Killer Thrillers Box Set: 3 Techno-Thriller, Action/Adventure Science Fiction Thrillers (88 page)

Charlie returned to the table carrying a petri dish with a swab of the sample inside. Moving the sample from an observation plate to the dish made prescribing tests much easier.

“I don’t understand why you won’t just send an email to Levels 4 through 8,” Charlie said as he set the dish down on the table in front of Dr. Torres. “What can possibly go wrong by getting more people involved?”

Dr. Torres almost didn’t respond, but as she grabbed the dish, she turned to face her assistant. “Come on, Charlie, you know the rules. This one isn’t company sanctioned, so there’s no way we’re doing that.”

“Yeah, but don’t they encourage us to take on private jobs?”

“They do, but only if they can maintain the standpoint of plausible deniability for any of their scientists’ clients’ work,” Dr. Torres answered.

Charlie frowned. “Seems like a backwards way of doing business, in my opinion.”

Dr. Torres sighed. “Well, in
my
opinion, it seems like a good way for them to stay out of trouble. You and I both know that there’s enough non-sanctioned work going on here that’s ended in all but disaster. One of those leaks, and we’ve got incriminating evidence on our hands. For all of us.” Dr. Torres gave Charlie a look that was supposed to mean the conversation was over, but Charlie continued.

“I get it. The company won’t take credit for anything unless it ends in dollar signs for them.”

“Welcome to America, Charlie.”

Charlie let the insult slide. He had been raised in Idaho, and had lived in just about every small town anyone from Idaho had ever heard of. Hope, Irwin, Twin Falls, and his parents now lived in Mud Lake. Now that he worked in Twin Falls, it seemed like Charlie was going to spend the rest of his life inside the borders of his home state.

He’d grown up like most normal American boys. Street hockey in the summer, pond hockey in the winter, with other random sports thrown in during the off-season. He was of average build, not tall but not short either, making him an ideal candidate to fill out a team roster for just about any sport he tried out for.

Much to his father’s dismay, however, sports were not Charlie’s strong suit. Before football practice and after school during the fall semesters, Charlie spent his time in the science club at his local high school. What his parents thought — and hoped — would be a temporary, fleeting interest, turned out to be a career choice for the young man. He enrolled in night classes at the local university while only a junior in high school, convincing his parents that it would be good for his future. While it was certainly useful later in life, the truth of the matter was that Charlie was actually just interested in studying robotics, something his local high school did not have a program for.

He ditched the robotics studies after his first semester in college, opting instead to study microbiology. After graduating summa cum laude, he was quickly tapped for an internship at a local clinical research firm, then a pharmaceutical company, and finally as an assistant to Dr. Torres.

Charlie enjoyed the job; Dr. Torres was a good boss, and she treated him appropriately — hard enough that he was challenged to continue learning, but friendly enough that he knew she still cared about his education. It was because of this relationship, and Dr. Torres’ leadership, that he was able to succeed in the role while gaining worldly experience at the firm. As even-keeled and mild-tempered as he was, however, it was on nights like these that Charlie wished he were working somewhere else.

Dr. Torres just wouldn’t stop. They’d been at it for over three hours straight now, with no end in sight. He enjoyed discovering and learning just like any other scientist, but he also enjoyed sleep. Furthermore, he could already feel himself growing hungry again.

“Hey, boss, it’s getting late,” Charlie said. He hated to play that card, but he was long past his ability to be effective.

“Huh?” Dr. Torres said softly as she stared down at the sample and the associated report. “Oh, right, I guess it is getting a little late.”
 

She looked at her watch.
 

10:57 PM.
 

She pushed her glasses back onto her nose and straightened the pile of papers in front of her as she stood up from the table. “Are you heading out?”

Charlie had worked with Dr. Torres long enough to know what the question really meant.
Had enough? Can’t handle the grind of
real
science?

He had also worked with her long enough to know how to handle the situation. “Yeah, exactly.” He laughed. “We’ve done every test in the book and all the reports are there in front of you. I’m happy to stay and read them to you, but I’m pretty sure you’ve got it covered on your own.” He grinned, a half-smile from the left side of his mouth. It was enough to tell Dr. Torres that he was seriously tired, but not serious enough to tell her that he didn’t care. “Plus, you know that I’m only an email away.”

“You’re right. I guess I should be getting some sleep sometime tonight as well. Let me finish up here, and I’ll be on my way out, too.”

Charlie left, and Dr. Torres found herself alone in the sprawling laboratory. It was a state-of-the-art facility, one that she was constantly amazed with. It had everything she could possibly conceive of that she might need for her research, as well as gadgets, tools, and instruments that she could only guess were used by others in the building.

The company they worked for had been around for over forty years, and from stories she’d heard, it had been successful from day one. Operating in the black each and every fiscal year since, she was not surprised that the company spared no expense for its top-notch scientists.

Dr. Torres herself was a fantastic scientist, and she knew it. But working here, during the few times she was able to work side-by-side with other employees, she felt as though she were somewhere in the middle of the pack as far as qualifications went. There were scientists working here she had never met, who had been published in every month of every trade journal she subscribed to. There were also scientists who had spoken at every conference she had ever heard of.
 

Most of all, however, Dr. Torres enjoyed her position in the company. While she was certainly not the most tenured, nor the most esteemed scientist in the building, she knew that the only way she could improve was by challenging herself. World renowned or not, working somewhere where you were only a number among many other numbers caused you to strive for more than you thought you were capable of. Most days, Dr. Torres felt this way. It was the reason she had come so far in her career, and it was the reason she was not slowing down yet.

She grabbed a stack of papers and the small petri dish from the table and carried them down the hall to her office. Charlie had affixed a lid on the Petri dish and taped it shut, complete with a label signifying what the sample contained.

Unknown s.248
— sample 248.
 

The viral/bacterial infection that she’d been sent to study.
 

When she arrived back at her office, she placed the sample on the far wall next to her personal microscope kit and took the report to her desk. She placed it on the stack of papers that were spread over her desk, careful not to cause any to fall to the floor. She moved a few styrofoam cups and plastic takeout trays to the trash next to her chair and sat down in front of her computer.
 

Her email application was still front and center on the screen. She clicked on the last email she’d received and replied.

>To: Harvey ‘Ben’ Bennett

>From: Diana Torres

>Subject: Re:

>Body: I think we’ve figured part of this out. report attached; p-protected. use my bdate with his first name.

miss you. are you ok?

She read through the email to make sure it included the attachment and the information he would need. She was still surprised by the recipient, though not as overwhelmed as she had been when she’d first heard from him.

It must be more than ten years
, she thought. She couldn’t actually remember the last time they’d spoken on the phone. Still, it was amazing to hear from him. These weren’t exactly the best of circumstances, but she knew that if he was contacting her, it must be something important.

Just then, she heard footsteps coming down the hallway. Was Charlie coming back?
 

No
, she thought,
Charlie was wearing sneakers all day.
These footsteps were clearly made by either a heeled woman’s shoe or a man’s dress shoe. Her ears perked up as she listened to the sound, now growing louder.

It lacked the purposeful quickness of a woman in high heels, and it seemed heavier.
Who was visiting her?

She knew for a fact that no one else on her floor was currently in. After three or four trips to and from the lab on the fourth level, she could tell in a quick glance up and down the hallway that there were no other lights on besides her own.

The footsteps continued toward her open door. She stood up from the computer, forgetting about the email for a moment and turning toward the door.

Just as she turned, a man entered the space inside the door frame.

“Dr. Torres?” The man asked. His voice was raspy; not quite that of a lifelong smoker, but one that seemed tired or weary with age.

She nodded.

The man stepped in and took a long, slow glance around.

“Can I help you?” Dr. Torres asked.

The man’s eyebrows abruptly lifted, as if he had forgotten that he shared the room with another occupant. “Ah, yes. Dr. Torres, it’s great to meet you.” He extended his right hand forward. She reluctantly reached for it and allowed him to grasp it. His hand completely consumed hers, though he did not squeeze tightly. “I’m here from the CDC, which, as you know, is currently operating in a crisis mode.”

“Well, I — I didn’t exactly know that,” Dr. Torres said, still caught off guard. “Do you mean the explosion at Yellowstone?” Charlie had filled her in about the day’s events when he’d arrived hours ago, but she still hadn’t checked for an update.

The man smiled. He retracted his hand and placed it in his pants pocket.
 

“Yes, in fact, that is exactly why I’m here.”

22

THE MAN CONTINUED TO EXPLAIN, both hands now in his pockets. “We’re following this thing as well; trying to stay ahead of it.”
 

“Well, do you know what it is?” Dr. Torres asked. She sat back down in her desk chair and swiveled to face him.

“We’re guessing it’s some sort of bacteriophage; T4, Coliphage, something like that.” He motioned to a chair. She nodded once, and the man pulled it out and sat. “But the lab results haven’t come in yet. That’s why I’m here. I wanted to know if you’d figured anything out yet.”

Dr. Torres frowned. “How did you know I was working on it?”
 

The man smiled. “The package that was delivered. A colleague of yours received it and sent it to you, but was prudent enough to document your research and testing phases as well.”

Charlie,
she thought. She frowned in anger, then remembered that her assistant had only been doing his job. All of the lab techs and assistants at the company had been instructed to keep a record of any and all testing done on-site on any materials that could be considered “potential threats.” While she’d wanted to keep their work quiet until she could prepare a final report, she hadn’t considered asking Charlie to bypass this security step.
 

“It’s okay, Dr. Torres. This type of thing happens all the time. You don’t want to make any mistakes in the research phases and potentially damage your career. Even if you
had
kept this one hidden from us, I’m not here to reprimand you.”
 

“Okay,” Dr. Torres said. “May I ask why you
are
here?”
 

“Information,” the man said without hesitation. “Like I said, we need to keep ahead of this one, especially it’s some sort of bacter—”

“It’s not.”
 

“I beg your pardon?”
 

“It’s not a bacteriophage,” Dr. Torres said. “Actually, it’s exactly the opposite.”
 

“What do you mean? The symptoms we’re seeing in patients suggests that it is some sort of bacterial-viral combination.”
 

“Well, you’re right about that,” Dr. Torres said, turning around in her chair and opening a file on her computer. “It’s bacterial
and
viral, but not in the sense of a bacteriophage. Rather than a virus attacking and piercing a bacteria, we’ve recognized the exact opposite. A bacterial infection within a larger virus.”
 

The man stood up and began pacing the office. Dr. Torres chose to continue.
 

“It’s a standard form of a spirillum bacteria, only crammed inside the shell of another body. I’ve never seen anything like it before, really. It’s quite ama—”

The man spun on his heel. “And who else has been working on this project with you?” he asked.
 

“J — just my assistant, Charlie Furmann.”
 

“I see. And do you have the sample here with you?”
 

Dr. Torres fidgeted in her chair, suddenly feeling uncomfortable. Her eyes flicked to the test tube on the table, then quickly back to the man. “I’m sorry — can I ask again why you’re here?”
 

The man had already begun moving to the table. He reached down and grabbed the small glass vial just as Dr. Torres stood up from the chair.
 

“Hey! Excus—” The man held the tube away from Dr. Torres with his right hand and lifted his left arm. He swatted the back of his hand at Dr. Torres’ face, catching her just below her left eye.
 

Dr. Torres stumbled backwards, stunned. Tears began forming in her eyes as she gasped. The man continued moving, now reaching into his pants pockets and removing a pair of latex gloves. In one fluid motion, the man inserted his hands into the gloves and walked to the small lab sink.