The Bari Bones

by Urcelia Teixeira

  Alex and Sam watched as Xun swung her brother’s swivel chair around to face her, careful not to disrupt the bubble gauge. Silent up till now, Wang’s eyes locked with hers, but instead of displaying hatred and anger towards his sister, his eyes were filled with hurt, pity and despair.

  “Why, Xun? What have I ever done to you?”

  Xun’s icy voice bellowed in their ears.

  “Why? How laughable!” She expelled a sadistic scoff before continuing, “How long did you think I was going to continue in your shadow, Shuren? This company was mine long before you breathed your first breath. From the moment you were born I was kicked aside by our father because I was female, and you know it.” She turned and placed her hands on the desk behind her, the look across her face suddenly even more rigid with resentment.

  “I had nothing to do with our father’s choices. I’ve always made you feel part of this company.”

  “Did you now? You certainly didn’t contest his decision for you to run this company instead of me, and you definitely made sure I was stuck down here away from the world, buried under research in the labs while you paraded around like a peacock to the world. All these years, every single pharmaceutical composition created in these labs were as much my hard work as they were yours, and never once did you give me the credit.”

  “Is that what this is about? Acclamation? Fame?” Wang asked. “What happened to creating a better world together, Xun? Saving humanity and healing our nation? Remember that?”

  Xun ignored her brother’s interrogation, obviously intended to make her feel guilty. She glanced at the diamond encrusted gold watch on her arm and swiftly moved across the room to where she switched a computer’s display to a large television screen directly across from Wang. Her fingers moved across the keyboard, setting into motion recorded video footage of several commuters somewhere on a train.

  “Perfect timing. Why don’t you two come closer?” She was referring to Alex and Sam, her voice thick with self-satisfaction. “The world is about to witness just how powerful the mighty Infinitech really is.”

  They had no choice when the two Fang members shoved Alex and Sam behind Wang’s chair, forcing them to watch the TV screen that was suspended from the charcoal grey ceiling. A moment later the screen switched to an international news channel’s studio where the presenter was reporting live on air. He paused, receiving instructions in his ear before the channel promptly switched to cellphone footage of an eighty-foot digital billboard that towered over Hong Kong’s busiest cross-harbor tunnel in Hung Hom. Broadcasted on it were the commuters on the train, the exact video footage triggered by Xun’s computer screen a mere five feet away from them. A red haze wafted through the train and Alex, Sam and Wang, along with millions of viewers watched in horror when, one by one, the passengers’ faces melted away from their skulls before the rest of their bodies slowly liquefied until they bubbled in puddles throughout the train. Distressed civilians, sent into panic by the footage, dispersed into the street as chaos ensued. A minute later video footage of civilians in a shopping district in Shanghai flashed across the screen and once again the horror images of another chemical attack sent crowds of people fleeing from a mall.

  “Stop it, Xun!” Wang yelled. “This is madness! You’re killing millions of innocent people, and for what? To make me out to be a devil?”

  “You still don’t get it, do you?” she shouted back. “You, Infinitech and the entire hierarchy of China have taken me for granted. For years you have robbed me of my contribution to this industry and passed my hard work off as your own, just so our dearest father could boast about you to all our family and the mighty Infinitech could stay at the top. Now he’s dead, and it is time the world sees who you and Infinitech really are. Once again I did the groundwork for you and you excluded me from possibly the biggest breakthrough in regenerative medicine by taking over. No more. All that’s left for you to do is to hand over the manna’s complete formula. It’s the last power I’ll ever give you. The longer you take to give me what I want, the more people will pay for it.”

  Alex met Sam’s gaze when they simultaneously attempted to piece it all together.

  “You have the manna, then?” Sam’s voice broke through Xun’s ferocious attack on her brother, forcing her attention away from him.

  Xun tugged the hem of her jacket in an effort to compose herself.

  “He speaks after all. I was beginning to think you had no backbone Dr. Sam Quinn.” She took another sip of her tea before placing it back on her desk.

  “Yes, she does now. She finally got her greedy hands on it when my own security also betrayed me. Clearly I couldn’t trust them either,” Wang said to Xun.

  “Oh come on little brother. You’re not exactly innocent in all of this. You certainly seized the moment to sneak in there and steal the manna when I stupidly provided the perfect distraction for you. I did you a favor by killing that priest. No wonder you kept it hidden from everyone. Even me. We wouldn’t want the world to think you’re a murderer now would we? You certainly could have saved me a lot of trouble Shuren. It took me a while to figure it out, I must confess. I always thought you to be a coward, but never a thief. You must want this really badly to have stolen the manna from a church.”

  “I was going to tell you, Xun,” Wang said.

  “By working on the formula behind my back. Well, its too late. Your groundbreaking pharmaceutical will never see the light of day.”

  “I don’t understand. What can you possibly achieve by having the manna? Clearly your mission in life is to kill and destroy. The manna brings healing, a philosophy you evidently don’t even follow.”

  Xun rose from where she had taken a seat on the side of the desk and walked up to face Alex. She was even taller up close in her six-inch heels as she towered over her.

  “Oh, you naive little thing. Do you realize the magnitude of the manna’s power? For seven years I’ve been watching lizards grow their tails back and snails regenerate their shells, coming closer and closer to creating the world’s first and only cell and tissue regenerating drug. But the formula was incomplete. We tested everything that breathed on this earth from the rarest lizards to the oldest snails on the planet and none of the chemical compounds worked. Until we heard about the miraculous liquid that’s been reproducing itself for centuries, seeping from the seventeen-hundred-year-old bones of a man. All these years I’ve turned to insects and reptiles in my research and never once did it occur to me that the human composition is vastly different from any other species. I’m a scientist. How could I refuse something that’s been right under my nose all these years?” Xun took a seat in front of her computer before her fingers moved over her keyboard once again.

  Alex frowned as she tried to make sense of it all.

  “Then why kill thousands of people if you intend on creating a regenerative cure to heal people?” Alex asked.

  Her words instantly had Xun throw back her head in laughter.

  “Because she’s reverse engineering it into a weapon,” Sam said in a low monotone.

  “Well, look at you, Doctor. You’re a lot smarter than I thought. I could have done with you on my research team,” Xun mocked.

  “Is that true, Xun? You want the formula to create chemical weapons. Tell me it’s not true.” Wang’s anguished voice, bitter with disappointment, begged for his sister to deny it, but she couldn’t.

  “So you commissioned the Fangs to kill the priest and bully your way in to get your filthy hands on the manna,” Alex said angrily.

  “Commissioned them? I AM the Fangs you stupid girl. Look around you. You’re in a multinational pharmaceutical company. We create drugs all day long. Why would I not seize the opportunity to make my own money from it? I’m almost sixty-five years old and I’ve worked under my little brother’s reign my entire life. The manna is my ticket out of here.”

  “Then why kill the priest, hurt the parishioners and Khalil and then come after us?” Alex asked.

  “A
h, the priests. All four of them fought hard to protect the manna and I had to get my message across somehow. The dead priest was the first to defy me, a fatal mistake on his part. You, on the other hand, stuck your nose where it didn’t belong; a thorn in my flesh. At first I thought I could use you to get the manna for me. Until of course you somehow landed up here. I underestimated you. But, it turned out I didn’t need you anyway. It wasn’t that hard to get my dear brother’s security to turn on him. Money has a way of doing the convincing on my behalf.”

  “How could you, Xun? Stop this. We can work things out. Infinitech will never survive this scandal. We’ll have nothing left. You don’t have to go through with this.” Wang begged his sibling again.

  “Oh cheer up, little brother. You won’t be alive to experience the world’s ridicule when I’m done anyway. I’ll be halfway across the world living out my life in luxury by the time they discover your liquefied remains. I don’t need you or this excuse for a company anymore.”

  Alex glanced down at the chemical bomb strapped to Wang’s chest. If he moved he’d end up like his security team. Her eyes glanced at Xun who was once again busy on her computer. For the first time since stepping into her underground laboratory, Alex scanned her eyes around the room. It was as icy cold as its tenant. Half research lab and half executive office. Behind them the two Fang members remained in position, their guns for the moment relaxed and pointed to the ground. Her eyes met Sam’s, silently agreeing to put a stop to Xun before she claimed more innocent lives through her insanity. As far as they could tell, Xun was unarmed, but so were they. Though again the Fangs’ inexperience was evident as they’d neglected to restrain their hands. Distracted by her vengeance-fueled mission, with her back towards them, Xun’s fingers worked the keys on her computer and Alex and Sam prepared their attack. But in that instant, Xun’s last keystroke sent another image, of a school full of young children, across the television screen.

  “NO! You have to stop, Xun!” Wang screamed.

  “You don’t tell me what to do anymore, little brother. Give me the rest of the formula or they all die.”

  Wang’s face displayed the absolute torture that ripped through his being. His eyes lost, searching for a way out. If he gave her the missing sequence of the formula her chemical weapons would kill millions all around the world. If he didn’t, a school full of innocent children would pay the price.

  “I don’t have all day, Shuren. Spit it out!” Xun yelled as her patience wore thin.

  “Think about what you’re doing, Xun. They don’t deserve it.”

  I’m done playing games with you, Shuren! This is your last chance. Give it to me or I kill them.”

  Wang no longer cried. Instead he was as calm as the sea before a storm when he spoke.

  “Fine, you win. Give me a pen and pad.”

  Xun rose to her feet and, pen and pad in hand, walked over to her brother.

  “I knew you’d come around. Like I said, you’re too nice. It has always been your fallibility.”

  As Xun placed the pen in her brother’s hand and held out the writing pad, Wang dug his heels into the floor, leaped forward in the chair and pushed his sister backwards onto her desk, crushing the toxic flask between their bodies.

  And, as Shuren Wang selflessly gave his life in support of the one ideology he had always lived by, Alex and Sam disarmed their unsuspecting captors before sending them unconscious to the floor.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Sam leaped across the floor in a futile attempt to save Wang, but it was too late. The chemical bomb had detonated and trapped the red liquid between their bodies, viciously eating away at their flesh. Still in awe of Shuren Wang’s heroic act, Alex darted to the computer where the video of the school continued to play.

  “We need to get those kids out of there!” she called out to Sam.

  On the computer screen a large red button with a single Chinese logogram hovered across the middle of the screen. Hesitant to do anything they stared at the block.

  “Leave it, Alex. Any of the keys on her keyboard could set the bomb off. Our safest bet is finding something in the video that might disclose the school’s name. Perhaps we missed it earlier.”

  Agreeing that Sam’s suggestion was the smarter option they scrutinized the TV screen, watching a dozen kids, between the ages of three and six, sitting listening to a story on the floor at their teacher’s feet, oblivious to the danger that lurked in their classroom and the death threat upon their heads. Alex and Sam’s eyes frantically scanned the screen for a name or logo of the school, but there was nothing.

  “We don’t have time for this,” Alex blurted out impatiently while she turned to where the two Fang members still lay unconscious on the floor. She picked up a pistol that lay nearby and squatted next to them before her hand slapped one across the cheek. He didn’t move, so she slapped him again, this time much harder, before she wrapped her fist around his collar and raised his head from the floor.

  “Wake up!” she yelled, shaking him with fury.

  Sam joined her, lifting the man into a sitting position when he stirred.

  “Time to do something good, mate,” Sam yelled at him as the mobster regained his faculties.

  “Where is the school?” Alex immediately questioned him, holding the gun right up to his nose while Sam locked his arms in place behind his back.

  The Fang member didn’t answer. Instead, his heartless eyes remained fixed on Alex’s as he challenged the threat of the gun in his face. Alex moved her face in closer, her chin almost touching her wrist while she pushed the gun firmly against the man’s cheek.

  “If you think I’m going to let those kids die to save your life you’re making a big mistake. Either you tell me where the school is, or I take you apart, limb by limb.”

  The faintest flicker in the man’s eyes told Alex that her threat had worked, yet the man didn’t respond, calling her bluff. She moved the gun over his kneecap while her threatening eyes remained on his and firmly pushed the gun down into his knee.

  “Okay, okay!” The man surrendered quickly. “It’s a school in Chongqing.”

  “What’s its name?” Sam said close to his ear.

  “Ying Zheng.”

  “How far is it from here?” Alex asked.

  The mobster let out a half-suppressed laugh and Alex responded by pushing the gun into his kneecap again. The threat yanked him back to reality.

  “You can’t get there, okay. It’s too far. It’s at least fifteen hours by train.”

  Frustrated, Alex pushed him against the floor and rose to her feet. She paced back and forth in front of him as her mind tried to plan their next move. Out of time and out of patience she stopped midway and pushed the gun back in his face.

  “How did she plant the bomb?”

  “Ah come on, man. The Fangs don’t tolerate traitors. I’m dead if I tell you.”

  “You’re dead anyway, now tell me how she planted the bomb.”

  The man swore in his native tongue.

  “It was planted by a Fang member from the area.”

  Alex gathered her thoughts before she leaped back to Xun’s desk in search of the woman’s phone. Snatching it off the desk she crossed the room to where Xun’s disfigured body was pinned under Wang’s.

  “Don’t touch her, Alex!” Sam warned when Alex reached out to lift Xun’s arm.

  Alex heeded Sam’s warning and, without touching Xun, hovered the phone below her thumb. It worked and instantly the phone unlocked.

  Alex was back with the mobster on the floor.

  “You’re going to call your scumbag friend from her phone and tell him to disarm and remove the bomb. Tell him Xun ordered you to call him. Not a word about her death. Got it?”

  She pushed the phone in front of his face, waiting for him to direct her through the contacts list on the phone. A moment later the dial tone cut through the tense atmosphere. Sam tightened his grip on the gangster’s arms while Alex pushed the gun’s barrel into
the man’s shoulder just above his collarbone, warning him not to chance anything.

  A man on the other end of the call answered, and Alex moved the tip of her gun to the spot between the guard’s eyes. From her harsh stare it was evident she wasn’t playing around and he promptly responded to her threat with a short exchange in Mandarin. The man on the other end’s tone elevated a few notches, signifying he wasn’t in agreement, and caused Alex to apply more pressure to the gun. The gangster’s voice argued back in response, knowing he needed to convince his friend or he’d lose his life. Whatever he said worked and, a moment later, the one on the other end switched the phone off.

  “Talk,” Alex commanded.

  “He’s at the school. He was waiting on Xun’s orders to go ahead. He’s on his way back in.”

  Alex turned and watched the video on the television screen, seeing a heavily tattooed man with a gun enter the classroom and move past the educator, sending her into total panic while she huddled the children in a corner. The man ignored them and casually pulled a chair against the wall, onto which he then climbed in order to reach the ventilation duct above his head. His hands reached in and slowly removed a cylindrical container almost identical to the one Wang had had pinned around his chest except this one had a cellphone attached to it instead of a spirit level. A swift but cautious move of his fingers disconnected the phone, after which he placed the cylinder inside a silver case in his small backpack before leaving as casually as he had entered.

  “Satisfied?” the man under Alex’s aim said with disdain.