Big Trouble
Faith helda guinea pig in her lap and stroked its fur as she answered an email from an intern working with her on the Chorivirus research. After hours, when everyone else had gone home, Faith often took the animals out of their cages to pet them and feed them carrots; she enjoyed their company. Having the guinea pigs in the lab was almost as good as having a pet. The sun had set over an hour ago and she’d spent most of her day answering questions from the press after Courtney’s news conference about the vaccine’s near-completion. Press emails and phone calls had been followed by correspondence from governments and companies around the world, eager to know if Flux planned to trademark the vaccine, and how quickly it’d be available for global distribution. Faith sighed, overwhelmed by the volume of calls she’d received just that afternoon. She’d have to stay in the lab till midnight just to finish her normal work, which had taken a backseat to the flurry of questions from outside the company.
Faith’s phone dinged. It was an email from a friend in Kenya with notes on effective stabilizers. Flux had research branches all over the world and employed thousands of people. Working together and sharing data from different countries had been instrumental in the vaccine’s fast development. The company had also contracted university and other private labs around the world to work on vaccines, treatments, and therapies for symptomatic patients in efforts to cast a wide net on beating the virus. Not every pharmaceutical company took similar measures. Faith’s friends at Inquisitis confided in her that the company kept their research and trials tightly under wraps in their New York office with hopes of an exclusive patent, and no shared profits once the vaccine was finalized. They’d make billions instantly. In contrast, Flux publicly announced it would share profits with every one of its branches. The wide network put them ahead of the game and the company wanted to make the coordinated global effort known to the world. Faith wondered what Inquisitis had up its sleeve. Their board of directors was ruthless when it came to winning any new treatment race. Faith knew if Inquisitus patented the Chorivirus vaccine first, they’d make it so expensive as to be unaffordable without insurance. The cost of medicine was already beyond reasonable. No one would benefit from another greedy corporation trying to take advantage of a global crisis. Faith wanted the vaccine to be available for everyone, free of charge. She sent a reply to the Kenyan scientist when the laboratory phone rang.
“Hello?”
“Faith, listen to me.”
“Courtney?”
“My research is gone.” Courtney said, her voice frantic. “Someone was in my apartment when I got home – my home office got ransacked. My computer is gone. Faith…”
“You got robbed? Are you okay?”
“…no,” Courtney sobbed. “He went out a window. I called the police. What’s taking them so long? Faith, our research-”
“Don’t worry about that right now. Maybe it was just a random robbery. Did they take anything else? Jewelry? Television?”
“No, no, I checked. Just my laptop. It has my notes on it, Faith. I knew I shouldn’t be working from home but I was so excited about our breakthrough that I emailed myself some stuff…”
“You didn’t…”
“It has everyone’s names on it,” Courtney said. “Everyone involved with the research. Is that what they’re after?”
“Come down Courtney,” Faith said. “How long did the police say till they got there?”
“I don’t know I can’t think straight. I was so scared. A stranger broke into in my apartment.”
“Maybe he would have taken more if you hadn’t interrupt him.”
Courtney’s voice shook. “I saw his face. He was going through my computer files when I came in. His face was lit up by the screen. I saw him before he jumped out!”
“Courtney, listen to me. You need to get out of there. Don’t wait for the police. He could still be nearby.”
“He had brown hair, some gray in it. Middle age. Glasses. He was wearing a suit. I didn’t send everything from the lab,” Courtney said. “Just what I was working on. If someone wants all of our research they might-”
“Break into my place as well” Faith said. She didn’t want to admit it to Courtney, but she’d worked from home too. Thankfully, she had her laptop with her.
“Don’t go home by yourself,” Courtney said. “Get someone to go with you. Don’t…” Courtney screamed as a gunshot echoed into the receiver. The phone clattered to the ground.
“Courtney!?” Faith heard the sound of a crunch as though someone stepped on a phone, and then the line went dead.
Faith’s heart pounded and she dropped the lab phone handset. The dim lab suddenly went from her place of refuge to an ominous danger zone. Did they know she was at the lab? Was Courtney dead? Maybe they took her hostage. Faith’s hands shook as she grabbed her purse. If they’d broken into Courtney’s apartment, there was a good chance Faith’s apartment would be next.
Faith had to get out of there. As usual, she was the last one in the building except for the security guard downstairs. She shut down her computer, stuffed her laptop and the papers scattered on her desk into her bag, and ran into the hall, debilitated by the anxiety of needing to choose the elevator or the stairs. She jammed the elevator’s down button but couldn’t stand still long enough to wait for it to arrive, so she ran for the stairs.
“Jeff!” she yelled, running to the security guard’s desk. Jeff sat behind a round, raised desk with LED monitors displaying live footage of the halls and labs throughout the building. Another monitor displayed local news.
“Faith,” Jeff said. He pulled his mask down to his chin so he could talk freely, something she’d chided him for almost every day. “What’s wrong?”
“Someone broke into Courtney’s apartment. They went through her research files. I think… I heard a gun shot…”
“Woah, woah,” he said. “Calm down.” He came around the desk and gripped her arm. “Tell me everything from the beginning.”
“No time. I have to go,” she said. “I need to…” she hesitated, unsure of what she needed to do next. “I think someone’s trying to steal our research. They might be at my place. Can you call the police? Send them to Courtney’s apartment. And to mine.”
“Are you sure you’re not overreacting.”
