CHAPTER 10: The Secret File
"Never mind that, who was that you were with?" replied Cornelius.
"An old college friend of mine...she's a doctor now. Interested in my personal life now and what are you doing here?"
"Security, David. Did you tell her anything about the Strangerville Case?"
"No! Well, a bit. I wanted her opinion, as a doctor of medicine, about the symptoms the victims have been suffering."
"What did she say?"
"She thinks it's neurological. She's a very good doctor and has expressed an interest in joining our team"
"I'm afraid that's not possible. Things are heating up and security has been tightened. We cannot have anyone on the team who isn't vetted and undergone security checks. From now on, David, you mustn't talk about our work with anyone!"
David sighed. "It's just that...I'm damned impatient waiting for the next tiny clue to emerge. People are suffering, Cornelius, and we're going at a snail's pace!" he said in frustration.
Cornelius didn't respond to this point but instead said. "I'm famished...let's get something to eat." and with a clap of his hands he wandered back to the festival.
"Hmmm, Gyagoh...do you know, I haven't eaten this since my trek to the Himalayas. They are very international at this festival. Why not try some?" said Cornelius, savouring his exotic meal.
"Another time. So, what's next?" asked David.
"Another raid on the lab to find that one missing ingredient for my file" answered Cornelius.
"The keycard?"
"No...the toxin report. There must be one tucked away in all that mess; I just have to find it."
"Our time is limited during the day" said David. "I've noticed we only get about 30 minutes of search time in that base before the army sweeps the perimeter, so I've had an idea."
"Which is?"
"Go in at night" said David, with a slight grin on his face. Cornelius nodded.
"I like that idea, David, I like it a lot"
STRANGERVILLE, 2am
Cornelius stepped into his Porsche 911 and turned the ignition, the engine purring into life and he quickly sped off before anyone could react: His destination, the secret lab.
He parked the car next to the line of abandoned army trucks, found the gap in the fence and checked all around to make sure he was the only one there.
He found the unlocked door and ventured in. The place was still lit by the emergency lighting but Cornelius had bought a small pen torch to help in his search. There were still a couple of rooms that hadn't been fully explored, only given a cursory look over when he, David and Peggy had first infiltrated the place.
He had brought along his "Secrets of Strangerville" book as a reference guide. Although it didn't contain any layouts of the base nor passcodes for the locked doors it did mention some of the research the base was engaged in and that gave him something to look out for when searching through all the discarded files and paperwork that were strewn haphazardly throughout the facility.
"Aha!" he declared triumphantly as he discovered a couple of photos that had hitherto escaped his attention on previous visits. One he had seen another copy of: It was an aerial reconnaissance photo of the laboratory site but what he had now discovered was a similar photo taken from the same point in the air but, crucially, it had been taken before the explosion. This photo showed that the purple pods had been present before and after the explosion. Could one incident have led to the other?
"Had the lab personnel been growing the pods as a controlled experiment and that's what led to the emergency? Yes...YES...now there's a working hypothesis!"
"Thank you, Gene. Hmmm, just as I thought: The plant is neither vegetable or animal...it's both"
"I don't understand"
"I don't fully understand either, Gene. But nothing else known to man shares these attributes. What we are dealing with has either been created in a laboratory or else is of extra-terrestrial in origin."
"Not necessarily. What this is, I do not know. What it might be there are numerous possibilities. But what we've discovered here I can take to our lords and masters at DPR headquarters to convince them to carry on this investigation. And, hopefully, lean on the army to provide us with the key card we so desperately need.
Cornelius was a man who liked to take his work home with him and with the lab test results plus the information he had gathered at the secret base he went back to the house in Strangerville to work on presenting an iron clad case for the DPR to demand the pass key to the lower level from the Army.
As he parked his car and got out, he was approached by the head of the local conspiracy theory group: Erwin Pries.
"Doctor Cornelius. Word has it that you were up at the lab in the dead of night" he said.
"And who told you that?" asked Cornelius in a flat, dismissive tone.
"My group keeps an eye out for comings and goings in this town?" Erwin replied. "You were spotted"
"Of course I was. I can't say what I was doing at that time of night. Protocol, you know"
"Always the same with you government types. Well...did you find it? The information you were looking for?"
"You know I can't discuss that"
"Maybe you could...for a price" said Erwin, cryptically.
"I can't be bribed" said Cornelius, still speaking in a flat, slightly disapproving way.
"Not with money, I can see that. But you have the information...and I could get you a pass key"
"My organisation can get me a pass key" said Cornelius, brushing aside Erwin's claim.
"Maybe they could...but it'll take them time. All that paperwork, all those delays and in the meantime the Army will just shut the place down for good and strip it of anything useful. Whereas I could get you that key like in a day or two"
Cornelius was silent for a few seconds. "Could you now?" he eventually said.
"I could. But there's a price"
"Name it"
"I want to look at your secret file about the lab"
"I can't let you have a copy, you know that"
"Just a look, man"
"It can't leave my person"
"OK, you can be present whilst I look at it"
"And risk you and your friends jumping me and stealing it? No way."
"You can bring your sidekicks with you to prevent that. I'll come alone, you name the place"
"I'll think about it. Goodnight, Erwin."
Cornelius went inside his house, gripping his attaché case tightly so that Erwin or anyone else didn't get any smart ideas. Once home he took the file out of the case and put it on the table.
To share, or not to share...that is the question...he thought.
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