"Yes, I am," she said, entering the room.  "A spectacular incident happened earlier, and I'm trying to understand it."

"Yes, it was most unusual. I have been trying to find out what chemicals were being transported and I believe I may have found something," Dr. Tomas Polegar said.

"What did you learn?" Victoria asked.  "I don't want something like that to happen again if I can prevent it."

"It's not going to happen again, that is, without someone deliberately doing it. To put it simply, the two chemicals being transported were rare mutagenic chemicals," Dr. Polegar said.

"All right," said Victoria.  "That's good, but I hope no one does attempt to recreate the reaction deliberately.  Those were spectacular and dangerous results."

"I'm sure someone will," Dr. Polegar said. "The chemicals may not be purchasable, but both companies are known to have a supply of them."

"That's a serious problem, then," said Victoria.  "Do you have any idea of how to undo the damage they cause?"

"I'm not sure if it can be undone," Dr. Polegar said. "But I would need to be allowed to study the victim."

"I can recommend you to the police," said Victoria.  "I imagine that they're having to do a lot of improvising as it is."

"I suppose it would not hurt to try," Dr. Polegar said. "I will contact you if I learn more. The chemicals are made by Dynamax Inc. and All-Star Chemicals ltd."

"All right," said Victoria.  "...are these chemicals standard things made for legitimate uses?"

"I don't know. I'm not sure of any actual uses for them besides mutating people or animals," Dr. Polegar said.

"But they produced tanker-cars full of it," said Victoria.  "I could see it having use in genetic engineering, perhaps, but you'd only need very small amounts for that.  Perhaps I should investigate these companies..."

"Let me know if you find anything," Dr. Polegar said.

"I will," said Victoria.  She departed to see what she could find out about the companies, and the chemicals that they produced.

Taking 20 on Investigation

You do manage to find out some interesting information. Both companies have contracts with branches of the military and rumours say that they also have ties to either criminal organizations or terrorist ones.

Well, that was interesting; she needed evidence, though.  As a first step, she began seeing what publications had been put out by their scientists-- and if any scientists worked at both companies!

There's not much published once a scientist starts to work for either company, but you do find earlier work. Most of which is articles on DNA and it's mutability. No one is listed as working for both companies.

Hm, difficult.  It wouldn't be appropriate for her to go and simply break into the companies directly to find out the truth...

...but hacking into one of them was within her view of ethics, so she set out to do precisely that.  It might not be possible to learn everything she might want, but if there was something suspicious going on, she might be able to find clues.

Technology to hack: 23

You do find some of the numbers in accounting don't add up, but not much beyond that.

Well, she wasn't investigating for the sake of the IRS.  There might not be more that she could do about this for the moment; she'd have to settle for checking the news and social media.

Social media was quiet at the moment.

Well... that seemed to limit her options for the moment.  Perhaps she'd wait for the meeting, then.

It was getting close to the time for the meeting.

She made sure to dress nicely, and waited, trying to be patient.