Authors: Aditya Mewati
Karthik woke up with a stiff left shoulder. He got off from his bed, slowly pinwheeling his left arm. He was having difficulty in moving his left hand.
He went to the bathroom and checked his wound in the mirror. It was worse than he had imagined. The wound was puffing up. He washed the wound with an antiseptic. After that he took the shower and changed his clothes; he got them from Jack's wardrobe. And according to him, Jack had terrible taste in fashion. Because, in Egypt, he had seen a pink, ugly jacket in Jack's suitcase. Luckily his wardrobe had some good clothes.
He called Piper and asked her what they were doing. He didn't tell them that he was shot in the shoulder. Piper explained to him that they are planning to go through five labs that were located close to each other. Karthik wished her good luck and hung up the call.
He ate flakes for breakfast and Watched TV. The local news was showing a news about a gang war that happened right in front of Karthik's apartment. A Blond woman was taking the interview of the old man whom Karthik had seen last night on the road.
"He is the only person who witnessed this attack," The reporter was saying. "Sir, tell us, what happened last night?"
"Three men," the old man said, "They gave each other... white packets... then t-they started quarreling. This guy ran... but the other two killed him."
"Well," The reporter said starting at the camera, "That's a strange story... According to the police, the white packet must be some kind of drugs..." Karthik switched off the TV.
Smart guy, Karthik thought, scooping up the last hip of flakes. He thanked the old man in his mind, collected the keys to his car, grabbed his cellphone and set off for Mr. Ford's mansion.
The day outside was so bright that it hurt Karthik's eyes. He shielded his eyes and made his way across the parking lot. He had some difficulty in finding his car; he was not able to remember where he had parked it in the night. After a few minutes of hard work, he found it, awkwardly parked between two bikes.
He got into the car and drove it to the Point Piper.
Sara saw him coming from her bedroom window. Drawing the curtains close, she marched down the stairs and into the living room.
When Karthik entered, he saw Sara already waiting for him on the couch. He smiled at her. She smiled back.
"What brought you here?" She asked him.
"I thought you knew what brought me here," Karthik said. He noticed that she didn't stood up and greeted him. He sat on the couch before her.
"If you want to have a go on my dad's documents then I'm sorry Karthik. You are no longer my lawyer."
"I was never your lawyer." Karthik shot back. "I was your Dad's lawyer."
Her lip curled into an ugly snarl. And Karthik realized that he had spoken wrong thing, at the wrong time, to the wrong person.
She go to her feet and said, "I think you should leave, Karthik. You have no reasons to stand in my house." She marched away.
Oh, great! You are an idiot, Karthik! You ruined it.
Feeling disappointed and also angry, Karthik drove back to Lilly's apartment.
Karthik spent rest of his afternoon sleeping. As he slept, the evening drew around him. Then he ate the dinner by nine and drove to a nearby hardware store to buy ropes and other equipment he needed for his plan.
He got the things which he needed. Drove back to Lilly's apartment and waited for the right time.
The night grew dark and the wind howled outside the car's window. Shivering, Karthik got out of the car. He was completely dressed in black. He pulled out ropes and other equipment from the back end of the car.
Mr. Ford's mansion loomed in front of him. He could easily hear the roar of waves on the shore.
He checked his watch. It was around three o'clock in the morning.
Let's get to work.
Karthik perfectly knew what he was doing. He knew how to get inside the house without being seen by anyone. He crept around the house, all the way behind where the water met the land.
The sea churned few feet below him. He took a deep breath and swung the rope at the window on the second floor. Missed. The rope came down along with the metallic hook. Karthik had to jump away in order dodge the hook.
Karthik tried again. Failed. The third time. Failed again. The fourth time. The rope got onto the second-floor window and didn't fall back.
He tugged, testing the strength of the rope. Then hoping for the good, he started climbing.
His left shoulder cried in agony. He released the rope and fell on the wet soil. The thing which he feared the most had happened. He would not able to make this climb with his injured shoulder. He will need to find another way into the house. But he didn't have any other options.
He had to do it.
He grabbed the rope and started pulling himself up. It felt like he is going to lose his left shoulder. The pain was beyond anything he could bear.
He reached to the first floor. His body was shaking badly. Then he reached the second floor. Swinging his leg over the window frame, he landed into a dark room.
He did not get up quickly. He lay on the floor full-length and regained his breath. He got up and started searching the room. He knew that the room was a huge library where Mr. Ford kept all his documents.
He pulled out a small torch and turned it on. A circular light illuminated a shelf before him. He quickly started searching the racks.
Few minutes passed. Minutes turned into an hour. He was not able to find a single file.
Maybe they shifted all the files to somewhere else.
He had almost lost his hope when the flashlight illuminated a shiny object on a chair. Karthik went over it. It was Mr. Ford's personal Laptop.
Y
es! But why is it lying like this?
Karthik shrugged and flipped open the laptop. The laptop was password protected.
Karthik knew the starting letters of the password. He had seen Mr. Ford typing the password countless of time. He typed the starting two word.
ILOVE...
He racked his mind to find something that Mr. Ford loved.
He loved pizza. Karthik nodded.
ILOVEPIZZA. He clicked the enter key.
Wrong password.
Damn! Now what?
ILOVEMYLIFE.
Wrong password.
What the hell?
He raked his mind again and a thought came to him.
He typed: ILOVESARA.
Login successful.
Shame he loved that bitch.
He quickly started browsing through the files. But found nothing interesting. He knew that it was Mr. Ford's personal computer and it would have actually surprised him if had found any information related to PharmaGen.
Karthik soon realized that the laptop was useless. Only interesting stuff it had was a pinball game.
Karthik clicked the internet explore.
He still uses this stupid browser?
Mr. Ford's email account popped into view.
Karthik's eyes grew wide with excitement. He checked the Inbox. Nothing suspicious. He moved the cursor to the sent emails. Same, nothing suspicious. Bored, he moved the cursor to the drafts, and his heart leaped up into his throat. There was draft email addressing to him.
Karthik clicked it. It read:
Dear Karthik,
I don't know how to explain it, But I'm thinking to make some changes in my will. Because I...
"Who's there?" A voice called from the darkness. Karthik recognized it. Sara's voice.
Karthik quickly spun and mistakenly knocked the laptop off the chair.
"Who's there?" Sara commanded.
"Shit," Karthik muttered.
"Karthik?" Sara said uncertainly.
Wow, Karthik, you are an idiot!
He saw the dark shadowy figure of Sara moving across the room. He realized that she was moving toward the switch panel.
Karthik ran for the window. He quickly grabbed the rope and plunged out of the window. He slid down the rope and fell to the ground. The lights on the second-floor window came to life.
Karthik quickly got to his feet and skirted around the house. He got into his car and zoomed out of the Point Piper.
She definitely knows that it was me. This line kept repeating in his mind.
"I'm very tired. Why can't we go there tomorrow?" Piper urged as the jeep climbed the ice covered mountain.
"Are you afraid of cold?" Jack asked with just a hint of a smile.
"Really Jack?" Piper said, rolling her eyes. "Give me a bre—"
The jeep bumped on the road.
"Sorry, didn't saw that coming," Piper said maneuvering the steering wheel. The visibility was very low.
The Sky had been leaden when they had started their journey from the station and now it had started spitting snow as well.
"Are we there?" Lilly asked.
Jack peered into the GPS and said, "Uh, Still two kilometers to go."
A cold wind was bringing snow from the west. Piper shivered. "What was the name of that facility?"
"M.L.W.R," Jack said, "Mountain life welfare and research. A startup company named NacroLabs is funding it."
"Do you believe it can be the lab we are looking for?"
"I don't know. We have checked seven labs already. They all were unusual. But still we didn't find anything suspicious. Let's see..."
The jeep silently trundled on the snow-covered road. The wind around them picked up, bringing more snow with it.
For the first time in two hours of their journey through the snow, they came across a red sign board. It read:
Avalanche Prone area
Drive Carefully.
After few minutes, through the curtains of snow, they spotted a gray structure enduring the beating of the wind. It was a concrete dome with a yellow truck parked next to it. A green flag on top of the dome was fluttering continuously. They stopped the jeep next to the truck.
Piper got out of the jeep and yanked her parka close to her.
"This is sick," She muttered shaking her head reproachfully.
They silently dragged their way through the snowy road. As they neared the front door, the letters on it started coming into focus. M.L.W.R.
Jack knocked the door and waited. But nothing happened.
"They can't hear us in this blizzard," Lilly said.
"What?" Jacked shouted.
"They can't hear us in this blizzard," Lilly shouted again.
Jack nodded. He looked around and saw a red button beside the door. He was about to push it but stopped when he heard the noise of shouts echoing from inside. And even in the roaring of snow, he could make out that the voices were filled with pain.
He pulled out his gun. Lilly followed his lead.
He fished out an ordinary looking pen from his pocket and pressed a button on the top of it. The tip of the pen started spitting red plasma. Using the pen, Jack made a hole around the doorknob. He slowly opened the door and saw a dark, long corridor before him. Holding the gun in front of him, he moved into the darkness. Piper and Lilly followed him.
The corridor twisted and turned, leading them into a room bathing in red light. The room was huge. It was filled with complex looking equipment. But the most peculiar looking thing was a giant, glass cubicle in the center of the room. In the center of the cubicle was another queer looking stuff, a small dome with a digital screen.
Piper approached the glass cubicle but stopped when she heard the growing sound of footsteps. Someone tugged her. It was Lilly. She pulled Piper behind a metallic box.
The door on the opposite wall opened and shouts of yelling animals greeted their ears. Jack carefully peered over the box. He saw two men, one was carrying two cages with two monkeys in them.
The man with the cage opened the glass door and moved inside the cubicle. The other one waited outside. Jack was finding it very difficult to make out the faces in the dim, red light. He squinted and realized the man who standing outside the cubicle had a scar running down on his face; he was general Dong-sun, the second in command of S.A.L.F.
Jack’s heart skipped its beat. The man placed both the cages on the table, and walked out of the glass door, sealing it behind him.
General Dong-sun nodded at him and pulled out a remote control from his pocket. The man backed away from the glass cubicle. Dong-sun pressed the key on remote. The monkeys fell silent.
Piper and Lilly also peered over the box.
The monkeys were now wearily staring at the metallic dome. It hummed and the disc above it opened. The monkeys started shrieking in agony. They banged their head against the bars.
Piper felt sorry for them. She was not able to understand what was happening to them.
Their shrieking continued for fifteen minutes. The monkeys’ skin started bubbling and swelling. Soon, they fell on the floor.
And Piper realized what had happened to them. They had died of cancer. The x-virus—the dome contained the X-virus. They were testing X-virus on the mountain monkeys.
But Why? What were they planning?
Dong-sun laughed and clapped. The man also smiled.
"We did it! They survived for fifteen minutes," Dong-sun boomed.
"Yes, general," The man said, "Shouldn't we celebrate?"
"Why not? Let's celebrate! Katz will be happy to hear this," He slapped the man's back and walked toward a door to their left.
Jack, Lilly, and Piper waited for ten minutes. When they heard no other movements, they came out from behind the box.
"What are they planning?" Lilly asked.
Jack stared at lumpy masses that were once a living creatures. "I thought they were only preparing the serum. But..." He lifted his eyes and gazed at the metallic dome..." They are also making a bomb."
"Bomb?" Lilly asked, uncertainly.
"Yes, Piper said, eyeing the dome. "They are preparing a biological weapon. W-we need to s-stop them. It's worse than I had thought..."