Pandora's Succession (30 page)

Damn her. Why’d she have to go for my soft spot?
He turned to the counter and leaned on it with outstretched arms, facing the isolation chamber. “You know what? Being a part of the JTF2 wasn’t even part of my life’s goal. I was your typical spoiled kid, born with a silver spoon in their mouth. There was so much that I could’ve been in life—or should I say—what my father wanted me to be. I threw it all away and joined the army.”

Parris slowly walked towards Fox. “You joined the army to rebel against your father?”

“Yeah, that’s pretty much it.” Fox smirked and glanced at Parris. “Then I met Jessica. And everything changed.”

Parris stopped a foot away from Fox. “What was she like?”

“She was something else. We had our arguments, she was so damn feisty. She always tried to prove that she was the one that wore the pants in the relationship. Kind of what you’d see your parents arguing about from time to time.”

“I wouldn’t know.”

Fox looked at her over his shoulder surprised. “What?”

“I never had the chance to see my parents argue because I never knew them.”

“Parris, I didn’t—”

“It’s okay, I’ve had this conversation before. My mother died when I was young and I never met my father. My aunt raised me.”

Fox hesitated for a moment, wondering how appropriate it would be to continue talking about this. “Do you ever wonder where your father is?”

Parris shook her head. “No, and I don’t want to either.”

“To say the least. I haven’t spoken to either of my parents, or Jessica’s, since...the incident.”

“Why?” She then took his right hand. “Do you blame yourself for her death?”

He pulled himself from her grip and turned away from her. “I should’ve seen it coming. After all the training I’d undergone. I’d learned so much about assessing a situation. Yet I couldn’t spot something suspicious about the company Jessica worked for.”

“We all make mistakes.” Parris walked up to him and turned him around gently. “I’m sorry I was so nasty to you yesterday. You were right. I
was
listening to you play the piano. I understand that you were trying to make up for the past—I just didn’t want to accept it then. For the record, I’m not mad at you anymore.”

Fox again felt a warmth in her voice and he responded by holding both her hands. “After what happened to you...I mean...the night I stood you up and you being assaulted and all. Don’t you regret becoming a field agent as a result of what I did to you?”

Parris smiled at him. “You’re not the reason why I’m here. I’m here because I want to be here.”

Fox didn’t say anything else. She was the first woman since Jessica to come close to making him come out of his shell. But he would never allow himself to get too close to her. Walsh’s attempt at taking both of them out at the fish market was a stark reminder as to why he could not allow himself to fall in love again, not while people like Ares and Dr. Marx were out there. He looked over the equipment in front of him. It was time to finish this.

Fox assisted Parris for the first half hour until there were no more compounds to collect, at which point Parris continued on her own. While Parris worked, Fox sat at the computer and reviewed the information she stole from the safe that she didn’t have time to read during the ride.

Parris then held up a one-thousand-milliliter beaker with a blood-red solution within it. “I’m done. Now we need to test it.”

The casual observer would mistake it for tomato sauce, but it wasn’t as thick. She carried it to the counter in front of the isolation chamber where she put it down. Fox watched her as she picked up a scalpel. Alarms went off in his head when he saw the blade pointed inward towards her opposite hand. Without another thought, he snatched both of her wrists.

She looked at him with her mouth agape, as though perplexed. “What are you doing?”

“I was about to ask you the same thing.”

“Pandora feeds on human red blood cells to self-replicate, so I’m volunteering myself. For heaven’s sake, I’m no longer under the effects of Clarity. Would you rather I cut you instead?”

Fox looked into her brown eyes.
Yeah, I’m overreacting.
He smiled and released her wrists. Parris jabbed herself in the heel of her left palm and held it over a Petri dish. Six drops of blood fell into it. She opened the first-aid kit she had on the counter behind her and helped herself to the rubbing alcohol, cotton, and a Band-Aid.

Below the window, on the far left side of the isolation chamber, was a small slot with a button beside it. Parris pressed it and the door flipped outwards. An inner airlock door also opened, making a hissing sound. Ten seconds later, a tray slid out on which she placed the beaker with the serum, and the Petri dish with her blood onto the tray. She also reached into her breast pocket and took out the metal container which held Pandora. Parris momentarily hesitated as she held it. She looked at the beaker with the serum and then placed Pandora between the serum and the Petri dish. She pressed the same button and the tray slid back, the door closed, and the tray reappeared on the other side of the window a few seconds later.

Parris walked to the console and picked up a glove with several metallic pieces attached to it from off a plastic rod that was attached to the console. The glove controlled the mechanical arm inside the isolation chamber. It weighed much more than an ordinary glove. It was wireless and it gave Dr. Parris complete freedom of movement when she wore it. She pressed a button on the glove that was located under the base of the palm to activate the robotic arm, which then mimicked her hand and finger movements.

She looked inside the chamber as she brushed a few strands of her hair that dropped to her left eye. “Here it goes.”

Fox stood beside her as they watched what went on inside the chamber.

The robot arm mimicked Parris’s movements and picked up the Petri dish and poured the blood on top of the metal container. She then brought the mechanical arm above it, made it point the index finger downwards, and then lowered it to crack it open. Blood leaked into the container and within seconds a reaction was evident. The combination of crunching and rattling sounds grew louder and a thick, smoky red cloud streamed from the container.

With the robotic arm, Parris picked up the smoking container and dropped it into the beaker, where it floated on the surface of the serum. Parris curled her fingers but kept her index extended and held the robot arm above the beaker with its index finger pointing downwards above the container. She then directed the robot arm to push the container to the bottom of the beaker. She raised the robot arm, pressed the button on the glove to deactivate the robot arm and placed the glove back onto its rod. The beaker shook as it bubbled and belched out the red smoke in huge puffs. It wasn’t too long after that the entire chamber filled up with the red cloud. Nothing else was visible it was so thick.

Both Parris and Fox looked around as their surroundings were illuminated by a bright red, much like the cloud that swirled in front of them on the other side of the window. Parris pressed the off button on the glove and returned it to the console as the inner chamber filled to capacity with the red cloud.

A minute went by and the red cloud was still there. Parris slammed her right fist onto the counter in frustration and spun around with both hands on her hips. “This should’ve worked! Now what are we supposed to do?” She put both hands to her temples as she paced the room.

Fox remained silent as he continued to stare into the isolation chamber. “I’d say you should make some more of that serum. Take a look.”

Parris turned around and swallowed hard when she saw another chemical reaction occur inside the chamber. The cloud began to fade, along with the sound of crunching and rattling. Several seconds later, all that remained were trace amounts of leftover serum inside the beaker, the cube inside it, and an empty Petri dish. Her arms dropped to her sides as she looked up at the ceiling and breathed out a big sigh of relief.

Fox then turned to her. “How soon can you prepare more of the serum?”

“I’ve already done so.” She smiled as she gestured to the side counter where she had a rack with two small vials and picked them up to show him. “From the notes I read, vials similar to these in both shape and size will be used. They’ve built a device, ironically named Pandora’s Box, which will be used to disperse the microbe. These vials are to be inserted into the device. We’ll each carry one.” She walked over to the counter and brought back the vials, their stoppers, and two small metal cases. She then handed one to Fox. “You’ll also need one of these to hold it in, just to make sure you don’t break it.”

Parris handed him a small metal case. Fox took it, opened it and saw that the vial was meant to fit inside it diagonally on a padded surface. He put the vial in, closed it and dropped the case inside his inner jacket pocket. Parris did the same.

Parris then looked at him, suddenly remembering something. “By the way, I hope your JTF2 duties included knowing how to fly a helicopter?”

“You bet.”

“Good. Because we’ll have to steal one from the lot.”

Chapter 31

The island was approximately one square kilometer of rocky terrain and was surrounded by a hilly coastline, giving it a bowl-like formation. To the average person, it was nothing more than a deserted rocky island. There weren’t any trees or grass, the coastline was too rocky and too hilly to be of any use. However, the Soviets had exploited it several years before, during the Cold War. It housed one of several secret bunkers that were built to protect Soviet political leaders in the event of a nuclear war.

Its mountainous surroundings made it a natural barrier against the most devastating weapons which would have to penetrate several hundred feet below the rocky surface to do any damage. Along the shoreline, big waves crashed against the shores, sending a salty mist into the air, making it difficult for ships to sail too close. The island had never been used, and no one in the Russian military or the government would ever admit that the bunker even existed.

Roaring from the sky came five Sikorsky H-92 Superhawk civil transport helicopters. This version of the H-92 seated nineteen passengers comfortably in an airliner-type cabin. They were painted gray on the exterior with a single horizontal blue stripe across the middle with the Hexagon company name written in bold white Japanese and English characters along the stripe.

Clouds of dust formed as they touched down in a clearing within several feet of the blast tunnel. All of the necessary equipment for their planned takeover was inside the bunker, where a team of scientists had spent the previous day setting up. A task force dressed in traditional black ninja jump suits leapt from two of the helicopters. They were each armed with Russian AK-74s and a few throwing stars.

The recruits rode together in one helicopter with a few ninjas, while Marx, Hashimoto, and Tanaka were in another. They emerged from their helicopter and led the way towards the bunker.

As they walked, Hashimoto shook his head. “Shouldn’t we have heard from Dr. Parris, by now?”

Marx turned to him. “Don’t worry. Whether she’s found Ares or not, won’t make a difference at this point.”

“But there’s still the issue about Fox?” Tanaka looked at Hashimoto. “When I last checked with headquarters, his isotope tag wasn’t transmitting. Secondly, your man was supposed to report back when Fox had taken the bait. Why haven’t we heard anything?”

Hashimoto stopped before both Tanaka and Marx did the same. He then looked at both of them. “He’s right. How
do
we know that he sent Fox in the wrong direction? What about the CIA? We should’ve just killed him when we had the chance.”

“And in doing so, Ares would’ve been more difficult to handle.” Marx then walked up to Hashimoto. “As for the CIA, I doubt that they’ll know where to start. Their unit’s suffered some casualties. They’ll never be able to scramble another one in time.”

“To add to that,” said Tanaka, “headquarters reported that no calls have been made by either one—”

“Then how do we know where they are?” Hashimoto’s eyes widened as though he were agitated. “We should call Commissioner Yushida to have him send out his entire force to locate Fox and shoot him on sight.”

Marx sighed.
Goddamnit, does he have to be this paranoid?
“It doesn’t matter at this point. What’s important is that they’re not here.” Marx accentuated this by pointing to the ground. “We’re less than an hour from inheriting the Earth. Think about it. All the problems in the world which you preach about will soon be gone. My Pandora will see to it.”

The first staccato shots from the hills dropped five ninjas to the ground. Screams erupted from the teenagers and young adults. Some ran for their lives, others were so frightened by the sounds of bullets ricocheting that they were immobilized.

The ninjas went on the defensive, unloading several shots from their AK-74s toward the hills. Those that did not take part in the gunfight rounded up the entire group and whisked them behind a nearby set of boulders. Marx, Hashimoto, and Tanaka, each led by a ninja, were herded with the others. Once they were safe, the ninjas rushed back out and joined in the fight.