As a bio-technician with a specialty in plants, my department rubbed shoulders with Agriculture and Wildlife Management. But thanks to Maurice, I'd been drafted onto an emergency team that consolidated an array of skills towards combating the growth. We'd taken over an entire floor of the building for the sake of convenience, and the place was already buzzing with activity when I stepped through the elevator doors. I pinged Maurice for his location, and my normal vision was suddenly overlaid with a graphic pointing me in the right direction.

"Hello - Mr. Koch, right?" I looked over, and to my mild horror saw a woman almost running towards me. She fast-walked right across the feed's directional graphics, distracting me long enough to prevent my own escape.

"Yes, that would be me. How can I help you...?" My voice trailed off, already guessing this would be another headache.

"Listen, I checked the news-feed - I know you're a part of the team working on the crisis."

"Yes, that's right..."

*Weser - what's taking so long?*

*Sorry. Was stopped by some woman.*

My feed lit up with the message, and the woman seemed to pick up on it.

"It's that spokesman isn't it? Listen, I need you to get me into a meeting - it's extremely urgent." Ignoring the feed for a moment, I stared at her, dubious. She didn't look like a scientist, with her dark blazer and messenger bag.

*She's been harassing everyone in here all morning. Some conspiracist. Keeps avoiding security. Do not let her in."

"I'm a historian - wait, wait!" She moved to follow me.

"Look." I stopped, sighing. "I don't know you, and it seems like you've been causing a scene here-"

"Who cares! Ok look-" Her voice took on a note of pleading. "I'll send you some of my research, yeah? Show of good faith?" She gestured, and my feed lit up with an incoming message. But Maurice was still messaging me, so I closed it and continued walking. "Hey - you didn't even look at it!"

"I'm sorry, but I'm running late. Try contacting the EV Department online, okay?" Before she could say anything else, I turned a corner and bolted.

"Weser!" Maurice's head swiveled around the moment I'd entered the meeting room. "Hello, my man! Sorry about that - the woman approached me this morning about some historical nonsense and I've told everyone to shut her down since." Suddenly, he changed tracks, already focused on something else. "Listen, I've got something to run by you." He grinned, but there were shadows on his face that weren't there weeks ago, his eyes a little too bright with the light of his feed. He pointed at me, and suddenly my own feed was filled with a stream of academic journals. "Think about this - what if the gigantism we're seeing is being caused by a new fault line?"

I blinked. "Like, in the ground?"

"Yes, yes. There are studies that link increased access to geothermal energy and nutrients to growth in plants-"

I cut him off, "Maurice, maybe ask one of the geologists about this, please? That's not really my thing-"

"And you think this is, Weser?" He snapped back at me. "I'm a goddamn urban planner, not a scientist!"

"Alright, alright." I held up my hands, used to these little explosions by now. "Maybe I can see if there are genes related to growth, something that may be activated with a change in environment." This, in fact, was nonsense for the most part, but it seemed to placate the man. He turned to the rest of the team, merely spectators since my arrival. "That's the kind of brainstorming I want to see!" Maurice nodded vigorously as he continued. "Let's get to the bottom of this, people. The growth is hitting the other boroughs now with a vengeance!"

I mentally steeled myself as I moved to take my regular seat at the meeting table, nodding to my fellows. We were a collection of scientists from a variety of fields, mixed in with a smattering of urban designers. For the past few weeks, Maurice, who handled PR for the city, would spout about the problem for a while and request updates in these 'brainstorming sessions.' Afterwards, we were released to research a solution in the afternoons. But the reality was, that we had gotten little in the way of progress, despite his bluster and even our own expertise. It was clear that the Mayor's office, Maurice included, was getting desperate. Soon the novelty of the growth would fade, and as it continued to grow, the city itself would start to fall apart. And then what would happen if it just simply continued to spread...?

I shook my head slightly, trying to stay focused as the minutes went by, but the meeting today was slow, dull, and discouraging. My mind drifted back to my encounter in the lobby, and suddenly, I realized I hadn't looked at what the woman had sent me. I pulled it up on my feed, and I was hit with a wave of surprise when I saw the documents. These things were old - and I quickly surmised that they were articles from the past century that had been compiled together. Glancing at the first one revealed a headline that shouted at me - 'New York City's Last Resort!' - and an accompanying image that depicted a team of workers swarming over some massive, hulking machine. Behind them rose the city's skyline, but it wasn't one I recognized: dark and stunted. And in the margins of the file were lines of cramped writing - the woman's notes, I assumed. It was all very odd: a historian who claimed to have information about the sudden growths, and now these old documents. But then I started reading, and things came together so quickly I almost had a physical reaction.

"Maurice!"

He paused, mid-sentence, turning to me. "Weser? Something you'd like to add?"

"Oh - no." In fact, I had no idea what he had just been talking about. "I want to ask you something. Did that woman from the lobby try to send you something?"

Maurice furrowed his brows. "Who? Oh - oh, yeah, Sure. But I deleted it. Some archaic file that seemed suspicious - like malware."

I gritted my teeth. "Anyone else here get something from her?" There was a chorus of shaking heads. "Okay, well - that file was not malware. They're historical documents about the Revival Bill." There was a moment of silence, and then Maurice guffawed, a loud, sudden sound.

"That's what she was on about? The Revival Bill? How long did you listen to this woman, Weser?" There was a familiar edge to his tone that I needed to diffuse. Still, I was surprised. The Revival Bill was the city's last-ditch policy to revitalize the area after climate change and energy shortages threatened a catastrophic shutdown. It was the single most important act in recent environmental history.

"You can put two and two together, right?" I quickly sent him the articles. "The Revival Bill used technology that amplified and adjusted the biodiversity on the landscape. It created the solar farms, the organic building structures, stuff that could withstand and reverse-"

"You don't think I don't know that?" Maurice shot back, his eyes flickering through his feed. Then he got quiet. "Oh. I get it now." He looked up at me. "But this is crazy! There's no way someone could build another bio-generator. The whole thing was successful, so they shut it down, dismantled it - eve the blueprints are classified."

"Can you confirm that?" Maurice looked at me, silent. I could tell he was still scanning the articles, these documents that told a story about a miraculous device that had revitalized New York. Something with the ability to speed up the proliferation of life, to modify it.

Eventually, he sighed. "You have the return address from this, right? Get in touch with her - and figure out if there's any merit to this."

I nodded. Maurice continued to look at me, eyebrow raised. Then he jerked his head towards the door.

"Wait - you want me to go right now?"

"Yes!" And that was all the encouragement I needed.