just for a bloody contract | Roman Godfrey au

ch. 25 • hell broke loose

Roman had surprisingly done what I said. I never expected him to, but he did. I was glad he trusted me enough to listen. And I wasn't going to let him down.

I decided it was time to end my deal with Pryce. The patent and rights papers and all were finally ready to be signed and registered under Dr. Johann Pryce's name. He was going to get what he wanted. But I wasn't going to let him have it all.

Thankfully Daniel started working there and agreed to help. We looked at the floor plans of the Godfrey Institute to pinpoint places we thought the secret lab would be. Of course, Pryce would have very easy access to it if he could slip away to it in the middle of the day. It must have been huge. There were four locations we were sure we would discover something in. After two days of effort and stealthiness on Daniel's part, he did find the lab. By posing as someone interested in working there and buttering one of the scientists in Pryce's secret lab, Daniel got access to it.

He made sure to take name tags and any of that off. Thankfully Pryce didn't have a lot of tags to begin with. Then, Daniel added a solution that aged the culture in the lab as well as what he described as "humanoid alien grossness". I didn't even want to know what type of weird things were down there. The aging confused one of the scientists. Luckily, that week, not many had come anyway. Daniel did say it was strange, but we didn't think much of it. I asked him for additional details, but he told me he didn't really look around. He was terrified of the stuff/ creature-like figure things in the large vials and just went there to do his job.

After that was cleared, it was time for me to act. I called up the Ethics and Lab Safety in Research department in Pennsylvania with an anonymous number and told them about a lab I found while working at the White Tower. I explained how the owner didn't know at all about this, and someone was plotting behind his back. Someone probably not even working in the White Tower during the day. I told them a made-up story about how I observed all the scientists and workers in Pryce's lab, and no one would disappear in the middle of the day. Everyone would sincerely work right in the lab exposed to the whole company. And I told them I stumbled upon the lab on cleaning duty and saw the door was open and found the lab out of curiosity, nothing else. Pryce wasn't mentioned. Neither were any of his co-workers or fellow scientists. And Roman was innocent. I made that clear.

I went to the White Tower a week and a half after Daniel's graduation day and called Pryce to meet with me in the mini conference room. He did. I handed him the rights to the solution.

"I hope this satisfies you," I sighed.

"Pleasant seeing you keep your end of the deal, Mrs. Godfrey. But you have been naive to think that this heartfelt, sweet sacrifice for your fake husband would stop me from running my lab. Besides, your husband succumbed to my demands just last week."

"Ah, yes. Johann. The problem here is you probably look at me as if I am still five and consider me to have the brain capacity of one too. Unfortunately for you, that's not the case. Your lab's shutting down. And you can't go there to yell or scream about it because if you do, I can't stop you from going to jail."

Pryce glared at me with absolutely shocked eyes. "You are shutting down my lab?" he shouted.

"Calm down. Walls have ears," I said. "I am. Remember I told you during our deal, 'you will be safe, Pryce?' I am keeping that deal up. You will be safe. So will everyone else in your team. In fact, I assure you no one working here will be suspected at all. But your little playground of the monsters you're creating and experimenting on downstairs has got to go. Also, you're getting a whole lot of money with this patent if you advertise it wisely, so I expect you send back the check Roman wrote you."

Soon enough, the authorities from the safety and ethics department came into the building. Word spread that there was a team of five. I went downstairs with Pryce, who seemed very cool and collected. I knew there was a turbulent storm in his head, though. He was just a brilliant liar and manipulator. And I was sorry I had to play it his way.

Two people from the department came and interrogated the lab interns, scientists, and assistants. Most of the staff were intimidated and very, very confused. The ones who actually worked in the lab were putting on their best acting chops. Not going to lie, they were solid liars. Guess some of Pryce's qualities rubbed off on them.

There was a ruckus. Staff in lab coats rushing left and right, handing charts, reports, data, samples to the ethics and safety department crew. There were lots of hushed whispers, panicked conversation, "I-don't-know's", and glass cylinders breaking in stress. Pryce looked like there were ten thousand monkeys released into his normally organized and oddly silent lab. Like all hell broke loose. It was chaotic. But he could not do anything. There was defeat in his eyes, but pride overshadowed it. He looked at me and sighed. "Are you pleased?"

"No. I didn't do any of this for my own pleasure. I'm sorry, but that lab had to go. You have this lab here. And it's more than enough. You're a smart man. You know that. Please, just use it for progress," I said. There was sadness in me. I didn't mean to cause all the ruckus and unnecessary fear. I saw Daniel being taken to interrogation by one of the ethics department members. I hoped he would be alright and would answer questions like everyone else was.

The senior member of the department came and asked Pryce to come along. Pryce calmly escorted the man to his office. I sighed and was beginning to leave when I was called by another woman on the team.

"You are?" the woman in a navy blue uniform asked.

"Lianna Godfrey," I said.

"Ah, Mrs. Godfrey. My apologies. I have some questions for you," the woman said. "My name is Brie Coulson, assistant director of the Pennsylvania Department for Research and Laboratory Ethics and Safety. You can call me Brie."

"Nice to meet you. You may proceed," I said.

"Did you have any clue about this lab?" Brie asked.

"Not at all," I lied. "I don't come here often. May I ask what was found there?"

"Yes. We found no evidence on who was running it and everyone here seems clueless about it. Now, we cannot verify whether they are telling the truth or not, but the evidence proves that the lab actually shut down a while ago."

"How did you know that?" I asked.

"Well, there were large vials of something we could not identify. Further tests need to be done, but all the culture, everything in the vials, it was all old," she explained. Yes; so Daniel did what I asked him. "The lab itself was dirty. The shelves were dusty; there were cobwebs."

I tried to contain my surprise. Surely Daniel couldn't have done all of that. "Oh. I am glad whatever it was, it got uncovered. The institute is willing to comply with and assist you in every way possible."

"Thank you, Mrs. Godfrey," Brie said.

Right after that, I left the lab and checked my phone. The battery died, and it wouldn't open. Ugh. Now how was I supposed to find out what happened from Daniel? I guess it would have to wait. I decided I needed to go upstairs to Roman. He must be freaked out, confused, and probably losing his mind right now. I took the elevator up. There were no staff there today; it feels like everyone was pooled in the lab.