by S. D. Perry
The question surprised him anew – not because she'd asked, but because suddenly, he didn't have an answer. He thought about the S.T.A.R.S., about his obsession with his career and what it had already cost them. All he'd wanted for days was to feel as though his life's work had been meaningful, that it hadn't been wasted and he'd convinced himself that un– covering the treachery within the job would lay his mind at rest, as if rooting out the corruption would somehow prove that he wasn't worthless.
I've worshipped at the altar of the organization for so long… but isn't this the reason why, the real purpose? Here, in this room, on these faces?
He studied her curious, sharp gaze, felt the rest of them watching him, waiting. "I want for us to survive," he said finally, truth– fully. "I want for us to make it out of here." "Amen to that," John muttered. David remembered what he'd told the Raccoon team, about each of them doing what they did best if they meant to succeed against Umbrella. He'd said it to get Chris's approval of his operation, but it was a truth that applied to all of them.
Get to it, Captain… "John, you and Karen take a look around the building, check the doors, be back in ten. Steve, boot up one of those computers, see if you can find a detailed layout of the grounds. Rebecca, we'll go through the desks. We want maps, data on Trisquads, T-Virus, anything personal about the researchers that might tell us who's behind all this."
David nodded at them, realizing that he felt clearer and more balanced than he had in a long, long time. "Let's do it," he said. To hell with the S.T.A.R.S. They were going to take Umbrella down.
Dr. Griffith might not have even noticed the securi– ty breach if it hadn't been for the Ma7s; it seemed that they were useful after all, though not in the way they'd been intended. He'd spent most of the day in the lab, dreamily pondering the pressurized canisters standing by the entrance, the shining steel glittering seductively in the soft light. Once he'd made the decision to let the virus go, he'd realized that there was really nothing else he needed to do. The hours had flown by; each glance at the clock had been a surprise, though not an unpleas-ant one. He'd be the first, after all, the first convert to the new way of the world. With that in front of him, the only task with which he needed to concern himself was getting the canisters up to the lighthouse and with the doctors waiting silently, patiently by, even that was taken care of. Just before dawn, he'd give them their final instructions and then proudly lead the human species into the light, into the miracle of peace. It had been the thought of the Ma7s that had finally drawn him out into the caves, the only concern he hadn't already dismissed as trivial. He'd already made a mistake with the Leviathans; once he'd taken over the facility, he'd lowered the cove gates on impulse, wanting them to be as free as he'd felt. It wasn't until the next day that he'd realized Umbrella might find out and come looking, effectively putting an end to his plans. He'd continued to send in weekly reports to keep up appearances, but there was no good explanation for the "escape" of the four creatures. It had been sheer luck that the Leviathans had returned on their own. The Ma7s were a different matter entirely, of course. They were too violent, too unpredictable to be let out. But letting them starve to death in their cage didn't seem right, particularly not when they, too, would enjoy the effects of his gift; it wasn't their choice to exist as creatures of destruction, even to exist at all. And since he'd played a small role in their creation, he felt a responsibility to do something for them… He'd stood in front of the outer gate for quite some time, considering the problem as all five of the ani– mals hurled themselves repeatedly at the heavy steel mesh, their strange, mournful howls echoing through the damp and winding caves. There was a manual lock release near the enclosure, another in the lab, but there was no way to loose them from the light– house, and he certainly couldn't let them out before he got to safety. He could send one of the doctors to do it, but the 7s had a much slower metabolism than a human's, and there was a risk that they would get to him before they made the change. A month before his takeover of the compound, Dr. Chin and two of her vet techs had made the mistake of trying to tend to one of the sick ones; it was a bad way to die, and although he'd be oblivious to the pain once he'd made the transition, he meant to stay with the new world for as long as possible. Griffith had finally decided that euthanasia was the only reasonable choice. It was a reluctant decision, but he could see no alternative. Although the lab was well stocked, poisons weren't his forte, so he'd de– cided to look up the information on the mainframe and there, in the cold comfort of the sealed laborato– ry, he'd discovered that his sanctuary had been in– vaded. He sat in front of the computer in a kind of shock, staring at the blinking cursor that indicated system use in one of the bunkers. There was no chance that it was a mistake. Except for the lab terminals, the rest of the compound had been powered down weeks ago.
Umbrella had come.
The first emotion to break through his stunned astonishment was rage, a sweeping, red-hot fury that tore away all reason, descending over him like a blinding fire. For a few moments, he was lost, his body taken over by the primal force, grasping and rending, tearing at the useless, meaningless things that fell beneath his burning fingers.
–they will NOT will NOT stop me will NOT–
When his hands touched the cool metal of the canisters, the fire turned to ash. The smooth, silver tanks were like a splash of reason, bringing him back to himself. His control returned as abruptly as it had gone, leaving him breathless and sweating.
My creation. My work.
Blinking, gasping, he found himself standing in a sea of ripped papers, broken glass, and torn circuitry. He'd managed to destroy the computer, the bearer of bad news, in pieces on the cold floor. On another day, he might have been ashamed at the hysterical tan– trum, but on this, his eve of greatness, he allowed that the rage had been justified.
Justified, perhaps, but pointless. How will you keep them from stopping you? You can't release the strain here, and you can't risk taking it outside, not now… what are their plans? How much do they know?
He could find out easily enough. There were still two other terminals in the lab and he walked quickly to one of them, glancing at the mute doctors, sitting quietly by the airlock. If they'd even noticed his rampage, they gave no sign. He felt a small rush of hatred for them, for creating the useless Trisquads; the "unstoppable" guards had failed him now that he needed them most. He sat down and turned on the monitor, impa– tiently waiting for the spinning umbrella of the com-pany logo to disappear. The security network for the compound's system was based in the lab; he'd be able to see what the intruders were seeking without alert-ing them to his presence, if he could remember how to access the information… He tapped several keys, waited, then typed in his clearance number. After the briefest of pauses, lines of glowing green data spilled across the screen. He'd done it.
Seek, find, locate…
He frowned at the information, wondering why the hell anyone from Umbrella would be searching for the laboratory and for that matter, why they'd try look– ing for that information in the mainframe at all. The system designers weren't idiots, there was nothing about the layout of the facility in the files…
… and Umbrella would know it. Which means…
Relief coursed through him, cool and pure relief so great that he laughed out loud. He suddenly felt quite silly at his childish reaction to the breach. The search– er wasn't from Umbrella, and that changed every– thing. Even if they managed to find the lab, an unlikely proposition at best, considering its location they wouldn't be able to gain entry without a key card.
And Griffith had destroyed all of them…… except for Amman's. His was never found. Griffith froze, then shook his head, a nervous smile on his face. No, he'd searched practically everywhere for the missing card, what were the chances that the interloper would stumble across it?
And what were the chances that they'd make it past the Trisquads, hmm? And what was Lyle up to during those hours when you couldn't find him? Wh
at if he did get a message out? You only checked for transmissions to Umbrella, but what if he contacted someone else?
Even as the dreadful, impossible thought occurred to him, the computer began to spit out information on the logic skills tests. The socio-psychological series tests that Ammon had designed. Griffith felt his control slipping again. He clenched his hands into fists, refusing to give in; there was too much at stake, he couldn't afford to let his emotions take over, not now, he had to think.
I'm a scientist, not a soldier, I don't even know how to shoot, to fight! I'd be useless in combat, totally… Unpredictable. Uncontrollable.
A slow grin spread across his features. Blood was seeping from his fists, from where his ragged fingernails had dug into the heels of his hands, but he felt no pain. His gaze wandered around the open, silent laboratory, resting briefly on the airlock. Then to the blank, stupid faces of his doctors. To the cylinders of compressed air and virus, his miracle. And finally, to the controls for the mesh gate that led to the animal enclosure. Dr. Griffith's smile widened. Blood pattered to the floor.
Let them come.
NINE
As steve read aloud, rebecca saw david glance between his watch and the door several times. She didn't think it had been ten minutes, but it had to be close. John and Karen weren't back yet.
'"… where each is designed to measure applica-tion of logic, as combined index projective techniques with interval precision…'"
It was rather dry reading, apparently a facility report on the analysis of some kind of I.Q. test. It had obviously been written by a scientist, was, in fact, the kind of boring double talk that a lot of researchers tended to fall into when trying to explain anything more complicated than a chair. Still, it was what had come up when Steve had asked for information on "blue series." Since the room had yielded little else, Rebecca forced herself to pay attention, fighting off
– nine -
the nagging, quiet fear that had settled over her during the fruitless search. Somebody had cleaned out the room, and done a very thorough job of it. She'd found books, staplers, pens and pencils, a ton of rubber bands and paper clips, but not a single piece of paper with writing on it, not a scrap of information to work with. Steve's computer search wasn't much better; no map and nothing at all on the T-Virus. Whoever had taken over the facility had apparently wiped out everything they might've been able to use.
Except for a shitload of dull psycho-babble, which so far hasn't even mentioned the word blue. How are we supposed to accomplish anything here?
Steve touched a key, then brightened considerably.
"Here we go…" " 'The red series, when looked at on a standardized scale, is the most basic and simple, applicable up to an intelligence quotient of 80. The green series…'" He broke off, frowning. "The screen just went blank."
Rebecca looked up from the mostly empty desk she'd been going through as David walked over to join Steve. "System crash?" he asked worriedly. Steve was still frowning, tapping at keys. "More like a program freeze. I don't think – hello, what's this?" "Rebecca," David said quietly, motioning for her to come look. She closed a drawer full of blank, unlabeled file folders and moved over to stand behind Steve, bend– ing down to read what was on the monitor. The man who makes it doesn't need it. The man who buys it doesn't want it. The man who uses it doesn't know it. "It's a riddle," David said. "Either of you know the answer?"
Before either of them could respond, Karen and John walked back into the room, both of them bol– stering their weapons. Karen held a sheet of torn paper in one hand. "Locked up tight," John said. "Halfa dozen offices, no windows at all and only one other external door, north end." Karen nodded. "There were file cabinets in most of the rooms, but they were empty, except I found this in one of the drawers, stuck in a crack. It must have ripped off when the place was being cleaned out."
She handed the piece of paper to David. He
scanned a few lines, his dark gaze taking on a sudden intensity. He turned back to Karen. "This is all there was?"Karen nodded. "Yeah. But it's enough, don't you think?"
David held up the torn sheet and started to read it
out loud.
" 'The teams continue to work independently, but have shown a marked improvement since the modification of aural synapses." " 'In Scenario Two, when more than one Trisquad is present, the second team (B) will no longer engage when the first (A) concludes (when target ceases to move or make sound)." " 'If the target continues to provide stimuli and A has discontinued the attack (lack of ammunition/disabling injury to all units), B will engage. If within range, additional patrols will be drawn to the attack and will engage in succession." " 'At this time, we have not successfully managed to expand sensory ability to trigger desired behavior; the visual stimuli of Scenarios Four and Seven continue to be unpro– ductive, although we'll be infecting a new group of units tomorrow and expect correlating results by the end of the week. It is our recommendation that we continue to further develop aural capabilities before considering heat-detection implantation…'" "That's where it's torn off," David said, looking up. Karen nodded. "It explains a lot, though. Why the team at the back door of the boathouse didn't do anything; the team out front was still firing. It wasn't until you and Steve took them out that the second group moved in."
Rebecca frowned, not liking the implications of the report for more than just the obvious; Umbrella's continued experimentation on humans. From what she'd seen in Raccoon, the T-Virus took seven or eight days to fully amplify in a host, the host then falling to pieces within a month.
So what's this about infecting a new group and getting data in a week? Or for that matter, implanta-tion and sensory modification with the hosts they already have? There shouldn't be time for all that, the "units" should be disintegrating, way beyond learning new behavior…
She bit her lip nervously, suddenly wondering what the researchers at Caliban Cove might have done with the virus. If they'd found a way to speed up the infective, perhaps tampered with the virion's fusion membrane, made it more cohesive…
… or somehow multiplied the indusionary, allow-ing it to replicate exponentially… we could be look-ing at a strain that works in hours, not days.
It was a nasty thought, and one that she didn't want to consider until she had more information to go on. Besides, it wouldn't make a difference in their current situation; the Trisquads were just as deadly either way.
"The sign on the north door says we're in block C, whatever that means," John said, moving to the computer. "Did you find a map?" Steve sighed. "No, but take a look. I asked for information on the blue series, and it started to give us a report on these I.Q. tests, coded by color, then this. I can't get anything else." John peered at the screen, mumbling, "… man who makes it doesn't need it, buys it, doesn't want it, uses it, doesn't know it…"
Karen, who had been rereading the Trisquad mate– rial, looked up with sudden sharp interest. "Wait, I know that one. It's a casket."
Somehow, Rebecca wasn't surprised that Karen knew the riddle; the woman struck her as someone who thrived on puzzles. They all gathered around as Steve quickly typed in "casket." The screen remained unchanged. "Try 'coffin,'" Rebecca suggested. Steve's fingers flew across the keys. As soon as he hit "enter," the riddle disappeared, replaced by: BIDE SERIES ACTIVATED.
Then followed:
TESTS FOUR (BLOCK A), SEVEN (BLOCK D), AND NINE (BLOCK B)/ BLUE TO ACCESS DATA (BLOCK E).
"Blue to… Ammon's message," Karen said quickly. "That's it – the message received related to the blue series, then said, 'enter answer for key.' The answer was 'coffin'…" "… and the test numbers are the key," David said. "There are three more lines in the message, then 'blue to access.' The lines must be the answers to the tests, the letters and numbers reverse, time rainbow, and don't count. Jill was right, it's all about some-thing we're supposed to find."
Rebecca felt a rush of excitement as David grabbed a pen off the desk and turned over the scrap of the Tris
quad report. The information they had finally made sense – Dr. Ammon's message actually meant something.
We can do this, we've got something solid now…
David drew five boxes in two lines, the same as on Trent's map, marking the southernmost box with the letter C. After a pause, he tentatively labeled the others, starting at the top left with A and going right to left, marking the test numbers next to each letter. "Assuming that this is right side up," he said, "and that we need to complete the tests in order, we'll be moving in a stagger, a zig-zag between the buildings." "And assuming the Trisquads don't have a problem with that," John said softly. Rebecca felt her excitement dwindle, could see the same mixed emotions in the suddenly somber expres– sions they all wore, staring down at the boxes. She'd known that they were going to have to leave eventu– ally, but had somehow managed to avoid thinking about it, putting it off until it was in front of them. It was in front of them now. And the Trisquads would be waiting.
They stood at the north door in a dark and stuffy hallway, tightening bootlaces, adjusting belts, putting fresh clips into their Berettas. When David was ready, he turned to John and nodded.
"Give it back to me." "You, Steve, and Rebecca will take the one on the left, northwest from here. Once we hear you get clear, Karen and I go straight across. If your guess is right, we'll be in block D; if you're upside down, block B. Either way, we secure the building, find the test number, and then wait for you to show up and give us the go-ahead." "And if I don't…" Karen took up the recital. "If we don't hear from you in half an hour, we come back here and wait for Steve and Rebecca. We complete the tests if it's feasible…" John grinned, a white flash in the gloom. "… and then get our asses over the fence." "Right," David said. "Good." They were ready. There were infinite variables in the equation, any number of things that could go wrong with the simple plan, but that was always the case. There was no way to prepare for everything that could happen, not at this point, and the decision to split up was their best chance to avoid detection by the Trisquads. "Any questions before we go?" Rebecca spoke up, her youthful voice tight with concern. "I'd like to remind everybody again to be extremely careful about what you touch, or what touches you. The Trisquads are carriers, so try to avoid getting close to them, particularly if they're wounded."