Virulent

Chapter 15(a): Clearance

9 MONTHS LATER.

November 1st, 2099, 01:55 AM

In the quiet and mostly abandoned-by-now lab, bleary-eyed Ezra and Tehreem read and reread the simulation printout for the hundredth time that night while the new guy who replaced Fly snored away gently. It suited them fine. Entirely fine—for what they were doing.

"Run it again," Ezra continued their hushed conversation. "It could be a mistake."

"We've run it all day and night, Ezzie. It's the same every time."

"Run it again. Please." Ezra pleaded, her heart hammering away in her chest like a freight train. "It can't be ready. Not yet."

"Ezra!" Tehreem shook the multiple, identical readouts from multiple runs on the epidemiology simulator. "Won't change the fact that Chimera98 is ready. It's the most virulent thing now known to man with a mortality rate of 45-90%, and transmission rate as close to influenza as we dared."

"It'll mutate in the wild." Ezra stared at the numbers of virtual casualties from all their virtual pandemics as she bit her thumbnail. It would wipe approximately 5 billion off the face of the earth within years of release. By 3005, 3010, the world population would be what it was back in 1987. "What if it becomes more virulent?"

Tehreem whispered beside her, "Then God help humanity."

Ezra gripped her friend's arm, hissing, "We made this, Tehreem. We. Not God."

"Under duress," Tehreem whispered back. "We had no choice. You had no choice."

"I did." Ezra shook her head. "I could have refused to do it."

"Then you would have been dead and replaced by someone who was willing."

Ezra dropped in her seat, pulled a blank paper and scribbled—We have to move fast. I need to talk to Krish alone—as Tehreem hopped up on her desk.

Tehreem snatched the pen, alarmed: Are you kidding me? They've been watching you and him like a hawk the past few months since they saw you together.

Ezra's eyes burned wildly: We need to get this to him. She tapped the readouts, leaning closer, as if adjusting her seat: That and a sample of everything we have.

And how will you get it to him? Tehreem wrote haltingly.

Ezra shrugged, snatching the pen back: Can we secure it in a travel canister and choose a pickup point somewhere? A place only we three would know. But I'd need a reason to go see him long enough to relay information and not raise suspicions.

Tehreem read the note and replied: Can do the first. As for the second, do you trust me?

Ezra nodded. Of course.

After a moment, Tehreem shoved the scribbled paper in her pocket, heaved in a huge breath and jumped off the desk, yelling in fake delight, "Oh my god, Ezzie, we did it! We DID IT!"

Ezra snapped at her friend's hand, "What are you doing?"

"Giving you the opportunity to see Rai without raising suspicions. Trust me." Tehreem shook her off, grabbed one of the simulation readouts from the table and screamed again, "WE DID IT! I CAN'T BELIEVE WE DID IT!"

She was loud enough to raise the dead, let alone a sleeping soldier.

"Shit!" Ezra mumbled. "What did you do?"

"You'll thank me in a moment." Tehreem gave her hand a squeeze just before the soldier burst through the door.

"What's going on?"