Virulent

Chapter 9: Risky

Ezra sat behind the desk in the glass office, observed by a soldier sitting on a stool at the end of a long aisle, on the opposite side. She was in his direct line of sight, on purpose, she supposed. When she glanced up at him, in his hazmat suit, nervous hands clutched together, she wondered if he was in fact watching her or shitting himself half to death, having been given the 'watch the Dr' assignment in that deathly lab.

Earlier, as they'd donned their suits, helped by a few clumsy hands, he'd looked pale and kept asking her, and others, whether it was actually safe to be in there, just weeks after the outbreak.

Thus, she liked to imagine he was shitting himself half to death or asleep, rather than watching her like a hawk. If only. It was an uncomfortable feeling, not knowing which, the watched or the watchee. Besides testing the equipment, there was something else on her agenda for the day, and it was delicate—if not dangerous—in its nature. I have to test the leash. That had been her driving thought this morning. She needed to figure out how close she was being watched, or how closely they were monitoring her exact activities. And how much of it reaches the higher-ups?

So that late afternoon, after having barely scratched the surface when it came to running routine checks on the equipment—some were new even to her, so she required access to their manuals—Ezra watched the soldier curiously. She hadn't seen him move from his perch on the stool in hours. Please be asleep. I only need a few minutes alone... At which point she could imagine Shaki calling 'reckless' if she were here. Her sister would warn her, 'Keep your head down, buy some time, and use that head of yours to come up with an escape plan.'

I don't even know where I am. Ezra walked to the next aisle—not that she had any intention of starting on those gear today—to see if the soldier's head would follow her movement, all the while imagining a conversation with her logical sister. In Shaki's books, what she was about to do was foolhardy. 'Seriously? You're going to test how serious they are about their security? These people who abducted you in the middle of the night and possibly staged a murder scene?'

"I have to try," Ezra mumbled soundlessly to herself, aware that the headset she wore was a two-way device to communicate with her guard easily. I need to find a way to warn the world... if I fail to do what I have to do, I need to find a way to get the word out, 'Get Out'.

'But risking your life now? Is that wise? You don't even know what they were cooking up in that lab,' Shaki would have said, with a scowl on her face, and suddenly, Ezra missed that little brat violently that it hurt her chest. I have to see you again. I have to do this... to save you and Dad...

I'm just setting up an encrypted, hidden folder on their server if I can. Test the degree of monitoring... I can't secretly save the world if they know everything I get up to, can I? Ezra pretended to be inspecting the first station in case the soldier was watching her. And I can't believe of all the people, I'm pretending to have this conversation with you...

Imaginary Shaki scoffed. 'Cause you miss me, dumb-dumb. And I'm the coder in the family, not you... what if you fail?'

"What if I pass?" For a moment, she'd forgotten about the headset and was startled when she noticed a slight movement from the corner of her eyes. Shit.

"Everything all right, Doctor?" his voice was groggy. Just her luck. She'd woken the bloke when it was the one thing she'd been hoping for.

Ezra nearly dropped the pipette in her gloved hand. "Uh, yes, everything is fine, soldier... I was just talking to myself that the rest will have to wait until tomorrow." Soldier? Really? I called him Soldier. She was just glad she was quite far away from him, and in a suit of her own, that he wouldn't see the crimson colour of her cheeks.