Chapter 37
The call that Gary made to him at home the prior evening to see how his daughter was doing, Alder knew, was a guise. Gary’s message was emphatic: Report first thing to his office; they need to talk. As Alder sat in the reception area outside of Gary’s office waiting, a twinge of nausea made the anticipation worse. Sheila worked on updating file folders and barely acknowledged the waiting junior executive. She made no pretense of attempting conversation with Alder, nor did he have an interest in starting one with her. Several minutes passed until Gary finally walked in carrying his attaché in one hand and supporting a file folder jacket under his other arm and holding a cup of Starbucks coffee.
“Morning Sheila,” Gary said, presenting a small grin while passing through the reception area to his office. Then he saw Alder waiting on the couch. “Alder,” he said, his grin vanishing. Alder’s nausea increased. He wasn’t sure what to expect.
“Give me a couple of minutes to get settled, then head on in,” Gary continued, ready to step into his office. Then he stopped and turned back toward Alder. “You know what, just come on in. We need to discuss this issue right away.”
Springing off the leather couch, Alder promptly followed his boss, who took a seat at his desk in the chair known to be used by Gary for rebuking or firing personnel. Placing the paperwork and attaché on the credenza behind him, Gary inserted his access control card into the card reader and logged onto the company’s network.
“OK Alder, how’s Stephen doing?” Gary asked after he finished typing on his keyboard.
“He’s doing fine I guess, if you call being in a coma fine.”
“He’s in a coma?” Gary questioned, attempting to feign sympathy.
“Yeah, they’re not sure how lo …”
“Well look, I’m not gonna skirt around the issue here,” Gary continued as he didn’t know Stephen personally. “I don’t know if you heard that some sensitive R&D information was somehow released. We’re fortunate it was somewhat contained, but the implications are still significant. Are you aware of anything like that?” Gary asked.
“I’m sorry, I’m not quite sure what you’re talking about,” Alder replied, knowing there was a good chance Gary was referencing the information he communicated to the three church investigators.
Narrowing his eyes, Gary watched for any ticks in his interviewee’s body language, hoping to discover the veracity of Alder’s response. Noting a couple possible nervous movements with his indirect question, he continued to press.
“Look Alder, I’m going to be truthful with you. I’m not very happy right now. I’ve been trying to find out something over the last couple days. There seems to have been a serious breach of information. Did you or did you not tell anyone outside of Everest sensitive information about any of our projects?”
Alder could sense his voice would crack while attempting to formulate an account for releasing the information and explaining why. For the first time since all of these strange events, he found himself praying for something, anything, to occur for him not to have to answer the question. If there was a God, he hoped he would manifest himself in some way.
“So Alder, do you know something?”
Alder swallowed, ready to present an answer, when Sheila rushed into the office unannounced. “Gary, you need to catch the vid call right now!” she said excitedly.
Every time I’ve been trying to have important conversations, there’ve been these damn interruptions, Gary thought.
“Sheila, not now,” he responded, visibly agitated.
“No, you need to pick up now.”
“I’m busy. Just tell whoever is trying to get through that I’m busy right now.”
“It’s Dr. Petroyev from the facility across town. He really needs to talk to you.”
Acquiescing to Sheila’s persistence, Gary turned to his computer and focused on the video software icon to see a small dialog bubble: “1 Inbound Call – Dr. P.” He moved his finger over the touch screen to expand the icon; a windowed image of Dr. Petroyev appeared in the middle of his OLED monitor.
“Doc, I need to call you back, I’m in the middle of an important di …”
The computer image interrupted, “Gary, I think there’s a serious problem with the Aurora team and facility down in Mexico.”
“You know Doc, can you hold on?” Gary turned to Alder, “Can you leave us please? I’ll call you back down when we’re ready to finish our conversation.”
Alder got up from his seat and returned to his office thinking that perhaps his prayers had been answered. Gary turned his attention back to the video call once the office was clear and glanced at an indicator in the status bar of the application window; the icon of a padlock was illuminated, which ensured that encryption was turned on.
“So what the hell are you talking about doctor? What do you mean there’s a problem?” Gary inquired.
“There hasn’t been any contact with my team in Mexico for two days now. And just when we were ready to start testing.”
“What do you mean you haven’t heard from them? You must have heard from them. This is unacceptable. What was the last thing going on that you know of?”
“Remember a bit ago it looked like there were four intruders who may have been trying to probe the Mexican facility and approach the compound?”
“Yeah? So? You told me the security team reported to you that they couldn’t find anybody.”
“Well, it looks like they showed up again, and, well, hold on. I’m sending you a file of an e-mail fragment they sent four days ago.”
A few seconds later, an icon image of a sheet of paper appeared in a pop-up window titled “Current Call: Anton P. -- Shared File(s).” Tapping the icon on the monitor, the image exploded to scale for easier reading.
The four previously reported intruders by Wolf Two appear to have returned. This time the security detail was able to retrieve and return them to the compound. Upon their arrival, we separated them with an attempt to ascertain their identity, with each one being questioned independently. They all remained quiet. Nobody could get them to talk until later when one did. When asked why they arrived there, he said, “They were sent forth in response to supplications to intervene in hindering the inspired work of Aurora by Doctor Ezekiel Frost”. This started a firestorm amongst the team here as to how these four strangers knew of the primary project name and its primary research doctor. Some suspect Doctor Cochrane leaked the information.
Gary read the extraction a couple more times just to see if anything apart from the question of the trespassers could clarify the overall concerns of the doctor.
“So why’s it the first I’m hearing about this?”
“It’s not. Remember, it wasn’t that important before when we discussed the previous logs and updates and the compound went on alert when there was the suspicion of four possible intruders. The risk was later reduced since no evidence of them could be found then,” Dr. Petroyev snapped back angry he just mentioned something similar to his superior.
“Have you tried calling down there?” Gary could tell by the doctor’s expression he was peeved by the question.
The doctor decided to answer anyway. “We tried calling, faxing, initiating videoconferencing, texting; no one from up here can get in touch with anyone down there. It’s like the place just disappeared. I even contacted one of my local police contacts outside the gendarmerie from El Refugio to head out and take a quick look. We warned him not to go too close. A security team should come out to meet him. He said the place is like a ghost town; nobody met him at the boundary of the compound.”
“Well, I hope you’re gonna tell me that you started executing a recovery plan of some sort. The damn sites associated with this project are your responsibility.”
“You don’t have to remind me about that Gary. A specialized response team is already en route to investigate. They should be on site in about six to twelve hours.”
“Nothing better have happened down there. You know how important their work is to the overall plan. When are you going down to join them?”
“What?”
“When … are … you … going … down? I don’t have a good feeling about this, especially with what’s been going on up here. Hell, in a lot of ways, this sounds like what happened ten years ago with the director you replaced. Dr. Ashere Valdez was one of the best geneticists and virologists on the planet, better than you, and she ended up becoming disloyal before disappearing. I think this is too important for you not to see this through directly and make sure everything is all right. We may have a level one incident on our hands.”
“Gary, I have too much to do up here.”
“Know what, I’ll work over at your facility to see your side of the project through. I need high-level management on this one, just in case--you know--special precautions are needed. Plus the kid seems to be stable; we should be fine up here.”
Dr. Petroyev’s reluctance was evident on his facial expression. Gary wasn’t pleased by his lead doctor’s excuses. “We’re not going to have a problem are we doctor?”
Dr. Petroyev paused before answering, “No.”
VI. The Shadow of Angels: Las Cruces
The Fallen and the Elect Page 65
