The Trojan Horse Pandemic

by Veronica Preda

  ”I was thinking about some sort of protective equipment.” Ryan said. ”That kind of equipment with double walls, between which there is a layer of water. But how could we produce them? Where would the money come from?”

  ”I could help you with that”, Ulysses said again. ”But such an order of equipment will be easily detected by them.”

  ”If what they said about the following phase is true, maybe water will no longer represent a barrier to those waves. Oh my God, Ryan, we have to get rid of those crystals you've taken. Throw them out in the river. Or in the sea. As far from here as possible!”

  ”I will throw them out. But first, we will have to sacrifice a lab mouse. Don't tell me you believe this flapdoodle with the vital energy...”

  ”That is such bullshit!” Ulysses said.

  Timea jerked and looked at the monitor, but then nodded and said:

  ”What are you thinking about, Ryan?”

  ”About a smaller aquarium in a larger aquarium. Also about Lucius, my friend from pathology, and his high-powered electron microscope.”

  The experiment envisioned by Ryan required some supplies, which he purchased from the stores near his house and took them to the hospital right afterwards. He locked himself in his office and started crafting. He found an aquarium that wasn't too large, but with high walls, which he placed on wooden supports inside the second aquarium. He filled up the big aquarium with water, which enveloped the smaller box on the sides and below. He cut new pieces of glass, cropped them and stuck them together, creating some sort of lid, but with double walls. Again he poured water between these walls, then sealed off the lid with another shard. He turned on his laptop, plugged in the charger and turned it towards his improvisation:

  ”Ulysses, are you there? Is the web camera on? Are you recording?”

  ”Yes, yes! This will be our proof. Make sure that you show me the living mouse.”

  Ryan put the mouse he had ”borrowed for a quick test”, as he had said to his colleagues from the virology lab, inside the smaller aquarium, together with some food and the crystal from the old archaeologist's office. He took care to douse himself with water from head to toe when he did that. Then he covered the whole setting with the lid. He had cut a small hole in a corner, which he had measured many times, to be sure that only a thin hose would go through. He connected the hose to an oxygen tube and said:

  ”Now we can be sure that our mouse will not be left without air.”

  Then, he managed to sink the greater part of the hose and the tube in another plastic box filled with water and checked out the laptop one more time.

  ”I'm sorry, buddy, for doing this to you...” he said to the creature, closed the office and returned home.

  Meanwhile, Timea had bought video cameras and, with Ulysses' help, she had installed them throughout the house.

  ”I'm convinced that as soon as we leave the house, visitors will come to plant some crystals. Now, you'll know and warns us.” she said.

  She had rummaged through every corner, but hadn't found anything, so now she was sitting in total mess as she waited for Ryan. The moment her husband entered, she asked him:

  ”How is the mouse?”

  ”When I left, it was fine. We'll see tomorrow.”

  ”Schrödinger's cat and Ryan's mouse...” Ulysses's voice was heard from the computer.

  ”You have a lot of humour for an artificial guy!” Timea laughed.

  Ryan also laughed, but then he changed his tone:

  ”Ulysses, I'm afraid that, in our case, the mouse is only dead.”

  The next day, Ryan took the dead mouse to his pathologist friend, leaving the crystal in a hidden niche, under successive layers of water. When he saw Ryan, Lucius flinched:

  ”What the hell are you doing here? I thought you were on vacation, with your wifey. And why are you soaking wet?”

  ”I went jogging...”

  “You? I've never thought you'd ever leave that gym you like so much. Jogging, you say? Since when?”

  “Since today, don't you see? Listen, find out for me why this mouse died.”

  “Why? Don't you know?”

  “If I knew, would I ask you? It's very important; I need a precise answer.”

  “When exactly have I given you imprecise answers?? Come on, leave the mouse here and go away, because you've already pissed me off!”

  “Please, don't talk to anyone about this.”

  “Sure! As if I had nothing better to do than speak about Dr. Dulay's dead mouse left and right.”

  During this time, Timea had stood inside the house all morning, urging Ulysses to look for all possible information about every word Gabriel had said. When Ryan returned, she told him:

  “I'm done, Ryan! I can't find anything. Neither in the old man's diary, nor online. No concrete reference. I can't get Karides' notes out of my mind: all the bad things are in the water. That's the part I understand; but all the answers are in the water as well. What answers?”

  “I don't know. Let's wait for Lucius to call. He will definitely discover something.”

  The phone rang later in the afternoon. It was Lucius.

  “Ryan, what the devil did you do to this mouse? I've never seen anything like it!”

  “What exactly, old chap?”

  “Listen to me, I've run the tests so many times that I've lost count. I'll email you the reports. Now I'm kind of tired, I'll go home and sleep.”

  “Lucius, hold on a second, tell me what you learned...”

  Ryan heard the characteristic beep, indicating that the conversation was over. He tried to call Lucius again, but his friend didn't answer.

  ”Ryan, don't worry!” Ulysses said. ”I deflected the call so they couldn't listen to you. And I'll encrypt Lucius' mail. Just wait...”

  Not long afterwards, Ulysses informed Ryan that he could safely open the report files.

  “Timea, you must come and see this!” Ryan said.

  “What is it?”

  “Just take a look at what Lucius discovered in the dead mouse. Like hell vital energy! There is not a single molecule of ATP left in the mouse cells!”

  “What are you saying?”

  “Look for yourself. The whole adenosine triphosphate has been deactivated.”

  “How so?”

  ”Lucius has discovered a new compound. All the mouse's ATP was bound to an unknown element and transformed into an inert salt, which blocked all the cellular processes. This is the explanation! It's obvious! Nerve impulse transmission, cellular metabolism, respiration, excretion, muscle contraction, everything! Absolutely everything! Hence fatigue, weakness and then death. The cells die! Look, necrosis, necrosis and again necrosis! Necrosis without any bacteria, without lack of oxygen or any other disease! Those waves or whatever they could be are carriers of a chemical element unknown to us, or of some other particles that generate a new element. This one is chelated by ATP, thus becoming an inert new molecule. It's simple!”

  Timea was looking at him without saying anything. Ryan continued:

  ”This is extraordinary, don't you see? What a tremendous discovery! Have you nothing to say?”

  ”Fantastic, amazing, what do you want me to say? But how does it help us? It's an unknown element! How can we stop it from linking to ATP? Who will help us? What chemist? In what corner of a laboratory could we hide where they wouldn't find us? How many months or years will pass until we'll find a way to deactivate or reverse this reaction? We'll be dead before we start mixing the contents of two tubes! What is it? A metal, a gas, a radioactive isotope?

  ”We don't know yet. But now we have something to start with. Tomorrow I'll go to the hospital, to talk with Lucius.”

  Ryan tried to call his friend again, but he didn't pick up.

  ”I'll call him tomorrow, first thing in the morning, to tell him to wait for me. Ulysses will make sure that we won't be tracked.”

  ”Yes, Ryan.” Ulysses answered.

  But Lucius did not pick up the next mor
ning either. After many calls, Ryan called the hospital and asked to be redirected to the lab. After the phone had been ringing for a long while, he managed to talk to a nurse.

  ”Oh, doctor Dulay! It's craziness here! What? You want to talk with doctor Lucius Hamilton? Oh! Hmmm... Haven't you heard about the tragedy? God, how can I tell you? Dr. Hamilton was found dead in the lab this morning. Looks like he died last night from natural causes.”

  Ryan hung up without saying another word. Tears were streaming from his eyes. He wiped his cheeks with his right hand and clenched his fists. He punched the wall, making a framed picture fall on the floor, red traces on the white paint. From Ryan's right hand, blood dripped on the oak parquetry.

  ”I killed him. It's my fault. Timea, you are right. I think we should stop now.”

  Long minutes passed by in silence. Timea brought some hydrogen peroxide and sterile compresses and started cleaning her husband's hand.

  “Ryan, this is the tertiary phase!”

  “Timea, what are you talking about?”

  “About the tertiary phase. The one those two spoke about. Lucius...”

  “What about him?”

  “Did you bring him the crystal, as well?”

  “No, just the mouse.”

  “Don't you see? The mouse killed him.”

  ”The mouse has become a wave generator. The dead bodies are becoming new sources of radiation, and the necessary time of exposure is decreasing.”

  ”Or every organism, dead or alive, who came into contact with the waves, is now becoming a new source? God, Ryan, do you feel fine? What if I'm becoming a generator? Maybe I should not stay close to you anymore.”

  “I feel fine.”

  “What a lunatic, the old Karides! In the water we will find the answers! OK, the water is a shield, but any further than that? Cells are full of water. But they couldn't stop these radiations or whatever they are! Once they get inside the body, something changes. Everything changes... Another thing: why is there no pain? No one complained about pain. What answer lies in the water?”

  ”Wait a second...” Ryan said. “Ulysses, they attacked you on the bottom of the sea. That means you were really close to finding something, don't you think?”

  “Not really, no, sir. We didn't find any new artifacts. In fact, at that moment, we were not even digging.”

  ”What were you doing?”

  “We were collecting water samples from various depths, for tests.”

  “Water samples? Water samples?” Timea repeated the phrase.

  “Yes, water samples.”

  ”What did you find?” Ryan asked.

  “We didn't find anything, because we didn't have time to test them. We exploded.”

  ”Water samples?” Timea said again. “The answers lie in the water, of course! Don't you get it? In the water. In the water! Not under the water, in the water! Ryan... in the water!

  ”But how could we get on the Mediterranean seafloor? We don't have any resources, we don't have money... they are following us... The deaths will grow exponentially around us... We can't run tests, we can't do anything. Gabriel was right, to leave it like this and try to survive. To be grateful that we are alive... To slip between all of them unharmed... Trench Pioneer controls everything: public authorities, the press, hospitals. We've been such fools, trying to threaten them...”

  They remained silent again for minutes. Ulysses said:

  “I have an idea... But I don't think you'll like it!”

  ”What idea, Ulysses? What idea? All ideas have proved to be nothing but closed roads. So many people have died..." Ryan exclaimed.

  “As far as I can see around here, Trench Pioneer is extremely clean. Spotless.”

  “Meaning?”

  “No blemish in their accounting records; they pay their taxes; they have good social involvement, a lot of charity work. Everyone loves them. The press, the politicians, the non-governmental organisations. No shady deals, not even a questionable employee. They built hospitals, they endowed universities with high-tech equipment and they are seriously involved in ecology. Hundreds of praised accomplishments. They are present in so many fields, and they control so many aspects that they are impossible to shake.”

  “Then what the devil do you want??”

  “Ryan, let him speak, please...”

  ”Because they have done everything possible to create this impeccably positive image, it means they have kept themselves far away from anything that could have brought them the lowest risk of decreasing their credibility.”

  ”Exactly my point. As I said, what are our chances, two normal people and a computer program, of ever beating them? You should stay hidden there, amongst the circuits, and Timea and I should go back to our lives or run away into the mountains and live to the end of our days in an aquarium. I don't see any other solution... Who will believe us or ever want to help us?”

  Part VIII

  Heroes and Villains

  Only the breathing of the two spouses could be heard inside the room. Ryan was almost panting. He wiped his forehead and coughed a few times, inhaling with a hoarse sound. He started rubbing his ribs and chest. Timea handed him a glass of water, but he pushed her hand aside and the water spilled.

  ”The answer is the enemies of good.” Ulysses said.

  “They are the enemies of good, Ulysses. Trench Pioneer. They decided that people have to die.” Ryan said.

  “I'm talking about the enemies of good, as they have been perceived by the society up to now.”

  “To whom are you referring, Ulysses?”

  “To the ones who seem not to be under their control, because they were not interesting. The interesting ones were those who could stop them, those who're holding the power at this moment. The others were not interesting, because the really interesting ones are under control.”

  “Timea, do you understand anything? For God's sake, Ulysses, WHAT OTHERS?” Ryan roared.

  ”The others. The hackers, the terrorist organisations and the Mafia. They have money, weapons and scientists, they have everything we need.”

  “But how could we let terrorists get their hands on a weapon of mass destruction? They will use it in their own interest ... they will try to control the world. Their power will grow unlimited!” Ryan said.

  ”What's going on now is better?” Timea intervened. “Surely they too have relatives or friends who have already died. Ulysses can trace them. Maybe we can find a submarine or at least a bathyscaphe to take water samples from Calypso Deep. Because secret labs and chemists ... well, I think the mafia does not lack that. Think a little. We have nothing to lose.”

  That's all Ulysses was waiting for:

  “Huh! Just look: this young girl died in Athens. She was on vacation, poor thing. She was the daughter of a Russian tycoon involved in the oil businesses. Yeah right, oil business! This 24-year-old Chinese woman was the daughter of a Triad boss from Hong Kong. These two young men who died in London were under investigation as members of an Arab terrorist organisation. They were the son of the deputy leader of the organisation and his cousin. Also, two hackers from Israel were found dead in a basement. Heroin overdoses apparently... They had hacked some servers in Greece and posted information online about suspicious deaths at the museum. Of course, their posts were deleted. But not so thoroughly deleted for me not to find them. Heroin overdoses my ass... Klonymium overdoses, if you ask me...”

  “Can you contact them without us being detected?” Timea asked.

  “Of course I can. If I got myself a piece of shit of a neutrino flow generator and some receptors, I would rule the world!”

  “If something came out of this, it would be the most bizarre resistance that has ever existed in the history of mankind. A software programme that wants to rule the world and talks like a tramp, two average doctors and all the dregs of our societies.” Timea said.

  ***

  No one knew the Mule's real name. He had taken this name not from a film about drug cartels
, like everybody had thought at the beginning, but from a book. When Dr Yesipov was called to the Mule's office, all the others looked at him worried.

  “Doctor, take a look at these papers. Do you understand anything?” the Mule asked him.

  The doctor wiped his glasses and started reading. After the first lines, he looked around. He walked to the bar in the corner of the office and poured himself some whiskey, then sat down in the Mule's favourite armchair, took a sip and lit a cigarette. He remembered that his boss hated cigarettes, since his wife had died from lung cancer and he had forbidden anyone to smoke around him. But the Mule remained silent.

  “Well, do you?” he asked Yesipov.

  “Let me finish and I'll tell you!”

  A second after the words came out of his mouth, Yesipov shuddered, dropping the cigarette that fell on the chair and made a hole with black edges in the Cordoba leather of the piece of furniture that his boss claimed to be an original Andrea Brustolon. He closed his eyes and waited for the blast. As the bullet failed to come, he opened his eyes and saw his boss looking at him, bent over the desk. For a brief moment, Yesipov grasped a different soul through the eyes of the Mule, not the soul of the “most fearful mafioso of Eastern Europe and Asia”, as the policeman from Interpol had called the Mule ten years ago, when he had tried to convince Yesipov to rat.

  “Tell me, Yesipov, do you understand anything? Do you understand why Svetlana died?”

  “Yes, sir, I understand. If everything written here is true, then... I believe she did not stand a chance.”

  “Do you know who called me? Li! Li Qiang! He came to me unarmed and without guards and asked me... begged me – do you understand what I'm saying? - to make a truce. He got these documents as well! Murad... I'm sure he got them too! But the fool was found dead. That religious and overconfident idiot never understood that we're living in the computer age. When he received the documents, he went directly to the president and tried to blackmail him. Idiot! He already saw himself as the master of the world! Gavin! GAVIN! Where are you?”

  “Yes, sir!”

  The Mule's son-in-law appeared in the office.

  “Gavin, go to London! Search for these two people: Ryan and Timea Dulay. Bring them here! Pay attention, no one must find out about this. You have unlimited funds and a free hand for this operation. Take equipment, protection, everything you want. These two people must stay alive at all costs! Take care, they are the most important people in this world to me! Tell them who we are, don't hide anything from them. They will have unlimited access to all my resources. It's about Svetlana, you see? Tell them... tell them that I swear on Svetlana's memory that I just want to help them. Li Qiang is going to help them too. His wife and sons died in London. Like our Svetlana! Gavin, she didn't die because, being pregnant, she couldn't stand the heat and had a cardio-respiratory arrest. She was murdered, do you understand? As a token of my good faith, give them full access to my network. I'm writing down my personal password.”