PRDS - 4413 Part 1 Chapter 10: An Encounter

“This is Mom’s briefcase, I just know where she usually puts it.”

“You went into the lab without us?”

Claire sensed that she had done something wrong. Her smiling face slowly faded. I lowered my body to tell what her fault was.

“Claire, please don’t go anywhere without us. If you go somewhere without telling us, it will make me, George and Linda so worried. We should stay close to make sure this place is safe. Will you help?”

“Sorry. I’m sorry Eric. But it looked like you didn’t want to come here.”

With Claire’s sentence, I regret my words to tell Claire what she had done wrong. Infiltration was not my best, but I was not an amateur either. If I was expressing how I was shrinked in front of an unknown threat, I was sure I made others unsettled. I should not overlook my influence on Claire, George and Linda.

“You’re right, I didn’t want to come here. But I am fine now.”

I smiled appreciating how Claire was caring for everyone's feelings and to hide any concern I might have expressed.

I opened the briefcase Claire brought. Inside, there was a USB, a few sheets of paper, and an empty syringe. The papers were the medical records of Claire and Dan. Even for a guy who had no idea how to look through a medical record, it seemed clear that both Dan and Claire were very healthy. To check what was in the USB, I looked for any device with the compatible port to insert the USB. I checked the whole lobby, after lots of destroyed devices, I found a fine device that was close to the entrance to Himon Lab.

There was only one document in the USB. An email from an unknown address took place. The content in the email looked like a code. I blinked my eyes several times without a will to decipher the code. Linda and George brought Claire next to the device. Linda looked closely at the screen for a moment and noticed something.

“It is an antibody code for a specific virus.”

A conclusion was made in my mind from what I got.

“Claire,what did your mom do when she took you to the lab?”

“She… did a health check on me.”

“...Did she take your blood?”

Claire nodded. I felt like Dr. Mireen was preparing something. A virus and an antibody. She might have used her kids’ blood for samples. But I wondered why she would use her kids’ blood and not others’.

“I feel like there should be something more in the lab.”

I speedly went through the entrance. After a short path, I got an anti-germ showered when I was about to open a white door. I used Dr. Mireen’s keycard to open the lab door. Behind the white door, there was a lab. A much smaller one than I ever imagined. The whole lab looked like it had a couple of people capacity.

The first thing that came into my sight was the huge transparent container right across the lab. On the right corner of the container, there were three sealed flasks with the contents. I looked around to see if there were any traces of strangers and also other things to take a look on.

“Do you see anything, George?”

“Nope, but I can see that she was finishing up.”

George showed me a file for serum presentation. I was sure there must be a link between Dr. Mireen and P4R4D1S3 administration. I concluded that she was about to give a presentation for the serum to the administration.

“Alright, it is very strange to encounter no one else, but I can see it is possible to secure civilians in P4R4D1S3. We got what we can have from Dr. Mireen’s lab. I think we can move on.”

I pulled out a radio set to contact the captain or Mable. It looked like the radio set was not working very well inside, so I walked out to get a signal for Channel 14 where I told Mable for a contact. Linda carefully took all three flasks and we stepped out of the lab.

“George, can you watch the area?”

I made sure we stayed alerted for unknown threats. I was handed the flasks, although my utility belt did not have enough space for those. I remembered Dr. Mireen’s briefcase and asked Linda a favor to bring cushions to contain the flasks.

I was still trying to get a signal for Channel 14. Linda brought some cushions and the presentation file.

“Just in case so we don’t miss anything important.”

I gave a short appreciation to Linda and asked Claire with a smile.

“You good?”

Claire wordlessly nodded.

When we stood in front of the entrance between the building lobby and the path to the lab, I felt very weird to see the entrance closed. The entrance was not closed when we went into the lab. While I was slowly noticing a weirdness, George pushed a button to open the door.

“Didn't I told you not to go near P4R4D1S3?”