thought you didn't have any experience in a science lab?"

"I don't."

"Then I'm even more surprised you managed this. I thought you'd only find half the pieces and put them on the counter. I didn't think you'd manage to set up something like this so quickly, especially by yourself."

"Quickly?" I gave her a sardonic look. "I've had two hours to fight with this."

"Has it been that long already?" She shook her head tiredly. "Sorry, I meant to come see how you were doing after half an hour." She took another step closer to the counter as her eyes scanned the long array of equipment and mysterious objects. "I'm honestly amazed. It would have taken me some thought to do this."