"Good to see you again, Yesu."

Doctor Heckman stood inside the apartment, smiling warmly, as if they were old friends.

Yesu just stared at the Doctor. He was wearing his usual lab coat but with goggles instead of his glasses. His face was half covered with soot. All his hair stood out on his head as if he had been in an explosion of some sort.

He still had that child-like twinkle in his eyes. Probably always would.

Doctor Heckman extended an arm to Arrow. They shook hands.

"I’m glad to finally make your acquaintance, Mr Arrow, having heard so much about you."

"I could say the same."

Doctor Heckman laughed, waving a hand to brush off the compliment.

"Save the pleasantries. To everyone, I’m just a mad scientist."

Arrow didn’t smile.

"I have some business that needs tending to." He said to Yesu. "We leave at six."

He turned and walked away without looking back.

Yesu watched as the elevator doors closed completely and she could no longer see Arrow.

"You coming?"

Her gaze snapped back. Doctor Heckman had stepped aside from the entrance.

Yesu went in.

The metallic door slid shut.

Yesu stepped further into the apartment and immediately forgot she was standing at the top of one of the tallest buildings in Central City.

The place looked less like a home and more like a laboratory that had slowly swallowed one.

Sunlight flooded through towering glass walls that stretched from floor to ceiling. Beyond them, white clouds drifted lazily past the skyscraper and Central City sprawled endlessly below.

Inside, organized chaos reigned.

Glass containers holding ancient fossils lined entire sections of the walls. Some were no larger than a hand while others contained skeletal remains nearly as tall as Yesu herself.

Shelves crowded the room from end to end.

Preserved animals floated inside chemical-filled jars.

Fish.

Birds.

Strange reptiles.

Some creatures Yesu couldn’t even identify.

Nearby, rows of cages housed living specimens.

Hamsters ran endlessly on wheels.

Rats climbed wire frames.

A large snake slept beneath a heat lamp.

Several spiders occupied carefully labelled glass enclosures.

The constant mixture of squeaks, scratching and faint mechanical humming filled the apartment with life.

Books were everywhere.

Not neatly arranged bookshelves.

Everywhere.

Stacks of books occupied tables, chairs and portions of the floor. Papers lay scattered among them in seemingly random piles.

Two computer stations sat near the center of the apartment. Compared to the Assessment facility, the number felt surprisingly small.

The place was even slightly more organized than the facility.

Several doors branched deeper into the penthouse, leading to rooms that Ms Yesu couldn’t see.

Living quarters perhaps.

Or more laboratories.

With Doctor Heckman, either seemed equally likely.

Near one of the computer stations sat a tiny woman, corporately dressed with oversized glasses and neatly tied hair.

Her fingers moved rapidly across a keyboard.

Click. Click. Click.

She didn’t look up once.

It was unclear whether she hadn’t noticed their arrival or simply considered it unimportant.

"Well, what do you think?" Doctor Heckman asked, arms akimbo.

Yesu didn’t hesitate.

"What do I think? This is way better than the facility."

Doctor Heckman chuckled, then leaned towards her like he wanted to tell a nasty secret.

"Personally, I think anything is better than the facility." His voice was low, mischievous.

He straightened to his full height.

"Welcome." He said loudly. "Be my guest." He gestured to an office chair close to the long table of live animals.

"Have a seat."

Yesu sat. It was a swivel chair. She spun herself gently from side to side.

Doctor Heckman disappeared into one of the doors leading deeper into the penthouse.

Yesu glanced at the woman at the computer. She was still typing.

"Here."

Yesu looked up. Doctor Heckman held a cup of coffee to her face.

"I don’t drink coffee." She said apologetically.

Doctor Heckman seemed pleased.

"Neither do I."

He tossed the cup over his shoulder like it was an inconvenience.

The cup shattered into pieces. The coffee spread over the floor.

The woman on the computer didn’t even look

"I only make it because people won’t stop asking for it wherever they go." Doctor Heckman continued.

Then he mimicked. "’Can I have some coffee?’ ’Coffee please?’ ’You don’t have coffee?’"

He raised his voice a little, annoyed. "Of course, I don’t have coffee. Does this look like a restaurant?"

Yesu was staring at the once beautiful cup, now broken.

Doctor Heckman followed her gaze.

,"Oh what a mess." He remarked, as if he had just walked in and found it there.

"Josie!" He called out.

The woman at the computer stopped typing instantly. She gently pushed herself up, her shoulders a bit tensed.

She took out a broom and dustpan by her station, already on standby, then went over to the mess.

"It’s Josephine." She said under her breath as she quickly swept the shattered pieces.

She walked towards one of the doors.

Yesu’s gaze followed her till she was out of sight.

"Didn’t expect you to have a secretary, Doctor Heck." She said,

Doctor Heckman snorted.

"Neither did I. She comes with the sweet lair. The whole package."

He walked to a cluttered table and rummaged through it. He finally rescued a blue file from the mess.

It looked official. With the state stamp and all. At the front of the file was the heading;

SUBJECT: YESUIN KAELITHA

Yesu sighed.

Doctor Heckman scanned through the file.

Josephine returned with a mop and wiped the coffee-stained floor.

"Josie." Doctor Heckman called suddenly, eyes still on the file.

Josephine paused, holding the mop tightly. Although her face was expressionless.

"Yes, Doctor?"

"I feel like having an apple pie." Doctor Heckman said.

"Get me a dozen." He added with ease, without even glancing in her direction.

Josephine’s eyes widened slightly, then narrowed. She leaned the mop against the wall, walked over to the door and slid her card along the edge.

The door slid open and she walked out.

"Oh well." Doctor Heckman said immediately the door closed. "Now that she’s gone, we can begin the real task of the day."

He tossed the file over his shoulder.

It struck a computer monitor.

The monitor flickered.

Yesu was puzzled.

"Aren’t you going to ’study’ me?"

Doctor Heckman had begun flipping throu

gh a huge textbook.

"We have plenty more visits for that."

He looked keenly at her, the twinkle in his eyes now prominent.

"Now tell me, subject, what do you think about the venom of the Black mamba?"