Lena didn’t argue. “Fine. I’ll go grab a coffee and start upstairs. Buzz me if you need anything.”
As the door hissed shut behind her, Marise exhaled slowly and stepped closer to the left tank.
The plant nearest her gave a soft shimmer of blue and tilted toward her.
“Hello,” she murmured.
It glowed brighter.
Marise paced slowly between the tanks, and knelt once to check for tubing beneath the floor. she ran her hand along the lip of the tank, even leaned over slightly to catch a better look at the base. No filters, no hidden pumps. Only a seamless container of water that glowed faintly blue and a set of massive floating plants that behaved more like animals than vegetation.
They didn’t blink. But theywatched.
The nearest one adjusted again when she crouched down. Not randomly—in response.It was as if the whole organism had spatial awareness, and it was eerily focused on her.
She pulled out her phone, pretended to check messages, and subtly activated the hidden camera in her jacket lapel. A few steps back, a slow sweep from left to right. Even in low light, the camera should pick up enough.
The tank water shifted gently as the plants floated upward in tandem.
Marise stared, brow furrowing.
What were they? Some kind of genetically engineered symbiotic algae? They were far too large for anything naturally aquatic. And they certainly didn’t look like fuel crops. The ones used in synthetic biofuels had root systems and oil sacs bred for harvest. These… didn’t even have stems. Just glowing pads and undulating fronds that waved slowly in the water like they werelistening.
Kathleen had said nothing about them to anyone or documented it in her background reports. Nothing in the patents or shell company filings hinted at this.
Whatever these were, they weren’t marketable. This was a new prototype plant.
Marise leaned closer, resting her hands on the glass. “You don’t produce oil, do you?” she murmured.
The glow didn’t change. The plants stayed still now, but it was the stillness of alertness, not rest.
She studied them for another few minutes, but there was nothing else to glean. No data consoles connected to the tanks. No exposed labels or notes. If there were answers, they weren’t written down here.
Eventually, she exhaled and backed away.
A dead end.
Or maybe the beginning of something she didn’t understand yet.
She exited the lab and found Lena outside in the hallway, sipping a coffee from a vending machine.
“You were right,” Marise said neutrally. “They’re creepy things.”
Lena nodded. “I told you.”
They walked back down the corridor in silence, and Marise couldn’t shake the feeling she was being watched the entire way, not by Lena, but by the glowing things left behind in the tanks.
She exited the building shortly after and hailed a cab, her thoughts scattered. Usually, she left a scene with more than she’d entered. A planted bug, a photograph, a flash drive,something.
This time, she’d left with only questions.
Kathleen Knowles had engineered something extraordinary. Something nobody knew about. Not the academic community, not her colleagues, not even her closest friends. Marise, for all her digging, still had no idea what they did.
That was the most unsettling part.
She stared out the window of the cab, playing the footage again on her phone in the grainy reflection. The glowing plants shimmered silently in the background.
When she let herself into her hotel suite, she faced her dilemma. She should finish the contract, report what she’d seen, then get the hell out of Dodge. But to do that would break Kathleen’s trust and she couldn’t bring herself to do it.
