“Do you have them?”

“Yes, sir. I have them both.”

“Bring them here.” A balding man stepped out of a shadow into the dim light of the laboratory. He quickly stepped up to a table before an impeccably dressed man sitting in an armchair. The chair looked oddly out of place in the stainless-steel lab, but this man was not one to tolerate anything less than the best for himself.

The balding man placed two vials on the table. One was filled with a red liquid that looked unsettlingly like blood. The other was filled with a substance that wasn’t quite liquid or gas, but something in between. Colorless, but at the same time an entire spectrum.

The corners of the man’s mouth twitched, forming the barest hint of a smile. A good sign. “Excellent, Kanz. You’ve finally proven to me that you are useful for something other than target practice.” His voice was filled with mirth, and Kanz fidgeted, waiting to be excused. The man’s voice turned hard and steely. “Or have you? Show me it works. I hope, for your sake, that it does.”

“Yes, sir. I assure you it will work.” But his hands shook as he said these words.

Kanz put both vials onto a rack and took the lids off. His hands were still shaking as he put the lids carefully on the table away from where he was working. Next, he took an eyedropper and inserted it into the vial of the shimmery substance. He drew up only a tiny amount, only as much as was absolutely necessary. He held the dropper over the now open vial of blood. He waited a beat, steadying his hand, and dropped two drops of the substance into the blood, which absorbed the drops without even a splash. He held his breath, and counted silently to the rhythm of his beating heart. One… two… three… four… five… six… seven… eight… nine… ten...

Kanz breathed out a sigh of relief. The blood had turned a steely gray.

“Good work, Kanz.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Now get out.”

“Right away.”

Kanz slipped outside into the night, relieved that he was still alive, but at the same time feeling almost unbearable guilt because he knew that shortly, someone else wouldn’t be so lucky.