1 Chapter One

The lab was quiet and still save the rhythmic tapping of the end of a pen on the top of a desk as Travis Salgado stared on at his screen. The only accompaniment to the percussion of the pen ticking away the seconds being the exasperated sigh that Travis let out from his nose as he narrowed his eyes at the program running. As if glaring at his computer would some how scare it into working any faster than it already was. To his credit though, he noticed how the progress bar ticked up by a single percent after, eleven percent down and only eighty nine percent more to go. Honestly this was about the only evidence Travis had that his computer hadn't rolled over and died in the process of running this program in the nearly two and a half hours he had it running. Though he had to ask himself just why shell out the money for top end computer parts if it was going to drag on all day. As if to mock him even more, the estimated time on the progress bar flashed from hours to years just long enough for Travis to see before switching back again and loading another percent.

Rubbing the bridge of his nose, Travis let out another deep sigh to keep himself from getting any more agitated than he'd already let himself. He had to remind himself that he was an engineer by trade, not a chemist so running a program to try and get the chemical compound just right for what he needed would be far easier than trying to learn a wholly different skill all together. 

How complicated did an artificial growth hormone really need to be though? Travis asked himself as he caught his own reflection in the computer screen. He was half Argentinean if only by way of his father's last name, his features took more after his mother in that he held the soft features of a young Japanese man. At twenty-four years old, a man well into his own making with his own company and projects and a reputation to boot, he couldn't escape the youthful glow of his Asian heritage and thus was still subject to getting carded any time he tried to buy anything with alcohol or nicotine in it.

The craving for the latter working its way over Travis's mind as he palmed a hand across his dark brown, almost black hair. His other hand reaching into his desk as he produced a pack of cigarettes, placed one between his lips and the end. The embers glowing as he sucked in the smoke and craned his head back, letting the smoke billow out from his open mouth as the embers burned at the end of his cigarette. The smell of burning tobacco rolling through the air as he exhaled the smoke towards the ceiling and had to chastise himself for smoking inside the lab. He was normally better about succumbing to his vices like this, but he figured one drag on one coffin nail wouldn't slow his computer down any more than it already crawled.

Admittedly, Travis felt that much more at ease after lighting up when he kept staring on at his computer screen, watching the progress bar tick up another percent. Though he'd been so wrapped up in this moment he hardly noticed the door to his lab opening or the heels clicking across the cloudy white Plexiglas floors. What he did take note of was the sudden shock to his nervous system with the feel of ice-cold metal pressing up against his neck. Couple this with the mistake of having his cigarette in his mouth at the time and the sudden gasp from the shock and Travis was doubled over in his chair hacking up a lung. Doing his best impression of a fog machine as he hacked up the sudden burst of smoke and nicotine he shot through his system.

Giggling at his dismay stood his secretary, bodyguard, and girlfriend Amelia Churchill. Amelia was about as Anglo Saxon as an American could get with blond hair, blue eyes, and features so unassuming it was hard to really put a proper description to her without sounding generic. She was far from homely, that much was certain with the way her blond crew cut hair sat top her head with a gentle but professional swoop. The way she contoured her face to bring out the French in her cheek bones and made her skin glow with a sunny yet ivory complexion.

Amelia's little prank was more than paid for by way of offering Travis the energy drink she so unceremoniously startled him with as she watched her boyfriend snatch it out of her hand. In response to this sudden snatching, Amelia used her free hand to snag the cigarette from between Travis's lips and took a quick puff for herself before slipping it back between his lips.

Pulling up a spare computer chair beside Travis, Amelia cracked open her own energy drink and washed down the taste of smoke as she looked on at what Travis's computer displayed.

"You've been staring at this screen since you got into the office today, what gives?" Amelia asked as she sipped on her energy drink. The same that was supposedly zero calories, zero sugar and in fine print at the bottom, three hundred percent of your daily recommended caffeine intake.

"Running the synthesizer to see if I can't spit out an artificial growth hormone." Travis said as he nodded to the chemical synthesizer that sat on the opposite end of his desk. The large black box could easily be mistaken for a 3D printer. Rather the outside may be sleek and seamless, the inside was a mess of wires, tubs, containers and more. Normally things like chemical synthesizers were used for chrome junkies to brew their own beta blockers to keep their cyberwear from causing problems. Though this was hardly the only thing that could be done with it so long as you had the proper chemicals. Honestly, synthesizers could be used to brew up anything from beer to pain killers. Though most synthesizers had some kind of internal program to prevent any entrepreneurial apothecaries from attempting to make something like meth.

"Why would you wanna do something like that?" Amelia pouted as she leaned down and furrowed her brow at Travis. Her lower lip sticking out as her face was dangerously close to his as she nuzzled her nose close to his. "If you get any taller whose gonna be my little spoon when we go to bed together~"

"I'm not gonna be getting that much taller, I just wanna add an inch or two without having to wear lifted shoes." Travis said.

"You can add a few inches in me later…" Amelia said under her breath.

"What was that?"

"Hmmm?" Amelia said with a coy blank expression on her face as she turned to face the computer screen. Standing up from her chair as she hovers over the keyboard. "Oh nothing, hang on let me take a look at what you got going on here and see if we can't try and expedite the process cause now, I'm curious."

Planting her foot on the computer chair's seat, Amelia shoved Travis's chair away as she promptly took over where he was working. Pausing the loading and with a few key strokes, the MIT graduate turned bodyguard began to show what she learned in becoming a computer engineer. Though it was a far cry from what movies would portray, Amelia just pulled up a quick menu of settings and furrowed her brow at her boyfriend sitting well across the room in his chair.

"Seriously?" Amelia asked as she watched as Travis scooted his way back to the desk before turning back to the computer. With a squeak of surprise, Amelia giggled as she fell back into Travis's lap as he pulled her down into the chair with him. "The reason why it's taking an eternity is because you have the settings set to every possible combination across the periodic table. The permutations on that alone are well over a few quadrillion. Now let's see…"

Amelia was by no means a chemist herself but she could just as easily brute force a computer program into doing what she wanted as easily as a mechanic might brute force an engine back to life. In this case it was as simple as reducing the potential sample size of combinations down to what was set inside the synthesizer rather than everything on the periodic table of elements. Amelia made herself laugh upon thinking about how concerned she would be if Travis somehow managed to get ahold of something like plutonium or cobalt.