Gabriel had given her a flower a few hours before they took him away. It was a bright white daisy, with a honey colored center, it was beautiful. Of course, not a single petal had wilted; no it was perfectly fresh and fragrant, simply as gorgeous as it had been on that fateful day.
Her life was in shambles, everything they’d worked for; everything they’d built and acquired, was gone. The Guild’s strong arm forces had been swift to arrive and their destructive might had been terrifying to witness. They’d smashed and grabbed, commiserated and collected. They’d broken up Gabriel’s life’s work in a flash of bulbs; the bastards had taken pictures first; how thoughtful!
Accumulation of evidence, no doubt, she mused.
Her thoughts spun, dizzily as she took in the cheap white clapboard dividers of the room she’d rented days before. She’d escaped their determined search by climbing out of her bedroom window into the sturdy almond tree that served, with its old gnarled branches, as a ladder. The only thing she’d had taken was the daisy and cash. Herself and the daisy and cash. She’d laughed through her jittering teeth at the irony of her flight with foliage. But it was the only evidence she had.
The only other evidence left was Gabriel himself. Being the type of scientist he was, he’d used himself as a guinea pig. She guessed that The Guild would keep him, firmly, incarcerated in one of their underground prisons. Thank God, he’d had time to use both the adrenaline and the cell editor, one procedure probably wouldn’t have done the trick. As a result he was valuable to the Noble Caste. They had all his notes; a map, really, to his experiments, his breakthroughs, failures and eventually the stem cell formula that would radically alter the course of life on earth for the better. But, as Gabriel had warned, it was only as good as the heart that held it, he’d been aware of The Guild’s spies and greedy interest. He’d been afraid of minor rather than total theft and destruction.
She set the kettle on to boil next to the daisy in its pewter vase, it was succulently green-stemmed and gave her hope. Hope that she’d see Gabriel again, hope that he’d get the chance to show his perfect daisy to the world.
Parts 2 and three to come. Haha, watch this space!
