Pandora's Succession (24 page)

“He did earlier in the Azabu District.” Tanaka raised his hand slightly and then dropped it on his leg with a sigh. “But our satellites couldn’t capture an image of the individual due to the weather.”

“What about infrared tracking?” asked Marx.

Tanaka looked away from Marx as though he were embarrassed. “We lost his contact on the subway.”

“That’s just perfect,” said Hashimoto sarcastically. “Maybe you should’ve had real men tail him instead of relying on fancy equipment.”

Tanaka looked back at him. “We did so initially, and Fox lost them within minutes.”

“Then what about his partner, Walsh?” asked Hashimoto.

“We didn’t get a strong signal from him to begin with. We had something at first but it faded soon afterwards,” said Tanaka.

Hashimoto gave Marx a questioning look. “How’s that possible? Didn’t you tag both of them?”

“I did.” Marx crossed her arms as she gave him a stare that he’d seen once too often. He got the message and shrank back into his chair. “Neither of them suspected anything when I shook their hands at the outbreak site. Unfortunately Walsh had a weaker stomach than I expected. He threw up once he saw the remains of one of the Pandora-infected victims. He must have washed his hands thoroughly before an effective dose of the isotope powder was absorbed through his skin.”

“Fox has been useful to us so far,” said Tanaka. “In fact, he unknowingly helped us track down and eliminate the agent you were looking for. As a bonus, so were a few members of Ares.”

Hashimoto leaned forward. “A few but not all. Valerik’s killers will now come for us.”

“And that concerns me.” Marx crossed her legs and looked up at the ceiling. “But I’d still like to know who Fox met in Azabu.”

“It could be Walsh.” Hashimoto turned to Tanaka. “You were able to follow him from the airport, weren’t you?”

“He didn’t arrive at the same time as Fox, nor was he spotted at Narita Airport. I’m assuming that he must have slipped into the country through the American Base in Okinawa.”

Marx looked back at Tanaka. “Then we need to concentrate more on keeping a closer eye on whom Fox contacts. Valerik mentioned that Ares has a mole within the CIA, but he didn’t know who it was. We can assume that this mole will be keeping tabs on Fox. As long as this continues then Ares will not find us.” She glanced at Hashimoto, who had an expression on his face that said
I sincerely hope so.

Marx leaned forward and rested both of her elbows on the desk as she turned to Hashimoto. “Onto another matter. How’s the recruitment process going? I heard that there was a problem during the experiment this morning.”

“Not at all. None that wasn’t fixed.”

Marx raised a curious eyebrow. “Oh really? I tend to believe that when you have two test subjects undergoing the same experiment and one of them goes postal, then there’s a problem. A very serious one.”

Marx then saw the worry in Hashimoto’s eyes. She hadn’t seen this look since she first introduced herself to him with evidence of his involvement in human trials several years ago.

“I assure you that there’s no problem. Everything’s in order, as it should be.”

“Then forgive me for not sharing your optimism. In fact, I learned that the young woman who conducted the experiment, Dr. Nita Parris, was injured during the experiment. I also learned that she didn’t follow procedure.”

“Our findings over what happened this morning are still inconclusive. That’s why I’ve decided to terminate any further experiments with the new variant of Clarity.”

Marx brought her hand to her chin as she kept her arms crossed. “That’s a bit premature, don’t you think?”

“Why do you say that?” asked Hashimoto.

Marx stared at him through slightly narrowed eyes.
You already know the answer.
“What do we know about Dr. Parris?”

“The Boeisho has checked her out,” said Tanaka, diverting Marx’s attention towards him. “In our opinion, she’s clean.”

“You see, Dr. Marx, everything that goes on at Hexagon, stays within Hexagon,” said Hashimoto.

Marx looked back at Hashimoto. “I’d still continue researching the new variant of Clarity. I still get a feeling that something was overlooked. You just need to look a bit deeper.”

Hashimoto nodded. “I will.” He then scratched the back of his neck. “In relation to Pandora, you told me earlier that you had something to add to it. To make it more efficient for our cause. Were there any positive results?”

“I’ve formed my own team of scientists, and I’ll meet them later on, after breakfast,” she replied. “So far everything looks promising. But to be absolutely sure, I’m going to need to use the young gentleman I had asked you to spare.”

The Commissioner looked at Marx and squinted. “You’re going to use a live human being as a lab rat?”

“Why not?” She looked back at the Commissioner. “After all, this is science. Didn’t your biology teacher ever tell you that science could be fun?”

Chapter 24

Hexagon Pharmaceuticals

Parris rushed into the atrium of the East Wing after having travelled under the overcast and humid conditions outside. But where she headed didn’t have any windows, so it could stay miserable outside for all she cared. The large digital clock in the atrium read 8:23 AM. She wasn’t expected until ten o’clock that morning so she knew she wouldn’t be missed. Last night’s visit to Hexagon was a quick in and out. Once Parris made it to Hexagon, she signed in at the security desk in the atrium, got what she needed, signed out with the contents in her purse, and headed home. The masking agent didn’t take long to make and she gave Levickis three more syringes in a pouch for him and the others. She kept one for Fox in the glove compartment of her car. Whoever came in contact with him first would give it to him.

Having only slept four hours was murder on her body. Even with two cups of coffee, she still felt groggy. “Hardly anyone in the East Wing this early, guys.” There was no answer. “Guys?” she said again.

“We hear you, Dr. Parris.” Dobbs’s voice boomed through her earpiece, causing her to grab at her ear as she made a face.

“Turn the damn thing down, Dobbs. Lord. You trying to make me deaf?”

“Sorry about that.” His voice was a lot quieter. “Is that better?”

Her ear still rang. “Yes. Isn’t there a way for you to check your equipment?”

“I said I was sorry.”

Parris rolled her eyes. “Sure, fine, whatever.”

“Hey, lighten up a bit,” said Levickis. “This is no walk in the park for us either. We’ve just come through the tunnels and have reached the mainframe. It’s cold, damp, it stinks, and I know I stepped in something back there.”

Levickis’s voice became quieter, as though he were talking to Dobbs. “Have you located the POP yet?” This was the point of presence, an access point to the internet.

“I think it’s right here,” said Dobbs. “I can see the end of the fiber optic backbone cable, router, and switches. I see a free port here. I’ll connect the laptop and see if I can ping the mainframe...yup, the mainframe’s responding—Packets, sent equals four. Zero percent loss—we’re plugged in.”

Parris pressed the B4 button. “Anyway, I’ve just walked into the elevator.”

“Great, we’re ready to link up,” said Dobbs.

Parris looked up at the floor light above the door and watched them all flash. B2, then B3, and finally B4. The elevator slowed to a stop a moment later.

“It’s a go, Doc. We’re in,” said Dobbs.

Just in time.
The elevator doors opened. The guard looked up from reading his magazine as Parris walked into the room and nodded. She smiled at him and looked to the left of where he sat and saw the entrance to the Safe. She reached into a pocket inside her tote and took out the security card Dobbs gave her and stopped in front of the control panel.

“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.