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  Molly nodded grimly. “Certainly seems likely,” she said. “So that means we need to find the most likely access points that would cause the most effective distribution - whether that means for deploying our antidote… or to guard those points, and stop them deploying the toxin.”

  Oz, can you pull the plans for the waterways in Spire?

  Already done, as you were interfacing with words.

  As opposed to the more superior way of using 1s and 0s?

  Exactly.

  Molly cocked her head. Paige looked at her, amused, assuming she was talking with Oz. Head now in her hand, as she leaned onto the bench, she watched Molly’s reactions, waiting for the solution to magically appear in the conversation.

  Okay, so there are three locations that are most likely to be toxin drop points. All are at distribution and filtration centers. If they understand what they are doing, they will hit the water post-filtration, before it is redirected back into the supply for a given area.

  Right. Any cameras on those access points?

  No. Only the building cameras for the staff. Not the specific vulnerable locations.

  So our next best bet is to get Joel to give us some eyes on these points, then?

  She opened her holo.

  Can you get a voice message to him in the next download, and attach the location of these points?

  Affirmative.

  Molly started talking into her holo. “Joel. Update. We have the toxin combo isolated, and Oz is working on the antidote. Both are water soluble, which means they’re going to deploy the toxin through the water system. We think. Oz has isolated the most likely targets and is attaching their locations here. We haven’t got visual access on any of the locations, so, short of guarding the locations, can you get Pieter to fit some cameras there so you can monitor them? In the meantime, we’ll get the antidote composition to Eugene at the lab, and he can fabricate the amount you’ll need, should the toxin be released.”

  She paused for a second, as if thinking of something else.

  “Please be careful.” She paused, as if wanting to add something else, but then decided not to.

  She clicked off the recording, and swiped to upload it to the system so that Oz could do his thing.

  She looked into empty space for a moment.

  Paige sat still, not wanting to interrupt her.

  Finally, Molly spoke. “We need to talk with Brock.”

  Hotel Erwin, downtown Spire

  Joel’s holo beeped.

  He swiped to see the message. It was an incoming download from Gaitune-67. “We’ve got communication from Molly,” he told Pieter, as he watched the download bar intently.

  “Think she’s found the antidote?” Pieter asked, the concern showing across his young face.

  “Knowing her,” replied Joel, a modicum of tension releasing from his chest and shoulders as he considered how competent she was with all this.

  The bar disappeared as the download opened. He played the voice message, and put it on speaker so that Pieter could hear too. He wanted to show that there were no secrets in their team. Even from a leadership perspective.

  As the message played, Joel pulled up the maps and then shared the frame so they could both be looking at it spread across the table.

  “These are all at different points in the city,” he said, once the message had ended. “It’s going to take several hours to get around to them all.” He looked up at Pieter. “What do you think about the cameras? Do we need to acquire some more gear?”

  Pieter nodded. “Definitely. But I can route them all through this holo easily, and set up an alert every time any motion is sensed-”

  Pieter stopped mid-thought.

  Joel noticed. “Whatcha thinking?” he asked.

  Pieter started speaking slowly. “Well, if someone is going to deploy the toxin, we’ll see where they do it. But after they’ve already done it. By that time, the water is contaminated…”

  “And then we get our asses down there to deploy the antidote from the same place.” Joel finished his thought.

  “Right,” agreed Pieter quickly. “But that’s less than ideal. What we really want is to be able to stop it from happening.”

  Joel straightened up and scratched the back of his head. “Well, short of having someone to guard each point, that’s not going to be possible.”

  Pieter became more animated. “What if it were? I mean, you and I could take one point each.” Pieter had a determined look in his eye.

  Joel found himself somewhat surprised to see it, but then he had to be responsible. “How much combat training have you had?”

  Pieter shrugged. “None. But you can teach me to shoot a gun.”

  Joel eyed him carefully. “And if a whole squad shows up?”

  Pieter looked unaffected. “Leave me with lots of bullets.”

  Pieter’s fearlessness, bordering on the cavalier, reminded Joel of himself when he first signed up to the space marines. Of course, Joel probably had another couple pounds of muscle on him, and, yes, less geekiness, too.

  Joel made the only decision he could as a leader.

  “I don’t think so,” he told Pieter firmly. “But maybe Ventus has a security detail we can use.”

  He pointed again at the map. “Let’s find a place to purchase those cameras fast, and then at least get them deployed. I’ll make a call to Molly’s contact at the research facility, and get things moving there.”

  Joel sent the maps over to Pieter to figure out the road trip they were going to have to make. Then he pulled up a holo connection.

  “Hi. Is this Eugene? … Great… This is Joel Dunham. I work with Molly Bates. Yes. Yes. I’m here on-planet…”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Newstainment Offices, downtown Spire

  “Maya Johnstone?”

  The Ogg approaching her was obviously a cop. His brown atmosjacket was civilian, but there was an air about him that screamed law and order.

  Maya turned from her desk in her cubicle, a look of recognition in her eyes. “Greeting of the day. Yes. Detective Rogers?” She stood up, and stepped to meet him.

  Antonio Rogers held out his hand and they shook hands. Maya thought he was a sturdy character from the firmness of his handshake.

  “I have a meeting room booked,” she told him. “Would you like to come in?”

  He looked surprised to be treated so efficiently. “Sure,” he smiled.

  Maya led the way out of the open-plan office and past the elevators, through to the series of glass-fronted meeting rooms. Ducking in the second door, she welcomed him in and held the door for him.

  “Mocha?” she offered.

  The detective waved a hand politely and then put it on his middle. “No, no thank you. I’m a bit mocha-ed out today,” he told her.

  She smiled. “Yeah, I know that feeling.”

  They sat, and the detective pulled up his holo. “So you got my name from…?”

  “Doctor Jones, at the district mortuary,” she answered.

  He didn’t speak, but gave her space to tell the story. Two sentences in, she was pulling up screens and details, as well as the Ventus employees’ profile pictures, explaining to him everything she knew.

  He carefully took notes. “So you think that the guy, David-” he looked down at his notes, but she jumped in.

  “David Rek.”

  “Rek…” he repeated. “You think he is being held by them, and developing the toxin to be deployed en masse?”

  “Yes.” Confidence radiated from her, despite the telltale signs of exhaustion under her eyes.

  Rogers shifted in his chair and put his arm on the table next to him. He looked at her, trying to read how she had gotten so far in an investigation where he had come up with nothing.

  She suddenly remembered something. “I have something else to tell you…” she added.

  Rogers signaled for her to continue.

  She pulled up a file on her holo that Johnny had bumped her just befo
re Rogers had arrived.

  “It’s the family. Everything seems to be happening as it should: kid going to school, wife going to work.” She opened up pictures of David Rek’s family, head shots and surveillance footage.

  She continued. “But Johnny, one of our investigators, says that they seem… anxious. The mother picks the child up from school and hurries home. Other mothers have tried to stop her to talk, but it was like she was in a rush and distracted. Their reactions made it look like it was unexpected. Unusual.”

  Rogers looked from the pictures back at Maya. “How do you think this means something?” Rogers was playing devil’s advocate.

  Maya picked up on that. It was how Bob had trained her to think critically.

  “Well,” she explained, “when someone behaves in a certain way, over time, people get used to it. Johnny told me that these women were reacting. This means that there is a change in behavior somewhere.”

  She paused, watching his reaction. “I think Mrs. Rek would normally stand around and talk… but all of a sudden, this isn’t happening.”

  Rogers nodded his head a few times, and almost started to smile. This girl was good. He wondered idly if she had an inclination for law enforcement.

  “This is very useful intel. Thank you very much, Ms. Johnstone. Would you mind sending those pictures and anything else over to my holo?”

  Maya nodded, obligingly. “Not at all,” she told him. “And if there is anything else I can do to help in the investigation, I’m here.” She hesitated, not wanting to sound melodramatic. “If I’m right, we’re all in danger.”

  Rogers let the last several minutes of the interview sink in.

  “Actually,” he said. “I do have one more thing.”

  Maya tilted her head, indicating she was listening, without interrupting him.

  “How does your girl in the Dewitt video tie into all this?” he asked. “Other than appearing on that other video. Someone wanted your editor to see the connection. What’s her role in all this? And who would want to expose her?”

  Maya smiled to herself. That was such a Bob set of questions. It was moments like this when she deeply appreciated the long hours of mentoring and researching to find the right questions - and answers - that make a story.

  She sighed. “Well, all I was able to find was that her name is Molly Bates…”

  Rogers didn’t react.

  What Maya didn’t notice was that he had checked himself, making sure he didn’t show any signs of recognizing the name.

  He knew exactly who Molly Bates was. But he wasn’t ready to let the press know that.

  Or that the police department hadn’t made the connection.

  Maya was still talking. “… and she authored a paper on exactly how to create a toxin by genetically manipulating the Yultok plant’s DNA. It’s one of the projects that Ventus could be working on. It’s difficult to tell exactly what they’re studying - their research departments and grants are pretty vague-sounding.”

  Rogers wondered briefly if she was single.

  Maya continued her discourse. “But, anyway, I think she, and potentially these others on the video, are working for the terrorists, in some capacity. How she was able to walk out of there with all that equipment, though… it makes it look like there is even potentially something going on within the ranks of Ventus. Otherwise, why would those scientists in the video be helping her?”

  Her eyes seemed pained at the possibility of a conspiracy to hurt so many people. Rogers felt the compassion in her voice.

  He nodded sympathetically. “Yes, it certainly looks like this from the footage. But you’re right. It’s interesting that they would leave through the front door in daylight. Something is certainly going on, and we will investigate.”

  Maya looked like she was going to ask a question, but she stopped herself.

  Rogers thought he could probably guess what she was thinking. “Look, I know this is hard… you’re onto a potentially explosive story. But this, what you’ve been digging into, it’s dangerous. And I’m not just talking about the toxin, but that is another reason to stay well away from this.”

  Maya nodded her understanding.

  He spoke gently. “You have to leave this with us, now. I really appreciate you sharing all your hard work and discoveries with me, but you need to let us take it from here. Do you understand?”

  He found himself wishing he could explain to her everything he and Chaakwa had discovered before he was reassigned. Intel not just about Molly Bates, but also about the people she was going up against. But that, he feared, would only put her in more danger.

  He waited for her to confirm she would leave the rest of the investigation to the police, and then stood up and shook her hand. Maya walked him down to the elevators and waved him off.

  He knows more than he is letting on, she thought to herself as the doors of the elevator closed on their conversation. And damn if she was going to sit back and wait for someone else to get to the bottom of this. Her life, and the lives of all her friends and relatives in this town, were on the line.

  She wandered back to her desk, deep in thought about what her next move should be.

  Spire Central Water Facility, Hlidargata

  Joel sighed as he and Pieter hopped out of the car with their gear.

  “Last one!” he announced.

  Pieter repeated his statement of the obvious. “Last one.” Pieter was tired. They’d been running around for the last eight hours, sourcing cameras and fitting them to monitor the vulnerable locations. He wasn’t used to this much activity, and part of him felt a little foolish for suggesting he might have been able to defend one of these sites from an attack.

  Joel received a call on his holo.

  They kept walking to the area just off the main site as he answered it. This last location was an exposed pipe outside of the perimeter. Infiltrating these facilities had required all the tech kung fu Pieter could muster.

  Joel started talking on his holo. “Hi. Eugene?”

  “Hi, Joel. Yes, it’s me. I’ve got good news and bad news. Good news is, we’re all set to start producing the antidote just as soon as we receive the formula from Molly.”

  Joel waited half a second before asking, “…and the bad news?”

  Eugene’s voice wasn’t as confident this time. “The bad news is, the ‘powers that be’ in the company won’t authorize our use of security personnel.”

  Joel reacted, but Eugene couldn’t see his face on a voice call.

  He continued quickly. “I think their reasons are partly genuine. You see, those two people that took the toxins in the first place… they were compromised in some way. And the thinking is, if they can get to our scientists, they can damn well get to our security personnel. So, by extension, putting security on anything will only potentially let the terrorist know what we know, and would actually not help us protect the site, either.”