The team reassembled at the farmhouse to study the video. Jamie put the SD card into the computer.
"Wow, the angle's perfect, Jackson," she said. "You got it enough from the side so that the man's not blocking the view, but not so much that we can't see the numbers."
"I just hope the mother cell is there," Chloe warned.
"They're too smart to risk putting it all in one place," Jackson surmised. "They'll have pieces stashed all over the place."
"I hope you're right. That greatly increases our odds that they have some at the warehouse. It likely won't be as secure as if it were the only one, either," Jamie chimed in hopefully. "Ok, I'm gonna zoom and freeze-frame it. Here we go…"
"Seven zero zero zero one nine four. Got it," Jackson jotted down the numbers as Jamie froze the screen on each one.
"So everyone meets here again at ten o'clock," Jamie confirmed the plan. "Then Jackson, Abe and I go to the warehouse."
"Why you?" Mitch was now at full attention, setting his beer on the counter.
"Why not me? Someone has to be the lookout."
"Because if you get recognized, this whole thing is for nothing. And then you really are dead. Don't forget that part."
"How am I going to get recognized? We'll be wearing masks. I feel like I need to do something to earn my keep here," she rationalized.
"Like Chloe said, each of us has our role to play," Mitch tried his hardest to dissuade her. "Your role, at this point, is to tell our story."
Jackson started to speak up but was silenced by Abraham's you don't want to get in the middle of this glare before the words could come out of his mouth.
"Which I can do a lot more effectively if I've actually witnessed the story," Jamie pointed out. "Relax, I'm not even going in. I'll just wait outside so I can warn them if anyone shows up."
"Alone. In the dark. With who the hell even knows what creatures are out there. There's safety in numbers, Jamie. You know that. No one goes out alone at night."
"You're reaching. In the same way I can warn them if someone's coming, I can call them if something is coming," she moved to face him and put her hand gently on his cheek. "I appreciate the concern, I really do. But you've got to loosen the grip just a little. It'll be fine. I'm stubborn-you're not getting rid of me that easy."
Mitch was unconvinced, but knew when to surrender. The rational part of him acknowledged that he was overreacting. The emotional part, however, desperately needed to be sure she was safe. He couldn't survive losing her again. He picked up the beer and finished it with one long swig.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Abraham set the baggie on the table. "Here you go."
Mitch was incredulous. "It can't be that easy."
"It was that easy," Jackson confirmed. "I entered the code to disable the security system, Abe jimmied the lock and we got what we needed. In and out. Re locked the door, reset the alarm, and no one need ever know we were there."
"Worst thing we encountered was a pissed off Persian cat. But then, they always look pissed off," Jamie joked, hoping to ease Mitch's mind.
"We just trimmed a little off the back of it so as not to be conspicuous."
"It's perfect," Mitch agreed as he examined it. "I used less than this last time and got two doses."
He had exactly what he needed now, yet that brought no relief. It was all on him to synthesize the cure. It worked before, but now there was the lingering suspicion that something had changed with the leopard. This had to work, or Reiden's mass extermination project was going to be implemented. It had already begun on a small scale; euthanasia programs were underway at the quarantine centers.
"It's late," Abe said. "I've got to get going. Mitch, what time should I come back to help you with the leopard?"
"I don't know, it's just after midnight now, so maybe ten? Ish?"
"We will be here," replied Jackson. "You have enough tranquilizers?"
"Yeah, it should work. The biggest challenge is moving him to the table after he's out."
"All right, good night, guys."
From the window, Mitch and Jamie watched their friends get into their vehicles and drive off. She kissed him long and intently, and slowly felt the tension drain from his body.
"See? It's going to be fine. We're all going to be fine."
He responded by kissed her, lingering on her soft lips.
"I love you."
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The morning light shone through the crack in the drapes, beaming right into Mitch's eyes. He gently nudged Jamie to the side, and sat at the edge of the bed. A yawn and a stretch later, he picked up his glasses from the bedside table and placed them on his face. Large fingers deftly buttoned up his shirt. He went to the window and parted the drapes to peek out at the leopard lying in his pen.
"Today's the big day, Buddy. Your time to shine," he said softly.
He padded to the kitchen to start coffee brewing. So much was riding on this today. Somehow the pressure was just as intense as it was back in that hospital in Harare. He knew that this should work—after all, it worked before. Yet if it didn't…well, he couldn't allow his mind to go there.
He picked up the remote control and switched on the television to check the morning news. Great, he noted, another massacre. This time it involved tigers in Chicago. And, of course, random smaller scale killings were happening, well, everywhere. Jesus, this sucks, he thought. He never thought he'd live to see the day when he longed to hear about traffic jams, purse snatchings, meth lab busts, pretty much anything besides incessant animal attacks. The stakes had never been so high.
The leopard had begun pacing for his breakfast. Mitch took the bottle of pills from the cabinet and counted out the dose he intended to hide in the cat's meat. Oral absorption would take longer, but given the difficulty getting needles through the skin of affected animals it seemed the simplest route. He would feed the medicated food around nine o'clock to insure the animal would be in a deep sedation by the time Jackson and Abe arrived.
He checked the lab to make certain all of his supplies were ready. He'd never extracted bone marrow from a live animal before, so he doubled the number of needles and syringes he had at the ready, just in case.
The morning wore on. The duo had breakfast and fed the leopard. Sure enough, he was unconscious by the time Abe and Jackson arrived to assist with the experiment.
"Chloe wanted to come, but she had to go to work at the last minute," Jackson explained. "I have strict instructions to record this for posterity."
Mitch felt his stress surge again. "Let's hope there's something to see or that movie's gonna be a box office flop."
"A must see." Jamie propped him.
"Edge of your seat," Abe joined.
"Well, then let's get this show on the road."
They carefully maneuvered the leopard onto the examination table. Mitch motioned toward his instruments laid out on a sterile field.
"I'd prefer not to harm him if we can avoid it, so let's keep this as sterile as possible."
Damn, this was tough with all these eyes on him. It was much easier, though still nerve-wracking, when it was just Jamie and they were conversing throughout. Now all three stood by silently, so hopeful and expectant. "So, heard any good jokes lately?," he quipped.
When the procedure was finished, the cat was returned to his enclosure none the worse for wear. Now began the process of extracting the stem cells and introducing the mother cell into the mixture. Soon the electroporator was doing its part.
"I can't believe I forgot this, but, uh, we're still going to need a test animal."
Abe smiled. "It's in the back of the truck."
"I should have known."
Abe left and returned with a pet carrier containing a small mutt. Mitch peered in at it as it growled and snarled.
"Ah, you went the non-lethal route this time."
The electroporator beeped, signaling that the moment of reckoning was at hand. Mitch removed the solution and stared at it with a furrowed brow. He drew up a small amount into a syringe and injected it into a tiny piece of beef. "Let's hope he's hungry."
Jackson kept the camera rolling and zoomed in on the dog as Mitch quickly placed the beef in the crate. The snack vanished into the mouth of the animal. Mitch began pacing the room.
"How long does it take?" Jackson asked.
"It was really fast before," Jamie replied. "Just a few minutes."
Sure enough, within minutes the dog settled down.
"I can't believe I'm seeing this," Jackson murmured, handing the camera to Abe. He reached into the crate and petted the dog, who licked his hand in return. "When we picked him up, he tried to take my hand off. His pupil is normal already. How is that possible?"
"Amazing, isn't it?" Abe agreed.
Mitch leaned against the wall and sunk slowly to the floor as he exhaled. It worked. Again. The fight against the animal uprising had new life. The cure could be distributed, Jamie could finish her manuscript and their lives could finally begin to return to normal. No, they couldn't, he realized. They would have a new normal. What would it look like? He looked forward to finding out.
He looked over at Jamie and saw that she was looking at him. She began to smile broadly, and as if it were contagious, it spread over his face as well.
"How much more do we have?" Jackson asked.
"With the amount of mother cell we have, there's about two more doses. We have enough stem cells for more," Mitch was surprised he managed to get the words out.
Jackson pulled out his phone. "I'm gonna have Chloe set up a conference with Amelia Sage."
"Let's not jump ahead," Mitch cautioned.
"You don't trust her?"
"Forgive me, but I don't trust anyone outside of the five of us with this. I need to hear more about your delivery system."
"Sage is good, she's completely trustworthy. I'm sure her team can help us iron out the details of the mosquito plan."
"She's a politician. Politicians are paid to politic, not to think. I'm not giving those yahoos anything until I can give them detailed idiot-proof step by step instructions on what to do with it. We shared everything we knew with them before and they still couldn't get it right."
Jackson was beginning to become agitated. "Mitch, she's done nothing but help us. She got us all immunity. She totally believes everything we said about Reiden Global."
"And yet she still signed off on the deal indemnifying them." Mitch was not budging.
"She had to, to get the mother cell."
"She could have done that exactly the way that we did."
"Prior to that, we didn't even know there was more of the mother cell," Jackson countered. "You're not the only one making the decisions here."
"I'm not saying 'no', Jackson, I'm just saying we need to nail down the details of the distribution plan first."
"Im sorry, Rafiki. I agree with Mitch," Abe said gently.
"Me, too," Jamie voted.
"What exactly is it that you need to know?"
"Let's start with how you expect to inject mosquitos. Then we'll move on to how many? Where? What types?" Mitch rose and moved to a chair in the center of the group. "From my experience with the mutated animals, mosquito bites are going to be useless. Remember the endoskeletons on those bears? The needle bent. And when we injected the dog in Zimbabwe, it was a spectacular failure."
"So you're just totally shooting me down."
"No, I'm not. I don't think the bites will work, but I do think using mosquitos as vectors can. Like you said, they lay their eggs in water, which will spread it. Every living creature needs at least a little bit of water. Some of the desert ones, however, get theirs from plants. We'd be totally relying on bites with them."
"That's a fair point," Jackson admitted.
Jamie raised a hand. "Stupid question? If it's in the groundwater, could it affect humans?"
"Yes," Jackson acknowledged, "but I'm not sure that's a bad thing. Most of us have been exposed to the mutation, in one way or another."
"But so far, there's no evidence that the mutation can spread to humans. If it did, say through bites or scratches from affected animals, I'd be a serial killer by now. So would Jackson, Abe and Chloe," Mitch said.
"The only affected human we've seen was Evan Lee Hartley, and we have no idea what my father did, if anything, to convert him," Jackson agreed. "So the question is, could the cure have any harmful effects on people? Personally, I doubt it. In any case, I think the benefit outweighs the risk."
"Agreed," Mitch nodded. "Ok, next. Obviously, the more mosquitos we inject, and the more points of release around the world, the faster the spread will be. Drier areas, places where mosquitos are few and far between, there's our challenge."
"Covering most of the planet is better than covering none. And it will spread to those areas, it'll just take a little longer. We start with the most heavily populated areas and work outward for maximum preservation of life. We inject as many as our serum will allow. As for how to inject, it's really not that hard. They make small enough needles. Just look at the ones they use in some infertility procedures where they inject the sperm directly into the egg."
"Ok, ok," Mitch surrendered. "Call Amelia Sage. But be aware that I'm holding back some of the stem cells in case something mysteriously happens to the leopard. And don't say a word about Jamie yet."