The professor was watching the feed from the Outcast's cell camera again. A moment before the two guards that were with Jera in the docking hangar had been in his office. He had given them one small plastic phial filled with metallic slivery liquid - Vergil - and a quantum chip. He had explained again what they had been supposed to do. And now he watched.
One of the guards had a taser, the other carried provisions in a plastic bag - a tube of Synth Paste, a bottle of water, two Stabiline pills. There was no sound feed. Nagrebetskiy watched the Outcast turn round and waiting as the door started opening. The taser guard showed him the phial. Antonio spat. In return, the guard attacked with the taser. He first aimed for the stomach and as the Outcast attempted a dodge, he turned and went for his right side. The taser connected, Outcast's paralysed body dropping to the ground. The kick was strong enough to stun and knock Antonio down but not enough to cause paralysis or blackout.
Nagrebetskiy watched the guard putting his knee on Antonio's chest and forcibly pouring the liquid into his mouth. Meanwhile, the other guard looked into the camera and put in the chip into a small receptacle below the lamp. He left the bag with provisions in the corner and they both left the room.
Nikita turned away from the display. They were so close. It would take about half an hour for the Outcast's brain to synchronise with Vergil. The Vergil Core that the guard put in the Outcast's cell was rigged specifically to disallow anyone except Nagrebetskiy access. He connected his console to the chip and started preparing the brain-mapping software as the green synchronisation bar slowly started filling up.
Even though Antonio tried to catch a person that first entered his room off guard, he failed which led into his defeat. The liquid that was in guard's hands was nothing like Antonio ever saw before, he was forced to swallow it, but the feeling was unusual. The liquid was cold, but Antonio didn't feel the coldness passing through his stomach like with other drinks. This one didn't go to his stomach, but to his brain directly. As the guards we're sure that Antonio swallowed the liquid that they gave him, one of them left the Synth Paste tube, water and two pills which appeared to be Stabiline.
The guards left his room and locked the doors, Antonio couldn't get up as the kick that he received was strong and his stomach hurt. Ten minutes later he got up, took the Synth Paste and drank some water. The pills he placed on the floor and smashed with his right foot. Suddenly his nose started bleeding so he leaned back his head and raised his left hand. His head also started hurting and legs benumbed, he felt thorns in his left leg.
The affect of the liquid that he swallowed started and his blood pressure raised. Antonio blacked out a few minutes later...
Nagrebetskiy watched the camera feed nervously. He noticed Antonio's nosebleed and reached for the research notes. Vergil synchronisation should not cause any health issues, especially not an injury. He scratched his head.
The synchronisation bar was almost at 90%. It was getting late and he was getting tired - it was all a long day. Tomorrow they would begin the experiment, but he had to make sure the Outcast lives through the night. The nerve agent from Violet would be ready by tomorrow morning. He needed someone to keep watch.
He reached to the console and wrote a small message to Jera. He hoped she had slept at least a bit. The Corsair was the only person he trusted enough with the project. Like anyone coming from Crete, she wanted the worst for any Outcast.
Meanwhile, the synchronisation bar filled up. He opened the connection to the chip that one of the guards hid in the wall and through it, to the Vergil inside Antonio's brain. A simple, text interface. The more sophisticated one had not been implemented yet.
Welcome to Vergil, version 0.9 beta-testing.
He started tapping the desk. First he wanted to review the sync logs, so as to make sure there were no complications.
$ cat /var/log/sync-001.log
99.65% nodes synchronised, 0.3% desynchronised, 0.05% dead
synchronisation status: ok
So it was not that. He rested his head on his palm. Wisp team developed a few pieces of diagnostic software for animal and human testing. It would be wise to run it here as well.
The software displayed various data relating to the Outcast's health status. His blood pressure was high - higher than normal - but still outside the dangerous scope. Nosebleed - but he already knew that - and a cramp in his leg.
The door to his office opened and Jera walked in. "You called for me?"
He yawned. "Yes, yes. I was about to go to sleep but we're having a situation here with our Maltese friend." He waved at her to come to his side of the desk. Jera looked at the camera feed and the diagnostics. "It seems that he had some sort of an allergic reaction to Vergil. I don't think it's anything serious, but I'd rather not have to take him out with the trash."
She leaned against the wall. "You need me to look after an Outcast?"
He scratches his head. "Yeah, er, pretty much. You know this is an uncommon situation, but what am I supposed to do."
"Right," she said. "I can do this, if necessary. I don't have any assignments going right now." She nodded towards the door. "I'll wake you up when something bad happens."
"When anything goes in the red, alert medical and let me know immediately. Good night."
"Night." She sat in his seat as he was leaving. After looking at the diagnostics and the motionless body of the Outcast on the cell ground he took out her PAD and started playing solitaire, glancing from time to time at the screens. It was going to be a long night.
The insistent squeak of the trolley's back-left wheel preceded Violet as she wheeled it down the corridor. "Better get the maintanence guys to check this thing out" she thought.
The vial of NPLK ordered by Professor Nagrebetskiy was securely contained in an ominous black box, marked only with "Biohazard: Authorised Personnel Only". Violet had spent the last couple of days working to produce the substance, "Funny...", she muttered to herself, "...first time I get to use my new lab, and I'm making chemical weapons."
Her brief excursions to the canteen over the last 48 hours had been ruthlessly and consistently interrupted by curious colleagues, "Hey, Dr Burbank, what you working on in there?". This and a multitude of similar questions were unceremoniously brushed off with a "Huh, some boring pet project for the higher-ups, you wouldn't be interested".
Violet ambled out of the elevator into the corridors on Level 8 and headed directly for the Nagrebetskiy Lab, the professor certainly wouldn't want this delivery made to his office. As she approached the lab, Violet saw the slumped figure of Prof. Nagrebetskiy snoozing in a chair out in the corridor. Some people can be pretty grumpy when they're woken up, is Nagrebetskiy one of them? Only one way to find out...
Violet gently shook the sleeping researcher by the shoulder, "Professor? I have the compound you ordered..."
He stood up immediately after Violet has woken him up, first thinking something happened to the Outcast. His eyes widened and he looked unnerved. Upon seeing the biochemist, he calmed down a bit.
"What...?" he rubbed his eyes and ran his hands down his face. "What's...? Oh," he spoke with a sleepy voice, noticing the black hazmat box. "Thank you very much, Ms Burbank... I'll make sure you're appropriately rewarded for this, uh... I, er... I have to go back to work, my apologies. Thank you again," he said, nodding with a forced smile.
Nagrebetskiy picked up the box from the trolley and came back into the office. Jera was still in there, sitting in his armchair, wide awake. As the professor came in and put the box down by the door, she glanced up and greeted him.
"Seems he's woken up already," she stood up, giving back the professor's chair.
"No complications? Nothing?" he asked with a note of relief. The Corsair shook her head.
"Have you given him any Stabiline? I wonder how much is it going to take him until... well, you know."
"We have, but he refused. I think he's hoping for the addiction to kill him before we are done. He is disposable, though. We will have finished by that time."
After a short pause she asked "Do you need me for anything else?"
"No, no," he smiled at her warmly. "We will be starting the experiment in a few minutes, though. Do you want to stay?" She nodded in response, standing back.
Nagrebetskiy sat down in his chair and looked at the console. The health diagnostics was still running and it seemed like everything was in order. On the camera feed the Outcast was sitting against a wall. He did not seem to be sleeping. The professor needed to download the brain-mapping software to the Vergil core in the Outcast's cell.
The software would take a minute to transfer and install inside the quantum chip. Nikita stood up.
"I'm going to, er, load the vents. I'll be right back." He took the hazmat container and walked to the corridor outside.
In the wall of the cell corridor there was a small cavity, with a couple of pipes hanging out, in which the hazmat container would fit. He carried it there and connected the pipes. They led to the isolated ventilation system that the three cells were using. He opened the vent of the middle cell and went back into the office. He would have to open the valve through his console.
Jera waited for him inside. "We're all set." He reviewed the health diagnostics one more time, making sure everything is in order. He checked the synchronisation logs for the second time. The fear gas was ready for release. He turned to the Vergil console and fired up the brain-mapping software.
$ beale -al
Set mode to: complete.
Set logging to: on.
Beginning the mindmap...
He looked at the Outcast in the cell. He was still sitting, looking at the lamp camera. Nagrebetskiy smirked at him, even though he knew Antonio couldn't see him. He opened the vent. The cell started filling with bright-red nerve agent.
A week later, Jera again walked the same corridor. She stood before the same office door. She waved her card in front of the same reader and saw the same large, metal desk with the same, holoscreen console.
But the man sitting behind it was not the same. Nagrebetskiy looked different. He looked... happy. Instead of his usual thoughtfulness and nervousness he was calm and smiling. She could have sworn she even noticed more brown in his greying hair than usual.
"Nick," she stepped forward and nodded in a friendly manner. "Are we finally done?"
He looked at her, his eyes unlike anything she had ever seen before. "We are! After so many months, so much effort, we are done. The project is complete." He took a small phial filled with silvery liquid and waved it. "As I promised, you and Feint will be the first to have it. Use it well."
Jera reached out for the phial, but the professor hid it behind his desk again. She raised her eyebrow.
"Tomorrow. We have to do it in a controlled environment, with our technicians and some medical staff with you. It would be sad if something went wrong because of a stupid mistake, and we still have to monitor the initial effects." He looked at her again. "I would hate to tease you, but... it's for science."
The Corsair paused for a while. She looked around the office, evidently wanting to ask something else. Eventually, she did.
"What about the Outcast?"
Nagrebetskiy loured. "Why?"
"Just curious. Are you going to release him for his contributions?"
He sighed. "He's... not going to go anywhere anymore. After the experiment, he broke down. I have no clue what he actually saw during the fear gas hallucinations, but it must have been very traumatic. He killed himself the night after."
Jera's expression remained unchanged. They both were quiet for a moment. After a couple of minutes, she shook off. "We have to move on. Until tomorrow, then. I'll gather my agents in the labs."