“Damn” said Summers as the lights went out. “I knew I shouldn’t have given that badger a chance.”
“Did we loose everything?” Dr. Rogers asked Dr. Amleth as he continued to type on his computer.
The computers had batteries specially placed in them incase of a loss of power so no one could loose work and the labs would not grind
to a halt thanks to an errant tree.
“Yep” said Darren Amleth “That bastard cleaned us out. Not only did he destroy our records he smashed all the computers on the
network. This is one doozy of a virus. I don’t think I’ll be able to restore any lost data this time.”
“That’s what we get for working for a paranoid company.” said Kendra rubbing her temples.
“The company?” asked Dr. Argyle “What exactly do you mean lass?”
“She means the company has an emergency virus to delete everything in case of a large security breach. It’s in every office and
computer. It can’t be activated easily though. But it is my guess that, that is what Blocker released” said Dr. Summers.
“What the heck does that achieve” said Sue.
“Well it is cool” said Darren.
Everyone got a peeved expression on their face as they looked at the young computer expert.
“Well it is.” Amleth said in his defense.
“It is in case of an investigation. Not espionage. In case the government decides to investigate the company they can crash everything
and hide the fact they did it or at least that’s the plan.” Said Dr. Drum.
“Why the government?” asked Amleth “It’s not as if we do anything really illegal.”
“Who else would investigate to such a degree they had to crash everything?” Dr. Drum asked.
“And what, prey tell, young one would you say this virus is? Sanctioned? This little project alone breaks over a dozen international laws
alone. No, this was funded under the table and if it ever got out the government would deny ever funding it. Hell most of the government
probably has no idea this exists as a project.” Said Dr. Argyle.
“And that is just this project; I know of at least six more that break just as many if not more rules.” said Dr. Summers , “All of them have
the chance of crashing in a massive way and doing a lot of damage just like the virus is doing. This is why we scientist with our ethics and
intelligence are always called into clean up the messes of our more questionable compatriots.”
“But don’t forget, it was a scientist that helped create and also released this thing in the first place.” Dr. Ujukuk said.
“Point well taken Kendra, scientists are human too and just as flawed as everyone else. Now then what can we salvage?”
“Not much on my end” said Darren.
“Didn’t you make back ups?” asked Sue in an annoyed voice.
“Well sure but I think they may be infected too,” said Darren “it hit out of nowhere and I was busy monitoring that stupid badger.”
“Apparently, the badger wasn’t that stupid and don’t make excuses, Darren. Fortunately I made back ups and I removed them the
second Mac went into that security room. Just incase.” said Dr. Drum.
“Excellent work Bill!” said Summers “I assume all of you have lap tops and computers not connected to the network we can work
from?”
All nodded their ascent.
“Excellent then everyone take the back ups and start work again. We are under a time constraint. Darren, look into rebuilding those
computers so we can use them. Laptops are fine, but these are high performance machines and we will need their power if we ever want
to get anything done.”
“Wait, I just thought of something. These offices are locked off… what about air. These are airtight rooms. We don't have power
cycling the air.” said Dr. Drum a tinge of panic in his voice, “We better leave now.”
“No we don’t have to.” said Dr. Argyle, “Besides what if that is Mac’s plan, so he can infect us? Right now we are the only ones
standing in the way of his plan to turn a vast number of humans into animorphs so he can create a coalition. He wants them to be
recognized and given rights by the American government. We are the only ones who can offer a true resistance to that plan with our
research into a vaccine and ways to stymie the virus.”
“I doubt, somehow, that Blocker will try to interfere with us or that this is an elaborate plan on his part to get at us.” said Doctor
Summers. “Too many risks for too few gains. We aren’t that big a threat, really, to the virus. No I think this is a smoke screen so he can
get out of the building where he can do some real damage. I think he’s more about sabotage and spreading the infection beyond the
Quarantine zone. He’s desperate not to be caught and sent to a lab.”
“Fine, but even if it’s not part of his plan, we’re still in danger of suffocation” said Dr. Drum.
“In about three hours if I did the math right.” said Dr. Rogers. “By then they should have the air back on. As Dr. Summers was saying
panicking and leaving is playing into Blocker’s paws. The chaos is what he wants so he can get out. This room is large enough that
asphyxiation won’t happen for some time and besides that, there are ways around the air tight room problem.”
Saying that Dr. Sue Rogers walked over to a wall panel and removed it revealing a number of air tanks connected to pipes. “Three suites
in the lab complex are made so as to be self sufficient on air for up to five days. If we ration our air supply sufficiantly. All we have to do is turn this green nozzle.” She said pointing at the
nozzle, “We’ll have air for a very long time. It was incase of just such emergencies or someone pumping in a bio-toxin. That’s why I
specifically asked Dr. Summers to request this room.”
“Why in the world do we have that” asked Dr. Ujukuk
“A south American complex was attacked by Colombian drug cartel once when the company refused to help them create and export new drugs. If you can believe it they turned that one down. Since
then they made certain area in all labs like this just incase.” Said Dr. Summers. “Now I best report to Rothman and then call Dr. Noc.
Everyone get cracking it will be a long night. In two hours Dr. Rogers I want you to turn on the air. That way we can get the maximum
use out of tanks.”
Saying that Summers took out his cell phone and called Rothman’s office. After no one picked up he called Mr. Dace and filled him in
on the details and what knowledge he had of the situation.