by Jeff Taylor
When she awoke the tram was stopped and the door was open. The man in white had his arms hooked around those of the yellow tech from behind and was forcing him out of the tram while the latter protested vigorously. The door closed behind them leaving her alone in the spacious car as it resumed its course.
“That was weird,” she said aloud to no one. Better stay awake for now. She could rest when she got back to her hotel room in Old Town.
“Medical Technology,” the soft female voice indicated her destination. Eve stepped out onto the tram station paddock. Scanning the area to orient herself, she noticed a tall, slender cylinder protruding from the floor. Briskly, but not too quickly, she strode over to the object and placed her key card adjacent to the transparent pod atop the cylinder. The device pinged softly then projected a yellow line on the ground which briefly faded in and out of visibility, running the length of the paddock and to a set of double doors.
“Follow the yellow brick road,” she smirked.
The highlighted path led her past a series of exam rooms, storage lockers and laboratories. After several meters, she found the set of doors she been searching for. The yellow path evaporated beneath her without a trace.
“Thanks for the ride,” she quipped.
To the left of the door was a nodule, slightly protruding from the wall. Directly above it read the placard NANO-TECHNOLGY. Placing her key card next to the nodule, a green LED flashed and the locking mechanism on the door audibly released. So far so good. The double doors slid apart and she stepped through.
The interior layout of the laboratory was exactly as she’d expected. A pair of exam tables stood in the center. Several transparent refrigeration units lined the left wall, and a myriad of specialized equipment that she couldn’t describe let alone know what they were used for, all adorned the brightly lit space. What she did not expect to see in the lab, however, was another person.
At the far end of the room, in a white lab coat over green scrubs, stood a young Hispanic male examining a large rat which lay prone on one of the exam tables. Eve had studied the personnel logs for the section just the evening before so she knew who he was. The problem was he wasn’t supposed to be there. His shift ended three hours ago. The lab was supposed to be empty this early in the morning.
At first it didn’t seem that he’d heard her come in. He was intensely focused on the twitching rodent on his table. A strained look of concentration caused his brow to furrow violently. “Is that you Dr. Reinker?” he suddenly asked without raising his head to look.
“Not exactly,” Eve said meekly.
The unexpected sound of her voice startled him. He turned in confusion knocking over several instruments on the table beside him. “Who are you?” he gasped.
Shyly, Eve took a step forward, keeping her eyes on the floor. “I’m sorry if I startled you. I had assumed the front desk would have told you I was coming. I am Brennan, Dr. Abigail Brennan. I’m from the British Institute of Medical Research,” she said in a near perfect London accent. “I’m transporting our latest batch of cytoplasm for compatibility testing with your nanobots. I’ve paid for them, of course.”
The young man looked nervously about as she spoke, obviously not following what she was saying.
“Is something wrong?” she queried.
Instead of answering her, he quickly gathered up the rat into its cage and then placed it on an overhead shelf. His anxiety puzzled her. Dr. Raul Medina was his name. He was a low-level assistant and on the station because of a hefty grant from a wealthy patron in Madrid. He was introverted, and paranoid, socially awkward, but highly intelligent. Even with this normal awkwardness, she got the feeling that he was more agitated than usual.
“I’m sorry if I disturbed you,” she said soothingly. “If you could just provide me a sample of your bots, I’ll be on my way and you can get back to whatever it was you were doing.” She softened her expression and whispered, “I promise I won’t tell anyone you were here.”
For the first time, he relaxed, if only slightly. “De verdad?” he questioned.
Her smile widened. “Absolutely. We never met,” she assured him, letting her eyes fixate on the floor but keeping a warm smile on her face. “Which would be a real shame,” she said timidly.
His shy smile mirrored hers. “How many do you need for your tests?” he asked after clearing his throat nervously.
Bull’s eye, she thought in triumph. “Well, why don’t you tell me?” She hoisted the steel case in her hands onto the exam table and opened it. A hiss of decompressing air sounded as she lifted the lid. Embedded inside a large block of gray foam was a cylinder approximately thirty centimeters in diameter and sixty centimeters long with a viscous, purple gel which shifted slowly as she removed it from the case and handed it to Raul.
Dr. Medina inspected the container. “That’s not much. A few hundred thousand should be enough.”
He took the canister across the room and entered a code onto a control pad on the wall. Immediately, a panel opened revealing a secondary door; the nanobot vault. The combination code was nearly completed when he turned back to her, his finger hovering over the “Enter” key.
“Do you have the purchase order?” he asked.
“Oh,” Eve started. “Yes, of course.”
She produced a slender palm-sized data pad from the forearm sleeve of her suit and handed it to him. He scrolled through the document highlighted on the screen and then held it up to the control pad on the wall. A soft ping acknowledged her code. He then concluded his own authorization. The vault, hidden seamlessly in the wall before him, opened. Though she was capable of hacking into the vault, it was much easier having him do it for her. She never would have found the vault and accessed it in time without his assistance. Maybe luck was on her side.
The vault’s interior reminded her of an antique ice cream dispenser. It was large and chrome, with two large cylindrical vats on the either side of a platform and a release node on top. Raul inserted her container into the center of the platform then stepped back. A faint red light projected forward, searching for then locking onto Raul. He held out his left hand and the machine beeped, recognizing his bio-signature. He randomly touched his thumb to his other fingers in rapid succession. He’s typing out the command to begin the dispersal, she observed. Now she was definitely glad he had been there. That part of the vault security had not been in her information.
“Fingerprint and access code confirmed,” a deep, male voice called from the vault computer. The dispenser blinked to life. The bottom of her container was gripped by a strong magnet at the base of the platform. A long, thin needle descended from the node at the top and continued downward until it pierced the container and entered almost ten centimeters of the purple cytoplasm.
“Diego,” Raul said, supposedly to the computer, “calculate volume and viability of cytoplasm then insert appropriate quantity of nanobots.”
Another soft ping was heard. “Confirmed,” Diego complied. “Beginning transfer now.”
Eve watched intently, expecting to see the gel cloud or darken or give some sign to let her know the bots were there. She knew the tiny androids were microscopic, but she still wanted some confirmation they were really in there. Instead, she saw nothing.
“Transfer complete,” Diego informed them.
“So quickly?” she asked, not masking her disappointment.
Raul smiled at her. He then reached out and retrieved her container from the platform. The vault doors slowly slid shut once more then vanished into the wall. Gingerly, he placed the container on a small pedestal between the two exam tables. A holographic image of thousands of small, gray dots hanging lifelessly in a viscous, purple background appeared on the wall to her left.
“Excellent,” Eve said. “How do I activate them?”
Raul handed her a thumb-sized device from the control pad near the vault. “This will send out a signal pulse that will awaken them and begin their program. Do you need me to show how to run
the program protocols?”
“No. I’m a smart girl,” she beamed, drawing closer to him once more, enjoying his discomfort. “I’m pretty sure I can figure it out.”
Raul flushed as he handed her the canister. It was cool in her hands but her body warmed at the touch. A rush of adrenaline sent her pulse racing. This was the best part of any job, the thrill of victory. Carefully, she placed it back in the silver case and closed the lid with a satisfying snap.
“Thank you for your help. I hope we meet again some time.” Eve smiled again making sure her eyes met his. His brown cheeks reddened and he looked away. As adorable as she thought he was, she could not wait to get out of there. Without another word, she took her prize and left the laboratory.
She looked at her watch. “Eighteen minutes,” she mumbled. That was the amount of time she had until the battery powering the temperature regulator in the case ran out. If she didn’t plug it into a stronger power source before that time expired, the gel protecting the bots would begin to break down and the bio/electric nanobots would be useless. Eve lengthened her already considerable stride, quickening her pace. Her excitement now changed from a rush to a hurried anxiety. The tram ride back was fifteen minutes. She could check into the hotel room on the tram ride in so she could go straight there. Excluding any surprises, she should make it back with less than a minute to spare.
The tram arrived precisely on time and unloaded those just coming in for the early morning shift. The platform overflowed with green, turquoise, and yellow technician tunics but the trams were void of any personnel after their exit. The car she stepped into was now completely empty. She set the case down on the soft chair to the left of the door and stood next to it. The car softly moved forward at a good speed.
“I’ll make it,” she told herself. “Sit down and relax, Eve.”
She forced herself to sit next to the case. Standing and staring at the trees and colorful paintings on the side of the tram route would do little to ease her tension. Her slender, taut frame slumped onto the seat. Her green eyes hid behind their lids as her chest slowly moved up and down in a controlled rhythm. She took in each breath slowly, focusing on the blackness before her eyes. Feeling in control once more, Eve asked the tram’s onboard computer to inform the hotel clerk she would be arriving shortly. The tram stopped only once after that and as a result she arrived at the Old Town station with five minutes to spare. The tension in her body eased. No need to rush now. She would make it to the hotel room in plenty of time.
The doors to the tram slid apart. Her booted left foot came down softly on the ashen-colored concrete, but there it stopped. A chill down her spine froze her in place as she caught sight of the dark, helmeted figure on the opposite side of the tram island. The black-clad Volkor Con stood directly before her, his gaze seemingly locked on her angular face. Her instincts told her to run as fast as she could. But where would I go?
The man made no move toward her and made no threat, yet his mere presence terrified her. She was very aware of the history Con and Nelsonn had with one another but Con could not have known who she was and what her relationship to Nelsonn had been. She convinced herself that he was only there waiting for an early morning tram ride. That assessment would prove to be wrong.
Slowly, she began walking down the island to the entrance to Old Town. Con kept is face toward her as she passed by. As she moved ahead, his heavy boots followed, matching her step for step. She felt the adrenaline surge again as she braced herself for an attack.
Let him make the first move.
But he would not make that move. Instead, it came to her right as she passed the refreshment kiosk at the end of the island.
“Good morning, Ms. Banalsky,” a woman’s voice sounded at her side.
Eve leaped in the direction of the woman and pinned her against the wall of the kiosk, her forearm pressed firmly on her larynx. The surprised, fair-skinned blond gasped for air beneath the pressure of Eve’s grip.
“Release her,” Con’s cold, emotionless voice threatened from behind.
Nelsonn had always been fascinated with Con’s transformation after his attack on the man so many years ago. He often expounded to Eve on how much he enjoyed being the catalyst for such a dramatic change. Nelsonn’s descriptions of the man had intrigued her and during their separation she had learned all she could about him. Of the things she learned, she found that Con had not only reinvented himself in appearance, but in his hobbies. He developed his superior body into that of a prize-winning martial artist. She didn’t know how good he really was and would have loved to find out. But she didn’t have time right now for sparring practice.
Cautiously, Eve released her hold on the woman she recognized as Pryna Zyn, Con’s wife. The woman reached for her throat and massaged it with her long fingers. She smiled. “I suppose I deserved that, but we didn’t think you’d respond to a dinner invitation. We still could, though. Which name would you prefer we address it to? Maybe Olga Orlovsky, or Dayna Papanikolas, or my favorite, Marseilles DuPont? Or let’s see, who are you today, Dr. Abigail Brennan?”
Eve glared at each of the couple and then turned her attention back to the doorway, just meters away. “I don’t have time for this,” she said flatly and began walking once more.
The twang of a small dagger slicing into the lamppost on her right, on level with her head, halted her progress. Retrieving the blade from the shimmering white post, she held it in her hand, ready to defend herself should she need to.
“What do you want?” she asked, maintaining her focus on the exit. “If you’re looking for an autograph you’ll have to call my secretary and make an appointment.”
“I already have your husband’s autograph. I believe that’s sufficient,” Con said, gravely.
That confirms it; he knows who I am. “What do you want?” she asked again.
“We want to employ your services,” Zyn offered, stepping forward.
If she had said that a monkey was growing out of Eve’s neck, Eve would not have been as stunned as she was now. She glanced at her watch; four minutes to go. “Not interested,” she said with no small hint of agitation in her voice. Her feet yearned to move.
“It involves your husband, Nelsonn.”
The sound of her husband’s name halted Eve once more. “What about him?” Again, she refused to look at either of them.
“I want you to kill him.”
The way he made this request disturbed Eve more than the content of it; cold, devoid of any emotion other than unadulterated vengeance.
“Why do you think I would kill my own husband?”
Zyn stepped within a half a meter of her, well within striking distance. “Because he hasn’t been your ‘husband’ for a long time,” she said. Her voice softened as she spoke further. “We know things haven’t worked out so well for you since you rescued him from the Apollo. Our sources on Stranovsky said it was painfully obvious he neglected you, choosing to spend most of time with Regina Dumaré, with whom he communicated almost daily in less than faithful terms during his incarceration.”
The detail of her information made Eve’s stomach turn. Obviously, they had been watching Nelsonn closely for years. Still, the fact they knew the status of her marital relationship infuriated her. “Not a chance,” she snarled.
“A hundred million Euros if you have it done within the week,” Con countered.
Eve froze. A hundred million Euros? No one had ever offered her such an obscene sum. Slowly she turned toward Zyn, then to Con, and back to Zyn. They returned her stunned stare with deathly silence. A slight smile formed at the corner of Zyn’s full, pink lips.
“You know my history with your husband, Ms. Banalsky. I consider that a small price to pay for retribution. You are the best in your business. No one else in the solar system could perform the hit to my satisfaction.”
Eve’s mind raced. A hundred million! Was she really considering this? Her stunned silence betrayed no feeling one way or the other, but Zyn se
emed to take that as a good sign. Her smile widened then parted as she said, “We’ll contact you tomorrow for your answer. Have a good night, or morning.” She turned to leave but not before calling over her shoulder. “Oh, and you only have a minute and a half until your case powers down. I suggest you hurry.”
Without further comment, she and Con vanished across the island and out an obscured alcove past the kiosk.
As if awakened from a strange nightmare, Eve gasped as she suddenly remembered the case. She glanced down at her watch and indeed there was only a minute and thirty-six seconds left until the case battery went dead. Immediately forgetting the encounter with Con, she clutched the case to her heaving chest and sprinted through the New Town exit.
Thankfully the hotel was only thirty meters from the New Town entrance. Beads of sweat rolled down her body as she ran, determined to reach her destination in time. A few pedestrians and a gardener pushing a cart were shoved to the ground without apology as she streaked toward the gray stone hotel across the two-acre patch of green grass known as Aldrin Park. She bolted into the lobby and up the stairs to her pre-assigned room, amidst the stares of everyone she passed. With ten seconds to spare, she burst through the door of her suite. The power cord, hidden in the back seam of the case, was ripped from its sanctuary and inserted into the power outlet just below the small synthetic wood table in the entryway.
At first, nothing happened. No warning lights, no sounds, nothing to indicate whether the case was charging or not. Eve knelt on the floor next to the case. Had she been too late? Desperately, she waited for any sign of life. A soft tone rang from the case and the green LED blinked in what might as well have been the intensity of a firework illuminating the sky.
Eve looked down at her watch. The time changed before her eyes. She had just made it with two seconds to spare. A tsunami of relief swept over her and she dropped to the floor, her back resting against the wall. She exhaled a deep, exhausted sigh then surrendered to her fatigue.
