The Serophim Breach (The Serophim Breach Series) by Tracy Serpa

Author:Tracy Serpa [Serpa, Tracy]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Kindle Press
Published: 2016-08-30T06:00:00+00:00

Sixteen

“We need to accept the possibility that this is already bigger than we can handle.”

They had been sitting at the table passing around pizza and theories for more than three hours. Gary spent the first hour or so listening intently and chiming in, but his questions and suggestions were quickly met with masked looks of irritation, and soon after almost completely ignored. He realized that the group had a certain dynamic that worked for them, a meter and rhyme that he knocked out of balance. Sore, grumpy, and concerned for his family, he had moved to the back of the room, where a twin-size bed was stationed, and lay down. He dozed fitfully for a while, but found it impossible to relax. So he lay in the bed with his eyes closed, listening as Josie and the others continued working toward their unknown goal.

It was Reggie who first suggested that they might be out of their depth, and the room was momentarily quiet.

“Even if it’s the whole of the island, at least it’s contained.” Josie finally spoke up.

“We assume,” countered Reggie. “And think about how many people we’re talking about. We know the trial sampled three hundred people, right?”

“Three hundred seven,” Tab corrected.

“Right. So in the animal trials, when the nanites lived past the expiration date, how quickly did they overrun the nervous system?” Papers shuffled, and Gary imagined Reggie starting to scribble down figures.

Josie answered, “Less than twenty-four hours after the expiration date, we saw the first violent events. Within thirty-six, all the affected animals showed signs of extreme aggression, confusion, loss of motor skills, and the periods of limited consciousness.”

“Okay, so we’re well within that window at this point. You said only a certain percentage were affected, right?”

“Yeah, about thirty percent of them.”

“Right, so thirty percent of . . .” Reggie trailed off as he did the math. “We’re looking at ninety people potentially.”

Gary heard Josie make a sound of hesitation, then say, “We have no idea, though. I mean, there’s every chance that the nanites will react differently in humans. I think it’s likely we’ll have a higher percentage of human test subjects who experience a programming breach.”

“Well, we’re doing best case here,” Reggie said. “So let’s stick with ninety. How are we assuming this can spread?”

“Animal autopsy showed nanites present in the blood, saliva, and stool.”

Reggie chuckled.

“Gross. Leaving that last one out, we’re looking at violent attacks, right? Bites, bloodied knuckles, what have you. So, let’s say each one of the breached subjects manages to get their hands on two people in the space of an hour. It might be more, it might be less . . . I mean, do we know why the attacks occur? What drives them?”

Gary rolled quietly onto his side and watched the group through half-closed eyes; no one took much notice of him. Tab was sitting with her feet up on a chair, picking at her nails. Reggie was, as Gary had suspected, bent over the table, making notes on the back of a pizza box.

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