Byron managed a smile. Not if I get to him first.
38
“What do you have for me?” Emery asked as she brought a tray of tea to the living room. Alexis and Naia were sitting on one end of the couch, Torin and Riley on the other. Emery set the tray down on the coffee table, then made herself comfortable in the leather recliner.
Naia looked up at her, disappointment drawn all over her face. “Sadly, not much.”
Emery cocked her head to the side as Riley and Alexis prepared the tea. “What do you mean?”
Naia sighed. “I think your dad’s onto us.”
“Well, shoot.” Emery bit her lower lip. “Why do you think that?”
“They’ve completely shut me out,” Naia said as she took a mug of tea from Alexis. “When I asked your dad if I could be a part of the second phase for Operation Revive, he made me second in command to Dr. Matheson.”
“That doesn’t sound too bad. What’s the problem?”
“Every time I try to meet with Dr. Matheson, or get any sort of information from him, he assigns me to some menial task. They seemed important at first, but the other lab technicians pointed out that the work I’ve been assigned is work they’ve already done.”
Emery shook her head. “So you haven’t learned any additional information about the IFT X4?”
“Nope,” Naia scoffed. “And the lab techs don’t know much either. It’s like the only people who know anything are Dr. Matheson and your dad.”
“How about you try to seduce him?” Torin chimed in jokingly.
Emery looked at him with disgust. “The doctor or my dad?”
Torin’s smile vanished as quickly as it’d arrived. “It was a joke. Just trying to lighten the mood a little.”
Naia rolled her eyes. “Well, don’t.”
Emery shot a knowing look in Torin’s direction, stifling a laugh.
“We need a different plan,” Naia thought aloud. “Something fresh. He’s already onto me, so there’s no way I can do anything. We need to use someone else who has access to 7S Headquarters.”
All eyes shifted to Torin, who was wholly consumed with stuffing a miniature sandwich into his mouth. It only took him a moment to realize that everyone was looking at him. He spit the sandwich back out onto the tray. “Aw, come on. Really?”
Emery nodded. “Who better than you to hack into the systems and figure out what’s actually going on in there? Not to mention, you’re a master eavesdropper.”
At this, he perked up a little and pressed his shoulders back. “I still have plenty of equipment. Access codes shouldn’t be too hard to figure out.” He tilted his head back and forth, as if weighing his options. “I think I can do it.”
Emery smiled, then looked at Naia. “Since you have access to the lab, do you think you can go in after hours and set up the equipment? If Torin does it and gets caught, we’re screwed.”
“Shouldn’t be a problem,” Naia answered.
“Okay then,” Emery said with a firm nod. “I guess we better get started.”
+ +
By two o’clock in the morning, Emery and Torin were wide awake in his apartment, their eyes glued to the holoscreen as Naia entered 7S Headquarters. Torin had given Naia special contact lenses so that everything she saw would be projected onto the screen at his apartment. Even though Emery had been out of Dormance for over a year, the level of technology in the 7S world was still mind boggling.
She scooted to the edge of her seat as Naia entered the underground quarters. She stood only a few feet from where the lab was located. So far, she hadn’t bumped into any 7S personnel. Luckily for her, the place was a ghost town. They watched as Naia scanned her fingerprints, then waited as the laser scanned her retinas.
Emery’s breath caught. “What about the contacts?”
Torin waved his hand dismissively in the air. “Shouldn’t be a problem.”
He was right. The doors opened with ease, and Naia strolled right in like she owned the place. The walls were covered in metal devices and machines that were hardly recognizable. Lab tables lined the sides of the walls—beakers, Bunsen burners, and the like were scattered across the countertops. Out of the corner of her eye, Emery could see Torin’s expression, but he didn’t seem fazed. Just another day in the office for him.
A dark rectangular shape blocked their view as Naia removed her backpack and started digging through it. “Okay, so you want a camera in each of the four corners, plus one by the doorway at eye level?”
“Yes,” Torin confirmed. “You just need to—” He was cut off by an odd squishing sound as Naia suddenly jumped onto the walls, scaling them with ease. She placed the first camera in the west corner.
“What the hell?” Emery murmured.
“Oh,” Naia laughed. “Right.” She held one of her hands up in front of her face so that Torin and Emery could see what she was wearing. They were gloves with tiny star-shaped suction-cups. “They attach to any surface and allow me to climb without making any sort of noise.”
“Where did you get those?” Torin asked in amazement.
“You’re not the only one with a few tricks up his sleeve, Mr. Porter,” Naia teased.
Torin looked at Emery, his expression serious. “I want those. I need those.”
Emery was thankful for the momentary comic relief. “I’m sure Naia will get you some,” she said, giving him a playful nudge.
They turned their attention back to the screen as Naia finished placing the cameras in the upper corners of the room.
“Okay, now the door is going to be the most difficult,” Torin warned. “We have to make sure it’s out of sight, so as to not raise any suspicion, but we also need to make sure the room is completely visible on our end.”
“Don’t you worry,” Naia cooed as she began to fuss with the retina scanner by the door. “I’ve got this.”
Before Torin could yell at her to stop before she tripped a wire, or worse, Naia had detached the scanner from the wall, switched around some of the lines, and secured it back in its original place. “My god, she’s better at this than I am.”
“Hey, two’s better than one,” Emery laughed, “especially in a situation like this.”
Torin shrugged. “I suppose you’re right.”
“If you two are finished over there,” Naia interrupted, “why don’t you go ahead and check to make sure all of the cameras work? I’m turning them on right now.”
Torin switched the view from Naia’s contact lenses to five smaller screens. He checked the rotation and angles on each, then gave a thumbs-up, even though Naia couldn’t see him.
“We’re good,” Emery confirmed. “Thanks, Naia.”
“No problem. I’ll see you guys in a few.” And with that, their connection clicked off.
“Well, that wasn’t so bad,” Torin said as he adjusted the views so that they could see the images from the five cameras.
Emery rolled her eyes. “Don’t jinx us. It’s too early for that.”
“Fine. Hey, do you want to grab some snacks and some energy drinks?”
She raised an earnest eyebrow. “It’s three o’clock in the morning. We should probably get some sleep.”
He shook his head as he finished adjusting the settings on the holoscreens. “No way, little lady. We’re pulling an all-nighter. It’s stake-out time.”
The only all-nighters she’d pulled were for school in Dormance, when she’d had to study for exams. She’d never thought she’d pull an all-nighter for any other reason, yet here she was. As long as I’m not alone, she thought to herself as she retreated to the kitchen to grab some snacks. She wasn’t sure what to expect, but one thing was certain.
No sleep would be had that night.
39
“We’re not producing quickly enough,” Byron said as he paced back and forth across the lab. “We’ve barely had enough inventory to fulfill orders in Chicago. How can we expect to expand across the nation�
��across the globe—if we can’t even produce enough for our own city?”
Seventeen blank faces stared back at him, including those of Dr. Matheson and Naia. The room was so silent that if a pin were to drop, it would sound like a bomb exploding. He narrowed his eyes as he gazed at each and every one of his employees. “Anyone? Anyone at all?” he asked through clenched teeth.
“We’re working as fast as we possibly can,” Dr. Matheson replied. “Perhaps, we need more manpower.”
“Manpower isn’t the issue here,” Byron pointed out. “There’s a bottleneck somewhere. And we need to identify where and what it is.”
The doctor was quiet as he mulled this over.
To Byron’s surprise, Naia piped up. “The bottleneck is the time it takes to fill the duplicate syringe. The process itself is actually quite fast when it comes to duplicating the sanaré.” She walked over to the IFT X4 to demonstrate. The titanium machine charged to life.
Byron followed closely behind her, then handed her the syringe of original sanaré. He watched as she placed it in the extended robotic hand. It swiveled to the center of the circular machine. The hand locked the syringe in a stand, while the empty syringe sat adjacent in a holder of its own.
“Now, when X4 scans the original sanaré”—Naia paused, as if she’d just realized something—“the machine creates a replica, which then materializes in this overhead compartment.” She pointed to a cylinder that had tubes connecting it to both of the syringe stands. “This occurs within seven seconds.”
Byron nodded as he watched the process take place. “Continue.”
“As I mentioned before, the bottleneck is the time it takes for the liquid in this compartment to be administered to the second syringe.” She activated the filler, the whole room watching as the syringe was filled, drip by drip.
“And how long does this take?”
“To fill half a syringe, it takes around fifteen minutes, which doesn’t sound like a long time, but when you’re trying to produce millions of syringes, it’s practically a lifetime.”
Byron grunted. As much as he hated to admit it, Naia had been surprisingly helpful ever since she’d offered to be involved in the second phase of Operation Revive. Perhaps he’d been wrong about her. Perhaps she really did want to help move his strategy forward.
He turned to face Dr. Matheson. “We need to improve upon this. We need to find a way to cut the fill time in half, at the very least. Naia is right.” He gave her a gracious nod. “Fifteen minutes to fill half a syringe is far too long for the quantities we’re trying to achieve.”
“I can work on it,” Dr. Matheson started, “but you have to take into consideration the speed that Operation Revive has been escalating. The fact that we’ve even been able to do any of this at all is truly miraculous.”
Byron slowly shifted his gaze from Naia to Dr. Matheson. “As a scientist, are you saying you believe in miracles?” The doctor opened his mouth to respond, but he quickly cut him off. “Here at 7S, we don’t believe in miracles. We believe in facts. In science. As a scientist, I wouldn’t think you’d leave things to luck or chance. And I certainly didn’t think you’d believe in miracles.” He shook his head in disgust. “You will fix this bottleneck. And you’ll do it in the name of science. Are we clear?”
Dr. Matheson nodded his head, then slowly retreated to the back of the group.
“Good. Now, I’d like for everyone to get back to work. No one goes home until we hit our quota for the day.” Byron nodded at the group before turning to face Naia, but to his dismay, she was nowhere to be found.
Odd.
He surveyed the room, looking for her white-blonde hair, but a sea of brown and black stared back at him. He narrowed his eyes, his teeth grinding together.
Very odd, indeed.
40
“I figured it out!” Naia yelled as she burst through Torin’s front door. He and Emery were sitting on the couch with their feet propped up on the coffee table. He slid his hand from Emery’s, suddenly feeling somewhat self-conscious. Did Emery care if people knew about them? What exactly were they? Did she want to be anything more than friends?
It’s not like he’d asked.
Apparently, he didn’t slip his hand away fast enough because a huge grin spread across Naia’s face.
“Oh, here we go,” he groaned.
“No, no, no,” Naia said as she moved closer. “What’s going on here? Are you two dating now?”
Torin looked at Emery, whose face had flushed a deep shade of crimson. He gazed back up at Naia, unsure how to answer her question. “It’s none of your business.” The minute the words left his mouth, he wish he could take them back. Childish and stupid.
“Oh really? It’s none of my business? All right, all right,” Naia joked. “Anyway, whatever you are, good for you two. I’m happy for you. Truly.”
Emery’s natural color returned to her face. “You are?”
“Yeah,” Naia said with an exaggerated eye roll. “It’s about time.”
Torin considered a few counter statements, but decided against all of them. “So, what did you figure out?” he asked, trying to shift the focus to a different topic.
“Oh, right!” Naia’s eyes lit up like a finale of fireworks. “I figured out how they’re duplicating the sanaré.”
Emery eyed her with a confused expression. “But we already know that. They’re using the IFT X4.”
“Right you are. But, in order to duplicate the serum, they have to have the original formulated serum—one with pure ingredients.”
Torin ran a hand through his hair as he stood up from the couch. “You’re saying that they can’t duplicate a duplicate?”
“Try saying that five times fast,” Emery teased.
Naia didn’t seem to hear her. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
“So if we destroy the original,” he said as it all came together, “then 7S will have nothing to replicate.”
“Precisely.” A twinkle glimmered from her eye. “We’ll also need to eradicate their current inventory . . .”
“And how much is that?” Emery asked.
Naia shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “A lot.”
“How much is a lot?”
She heaved a long sigh. “Hundreds of thousands, maybe more.”
His jaw dropped in disbelief. “Hundreds of thousands?”
Naia glanced at him with a somber expression. “Afraid so.”
He turned to look at Emery, who had popped up from the couch and was now pacing back and forth across the room. Her brow was furrowed and her eyes flitted every which way. He could tell that she was running through multiple scenarios in her head, most likely worst-case scenarios. They were similar in that way—always weighing the odds before devising a plan.
“Okay, first things first,” Emery thought aloud. “We need to destroy the original serum. This will halt any and all production and keep the inventory level where it’s at.” She hesitated, chewing on her lower lip.
When she didn’t continue her train of thought, he prompted, “And what about destroying the hundreds of thousands of syringes?”
“I hadn’t thought that far ahead yet.”
“We’ll think of something,” Naia interjected. “I agree with Emery though. Let’s focus on getting the original syringe first.”
He looked between the two of them. “Okay, so how should we do this?”
“Call Riley and Alexis,” Emery said. “If this is going to work, we’re going to need more brainpower.”
+ +
Twelve cups of coffee and three oversized bags of chips later, Torin felt confident in the plan that he, Emery, Naia, Alexis, and Riley had conjured up. Each member of the team had been able to offer some area of expertise: for Naia, it was information about 7S and the layout of the downtown headquarters; for Emery and Alexis, it was their relationship with their father and predicting what his next moves might be; for Riley, it wa
s her second nature to point out potential problems that no one else saw coming; and for himself, it was his tech-savvy skill set and operative mind. And yet, a crucial part of the plan still seemed to be missing.
“We still haven’t been able to pin down where Byron keeps the original serum,” Torin pointed out. “Naia’s been around both him and Dr. Matheson for over a week, and there’s still no telling where he keeps it after the workday is over.”
“Okay, let’s think about this logically,” Emery said. “Obviously, the original serum is in the lab for eight hours during the workday, while the duplicates are being produced. But the cameras we’ve placed in the lab have shown that once the workday is over, the original serum is no longer stationed in the IFT X4.” She looked around the table to ensure everyone understood. “It’s clear that my dad doesn’t trust a soul with that serum. He’s always the one placing it in the machine in the morning. Which means he has to be the one taking it out at the end of every day.”
“Right,” Torin said with a nod, “but where does he take it once he leaves the lab?”
“My guess is that he takes it back to his office, or puts it somewhere in his armoire,” Alexis chimed in.
Emery looked at her sister questionably. “Why do you think that?”
Alexis shrugged her shoulders. “7S Headquarters is the most secure place in the nation. He certainly isn’t going to take it out of that building.”
Emery ran her hand along the holoprint of 7S Headquarters, zooming in on her father’s bedchambers. “It just seems too obvious,” she murmured.
“What if he takes it back to the cabin in Northern Arizona and hides it in your mom’s laboratory?” Riley suggested.
“Every day?” Emery shook her head. “Highly unlikely. That’s a huge inconvenience, even with teleportation in the picture.”
The room was silent as they mulled over the endless possibilities. Just as Torin was about to speak, a warning blared across the holomonitor. His hands shot up to his ears, as did everyone else’s, as the siren droned on for what felt like an eternity.
Restitution (The Alpha Drive Book 3) Page 15