Disclaimer: See Chapter 1 for the usual statements.
Author’s note: Yeah, it’s been a really long time.

Mission Impossible

(Chapter 27
…in action)

The Centre
Biological Research – Level 5
Blue Cove, DE

Thackery had moved his primary operations from the cramped space on the more ‘secure’ level of SL-20 in favor of the spacious biological research labs for several reasons: This lab was more spacious, better laid out and had been supplied with a large, secure-looking safe in which he stored his induction chemicals and the computer files for his invention. He no longer felt secure in any sense but especially knowing Cox was aware of his SL-20 hidey hole and demonstrated that he could and would waltz in at his leisure. In addition, this lab area had the advantage of being closer to his private offices.

Ever since Cox fully, if not sarcastically, explained the risks involved in using these particular guinea pigs, Thackery could no longer indulge himself with the delusion that he was untouchable. It never occurred to the geneticist to ever spare a second thought about his subjects—who they were, where they came from or how they affected the world around them. It was a detail that he felt didn’t warrant his attention—now he was feeling the unsettling effects of such neglect. To ease these alarming worries, Thackery did what he always did—began working on setting up a scapegoat to take the fall for his failures. Fortunately, the Centre had been most helpful in that endeavor. Jennifer had been chosen to take the full blast of the heat for any setbacks—and with the Parker woman showing few, if any signs of succumbing to the ‘treatments’, it was almost a sure bet that the heat would be coming and quickly. With some careful maneuvering, Thackery would make sure that he survived any repercussions or retaliations.

With an evil smile that would make even a zombie cringe, Thackery recalled how he had willingly shared the code to the safe with his assistant, securing from her a promise that the combination would remain between them. He went further to rig the safe so he would know when she was snooping around. So far, the woman was doggedly honest. He wasn’t used to that, but it didn’t matter. When the time came, all the blame, sprinkled generously with a few well placed lies, would land squarely on Jennifer’s beautiful shoulders and thoroughly bypass him. To back-up any theft claims, Thackery kept his heavily edited, hard-copy files in the safe—the full back-ups he kept in his rooms—cleverly hidden.

Modesty made her way over to Thackery’s new lab. For such a brilliant man, he was extremely inept when it came to hiding things from her. It didn’t take a genius to know that for him to volunteer giving her the combination to the large safe in the lab, he had plans to blame her for any mishaps or failures on his part. To confirm her theory, Modesty carefully checked the safe and found his tell-tale sign of a human hair stuck between the door jam and door, on the lower threshold. Modesty studied it for a couple seconds and then went on to open the safe—carefully catching the hair that dropped once the safe door swung open. Inside, she had found a treasure trove of all the doctor’s files and treatments. During the time Jarod had taken Parker away for the week, Modesty had been industriously removing, diluting and copying everything in the safe. Her method was simple, she uploaded electronic copies to the dummy folder set up by Jarod, returned to the Inn to browse and then alter the content, (she didn’t have time to read through all the dense material) and then once she was in the lab, exchanged the real thing for her heavily altered fakes. Modesty used her talents as a gifted forensic psychologist to subtly inject high-sounding ridiculous phrases and retained content that would justly discredit Thackery.

Modesty put the final altering touches to Thackery’s documents in the safe. Previewing her work once again, she began printing out the results that would then be placed in the vault while the originals were scanned, uploaded to Jarod’s dummy folder and then shredded. So far she hadn’t found any CDs or Flash drives of the originals in the safe but as a stop gap, she had hidden both types of electronic storage in amongst the documentation. If it was all at their fingertips, then perhaps the Centre wouldn’t look any further. An imperfect solution but there was nothing better in her arsenal and time had run out. As she entered the medical lab, she was looking for something different in the large safe. This time when she opened it, Modesty didn’t care if the small human hair floated lazily to the floor. What she needed was important and symbolic at the same time. When she spotted the item, a satisfied smile graced her features as she stood up straight holding her small treasure. Modesty looked around at the neatly arranged equipment. Thackery was a bit of an obsessive compulsive when it came to cleanliness. Everything had its place and everything was in its place—including her, as she walked with calm deliberateness to her workstation. She logged into the computer, quickly accessed Jonas’ anonymous proxy server, and alerted the team that she and the camera were ready. Out of sight of the watching camera, she withdrew a tiny gadget she obtained from Jarod and aiming it in the general direction of the camera, pushed a button. Nothing appeared to have happened; the DSA camera’s LED still indicated it was recording. However, on the face of her gadget, its green LED blinked several times before settling down to a solid green—indicating that a previously recorded day was now playing on the surveillance screens. Turning to look once more around at the neat and tidy room, Modesty rolled up her sleeves and began systematically trashing the lab.

Centre Shipping/Receiving warehouse

Geoff turned his face towards the sky, futilely trying to catch some warmth off the brilliant but otherwise weak rays of the sun. Smiling to himself, he shrugged as he adjusted the strap of his messenger bag more comfortably across his chest and strolled up the stone steps to the employee entrance. As usual, the place was hopping with activity; Centre shipping employees were bustling hurriedly around like a swarm of angry bees. The sound of beeping forklifts, shouts and banging was practically deafening and chaotic. To add to this mess was a confusing jumble of packages and crates arranged 3 deep and to one side of the voluminous shipping area. To the untrained eye, this operation appeared to be an exercise of massive confusion when in fact it was an orderly, tightly run department that kept a strict schedule and bureaucratic account of every item that either entered or left the Centre. He took advantage of the flaw in warehouse security which included a protocol the workers felt was unnecessary—having someone prowl amongst the received cargo at random intervals to insure no one entered the premises or had access to the still sealed cargo without authorization. To date, nothing had come up missing or tampered with, so the lax attitude continued. Geoff causally pressed his thumb onto the scanner’s surface, displayed his new Centre Security issued ID to the card reader and the responding beep allowed his entrance. He habitually came to work via the entrance that normally served only the shipping/receiving and returns personnel. They had grown used to this friendly sweeper arriving early in order to watch them work for a few minutes before disappearing into the office areas. He hung about inconspicuously until he was in the aisle where the target crate was located. When he was confident no one was looking, he ducked down low and eased the backing off a large crate. When he was done extricating a few small items, Geoff carefully replaced the backing and walked away. He breathed a sigh of relief that Centre security didn’t bother monitoring the warehouse too closely. The sweepers at the loading dock entrance were there in case anyone tried to filch anything. The inventory tags created a digital link with the employees’ ID card when in close proximity—this link would’ve alerted security should he attempt to leave the building with the tagged merchandise. In Geoff’s case, he was stealing but he never left the complex with his pilfered goods at Jarod’s insistence, thus further circumventing security’s inventory theft system. There was only one more tiny detail to be attended to before he continued on with the next phase of the mission.

Last night, Geoff checked on the counterfeit invoice he had planted in the system. It was still there waiting. Everything was going to plan as he slowly strolled though shipping, checking his watch while ostensibly heading towards the exit. What he was waiting for was the timer on the corridor security cameras. He knew the surveillance rotation of the cameras on this level and waited for the view to cycle through. When he knew the coast was clear, Geoff partially opened the door and aimed the device he received from Jarod at the camera and waited for the green LED on his device to stop flickering. Then he slipped out of the door and headed directly for the stairs, pausing only to reset the camera’s view to normal and continuing to his destination. It took him 5 minutes to reach Level 7 and when he emerged, he found the corridor sparsely populated. Immediately he headed away from the main promenade area, dodging several hurrying Centre office staff along the way. When he came to an anonymous, un-labeled door, Geoff entered immediately—giving the air of someone who was supposed to be there. The room was dark and close. Not wanting to risk attracting any unwanted attention, Geoff ignored the light switch, snapped on a penlight and made his way over to a large vent that was at knee level. He reached into his messenger bag, took out a cordless screwdriver and set to work. He was finished 10 minutes later after placing the screws inside the vent and carefully propped the cover against the opening in order for it to look passably normal once again. Straightening up, he shined his flashlight around the room and found the crate he was looking for—the one he had planted in this room on his second day of employment. Someone had shoved it aside but otherwise seemed not to have disturbed it. With a quick smile, Geoff checked the crate for any signs of tampering and then once again reaching into his bag, he retrieved a shipping list copy of the waybill and shoving it into a plastic holder, affixed it to the top side of the crate. Then to make sure the crate resembled the others he had seen leave the Centre’s warehouse, Geoff took out a cardboard template and spray painted the Centre’s logo on each side adding a small blue stamp to each logo; giving the package the legitimacy that would allow it to leave the shipping area. When he was done Geoff packed up his template, spray can, and stamps back inside the messenger bag, placed his newly pilfered items in a shallow box and then casually left the room; melting effortlessly into the flow of foot traffic and out towards the more crowded promenade.

Geoff was careful not to be either too obvious or memorable, his clothing matched those of the typical Sweeper, he blended in with the crowd and made sure not to jostle anyone or to make himself in anyway remarkable. Unfortunately, there was one, coming into work himself who could pick Geoff out of a line-up of twins. Michael, leaving the Eastern Concourse food court, thought it would be prudent to walk off that extra doughnut he had for breakfast. He was just rounding the corner when he spotted Geoff headed towards the elevators. Glancing at his own watch, Michael looked up puzzled. The new guy was never late. He wondered what excuse he would invent, when the memory of the new guy taking those last few blows from Mr. Lyle intruded on his loyalty. He still owed the new guy. Well, this would be it. Michael walked on without giving the new guy another thought.

3 miles outside the Centre perimeter

Jarod and crew pulled into the shaded driveway of a closed summer house. With the onset of winter approaching, no one was home and the privacy was complete. Jarod slid out of his non-descript Buick and waited outside of the gray utility van with Taylor’s Unlimited embossed on each side and on the back. After a few minutes, Barney emerged wearing a matching gray uniform with the logo discreetly imprinted on the chest of his overalls.

“We’re just about ready Jarod.”

“Good. There’s something I want you to do for me. It’s a bit off topic but doesn’t compromise our mission.”

“Name it,” Barney replied immediately.

Jarod gave him a small satisfied smile and quickly explained what he wanted done. He finished his request with, “Of course, I want you to do this only after we have Thackery safely tucked away.”

“I understand. Consider it done.”

Jonas walked up as he rolled down the sleeves of his gray uniform shirt. He had finished double checking the false back in the van and the concealed opening that would allow for someone to slip out of the vehicle unnoticed by security. “Sorry for the delay. I needed to double check that everything was in order.”

“No problem, there’s still a little time left. You have the paperwork with the waybill number we got from Geoff. Just make sure you park between the loading dock and the underground access tunnel.”

“You got it.”

“Let’s go then. You know how I hate to keep a lady waiting,” Barney replied with a smile.

Biological Research – Level 5

She entered the office and rushed at his door with an expression of frightened dismay that was carefully etched into her features. “Doctor, I don’t know what happened, you won’t believe this!”

“What is it?” he asked absently. Casually he looked up at her unusual tone of voice. When he saw her face, it was like a coiled cobra was slowly unwinding in his belly.

“It’s the lab. It’s been vandalized or searched or something. Everything is a wreck and the safe was left open. I’m not sure if anything is missing. I didn’t want to touch anything. Please come quick!”

“You say someone vandalized it?” Thackery asked slowly, trying to figure out if now was the time to cut and run.

“Yes, all your things are strewn around the room. Papers are everywhere. I don’t know what to do, should we call security?”

“No. I remember the last time they came out,” he said aloud while thinking furiously. The thought of someone throwing his carefully alphabetized and categorized paperwork around the room got under his skin. “Okay, I’ll go with you,” the courage-challenged scientist stated.

Once they entered the lab, Thackery was taken aback by the vehemence of the attack. It was clear to him that Centre security was up to something. Perhaps the Parker woman found out—but that wouldn’t explain why she hadn’t sought him out? Thackery bent down to retrieve some papers when Modesty pounced. With admirable stealth, she slipped the soaked cloth over Thackery’s nose and mouth, forcing him to breathe in the specially formulated sedative. The effect was immediate. He didn’t even have time to fight or look surprised since Modesty, who was thoroughly sick and tired of this yahoo, gave him a slightly larger dose than what he had inflicted on his own victims. Once he woke up, she was sure the symbolism of using his invention to turn him over to the authorities wouldn’t be lost on the good doctor.

Modesty watched Thackery’s unconscious body slump to the floor. Checking her gadget once more, she confirmed that the security camera was still replaying an earlier recording to Centre security, showing that everything was okay. No sooner had Modesty text to Geoff that she was ready, than he was at the lab door.

Geoff entered the lab with hurried casualness. It didn’t take him longer than a couple seconds to find Thackery sprawled out on the lab floor. “’Pride goeth before the fall’; Well from this angle, it looks like the floor rushed up to hit him.”

“He’s ready, but I haven’t been so lucky finding his originals, either in CD form or pen drive.”

“We’re on a tight schedule as it is. Neither of us can waste time looking for them. Where are ours?”

“Inside the safe. I’ll put what’s left of his special knock-out juice back while you do your thing,” she said as she watched him lean over the hapless doctor.

While Geoff started pulling items from his messenger bag, Modesty made her way over to a small locker where she kept a carefully hidden stash of make-up and clothing. When she was finished, Modesty retrieved the vial containing the sedative and placed it in the safe. It was important for the Centre to find everything they expected to find. Any alterations and they might stumble on the truth much quicker than intended. With a smile, Modesty pocketed the extra quantity of the sedative. From the way it worked on the doctor, the sedative was something that could come in handy on other ops. She quickly pulled on a pair of latex gloves, wiped the CD and flash drive free of her prints and pressed Thackery’s fingers firmly on them. There wouldn’t be any question that he had handled these versions of his work. As an afterthought, she wiped her prints from both the locker and safe, double checked that ev

erything was as it should be and closed the locker, leaving the safe open. When she turned around, she was momentarily taken aback.

“You have to teach me how to do that one day. Ready to go?”

“After you,” he said, as he gingerly eased his broken arm out of the sling and walked over to the vent at the far end of the lab. Modesty, meanwhile hoisted Thackery into a sitting position and grabbing him around his underarms, proceeded to drag him across the freshly waxed floor. For once she was glad that all the doctor’s whining had paid off in getting maintenance to keep the floor highly waxed and shined. She paused for several seconds once she reached the vent, releasing her hold on the doctor and then slung Geoff’s messenger bag across her shoulder after she neatly tucked the Emprise folder safely inside.

“Hey, you’re a lot stronger than you look,” Geoff said with a grin. Then each took an arm hoisting the dead weight upright and propped the sleeping doctor against the wall, leaving Geoff to use his good arm side to bodily hold up the doctor while Modesty crawled thru the open aperture. The space was limited and she had to crawl some ways before a juncture in the air ducts provided more room. She was on the brink of turning around when she was startled to notice a shaggy haired figure staring at her curiously.

“Friend send? From Jarod?” the deep voice asked almost shyly.

“Yes. You’re Jarod’s contact? Will you help me? He’s very heavy and the way is narrower than I imagined.”

Her only response was an uncertain look before the strange man scrambled quietly down the passage she had just come from. In less time than she could’ve imagined, he was back towing Thackery’s dead weight behind him. Without giving her another look the man said in his monosyllabic manner, “This way.”

“Do you know where we need to go?” she asked. He paused for a nanosecond before readjusting his hold of Thackery’s lab coat and continuing down the air duct.

3 miles outside the Centre perimeter

Jarod was lost in thought for several minutes, his pensiveness brought on by an earlier encounter with Parker. Lately, she had been occupying his thoughts almost to the point of obsession. He was crazy about her with a newly discovered hunger that seemed to grow with every moment. Jarod summarily excluded her from his promise of never contacting anyone at the Centre again with a casualness that would’ve riled Parker beyond words. Sitting alone in the car, he reviewed his feelings with a clinical thoroughness to insure the investment he was making in her was something that would continue to solve his persistent loneliness and satisfy his heart. It was in his clinical approach and mentally simming scenarios of how her co-workers and friends would take Parker having a personal life that everything came together. The puzzling Centre intrigues suddenly made sense like a Chinese puzzle box that had unexpectedly fell open revealing all its secrets. Sydney, the picture of Parker on his desk, Modesty’s observation of Sydney and Parker’s interaction, the crazy promotion—the holes created by a lack of information and attention were for the most part quickly filled in by his own genius imagination. This led to a slight alteration in his plans. The cruel smile that played on his lips widened as he thought through the varied reactions his freshly revised plan would create.

In his mind’s eye, he recalled Parker’s attractively mussed hair (he couldn’t seem to resist doing that), the expression of barely suppressed desire in her eyes and the puzzlingly guilty look that suffused her features when she realized what she was doing. For the second time that morning—this time fully dressed and ready for work, she muttered something about being late. This thin excuse was heartening as Jarod rushed over grabbing her around the waist and enveloping her in his arms with a rakish smile. “Why not call in late—just this once.”

Parker paused for barely a 10th of a second before the expression in her eyes changed from desire to hardened purpose. As she started to answer him, Jarod pounced. He covered her mouth with his own and kissed her the way he knew she liked. The effect was immediate: a small whimper of defeat followed by a few blissful minutes of shameless necking. Finally, she broke away, breathing heavily.

“I have to go.”

“Not now, you’re not even wearing any lipstick.”

“That’s because I learned after I left the house one too many times to find I was looking like Bozo the clown. I almost got into an accident when I got a look at myself in the rearview mirror. You do this every time,” she complained unconvincingly.

“You want me to stop?” he asked after shifting his focus to her exposed neck. Her response was yet another encouraging whimper. “Uhmmmmm, enough said,” he replied as his hands pulled her further into his body. Jarod sat alone in his vehicle and purposely indulged himself for approximately 2 minutes as he thought through what he had been able to do to his girlfriend between the time she told him she had to leave and when she finally walked out of the front door.

Jarod briefly paused to mentally shift gears before turning his eyes on the large suitcase in the seat next to him. Quickly opening it, the contents revealed a large, sturdily encased computer. Without any wasted movement, the pretender switched on the computer, keyed in a long series of numbers and then leaned back to await the response. It took longer than usual given the extensive strings of data Jarod had just typed in, but finally the tracker obeyed his commands and indicated with blinking green dots, the locations of all his team members. A sarcastic smirk formed on his lips as he thought about Barney’s constant harping about protocols. It was their turn to carry tracking devices and the screen in front of him showed Jarod the location of each of his team. Geoff was stationary inside the Centre, however, Modesty was on the move. Good, everything was going according to plan.

Jarod then pulled out his smart phone and once again read the message he had received earlier from CJ, his longtime source of information on all things relating to the Centre. His recent insight had been spurred in part by the cryptic message. Though he wasn’t surprised, the note didn’t put a smile on his face.

Biological Research – Level 5

Geoff quickly neatened what Modesty had trashed. All was about back to normal when he settled in front of the open safe. Modesty had given him the combination but he was thankful that she had left it opened. He picked up a thick sheaf of papers and began reading through the dense material. It was difficult to tell where Modesty had injected her own misleading statements but either way, it was boring, dreary stuff. To top things off, his jacket was a bit on the tight side. He was readjusting the fit for the tenth time when the lab door opened. Geoff’s back was to the door and he froze wondering who was there. Modesty had told him that no one ever came to visit the doctor.

“Thackery, we have some concerns about the treatment and protocols. Perhaps you can clear up the progress that isn’t occurring with the primary subject.”

It was a smooth, clear voice that despite is even baritone held a blatant note of contempt and danger. The voice belonged to a stranger who sounded disgusted and spoiling for a fight. This wasn’t in the original script but Jarod being Jarod had warned that something like this could happen. Geoff felt his throat constrict and his heart beat uncertainly as he affixed the little high tech device to his throat and covered it with his shirt collar. With some trepidation, he turned around to face his visitor. There were two men just inside the doorway. The second man was none other than the one Jarod had warned them to avoid. Chairman Raines stood next to Dr. Cox, oxygen tank in hand looking hard and angry.

“Gentlemen, what can I do for you?”

“How about answering my question?”

“You mentioned concerns. Well, it’s difficult to deal with your concerns when I have developed so many of my own. Like why does security feel the need to search my lab? What is it that you’re really after? I was never given the full story about the unusual application of my therapy. What’s really going on?” Geoff asked as he became more accustomed to the voice modifier at his throat.

“It’s a little late to be expressing an interest in our application. Whatever you need to know, I am sure the Triumvirate will take it upon themselves to inform you.” Raines stated unhappily, oblivious to the areas of the lab that Geoff left trashed. Cox looked around and frowned at the mess near the safe and the broken glass in the research area.

“Perhaps we should get to the bottom of this. It will give us a opportunity to exploit a bad situation to suit our needs,” Cox replied solemnly. He turned, open the lab door and spoke quickly to the sweeper outside.

“Late yes, but as the gynecologist was so eager to point out last week, our guinea pigs aren’t the usual expendables I’m used to treating.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Raines inquired suddenly curious and wary at the same time.

Geoff saw his reaction and replied with easy calculation, “Expendables don’t expose me to hostile criticism. High value test subjects raise the stakes considerably and I think I should be compensated accordingly.”

A sardonic laugh echoed through the lab as Cox took several steps forward and grinned evilly. “You’re trying to hold out for more money? Now that definitely takes a set. Doctor why don’t you see if this mockery of a clinical trial shows any results before holding your hand out for bonuses? The principal has yet to show any signs of succumbing to this farce of an experiment.”

Geoff, always adept at thinking on his feet, evaluated Cox’s statement quickly. He mentioned the “principal” which meant that there was at least one other involved in the experiment. Also considering Modesty’s recounting of her eavesdropping between the two doctors, Cox had been more cautious, now he was certain, almost assured but only about the “principal”. Geoff decided to gamble.

“The other is showing signs and looking promising. The principal could be a natural anomaly. It happens in just about every clinical trial. Oh, and I thought you wanted to drop all euphemisms? Is your confidence shaking, doctor?” Geoff asked boldly. They still needed to get the names of the newest victims.

Cox frowned thoughtfully at Thackery’s newfound assurance. Something was off but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was. Thackery had never before shown this level of adeptness in reading situations like this, which could mean only one thing: He had read the spotter’s report on Lyle.

“I never had any confidence in your so-called therapy. A true scientist would have full documentation, animal studies and limited human studies would follow with close monitoring…”

“We’ve been over this enough times, let’s cut to the chase. I want a full report on why the principal hasn’t shown any symptoms. You have the blood taken from a couple weeks ago that was obtained from the primary physician, use that sample. The less—”

Raines was interrupted by the lab door suddenly opening. Geoff could’ve strangled whoever it was because he was certain that Raines was about to say the victim’s name. Much to his surprise, Parker stepped through the door. A sudden panic seized him as he impulsively turned away from her.

Cox noticed how quickly Thackery turned his back on Parker and almost immediately rolled his eyes in disgust. One moment the quack was having a run on self-assurance and the next was acting like an idiot. If he thought they could completely avoid having any interaction with Parker, he was a bigger moron than he let on.

Parker entered the lab and barely passing a glance over Cox and Raines, her eyes took in the lab and its partially disheveled state. Finally her gaze settled on a man in a white lab coat who was keeping his face averted from her.

“Gentlemen. What fresh incident are you trying to accuse my people of today?”

“Miss Parker, we have been told that security has searched this lab. We want to know the reason why,” Raines answered with hollow anger.

Parker raised an eyebrow and stalked further in the room, still staring curiously at the doctor who kept his face turned away. She then turned her back on him and looked first at Raines and then at Cox with an open question in her eyes. Cox shrugged minutely in response.

“Security searched this lab? It’s news to me,” she replied and then taking a few more steps further into the room in an open area between lab coat and the ghoul, she continued, “Who exactly told you security searched here?” Her question was directed at lab coat who reluctantly turned to face her.

“I assumed these rooms had been searched by security since they are usually kept in pristine condition,” Geoff replied with false confidence.

When he turned to face her, Parker paused in shock. Fortunately, her back was to both Cox and Raines so they couldn’t see her reaction. It was as Geoff feared, once again she saw right through a disguise that had fooled both the Chairman and Thackery’s main detractor.

“I didn’t want to disturb you, Miss Parker but Dr. Cox insisted. And since you’re here, perhaps you can help unravel this mystery. I believe there are security cameras all over the place. Could you review them and let us know who the true culprit is?” Geoff’s heart was beating so hard it was starting to ache. The adrenaline rush was such that it took all his will power to keep himself from running out of lab and put as much distance between himself and these people. In the foreground, Geoff kept chanting to himself that Parker would read the situation quickly instead of exposing him.

Now this took the cake! The next time she saw Jarod, Parker promised herself that she would wring his neck. No, kick his ass and then wring his neck. The mystery as to why her favorite sweeper was so wacky was now revealed. He was Jarod’s inside man, currently pretending to be this Thackery character. So this was Jarod’s plan—unbelievable. Parker closed her eyes and repressed the sudden irritation that arose in the back of her throat.

“Dr. Thackery, I wish I could say it was a pleasure to meet you but this is the second time you’ve called security on a wild goose chase, tossing around accusations like this is a badminton match. I trust you still have the combination to this safe?”

Geoff couldn’t help but release a heavy sigh of relief. “Yes, I still have it.”

“Good. And stop wasting my time. Security had nothing to do with this mess. You’re assistant probably was looking for something and got careless.” Whirling around to face the other two, Parker’s face had returned to its usual expression of disdainful impassivity. “Excuse me, I have better things to do.” With that she left the lab.

“You seem to be batting a thousand with her as well. Where’s your assistant? Maybe you can get some support from her,” Cox stated quietly, breaking the silence that Parker’s departure had caused.

“Perhaps we should leave the doctor to think over his induction method. I suspect that’s where you went wrong,” Raines stated unhappily. The Chairman assumed that Thackery was shocked into silence by the lack of any distress in Parker’s overall demeanor.

“There’s nothing wrong with the induction method. Some people need a more individualized approach than others,” Geoff choked out in alarm.

“Is something wrong with your voice, doctor?” Raines asked breathily.

“Allergies. I should take some medication but there is too much to do and I need a clear head,” Geoff responded immediately, thankful for Modesty’s full briefing on all things Thackery.