Chapter Ten - The Project
Andie made coffee. She did this everyday once she got to work at 8, she made coffee for Dr. Woll, Dr. Laird and the other doctors working on the project. But they didn’t come in until around 9 usually. Andy knew that she should put off making the coffee, but one of the lab coats always got in early and he was the most important one as far as she was concerned.
She went through the motions of brewing and then sat at her desk. He always came in at 8:15. Always with his glasses askew and trying to carry four or five different things at once.
Simon was the only one working on the project anywhere close to Andy’s age. He was some sort of bio-wunderkid and Dr. Laird and her partner snapped him up before he could go off to Uni. Almost everyone else who worked in the office was practically middle aged, and they moved operations too often for Andy to really establish any sort of life. Her mother kept urging her to move on, but the wages were nice and Andy really felt like she was making a difference, even though she couldn’t tell her mother the bit of her job that dealt with demons and monsters.
Anyway, recently they took Simon on and they had been getting on famously.
As if on cue, just as the coffee finished brewing, he walked through the door. He was juggling a morning paper, a package of pastries, a messenger bag slung across his shoulders and trying to get through the door juggling everything. He nearly dropped the bag of pastries when Andy came to help him.
“Thanks,” he said sheepishly as she took the bag from him.
She held the bag of pastries out to him. She didn’t like to presume, but usually when Simon brought a pastry bag to work, there was one for her in there too.
“There’s a raspberry one and a cheese one in there, go ahead and take what you like.”
“Simon, you know you don’t have to do that.” She said smiling as demurely as she could. Simon had always been a little bit shy and she was a little worried if she came on too strong she'd spook him. Men never married keen girls, her mother said.
“It’s my pleasure.” He responded adjusting his glasses and then brushing past her to grab some of the fresh coffee. “You always make sure the coffee’s ready for me when I get here. The other labs I’ve worked at never had any.” he paused and grimaced. "Or they had stuff that should not be dignified with the name."
"There should be some sort of proclamation," Andie suggested slyly. She reveled in their short repartee. "You know? Any beverage calling itself coffee must contain actual beans."
He grinned at that.
Encouraged, she pressed on.
"The government's always meddling in our affairs,the might as well meddle in this." she said.
He nodded politely but didn't comment. Her heart sank, which of course distracted her enough for the silence between them to stretch too long. Andie panicked as Simon shot her his social goodbye smile and she scrambled to find something to say to keep him talking to her.
“Did you hear about that business in Germany? Terrible.”
Simon’s chin perked up, he adjusted his glasses. His eyeswere a very warm brown behind the lenses.
“We had a facility in Germany?”
Andie nodded.
“It’s where we were keeping the chimera serum.” She said with a shake of her head. She liked doing thing, giving him the heads up that things were happening. It made her feel terribly in-the-know. “Dara is going to be a nightmare for the rest of the week. I thought you should be aware to, you know, dodge out of the way or something.”
“Why would she be a nightmare?” Simon asked distractedly.
“Simon, what are you on? Because they took the serum!” She said. “We have all this security and someone just went in there and took the cure! Or at least the beginning of it. You know how important this is!”
“Took the cure?” Simon said faintly.
Andie nodded. “I have no idea how that could have happened. They have the whole place warded.”
"Right." Simon replied. She had really lost him now, he looked a bout a million miles away.
She realized that he had been working tirelessly toward this as well. Perhaps he was just as frustrated. Bugger. Maybe she should have waited and let Dr. Laird be the one to tell him.
Fuck.
"Sorry, I realize you've got quite a stake in it too, don't you? fancy a custard cream? I have them in my desk."
He wasn't listening to her. He just had this odd faraway look in his eye but he snapped to attention once she mentioned the custard creams.
“That’s awful.” he said finally.
“I know."Andie agreed immensely pleased he wasn't immediately walking away. "The last thing we need is for the vampires to unite into some sort of organization. Don’t they realize we just want to help them? D'you reckon they've sussed out a terrorist cell?”
He didn’t say anything. Andie frowned. This wasn't like Simon at all. Usually, he was a little easier to talk to, always ready with a joke or to indulge in some harmless speculation.
"Simon?"
"Simon?"
Simon had been working for the project for only a few months. He had been encouraged to apply by a friend he had met in a dungeons and dragon’s chat room a few years ago. Simon didn’t like to advertise the fact that he played dungeons and dragons, but Devraj Prasad had evolved into an actual friend. Raj had even trusted him enough to tell him about the family business.
At first he had wanted to join the council itself, but Raj dissuaded him. Instead he turned him to the Genesis Project and said he needed information, an inside man. Simon jumped at the chance.
Andy was still talking. “They must get power mad, I understand, it must be hard not to get seduced by the romance of it and—”
“With all that happened yesterday,” Simon interrupted. “do you think they’ll come in at all?”
At that moment the door swung open and in marched Dara Laird. She was a woman in her late thirties, She had dark wiry hair tied in a top knot on her head. She wore severe spectacles perched on her nose and very dark lipstick. She was currently yelling into a cell phone.
“I don’t care what logistics you have to figure out. Do your job or else I will do mine.” She hung up abruptly. She then seemed to realize that there were other people in the room. “Andrea, set up a call with Dr. Woll.” She turned away from the secretary dismissively and focused her intense dark eyes on Simon.
“Hello, Zhang,” she said with a small tight smile. “Have you been updated?”
Simon glanced back at Andie. “Well, Andie told me about Germany—”
Dara’s face clouded over. “It’s being handled. Do you have any news for me? This would be an excellent time to have some good news.”
Simon tried to smile pleasantly. “This is what I was going to tell you, the samples have some irregularities but I can assure you that the procedure was successful. I was able to isolate the antibodies that were attacking the human cells, most of them were able to survive really well but I’m really not sure how.”
Instead of being delighted Dara’s mouth took on a grimmer line.
“I see.” She said her face didn't loose it's pinched anxiety. “that’s wonderful.”
Simon nodded. He reached into his bag and produced a few papers. “I’m afraid there are some er--problems, though, if you could give me a little more to work with I could have more definitive answers in what you are looking for.”
Dara abruptly turned on her heel and began to walk to her office at the end of the corridor.
“You were made aware when you began this project that you are to work only with the information given to you.” She said coldly.
“I understand that, Dr. Laird.” Simon said following after her and shuffling his papers about. “but a lot of what you want me to look at doesn’t quite work like that. I need to have some inkling on what I’m testing for.”
Dara turned on the heel on her sensible shoes.
“No.” she said simply. “You really don’t. I chose you for this because you are good, Simon. You are very bright and show tremendous promise and Dr. Carraway speaks very highly of you, but you are a small cog in a large process and someone else will look at the results. We need you to get the work done.”
Simon slumped a little.
“I only want to help.” He said.
Dara softened slightly. “You are.” She said. “Now I have an incredible amount on my mind. Excuse me.”
“Dr. Laird, Dr. Woll for you!”
Dara abruptly dismissed him and went into her office. Simon sighed. He glanced over at Andy and she shrugged apologetically.
Simon sighed and began to walk towards his desk. Trying to do so as quietly as possible. He could hear what was going on beyond the door.
“—you’ve sent the team?” she said. ”Perfect. Have you been able to ascertain what they know?” there was a pause. “You need to keep on it. I don’t want that watcher anywhere near--” another pause. “And ensure that you have—“
Whatever she was saying it faded off into the background. Simon glanced up to see if anyone had noticed; but theywere alone in the office, no one else had come in. The only one who had been around to see him lurk was Andie who had been scared back to her filing. And if he was being perfectly honest, he was sure he would have been able to dissuade her anyway. Simon made it to his desk and typed up a few quick updates for Raj into the phone his friend had given him. It was risky to do something like that at work. He was about to type up a warning about them finding it when he heard Dara’s door open. He hurriedly slipped the bulky Nokia phone into a secret compartment in his bag.
“Simon,” Dara said padding up toward him. “I wanted to--I mean that I don’t mean to be short with you.”
He stood abruptly. It was unlike Dara to be this forthcoming. Usually she was pretty quick to bark out orders. He wondered what brought about the abrupt turn around.
“Dr. Laird.” He said. “It’s perfectly fine. I am an intern after all. Lowest rung on the food chain. I was just getting over excited. I’ve been known to do that.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Dara said with the smile Simon was accustomed to. “I was projecting. Now it’s being dealt with. What was the problem you were worrying?”
Simon couldn't believe his blind luck. Whatever it was she was happy about maybe he could translate it into a few more pieces of the puzzle. He was sure about their operations, between Raj and Ravi they had a handle on exactly what this 'cure' was, but Simon was a researcher, and any added information was good.
“It’s this latest sample. Number 6755? It’s the only one that’s worked.” he said. “ Every other one I’ve done the antibodies in the blood attacked the cells making them impossible to combine even the get the genes to sequence properly even with Eve’s cells. I am just trying to find out why this is working so I can replicate it.”
“I believe it was because those cells were properly incubated.” Dara said with a thoughtful frown.
“so you think that the cure is going to involve a quarantine period?” He said thinking out loud. “I’m just not sure we’re going to be able to get every vampire in the world into a cell and properly take their meds. “
“That is why you are working so very hard to enrich this blood.” She encouraged gently. “Simon if we want to rid the world of the vamp plague, we’re going to insert that specific gene into the sequence. And then we feed them this blood with them none the wiser.”
Simon couldn’t help the nervous furrow of his brow.
“You want to know where the gene came from?”
He hesitated and then nodded.
“Slayers blood.” She said simply. “There is a slayer in prison, it was just a matter of course to get the US department of Corrections to let her donate. She wanted to help our cause, it’s rather a good one don’t you think?”
Simon wondered where the lies started. Was this really slayers blood? Was he working with the pregnant slayer? He had so much data in front of him and zero context. He wondered also if there really was another slayer, other than the one he knew he had already contributed some of these samples who was decidedly not in a Los Angeles prison. Something to clarify with Raj at some point. He grinned to cover the wheels turning in his mind.
“I’ll do my best, I’ll run some tests on the Eve genome.” Simon said. “perhaps there’s an answer in there.”
That seemed to placate Dr. Laird. “That’s the ticket, Zhang.”
“Thanks for the pep talk, Doc.”
“Just do whatever you think is best. Don't worry about stupid questions.” Dara said sagely. “I hired students because I don’t want you encumbered by what you think you should do. I want new ideas.”
She turned and headed back to her office. Simon watched her and shook his head. He hoped he wasn’t too late to warn Raj. He shot his friend an encrypted text and hope he had time to look at it. He wasn’t sure what kind of trouble Raj was in, but this internship was a lot more than what Simon Zhang had bargained for.
*****
The beeping stopped both Spike and Buffy in their tracks, unsure of what to do. Fortunately Raj burst through the door, panicked and sputtering obscenities that wold have made Spike blush. Wes following him out frowning and nervous. He glanced apologetically at the pair, he knew what they were discussing was extraordinarily difficult to deal with—and this was probably not helping any.
“This better be important, wonderboy.” Spike growled.
Raj didn’t even take notice of the irritated vampire.
“Bugger, bugger, blast.” He exclaimed as part of a litany of frustration that encompassed several languages one of which Buffy was sure was made up. He began typing furiously on one of the keyboards and scanned the screens jumping from one to the other guided by some stimulus no one else understood. After a few minutes of frenzied but oddly controlled activity Raj jumped to his feet sending the chair flying out behind him and he frantically began to unplug the machines.
“Devraj?” Wes pressed.
Raj flinched seeming to only just notice that the rest of the group was staring at him.
“That was an automated alarm.” Raj said, “Basically they tripped up some of my booby traps and bypassed most of the firewall but this is sort of my last line of defense—so I know they’re coming.” He looked apologetic as he packed his equipment away. “I’m so sorry but I think that I have been made, they have compromised my whole system. I was careful, I only siphoned off bit by bit I didn’t think that they would be looking at the—”He noticed the blank looks everyone else was giving him. “This is not a drill. They are coming here and we need to leave.”
No one else had any possession to gather so they stood watching awkwardly as Raj packed his computers into cases. Wes was studying Spike and Buffy uneasily but neither super being met his eyes.
“How long have we got?”
There was something in Buffy’s voice that made even Raj stop and look at her. It was as if some sort of switch had been flicked. Since she had come to them, Buffy had been hesitant, oddly unsure of herself and her abilities. Right now, she didn’t look lik the scared girl Raj had met a few long days ago. She looked like the Buffy Summers he had been told about. The longest living slayer he had ever heard of.
“Well?” She prompted.
“An hour tops.” Raj said simply. “I’m not sure if they already had people in the area but from where they were in Germany if they had access to any aircraft they could be here in no time."
Buffy nodded. She paused for a second and then looked at Spike. She seemed to be communicating with the vampire through sheer mind control. The vampire nodded.
“We need to go, then. Now.” She said. “Is there any access to the sewers from this building?”
Spike set his jaw.
“Slayer— ”
Buffy silenced the vampire with a look.
“I want to fight too, Spike.” She said her eyes all flinty. “I want to cause some major movie magic pain and bring it to them. I am going to make them hurt and I am going to find those two assholes with blue gloves and I’m going to rip off their hands. But I’ve been doing this a long time and I know when we need make the strategic-like retreat. We need some serious reinforcements--not to mention you need time to rest.” Off his look she dropped the steel in her spine just a little. “You had blood coming out of your ears a few hours ago.” She said softly. “I don’t want the next time to be brains.”
Spike gritted his teeth but nodded.
She grinned wickedly.
"You can't really spare those." She said.
Spike just chucked and shook his head. "Gettin' predictable there, luv."
He turned on his heel and disappeared into the other room.
Buffy turned back to Raj.
“What about all the passport and identities?” she asked Raj.
He shook his head. “They might have seen those—probably best not to take any chances and assume all my alias are burned. I could just go as Devraj Prased I guess the Council still thinks I’m technically on bereavement leave. But I’m not sure what to do about Alex.”
“We’ll just have to hope they don’t ask for identification.” Wesley piped in solemnly. “We should be fine here on the continent but I hesitate so try and go anywhere else without something official.”
“I have a friend or two in Prague who maybe able to help with that.” Spike piped up, he had returned to the room with his coat and a large blanket rolled up under one arm. He shrugged into his duster and rolled his shoulder muscles as he said it. “Got a few blokes who owe me a few favors.”
Wes considered him carefully.
“From your time there with Drusilla?”
Spike nodded, he glanced at Buffy to gauge her reaction but she was distracted, staring out the window as if she would eventually be able to see the helicopters. Spike turned his attention back to the others.
“Yeah, hence the favors. They’re good people or not people. Good demons, sort of slimy though so just keep your hands in your pockets and everything’ll be coming up roses.”
Wes eyes him skeptically and glanced towards the slayer. Buffy looked away from the window and met the watcher’s questioning gaze.
“We’re going to Prague.” She said. “If Spike says we can find things there then we can find things there. He is survival guy.”
Meanwhile Raj had finished setting up his machines all except for his cellphone on which he tapped a few keys.
“The border is not that far from here.” He said. “and I picked this place because of the underground garage. It might have been a mistake though—something tells me that would probably make this their first target.”
Alex had been steadily shoving pastries in her mouth, watching the back and forth from the corner.
“What do we do after that?” she asked suddenly.
“Not really thinking about that right now there, junior.” Spike said.
She nodded. “Right now we are getting out of here before anyone can figure anything out from Raj’s cyber hit and run.”
Raj shot her a weird look.
“One of these days I’m going to explain all my little quips to you and we’ll look back at these you ignorant days and we’ll just laugh and laugh.”
They headed out into the hallway. Spike hurried passed the elevator and wrenched the door to the stairs open. Raj opened his mouth to protest when Alex shook her head at him.
“Elevators are a classic Kill box.” She said helpfully. "Don't question, just go."
They trooped down the stairs, the trip was quick as Vienna’s building rarely had more than 12 floors. However, just as they were reaching the basement landing both Spike and Alex stopped simultaneously. They tense, listening for a stimulus only they could hear.
“Other side of that door.” Spike rumbled. “3 of them.”
Buffy turned to him.
“3 of them?” she demanded.
Alex nodded.
The Slayer stood for a moment, as if paralyzed with fear. Then she rolled her eyes and shoved the metal briefcase she had been carrying at Wesley who took it as well as the bag of cords before any of them realized what she was doing.
“Wait shouldn’t we—”
She threw open the metal doors and found herself in the sight of three laser sights attached to three black clad commandos.
“Well, if it In’t the broodmare.”
“Spike, get a car.” She said without turning around.
“The girls arrive alive.” The lead man said to the others. “Rest of them can r—”
The voice was familiar. Buffy flashed back to being huddled up against Spike freezing and petrified trying not to breathe to keep them from spotting them. She didn’t let him finish his statement she wrenched the handle off the door and threw it with deadly accuracy at his head. Her movement drove him to pull the trigger but the door handle had hit him in the face and his shots bounces off the ceiling harmlessly. In the same moment, Buffy took a running jump and sent both of her legs into a chest kick. That downed both her and the second commando. But before the third man could even process what was happening, she swept her leg under him, taking out his feet. He crumpled like a ton of bricks. She then flipped to her feet and kicked him in the head to make sure he was out.
She stepped over the supine bodies and rolled her eyes.
“Three?” she demanded. “They have helicopters and a budget the size of a small nation’s. And three? I think I’m insulted!”