Shaw does the unthinkable

With a gentle grip, and a single shake that traveled from Shaw’s elbow and up Zoe’s arm... He released her, a mercifully short physical interaction.

“I’m sure you’re wondering why I’m here. Why I’m doing all this.”

The rather unattractive man said conversationally, stepping back and gripping the inside hem of his dress jacket.

“It’s because I needed to be here. Talking to you. It’s urgent...”

He started to say, interrupted by a small fit of coughing, he had the courtesy at least to turn and cough into his elbow. He continued speaking once he recovered.

“It’s... My daughter, she was at work. At my labs... There was some kind of accident...”

After his little fit of coughs his voice was slightly more bearable to listen to.

“I can tell you all we know, and if you’d be willing to help, all your top scientists. I’d seriously consider the... Feasibility... Of the Hideki acquisition. But if you don’t... Well I’ve always told Vanessa I’d move heaven and earth to make sure she’d be alright. And I’ll be damned if I let a couple billion dollars stand in the way of her survival.”

He said, displaying his first redeeming quality, a father’s conviction and determination. Well, aside from the humility involved with coming here and spilling out his request. A long... Quiet moment passed, the man was laying out all his cards, what seemed like a nightmare this morning had turned into having all the leverage over one of Hideki’s biggest rivals. Zoe was considering things... It wasn’t that she didn’t want to help, but working with Shaw had a way of snowballing, Hideki once had a department contracted to help his company build a more efficient type of motor, and they were designing a perpetual motion machine by the end of it, so there was no guarantee Shaw wouldn’t rope them into fixing more and more of his mistakes with the threat of acquisition looming over them, and there was no real guarantee he’d retract that either...

“Let’s get Dr. Walker in here first, and consider our options once we’ve heard what happened to your daughter... I assume she’s in stable condition?”

Zoe finally asked, her normally lax, elegant tone was replaced by one that showed how clearly she detested the blob of a man before her. She didn’t even try to hide it, and she wouldn’t like doing any of this until she saw exactly how much she could tie him down with an agreement in writing. A call was made, Shaw tapped at his phone a few times and dabbed at his forehead with a handkerchief that did nothing to assuage his oily visage... And with a soft “ding” from outside the room, Chloe’s elevator arrived, and a few seconds after that, Chloe entered, inhabiting the body of her assistant, Amanda.

“Good! Good, Dr. Walker, err... Shall I start?”

Shaw asked, pointedly glancing at you... This was the second time he had implied you were nothing more than a bystander, and as a retort welled up deep inside, Zoe beat you to it. Her voice was filled with more venom than you’d ever heard come from her...

“Of the four people in this room. Shaw. Three of them would be incredibly instrumental in restoring your daughter’s condition to normal, and the fourth probably had some hand in causing it in the first place. Emily is my most trusted peer and advisor, and if you continue to consider her some form of detriment, assisting you will be the last thing any of us do.”

Zoe said, and Shaw recoiled, as if struck, he sputtered for a second, about to ask her how dare she speak to him like that, only to remember why he was there.

“V-Very well... My daughter was head of a department operating with research in Stem Cells and their application restructuring themselves into various shapes and sizes... However, the scope expanded, the cells don’t simply do whatever one wants on a whim, they need a remote... A control... And the team decided something a little... Quantum entangled, might be the solution. But they hit wall after wall, so close, and yet, the theories and strategies required theoretical elements, I could no longer justify the existence of that department to the board of directors... So... They were going to shut her down, and my little girl... My Vanessa... She did something rash. At first, she was barely holding together, more a roiling mass of flesh than a person, but we got it contained, and are still getting readings from a brain scan... Shes still alive in there, and she’s begging for help, but she was the one who knew that stuff best, how it worked, not even starting on how to reverse it. She has had some success exerting her own will on the cells of her body, she can nearly hold herself together, but it seems akin to holding the waves back from a sand castle you’ve made with your bare hands, support one spot, and another tower falls, focus on the sides, and lose the middle... So...”

The metaphor put a horrifying picture in your mind, a body trying to build itself... Only to have it fall apart at the slightest distraction... Raw nerves, tangled plexuses, she must have been in agony, but still fighting to live.