“A huntress,” Coffee said. “A nemesis. A stalker. A vigilante. Someone who wants me dead.”
“President of your fan club, right?”
“You might say that,” Coffee said.
Derek didn’t know who was being held at FBI HQ. It was, like about a million other things, out of his range of understanding. What he did understand was that Richard Coffee was nuts and that he had stolen Chimera M13 and he and his band of merry men intended to use it. He also understood that while he was still alive it was his responsibility to try and stop that from happening. Even if he died doing it. And of course, if he lived and The Fallen Angels succeeded in releasing the bug, he’d probably die anyway.
He didn’t know if he could kill Coffee right here. Coffee had not been tortured for the last hour or two, been shot twice or in general had a shitty day. If Derek jumped him it was likely that he, Derek, would end up dead and Coffee and his Fallen Angels would go about their business as planned. Even if he did managed to kill Coffee, he didn’t know if that would stop the plan from going into affect.
He was inside the circle. He was alive. That was probably more than anybody at DHS could ask for.
“What are you planning on doing?” Derek asked.
“I’ll show you.”
“I’d just as soon skip the show-part of show-and-tell. Why don’t you just tell me.”
Coffee turned and for a moment Derek thought he was going to get a fist in the face again. Instead Coffee laughed and said, “You’re not calling the shots today, Derek. I don’t owe you. I’m not glad you’re here, but who knows? Maybe you’ll be useful. Lee might be able to use your expertise… or something.”
“Kim Pak Lee?” Derek said.
Coffee turned again. “You know him?”
“Irina… Nadia showed me his dossier. Is he growing Chimera?”
“Indeed he is.”
“Are you going to sell it?”
Coffee snorted and stopped in front of the entrance to the double-wide. “Money is going to be a thing of the past, Derek. Get used to the idea.”
“Why? Why release the bug?”
Coffee smiled. “Because somebody’s going to eventually, Derek. Why not now? Why not me?”
“This isn’t Mount Everest. You don’t have to do it just because it’s there.”
In a conspiratorial whisper Coffee said, “I’m doing it because I can, Derek. Simply because I can. Haven’t you ever wanted to dance on the grave of the world?”
“Not literally.”
“Well I’m going to.” He pointed to the entrance of the double-wide. “Time to see how Lee’s doing.”
Derek felt his heart rate accelerate. He didn’t want to go into the double-wide trailer. It was a laboratory. Probably some sort of jury-rigged Level IV containment facility. Dr. Kim Pak Lee was inside in some sort of spacesuit growing Chimera. There was only death inside the trailer.
Derek walked through the doors, swallowing back bile.
It was an airlock, of sorts. A small anteroom with a double sealed door and a key pad. Coffee punched four digits into the pad and said, “Steel reinforced.” The lock clicked and he opened the door, ushering Derek inside.
The next room, also small, was a locker room. Coffee said, “You’re dressed fine. I’m stripping down. Don’t try anything funny, Derek. I’m still armed.”
“Where would I go?”
“You and I both know that if you kill me a major part of your mission would be accomplished.”
Keeping the gun aimed, Coffee kicked off his boots, slid off his jacket and stripped down to his underwear, removing a pair of scrubs from one of four metal lockers. Awkwardly, but still keeping the gun ready, he pulled on the clothes. Derek did nothing, just waited.
They passed through another sealed door, having to push against a suction of air. This room was flooded with purple UV light. The spacesuits hung on hooks. Derek frowned. He wondered if the suits hung in the light 24/7. UV broke down most synthetic materials. It was okay to expose the spacesuits to UV for a limited amount of time to kill microorganisms, but around the clock exposure would cause the spacesuits to deteriorate prematurely. Small holes and tears, shredding… it was a good way to end up dead in a hot zone.
Coffee began to awkwardly slip into a spacesuit.
“Do I get one?” Derek asked.
“Sorry. Why bother?”
Derek felt light-headed. His worst nightmare. Naked in a hot zone. He clenched his fists, trying to stop them from trembling.
From inside the spacesuit Coffee said, “In we go, buddy.” He waved the gun at Derek.
For a wild moment Derek considered refusing. He felt panicky, butterflies spinning in his veins, the fear a tactile entity living inside his skin. He stared at Coffee. Coffee would be clumsy in the suit. He could end this now. Kill Coffee, put on a suit, enter the lab and kill Dr. Lee and destroy everything inside the lab.
Coffee stepped backward, as if sensing his thoughts, and held the gun in two hands. His muffled voice could be heard clearly. “You’re expendable, Derek. If you don’t head for that door right this second, you’re dead.”
Derek headed for the door, which led through a makeshift decontamination area, a shower room From there, they were into the laboratory.
Inside the cramped trailer two people were working in spacesuits. Derek couldn’t identify them. Coffee shouted, “Lee, this is Doctor Derek Stillwater.”
One of the spacesuited figures turned to nod at him. The other figure was working in glass-fronted hoods, transferring cloudy liquid from a flask to yellowish clear liquid in another. He or she did not turn and acknowledge Derek. He was thankful for that, sure the tech was working directly with Chimera.
Derek took in the room, his brain automatically slipping into observer mode, his mind doing the desperate calculus it had been trained for in Escape & Evasion School. It was a laboratory. Black-topped chemical resistant counters. Two stacked incubators that looked like steel cupboards, attached to a number of gas tanks — typically carbon dioxide. Most cultures required temperatures of about 98.6 degrees with a percentage of carbon dioxide pumped in to supply carbon for growth. The humidity in the incubators had to be kept high to allow for cell growth.
There was another room — at least another — beyond a sealed door. The walls on the inside had also been sealed with some sort of putty or rubber cement.
Coffee said, “About a year ago Dalton got us a copy of the black patent on Chimera M13. Lee has been working from them ever since to develop a vaccine.”
“Any luck?” Derek asked, heart racing just a little bit. If the Korean scientist had developed a vaccine then it might be enough to get his hands on it and escape. Not an easy task, but far simpler than destroying Chimera and stopping Coffee.
In a heavily accented voice Kim Pak Lee said, “We are making progress now that we have the actual virus. It is showing signs of being effective on our test animals, but we have not tested it yet on a human being.”
“Well,” Coffee said. “Dr. Stillwater here has volunteered.”
Derek turned to stare at Coffee through his faceplate. “The fuck I have.”
Coffee raised the gun and pointed it at Derek’s heart. “I could kill you now.”
“I know what that shit does to a human being,” Derek said, standing his ground. “I’d rather you shot me than—”
Derek felt something bite into his arm and lashed out. He spun and saw that Lee had injected him with a syringe. For a horrifying moment he thought the Korean had injected him with Chimera, but as the scientists stepped back, holding the hypodermic in one gloved hand, Derek felt the darkness close in around him. Staggering, he turned and tried to punch Coffee, get in one good solid hit, but he slowly sank to the floor of the trailer and everything went dark.