The Fair & Foul (Project Gene Assist Book 1) (26 page)

Juliane felt her throat begin to close. It suddenly felt like there were bags of sand in her lungs, holding her down, preventing her from drawing a full breath. A piece of the mental wall chipped away as an image of Betty on a hospital bed flooded her mind. Her ears rang with the distinctive sound of a monitor's flat-line alarm. Pieces of the last few days and Betty's final words came rushing back.

Chad caught Juliane as she staggered, causing the coffee cup to spill onto the floor.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

Juliane's head pounded as she struggled to stand up again, but as quickly as the headache's onset began, it faded away to something like the pins-and-needle tingle of a limb allowed to fall asleep. Chad's arm shifted under hers. Juliane pushed herself away. The vision of Betty in the bed remained behind her mind's eye, but it was muted. Like a dream. Colors were grayer. Details blurred. It was almost as if she hadn't even been in the room with her at all.

"Sorry about that. I must have slipped," she answered.

Chad scanned her face. "Are you sure?"

"Betty told me that you might have some of her research material.” Juliane changed the subject.

Chad’s face tightened. “She isn’t going to be asking for it herself, is she?”

Juliane shook her head, unable to voice the words.

Chad’s shoulders crumpled, sending a few papers to the floor where they landed dangerously close to the coffee spill. As they both bent down to pick them up, Chad whispered, “Come to my apartment later tonight.”

When they were both standing once again, Chad spoke at regular volume, “Nadia is going to be so upset that she didn’t get to see you.”

“You two are still together?" Juliane tried to smile, but her lips refused to turn up. "I’m happy to hear that. Have you made it official yet?”

Chad shook his head. “Nothing formal yet, but that’s her choice. She knows I will be ready to take that step whenever she is.”

Juliane suppressed the urge to sigh. She wasn’t surprised at all that Chad was content to wait for the lady to do the proposing. As much as she used to think Nadia treated her assistant like a doormat, she now could see he had always needed someone strong and opinionated. Chad smiled, and for a moment, Juliane wondered what it might have been like if their relationship had ever taken a romantic turn.

Chad glanced down at his wrist. “You wear a watch now?” she asked, stunned. Not only was it a watch, but it was an antiquated analog version.

“Well, you were always the one reminding me about how late I always was. Nadia, apparently, thought the same. She gave me her grandfather’s watch a few Christmases ago. I find there is something nice about knowing that its sole function is to tell time and only requires a few spinning gears.”

“But it’s just so . . . so . . . unnecessary.”

“Perhaps, but every now and then, I’ve found it to be nice to do things the old fashioned way.” Chad glanced down at his wrist again and blanched. “Unfortunately, bad habits are hard to break. I really have to run these papers over to the team I am working with now. They have me running simulations on extreme climate change. Did you know that the Sahara went from green to a desert in a flash?”

“How thrilling for you. Do you think anyone will mind if I stick around the building a little longer?”

Chad hesitated in mid-stride. “I don’t know if that's the best idea. If the wrong person saw you, who knows how they might react."

As Juliane made her way back to her car, she tried to call Stuart to see if the factory had sent in any further report. However, each time she attempted to instigate the call, she would be hit with another wave of vertigo. She decided that she would find a place to rest while she waited for the business day to end and Chad to return home.
There has to still be a few cafes nearby.
She could not remember the last time she ate.

Rose light from the setting sun blanketed the parking lot as Juliane arrived at Chad's address. The apartment was located in a complex about twenty minutes away from the campus. It was a nice enough space, a definite step up from traditional student housing, with well-manicured common areas and clean lines.

Juliane spotted movement from one of the upper balconies. A short minute later, Nadia emerged, gesturing her inside while holding a finger to her lips.

“Why the whole cloak-and-dagger routine?” asked Juliane as the door closed behind her.

“Chad should be here in the next few minutes. I'll let him explain.”

Nadia fidgeted under Juliane’s glare. “He shouldn’t be too much longer. Would you like me to make up some tea while we wait?”

Chad let himself into the apartment just as the kettle began its whistle. Nadia poured the steaming liquid into a pair of cups. To Chad she said, “It’s a beautiful night. I think I will go out for a bit while you two have a chance to get reacquainted.” Without waiting for a response, she leaned over to kiss Chad briefly before grabbing her purse off the counter and departing.

“So what's with all the secrecy?” Juliane asked.

“Betty did tell you what she was working on, right?”

“She explained her theory to me.”

Chad paused before taking a quick sip of his tea. “And you think she was paranoid?”

Juliane left her cup on the end table and sat down on the couch across from Chad. “I am not as convinced that the situation is that dire. Alan would never design something he couldn't control." There was something else she needed to remember. Something else Betty wanted her to do.
What was it?

Chad placed his teacup back on the countertop with care. “Betty seemed to think that was exactly what he did.”

Pressure began to build behind Juliane's temples.
Not another headache,
she thought. It was harder to think straight when all she wanted to do was lie down. She needed something tangible to focus on.
The teacup.
“Maybe she allowed their marital problems to influence her opinion.”

Chad shook his head. “That was my initial thought as well when she first discussed her theory with me, but think about it this way. What if what might appear to the rest of the world as a careless mistake wasn’t so careless?"

“You mean, what if he purposely designed the virus to mutate so that he could intentionally put the entire population at risk?”

“Exactly.”

Chad handed Juliane a small metallic keychain fob. "Betty asked me to give you this."

It didn't look like much. It was just a small tube of plastic connected to an empty key ring with some unknown company's name printed on it. She turned the fob over and noticed a break in the material. On a hunch, she pulled at the plastic. A portion of the device broke away, exposing a contact plate. It was one of those old throwaway flash drives. No one used those devices anymore. Juliane closed her fist around the exposed metal surface. Immediately, a command prompt appeared behind her mind’s eye, followed by a series of ones and zeroes. She issued a quick command, and the data packets were transformed into large high-definition photos of Betty’s son in various poses.

Chad looked at her expectantly. Juliane shrugged and opened the next file.

File after file had been more of the same. Juliane began to uncurl her fist; Betty must have given Chad the wrong storage drive by mistake. Another wave of vertigo hit, and Juliane ground her teeth in frustration as she sank further into Chad’s couch. When the room finally stopped spinning, Juliane noticed a framed picture placed on a nearby end table. Alan was behind a podium presenting something unclear while Chad and Betty looked on from the sidelines.

The shot must have been taken shortly after Juliane had left the team to join Damien’s group. Chad looked embarrassed to be in the spotlight while Betty looked positively aglow; her eyes were locked on Alan with rapt attention.

Juliane's headache made it feel as if her brain were being torn in two. She felt a pain that was almost electric run down her spine, breaking her connection with the device. Juliane ground her teeth.
There has to be something on this drive worth all this trouble
, she thought. She clenched her fist again, and the files immediately reloaded. Once again, Juliane saw image after image of a young boy. His pale gray-blue eyes shone in the sunlight, carefree and happy. His eyes mirrored Betty's in shape, although his were a different color, but Betty's son was two. This boy was clearly a few years older.

There was something about the eyes. They just seemed wrong. On a whim, Juliane sent a command to change his iris color so that they would truly match Betty's. A few pixels in the image shifted. She adjusted the hue by a few points. Suddenly, the photo in her mind dissolved and was replaced by documents detailing out research notes and equations. Juliane sucked in her breath as the balance of files were decrypted. Another piece of the mental wall chipped away.

She glanced at Chad, and her brow wrinkled as she attempted to make sense of the scrolling data.

“Well?”

“I'm not sure, but I think I am looking at a basic radiant energy transformation equations. But if that's what it is, why go to all the trouble of encrypting the formula?" The pictures dissolved, and Juliane felt lightheaded as the pressure of her headache eased. She blinked several times as Chad's face came back into focus.

“She stopped by here a few nights ago in a panic. I tried to get her to tell me what the matter was, but all she would say was that I was to give that to you and only you. You know how Betty used to always want us to go out to celebrate this, that, or another thing?”

Juliane nodded, the corner of her lip turning up at the mention of the memory.

“She was like that. Except not like that at all." Chad shook his hands. "Ugh. How to explain it . . . It was as if she had all the same intensity, but all the life had been drained away.”

Juliane thought back to Betty’s fierce reaction at the office when she had told her that she wouldn’t be able to help. Betty had seemed like an animal backed into a corner.

“She looked awful, though," continued Chad. "I asked her if she wanted me to call Alan to come and get her, but all she would say was that she had already been away too long and had to get back." Chad picked his cup up and took another sip. "She looked terrified." He stared into his mug as if reading tea leaves. "I hate to say anything, but you look a little like that too.”

Juliane traced her finger around the rim of her teacup, the file drive still clutched firmly in her other hand. “I've been under a bit of stress recently, but I was there, Chad. I was at the hospital when she died." Juliane sighed. "Alan wasn't. She had a bad reaction to the drugs the doctors gave her. It was a tragedy, not a conspiracy.”

Chad jumped up. “I'm sorry, but I think you are wrong.”

“Why?" Juliane allowed herself a half smile. "Because you think Alan is an egotistical maniac?”

“Well, you have to agree he does have more than the average ego.” Chad began to pace around the room.

“True, but that doesn’t automatically mean that he is planning genocide.” Chad spun to face her.

The door burst open, and Nadia came running in. Whatever Chad was going to say was lost in her entrance. “I know I promised you that I would let you have your meeting in private, but you have to see what is on the news,” she pleaded.

Chad pressed a small button located on the wall, and a piece of artwork hanging nearby transitioned into a video display. Juliane toggled on her own newsfeeds in her mind to run as a supplement to the images on the screen.

“Any particular channel?” Chad asked Nadia.

“He’s on all of them.”

The screen showed the exterior of the same hospital where Juliane had been not long ago. Louis sat in a wheelchair near a makeshift podium, supported on one side by a team of doctors dressed in the traditional white lab coats. Each stood straight, unafraid of the camera. Another man dressed in a sharply tailored business suit stood by Louis’s other side. Juliane assumed this man must have replaced Durham in the role of go-to lackey.

The cameras zoomed in onto the man’s face in anticipation of an official statement. The man said a few words, explaining that Louis was in recovery and would not be taking any questions. The cameras panned over to Louis as he struggled to rise from his seat. He looked terrible in both senses of the word. He was bandaged and braced, with gray skin and several bruises, but his eyes shown with fierce determination. His knuckles turned white as they clutched the podium, and his lips twisted in pain. Had the caption not clearly identified the man as Louis, Juliane might not have recognized him. It appeared as if the man Juliane knew as Louis might have perished in the accident after all.

“As many of you have undoubtedly heard by now, I was involved in an accident that so tragically took the life of my beautiful wife, Elena. We as a society have become too trusting in our acceptance of technology. I was too trusting. We have ignored the fact that our devices are only as smart as the person who writes the code. We have allowed programs which we do not fully understand to run in the background alongside critical systems. Fifty years ago, society was afraid that the machines would rise one day to enslave humanity. That day came about years ago. There was no war, we went willingly, and I, I have been their biggest recruiter. No longer. From today on, I am redirecting my company and all of its available resources into reclaiming our independence. Elena, in life, was my sun. She made every day brighter with her presence. In death, may she serve as a beacon of hope for others.”

"He's lost his mind," mumbled Nadia. "Poor man."

Louis let go of the podium. One of the doctors moved as if to reposition the wheelchair closer. Louis waved him away, and after an initial tentative step, he left the conference. Several reporters shouted questions, but the man in the tailored suit waved them away before following Louis. Not having much else to focus on, the camera stayed fixed on the empty wheelchair Louis left behind.

The newsfeeds returned back to stunned anchormen and women who offered their own opinions on what had and hadn’t been said. One group speculated that Louis was only suggesting that there needed to be more emphasis on consumer education; another group believed that Louis had just declared war on the very products that had built his family’s fortune.