The Devil's Vial

by Brumbaugh,Byron

  They left the office and walked toward the elevator. Other doors opened off both sides of the hall. “This floor contains mostly offices, locker rooms for the technicians, a lunch room, conference rooms and so on.” They stepped into the elevator and Todd pushed the D button. The elevator descended what seemed like a much longer distance than the distance between the other floors and finally came to a stop. The doors opened into a small room that had an oval door at the other end; something like a hatch on a ship. They moved to the door, Todd punched some numbers on a keypad and the door opened. Todd made no attempt to conceal what he was doing and Richard made out the code - two, eight, four, three. Richard wondered if was this was overconfidence, or if Todd was security-sloppy.

  Through the door, they stepped into a barren hallway. No carpet here. Everything was hard and sterile. Tile walls, as well as floors, led around a slowly arcing path. On one side, the wall was bare; on the other, large, thick plate-glass windows exposed earnest activity beyond. There were a handful of technicians in hermetically-sealed suits, moving about a variety of pieces of equipment – incubators, racks of glassware and test tubes, cabinets containing bottles of reagents, black stone-topped lab benches, microscopes, cryogenic vats and many instruments whose purpose Richard could only guess at. He was pretty sure he even saw an electron microscope. Whoa! thought Richard. This place is a really sophisticated lab! Whatever they’re doing here, it can’t be good…

  Todd went up to one of the windows and punched a button next to a speaker. “Cranston, meet me in the control room,” he said. One of the techs stopped what he was doing, nodded toward Todd and moved to the right. Todd turned and walked in the same direction.

  Within a few meters, they came across a glass sliding door that led to a room containing a long control panel, multiple monitors and dials and switches. On the wall above the panel was a window, looking out onto the lab beyond. Soon, there was a slight whooshing sound and another door opened to their left. A man entered, not wearing a protective suit. Behind him, Richard could make out several suits hanging on a rack. Todd held out the box and vial.

  The man looked up at Todd with a question in his eyes as he took the box. Todd nodded. “At last,” the man said. “We’ll get started right away.”

  “Full fail-safe precautions,” said Todd. “This is the real thing.”

  “I understand completely,” answered the man. He turned and went back through the door. The door closed with a whoosh.

  “Fail-safe precautions?” asked Richard. “What’s that all about?”

  “I don’t have time to go into it now, just what we’re doing, but if something were to go wrong, this place is designed to be destroyed in a ball of flame that would vaporize all living things in the facility, including errant deadly viruses.”

  “You mean this place is mined?”

  “Essentially, yes.”

  “Couldn’t the bomb go off by mistake? It sounds awfully dangerous.”

  “Not as dangerous as unintentionally letting a highly infectious agent out into the world.”

  Richard wondered about ‘unintentionally’.

  “Besides,” continued Todd, “it can’t go off without two keys being put into locks like those.” He pointed to two boxes in the console. Each had a lock. “All of us who work here carry a key about our necks. If two of us decide it’s appropriate, each will put a key in a lock which will arm the detonation device. An alarm will sound and you then have five minutes to get out before being turned into very hot dust.”

  “So, just what are you doing back there that would require this level of security?”

  “I’m afraid that will have to wait until I return. For now, I’m going to take you back to Martin with instructions to keep you comfortable. Please be patient. I’ve run out of time and must be on my way. We’ll talk when I return tomorrow. I think you’ll like what you hear.” Todd led him back to the elevator and soon, they were back on floor B, looking for Martin.

  Richard took a deep breath. He wondered how long it would take before they found out all they had was a vial of water.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Alex filed his flight plan and about ten minutes later, a black limousine pulled up to the front door of Signature. A self-assured man in an expensive-appearing suit stepped out. Alex recognized him from his photos on the web - it was Todd. They waited until Todd entered the building, then Alex walked up to him. “Doctor Todd?” he asked. God, he hoped Todd wouldn’t recognize him or Emily through their disguises.

  “Yes?”

  “Hi. I’m Bill Matthews and this is Alice Townsend. We’re your NetJets pilots today.”

  “Are we ready to go?”

  “All set. Let’s get on board and buckle up. Then all we need is our clearance and we’ll be on our way.”

  “Good. I’m anxious to get this trip over with.”

  I’ll bet you are. “This way, please,” said Alex, leading the way. I wonder if you have the vial yet. He clamped his jaw down. Hard. Richard and Oscar better be in one piece still.

  . . .

  Alex stumbled through the Pre-Start check list. It helped a lot that they went through it once already, but it was still unfamiliar. Though he never did figure out what N1 and N2 were, when he pushed the prescribed buttons, he saw gauges move in an appropriate fashion and decided all was working as it should be. One of these days, he’d have to do this with professional guidance, he decided.

  Alex stared at the control panel, trying to remember where he found a particular switch during the prior run-through. Emily became strangely quiet. He looked up at her and found her staring at him intently. “What?” he asked.

  “Are you sure you can do this?” asked Emily.

  Alex glanced back at Todd who seemed to be reading something from his briefcase. He was grateful for the headsets he and Emily wore. They were lightweight, had one ear-bud, leaving one ear open to hear the noises in the plane, and a microphone. They allowed for normal, yet private, conversation between the two of them. “Trust me,” he said as he returned his attention to the search for the elusive switch. “I’m a doctor.” Ah! There you are! Alex turned on the switch and said, “Check.”

  Silence. Alex looked up at Emily and found her still staring at him.

  “I think I’ll wait here with Doug and meet you at Worcester,” she said. She made to put down the checklist and started to rise from her seat.

  Alex took a deep breath and let it out. “I was only kidding.” He looked Emily in the eye. “I can do this. I’m not totally familiar with everything this plane has, but I am very familiar with what it has that makes it fly. Look, I can’t do this alone. I need you. I need you to read checklists and take notes. I need you to find charts and read manuals. I need you to help me if we confront the unexpected. I need your eyes, your ears, and,” Alex reached out and touched her forehead, “your brain.” He reached down and held her hand. “Have faith in me. I won’t let you down.”

  Emily tilted her head to the side, let out a long draught of air, gave Alex’s hand a short squeeze, sat down and reached for the checklist.

  It wasn’t long and Alex heard the high-pitched whine of the plane’s two turbine engines. He sat back in his seat and relaxed a little. So far, everything was going well. Setting the radio to the ground control frequency, he said, “Hanscom ground. This is Hawker 45KG at Signature with November. IFR to Dulles Field.”

  They received their clearance for Dulles Field and began taxiing toward the active runway. It felt strange to drive a plane on the ground with the small six inch wheel. He had to put his feet flat on the floor to resist the urge to push the rudder pedals when he wanted to turn. It might look a little suspicious to anyone watching, to see the large rudder wagging back and forth as they moved down the tarmac.

  A quick glance back at Todd showed him to be still absorbed in his reading. Alex was reassured Todd noticed nothing abnormal.

  At the end of the runway, they waited for their IFR release that would allo
w them to take off. “Let’s go over what I need you to do,” said Alex. “I’m going to be watching out the window and flying the plane. I’m not going to be able to watch the instruments on takeoff. I need you to watch this instrument,” he pointed to the airspeed indicator, “and call off the airspeeds as we accelerate. You got it?”

  “No problem.”

  “After we’re off the ground, I’m going to need you to read off the checklist. You have the right one handy?”

  “Check.”

  Alex smiled. He poked his head over his right shoulder and looked back at Todd. “Are you all set, sir? Seat belt fastened, ready to go?”

  “All set here.” Todd’s attention remained on the papers in front of him.

  “We should be taking off in just a few minutes.”

  “Good.”

  It wasn’t long and Alex heard over his headset, “Hawker four five kilo golf is cleared for take off. Maintain runway heading, climb to and maintain four thousand feet. Expect two five thousand feet after one zero minutes. Contact departure on one two four point four.”

  “Runway heading, maintain four thousand, expect two five thousand in ten, departure one two four point four.”

  “Read back correct. Have a nice flight.”

  I’ll vote for that! Alex’s mouth was very dry. With his left hand, Alex steered the plane onto the end of the runway and lined up with the dotted white line that ran out in front of him. He looked over at Emily and raised his eyebrows. Emily nodded, then stared at the airspeed indicator. With his right hand, Alex advanced the throttles to full. The jet accelerated, pushing them into their seatbacks. The whine of the jet engines increased in pitch, then became a dull roar. Alex could feel the vibration of the wheels rolling at ever increasing speed over the runway. The plane steered easily with the little wheel on his left. He moved his feet up to the rudder pedals as they picked up speed.

  “Forty… sixty… eighty…” read out Emily.

  The steering began to be tricky, but he could feel the rudders come alive. He took his left hand off the little wheel and moved it over to the gull winged control stick. As the plane picked up speed, he was able to steer easily with the rudder pedals.

  “One hundred… one twenty…”

  Alex pulled the stick toward him gently. The nose dutifully lifted and a few seconds later, the ground vibration disappeared and he felt his seat cushion push on the seat of his pants as the plane rose from the ground. He pitched the nose of the plane up until the airspeed indicator read one hundred sixty and steadied there. Glancing at the altimeter, Alex was impressed at the speed the needle moved around. Whoa, he thought, this puppy can CLIMB! He lowered the nose until the airspeed steadied at two hundred and thirty.

  Emily was doing great, remaining calm and reading off the checklist. As they passed through ten thousand feet, the list called for the landing light to be turned off. Alex reached up to the overhead, where he remembered the switch was located and pushed a button. Immediately, an alarm blared in his headset and he felt pressure in his ears. Emily sat bolt upright, hands gripping her armrests with white knuckles. Alex quickly scanned the flight instruments in front of him, looking for an indication of what might be wrong. Aviate, navigate, communicate, he thought. Old lessons learned well came back to him. Fly the plane first, then explore your options. All appeared well except for the alarm and the pressure in his ears.

  Without thinking, Alex reached up and turned the switch back off. If you do something and something goes wrong, the first thing to try is to undo what you just did. The alarm stopped and he could feel the pressure in his ears equilibrating. He looked up at the overhead carefully and noticed he had turned off the cabin pressure instead of the landing light switch right next to it. “Whoops,” he said sheepishly, looking at Emily.

  Emily took in a deep breath. “Let’s watch the ‘whoops’, okay? I don’t need any grey hair yet!”

  Alex looked back at Todd and was relieved to see he had noticed nothing. He was still busy reading. Apparently, the alarm sounded only over the pilots’ headsets. Probably designed to keep the passengers’ shorts clean, he decided.

  Fifteen minutes later, they were approaching their cruise altitude. Alex pushed a button, turning on the autopilot, and two more making the autopilot hold altitude and course. He turned to Emily. “All set. Go for it.”

  Emily put the checklists she had been holding in the pocket made for them on the cockpit wall, took off her headset and pulled a small canister-like device from her bag. It was a CO2 powered injection mechanism, about the size of an electric toothbrush, designed to shoot drugs into the skin. It contained the active metabolite of Versed, a drug that causes somnolence. They chose this drug as it would make Todd compliant so they could remove him from the plane under his own power without the need for a stretcher. He would appear to be very drunk.

  Alex intermittently watched over his shoulder as Emily walked back to where Todd was sitting, reading. He listened, as best he could, to what happened.

  “Excuse me, sir,” said Emily. “Are you comfortable? Is there anything I can get for you?”

  “No, thank you, I’m fine,” answered Todd. “What’s our ETA?”

  Alex glanced behind him and saw Emily move behind Todd. She placed the canister to the side of Todd’s neck and pushed a button. Todd stiffened. “Later than you think,” she said.

  Todd gave Emily a surprised, confused look. “What are you doing?” he asked. His facial muscles relaxed and he slowly slumped down into his seat. His eyelids closed and he seemed to fall asleep. Papers on his lap fell to the floor.

  “Are you alright?” asked Emily as she shook him.

  “I’m fine,” he said with a slur and a smile. There was no note of anxiety. Versed is a sedative. Todd seemed to fall back to sleep, his chest rising and falling in slow deep breaths.

  Alex turned his full attention back to flying the plane.

  Emily moved back up to the cockpit and stood behind Alex. “I think we’re ready,” she said.

  Alex nodded. “Keep an eye on him. He’s going to need a booster in ten to fifteen minutes. Wait until he seems to be awakening, then give him another dose.” Emily moved back into the passenger cabin and sat next to Todd. He had upended his briefcase and Emily busied herself, collecting the pieces of paper scattered about.

  “Boston Center, this is Hawker four five kilo golf with request,” said Alex over the radio.

  “Four five kilo golf, Boston Center. Go ahead with request.”

  “Our passenger has taken ill. We would like to amend our clearance and divert to Worcester Airport, Worcester, Mass.”

  “Four five kilo golf, stand by.”

  “Four five kilo golf standing by.”

  They were over Connecticut close to the New York border. Things were going to move fast now. He would have to get Emily back up here soon to help with the workload.

  “Four five kilo golf, Boston Center.”

  “Four five kilo golf, go.”

  “Four five kilo golf turn left to heading zero six zero and descend to one zero thousand feet. You are cleared to the Putnam VOR, then direct to Worcester airport. Expect visual approach runway 29, Worcester Airport.”

  “Four five kilo golf is leaving two five thousand for one zero thousand, left to zero six zero degrees, cleared to Putnam, then direct to Worcester Airport.”

  “Read back is correct. Are you declaring an emergency? Do you need emergency services waiting for you on the ground?”

  “Negative. We’ll call ahead and have a car waiting for our passenger when we get to Worcester. No emergency services are needed at this time.”

  “Roger, four five kilo golf. Proceed on course.”

  “Four five kilo golf.”

  Alex looked over at the GPS that was driving the autopilot. Punching a few buttons, he entered the course as laid out by the controller and dialed in a rate of descent that would get them down to ten thousand feet. He turned back toward Emily and motioned her into the c
ockpit. She was paging through Todd’s briefcase’s contents. “On second thought, give Todd the second dose now. That should hold him until we get on the ground. I’m going to need you up here.”

  Emily did as instructed and soon was strapped into the right seat again.

  Alex looked over at her. “Anything interesting in the briefcase?”

  “Maybe. There’re some schedules, agendas and notes that look promising, but I didn’t have time to make much out of them.”

  Alex heard a ringing noise. That’s odd, he thought, sounds like a telephone. There was more ringing. Puzzled, he looked around the cockpit for the source. He looked at Emily; she seemed to hear it too. Another ring and this time, he located where it was coming from – there was a telephone on the console between the pilots. How the hell had he missed that? It rang again. Shrugging, he picked it up and put it to his exposed ear. “Uh… Hello?”

  “So, Daniel, what’s goin’ on?” asked a female voice.

  What the hell? He thought about how to respond. “Who is this?” he asked, as he mentally stumbled to find a safe response.

  “It’s Patty, your NetJets dispatcher. Who else? So why did you change course? Where’re you going?”

  Oh shit… How did she know? “Uh… Our passenger got sick and asked to be taken to Worcester Airport.” He decided if she knew they changed course, she would eventually find out their destination. But he would have to hide as much of the rest as he could.

  “Anything serious? You want me to call ahead and have an ambulance ready when you land?”

  “No! No, that won’t be necessary.” Alex took a breath and let it out. Navigating through this minefield was getting tricky. Thank god for the autopilot. He would’ve been in deep doo-doo if he had to fly without it while carrying on this conversation. “He, uh, just had a little too much to drink. He’s embarrassed and doesn’t want to make a big deal out of it. He wants someone to come pick him up in a private car.” He glanced over at Emily. She looked like she was holding her breath.