Insider

The Mumbai Base

After a long 11 hour flight, the Learjet was finally over Mumbai. The plane was just landing Axel looked out of the window. He expected modern buildings or a green field. But what he saw amazed him.

Around the airport there were acres and acres of slums! They spread out in all directions and surrounded the border of the whole airport. He looked away from the window with a look of surprise on his face. The plane thudded on to the runway and slowed down into the hangar.

The pilot spoke, "The car is waiting for you down. However there is no higher official present. The driver will take you to the base where you can meet Rahul Srivastava, the head of the Mumbai base." Axel nodded his head and descended down the staircase which had been opened.

Within 15 minutes he was inside a BMW i8 on the expressway. A thick cloud of smog hung in the atmosphere as they slowly nudged forward in the heavy traffic.

"Is it always like this?" asked Axel

"Yes sir, pretty much all the time except a few rare days. I know you will be surprised, welcome to India." replied the driver with a laugh.

Axel could not help but grin.

After slowly inching forward through the traffic for a couple of hours, Axel reached the more developed side of the city, referred to as 'The Town Side' by the driver, where the roads were comparatively emptier.

They continued till they reached a crowded beach. The driver and Axel stepped out and they pushed their way through the bustling crowd to an empty shack and entered it.

Inside, the driver and pressed a button near the back which transformed into a green palm scanner. There was a flash of green light and then the screen displayed, 'Access Allowed'.

There was a whirr of machinery and a small closet near the door fell outwards revealing an elevator.

"Go right in Mr.Axel. Mr.Rahul will be waiting near the door to escort you around."

Axel stepped into the elevator. There were no buttons there. The doors automatically slid back behind Axel and the elevator started it's descend downwards as the typical yet calming elevator music started to play.

After a few seconds the elevator doors slid open but now on the other side. As told by the driver Mr.Rahul Srivastava was waiting. He was not in a formal suit but rather in a protective silver-coloured suit. They shook their hands formally.

"Good day Mr.Axel. My name is Rahul Srivastava and I am the head of the Mumbai base of the SIEVE."

"So I have heard."

"I will be your escort here talking you around to look at the different topics of research and different inventions around here. We must hurry as we have only a day's time. First we are going to visit the research centre were currently we are researching a virus and trying to modify to suit our needs which you will be informed about by the head scientist."

They reached a door which similar to the door leading to the nuclear bomb containing rooms in Atlantis II.

"Don this Hazmat suit as a protection. You don't wanna be infected do you?"

Within a few minutes Axel had worn the protective suit.The doors slid open on a voice command from Mr.Rahul. Inside, there were three scientists in the same Hazmat suit looking intently at a computer screen which showed the viral activity on a plate on a microscope.

Axel's escort trudged forward and tapped one of the scientists on the back and pointed towards Axel in a conversation with the Hazmat suit clad person. The two walked towards Axel leaving the other two scientists after whispering a few instructions to them.

"Mr. Axel this is Dr. Iris Cahill,the head scientist."

"Well Mr.Axel, this is where we are researching about the virus that Mr.Rahul was talking about. We have named it AHV-11VY. It is a modified Human Immunodeficiency Virus. Till date we have successfully modified it attack only genetically targeted humans. For example, if we are to attack China, we will type in the similar genetic coding of Chinese people into the computer you see there. Then in form of an electrical impulse it will be sent to the virus whose genetic coding will be altered to suit our needs. With this we can attack people from a specific genetic pool."

"That is pretty clever Dr.Iris but how will you get the genetic coding if you need to specifically attack, for example, the British royal family?" inquired Axel.

"Yes, that would have been a problem if not for our computer experts. With their hacking skills, we can hack into the database of any nation and obtain the information that we need."

Axel raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Can I take a look at this virus?"

"Oh, yes, surely." Dr.Iris said and pointed to the computer screen, "You can go there and see it."

Axel shuffled forward to the huge screen. There was a circular organism on it. The other scientists had gone somewhere so he leaned in to get closer look. Instead of the usual HIV virus, this one did not have smaller disc like structures around it. It had disc shaped dents in it and two spikes on opposite ends. The body glowed a ghastly green.

"What is the use of the spikes and the dents Dr.Cahill?"

The scientist replied, "The spikes will take in an extract of DNA from the host to match it with the given coding. If it matches then the dents bulge outwards and it does the work of a regular HIV virus."

"That's clever"

"Guess it is."

Axel again looked at the screen for a few moments and then exited the room. Rahul was waiting for him. He removed the heavy and stuffy Hazmat suit and took a deep breath and spoke, "You have bright minds here, Mr.Rahul."

"Oh yes, we do! Dr. Iris is the brightest I have to see. The procedure of breaking down the virus's structure and rebuilding it to our needs was carried out and formulated by her."

"I have another question. If everything is secure here, just as the viruses were in the airtight box, then why do we need this Hazmat suit to protect us?"

"Well we always prepare for the worst case scenario. Yes, even if the viruses do break out they will be genetically coded to certain people only but till now we are still running tests. The virus may malfunction and attack everyone.So why take any chances at all?"

During their conversation the pair had started walking at a steady pace. They had reached another door which was similar to the one through which they had earlier entered.

"What are they researching here?"

A slow grin crept on Mr. Rahul's face as he swung the door open, "The potion of eternal youth"