Chapter 1

Persephone sat perched on her stool, studying the results of her latest experimental crop to the exclusion of everything around her. She hunched over, one knee drawn tight to her chest, as the other swung under her, kicking the stool’s leg in a staccato rhythm.

She was agitated. The yield was wrong, too high for her predictions. She frowned because something was altering her outcomes.

Persephone suspected she was the source of the disturbance. Deep down, she knew she was what threw off her outcomes.

“Excuse me, miss, I’m looking for Dr. Kore?” a man’s voice called from her doorway.

Persephone sat up straight and spun around to face him. The head of her personal security detail nodded, face blank as his chin lowered to his black uniform shirt. Beside him, his virtual twin stood almost blank faced. Only the barest twist to his mouth denied his calm.

“Need something?” She rose, quickly wiping her hands on her soiled jeans.

A third man stepped around Tony and Hermes. “Yes? I’m supposed to come work for Dr. Kore? Her new lab manager?” His voice rose in question which each statement. “They said I could find her here and that she was in desperate need of a lab manager.” He finished the statement by licking his lips slightly.

“Lab manager?” Persephone said impudently. She didn’t need a lab manager and she certainly wasn’t taking this dweeb. He’d spent half his querying speech talking to the floor and the other staring at her admittedly minimal chest.

The taller of the two men in a dark security uniform shifted restlessly by her door. Persephone discreetly gestured for Tony to stay quiet. With a neatly trimmed bear and hair shaved close to his head on the sides that left in a long braid running down the middle of his head to his shoulder blades, the man looked like a pale Viking and she had no doubt he would behave like one if she was threatened.

“Look, girl,” he said, annoyed, “I’ve heard that Dr. Kore the best bio-engineer in the world and I really want to work for her. I don’t need to get jerked around by some power-hungry intern. Go get her so I can show her my credentials.” His earlier trepidation was clearly gone now that he’d assessed her to be nothing more than an intern and the questions were gone from his speech.

Persephone’s eyes narrowed in her youthful face. “Yeah, I guess you’d hate to make the wrong impression.” Persephone turned slightly as if heading to fetch ‘Dr. Kore,’ but paused. “What have you heard about Dr. Kore anyway, that has you so impressed?”

“Her research into genetic and bio-engineering is unparalleled!” he said with the warm smile of a TA. “She’s unlocked ways to combine drought resistant cultivars with less resilient species in unthought of ways and her research is some of the most cited in the world.” He laughed and strode to where she sat, still perched on her stool. “The world of bioengineering anyway.” The man leaned in slightly.

Persephone leaned back, trying hard not to roll her eyes, but this time didn’t halt her security team from edging closer.

“Dr. Kore, huh?” she asked calmly. “Demeter Kore or Persephone Kore?”

“What?” the man jerked back a little at her question.

“Dr. Demeter Kore is a bio-chemist, also well known for her research. But Dr. Persephone Kore is the bio-engineer.”

“I’m looking for Dr. Persephone Kore, clearly. Who is Demeter Kore?”

“Dr. Persephone Kore’s mother, clearly,” she said with a hint of mocking.

He sneered. “Oh, that’s probably why I haven’t heard of her then. I only study the cutting-edge technologies. If she’s Dr. Persephone Kore’s mother, she’s probably well past her prime.”

Persephone laughed. “I’ll tell her you said that.” She shot a look at her security team, now hovering mere feet behind the man.

Her visitor’s face fell by degrees as the truth hit him. “You ... you–,” he stammered. “You can’t be Dr. Kore.”

“Oh, swing and a miss there, slugger. Look, ‘boy’,” she gave him a saccharine smile, “I can and I am Dr. Kore.”

His face fell from shock to anger. “Dr. Kore has been publishing for over a decade. You’re, like, twelve!”

Her two security guards inched closer.