THEY arrived at the infirmary, and the doctor had Mia scrub her hand with soap and water to disinfect the scratch. It hurt, but Mia knew how bad animal-human transmission diseases could be, so she made sure to do a thorough job.
While this was going on, Felix was pacing back and forth across the room. Meanwhile, Henrik was silent, deep in thought about something. Mathias was moaning to himself.
“Why would Luna do something like that?”
Mathias was rubbing his temples, clearly shocked that the cute rabbit he’d doted on was capable of wounding a human in this way.
“It was crazed.”
Mathias’s head whipped around, his red eyes glaring at Henrik for that remark.
“It’s your fault! Talking the way you were, you freaked her out!”
“Freaked her out…”
Henrik was muttering, Mathias’s rage seeming to go right over his head.
“Red eyes…sudden acts of crazed violence when under extreme stimulus…”
Mia gasped, staring at Henrik.
“Wait, you can’t possibly mean…?”
Felix was gazing at Henrik too, his expression tormented.
A terrible sense of doom washed over Mia. The symptoms exactly matched those of Angel Tears. Could this possibly just be a coincidence?
“We still have no idea where that rabbit came from. All we know is…it’s not one of the medical or pharmacological department test subjects.”
Henrik got to his feet.
“There’s something I need to go check…”
“What? Where are you going?”
“I need to see Professor Fair and Square Bralle.”
Mia didn’t know what he was talking about.
“But why?”
It was Felix who asked that. With her treatment complete, Mia got up off the stool. There was no way they could let Henrik go alone.
“Bralle’s in charge of keeping count of the rabbit test subject numbers.”
“Can ya speak so that the rest of us can understand?”
Mathias rolled his eyes in frustration. Henrik paused for a moment before elaborating.
“Animal trials must be conducted by law before clinical trials on humans can be held. For Angel Tears animal trials, you’ll need to infect rabbits with Angel Tears. Right?”
Mia gasped.
Yes, the academy had developed a medicine for Angel Tears. And if this drug had made it through clinical trials, then it stood to reason that it had passed through animal trials first. And you would need animal test subjects for that. You’d need to purposefully infect those animals with Angel Tears…
The answer came to Mia at once.
“You mean Luna…that rabbit…is an Angel Tears test subject?!”
“What?!”
Felix and Mathias both yelled out in shock at the same moment.
Henrik nodded.
“But according to my research, and based on current graduation theses, no rabbits were used for Angel Tears research… Mia, what did you find out on the pharmacology side?”
“I mean, I checked too, but there was nothing on that topic…”
The students in the years above them seemed to rarely ever pick any new topics, only expanding on topics and research ongoing from previous years.
And, as they’d discovered in the library, instead of formulating new drugs, research was focused mostly on preventative and palliative measures. As a result, most of the experiments were limited to clinical trials on existing drugs.
Mia had been disappointed by this trend, but…
But what if? What if there was someone else out there like her? Someone who really wanted to cure people of Angel Tears entirely by making a new medicine? Someone whose goals exactly matched Mia’s?
If such a person existed, they would need animal test subjects, deliberately infected, to develop the new drug.
Mia felt a shudder run down her spine.
“So there’s a high chance that someone is conducting secret trials. Who could get away with doing something like that at the academy? Someone who has access to the animal test subjects, that’s who.”
Mia pictured a certain individual’s face immediately. She heard Rueger’s voice in her head, saying, “He’s a doctor first and a scientist second, you know.”
A doctor would place a higher value on human life than anything else.
It was all coming together now.
Mia held out her arm to stop Henrik, who seemed about to storm off and launch a confrontation.
“I doubt he’s going to tell the truth, even if we manage to confront whoever it is.”
“So let’s get some proof first.”
“…How?”
“How many places are there on campus where he could be conducting secret trials? If we can find his secret lab, and there are other rabbits there just like Luna, then…”
Then that would be all the proof they needed.
“Mathias, you found Luna by that old ruined building, right?”
Suspicions were running high. There was definitely something there, in that creepy old building. They were all sure of it now.
“I think we should go back and check it out again.”
Everyone nodded in full agreement with Mia.