by M. C. Miller
Colin accepted her rebuke as a polite business reminder. Any familiarity she was showing him was part of the illusion. He’d be wise not to read anything more into it. But as illusions went, this one was worth entertaining.
From the entrance hallway, Colin followed her through the living room. The suite’s luxurious furnishings were only surpassed by the view beyond the floor to ceiling windows. Subdued lighting allowed a clear panorama across the Potomac River with the Lincoln and Washington Monuments and Capitol Dome lit up in the distance. Storm candles glowed on the balcony but sounds of a television came from another direction. In the family room they found a middle-aged man in jogging sweats stretched out on a couch with a cell phone to his ear.
“Pardon me…Mr. Insworth is here.” The woman halted and let Colin pass.
The man on the couch waved Colin forward but continued the phone conversation while keeping an eye on an interview program playing on the wall-mounted flatscreen TV. The woman turned back to Colin.
“This is Mr. Mann. He’s the one you want to talk to.”
As she pivoted and strutted her exit, Colin offered a “Thank you.”
Left to wait while the phone conversation continued, Colin took a seat and got comfortable. If he had to wait, he couldn’t have been delivered to a more perfect place to do it.
“Sorry about that…” The phone call ended and the phone got tossed aside.
Colin leaned over to accept the man’s handshake.
“Alexander Mann…and you’re Colin.”
“Yes,” confirmed Colin. “We spoke on the phone a few days ago…”
Alexander muted the TV and lounged back in place. “Yes, you had a proposal.”
“That’s right; you should have received a detailed whitepaper on it.”
“As a matter of fact I did. That’s why you’re here. I showed it to The Project Board. It ginned up quite a bit of interest but, unfortunately, just as much concern.”
“Over what?” asked Colin.
Alexander stretched out his legs on an ottoman. “C2. Command and control. They’re not convinced proper controls can be maintained.”
“By the facility or by me?”
“Both. They would rather keep critical things locked down, in one place. Taking something like this offshore and including so many others into the know-circle creates issues. There are many elements of your proposal that compound risk.”
Colin thought on his feet. “What if we did it at Dugway? It can’t get safer than being buried under Granite Peak.”
Alexander played with the TV remote. “No, under no circumstances can there be any chance this might be found on a government installation. That connection can never exist.”
Colin hunched forward. “Given the severity of what’s going on, some risks have to be taken.”
“Not unacceptable risk.”
“What’s more unacceptable than knowing we’ve run out of time on this?”
Alexander held a firm gaze. “You’re convinced of that?”
“Yes, we’re at that point.” Colin stared back. “Sterility fix trials have failed. All calculations say there won’t be time for another round. If a vaccine isn’t discovered or created right away, we’re out of options – except for the proposal I sent you.”
The grim news was reinforced by silence. Alexander drew a breath.
“The Project has mandates. One of them is to preserve and maintain life as we know it – not to usher in blanket modifications to the species, the consequences of which no one can be certain.”
“Agreed. A determination when to release the new GenLET would have to be made at a later date depending on how quickly world conditions deteriorate…”
“…or what kind of progress we have in the lab,” added Alexander.
Colin shook his head. “Again, I have to emphasize – there isn’t time.”
“But you claim there’s time to complete your proposal…”
“Janis only needs her files from NovoSenectus and a sample of 1st Generation GenLET. She doesn’t have to discover 2GenGEN, only put it together. The time involved is not open-ended like the other research.”
“But the other research is on the problem we need fixed…”
“But it won’t be completed in time!” Colin energized his pitch. “We wouldn’t even have this option if Janis hadn’t come forward. Single-dose GenLET packaged in a Ghyvir-C sputnik could give survivors all over the world the one thing they’re going to need most – time. Time to recover, time to discover the fixes we haven’t been able to find. With only one generation left, survivors of GGD3 will need time.”
Alexander hesitated. “What about C2? After that fiasco with the egg extractions, The Board is not so confident.”
Colin stood to make his point. “That didn’t happen on my watch! I was at Granite Peak. You have nothing to worry about. You’ll have your C2.”
Alexander sat and stared at Colin a long while. Then he stood and used the remote to shut off the TV.
“Want a drink?” asked Alexander.
Colin stood, puffed up with unused anger. He nodded. “Sure…”
Alexander fixed drinks at a wet bar and then led the way back into the suite.
“Come along, I’ll show you around…”
Colin was caught off-guard. He didn’t expect the sudden familiarity or a tour.
“This is quite a place…” noted Colin.
“It’s many things,” admitted Alexander. “…living quarters, project office, safe house, command center, or meeting place, like tonight.”
“You live here?”
“At times,” Alexander hedged. Stepping down a hallway, he guided the tour so one by one the three bedrooms were revealed.
The master bedroom was as Colin expected, lush and inviting. To his surprise, the other two rooms were not bedrooms at all. They were outfitted with high-tech intelligence gear and computers, RIDIS scanners and receivers, and devices even Colin didn’t recognize. The rooms were solid evidence that the luxury suite was in fact the D.C. office of The Project.
Colin stood in the doorway. “Why are you showing me this?”
Alexander nursed his drink. “We thought it was time. The Project has plans for an expanded role for you in the future. Getting acquainted with Turnberry is necessary; it will probably figure in on your future assignments.”
Surprised, Colin spoke his thoughts. “With all that’s happening, whatever could they be planning?” He knew better than to think it warranted an answer.
He was right. Alexander responded with a knowing grin then led the way back to the family room. Standing tall, he addressed Colin in summation.
“At the airport, there’s a squad of Project operatives waiting at your plane. On my word, they’ll accompany you back to GARC with a GenLET sample. I will give them a call provided you promise me two things – the work on 2GenGEN will complete as quickly as possible, and you’ll personally guarantee command and control over the work.”
Colin was taken aback but delighted by the abrupt agreement to go ahead.
“Done!”
Alexander refilled his drink. “Good. Now get out of here and make it happen.”
Colin nodded and stepped away.
“Oh, and Colin,” Alexander called out. “Remember, The Project is watching.”
Colin read the intensity on Alexander’s face and retreated back to the private elevator. He would let himself out. There was no time to lose.
Back in the family room, drink in hand, Alexander Mann turned to the window. His face reflected in the glass but beyond it, the lights of D.C. and cars crossing the Teddy Roosevelt Bridge drew his attention into a studied meditation. He lingered a few moment before stepping off to the kitchen.
Alexander strolled in knowing right where to look.
Pamela Mann sat at the granite island, a laptop to one side, a glass of Chenin Blanc nearby. She busied herself spreading Camembert on toast points.
“All done?”
“H
e’s on his way back to National.”
“Is he motivated?”
Alexander chuckled. “What do you think? He’s gotten a glimpse of his future.”
Pamela sipped her wine. “Good. We need him to see this through.”
“I hope you’re right about the risk…”
“Of course I’m right. The prize is too great to pass up. We know the problems with 1st Generation treatments. Single-dose is the only stable way to go. Anything else was premature. She’s going to give it to us on a fucking platter. The Project will be the only ones to have it. You can’t buy that kind of position.”
Alexander gave a nod. “Everything’s gotten so P.C.”
Pamela crossed her legs and bounced a toe up and down. “P.C.?”
“Yeah,” remarked Alexander. “Post Collapse. It’s all about positioning now.”
“Damn right,” asserted Pamela. “You heard the man; we’re out of time.”
“They’re going to be pissed. They think they’re preparing the last option.”
“Let them think whatever they need to just as long as they get it done. As soon as GARC produces 2GenGEN, we shut it down and lock it up. The Board was emphatic about that. We want the single dose method. That’s all that matters.”
“No last option?”
“There always has to be a last option…” Pamela lifted a toast point.
Alexander downed his drink. “It just won’t be theirs.”
Chapter 50
Seven Weeks Later
GARC’s Sub-Basement BSL4 Lab
It could have been midnight or noon. Without windows to tell and absorbed by the work at hand, Janis was mentally in a place out of time. The narrow workspace around her was sterile and confining. She stared into a microscope then glanced to one side to correlate what she was seeing with readouts from the controlled atmosphere glove box behind her. The stainless steel and safety-glass behemoth had twelve glove ports, enough for six researchers to work side-by-side.
Tonight, only she and one other technician had survived until the late hour.
The Advance Research Center’s Biosafety Level-4 Suit Lab demanded the highest concentration and precision. As the maximum biological confinement area, work and safety procedures were rigorous. There was no room for error when the slightest mistake could be the difference between life and death.
Even more reason to fear work exhaustion.
Moving around in a ten-pound pressure suit connected to the ceiling by a spiral air hose was fatiguing. Being confined behind a helmet and face-shield that added six inches to one’s height took some time getting used to. Everything from the smallest instruments to computer keyboards had to be handled through doubled neoprene gloves. It was easy to feel separated from the world. Work too long in such a space and a technician could feel separated from themselves.
A voice squawked through the headset built into the pressurized helmet.
“Hey, Janis, isn’t it about time to knock off?”
Janis turned reflexively, at first thinking it was lab assistant Karen who had spoken. Then she recognized the voice as Faye’s and turned the other way. On a computer screen, a video window displayed Faye sitting up in her apartment.
“What time is it?” asked Janis, too tired to look for herself. Absentmindedly, she lifted a hand to scratch her nose only to find her face shield in the way.
Noticing the gaffe, Faye answered, “It’s time to come out of there.”
Janis looked over to Karen who gave an approving nod.
“I think you’re right,” agreed Janis. She turned to Karen, “Why don’t you go ahead. I’ll catch up in a minute.”
“Sounds good.” Karen stood from her work stool, stretched then disconnected her air-hose umbilicus. “I’m out of here. Good night.”
“Good night.” Janis watched for a second as Karen stepped off headed for the chemical shower room. Turning back to the video screen, Janis found a second head next to Faye in the picture.
Faye smiled. “Someone else is here that you might know…”
“Hi Mom!” chirped Alyssa. “I decided to wait up for you.”
“I see that,” remarked Janis. “You two having fun?”
“Oh, yeah…” Alyssa was quick to answer.
“As much as can be expected in Building Two,” smirked Faye.
“Yeah, I know,” added Janis. “All the fun happens in Building Three.”
“How did it go tonight?” asked Faye.
Janis leaned back from her microscope. “I may look beat but actually I’m feeling good. We replayed the interaction tests for the last time. Once again, they came out negative.”
“That’s great news. That was the last hurdle. I think you’ve done it!”
“Done what?” asked Alyssa. “Didn’t you finish 2GenGEN last week?”
Faye interrupted. “Maybe it’s a bit too late for long explanations; your mother’s tired…”
“That’s all right,” Janis interjected. “I need a few minutes to decompress anyway.” She looked to Alyssa on the screen. “You’re right, Alyssa. I finished synthesizing 2GenGEN last week. But we can’t just release it into the wild without testing how it might interact with other things already out there.”
“Why not?”
“Because we wouldn’t want it to get together with something else and create a hybrid we didn’t plan and couldn’t control.”
“Get together with what? What did you test it with?”
Janis hesitated. Her daughter’s questions were perceptive. “It’s called 3rd Protocol.”
Alyssa’s eyes lit up. “Isn’t that another name for the GGD3 virus, the one that’s killing all those people in Asia and Africa?”
“Where did you hear that?” Janis noted how inquisitive and resourceful Alyssa had gotten over the past few weeks. She had become much more interested in what was going on in the lab. Her precociousness was to be commended but restrained.
Faye chimed in. “I’m afraid I’m the culprit. We got talking about all the news reports about how the disease is spreading; Europe had its first case just today.”
“Oh…” Janis paused, wondering if Alyssa was being given too much information. The news of late had her daughter rattled, especially given everything going on in the labs around her. Janis had thought she could get away with the 3rd Protocol reference without Alyssa knowing the tie-in.
Alyssa leaned closer to the screen. “You have GGD3 in Building 3?”
Janis did her best to make light of it. “In a modified form. It’s not contagious.”
“How can you be sure?” Fear swept across Alyssa’s face.
Faye saw no end to this. For the sake of Janis’ need to sleep, Faye butted in and tried to preempt Alyssa’s line of questioning. “That’s much too complicated to go into right now…”
“I don’t know,” countered Alyssa. “I’m getting pretty good at this stuff. I sit over in the lab with Mom lots of times and she explains things to me.”
Janis cut in. “Alyssa, we talked about the virus within the virus…remember the parasite virus called a sputnik?”
“Yeah…”
“Well, GGD3 or 3rd Protocol, whatever you want to call it, it’s built like that too. The giant virus on the outside is just a nasty cold virus. The sputnik on the inside is what contains the deadly payload. All I did was take the sputnik out of the giant virus. We’ve been studying the deadly part without it being loaded in the contagious part. The sputnik is actually a fragile virus that doesn’t live long outside the body. Even if someone in the lab accidentally got sick from the sputnik, they couldn’t infect someone else unless they shared bodily fluids…”
Alyssa made a face. “Eeww…”
Faye added. “The version in the lab is now more like HIV.”
“Oh, HIV/AIDS?” Alyssa responded. “We learned about that in class.”
Janis summed up. “I need to make sure that the new 2GenGEN will not mix adversely in the wild with the deadly part of 3rd Protocol. We
wouldn’t want to release something that might make the plague any worse than it already is.”
Enthused with the answers and attention she was getting, Alyssa carried on. “So the giant virus makes it contagious. But how does it do that?”
Steeped in her work from hours in the lab, Janis found it reflexive to answer in spite Faye’s attempt to end the questioning for the night.
“The giant virus acts like a rhinovirus, a cold virus,” answered Janis. “Ghyvir-C is highly contagious. The sputnik goes along for the ride as Ghyvir-C is passed from person to person.”
“Oh, I see,” announced Alyssa. “So you’re going to make 2GenGEN contagious the same way.”
“That’s right.”
Alyssa’s brow furrowed. “But didn’t you say everyone caught Ghyvir-C back when I was a baby?”
“Yes, it’s one of the reasons why you’re special…”
“But in biology class we learned that the body builds up antibodies to stuff it’s already been sick with. You can’t use Ghyvir-C again can you? Everybody’s already got antibodies to it.”
“Smart girl,” remarked Janis. “You’re thinking like a scientist. And you’re right. But I’m not using the same Ghyvir-C from thirteen years ago. I’m using a variant that was created for something called 2nd Protocol. The variant was specifically engineered to get around that problem.”
Proud of being called a scientist, Alyssa pressed her logic further. “Do you think the same thing happened with 3rd Protocol?”
Janis sighed and glanced towards the glove box. “I’m certain of it.”
“OK, that’s enough,” snapped Faye. “There’ll be plenty of time tomorrow for questions and answers. Right now, why don’t you let your mother get some rest?”
Alyssa smiled then mugged into the screen. “I’m coming over. I want to walk home with you.”
“All right,” relaxed Janis. “I’ll meet you in the outer work area. Faye, if you could warn the guards she’s coming…”
“Sure thing,” answered Faye. “And stop by…I’ve got midnight snacks.”
“I’m on my way.”
Janis smiled but slicing behind her smile was an edge of melancholy. Alyssa’s reference to walking home had struck a nerve. To hear her daughter refer to confinement at a corporate blockhouse as being home was unnerving. Beyond that, to think of a clandestine Project controlling them and the terrible fate befalling the greater world only expanded the sadness at hearing mention of home.
