0701

Sweat beads penetrated Charlie's athlete t-shirt, attached to his skin like a clingy child. He bought up statistical data on his health watch. Swiped the data into oblivion as he teased his burnt calves to walk in an orderly fashion.

He smiled internally with a sense of gratification for his task. Running helped to clear his mind of the ills of the world and the intensity of his role as CEO of Unicorn INC, his child cancer start-up that he'd started with his partner Bryce Camp. They were two ambitious students at Whitehall Medical, but neither completed their studies, instead enlisting in the army to fight in the west Asian war before returning to the States to discover a country that no longer recognised under Severus Carter-Hill. A country that was facing a cancer epidemic brought on by years of neglect of the nation's food supply, and rising polluted waterways, a country that was struggling to rear its head from an opioid epidemic that had crossed three decades without a viable solution. And then Charlie met Rose who became the love of his wife and mother to their three children: Hilary, Elias and Eldermeier. Elias would become the inspiration for Charlie's endearvour to found a child cancer tech start-up after he suffered an incurable brain tumour and fought so valiantly, only to die five years into his battle.

It broke Charlie and Rose, the latter being unable to tolerate the unbearable burden of losing a child so young and finding the energy and gumption to raise two more who had their own issues to contend with. Eventually the burden became too much, and while Charlie through himself into his work, Rose through herself in front of a bus, severing several organs in the process. Charlie was left to pick up raising Hilary and Eldermeier on his own. So here he was, running without a goal in mind but solely to clear his mind of the untenable fear of failure, the burden of being a distant father and trying to juggle it all. Running gave him solace, it was in these reflective moments of solitude that he found himself generating new ideas that could progress the project forward. He was aware that his competitors were breathing down his neck, his miniscule success was becoming an unquestionable point of interest.

He hated speaking engagements but on this particular day he was being forced to prepare a speech for his angel investors who were arriving in town from Moscow and Beijing. He was suspicious of the Russians even though their country had gone through a renaissance in the previous decade, and he was still acutely aware of the issues facing China as it repurposed itself into a democratic state after a century of communist ideologies. But stigmas ruled and left a bitter self-doubt in the back of his mouth as a gnawing burrow of resistence grew in his stomach.

Charlie had rehearsed the speech time-and-time again over the past five days, he was clearly nervous but aware that this would be the first of many investor pitches he would have to fathom as he rode the curtails of the start-up train. In the back of his mind he knew that he was doing this for Hilary and Eldermeier and that their future depended on his resiliance to cure child cancer across the spectrum of disorders. Notably brain cancer was his primary focus but the further down the rabbit hole he burrowed, the more aligned he became with finding commonality between the disorders.

Charlie cycled back to the office as his legs burned like shackles tearing into his skin. He teased his key card into the door as he rode the elevator up 19 floors to his destination. A white saturated office with cubicles and transparent glass walls greeted him. A herd of colleagues busying themselves passed and glared as he strolled towards his office, and there they stood, a young woman, similar height to Charlie with rose coloured flowing hair and sharp emerald green eyes wearing a stunning banana coloured dress and ruby red shoes to boot. She smiled as he approached and opened his arms to embrace her presense.

"What brings you to the office today, darling?" Charlie requested.

"I thought I'd bring you a salad, dad. You left yours in the fridge", replied Hilary. "I can't stay too long, I've got Yoga then class at two."

"I'm going to be late today because I've got that investors presentation. Will you be okay to watch Eldermeier tonight?".

"Where's Vivian? I thought she was going to stay over?".

"No, she's going to Aspen for the weekend. Something about a weekend away with Ronnie", Charlie smiled.

"I'll be home by five so it's fine. How long will you be", Hilary asked.

"No later than eight".

Hilary nodded then proceeded to leave as Charlie arrived at his desk and opened up his voice box. "Messages Jenny".

A computerised voice responded: "You have 32 new messages, would you like me to read them?".

"Any from Zaparia, Davide?"

"Zaparia, Davide: two messages. First message dated at 1.25am: I have received your request for additional funding, we will assess and respond by Friday, thank you".

Charlie nodded in agreeance as Jenny read the next: "Second message received at 1.43am: Can you send me an additional proposal pitch? They would also like you to know they are aware about the Hitchins case, and that it may alter their review process". Charlie withdrew his smile, "Fuck".

Charlie handed the case study notes over to Bryce. They had not expected to see the incel react as it did. The pre-trials had shown tremendous resiliance to the pathogen and they were certain that it was time to attempt hybrid trials yet this was unprecedented. A modest dose of 0701 had been administered to the hybrid incel yet the response was undeniable.

Charlie burst out of the lab with defeat on his mind. A precocious thought entered his mind as he spun around to find Bryce lurking in the foreground.

"We did everything we could Charlie. It doesn't mean it's over but we may have to review some steps".

"I don't understand. Our trials were conclusive, everything was right and now this, this setback".

"Maybe it was the gene markers. Alex did say that she thought the Alpha-C markers were a bit off".

"I know, but --". Charlie couldn't finish his sentence before he started to froth at the mouth then lurched to the ground as he began to seize. Bryce ran over to him as he faded out.

Charlie stood over his desk. He was certain that he had missed something that day, but now he had to block that out of his mind as his sole focus was centred on the presentation.

He stood with one last sweeping gaze over the cityscape, it gave him confidence to face the challenge of a boardroom of suits as he gallivanted off to his meeting, a seed of doubt clouded the back of his mind. He wondered if he was making a grave error of judgment by hiding his indiscretions or indeed it didn't matter to them. As he crossed the office with the echo of voices encasing his self he began to feel a sense of dizziness, in particular his eye sight blurred as he cut towards the boardroom, a buzzing echo grew stronger and more decisive as he opened the boardroom door and set his sight on blurred figures. A bright light cut into his line of sight and he began to focus on the buzzing sirens going off around him.

The medical staff rushed Charlie into the operating theatre. He was flatlining as the nurses hooked him up to the intraveneous drips and other assorted contraptions. The monitor began to beep as it launched online. A small child was lined up beside him on a ventilator. Their mangled body fed with lines of tubes and medical devices sucked life into their body.

"Doctor Pendergrast is scrubbing in. Nurse Coates, give patient 0701 30cc's of ventulin, we will prep the incel for transportation of the cells".

Bryce paused outside the operation theatre as doctor Eric Pendergrast passed by enroute.

"It's a helluva of day to test the theory of resurrection".

"I warned him about using a non-blood relative but the stubborn sonofabitch wouldn't listen. Now we have no choice but to repossess his son without finalising the outcome".

"You were the one who told him he needed to have kids. Now, you're the one who has to use one of them to save his life".

Bryce watched on as the nurses and medical staff gathered around Charlie. Concern painted his complexity as he drew the short straw on the emotion of self doubt.

"You'll remember us for being pioneers of gene transference, Bryce", Pendergrast said as he entered the doors and the unforgettable monotonous tone of the monitor infiltrated the room.