The Answer

Chapter 18

It was dark and damp where George Wallis decided to retire into. The faint smell of seagull excrement drifted in, alerting him that someone had opened the door of this room. He scowled; the worst part about this place was the bloody stench and despite several attempts at cleaning it away the smell remained. He truly despised Alcatraz and wished he'd thought that part though before accepting the property for his work.

Everything in his life, including this place, was shit. He wondered how much longer he'd have to keep lying to Russian intelligence and literally everyone around him before he could just disappear to that island he always dreamed about.

His thoughts were brought to an abrupt haunt by a low throat clearing sound. He turned in his chair to find General Maksim Petrov standing before him, with his usual stern expression. He stood perfectly still and didn't say a word, but George knew exactly what he was here for.

"If you're here to ask me if we've made any progress with the specimen, I'll have to tell you we're still trying to find a means to understand each other." George said blandly.

"My superior is tired of hearing about your stagnation." General Petrov replied coldly, "Are you going to give me something to show for our investment or should I suggest we cut your little project?"

George gulped, "No, no, I'll give you something worth your time to report."

George escorted the General into another room down a damp hallway. It was musty and poorly lit, but it served the purpose. Or at least that's what the Russians promised. Inside the room was a sofistiketed laboratory, with 4 scientists analysing data and observing a specimen in a cylindrical tank full of water.

"As you might remember from my last report, specimen B-3 has shown an interest in fish meat and it was observed that it began to show disciplinary gestures in order to incentivise us into feeding it."

The General and Dr. Wallis moves closer to the specimen's tank. It seemed to be floundering around, as a means to entertain itself. Despite their proximity, the creature was indifferent.

"The preliminary testing of its understand of behavioural displays indicated that specimen B-3 did understand common body language to gauge when which action was required. Further testing ruled out its understanding of sign language."

The General nodded; George could see he was beginning to lose interest. It was time to drop the information he was building up to, no matter how little and how outlandish.

"Specimen B-3 has since been exposed to commands in various languages, out of which some form of understanding was met when Hindi was used- the native tongue of India and some other countries."

General Petrov raised an eyebrow at the statement, but remained silent. It was not wonder Dr. Wallis was uncomfortable around him; he never made notes and his face was a blank canvas. He'd just have to assume the General was listening and cared at all about this.

"Further probing into the matter led us to the conclusion that specimen B-3 was probably trained and spoken to in some strain of Sanskrit, as all Hindi words weren't triggering the adequate response."

Doctor Wallis guided the General towards his colleague, Doctor Kapoor who smiled sheepishly knowing she was about to be thrown under the bus. "Doctor Kapoor can elaborate."

With a slight nod, Doctor Kapoor took over and went into great detail on the subject. Once Doctor Wallis was convinced the General was adequately intrigued he returned to his shirt office and went back to brooding. This information hadn't been new for weeks and they'd been broadcasting a message in all known dialects of Sanskrit in search of the owner of the bloody fish.

Granted, this was merely an offspring of the original pregnant fish they caught but honestly George Wallis couldn't care less. He didn't believe it was extraterrestrial at all; in fact, he was sure it wasn't. The deep sea was full of unknown creatures, but the only reason he cared about this one was the way the other specimens were killed by B-3.

It was just a couple of weeks ago, when the unfortunate incident took place. All the specimens were placed on the roof and were being introduced in the same tank. They'd already learnt that they enjoyed the sun and hoped to learn their level of intelligence by allowing them to interact with each other.

Somehow the specimens, who were initially curious about each other, easily grew indifferent to the situation. The group of scientist, then grasping at straws to show the General some progress were loosing hope on the experiment. An hour into this slump, the specimens began to interact but it didn't seem friendly. Initially, it seemed like some form of playfulness but when they all turned to nip at specimen B-3, it became clear this was violence.

Nipping became shoving and shoving became straight up attacking and the group on the roof began to call for assistance to separate them. Then, out of nowhere, specimen B-3 let out a shriek that not only shattered the tank but also beamed directly above at the traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge.

The explosion was catastrophic, the screaming could be heard all over the Bay Area. The scientists scrambled to save the specimens only to find them blown to shreds. Only specimen B-3 remained.

It was a royal mess; the whole lab team was scattering to clear any evidence of their existence at Alcatraz while a full blown police investigation was under way regarding what they believed to be a bombing. The Russians got word of this and weren't pleased, immediately stating that the mess had to be cleared up or they would lose their funding.

George rook matters into his own hands and began to make it look like a targeted attack on a retired police officer, which was just as well because he kind of hated Gerard anyway. The scheme itself looked brilliant to his goons in the area, earning him more respect and a greater following. Nobody could quite figure out how he pulled it off, which is what made him invincible in the eyes of many.

The Russians weren't too pleased by the mitigation step he took, but after much convincing and having his lab staff slashed in half by bloody murder, George found forgiveness and continued funding. Granted he was on thin ice, but he'd discovered a potential weapon in this stupid looking fish.

The General walked into his office once again, wearing the same cool expressionless facade he always had. The Doctor Wallis stood up, waiting for the General to rip him to shreds. The General nodded thoughtfully and said, "The broadcast seems promising, but may not yield results just as yet. If you want to live, I suggest you start cloning test runs."

George looked at General Petrov, almost alarmed when he detected a smile on his face. He was almost certain the man was incapable of emotion. "I've come to think of you as someone we can trust, don't let Mother Russia down."

With that, General Petrov left. Doctor Wallis couldn't tell if he should celebrate or worry with what he had just heard. He quickly picked up his phone and punched in the number for the lab.

"Draw samples from B-3, we have orders to start cloning test runs immediately."

"Of course sir, but we don't know enough about it's genetic makeup for cloning." The voice on the other end replied.

"Doctor Yaseen will be able to manage, get him whatever he needs." George replied, "A little genetic patching should help us, hopefully it won't alter the specimen group C's capabilities."

Doctor Wallis put down the phone before he got a reply, sitting back in his chair and staring at the damp ceiling. He felt close to his big break and that thought brought a large grin to his face. He then proceeded to search for islands he could purchase on his computer.