The Lethal Agent (The Extraction Files Book 2) (3 page)

CPI-700, NEW YORK

SEPTEMBER 1, 2232

Without an access badge, Mable had no choice but to knock at the single door on the uppermost floor of the facility. She pounded on the door for a full five minutes before Dr. Quincy let her in, just as she’d hoped.

“You’re not to be here,” he said, not unlike a robot.

“I’m supposed to learn about the bugs. You study them. This is where I should be. Ask Arrenstein.” Mable hadn’t exactly asked permission before coming up, but she hadn’t exactly planned on coming here, either. She’d only wanted to get away from Theo and ended up in the elevator.

Still, now that she was here, it seemed like a good enough idea.

Quincy walked back to his desk and commed Arrenstein. His face hovered in holographic projection a moment later. “Got an update, Quince?” he asked, clearly confused why he was getting a comm so late at night.

“One of your recruits is here in the lab. She hasn’t been given access.” Quincy pointed the tablet toward Mable so Arrenstein could see her.

“She’s fine. As long as she’s not bothering you, I don’t have a problem with it.” Mable breathed a silent sigh, not only because she would be allowed to stay, but because Arrenstein trusted her.

Under her arm, she felt her own tablet vibrate with a new ecomm. As Quincy finished with Arrenstein, she glanced at the message:
WHERE ARE YOU?

She wasn’t in the mood for Theo. If he didn’t believe her about the Scholar woman, then he had a low opinion of her capabilities. The last thing she needed was someone in her ear telling her she wasn’t smart enough to do this.

Quincy’s jaw was set even tighter than before. He stood with arms crossed, waiting for her to say something.

Mable hadn’t had any real questions in mind, at least none she could think of right then. Instead, she asked, “I want to know more about the Slight. How it infects the host, how it chooses a host.”

Quincy turned and walked into the depths of the lab without a word. Mable hesitated a moment, and then followed. Arrenstein said she could be here, after all.

He stopped at a shelving unit against a wall. Unlike the others, it held a mere dozen jars, all small with yellow liquid inside. Quincy pulled out three jars and set them on the table, hitting a button to illuminate the surface. “If you can figure it out, I’d be very interested to know.”

Then, he disappeared in the labyrinthine lab.

Her tablet buzzed again.
CAN WE TALK?

Nope.

Mable set down her tablet on the far corner of the table and spread the three jars before her. They were identical from what she could tell. Each held a small bug, about two inches long, with a diamond head and kite-shaped body. It looked like a miniature manta ray she’d seen in pictures as a kid. Beneath the wings, they each harbored four pairs of legs. Antennas twice as long as the body curled in the liquid.

She was tempted to open a jar and remove one, setting it flat on the light table so she could properly evaluate it. Then she remembered what happened when Arrenstein opened the jar, the way the bug turned to dust in the liquid.

In her Biological Interdependence class at the Atlanta Youth Center, the instructor had given them a tour of a massive storage space of preserved animals and plants. Each sat in a jar of yellow or clear liquid—sea stars, grasshoppers, turtles—all kinds of extinct creatures that were killed and collected before the war.

Another student had asked what would happen to the specimen without the jar, and the instructor replied, “The liquid halts the decomposition process. Removing the liquid would merely start it again. The animal would be susceptible to bacterial breakdown in the presence of oxygen.”

She’d thought almost nothing about it at the time, but here, in the bug lab with jars before her, it was impossible not to link the two experiences.

For the bugs, the decomposition process simply occurred in seconds rather than days. It was faster than bacteria could process a body. Their breakdown was due to something else.

Oxygen seemed the obvious answer, but no, they lived within hosts and without oxygen for months.

But then what? What was in the liquid that kept it from happening?

She remembered the instructor naming the liquid as formalin, and given the opportunity to smell it, she would have known for sure. Without opening it, she would have to ask. Her tablet buzzed again as she wandered through the lab to find Quincy seated at his desk, a huge magnifying lens hung over his face.

“Sorry to bother you.” He didn’t move except to turn the jar in his hands to get a better look at the bug. “I just wanted to know if the jars have formalin in them.”

“Ammonium nitrate,” he replied without looking up.

Mable got the go-away signal loud and clear. She shuffled back to her table and pulled up a search on her tablet, but not before she caught sight of the string of messages.

ARE YOU ALL RIGHT? WHERE ARE YOU?

I’M SORRY. I JUST WANT TO TALK.

WHERE ARE YOU? DID YOU LEAVE?

Mable flipped through each message to dismiss them and clear up her screen. It wasn’t until the last one that she paused.
THEO’S LOOKING FOR YOU.

It was Dasia of course. Theo must have gone looking for her with her only friend. It was smart, but unfortunately for Theo, not effective. She hadn’t told anyone where she was going.

Annoyed and tired of interruptions, Mable sent Theo her whereabouts and set to work. A few keystrokes pulled up the information.

AMMONIUM NITRATE (NH
4
NO
3
)

APPEARANCE: WHITE CRYSTALLIZED POWDER.

PROPERTIES: HIGHLY SOLUBLE IN WATER. ENDOTHERMIC.

USES: FERTILIZER, EXPLOSIVES

SOURCE: ATACAMA, CHILE

Mable leaned over the table and processed the information as she read it. Theo trotted up to the table, his breath ragged, before she’d even finished the first page.

“Seriously?” he whined as he bent over to catch his breath.

“I’m busy. What do you want?” She kept her eyes on the display and continued reading, refusing to give him her full attention.

“I thought you left. You weren’t in your room.”

“Nope. I’m right here.”

Theo moved around to the far side of the table. Through the projection, small bits of his hair lay splayed around his face. Sweat clung to his forehead, and one drip even ran down his temple.

Mable realized he’d been running.

To find her.

She swiped the display away and returned his even gaze. “I would have told you if I was leaving.”

“Would you?” He cocked an eyebrow.

Mable shrugged. She didn’t want to lie, and she didn’t know for sure.

Theo maintained his gaze and spread his hands wide across the table. In a quiet voice, he said, “I don’t want to fight with you all the time.”

“I’m not fighting. I’m trying to figure this out.” She motioned to the space where the display had been.

He rolled his eyes. “What are you working on?”

A quick swipe returned the article to the display. “The liquid in the jars. Why does it preserve them? Apparently it’s a fertilizer. Doesn’t make sense.”

Theo walked around the table to stand beside her and read the article. “Ammonium nitrate? We use that in nanotech. It keeps the metals from oxidizing.”

“Oxidizing?” Mable squinted as she processed the new data.

“Yeah, when an electron is stripped from one atom and added to another,” Theo offered helpfully

“I know what it is.” It was so lovely that he considered her such an idiot. At least she was too pissed off to admire the way he adjusted his hair back into a sloppy bun.

“You think it keeps the bugs from oxidizing? Like metal?”

Mable used her fingernail to pick at the tape that sealed the jar.

“What are you doing?”

She ignored him and pulled at the freed edge to remove the tape entirely. In a single motion, she twisted the lid and set it on the table next to the jar.

As it had with Arrenstein, the bug dissolved in seconds, cracking like firewood before shattering into a fine dust that settled at the bottom of the jar.

“Whoa,” Theo whispered. His mouth hung open.

“I think we’ve been doing this wrong,” she thought aloud.

“What do you mean?”

“We’ve been looking at the case files, how the bugs infect people, and how they were extracted. I think we need to look here. What these things are. How they work. I mean, that’s not normal. There’s no animal that would breakdown that fast.” She pointed at the jar with the black specks at the bottom.

Theo nodded. “Yeah, especially an insect. The exoskeleton wouldn’t decompose that fast. The internal organs maybe, but not the chiton. There’s no way.”

“I like what you said about oxidation, that metals lose an electron.”

“You think the bug is rusting?” Theo asked, but as soon as he said it, realization registered on his features.

“Makes sense, right?” It had been years since Mable studied any sort of serious chemistry, but bits and pieces were coming back.

“Yeah, the reaction rate is appropriate for a highly-catalyzed oxidation reaction. But you realize that would mean the bug was made of metal? An iron-based alloy of some kind?”

On her tablet display, Mable hit the comm button and dialed up Arrenstein. His face appeared with his usual confident smile.

“What’s wrong?” she asked him.

“Nothing.”

“You suck at lying.”

Arrenstein sighed. His smile faded into an aggravated frown. “What do you need, Maggie?”

“Have you tested the bugs for metals?”

“Metals?” he repeated, his eyebrows sewn together in confusion. “I don’t think so. Quincy tested for genetic materials and proteins, so we have the data for those. But I don’t know about metals. I’m not sure there’s ever been a reason to, why?”

Without an answer, Mable ended the comm. She picked up the jar and pushed it at Theo. “Let’s test it. Figure out what kinds of metals are in this thing.”

“You got it,” he replied with a smile.

LRF-PQ-291

SEPTEMBER 2, 2232

“You want the peach?” Sal asked from the doorway of their small apartment.

“No, thank you.” Aida zipped up her indigo body suit and found a wide-sleeved black top to wear over it. She was done hiding.

“Really? You haven’t eaten in the last few days.” Aida stared, shocked that he noticed.

“I’ve been eating at work.” It was the truth. She didn’t mention that she’d never eat a bowl of provisions again, as long as she could help it. Now that she’d tasted the alternative, she couldn’t go back.

Chicken. Wheat. They were flavors, but without the original foods to make a comparison, they all tasted flat.

“All right.” Sal closed the door behind him. While she was ready to leave, she waited a few minutes before making her way. She didn’t want to walk with Sal.

The day was much the same as all the others. Life at the LRF was nothing if not consistent. Same schedules, same researchers, the same boring faces.

For Aida, it was all completely different. Now she had Calvin. Most of the time they were coworkers. She kept to her apartment, her marriage, her position. Calvin worked beside her, illuminating details from the probe scans and learning along the way.

But for a few hours, every few days, they were more. She was precious to someone. She filled someone’s day with meaning and purpose. There was no getting around that. She walked with her head held high and her shoulders back. She had an ace in her pocket, though no one else could see it.

For Aida, that was enough.

She arrived at her office and pulled up the latest batch of information. Today, the probe relayed the data about native species, though she didn’t think much would come from it. The aquatic regions showed only microscopic organisms, despite the planet being dominated by slightly-acidic water.

“Good morning, Dr. Perkins.” Calvin appeared in the doorway right on time. His emerald eyes shimmered.

Her heart leapt at the sight of him.

In his hand, he held a small plastic container with eggs and fruit. He set it on her desk without a word. She still didn’t know where he got it, but she didn’t care, as long as he continued to share with her.

“Good morning, Dr. Hill.” It was their usual joke, a humorous attempt at professionalism when they were so clearly more than that.

Calvin sat in the chair opposite hers, his tablet in his lap as he made some notes about the data they discussed.

“What’s it today? Native species?”

“Terrestrial and aerial,” she reminded him.

Calvin leaned forward with interest. “Let’s have it. The preliminary scans indicated insect- and mammal-like organisms, mostly the size of dogs or smaller. Hopefully we’ll get something a little more interesting than bacteria.”

Aida navigated through the files to find the right one. The probe made a vid of its low-altitude flybys. The initial images were blurry and fast, but her tablet compiled the information to create a three-dimensional projection of each organism.

First up, some sort of scaled creature with wide-pointed toes like a chameleon. Of course, distinctions such as amphibian, reptile, and mammal were strictly reserved for Earth, but Aida thought it looked like some sort of reptile. It was a deep fuchsia with large circles of plum and pink. The whole thing shimmered. “Fluorescence? Or Iridescence?” she asked, thinking out loud.

“Or possibly bioluminescence,” Calvin offered. Both knew it was purely conjecture. They wouldn’t know more about the organisms until the probe collected a sample population to be studied.

Aida used her stylus to draw a square around the image to capture it before she moved it to the side of her screen. It was assigned the indicator 196T-1.

Next, a long-bodied creature, like some sort of terrestrial eel. It had bunches of thick, chitinous hairs on the bottom, probably to move it across the substrate. It had no obvious head. They would have to wait for fauna collection to find out more.

On and on they went, documenting each organism scanned by the probe. In this preliminary survey, they would only have images of the most prevalent species, the ones accessible from the surface. Once given approval, the probe would attempt to capture a minimum population of each species for direct scanning and tagging. Aida knew well enough that the collections rarely went according to plan. The organisms often utilized defense mechanisms and survival strategies to avoid capture. Nonetheless, it would give them some base-line information about the ecology of the surface.

The majority of organisms were camouflaged within the crimson and magenta flora. Most had some sort of shimmer to their appearance, though they still couldn’t isolate the source. One insect-like creature with long, narrow appendages was bright yellow and nearly a foot long.

“This one lacks the camouflage of most of the others. You think it could have some sort of toxin?” Calvin asked as he made his notes.

“It’s a definite possibility. In the rain forests of South America, poisonous frogs were brightly colored to warn against predators. If that’s the case here, then this insect has a large predator that we haven’t yet identified.”

Calvin wrinkled his nose. “Large enough to eat that? It would be huge.”

“That should make it easier to find,” she reminded him, though they’d been at it all day and seen nothing that would qualify. Still, the probe had another 400 organisms in the first scan alone. There was still plenty of work to do before they could identify the predator.

“My place tonight?” Calvin asked out of the blue, shattering the mirage of productivity.

If she was honest with herself, she would have jumped up and down and screamed with excitement. Of course she wanted to see him tonight. Every night. All the nights left on this miserable hunk of mineral floating through space.

But she couldn’t do everything she wanted.

“Sal asked about me this morning. He noticed I wasn’t eating the provisions.”

Calvin’s jaw set tight. “You think we should take a break for a while?”

No. Never. “I don’t know. It’s just, he hasn’t asked about me in so long, I thought he would never notice.”

“He’s an intelligent man, and you’re a ravishing woman. I’m not surprised he noticed.” Calvin reached out and covered her hand with his.

“I am,” she admitted. It wasn’t that long ago that she’d tried to make him notice. And now, when she no longer wanted his attention, he tried to give it.

“Then take some time. Take as much time as you need. I’m not going anywhere.”