The stony grey building towered the corner of the city. It is a place where trades were transacted every day. We can see there are many customers every day.
Diane walked into the business lounge, tablet in hand. Clean marbled tiles covered the entire area. Bossa nova played constantly in the background. A fresh eucalyptus smell permeated the atmosphere.
A sales transaction was about to be confirmed. Jeff, the sales manager, was attending to an affluent-looking couple. From the sparkle in their eyes, Jeff was doing a good job making his customers happy.
Jeff looked up and met Diane’s stare. He nodded lightly. Diane approached the table and greeted the couple. The names on her tablet were Eric and Marianne Fan. Eric is the President and CEO of FANtastic, a premier manufacturer of sports equipment in MudCon City.
“Good day, Mr. and Mrs. Huntington. I trust Jeff here has helped you find what you were looking for?” Diane flashed a professional smile, exposing the white pebbles behind her rose-red lips.
“Yes! We got what we wanted. It’s precisely what I need! Thank you! I can now have a few glasses when I go for holidays in Phuket.”
“I am glad to hear that, Mr. Fan. Now, could you please confirm your order here.” Diane presented her tablet to Eric Fan, who looked into the screen. The screen read his iris and confirmed the sales. At the same time, payment was made. That was a large sum for ordinary folks. Not so for Eric Fan.
“We will be back in two days to collect it.” Eric could not hide his smile. Neither could Marianne.
Diane saw them off the building, “We will be expecting you Thursday morning.”
Once Eric and Marianne were out of sight, Diane’s smile faded. She nodded her approval to Jeff on her way back to the elevator. That’s his third sales this week. He was really picking up.
Diane exited the elevator on the third floor. She made her way to the entrance of the lab marked “Pertumbuhan”. She glanced at the biometric lock and the door opened. Diane stepped in.
The moment the door closed behind her, the bossa nova music was shut out, replaced by the humming of many machines and the throbbing drone of climate fans. The eucalyptus smell was replaced by a dank stench of raw blood. The white marbles gave way to steel floor designed to be easy to clean.
Vertical glass vats of different sizes lined the lab. And this was just one of many labs in the building. And the building was simply one of many in the country. Inside the vats are blobs of different sizes and shapes cultivating the growth of different things.
Diane approached vat N74. The blob inside had several liver masses growing out of it. Mechanical tubes pierced the blob, forcing nutrients required for the growth of livers. Among the 4 liver masses, N74-03 was just booked and sold to Eric Fan. It will be transplanted into his body in two days.
Much care was put into cultivating livers for different needs, blood types, mass size, and antibodies. Different buyers need different things.
This is the same for other body parts, like the spleen, the lungs, and the hearts. The hearts command a much higher price. The configurations for a heart were much more complicated. And it was considerably harder to grow a complete heart, despite the advancement of technology.
Diane looked at N74-03, and she was satisfied with the growth. She then decided to survey the other vats before she attended to another sales confirmation.
The lungs were coming along fine. So were the ears, the teeth, and the fingers.
Then Diane noticed something improper in the gallbladder section. The blobs were “created” by cloning real human tissues harvested by loan sharks and black market operators. This particular blob in vat U131 had a faint rabbit tattoo. That was a no-no in this business. The cobalt and lead could leak into the gallbladders the blob was feeding.
Diane snapped a photo of vat U131 with her tablet and marked it down as a defect. She then tapped the red X on the screen to authorize an immediate purge. The nutrient fluid filling the vat was drained instantly. A high-pressured spray of corrosive solvent entered the vat from the top. The blob, along with the five gallbladders knocked against the inner surface of the vat. Within seconds, the blog, along with the five gallbladders were gone, leaving behind a bubbling and bloody mess. Even that was quickly drained.
Feeling her work was done here, Diane decided to get ready for the next sales confirmation. When she passed by the eyes section (so many colours! Black, hazel, brown, blue, green!), all the eyes attached to their respective blobs turned to her direction and followed her. Without eyelids, they could not blink. Diane was used to this. She paid no attention to the stares.
Out of the lab and back to the bossa nova music, white marbled floor and fresh eucalyptus smell. The smile crawled back to Diane’s face as she prepared to seal another deal. This time, for a stomach.
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