Death and The Divide (22 page)

“Whatever.” Minlo shrugged, piling up his plate. “This food is tight, and I’m starving.”

“Did they give you an injection when you arrived?” Linc asked.

Min frowned and looked up, his cheeks bulging. He shook his head.

Linc rubbed his arm again. Maybe they had left Min untouched because he bubbled with enthusiasm for his successful kick that took out the female cannibal. Unfortunately, it had been more reflexive than skillful. He probably couldn’t repeat it.

“What are we going to do now?” Min asked after he swallowed.

“Dr. Manson is the scientist Ria works for at the university. He’s the guru of parasites, so he’s working on a cure. We’ll help him anyway we can. As far as you, I hear there’s a pool on the bottom floor.”

Min’s eyes lit with interest. “Seriously? A mondo pool in this crypt? That’s tight. I’ll check it out.”

“Don’t be wandering around without an escort. Manson has live victims he’s experimenting on.”

Min threw his fork down. “What? He has some of those creeped out freaks here?”

“They’re locked up.”

“Still…”

“Yeah, well, don’t go opening doors where you don’t know for sure what’s on the other side.” Linc spotted a computer at a workstation. “Hey, I wonder if I can access the SatNet on that.”

He headed for it, and Min gulped a last mouthful of food and joined him.

“Looks like it’s live,” Min said.

Linc sat in front of the screen and swiped to find a login for SatNet. A screen appeared saying use of the terminal was unauthorized.

“Let me at it, Dope.” Min nudged his shoulder. “I’ll get us in.”

A few minutes later, the computer genius had successfully hacked the security. “There, wow, look at the news.”

He scrolled down the main screen where photos and videos of the outside unrest followed one after the other. The map of cannibal attacks, once shown as sparsely spaced red dots, now had clusters of dots covering almost a quarter of the area of both countries. Vigilantes in the South formed citizen groups to hunt and kill roving cannibals. The North could only huddle in their cities, using law enforcement to close their boundaries and guard them.

On another front, fighting and riots continued as citizens exercised their right to protest the government changes thrust upon them without a vote.

“I need to check our secure group. My colleague is supposed to send me news from the South.” Linc pointed to the screen. “Can I take a look?”

“Sure.” Min scooted out of the seat for him.

Messages waited from Jeff and Jack. Both wanted to know where he was and if he remained safe. He resisted shooting off a couple of short e-mails to reassure them. Best he stay as hidden as possible for now. Manson hadn’t uploaded any news to the link since his disappearance. That was a good thing. If the RD discovered he still worked on a solution, they’d spend a lot of resources to find him.

Otherwise, members offered little news he didn’t already know. Jack merely told him to sit tight because they worked on a plan to counter the extremist IPP. At this point, Linc didn’t care. The cannibals were his only concern right now.

He let Min surf a while, telling him to return the security block when he finished, to hide their online activity.

“No problem, Dope,” he said.

Linc returned to the table and snacked on a few raw vegetable pieces. As soon as Ria woke, he had to convince her they needed to press Manson for more answers about his research and what would happen if he succeeded. If he had no plan to share with the South, Linc would have a problem with that. He wouldn’t let them destroy innocent people over political ideology.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Ria emerged from her bedroom as a soldier arrived from the lift to escort them to the lab. She glanced at Linc who crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes. Min sat on a curved settee, legs crossed and avoiding meeting anyone’s gaze. What had he been up to?

“Feel better?” Linc asked as the lift whisked them to the second floor.

“Clean at least,” she said brightly. “What’s Minlo been up to?”

“His usual,” Linc said with a slight nod in the soldier’s direction.

Damn. They didn’t need trouble from hacking into Haven’s systems. She’d have a talk with him when she returned. She suspected these soldiers wouldn’t show lenience to a rule-breaker.

The door slid open to a room bathed in bright light dominated with white and silver. Numerous pieces of equipment blinked lights and emitted whirling sounds. She recognized about half of them. Manson waited in the main lab set off as a clear, enclosed room.

“Ah, there you both are.” He spread his arms. “Welcome to the most advanced laboratory in the world.”

She and Linc took in the impressive machinery and sophisticated computers. On one desk, a 3D hologram of the parasite rotated above a silver disk. She winced at sight of the creature that had caused so much destruction. Even its tiny virus was visible, a little green orb embedded in the nucleus.

“Amazing, isn’t it?” Louis pointed to the hologram, a wide smile on his face. “Much easier to plug in different segments of DNA and see the response.”

Ria circled the table, fascinated. She clamped her mouth shut when she realized it hung open. She glanced at Linc, but he dug his hands in his pockets and stared at Louis.

“What sort of progress have you made?” Linc asked.

“Oh, I’m hoping this last program may solve the dilemma altogether. We may have cause for a celebration tonight.” The big man rubbed his hands together.

She shared a confused look with Linc. “What do you mean? I thought you needed us here to help. You already have a solution?”

“You both have been very helpful, but, of course, I had to do the serious work.” He moved to one of the pieces of equipment and extracted a long, thin piece of translucent material. “I wanted you here to see my triumph. When I insert this into the parasite program model, it should alleviate the virus and return our poor little beastie to its normal insignificant self.”

“Then what?” Linc asked in a firm tone.

Animosity radiated from him, but she didn’t understand it. If Manson had solved the crisis without them, she didn’t care as long as the nightmare ended.

“Well, we’ll have to test it on a live subject to be sure. Of course, that’s only a matter of form. I have it all worked out in my head. It can’t fail. We record the test success, write up the details, then we develop a delivery system and distribute it to a grateful world.” He carefully placed the thin strip into a slot on the machine. “Here we go. Drum roll.”

A low hum activated when the strip disappeared. Louis leaned with one hand on the device, his greedy eyes on the output screen. Numbers and lights flashed as the model adjusted with new information. It took several minutes, and quiet reigned in the lab.

She sidled closer to Linc. He took her hand, squeezing it tightly. They both stared at Manson. The churning of data ended in a moment of silence, then a red light flashed on the screen. The big man stared at it a moment in disbelief. He pounded his fist on the machine, his face morphed into an angry mask.

“No! No! No! It has to work,” he yelled. “Something’s wrong. The sample must have been contaminated. He retrieved the strip as it ejected and placed it in another device, his beefy hands shaking. “It can’t be true.”

“Louis, are you okay?” Ria asked. She started to go to him.

Linc tugged her hand, holding her back, and shot her a warning look.

“I’ll check the sample. It has to be an error. Of course, that’s it. An error,” Manson muttered, his eyes feverish.

The strip emerged with a green light. He took a step from it, as though it was a deadly snake, his eyes wide and disbelieving as his cheeks quivered.

“Dr. Manson, you want to clue us in on what’s happening?” Linc asked in an even voice that belied the pressure he placed on her hand.

Louis slowly shook his head. A thin line of spittle ran from one corner of his mouth. She’d never seen him like this, even after nights of sleepless research. He turned on his heel and strode across the small room and back, rubbing his chin and muttering, “Must have missed…clearly the right sample…no reason for the DNA to fail…”

“Louis,” she said, her voice ringing sharp and loud.

He jerked as if she had slapped him. He stopped and stared at her, a sheen of moisture coating his face.

“What is going on?” she asked. “We’re here to help, but you have to tell us. What were you testing on the DNA?”

He rubbed his hands over his face. “I-I, need a moment to think. Go back to your apartment and I’ll be there shortly. I have to think…”

When he turned from them, still muttering, she glanced at Linc. He jerked his chin toward the elevator, and they left without saying anything else.

A soldier escorted them to their floor and departed without engaging in conversation. Glad to be alone with Linc, Annaria studied him, anxious for his thoughts.

“Have you ever seen him act like this before?” he said when the lift had departed.

“No. It’s bizarre. It’s like he’s gone mad from pressure. Is that possible?” Her mentor’s unsettled performance had her uneasy. She’d fully expected him to produce a cure. They could assist him in implementing it. That’s what she wanted.

Linc went to the settee and sat, clasping his hands before him, elbows on his knees. “He’s nothing like the man I met at The Divide. I sensed it the moment we arrived. He exuded an almost gleeful demeanor when they brought us in. Given your state and the situation of the world, it wasn’t appropriate.”

“Even if he thought he verged on a breakthrough?” She went to stand before him. Her insides twisted with anxiety and worry. The parasite was a problem, but she worried about Louis as a person, too. The way he acted made her fear for his sanity.

“If he only cared about the acclaim of finding a cure, maybe. But he didn’t strike me as that type when I first met him. He seemed genuinely concerned with how this would affect the citizens of both countries.”

She twisted a strand of hair around one finger. Dread settled like a lead weight. She had depended on Louis to save them. What if he didn’t? How could she deal with that?

The lift made its whooshing entrance, and its door slid to reveal the man himself. He appeared more composed than in the lab. The frenzied light in his eyes had faded, and he’d wiped the sheen of sweat from his face. He’d made an effort to straighten and smooth the wrinkles on his lab coat. He stepped out after hesitating a second.

“Louis, are you all right?” Ria went to him.

He patted her shoulder, awkward as usual. “Have a seat, my dear. I need to talk with you two.”

She sat beside Linc, and Manson pulled a chair from the dining room table to sit across from them. He lowered his head a moment then raised it and squared his shoulders.

“I’m going to tell you the truth. I’d hoped this wasn’t necessary. I wanted to solve this problem and be done with it. I never counted on the virus causing such fantastic mutations and killing so many people.

“I have to go back a ways to give you the whole story, so bear with me. It’s necessary for you to completely understand.” He laced his fingers together in his lap, his demeanor calm. Almost too calm. “I went to Spain three years ago and met a young man who was quite a fan of mine. He wasn’t a parasitologist, but he did study anthropology. He wanted to learn if any parasites had caused massive extinctions in the past. I kept in touch with him from time to time, and we visited on occasion. I grew quite fond of him and enjoyed his papers on the effects of plague on ancient civilizations.”

Linc shifted on the seat beside her. She cast a sideways glance at him, and a muscle twitched in his jaw. Something Louis said had disturbed him.

The famous scientist continued. “When I learned I’d been passed over for the Nobel Prize again that year, I had a lot of animosity for the committee. They didn’t take my field seriously and never had. I spoke to this young man about my concerns, and he commiserated. He said it would take an epidemic of massive proportions solved by a parasitologist to force the Nobel committee to take notice. That’s when I began my plan.”

A sinking feeling hit Ria’s stomach, and a dark pit opened at her feet. No!

“I started an investigation into a virus that might cause such a feat. Viruses are tricky little devils. They tend to mutate on their own. I needed a way to control one so when the time came to destroy it, I would have no deviant strain resistant to my cure.”

Linc pressed his hands to the cushions beside him, his face red. “Are you saying you created the virus that infected the parasite?”

Manson held up a hand. “Here me out. Yes, I know it sounds horrible. But I never meant for it to go so far. I only intended to allow it to kill a few hundred people at most.”

“And the young man who studied archeology, was that…”

“Hold on, Dr. Butler. Don’t ruin my tale.” Louis fake laughed.

“
Only
a few hundred?” She couldn’t believe her ears. Who was this man? The man sitting opposite had no resemblance to the person she’d sacrificed six years of her life to serve.

“Yes, enough to cause a panic and break into international news. So my key to manipulation was in using a portion of human DNA. Actually, two portions so I had double assurance of control. Then when I was ready, I’d use that same DNA to build an antidote, a key to unlock the deadliness of the virus and make it harmless.”

Linc’s nostrils flared as if he wanted to leap on Louis and beat the shit out of him. But they had to have all of the information to stop him. They had to let Louis talk. She slid closer to Linc and covered his hand with hers. Her touch seemed to break him from his fury, and he sank back, eyes hooded.

“I needed DNA from two people. I decided a man and a woman. It’s not easy to take tissue samples without someone knowing, as you can imagine. So I had to take advantage of opportunistic situations. My young friend happened to cut himself while making us a gin and tonic one night, and I got a blood sample at that time without his suspecting. The other donor was you, dear Ria.”

Her throat tightened. He’d taken her DNA? A part of her composed this microscopic monster that had killed thousands of people? Her mind couldn’t process the hideous nature of his confession. Linc moved his hand atop hers.

“Yes, I thought it appropriate that I involve you in my Nobel win. My way of honoring you for the years you’ve assisted me. I easily procured strands of your hair for my use. So I had my two DNA donors. I worked diligently to produce my little green devil and find the right organism in which to insert it. Yes, the lowly shrimp. It already had a parasite that caused it to cannibalize, so I merely tweaked the creature to cross species lines and infect humans.

“I couldn’t have been more proud when my plan worked and people became infected. I portrayed the magnanimous parasitologist who bravely and selflessly led a team of scientists to uncover the secret to the cure. But then my magnificent creature surprised me and began to mutate so quickly I couldn’t keep up. I had to predict the next mutation in an attempt to stop it. What an exciting and challenging brain tease!

“I was on the verge of completing my theory when the damned Radical Democracy took Lincoln. My innocent trip to the Triumvirate turned into an unexpected divergence to this place. Not at all what I had planned.” He shook his head.

“Perhaps you should have thought about chaos theory,” Linc said between clenched teeth.

Louis chuckled. “Yes, Dr. Butler. The thing is, I am familiar with that archaic notion. Fascinating, and why I didn’t completely despair when I came to this fine place where, I might add, I didn’t have any of my precious donor DNA.”

Linc frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I mean I had a backup plan. I was initially upset when my male donor figured out what I did and confronted me. That forced me to end his life last year in an apparently freak accident. Although I had his DNA, it was a finite sample. I suspected I would need more. Imagine my elation to discover my young friend had a twin brother. The only problem was he lived in the South. Naturally, that meant the first outbreak had to happen there. I had my reason for urging our government to accept a collaboration with a scientific team from the South.”

Linc half rose from his seat. “My brother…”

Ria grabbed his elbow and pulled him to his seat. His twin. That’s why Louis had constantly wanted them together, always asking if he was with her. He wanted them in easy reach when he needed more DNA.

“Exactly, Dr. Butler. Your twin brother shared an identical set of DNA with you.”

Linc slapped a hand to his arm. “You killed my brother. And that wasn’t a stimulant injection. You took blood.”

“Again, your mental agility is a pleasure. Correct.” Manson nodded. “I took new samples from both of you on your arrival. With that data, I was confident I would finally construct the key I needed to insert into the virus and stop this nonsense. I’d be the hero of the world, and the Nobel would be mine, capping off a life of achievement and brilliance. I do regret the additional loss of life I didn’t count on, but I can’t blame myself for that.”