Chapter Thirty- One: The Pain of Decryption
AN: THANK YOU GIRAFFECHAN and RAP BEAR FOR YOUR CONTINUED PATRONAGE!
AN2: Chapter got away from me! I couldn't seem to find a good stopping point, so it stretched to almost 18 pages. Sorry!
AN3: Wanted to give my readers a heads up that I may have to take some time off from writing soon. Not sure how long. My disabled mother will be undergoing radiation treatments for a brain tumor. I'll know more, schedule wise, within a couple weeks. Just wanted to let everyone know that my stories may not be updated as quickly as they normally are, but I"ll keep my readers apprised. NO FIC will be abandoned, merely delayed.
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Donnie returned to find Leo in a mood. He was squaring off with Raph, who was tired of his bullshit and both were posturing, preparing for a massive fight. Knowing the confrontation wasn't going to end well, Donnie decided to hide himself, as always, in the wonderful world of digital dreamland.
The decryption program was finally finished, much to Donnie's relief. If he had to write one more line of code, he'd crack his shell! He wasn't sure what the decryption was hiding, but whoever had written the original program knew what they were doing.
Course, they weren't as smart as Donnie.
Or as tenacious.
Grabbing a cup of coffee and settling into his work station, Donnie heard a few thuds but didn't bother investigating. His brothers had fought before.
"Now, let's see what was so important," Donnie muttered, opening the main program and manipulating it with ease.
A screen full of folders appeared, each one supporting several sub-files. Squinting, he opened the first file and found pages of equations. The world fell away as he was absorbed in the scientific speech of geeks.
Needing a broader picture of what was going on, Donnie spent a few moments going over each folder in turn, scanning its contents with a sharp eye and astute mind.
One file in particular caused Donnie to do a spit take.
He read the information twice, just to make sure, then bolted from his computers. He found Mikey playing a video game.
"Where's Leo? I need to talk to him."
Mikey waved his hand over his shoulder.
"He and Raph are in the hashi."
"Come on, this is important," Donnie said, tugging on Mikey's shell to get him to follow.
Mikey knew better than to argue. He paused his game and followed his lanky brother into the hashi, where Leo was growling while balancing eggs and Raph was mumbling curses while knitting furiously. Master Splinter quietly observed the two. He twitched when Donnie came rushing in, Mikey right behind.
"Master Splinter, sorry to interrupt, but Leo needs to see this," Donnie said hurriedly. He typed in something on his electronic device and held it up in front of Leo.
Leo paused in his scowling, though it was difficult to tell as both eyes were partially swollen.
"What is this, Donnie?"
"When I was at the lab, I downloaded their mainframe into a secured network..." Donnie started, but Leo cut across.
"We know, Donnie." Leo huffed, lowering the eggs to the ground so he could observe Donnie's hand held device more closely. "Just get the important part."
"Well it took awhile to decrypt," Donnie said, pointing to a section on the screen and highlighting it. A weird looking spiderweb thing appeared on the screen. "This is the chemical make up of the purple ooze. The stuff that mutated Bebop and Rocksteady."
Leo took his word for it. Looked like glowing tangle of string to Leo.
"And this," Donnie said, tapping another section and showing the comparison. "Is the mutagen that runs through our blood."
Leo's eyes widened, despite the swelling. The chemical compositions were nearly identical. One could say they were of the same family.
"One of the scientists holding me captive was from Sack's lab in upstate New York. He must have found residual samples of the ooze, possibly from some of the equipment we didn't steal," Splinter scowled but let it pass, "but since the two samples are so close in basic elements, there's a chance the mutagen taken from me during my captivity could be used in conjunction with the purple ooze from Krang, and the Foot could mutate more people. Soldiers."
"How high of a chance?" Leo asked, forgetting his punishment and standing beside of Donnie, scanning the screen.
"Eighty one point thirteen percent," Donnie said hesitantly.
Leo's expression darkened. He spoke slowly, dangerously.
"Do you mean to tell me, you've had access to this information, information that could mean the human population be mutated or the mutagen used as a biological weapon, and you're only now learning this?"
Donnie shuffled his feet, gaze dropping in shame. His voice was meek, barely carrying through the room.
"It.. it was.. heavily encrypted."
"You're off the team," Leo said evenly. Donnie's head jerked up, eyes wide and shocked. "We rely on you to keep the city, the world, safe, and you're too busy chasing your tail to realize the full ramifications of your stupidity."
"Leonardo," Splinter warned.
But Leo wasn't to be deterred.
"What kind of person ignores their duty? Who leaves innocent people unprotected? Who jeopardizes not only the city, but the entire planet?" Leo snarled in Donnie's face. "Who leaves people to die? To be left to the mercy of monsters? Who lets a worthless female stand in the way of saving the Earth? WHO?"
Leo shoved Donnie hard, making the smaller turtle stumbled backward, where he fell over, his shell colliding with the wall. It prevented his head from striking the concrete.
Crack
It wasn't Raph who knocked Leo cold. It was Master Splinter. He stood over his son, sadly eying the bruised, battered, and totally defeated turtle. It was one thing to strike each other during training, but Splinter refused to allow them to harm one another out of anger.
Hence why Leo and Raph were being punished.
Leo's increasing volatile nature was a severe disruption to the harmony of their household.
Apparently, meditation was not helping. Hashi punishments had not quelled his insatiable bloodlust for unobtainable perfection.
Leo refused to speak openly about what was bothering him. Now he focused only on training, honing his skills to a terrifying precision. But those skills were not enough to protect his heart. That was being destroyed and there was no way to piece it back together.
Raph knelt next to Donnie, examining his stunned brother.
"Did you hit your head?"
"No," Donnie said, touching the side of his head. "Just jarred a little."
"Easy," Raph said, helping Donnie to stand.
"Donatello, do you require answers?" Splinter asked, sliding his gaze to Donnie.
"I would like to go back to the place where I was captured, yes," Donnie said, carefully flexing to make sure nothing had been hurt. "See if there are other computers or maybe a link we missed. I have a feeling there's something going on here, Master Splinter. The Foot are up to something. I can…sense it."
It was lame but Donnie couldn't describe the feeling any other way.
"Gather what you need and go," Splinter said, motioning toward the door. He focused on Raph. "Protect your brothers, Raphael."
Raph nodded. It was a responsibility he was loathed to undertake, though he postured with Leo many times on the topic.
"Gear up," Raph said to Donnie and Mikey.
Donnie and Mikey exited the hashi and met Raph at the tunnel they took the first time they followed Donnie's coordinates. Retracing their steps, they found the familiar basement and substructure, Donnie's newly calibrated scanning devices showing the building was unoccupied.
The basement door remained broken on its hinges from Raph's violent quest to find Donnie. The shock grenade also remained in place where he had left it.
They entered the room where Donnie was captured without incident. The glass enclosure near the middle was in tact, its doors standing wide open in invitation.
Poised for an attack, the three turtles approached the structure, Raph giving it a quick glimpse before muttering.
"Make it fast, genius."
Donnie set his shoulder cam to record and waved two scanning devices, newly designed by himself, and given their first taste of a combat mission. One pinged at what appeared to be a supporting column for the metal table top. Donnie's tongue appeared between his teeth as he took a thin piece of metal and found the outline of a hidden panel. It opened to reveal circuitry and tangles of multicolored wires.
The machinery was dead, but it might hold some secrets.
Checking the hook ups, Donnie pried off the entire panel. Finding only computer related circuitry, and no apparent tripwire, he yanked out a chunk of circuit boards and tucked it into a bag. Raph and Mikey circled the enclosure, weapons raised, eyes alert, hearing sharp.
Donnie collected a few Petri dishes that appeared empty, but one could never be too sure. He sealed them in biohazard bags and placed them with the hard drive in the bag slung over his shoulder. Test tubes, a state of the art microscope, and a sheaf of printer paper were tucked away safely.
He was a 'waste not-want not' kind of turtle.
A security camera reposed in the corner like a dead fly, but the light no longer blinked.
"Be great to find any recordings,' Donnie said, pointing to the bug eyed cameras.
"Are they active?" Raph asked.
It would suck if they were being watched and a trap sprung. Raph wouldn't live with the humiliation.
"No, probably disabled when the place was abandoned," Donnie said, motioning to the tabletop. "There's a film of dust in here, barely perceivable, so I hazard the early stages of abandonment."
"Wanna go looking for the hard drive or security thingy?" Raph asked. Usually he could smell humans before he saw them and his nostrils were telling him the place had been stripped bare and left to ruin by its former occupants. But that was no reason to let his guard down.
Donnie waved a boxy contraption.
"There's no signal. Or dampening field. No sign of radiation. Nothing on thermal scans either. I highly doubt they left anything of value behind, but I took some samples and a crude back up drive. I might be able to get some data."
"Think they realized we were on to them so they packed up and left because we found their base?" Mikey asked, nunchakus swinging dangerously.
"Possibly," Donnie muttered. He turned off the recording device on his shoulder, hand accidentally bumping into the button to turn on the black light.
Instantly, the three turtles gasped, frozen in horror.
The room lit up like a Christmas tree.
Brilliant streaks on over the walls, huge puddles on the floor, even the ceiling (a good 12 feet over their heads) had traces. The walls and floor had taken most of the blood spatter. And it must have been a blood bath. Hardly any space wasn't lit up.
"What happened here?" Mikey whispered, as if afraid his voice would wake the dead.
"We didn't kill that many," Raph said, noting that when Donnie turned, there were handprints on the glass and inside the lab he just evacuated. The slaughter had been cleaned up nicely, but there was no way to hide it from the specialized light.
Donnie's shell sank.
"Given the Foot's near maniacal form of teaching, and their willingness to sacrifice innocents to obtain a goal, I wouldn't put it past them to have slaughtered everyone who allowed you guys to escape."
"Show weakness, get killed for it," Raph grunted. His sais whirled angrily. "You done, egghead? Can we leave this bloodbath?"
"Yeah," Donnie said, leading the way back the way they'd come. As they passed through the last door, Donnie placed an alarm that was linked to his PDA. If someone used that access point, he would be alerted to the activity.
Raph also replaced the busted door and shock grenade. He wasn't taking any chances either.
The brothers returned home, taking a different route in case they were followed and didn't bother asking about Leo. Knowing Master Splinter, the two were going to be in the dojo a long time.
"Mikey, get some food started," Raph ordered, heading for the dojo. "I'm going to update Sensei."
"I'll be going over the data. See what else I can find and if I can salvage anything from the hard drive,' Donnie called, patting the bag slung over his shoulder. He didn't wait for Raph to answer. He was already out of eyesight, settling down at his bank of computers. "Okay, Foot, let's see what you're trying to hide."
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It took a couple hours for Donnie to patch the hard drive he stole from the Foot headquarters. While the system scanned and defragged in hopes of salvaging information, Donnie returned to the files he downloaded from the laboratory.
He found patient files, four listings, Sable's one of them. Clicking on them he was able to see the entirety of medical records of the patients.
As Sable had divulged after their escape, the other patients were indeed terminal. There were attachments with their files and one by one, Donnie opened them to witness the horrors that had been performed.
Patients were strapped to gurneys. IVs hooked up. Shots given. The patients writhed and screamed as Donnie witnessed his own mutagen injected into their lines. One of the patients died instantly, heart rate jumping to over two hundred. With a gasping shout, he fell limp on the table, the line solid and straight.
The other two males died in similar agony, the one with a brain tumor surviving three days as the time lapse videos showed his head expanding from the accelerated growth of the tumor. He was still conscious when the side of his skull ruptured, exposing his deformed brain, which had turned gelatinous. Within a few moments, he died with a shuddering cry.
Donnie was hesitant to see Sable's video, but his curiosity got the better of him. The video showed her strapped down, writhing and crying as her body was eaten from the inside out by the voracious mutagen. Monitors displayed dangerous vitals, her heart skipping, slowly dying.
Tears flowed down Donnie's cheeks.
He had no idea she had suffered as such. It was even worse when he saw the doctors wheel in a cart, rip open her shirt and give her electric shock. Advancing several hours ahead, he slowed the recording to watch the doctors check her vitals.
Sable lay on the bed, soaked in sweat, deliriously rocking her head from side to side, mumbling nonsense words.
The one Donnie despised, Bishop, appeared with a needle and drew several tubes of blood. He cupped her cheek, leaning over her half conscious form, staring into her eyes.
One would think it was out of concern, but Donnie knew better. There was nothing compassionate or tender about Bishop.
The man was pure evil.
The video jumped ahead, time stamped to two days later. Sable sat exhausted, dark eyed, on the edge of the bed, shakily feeding herself. A doctor walked in and thankfully, the recording provided sound.
"It appears the serum worked, my dear," he said happily, settling down beside of Sable. "Your latest blood work shows no trace of cancer."
Sable's fork clattered to the plate. Her tiny chest heaved, face reddened as tears wetted her cheeks.
"It's… gone?"
"Completely," the doctor confirmed. He laughed as she gave him a sobbing hug. He returned her gesture, rubbing her back in consolation. "I admit, its times like this that makes my work worth it."
Sable withdrew, sniffling and wiping her eyes.
"So, does that mean I can go home? I'm in remission?"
"We're not sure how long the remission will last," the doctor said, consulting her chart. "The medications were pretty strong, hence your partial amnesia. We'd like to keep you a few more days. Run more tests. Make sure there's nothing hiding from us before we give you a clean bill of health."
Sable nodded, not trusting her voice.
The doctor motioned to her tray.
"Eat up. You'll have to build up your strength to get discharged."
Sable did as told, eating with more gusto now she had received the best diagnosis and was promised freedom. The doctor left and as Sable finished, a nurse showed up, carrying a cup of water and several pills. She waited until Sable had taken them before tucking her in and removing the food tray.
The routine was repeated for two days, Sable eating more, getting stronger, having blood work, receiving injections of clear liquids marked as antibiotics.
One hour after her last meal, two scientists appeared and undressed an unconscious Sable. Limply she flopped around as a rag doll. One of the doctors pulled out a syringe, took the cap off, flicked the contents, and injected her. Sable slept through their visit, head lulling as they wheeled her out of sight.
Donnie realized that was the moment they brought her to him. The injection was probably something to increase pheromone levels, initiating his mating desire. The pills she had taken would ensure she would be compliant, and oblivious to her memories.
A soft gasp drew Donnie's attention to his left, where Mikey stood, wide eyed and completely horrified.
"Mikey!" Donnie growled, "What are you doing? How long have you been there?"
Mikey blinked, his big blue eyes so expressive. They were dark with sadness and pain.
"I came to talk and you were watching those videos," Mikey said slowly, taking the last couple of steps to join Donnie. He bumped shells with his brother, seeking reassurance. "Was that…. Was that the place you escaped from?"
"Yes, Mikey,' Donnie confirmed. He closed Sable's file, not wanting Mikey to see anymore than he already had.
"Those…men," Mikey said slowly, staring at a now blank screen. Though the feed was gone he could still see their phantoms. "Will they come after you? Or Sable?" He finally pulled his gaze away from the monitor to look into Donnie's eyes. "Are you two going to be safe? Is that why you wanted to set up security at her place?"
Donnie glanced around, making sure they were alone. He didn't want a certain stealthy rat to know what he was about to divulge.
"I wrote a program, venting toxic gas into the entire facility," Donnie whispered, reaching out to hold Mikey's shell. "When the men who did this logged into the system that morning, it set off a failsafe. A lockdown. The gas became inert after a few hours, but it was lethal. Whoever was in the facility when it was triggered, didn't survive."
"You're sure?" Mikey asked timidly.
"No way for conformation, but I'm pretty sure I got everyone," Donnie said, drawing Mikey in a hug. He spoke in his little brother's ear. "I don't know if anyone else had access to their mainframe. If they were the main facility or a satellite. But I'm going to run a trace and see if I can pinpoint their network, if I didn't already destroy it. We'll be safe, Mikey. Promise."
Mikey nodded.
"I like her, Donnie. I don't want anything to happen to her or you."
"It won't,' Donnie promised. It was a hollow promise. Previous experience showed them it was impossible to protect everyone they loved.
"You two idiots done with your sappiness?" Raph asked gruffly. He crossed his arms over his chest and observed his siblings. "I swear, one of you falls in love and next thing you know, you're acting like a simpering chick."
Mikey perked up, sidling up to Raph and puckering his lips.
"Kissie kissie."
Smack!
The blow wasn't strong, but enough to stop Mikey's faces.
"You two get out of here," Donnie said, settling at his workstation. "I have a lot of work to do."
"Come on, Trouble," Raph said, grabbing Mikey by the scruff of his shell. Mikey rose on his toes, yelping as Raph directed him away from their geeky brother.
Donnie returned to the perusal of the medical files he had downloaded before his escape.
Most of the charts were initialed with various doctors and scientists, each no doubt a specialist in their field and meticulous with their findings. They'd have to be. If they created a cure or new treatment regime, they stood to make a killing.
So to speak.
Thankfully when Donnie sent the data packet over the airwaves and downloaded it to a secured server, he had also added employee files.
He printed out the list of employees, complete with photo ID, and matched them to the initials on the reports during the drug trials on terminal patients. Nearly a dozen names coincided with Donnie's own exams and collected samples. Donnie would never forget their faces.
Every one of the doctors and scientists were experts in their field. Chemistry. Biology. Genetics. Pathology. Exotic Veterinary sciences.
That one concerned Donnie.
Using the police database, which he hacked illegally, he ran a full background check on the employees. To be safe, Donnie printed out the information in triplicate, including addresses, family members, and special accommodations.
He even hacked in and got their tax returns from the past five years.
Almost all of them had worked for Eric Sacks in some capacity, usually from his numerous dummy corporations, but there were a few who had joined the organization from a government funded project that remained sealed. Namely, those employed for 'security' services.
Donnie started with them, typing in their names, getting last known addresses and cross referencing them with any news.
His frown grew deeper as one by one, the names appeared on travel manifests, each going to different parts of the world. But their departure dates were identical.
Donnie would have thought it odd if he didn't know the ones 'traveling' would have been the ones caught in his trap. It was highly unlikely they decided to take a group vacation.
Typing in the names of the scientists and doctors who had tormented Donnie for a month, the lanky turtle didn't have long to wait until his search yielded fruit.
A news article appeared stating two of the scientists had died in a car accident… the day after Donnie's escape. The article also stated the bodies were burned beyond recognition. Meaning a closed casket service.
The very same day, another scientist on the list had suffered a massive heart attack while 'vacationing' with his family in Martha's Vineyard. He too was cremated.
Another scientist on the list died of 'prolonged battle with cancer.'
Another was shot in what was described as 'random gang violence.'
Another died of anaphylactic shock due to a severe allergy to bees and was unable to receive epinephrine in time.
All cremated.
Purely coincidence though.
Donnie knew the truth. They had died of toxic gas. But the company had covered their tracks, making sure those who perished couldn't be connected to them.
If anyone had glimpsed the reports, they would have found nothing out of the ordinary about this particular collection of people. No suspicion surrounding their deaths and their sudden need for a company wide vacation.
Sending a quick text to April about a potential story, Donnie rubbed his eyes. The time read 4:24am. Time had flown while the genius was occupied. He yawned and stretched, heading to bed. A string of messages from Sable catalogued her increasing worry, until her last message.
'Couldn't get a hold of you so called Mikey. He said you were working on something important. Text when you're able. Love you.'
He sent a quick reply.
'Sorry. One track mind. Didn't mean to ignore you. Love you too. Will try to deal with this quickly.'
Donnie slept fitfully, tossing and turning, his tail waking him up half past six. He eased his tension, but it was a pale comparison to what he craved. The time he spent at Sable's had helped his sexual tension, but a restlessness was itching along his shell. A kind of tingling sensation that portended of things to come.
Wanting to hurry up and finish defragging the information he collected, Donnie hurried to his computers. The screen blinked, signaling it continued to recover data from the damaged hard drive. There were a couple read-only files available.
Needing a caffeine infusion, Donnie visited the kitchen to brew a fresh pot of strong coffee. Barely a cup was filtered when he poured a mug full and turned to head back to his computers.
He nearly dumped scorching coffee on Leo.
"Whoops! Sorry, Leo!" Donnie said, hiding the pain of having coffee burning his finger. "Downside to being ninjas. Never know when you can run into someone with something hot."
Leo didn't laugh. Didn't smile. He made to sidestep Donnie but paused, finally lifting his gaze to meet Donnie's expectant face.
His normally sparkling blue eyes were dulled with fatigue. And sorrow, but Donnie wasn't going to mention it.
"I'm sorry, Donnie. About what happened yesterday. I was out of line."
The words were ground out as if against Leo's will.
Donnie placed his coffee on the table and reached out, pulling Leo into his embrace and speaking softly in his ear. Leo's arms remained lax at his sides, not reciprocating the affection.
"You carry the weight of the world on your shell, Leo," Donnie said. He rested his head next to Leo's. "But you don't have to do it alone. I love you, Leo. Please, don't hate me."
"I don't, Donnie," Leo answered softly, finally lifting his arms to pat Donnie's bony shoulders. "I just let my emotions get out of hand."
Donnie squeezed him tighter.
"It's easy to do."
Leo offered a jerk of his head, not trusting his voice. He was still angry at Donnie for shirking his duties to get his shell waxed, but after a long lecture from his father, coupled with extensive training, he was properly chastised for his aggression.
Donnie held Leo at arm's length.
"Come and see what I've been able to find out thus far!"
Donnie waited until Leo had a cup of coffee and together they settled in front of the computers. Donnie took the next hour explaining the findings on the doctors and scientists who were responsible for his capture.
He also showed Leo the video of their experiments, and though he was loath to repeat it, Donnie included Sable's.
Hoping to calm any harsh feelings Leo may be building about being brought belatedly up to speed, Donnie added, "This is why the files were so heavily encrypted. If people saw how these patients were treated, the biological and chemical treatments they were forced to endure… It would mean ethics inquires, federal, state, and civil prosecution. They'd face murder charges for the three patients who didn't survive. All of their research and specimens would be investigated by court appointed panels. Including what they collected from me."
Leo's expression darkened, and not in the way that was directed toward Donnie.
"They had our DNA from Sacks lab?"
"Yes, and when they captured me, they took blood and tissue samples," Donnie confided, shell drooping.
He turned off the video of Sable screaming in pain while tied down, his heart breaking. A part of him was glad she had no recollection of the torment she endured. Leo's hand was light on his shoulder.
"I'm sorry, Donnie,' Leo said. The screams and torment he witnessed on the screens haunted his consciousness. The full magnitude of what Donnie and Sable had endured was far beyond his imagination. It took a lot of courage for them to survive and escape, and somehow, miraculously, found solace in each other. It was… humbling. "I know both of you have suffered."
"It's in the past," Donnie said, taking a deep breath and refocusing his attention on another screen. "We healed. No use in dwelling on it."
Leo's brow creased. He had been so caught up in his own inner turmoil, he didn't see how badly Donnie had been affected. And given the torture of a dying patient he just witnessed on security feeds, he could only imagine the suffering Donnie endured.
No matter how hard Leo tried, he failed. At everything. From saving the woman he loved. To preventing his brother from being captured and experimented on.
He couldn't win!
He was a terrible leader and an even worse brother. No wonder Master Splinter stripped him of his leadership and place among his brothers, exiling him to the dojo and placing Raph in charge while on important missions.
"Leo?" Donnie repeated, snapping Leo out of his self perpetuating hatred.
"What?" Leo asked, shaking his head to clear the cobwebs.
It seemed his head was full of them these days. Heavy, smothering, putrid smelling cobwebs that threatened to pull him into an abyss he didn't know how to escape.
"I said, I sent a copy of this to April," Donnie continued. He had a feeling where Leo's mind drifted, but didn't want to say anything in case it caused another argument. "Just the dossiers on the scientists involved. And I attached the files showing the deaths and spontaneous mass 'vacations.'"
"Think they'll link them to us?" Leo asked, focusing on the task. "The facility still has your samples. If it's investigated, is there a chance we could be found out?"
"Not directly, no," Donnie said, typing away and showing the schematic of the building. The same one he used to escape with Sable. "There's a slim chance this was only a satellite laboratory, a remote one working in conjuncture with Sacks' Biological and Medical Research. Can't be totally sure. Their network is vast. Anyway, I wrote a program that dumped their data after it finished transferring it to my remote servers. Then I created a failsafe that was triggered when the scientists logged in for the day. When the last one clocked in, it quietly initiated their own foothold protocol."
"Foothold?" Leo asked.
"If a specimen or airborne bacterium escapes, the "Foothold" locks a facility down. Nothing in. Nothing out. Switches to backup generators and oxygen scrubbers." Donnie glanced about, making sure he wasn't overheard. Master Splinter didn't approve of taking the life of an enemy, even if they were deserving. "Before the Foothold protocol initiated, however, I changed the system into venting the dangerous gases, the ones hooded to outside ventilation, into the main venting system. So when the doors and windows locked down, heavy concrete and metal slamming shut as an oyster, it ventilated the mixed gases throughout the building."
Leo turned in slow motion. His brow was raised questioningly.
"No survivors," Donnie confirmed. "Suffocation was instantaneous. Followed by immediate cellular decay. If there were any specimens related to us that survived, they would be contaminated due to the caustic gases and the gases released by decomposition of humans."
"So, not likely they would have a sample?" Leo asked.
"Highly unlikely," Donnie continued. "And given the genetic 'soup' that was going to be everywhere when someone finally figured out how to crack that oyster, they'd attribute the sample to failed biological weapon or human error. Which means a Scorched Earth protocol, where they send in flame throwers and hazmats."
"Definitely not a pearl," Leo muttered.
Donnie smirked.
"Definitely not. I'm trying to scrub the data I've collected thus far so it won't to lead to us, or have ties to New York."
"Don't want anyone to get ideas and come looking," Leo grunted.
"Precisely. Which is why I'm doing a redaction and will accidentally let some of this information leak to interested parties."
Leo had an idea who the interested parties were but held his tongue. He was impressed with Donnie's thorough work. Course, he always was. He didn't realize how much he depended on his geeky brother to pull their shells out of the fire.
After all, it was Donnie who stopped Shredder from contaminating New York and killing thousands. It was Donnie who hacked Krang's ship and figured out how to get the beacon back through the dimensional portal.
Leo and his brothers relied on the lanky turtle for so much. And Donnie saved their shells more times than Leo could count. And he never complained.
So why was Leo so adamant about keeping Donnie at the lair and away from Sable? Surely Donnie deserved love and companionship in his life? He had been open and accepting of May, so why couldn't Leo show him the same respect?
Leo rubbed his temple to ward off an oncoming headache.
"Ah! The hard drive is done!" Donnie actually giggled, delving into the world of electronics and codes as he zipped through files, bypassing passwords, and ignored the things of least importance.
"What hard drive?" Leo asked, touching Donnie's arm to keep him centered.
Donnie was nearly as bad as Mikey when he got focused on something entertaining.
"When we went to the place where I was captured, there was a hard drive hidden in a consol. It was pretty fragged, but my algorithms have deciphered what they could, and it's not really a lot as the mainframe has been fried, but it appears as if they are preparing for something."
Leo remained silent, knowing most of the time, Donnie talked to himself. It was best to let him ramble. Eventually you'd reach your destination in the conversation.
"Hmm, this appears to be a communiqué between the lab we broke into, to somewhere in Tokyo. I bet you that has something to do with the sporadic transmissions I detected before I was caught."
"Did they find the information they were looking for?" Leo asked, hoping they didn't.
Donnie made a noise of annoyance.
"Apparently. They were running final diagnostics before shipping it to Japan when we showed up."
"What did they find?"
"I think it might have been a piece of Krang's ship that was left behind, but can't be certain. I'm guessing they are reverse engineering a way to reopen the dimensional rift. Baxter Stockman is still AWOL so there's a good bet he's in on the research," Donnie sighed. "They are determined to get Shredder back."
"But in what capacity?" Leo asked. "He's been with Krang for almost five years. That puspocket could have experimented on him and made him even worse."
"Well there's a whole new nightmare," Donnie groaned.
"That's why our vigilance is vital," Leo said. "We may be the only ones who can prevent the world from ending."
"Superheroes," Donnie crooned in an imitation of Mikey. His expression switched from fun to serious in a heartbeat. "I'll see if I can decipher a time and date when they plan on opening the portal and ending the world. No guarantees though. I'm working blind. There's a lot of data missing."
"I'll start breakfast," Leo said, patting Donnie on the shoulder. "Good work, buddy."
Donnie grinned as Leo left, feeling as if things were starting to turn around. Though there was danger on the horizon, their best defense was preparation for worst case scenario.
Donnie spent the day in front of the computers, Leo bringing him food and drinks from time to time, though mostly it went unheeded. When Donnie was in the zone, very few things could snap him out of it.
He was crawling into bed at nearly 4 in the morning when he checked his phone. There were a few texts from Sable, reminding him she loved him and couldn't wait until he and his brothers visited.
Exhausted, he fell into a deep sleep, his phone held protectively against his chest, a pale substitute for the woman he loved.
o-o
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Apologies again for the long chapter! Sometimes they have a mind of their own!
Be sure to click that button and drop in your thoughts.
