“So that’s where you are…” Peter muttered as he watched the strike teams infiltrate the formerly unknown Empire research facility. With silenced shots they killed anyone that stood in their way.
A voice crackled out from the device. The comms from the mission commander, “Sir, we’ve located the hostages. Girl is still missing. Hold and secure them?”
Peter considered before shaking his head, “No. Push for the virus with all forces. Once we secure the virus we can return to the secondary objectives.”
The commander hesitated for a moment, “Yes, sir,” he eventually said before turning off his mic again. Peter sat back and continued watching the live footage being streamed to him in his office. The location was several hundred miles south in the middle of the desert, with a tan roof and sunken and squat building profile working to disguise it from satellite imaging. He was only getting a feed from the exterior team, any signals within the building itself could be intercepted and be a security risk in the worst case.
The camouflaged building wasn’t much to look at, but it helped Peter to look at something relevant while considering what objectives he should order the CODA team to focus on during the mission. Unfortunately as much potential as Emily had, she and her family’s safety was secondary to securing the virus.
After a few minutes of fighting later, the team was inside what appeared to be the main lab and were gathered around the central canister of the virus. The secondary teams continued their sweep of the building and dealt with the hostiles. It was the middle of the night, and it luckily appeared as though things were going smoothly so far.
Peter couldn’t believe those inbred racists had dared betray him. After everything he’d done to set things up, they had jumped months too early on the plan. And captured and threatened one of his own and her family. Forced him to activate the self-destruct on the whole lab they had attacked just in case it was a less controllable group. Killing more of his brilliant people unnecessarily.
Should he use another group besides this one to take the fall? Another splinter group of the Empire, vying to return to glory? Peter wasn’t as prepared as he’d like to be for what was about to happen if he switched over groups now...
He drummed his fingers on his desk for a few seconds as he considered. No. Of all the people in the world, these were among the most hated. No one would bat an eye in believing they did what he planned. And any accusations against CODA would appear to be a weak attempt to deflect blame once the fury of the world turned on them to stamp them out once and for all. And allowed CODA to finally fully intervene to assist in the effort.
“Yes, Best to still blame them. They would be the type to steal a virus then unleash it in an act of wanton terrorism…” Peter Rose said, turning the statement over in his mind.
Yes, that was it. No matter what he did, what favors he pulled, these Empire animals kept popping back up right in his backyard. He had had enough. After this, the very idea of them would be eradicated from the Earth by the rage of the other nations.
It was amazing that Peter had to resort to this, rather than their group being condemned because of their genocide during the last American civil war. But according to other nations apparently it was a domestic issue that didn’t concern them, or didn’t concern him and CODA more specifically.
Cowards, it was what he hated most about current politics. All of the other nations saw evil as clear as day going on in the Empire but didn’t even lift a finger to help, happy enough to ‘praise CODA’s dedication to neutrality’ as if they weren’t the ones that strong-armed him into it in the first place.
They were far too worried about CODA’s power to risk letting it involve itself in even the smallest ‘local domestic conflicts’ in countries around the world. The Empire had never left American soil, so it wasn’t the world's problem apparently. Regardless of the human atrocities that happened within its borders.
The best part of blaming the Empire cronies for the release of the virus was that it wasn’t even a lie. Peter wasn’t forcing them to do anything they didn’t want to do. He was just guiding them so he and CODA would be ready to fix up the mess just in time.
“...After all, the virus was stolen from CODA,” Peter mused, “We have the cure, vaccine in our files. Central to our international headquarter servers of course, couldn’t risk another security breach on the virus files, including the ones containing the vaccine. The Empire will release our virus, wait just long enough for the anger to build… then CODA will come in to save the day. This will let me do more good next time when another group like the Empire emerges again. Have to think long term. Long term…”
“Sir, we’ve secured a man,” the mission commander said from Peter’s device, “He matches the description of a high profile former Empire virologist. Orders?”
Peter thought. He didn’t want to alienate the young Emily Stenson. He was sure she was traumatized and would refuse to finish her work on the virus completely. And completely sour any positive opinion of him she had if he even asked.
“Extract the hostages including the girl when you find her, while keeping the facility secure. Keep the scientist alive. We need him to finish the virus and increase the lethality to the minimal levels to make the other nations take action. Make sure only men in the know stay in the facility after you’re done securing the building.”
“Yes, sir.”
No…
He didn’t…
No! No, no, no!
Peter, how could you?
Why?
Why would you do this?
What?
CODA secured the facility.
Now they can make sure that those Empire people
Won’t end up releasing the virus again.
Right?
No, you idiot.
How could I be so blind…
He’s going to release the virus
And blame it on the Empire,
Then use the cure as leverage to increase the power of CODA.
And himself.
It was him all along. He’s the one that released the virus on the world.
All of it is his fault.
And he let ME BELIEVE IT WAS MY FAULT ALL THIS TIME!
HOW FUCKING DARE HE!
HE’S BEEN LYING TO ME MY WHOLE LIFE!
He— He was like a father to me. I trusted him more than anyone.
How could he do this to me…
What can we do to stop it?
There must be something we can do,
Especially when we can talk to little Emily again.
No.
Nothing.
Peter is too powerful,
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No matter what Emily did he will do whatever he’s planning anyways.
And that’s even if we see her again.
We’re only months away from the end.
It’s over. We lost.
We should let her enjoy
Her last moments with her family and Luke.
I’m sorry. I’m… I’m such a failure.
Again, I can only watch useless as the people I care about are hurt…
…
…
…
…
…
Foundation of All…
The secret.
Do you think this is it?
Peter’s the one who started everything.
Destroyed Earth.
I… I…
Maybe.
You have no idea how betrayed I feel right now.
Peter’s allowed me to stew in the guilt my whole life over this.
He let me suffer knowing all along it was really his fault that this happened.
But I don’t know why the Shadow would care about me.
It just doesn’t feel right. There must be something more to it.
It just doesn’t feel… galaxy shaking enough for this to be the one thing the Shadow talks to us about.
This is all so far in the past now.
What does it matter to anyone but me and Peter who was really at fault anymore?
But I don’t know.
Maybe.
— — —
After the Empire ‘mastermind’ was apprehended, Peter prepared to release the virus covertly on the American Democracy factions' soil. It was the only logical target of an attack by the Empire. The Empire virologist had used Ms. Stenson’s notes to alter the virus so it would be just lethal enough to be a crisis, but also low enough that the human loss of life shouldn’t be too terrible once CODA swooped in to provide vaccines.
The virologist seemed amenable to Peter’s goals once he explained his desire to strike on the democracy faction’s soil for his own ends. John had watched over the virologist’s work over the last few months to make sure things were on the level and the virus was functional in the end.
Emily Stenson had done about eighty percent of the work to the solution, even the empire virologist admitting that it would have taken him years to complete the virus alterations without using her notes.
So, the virus was released in one of the northern democracy faction’s cities. People panicked of course after a few hours. Peter frowned down at the reports. A little too much panicking. Why was the virus so lethal? He went down into the sub levels of his building to go where John and the Empire virologist were at the moment.
“Why is the virus so deadly?” Peter asked as soon as he spotted the empire virologist.
The man smiled, “Don’t think I didn’t see your plan, you damn creener. You’re using that virus to make everyone hate the Empire. And if the Empire’s got to go, the damn democracy cowards are going with them too. I made it as lethal as I could. Should kill most of them off before even your fancy vaccines manages to stop them.”
“John, how could you let this happen?” Peter said, rounding on the man.
“I… I don’t know sir. I checked all his work, it looked solid…”
The empire virologist laughed nastily, “Damn fool is what you are, John. Obviously I fudged a few values before you inspected the data. Honestly, oldest trick in the book. Not surprised a creener would fall for something that simple.”
Peter swept out of the room without another word. This was on him, he should have someone else there to double check John. Make sure that the empire virologist didn’t pull any tricks like this.
CODA would have to start releasing the vaccine immediately instead of waiting to make his knowledge of the nature of the disease less suspicious. He couldn’t let this mistake of his spread too far for him to handle.
— — —
Over the next few days, Peter Rose made the big announcement. The virus was released by the Empire and CODA had used patient samples to synthesize a vaccine in record time. One they would offer at cost to their neighbors in need.
Everything was going somewhat to the shambles of a plan Peter had left. It was a hard fight, but with quarantine the spread of the virus was slowing and the few cases that had left the americas were quickly treated with CODA’s vaccine. A vaccine that Peter Rose didn’t share the formula for. CODA had more than enough manufacturing capacity to provide all the vaccines a government wanted to buy.
Things were under control, Peter was slowly correcting his mistake, and still managing to accomplish his goals of forcing governments to let CODA intervene in a larger way to make sure vaccines went to the people who needed them.
Then the rumors started.
At first Peter dismissed them. What could they possibly know? He had covered all his tracks, there were no leaks and all the people in the Empire ‘behind the attack’ had already been quickly executed by CODA security. Something perfectly within their rights since they ‘invaded’ CODA territory and were arrested on CODA soil of course.
Peter had had the military fully staff their bunkers on the border just in case someone got the bright idea to attack CODA, or even worse get through the border while they were infected. There had been several incidents of crowds trying to push in or even attack the CODA soldiers. Some had tried to enter CODA territory off road and been hit by their defensive landmines.
There even had been some disturbing reports of the bunker soldiers opening fire on the crowds when someone had thrown a brick and severely injured one of them with a lucky throw. But Peter was sure that it was more complicated than that. It always was.
Unfortunately, the rumors regarding Emily Stenson kept gaining traction, now rumbles across the world spoken of in hushed whispers in most households rather than a fringe theory. Most were unsure if she was acting alone as a madwoman driven over the edge, or if it was a deep CODA conspiracy all the way to the top and only her madness had made her slip from their strict secrecy that she was supposed to maintain.
With Peter’s excellent reputation, there weren’t many accusations that he was directly involved that were taken very seriously. Most spoke of his top advisors doing it behind his back. It seems his PR campaigns as well as all the genuine good he’d done for the world over the years had exempted him from most of the suspicion the leader of CODA would normally face in a scandal or conspiracy type situation like this.
Peter Rose watched the video again. The one that had caused so much trouble for Emily Stenson all those years ago. Two particularly relevant lines were making people suspect foul play by CODA. He just couldn’t understand it. How had she predicted this? Was it truly a coincidence that her hallucinations had predicted the release of the virus? Or was there something more to it? Some small detail that John had let slip, some small clue that her genius mind had interpreted this way even if subconsciously…
Peter played the segment of a much younger Emily Stenson talking to nothing in the movie theater alleyway, so many years ago.
“E-End of the world? Virus? What? I didn’t build anything, you’re not making any sense!”
She said, sounding confused and scared. Pause as she stared at something apparently invisible.
“No, no, no. Fuck!” Emily said, “Why am I believing this? It’s just a stupid hallucination. Just paranoia telling me things. Hearing voices, seeing things. I- I- I-”
Peter paused the video again. People were drawing a connection between her statements and her work at the secretive lab. One that just so happened to recruit several world renowned virologists that mysteriously died in a terrorist attack, leaving Emily Stenson as the only survivor.
One small video years before, that he had dismissed as insignificant, was bringing CODA to the brink of war as the more volatile governments began to demand answers from his local CODA branches by force of arms.
How could he fix this…
Before he could ponder any longer, a blaring alarm went off across the whole city. Pop up alerts went up on every device. Peter knew what that meant. He raised his device from his desk and stared at it in dread. He couldn’t believe someone had been mad enough to do it. The Brazilian Nationalists had launched their arsenal of nukes. All targeting CODA international and its territories, as well as many of its larger branches in many other countries. They only had ten minutes before impact.
Peter called the military leader of the country and the man appeared on the video call after the second ring.
“Why?” Peter snarled as he glared down at the man.
“Because you are a man that must be stopped,” The Brazilian leader said with a heavy accent, “I have seen many coups in my time. Led several myself. Suppressed just as many that were led against me. I see a new coup, one on the whole world, one that my nation can not stop with discussion. Your coup is one that others see coming but will not act to halt. Others will not care if you rule, if you save them from your virus that your pet genius made to scare them. Others will forget, bend the knee when it becomes clear there is no other option. But I will not see a man like you crowned king of our planet! I’d rather die in waves of atomic flames than have me and my people beg for scraps like dogs at your feet!”
“There’s still time!” Peter said, “You can disarm them with your nuclear codes. Stop this! Before the other nations respond with their own missiles! You’ll kill us all!”
“And have you take revenge on me and my government later?” The Brazilian leader said, “I think not. Goodbye, Peter Rose. Would be king of Earth. May our peoples be dragged down to hell together. I hope your bunker is as good as mine. You will need it.”
Peter watched in despair as five minutes later when the second round of nuclear missiles were launched by the other nations. Brazil’s military alliance partners used the opportunity to strike at their own targets of opportunity in the chaos, and the other nations responded in kind. Tens of thousands of ballistic missiles were suspended in the air after a few minutes, passing each other in the sky for a few minutes as they all flew to their targets.
Someone tried to convince Peter to leave for a bunker, but Peter waved them off. Someone else could better use that spot. Not that a city bunker would even be useful. They were within the blast zone, right in the CODA international tower, which he was sure was a main target for the nuclear attack. No bunker would save the people in this building. Or the ones below in the underground bunker. They were too close.
Peter steeled himself. He knew that the gift he had been given by the Shadow would let him survive the blast. His Immortality. Probably. But to see everything he had built, all his hopes and dreams… Everything he’d worked for his whole life, about to be gone. It was enough to bring tears to his eyes as he looked out of the window of his office in the highest tower of CODA city. Across the city he had built from nothing over the course of decades of tireless work. A hope that the world could be different someday.
Peter’s tears dried instantly as there was a single flash of white light in the sky above him. He only felt a brief flash of pain and then nothing as the ball of radioactive plasma expanded and disintegrated Peter Rose’s body in a single moment.