Game What are you doing right now?

Putting the finishing touches to Chapter 10 of my latest novel.

Exp:



“Thank you, Doctor Guthrie,” Laura responded before summing up then after the usual station identifier, signed off then once disconnected from the audio, walked over towards me. “Thank you for the heads-up about this story, Dayna. Is there anything you can add to what Doctor Guthrie mentioned?”

“Not really, Laura. We are facing a potentially serious threat to people’s health but if everyone follows the advice she gave, the disruption to people’s lives will be kept to the barest minimums possible under the circumstances.”

“Right, I’ll ensure my producer knows that so any follow-up reporting will focus on emphasizing how important her advice is. Thanks again for the call and for thinking of me.”

“You are welcome, Laura. I’ve always liked your credibility and the respect you have earned.”

“Thank you again, Dayna. It’s always nice to be recognised for the work one puts in.” Laura replies then after a brief shake of my hand, glides across the room towards the gathering of the politicians and intelligence people, I assume hoping to garner some more information from them to add to her story.

“That seemed to go well, Dayna,” Cameron Moore mentions on wandering over to join me.

“We don’t want to tip our hands yet that we know it was a deliberate and targeted attack. As Pharone’s friend David mentioned, denial of information to the enemy is just as vital as obtaining it from them.”

“I understand that now, Dayna. I had my eyes opened when gateway was hit. You hear about these things on the news but to actually be staring down the barrel of a gun; not something I want to ever do again.”

I quickly tag a photo in my stored memory and send it to Cameron’s phone then talk as her retrieves his device and looks. “As you can see, I was hit at least thirty times so my fear of it is basically non-existent these days.”

“Fucking hell,” he mutters. “That looks like a police uniform, or what’s left of one.”

“That was me who came in the window where all the hostages were. My priority was to draw their fire away from all the innocent people but in the process of reducing their numbers substantially, I suffered extensive damage to the flesh. After it was all over, I spent a week in the Bio-tech tank re-cloning myself with Mark Geisler supervising before anyone was back on site.”

“I assume you know, Lian Chow was the mastermind by now,” Cameron mentions.

“I watched her die, Cameron and you know what, I enjoyed it.”

“She was furious you weren’t here. She was planning to use the hostages to force you to comply with her demands. She was talking to one of her men about checking the rosters just before they committed to the attack.”

“It was a last minute decision not to be here. I’ve been doing some consulting work with the police about cyborg capabilities and was invited away to a training facility up the coast at the last minute to do a demonstration. I’d only been there two days when they got the call about the attack here and rushed back so I came as well. I’ve been meaning to ask, why did you get selected?”

“If you remember, we didn’t have much going on in virology at the time and almost since Lian joined Gateway, I’d been working with your department in cloning. She assumed I was part of your team and I didn’t think it would be smart to enlighten her. I’m not ashamed to admit, I was scared as hell, Dayna.”

“Well, you won’t be able to say your department is slow now, Cameron. We urgently need something to counter this virus. Keep this to yourself but most of the people standing over there believe this bio-attack is the precursor to something bigger in the pipeline. The press had nothing but praise for how well the police and army got the situation under control and guess what? Look who the targets have been this time, the police and the army. It’s not a coincidence, Cameron. It’s a pre-meditated and deliberate attack aimed at eliminating what they, whoever they are consider the threat to their plans. That last attack was connected to the Chinese Mafia and those people over there do not for one minute think they have given up on the idea.”

“I’ve too much faith in you to doubt it for a minute, Dayna. We’ve cracked the RNA coding for that virus and I know that it is not naturally occurring. It’s been modified somehow to reduce the time before the symptoms show and to persist longer than its naturally-occurring counterpart does.”

“That implies that there is some where capable of modifying a virus. Do you have any ideas?”

“Most of the global scientific community is trying to crack the secret of virion. We’ve had some luck with a few of the simpler ones. You do need some specific equipment. We have some of the best right here at Gateway.”

“Now, there’s an idea. Would you excuse me for a minute, Cameron?” I head over to the group talking intelligence matters and when there’s a break in the conversation, tap Hamilton Royce on the shoulder. “Have you got a minute, Ham?”

“Excuse me ladies and Gents,” he mentions then follows me.

“Hamilton, this is Doctor Cameron Moore, our resident virologist.” The pair shake hands. “Cameron just mentioned something that may help Ham. This virus has been scientifically modified and to do that requires some special equipment. I thought, if you know what sort of equipment, you might be able to investigate who has purchased some in recent times, That might offer you a clue where to start looking.”

“You’re still the best one I know at doing what you do, Dayna.”

“What does she do,” Cameron wants to know.

“Pile up my workload. That’s a good idea though.”

“I’m sure Cameron can explain what you should look for and who the manufacturers and suppliers are.”

“It would be my pleasure, Hamilton. If you have a few minutes, I can produce purchase orders and invoices. I have copies of everything we use here in my office.”

“Let me update the brains-trust and I’ll be right with you, Cameron.” Hamilton replies and heads back to the group he just left.

“Whatever Hamilton said suddenly has several people on phones and a brief listen in tells me they are all now arranging for investigators to contact the equivalent research departments similar to Gateway in their respective countries. On further thought, there would have to be shipping manifests from the manufacturers that would list a destination and even if no physical location is mentioned, there would need to be some sort of communication to arrange delivery once the equipment is enroute. I know it’s a long shot but there will be either written or phone records somewhere should the need arise for parts, repairs or even upgrades. I’d also assume, specialist equipment would need specialist technicians capable of performing any of that type of work that may be required. I quickly put my thoughts into a text message and send it directly to Hamilton. I get back: You’d have made a good cop, Dayna.

“I gather you’ve had some ideas, Dayna,” Pharone mentions a few minutes later when she walks over to join me.

“To modify a virus requires some specialist equipment, Pharone. Checking who makes it and who buys it might be a clue to who’s using it.”

“That was what I gathered from their thinking, Dayna. Would I be right in assuming, they would need a laboratory similar to the one you have here?”

“Most definitely, Pharone: This is not something you could do in a backyard shed. Working with any sort of virus requires very precise safety measures or you risk infecting the very people who are doing the work.”

“As I see it then, we either have to stop the people doing the work or eliminate the laboratory they are working in.”

“You have a very precise way of simplifying things, Pharone. Neither solution appears to be viable at this point in the proceedings. I’m going to make a calculated guess and say that in all likelihood, both the people involved if not the lab itself will be in China.”

“I have been to China before but admittedly, it was quite a while ago, when it was called Chitai. The mentality of the people hasn’t changed much over the millennia though. The rulers and the hierarchy do consider themselves to be the absolute masters of their own destinies and that I am sure will be something we will be able to turn to our favour when the time to do so arrives.”

“What are you thinking, Pharone?”

“I very much doubt the people responsible for this will ever come here. It is the same situation I faced before. Back then, Guan Gong, a man who considered himself a God with designs on ruling the world struck out from a place he considered safe. He began with sending an invincible dragon to cower his foes into submission before his armies arrived to do his bidding, subjugate the lands of man. This virus is today’s dragon and I foresee there will be an army that will follow. As it was then is as it will have to be today. The key to defeating both the man and his dragon will be to enter the dragon’s lair and take the man’s head.

Ls x
 
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