Chapter 201: The same pattern?

It was well past midnight when Sienna finally stopped looking at the clock.

The laboratory had grown quiet hours ago.

During the day, the place was never still. Machines hummed constantly. Doors opened and closed. Researchers moved between the glass cubicles with files tucked beneath their arms, speaking in low voices as they checked results and compared samples.

Tonight, there was only the faint mechanical hum of the equipment.

And Sienna.

She sat alone inside her glass cubicle, the pale light from the computer screen washing over her face. A few strands of hair had fallen loose around her cheeks, but she hadn’t bothered pushing them back.

She had been sitting there for hours. She should have been asleep. She knew that. Everyone had told her to rest. But sleep wouldn’t come. Not tonight.

They had brought everything she needed into the cubicle so she wouldn’t have to leave the testing equipment, the files, the monitors, even the smaller machines she normally used in the main laboratory.

It looked almost like a private laboratory built around her. Sienna leaned closer to the computer. Another set of results appeared on the screen.

She stared at them for several seconds. Then she heard footsteps. She looked up.

Dr. Philips stood outside the glass door, one hand resting against the frame. He looked tired. His white coat was slightly wrinkled, and there were dark circles beneath his eyes.

"You should get some rest, Sienna." She gave him a small smile. "I’m okay, Dr. Philips."

"You’ve been saying that for hours."

"I mean it." She leaned back in her chair. "I actually feel great." That was the problem. The smile slowly disappeared from her face.

"That’s what’s starting to feel strange."

"You remember the patient in Room 307?"

"Yes."

"The one who came in a few days ago?" Dr. Philips nodded.

"She started showing symptoms very early," Sienna said quietly. "You remember how quickly it happened."

"I remember." Sienna glanced down at her hands.

"That’s why I don’t understand it."

"Understand what?"

"I don’t feel sick." The words sounded almost ridiculous when she said them aloud.

She looked perfectly healthy. Her hands weren’t trembling. Her breathing was steady. There was no fever, no weakness, no pain.

Nothing.

And yet everyone around her was watching her as though they were waiting for something terrible to begin.

"I know," Dr. Philips said. His voice had softened.

"But it’s still early." Sienna looked back at the computer.

"That’s what everyone keeps telling me."

Dr. Philips walked closer to the sealed glass.

"You need to start taking the vitamins. They may help slow the progression."

"I will."

"And we’d also like to take your blood sample." Sienna finally looked at him.

"We need to monitor the changes carefully. If there is anything unusual happening inside your body, we need to see it before the symptoms become obvious."

There was something in the way he said it. Careful. Almost afraid. Sienna noticed.

"Don’t worry," she said. "I’m already working on that." Dr. Philips frowned.

"You are?" She turned back toward the computer.

"I ran the analysis myself." His expression changed immediately.

"You did?" Sienna clicked through several files.

"I wanted to know what was happening before we started guessing." The machine beside her gave a soft electronic beep. She opened the report. Sienna stared at the numbers on the screen.

For a moment, neither of them spoke. Then she whispered, "There’s something strange about this."

Dr. Philips asked. "What’s strange?"

"I’ve seen these results before." He looked at her.

"Where?" Sienna hesitated. Then she turned in her chair. "Years ago." Something flickered across Dr. Philips’s face.

Sienna noticed. "You remember?" He was quiet for a moment. "Remember what?"

"The blood analysis you asked me to do years ago." His face went still.

"You were having those fainting spells," he said slowly. "And I was in pain."

"Yes."

"I remember." Dr. Philips said. "There was something unusual in your blood even then."

Sienna swallowed. "But I never finished the analysis."

"No."

"Why?" Dr. Philips’s eyes dropped. "Because the sample disappeared." Sienna stared at him.

He paused. "It went missing from the laboratory." Sienna’s fingers slowly tightened around the edge of the desk.

"You never found it?"

"No."

"How does a blood sample just disappear from a laboratory?"

"It shouldn’t."

His answer came too quickly. Sienna looked at him. Dr. Philips sighed.

"I remember that incident very clearly. Your case was unusual. You were young, you were having unexplained fainting spells, and you were experiencing pain we couldn’t properly account for."

"I’ve sent the analysis to your system." Sienna turned back toward the computer. A notification appeared on Dr. Philips’s tablet

He opened the file. His eyes moved slowly across the results. Once. Then again. He didn’t speak. Sienna watched his face through the reflection in the glass.

"What?" He didn’t answer. "Dr. Philips?" He finally looked up. "This is strange." Sienna gave a nervous little laugh.

"That’s exactly what I said."

"No." He shook his head slowly. "You don’t understand."

"This isn’t just strange." Sienna looked at the screen. For several seconds, she couldn’t make sense of what she was seeing. Then her smile disappeared.

"That’s impossible." His expression had changed. Sienna noticed it immediately. "What is it?" He didn’t answer at first. Instead, he looked back at the screen. Then he slowly exhaled.

"This kind of pattern..." He paused, scrolling through the report again. "It looks similar to the virus we’ve been examining." Sienna’s eyes narrowed.

"The same pattern?"

"Not exactly." He stepped closer to the glass. "There are differences, but some of the markers are behaving in a very similar way." Sienna turned back toward her computer.

She pulled up the virus research files and placed them beside her blood analysis. One after another, the results appeared across the screen. She compared them carefully.

Her eyes moved from one column to the next. Then she stopped. "I noticed that too."

Dr. Philips looked at her.

"You did?" Sienna nodded slowly. "Look here." She pointed toward the screen. "The response is almost identical."

Dr. Philips leaned closer. For a moment, the only sound in the laboratory was the quiet hum of the machines. Sienna’s mind began moving faster.

"If this is connected..." She stopped. Her eyes remained fixed on the results. Then something occurred to her. "The formula."

Dr. Philips frowned. "What about it?"

"The cure." She turned toward him. "If these markers are reacting the same way, we could use this to revise the formula." Dr. Philips didn’t speak. Sienna’s voice grew quieter.

"This could be what we’ve been missing." He looked at the results again. "Well..." He rubbed a hand over his jaw, thinking.

"I suppose we could try." Sienna stared at him. "We could?"

"We’d have to run it through several tests first. We can’t assume the results will translate directly."

"I know."

"But..." He looked at her blood analysis again. "This could give us a new direction." Sienna slowly leaned back in her chair. A strange feeling settled over her.

For the first time that night, she wasn’t thinking about whether she was going to get sick. She was thinking about why she wasn’t sick already. Dr. Philips seemed to have reached the same thought.

"There’s something else." Sienna looked at him. "If your blood is reacting this way..." He hesitated. "It could mean you’ve been exposed to something similar before."

Sienna’s brow furrowed. "Before?"

"Possibly." He looked uncomfortable now. "There’s another possibility."

"What?" Dr. Philips lowered his voice. "You may have taken the cure before." Sienna stared at him. For a second, she almost laughed. "The cure?"

"Yes."

"But I’ve never taken it."

"Not knowingly." That stopped her. Dr. Philips continued carefully.

"If your body was exposed to an earlier version of the treatment, it’s possible it changed the way your body responds. It could have altered certain biological pathways. Maybe even affected how your immune system recognizes the virus."

Sienna’s eyes dropped to her hands. "So you’re saying..."

"I’m saying we don’t know yet." He raised his tablet slightly.

"This blood work is telling us something, but we need a complete analysis before we can say exactly what." Sienna swallowed.

"What if you’re right?" Dr. Philips gave her a tired smile. "Then we may have just found something very important." He looked at her through the glass.

"I wish I could hug you right now." Despite everything, Sienna smiled.

"You can come inside."

"I can’t." She looked at the sealed door between them.

"Right."

"The isolation protocol is there for a reason."

"I know." He smiled faintly. "But believe me, if I could, I would." Sienna looked back at the screen. The numbers were still there. She wanted to believe it was a coincidence.

Maybe it was. Maybe there was another explanation. Maybe the blood analysis was simply showing an unusual response that had nothing to do with the cure. But deep down, she didn’t believe that.

Not anymore. The thought sounded almost absurd. Almost like some terrible joke. She had been worried all night that she would wake up sick. Yet what if the reason she wasn’t sick was that her blood already knew how to fight the virus?

What if she’d been protected long before she even knew there was something to protect herself from? Sienna slowly leaned back in her chair.