Infinite Vampire [Book 4]_Antivenom

by M. Lorrox

  He pulls his chin to his neck while shaking his head back and forth and furrowing his brow. “I don’t think that’s possible.”

  Anne walks past him toward the coffee pot. “To quote Lars, ‘failure isn’t an option.’”

  They both know that when a cell is infected with a virus, the cell is hijacked and turned into a virion factory—“virion” being the term for the infective form of a virus outside a host cell. In this production process, the cell is damaged, so it can only be used to produce virions once. Ken bites his bottom lip. “We certainly don’t have enough cells on hand and ready to infect... Damn, pour me a mug too, please.”

  The rest of her team arrives, and they wait for direction.

  Anne hands Ken a mug, then sighs while she looks out at her nervous team. “You overheard?”

  A technician clears his throat. “Enough to know we’re not sleeping tonight.”

  Anne takes a sip of her coffee and uses the moment to think. “We have a nearly impossible task. We have two days to deliver a ton of virions. Let’s first focus on inducing mitosis on all the epithelial host cells we have because we sure as hell don’t have enough right now…

  “If we flood the cells with even more nutrients, they should be through the G1 reproductive stage in two hours. S phase on epithelials should take around four hours, and then G2 will take three hours, and then M should take another two hours... So from now that’s almost twelve hours. The next split will take longer for G1, probably an additional four. So in twelve hours we’ll have two-x, and after another sixteen hours, we could have four-x. I’m not sure even that’s enough.” She pauses for a sip of coffee.

  Ken nods. “That’d be twenty-eight hours from now for four-x, and after another cycle, we’d have eight-x, which should be plenty, but it would take a total of forty-four hours.”

  “And we have forty-eight hours.” Anne sighs. “Leaving only four hours to infect all the cells, have the virions produced, and then collect them all.”

  Someone groans.

  Ken shakes his head. “I don’t think that can be done in just four hours.”

  Anne shrugs. “Well, we have some options. Ken, start the first cycle of epithelial mitosis. I’ll infect a few cells with tau and calculate a production factor. Then, we’ll see just how many cells and cycles we’ll need to pull this off.” She shakes her head. “I think it’s safe to say we’re ramping up for the final attack. Let’s pull out all the stops and make this happen.”

  When Dr. Trinn Soun received Lars’ message, she was much busier. Just inside the closed door to her apartment, her assistant, William O’Byrne is buttoning his shirt. “I’m going to head back to my place for a change of clothes. I’ll see you in the lab.”

  Trinn is still wearing her slacks and blouse from earlier in the day. She kisses him on the forehead. “I’ll be waiting.”

  “I’ll be quick.” He opens the door and dashes down the hall.

  Trinn smiles and stares off until she notices her tablet on the coffee table. She picks it up, reads the email Lars sent her, and shrugs. “Esther, I’m headed out. Sleep mode in five minutes.”

  Dr. Melgaard is tasking Trinn’s Biotechnology team with synthesizing more of the new, viral-hardening substance he found in Donor X1’s samples, the protein he named Mithrilin. When Lars arrived at The Plant, he delivered the donor’s ovaries, three-point-five liters of blood, and fourteen hundred milliliters of bone marrow to the team. Since then, they’ve been able to produce another quarter-liter of blood, and they’ve harvested about fifty adult stem cells from the bone marrow.

  Trinn and her team is given the same deadline as the Virology team, but they’re tasked to produce twice the quantity of material. They have forty-eight hours to deliver one hundred million biomolecules of Mithrilin.

  Bacteria are used to efficiently make artificial insulin for diabetics, and with properly genetically modified bacteria, Lars’ order would be trivial. However, it would take the team too much time to sequence and implant the genes to create Mithrilin-making bacteria. Instead, the team must use the bio-factories of the Donor X1 samples.

  Unlike Anne, Trinn isn’t concerned. When Trinn enters the large, shared lab, she waits and studies her notes from earlier in the day while Anne’s team rushes around. When the Biotech team joins her, they find her casually leaning against a table and reading.

  Most are grumpy at being roused to work at such a late hour, and Trinn waits until everyone has arrived. She sniffs as she looks past their scowls, searching for William.

  The door blasts open, and he rushes in, buttoning a new shirt. “Sorry I’m late!”

  Trinn elevator-eyes him, then rolls her eyes—for her team’s benefit. She clears her throat. “We need to manufacture a macromolecule protein, the old-fashioned way. We’re lucky Dr. Melgaard was able to collect so much material from Donor X1—the poor soul—it’s going to make our lives easier.” She shakes her head and frowns. “At least their suffering will matter... First, we need a way to filter out the protein, so let’s get some fractionation systems going. We don’t even know the size of the macromolecule yet... Let’s run a pint of blood through a gel-permeation chromatography column, calculate the size, and see how many Mithrilin molecules we can get.”

  William snickers. “I never pegged Dr. Melgaard as a Tolkien lover.”

  Trinn shrugs. “People surprise you. Alright, let’s get moving on the tests and see what we get. In the meantime, I’m going to keep working on the ovary’s oocytes.”

  Steve has an earpiece tucked under the bandages on his head, a microphone hidden in his collar, and a copy of a bogus but believable cipher. Jambavan, Qilin, and Madeline—also wearing earpieces and microphones—accompany him to the meeting location, the topmost covered deck of a parking garage in Northern Virginia.

  Steve takes his motorcycle, while Qilin follows behind him with the others in her Pontiac Trans Am.

  When they get off Route 50 and enter the mall’s large, ground-level parking lot, Steve pulls over and lets the others get to the garage first.

  Madeline, scrunched and hiding in the tiny back seat of Qilin’s racecar, pokes her eyes over the frame of the passenger side window and looks for Li Chen’s bike. “We’re early, but he might be earlier. He was always a pain about being early.”

  Jambavan pretends to be playing with his phone. “Do you see him?”

  “Not yet.”

  Qilin turns up the ramp and into the parking garage. “It looks like there’s only one exit-path, so that’ll make covering it easier.”

  Jambavan nods. “You want to stay with the car in case you need to pursue?”

  She shakes her head. “No. I’ll just throw down a spike strip. High-speed chases are for movies.”

  Is that his bike? Madeline squints. Nope.

  Qilin parks on the level just under where the meeting is to take place. “I’ll cover the exit-path. Jambavan, you and Madeline get into position, and stay hidden. Steve?”

  They wait, then through their earpieces, they hear a click as Steve turns his mic on. “Hey.”

  “Go on in, and good luck. We’ve got your back.”

  “Okay... Thanks.”

  Steve parks his bike at the end of the topmost covered level, past all the other cars. He leans on his bike and browses Reddit on his phone while he waits. After almost fifteen minutes, he stands when he sees another bike—Li Chen’s bike—approaching. Here we go.

  Li Chen parks near Steve, hops off his bike, and pulls off his helmet. He makes a point to inspect the variety of bandages on Steve’s head and arm. “Damn, you’re healing up good though?”

  He nods. “I’ll live.”

  Li Chen leans on his bike. “Any word from Mad? I can’t believe she jumped in front of me... I didn’t mean to stab her, you know?”

  Madeline, hiding with Jambavan in front of a utility van at the far
end of that same level of the garage, resists the urge to tell Steve to tell Li Chen to go to hell. She’s pleased though when she hears Steve’s reply.

  “Whatever man, none of that was necessary. We didn’t have to hurt anybody.”

  Li Chen shakes his head. “Hindsight is always 20-20, but in the moment, decisions gotta be made. That’s what being a good leader is, man, making the decisions. Besides, who knows, they might have stalled or something, and we might have gotten caught.”

  I got fucking caught by that crazy girl. Steve shrugs, then, in his earpiece, he hears Jambavan whispering to him. Steve swallows. “So where’s Lorenzo? And why did you say to pack a bag?”

  Li Chen checks the time. “Chill dude, we’re still a couple minutes early.” He smiles. “Lorenzo said there’s another one of these items he needs to collect, and it’s in Europe. I offered to help for the right price.”

  “Why would he still need your help though? Don’t you think he’d have goons there?”

  “He said he wants to keep this little hunt of his as quiet as possible, so he agreed to bring me. I can talk him into bringing you too, if you’re up for it.”

  Qilin’s voice comes over the radio. “Vehicle approaching. Black SUV.”

  Madeline’s voice follows. “Steve, better play along like you want to go.”

  He nods. “Alright. Yeah I could get out of this place.”

  Li Chen chuckles. “You and me both. We’re wanted men—probably got dust looking for us.”

  Steve nods, then glances at the vehicle approaching them. “Is that him?”

  “Probably.”

  The SUV pulls up to them and backs into a spot across the from their bikes. A tall man wearing sunglasses hops out of the driver’s seat and walks over to them. “Li Chen?”

  “That’s me. Where’s Lorenzo?”

  The man hands out a phone to Li Chen. On it, a video is paused. Li Chen takes the phone, and as Steve walks up next to him, he taps to play it.

  In the video, Lorenzo is sitting in the back of a limo. “Hello there, Li Chen, I have a tiny bit of bad news. I couldn’t make it to our meeting today, but I’ve sent my associate John.” In the video, another man—the same man that handed the phone to Li Chen—sticks his head into the frame. “He will be paying you for your services. If you’d still like to accompany me abroad for another job, he will bring you to Philadelphia, where the airport is open, and I have tickets reserved. If not, it’s been a pleasure. Goodbye.”

  The video ends, and Steve is sweating bullets. Fuck!

  Similarly phrased sentiments come through Steve’s earpiece.

  Li Chen hands the phone back to John.

  He takes it, puts it into his pocket, and retrieves an overstuffed envelope. “First, let’s see the ring.”

  Li Chen swallows. “I told Lorenzo that I didn’t have the ring, but I had photographs of the inscription from the ring.”

  John shakes his head. “No, you told Mr. Bernardi that you found, quote, secret inscriptions on the ring, and you requested more money. Fifteen thousand.”

  Li Chen clears his throat. “And that’s what I have, the secret inscriptions, and my friend here—” He motions to Steve. “—has the decryption codes or whatever.” He turns to face Steve. “Which you brought with you, RIGHT STEVE?”

  He nods and pats his hip pocket.

  Li Chen turns back to John with a smile. “I realize that I may not have been clear before, and for that, I’m sorry. How about I throw in the decryption information for free, as a way of apology?”

  John returns the envelope to his pocket. “That wasn’t the deal. Where’s the ring?”

  Li Chen frowns. “The people that had it damaged it. They scraped away the inscription. It’s worthless now.”

  John sighs. “Mr. Bernardi expects to receive the ring and its inscriptions. Where is the ring?”

  Qilin’s voice cuts into Steve’s ear. “Tell them you have it and you hid it on another level.”

  Steve swallows. “Actually, I recovered the ring... I hid it before coming up here.”

  Li Chen shrugs. “See, John, it’s all good. So, if our most recent deal for the ring and its inscription was for fifteen thousand, what’s the decryption info worth to Mr. Bernardi?”

  John turns to Steve. “Go get the ring and bring it to me. Now.”

  Steve nods. “Okay, I’ll go get it.” He starts walking down the ramp to the next lower level.”

  John yells behind him, “Hurry! Run, fat boy!”

  Steve turns around and snarls, “Listen motherfucker: you got eyes behind those shades? I’m wounded. I can’t run.” He turns and continues. What the hell are we going to do now?

  Over the radio, Madeline asks the same question. Qilin responds. “Prime Minister Costanza gave me the ring in case we needed it. Jambavan, run to me to grab it, then get it to Steve. Stay out of sight.”

  Qilin passes the ring to Jambavan, then sighs as she recalls the brief conversation she had with Sadie in the hallway. The prime objective is to return the armlets Lorenzo stole—and if possible, apprehend him—and he’s in Philadelphia. She collects the spike strip she was ready to deploy across the exit path and heads back to her car.

  Jambavan’s voice comes over her earpiece. “So, we should go to Philadelphia now, right?”

  Qilin drops the spike strip into her car’s trunk, then she closes it as quietly as she can. “Jambavan, yes. Steve, say you want to go too. Make Li Chen hold off on making the deal because you don’t trust John. Say you’ll trade the ring and cipher when you all meet up with Lorenzo at the airport.” She shakes her head. I hope this works.

  Mary stirs, then she opens her eyes. Looking around, she realizes that her surroundings aren’t familiar to her. She’s in a large, almost entirely empty room. To her left is a wall of windows, and outside them, a view of a vast green forest on a distant mountainside. Directly across from the windows on the far wall is massive door set against a plain wall. Closer to her bed, another more domestic looking door stands next to a small refrigerator and a stack of chairs. Beside her bed is one of the chairs. She sits up and feels a tug on her left arm. She looks down at an IV stuck into her forearm, and then she traces the tubes to an IV stand beside her bed.

  She grimaces when she registers the strange taste in her mouth, then she smacks her lips and looks for a clock. The walls of the room are completely bare except for a large, flat screen television that’s powered off. There aren’t any bedside tables near her with alarms or remote controls either. She plops back into the bed and reaches to wipe her face, but her right hand never makes contact.

  She opens her eyes while her brain sends the command to lift her right arm and rotate her palm toward her, and she realizes her arm has been amputated above the elbow. She has a shoulder, then a few inches of her upper arm, but then there are bandages and nothing more.

  Mary is delirious from the drugs in her system, and the horror of her missing arm causes her to involuntarily suck in a breath and scream.

  Hector Reyes calls another meeting of section heads, and Dr. Lars Melgaard is the last to arrive. When he walks in, both Hector and Dr. Kazumi Oshiro are seated and frowning at him. “I’m sorry, I was catching up on some sleep. What’s the situation?”

  Hector gestures toward a chair the doctor is already moving toward. “Please, have a seat.”

  Lars snorts.

  Hector leans forward. “I’ve activated my security teams, and it’s a damned good thing. The knights made it out of Honolulu, and they’ve already landed in Queenstown.”

  Lars grits his teeth. “Once again, things that are out of my control.”

  Kazumi pulls off her rimless glasses and rubs her eyes. “I do not need this…”

  Hector continues. “Dr. Melgaard, what are your teams’ statuses? You sent SeCComm a report that you’ve had a breakthrough?”


  Lars nods. “Indeed.”

  After a frustrating moment, Kazumi drops her hand from her head and allows it to smack against the table. “Would you mind sharing this breakthrough with us?”

  He smiles. “I’ve identified the mechanism by which Donor X1 was able to...protect the zombie virus. The secret lies in a protein, and I’ve tasked my teams with manufacturing both the protein, and the most aggressive form of the zombie virus, the tau-strain.”

  Hector smiles. “Congratulations, doctor, well done.”

  “Thank you. We will have the materials required to launch our attacks in two days.”

  Kazumi can’t help but sigh, and Hector furrows his brow. “Do you have something to add, Dr. Oshiro?”

  “No, I was just wondering if there was another way... If there was another option that didn’t include turning the entire human population into zombies.”

  Lars groans. “We’ve been over this; there isn’t.”

  Hector moves his hands slowly off the table and to his sides. “Dr. Oshiro, are you regretting your role in this?”

  She looks at him and smirks. You’re sliding your pistol out from that hip holster you’re wearing today, aren’t you? ...Fucker. She forces the smirk to turn into an evil-looking smile as she turns to Lars. “You misunderstand, dear doctor. I was just wondering if there was a better way to deal with them. Say, just killing them. Then, later, we wouldn’t have to deal with billions of zombies. If we just killed the humans outright, we’d save ourselves trouble later on.”

  Kazumi sits back in her chair and tosses her hand in the air. “Or hell, use them to build our cities for us or make our machines for us. Make them do whatever we want them to do for us.” She licks her lips. “I know I’m a new vampire, but damn do I love the taste of fresh blood on my tongue. I haven’t ever had it, but I hear human blood is quite the delicacy. Maybe we could farm them.” The image of enslaved humans with tubes draining their blood into giant vats crashes into her mind, and she struggles not to shudder.