by Ken Kroes
“At least we’ve located the lab that’s working with the foundation to make the vaccine.”
“Yes, and I have another government department doing surveillance on them now. If they ship anything from there, we’ll have a little surprise in store for them.”
Spencer had found the lab using the Dark Web search engine. He had scanned through all external email accounts that were accessed from Richard’s mansion or from anywhere close to the foundation headquarters. He found one account having suspicious draft messages that were never sent, and after closer examination found that these messages were related to making two million doses of a vaccine for the foundation.
More digging revealed that the messages had been accessed from two locations, the foundation headquarters and the other a small, independent lab in the U.S. He also discovered that the vaccines were to be shipped only after the complete order was ready, which would be in one month’s time.
Sue brought this information to the director, and they agreed, given the timeframe, to continue gathering intelligence on activities within the foundation before carrying out a raid on either the foundation or the lab.
********************
Mikhail frowned when he saw Richard’s name on his phone and knew this would be a tough call. He picked up the handset and greeted him amicably, but his tone was not reciprocated.
“Mikhail! What’s going on? People are dying and all of them showed symptoms of Virtuesh.”
“Please calm down, Richard. It’s under control.”
He shouted into Mikhail’s ear. “Calm down? First we have the virus showing up at the CDC, and now the damn thing is out in the open, and every government in the world is on alert. And I’m supposed to be calm?”
“This is all to buy us time, Richard. I’m working on getting the CDC sample switched for something harmless so that nothing can be tied to us. We’ll develop a new strain of Virtuesh to have at the villages. Perhaps we can spin this so that the Governments will think CURE is behind it.”
“Well I hope that works, we haven’t had much luck lately. This is so out of control.”
Mikhail continued to speak in as soothing a tone as he could manage. “It may look that way, but trust me when I tell you that in a few weeks it will have been worked out. Right now, we have to act as if everything is normal. For instance, the winter party that we planned for Percipience next week must go ahead.”
“I guess, just make sure you have the very best people working on this CDC thing. Do you know how the leak started?”
“It can only be one of a few people, and I’m almost certain now that it was Olivia, the lead researcher we’ve had on the project since the beginning. She’s over here at headquarters right now and I’m keeping a close eye on her. When she returns to Percipience, I’ll take care of the problem.”
Richard’s voice was softly threatening. “Make sure all of the leaks are plugged. We can’t afford any more mistakes.” The connection went dead.
Mikhail turned the cell phone in his hand while contemplating the conversation and what his next move should be. As for Olivia, her usefulness had ended.
He sent an encrypted message to a few other leaders of CURE. “Do not—repeat—do not send out any communication denying CURE’s involvement in the recent deadly flu outbreak.”
16 - Assimilation
“I haven’t had this much fun in years!” Hope said, as tears of laughter ran down her face. She watched with Diane as Mikhail looked around anxiously to see who had thrown the snowball at him.
“I don’t think he’s ever even seen snow before, and for once is a bit out of his element,” Diane said. She lofted another snowball high in the air in his general direction.
The snow festival was a reward for everyone’s hard work and an effort to start building up community spirit for Percipience. It was only a month until Christmas, and the Percipience altitude did not allow for much snow. Dozens of large trucks appeared in the morning filled with snow from the mountains. By noon, the clearing in front of the town center was transformed into a gigantic winter play land. Strict orders were given for everyone to participate in the events or it would be their last day in the village.
Hundreds of toboggans were provided for sliding down the newly formed snow hills, and two snow forts were built on either side. For the brave, or talented, an artificial ice rink was setup. The entire afternoon was filled with activities including a continuous snowball fight between the two forts and snowman-building competitions.
“I’m soaked!” Diane said to Hope. “Let’s go to the bonfire to dry out and get some hot cider.”
As they warmed themselves by the fire, Diane reflected on the month since Olivia had left for the foundation laboratory. The time had sped by with an intensive learning schedule laid out for residents that covered tasks required to run the village. She felt, for the first time in her life, that she not only belonged to something important but that she was important to its purpose. She had found a level of harmony here that was otherwise unattainable to her in the world beyond this village.
“I’m starting to really like it here,” she said. “This is the first time in a long time that I feel like I actually belong to something good.”
“You had better!” Hope replied. “You’re going to be spending the rest of your life here.”
Diane looked into the fire as if making a decision. “I haven’t been completely honest with you, Hope.”
Hope didn’t respond, waiting to hear more.
“I have no intention of staying,” Diane said. “The only reason I’m here is to find out who murdered my brother.”
Hope recovered quickly from choking on her drink. “Murdered?”
Diane recounted the story of her brother and how she had followed the Virtuesh lead.
“That’s incredible!” Hope said, “Do you have any leads or suspects?”
“I’m certain that Mikhail is involved, but I suspect he wasn’t in on it alone. Hopefully, Olivia has found out something at headquarters. She’s supposed to be returning tomorrow.”
Hope wanted to appear to help in some way beyond sympathetic words. “I work fairly closely with Mikhail, and I’ll keep my eyes open. Maybe together we can find out who did it and then you can turn them in.”
“Who said anything about turning them in?” Diane replied coldly.
********************
At the end of the following day, Hope was nearing the end of her work shift when she started hearing voices through her earbud, picked up by the listening bug in her trailer.
The first minutes of the conversation were not very interesting as Olivia and Diane greeted each other. Diane stressed how glad she was that Olivia was back. Hope’s attention increased as the conversation continued.
“So how’d you do with Virtuesh-B?” Diane asked.
“Very well. I was able to reproduce the virus quickly—since it’s just a variation of the original Virtuesh and the printed documentation was very helpful in making the vaccine from the live pathogen.”
“But were you able to create enough?”
“I didn’t have time to make much, and I haven’t been able to test it thoroughly. But I have enough vaccine for about fifteen hundred doses. I dropped them off at the lab as soon as I arrived, and I’ll start to inoculate people here in the next couple of days.”
“But that isn’t enough! There are about eight hundred people at Percipience alone and then there are the other villages. My God, what about all of the other people outside of the villages?” Diane said getting more panicked as the reality sank in of how few people they could save.
Olivia moved towards Diane and gave her a reassuring hug. “I’ve had the same thoughts myself, but it won’t get to that. We’ll make sure that Virtuesh-B does not get released. But we need to be smart about how these few doses of vaccine are used.”
Diane nodded and listened as Olivia continued.
“If for some reason we fail and the release occ
urs, the residents of the villages will have the best chance of long-term survival of anyone on the planet. The builders at each of the sites will probably have left by the time of release and if not, most likely do not have the psychological profile to live in the society that the residents all believe in. If we have to choose, then the choice, no matter how hard, is obvious. We must vaccinate all of the residents.”
Diane sat down on her cot and did not say anything for quite a while.
“Are you ok?” Olivia asked.
Diane started to come out of her trance and nodded. “You’re right. So what’s the plan? Just inoculate the residents?”
“I was thinking of inoculating everyone. Fewer questions that way. But we will give the residents the new vaccine that I made which is good for both strains of Virtuesh. Everyone else will get the vaccine that we already have on site for the original Virtuesh.”
Hope removed the earbud. She would catch the rest of the recorded conversation later, but she had heard all that she needed. With the new vaccine in the lab, she would have easy access and ample time to get a few doses.
She picked up her phone and called Mikhail. She was surprised that he was in Percipience rather than at headquarters. He said he was in one of the town center offices and agreed to meet her in his trailer.
When she arrived, he was waiting for her and was pouring himself a drink of brandy. “What’s so important?” he asked while holding up the bottle indicating if she would like some.
Hope shook her head, refusing his offer. “I bugged my trailer—Olivia returned today, and I just picked up a very interesting conversation between her and Diane.” She described how Olivia had made the Virtuesh-B virus and vaccine while at the foundation laboratory.
He slapped the side of his chair. “I knew she was up to something, but she covered her tracks very well.”
“Is there anything you want me to do?”
“We can’t take a chance on either her or Diane talking to Richard or the authorities. Not while I’m so close. Take them both out, but make it look like an accident. If it’s too obvious, we’ll have more people showing up here, and that’s the last thing we need.”
“Consider it done,” she said. “When are you going to get our vaccines?”
“They should be here in a few weeks. Don’t worry—you’ll get what I promised you.”
I’m not worried at all. Not anymore.
17 - Survival
The young man held up a package. “Another delivery for the lab.”
Olivia pointed to a bench without looking up from her work. “Just put it over there.” After a month’s absence, there were crates of unpacked lab equipment all over the place that Olivia knew she had to get to but her priority right now was getting organized for the upcoming virus vaccination. Currently, she was labelling the new vaccine boxes so that they would not get mixed up with the regular ones.
He placed the package on a table beside her and looked around the lab and observed what Olivia was doing. She already seemed to have forgotten he was still there. “Have a good day,” he said as he made his way out.
She didn’t even notice me. Hope was using the same disguise as when she killed the professor on the bus with one added touch, she now carried a few inhalers along that contained Xenon gas. One shot from the inhaler and the heavier than air gas lowered her voice enough to be a quite believable man’s tone. She had to use her disguise since Olivia was very clear in the morning that she wanted to work alone today. This was Hope’s second delivery of the day, and on this trip, she picked up on what Olivia was doing in labelling the boxes and now knew which vaccines to take. With this information, Hope could finally focus on the evening’s activities.
*******************
Although tired after a long day, Diane woke shortly after midnight and knew something was wrong. The hairs on the back of her neck and arm were raised. The trailer was dark except for the pale glow coming from a small nightlight in the bathroom.
She sat up in bed and saw that Olivia was asleep, but Hope’s cot was empty. Forest night sounds came through the open window. She put her head on the pillow and closed her eyes. A sense of approaching danger prevented her from going back to sleep.
She got up and dressed without turning on a light and went outside. The moon was almost full and there were thousands of stars in the sky. A slight breeze cooled her skin and the occasional bird sound punctuated the stillness of the night. She went back inside and gently shook Olivia’s shoulder.
“What…” Olivia said as she started to wake up. “What’re you doing? It’s the middle of the night.”
“I don’t know why, but I have a feeling that something is wrong, very wrong. Please get up.”
With a groan of surrender, Olivia rolled over, pulled her feet out from under the covers, and sat on the edge of the bed. “What is it? Did you hear something?”
“I don’t know. I’m just scared right now. I know it’s late, but would you mind going to the cafeteria with me? There’ll be people there.”
“Well I’m awake now,” Olivia said, yawning and stretching her arms over her head.
She dressed hurriedly and they walked to the cafeteria. A few people were sitting around a table playing a game of cards but otherwise the place was empty. “Hmm... I wonder where Hope is,” Diane asked. “I thought we would find her here.”
“Not sure,” Olivia said. “Off on another of her late night errands for Mikhail, I’m guessing. When I got dressed I noticed that her backpack was gone.”
They poured themselves mugs of hot cider, shared a piece of apple pie and finally headed back to their trailer.
“I guess I’m being plain silly,” Diane said. “I felt frightened all of a sudden, but I’m much better now. Thanks for putting up with me.”
“No problem—I haven’t seen you rattled like that before and I’ll be back to sleep within seconds of hitting the pillow anyhow.”
“Me too,” Diane said. Then she reached out and grabbed Olivia’s arm. “Stop,” she whispered. “What’s that up ahead by our trailer?”
Olivia saw nothing at first but then noticed movement near the side of their trailer.
They pressed against the wall of a nearby trailer and studied the figure moving around the propane tank and heating unit.
They looked at each other quizzically. “What’s he doing?” Olivia’s mouth shaped the words silently. “Should we stop him?” The shadowy intruder crouched down to grasp a tool and, for a brief moment, the moon provided a spotlight of his face. “Hey!” Olivia whispered hoarsely. “That’s the delivery guy that came to the lab today.”
Diane stayed quiet while she tried to place where she had seen that face, and then it dawned on her. “I’ve seen him before too. That’s the man who was on the bus surveillance video when my brother was killed. He’s the person who killed my brother!”
Suddenly several pieces of the puzzle clicked together. Diane reached into her hip pocket and pulled out the slip of paper she had written the life insurance agent phone number. She dialed the number and kept a close eye on the figure. She saw the man by the trailer reach into his pocket, pull out a phone, and then put it away.
************
Hope was nearly finished tampering with the heating unit when she felt the vibration of her phone. She reached into her pocket to look at the display screen and saw that it was answering a call to the dummy life-insurance company. The caller’s name normally was displayed, even those having the block feature, but no number showed.
Must be a burn phone—probably a wrong number.
She put the phone back in her pocket and finished working on loosening the propane line that went to the pressure regulator. If someone later inspected the unit, they would just think it was a faulty connection, easily explained by the large number of new trailers that were setup in the last few months. She pulled out a lighter and held it under the gas leak she had created. A flame appeared and started to burn at the base of the ru
bber fitting that held the regulator in place.
Time to go. She picked up her backpack and disappeared into the maze of trailers.
**************
Olivia looked at Diane, “That was Hope’s backpack!”
“I know,” Diane said in amazement. “I bet she wore a different disguise when visiting my sister in law too. Oh my God! That means she’s the one that killed my brother!”
The two had little time to let this realization sink in though as they saw flames start to leap against their trailer’s wall.
“Fire!” they shouted as they ran forward. With wood construction and an ample source of fuel from the propane line leading to the heater, the trailer was soon immersed in flames.
Others had gathered but could do little as the blaze lit up the night. Spacing assured no real danger of the fire spreading, but there was chaos as many scrambled to put out spot fires ignited from sparks thrown off by the fire.
As the flames died down, the entire trailer was reduced to charcoaled wood and pieces of metal.
Olivia looked at Diane, both feeling the chill of shock. “She tried to kill us! How’d you know we were in danger and had to leave the trailer?”
“I’m not sure.” Diane felt vaguely disconnected as she watched the last of the flames destroy their remaining contents.
“We have to do something,” Olivia said. “We’re in real danger and then there is this whole thing with Virtuesh-B. We need to put a stop to all of it.”
“But what can we do? Who can we trust? The virus proves that Mikhail is definitely involved in something shady. Do you think we can talk to Richard? Is he involved in all of this too?”
“What choice do we have? The only other option is to contact the police, but Mikhail has probably covered his tracks so well they wouldn’t be able to find anything. Also, if they did find something then I’d be sent to prison for the rest of my life.”
“Then let’s roll the dice and contact, Richard,” Diane said. “We already have someone trying to kill us, so our situation can’t get much worse.”