MAN-NAPPED! - SANTIAGO (CHAPTER 05-II)

continued from previous post... (Man-Napped! Chapter 05-I)

Jude looked at her and said “we are meant to be secret agents. Will I have to kill you to keep my identity a secret?”

“I don’t even know your identity” Rachel replied taking the threat casually.

“Wait! What’s the NSS?” Janet asked. “Is that like secret service or something?”

“Yes” Adams replied. “A relatively new establishment by the government to deal with high level national security threats. Though their main job seems to be protecting our politicians.”

“How come you guys came to be involved” Rachel asked.

“We’re not the only ones involved. We are working with intelligence agencies from other countries on this. Last month the FBI contacted us, informing us of a very dangerous terrorist group. They said they had a man on the inside – which is illegal, American espionage on Nigerian soil. – Anyway, they said their inside man informed them of the discovery of a new strain of the ebola virus – not discovery, invention. He also mentioned a plan to use this virus as a weapon. Problem is, they probably won’t stop here, since they are known to be active in other African countries as well. So we had to find a way to stop the virus and these terrorists too. And in the meantime, probably extract their man as well. Lots of teams are working on it in various countries, the CDC included. But we have the best chance here, so they had one of their experts flown in to join the team here, led by Dr. Daniel. On Thursday, as you rightly said, Daniel informed me he had a vaccine prototype, he brought over his formulas and we started testing. After a few modifications by the doctor from the CDC, we finally had a vaccine that worked on several animals. However, the vaccine works selectively on humans. Our DNA experts are currently trying to find out what the problem is. However, I texted Daniel earlier today to come in, he hasn’t replied, and that is strange. It also came to my notice that he hasn’t been seen since Saturday, giving credibility to your claims, and that’s why I’m here. To see what you know.”

They all remained silent for a while and then Adams jumped “Oh yeah! We know a lot, on account of you think we’re a bunch of stupid guys”

He unlocked his sleeping laptop and started showing Jude his discoveries. After ten minutes, Jude was up to date.

“so, you believe they want to use this virus on Thursday at the beauty contest on campus?”

Adams nodded while Rachel asked “I would believe you already knew about it. You said the plans were being moved up, in your mail to Daniel.”

“Yes we had intel that they were making progress and that they might make use of the virus sooner than we expected. Now I know why”

“Why?” Janet asked.

“They kidnapped Daniel for a reason. They probably found out that he was able to make a vaccine and they needed to immunize themselves before releasing the virus. Besides, they need to produce large quantities. Dr Daniel is the best you can find when it comes to viruses.”

“We need to stop the contest” Janet said.

“There’s no way we can do that without spooking them. We had better find Daniel – and find a vaccine – fast. If we had both, we could stop the contest.”

“Even so, there’s no way to avoid a million deaths” Rachel said. “If they’re ready to use the virus, there’s no way to immunize the entire population before they release the virus.”

“Did I say our only task was to find a vaccine? We only have to find a vaccine before we can move in on these guys. We are also trying to find the location of their base. However, there’s little we can do if they have a virus that will kill only our men while they can walk scot free.”

“So, what now?” Janet asked.

“We find Daniel.”  Jude said.

“How” Janet asked

“You guys got any idea? I’m open to suggestions.”

“I thought you’d never ask” Adams said beaming “Wait, didn’t you say we should leave it to you?”

They all turned their eyes on him, he looked at them from one person to the other and spread out his palms saying “What, am I the only who watch movies here?”

Rachel sighed desperately and said “Adams… We don’t have time for jokes. Movie concepts don’t apply out here in the real life”

Adams looked crestfallen “Okay fine, but if only you watched those movies once in a while, you’d know the next step. Even the spy here doesn’t know what to do” He shook his head.

“Adams...”

“Think! We already know the company sponsoring the contest, and we know we can tie the contest to these people, whoever they are. These people know perfectly well how to hide from our so-called intelligence agency, unfortunately for them the company can’t hide.”

“So, you’re suggesting we find out the information from Matrix global” Jude said.

“They are sponsoring the contest, we know two of their workers, or ex-workers are tied to this. I think that pretty much chalks them up as sponsoring a terrorist operation. Don’t you think they would have info about their operations…?”

“Bright idea, more than expected from you to be honest. Though I would have come up with that if I’d known they were sponsoring the operations for as long as you have.” Jude said. “However, smart guy, how do you suggest we withdraw such information from them without spooking them?”

“You tell me, you’re the spy.” Adams said

“What?” Janet asked. “I thought you guys could just kidnap one of them, someone high up the food chain and force him to say something”

Rachel smiled as Jude turned to her and said “Quite a team of very smart people you got here, detective.” Then turning to Janet and said “The fact that we’re an intelligence agency doesn’t mean we are spies or that we get to treat people anyway we want to. That’s a misleading concept you got from those movies”

“Well, on the other side, I didn’t mean beat them up…”

“No way, Adams” Rachel said, knowing where he was heading with his point.

“We live in a digital world, whether you like it or not. Everyone stores their information digitally, especially a company as large as that. See, all I need is to get a malicious program installed in their mainframe; if that is done, I could snoop around and find what I need.”

“Is that all? I think our tech guys can handle that” Jude said.

“Good…” Rachel said but Adams interrupted

“No, remember I found this out. I’m the one who knows best what I’m looking for, so please let me do it. Just find a way to get my program into their mainframe.”

Jude looked at him for a while and then nodded and said “I don’t like putting civilians in the way of danger but since you insist, fine. Just tell me what you need.”

“Thanks” Adams said. “There’s a catch though.”

“What?’ Three voices echoed the question at him

“The range of their network is quite short, to avoid hackers finding their way into their system I guess. In other I have to be in the building to access their system.”