Side Effects

Chapter 33

The Rock of Gibraltar is a gigantic rock promontory that overlooks the straights that mark the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It is an amazing sight, or so I've heard, but we went past it on our second night out, and I was asleep for it, so I have no idea. But when I woke up, we were headed north, with Portugal off the starboard side of the ship and it was a sign of good progress.

The four of us were on the forward sun deck, and yes Alaya and I took great pleasure in helping each other with the sunscreen even with our bathing suits on, just relaxing and enjoying the view. No, this wasn't like the movies where the heroic team got all outfitted in camo and guns to go in and blow shit up. Instead, I had three stunning women in skimpy bathing suits, and the only blowing up that was happening was that any crewman walking by might blow a blood vessel as his heart rate increased.

Lucky for me, Alaya kept me calm enough to think though!

"What is the name of this target again?" Viola asked. I wasn't shocked that she couldn't remember it, because it wasn't exactly the luxury hotel that she would have ever been to.

Alaya paged through the papers in the file. "The Groton Inn and Suites. They're having a small convention there for the local Better Business Bureau."

I nodded along with that, as we'd read the assessment several times, and it was hard to fault their logic, as sick as it was. "Since the BBB is all local businesses, they want to make it look like a leak from the lab, since Pfizer usually has a booth there. This isn't a big group, but it will spread throughout that little city. The people there will then spread it to their families and all through the local area. Once that happens, people driving through that area that stop for food or gas, and that is a lot of people, have the chance to become exposed. It will look exactly like my sister wants, a local lab leak that infected some people, and then spread organically. The confusion would be good for them. Pfizer would be tied up in examining their own lab, and trying to prove that such a virus didn't even exist there. At the same time, Federal agents would be all over them. Meanwhile, they wouldn't be able to concentrate on a vaccine for the new threat. It wouldn't matter of course, the vaccine would already exist, and our company would be able to move to a human testing round faster than anyone had been able to for COVID, using the story that they used lessons learned and all that crap."

"And in the meantime, millions of people die again," Viola added at the end.

"Yeah, but the company makes a fortune," Esme said with a disgusted snort. "Disgusting."

"That is exactly why we have to stop them," Alaya explained. "They have to make their move, so we can stop them, preferably with more proof, so that no amount of money will be enough to bribe people."

"There shouldn't be enough now!" pointed out Esme.

"Yeah, but they're still doing it. There are people at the research lab that know what they did with the first virus, and yet they're doing it again. They probably got very nice bonuses and are happy to do it again for the right price." I shuddered at the thought of what kind of person that would be. I tried to think back to when we were kids. Was there anything that would have indicated the kind of person Anna would grow into?

"If we contact multiple agencies at the same time, then they can't all be corrupt. At least, that is our hope." Alaya handed a sheet to Viola that listed everyone we were planning on contacting. "The WHO is still there, because we're hoping they will have sorted things out by the time this all happens. We have the US Department of Justice, the FBI, and the CIA because we're hoping that they can do something to the lab in Mali. We can't arrest Anna and leave the lab alone; it has to be simultaneous. We still need people at the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Homeland Security, but we're hoping to get that before we reach land."