The Snare

by David A Ogunde

  Benjamin took a deep breath and moved his clearance key over the pad by the door. The hollow, electronic beep seemed unnecessarily loud. James looked back to the hallway entrance doors—it seemed like the whole building must have heard that. But no one came, and they slipped through the lab door.

  The room was large, white, and sterile with sparse furniture and equipment placed throughout. It smelled of faded cleaning solution, and James noticed the table next to him was clothed in a thin layer of dust. This room hadn’t been used recently. The thought raised a snarl of anger in James. No one had been in here. No one had cared that people were dying. No one cared to use the serum stored here to save lives.

  But you are here now James thought. It’s time to set things right.

  He looked around the room. In the center was a large computer monitor that hung suspended from the ceiling rather than resting upon a desk; its power light was blinking to indicate its state of “sleep.” James walked past it to the cold storage lockers lining the back wall. He yanked open the first one. Empty.

  He pulled the handle of the next. Empty.

  Panic began to rise. James kept checking, and kept finding nothing. “Benjamin, search those cupboards, will you?”

  But Benjamin hesitated, checking his watch instead. “Mr. Mode, it looks like there is nothing here. We should be leaving. My shift is over soon, and my replacement will come looking if I am not at my post.”

  “Where is it!” James didn’t seem to have heard him as he continued he rough search.

  Benjamin looked over to Faaiza, hoping to get some help from her. She was standing in front of the computer monitor. Benjamin walked to her side. The screen was asking for a password.

  “They always gotta make me go around the hard way,” Faaiza sighed as she pulled two laptops from her bag—one quite a bit smaller than the other—and plugged them in.

  “What are you doing?” Benjamin’s eyes were wide.

  Faaiza’s taps were the only answer he got. She was in the system in 30 seconds.

  James was still pulling apart the room searching for the serum he knew had to be here somewhere.

  Benjamin looked at his watch again. “Miss, please. We have to—”

  “Shh.” Faaiza stared into the screen completely absorbed. Her fingers working the keys as fast as her thoughts commanded them.

  Suddenly, the clacking stopped and her brow furrowed.

  “This is strange.” She hadn’t said it loudly. But her words grabbed everyone’s immediate attention.

  “What is it?” James moved to her other side and looked at the screen. It was displaying a green, glowing code against a black background.

  “This doesn’t make any sense.” Faaiza minimized the window and pulled up another. She made a few more taps and the screen with the code reappeared. “I don’t understand.”

  “What is it?” James asked impatiently.

  “We are looking for the cure to the Rigula virus.” Faaiza pointed to the code glowing on the screen. “And that’s it.”

  Chapter 111

  “What do you mean ‘that’s it’?” James was frowning. “We are looking for a serum. An organic specimen. A weakened form of the virus or something.”

  “It could be the formula for the serum” Benjamin suggested. “You can just copy it to your laptop, right. Then you’ve got it, and we can get out of here.”

  “It’s not a scientific formula,” replied James shaking his head. “It’s a code…computer language. Faaiza, maybe it’s hiding the location of the serum. Can you run it through a decryption program and see what information it’s covering up.”

  But Faaiza stood her ground. “I know it sounds crazy, but I keep checking and checking. James, this code is the cure. It’s a kill code.” As she said it, her eyes moved down to James’ hand where within the skin still sat the outline of the microbit they had fried with the magnet.

  James followed her eyes to his hand, and the realization of what she was saying hit him with the force of a train engine.

  He had known that the Rigula virus and its cure had been engineered by GED. But, what he had completely missed was that it had not been engineered as an organic compound, but an electronic one.

  “Excuse me, Faaiza.” James took over the keyboard and began searching the files on the monitor until he found what he was looking for. And cringed in horror.

  “It’s not organic,” he spoke in unbelief. “It’s not a virus in the traditional sense. What have been infecting people’s bodies are manmade nanobits…like my microbit but exponentially smaller which…” he paused to try to understand the schematics on the screen.

  “Which plug into the human cells in the same way I’ve plugged my laptop into this computer,” Faaiza finished.

  “Then what?” Benjamin’s terrified eyes glanced back and forth from the screen to the faces of those beside him. “What happens when the nanobits plug into the cells?”

  “It communicates with the cell with electrometric pulses to… make the cell think it’s defective,” answered James gravely.

  “The cell is not really sick…” Faaiza’s wrapped her arms around herself against the reality of this monstrosity. “All those people…they died because a nano computer wrapped in a synthetic shell invaded their bodies and convinced them to die. There was nothing wrong with them!”

  James’ hands began to shake against the keys. “They didn’t stand a chance. The world doesn’t stand a chance! Their bodies can’t fight it, antibiotics can’t fight it, and there is no organic virus to manipulate to cause it to shut down. No cure could ever be discovered for this. The nanotech won’t respond to anything…except its master.”

  A disease and a cure. And only my word determines which will prevail. The words James heard from Roland’s video. The words Maximos had spoken. James felt a lurch of disgust in his being. The whole time he had been working for him, the times that he had spoken with him. All he ever saw was that smooth façade convincing him that his work was essential for the good of mankind’s present and future. And all the while, this man, one of the most powerful men in the world, was wielding that power for such evil.

  “Not anymore,” James spoke out loud. Faaiza and Benjamin looked at him questioningly. His eyes remained on the screen, reading the new information which he just opened.

  “Here.” He pointed at a new schematic.

  “Yes,” Faaiza read the information. “It looks like the kill code can be uploaded to the nanobits. They all have the same ‘address,’ if you will. We can upload the code once, and they will all be deactivated.”

  James kept reading and suddenly groaned. “It’s not going to be that easy. And honestly, I didn’t think it would be. Look at this. The code can be sent, but the nanobits won’t accept it automatically. They need a password print.”

  “What’s a password print?” Benjamin jumped in.

  Faaiza explained. “Like when you push your fingerprint against a scanner to unlock something. Unbelievable. These nanobits need the physical touch of a specific organic entity before they will unlock their system to accept new information! What kind of sick, evil minds came up with this stuff?”

  “We know whose mind,” James clenched his teeth. “Let’s just hope this is the worst plan he’s thought of.”

  “So whose fingerprint do the nanos need, and how do we get it to them?” Benjamin’s question seemed surprisingly casual considering the magnitude of what they were looking at. But James noticed he was worriedly looking at his watch again. They were running out of time.

  “That’s what’s in the lab across the hall,” answered Faaiza as James pulled up another page of information. “It’s a protein chain…” she kept reading, “…doesn’t occur naturally in the body. Must be injected. The nanobits will detect the chain and physically make contact with it. This takes about 15-20 minutes after the protein has been injected. Then, the bits will lower their firewalls and download the ‘cure’ code.”

  James nodded and backed a
way from the computer. “All right. Faaiza, work on downloading the code and copying as much of this other information as you can. Benjamin, come with me.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “To find another guard on duty. We have to get into the second lab.”

  Chapter 112

  “Remember the plan,” James said to Benjamin, who, though steady in his nod, was looking altogether unsure and nervous. James knew he was pushing him past what he was willing to give. Though Benjamin had seen the horrors of the reality of the virus on that computer, he somehow wasn’t able to grasp it. Maybe it was shock, maybe the stress of the state of the world now. Maybe his mind just couldn’t process everything. To him, his reality was that he was still aiding and abetting in a break-in. He was getting too nervous, too fidgety. But there wasn’t enough time to try and reassure him. They just needed to get the protein “pass print” as soon as possible and get out of there.

  “Okay, go.” James urged quietly. Benjamin jogged around the corner and made his way down the hall to the guard station in a hurry. For a fleeting second, James wondered if Benjamin intended to turn him in. A short time would tell. He heard Ben reach the security window, and the guard inside greeted with a clear but bored voice.

  “Ben, what’s the rush?”

  “I haven’t seen Eli. Did he check in? I tried to call him on my radio but it went dead.”

  “What?! He checked in a few minutes ago? You mean you haven’t seen him?”

  “No, I’m worried something has happened. I found a broken camera in one of the hallways.”

  “Why didn’t you say so!”

  “I’m saying now. Come on. There might be trouble!”

  The second guard yanked the door open and began fumbling with his radio as they raced down the hall toward James. James turned slightly and braced himself. The security guard came around the corner and ran smack into James’ shoulder. It dazed him long enough for Benjamin to grab his radio, gun, and cardkey.

  “Come on.” James hauled on the guard and Benjamin goaded from behind.

  “What’s going on?” he sputtered. “Who are you? Ben…what are you…? Have you…? Where are you…?” The broken questions continued as James and Benjamin moved him faster down to the subterranean level. He would be much harder to push around once he recovered from his shock.

  They re-entered the hallway where the two labs sat. Faaiza was waiting for them next to the second lab door. She simply nodded to acknowledge their approach. She had gotten what she could and was ready to go.

  The strange party stopped at the door and James took the cardkey. The scanner beeped and James pushed the door open and dove in with much less caution than before.

  “Now, see here.” The kidnapped guard was regaining some mental ground. He pulled himself from Benjamin’s grasp and tried to reach for his gun. But Benjamin was quicker. “Stop, Andu. I don’t want anyone to get hurt. Just listen a minute.”

  “Benjamin. What’s going on! Who are these people?”

  Benjamin tried to explain. “They work for GED. Andu, listen. It’s the Rigula virus. It’s real, but not real. The cure is a code and it needs a fingerprint and both are being held in these labs. Hundreds of thousands have died, and it was sitting here the whole time!”

  Just then, static and a squawk came over the radios. “Andu, this is Eli. I can’t find Benjamin. He’s not at his post. Over.”

  Andu lunged for the radio at Benjamin’s belt at the same time James emerged from the room. Benjamin moved and the other guard lost his balance and crashed into James. The blue square case he was carrying was knocked to the floor, the lid burst open, and a handful of vials were dumped out.

  “Watch out!” James’ adrenaline spiked as he worked to throw Andu off without crushing the vials now scattered around them. Faaiza jumped into action and began picking them up as fast as she could, but one got under Andu’s boot.

  The crunch caused them all to cringe, and James used the pause to shift his body and shove the guard away in the opposite direction. Andu stumbled and fell against Benjamin. James grabbed up the last of the vials and set them back into their foam slots in the case…one was now empty. He snapped the lid shut.

  “Move,” he shouted. He, Faaiza, and Benjamin, shaking off Andu, ran for the door.

  “All personnel, we have code red. Repeat code red.” Andu had managed to snatch Benjamin’s radio. “Eli, get to the guard station and press the alarm. The rest of you block off wings 3 and 4. Intruders running from the sub-labs. Possible directions East or North. Be advised, Benjamin is assisting. Do not hesitate to take him down. Repeat, take Benjamin down.”

  “This way!” James led them right at the end of the hallway.

  “What have I done!” Benjamin gasped.

  “You have helped to save lives,” Faaiza answered determinedly. “We have the cure! They don’t understand now, but they will. Once we get it into the right hands, the threat of the virus is over. And Maximos will lose his control over the nations.”

  “Maximos? You don’t mean Silas Maximos,” Benjamin panted.

  “He’s the one who created this mess.” James said as they paused momentarily at a corner. “He made the virus and set it loose. He made the ‘cure’ so that only he could control it…or so he thought. This way. Benjamin, give me your cardkey.”

  “Stop! There they go!” Shouts came from behind them and faced as they turned another corner.

  “In here!” James pushed his cardkey against a scanner and a door clicked open. The three rushed in. It looked like an abandoned meeting room with outdated furniture and an old-fashioned projector. There was a door on the other side of the room.

  “The cafeteria.” Benjamin caught on. “There is a door at the back of the kitchen where they take food deliveries. That’s how you’ll escape.”

  “We’ll escape,” James amended. “We’re not leaving you here. Come with us Benjamin. God may have a plan for you yet.”

  “God? Where is God in all this? The world is in pieces, thousands have died and millions have disappeared, and where is God?”

  “Listen, they didn’t just disappear. God took them. God saved them from the judgement that is coming. There are worse things, Benjamin. Far worse than we’ve yet seen. I didn’t take the warning seriously. I didn’t give God my entire life when I had the opportunity. But I’ve been given a second chance to make things right. Faaiza too. Give God your life now, Benjamin. It’s the only way to have a future.”

  “But I…I’m just…”

  “Come on,” Faaiza urged. “Come with us, and we’ll talk more about it later.”

  “Okay.” Benjamin nodded. “Let’s go.”

  “All right.” James sprinted to the opposite door, opened and peeked out. Clear. The three ran across the room to the kitchen.

  “Halt!” came a voice from the open entryway adjacent to them. “Benjamin, stop!” The guard’s gun was out and pointed right at them. Three shots were fired and hit the back wall. Faaiza couldn’t help but scream as broken mortar from the wall splashed across her face.

  Suddenly, James felt Benjamin shove him forward. “Go with God,” Benjamin shouted, before turning and placing his body between them and the shooter.

  “Ben, no!” Faaiza yelled, but James grasped her hand and pulled her forward. Benjamin was giving them a chance. He wouldn’t dishonor his sacrifice by wasting it.

  “I give in,” they heard Benjamin shouting from behind them. “Take me.” Then James shoved open the delivery door and they ran out into the night.

  Chapter 113

  The strange disappearances had left the world in a state of panic, but civil control had quickly stepped up to the plate as emergency protocols from high government levels trickled down to local authorities and reinforced by national servicemen. It had taken several days to clear main highways of abandoned cars. Shelters and medical stations were up and running. Workers with priority skills were being tracked down. Goods were being monitored and rationed. Citize
ns in major cities who worked for companies deemed lower in priority were ordered to stay off the streets to avoid congesting the roads. The large black van, therefore, kept to the side roads and out of sight as much as possible, slowly zig-zagging past the obstacles and, at times, nudging its way through the mess of autos on un-cleared streets.

  “Be careful of the cargo,” a man in the front passenger seat scolded the driver as they bumped over the curb. “It doesn’t take much.”

  The driver eased the gas until they were at a crawl; but the bumps continued to sway the van back and forth.

  “We’re too heavy, Abdul,” said the driver in justification, “and these roads are worse than we thought. Maybe, if we went back to—”

  “No, keep going. If we try and go back, we’ll lose time. Just stick to the map; we’re almost there.”

  “Eight more blocks!” the driver exclaimed. “They’ll be all gone by the time we get there!”

  “Shut up! We’ll get there, Insha’Allah. And that filthy Maximos will pay the price for his betrayal.”

  *

  “Ah, Sheik Musa, how wonderful to see you here this evening.” Silas Maximos grasped the sheik’s hand and shook it, with a broad genial grin on his face. Sheik Musa, refusing to meet Maximos’ eyes, instead lowered his head in a cordial greeting and promptly released his hand from the other’s grip. Mercifully, Maximos moved on, gracefully gliding through the crowd to rub elbows and shake hands with the other world leaders and representative dignitaries who were there attending International Peace Summit. The atmosphere of the room was greatly subdued, the stark opposite of Maximos’ charismatic approach. It was sickening, the sheik thought as he took his seat. The man looked as if everything were a bed of roses—no remorse for his broken promises, no concern for the uncertainty of the future, no hint in his eyes that an unprecedented, cosmic event had shaken the very foundations of their world to the core. It was all business-as-usual with Silas Maximos. But Sheik Musa reflected as he checked his watch. His arrogant, ignorant and conceited ways were soon to plague the world no longer.