It was dark and eerie in the privy confines of the laboratory. A feeble ray of light made its way through a tiny crack in the door. Dr. Regis White was in dire straits. He let his mind give way to exhaustion for a brief moment and let out a deep breath. He tried thinking of a heuristic way to make it through this tight spot. He wanted to focus. He couldn’t. He was holding on dearly to the only thing he had left – hope. As he slowly lost his senses to fatigue, he heard a loud thud against the door downstairs and the sound of it being knocked down. His heart was pounding against his chest. The sudden nausea and the muscles grappling at his stomach were only the least of his concerns…

1

Dr. Regis White, known by the hypocorism of ‘Mind Man’, was carving a niche for himself. Though people knew little about the cloak-and-dagger operations happening inside the small white building located in a corner of the city, they definitely knew something fishy was taking place there. But gradually, the word spread and pretty soon, people started making appointments in advance.

Dr. White was a meek little man in his late fifties. He started out as a psychiatrist who was madly obsessed with technology. But he wasn’t the smoothest when it came to dealing with people. He could not understand why they were so dumb and lost within their own petty worlds. He wanted to perfect mankind. After many years spent laboriously, he finally succeeded in developing an algorithm that could make any man supremely smarter and more goal-oriented. An elite coterie of engineers and scientists was brought in to put the plan together, and they were asked to give a ballpark figure. White had to spent all his money on it.

He had very few clients at first. People were naturally apprehensive about the whole thing. But a few years down the line, he was making millions. He’d had close to a hundred clients. Every procedure started with him explaining the process to the client, which included a lot of technical jargon. Most of this was all Greek to the naïve client, and hence the subtle warnings were overlooked.

2

Jessica Jones was an ambitious woman in her mid-thirties. But she constantly complained about how she always kept messing up and getting thown off-track. It was just plain bad luck that she happened to be Dr. White’s client on one fateful day – that day when something in the process malfunctioned and everything went haywire. That infamous day when the new technology backfired and a fatality occurred.

Her husband, Adam, was infuriated on hearing the news. It took him a while to take in the gravity of what had happened. He sued the company. He felt a bitter vengeance for Dr. White. The case went on for months. Dr. White lived in constant fear being sentenced to prison. But finally, he was left free on the condition that he was to stop his practice immediately, along with a heavy fine.

As he stepped out of the court, someone slipped him a note stealthily and went out of sight. The note said, “You’re gonna pay for what you did.” Dr. White felt a growing sense of doom as he looked around to find someone just look away from him and walk rapidly. He panicked. He felt a sudden urge to go pay a visit to his first lab, situated out in the countryside. He also thought he’d be safer there.

As he drove, he felt almost certain that he was being followed. He finally reached the place and frantically hurried up the stairs. He let his mind give way to exhaustion for a brief moment and let out a deep breath. He tried thinking of a heuristic way to make it through this tight spot. He wanted to focus. He couldn’t. He was holding on dearly to the only thing he had left – hope.

THE END

Hey guys, that was me digging into my pre-blogging archives to give you something I’d written more than a year back. My mind is refusing to come out with anything sensational at the moment, and for the reason of keeping this space up and running, I’ve resorted to posting just about anything. So I guess this’d have to do. Anyhoo, to whoever’s reading this, you keep being the awesome that you are and until next time, it’s ciao, mes amigos. Peace. 😀