1Victorine stood in the penthouse of "The Genetics Company" staring out into the night lost in her own thoughts. A knock on the door jolted her back to reality. "Come in". She called out without even bothering to turn around. A boy probably seventeen or eighteen years old stood quietly beside her. Victorine had forgotten about Nathan.
If people had not known any better, they would have thought that Victorine and Nathan was a couple. Although Nathan was already twenty, he had a very boyish face; making him look very much younger .Victorine on the other hand had a rather mature look than her actual age of thirteen. She looked jaded and tired
Her name was Victorine Shayna Franklin. She was the epitome of perfection; to many people she was both beautiful and intelligent. She was much more than intelligent. In fact she was a genius. She had a string of academic qualifications from the top Ivy League universities. She graduated magna cum laude in all. She was young.
That was the year 2105 and many things which were thought impossible had thus far been achieved. One such achievement would was genetic selection. Many parents would go for genetic selection to make sure that their child would receive only the desired traits from either of the parents instead of "allowing nature to take its course". However scientists have yet to be able to control or manipulate the intelligence of the child. It was common to find people walking down the street with supermodel looks but the intelligence of a normal human being.
Victorine and Nathan had met when they were both studying for their Masters in medicine. They were instantaneously drawn to each other and became the best of friends despite the huge age gap. Both of them were interested in anything which had to do with genetics particularly in genetic testing, genetic testing especially Victorine.
She decided to specialize in genetic testing. Why was that so? When Victorine was only six years old she had had to witness her aunt's emotional and fragile state go downhill rapidly. Victorine's parents were constantly overseas for they often had to attend conferences abroad as they too were famous geneticists. Her aunt decided that it was unacceptable to leave a little girl alone and offered to look after Victorine when her parents were away. Victorine's parents were ever so thankful they offered Victorine's aunt free genetic testing. For a great number of years she refused. That was until Victorine turned six; her aunt decided to take the test. The prognosis of the tests revealed that she was prone to Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a type of Lymphoma, which is cancer originating from the white blood cells.
The formally cheerful woman's attitude towards life changed in a matter of a few weeks. She acted as though she was the only person on earth who was prone to Hodgkin's Lymphoma; she moped about the house as she sank deeper and deeper into depression. That eventually led to suicide. Who else but Victorine should be the first to find out that she had committed suicide? Victorine had seen her aunt sprawled on the bed motionless. Although Victorine was only six years old she could understand what had happened. She was able to sympathise with her aunt better than anyone else could. That day as she saw her aunt lying on her death bed, very literally, she swore to herself that as long as it was within her power, she would not allow anyone to suffer as much as her aunt had.
"Want to know something interesting?" Victorine looked at Nathan who just shrugged. She continued on, "well, today as I was walking through the office in Fyshwick, I saw a woman who looked exactly like my aunt. I could not even begin to describe how uncanny it was. You do remember my aunt right? May god bless her soul." Victorine paused for a moment as a sign of respect before continuing "you know it felt as though someone were trying to tell me something. The rumours about the staff being slipshod and uncaring really do not help. " Nathan looked at her as a sign for her to continue. Despite Victorine's monotonic voice Nathan could tell that Victorine was a jumble of emotions. Nathan knew all about the incident which had happened approximately seven years ago. Victorine herself had told him exactly what happened. He sympathised with Victorine. Now Nathan was not only Victorine's best friend but also business partner. They had set up their company "The Genetics Company" only two years ago and already it was flourishing. With over fifty offices across the country and another few hundred abroad, their main office situated in Canberra, Australia.
Victorine stared blankly into space deep in thought. She suddenly asked "What do you see?" Once again Nathan just shrugged allowing Victorine to continue. "Many people will say that they see the beautiful city of Canberra, but what do I see? I see hundreds maybe even thousands of medical facilities situated in just one city. Too many? On the contrary, there is a shortage of good hospices, good institutions all over the country. Why? Genetic tests that's why," Victorine spoke in a slightly agitated tone. Nathan did not need any further explanation from Victorine to know what she was getting at. She then walked out of her office with Nathan following behind.
Even before they walked past, the employees had already stood up ready to bow and greet them. Young as she was Victorine demanded respect and acknowledgement that she was the boss Victorine immediately walked towards the announcement room with Nathan following closely behind. She whispered to Nathan as to tell him what to say over the speakers. "Attention all, we shall be conducting a mass evaluation of all our facilities. All directors please report to meeting room three immediately. All people in charge of the overseas offices please inform them too."
In just a matter of just minutes e-mails were sent to every office all over to globe. Directors from different sectors of the company and cities, either in persons or via video conferencing, were in the meeting room in a matter of minutes. As soon as they were all seated Victorine stood up. "The reason I have asked all of you to come here today is to conduct an immediate employee evaluation" Victorine paused for a moment to allow them to digest her words. "I decided that I shall personally evaluate the main office. I also want all of the Directors and country managers to evaluate all their sub-units and report to me personally. I shall not tolerate any incompetency. They will be fired on spot if I find any incompetency. Oh and I will be starting from the rank and file of the company" With that, she walked out of the meeting room with Nathan following. As predicted by Nathan the first place Victorine went was the psychiatric sector of the building.
The waiting room of the psychiatric sector was entirely white. It was very packed and the noise was unbearable .Many of the patients were screaming, moaning or walking around aimlessly talking to themselves. Many of them had that dazed and glazed looks. Victorine immediately walked out of the room and went to the doctors' offices instead. Many of the psychiatrists' did not notice Victorine as they were busy talking and socialising with each other with. Only a handful was paying attention to their patients. Victorine was astounded by the scene. Muttering to herself she stalked off in a huff once again with Nathan in tail. Abruptly she stopped walking and turned around, Nathan accidently knocking into her in the process. Although feeling frustrated Victorine very calmly picked herself up. "Never mind that, the behaviour of the staff is unacceptable. They need to do their job and not talk. A board meeting should be called immediately." Nathan nodded his head in agreement. "And you will chair the meeting," her tone was final leaving no room for argument. Plugging in her ear phones Victorine turned on her heels and marched out of the building.
Nodding to the rhythm of the music Victorine tried to think of a solution to end all the "madness" but no matter how hard she thought it just would not come to her. An ear piercing scream could be heard in the distance. Victorine turned to where the sound of the scream was coming from and saw a middle aged women standing at the side with her mouth agape pointing at the space above Victorine's head. Victorine tilted her head to see what she was pointing at. Just then, something struck her, at that very moment, she had this brilliant idea in her mind ...a solution to end all the catastrophic effects of Genetic testing. At that moment Victorine slipped into abysmal of darkness. Darkness ...nothing but darkness all around...