Russell Brooks - Pandora's Succession

“What do you mean calm down?”

“Satellites work by capturing either an infrared image from a person’s body heat signature or by taking an actual photograph,” answered Levickis. “They would’ve started observing you the moment you left Fox. But, they couldn’t have taken photo images of you because it was cloudy today, and you would’ve had your umbrella. And even if they decided to follow you by infrared, your image would’ve been lost in the subway. You’re sure you weren’t followed?”

Parris raised her right hand to her temple and sighed with relief. She then sat back down. “No, I wasn’t. That I’m sure of.”

“As for Fox, let’s hope that he gets himself out of whatever crap he’s gotten himself into,” said Walsh.

Parris looked up at Walsh. “If and when he does, he’ll contact us. That’s when we have to warn him.”

“But if the tag is in his system, how would he get it out?” asked Walsh.

Parris rested her elbows on her knees. “Normally, a tagging isotope would decay over time. But as for the one affecting him, it could range from several hours to a few days. So to be on the safe side, he’d have to ingest a masking agent to neutralize the detection properties of the tagging isotope until it decays.”

Walsh glanced at everyone. “We don’t have masking agents on us. Where will we find one at this hour?”

“I have access to Hexagon’s labs so I can create one tonight,” answered Parris.

Walsh cleared his throat. “Well, I was with Fox in Uganda, so you better make one for me too.”

Parris glanced at everyone. “As easy as it was to go after Fox, Ares could’ve gone after us too. They haven’t yet, so to be on the safe side I’ll get enough masking agents for all of us.”

“Just to add to that, the room’s secure,” said Dobbs. “I’ve got anti-surveillance equipment setup close to all the windows. So if anyone were using any type of equipment to eavesdrop, I’d know about it. I can tell you about the time that I was in Brazil, and the hotel I was in was located right next to-”

“You can tell us about it later, Dobbs,” said Walsh covering Dobbs’s mouth with his hand. “Anyways, moving on. Regardless of this unexpected situation, we’ve received new instructions from Downing, and some of them especially involve you, Dr. Parris. You’ll have to access everything you can find in Hexagon about Pandora.”

Parris ran a hand through her hair. “I’d have to break into Hexagon’s high security level, better known as the Safe.”

“Downing gave us the green light,” said Walsh. “As you stated in your last report, you believe the Safe is the repository of all of the intel. From what you told us earlier, my guess is that not only might you find intel on Pandora, but also of the cult’s contacts, the whereabouts of other possible laboratories, warehouses-everything we’d need to know in order for the CIA to raid all of these facilities and shut them down permanently.”

“Yes, I do.” She then looked at Levickis and Dobbs. “But I’ll need special clearance to enter the Safe.”

“You’ll have it.” Dobbs got up and brought over a series of printouts from his laptop and placed them on the opposite bed, side by side, to form a layout. Parris and Levickis stood up to take a closer look at the layout as Dobbs pointed things out with a pen as he glanced at Parris. “Have you actually seen the area around the Safe?

“No, I just said that I don’t have clearance for that area.”

“This is where you’ll get off the elevator.” Walsh pointed out the area with a pen. “You’ll enter a room with a guard sitting at a small monitoring station. From that room you’ll access the Safe directly, but you’ll need an access card and you’ll also have to punch in a four-digit code into a keypad.”

Parris turned to Dobbs. “What about cameras? Someone’s sure to recognize me and know that I’m not supposed to be there.”

“Levickis and I will be in control of that. We’ll actually be underground, but outside Hexagon, where we’ll gain access to the mainframe computer and to all of the cable and video feeds throughout Hexagon.”

Levickis turned to Dobbs. “We’ll loop a segment.”

“Correct. So anyone else watching will only see a recording of the security guard instead of you,” Dobbs replied.

With his index finger, Levickis drew a circle around the area of the guard’s workstation. “But we’ll allow her to be seen by the security guard from his monitoring station in his room, of course. We’ll just block out the other viewing areas.”

“And we’ll still be able to maintain contact with you via your earpiece, until you enter the Safe,” said Dobbs. He referred to the microprocessor-controlled receiver that was small enough to nestle in the ear canal. One would need a flashlight to find it. Inside Parris’s jacket lapel would be a voice transmitter of the same size. The transmissions would be burst UHF, making them next to impossible to track. Even if one were to track it, the transmissions would still be scrambled.

“What do you mean, until she enters the Safe?” asked Walsh.

“Because it really is a safe,” Parris said. “It has high-end anti-surveillance equipment which will interfere with all communication to the outside of it, knocking out both audio and video. I’ll be on my own from that point on, until I leave.”

Dobbs then handed her a disc. “This SCSI CD contains a virus which will eliminate all the firewalls and other security features that prevent hackers on the outside from breaking in. It’ll actually trick Hexagon’s system into thinking that the security protocols are still active. Think of it as unlocking a window from the inside.”

Walsh then pointed to the disc as he turned to Parris. “Once uploaded, Dobbs and Levickis will hack into the system and download all the info we need.”

“Once this is done, the CD will automatically reset all of the security protocols,” said Dobbs.

Parris played with the disc in her hand. “Anything else I need to know?”

Levickis cut in. “Yeah, don’t damage the earpiece.”

Fox was forced to sit down in front of a round table. The ninjas had no intention of allowing him to get any closer to Marx and literally shadowed his every move. Tanaka stood opposite him, leaning against the side of the booth next to her. She got up and walked towards Fox, stopping about five feet from his table’s edge.

Dr. Marx rested her drink on another table close by, just as a momentary blast of loud music caught his attention. When Fox looked at the entrance to the cocktail lounge, he saw a waiter enter with a glass on a tray.

“Care for a drink?” asked Dr. Marx.

“I’ll pass.”

“I insist.” Marx motioned to the waiter to put the drink down in front of him. She then crossed her arms.

There was a moment’s blast of loud music as the waiter left the lounge. Fox put the glass to his lips and tilted it towards him, but didn’t drink any of it. For all he knew, she had slipped something into his drink. He needed to be in fighting form.

“So where do you fit into all of this? No, don’t tell me. You plan to sell Pandora to the highest bidder and beat Ares at their own game.”

By the way she raised an eyebrow, Fox got the impression that he had insulted her.

“Sell? Pandora belongs to me. The only reason Ares ever got it is because I let them take it.”

“You mean to tell me you just gave it away?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact. I had no choice but to let them have it.” Marx paced slowly from side to side. “It would’ve been difficult to weaponize it on American soil while keeping my cover at the CDC. Thanks to Valerik, I was able to let Ares do the job instead. When the ice man was accidentally discovered two years ago in the Arctic, I was once again given the chance to continue my work. I extracted a Pandora sample from the ice man and gave it to Valerik, who then gave it to Ares. Valerik told Ares of his retrieval of the perfect weapon.”