To Tasha's dismay, she watched the image of Isabelle activating the blast door that lead to the seed vault's interior. Tasha's bewilderment turned into blood lust. The mouse had seen the cheese and gone into the trap. The seed bank was built into the frozen ground and there was no other exit. A suspected terrorist caught breaking into a company facility to destroy humanity’s food supply - no one would have questioned the use of lethal force. The world would thank Tasha for protecting its survival. The fact that Isabelle evaded her so cunningly and now the break-in were all the proof Tasha needed to condemn Isabelle as a terrorist. It was time to utilize a classic Roman attack formation, with the General leading her troops.
"She's sabotaging the seed bank. Platoon, assume V-formation."
With the helicopter overhead and her squadron of Troopers following, Tasha pushed her cat to the limit in a charge towards the seed bank. The machine's broad steel-belts kicked the crisp, dry snow high into the air as the wedge of destruction forged down the mountain in their aggressive maneuver. Thick smoke billowed into the Arctic air from the powerful diesel engines. The spy helicopter's rotor-wash swirled the smoke back onto the ground. A trail of soot and flattened topography marked Tasha's way.
Isabelle depressed the handle of a steel door that had been revealed when the cement cover had rolled aside. She opened the door and walked through to the bank's main corridor. The level directly above her housed compressor and back-up generator for the facility's cooling system. The upper level faced the light sculpture to the outside and cooling pipes towards the inside. Stainless-steel tubes carried the coolant from the compressor to a grid in the floor of each of the three vaults at the end of the main corridor. It was a tunnel big enough for one lane of traffic, a car could have fit through the steel double-doors behind her. Isabelle was standing on concrete ground, the walls and ceiling formed a long arch encased in corrugated metal.
She followed the corridor for about ten paces to the entrance of the operations office. Isabelle opened the door and walked in. To the right, an interactive wall-panel displayed a schematic of the entire facility with temperature readings for each section and the controls for the cooling system. An event history list showed that all three vaults had been opened just two days prior. The last run of the cooling system dated the day of the grand opening three years earlier. Isabelle thought it to be strange to have a cooling system for a place that had been built into the permanent frost. She took her digital camera and, a few hits of the trigger later, she had taken shots of the entire room. To the left of the wall-panel, a horseshoe-shaped desk snaked around the back portion of the underground room. Several computers covered its surface around one corner. The last section was vacant. Empty shipping crates filled another corner of the room.
Isabelle took a closer look. The crates' points of origin were in India, Syria, Sudan, Ethiopia and many other world nations. She took pictures of the shipping manifests that laid in two stacks on the desk beside them. Wheat, corn, alfalfa, spelt, rice - every staple-food was represented from nations around the globe. The world governments had shifted their seed stock from which their cultures had lived for millennia into the vaults of Gene's seed bank. Many nations were now using Apophis' gene-spliced seed stock, which did not produce plantable seeds for the following season, Gene's marketing ploy of darkness. Without their agricultural heritage, earth's nations would be dependent on purchasing Gene's seeds every planting season. Isabelle wanted to investigate further and left the operations room for the vaults. She walked through the metal tunnel. At its end, another hallway ran perpendicular and connected to the three storage vaults. Outside, Tasha's platoon had reached the base of the mountains with several miles of icen desert to cross before they would reach the seed bank. The strong solar winds were causing incredibly bright Northern Lights to stream across the night sky. The intense ionization had reached low altitudes. A sudden magnetic disturbance whipped one of the bands into the light sculpture on the roof of the vault.
As it happens occasionally, the magnetic field lines that continuously stream from earth's two polar regions overlapped like the ripples by Fuji's waterfall and caused an increase in their magnitude. Together with the strong influx of charged particles from the sun, the atmosphere became a playground for the forces of the universe. Isabelle found out when all the lights turned off and a strange hum suddenly filled the air. Green bands of light were arcing all across the metal-clad hallway. One of the ribbons shot through Isabelle's jaw. The flow of current shorted out the listening-device in her teeth. A few sparks shot out of her mouth right as she cried out, more in surprise than in pain. Her attention was quickly drawn away from her teeth. Ryan's holographic key and her camera were smoldering and gave off white, corrosive-smelling smoke in her bag. Before Isabelle had a moment to deal with the small fire she was carrying, the power outage had activated the enormous blast door's self-closing mechanism. She sprinted towards the narrowing gap between the concrete slab and the rock. Isabelle managed to slide through with little room to spare, but her smoldering bag got caught and stayed sealed in behind the massive concrete seal.
A frustrated Tasha was looking at a signal lost message on her windshield. Spearheading her armada of darkness, she forged across the distance of snow and ice that separated them from their prey. There was a bigger problem, however, than the lost signal. The stream of charged particles had passed through the helicopter on its way to the light sculpture and caused mayhem with its avionics. Onboard alarm bells sounded while the crew could hear Tasha complain about her lost video feed over the radio. The helicopter had gone into a violent tail-spin. The uncontrolled move catapulted the Trooper who had earlier shot tranquilizer darts into the snow. The platoon's pilot managed to regain enough control over the large rescue-type helicopter to set down on some solid ice. Unfortunately for him, he failed to see that he angered more polar bears. A few Troopers in snow cats broke formation to help the crew of the crash-landed helicopter.
The dark-blue paint of Tasha's snow cat's cab glistened against the colorful sky. She was getting close to being in firing range. A well-placed shot with her sniper rifle could put a quick end to this affair, but the combat knife on her thigh told another story. She did not fly across the globe to let her prey get away unpunished. A bullet would have been the lazy way for Tasha to end this hunt. She wanted Isabelle to see who was killing her in one-on-one combat. This had become personal for Tasha. The clandestine commander was reaching the height of the chase. Soon she would pounce on her prey. Tasha was going to make Isabelle suffer, she was going to enjoy this.
Tasha's plans changed when her snow cat's engine shut down abruptly and her momentum threw her forward towards the dashboard. The windshield projection turned into a close-up of an impatient Gene, his voice boomed from the cab's speakers. "This time she's gone too far. It's time to take her out for good." The projection shut off. Tasha cringed, she could have done without Gene's kill-order. She had made that decision long ago.
In a plume of black exhaust, Tasha restarted her snow cat's diesel-engine while she watched Isabelle get in her electric four-wheel drive and speed off.
18 ISABELLE'S HANDS GET TAGGED
The next morning, Isabelle woke up in her bed at Fuji's retreat. She had no recollection of going to sleep the evening before. Her head was buzzing and she felt like she had been unconscious, rather than asleep. Isabelle had barely gathered her faculties when she noticed four scratch-marks running the length of her wrist. Regardless, it was time to look after her puma. The Arctic wasn't exactly a natural environment for the jungle cat. Tonati had seen snow before, he used to love playing in it when they lived in Alaska. Isabelle never considered how unusual Tonati and her relationship with him were.
Dressed in sweats and a T-shirt, Isabelle walked into the room where Tonati had spent the night. Fuji had set it up with all the necessities for him. The puma came running to Isabelle when she entered and nuzzled her with his large nose. Isabelle fed him some meat she had grabbed from
the kitchen on her way. Tonati was hungry and ate everything. Isabelle pushed the foot-pedal on the trashcan that sat near the door so she could throw away the packaging from Tonati's breakfast. The bin was full to the top, so Isabelle reached in to push down what appeared to be little more than loose tissue-paper. She didn't notice the lid of an open can that was obscured by the tissue and cut the palm of her hand open.
Isabelle rushed to the bathroom and rinsed her hand under cold water in the sink. She found a pack of adhesive bandages behind the vanity mirror. Her cut was relatively small but it continued to bleed. Isabelle remembered she might have germs on her hands from the meat and thought it best to wash up with the antibacterial liquid soap from the dispenser on the counter. A swirl of red and white foam spiraled into the drain. Isabelle splashed some water on her face and dried her hands and face with a towel. She placed a stick-on bandage over the cut and headed off to see Fuji.
Fuji had unlocked Tonati's room. Kato had asked for the rest of the day off to take care of some personal business and Fuji knew the puma since he was a cub. Tonati considered him part of the pack. To expose the cat to more familiar surroundings, Fuji had taken him to his winter garden, a magnificent greenhouse that connected to the house's central area. Isabelle saw her two confidants in the garden and proceeded to join them. It was as if she had stepped into her yard but she was still indoors, in the Arctic no less. Fuji noticed the blood-soaked bandage on Isabelle's hand and the cuts on her wrist.
"Whoever gave you those scratches used them to introduce a blood-thinner into your system." Before Isabelle could even react to Fuji's statement, Tonati came bounding to her. He growled at her hands and face. Isabelle wasn't used to this kind of behavior from her cat at all. Fuji continued, "He sees something on you."
"His vision works differently from ours. He can see a whole different spectrum."
Isabelle remembered from one of her reports that the world of espionage used radioactive isotopes as markers. Such a tag would be extremely difficult to wash off and make someone stand out on satellite images with little chance to hide or blend into a crowd.
Fuji agreed with her. "Their methods are serious business. The anti-coagulant is designed to keep you from getting away on a plane."
Isabelle realized how lethal a trip by aircraft might become. "The low pressure could cause a brain hemorrhage."
Fuji nodded. "It would look like a stroke to someone on the outside. Someone who's been near radioactive materials is suspicious to most. You must take care in your actions." Fuji gave her a look of genuine concern. "Isabelle, you stand before something monumental."
"I'm beginning to see the common thread in all the good and all the evil in the world."
The pivotal concept in Fuji's teachings to Isabelle had always been that everything in the universe was connected. He had been waiting a long time to hear her say the words she had just uttered. Isabelle was ready. Fuji pulled a pouch made of gold-colored fabric from the pocket of his smock. He handed the glimmering satchel to Isabelle and watched her take out the contents, a set of brilliantly shining Buddhist beads. Isabelle held the strand of faceted labradorite and citrine beads. She watched in fascination as they glistened purple and yellow in the sunlight.
"Your mother and I spent many hours chanting together. These were her beads. They carry her energy and will protect you on your journey." Isabelle recognized the importance of this gift. She didn't have a lot of memorabilia from her mother. She felt safe, almost as if she could feel her mother's presence. Isabelle was ready to fight. She felt like the young warrior who was given her first weapon. For the first time, Isabelle knew there was a way to defeat her pursuers and she would find it.
This was going to be the most difficult opponent she ever had to face, but it was a battle worth fighting.
19 AT THE SCIENCE MUSEUM
To shake off her pursuers, Isabelle first wanted to find out what Tonati had seen all over her hands and face. If it was radioactive, a Geiger counter would be the way to find out. Isabelle reasoned a place that might have such a device where she wouldn't raise suspicion might be a science museum. Fuji loved the resourcefulness of his protégé. He gave Isabelle directions to the town’s Science and Natural History Museum. It had been built a decade earlier to help create incentive for mining families to move to the island with their youngsters. Shortly after the museum's construction, the mine collapsed under mysterious circumstances and the area became little more than an Apophis research outpost. The museum remained open for the children of Apophis' scientists and had undergone major remodeling to adapt to the digital age.
As Isabelle was making her way into town in Fuji's off-road SUV, Tasha and her Troopers were setting another trap for her. A front-end loading garbage truck was busily going through the motions of picking up trash containers. Unseen by the casual observer, the truck didn't actually empty the trash out of the large dumpsters before returning them to the ground. There was an easy explanation. Equipped with three axles and snow chains on each of its ten tires, the all-wheel drive vehicle transported yet another one of Tasha's command posts. The truck had come from the Apophis Arctic research facility. It was in regular use to observe employees whose lifestyles matched the patterns of persons of interest to management. Inside, a three-dimensional map of the island dominated the big screen. A series of sensors built into the Apophis-network of automated bank tellers showed radiation levels increase as Isabelle's car approached each one. Her hands and face glowed bright-yellow on a live satellite image. "Good work, Kato," mumbled Tasha under her breath. A smaller screen at the clandestine commander’s fingertips showed Kato's bank accounts frozen. A few strikes of the keyboard and Tasha returned them to active status. A couple of mouse-clicks later, Tasha had added 50,000 Kroner to his balance.
Isabelle was arriving in the museum parking lot. A few parents had brought their children, but most of the visitors and their cars were Tasha's Troopers. Isabelle took one of the many empty spots and walked to the museum entrance. Two of Tasha's Troopers pulled in after Isabelle had walked off and parked on either side of her car. One of the cars had German plates, the other was Norwegian. Isabelle walked into the lobby of the museum. She paid the machine at the entrance ten Kroner and walked through the automated turnstile. The inside was more reminiscent of an amusement park that a place of learning. Several exhibits lined the perimeter of the foyer. A few families were interspersed among Tasha's Troopers. A wide stairway ascended from the center of the lobby to the mezzanine. A brand-recognition game just to the right of Isabelle featured Michael Leese's face prominently as a backlit image in its center. The object of the game was to identify products that belonged to the same brand, and covered food and household products from hamburger mix to toilet brushes. Isabelle recognized the five major brands that were given as choices, each of them was an Apophis subsidiary. Isabelle had expected arcs of electricity and smoking mini-volcanoes. This was not at all what she considered a science museum. A ditzy-looking museum guide stood across the colorful foyer, blowing bubbles. Isabelle didn't want to waste any time looking around and decided to go straight to the source. She walked over to the woman, who was peeling a popped gum-bubble off her face.
"Excuse me, do you have any exhibits on radioactivity?"
The guide had moved to the island the summer before the mysterious mine collapse and worked at the museum ever since. She remembered how difficult her training had been just before Apophis had remodeled. Management had replaced the exhibits she agreed were too difficult to comprehend. The bubbly woman never understood why anyone needed to know how a battery worked or where oil came from. She remembered one of the old exhibits that had remained and what she learned about it in her first training class. The exhibit was somewhat spooky, so it was one of the few old displays that didn't get changed. She was getting distracted by the aroma wafting across her nose from the hands-on pizza exhibit. It was time to get rid of Isabelle and see what the kids had made.
"There's one exhibit.
Actually, it shows how radioactivity causes the glow in green phosphorus. It's upstairs and to the right."
The guide turned on her heels and made a straight line for the pizza that was coming off the belt in an exhibit that once taught how the firing process changes the chemical makeup of pottery. Isabelle climbed the broad staircase to the mezzanine. The level was fairly dark, most of the ambient light came from an abundance of interactive screens and projections. Isabelle walked past exhibits offering retina scans, body-fat analysis, and IQ tests. It felt more like the testing ground for military recruits than a museum.
In the far corner, past a few aerial-combat simulators, was what Isabelle had sought. The exhibit looked a bit like a photo booth with room for about five people. The entire structure was painted black, a dark curtain covered the length of its entrance. To the side of the entrance, a plaque described the experiment inside. It explained the reason green phosphorus was used in watch dials and emergency signs.
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