04: Critical Mass

Moving with purpose, Raymond’s feet carried him up the stairs to the Executive wing, passed the conference room packed to capacity with potential buyers and into the lavish office floor of the higher-ups. Each step burned with determination and anger all centered on one person. “What the hell is this?” Raymond demanded, storming into Ericka’s office and tossing a handful of photos on her desk. Photos taken by his assistant who had the gall to defy her Project’s Supervisor and sneak back into a restricted area three nights ago.

“And a good morning to you too, Dr. Bell,” Ericka said, pushing the images to the side as she casually sipped from her morning tea.

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Vanguard, he flew right passed me,” the blue-haired secretary stationed outside Ericka’s office stood squarely in the doorway, out of breath and glaring at the Head Researcher who paid her no mind.

“It’s fine, Bernice, I got it from here.” She waved her off and waited for the woman to make her leave, shutting the door behind her before turning back to Raymond. “Now then, where were we?” Ericka asked, barely glancing at the photos as she gathered them up and placed them in a neat little pile in front of Raymond. “Oh yes, that’s right. I was about to hand you these.”

Ericka placed a new stack in front of him, this one of paperwork with the BioCore header on top. “What’s this?” he asked, sifting through the documentation. “Severance? You’re firing me?”

“Well, to be fair, you were warned.”

“You said I had until Friday!”

“Yes, but that was before it was discovered you were using company resources to fund your own research.” Raymond’s eyes widened and his mouth gasped in shock. “Oh don’t look so surprised, Raymond. There’s nothing that goes on under this roof that I don’t know about.”

“I was waiting until I had something more concrete. You said it yourself. No more failures. I didn’t want to bring you more ‘dead rats.’”

“Save it. I had another researcher look over your notes. He tells me this little side project of yours looks very promising. In fact from what he’s been able to gather, it appears you’ve had a breakthrough; a successful cure for…what did he call it? Oh right, a non-recessive viral strain.”

“How did you…”

“Get your research?” Ericka asked with an arrogant laugh. “It’s amazing what people will do when their ass is on the line. That little assistant of yours is feisty, I can see why you hired her. But, when faced with the prospect of her own termination, she didn’t hesitate to serve your head for the chopping block.”

“She wouldn’t…”

“Hmm but she did. And thanks to her, I have everything I need to steer BioCore into a new era of medicine. One that will ensure this company much success in the many years to come. The numerous applications for…”

“No. You can’t,” Raymond interrupted, shocked by what Ericka was implying. “That drug is specifically designed for ONE type of person. Manipulating its chemical structure would make it highly unstable.”

“I have several scientists working downstairs in labs around the clock to upgrade your little project into something that’ll change the face of war. And they’ve assured me, Raymond, that what they create will not only be stable, it could bring a nation to its knees in a matter of minutes. Why wouldn’t we want that? Why wouldn’t anyone want to bring an end to the threats of war with a simple prick of a needle? There are geniuses downstairs working to guarantee a success. Why do you think I hire people like you?” 

“You hire people like me to keep medical anomalies to a minimum and I’m telling you that if you do this…you will be causing a pandemic. You can’t seriously contemplate weaponizing a disease of this magnitude. It wasn’t created for the intent of becoming a bioweapon! Millions of people could die!”

“Check your conscience at the door, sweetheart. No one’s forced you to be here. That was a decision made entirely on your own. You knew what we were doing, whether you admit that to yourself or not. BioCore is a bioengineering and pharmaceutical company but we’re also a military contractor. You can’t really expect me to believe you thought we were sending our soldiers on the front lines aspirin for headaches.”

“I won’t let you do this.”

“Well then, it’s a good thing you’ll no longer be working here.”

“You can’t fire me. I’m under contract with BioCore that keeps me from accepting a job with another lab for three years! I have a family to support!” He glanced down at the stack of photos and stabbed a finger into the top one, the one of Monica Stallworth forcibly shackled to her bed. “Let’s get to the real reason you’re doing this, Ericka. You’re afraid that I’ll go public with what I’ve seen. These pictures…”

“These pictures are the sad attempt by a disgruntled employee to drag BioCore’s name through the dirt. An employee who was dismissed for his heinous acts against humanity. When it was discovered that Dr. Raymond Bell was using live human test subjects in his experiments, he was released from his contract to BioCore. And now BioCore is making every effort to restore these unfortunate victims to their optimal health using our many resources. Criminal charges will be pursued against Dr. Bell for the damage he has caused to countless families. How was that?” Ericka grinned and pushed away from her desk. “I’ve been at this a lot longer than you’ve been playing with rats, Raymond. If you so much as breathe a word of this to your wife when you’re cuddle up with her at night, I’ll have your ass behind bars so fast it’ll make your head spin. And then how would you support your family?” 

Standing from her chair, she smiled at the desperation and despair on Raymond’s face. He was defeated and she knew it. She had him over a barrel and the only way out was to give in to her demands. “What do you want from me?”

“I thought I’d made that clear earlier. I have everything. And your services are no longer required. Don’t get me wrong, Raymond, I’m not a total monster. I’d be willing to waive your non-compete under one condition.”

“Let me guess, you want me to sign some gag order preventing me from discussing the highly illegal human testing you’re performing in that other lab.”

“Well there’s that and then there’s the matter of your…I mean BioCore’s latest research.”

“You can’t be serious! You’re not asking me to do what I think you are,” Raymond nearly shouted, pacing a few steps away from her desk.

“Of course I am. When you were hired you signed an agreement that any intellectual property created in connection with your job duties would become sole property of BioCore.”

“That’s bullshit and you know it. I never signed that clause. That lie might work on some wet-behind-the-ear underling but not me. I own the rights to my research, not you and not BioCore! You try and take my property and I will drag your ass to court!”

“Raymond, Raymond, Raymond…you don’t want to tie this up in court. You used company money and resources to fund your little project; that alone makes BioCore owner by default. I will crush you if you fight me. Sign a contract forfeiting your claims to this research or you can kiss your future goodbye.”

Leaning forward, he planted both palms flat against the desk and narrowed his eyes. “You’re a cold-hearted bitch, Ericka.”

“Trust me, darling, I’ve been called worse. Now sign!” A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as she watched Raymond hastily drag the pen through the pile of papers in front of her. When he reached the last form, he glared up at her one last time, signed, and then stabbed the pen straight through the wooden surface of the desk. “I’ve taken the liberty of having boxes delivered to your office. Please see to it that you’re out before the afternoon.”

“You’ll have my resignation, Ericka, but I won’t give you my soul.” Without another word Raymond started for the door.

“Dr. Bell? There’s just one last thing. If word of BioCore’s projects leak, if our competitors beat us to the market on any of our pending trials or if I so much as see a news van stop on this street to visit the little park on the corner, I’ll make sure you go down for everything.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“You’re a smart man, Raymond. Don’t do anything stupid.”

Raymond stamped out of her office just as fast as he’d entered. He was livid and doing his best to reel it in. Rushing for his lab, he was stopped at the elevator by two security guards posted outside the door. “Really?” he huffed. 

“Sorry, Ray, orders,” one of them spoke. “We’ll escort you to your office and give you some time to gather up your things.”

“Yeah.” Raymond sighed and glanced behind them into the lab, looking at the faces of the men and women he’d worked with for the better part of his career. They all stood, staring at him from behind the glass wall as the guards escorted him down the hall to his office.

“We’ll be right outside.”

“Thanks, Sam.” Sliding his back against the wall, Raymond took a look around his office, hung his lab coat, loosened his tie and set his task to packing up years of his life’s work. Awards, certificates, photos with the President, stacks upon stacks of research papers, notebooks stuffed with his hypotheses and theories…all tossed into one tiny cardboard box that now sat atop his desk. With a sigh, he placed it beside the door and opened up another.

“Ray?” He didn’t bother to turn around. He didn’t need to see her face. To see the sorrow he could hear in her voice reflected in her eyes.

“How could you? You gave Ericka my research. Everything that I’d been creating. My one chance to save my son. You betrayed our friendship, Rylie. I trusted you.”

“No, Ray, it’s not what you think,” she said, moving closer so her voice didn’t carry into the hallway. “What I gave Ericka were the analytical data on Kenji’s migratory birds.”

“The Avian flu? But…she said it was my research for…”

“It wasn’t complete. Sure they might be able to pull a rabbit out of the hat and piece together something that’ll keep the bitch happy but the real data, your research is back at my place. I hid it away so that woman wouldn’t get her hands on it. I would never turn on you, Ray.”

He smiled and dumped the contents of another draw into the box. “Listen, I need to tell you something. Earlier, I overheard Johnathan on the phone with Ericka. She’s ordered him to begin testing this new formula on those patients.”

“What? It’s not complete. It’s not been thoroughly tested. No way is it ready for the human phase yet. They have no idea what it’ll do to them. They could die.”

“And many already have. Those photos I gave you, none of them could really show the genuine horror show that is taking place downstairs. There are vats, Ray, of dead bodies; many of whom were tortured for weeks maybe even months with various new clinical research.” Rylie reported, eyeing the guards in the hall who’d begun to get twitchy. “Right now there are 12 people strapped to tables and gurneys in that lab. Over half of them are female.”

“No. This drug can’t be used on women. I only coded it for male DNA.”

“Which is I came to warn you. I don’t know what they have planned but what I do know is if they inject those women with your drug, they won’t live to see another day.”

“We need to get in there.”

“Yeah,” Rylie sighed and flashed the badge he’d given her. “That’s the other problem. Our badges no longer work.”

“I might know another way,” Raymond said, glancing up at the guards still standing beside his door. “You should get back to the lab. I’ll see about getting us in downstairs and come find you.”

“Ok.” Rylie started for the door, turning one last time, she grabbed Raymond from behind and embraced him. “I’m gonna miss you.”

Rylie left, passing the guards and a very rushed secretary and Raymond went back to packing up his office. He was four boxes in when he heard a knock on the door. “What are you doing in here?” Raymond asked, finding Johnathan standing in the doorway with a handful of files. “Come to see me off?”

“We need to talk.”

“If it has anything to do with what’s happening downstairs you can save it. As you can see, I am no longer employed at BioCore.”

“No, you need to listen, this involves you,” Johnathan urged, dropping the stack of folders on the desk. “Let me start by saying I’m sorry. When we started this project I had no clue of Ericka’s true intentions. Using medical treatments that weren’t fully developed, holding these people against their wills for trials they never agreed to. Yes, I oversaw a few of the experiments and I didn’t stop their mistreatment. For that I am guilty. But what she’s doing today…I want no part of it.”

“What did she do?”

“She ordered the labs to make extra doses. I assumed they were to be tested on more of our own volunteers but…,” Johnathan said, leaning closer as his voice got lower. “She sent a truck into town with the drug. She plans on handing out samples to the public so that BioCore can perform a massive test of their new drug.” 

“Jesus. She’s crazy! Does she have any idea what kind of crisis we’d be looking at? Wait…you said this involves me, how?” Raymond asked as a sudden realization went through him.

“In the off chance that something happens, Ericka left your name on all the records dealing with X917 or ‘Gravaxil’ as she’s labeling it. She’s using you as a scapegoat. And I’m sure she already has her press release prepared.”

“Yeah, I heard a part of it earlier when she was handing me my severance,” he said, nodding his head as Johnathan confirmed his worse fears. “I have to do something. She has to be stopped.”

“I was hoping you’d say that because I need your help. I’ve started copying much of the data on BioCore’s latest projects. I want to expose Ericka for everything she is but I can’t be in two places at once. I need to secure the records from the test subjects in the labs downstairs so it can be used as evidence. I’ll need you to halt production anyway you can.” Johnathan placed a security badge on the desk atop the folders of evidence he’d slipped to the Head Researcher. “You didn’t get this from me.”

Using the badge he got from Johnathan, Raymond slipped into the restricted area. It wasn’t as he’d seen in the pictures. The large pods that contained the cryogenic patients were gone…in fact, the entire room was empty. Continuing forward, he entered the testing area where the patients had been strapped to their beds and noticed once more the area appeared stripped and wiped clean. The heavy odor of bleach was thick in the air and he stifled a cough as he continued looking around. 

The sound of an engine caught his attention and he exited the room in search of the production chamber. Normally the generators weren’t run until the final stage of testing for any medication. For them to be on now couldn’t be a good thing. As far as he knew, BioCore had not completed any recent drugs. There was no reason for the production room to be in use.

He opened the door to the large whirring sound of an engine and watched as masked and gloved workers set about operating the sizable equipment on the fabrication floor beneath him. Ericka stood a few feet ahead of him on the catwalk above, watching the engineers industriously working. “Why are the digital governors turned off?” Raymond asked, noticing the blinking indicators above the second and third generators. “Those engines will overheat. They need to remain on at all times in order to regulate the maximum speed of the equipment’s motors. Look at the steam being forced out down there! That’s not normal!”

“Yes, but they were delaying production. I need a dozen samples ready before General Maddox arrives this afternoon and so far the only thing your lab cronies have been able to give me is four.”

“Ericka, you can’t produce that amount of an untested formula. You have no idea what it’ll do to the general public.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, Dr. Bell. This formula has, in fact, been tested. And thanks to your eye-opening research, we’ve had an unexpected discovery with an anti-aging drug that will surely knock the competition on its ass.”

“My research? Ericka, my research was for a cure for the Alpha Virus.” He gasped and thought back to what Rylie had told him about switching the documents. She’d mentioned serving up parts of the avian flu. “Jesus, Ericka, what did you do?”

“Made history,” she replied, grinning at the assembly line as she watched the large vats continue bubbling. 

Snatching a chart of discovery from the wall beside the staircase, Raymond read over the list of items waiting to be produced and again his mind revved up. The chemical makeup of this new anti-aging drug Ericka was so rushed to release had elements of a compound he had not seen; the medicine Ericka had been secretly testing in the second lab no doubt. However, there were components he did recognize, the permutation of an amalgam he’d used to break through the second stage in his cancer treatment. Rylie had, in fact, shared one part of his research with Ericka with one major difference: it didn’t indicate the formula was for males only. “Ericka, you have to stop this.” Using the threat of something he knew she cared about, he tried again, imploring her to think over the consequences. “If BioCore puts this drug on the shelves now it could destroy the brand when we, undoubtedly, recall it just weeks later.”

“Who said anything about putting this drug on the shelf?” Ericka asked, that familiar sneer tugging at the corners of her mouth. “We’ve been working on this project for too long to just scrap it now, Raymond.” It was at that point a light bulb went off in his head. Like a lightning strike atop the Empire State building his brain lit up and he realized Ericka’s intentions wasn’t to sell the drug. She was too stuck on the showmanship of her job and with the General making an appearance, she needed something flashy to get his attention. Which meant she wasn’t sending those trucks into town to give away free samples or to stock the inventory of the local drug stores. Ericka was planning to create a chemical spill on the unsuspecting people of Fairhaven!

“You’re insane!”

“No, Raymond, you are. This company has a job to do, a reputation to uphold and I’ll be DAMNED if I don’t see it through!”

The metal clanking of the heavy equipment beneath them prompted Raymond to again check the stress levels on each machine. A large knot had swelled on the upper right section of one of the barrels, bulging the container to dangerous levels. Moments later a bolt snapped off the expanded metal, rocketing towards the safety glass and shattering the top of the viewing window. “I warned you this would happen! The number 2 and 4 generators have reached critical mass. You need to shut them down now!” Raymond shouted over the din of the roaring engines. “They’re overheating. They can potentially blow if we don’t move quickly.” He tried one last time to motivate BioCore’s Vice President to action, but his warning was no use.

The generator and the room was rocked with a colossal explosion that sent shockwaves throughout the entire building. A tiny cloud of fire and smoke flared-up and Raymond heard the shouts of the operators beneath him as they rushed to take cover.

“Call for medical!” Raymond yelled at a stunned Ericka who stood back behind the protective guard watching the mass chaos that had erupted with the ignition of engine two. The assembly room workers who had moments ago been operating at top speed were now running for their lives as tanks of hot, bubbling chemicals burst and spilled their contents around the cramped room.

A handful of them had reached the outer metal doors and were desperately working on disengaging the airtight deadlock. For safety measures, the outside doors leading into the fabrication center had been locked and sealed off. No matter how many times one worker pressed the release, the doors refused to budge. The smart monitors were not allowing them to open, effectively trapping the innocent workers inside with the untested formula.

The men and women who had become victims to the initial spill had all finally stopped moving. Bodies covered the floor, many of which had been burned by the hot liquids while others appeared to be reacting to the chemicals. Large lesions formed on their exposed flesh as skin instantly putrefied and decomposed. It wasn’t long before those same chemicals spilled over into the outer doors where the few lucky survivors had been able to flee. Rushing quickly, one man moved to slam the security door shut to keep themselves safe. Raymond looked over at Ericka who had still not moved or called for help to assist with the events unfolding in front of them. The proverbial shit had hit the fan.

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