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Joe arrived back outside the late night quiet of the research facility, trying to steady his breathing, his glasses steaming up again with the drips of rain running from his hair.
Beau had assured him the security cameras would be dealt with before he arrived and he wondered how he could be sure. He had been promised a full hour on a loop before they switched back to normal function. He took a deep breath, used his access card and handprint to get through the external door and followed the corridor past his research lab to reach the director’s office.
He swiped her security card and pressed the fake-print to the glass of her scanner.
The door opened.
He tucked the card into the edge of the carpet as if it had fallen there when it spilled from her handbag, then went in and sat down at her desk. His mouth felt dry and it was an effort to stop his hands shaking as he tapped her password into the keypad of her wall screen, careful to only touch surfaces with his skin-gloved hand.
I used to follow all the rules and I enjoyed having a secure job. How did everything change so fast?
He found the files, copied them over to his handset, then closed everything down and said a silent prayer that she would not think of checking the usage log when she came in the following morning. At least she had not been subjected to the indignity of having cameras installed in her office. Unlike the lesser mortals working long hours in the research labs.
He walked back along the deserted corridor to his lab, trying to stay calm.
Nothing illegal in what I’m doing. Not until I start running the experiments again in the middle of the night without the authority to include the next stages.
The janitor had just finished in the lab and was humming contently under her breath as she carefully steered her bulky floor polisher through the door. She was large enough to need most of the width of the door just for herself and it took her a few moments to get her machine lined up and into the corridor.
Joe wished her a polite good evening as he waited to get past. She smiled cheerfully at him.
“Cameras sorted. All clear in there.”
He stared after her as she trundled her machine down the corridor, then collected his scattered thoughts and walked into the lab. He unlocked the sample store, took out the relevant cache and started work, referring at each stage to the stolen notes in his handset.
Within minutes his mind was absorbed in the beauty and precision of the chemical structures and patterns, their intriguing valence bonds creating complex new compounds. He recorded the results on his handset and headed for home to finish the analysis with less risk of being discovered.
He reached the apartment, settled himself at the kitchen table and opened his tablet, comparing the data he had downloaded with the notes from his research.
Complex carbon chains with tiny variations...
Devi came into the room and walked over to see what he was doing, her eyes heavy with exhaustion and nerves too anxious to sleep. He showed her the screen but she shook her head.
“Joe, you’ll have to translate for me. I’m no chemist, you know that.”
“I need more time to go through all the details and I would really prefer a second opinion, but it looks as if this part is as your source suspected. To be absolutely sure I need more data. The sugar molecule has been adapted and linked to this synthetic amphetamine derivative. I can re-run some of the tests we did last month and then do the second stage myself. But... my guess would be, yes it is.”
“Yes what?”
“It is highly addictive.”
“So what do we do next?”
Joe stared at the information on his tablet. “I have to follow this up and I think I know where to start looking. There are animal experiments going on in the restricted lab on the city outskirts––even though they’re still officially illegal. If I could get footage of hyperactive test mice for example, would your friends be able to get that, plus the formula, into a format that could be safely circulated to the right people?” He hesitated. “If there is anyone with the status to act on it.”
Devi reached for the hotspot behind the counter-lights.
“I’ll ask Beau if he can get someone inside the restricted lab to help you access what you need. It just needs your expertise to film the right things with the right labels. Are you sure you’re going to be all right with this? If you keep going all night, you’ll be falling asleep at work.”
“Actually, I already did, last week. Twice. Nobody noticed. I haven’t slept well since I got involved with the whole path report thing.” Joe laughed, noticing his nervous tension was starting to show. “By the end of all this I’ll have broken into more places than the average burglar. Must be some kind of record for an accredited chemist.” He laid the tablet back on the table. “I just hope I can actually find the information.”
Devi wrapped an arm around his shoulders.
“Joe, you are amazing, just accepting all these risks.”
He felt a glow of pleasure at her praise but it was a sharp reminder that it would involve even more burglary than he had blundered his way through so far. Then his eyes strayed to the vulnerable, precious little bump in Devi’s belly.
“It all felt crazy at first but when I saw those formulae I just knew I didn’t want my kids to have that kind of addiction-slavery as their only future.”
*
The janitor finished her shift, heaved the heavy machine back into its cupboard, let herself out of the building and found the nearest hotspot. She plugged in her unregistered and sent a short message.
“Hi Beau, all sorted at the lab, he was in there almost up to the midnight shift change, left half an hour ago. Everything’s back where the cleaner needs it tomorrow, hope she enjoyed her night off.
L&K from Sunshine.”
*
Beau arrived in Joe’s apartment for the second time that night, this time with a fake-print glove already primed.
“You’re in luck. We already had access set up from when we first heard the stories about control issues using food, but the volunteer we sent in didn’t know enough tech-speak to track down anything relevant.”
Joe stretched the thin plastic over his hand to test the fit.
“How and where do I use this?”
“I already sent our janitor over there with her own print and a generous bribe for the regular she needs to replace. Your print is a copy from one of the part-time lab assistants.”
“When do we leave?” Suddenly it all seemed too much too soon.
“Now. I have a hire car outside and a camera-free route printed into my handset. I won’t wait for you in case it draws attention but it’s not too far to walk back when you’ve finished. Don’t worry, as soon as you get out, I’ll drive on past the lab so it will log a different destination with the hire franchise.”
*
The research complex was housed in the usual five-floor concrete box like all the other industrial units in the northeast city sector. Inside the deserted night-time compound, Joe followed Beau’s directions firmly lodged in his memory, and reached the back door without being challenged. He slipped the fake-print glove onto his right hand and pressed it against the glass panel at the side. The door opened and he hurried through, working his way through the maze of corridors.
Sunshine met him outside the main lab, her ample size once more squeezed into blue janitor’s coveralls.
“Cameras sorted. You only have half an hour this time. I have to go now––if I don’t record a full cleaning shift for this section of the building, the person I’m standing in for will lose her job.” She waved her wrist to show him the lumpy performance monitor clamped onto it.
As she turned to leave Joe saw her eyes were red from crying. He caught her arm.
“Hey. Are you all right?”
“I just hope you’ve a strong enough stomach, you can still focus on what you have to do in the time you have.” She pushed him away and walked off.
He eased open the door of the lab and walked in. Cages of monkeys, dogs, mice and rabbits were arranged in stacked lines separated by narrow walkways. Each cage was tagged with a label wired to the bars.
If I have to read every label it will take too long...
A quick check told him that each aisle had its own category. Most of the cages were dedicated to cosmetics or pesticides. He tried not to get distracted by rabbits with blistered blind eyes or monkeys twitching on the floor of their cages.
If I don’t concentrate, I won’t find what I’ve come for.
He found the single aisle marked ‘Food Products’ and worked his way down the row until he found what he was looking for, a cluster of cages with the product code on the label. The newly manipulated corn sugar extract was being fed in different concentrations to a series of control groups of mice.
He started filming and worked his way slowly down the row of stacked cages. As the dose increased, the activity of the mice became more and more frenetic, running through their learned routines, desperate to get more and more of the food pellets.
Then Joe reached the last cage in the line.
All the mice were dead.
*
Joe finally made it back home as dawn washed the concrete apartment blocks in lighter shades of grey. He showed Devi his captured vid footage.
“What should we do with this now?”
Devi watched the hyperactive mice for a few moments.
“We write a simplified but accurate description of what this is about and we deliver it to Beau. He can pass it on to whoever can get it to the right place at the right time.”
“Won’t it need some background explanation?”
“If you can outline some notes that are brief and clear, that should be enough. We just need evidence that soon this will be all that is available for people to eat. Beautifully wrapped ‘healthy food products’ containing a nicely balanced mix of sugars and addictive stimulants. Just what Avarit needs to keep the workforce going at maximum speed until they drop dead.”
Joe restrained his anger with difficulty.
“Dead before they can become a burden to this wonderful new era of controlled productivity.”
“And Joe, you really need to get back to your normal routine for a week or so in case anything from your illicit sleuthing was noticed. Wait until we’re sure it all passed quietly.”
Joe wondered when he would sleep easy again.