Chapter 12

Phoenix, Arizona

Robert, Holly and Luke arrived in Phoenix and checked into another hotel. The motley team assembled to come up with a plan to infiltrate Viranon. Robert had told Luke enough of the story that he was willing to go along with the investigation, though he maintained (loudly) a large dose of cynicism towards Holly's involvement.

"Right, so I think we should try the custodian route again. That'll get us keys, and a reason to be in there." Robert was in full-on investigative mode, for which Holly breathed a sigh of relief. It was a lot easier to focus on the task at hand with him acting cold and calculating.

"Why not go in as scientists, lab coats, you know?" asked Luke excitedly.

"Been there, done that," replied Holly. "It did not go well. Plus, what if someone asks you a scientific question?"

"Bah, you underestimate me, English. I'd just make something up."

"Janitors!" said Robert and Holly simultaneously.

"Fine, whatever," grumbled Luke.

In the end, Viranon turned out not to have a lot of laboratory space. Instead, it was full of offices and computer terminals. Robert, Holly and Luke split up and began exploring the various offices.

Holly came out of one office, puzzled over the stack of printouts in her hand. "Look at this, Robert, there's mountains of it in that office over there. It all seems to be in code."

The pages were covered in similar notation:

1 agttgttagt ctacgtggac cgacaagaac agtttcgaat cggaagcttg cttaacgtag

61 ttctaacagt tttttattag agagcagatc tctgatgaac aaccaacgga aaaagacggg

121 tcgaccgtct ttcaatatgc tgaaacgcgc gagaaaccgc gtgtcaactg tttcacagtt

181 ggcgaagaga ttctcaaaag gattgctctc aggccaagga cccatgaaat tggtgatggc

241 tttcatagca ttcctaagat ttctagccat acccccaaca gcaggaattt tggctagatg

301 gggctcattc aagaagaatg gagcgattaa agtgttacag ggtttcaaga aagaaatctc

361 aaacatgttg aatataatga atagaaggaa gagatccgtg accatgctcc ttatgctgct

421 gcccacagcc ttggcgtttc atctgaccac acgaggggga gagccgcata tgatagttac

481 caagcaggaa agaggaaagt cacttttgtt taagacctca gctggtgtca acatgtgcac

541 ccttattgcg atggatttgg gagagttatg tgaggacaca atgacttaca aatgccctcg

601 aatcactgag gcggaaccag atgacgttga ttgttggtgc aatgccacag acacatgggt

661 gacctatgga acgtgttccc aaactggcga gcaccgacga gacaaacgtt ccgtcgcact

721 ggccccacac gtgggacttg gtctagaaac aagaaccgaa acgtggatgt cctctgaagg

Robert glanced at it quickly. It looked vaguely familiar, but he couldn't figure out why. "Let's make some copies of it and get out of here before we're caught in the act. Spencer, you haven't managed to find anything worthwhile, have you?"

Outside of the building, further down the street, the three looked again at the papers they had stolen. It made little sense to them.

"What do you think it is? It looks like gibberish to me. Why only 4 letters? That's the stupidest code I've ever seen! Only 4 letters, too simple." declared Luke.

Something in Luke's words about a simple code jumpstarted Robert's memory. "I think that it might be genetic code. We got it from a lab, so I know someone who might be able to help." replied Robert, pulling his cell phone from his pocket. After a minute, the call was answered.

"Hello?"

"Robin, it's your father. I need your help," stated Robert matter-of-factly.

"What with?" asked Robin cautiously.

"I've got some information that I've, um, borrowed from a laboratory. I have a hunch as to what it is, but I want to make sure, and I need more details. Can you have a look at it for me?"

"I guess so. Isn't there anyone in your medical spy agency that can look at it for you?"

"There is, but I would prefer to keep this on the QT," replied Robert.

"All right. You can fax it to me if you want. By the way, have you heard any news of Holly?"

"Umm, yeah, I checked on that." Robert glanced over at Holly. "Everything's fine." He didn't feel it would be appropriate to elaborate at the moment, to mention that "hey, she happens to be right here beside me" or that he had managed to break her heart two days before.

"Good. Here's my fax number." Robert jotted down the number that Robin rhymed off.

Robert wanted to ask about how things were going with Patrick, he wanted to ask how Robin was feeling physically, had all kinds of questions, but she wasn't giving him much of an opening. "Thanks, sweetheart. How're you doing?"

"All right. Busy, you know, the usual. So when should I expect that fax?" Robin didn't feel like making small talk with her father and cut things short.

Luke had wandered down the street. Robert caught sight of him and noticed that he happened to be standing right in front of one of those stores where one can photocopy and use computers and fax documents. "Give me a couple of minutes, luv. Thanks again."

Holly looked at Robert for a second as they began walking towards Luke. Having heard Robert's side of the phone conversation, she wanted to say something about his interaction with Robin but on the other hand, didn't want to get into things anymore. Finally she couldn't hold back any longer: "Robert, if I didn't know to whom you were speaking, I'd think you had called your new secretary."

Robert knew what she was referring to, but didn't know what to do about it. "She's really angry with me, Holly. I don't know what to say to her," he responded honestly.

"And I suppose you're letting her take the lead?"

Robert looked at her sheepishly. "You think that's a mistake."

"I think a change in her attitude will be a long time coming if you don't give her any evidence to suggest she should change it," replied Holly, as she walked into the store.

Robert looked at her for a long minute, processing her words.

Robin called Robert back later that night. "Scorpio," he answered.

"Dad, this is crazy stuff. Where did you say you found it?" Robin was brimming with excitement over the scientific intrigue.

"Never mind that now. What does it mean?

"Those are DNA sequences. Viral sequences. But the weird thing is, I ran them through a sequence database and couldn't find any matches. None of those sequences have been reported before. There's at least 10 different ones in the pages you sent me."

"So, you're telling me those are newly developed viruses?"

"Yeah, they look like they've been engineered. They're very similar to naturally-occuring viruses like the avian flu, only they appear to be more virulent."

"That's my girl." Robert grinned widely which came through on the phone.

"Uh, thanks Dad," replied Robin at the unexpected compliment. "But there's more."

"Do tell."

"Engineered viruses, uhh, a lot of times these people who are actually making viruses will put additional sequences in the intronic regions of the gene. So they don't affect transcription and translation but make them recognizable to people in the field."

"Whoa, whoa, your old dad went to school before DNA was invented. English translation, please."

"Think of like a signature on a forged painting. You just need to know where to look for it as it's in a part of the gene that's not used," explained Robin.

The wheels were turning in Robert's head. "So we could know who designed the viruses?"

"Yes, assuming they have published the sequences of anything else that they've engineered."

"How do we find that out?" asked Robert.

"Check your inbox. I cross-referenced the sequences against the same database that I mentioned earlier and came up with a partial list of scientists."

"Have I told you lately that you are brilliant? Thank you so much, luv."

"You're welcome, Dad. I suppose you're not able to let me in on what's going on?" Robin asked, anticipating a negative answer.

"Right at the minute, no, but how's about I swing by Port Charles once this is all sorted, and fill you in?" offered Robert.

"I'd like that, actually," smiled Robin.

"Good. Me too, sweetheart. I'll talk to you soon."

Robert hung up the phone, looking satisfied with himself. Holly couldn't help but let a tiny smile creep across her face for a split second, which had disappeared by the time Robert began explaning the gravity of the situation to her and Luke.

Author's Note: The virus stuff - mostly made up, ok? So don't bother me with issues of scientific implausibility. :)