“It is an amazing process, isn’t it,” Manny stated, proud of the work that the scientist on the other side of the window was achieving.

Manny touched the screen.“This is a human epithelial cell that is about to undergo division.Amazing.”

“No.I’ve got something to show you.”Manny tapped the window and waved at the scientist who nodded and went about working on another task.Manny hobbled over to the computer in front of Gregory and began typing in commands and pulling up various images.“We can’t seem to isolate the chemical that the female hybrid produces that essentially turned Justin into a version of them.If we can’t isolate the chemical then we can’t identify the chemical.If we can’t structurally identify the chemical then we can’t try to synthesize it in the lab.”

He flipped a gaze toward the CEO then brought back up a picture of the cell from merely minutes earlier.Already the screen was filled with cells that were still dividing.“Take a look at this.”

“So what?”Manny tossed up his hands.“This is amazing.I mean, just watch with the precision that they are dividing, with little to no defect in the outcome.It is perfect, Mr. Barnes.”It was obvious that the man was lost, so Manny continued.“You see, most cells will divide when given a chemical signal.Their rate of division is dependent on the type of cell that they are.Some cells take days or weeks to complete one division; whereas, others can do it in a matter of minutes.”

“Yes.Actually they complete the entire division process in less than a minute, which is really quite unheard of for human epithelial cells.When starting with one cell, after 5 minutes there are over 40.Each cell is an exact duplicate of the former.See?”He pointed to the screen.“Amazing.”

The head scientist tapped on the glass again to which the man inside nodded and held up five fingers to indicate he needed five minutes.Manny sat back in the chair and crossed one leg over the other, attempting to get comfortable.“Even though the entire human genome has been sequenced, over 90% has essentially no known function.It is possible that some of it belongs to our ancestral past but has gone dormant over time.I believe that some of that DNA holds the evolutionary instructions to become one of those creatures.Of course, not to the extent of requiring blood.But clearly, the information is there to turn a human into something more powerful.Justin is our evidence of that.The problem is simple:find those sequences then activate them.The solution is complex: finding the sequences then activating them.

“Keep going,” Gregory snorted out, growing somewhat impatient.

Using state of the art techniques and equipment, compliments of the 5 million dollars, and working around the clock, my lab has so far successfully isolated three unique proteins.”Manny grinned ear to ear, obviously proud of what he deemed his own personal achievements.“The proteomics division has been analyzing their function while my geneticists have been rewriting the genetic code to match the protein.”

By now, the scientist had walked into the room with Manny and Gregory and placed a syringe next to the head of research.Manny nodded thankfully then watched as the scientist left.“Let me see your hand.”

“Give me your hand.”

“What the hell?”Gregory yanked back his wounded appendage and covered the stinging gash.“I’ll have your job for this, you crazy bastard.”

But Manny wasn’t at all bothered by the man’s threats.He grabbed the arm again, wrestling momentarily with his boss, then dispensed the contents of the syringe near the wound.Gregory swatted at Manny with his free hand and continued to yell but Manny merely hollered back, “Look.Look at your arm.”

Gregory was about to punch the scientist when he glanced down and noticed that blood was no longer dripping off his arm.It no longer throbbed and the wound was beginning to heal over.He stared in awe as the skin quickly patched itself.After a few silent minutes, all that remained was a light scar and remnants of blood.“Dear God.”

Gregory, still staring at his arm, had trouble sitting back down.He ran trembling fingertips over the small scar.“You’ve opened Pandora’s box.”