Chapter 5 - first taste (pt.3)

“You don’t want to hear more?”

“No, I just wanna try what you’ve made!”

“Ah, of course. I figured you’d want to anyway. Let’s go downstairs - and be surprised.” Clover and Markus returned to the stairs, descending multiple flights until reaching a dim metal door. He stopped to explain to her, "Most of this level is under restricted access. In fact, beyond this door is a secret entrance. I’ll explain further when we get there,” the boyfriend opened the door, letting a musty smell radiate the area.

“Gross… ugh. What’s in here?” she moved past him, searching for a light switch.

“Power generators, furnaces, all the lot. The stuff that keeps the lights on, air cool, and our little lab hidden. The man flipped on the lights, revealing the aged machinery. “Everything works, but yeah, the presentation could use a bit of elbow grease.”

“So, where is this lab?”

“If you walk in between these two machines on the right side of the room…” Markus traveled past two rectangular generators. A whirring sound alerted the girl as a tunnel on the other side of the room opened up. “...the way will open.” He returned to her, “The laboratory was the first thing done to this whole establishment.” The well-dressed man guided Clover into the tunnel. Once though, he manually sealed the entry.

“So, do I have access?”

“Not at the moment, but you will. Before we go I’ll put you in the system. Very few people even know about its existence. What’s really interesting, one of my confidants informed me of a company that creates secret hideouts. I’m sure you’ve actually infiltrated through some of their facilities in prior missions.”

“Oh really?” Clover confidently said with a laugh, “Most of the time it was easy…”

Markus wagged his index finger, “Not this time. The hidden entrance and Lab is impossible to detect by the naked eye, feel, and even tectonic scans. What I walked through to gain entry was a state-of-the-art biometric scanner. Pretty much if you don’t match the record, nothing will happen.”

“Gee, you really went the extra mile.”

“On top of that, there’s an emergency exit. Speaking of which, there’s a self destruct button.”

“What?!”

“I personally wanted one. Hear me out… If WHOOP finds out everything and searches for evidence, I can with one press, disable all electronics… or destroy this whole hidden facility. It’s a complicated process, but the factory would remain intact, and best of all, undisturbed.”

“Alright… I hope you’ll never have to use that.”

“It’s okay if that were to happen, I have backups of all the information here. It’ll be a minor setback, or at worse, I’ll reformulate and start everything over under a new name. I got this all planned out, my love.”

Clover ogled at the sheer confidence her boyfriend radiates, “I can’t believe how thorough you are.” The two stopped at a white paneled door, where Markus twisted the handle and pulled it open.

“After you…” he voiced kindly. The romantically charged spy entered the grey walled and white tiled room. Stainless steel tables and countertops, stacked with test tubes, beakers, microscopes, and other stereotypical laboratory equipment were neatly organized. “What we’ve just entered is where everything begins. We’ve already recreated the sugar extract, and several variants of it.”

“Hm? What’s that?” Clover inspected a fridge filled with blue vials. “Are these what you’re talking about?”

“Yes. Each rack represents strength. From the top to bottom is most concentrated to lightest.”

The curious girl raised on her toes and extracted a vial from the highest point. She gazed at its incredibly bright blue viscosity, “Wow, it’s like a syrup…”

“That right there is double the strength of the original extract,” Markus answered. Clover popped open the cap, startling him, “Wait-a-minute! Don’t drink it!”


“I’m not…” she giggled, “I’m just smelling it. Gosh, It’s so sweet it burns my nostrils.”

Markus took the glass vial out of her possession, capping it. “You know what happened to Bittersweet?”

“Yeah.”

“Drink ing that will cause immediate effects...and who knows how large you’ll be after it’s through your system.” he returned the vial to storage.

“Wow…” Clover remembered how large the villain became, imagining her drinking Markus’ creation and growing endlessly. “...I don’t think I’d want someone to experience that. Oh! So why did you make it?

“It’s to maximize the enlarging effects without compromising the make-up of whatever we create,” Markus explained.

“Oh, I see, so we could sneak whatever into say-bread-and have Passion Patty Bread?”

“I suppose, though putting it into non-dessert food is something we haven’t tried yet. Come, let’s go to the tasting room, where I think you’ll have fun,” the boyfriend ordered, guiding the way into a smaller room.

When Clover stepped in, she noticed what seemed to be four large and wide lounge chairs with side tables. In the center, a large tarp draped over a machine, concealing it completely. The whole room reminded her of something, but couldn’t quite recall. Absentmindedly, she plopped herself on the large, round orange plush chairs. “The tasting room… why so cozy?”

“It’s for any special guests who want to try the latest and greatest creations.”

“What’s with the huge thing in the middle?”

“Oh, that’s the… assistant. It’s still getting tinkered around with, and when It’s complete, will be voice-activated, and can be given orders to get things around the lab. Dr. Roberts will be using this more than me.”

“Has she seen the lab?”

“She loves it. Of course, I’m happy to accommodate her needs and wants to get the job done.”
“That’s good…”

“Okay, since you’re comfy and all, I’m gonna step out and grab some samples. Don’t go anywhere.”

The eighteen-year-old nodded and reclined back, “This is so spacious… I could fit two of me here.” she thought. On her right side, a small console of buttons drew her curiosity. A button in shaped of a TV was the first to be pressed. The ceiling opened up to reveal a large television. “The buttons beneath it must be for this.” On the left-hand side, more vibrantly colored buttons enticed, “Red button… it has a cross on it. It’s probably for help or something. But what are the other ones…” she pressed one, daring to find out.

Suddenly the covered machine came to life, causing Clover to yelp in surprise. Markus rushed in the room, “What’s going on?!” realizing what his lover had done. He moved to the machine, sliding underneath the cover to deactivate it. “I should’ve said not to touch those buttons yet.”

“I thought that machine didn’t work!?”

“I said it needed to be tinkered with,” the man pushed it back to the room’s center. “Okay,” he sighed in relief, “I have a few things for you to try. First is the recreated Passion Patty. Dr. Roberts claims this is 99.9 percent of Inga Bittersweet’s recipe. Next is what I call, Passion Patty-lite, a toned-down version where the fattening and addictive effects are more subdued. This I hope is something we’ll be able to put to market without WHOOP or the government getting all upon us.”

(Continued...--->)