The Dolos Conspiracy

by Frank Perry

we’ve got some horrible disease or something.”

  He was walking a little too fast for her heels and slowed when she tugged his hand. Other people were coming and going from the parking lot, and he didn’t see the note under his windshield wiper until they were seated. He was about the start the engine. “Hold on, what’s this?” He reached around the window pillar and pulled it inside. It read: “Be careful where you look.”

  He crumpled it and threw it to the floor and hit the steering wheel with a fist. “What the fuck! Why do I keep getting these cryptic notes? They never say anything; I’m supposed to guess!”

  Neither understood it, and they drove immediately to his apartment. He didn’t speak, but she felt compelled. “Maybe we should call Detective McAlister and show her the note.”

  He shook his head. “What would she do? It doesn’t say anything.”

  “John, I know you’re upset and angry. So am I. Maybe the police can start to put this all together. Look at all the circumstances. Maybe there are finger prints on the note. If they could get a subpoena, they might find something.”

  “Kelly, what have we got? We don’t have anything more than a gunshot and some vague warnings.” He knew she was right, but felt that involving the police might just escalate the situation. Only someone with access to lab 4B could solve this and getting the police involved might cut them off.

  “What about my apartment?”

  “They’re not going to send out a detective for a trashed apartment. Hell, I don’t even have my computer any more to show Lorne’s report.” An alarm went off in his head and he began talking to himself. “My computer; my emails; my dialogue with Mary. If someone breaks my password, Mary could be in trouble!”

  Kelly thought for a moment. “How strong is your password?”

  He shook his head. “I thought it was clever. 2014Mustang -- my car. Most people wouldn’t know my car, but anyone who’s paying attention at GHI knows it. Smart people can figure it out fast.” He shook his head, “How stupid could I be to get her involved -- stupid.”

  She became serious. “Okay, so we need to get this solved quickly, before anyone figures out her connection.” They’d been having discussions – “what ifs” really – about everyone at GHI that might be involved. They had no hard evidence except the way people, like Jules, related to them. Hell it could be several people together. They couldn’t eliminate Lorne either. Maybe he’d been in some kind of plot with others. It didn’t seem likely given his close relationship with John, but they didn’t have any evidence to eliminate anyone. They didn’t have anything implicating anyone either. Now, Mary could be in danger and she’d be the easiest target in the world.

  “I’ve got to warn her. She needs to disappear back onto the island. They can’t surprise her there, it’s too close knit.”

  She nodded. “Yeah, you need to warn her, but the best chance of protecting her or us is to find out what’s going on. Right now, we have Jules’ greed on our side. He won’t fire us, and he doesn’t want us to quit. He shouldn’t want us hurt either if he wants to sell GHI. We have the perfect chance to keep digging there, even if it’s right in front of him, them -- whoever’s doing this.”

  It made sense. He knew she was right. Once again he wanted to bang his head on the wall for involving Mary in their mess. Ultimately, it had given them the one major clue, but it also put her in danger. He shouldn’t be taking other people’s safety too lightly. He had done it with Mary and now she was in danger. He could only blame himself. Hell, she didn’t even know who he was a couple weeks earlier. Now, her life could be in danger because of him.

  Dishonesty

  Later, Jules had always trusted his intuition. He couldn’t sleep long that night. Seeing his old friend’s wife and friends, and associates from work, only confused him more. Something was wrong. Too many bad things were happening to people around him. Irina was being evasive, he was sure of it. She was odd, that was true, but she was much too casual about the strange vial number. She had to know something was wrong. How could she dismiss it so easily? She knew it could be very serious, possibly damaging GHI. She just walked away! What could this mean? His pulse was racing. He’d been at his desk since three in the morning, doing nothing, just pondering. He could hear people arriving a few hours later. By nine o’clock, he couldn’t sit still any longer and let the mind-games continue spinning out of control. “Marie! Get Dr. Egan in here!”

  He paced in his office, waiting for Kelly to arrive. My God what’s going on? She arrived after more than twenty minutes, after decontamination. She was still wary of Jules; he’d been acting strangely toward her and this time she’d come alone, without John for moral support or protection. She walked straight into his office, and he signaled for her to sit, delaying a moment himself before taking a chair beside her. She maintained a stiff formal demeanor. “Dr. Redinger, you summoned me?”

  It wasn’t lost on him that she was nervous, even uncomfortable in his presence. He slumped slightly and folded his hands in his lap. “Kelly, Dr. Egan, I owe you an apology. You have every right to be angry at me. You’ve been assaulted verbally and physically, both by me and others, and it isn’t fair. It’s certainly not fair from me.” She looked at him more directly, but didn’t speak as he continued. Did he have a split personality? It was obvious that he had something to say and wanted to finish it. “I’ve been under a lot of stress. I don’t know which is most nerve-wracking: the investors, the death of my oldest friend and colleague, or an attack in Africa on another friend; she’s with the World Health Organization. I was on the phone with her when they were attacked. I don’t know if she’s alive, but I fear not.”

  He paused long enough for her to respond. “Dr. Redinger, Jules, I’m sorry for your troubles. Is there anything I can do?”

  He looked at her without speaking for several seconds, and then said, “There may be something else.”

  He looked down again and seemed to be thinking what to say, but she spoke first. “Jules, does it involve me?”

  He regained his composure and sat upright, looking directly at her. “I don’t know Kelly. I don’t want to think so, but I have another problem that may involve you directly or indirectly.”

  She feared that she was going to be confronted by the report John had been analyzing. “Um … can you be specific, Jules?”

  “Kelly, you’ve been acting a little strangely lately. Hell, I guess we all have for so many reasons. I don’t know how else to approach this other than to ask directly. What were you doing in the active virus cell in 4B?”

  Her fears were turning into reality. “What do you mean, Jules?”

  “Oh, please, don’t try to bullshit me. What were you doing there when I caught you in the wrong part of the lab?”

  Her brilliant mind worked fast, trying to formulate an answer. “Jules, I could tell you that I was lost or that I made an error in my directions, but we both know that’s not true.” She hesitated, wondering if she’d made a mistake. But, he wasn’t stupid. She had to roll the dice. “Dr. Bridger has a spreadsheet on his workstation, John’s station. A few weeks ago, Lorne warned John that he could be in danger for discovering it.”

  Jules interrupted. “What spreadsheet?”

  She continued. “We’re not sure. It seems to be some kind of inventory, but it’s over fifty pages and encrypted. There seem to be some anomalies.” She wanted to be very careful. “There is one category that is different than Institute records.”

  He was almost afraid to ask the obvious question. “Are you talking about the live virus?”

  She was surprised by his directness, half expecting a deflection. “We’re not sure. That’s something John and I were trying to verify. That’s when you interrupted me inside 4B.” This revelation scared her, expecting Jules to explode, but he did the opposite.

  “Kelly, I’m going to share something that’s bothering me badly.
” She stiffened. “I have information that might indicate that live virus was shipped to Africa. It wasn’t on the manifest, and one of the vial numbers read to me by Dr. Van Aker in Africa shouldn’t have left here.”

  She now understood why he was worried. This could be the downfall of GHI. “Could it be a mistake?”

  “Mistake! How the hell could it be a mistake? Sorry, Kelly, I don’t mean to shout. The only mistake that makes sense is that Abagael didn’t read it properly, but that’s impossible. The whole number sequence wasn’t wrong. It’s a virus number.”

  She started understanding. “Jules, let me ask you: Do you think this had anything to do with Dr. Bridger dying? Is this why someone tried to shoot John and me?”

  “I don’t know, Kelly. My worst fear is that they’re all related. But, I really want to believe it’s just an accident, just coincidental. But, it can’t be. I’m sure of it.”

  This conversation was creating a strange bond. Jules had revealed information that could cause problems for GHI – maybe fatal problems. It didn’t make sense until he