Elli

Elli had been angling for an invite to the Gomiumi Genomics Compound for over a year, knowing from the get-go that adding her name to the waitlist would lead only to waiting. But armed as she was with confidence, knowledge, & several years of study in Berlin under a recent Nobel Prize winner, her nascent experiments with CRISPR had drawn the interest of numerous colleagues, to such an extent that she'd been able to secure her invitation before even having to consider resorting to less savory tactics. Yet, since her actual arrival at the remote island compound, she & her fellow invitees had been herded through its various laboratories at an unseemly speed. She could only assume that these "informative" tours were intended for investors, insufficient to advance even her most cursory lines of scientific inquiry. After 3 long days of this frustration, unable to sleep, she walked out of guest lodging & into the night. She wandered barefoot around the silent complex, half-heartedly pulling on doors she knew would be locked, until she rounded the last building near the bordering jungle. In the darkness, a few distant lights glowed from deep within the thick foliage, a subtle but clearly man-made path leading toward them. Far along this path, she suddenly noticed the well-camoflaged enclosures surrounding her, the largest of which had trees & ferns growing right from their rooftops, seemingly meant to conceal them from overhead view. Audible signs of animal life, which she'd normally have heard emanating from the jungle itself, were here coming only from within these structures. It took her what felt like hours to locate an opening in one, & when she finally looked inside, her mind instantly began to compile a list of equipment she would need when she returned.