Extinction Level Event (38 page)

Krishnan stood in stunned silence, listening to the
man's twisted rationale. Even though there were many aspects of
Medina's rant that Krishnan reluctantly agreed with, it was obvious
that the man had gone completely haywire. He glanced at Onassis,
who was merely silently contemplating the man sitting at the chair
in front of him, no less defiant than before his admission of
guilt. Suddenly, Onassis snaps- "Get him out of here.", growling
angrily. Two of the FBI officers snap to attention and line
themselves behind Medina, one producing a pair of handcuffs. Medina
refuses to give his hands, which leads to the officers forcefully
grabbing his hands and placing them in the metal handcuffs. Locking
the cuffs together, the officers get Medina to stand upright and
escort him, now more willingly, out of the room. Onassis grabs a
swiveling chair from the conference table, moves towards the window
and plops himself on it. He face seems much wearier and older than
it was only two months ago when Krishnan first met him.

"What do you think?" he asks Krishnan
conversationally. "Insane", replies Krishnan. "Totally insane. How
did he pass a basic psychological examination? Let alone be
assigned as divisional chief in this facility?" "According to his
medical files, he had no psychological problems. None that he
disclosed, it seems. He was a very focused and proficient
researcher and leader." "He could be covering for someone else.",
warns Krishnan, debating the plausibility of the entire plan being
carried out by Medina alone. "Its possible," agrees Onassis, "which
is the Defense Department is going to be thoroughly debriefing
everyone employed here at NBACC, as well as going through their
records again. They may be worried about other security concerns as
well, now that we have already discovered this major one." "What
are we going to do with him?" "I don't know. That is really up to
the Justice Department to decide. So it's up to the Attorney
General, although due to the spread to many countries I'm sure
there will be many who will be calling for his extradition. That is
the State Department's responsibility." "Konovalov was fairly close
to him, yet didn't sense anything wrong or out of the ordinary. I
doubt that anyone else would have been able to predict his move."
"Most likely not.", agrees Onassis monotonously. "Sometimes people
that we think we know so well will do things so completely out of
sync with their perceived character that their motives will be
known only to themselves, and understood by no one else, including
those considered to be their closest friends," he muses.

Krishnan takes a seat. The only consolation to the
past week's events to him is now that the world would know the real
reason behind the extinction of the earthworms, and that countries
would hopefully now put aside their accusations and cease
finger-pointing the blame at each other. Some cases, such as
several countries in the Middle East as well as India and Pakistan,
had drawn notoriety for the ridiculousness of some of the
governments' claims.

"You should be heading back to LA," comments the
Secretary off-handedly, "I'm leaving for Washington, with the
doctor. " "I will be, soon. However, I will be taking copies of Dr.
Medina's research diary as well as all the files from Project
Deniability that he kept labeled as
Above Top Secret
. I
think that may help me and my team understand every little change
that Medina made to the
Stomatitus
virus in order to produce
EWK-1. Finally, it may help with one last idea that myself and
Konovalov discussed prior to his arrest. Speaking of which, is he
to be released? He is an invaluable addition to our team, and
frankly I think that significant progress has been delayed due to
his absence."

"I'll see to it personally that Dr. Konovalov is
released immediately and is sent on his way to UCLA.", replies
Onassis, standing up from his chair. "I have to get back to
Washington.", he excuses himself and heads out the door. Krishnan
follows shortly thereafter, heading towards the trio of elevators
in the middle of the building. Taking the elevators to the second
subterranean basement floor, he walks out and heads towards Dr.
Medina's lab. Taking Medina's entry card out of his breast pocket,
Krishnan swipes the card onto the scanning machine next to the
lab's sliding bulletproof glass doors. A small green light along
the scanner lights up, and the doors hiss open. Krishnan steps into
the sterile environment of Medina's laboratory, one of the highest
tech bio-defense labs in the world. The dimly lit room suddenly
lights up as the motion sensors kick in response to his presence.
Krishnan is surrounded by a world of multimillion dollar
microscopes and molecular modeling supercomputers. Krishnan walks
over to the baseline computer terminal and logs on. A triple
password soon appears, which is quickly followed by a log-on sign.
After finding out about Medina's treachery, Krishnan requested that
the NBACC Software and Network Security department remove all
passwords from Dr. Medina's system in order to have access.
Krishnan beings to download all of the Project Deniability files
from Medina's computer onto a removable hard drive, and
subsequently e-mails the smaller files and images to himself. With
that task complete, Krishnan shuts down the computer and takes one
last look around before leaving the laboratory.

Beep. . . Beep. . . Manjak wakes up to the sound of a
slow pulsating bleep. Looking around, he finds himself surrounded
by life systems monitors, defibrillators, IV bags, and blank
whitewashed walls. He realizes that he is in an intensive care
unit. The beeping sound that seemingly awoke him is coming from the
heart-rate monitoring system, where the graph keeps going up and
down with each of his heartbeats.
I'm alive
. The joyous yet
emotionally draining feeling sinks in. Blinking, he tries to piece
back together the last several events that happened before he lost
consciousness. Quickly, he remembers the frightening helicopter
crash and ensuing firefight and brushes the thoughts out of his
head. Taking another closer look, he sees several IV tubes
connected to his right forearm, as well as the other patient lying
three meters away in an adjacent bed. The other patient is reading
a book.

"Hey", Manjak tries to start a conversation with his
fellow bed-ridden colleague, "What book are you reading?" "The man
lowers the book, also taking notice that the patient next to him
has awoken. Dark tousled hair over rugged face shows a face "Of
Crime and Punishment. I've always wanted to read it. Never got the
chance to, though." "Now would be a good time, I suppose.", replied
Manjak. "I hope we can get out of here soon." "They told me my leg
should heal within two months. I don't know about you. Sir." "You
could leave the formalities behind. Trip is fine." "John.", answers
the man.

Before they could continue the conversation, the
front door opens and a young, twenty-something nurse walks into the
room, carrying a telephone. "Welcome back, Dr. Manjak. She's been
calling for the past twenty-four hours." "Who?", asks Manjak. "Your
wife", replies the nurse. "How long have I been out?", asks Manjak,
worried and curious. "Three days", replies the nurse, handing him
the phone, "You had a lot of blood loss and resulting hypoxia. It
took a while to stabilize after you went into stage 2 Hypovolemic
shock shortly after the EMTs brought you here." "I lost
consciousness before." "Because of the bullet's impact and physical
shock", answered the nurse, as she disconnected IV tubules from his
arms. "Hey honey," Manjak coughs into the phone, trying to sound as
smooth as possible. Despite his anxiousness to get out, he felt
very weak and, unlike his usual self, wasn't too keep on expending
energy talking. "Don't worry, I'm actually all right." "Oh dear,"
rasps Sofia at the other end of the line. "Its so good to hear you,
Trip". She stifles back tears, trying to control her sobbing. "We
were here, for two days, after we first heard the news . . . and
then they call us." She cries a little. "Its ok, honey, I'm fine.
Doctors say I'll be up and running in don't time. How are the kids
taking this?" "They've been so worried. But then, a few hours ago,
the hospital calls again and tells me over the phone that you
should recover, and that they hope you'll be awake soon. And all
the while my heart is breaking. . . " Manjak comforts her again, as
she cries tears of joy over phone. "You've been gone for so long. .
" "I'm here, baby. I'll be home soon, I promise. Tell that to Max
and Isabel. I'll be home soon."

"Ok. I'll tell them. Love you." "Love you too. "
Sofia hangs up.

Manjak, glad that now his Sofia is no longer worrying
constantly about his condition, grabs a bottle of
Dasani
water that the nurse placed on a table by his bed and drains it. It
is jubilantly refreshing. Next to the water bottle Manjak finds a
remote, which he uses to turn on the TV and flip through several
news channels. After finding C-SPAN showing Secretary Onassis in
front of a joint session of the US Senate Agriculture and Homeland
Security Committees, Manjak increases the volume to listen in onto
the proceedings. About ten minutes into the program, the door
swings open again, allowing a dozen people to pour in. Manjak
quickly recognizes McCarthy and Ramirez amongst the faces, while
the others include several city officials, police, and two
surgeons. McCarthy quickly smiles, handing him a printing of
yesterdays' newspaper, exclaiming, "Glad to see you're up again.
Read the front page." Ramirez adds, "A pleasure to see you up,
sir." "Thanks, Chief", Manjak grins weakly back, as he wrestles the
copy of the Los Angeles Times from McCarthy's hands. "What is this
special thing that you need me to read so quickly? I just got up
like ten minutes ago., and barely finished talking to my wife."
McCarthy and Ramirez simply grin in response. He scans the front
page.

Dr. Maurice Resigns as Head of FAO. Are you
serious?
The words leap at Manjak like a predatory cat does at
its prey. He continues reading, absorbing the suddenness of the
news.
Secretary-General Hartaagnaan Recommends immediate
promotion of Deputy Director Manjak to post, pending Well-being and
Recovery after Attack.
Wow. Damn. I have to get to Rome
ASAP. For both the family and the organization.
He sits up
straight in the bed. "I have to get to Rome ASAP. I need to get to
the airport." "Wait hold on.", the senior surgeon clasps his hand
onto Manjak's chest as Manjak tries to lift himself out of the bed,
"You're going nowhere, son." The elderly surgeon, who seems to be
approaching seventy-something, "you've lost a lot of blood,
experienced shock and been lying unconscious for three days. If you
think you can merely walk around this hospital, let alone put in
more 24/7 work in your organization, God bless you son, but that's
daydreaming. You should stay here at least five more days to
recover." "I can't. I'll recover better at home.", counters Manjak
half-heartedly.
He's right, and he's the expert,
Manjak
reminds himself.
This is your duty, Manjak.
"I'll stay for
two days." "Not enough," the old surgeon shakes his head. "Well, I
need to go. Is there Internet access or a phone around here."
"We'll get you that.", replies the surgeon. Two medical assistant
rove in and start pushing Manjak's bed through the room. Taking him
through the hallway, up two floors via elevator and into another
room the assistants leave Manjak by a table complete with lamp,
computer, and telephone. The surgeon follows, along with Ramirez
and McCarthy. "We have to go.", says McCarthy, "Busy day", as he
reaches for Manjak's hand, shaking it robustly. Manjak winces
slightly, trying not to show it. "It was a pleasure working with
you, sir. Good luck in Rome." "Likewise", agrees Ramirez. After
saying quick farewells the two men leave the room, leaving Manjak
with the internet humming to life while the gray-haired surgeon
lingers around still trying to convince him to stay longer.

Manjak reaches for the laptop, turning it on. First
he visits news sites around the world, browsing from
Novoe
Russkoe Slovo
, to
El Pais
and
Le Monde
to the
Washington Post
, catching up on the latest news around the
world. He then checks for airline flights to Rome. Finding a
connecting flight via London-Heathrow, he takes out his credit card
from his clothing piled on the table and pays the fare through the
airline's website.
Yes, I'm definitely going back to Rome
tomorrow
. He throws a brief glares at the surgeon's back before
hitting the "Pay and Confirm" web button.

10- NIGHT OF FIRE, NIGHT OF STEEL

City Hall, LA

Hours later, after the sun has long gone down,
McCarthy, Ramirez, and several hundred others are still on duty in
the towering heights of City Hall and adjacent buildings. The
building, illuminated by the many lights from the surrounding
structures of the central business district, produces a seeming
whitish-yellow haze. Much of the city is a source of the phenomenon
known as 'light pollution', a large accumulated haze of nighttime
light produced by millions of individual light-bulbs and
fluorescent lighting systems across the urban landscape. Some may
even mistake the 10:15pm local time for late dusk due to the high
quantity of light pollution emanating from the center of the city,
especially for those working in the upper floors of the CBD
buildings.

After the recent and highly publicized attack on the
relief convoy along Compton Road, the Mayor had declared a curfew
between the hours of 8:00pm and 8:00am. For the past two days
nightlife was cut down sharply, nightclubs and bars remained
closed, people stayed indoors, and in general there was little
activity in the streets. Violators were subject to immediate arrest
and prosecution. Naturally, in reaction to the curfew, a protest
was already being organized by grassroots organizations to be held
within a weeks' time.