Fox slammed on the breaks and blasted the horn as someone cut him off.
“Are you okay there?” Parris asked, grabbing the laptop before it was thrown off her lap.
Fox cut in on the inside lane to overtake the offensive driver. “I’m fine. So was I right about the Kamchatka bunker being a hoax?”
“Right you are. The real bunker is located on an island in the Sea of Japan. According to these notes, construction on the bunker in the early 1980s wasn’t even completed, but was left abandoned. Hexagon moved in to complete its construction.”
Fox hopped a lane. “Where exactly is the island?”
“I’m not checking that right now, I’m taking notes in order to make the serum.”
“How long will it take?”
“If all goes well, under an hour.”
“What about security?”
“We’ll use your makeshift keycard instead of mine. That should buy us some time. As for the rest, don’t look at the guards or the cameras. But you already knew that, right?” Parris answered with a smirk.
Fox glanced at her and then back at the traffic. “Of course I did.”
When they approached the security checkpoint at Hexagon, Parris flashed her employee pass while Fox flashed Levickis’s makeshift pass. The guard waved them through. Parris directed Fox to the parking lot of the East building.
Fox followed Parris down the elevators to the fourth basement floor, into the same testing laboratory where she had been earlier. She took two steps into the room and then stopped.
“What’s wrong?” Fox asked.
“This is where it happened, where-”
“Parris, stop.” Fox patted her lower back. “Stay focused.”
“Right.” She grabbed a lab jacket from one of the hooks near the entrance and put it on. “I’ll start working on the serum. Everything I need to make it is in this room. I just need you to hand me the tools and items as I work. Oh, and another thing. You should grab a lab coat, too.”
Fox obeyed her and took one. “Yes, ma’am.”
There were dozens of mice that were used for experiments kept in the laboratory. Both Parris and Fox had enough to extract blood samples to fill ten test tubes.
“That’s all we need for non-human proteins,” said Parris as she returned the last mouse to its cage. “What we have in here is similar to what’s found in some modern high-tech laboratories. Various chemical compounds and elements must be preserved in different environments with temperature and lighting control. Those chemicals are found in various rooms throughout this sub-basement. The concept is much like your typical candy vending machine. You put in your money, look at the code that’s listed under each candy, then you punch in the code on the keypad, and the chocolate bar drops off the shelf.”
Fox followed her to the computer workstation where she typed in her personal access code.
“Except in here, you order from this computer terminal. The difference is that you also have to specify the exact volume and concentrations. Based on the notes I read from the files, I’ve been able to compile a list of ingredients and their precise amounts needed to make the serum. I have them all written down on this piece of paper I took from the glove compartment.” She took the folded paper from her pocket and showed it to Fox. “I’ll order the first to show you how it’s done.” Parris demonstrated. Within a minute, a message flashed on the screen. Compound ready. Please collect.
She walked over to a corner, beside the isolation chamber, to a one-by-one-foot metal door located in the wall. She opened it and took out the corked Erlenmeyer flask from the conveyer belt.
“And to think that I spent three hours in chemistry lab class making compounds from scratch when I could‘ve done it here in half the time,” said Fox.
“Well, now’s your chance to spoil yourself. Gather all of the compounds on my list and be mindful of the specific volumes and masses I’ve indicated. They must be precise. I’ll set up the rest of the equipment.”
“Yes, Professor Parris,” Fox said sarcastically, with a smile.
Parris glanced back at him for a second before she shook her head.
They both started working.
“So tell me, Doctor…not to bring back any bad memories, but what was it like being on Clarity?”
Parris took a big breath as though she was in deep reflection.
“It’s scary thinking back on it. You don’t feel any different from how you are now. It’s just the way you think that’s different. It’s like anyone who’s gone through a brainwashing procedure, except this procedure’s more efficient than traditional methods. Clarity is remarkable, but in a negative sense.”
Those words instantly reminded Fox of when he first met Dr. Marx, especially when she described Pandora’s self-replication rate as wonderful. But Dr. Parris wasn’t the deranged woman Dr. Marx was.
“How’s it more efficient?” asked Fox.
“While under Clarity, and with the assistance of the chair, Marx’s words all meant something, the way she was able to make me go back and talk about traumatizing events in order to mold me into what she wanted, the way she used my previous experience with you to…” Parris immediately bit down as if to stop herself from saying another word, but it was too late, Fox already knew the rest of what she was about to say. Her head dropped, as she seemed to recognize that. She put the flask down on the counter in front of her, and she sighed. “I’m sorry.”
She had struck a nerve and Fox felt the sensation all the way up his spine.
“No, Dr. Parris. I’m the one who’s sorry.” Fox sighed now too, as he shook his head. “How about that. Marx made you talk about our brief relationship. She made you remember the pain and anger you felt when I stood you up and disappeared from your life. You agreed with her that your pain and troubles could be traced to those who’ve wronged you, including me. Now you’ve become the person you are because of me.”
“I’d rather not discuss it anymore. That’s the past. Let’s move on.”
“Agreed.”
A minute passed, but for some reason Fox still sensed that Parris was somewhat restless. Then again, he couldn’t let that distract him. But it was not long before he heard a glass smash on the floor. When he turned to look, he saw Parris staring at the broken beaker at her feet.
“Don’t worry, I’ll clean it up,” she said with a wave of her hand. She walked over to the corner, opened a closet door and took out a broom and dustpan.
As Fox listened to Parris sweeping up the glass, he got restless himself, knowing she wanted to say something else to him. Keep working, this needs to be finished quickly. Oh who am I kidding? He stopped what he was doing and looked at her, and before he could say anything, Parris began to unload herself.
“You called me Jessica.”
“What?”
“You referred to me as Jessica, back at the fish market.”
“I did?”
“Yes. It was right after you shot Walsh. You were slightly delirious.”
Fox thought back to when they were at the parking lot. The way she had looked at him as he held her, so reminiscent of the way Jessica had looked at him on the stretcher in his dream. Could he have been thinking of Jessica that whole time?
“Oh, that’s nothing. It runs in the family. Kind of like how an aunt or uncle means to call you by your name but ends up calling you by your brother or sister’s name. It was that sort of thing.” Fox laughed hesitantly. He didn’t want to talk about Jessica right now, and the only way to avoid the subject was to pretend it didn’t exist. But he saw that Parris wasn’t buying any of it. Who am I trying to kid here?
“Fox?”
He turned to her. “Yes?”
“Stop.” She rested the broom against the side of the counter. “Don’t you see what’s happened to you? You’ve intentionally inundated yourself in the mission as a way of covering up your past. You just don’t know it yet.”
Fox crossed his arms, his head slightly tilted, as he looked at Parris. “Really? Why do you say that?”
“Dr. Marx told me everything. She convinced me you became some sort of loose cannon after what happened to your fiancee. She knows quite a bit about you.”
Thanks to Tanaka. “She doesn’t know anything about Jessica. And neither do you.”
“You’re right, I didn’t know her. But I wish I did. Because the fact that you were about to give up your career in an elite Special Forces unit to settle down with her, she must have been one hell of a woman.”
Damn her. Why’d she have to go for my soft spot? He turned to the counter and leaned on it with outstretched arms, facing the isolation chamber. “You know what? Being a part of the JTF2 wasn’t even part of my life’s goal. I was your typical spoiled kid, born with a silver spoon in their mouth. There was so much that I could’ve been in life-or should I say-what my father wanted me to be. I threw it all away and joined the army.”
Parris slowly walked towards Fox. “You joined the army to rebel against your father?”
“Yeah, that’s pretty much it.” Fox smirked and glanced at Parris. “Then I met Jessica. And everything changed.”
Parris stopped a foot away from Fox. “What was she like?”
“She was something else. We had our arguments, she was so damn feisty. She always tried to prove that she was the one that wore the pants in the relationship. Kind of what you’d see your parents arguing about from time to time.”
“I wouldn’t know.”
Fox looked at her over his shoulder surprised. “What?”
“I never had the chance to see my parents argue because I never knew them.”
“Parris, I didn’t-”
“It’s okay, I’ve had this conversation before. My mother died when I was young and I never met my father. My aunt raised me.”
Fox hesitated for a moment, wondering how appropriate it would be to continue talking about this. “Do you ever wonder where your father is?”
Parris shook her head. “No, and I don’t want to either.”
“To say the least. I haven’t spoken to either of my parents, or Jessica’s, since…the incident.”
“Why?” She then took his right hand. “Do you blame yourself for her death?”
He pulled himself from her grip and turned away from her. “I should’ve seen it coming. After all the training I’d undergone. I’d learned so much about assessing a situation. Yet I couldn’t spot something suspicious about the company Jessica worked for.”
“We all make mistakes.” Parris walked up to him and turned him around gently. “I’m sorry I was so nasty to you yesterday. You were right. I was listening to you play the piano. I understand that you were trying to make up for the past-I just didn’t want to accept it then. For the record, I’m not mad at you anymore.”
Fox again felt a warmth in her voice and he responded by holding both her hands. “After what happened to you…I mean…the night I stood you up and you being assaulted and all. Don’t you regret becoming a field agent as a result of what I did to you?”
Parris smiled at him. “You’re not the reason why I’m here. I’m here because I want to be here.”
Fox didn’t say anything else. She was the first woman since Jessica to come close to making him come out of his shell. But he would never allow himself to get too close to her. Walsh’s attempt at taking both of them out at the fish market was a stark reminder as to why he could not allow himself to fall in love again, not while people like Ares and Dr. Marx were out there. He looked over the equipment in front of him. It was time to finish this.
Fox assisted Parris for the first half hour until there were no more compounds to collect, at which point Parris continued on her own. While Parris worked, Fox sat at the computer and reviewed the information she stole from the safe that she didn’t have time to read during the ride.
Parris then held up a one-thousand-milliliter beaker with a blood-red solution within it. “I’m done. Now we need to test it.”
The casual observer would mistake it for tomato sauce, but it wasn’t as thick. She carried it to the counter in front of the isolation chamber where she put it down. Fox watched her as she picked up a scalpel. Alarms went off in his head when he saw the blade pointed inward towards her opposite hand. Without another thought, he snatched both of her wrists.
She looked at him with her mouth agape, as though perplexed. “What are you doing?”
“I was about to ask you the same thing.”
“Pandora feeds on human red blood cells to self-replicate, so I’m volunteering myself. For heaven’s sake, I’m no longer under the effects of Clarity. Would you rather I cut you instead?”
Fox looked into her brown eyes. Yeah, I’m overreacting. He smiled and released her wrists. Parris jabbed herself in the heel of her left palm and held it over a Petri dish. Six drops of blood fell into it. She opened the first-aid kit she had on the counter behind her and helped herself to the rubbing alcohol, cotton, and a Band-Aid.
Below the window, on the far left side of the isolation chamber, was a small slot with a button beside it. Parris pressed it and the door flipped outwards. An inner airlock door also opened, making a hissing sound. Ten seconds later, a tray slid out on which she placed the beaker with the serum, and the Petri dish with her blood onto the tray. She also reached into her breast pocket and took out the metal container which held Pandora. Parris momentarily hesitated as she held it. She looked at the beaker with the serum and then placed Pandora between the serum and the Petri dish. She pressed the same button and the tray slid back, the door closed, and the tray reappeared on the other side of the window a few seconds later.
Parris walked to the console and picked up a glove with several metallic pieces attached to it from off a plastic rod that was attached to the console. The glove controlled the mechanical arm inside the isolation chamber. It weighed much more than an ordinary glove. It was wireless and it gave Dr. Parris complete freedom of movement when she wore it. She pressed a button on the glove that was located under the base of the palm to activate the robotic arm, which then mimicked her hand and finger movements.
She looked inside the chamber as she brushed a few strands of her hair that dropped to her left eye. “Here it goes.”
Fox stood beside her as they watched what went on inside the chamber.
The robot arm mimicked Parris’s movements and picked up the Petri dish and poured the blood on top of the metal container. She then brought the mechanical arm above it, made it point the index finger downwards, and then lowered it to crack it open. Blood leaked into the container and within seconds a reaction was evident. The combination of crunching and rattling sounds grew louder and a thick, smoky red cloud streamed from the container.
With the robotic arm, Parris picked up the smoking container and dropped it into the beaker, where it floated on the surface of the serum. Parris curled her fingers but kept her index extended and held the robot arm above the beaker with its index finger pointing downwards above the container. She then directed the robot arm to push the container to the bottom of the beaker. She raised the robot arm, pressed the button on the glove to deactivate the robot arm and placed the glove back onto its rod. The beaker shook as it bubbled and belched out the red smoke in huge puffs. It wasn’t too long after that the entire chamber filled up with the red cloud. Nothing else was visible it was so thick.
Both Parris and Fox looked around as their surroundings were illuminated by a bright red, much like the cloud that swirled in front of them on the other side of the window. Parris pressed the off button on the glove and returned it to the console as the inner chamber filled to capacity with the red cloud.
A minute went by and the red cloud was still there. Parris slammed her right fist onto the counter in frustration and spun around with both hands on her hips. “This should’ve worked! Now what are we supposed to do?” She put both hands to her temples as she paced the room.
Fox remained silent as he continued to stare into the isolation chamber. “I’d say you should make some more of that serum. Take a look.”
Parris turned around and swallowed hard when she saw another chemical reaction occur inside the chamber. The cloud began to fade, along with the sound of crunching and rattling. Several seconds later, all that remained were trace amounts of leftover serum inside the beaker, the cube inside it, and an empty Petri dish. Her arms dropped to her sides as she looked up at the ceiling and breathed out a big sigh of relief.
Fox then turned to her. “How soon can you prepare more of the serum?”
“I’ve already done so.” She smiled as she gestured to the side counter where she had a rack with two small vials and picked them up to show him. “From the notes I read, vials similar to these in both shape and size will be used. They’ve built a device, ironically named Pandora’s Box, which will be used to disperse the microbe. These vials are to be inserted into the device. We’ll each carry one.” She walked over to the counter and brought back the vials, their stoppers, and two small metal cases. She then handed one to Fox. “You’ll also need one of these to hold it in, just to make sure you don’t break it.”
Parris handed him a small metal case. Fox took it, opened it and saw that the vial was meant to fit inside it diagonally on a padded surface. He put the vial in, closed it and dropped the case inside his inner jacket pocket. Parris did the same.
Parris then looked at him, suddenly remembering something. “By the way, I hope your JTF2 duties included knowing how to fly a helicopter?”
“You bet.”
“Good. Because we’ll have to steal one from the lot.”