Pandora's Succession

by Russell Brooks

  Flying bullets filled the air around him. Fox ducked back down. He was clearly out-manned and out-gunned, and eventually they would force him to surrender. But that wasn’t an option for him.

  He took another look to the middle of the dancehall with the suspended cages. That’s when a crazy idea came to him. It was risky, but doable. Fox looked below the glass partition and saw the booth that was in front of him. Beyond that there was a chain that suspended one of the caged dancers. It was well within jumping distance and that’s where he would make his exit. It looked sturdy enough to support his weight.

  He pointed the Sig and pulled the trigger twice. No sound was heard above the loud music but the window pane shattered. He got up and pulled the trigger five more times in rapid succession, in different directions towards the entrance of the lounge. Naturally, the gunmen all dove for cover, and while they did so, he shoved the gun back in his holster and sprinted towards the booth, bullets flying past him.

  When he was less than three feet away from the table, he leapt onto it. His foot landed on the windowsill and he threw himself upwards towards the chain with nothing below him but a five-storey drop. Catching the chain was easy, but keeping his grip wasn’t. His momentum nearly caused him to fumble on the chain and plummet to his death, but he managed to catch it with his left leg and wrapped it around his shin. He then grabbed the chain securely and let himself slide down until he landed on top of the cage.

  A handful of people on the third and fourth floors saw Fox and rushed to the inner circle of the hall. Within seconds, Fox had almost everyone in the club watching him. He looked up and saw a few men rush to the windowsill from where he had launched himself. The gunshots would come soon. He knelt down and slid off the roof of the cage and caught the side bars. Fox watched the girl in the cage shriek and jump back.

  He doubted Marx’s henchmen would risk hitting the girl, but depending on how desperate they were, they just might. A few seconds passed, but Fox couldn’t hear the faint staccato noises from the firearms amidst the loud music. They would have something else planned. As the cage descended, the spectators below cleared an opening for him, and he let himself drop to the floor to the welcoming cheers.

  He couldn’t stay here. The longer he did, the more he was endangering the lives of others. And it began much sooner than he anticipated. He noticed commotion erupt to his left. People were being knocked over as a huge figure burst out from the crowd and lunged at him. Fox dipped low to the left and swept his right leg across the floor, caught the bouncer by the shins and tripped him. He flew forward in a nosedive and knocked over a few individuals like bowling pins. More bouncers would come, and he could take them all on easily. They were nothing more to him than oversized, moving punching bags. But they could stall him long enough for Marx’s other henchmen to get to him. He bolted in one direction and the crowd cleared a path for him.

  Fox emerged from the crowd problem free, but knew he had to keep moving because the bouncers, and Marx’s henchmen, would be close behind him. In front of him was a peculiar individual that made him come to a halt. He was far from resembling the six-foot-tall, muscle-bound bouncers, but was an average-looking person. He was no more than five foot nine and wore a dark trench coat. But the way he stared at Fox definitely told him something was up. He didn’t seem as impressed by him as everyone else was, and Fox’s gut instinct told him to prepare for a fight. Years of experience told him that when someone is conspicuously out of place and is eyeing you, it’s not because he wants to chat.

  Fox rushed him, but the man whipped out a Micro-Uzi from inside his trench coat and pointed it at Fox whose hands shot up so fast that he fell back off balance and onto the floor.

  Damn it, not another Micro-Uzi! First Ares and now this guy. Fox scrambled to get up but he knew he was a dead man. There was no way he could dodge gunshots from this distance while he was on the ground.

  The man kept his eyes on Fox-there was no anger in them, just a simple blank stare that Fox found difficult to read. Fox could recognize a killer’s intention to shoot him by just looking into his eyes, but unless this guy mastered his emotions, he didn’t fit the profile of someone who was going to do so.

  The man pointed the submachine gun towards the ceiling and fired.

  Bedlam!

  Screams mixed in with the staccato of shots and a stampede of people immediately followed. Fox got up and was almost knocked back onto the floor as people bumped and slammed into him from all directions. Seconds later, the gunman stopped firing. A hand grabbed Fox by the shoulder, and at the same time he heard a man yell at him.

  “Fox!”

  Fox spun around and knocked the hand off, and he saw that it was the gunman.

  “Come with me quickly!”

  Sato?

  The carnage spilled outside the club and was all around them as they made their escape. Adding to the cacophony, Fox heard several police sirens closing in on their position. Fox tried to catch up to his rescuer, who had a head start on him. The gunman darted across the street, his Micro-Uzi pointed upwards, and ran around the next corner. He passed about ten cars to his left, when he saw the gunman unlock and open the right-hand side door of a sporty, yellow hatchback and get inside. Fox got to the car, slid between the back of it and the car parked behind, ran to his door and hopped in.

  “Ridley Fox, I’m Aijima Sato, Ken Katori’s partner. I’m pleased to finally meet you.” Sato started up the car and sped out from his parking space, passing a few individuals who hadn’t stopped running from the club.

  Fox panted as he looked behind and saw the screaming cacophony pouring out of the nightclub. “Yeah, glad to see you, too. Now of all times.”

  After Sato sped off, Fox heard a faint beeping sound. “What’s that noise?” At that moment Sato pulled over and slammed on the breaks.

  “Get out, now. You’ve been bugged.” Fox did as he was told, and Sato opened the glove compartment and took out an object the size of a small television remote, complete with antenna. Sato approached Fox on his side of the car and swept him from head to waist, where the beeping increased simultaneously with the light-emitting diode or LED. The frequency increased as Sato brought the device closer to Fox’s left arm and stopped above his watch where the device’s frequencies maxed out.

  “It’s in your watch!” yelled Sato. Fox immediately ripped it off and threw it on the side of the road where it fell into a storm drain. Sato swept him again with the detector but there was nothing else.

  “You’re clean. Let’s go.” Both Sato and Fox jumped back into the car.

  Fox sat there pondering how anyone could’ve bugged his watch without his knowledge. As Sato raced past other cars through the streets of Shibuya, he thought back hard. If he’d been compromised, then it meant that Walsh, Dobbs, Levickis, and Parris were all in danger. “I need to make a phone call.”

  “You can’t.”

  “I’m not here alone. The mission’s most likely been compromised. Give me your phone.”

  “I don’t have one. And may I suggest that you keep away from them. They’re everywhere.”

  “I’ll take my chances.”

  “Listen. You’re not in control anymore, they are. And you’ve seen what they can do. So you’ll just have to do as I say if you want us to get through this. Your teammates will be fine.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “Somewhere safe. And when we get there, you’ll get to see what we’re really up against.”

  Chapter 23

  Dr. Hideaki Hashimoto’s Residence, West Tokyo, 12:21AM

  Marx wasn’t startled even though she could have sworn that a lightning bolt struck, just outside one of the five floor-to-ceiling windows she passed on her way to Hashimoto’s office. Her close call with Fox a few hours ago would no doubt cause concern with Hashimoto, who in her opinion panicked too much. The bandage below her right shoulder would be a constant reminder of how Fox had left his mark on her that evening. But Fox didn’t worry her-Ares
did. They had found Valerik and dumped his body onto a freeway. How much more blatant of a message could they send that they were closing in on us? Valerik’s capture could only be due to a breach, there was no other explanation. It didn’t appear to be too long ago that she had ordered Hashimoto to trick Valerik into visiting him so that his henchmen could ambush him. The gratification she felt when she personally clarified him in the chair was too sweet. Although he was useful, she wouldn’t miss him. After all, he was a former KGB operative that worked for the same people that had brought so much misery to her.

  As Marx opened the double doors to Hashimoto’s office, a crack of thunder boomed as though she had summoned it. The lights in the room began to flicker. Hashimoto, Tanaka, and Commissioner Yushida were already there.

  Hashimoto got up from behind his desk and faced Marx. “I was told what happened-”

  “I’m fine,” Marx cut him off by raising her hand. Hashimoto got up from his chair and she sat in it. Hashimoto sat in another chair beside the others.

  “I’m going to get to the specifics. Valerik’s dead, and I think there’s a leak. I want your input on where you believe it came from.”

  Commissioner Yushida pointed his right index finger in the air. “That’s assuming that there was a leak.”

  Marx shot a stern glance at him. “Yes, I do assume. It was either that or Valerik got very sloppy. And I’m not so convinced of the latter. Has your investigation turned up anything on what happened to him?”

  “All signs lead to a professional hit,” Yushida replied. “The investigation’s at a standstill.”

  Hashimoto crossed his arms. “What about Fox and his CIA cohorts?”

  Marx shot him a menacing glance. “I’ll ask the questions, if you don’t mind.” There’s no way you’re controlling this meeting. “Fox is, and should remain, the least of our concerns. As long as we can track him, he can be controlled.”

  “I have to agree with Dr. Marx,” said Tanaka. “We’ve been tracking him all day.”

  Marx relaxed back into the cushioned chair. “And has he come into contact with anyone in particular?”

  “He did earlier in the Azabu District.” Tanaka raised his hand slightly and then dropped it on his leg with a sigh. “But our satellites couldn’t capture an image of the individual due to the weather.”

  “What about infrared tracking?” asked Marx.

  Tanaka looked away from Marx as though he were embarrassed. “We lost his contact on the subway.”

  “That’s just perfect,” said Hashimoto sarcastically. “Maybe you should’ve had real men tail him instead of relying on fancy equipment.”

  Tanaka looked back at him. “We did so initially, and Fox lost them within minutes.”

  “Then what about his partner, Walsh?” asked Hashimoto.

  “We didn’t get a strong signal from him to begin with. We had something at first but it faded soon afterwards,” said Tanaka.

  Hashimoto gave Marx a questioning look. “How’s that possible? Didn’t you tag both of them?”

  “I did.” Marx crossed her arms as she gave him a stare that he’d seen once too often. He got the message and shrank back into his chair. “Neither of them suspected anything when I shook their hands at the outbreak site. Unfortunately Walsh had a weaker stomach than I expected. He threw up once he saw the remains of one of the Pandora-infected victims. He must have washed his hands thoroughly before an effective dose of the isotope powder was absorbed through his skin.”

  “Fox has been useful to us so far,” said Tanaka. “In fact, he unknowingly helped us track down and eliminate the agent you were looking for. As a bonus, so were a few members of Ares.”

  Hashimoto leaned forward. “A few but not all. Valerik’s killers will now come for us.”

  “And that concerns me.” Marx crossed her legs and looked up at the ceiling. “But I’d still like to know who Fox met in Azabu.”

  “It could be Walsh.” Hashimoto turned to Tanaka. “You were able to follow him from the airport, weren’t you?”

  “He didn’t arrive at the same time as Fox, nor was he spotted at Narita Airport. I’m assuming that he must have slipped into the country through the American Base in Okinawa.”

  Marx looked back at Tanaka. “Then we need to concentrate more on keeping a closer eye on whom Fox contacts. Valerik mentioned that Ares has a mole within the CIA, but he didn’t know who it was. We can assume that this mole will be keeping tabs on Fox. As long as this continues then Ares will not find us.” She glanced at Hashimoto, who had an expression on his face that said I sincerely hope so.

  Marx leaned forward and rested both of her elbows on the desk as she turned to Hashimoto. “Onto another matter. How’s the recruitment process going? I heard that there was a problem during the experiment this morning.”

  “Not at all. None that wasn’t fixed.”

  Marx raised a curious eyebrow. “Oh really? I tend to believe that when you have two test subjects undergoing the same experiment and one of them goes postal, then there’s a problem. A very serious one.”

  Marx then saw the worry in Hashimoto’s eyes. She hadn’t seen this look since she first introduced herself to him with evidence of his involvement in human trials several years ago.

  “I assure you that there’s no problem. Everything’s in order, as it should be.”

  “Then forgive me for not sharing your optimism. In fact, I learned that the young woman who conducted the experiment, Dr. Nita Parris, was injured during the experiment. I also learned that she didn’t follow procedure.”

  “Our findings over what happened this morning are still inconclusive. That’s why I’ve decided to terminate any further experiments with the new variant of Clarity.”

  Marx brought her hand to her chin as she kept her arms crossed. “That’s a bit premature, don’t you think?”

  “Why do you say that?” asked Hashimoto.

  Marx stared at him through slightly narrowed eyes. You already know the answer. “What do we know about Dr. Parris?”

  “The Boeisho has checked her out,” said Tanaka, diverting Marx’s attention towards him. “In our opinion, she’s clean.”

  “You see, Dr. Marx, everything that goes on at Hexagon, stays within Hexagon,” said Hashimoto.

  Marx looked back at Hashimoto. “I’d still continue researching the new variant of Clarity. I still get a feeling that something was overlooked. You just need to look a bit deeper.”

  Hashimoto nodded. “I will.” He then scratched the back of his neck. “In relation to Pandora, you told me earlier that you had something to add to it. To make it more efficient for our cause. Were there any positive results?”

  “I’ve formed my own team of scientists, and I’ll meet them later on, after breakfast,” she replied. “So far everything looks promising. But to be absolutely sure, I’m going to need to use the young gentleman I had asked you to spare.”

  The Commissioner looked at Marx and squinted. “You’re going to use a live human being as a lab rat?”

  “Why not?” She looked back at the Commissioner. “After all, this is science. Didn’t your biology teacher ever tell you that science could be fun?”

  Chapter 24

  Hexagon Pharmaceuticals

  Parris rushed into the atrium of the East Wing after having travelled under the overcast and humid conditions outside. But where she headed didn’t have any windows, so it could stay miserable outside for all she cared. The large digital clock in the atrium read 8:23 AM. She wasn’t expected until ten o’clock that morning so she knew she wouldn’t be missed. Last night’s visit to Hexagon was a quick in and out. Once Parris made it to Hexagon, she signed in at the security desk in the atrium, got what she needed, signed out with the contents in her purse, and headed home. The masking agent didn’t take long to make and she gave Levickis three more syringes in a pouch for him and the others. She kept one for Fox in the glove compartment of her car. Whoever came in contact with him first would give it to
him.

  Having only slept four hours was murder on her body. Even with two cups of coffee, she still felt groggy. “Hardly anyone in the East Wing this early, guys.” There was no answer. “Guys?” she said again.

  “We hear you, Dr. Parris.” Dobbs’s voice boomed through her earpiece, causing her to grab at her ear as she made a face.

  “Turn the damn thing down, Dobbs. Lord. You trying to make me deaf?”

  “Sorry about that.” His voice was a lot quieter. “Is that better?”

  Her ear still rang. “Yes. Isn’t there a way for you to check your equipment?”

  “I said I was sorry.”

  Parris rolled her eyes. “Sure, fine, whatever.”

  “Hey, lighten up a bit,” said Levickis. “This is no walk in the park for us either. We’ve just come through the tunnels and have reached the mainframe. It’s cold, damp, it stinks, and I know I stepped in something back there.”

  Levickis’s voice became quieter, as though he were talking to Dobbs. “Have you located the POP yet?” This was the point of presence, an access point to the internet.

  “I think it’s right here,” said Dobbs. “I can see the end of the fiber optic backbone cable, router, and switches. I see a free port here. I’ll connect the laptop and see if I can ping the mainframe…yup, the mainframe’s responding-Packets, sent equals four. Zero percent loss-we’re plugged in.”

  Parris pressed the B4 button. “Anyway, I’ve just walked into the elevator.”

  “Great, we’re ready to link up,” said Dobbs.

  Parris looked up at the floor light above the door and watched them all flash. B2, then B3, and finally B4. The elevator slowed to a stop a moment later.

  “It’s a go, Doc. We’re in,” said Dobbs.

  Just in time. The elevator doors opened. The guard looked up from reading his magazine as Parris walked into the room and nodded. She smiled at him and looked to the left of where he sat and saw the entrance to the Safe. She reached into a pocket inside her tote and took out the security card Dobbs gave her and stopped in front of the control panel.