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nod at her.
    “Begin.”

Chapter Six
    “I have spent the last few years researching intelligence...specifically, what is it that makes one person intelligent and the other person happy to wallow in ignorance. I’m the only one in my family who was able to earn a scholarship to get me into college and I’ve always wondered what made me different. Why was I able to do so well in school, while my brothers and sisters all dropped out without even getting a diploma? I hoped if I could find an enzyme or chemical responsible that I could synthesize it in the lab. Then it could be used to allow everyone to achieve more than the potential they were born with. I figured that if more of us were smart, more brains would be getting used to solve the problems of our modern society and solutions could be found and implemented before we destroy our planet.”
    Yuri nodded, “That’s the direction I thought you were heading in, based on your most recent papers and your speech at the conference last month.”
    “You were there?”
    “Yes. I was the one who asked you about the possibility of enhancing the life-span of humans. I know from personal experience that it is possible but I wondered if you had done any thinking along those lines.”
    “No, as I told you then, I’ve been concentrating on intelligence. For a long time now, I’ve been afraid that it was an impossible dream. Every time I’d hit a wall, the director of the labs encouraged me to head in another direction. Hugo was really determined to do anything to help me succeed. As a researcher, that’s really important. Being afraid that your funding is going to be cut any minute is kind of counter-productive.”
    “Is the director Dan’s father?”
    “No, his dad is the banker of the labs. He holds the purse strings and doles out money to research the director tells him is the most promising. For some time now they have been throwing gobs of money at me, giving me anything I needed. I was so thrilled not to have to worry about losing my funding that I never questioned it. Now I wonder if I should have.” Keisha frowned.
    “What was your big news that you said you would be able to share with me last night?”
    “Last week I finally found what I was looking for. It wasn’t where I expected or what I expected it to be...but I found the intelligence enzyme. It’s so ridiculously simple—it would be really easy to synthesize it and offer it for sale.”
    “Excellent. So, the director was happy?”
    “Ecstatic. Just like I was. Then the shit hit the fan.”
    “How?”
    “I wanted to incorporate my discovery into a paper I can present at the international symposium next month. Hugo told me not to plan on going public with stuff that early. When I asked him why, he had no answer...he just mumbled about the board needing to review my work. He also reminded me that since I work for them, the corporation that funded my research owns what I discovered...I don’t own anything. Of course I got pissed and argued that since I was the discoverer, I owned the results. He told me to take some time off...basically dismissing me. He told me he’d have another assignment for me when I came back in.”
    “That seems odd.”
    Keisha nodded. “Yes, it was. I went out to the pub that night, upset and angry. Dan met me there and listened to all of my ranting and raving about how unfair it was, and how I should just present my thesis anyway, and let the future ultimately decide if I was right or wrong.”
    Yuri leaned forward, “Let me guess. Soon after that your troubles began?”
    “Yeah. The next night was when you called and asked me to meet you for coffee. I was still pissed but the chance to talk about my woes with a fellow scientist was just what I wanted. I went out to grab a few things from the store and when I got home, there were two men in my apartment...probably the same two who you did...whatever...to last night.”
    Yuri smiled but only with his mouth—making his