Read Dhungwana 2117: A captivating sci-fi novel: The Dhungwana Chronicles (2117-3451) Part 1 for Free Online

now he didn’t have much time left, so he decided to go to a supermarket, buy some fruit and eat in his laboratory.
    As soon as he returned to BlueGray Corporation, Ian ate quickly and downloaded the results of Orlando’s hair analysis to his wristsynk, and then immediately deleted all the files from his work station that he had used to carry out the analysis without storing anything on the central system.
    The test results left him puzzled: the structure of the hair was so healthy, completely free of drugs and heavy metals. It was as if Orlando had lived his whole live in an unpolluted environment, rich in oxygen. This was absolutely impossible.
     
    Orlando Steiny returned to BlueGray Corporation at 8.30 pm and Ian, seeing the lights go on in his laboratory, rushed over to him.
    “Hi Orlando, I need to talk to you.” said Ian.
    “Please, have a seat. So what has happened?”
    “I find you odd, Orlando” said Ian, going straight to the point.
    “In what sense?” asked Steiny in surprise.
    “Your behavior has changed radically in the last three months. I have to admit I was convinced you had become a drug addict, so I took a hair from one of your sweaters to analyze.”
    “How could you do that?” said Steiny angrily.
    “As Health Commodore, I have a duty to identify and denounce anything that might contaminate our society, whether they are microorganism pathogens, diseases of any kind, deviant behavior or psychiatric problems… and not only others’ behavior, even my own. I had to do it, Orlando.”
    “So, what did you find?” asked Steiny, still agitated, but reluctantly accepting his colleague’s explanation.
    “Nothing, but your hair indicates you’re in perfect shape. You have a healthy lifestyle and you live in a non-polluted place full of pure oxygen… which is impossible. In reality, you sleep only a few hours, you work at night, and I noticed that you drink and you eat very little. How did you change your metabolism? What has happened to you, Orlando?”
    “Yes, it's true, I feel strange” said Steiny lowering the tone of his voice. “But please, let me explain before you send a note about me to Health Fleet Research. A few months ago, I noticed some small changes: for example, I didn't get thirsty as much and, above all, I lost the desire to eat, then I never got tired and didn’t need to sleep. The same thing was happening to a friend of mine, so I started to carry out some tests on my blood and tissue before going to hospital. I didn’t want to alarm anyone, and I wanted to see the results before involving the operations center at the hospital, and consequently all the various communities connected with it.”
    “And how is your friend now?”
    “He died ten days ago, apparently of a heart attack. It killed him the day after he told me that he felt strange. We had the same symptoms, those you described. That’s the reason why I didn’t involve anyone in the analysis; he had already checked into the hospital.”
    Unfortunately, I told some friends that I felt strange and that, paradoxically, distanced some of the people on my network. Now they are giving me the cold shoulder.
    “Do you know someone else in your condition?”
    “No, I don’t think so. But perhaps they’re hiding it. I'm afraid of being seriously ill, Ian, even if nothing serious has happened so far. I’ll have to go to hospital, even if I don’t like the idea… sooner or later I could have a heart attack, too.”
    “I think you're right, the doctors in the hospital will be able to help. Tomorrow you should apply for medical leave” said Ian.
    “I will. Sorry, Ian, but now I have to finish a report... ”
    “Yes, of course. Goodnight, Orlando. See you tomorrow.”
    “Good night, Ian.”
     
    Ian went back to his laboratory, turned off the lights and left for home.
    Dayla had gone to visit her mother that evening, and would come back the next day, so Ian would have to sleep alone.

16
     
    At 6 am Ian’s