"I don't think this is a hybrid at all," said Jen. "In fact..." Jen spread a huge sheaf of documents across the table. "If you look at this chemical makeup, you can clearly see it's synthetic. It's designed to mimic the properties of an emerald, but the matrix is substantially different, especially in the crystalline linking of the alu...." "Wait," said Zach. "Where did you get this information? I mean, where where you even keeping all that paper?" Jen sighed. "It's not important. What is important, is the fact that this simple sparkly rock proves that someone has figured out how to make a synthetic beryl that has a highly powerful and perfectly aligned matrix for laser creation. You remember how G.E.M.S.T.O.N.E.S was posturing about using lasers to target cities last year? Well..." "Wait," went Zach. "You mean that someone has created a...death ray? An honest to god science fiction death ray?" "Yes, Zach. A death ray. And if we don't find it, then there will be cities targeted for destruction." Zach slowly picked up the antique multi-line phone in front of him. Dialing a number, he waited and then spoke: "Yes, this is he. Yes. It's on. No, this isn't a test." Zach hung up the phone and slowly looked back up at Jen. "I hope you're not right," he said.