He checked the hallway Dettling had turned down to make sure it was empty, and crossed over to the office. Slowly he pushed the door open, ready to rush in if the manager started to yell.
But no one was inside.
Hoping the manager had left his keys behind, Sanjay raced over to the desk. There were no keys sitting on top, so he started pulling open drawers. Nothing in the center drawer or in the top drawers on either side.
The bottom drawers presented a problem. Both were locked. He finally figured out that if he left the center drawer open, the locks would release. He hit pay dirt in the bottom left drawer. A cardboard box stuffed in the back contained three key rings, each holding a couple dozen keys. The first set he checked had the silver J key, so he didn’t bother with the other two. Putting everything back so no one would know he’d been there, he returned to the hallway.
The key slipped easily into the medical supply room door, like he knew it would. A turn to the left resulted in a click as the latch pulled away. Sanjay stepped inside, closed the door, and turned on the light.
He was here. He’d made it.
Knowing he had precious little time, he hurried over to the glass cabinet where the vaccine had been last time. When he took it then, he’d identified it by its orange tint, the selection confirmed by the look in the senior manager’s eyes. Now, after filling dozens of syringes with the vaccine when he and Kusum had inoculated the others in their group, he had seen more than enough bottles to recognize the drug’s name if he saw it again.
KV-27a/V/ASH VARIANT.
He had no idea what it meant, but that wasn’t important.
Starting on the top shelf, he worked his way to the bottom, checking every item. No vaccine. He moved to the bottom cabinet, but it was empty.
This is where it was, he told himself. Could I have taken it all?
He looked around, searching for another cabinet like the ones he’d checked. But he already knew there were no other similar cabinets. As he twisted to the left, his gaze fell on a stack of boxes in the corner that had not been there before. Printed on the side in black was /V/ASH.
It wasn’t the full name he’d seen on the vials, but part of it.
He pulled the top box off the stack and set it on the counter. It was just under a half meter square and almost the same high. The seams were sealed with black and yellow striped tape.
He pulled the wire cutters from his pocket and sliced down the middle of the tape. Inside the box were four smaller containers that looked identical to the ones full of vaccine he’d stolen. Trying not to get his hopes up, he opened one of the small boxes. It was full of vials containing an orange-tinted liquid. Holding his breath, he pulled one out and looked at the label.
KV-27a/V/ASH VARIANT
He opened another of the smaller boxes. It, too, contained the vaccine. All the boxes must’ve contained the vaccine.
His excitement was momentarily tempered by the thought that maybe the survival station was exactly what it was supposed to be. That maybe anyone coming in would get one of these shots.
But why would the same people who had brought the plague down on everyone be the ones who started handing out the cure?
That’s when the likely truth dawned on him. It was horrible. Almost worse than unleashing the disease itself.
The cure would be handed out, but only to those the Pishon Chem people — whom Leon had referred to as Project Eden — deemed worthy of it.
Sanjay put the vials away and secured the top of the box. No, he would not allow this Project Eden to make that decision. If someone needed the vaccine, no matter who they were, Sanjay would make sure the person received it.
Kusum checked her watch again. It was closing in on thirty minutes.
She stared at the door Sanjay had disappeared behind, willing him to open it and step through. When he finally did, she let out a gasp of surprise.
Realizing he was having difficulty closing the door because of the box he was carrying, she jumped out of her hiding spot and ran over. As she neared, she realized it wasn’t just one box, but two.
“Let me,” she whispered, putting her hand on the doorknob.
With relief, he let go and watched her quietly close the door.
“Is this all vaccine?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“This is so much more than before.”
“This is not even half of it. There are six more boxes.”
“Six more,” she said. “How can we carry that many?”
“We cannot, but we can hide what we cannot take with us, and come back for them later. Better in our hands than in theirs, yes?
Instead of taking the boxes from him, she grabbed his face and kissed him. “You are a surprising man, Sanjay.”
“Not surprising. What other choice do we have?”
“That’s exactly what I mean.”
“Take these,” he said, shoving the boxes toward her. “Carry them over to the hole and come right back.”
She transported the first two boxes, and then boxes three and four.
When she returned for the next pair, he said, “I will bring the last two. Take these and the others out of the compound, then start taking them to the building we used before. The sooner we can finish, the better.”
Kusum nodded. “Do not be long.”
“I’ll be right behind you.”
Dettling found Van Assen at the security office near the main gate, monitoring the search efforts. He motioned for him to come outside where they’d have some privacy.
“Any progress?” he asked, after he’d led his assistant around the side of the building.
“Unfortunately, no,” van Assen said.
“What do you think the likelihood is we’ll find any of them?”
His assistant seemed reluctant to reply, but finally said, “We’ll be lucky if we find one or two. It’s a huge city, and they know it better than us.”
“I agree,” Dettling admitted. While it would have been nice to find them, the important thing now was the assigning of blame. “I need your help on a delicate matter.”
Van Assen had proven to be a very trustworthy and competent assistant, who was of a similar mind to Dettling on most matters concerning the Project, so the senior manager had no reservations about filling him in on his plan to placate the principal director.
“We can do this quietly,” Dettling said when he finished outlining his plan. “The report will go straight to the directorate. No one else here needs to know about any of it.”
“Of course,” van Assen said. “I’ll handle the staging and the pictures immediately. There are plenty of empty rooms on the basement level. We can say we cornered him in one of them. He then put up a fight and, unfortunately, was killed in the process.”
Dettling kept his expression blank, but inside he felt relieved. Van Assen understood exactly what he wanted. Everything was going to be just fine.
“I think, perhaps, it would be good if we continue the search for a few more hours,” van Assen suggested. “The fewer people here at the compound while I take care of this other matter, the better.”
“Yes, I agree.”
“Well, then, I suppose I should get to work.”
Sanjay entered the main building and returned to the medical room for the fourth time that evening. As he picked up the last two boxes, his gaze fell on the set of keys he’d put on the counter.
For a few seconds, he wondered if he should return them to the senior manager’s office, but thought that the missing vaccine would be noticed long before the missing keys, so he left them where they were.