“I guess I have to believe you.”
“Yes, you do,” Patel said. “And the man you saw tied to the tree was a control subject. We had him with us to discern the rate of the infection. You left the hospital without finishing any of your work and I had to do the rest on the run.”
“How did you know we’d be here?” Josephine asked.
“I didn’t,” Patel said. “I only came here when I saw what had happened to Uncle’s power system.”
“How did you get in? I’ve got the only security clearance.”
“Charlie let me in.”
“That piece of junk.”
“And I’m glad he did, because I want to be there when you talk with Uncle.”
“Why?” Josephine asked flatly.
“Because I don’t trust you,” Patel answered, crossing his arms.
“You don’t trust... What exactly do you think I’m going to do?”
“It’s not what you’re going to do, it’s what you might overlook.”
“What might I overlook, Bryson?”
“Common sense. Basic math. Human Physiology. The willingness to double, triple check things.”
“No one could have foreseen this, not even you.”
“Well, you never gave me the chance.”
“I didn’t need you.”
“Apparently you did. You don’t even realize you have blind spots.”
“Blind spots?” Josephine asked skeptically.
“That’s what I said. Sometimes it’s emotion, sometimes it’s ambition. But whatever the case, it’s always your hubris that causes it.”
That took Kizzy by surprise. She had never thought of Josephine in that way, although it did seem to fit. In the way that she needed to be the one to find the cure, she needed to be the one to talk to Uncle, she had to win every argument she was ever in.
Josephine shook her head. “Hubris? Excuse me for trying to right a wrong that will put me in history books as the woman who nearly eradicated mankind. You still think I’m in it for the glory don’t you?”
“You said it yourself,” Patel answered flatly.
“Twenty years ago...” Josephine shook her head. “And you twist my words. I just want to fix what I messed up.”
“You and you alone want to fix it, and you want to make sure history remembers it that way.”
“Because it was me and me alone who was responsible.”
“That was your choice,” Patel said. “You demanded sole credit for the Enoch Pill, so you got sole credit for its collapse…”
“You’ve been waiting for this moment since…”
“… And you couldn’t fix it by yourself.”
“I am on the precipice of fixing it,” Josephine said.
“Are you? Because it feels more like we are on the precipice of extinction. And at your hands again.”
“Don’t do this, Patel.”
“Let me help you,” he said. “You took all the data down there and you locked yourself in that lab, with only your ego and your hubris for twenty years, while the rest of us rotted away up on the surface.”
“You’re just bitter that all the breakthroughs were made by me.”
“Josephine, I’m not your enemy. We want the same thing.”
“Say you’re jealous,” Josephine said.
“You’re insane,” Patel said with a shake of his head.
“You’re jealous.”
“I’m not jealous!” Patel screamed. “I just want to live. I want us all to live. And I should have never trusted you.”
“Give me sole credit,” Josephine said.
Patel sighed.
“Come on,” Josephine said in a friendly tone, crossing her arms and sitting back in her chair. “You know you can’t do it without me. And I’m more than willing to do it without you. There’s no other way. That’s the deal.”
“Fine,” Patel said.
“It shouldn’t have been that hard, Bryson,” Josephine said, standing and shaking his hand.
Patel shook reluctantly.
“Now what’s next?” Josephine asked.
“My men are running the wire as we speak. The Unicorp pharmaceutical office was actually a quarter of a mile closer than the Uncle facility.”
“They have Uncle capability there?”
“We’re setting it up.”
“Nice,” Josephine said, collecting her belongings.
“There’s just one more thing,” Patel said, an embarrassed look on his face.
“What’s that?” Josephine asked, a sense of dread washing over her face.
Kizzy became worried, what was it now?
“This nuclear plant, in its current state, is quite worn down and will only able to power Uncle for an hour or two.”
“That’s more than enough time, don’t you think?”
“Yes, but we need to be thorough and to the point. I believe we’ll only have one shot at this.”
“Then let’s make it count,” Josephine said and gave everyone in the room a big smile.
They drove in two vehicles through the darkness towards the Unicorp office building beside the large, black electrical wire that was laid on the side of the road. Patel’s men rode in his van, which was equipped with a loudspeaker on top and an electronic billboard that read “Mutant Attacks Imminent.” They had been warning the women of the country on their tour and apparently many had heeded the message. Patel rode with Josephine, Kizzy and the constable in her jeep.
“When you left I was able to read up on all the information you had on Kizzy here,” Patel said.
Kizzy became nervous. What sort of things had Josephine written about her?
“I’m glad you’re keeping informed,” Josephine responded.
“I think you and I and Kizzy should all go in to speak with Uncle,” Patel said.
“Yeah, I don’t know about that,” Josephine said. “Might be better if it’s only professionals. Otherwise he won’t work to his highest potential.”
“He needs to be able to inspect her,” Patel said. “So he can gather all the information he needs.”
“I don’t know...” Josephine said.
“We’re doing it,” Patel responded flatly.
Josephine rolled her eyes.
“Do I need to prepare anything?” Kizzy asked.
“You won’t be doing any talking,” Josephine said. “It’ll confuse him.”
“He’s an advanced computing system,” Patel said. “He won’t get confused.”
“We’ll do the talking,” Josephine announced. “Since we have so little time.”
“So my body is the only thing of interest.”
“Precisely,” Josephine said and looked out the window.
“This is not what I had in mind,” Kizzy said, but no one cared enough to answer her.
The constable looked over and gave her a sympathetic look.
They drove to the office complex, it was right off the main road and was a much larger building, three stories high and silver in color The outside lights were on and it almost seemed to be glowing in the night.
Two of Patel’s men had set up up a computer station in the parking lot and were connecting to Uncle’s online matrix while controlling the power flow. The large, black power cord from the power plant was split into three smaller cords. One powered the outside station, the second went to the basement of the facility, and the third went through the front door of the building.
As soon as the constable pulled into the parking lot the jeep’s front left tire was ruptured. Everyone was jerked around inside the car.
The constable sighed and got out to look. “Your guys need to do a better job of cleaning up after themselves.”
“What is it?” Patel asked.
“A goddam screw,” the constable groaned from down on her knees inspecting the tire. “What the...”
She emerged with a red blinking electronic device.
“Is that what I think it is?” Josephine asked.
�
�It’s a homing device. Damn, that’s how the women were able to track you guys. I’ve got to get this thing out of here.”
“Can’t you just destroy it?” Josephine asked.
“They know we’re here, they can’t know we stayed here. Can I borrow a van?”
The constable drove off in one of Patel’s vans and in a whirl Josephine and Patel and Kizzy were escorted into the building through the front door.
“Remember, no talking,” Josephine announced to Kizzy. She wanted to make it clear who was in charge of this operation. “Uncle has no imagination.”
“Neither does anyone else,” Patel said. “Imagination is just taking what exists and twisting it the tiniest bit.”
“Said like a person without imagination,” Josephine said.
They followed the half-inch power cable down the hall and into a large conference room. The room had enough seats to hold hundreds of people, and a table sat right in the middle of the auditorium. Kizzy noticed that there were only two microphones set up at the table.
I guess I won’t be able to speak even if I wanted to, Kizzy thought.
The cable led up to the stage and into a large screen. The young man with spiky hair was fiddling with the projector. He glanced up at them as they came in.
“It’s worse than we thought,” he said, his voice echoing through the empty room.
“How’s that?” Patel asked as they sat at the table.
“We’ve only got ten minutes before the servers sap the energy output,” the young man said.
“You’re kidding,” Josephine said.
“No I’m not. What type of joke would that be anyway?”
“Can it be fixed?” Patel asked.
“No.”
“Then we’ll work with what we’ve got,” Patel said. “Thanks Murray.”
Murray went to the back of the conference room and spoke into a mic that sent his voice into the overhead speakers. “Uncle will go live in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…”
The display flickered to life. The screen was so large and bright. Kizzy was bathed in the blue light.
A face came onto the screen. A kind face. A knowing face. The face smiled then faded away.
“He does this when he’s confused,” Josephine whispered to Kizzy.
“Why?” asked Kizzy.
“Shh.”
“It’s his way of working out the problem,” Patel said under his breath to Kizzy.
“Uncle,” said Josephine, speaking into the microphone. “Can you hear me?”
There was no response from the artificial intelligence.
“Are the audio inputs working?” Josephine asked.
“I can’t tell,” Murray said.
“We might have to type everything in,” Josephine said. “Uncle can you hear me?”
The display made static noise that quickly faded. In an instant, the face of Uncle was back and the lights of the room dimmed around them.
“Hello, Josephine. Bryson. Who’s your friend?” Uncle asked. His voice was as smooth as synthetic silk.
“This is Kizzy, she’s unaffected by the Enoch Pill. But Uncle, a lot has changed since you’ve last been online and we are in a rush.”
“9 minutes,” came Murray’s voice.
“Uncle display a countdown for 9 minutes,” Josephine commanded.
“What’s the problem?” Uncle asked
“We don’t have enough power to run your programming. First of all, are you aware that the Enoch Pill was a disaster?”
“Yes, I am aware of that.”
“We’ve been working on a cure... I’ve been working on a cure for the better part of 20 years and we thought we discovered one, but that’s proven to be a disaster now as well. That’s priority number one.”
“Why aren’t you in the normal facility?” Uncle asked, looking around the empty conference room.
“This was closer to the power plant.”
“Darius Island?”
“Yes. Uncle what can we do to stop the mutation?”
“Tell me about it.”
“It comes from the cure we tried to make. It’s cancer-like in its infection, rabies-like in its symptoms in men, and we have no idea what to do.”
“Do you have any samples?”
“Here’s as much as we have.” Josephine pushed the sample finger in a plastic bag forward.
Uncle scanned the specimen, a beam of light from the screen. “It seems hopeless,” he said, running many different colored lights over the finger. “I don’t think anything can be done. Can you tell me more about Kizzy?”
“What do you mean nothing can be done?” Josephine asked, clear panic in her voice.
“Uncle,” Patel spoke up. “Surely there must be some sort of antidote.”
“Perhaps, I am not sure yet. Tell me about Kizzy first.”
“She’s an anomaly from the first pill,” Josephine said, confused. “It lost its effect on her. She’s normal. Uncle, what can we do about the infection though?”
“Normal isn’t the word I’d use,” Uncle said. The light moved from the finger and scanned Kizzy. “Her DNA is a venerable disco. How did this happen?”
Kizzy felt tingly at the great importance that was being cast upon her, and at the astonishment in this intelligent mind’s voice.
“We’re not sure…” Josephine said. “Uncle, is there anything we can do to buy us more time? Almost all of the men are infected.”
“I’ll have to think,” Uncle said. The lights flickered. This immensely powerful mind must have needed tremendous amounts of energy to operate. Synapses sparking and connecting at blinding speeds. Suddenly, all the doors in the building slammed closed.
“Uncle, what’s going on?” Patel asked looking back at the door to the conference room, only kept open by the black power cable in its way.
“There’s been a power surge,” Uncle said, there was worry in his voice. “Could you authorize control of the plant to me?”
Patel nodded back to Murray and the young man entered the commands into his computer.
“Thank you Bryson,” Uncle said cheerfully. “I’ try and see what I can do.”
The lights dimmed again.
“Please, stayed seated,” Uncle announced. “I might lose power completely.”
Kizzy stared at the two adults who sat calmly as the lights turned on and off. The automatic doors opened and closed.
“Shouldn’t we get out of here?” Kizzy asked.
“Kizzy please be quiet,” Josephine said, clearly annoyed.
“He’s working on the problem,” Patel said.
Kizzy looked back to the door to the conference room and beyond. Every single door in the cable’s path was sliding open and shut and the cord was being chopped through, little by little.
“The doors are cutting through the cable,” Kizzy said to Murray.
He looked down from his computer display and his jaw dropped.
“We got to get out of here,” he yelled to Josephine and Patel and ran for the door of the conference room.
They turned back to him with confused looks on their faces.
“If these doors close there’s no way to get out of here,” Murray said.
“What?” Patel asked.
“None of the doors are manual. When they close they lock.”
They sprang from their chairs, following the cable. As soon as they made it past the doorway from the conference room, the door cut through the cord and slammed closed behind them.
“The doors are cutting through the cables!” Josephine exclaimed.
“I’m losing power,” came Uncle’s voice over the intercom. “I need more power. I need more power.” His voice was now panicked, like the voice of someone drowning, yet still able to speak clearly.
They ran through the hall of the building. The front door was trying to slam shut 10 meters ahead of them, but the power cord was still keeping it open. Murray reached the door first and waved them on.
“Hurry! It’s almost cut!” he yell
ed.
Kizzy was way ahead of Josephine and Patel. The cord wasn’t going last much longer. Josephine and Patel would be stuck inside. Kizzy looked around for something to buy them time. Nearby sat an office chair. Kizzy grabbed it and stuck it in the doorway. The door slammed closed and bent the chair in half, but bought them a few seconds more.
Kizzy helped Josephine and Patel out over the chair. She about to dive through herself when the door slammed through the cord and the chair and she was trapped inside by herself. For half a second she considered herself lucky to not be cut in half. But then she realized that she was trapped like a rat and didn’t feel so lucky anymore. All the lights had turned off and she stood there in the pitch-black hallway. There was the static of a walkie-talkie on the floor next to her. Patel must have dropped it as he climbed out.
Kizzy became anxious. She put her hand up to the cold steel door. If they were pounding on the other side she couldn’t feel it.
“Get the doors open,” came Murray’s voice over the walkie-talkie, speaking with the control desk.
“We can’t, we lost control of everything,” the control desk replied.
“He said something about losing power,” Murray said.
“The power he sucked up was off the charts… Wait, it looks like he’s trying to get turned back on.”
“Um… that’s not good,” the control desk said.
Then there was silence. Kizzy stood, paralyzed. Afraid to move, less she miss something they said. She waited in the darkness for an answer. No sound but the dull, static hiss of the walkie-talkie on the floor. On hands and knees she reached around on the smooth tiles for the device. Her fingers found it and as she was about to press the button, Josephine’s voice came in over the building’s intercom system, the same one Uncle had used when speaking to them.
“Kizzy, can you hear me?” Josephine asked.
Kizzy dropped the walkie-talkie. “Yes I can,” she shouted. “What’s going on?”
“We’re working on getting you out, okay?” Josephine said. “So just sit pat and everything will be alright.”
“He’s overriding the nuclear plant controls,” Murray said from the walkie-talkie, in a separate conversation.
“How’s that?” came the control desk.
Kizzy was about to ask a question into the walkie-talkie when she realized that she wasn’t supposed to be hearing that channel. She kept quiet and listened instead.
The Enoch Plague (The Enoch Pill Book 2) Page 20
