2022 (10 page)

“Interesting that it was important enough for
her to fly out,” Diane said. “At least we’re guessing it was her on
the helicopter.”

“The timing was too perfect. Hey, I’m going
to grab some grub—do you want to come along?”

“Sure, if you can wait a few minutes for me
to get dressed.”

Shortly afterward, the two young women headed
through the maze of trailers towards the temporary cafeteria. “I so
miss my apartment and other things. Living in these trailers,
wearing this and eating here is just not me at all. Thankfully, I’m
only one of the builders so I will be out of here soon,” Olivia
said as they joined the breakfast line. “What kind of work are you
going to be doing here?”

“I’m a resident, part of Mario’s clan,” Diane
said. “To be honest, I found out about this whole thing only a few
weeks ago, and since then it feels like I’ve been in a whirlwind.
What area are you working in?”

“The research lab, setting up equipment,
developing instruction guides for stuff, and helping to stock the
library with books on biology and chemistry. I’m very interested to
see how the whole education thing works out here.”

“Why’s that?”

“Well, the plan is pretty different from the
standard education system and its current setup. Here, kids will
get started on basics like reading, math, etc., but will go through
the same training as you are now—learning the fundamentals of all
jobs here. After that, they work with their elder to determine an
area of specialty and then will spend years working and studying.
There’ll be no formal classes for advanced education; it’ll be
gradual learning passed down from others specializing in the
field.”

“Sounds better than the system I grew up in.
I didn’t fit in well at all. Far too many topics I wasn’t at all
interested in. At the time, it was all about test grades, not
really about how much you knew on the topic.”

After breakfast, Olivia took Diane to the
town center. They walked past the entrance that Diane had used
yesterday.

“That goes to the auditorium, library, and a
few offices,” Olivia said as they turned a corner and came to
another entrance. “This is the entrance to the research lab and
nursing center.”

Diane was impressed on entering the research
lab. There were areas for working, a small lecture hall, and some
equipment already set up together with many instruments still
waiting to be unpacked. She watched as Olivia started heating up
some water with a Bunsen burner and then tore the packing tape off
a box.

“I brought this up with me from the
foundation.” Olivia said as she proudly reached in and pulled out a
package of ground coffee.

“Oh my God” Diane said in a hushed voice.
“May I please have a cup?”

Olivia laughed as she made two cups. “With
steady shipments of equipment and chemicals coming in from the
foundation lab, I am making sure to get regular shipments in of
this as well so at least we will have a few creature comforts.”

Diane just nodded as she took her first
sip.

“The hardest part of equipping this lab has
been the construction rules in Percipience,” Olivia said. “Unless
you get an exception from Mikhail or Richard, everything here must
be able to be built using the tools and materials available here.
If you do get an exception, you must be able to store enough spare
parts to last at least a few hundred years.”

“That must be tough, especially with some of
the equipment here.”

“It was. There’s a full machine shop, so
you’d be surprised by what they actually can build. Though some of
the electronics have proved to be interesting in that they won’t
last, even if stored properly, for more than a few decades.
Thankfully, most basic electronic components, like resistors, can
be stored for a very long time so a great deal of the equipment you
see here had to be completely redesigned to be much simpler to
build and repair.”

Diane nodded. “Have you ever heard of
Virtuesh?” she asked casually.

Olivia was about to take a sip of coffee and
her arm froze. “Where did you hear about that?”

Diane went through the story of her brother
being killed and how she found the Virtuesh website on his
computer, which led her to Percipience.

Olivia only then noticed Diane’s last name on
her badge and realized that her brother was also her own friend who
had been murdered. “Diane,” she said quietly, “I may know the
person responsible for getting your brother killed!”

“What?”

“He was a friend of mine. During a video chat
we had shortly before he was killed, I accidently mentioned the
word Virtuesh. It’s a secret virus that the foundation had
developed, and Mikhail warned me that there would be consequences
if I told anyone about it. There are only a handful of people who
have knowledge on it, and none of the residents do.”

“So when my brother looked it up on the
Internet, it must have triggered something that signaled Mikhail.
Of course! I looked it up too, and shortly after that, a suspicious
looking insurance agent came around looking for me.” She dug out a
business card and showed it to Olivia. “But why didn’t they finish
me off when I was at headquarters? They treated me like a VIP.”

“Probably because as long as you were there,
or here for that matter, you pose no threat. I can understand that
they want to keep Virtuesh secret, but it’s not worth killing for,
at least not for this project.”

“Do you think that Mikhail is up to anything
else?”

“Possibly. I can dig around and see if I can
find anything. Maybe I should make up an excuse to go back to
headquarters after I receive the first batch of vaccines and
Virtuesh that are expected to be here in the next day or so. In the
meantime, I think we both had better be extra careful and not
mention this to anyone else.”

“I agree, and I appreciate your help,” Diane
said.
Now at least I know I’m on the right track.

Hope was tired enough to sleep on the noisy
helicopter ride back to Percipience. It was late in the afternoon
when she had caught up with Mikhail as he was about to leave his
trailer. She handed him the report on Spencer. “Not much of a
challenge, really. I was hoping for something a bit harder.”

“Give me the short version,” Mikhail said. He
took the folder and sat down.

“He’s a junior member of the DIR and was at
the colonies to get more information on them since their Dark Web
search engine was coming up blank. He got caught when he tried to
put a tracking device on one of the computers at the colony.”

“Harmless enough, at least for now. I’ll give
this to Richard tomorrow,” Mikhail said. “Care to join me for a
bite to eat?”

They headed to the cafeteria and settled at a
table. She asked him if she should continue watching Olivia and
Diane.

“Yes—for now, at least,” he replied.”

“You know, it would be a whole lot easier for
me to keep an eye on things if I knew what you were looking
for.”

He looked at her and decided that he could
use an ally through the next few months. The more she knew, the
more effective she would be.

“I guess that’s a fair request,” he said,
glancing around to ensure that no one could hear him. “You do
understand that the purpose of the Pleasant Belief Foundation is to
prevent or prepare for a global collapse and to live in a
sustainable fashion?”

“I do—and I like the foundation; they’re
doing great work.”

“I have a plan of my own,” he said. “One
along the same lines but I think is better.” He described
Richards’s plan for four villages that would operate as experiments
in sustainable living while the rest of the world’s eight billion
people systematically destroyed the planet. “If there were a
catastrophic event, and all those people died, I think the villages
would be far too small to restart the human population. My plan
involves a much larger population of like-minded people, say a few
million. By now you’ve heard of Virtuesh—the virus that villages
like Percipience would use as a last-resort defense?”

She nodded.

Then he told her that he had instructed the
Asia team designing the original Virtuesh virus to make a second,
stronger airborne strain that would last longer outside a host
body. “I call it Virtuesh-B.”

She shifted uneasily in her seat. “That
sounds pretty dangerous.”

“It is. I’ve had enough produced to cover the
earth, and it’s already in the hands of the people who will release
it.”

“God!” she blurted. You want to take out the
human race?”

“Not entirely,” he said calmly. “I had them
make a bit of vaccine as well to cover myself and my family and a
few close friends. I’m now getting enough made in a separate
facility to cover a few million of the people who share the same
environmental ideology. Together, we’ll start a new, sustainable
world—one without wars.”

“It’s an insane plan and sounds like
something that CURE would do. You can’t go ahead with this.”

“But CURE is exactly the group I’m referring
to! I’ve been part of it since the beginning. We don’t have an
official hierarchy, but I’m part of a small group that drives the
plans and general direction.”

“They’re terrorists and radicals, for God’s
sake.”

He raised his hands in mock horror. “From the
government’s perspective yes, but we are fighting for the planet.
But before you get any heroic ideas and turn me in, or kill me, you
should know that the people around the globe in charge of releasing
the virus are devoted to the cause. They’ll release it even without
the vaccine, and certainly if they don’t hear from me every two
days.”

She said nothing when he finished talking and
thought about what she should do next. There was still time to
figure out something to stop him, and she decided to play along for
now.

“How soon until the vaccine is ready?”

“About three months,” he said. “Another month
after that to distribute it and let it take effect.”

“I see. Why are you telling me all this? And
what do Olivia and Diane have to do with it—are they in on it with
you?”

He sat back and laughed. “No, they’re not
helping me. Olivia is working on setting up the lab and vaccines
for the original Virtuesh, and Diane has found out about it
somehow. She must have gotten information from her brother.”

“So what threat are they to you?”

“Here, in Percipience, they’re of little
threat.” Mikhail said, “I was worried about Diane when she wasn’t
here in that she would alert authorities and put attention on us
that both Richard and I don’t want. Now, just as a precaution I
want to keep an eye on them to make sure that they don’t somehow
stumble onto my strain of the virus or any part of my plan. The
risk is very low since I’ve ensured that there are no electronic
records of Virtuesh-B, but one cannot be too careful.”

“I want in,” she said. “I want some of the
vaccine for this new strain of the virus.”

“Of course—I expected that you would. I’ll
get you ten doses—will that be enough?”

“I think so. How can I trust that the vaccine
will be genuine?” she asked.

“Listen, when all of this is over, I’ll be in
a position of immense power across the world. A person with your
skills is very hard to find, and I’m sure I’ll continue to have
need of your services.”

Olivia nodded and then agreed to monitor
Olivia and Diane and report any suspicions findings to him.

Their conversation ended and she walked back
to her trailer for much-needed sleep. As she approached, she
noticed lights inside. She opened the door and was greeted cheerily
by Olivia, who immediately introduced Diane. The two young women
sat on the floor playing a game of cards.

“Where did you go off to last night?” Olivia
asked.

“I had an errand to do for Mikhail,” she
said. There was no point in lying about that. “He’s a tough man to
work for.”

Olivia and Diane looked at each other. “I
don’t care too much for him,” Olivia said. “If I were you, I
wouldn’t trust him.”

“I don’t” she said, lying down on her bed.
“You two don’t have to worry about being quiet. I’m exhausted and
will be asleep in no time.” She put her head down on her pillow.
You’re quite right. I can’t trust Mikhail.

********************

Sue leaned back in her chair and closed her
eyes for a moment. When she reopened them, she glanced up at the
clock and then around the rest of the office realizing that
everyone else had left for the day. She had been so immersed in
going over the data on the ocean eco-system that she had lost track
of time. As she started to pack up her things to go home, she
looked at the vacant cube across the aisle. Her initial anger at
Spencer for not checking in with her was turning into concern.
Though she had only known him for a few weeks, he did seem quite
responsible, and she could not imagine a scenario where he would
just not get in contact with her.

She put her purse down and turned her
terminal back on. With a few keystrokes, she found that there was
no activity on Spencer’s cell phone or bank records for the last
few days and after a few more searches also found that he had not
even used any of his e-mail accounts. One final search against
hospital and police databases came up blank as well.
Something
has gone wrong.

Her next move was to make a call to the West
Coast colony office, but they were of little help. They explained
to her that they did not keep names of anyone staying in the
complex but offered to put a note on their bulletin boards with his
name and a message for him to call her.

Frustrated with her lack of progress, she
picked up the phone for one last call.
He has to be at the
colony and must have gotten into trouble somehow. There is only one
person I can think of whom I can contact to maybe get some answers.
Richard, the head of the foundation itself.