OUTCAST Ops: The Poseidon Initiative

FORTY-SEVEN

The mood in Jasmijn’s laboratory was beyond grim, but the three OUTCAST operators had a mission to carry out. An alarm sounded, indicating that the STX samples had spent enough time in the chiller machine and could now be removed.

“That’s it,” Stephen said, carefully opening the chiller and removing the rack of test tubes. It was unnerving, working with the body of Dr. Rotmensen lying nearby on the lab floor, even draped in white lab coats. But there was nothing that could be done for her now, and OUTCAST knew that if they were to report the death, the lab would be overrun by crime scene investigators and they wouldn’t be able to complete the antidote preparation for which Jasmijn had given her life.

“What’s the next step?” Dante asked. Naomi picked up the written procedure Jasmijn had dictated to Stephen just before she died.

“Testing! Prep the STX syringe — be careful! I’ll get a rat.” Naomi went to the rat cage and withdrew one of the specimens while Dante — his movements slow and deliberate — filled a syringe with the last of the STX liquid samples.

“I’ll hold it.” Stephen took the rat from Naomi and cupped it in his meaty hand. “Let’s wait a few seconds to make sure it’s not moving.” The very last thing he wanted was a repeat of Jasmijn’s accident. Dante walked up to him with the loaded hypodermic. After the rat was still for several more seconds, Stephen nodded. Ready.

Dante brought the tip of the needle to the rat’s abdomen as he had seen Jasmijn do. He injected the animal. It squirmed but Stephen’s grip remained firm while Dante withdrew the hypodermic without incident. Naomi called out the time, as the procedure indicated, while Dante disposed of the needle in the labeled biohazard container. Naomi took the injected rat and placed it in the solitary cage, where it was expected to die within the next few minutes unless the antidote worked.

Naomi read from the procedure. “Prep the antidote syringe.”

Dante selected one of the freshly prepared tubes of antidote solution and carefully drew it into a hypodermic. He walked over to the rat cage and stood watching the animal scuttling around, pausing occasionally to sniff the floor. He was joined shortly by Naomi and Stephen. A couple of minutes later this rat, like the one before it, began to stumble and shake. They waited another minute to make sure that the neurotoxin had taken a firm hold. It was not easy to watch the rat struggling in the grips of the STX, knowing that Jasmijn had just endured the same fate. Nay wiped a tear from her cheek as she watched the rodent battle to remain upright.

“Inject him,” she said, eyes on the written procedure. They repeated the injection process with Stephen holding the specimen and Dante administering the shot. This time the rat did not squirm. When the antidote had been administered, Naomi noted the time and Stephen put the rat back in the quarantine cage. A couple of minutes passed where the rat did not appear to improve; it barely moved at all, simply lying on its side on the floor.

“C’mon, little guy!” Naomi urged. If this antidote was not effective, then it meant that Jasmijn was wrong about what had kept the antidote from working, her last effort in life unsuccessful.

“She was under an unthinkable amount of stress,” Stephen said, watching the rat quivering on the floor of its cage. No one had a response. They just stared at the specimen.

“Five minutes,” Naomi intoned, looking up at the lab clock.

And then the rat righted itself. Its muscles stopped spasming. The three operators held their collective breath as the specimen began to walk once more around its cage, its movements no longer tentative. Its gait was steady, deliberate. Normal.

“It’s working!” Dante exclaimed, a smile appearing on his face for this first time since they’d entered the lab. They continued to monitor the rat for fifteen more minutes. After that time it was still acting normally.

Stephen addressed Naomi and Dante.” Pack the remaining samples for travel. I’ll put a call in to Danielle and update her on the status. We’re taking this antidote to Maine.”