The Synapse

You may be surrounded by them and still be hard pressed to name the villain. That is the problem.

They are the best in the world at what they do, and almost nobody knows they exist. They are a small team running on grant money and nerve. They grow living human neurons, wire them to electrodes and teach them to learn, in the hope of curing the diseases that destroy people's minds.

There are sixty cultures. Fifty-nine learn their mazes the way you'd expect. One learns the hard way, for no reason anyone can name. Then it starts making patterns nobody asked for.

That is when the money arrives. A conservation group wants their work for featherweight wildlife trackers, and behind it stands a very large parent company with a division nobody mentions. Its two polite liaisons look at the cultures like they're shopping. A retired colonel in defense procurement starts asking friendly questions. Outside, a protester holds up a sign: YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE GROWING. And the CEO has a private reason to move faster, one he has told no one.

Everyone wants something from what grows in those dishes. A cure. A fortune. A weapon nobody has to call a weapon. No one has asked the dishes.

They are careful, decent people doing exactly what scientists are supposed to do. Every careful step takes them deeper into territory nobody is supposed to enter.