Chapter 12: Night Shift
Daphne followed Linda back to the medical building. It was past midnight now and there were only a few nurses on call. She caught snippets of conversation as she passed and it increased her worries greatly.
"He was screaming, the skinny one."
"The woman has been mumbling about vents all night."
They continued on, past a number of police officers stationed in the facility. She supposed that there would be more by the cafeteria where the attack had taken place and wondered why the facility was still open in the first place. The uncomfortable thought that whoever was behind the attack was paying them off flashed through her mind. It was followed by the even more uncomfortable thought that Ostwald was paying them off. At this it occurred to her that for all the times they had met Professor Ostwald they knew very little about him.
"Linda, what did Ostwald do before he started this company?"
"He did work at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics and then for the Century Institute in the US. After that he established the labs here and he's been running them ever since."
Daphne considered the Century Institute, certain that she had heard the name before. Her search for information was cut off by their abrupt arrival at the room they were looking for. Madelyn, Shaggy, and Scooby were all lying in their beds, fast asleep. There were no nurses in the room and no doctors.
With an air of exasperation Linda logged onto one of the computers in the building and pulled up the tests from earlier. She showed them to Daphne, confirming that there had been no mistake. As Daphne read off the file the screen fizzled and blinked out.
"Whoa, why'd it do that?"
"Um…" Linda stared at the computer, clearly not accustomed to equipment failure. "I have no idea."
A moment later it blinked back on, still displaying the test results. Almost in synch with the faulty machine Shaggy began panting in his sleep.
"Phibes" He mumbled fearfully. "Phibes."
Daphne tensed up as she heard the name, remembering all of the gruesome stories she had been told about the madman by General Collins. Linda was staring at her with a suspicious look on her face and Daphne became aware that she had balled up her fists rather tightly.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, it's just, that name…" She waved her hand in a moving on gesture. "Bad thoughts."
"Phibes" Linda repeated. "Like Phineas Phibes?"
"Yeah" Daphne said, trying not to betray her own shock. "How do you know about him?"
"Ostwald has a picture up in his office of his research team from the Century Institute, Phibes was one of them."
Suddenly something clicked into place in Daphne's head. She remembered a small mention in a briefing from Collins. This Century Institute had been affiliated with Division 4.
"DARPA" Daphne silently mouthed. "It was a DARPA facility."
"Yeah" Linda nodded. "It was, uh, like seven of them on the team, Ostwald, Phibes, Jorgenson… I forget the rest."
Daphne filed the thought away. She had a sneaking suspicion about Ostwald but didn't want to let Linda know that. Keeping her face stoic, she glanced at her friends in bed and then at Linda.
"I know Eric has already asked you some huge favors, can I ask you one more? I want to take a blood sample from one of them to an outside hospital. Just to get a second opinion."
"You people are weird" She sighed even as she pulled a blood sample out of one of the cabinets. "But Eric trusts you, so that's good enough for me."
Daphne said a silent good bye to her sleeping friends and followed Linda out to the parking lot. As they walked she staggered a bit and nearly collided with a passing scientist.
"My bad" Daphne apologized as she stumbled to regain her balance.
"Eric said you were kinda klutzy" Linda mused as they continued on.
"Eh" Daphne shrugged as she pocketed the man's ID badge. "I'm working on it."
