ANGEL FALLS
Countessa sat at a conference table along with several agents from numerous law enforcement agencies. They went over and over the details of Tokyo. How the attempt to capture some COIL operatives in the midst of a robbery ended up with 11 dead Federal agents. Countessa was sick and tired of re-living that night and of answering the same questions over and over again.
“I knocked one unconscious in the upstairs office. I fought two more in the parking structure. The last operative was sitting in the escape vehicle and had several minutes to escape, she could have gotten away easily but as I walked towards the vehicle it exploded. No, I do NOT know why the car exploded.”
Countessa stood up and walked out of the conference room into the hall, not bothering to dismiss herself. They could re-hash the details without her for a while.
She leaned against the wall in the hallway for a few minutes until she was interrupted by her cell phone chime. “Yes?”
“Ms. Alixandria? This is Dr. Markus Sawyer. Do you remember speaking with me a few months back? I’m one of the gene researchers working with Interpol.”
“Of course, Dr. Sawyer.” she smiled at the ceiling. He was a very nice gentleman. Tried a little bit too hard to make her laugh when they had worked on a case last month… “How are you, Markus?”
“Look, Countessa. I discovered something that you need to hear. Before it goes through the regular channels. It has to do with those four COIL operatives you fought in Tokyo.”
Countessa’s smile disappeared. She thought this was an elaborate set-up for a joke at first, but the instant he mentioned Tokyo she became laser focused. She turned away from the conference room and began slowly walking. She lowered her voice, “You are working on that case?”
“Yes, I’m in charge of examining the two bodies…”
“Two?” she interrupted. “There was only one body, I brought in three living prisoners.”
“I know, but one of them died in transit to the holding facility. Her body began breaking down. The agents that were watching her described it like rapid decomposition.”
“Massive cellular breakdown? What could cause that? Radiation? Toxin?” she ventured a few guesses.
Markus paused, forgetting that Countessa was a scientist herself. It was easy to forget when looking at such a beautiful woman. “Foreign substance in her system bonded to her DNA. Trapped massive amounts of energy in her cells. It’s what gave them their strength and speed, but it’s incredibly unstable. The cells eventually can’t contain the energy and a chain reaction destroys them. The agent that died in the car explosion. The car didn’t blow from explosives or a gas leak. She exploded and took the car with her.”
Countessa stopped walking. “SHE exploded?” She glanced back over her shoulder. “Why her and not the others?”
“Working theory is that the fight with you burned up a lot of their stored cellular energy. The one in the car, not so much. Her cells reached critical mass.”
Countessa lowered her voice further, “Dr. Markus, I appreciate you calling me with this information, but there’s something else isn’t there? A reason that you’re going outside the chain of command to tell me.”
She is beautiful and brilliant he thought. “Yes. The unstable compound that gave them their powers. It was a derivative of the Viata serum.”
Her face turned white. “Someone else discovered it?”
“That’s what I thought at first. But when we analyzed it and filtered out some other foreign substances and compounds we found something else in their cells. Your DNA.”
Countessa was stunned as she processed this information. Finally she spoke. “Someone is trying to replicate the Viata serum from my blood.”