“Well, we firmly believe you now, Doctor Reed.” He told her assuringly.
“Listen, we need to talk privately.” Emma told him as she scooped up an electric lantern from the floor and started to walk away from the stairwell, leading the way to a staff room just on the right of the elevator. Jack glanced at Tyrone and the others.
“Secure the area.” Jack ordered before turning and following Emma.
The staff room they entered had been ransacked; the fridge stood open, the cupboard doors were ajar and it was devoid of furniture - perhaps having been taken to make barricades elsewhere. She turned the lantern to its lowest level and set it on the floor, the minimal light from the moon outside and the scant illumination from the lantern providing a faint visibility within the room. Despite the minimal light, when Emma turned to face Jack he could clearly see an angry but weary look on her face.
“Did you set off that huge explosion earlier?” She demanded.
“No. That was—”
“Bolvinox’s security team. Figures. I was hoping the masses of infected would deter them from searching here, but I guess I was wrong.” She said, shaking her head.
“I think you did well enough.”
“But they’re here now.”
“So are we.”
“Excuse me if I’m not swept off my feet, but we rescued you.” She sniped. Jack scoffed.
“If you say so. Listen, we’re going to get you and the other survivors out of here, but I’m going to need some more information.”
Emma stared into Jack’s eyes for a long quiet moment, and then looked at his helmet.
“Is that a head cam?”
“Yes.”
“Turn it off. I’ll talk to you and you alone, for now at least.”
Jack wondered why it was so important for her to speak with him in secret, but securing her cooperation was vital.
“Hall.” Jack stated.
“Go for Hall.” She responded over the radio.
“I’m going off com for a short while.”
“Why?”
“I’ve found Doctor Reed but I need to talk with her privately.”
“I don’t think—” Hall started, but Jack was already moving to turn off the radio. He also reached up and took the camera off his helmet and deactivated it, stuffing it into a pocket. Finally, he took off his helmet and held it against his hip, looking expectant.
“Well, what do you want to tell me?”
“I’m not sure where to start.” She told him, leaning against the wall and sinking down to the floor. The no doubt exhausting events seemed to hit her all of a sudden; he felt more than a little sympathy for her, so he sat down across from her.
“Maybe start with how Bolvinox is related to a zombie virus.” He told her directly. She looked at him, and then nodded slowly.
“Do you know who Bolvinox are?” She asked pensively.
“Not really, so start with the basics and go from there.”
“Bolvinox are a multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical company. They sell a variety of drugs for an assortment of conditions, but crucially, they have an extensive research program, which I was part of.”
“Like most pharmaceutical companies I assume.” Jack commented.
“Right. But here’s the thing...” Emma trailed off, looking a little uncertain. She took a deep breath then continued. “Whenever there’s the opportunity to study diseases or viruses for medical research, there’s the opportunity to study them for... other purposes.”
Jack narrowed his eyes.
“For weapons? Bolvinox was doing weaponization research?”
“Yes, yes they were. And I only found out about it a month or so ago.”
“How?”
“There were some irregularities in the amount of material we were given versus how much was supposedly being stored for future use. I followed the requisitions through and the transfer orders and, well, it wasn’t easy but I discovered there was a subdivision of the medical research program I was a part of which I hadn’t been made aware of. No one I spoke to knew what it was and the more I asked about it, the more stressful things became for me at work... materials, paperwork, even co-workers going missing. At first I thought that maybe people were just being transferred and the paperwork was misfiled. Then I discovered I was being followed to and from my home and that someone was going through my office, moving and deleting files on my hard drive, and... well, then I started to receive threatening calls telling me to leave certain avenues of investigation alone.”
“I’m assuming you didn’t listen?”
“You’d assume correctly.” Emma responded forthrightly.
“What happened?”
“It took me another couple of weeks, but I found out the subdivision was being housed in a warehouse near a nowhere town called Bluefields. So I went to take a look.”
“What happened?”
“I thought I was so clever; I managed to ditch the team following me, took a couple of side roads to make it look like I was heading elsewhere, just in case, and then I circled back to Bluefields. I thought I was sneaking in but really... Really they’d turned the intruder alarms off and just let me walk in. After I got inside, I found out they had a lab about five levels below the ground floor; when I used my access card and it worked on the elevator I knew something was wrong, but I had gone that far so I decided to see it through.”
“What did you find down there?”
“The infected.” Emma said, her voice fading a little. “And test subjects, living people they were still testing the virus on.”
“Tell me everything.”
“I was confronted by my boss, Jeff Stevens. He congratulated me for my ingenuity and determination, and told me he wanted to offer me a more favorable position in the company. He said there was a lot of money to be made and I would be well paid if I used my expertise to help them create a more docile version of the infected. In their current state, the infected just hunt and eat and can’t be stopped. The virus has them decomposing at a rate of about one one hundredth of the rate that normal bodies decompose, meaning they’re going to be active for a very long time. In Jeff’s words, there needed to be something that could be genetically inserted to allow the infected to be controlled so they could be destroyed once their objective had been completed.”
“What did you do?”
“I told him I wanted a percentage.”
Jack gave her an incredulous look.
“He’d have killed me if I’d said anything else.” Emma defended. “I had no intention of helping him, but I needed him to think I was going along with him in order to survive.” She explained, and Jack’s expression softened.
“So what happened then?”
“I was told I would be kept at the facility until they were sure I was trustworthy - at least, that’s what he told me, and he assured me I would be allowed to leave once I’d developed the genetic trait necessary to control the infected. Something went wrong though. I think someone tried to steal the base virus, and to cover their escape they released the infected - not just on the fifth level, but on all levels of the facility. In the confusion I saw two opportunities: to escape and also to get all the data I could about the virus.” Emma told Jack, reaching under her shirt and retrieving a USB flash drive on a chain around her neck.
“Is that—”
“The data I downloaded, yes. There’s enough here to not only bury Bolvinox for what they did, but also information about the virus that I hope trustworthy scientists can use to find a vaccine. There’s no cure, of that much I’m certain, but if we can prevent the transmission of the virus into new hosts then we have a chance. It’s not a good chance, but it’s still a chance.”
Jack nodded, but he had more questions.
“How did you escape the facility?”
“Honestly, I’m not entirely certain. Protocol insisted the facility should be completely locked down at all times to prevent accidental release of the virus. I should’ve been trapped down there,
especially after taking the time to download the data, but someone opened the doors for me.” Emma explained as she returned the flash drive beneath her shirt.
“Someone?”
“I can’t tell you who. I was starting to run and the doors would just unlock ahead of me and lock behind me. Whoever it was kept the infected away from me and powered up the elevator so I could leave.”
“Then they must’ve had unlimited access to the security systems. Could it have been your boss?”
“No... No... Jeff didn’t make it out alive. I saw him...”
“So how did the virus spread?”
“There were five samples of the virus stolen; I’m assuming at least one of those was used to start the outbreak, maybe more. I’m guessing that this outbreak started as a test to prove the value of the virus; unfortunately it spread too quickly. People travelled - took buses, trains and planes... Or maybe that’s what they wanted all along, I’ve no idea. Whatever the cause, whatever the precise reason, it’s out there now and there’s no way to put the cork back in the bottle. It’s about containing and stopping the continued spread of the virus now.”
“So why are you so skittish about having Maxwell hear about this? At some point, the higher ups in the chain of command are going to have to know.”
“There’s something else... something in the data that I didn’t tell you because I don’t want you to think I’m crazy.” She said, looking increasingly concerned.
“Considering what’s going on in the world right now, I’m not sure there’s anything normal left. When he told me about it I didn’t know if Maxwell was trying to pull a fast one or if he’d gone crazy.” He told her as soothingly as he could, but it didn’t seem to alleviate her anxiety.
“As I scanned through the files when they were uploading, there was a reference to Genetic Material X. I saw it several times and, well, there was a brief description of it that I was able to glean.”
“And?” Jack questioned.
“There’s a...” Emma trailed off.
“Please, Emma, tell me what you know. I won’t breach your confidence unless I’m sure whoever I tell can be trusted.” Jack insisted.
“There was a suggestion that this was material Bolvinox had obtained from...” Emma faltered again, clearly struggling to declare what she had seen. “It was some kind of bacteria recovered from a space mission.” She finally said, looking pleadingly at Jack as though he might not believe her. Jack considered the implication: some kind of alien bacteria. Was it really so unimaginable?
“Say something.” Emma told him, breaking him from his internal thoughts.
“Yeah. So what you’re saying is that not only was Bolvinox routing sensitive biological material to Bluefields, but it was also conducting research with alien bacteria?”
“Yes.”
“What for, I wonder.” Jack questioned.
“I think the bacteria contained some property they wanted to propagate, but was also incomplete so they may have been attempting to splice that property into a more transmissible format.”
“So binding it with influenza or something of the like to make it more easily transmitted?”
“Right. It seems as though Genetic Material X has incredible regenerative components - enough that it could’ve cured diseases in a way that I never imagined possible. But in the experimentation process, Bolvinox discovered that it had another use - it could partially reanimate tissue. That’s the property they focused their research on, and that’s what led to the zombie virus as they call it.”
“So someone intentionally created this virus? It wasn’t an accident?”
“Exactly. I think they thought it could be used as a biological weapon. Why they decided this, I can’t tell you, but all the research data is on the drive.”
“So, this leads us back to why you didn’t want this getting back to Maxwell.” Jack stated.
“Well, Bolvinox isn’t connected to the space agency; it’s not even the most cutting edge pharmaceutical company. It suggests to me that there’s some powerful connection, maybe a government connection. Maxwell is the head of an organization - the Coalition - that I’ve never heard of. If it wasn’t for the absolute desperation of my situation it’s probable I’d never have made the call at all.” She explained. Jack understood what she was saying, but really didn’t know what more he could offer her.
“I can’t tell you what you want to hear, Doctor Reed. This morning I was living in a cabin in self-imposed isolation after a bad mission left my identity blown. In the early evening I was told the world was coming to an end because of zombies.” Jack explained, shrugging his shoulders slightly. “Now there’s apparently some alien bacteria involved.”
“So you’ve been out of the military for a while?”
“A couple of years now.”
“Before that?”
“I was special forces.” Jack responded. Emma eyed him carefully for a few moments, and he felt compelled to say more. “Listen, I don’t know what’s going to happen; I know my mission is to get the data you’re in possession of back to base so they can start working through it, but in my opinion you’re the key to this: your knowledge, your skills, your connection to this lab at Bluefields. I can promise,” he emphasized,” that I’ll keep you safe above anything else. I’m going to make sure that no harm comes to you, whether it's from Bolvinox’s security, the infected or some threat we’ve not yet uncovered. I’ll even protect you from Maxwell if it comes to it.”
Emma continued to look at him. After a couple of quiet moments, her shoulders sagged as her strength faded for a moment. She sighed, her chin dropping briefly onto her chest before looking back at Jack.
“I don’t know for sure that I can trust you but I’d really like to believe I can. It’s been a couple of days since I slept because I’ve been on the run since it all started... I’m just so damn tired.”
“You’re safe now.” Jack told her, shifting to lay a hand comfortingly on her shoulder and briefly smiling. “Or at least as safe as you can be here. We need to get out of this hospital.”
“Right.”
“I’ve got to call this in so we can confirm the extraction point.”
“I understand, but there’s one more thing I’ve not mentioned.”
“And that is?” Jack asked, leaning back and removing his hand from her shoulder.
“There was some talk amongst the scientists at Bluefields just before the outbreak - and a brief mention in the data I downloaded - about there being the propensity for... mutation.”
“Mutation?”
“I don’t know much more than that, but it said that the infected had the potential for mutation.”
“Into what?”
“I’ve no idea.” Emma told him, her eyes locked on his. Jack nodded, believing her.
“I’m going to make my report, and then we can see about getting you out of here.” Jack told her, standing and reconnecting his radio.
Hall had gone up to Maxwell’s office, making the report directly to him. He sat in his chair, listening carefully. Once she was done, he lit another cigarette, drawing on it heavily before speaking.
“And he hasn’t come back online yet?”
“No. I waited for a few minutes but he’s still—”
“Hall, come in.” Jack interrupted, his voice coming through her earpiece.
“He’s on now, sir.” Hall reported. “Jack, what’s going on?”
“Put him on speaker.” Maxwell instructed. Hall nodded, tapping her tablet so Jack’s voice started to come through the device instead of her ear piece.
“I’ve made contact with Doctor Reed. She’s got data we can hopefully use to create some kind of vaccine as well as enough material to indict Bolvinox for creating the virus, assuming we’re still able to do that by the end of this.”
“How is Emma carrying this data, Jack?” Maxwell wanted to know.
“A flash drive she’s carrying around her neck.”
“Is there
any way to get that to a working terminal and upload it here?”
“The power’s out in the hospital, and I don’t think that’s our best move anyway. We need to get her to safety as she has some understanding of how this began.”
“Understood, Jack, but I want you to understand that the flash drive is priority one - more so than Emma herself.”
“What are you telling me?”
“If she’s in a position where she won’t survive, you’re to retrieve the data and bring it to us, is that clear?”
“Compassionate as ever, Maxwell.”
“It’s about the survival of the human race, Jack. I would love to see her returned to safety, but the data is vastly more important. I can have another team sent—”
“No. Bolvinox has a security team here and they’re heavily armed. They’ve got at least one sniper and one rocket team, and there are more of them in the hospital. More boots on the ground here are just going to lead to casualties.”
“So what are you suggesting?” Maxwell questioned.
“There are nine other survivors, so we’re going to try to find a stealthy way out of the hospital and quietly make our way to the park. We’re going to need to have that chopper arriving at the same time we do. If Bolvinox has more people out there, I don’t want the chopper to alert them to the extraction point and give them time to get in position and ambush us before we can get on board. If I don’t like the park, then we’re going to need to go to the secondary extraction point.”
“Understood.” Maxwell responded.
“What’s the ETA on a chopper if you send it now?”
“About twenty five minutes with the necessary deviations.” Hall answered.
“Walking time to the park?” Jack wanted to know.
“A group your size and assuming minimal contact with the infected, it would take you approximately ten minutes.”
“Fine. I’ll tell you when to get the bird in the air; we need a few minutes to make sure the group is ready to travel and to do a supply check.”
“Give us the signal when you’re ready.” Hall stated simply.
“And Jack?” Maxwell added.
“Yeah?”
“Make sure that data gets back to us.” Maxwell asserted, leaning forward against his desk.
The Z Directive (Book 1): Extraction Point Page 8