NOVEL WEB Chapter 563: Instead of being a drug, it could be a medicine.
The next day in the afternoon —
Jason had been reading the file when his gaze caught something in the papers. His pupils dilated, and he quickly turned to check something on his computer. Scrolling through the vast details, he was finally able to find what he had been looking for.
This …
"How is this possible?" he muttered to himself, and his brows furrowed, realizing what he had missed amidst everything.
His hands moved to pick up the phone receiver from his desk before dialling a connecting number.
After just a beep, the call was answered. "Dr. Clark, do you need anything?" the nurse spoke from the other side of the line.
"Yes. Ask Dr. Zeynep to come to my office right now."
"Okay, Dr Clark. I will relay the message," the nurse affirmed through the line before he kept the receiver back on his desk.
His eyes never left the papers. He kept reading back as if trying to uncover something that was really important.
A knock at his office door interrupted him, and he looked up, immediately permitting the person in. "Yes, come in."
And the door was pushed open by a slender, fair hand.
As Jason had been expecting, a woman doctor clad in a white coat entered with a graceful smile adorning her lips. "Dr. Clark, you asked me here?" she said as if she was curious to know what made the doctor call her so immediately.
Her job was in the laboratory, and she rarely stepped out of there apart from the time when she clocked out.
"Dr. Zeynep, please take a seat," Jason gestured to the chair. "I have something to discuss with you."
The woman nodded before walking inside to take a seat across from him. "Yes, tell me, Dr. Clark. Is it about Oblivion–X?"
In contrast to her curious gaze, his expression was sombre. But he nodded, "Yes, it's related."
He then handed her the file he had opened in front of him.
Zeynep glanced at it, taking it from him to check. "Is this the test report of the chocolate you brought the last time?" she asked to confirm, and seeing him nod, she looked down at what he wanted her to check.
This was the report she drafted herself. Of course, she had known the details from earlier.
"Yes, what about this?" she asked, not finding anything different in it than what she knew. "The traces of Oblivion—X were very clear in them."
"Look at the composition," Jason mentioned, pointing her to look down at the table where the details were tabularly classified.
Zeynep didn't understand. Looking down, she read it again. "Yes, the composition of the drug is quite less, but as I have mentioned even before, even the smaller composition could be hazardous if stimulated inside a human body for long."
Although it was just 0.005 ml, it doesn't change much of the story.
She might not know much about the drug, but whatever she had studied until now, this was something she was very clear about.
Jason shook his head at her. "That's not what I asked you to look at," he said before raising her chin back to gesture at the report. "Look at the overall composition. Don't you feel there is something strange in it?"
Zeynep's brows furrowed in a frown, and she looked down again. She still didn't seem to realize what Jason was referring about.
Sensing her confusion, he spoke, "Apart from the Oblivion–X, there are two more components found in the ingredients of the chocolate." '
And it was then that Zeynep noticed which two components he was talking about. "Yes. The component of the synthetic neurodegenerative peptide and Nemorazine-D." Realization flashed in her gaze, and she looked up, clearly stupefied by it.
Jason nodded to her, understanding the realization in her gaze. "Exactly!" he said, "That's brainstem stablizing compound that had the properties to regulate levels of acetylcholine and dopamine in the human body that Oblivion-X is known to disrupt, causing the dissociative memory loss."
He then turned and adjusted the computer screen in a way that the document displayed on it became clear for Zeynep to read. "Here, see this."
Zeynep leaned in to check, and right as Jason had mentioned, it was written there. "How did I miss to see this?" She had been very careful in testing it. Missing such an important clue was not expected from her. "I am truly sorry, Dr. Clark. I didn't realize that I was missing such an important detail. I have been very careful but —"
She didn't know how to explain.
But Jason didn't need her to explain. He shook his head at her, "Oblivion—X is an undocumented, half-researched drug, Zeynep. Missing a few of its details is pretty normal. I don't blame you, but we need to clearly find this out."
He then paused, his eyes growing serious. "You know what the mention of this could be, right?" he asked, and the lady doctor nodded.
"Yes, Dr. Clark," she said, looking back in the file. "This could be a turning point in our research. Although I still need to run a few tests to be sure about it. But the properties we have studied about Synaptocline-7 and Nemorazine-D, it could be said that the presence of Oblivion–X in the chocolate is not what we deduced it to be. It could be something else."
Like, instead of being a drug, it could be a medicine.
Jason nodded. He wasn't sure, but his instincts only supported the rare possibility.
"I need you to go and look into it then," he said, taking a slow breath.
Zeynep stood, pushing the chair behind. "I will get on it right away, Dr. Clark."
Jason nodded to her in subtle appreciation. "Then by what time should I expect you to report back?" he asked before adding, "As you know, this matter is kind of important to me. I don't want delay in it."
"I understand the reason behind your concern, Dr. Clark" Zeynep said, her tone laced with empathy. "Don't worry this won't take long. I will give you the report by the end of the day."