Pandora's Succession (29 page)

“Not with the table napkin?”

“No, you got it wrong.” Parris dropped her hand by her side and continued laughing. “Just before Dewan attacked me we were talking about his sister, the one person in his family he was closest to. He said that she and I wore the same perfume. The smell of the perfume obviously held some deep sentiment for him, as the table napkin did for me.”

“But how come he attacked you? And why didn’t you go berserk and shoot me?”

“Two different situations. I was well under the effects of the drug when I saw the table napkin. Dewan was in the process of being brainwashed at the same time he smelled my perfume. There must’ve been some kind of mental conflict that caused him to rebel. The drug is even more powerful than we had originally conceived. Had I gone through more sessions, you might not have been as successful in breaking its effects on me so easily.”

“Too much conflict. The only way he knew how to deal with it was to attack you. A means of self-defense for the brain.”

“Exactly.”

“Do you think Marx knows this?”

“I don’t know, but I doubt it. Both she and Hashimoto have other things on their minds.”

“Like sending you out to kill me? They must be getting desperate, because the man you accidentally shot was posing as one of the escaped Boeisho agents Tanaka was hunting. He gave me false info about Pandora’s location, in order to lead me off course, so The Promise could make a clean getaway.”

“You weren’t first on my list. My main objective was to get Walsh. Ares stole the info I collected on Pandora and everything related to The Promise’s plans. I was supposed to kidnap Walsh and have him bring me to Ares where I would release the—oh Lord, it’s still on me!”

Parris reached into her inner breast pocket and took out a metallic container, the shape of a small cigarette box. She sighed with relief seeing that it was undamaged. “It’s fused shut. It can’t get out unless I smash it.”

“So I can breathe now?”

“Yeah. Walsh was supposed to bring me to meet members of Ares, and I was going to take them out with this.” Parris held the container for Fox to see. “But he tricked me and brought me to see you instead.”

“Yes, a meeting I had arranged with him after I took that imposter hostage.”

Fox saw Parris look at Walsh. “With Walsh and the ninja gone, how do we find Ares or Pandora?”

“Actually, Fox, it’s not a total loss. I have a copy of the files Walsh stole.”

“You do? Where?”

Parris looked down at her shoes and clicked her heels, reminding him of Dorothy in the
Wizard of Oz
. “I’ve got a disk. I’ve also learned more about Pandora—so much more that I think I might know a way to destroy it. It’s a long shot, but the possibility’s there.”

Fox smirked. “There’s a laptop in my car. We can look at what’s on the disc.” Fox walked over to Walsh’s body, grabbed his cell phone from inside his jacket, picked up the Sig which lay on the ground and then walked over to his car. He noticed that Parris ran back to hers.

“I almost forgot something,” she said. She climbed into the front seat and appeared to be searching for something in the glove compartment. When she got out, she had a syringe in her hand.

“What’s that for?”

“It’s for you. I think you might have been tagged.”

“I know—my watch was bugged. Walsh must’ve done it.”

“Yes, which would explain why Ares was able to track you all the way here, but it’s possible that you may have been tagged with a radioactive tracking isotope. It would’ve been done inconspicuously, so you better inject yourself with this just to be on the safe side.”

Fox took off his jacket and rolled up his shirtsleeve. Parris injected him in the arm, and he rolled his shirtsleeve back down and put his jacket back on.

“How fast will this work?”

“Very quickly.” Fox headed to his car while Parris went to the passenger side.

Fox got in and closed the door. “So how do we do it? How do we destroy Pandora?”

Parris pulled her door shut and grabbed the laptop from the backseat. “I have a theory. The new variant is engineered in a way as to not touch any other foreign proteins other than those found in humans. This leads me to believe that any non-human proteins might be poisonous to it. If I can produce a serum derived from non-human proteins, we might have ourselves a silver bullet.”

“Might?”

“Yes,
might
. I can only be sure once I’ve had the chance to test it. I have a sample of Pandora and its data, and now I have a laptop.”

Fox started up the engine. “I’m guessing we’re on our way to Hexagon.”

“How fast can you get us there?”

“Pretty damn quick.”

Chapter 30

Fox slammed on the breaks and blasted the horn as someone cut him off.

“Are you okay there?” Parris asked, grabbing the laptop before it was thrown off her lap.

Fox cut in on the inside lane to overtake the offensive driver. “I’m fine. So was I right about the Kamchatka bunker being a hoax?”

“Right you are. The real bunker is located on an island in the Sea of Japan. According to these notes, construction on the bunker in the early 1980s wasn’t even completed, but was left abandoned. Hexagon moved in to complete its construction.”

Fox hopped a lane. “Where exactly is the island?”

“I’m not checking that right now, I’m taking notes in order to make the serum.”

“How long will it take?”

“If all goes well, under an hour.”

“What about security?”

“We’ll use your makeshift keycard instead of mine. That should buy us some time. As for the rest, don’t look at the guards or the cameras. But you already knew that, right?” Parris answered with a smirk.

Fox glanced at her and then back at the traffic. “Of course I did.”

When they approached the security checkpoint at Hexagon, Parris flashed her employee pass while Fox flashed Levickis’s makeshift pass. The guard waved them through. Parris directed Fox to the parking lot of the East building.

Fox followed Parris down the elevators to the fourth basement floor, into the same testing laboratory where she had been earlier. She took two steps into the room and then stopped.

“What’s wrong?” Fox asked.

“This is where it happened, where—”

“Parris, stop.” Fox patted her lower back. “Stay focused.”

“Right.” She grabbed a lab jacket from one of the hooks near the entrance and put it on. “I’ll start working on the serum. Everything I need to make it is in this room. I just need you to hand me the tools and items as I work. Oh, and another thing. You should grab a lab coat, too.”

Fox obeyed her and took one. “Yes, ma’am.”

There were dozens of mice that were used for experiments kept in the laboratory. Both Parris and Fox had enough to extract blood samples to fill ten test tubes.

“That’s all we need for non-human proteins,” said Parris as she returned the last mouse to its cage. “What we have in here is similar to what’s found in some modern high-tech laboratories. Various chemical compounds and elements must be preserved in different environments with temperature and lighting control. Those chemicals are found in various rooms throughout this sub-basement. The concept is much like your typical candy vending machine. You put in your money, look at the code that’s listed under each candy, then you punch in the code on the keypad, and the chocolate bar drops off the shelf.”

Fox followed her to the computer workstation where she typed in her personal access code.

“Except in here, you order from this computer terminal. The difference is that you also have to specify the exact volume and concentrations. Based on the notes I read from the files, I’ve been able to compile a list of ingredients and their precise amounts needed to make the serum. I have them all written down on this piece of paper I took from the glove compartment.” She took the folded paper from her pocket and showed it to Fox. “I’ll order the first to show you how it’s done.” Parris demonstrated. Within a minute, a message flashed on the screen.
Compound ready. Please collect
.

She walked over to a corner, beside the isolation chamber, to a one-by-one-foot metal door located in the wall. She opened it and took out the corked Erlenmeyer flask from the conveyer belt.

“And to think that I spent three hours in chemistry lab class making compounds from scratch when I could‘ve done it here in half the time,” said Fox.

“Well, now’s your chance to spoil yourself. Gather all of the compounds on my list and be mindful of the specific volumes and masses I’ve indicated. They must be precise. I’ll set up the rest of the equipment.”

“Yes, Professor Parris,” Fox said sarcastically, with a smile.

Parris glanced back at him for a second before she shook her head.

They both started working.

“So tell me, Doctor...not to bring back any bad memories, but what was it like being on Clarity?”

Parris took a big breath as though she was in deep reflection.

“It’s scary thinking back on it. You don’t feel any different from how you are now. It’s just the way you think that’s different. It’s like anyone who’s gone through a brainwashing procedure, except this procedure’s more efficient than traditional methods. Clarity is remarkable, but in a negative sense.”

Those words instantly reminded Fox of when he first met Dr. Marx, especially when she described Pandora’s self-replication rate as wonderful. But Dr. Parris wasn’t the deranged woman Dr. Marx was.

“How’s it more efficient?” asked Fox.

“While under Clarity, and with the assistance of the chair, Marx’s words all meant something, the way she was able to make me go back and talk about traumatizing events in order to mold me into what she wanted, the way she used my previous experience with you to...” Parris immediately bit down as if to stop herself from saying another word, but it was too late, Fox already knew the rest of what she was about to say. Her head dropped, as she seemed to recognize that. She put the flask down on the counter in front of her, and she sighed. “I’m sorry.”

She had struck a nerve and Fox felt the sensation all the way up his spine.

“No, Dr. Parris. I’m the one who’s sorry.” Fox sighed now too, as he shook his head. “How about that. Marx made you talk about our brief relationship. She made you remember the pain and anger you felt when I stood you up and disappeared from your life. You agreed with her that your pain and troubles could be traced to those who’ve wronged you, including me. Now you’ve become the person you are because of me.”

“I’d rather not discuss it anymore. That’s the past. Let’s move on.”

“Agreed.”

A minute passed, but for some reason Fox still sensed that Parris was somewhat restless. Then again, he couldn’t let that distract him. But it was not long before he heard a glass smash on the floor. When he turned to look, he saw Parris staring at the broken beaker at her feet.

“Don’t worry, I’ll clean it up,” she said with a wave of her hand. She walked over to the corner, opened a closet door and took out a broom and dustpan.

As Fox listened to Parris sweeping up the glass, he got restless himself, knowing she wanted to say something else to him.
Keep working, this needs to be finished quickly. Oh who am I kidding?
He stopped what he was doing and looked at her, and before he could say anything, Parris began to unload herself.

“You called me Jessica.”

“What?”

“You referred to me as Jessica, back at the fish market.”

“I did?”

“Yes. It was right after you shot Walsh. You were slightly delirious.”

Fox thought back to when they were at the parking lot. The way she had looked at him as he held her, so reminiscent of the way Jessica had looked at him on the stretcher in his dream. Could he have been thinking of Jessica that whole time?

“Oh, that’s nothing. It runs in the family. Kind of like how an aunt or uncle means to call you by your name but ends up calling you by your brother or sister’s name. It was that sort of thing.” Fox laughed hesitantly. He didn’t want to talk about Jessica right now, and the only way to avoid the subject was to pretend it didn’t exist. But he saw that Parris wasn’t buying any of it.
Who am I trying to kid here?

“Fox?”

He turned to her. “Yes?”

“Stop.” She rested the broom against the side of the counter. “Don’t you see what’s happened to you? You’ve intentionally inundated yourself in the mission as a way of covering up your past. You just don’t know it yet.”

Fox crossed his arms, his head slightly tilted, as he looked at Parris. “Really? Why do you say that?”

“Dr. Marx told me everything. She convinced me you became some sort of loose cannon after what happened to your fiancée. She knows quite a bit about you.”

Thanks to Tanaka.
“She doesn’t know anything about Jessica. And neither do you.”

“You’re right, I didn’t know her. But I wish I did. Because the fact that you were about to give up your career in an elite Special Forces unit to settle down with her, she must have been one hell of a woman.”