Damian jumped deftly down the rock pile and aimed his flashlight upwards.
Only he noticed the small square opening as they passed below it.
"Damian, how much further?" Hiiro asked, wiping the sweat from his forehead. It was hot, dusty and smelly in the sewer, and they had been walking for only half an hour.
"Not much father. There should be a ladder at the end of the sewer leading up to the second floor," he replied, swinging his beam back to the floor.
"There'd better be," Duo muttered, fanning his face with his braid.
Shiris had taken off the suit jacket and tossed it.
"Hey," Duo whispered suddenly, "I have to tell you. I found out some scary stuff on the computer, when I breached the Federations defenses. Stuff we didn't even know about, Hiiro."
"Like what?" he asked, unsure of what he couldn't have known about. He and the others were the top agents. Nothing was kept from them.
"Like a plan to destroy the entire island of Greece, take over Russia, and then focus on conquering the whole planet," Duo replied gravely.
The two had to focus hard on walking or they would have fallen over.
"What?" Shiris murmured.
"You heard me right. Sethin wants to help the Prime Minister of Russia control all of Russia."
"Christ, he's another Hitler! Only smarter!"
"And what does Greece have to do with it?" Hiiro asked.
"Greece is a warning. Sort of like 'this is what happens if you don't comply'. I'm still not sure how he plans on doing it, but its happening soon. And we have to stop it, or the world leaders will comply with him."
"This is a lot worse than a secret weapons cache," Shiris muttered.
"The weapons cache was a decoy to put us on the wrong trail. I mean, if we, the spies of the bad group, found out what our group was doing, it could spell doom for the whole mission."
"So there is no weapons cache?" Shiris repeated.
"Nope. At least, not the type we were thinking of. You know, something hidden in the mountains that we could destroy or disarm. Nope, not that kind. But maybe there is a weapon they're planning on using on Greece. It sounded like it was a one of a kind weapon, one that's never been seen before."
"We need to stop them," Hiiro said.
"I agree. The Alliance can help out a great deal," Shiris agreed.
Duo bit his lip.
"What?" Shiris asked.
"What if the Alliance is in on it to?"
Shiris sucked in her breath and expelled it in a long sigh.
"I don't think so."
"It could be. We thought the Federation was clean until a few days ago."
"No. Jane couldn't ever do that."
"Okay, fine. But be careful once we get the laptop back. Don't let her know we know about the plot until Julie has inspected their files."
"You mean let her hack into the Alliance?"
"Yes."
"It's the only way to be absolutely certain," Hiiro agreed.
Shiris let out a curse and ran a hand through her hair. "What have we gotten ourselves into?"
Mayumi motioned for the other two to move carefully along the walls. The scientists didn't seem to have noticed them yet.
Once they reached the sides of the door, out of sight of the main room, she counted to three.
On the third count, Trowa grabbed the handle of the door and pulled. Then pushed.
"Its locked," he whispered, staring at the faces of the scientist. They had seen the three, and were watching them, not moving.
Trowa aimed at the bottom of the glass and fired.
The glass shattered and he jumped in, aiming at the 5 masked men.
"Don't move," he ordered coldly as the other two joined him, following his example.
"We don't kill scientists, right?" Julie whispered, motioning for one to put his hands up.
"No, we don't, unless they try to kill us first," Mayumi replied.
"What are they doing in here?" Trowa asked suddenly, looking at the various experiments set up. There were two main tables in the center of the room and then four smaller ones spread out around them. On one was a cage fill of mice, on another were rats, and then on the one closest to them was a pile of dead ones. Their skin had turned black and their fur had fallen off.
On one of the center tables was a container filled with vials of black liquid and a computer with a few slides strewn around it. On the second table was an airtight container that held a contraption with two cylinders with a glass tube connecting them on the bottom and then leading to another, larger flask. It could only be accessed with robotic hands.
Syringes were on every table, most of them empty.
"Uh, I don't think we should be in here without a gas mask," Julie whispered, moving towards the door to the right.
"Wait, we have to find out what this is. We cant just leave, it may be dangerous," Trowa said, still holding his gun, but moving towards the airtight container.
"What is this?" he demanded the scientist standing next to it. He didn't answer.
"Tell me, or I'll take your gas mask off," he warned.
When he reached for it the man waved his hands in the air and jerked back.
"Okay, okay! It's a research experiment," he said, his voice sounding a lot like Darth Vader's.
"We know that!" Julie exclaimed.
Trowa cocked his gun.
"It's a new viral agent," the man confessed, backing up and hitting a table.
"A viral agent? A harmful one?" Mayumi asked, glancing at the dead rats.
"Yes."
"How harmful?" Julie demanded as she realized they could be exposing themselves to it right then.
"Very. A few seconds, and then bam. Your dead."
"So, we'd know if we were infected?" she reassured herself.
"Yes."
"Good. Now, why aren't you guys packed up and out of here? Did you not hear the explosion? Was there no alarm that went off?" Trowa asked.
"We are packing up. But it takes a long time when you have to be careful not to break anything, or else you might die."
Julie nodded at his logic.
"One last question before we go. What are you using this for?" Trowa asked.
The man hesitated. "I don't know. We're just ordered to make it, we don't ask questions."
"Are you sure about that?" he put the gun to his chest.
"p-positive!" the man squeaked.
"And are you four?" Mayumi asked, indicating the other scientists, who all nodded fiercely. "Because if you aren't, I will come back and kill you. You can be sure of that."
"She's not joking," Julie confirmed, staring at each one. They all backed up when she turned on them, not daring to cross her.
"Lets get them tied up," Trowa ordered and rounded all five into one corner while Mayumi and Julie went and got extra lab coats from a small closet in a corner.
Ripping them into thin stripes, they bound the scientists' arms and legs then gagged them.
They then backed away, leaving the five propped up against the wall, out of reach of anything.
Mayumi paused on the way out, taking a moment to examine the experiments.
"Ugh, look at these," Julie cried, pointing at the rats.
Mayumi saw their skin and fur had been burned off.
"Look at this," Trowa countered, motioning them over to the microscope. Mayumi peered in after him and saw fresh, healthy human cells.
"Now watch this." He got a second slide marked "test sub. Post inj."
Mayumi gasped as she saw the skin had been decimated through all the layers.
"This skin was literally burned through all the way. Nothing survived. If this is what the viral agent does, we have to make sure we get someone back here quick. I don't think the Federation would be funding a project like this unless they planned to use it."
"We ought to bring a vial of it with us, just in case they want proof," Julie suggested, carefully picking up a black vial about four inches tall. She pocketed it and buttoned the pocket.
She then pulled the gags off one of the scientists.
"How is this agent spread?" she asked as she bent down in front of him.
"Airborne. It's heavier than air, so it falls quickly. Whatever it lands on gets burned."
She replaced the gag and scowled.
"So its like a pumped up acid rain,"
"Julie, do not let that vial break," Mayumi warned, "You could kill us all."
"You think I don't realize that?" she retorted, cautiously putting one foot in front of the other. "Just don't hit my pocket."