The Supplement

Marcus had been working at Verdant Wellness for three months when the corporate espionage assignment arrived in a plain envelope. His handler at the agency called it Operation Green Leaf — infiltrate the competitor, steal their new vitamin formula, disappear. He was good at this, a professional friend, someone who could make anyone trust him within weeks.

That's how he found himself at dinner with Elena, the lead chemist at BioSynth. Her palm rested on the table between them, and he found himself staring at the lines mapping a life he had no business reading. She was laughing about something, her guard down, while he calculated how many more dinners until she'd invite him to her lab.

"You're not like the others," she said, pushing spinach around her plate. "Most people in this industry, they'd kill for a 2% market advantage. You seem... tired of it."

Marcus froze. Was she testing him? Had he slipped?

"I just think there's more to life than supplements," he said, and the worst part was that he meant it.

The next week, when she showed him the formula — a breakthrough in nutrient absorption that could actually help people — Marcus felt something unfamiliar. A conscience. He photographed the documents anyway, sent them to his handler, and then couldn't sleep for three days.

When the news broke that BioSynth had been sued into bankruptcy by Verdant's patent trolls, Elena called him. She didn't accuse him. She just said, "I thought you were my friend, Marcus. That's what hurts most."

Now, six months later, he sits in his apartment with a bottle of generic vitamins that doesn't work as well as Elena's formula had. He reads in the industry news that Verdant has shelved the technology — too expensive to mass-produce, not profitable enough. All that damage, all that betrayal, for nothing.

His phone buzzes. A new assignment. Marcus looks at his palm, traces the life line that seems shorter every year, and deletes the message without opening it. For once, he decides, he'll choose something real over something profitable. Even if it costs him everything.