Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 62: Oops

Chapter 62: Oops

"What would be the benefit of giving me shark DNA?" asked Cheng Bo Jing, staring at the sheet of paper in his hands like it had all the answers.

Maybe it did, but there was no way he knew what those answers were.

All he had was more questions.

"Doctors have been using shark DNA as a form of cancer treatment for the past few years or so. A doctor by the name of Bin An Sha was the first to realize that if sharks could heal themselves so well, then maybe we could harness that aspect of them to heal ourselves," replied Wang Tian Mu. She was sitting in one of the many chairs inside the lab, almost as if she was too tired to move.

"So the military has been giving us a cancer treatment?" Cheng Bo Jing wasn’t an idiot; he knew that wasn’t the case, but he really could not think of any other reason why he had been given something containing shark DNA.

"Do you have cancer?" she asked, twirling around so she was facing the man. Her eyebrow was raised and the look on her face told Cheng Bo Jing she was inches away from hitting him.

"No," he said quickly. If she wanted his entire medical history, he would have the military doctor send her a copy of his file.

"Did they tell you that they were injecting you with shark DNA?"

"No."

"Did they tell you all the potential side effects of the shot and what they were hoping to see when they put you through all of the tests after you recovered?"

"No," Cheng Bo Jing knew that he hadn’t done anything wrong, but he had seen more emotion from the woman in front of him in the last five minutes than he had since he first met her. He didn’t know if he should be happy or scared by the fact that she was dropping her mask around him.

"So the government went against everything ethical and moral in their desire for answers and subject your team to an unwanted study. Against your will. And threatened you if you didn’t comply. Which goes back to the whole against your will part of my statement."

"Kitten," said Cheng Bo Jing as he knelt down in front of Wang Tian Mu. "I am fine. You said it yourself: shark DNA is used to help people recover from illness. There is nothing wrong with them injecting me with it."

The look she gave him was one that he remembered seeing many times on his mother when he had done something stupid. "You are okay with them injecting you with something you don’t know without telling you or getting your consent in any way?"

Wang Tian Mu’s eyes narrowed, and Cheng Bo Jing shuffled uncomfortably.

"No," he admitted. "But it is done, and all we can do is move on from here and try to figure out why."

She hummed and nodded her head. Turning around so that she was facing the desk again, she picked up one of the pieces of paper. Hopefully, she could get the answers he couldn’t.

"It isn’t just shark DNA in here," she finally admitted. "I am just able to identify it better because I had seen it in the study I was telling you about, and the fact that shark DNA is 1.5 times larger than human DNA."

"There are other types of DNA in me, too?" asked Cheng Bo Jing, and for the first time in his life, a shiver of terror went down his spine. Sure, he had been scared before; almost everyone had been at some point in their life, but this was pure terror.

"Two others... I think. I honestly don’t know and can’t tell from here. DNA isn’t really one of my specialties. However, I didn’t know who I could ask to do this, so here I am. I’ll have to see if I can’t get a match on the other genetic markers to tell me what type of species they belong to."

Today was the day for firsts, because this was also the first time Cheng Bo Jing had seen Wang Tian Mu so... stressed.

"It is going to be fine," he assured her as he turned her chair around and pulled her into his arms.

There was a long stretch of silence.

"Do you know if anyone else has gotten this ’vaccine’?" she asked instead of replying to his statement.

"I don’t know," admitted Cheng Bo Jing. "But I will look into it as soon as I go back to work."

"I’m scared," she said at last, her voice so soft he could hardly hear her.

"Don’t be. We are here. There is nothing to be scared of."

-----

Cheng Bo Jing stayed around for another hour while I tried to go through the different types of DNA. But I had no idea what they were using for the other two samples that it was like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

I could just upload the two separate samples I had into the computer and let it do all the work in trying to find a match, but there was a part of me that was worried it would send up too many alarms if someone were monitoring it.

I led him out the staff entrance and helped him dispose of his hazmat suit. There was no other staff around, so I think my little secret was safe. I could honestly say that I hadn’t violated my NDA. I never verbally said anything that I couldn’t. It wasn’t my fault he could see everything for himself.

Well, it was. But this specific NDA stated that I couldn’t tell anyone, not that I couldn’t show them.

Too bad, so sad. Maybe next time, they would be more specific in their directions.

Closing the door behind Cheng Bo Jing, I walked back to my office with the results in hand. I had wiped the machines I was using so that there would be no record of their reports. And just to be on the safe side, I threw the centrifuge and DNA printed onto the floor.

Oops.

Anything to protect my guys.