The Terminus experiment
( Shadowrun - 34 )
Jonathan E Bond
Jonathan E Bond
The Terminus experiment
Jak Koke
Prologue
Doctor Raul Pakow blinked twice into the scanning-tunneling microscope. He was exhausted, but couldn’t even rub his eyes because of the damn biohazard suit he was wearing.
He sat back and activated the heads-up display on the faceplate of the suit. 11:58:59. Almost midnight here in Seattle. Three am, in New York. Two months already he’d been in Seattle, but his body still seemed back on East Coast time. Back in New York, where Shiva would be sleeping soft and warm in their bed right now, where he’d left behind everything he’d ever been and ever loved…
From where he sat Pakow had a clear view through the Plexiglas into the private lab of the man who’d brought him here from New York. He was surprised not to see Doctor Wake also hard at work in there, where he’d been just minutes before. Pakow closed his eyes wearily, thinking how it was only Plexiglas separating them but that it could just as easily have been a gulf of a thousand years.
Pakow’s lab had the sterile feel of every clean room he’d ever been in, but Wake’s work area was an almost frightening mixture of science and the arcane. To himself, Pakow had silently begun calling it the mad scientist’s laboratory.
Science had been turned upside down by the return of magic some fifty years ago, and Wake’s lab was no exception. Medical equipment rested side by side with fetishes and magical implements that Pakow couldn’t even begin to comprehend. Long golden rods and books with rams heads on the covers. Parchment scrolls and strange diagrams covered with indecipherable symbols in faded ink. The entire floor of Wake’s lab was coal black, throwing into sharp relief the blood-red pentagram that stretched almost ten meters in diameter, completely encompassing the carefully arranged implements he had gathered for his use.
Pakow gave himself a mental shake, knowing he couldn’t sit here dreaming all night. It was time to run his final check. He tapped a key on the terminal beside him to record the hour and date-00:00:00/l2-08-2058-then turned back to his microscope.
Picking up the datacord set into the microscope’s base, he ran it through the small, clean port in the helmet of the biohazard suit, easing the cord through the tight. sterilizing passage. Pakow had been fitted with three datajacks into his right temple. One for the Matrix, one for off-line memory, and the third to jack into the virtual-reality equipment used in most labs. As the datacord clicked softly into the third port, his vision blurred for an instant, seeming to condense down to a pinpoint and then expand at lightning speed, exploding into lurid purples and yellows.
To Pakow, the infinitesimal virus he’d been studying was suddenly five meters high. He turned and stepped into the heart of the rocket-shaped image, double-checking the projected outcome of the new RNA sequence. He had predicted that even though the virus would be similar to the original, the injected transposon cocktail would suppress the expression of certain detrimental genes.
Inside the core of the virus, Pakow reached out a chrome-gilt hand to touch the spongy mass at the center. He loaded the new RNA sequence, which took the form of a large, neon-green hypodermic needle filled with glowing amber fluid.
Using his free hand, Pakow separated the proteins of the virus and stabbed upward with the needle, releasing the fluid.
A stream of amber coursed outward, greedily attaching itself to the viral protein matter and insinuating flecks of golden material at different places along the RNA strand.
Within seconds it was finished, and Pakow stepped out of the virus to observe the effects of what he’d done.
Outwardly, the virus stayed stable, one of the concerns Doctor Wake had expressed early on, but its shape began to shift subtly. Where it had started out looking like a hexagonal rocket, the new sequence bulged slightly at the head, taking on an almost circular form.
As soon as the virus had mutated completely. Pakow pulled his view back until the image was tiny again. He turned to his left and lifted one hand, causing a small digital display to form in mid-air. Entering the combination he wanted, Pakow overlaid the display of the virus with a simulated projection of a human already infected with the original strain.
Placing the newly formed virus into the subject’s bloodstream, Pakow was able to track its amber-colored progress.
As predicted, the new virus assimilated the older version and supplanted it completely. The effects of the modified strain altered the subject exactly as planned. Many of the deleterious effects of the original were modified or eradicated completely.
Pakow smiled to himself. Send a killer to kill a killer, or something like that.
Reaching once again for the digital display, he sped up the time lapse, and watched as the final modifications to the new virus did their work. Within the first year, nothing new showed. By the beginning of the second year. however, the new virus began to deteriorate. Slowly at first, then much more rapidly, eventually killing the host.
Satisfied, Pakow jacked out.
“Well?” The voice came from directly behind Pakow, making him jump in his chair.
Turning, Pakow found Oslo Wake looking over his shoulder. Even in the biohazard suit, Wake was a thin man, and possibly the tallest human Pakow had ever encountered. Well over two meters tall, he was a skeleton wrapped in the florescent orange suit that clung to his frame.
Through the clear helmet, Wake’s face was gaunt to the point of emaciation, cheeks hollowed and sharp, his forehead stretched parchment-tight over an angular brow. His blue eyes were sunk into the sockets of his skull like some childhood nightmare his head covered in a snow-white mass of hair that tangled and spiked off his scalp like some live thing trying to fight its way free.
“Provided the other aspects of the procedure go as you’ve suggested, I feel very confident in this Beta strain,” Pakow said. “You realize, of course, that without extensive testing, I can’t promise anything. With a virus of this nature, there’s always the chance I may have overlooked something. What I can tell you is that the virus will remain stable, will negate any previous infection, and will deteriorate within two years, killing the host.”
Wake rocked back on his heels, smiling. “My dear, Doctor Pakow, you have more than justified my faith in you. Once again, I apologize for the conditions under which you’ve been forced to work. And despite it all, you have outperfomed even my highest expectations” A small tic in Wake’s right cheek made his face jump in a second-long, lopsided grin.
Something in the other man’s voice raised the hackles on Pakow’s neck. Looking at Wake now, it was hard to believe this was the same man who’d approached him just two mouths ago at the conference where Pakow had been giving a paper on viral mutations in specific metahuman genotypes. The lecture had been poorly attended, and Pakow had come to the conclusion halfway through that maybe a total of two people in the whole room had any idea what he was talking about.
After the lecture Wake had come up to him, speaking in that soft voice about a new direction for his research-something totally out of the mainstream-and a chance to push the parameters of lab work farther and faster than would be possible under any laboratory conditions Pakow had ever heard of, here or anywhere else.
And so far, all those promises had come true. Wake had lived up to his reputation as a genius of the first caliber, proposing methods and directions that would never have even occurred to Pakow. He himself had managed to identify certain problems in Wake’s research, but he couldn’t help wondering if Wake might have let those flaws remain on purpose, just so Pakow could feel like he was contributing.
Still, it had b
een Pakow who’d made the final breakthrough on the Beta strain, or the “mystery virus.” At first the virus had been resistant to every form of mutagen, but he’d finally cracked it. That was about the time he’d first noticed the changes in Wake. The mood swings and the secretive tendencies, and now the facial tic.
Despite Pakow’s fears about Wake, he couldn’t help a flush of pride at his praise, as well as a healthy dose of curiosity. “Is it my imagination, or have I actually passed some sort of test in your mind, Dr. Wake?”
Wake’s smile faded, and for just a moment, Pakow thought he’d pushed too far. Then, Wake nodded gently, and spoke in that soft voice of his. “You’ve worked very diligently without complaint, and have proven yourself invaluable to this project, Dr. Pakow. I think the time has come for you to be given the whole picture. Follow me.”
Pakow rose and trailed after Wake without another word being spoken. Skirting the workbench that held the scanning-tunneling microscope, the two moved to the decontamination chamber at the far end of the lab. As they stepped into the small room, a spray of white mist showered over them. They gave the mist a moment to clear, then changed out of their biosuits and continued out into the corridor. The relative dimness of the white-tiled hall was gloomy to Pakow after so many hours under the bright glare of the florescents illuminating the clean room.
Wake had still not uttered another word, but Pakow continued following him to the elevators. Wake pressed his palm to the DNA scanner, saying, “Wake, Oslo.” There was a small beep from the scanner as it confirmed, then Wake said, “Level eight.”
A small shiver of anticipation ran through Pakow as he watched the elevator numbers, which ran in descending order. They counted down from the first floor, which was above-ground, to the tenth, at the lowest level.
When Pakow had first arrived at this small compound out in the middle of Hell’s Kitchen, a wasteland just on the outskirts of the Seattle sprawl, it seemed that he and Wake were the building’s sole occupants, though there was room enough to house a small army. And even though he’d been given the complete run of the top four floors, he was restricted from visiting the bottom six. That hadn’t really bothered him. He knew all about life in a research facility. Even with his high security clearance at Universal Omnitech, many areas had remained off limits to him. Still, he couldn’t help wondering about those bottom six floors.
The prospect that he was actually going to see what went on down there gave him chills.
The elevator reached level eight and stopped. The door, however, didn’t open. Pakow looked over at Wake. “Is there a problem?”
Wake had a strange look on his face. “There are things in this world that no human being should have to know.”
Involuntarily, Pakow took a step back. “Excuse me?”
Wake turned to him, tic jumping, and smiled softly. “I’ve had my reasons for keeping you in the dark about certain aspects of my research, but the gravest of them is that no person should have to know how close metahumanity is to extinction.”
Pakow was about to speak, when Wake raised his hand. “You are on the brink of learning something that will forever change how you view the world, Dr. Pakow, and if I didn’t need your help, I would never subject you to this knowledge. I’ve reached the extent of my skill in metagenetics. That’s why I drafted you.”
Fear pushed its way down Pakow’s spine. “I don’t understand.”
Wake nodded. “I know. Have you ever heard of an organization calling itself Ordo Maximus?”
Pakow thought a moment. “I think so. Aren’t they a bunch of rich British snobs with nothing better to do than play cricket or polo and flirt with magic?” He shrugged. “What have they got to do with any of this?”
“Everything. The fact that you think of them in those terms shows that their propaganda has been very successful. They are masters of misdirection, and they would like nothing better than for the entire world to believe the way you do. However, the truth is something far more sinister.”
Pakow laughed, though he didn’t know why. “You must be kidding.”
Wake smiled strangely. “Unfortunately, I’m not.”
Pakow stared at the other man for a moment. “All right,” he said. “I’ll bite.”
Wake’s chuckle was a soft, almost frightened thing. “Appropriate choice of words, my friend, how would you feel if! told you that Ordo Maximus, those cricket-watching, polo-playing snobs, was actually a front for something very evil, something like a secret society of vampires?”
Pakow wanted to laugh again, because the idea was absurd, but the sound stuck in his throat. “You say ‘something like,’ but what you really mean is that Ordo Maximus actually is a bunch of vampires?”
Wake nodded.
“And just how do you know this?”
Wake laughed again. “Because they’re the ones funding this project.”
With that, Wake tapped a pad next to the elevator door, which immediately hissed open. “Welcome, Doctor Pakow, to the Terminus Experiment.”
The first thing Pakow noticed was the drop in temperature. The air from the room beyond was chill and damp. The next thing he noticed was the graveyard silence.
Peering around the door, he saw a cavernous room, stretching back into blackness, the ceiling shrouded in shadow.
“After you,” said Wake.
Pakow took a cautious step forward onto the bare cement flooring, and the room instantly flared into light. Brown acoustic tiling on the walls diffused the harsh light somewhat, but Pakow barely noticed.
To his left, a bank of plexiglass windows sloped upward to the ceiling, and a garish blue light filtered from somewhere below.
“This way,” said Wake, directing him to the windows. “I have plans to make this room a bit more comfortable, seeing as we’ll be spending a lot of time down here, but that will take a few weeks. Still, the facility is up and running.”
Wake stepped up to the plexiglass barrier overlooking a room roughly thirty meters in diameter. Like Wake’s lab upstairs, this one also had a pentagram carved into the flooring. Only the colors were different. Instead of black on red, this was green on white. Directly in the center, where the star formed a hexagon, rested a massive tank with plexiglass sides. The tank was filled with a glowing blue fluid, and it was from here the garish light originated. Pakow could make out the form of a naked man floating lightly in the fluid. The face was covered with a breathing mask, and wires attached at various places to his bare flesh.
“What is this place?” Pakow’s voice was a whisper, though it sounded loud in the quiet room.
“This, my good Doctor Pakow, is the culmination of all the work you have done in the last month.”
Pakow turned slowly to find Wake’s emaciated features looking at him thoughtfully. “You know,” said Wake, “its kind of ironic. When the people funding this project decided to give it the name Terminus, they were thinking of a terminus line, the line that separates day from night. Of course, terminus also means the end of something.”
Pakow looked down at the tank, at the man floating there.
“I don’t understand. What’s going on here? Who is that man, and what are you doing to him?”
Wake laughed. “What’s going on here is the biggest double-cross ever pulled off in the name of metahumanity. As far as that ‘man’ down there is concerned, his name is Marco D’imato, and he is a vampire. He was infected with the HMHVV virus about six or seven years ago, and he’s been leading a double life ever since. And with regard to what I’m doing to him, the answer is nothing. However, what we’re about to do to him is something that goes beyond anything this world has ever seen.”
Wake’s words hit Pakow like a bullet train. “You can’t be serious. You’re not going to-”
Wake smiled. “Oh, but I am. When you came on board, I promised that you would see applications of your research faster than you ever dreamed possible. Well, here it is-instant gratification.”
Pakow put up a hand. “Yo
u can’t. That virus is totally untested. It would take months of work to make sure I had all the bugs out.”
Wake shrugged. “Then think of this as the first phase of testing. The process has already begun. Look.”
Pakow turned back to the window, and looked at the man in the fluid. It was hard to tell from this distance, but he looked strong, virile, his pale skin ghosting through the fluid. As Pakow watched, a familiar trail of amber began to cloud the blue and turn it green.
Pakow couldn’t tear his eyes away from what was happening, even though Wake had started talking again. “The solution in the tank is actually a fairly simple DMSO-based liquid with a few other things thrown into the mix. Things not of a strictly scientific nature.”
What was going on before his eyes was the antithesis of everything Raul Pakow believed in. Products were to be tested first, extensively. Still, he felt a small thrill run through him. Every other product whose development he’d been part of had been beaten to death before it could ever be actually tested on people. And by the time that happened, all the thrill had gone out of it. Right here, right now, Pakow’s skill and knowledge were being put on the line, the ultimate high-wire act without a net.
Filled with apprehension and anticipation, he watched as the tank turned fully green. For the longest moment, nothing happened, then Pakow’s worst nightmares came to life.
The figure in the tank convulsed, in an undulating, rippling movement that no normal human should have been able to accomplish. Even through the green of the liquid, Pakow could tell that the man’s skin was darkening, as if he were being slowly roasted alive.
“What’s happening to him?”
Wake sounded almost disconnected as he answered. “The pigmentation of his skin is changing. That’s to be expected. After all, the virus you tailor-made for him is designed to allow a vampire to survive in the sunlight. One of the basest defenses against ultraviolet burns is darker skin.”
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