2022 (14 page)

“What did they have you learning today?” Hope
asked Diane.

“All about making that,” Diane said, pointing
to the steak on Olivia’s plate.

“Making it? Don’t you mean raising animals
for it?” Hope asked.

“No, I mean actually making it. There’s a
small section set aside in the greenhouse next to the bug farm. It
has machines that will be making synthetic meat.” She laughed at
Hope’s horrified expression.

“I knew about the bug farm, but synthetic
meat? Why?”

“There’s no livestock here, and this is
another source of protein to provide variety. They’re also using it
as one of the delivery mechanisms for the brain-booster drug—the
one that’s supposed to make all of us psychic. All the ingredients
for both the synthetic meat and the drug will be coming from
Olivia’s lab.”

Olivia shrugged, “Yeah, we’re going to do
that, but I don’t believe in the psychic stuff.”

Diane recalled several episodes in her life
that she couldn’t explain, one as recently as her handling the
business card of the insurance agent. “Haven’t either of you ever
experienced déjà vu, or had a dream that later became a
reality?”

Hope and Olivia looked at each other and
shook their heads. “That kind of stuff isn’t possible, and people
who claim it as truth are nuts,” Hope said unapologetically. Olivia
nodded in agreement.

“I guess,” Diane said. She was reluctant to
let them to think she was crazy.
I know they’re wrong whether or
not I can prove anything.

Wanting to change the subject, Diane then
told them about an episode that she had about a week ago when she
was working on laying out water and power lines to future building
sites and ran a set in the wrong location.

“Where did you run it to?” Olivia asked.

“Close to the town center, it is actually a
nice building spot, just not on the plans for the future layout of
Percipience.” Diane was about to tell them that she
knew
that there would be construction there one day even if the plans
did not call for it and then realized that this was just another
example of the paranormal.
Maybe I am going crazy.

Spencer felt happy to be back in civilization
though he was pretty sure that he would be planning another trip to
Percipience to see Olivia again soon. He had left there yesterday
afternoon and then took a red-eye flight back to the East-Coast.
After landing, he ran a few errands and then made his way to the
DIR office.

“Well, look who’s here!” Sue said. He dropped
his backpack beside his desk.

“You can lose the act. We’re not being
monitored.”

“Who’s acting? And as I told you earlier, we
are
always
being monitored. In fact, I got a call from our
security team yesterday. They found out that you sent encrypted
messages from your phone the other day. What’s that about?”

“Jeez! It was going to a few college friends
who were worried about me. I sent them a text when I was being
released at the foundation. Sorry—I did the encryption by
accident.”

“Yeah, that’s what I figured, and I vouched
for you, but I won’t do it again. You may think you’ve had a rough
time, but it’s nothing compared to the hours that this office has
put in during the past few weeks.”

“Why? What’s been happening?”

She described the increasing tension among
several countries. “Including our own. East versus West—and in the
past few days a few of the smaller countries ruled by dictators
have gotten into the fight. Everyone is blaming someone else for
fudging numbers, or for supporting the CURE group and their recent
threat.”

“How does this impact us?” he asked.

“Rising tensions demand closer control of
information flow. We’ve been working around the clock adjusting
data customs parameters and increasing our surveillance of rogue
sites not following the rules. The whole thing is a bloody shame
because the majority of the data flow is for personal use or for
good, like the scientists working on global climate change
research. But now, with increased restrictions, international
cooperation is being shut down.”

“I’m sure you’ve left me
some
work to
do on that,” Spencer said. “But I also need to tell you about the
village that the Pleasant Belief Foundation is setting up. It’s
vast—and there are three more of them around the world.”

“I have not had a chance yet to read the
report that you sent last night. What do you think is so special
about them?”

“Two things,” he said. “The first is that
they’re getting ready to be self-contained. They’re running under
the guise of experimental sustainable living. But I think there’s
much more to it.” He handed her a metal cylinder, glass vial, and
thumb drive. “I found these while I was there but didn’t mention
them in my report because I wasn’t sure what they are. The data
file on the thumb drive talks about a virus but then gets into a
bunch of micro biology detail that I didn’t understand.”

She saw the hazardous-goods label on the
cylinder and handled it carefully. “A virus?”

“From that label and the biohazard symbols,
it looks like they’ve designed an exceptionally lethal virus, and I
think the glass bottle holds the vaccine. There was a whole crate
of them in a lab up there, and I grabbed a sample.”

“You’ve got to be kidding,” she said. “Why
would they do that? I’ll send this down to the Center for Disease
Control lab and have them test it. Richard lied to me. He told me
there was nothing sinister going on there. I need to have a long
chat with him. By the way—good job, Spencer.”

She returned to her desk after arranging for
the samples to be sent out and read Spencer’s report and then gave
him
the gaze
until he looked up at her. “This report of
yours on Percipience and the colonies isn’t too bad. I’ll forward
it to a few departments. It’ll add fuel to the growing number of
groups interested in seeing an end to this foundation. If we can
confirm the cylinder contains what we think it does, that will be
the nail in their coffin.”

She pulled out a folder from a stack of
files. “Which brings me to your next assignment. You can start
pulling your weight around here instead of gallivanting around the
countryside.

“Something to do with the data related to the
CURE threat?”

“Well, there’s not a lot we can do there
though we have had several requests to try. CURE was smart and for
its latest threat picked data points that are hard to be
manipulated and are widely published. Things like new home sales,
same store sales figures for major retail outlets, number of tons
of coal mined and new car sales. But a side effect of this whole
thing is a heightened awareness of environmental issues. One of the
areas that we now have several requests for is information on
subsidence of land due to the increased use of ground water.”

“Subsidence of land?”

“Underground reservoirs of water support the
land above them. If these reservoirs are not constantly
replenished, or have the water pumped out too quickly for city or
irrigation use, the land above them sinks.”

“Sounds simple, but not that important.
What’s the big push?”

“Two reasons that I’m told,” she said. The
first is that several major coastal cities apparently are sinking
at a rate of a few inches per year. The second is that inland,
especially where there’s significant irrigation, land has dropped
in places by more than twenty feet. This all involves huge costs as
underground sewers, water lines, overpasses, roadways and canals
don’t handle sinking land well. Several government departments are
pointing fingers at one another, and we need to figure out what the
facts are, like how much water is pumped and what it’s used
for.”

“I never realized that this was such a
problem,” Spencer said. “I’ve heard about global climate change and
the sea levels rising slowly, but this is much more dramatic for
those coastal cities. Does this have to do with the recent draught
back in 2020 and 2021 where some of the irrigation wells were
running dry?”

“That’s part of it. The draught before that,
from 2012 through 2015, was the one that caused major damage in
several countries. Farmers were pretty much allowed to drill as
many wells as they wanted, and there were no controls in place on
how much water they could pump.”

He promised to gain as much information as
possible and to keep track of the cylinders that were on their way
to the CDC.
I’m very interesting in finding out more on
those.

******************

Mikhail watched Olivia on his security
monitor.
What’s she doing in there?
She was working in the
Biohazard Four area of the lab downstairs. He hadn’t been able to
find a reason to refuse the request for lab-time. So far, she had
done nothing unusual, but he couldn’t think of a reason for her
being in that area.

He walked briskly from his office to the lab.
She wore her protective suit as she worked. He leaned into the
microphone.

“Olivia! What are you working on?”

She paused for a moment then lifted her head
and looked in his direction. “I’m testing some of the vaccines we
have in storage here. It wasn’t stored properly and I think that
this batch is ruined.”

“Let me see.”

She hit the switch on the electron microscope
to turn on the monitor outside the biohazard area. He studied the
image and could see the vaccine cells were ruptured.

“You’re right—this is no good.”

“I’ll need to spend a few more weeks here to
create a new batch. With the Virtuesh project over and all of my
assistants gone now, I need to do it myself.”

She’s up to something, and I know just the
way to keep an eye on her.
“Fine. With things slower now, there
are plenty of suites available right here on the complex. Why don’t
you stay in one of them instead of going to and from your
apartment? It would surely save time.”

“Sure, I can do that,” she said realizing
that this was not a suggestion She waited for several minutes after
he left before switching the slides under the microscope.
I’m
glad I prepared that fake slide.

Richard was furious, “How could they’ve found
out?” he bellowed into the phone.

“I’m trying to find out,” Mikhail said,
hoping he sounded more assuring than he felt. “I called you as soon
as I learned that the CDC possessed a Virtuesh sample.” He had been
alerted by several hits from the DIR and the CDC on the fake
Virtuesh website in the last few days.

“This was one of your highest priorities,
Mikhail, to make sure this whole virus thing would be kept quiet.
You assured me it wouldn’t be a problem.”

Mikhail insisted he had gone to extreme
lengths to ensure that no word of Virtuesh could reach beyond a
small group of people. “I don’t know how it happened, or how they
got a sample. They don’t even know what it is yet, and it’ll take
them several weeks to figure it out. I still may have a chance to
do something about it.” He heard Richard’s grunting sound.

“Do whatever you need to do. If they figure
out what it is, they’ll shut down everything. We’ve had enough
problems this last month, and I don’t want anymore,” he said, then
hung up the phone.

Mikhail heard the click and knew that Richard
was very upset.
And he should be.
If only he knew, I’m
even more worried than he is.
He called Hope.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

“We have a problem. It looks like our friends
from the DIR and CDC have somehow gotten hold of a sample of the
virus.”

“How the hell did that happen?”

“Who knows? I started to see hits on the
dummy website a few days ago. Then I got in touch with a friend of
mine at the CDC, and she confirmed they have a sample of the
original strain. She saw one of our virus cylinders at their lab.
Olivia came down here at the same time. I am guessing that it was
her who gave them the sample.”

“What a mess. What are we going to do?”

He said his first concern was calming Richard
and delaying the lab findings. “After that, I really don’t
care.”

She exhaled loudly with relief. “For a minute
I thought you might ask me to break into the CDC lab and steal it
back. But slowing their investigation should be simple. They need
to be distracted by something more important.”

“Such as?”

“Test the original strain on random groups
throughout the country. That will create public fear, and they’ll
drop everything to look into it, at least for a while.”

“That’s brilliant!”

“Do you want me to take care of it?”

“No. You haven’t been given the vaccine yet
and I don’t want you to take the risk. There are only a few people
who have been vaccinated, and I’m one of them. I need to visit the
other villages anyhow, so I’ll do it over the next few days.”

She expressed her concern about Richard’s
reaction. “I’m assuming he’s going ballistic right now.”

“That sums it up well. I just got off of the
phone with him and was thinking of saying we’d break into the lab
and swap the sample with something not lethal.”

“Sounds credible enough.”

“I don’t know. I think this should work out
all right.” Following their conversation, thoughts crowded into his
head.
Now I just have to make sure that Richard holds it
together. I can’t have him meddling around here. After this month,
the last piece of news could break him.

********************

The month had not gone well for the Pleasant
Belief Foundation. Government officials outlined a list of laws and
regulations that the colonies were breaking: child-labor laws,
barter laws, discrimination laws, regulations on tracking and
reporting guests, and using illegal surveillance equipment were
some of the charges brought. Richard felt convinced there were
several groups behind this concentrated effort. Until now, they had
been operating with no complaints. His legal team went through the
list, and by the time they were done with their recommendations
Richard realized that if he complied with all of then, he would be
left running a cheap housing unit, which defeated the whole
purpose. Seeing no practical solution to the problem, he gave the
directive to start shutting down both colonies and to have them
closed within the next six months.