Envenom.

The final code was punched in, and the door opened.

This was Rachel's least favorite new duty. It was enough that she had to work under Rockwell, she didn't need new duties. That and her newest problem waiting at home. But she would do what she needed to do, because no matter what, she liked her job. She felt as if in a small way, she was helping protect the world. Maybe that was a bit over the top, but she'd like to believe it anyway. She made her way down to the last door, the last one before she would go back to her regular work. Luckily for her she had only to deal with five patients. All that was left of one of the many groups that went out on a mass excursion one week prior. Not many groups didn't return, so losing half the group was a pretty big loss for them. Either way, Rachel conducted her regular duties; asking about health, any particular symptoms, and so on and so forth. The company forced a mandatory two-week quarantine to make sure everyone was healthy and in no way infected or scarred by anything they saw. No one ever was. But there was only one more week of it, she'd tell herself. She just finished the final query, everything checked out as usual, when the man asked questions. That was a first. Many of them didn't want to talk more than they had to, so Rachel decided to listen. He asked about his group, how everyone was doing, what day it was, if someone had called their families. Rachel calmly told him that everything would be fine. He asked how Captain Leviller was. She was still unconscious.

"Rockwell's going to have to answer to her when she wakes up," the man laughed. "She'll be real cranky." "If she wakes up," Rachel told herself before ending the interview.

She was glad to be back at her office, away from all the military nut jobs. She saw them as a too violent way to get peace, but as she had heard Rockwell say before, some things need to be done. Yeah, sure, she always found herself thinking. Either way, a lot had changed in the course of a week. A.G. Industries already owned 80% - 90% of all the Objects. Four hundred and sixty two was the last count. That was one step closer to keeping all of the Objects away from Seekers who would try to abuse them. Maybe, someday, they could help those Seekers work through their addictions and insanity, but that, of course, was simply wishful thinking. Rockwell was too smart a man to believe in wishful thinking. Or luck, for that matter. She checked through her emails. Another attack on A.G. by "The Group" had occurred in western B.C. Rachel had begun to grow tired of these messages.

"The Group" had been working against A.G. for two years now, that they knew of. The Group were against A.G.'s belief that they could police the entire system by itself, and questioned who gave the company that much power. They were nothing more than extremists. "Seeker extremists, the worst kind," Rachel thought to herself. They would attack the company in any way possible. Most often than not, it would be physical. Two weeks ago, an A.G. ship was attacked off the coast of England, several lives were lost, but the ship itself had nothing of value and The Group knew that. They didn't want Objects or information, they just wanted to stop A.G in their tracks. Rockwell had promised to take care of it, but Rachel wondered how long it would be until another group of people would disappear. That caused Rachel to pull out the files of her own investigation. One she had been doing in her spare time.

The Eastern A.G. Industries Lab, no one had heard anything from them in over a week. Rockwell didn't have a chance to bring it up in discussion with him being so busy, but people had gotten worried. There was probability of an accident, as it was well known that they would run dangerous experiments there. Well known. Rachel thought of her sister, she had been working on several important projects down there, and had asked Rachel to take care of something for her. Now it was quite likely that she was gone. Rachel wondered what could kill so many people, because the building was so large underground, that even if there was a fire, or an explosion, there was no way for it to affect everyone in the building. If they had all been killed, as Rachel feared, something else happened. Something much darker. Something probably connected to the Midnight Project. She quickly finished writing her notes down. She would have to get home soon. Ellie was waiting, and she had begun asking where Sarah was. Rachel wondered how long she would have to lie to her.

But before she could log off the computer, she received one more email. One with more information than she had hoped to receive. One that was signed at the bottom by only a single letter.

S.