Chapter 20
- Xander Jade
- 1 day ago
- 7 min read
The test chamber in Juniper’s sub-basement lab was about as cozy as a live wire in a puddle. Four whiteboards, each at a different height and angle, were streaked with equations, half-drawn Punnett squares, and the kind of statistical hieroglyphics that made Ralph’s eyelid twitch. There were exactly twenty-one index cards thumbtacked in two rows above the main workstation, all with headers like “ANOMALY,” “OUTLIER,” or, his personal favorite, “SWEAT SAMPLE INCIDENT #3.” Under the whiteboards, the bench was loaded with gear: oscilloscopes, three different DNA sequencers, a tangle of unlabeled sensor arrays that looked like the aftermath of a failed cyberpunk revolution.
