Flying to another country wasn't as easy as it seemed. Since their destination was far in the east, they had to fly over several countries, for which security clearance was needed. It would otherwise considered an invasion unless any city called for help.
Lucas felt guilty when he saw Ryker and Vance contacting the authorities in other countries and seeking permission to fly over. But when he thought how this search might yield some answers, he swallowed his guilt and waited.
Patrick didn't bother him much and started experimenting with the formula for the tranquilizers since the current ones no longer worked on the monsters.
He kept mixing and creating formulas, recording his observations each time. But there wasn't much progress. It wasn't easy for him to create a drug when he couldn't test its effects.
Lucas's brows knitted into a frown. He stared hard at the tranquilizer Patrick was experimenting and a weird thought sprang into his mind.
"Patrick, you told me you've never captured any monsters and performed any tests on them. Didn't you?" Lucas asked, his mind waddling in a bizarre direction.
"Yes. They'll kill us before we can even get to them. How can we think of capturing in such a situation?" Patrick said, his tone laced with defeat.
"In that case, how did you find out that the tranquilizers you created could paralyze them?" Lucas finally voiced his doubt.
Patrick paused his experiment and leaned back, giving Lucas a cryptic look.
"It wasn't easy actually," he mumbled with a sigh. "I had been experimenting and researching about mutagens for quite some time. I guess it happened to help us."
Lucas wasn't convinced by his vague answer. Patrick was hiding something for sure. He didn't miss how the man kept avoiding his eyes while speaking to him.
"I see. You sure were lucky," Lucas remarked, suppressing his curiosity for the time being. He didn't know what the man was hiding. But it wasn't the time for him to force him to say anything.
Patrick just shrugged lightly and returned to his experiment.
"Since there is a possibility that these monsters were humans before, can't we just increase the ratio of the sedatives? Xylazine or barbiturates perhaps?"
Lucas was glad that except for the geography, everything else in the world was identical to Earth. Otherwise, he'd have gone crazy trying to learn everything anew.
"I have tried and tested everything. The current mixture is the strongest I can create without any of us humans getting affected. But the monsters-" Patrick shook his head, raising his hand in frustration.
"Nothing works on them. It's as if they have some sort of immunity to all kinds of poisons and drugs." Patrick sighed, running a hand through his salt and pepper-colored hair.
Lucas tapped his fingers on his thighs and pursed his lips. He understood Patrick's problem. Unless they captured a fiend and studied its anatomy and physiology, they could only rely on trial and error methods.
Ryker and Vance had been gone for quite some time. Since he didn't know how long it'd take them, Lucas stood up and looked at the research materials on the table.
At first, he was only skimming through it. But as he read, his forehead creased and he became more invested. He was familiar with some of the chemical reactions. However, there were quite a few he couldn't quite comprehend.
"Are these the compounds you used to create the tranquilizer?" he asked, tapping his fingers at some of the drugs that he knew were banned in most of the countries on Earth.
"Yes. It is the current mixture ratio. I'm trying to check where we can modify to create a stronger tranquilizer."
Lucas nodded, returning to the file at hand. Although he knew all the chemicals registered in the file, he had never used a lot of them. So, he couldn't quite share anything regarding the matter.
But there was one thing that caught his attention. He noticed that one drug in particular could degenerate the cells and he had never heard of it before.
The drug, ND-0, was only mentioned and wasn't used in any of the chemical reactions.
"Umm... Patrick," Lucas hesitated, not knowing how to raise the topic.
What if his question made the man beside him suspect him?
'Should I ask him or not?'
Lucas dithered, not knowing what to do. In a dilemma, he looked at Patrick who was already staring at him.
'Fuck it! If he suspects me, so be it.'
With that thought, he leaned against the table, turning his body until he was facing Patrick.
"What is this ND-0? I don't think I've ever heard about this," he questioned, mustering all his courage.
"Oh, that? ND-0 or Degrexin is a drug that causes irreversible cellular unraveling. You might not have heard about it because only a few people know about it. Moreover, it's banned completely."
"Why is it mentioned in the report then?" Lucas asked, giving Patrick a look he couldn't quite decipher.
"I wanted to create a tranquilizer using ND-0. But I'm unable to get my hands on it. The people who created it have been wiped out and none of the other researchers know how to create it."
Lucas didn't respond immediately. But his mind started to run, his brain sending him all sorts of analysis and possibilities.
'Was it a coincidence that the people who created ND-0 and the ones who were researching about cloning and mutagens have all been wiped out completely? What mystery is this?'
Lucas didn't have many abilities except for his outstanding knowledge of biochemistry. But he was exceptionally perceptive and his intuitions had been accurate many times.
He understood that it wasn't a mere coincidence. There was a strong connection between all the mysterious incidents and surprisingly, everyone around him had overlooked it.
Lucas wanted to probe more. But Ryker and Vance returned at that exact time, putting a halt to his curiosity.
"We've got the permission," Ryker informed loudly and made a dramatic gesture of pointing his finger at Lucas. "I'm going to charge you for this. Do you have any fucking idea how much we had to negotiate with the other countries?"
"Sorry," Lucas snuck his tongue out and apologized cheekily. If he wasn't damn sure that they'd find answers in the city where the first attack happened, he would never have troubled them.
Ryker snorted and glared at him.
But Lucas knew that the man wasn't annoyed even one bit. He was only throwing a tantrum.
"So, when are we leaving?" Lucas asked, eager to leave quickly so that they could find answers.
"Hold your horses, Lucas. We won't be leaving any time soon." Vance intervened, plopping on one of the chairs.
"What do you mean?" Lucas frowned, not understanding what was happening.
"What Vance means is," Ryker answered instead. "We can only leave tomorrow evening."