***** Vol.5 Chap.21 Ingenious plot*****

It was time for dinner. They all walked back somberly to the conference room. Kristin was expecting some elaborate out of this earth feast. She was surprised that when she walked into the conference room, it looked just exactly as they left it. Except that the coffee spill that she made on the table was gone. Elijah explained to them that they could order whatever they want. Kristin already knew that. She ordered a chef salad with honey mustard dressing on the side.

“You on a diet, Kristin?” Frank asked.

“No, just now I had a 16-ounce T-bone in my room.”

Frank ordered Moo-Goo-Gai-Pan and fried rice.

“Chinese take-out?” It was Kristin’s turn to laugh at him.

“Staple for me.” He replied.

May-Ling ordered steamed buns and chicken soup.

“You are on a diet too?” Kristin joked.

“I too had something in my room as well.” She said sheepishly.

They all turned to look at Elijah. He ordered lamb and vegetable stew with pita bread.

“A sensible meal.” Frank remarked. Elijah smiled.

After a second or so, their orders appeared in front of them. There was a period of silence when each was absorbed in their meal. The food was scrumptious, although Kristin thought that there could be more variety of greens and less olives on her chef salad.

When they were finished with dinner, Elijah began the discussion.

“Maybe we can go around and each of us can briefly share our thoughts.”

“Since a frontal assault is hardly possible, I say we drop sleeping gas down the airshaft to put everyone asleep. Then we can go in and steal the samples.” As usual, Kristin was the first to start.

“May-Ling?”

“I suggest we write a letter exposing them to the world and pressure them to stop their evil doings.”

“Frank?”

“I suggest we tried a diplomatic solution first, if that failed, we will have to use more drastic measures.”

“A true diplomat with a useless diplomatic solution indeed.” Kristin added.

“Do we have time for that?” May-Ling inquired.

“Remember we have very little time.” Elijah added.

“Forget about diplomatic solutions then.” Kristin said.

“Okay, how about a letter exposing them as May-Ling suggests?”

“They will deny it. At the end, you would have accomplished nothing.” Overruled by Kristin’s impetuousness.

“What can we do?” May-Ling was getting anxious.

“I still say drop sleeping gas and then go and steal the samples.” Kristin reiterated her plan.

“What would that do? They would just make another batch.” May-Ling replied.

“I guess that would buy us a little time.” Frank said.

“We will just keep stealing their samples if they make more.” Both May-Ling and Frank raised their eyebrow at her.

“The second time may not be as easy as the first as they will surely bone up their security system after the first incidence.” Frank cautioned them.

They looked at Elijah. He was sitting there motionless but with a smile on his face. Kristin was not sure if he was awake or not.

“Elijah, what do you think?” Kristin fired a shot at him.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

“May-Ling is right; stealing their samples is not the answer. They can always make more.”

“Steal their log book, assassin the head scientist.” Kristin was really going now.

“That may set them back a week, a month? That is not a permanent solution.” Frank said.

“We need a permanent solution.” Elijah added. “Remember our rules of engagement: we want no interaction with any personnel and no interference with other aspects of their work.”

“A permanent solution. Hmmm.” Kristin stood up and started walking around the room.

“If we cannot hinder their work, perhaps we can fool them?” Kristin had a stroke of genius.

“How!” May-Ling responded.

After a while, Frank jumped up and said, “I got it. I got it!”

“What?” Kristin inquired.

“What are you thinking?” May-Ling asked.

“We have to find a way to convince the terrorists that the persistent enzyme AG-85 is actually useless so that they will abandon its use and move on to something less harmful.”

“Hmmm. That may work. But how?” Kristin sat down to think.

“That may work, but how can we make AG-85 harmless and useless?” May-Ling asked.

“I don’t know. I haven’t gotten to that part of the solution yet. Any suggestions?”

“Maybe we can mutate the original strand into a harmless one?”

“Would he not find out?”

“May-Ling, how do medical lab identify a particular enzyme?” Frank turned to May-Ling.

“Well, we identified enzymes by the mass spectrum.”

“You can identify all enzymes just by that?” Kristin was very skeptical.

“Yes. each protein has a specific molecular weight pattern.”

“You can only get the total molecular pattern but not the molecular structure, right?” Kristin remembered what little she knew from her freshman chemistry.

“Yes. The mass spectrometer shows the relative intensity at different mass to charge ratio. We can only infer the molecular structure from that.”

“Ah ha!” Kristin shouted. Everyone turned to look at her.

“So, is it possible to have another sample that gives the same molecular pattern on the mass spectrometer but in fact is NOT the AG-85?” Kristin was really proud of herself.

“Yes.” May-Ling replied.

“So, if we give them a slightly mutated one with the same structural ratios. His mass spectrometer will not be able to pick up any difference?”

“That may work.”

As if on cue, they all turned to Elijah who was quite taken aback.

“Elijah!” Kristin pointed her finger at him. “Your machine could give us some choices, can it not?”

Elijah smiled and answered them slowly. “Yes.”

“Okay, so we got it.” Kristin was happy.

“Wait. How do we know that the new sample we use would not mutate into something worse?” May-Ling was always the cautious one.

“If Elijah’s machine could predict the mutation pattern of AG-85, surely, his machine can also predict the mutation pattern of any other enzymes.” Kristin was quick.

“Yes.” Elijah said calmly. “In fact, I have already identified such an enzyme.”

“You have? When are you going to tell us about it?” Kristin threw her hands up and chided him.

“Er…Now?” Elijah smiled.

“Grrr.” Kristin went back to her chair and sat down pouting.

“But, how do we get this mad scientist to change his formula?”

“No, we are not going to have him change the formula.” Frank said.

“We are not?”

“We want him to think that his formula produces the alternate AG-85 which is a totally harmless enzyme.”

“Oh, I see.”

“Then when it did not pan out as expected; he would move on to other strands.”

“Good plan. So how do we make the switch?”

“Somebody has to go inside the compound and switch the samples.”

“Somebody?” May-Ling asked timidly. “How can we get in?”

“Like I said: sleeping gas.” Kristin jumped in.

“According to my study of the layout, we can either go in from the airshaft or from the underground stream.” Frank explained.

“I’ll go from the underground stream.” Kristin jumped at the idea.

“Security would be tight.” May-Ling said.

“There will be problems associated with either approach. Going in from the airshaft, one is liable to be chopped up by the fans. Going in from the underground stream, there is no guarantee that one could negotiate the underground tributaries to reach the destination. We don’t know where the water actually flowed out to the sea.”

“Assuming we can get in, what happens next? I am sure there are plenty of security cameras around.” May-Ling said timidly.

“Not if they are all asleep from the sleeping gas. No one would be awake.”

“I am not sure that would work.” Frank raised his brow.

“Why?”

“For sure the circulation in the compound is poor, especially when there are three levels. It will take a lot of sleeping gas and we will have to wait a long time to make sure that everyone is asleep. But then we cannot put the security cameras to sleep either. It would still record our every move.”

Kristin sat quietly. “I will yank out every security camera I meet.”

“Frank, are you one who is very good with computers?” May-Ling asked

“Yeah?”

“Can you not disable the security systems somehow?”

“Perhaps, no guarantee though. If we can disable the security system or switch off the cameras with a computer virus then no one would know we were there. I have already thought of that and have started working on a virus program this afternoon.”

“That is a thought. Fight fire with fire.” Kristin chimed in.

There was a brief silence in the room.

“It is clear that Frank’s task is to disable the cameras and the security system. I suggest May-Ling and I each take one of the entrances and see if at least one of us can get into the building and make the switch.” Kristin suggested.

“That sounds like a sensible choice.” Frank said after thinking about it a little while.

“I will go through the underwater route.” Kristin volunteered.

“I guess I can take the air shaft then.” May-Ling said.

“Elijah, can you prepare the samples for us?” Kristin asked.

“Of course.”

“Okay, all settled then.” Kristin said. “When do we start?”

“We can start when my virus program is ready. But more importantly, how do we get there? We have very little time left!” Frank added.

“I don’t even know where we are?” May-Ling frowned.

Kristin and Frank nodded with approval to what May-Ling said with a thumbs up.

They all turned to stare at Elijah who was still sitting there motionless yet with a smile on his face.