Rek thought about just following her, but they still had his family.
If he was going to get through this, it would be because they either decided to let him go, or someone in the authorities realized that he was missing, and thwarted their plan.
Given that his family was being forced to go about their business, it looked like they had all their bases covered, though.
Eventually Henrik got their act together. Erik nodded to Henry to go back in, and he closed the door behind him, presumably to escort his mistress back downstairs. Rek could hear the Ogg padding heavily down the corridor after her.
Henry sat back up on the chair, swinging the gun idly and watching it pivot on one finger, as if nothing had happened.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Ancestor Memorial Hospital Morgue, Spire
Maya clicked open a holo call to give Bob an update. It went to voicemail.
Maya waited for the beep and started talking. “Boss, I’ve found a link between Ventus Research Facilities and the toxin leak. Just need to check out another lead, the second scientist - then I’ll know more.”
She clicked off.
There. That should keep him satisfied for now. If she played her cards right, this story could cover a few new cycles in the primary positions.
Maya got out of her car in the visitor’s lot and headed up to the hospital morgue, the second place she was visiting that morning. With only a three-hour turnaround at her apartment, she’d had about two hours’ sleep and was still exhausted.
Following the signage to the morgue reception area, she waited patiently by the desk for someone to appear. Eventually a slim, timid girl emerged from a set of double doors into a corridor.
“Greetings. Can I help?” she asked politely.
“I hope so. I’m here about a John Doe. I called earlier and spoke to Carla.”
The female Estarian had a look of recognition at the information. “Ah yes,” she said, her voice turning from polite to warm. “Carla is off shift now, but she told me you’d be coming by. Maya, is it?”
Maya nodded, extending her hand. “Yes, that’s right.”
“Casey,” she replied, taking her hand and shaking it gently. Her hands were warm and soft, which surprised Maya for someone working in such a contrasting environment. “Would you like to follow me?”
Casey led the way through to the corridor and then in through a set of doors off to the left.
The two women walked side by side down the second corridor. Maya talked as they went. “Hey, Casey. Thanks for helping out like this.”
Casey glanced over. “Sure,” she said with a delicate smile. “So, our victim seems to have drowned,” she continued professionally, “but we’re having trouble identifying him because of the water damage to his prints.”
Maya braced herself for disappointment. “You’ve tried DNA?” she asked.
“No. It’s a long, resource-heavy process. We’d only do that if we suspected foul play. Right now, there isn’t enough evidence to make us think that. Though an ID would be nice.”
Maya’s face looked tense, but Casey didn’t notice. She led her through into the storage area, which was not dissimilar from the one she had been in less than an hour previously. She unsealed a locker, pulling out the tray.
Maya thought to pull out the photograph, but hesitated, instead choosing to mentally prepare herself for looking at another dead body.
Casey was about to pull the sheet back. She paused, looking back at Maya. “Ready?” she asked, her eyes showing a real compassion for those who would have had to identify loved ones.
Maya nodded.
Casey pulled back the sheet. This man was Estarian, alright, but had dark hair; and despite water bloating, was much older than her scientist.
Maya exhaled, and then noticed that she had been holding her breath. “It’s not him,” she said.
Casey replaced the sheet and then pushed the tray away and sealed it in.
Maya just stood there for a moment.
Casey gave her the space. “Always a relief,” she commented, her voice soft and comforting.
Maya wondered if she was actually a doctor, or whether she was an assistant that handled the identifications. This was the second person who had offered only her first name in the department.
Funny, the details you notice at times of emotional stress, she thought.
Maya nodded. “Yes, it is a relief. Thank you.” She sighed. “But it means the gentleman I’m looking for is still missing.”
They took their time wandering back out to reception area.
“Thank you so much for your help, Casey,” Maya said as she shook the woman’s hand again.
“Any time,” Casey smiled back.
Maya left, deep in thought.
If the second scientist is still alive, she considered, then maybe they’re keeping him alive for a reason. She headed out into the parking garage to find her car.
And what would an evil person want with a toxin, and one of the scientists who developed it?
She slammed her palm against her forehead. Of course! They’re keeping him alive to run the experiments, and work out how best to deploy it large scale.
She hurriedly located her car and got in.
This reeked of terrorism of some kind. And there would probably be a handful of people who would benefit from such an attack. She shifted the car into gear and started up the engine. She needed to get back to the office, and fast. This was way too big for her to handle on her own. She needed Bob in on the conversation for direction… and protection. He’d know what to do.
She sped away from the parking lot, ordering her nav system to find the fastest way back to the office.
Newstainment Offices, downtown Spire
Maya sat at her desk with Bob the Boss hovering over her. It was the middle of the day, and the newsroom was a hive of activity. She would probably have Bob’s attention for 120 seconds until someone else pulled it away for something urgent.
“Okay, so here is what I have,” she started, getting straight to it. “These two scientists have gone missing.”
She pulled up the images of David Rek and Ana Grossman on her holo. Bob peered over his glasses to look at them. “Uh huh,” he said.
Maya continued. “Except no one has reported them missing…”
Bob glanced down at her briefly. “So how do you know they’re missing, then?”
Maya didn’t miss a beat. “Because they were on the work schedule at the lab where they both work: Ventus Research.” She looked up over her shoulder to check her boss was following her explanation.
“Everyone had been drafted in,” she continued. “Everyone is swiping in. In fact, attendance at the lab has increased by 80% in the last 10 days. People are staying all hours of the day and night and working to exhaustion. Except these two. They’re not on leave, and they’re not there. They’re just not swiping in.”
Bob straightened up a little, and drew in breath. “And you got all this, how?” he asked. He was no longer looking at her screen, but now glancing down at her, sitting at her desk.
She turned awkwardly to look up at him, feeling like a little girl. “HR records,” she said flatly.
He looked back at the screen. “Clever girl.”
He went straight on, almost as if he were embarrassed to dwell on the praise. “So what’s the crisis they’re managing?” The excitement of a hunt for the story was evident again in his voice.
“Well,” she told him, “two weeks ago, they issued a release reporting that there had been a breech in protocol, and a toxin had been released into the population. It wasn’t germ warfare, or a virus that can spread, so it doesn’t have that sensationalism. The media, including us, have practically ignored it.”
She pulled up a different screen to show him one of their own reports, with low placement and a couple of hundred hits.
“But,” she went on, “in this same time period… there have been outbreaks of violence. Isolated cases.
”
Bob looked at her, twiddling his glasses in his hands. “You think there is a connection?”
Maya nodded, speaking more quickly now. “Yes, and the incidents are escalating in the amount of violence, and the number of people affected. I think someone is testing the potency of the toxin that was taken, and monitoring the effects for something bigger. That’s why they need this other scientist alive. I think he’s helping them.”
Bob stood upright again, one hand on his hip this time.
He considered the information for a moment and then laid out the action plan. “Okay, get Johnny to carefully look into the background of this second scientist.”
Maya started making notes.
“Get him to check on his family,” Bob continued. “If he’s being leveraged, they could be in danger. Anything we find, get it to the police. There’s no room for fokking around on this. The city could be in danger.”
Maya nodded diligently, knowing she needed to call the homicide detective anyway.
Bob started to leave her cubicle, aware that other people were already queuing up to speak with him. He stopped and turned back to her.
“How did you find the girl in the morgue?” he asked.
Maya looked sheepish. “Ran a search for height and time of disappearance for both scientists who had disappeared. Only pulled up two possible matches, so I went down to ID them in person from their pictures.”
He frowned a little as he asked the obvious. “You couldn’t have used facial rec?”
She shook her head. “Something odd going on there. Why didn’t the authorities do that with the body? I figured that any trace of her on their records must have been wiped. I got Ana Grossman’s image off her social media profile. It would have been too suspicious for that to be removed, right? Got lucky, I guess.”
Maya was already pulling up the number for Detective Antonio Rogers.
Bob was shaking his head as he headed back to his office. “Good work, Maya,” he called back to her loudly, so that the whole department could hear him. “That kind of shit just can’t be taught.”
People who were standing around turned and looked at him, and then in the direction of her cubicle.
Maya smiled. She felt the stir it created, a dozen eyeballs drilling through her cubicle partitions to see why she was so special.
She shook the attention from her mind, and focused down on her work again. She wasn’t home free yet.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Gaitune-67, Safe house, Molly’s lab
Paige clip-clopped back into the lab.
Molly didn’t even look up, but acknowledged her entrance. “What’ve you been up to?” she asked.
It had been a good few hours, and Molly had actually noticed her absence.
Paige slumped back down onto a lab stool. “I was talking with the guys in the workshop,” replied Paige, somewhat cagily.
Molly smiled to herself. “Brock, you mean?” she asked, eyes still in the microscope.
Paige flushed a little.
“What did he think of your nail varnish idea?” Molly asked. “I take it you guys have plans for selling this shit commercially…”
Paige’s mouth hung open. “How could you possibly know that?”
Molly removed the slide and replaced it with the next one. “I didn’t, for sure. You just told me…”
Paige stared at her, waiting for more of an explanation.
Molly sighed, and started to explain. “Well, if he were interested for his own purposes, you would have told him and then come back to pester me about it some more.”
She flipped off another slide and swapped it out for the next one.
“But since you were gone for so long, I figured you must be talking about something.” Molly looked up. “I didn’t know for sure until I asked you, though.”
Paige, chuckling to herself, amazed at Molly’s abilities, rested her arms on the lab bench and then put her head on her arms.
Molly started tidying the set of samples away. “So, what are you? Equal partners?”
Paige shook her head. “No. He’s going to help with the modeling and brand image, but we won’t be able to nail that stuff down until we know everything the whole venture will entail. After we’re done with the mission, we’ll think about it some more.”
Molly dumped the bunch of samples she’d been working through into a bag for incineration.
Paige raised her head. “So how’s it coming along?” she asked, nodding towards the clutter of equipment and samples on the bench that Molly was now clearing away.
“I’ve replicated the toxin, and I know with 89.9% certainty which one they’re using.”
Paige’s normally smooth face looked wrinkled with concern. “Is that certain enough?”
Molly nodded. “It’s going to have to be. The next possibilities are 11.3% and 4.8%.”
Paige, despite her lack of scientific background, wasn’t convinced. “Is there any way to test it? To check it?”
“Yeah, if we had a sample to check it against we could be 100% certain. But unless we get a sample from someone who is infected…” her voice trailed off.
Paige looked more serious now. “Joel is still on the surface.”
Molly’s voice was firm. “And to ask him to track down someone who is infected would likely get him exposed and killed. Not an option.”
Paige nodded, racking her brain for a way to keep Joel safe, and still get them the sample.
Molly took a deep breath and exhaled conclusively. “Anyway, now that I have the most likely sample, I’ve already got an antidote sequencing.”
Excuse me? Who has it sequencing?
“Okay, so Oz is doing some super high-level processing shit to sequence an antidote.” Molly nodded over at a bench top machine that seemed to be whirring around. To Paige, it looked like a huge microwave oven.
“Great. So then what?” Paige asked. “Once you have an antidote here… how do we get enough of it to the surface?”
Molly waved her hand dismissively. “Once we know what it is, our friend Eugene should be able to replicate it there. Then we just have to think about how to deploy it once he’s created it.”
Paige looked at Molly blankly. Molly sat down poking at screens on her holo.
Molly hadn’t noticed Paige looking at her, and continued with the trail of thought. “You know, I noticed that the toxin is water soluble.”
She poked at a few more screens.
“If memory serves, the antidote for this plant toxin is also going to be water soluble…”
Paige shook her head, confused. “Which means?”
“Which means,” Molly looked up at her, “it’s likely that if they want to mobilize the toxin citywide, they’ll be hitting the water supply. The good news is, if the antidote is water soluble, we can put the antidote in there, too.”
Paige’s eyes were wide. “You think they might try and infect everyone?”
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