Ask any scientist what science was, and they’d all give a different answer.

To Kim Hyun-Taek, it was a weapon that could protect him and his family by bringing him wealth and honor. It was a shortcut to success that smart and well-educated people could use.

To scientists like Yang Hye-Sook, who were interested in society and politics, it was a force that moved the world.

For Rosalind Franklin, a scientist of the past, science was a window that helped her gain a proper understanding of the world. Just as the microscope brought the microworld within the range of human perception, science was like a dictionary that told an individual exactly what the world was.

‘They’re all wrong.’

The many understandings of science were all either fantasies, or they were soft, romanticized tales that only satisfied childish curiosity: that’s what Doctor Ref thought.

“What are you thinking about?” Yassir asked.

“It’s nothing.”

Yassir poured some

shay

[1] into Doctor Ref’s teacup.

“...”

“Isn’t it time for your medicine?” Yassir asked.

“Yeah. I’ve been so busy lately, I keep forgetting. Thank you. I never thought you’d remember all this stuff.”

Doctor Ref pulled out her medication from her bag and swallowed a pill.

“What happens if you don’t have it?

“I collapse. I could die,” said Doctor Ref.

It was a condition she had lived with since she was born at the embryology laboratory in America as Isaiah Franklin.

𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

“Did I tell you how I was born?” Doctor Ref asked Yassir.

“You said you were genetically engineered by a scientist named Elsie or something, right?”

“During the Cold War, America was in a state of extreme fear. I mean, who wasn’t in that era? Science went beyond human control from the time the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” Doctor Ref said.

She added, “They probably thought humanity needed to progress, too. That’s why they needed a scientist who could develop technology powerful enough to stop nuclear weapons, or a leader who could take over the world with greater leadership than Hitler, or perhaps a thinker like Marx who could reshape the political leadership with revolutionary ideas… That’s what America needed.”

“I thought they wanted a scientist who could create life?” Yassir asked.

“That was my mother’s delusion. She wasn’t in agreement with the U.S. government. It was ridiculous because not just anyone can create life,” Doctor Ref said. “Anyway, that’s how I was born. Thanks to that, I have the same cellular age as my mother.”

“Is that why you take medication?”

“Yeah. My bone marrow function is a little off…”

“Why don’t you ask Ryu Young-Joon to fix it?”

“Are you crazy?”

“I’m kidding.”

Doctor Ref chuckled as she saw Yassir shake his head.

“How’s the polyomavirus coming along?” she asked.

“We’re still producing it,” Yassir replied.

“How much is there now?”

“Enough to infect about three million people.”

“We still have a long way to go.”

“It’s enough to infect only the people that are likely to become targets.”

“There can’t be

any

civilian casualties. You know that, right?”

Doctor Ref checked with Yassir to be absolutely sure.

“Don’t worry, Doctor. I will make sure it’s done perfectly.”

“Thank you,” Doctor Ref said. “There’s not much time left in my life and our work.”

“How much time do you have left?” Yassir asked.

“I don’t know. A few months at most.”

“... As an old friend, I’ll listen if there’s anything you want to say.”

“All of a sudden?”

Doctor Ref laughed, a little baffled.

“We might not be able to meet again,” Yassir said.

“...”

Doctor Ref, or Isaiah Franklin, was a scientist with one of the most unfortunate fates in science. She was born in the embryology lab of the Genome Institute at the Groom Lake Air Force Base in the United States. She was raised as if she were the next leader of the United States and given the finest education, but was abandoned at the age of five.

‘Because the Cold War was over.’

The era of pretending to be transparent, clean, and democratic had arrived.

Isaiah Franklin’s very existence was America’s vulnerability. It was evidence of their fear in the conflict with the Soviet Union, and the epitome of all kinds of unethical research. She was an anomaly who didn’t belong in the era of a just and democratic Pax Americana.

An order to terminate the project and dispose of the “research material” was given from above. Instead of complying, Elsie fled, taking Isaiah Franklin with her. She came to Palestine, her home, and went into hiding.

“My mother probably still thinks I didn’t notice anything, but I knew that the people at the lab were trying to kill me. I even wrote my last words.”

Doctor Ref chuckled and took a sip of her tea.

She had thought Elsie and her could be a normal mother and daughter back home in Palestine, but she was severely mistaken. Isaiah Franklin had an Anglo-Saxon appearance, with bright blond hair and blue eyes. On top of that, she had no father, and her mother, Elsie, had lived in America for many years but ended up fleeing here empty-handed with her child.

The Jewish community and family back home did not accept them.

‘The wench who went to America, behaved promiscuously, and came back with a white child.’

Elsie was persecuted there as if she were an ethnic traitor.

Elsie traveled between Palestine and Israel, holding Isaiah Franklin’s tiny hands.

“It must have been hard,” Yassir said.

“It was crazy. It was common for us to be dragged away while buying food in the market and getting beaten,” Doctor Ref said.

“Did they hit you, too?”

“A few times, but it was less bad. My mother was beaten like crazy: stomped on, spat on, and beaten with a stick right in front of me,” Doctor Ref said.

“Are they still alive? Considering your personality, I feel like you would have killed them all.”

“I didn’t kill them.”

Doctor Ref chuckled.

“The village we lived in was in the middle of nowhere in Gaza. They had running water, but we couldn’t use it. They had a really simple water system, and they didn’t let us use it, acting like they had spent a lot of money on it,” she said. “So, my mother and I had to fetch water from the river, which was ten kilometers away from the village. When we came back, it was in flames.”

“Flames?”

“The Israeli army dropped white phosphorus bombs there. Everything burned to death.”

“...”

“Funny, right?”

Doctor Ref bursted into laughter.

“I laughed so hard at that sight. I think I used up all the laughter I’ll ever have in my life. I laughed so much to the point where my mom was surprised and asked me why I was laughing. But the situation was so ridiculous. These Arabs, who were so evil to us, were just fruit flies in front of these bigger predators. All I could do was laugh,” she said.

“And that’s when I realized what science is: it’s a way for the powerful to maintain order. Science being about seeing the world correctly is all bullshit. Advancing civilization is just an excuse.”

“...”

Yassir was silent.

“Science is the power that makes the world revolve around America. End of story. There is not a more precise definition,” Doctor Ref said with conviction in her voice. “Although it feels like it revolves around Ryu Young-Joon now.”

“...”

Yassir nodded slowly.

“Phew…”

Doctor Ref sighed and leaned back in her chair.

“We need to meet Rosaline. She’s our only hope,” she said.

“Did I tell you that I met a little girl named Rosaline at the Next Generation Hospital?” Yassir asked.

“Yeah.”

Doctor Ref stood up. She put on her cap and backpack.

“Where are you going?” Yassir asked.

“I’m going to see Asham.”

“You’re still seeing him?”

“That idiot is still our cash cow. We need to squeeze a little more out of him.”

*

Abdul Asham had been in a state of extreme fear for half an hour. He was more scared than the time he took his older brother’s McLaren, which was one of ten worldwide, without his permission and trashed it.

“You have two chances remaining,” Young-Joon said.

This crazy bastard walked into Asham and demanded that Abdul give him everything they knew about Doctor Ref.

“Doctor Ref? Who is that?”

Of course, Abdul Asham reacted by pretending to not know anything at all, but Young-Joon smiled ominously and sat down across from him.

“Mr. Asham, she is the beautiful blond woman who used to ride in your supercar. Don’t you know her? I heard she worked at Asham for a while.”

“...”

“Her real name is Isaiah Franklin. She looks like this.”

Young-Joon showed him a photo of Doctor Ref.

“This woman is a high-risk terrorist who is now one of the most wanted international fugitives, and she is responsible for the biological attack on the GSC and Xinjiang Uygur.”

“A terrorist?”

“She most likely helped found a company called Philistines, and she infiltrated Asham and stole the

botulinum

strain from your distribution network to supply them with the strain they’re using now.”

Abdul froze. His mind was racing with interpretations of this situation.

“I need you to be honest with me about your relationship with Doctor Ref.”

Abdul gulped. His father’s words about being careful with women had never hit so hard. He shuddered thinking about what kind of disgrace it would bring to his royal family if he said he had no idea he was meeting with a terrorist, paying her, and providing her with a supply chain.

“... I don’t know… what you are talking about… I don’t know anyone like that.”

Abdul maintained his attitude.

“Really?”

‘Yes.”

“Mr. Asham, do you know what an fMRI is?” Young-Joon asked.

“An fMRI?”

“It’s a machine that measures cerebral blood flow. It shows which parts of the brain are activated. When you lie, the blood supply to the frontal, temporal, and the parietal lobe increases, which is observed on an fMRI. In the United States, companies like NO LIE MRI use this to provide lie detection services.”

“...”

“But actually, I have an uncanny ability to tell when people are lying without using an fMRI,” Young-Joon said. “I’ll only listen to two more lies of yours.”

“Well… What are you going to do if I lie? No matter how great you are, you’re just a civilian. I am a member of the royal family, Saudi’s government. Are you saying you’re going to go to war with the United States?”

“Of course not.”

Young-Joon shook his head.

“Then are you going to threaten me with the cold chain? You’re going to push our company out of competition by putting your cold chain in some third-rate shell corporation called Karpu or something? You think I will cower at that type of threat…”

“Most of the world’s power plants run on coal or natural gas, not oil anyway,” Young-Joon said. “There’s still a long way to go before electric vehicles benefit from solar cells because it’s not about power generation efficiency but about ESS efficiency, like power loading and charging speed. Thus, you think you will still remain competitive since oil will continue to be used in vehicles, ships, and the arms industry, right?”

“...”

“It took me about three weeks to develop the solar cells. Do you want me to contact Tesla and offer to increase the power load and charging speed of their car batteries? As long as I have the solar cells, I can have that done in the next month.”

“That… What?”

“And with a little touch to the metabolism of

E. coli

, I can turn glucose into gasoline. They’re all carbon complexes anyway, right?”

“...”

“Mr. Asham,” Young-Joon said.

“... Y-Yes?”

“I want to get Doctor Ref. Please cooperate.”

“H… How?”

“Please bring her here.”

“... I don’t have her contact information.”

The parietal lobe was activated in Abdul’s brain.

“You have one chance left. The next time, A-GenBio will produce oil and sell it to Saudi Arabia,” Young-Joon said.

“...”

1. a common type of tea served in the Arab world ?