OUTCAST Ops: The Poseidon Initiative

FORTY

Stephen Shah glanced at his watch again, pacing the laboratory like a tiger. Less than six hours to go and Jasmijn was still working away. She’d moved on from the sea anemones under the microscope and now stood in front of a centrifuge, test tubes full of a special solution whirling around inside the machine at hundreds of times per second, separating the various compounds by weight.

They’d had only a single interruption so far, when a university police officer knocked on the door. Jasmijn waited until the three OUTCASTs had put away their weapons and made themselves look like they were doing some kind of lab work before opening the door. The officer had simply asked if everything was all right, giving the lab a cursory glance. Jasmijn said she was fine, thank you for checking, and the man had left, assuring her that they now had extra men on patrol around the lab.

The centrifuge wound down and Jasmijn opened it and removed one of the tubes. She stuck this tube into another machine and then stood up and yelled, “Yes! I think I’ve got it!”

Next the operators watched as she went to the freezer with the biohazard warnings plastered all over it and removed the vial of STX sample. She loaded the vial into a special mister that would produce an aerosolized plume. They noted her extreme economy of motion around the sample. She passed around respirator masks to everyone in the room and told them to put them on.

Once all of the masks were secure, she ran to a cage with lab rats and extracted one. She held the rat on its back in one latex gloved hand and sprayed it with the mister. Then she put the animal in an empty cage by itself.

“In a few minutes it will start to die.” Jasmijn eyed the clock on her computer. She moved back to the centrifuge and used a hypodermic needle to collect fluid from one of the test tubes. She held the tube up to the fluorescent lights.

“My next gen STX antidote!”

“Does it work?” Naomi wanted to know, as did they all.

“We’ll find out in a minute,” Jasmijn replied, nodding at the lab rat, which stumbled once as it walked across its cage. When it reached the end of the cage and started to turn around, it fell over onto its side and didn’t get up. It scrabbled its front paws a few times in the air and then lay still, stomach rising and falling with labored breathing.

“Down for the count,” Dante said.

“It’s time.” Moving quickly, Jasmijn picked up the syringe containing the new STX antidote and pulled the dying rat from the cage. She held the animal on its back in one hand while she administered the prospective antidote through the syringe in her other hand. The rodent jerked its head once as the needle penetrated its skin and then lay still.

Stephen shook his head. “Looks pretty dead. How long should it—” He was interrupted by Jasmijn’s yelp of surprise as the rat wiggled in her hand. She set it down in the cage.

“It’s alive!” Dante grinned.

“Wow!” The surprise on Naomi’s face was evident.

The rodent ran around in fast circles, its movements hyper-quick. “Slow down, turbo!” Dante said.

And then the lab rat did slow down. It slumped against the wall of its cage and closed its eyes. It lay perfectly still.

“Is he—” Naomi couldn’t bear to finish the question.

Jasmijn reached into the cage and gently placed a fingertip against the rat’s abdomen.

“He’s dead.” She grimaced. “Something’s not quite right. This solution had more effect than the previous one — at least it temporarily revived the subject — but obviously the effect isn’t lasting. I think I know what it is, though…” She walked back over to the computer station as if in a trance, the three OUTCASTs watching her.

She turned to them as she sat down in the workstation chair. “I’m sorry. Unfortunately it’s sort of a trial and error process. I’ve got a long night ahead. I need to do a whole ‘nother round of redevelopment before we can try the test again.”

Nay headed for the coffee pot. “I’ll fire up the caffeine machine.”

Dante looked at Stephen. “Hopefully they have some good luck in Maine.”