Pandora's Succession

by Russell Brooks

  “The code key is one, zero, four, and five,” said Levickis as she swiped the card. When the display above the keypad asked for the authorization code, Parris punched in those numbers. When she heard the beeping sound, she opened the door and passed through.

  “It’s all yours. We’ll hear from you when you get out,” said Dobbs.

  Parris put the clearance card back into her bag and walked through the door, which automatically shut behind her. She heard static in her earpiece, and eventually the volume was turned down from Dobbs’s and Levickis’s end.

  She stood inside a large white-walled hexagon-shaped room that was about twenty feet all around with an eight-by-five-foot window straight ahead of her. Through the window, she saw rows and columns of discs all tightly stacked together as a cluster.

  In front of the window, was a flat screen monitor with the HEXAGON logo as its screen saver, a compact disc drive, and a wireless keyboard and mouse, all on a white fiberglass desk with a white metal-backed chair in front. Everything was where it was supposed to be, just as Dobbs has told her the night before.

  Parris sat down at the computer, reached into her tote and removed the SCSI CD, inserting it into the drive. She heard it whirl, and in a few seconds a message appeared on the monitor-the virus was uploaded. First step done, security is offline. She tapped the space bar and the screensaver was replaced with the phrase Please enter file name and code number, followed by a blinking cursor. Parris typed in the word CLARITY and 60028.

  On the other side of the window, a mechanical arm with a razor-thin clamp appeared from below the window level. It moved up and across several rows and columns of discs, and extracted a one-inch diameter disc. The disc was then carried to a drive on the far right-hand side and inserted. Parris removed a second SCSI CD from her tote-one that was specially designed by the boys at the Office of Science and Technology, and only an inch in diameter-and placed it into a second SCSI CD drive. She typed in a sequence of commands to copy all of the contents onto her disc. The message Copying files appeared on the screen with a progress bar below it.

  Parris didn’t want to get too comfortable, but she was curious to know what was on the disc. Sure, Dobbs and Levickis were getting the data uploaded to them at this moment, but it was worth knowing. With the mouse, she opened a window that displayed two file names. Clarity and Pandora. She clicked on the Clarity file first, and another window appeared that displayed several names of individuals under the heading Subjects.

  Parris leaned closer to the monitor, completely aghast at how many people had undergone treatment using the Clarity drug. Half of them she didn’t even know. The list of names was subdivided into various groups. She looked at the last sub-category where she recognized the names of individuals she had worked on, under the later variants of the drug. My God. This program must have been going on for months.

  She was interrupted when a message that read Copy complete flashed across the screen. The two tech guys had their copy, now was the time to get out.

  Dobbs’s and Levickis’s flashlight-mounted headbands provided a bit of light. All of their wires attached to Hexagon’s internal cable system in a spaghetti-like manner. Water dripped behind them in scattered locations, creating a musty smell in the air. On his laptop, Dobbs saw the confirmation message flash that all data was received. “She did it.”

  Levickis checked underneath his right shoe again-he knew he’d stepped on something earlier. “Good, the sooner she gets out of there, the sooner we can too.” It was then that he heard a clicking sound close by, one that he recognized all too well. He turned around to see two dark figures and a bright flash which was almost simultaneously accompanied by a loud bang and the strong burning odor of gunpowder. A mixture of blood, skull, and brain fragments exploded from the back of Dobbs’s head and sprayed all over the monitors and the keyboards.

  Dobbs’s body was thrown onto Levickis, knocking the wind out of him. If fear and shock could really paralyze someone, Levickis now knew this firsthand, as his arms and chest seized up on him, causing him to breathe short quick breaths. When Dobbs’s body rolled off of him, the barrel of a Makarov PM was pointed right between his eyes.

  Then the bullet tore through his brain.

  Demyan held onto the Makarov and dropped his arm to the side. Pyotr stepped from behind him and pushed Levickis’s body away with his foot, to make room for himself in front of the two laptops. One of the monitors buzzed with static while the other had the image of the security guard at the entrance to the Safe.

  “The girl must still be in the Safe.”

  Demyan didn’t respond. When Pyotr looked up at him, he had a large grin and he breathed excitedly. Pyotr ignored him and pressed the eject button at the side of the laptop and the disc popped out halfway. He removed it, found its casing beside the keyboard, inserted it, and dropped it in his jacket pocket. He then started to type.

  Time to jet. Parris closed the program. Automatically, the mechanical arm behind the window removed the disc from its drive and replaced it into its storage slot. She ejected her disc, replaced it in its case and dropped it into her tote bag. Just as she got up from her seat, a booming sound reverberated all around her and the room lit up dark red.

  What the hell? The word lockdown popped into her head, and she sprinted towards the door, slid to a stop in front of it, and pushed down on the handle repeatedly. The door wouldn’t open. She slammed her palm on the door. Shit.

  She was trapped. What the hell happened to Levickis and Dobbs? They must have triggered a hidden security feature-or did I do it? But it wasn’t possible. They should have known of any upgrades to the security features. How could they have missed this one?

  All communications to the outside were cut off, but they’d have to know what was going on now. You guys better find a way to override the security protocols. But she couldn’t chance them doing so on time. Any moment now, an armed security squad would be bursting through that door.

  Parris pulled off her right shoe and turned the heel towards her. She pinched in a camouflaged lever and a thin compartment similar to a miniature compact disc drive popped out-one that was specially designed to hide the one-inch-diameter CD. She knelt down and put down the shoe while she tore into her tote and grabbed the CD case. The tote fell on its side as she opened the CD case, removed the CD, fit it into the slot into the heel of her shoe, and closed it.

  She got back up, picked up her tote, and slid on her shoe just as the door burst open. Six guards, dressed in black outfits, helmets, and visors, poured in, surrounding her with electroshock guns. The first one who charged into the hexagonal room stepped away from the rest and approached her with his electroshock gun pointed at her chest. He screamed out something to her in Japanese. She didn’t understand him, but she raised both of her hands above her head. He reached to her right shoulder and ripped away the tote. Another guard came up from behind her, grabbed her other shoulder and pushed her sideways into the wall. She struck the wall and then felt someone throw their weight against the back of her neck to pin her there.

  Hands frisked from top to bottom and then from bottom to top. She was then spun around and had the same thing done to her again. First her shoulders, breasts, then hips. At least he didn’t check the shoes. She was then pulled away from the wall and shoved towards the entrance to the Safe. She suddenly felt an enormous surge through the base of her spine that caused her entire body to cramp.

  The electroshock gun. It was the last thing on her mind as she dropped to the floor and everything else around her faded black.

  Chapter 25

  Fox forced his foot down on the gas pedal as the heavy rainfall formed lakes that stretched the entire road’s width. Never mind that his view was blinded. He had travelled down this road before. He knew of every pothole and sharp curve long before he came close to them.

  The bright flashing red, blue, and white lights he saw ahead through the water-covered windshield became his guide. This time he didn’t stop unti
l he was nearly up onto the Provincial Police cruiser that blocked his path. He slammed on the brakes and his car careened sideways to a stop, just tapping the police cruiser on the passenger side. Fox bolted from his vehicle without turning off the engine, ran around both cars, and was intercepted by two police officers. They both grabbed him and pulled him back.

  “It’s all right, let him through,” yelled another man up ahead who was closer to the crime scene.

  Fox shoved the two officers aside and bypassed the man who allowed him to pass. He rushed to the stretcher and skidded to a stop in front of it, sending a wave of puddle water over it and the paramedics. He ripped open the zipper of the body bag as a lightning flash streaked across the sky and illuminated the ebony skin of the woman before him. It was Dr. Nita Parris, and she lay serenely with her eyes open and lips slightly parted, as the rain pelted her, running off the sides of the stretcher.

  “Ridley?” a voice said from behind. Fox ignored it as he slowly put his hand up to Parris’s right cheek.

  “Ridley.” This time Fox felt a hand on his shoulder, which caused him to jump from his sleep so quickly that he nearly head-butted Sato. Fox looked around him. He was still in the car, only now it was daybreak. That damn nightmare again.

  “You okay?” asked Sato. “You don’t look like you slept too well.”

  Fox put his hand to his mouth to cover a yawn. “It’s been rough the past few days. Katori said you’d contact me. I just wasn’t expecting you to crash the party.”

  “And I wasn’t expecting you to be a guest. You’re a fugitive from the law for murdering Katori. A single gunshot to the back of his head. Your fingerprints were found all over the murder weapon.”

  “Yeah, so I’ve been told.”

  “Welcome to my life. I’ve been dodging Tanaka for days.”

  Fox got out the car and his shoe sunk slightly into the mud. He saw that the whole terrain was like this, no thanks to the rain. To his right, he saw the driveway that was carved out of the woods, with tall pine trees on either side. In front of him was a single-storied house, whose exterior consisted mostly of stone and pine wood. Rain water dripped from the edges of the sloped roof into the underbrush that surrounded the sides. The clearing in front of the house was large enough to accommodate about six vehicles. The smell of damp wood filled the air.

  “Where are we?” Fox followed Sato towards the side door.

  Sato scraped the mud off his shoes on the iron doormat. “We’re about two hundred kilometers outside of Tokyo.” Fox walked up to the side porch, scraped his shoes and followed Sato inside.

  The entrance led them to the kitchen. At first, Fox looked towards the sink. There were no dishes either inside it or in the dish tray beside it. The kitchen table was wiped down clean, with the table mats in the center under a napkin holder. Along the back wall were the stove and oven, along with a small rack of carving knives, a toaster and coffee maker. “So how long are the owners gone for?”

  Sato walked over to the counter and grabbed the kettle and pulled it under the tap to fill it. Then he placed it on the stove and turned it on. “For the rest of the month.” Sato walked over to a cupboard and opened the door. “There’s just regular tea here, hope that’s all right.”

  “I can use some coffee instead.” Fox sat down at the table and dropped his head into his hands.

  “Actually, yes. I’ll make some.”

  As Sato prepared the coffee, Fox’s head got heavy. Last night’s events kept coming back to him. He was compromised and was wanted for Katori’s death. The Boeisho would now step up their search for both Walsh and Dobbs. Hopefully Parris and Levickis managed to keep their cover. For now, his only ally was the man who brought over a steaming coffee mug and set it down on the table. God, there was something from the night before, in the nightclub. He still couldn’t place it, but it bothered him.

  “Here’s your cup of Joel,” said Sato.

  “That’s Joe.” Fox smiled as he took the mug.

  Sato smiled too, as he walked out of the kitchen into the adjoining room. “I’ll be right back. I have to show you something.”

  Fox took a sip of the piping hot drink. “How long were you and Katori planning on hiding out from the Boeisho?”

  “Until we gathered enough evidence to expose Tanaka,” said Sato loudly from the other room. “Now you have to do the same.”

  “I don’t plan on hiding from anyone. We both don’t have time for that.”

  Sato reentered the kitchen with a laptop computer. He placed it on the kitchen table and turned it on. “As Katori might’ve told you, you’ve stepped in the middle of a battle. You know the truth about Marx, Tanaka, Hashimoto, and The Promise. You ought to know about some members of Ares. I believe this has been your Holy Grail for quite some time.”

  No way, you’ve got to be kidding me. Fox put down his mug and nearly stood in excitement.

  “It’s not a complete list of the entire organization, just the October Cell.” Sato spun the laptop around to face Fox. “Do you recognize any of them?”

  Fox gazed at the head shots of six men as he took another sip. “Sure I do. That’s the October Man and these are his henchmen. They’re the ones who jumped me last night.”

  “And they’re vengeful. Marx stole Ares’s most powerful weapon, one that could sell for billions on the black market. Your October Man is personally handling the task of getting it back. They’ve already killed Valerik and they came very close to doing the same to you. But they’ll gladly come after both of us, since they know that we possess information that could seriously compromise their efforts and severely damage their organization.”

  “Is that all? Where’s the rest of this evidence?”

  “Right in front of you.” Sato pointed to the laptop. “On the same disk is a list of more people involved in their network. In addition, there’s a list of all of their contacts, hideouts, warehouses, and everything you need to know about any improvements their scientists made to Pandora since the moment they got a hold of it.”

  “Let me guess. Valerik, being the double-agent he was, stole this information and gave it to Hashimoto. Now you stole it with hopes of passing it on to the Boeisho.” Fox quickly scrolled down the list of profiles.

  “But then my team had to improvise when we found out that Tanaka wasn’t on our side anymore.”

  Fox glanced at Sato. “You said that Ares made improvements to Pandora. What are we talking about?”

  “It’s more potent. But Ares was also trying to figure out a way of destroying it.”

  “Have they been successful?”

  “No, not yet,” said Sato. ”Once it’s released, there’s no direct way of neutralizing it. However, it can only survive if it’s allowed to feed on its nutritional supplement or any living being. Take those away and you reduce its fecundity.”

  “That I already know. But once Pandora’s released, where does the cult plan to escape?”

  “There’s a bunker on the Kamchatka Peninsula. Its exact coordinates are on file.”

  Fox raised an eyebrow at Sato as he continued to scroll through the profiles. “The bunker’s been in existence since the Cold War where members of the former Soviet Government could escape in the event of a nuclear war. It’s one of many that were built. The idea of its location was to be difficult for an enemy to locate. My guess is that The Promise would’ve been on their way had it not been for what Katori and I know.”

  There was still something that weighed heavily in the back of Fox’s mind. What the hell was it? Something about last night wasn’t right. Fox was distracted enough that he decided to close the laptop and get up. “We can’t stay here. It’s time to come out of hiding.”

  “And go where? You can’t contact your people. Everyone’s looking for you.”

  “As I told you before, I have other partners over here. I’ll pass the info to them. What you just showed me, can help clear my name.” Fox walked over to the door with the laptop and with Sato behind him, wh
en he figured out what bothered him. Oh my gosh, yes, of course, that’s it.

  “Concerning Katori, you have my condolences. You both did the right thing choosing to go your separate ways. Who knows if we’d have met if you hadn’t.”

  Sato closed and locked the door and turned to Fox. “It was the best thing to do.”

  “Of course.” Just as I thought. And this confirms it.

  They came up to the car where Sato unlocked the passenger door for Fox. While his back was still turned, Fox drew his Sig. His arm was stretched out with the base of Sato’s neck in his sights. “Keep your hands up where I can see them and turn around slowly.”

  Sato hesitated. “What are you doing?”

  “Do it!” Sato’s hands went up and he slowly turned around to face Fox.

  “The next time you show up at a nightclub, you might not want to use a weapon you took from one of your victims.”

  Sato chuckled. “What do you mean-”

  “The Micro-Uzi you’re carrying. You showed it off last night. Maybe it’s a coincidence, but I noticed that the October Cell members carried the same weapons. And I’m willing to bet that you were among the group that ambushed Katori and his kidnappers. Tell me, was it you who pulled the trigger? Did you kill Katori?”

  Sato didn’t answer.

  Fox’s eyes narrowed as he took a step closer to Sato. “Did Marx give you the honor of replacing Sato because you’re the one who killed him, too?” Sato remained silent, but a smile slowly grew.

  “You don’t have to answer. This was the perfect back-up plan Marx had. Just in case I got away, you show up. Had her plan worked, she would have gotten rid of Ares and misdirected us all at once.”

  “I must commend you on your hunches.”

  “I’m flattered. Take out your gun, and slowly, because I will shoot you if I have to.”