Is part of your mission to kill me?”
Alex shook his head. “Does it work?” he asked.
“It would have, yes. Not like they thought it would—the research isn’t complete—it would have been much, much worse than they thought.”
He reached out one trembling hand and stroked her hair. He scooped up Rand’s gun and put it into his belt. He could get rid of it later, just little pieces of metal, scattered haphazardly into the ocean.
“Let’s go get that thing,” he said. “I need your help to destroy it without letting any of it escape.
Can you do that for me?”
“Of course,” she said, watching his face. “I’ve already started.”
They returned to the elevator and rode back to the level of Brin’s lab. She led the way, and when they reached the door to the lab, she tapped in her code and set her thumb on the scanner. She set the door on lockout once they were inside. She didn’t want that door to reopen until she was good and ready. If anything went wrong, it would never open again. And if everything went right, she didn’t want anyone disturbing them until it was complete.
It was hot in the lab, and they were both bathed in sweat within moments. Red sensors were lit on many of the panels, but no one was around to read them or heed their warning.
Alex looked at the containment unit sitting so benignly on the counter. “So, this is it, huh?”
“Was,” Brin replied. “I have all the data on the laptop. I was supposed to be backing it up and sending it back to them when I was done. But I didn’t do it.”
“So, you knew something was wrong?” Alex asked.
“Damned straight, I knew. I mean, at first, it just looked like their data was skewed. They didn’t carry the research through logically, just stopped each time it seemed to be going their way. Then, when I got a good look at this thing, saw what happened after the nanoagents did their intended job, I saw that I had a pretty unstable component. It didn’t always progress as they thought it would, and they didn’t care. Research like that was never meant to be presented to any medical board.
“I was going to drop the work and walk out, but they had video, Alex. They had video of you, and you were in trouble. I stuck with it when they threatened me, but only because I knew that if you didn’t make it back, it was up to me.”
“Can we get rid of it without putting anyone at risk?” Alex asked.
“Like I said, I’ve already started. It’s supposed to be kept at a fairly constant temperature. I turned up the heat as far as it will go, and I left the containment unit open. It’s a powerful weapon, but it isn’t invincible. The extreme heat alone would kill it in due time.”
“Okay, see if you can be sure it’s destroyed. I’ll take care of what’s on that laptop. We’re going to take the building out, too, but I don’t want anything surviving that they might dig out of the rubble. Is there any data anywhere else?”
“Rand had me sealed off in here, no access to the company network. They didn’t want anyone looking over my virtual shoulder except them. I thought they were worried about corporate spies, until I got further into it. What sucks the most is the basis for it all is
“That’s my girl!” He gave her shoulder a reas-suring squeeze and was only a little surprised when she recoiled from him. “So, if I smash this thing into a thousand pieces, it’ll all be gone?”
“Yeah.” She thought for a moment, one fingernail tapping lightly on the temperature control of the containment unit. “Except that I can’t really be sure that Hershel didn’t come in here when I wasn’t here. I mean, he might have made copies….”
“And he might have stored them anywhere.”
Alex sighed and leaned against the table. “We’re going to have to be very thorough. Whatever we do has to wipe out every bit of data in this building.
Take out the whole network.”
“We have no idea how much data Hershel had, or where he might have hidden it. He probably didn’t trust those Chinese bastards any more than I trusted him.”
“Then there’s really only one way to take care of this. Make sure that nothing survives, and that anyone who might remember is silenced.”
“Alex,” Brin said softly.
He turned to her and raised an eyebrow.
“I’m the only one who worked on it. I’m the only one, besides Rand, who knows.”
Alex crossed the lab and hugged her tight.
“Don’t worry. We just need to get through this—
it will be fine. I promise.”
“And what about you?” she asked. “Will you be fine? Will we?
“One thing at a time, okay?” he said. “Let’s get this handled, then we’ll start figuring out the rest.
It will be okay.”
She studied him, as if trying to judge if he was telling the truth, then nodded and turned back to the canister on the table. There wasn’t much time.
“You’re sure that crap can’t survive if we blow it to bits?” Alex asked. “I’d hate to think I just ended one threat to create another that’s airborne.”
“Like I said, extreme heat will kill it for sure.
You’re going to blow the whole building, then?”
Brin asked.
Alex saw her hesitation. He knew she had years of research tied up with MRIS, stored on their computers and tucked away in their files. All the work she’d been doing, all the work her colleagues were doing, would be destroyed right along with the nanoagents. He wished there was another way.
More than that, he wished she’d never been dragged into any of it.
“It’s the only way,” he said as gently as he could.
“We have to neutralize the threat, and we can’t take a chance that Rand backed up the data or kept a second sample on ice in some hidden lab you don’t even know about.”
He hesitated a second, and then added, “I’m sorry, Brin.”
“But everyone who works here—”
“There’s no one here,” Alex said. “But sometimes you have to sacrifice a few people to get the job done. It’s sounds cruel, but it would be worse if we didn’t do what we had to do. The best thing we can manage is to get moving before people start to arrive. We need to get out.”
Brin stared at him and then nodded. Alex could tell that she knew it had to be done, but she didn’t have to like it. As much as she loved him, she still couldn’t be sure whether his loyalties were with her or with Room 59. It hung in the air between them, in a place where nothing had ever hung before.
“Give me a second, then,” she said. “I’ll make sure none of it’s viable before we—” She trailed off then, not wanting to put such a horrible thing into words.
Brin opened the container and withdrew a sample, got it under the microscope fast. She felt Alex’s eyes on her and she wanted to spin on him, rage at him for all of this, the lies, the danger, the fear, the scent of gunpowder that still filled her nostrils. Instead, she stared into the microscope, focused and inspected the slide, checking carefully to be absolutely certain that the cultures were dead.
“We’re good to go,” she said at last, lifting her head. “Whatever we have to do, we can do it without releasing any of this into the air.”
“Okay.” Alex shoved the laptop off the table and began pounding furiously at it with the leg of the chair. He smashed at it until the case shattered, spraying little bits of motherboard about the room.
When he managed to free the hard drive, he gathered it up in one hand and snagged a pair of tongs with another. Once he had the drive gripped tightly in the tongs, it was a simple matter to drop it into a large beaker.
