Author's Note: I'm sorry it took so long to get this chapter up; I had a project to finish on the 17th and was sort of stuck after that. Hopefully I'll get the next chapter up more quickly!
"Well, I can tell you what happened," Vincent said, staring at the laptop screen with furrowed brows. A cable ran from the side of the computer to a wall-mounted panel near one of the food dispensers. "But I still haven't the foggiest idea why it happened." He tapped the touch-pad a couple of times, then turned the screen toward Fargo. "The contamination protocols were triggered, apparently on every machine in the cafeteria simultaneously."
He shifted his chair over slightly, so that he could continue to work at the computer with Fargo peering over his shoulder. "All of the automated cuisine dispensers have sensors designed to pick up traces of salmonella, e. coli, and a wide variety of more exotic biological and chemical contaminants. If the sensors detect a problem, they trigger a lock-down response in the unit, preventing the tainted food from being distributed before someone can come and find out what the problem is." He clicked through the program on the screen, shaking his head in puzzlement. "The really strange thing is, I can't figure out what triggered the lock-down. The logs don't show anything unusual recorded by the sensors – so unless they're malfunctioning in a way that I haven't found, they didn't trip the lock-down command."
Jo was pacing back and forth between a pair of cafeteria tables a few feet away from the two men, watching the small crowd of GD employees at the other end of the room. When Vincent had arrived a little more than half an hour ago, he'd come armed with a coffee urn, a tray of sandwiches, and a few boxes of fresh pastries. The food had smoothed more than a few ruffled feathers, and by now the swarm of hungry scientists was much reduced. "So what did send the command, then?" she asked.
"And, more importantly, how do we fix it?" Fargo put in. "If we don't get this straightened out pretty soon, I'm gonna have to start letting people go home to eat, which is going to lose us a lot of working hours. We've got deadlines to meet, and not just for the Astraeus mission."
Vincent seemed unfazed by Fargo's anxious fluttering. "You can send people over to Cafe Diem, in shifts. I can whip up some short-order specials that will have everyone ready to get back to work in no time. But this..." He shook his head at the screen. "Until we know what triggered the contamination response, I can't guarantee it won't happen again. And I won't just shut down the lock-down mechanism, since that would put us at risk if a real contaminant is introduced."
Fargo nodded. "I'll get some of our techs working on it right away. Is there any chance this could've been intentional?" He glanced suspiciously around the room, half-expecting to see Parrish lurking under a table, with that smug-bastard grin on his face.
"Seems like kind of an indirect line of attack, but it's possible," Jo responded, turning to face him. "If this were deliberate sabotage, the goal would have to be either to get us to disrupt our usual routine surrounding meals, or to lure us into shutting down the safety mechanism in order to slip something through the safeguards and into the food." Fargo started to say something, but she cut him off with a gesture. "That's not likely, since it involves too much uncertainty on the saboteur's part, with needing to predict whether we'll shut down the safety measures and keep using the machines – which we're not doing. So if it was active sabotage, it's probably intended to disrupt our usual patterns, and get people out of their labs for longer than it would take them to come and eat lunch here. If Vincent can get all the eggheads their lunches in a hurry, and I stay behind and do a security sweep of all Sections, that should take care of any potential breaches." Jo suspected she knew what Fargo was thinking: that some of the Astraeus alternates might have decided to remove some of the competition and get themselves bumped up the list. She was tempted to tell him that he was being paranoid – but the specter of Beverly Barlowe loomed in her mind, and she wasn't about to argue with any added precautions he wanted. Any excuse to focus on work instead of worrying about whatever Zane wants to say to me, an inner voice put in, but Jo ignored it.
"You should assign a team to stay here with you and help with the sweep," Fargo suggested.
She shook her head. "No need, with the CHARMS interface. I'm getting input from sensors all over the building. If there's a breach, I'll call for backup." Besides, I could do with some alone time right now.
Looking unconvinced, Fargo pushed his glasses farther up the bridge of his nose. "If you're sure; I trust your judgment. I'll go make the announcement and start sending groups over to Cafe Diem."
"Give me twenty minutes or so, if you can hold off the ravening hordes for that long," Jo put in. "There's a truck coming to pick up some chemicals from Dr. Merton in Section Four, and I'd rather not have two potential security holes at once."
Vincent looked up from the computer. "That'll give me time to head back to my kitchen and get rolling on those sandwiches. I'm almost finished downloading the logs from the contaminant sensors; I just need a couple of minutes more."
"All right. Let me know if anything turns up in those logs. And thanks, Vincent." Fargo nodded and started toward the cafeteria door, with Jo beside him.
"When you send people out, start with Section Five," she suggested. "That way we can get the most sensitive projects back under supervision the fastest, since they're the likeliest target if someone does try to breach our security."
"And if someone does decide to skip out for an unscheduled snack, it won't be one of the classified projects that gets left unattended," Fargo added, and from the expression on his face, Jo suspected that he had a couple of likely offenders in mind. He hesitated a moment, then stopped in the corridor and turned to face her. "I don't want to harp on it, and I know you're capable, but there's no reason you need to handle security on this alone."
Jo brought up a hand to forestall his concerns. "I'm not putting anything at risk, Fargo. If I'm the only one down there, that means if I hear a noise, I know something's wrong. I'll be able to concentrate better on the input from the CHARMS interface if I don't have to coordinate a security team, and backup will only be a floor away."
Fargo didn't look pleased, but Jo could tell that he wasn't about to overrule her without a solid reason, and she was thankful for it. "All right. Head down to Section Four and deal with Merton, and I'll start sending people out as soon as I hear from you."
"Will do." Thanks, Fargo, she added silently. They parted ways at the next junction, Fargo heading for his office while Jo waited for the elevator.