…no, really, it’s pork
The Doclopedia #2,414
Well, That Was Unexpected: The Second Door
The first man in was the spy. He had tracked the agents of Dr. Yaros to this unassuming cabin in the Italian Alps, then learned enough to know that it was where Yaros was hiding the virus he had blackmailed so many governments with. Pay up or see the Devil’s Breath unleashed in your country. All of them, except Syria, had paid up. Syria never had the chance, since it had been the example for not paying up. Two thirds of it’s population had died in a week.
After taking out the 6 guards outside, he looked around and found the cabin interior rather sparsely furnished. It took him under 3 minutes to find the vault door hidden behind a wall panel. It was a very modern and complicated looking safe.
Which is why he had brought along the second man, the safecracker.
“What do you think, Bass? How long will it take you?”
The older man looked it over carefully, never touching it. Then he surveyed it with three different instruments.
“The good news is, all things being equal, I can open it in about 15 minutes. The bad news is that things aren’t equal, because it’s rigged with a bomb. I’d say about 3 pounds of C-4, more than enough to spread us and this cabin all over the mountain.”
This was not news the spy wanted to hear, but it was not unexpected. Dr. Yaros was a very clever man.
Bass spoke up. “Look, I can get this plate off to reveal the bomb, then I can probably use one of my instruments to help you defuse it. I figure you’ll have a slightly better than 50% chance of success. And what the hell, we’ve come all this way. Might as well do it.”
The spy chuckled. Bass was one of the coolest customers he’d ever met. He also suspected that he had massaged those odds upward a bit.
“Let’s do it.”
Twenty three minutes later they had the bomb defused and the vault door open. Beyond lay a long tunnel, dimly lit and sloping downward, with a second door at the end.
Looking at it, the spy said, “Well, that’s unexpected. Let’s go check it out.”
As they approached the door, they saw it looked like an elevator double door. There was a keypad next to it.
Bass started forward. “This won’t take a minute.”
Before he could reach the keypad with his thermal sensor in hand, the spy stopped him.
“Take a look around with that. This seems too easy.”
Bass nodded and looked at the door, the area around it, and even the area a bit further out. Nothing showed any switches or sensors.
“Looks clean.”
“Try the floor.”
Looking down through the sensor, he saw a pressure plate slightly off to one side of the door. Standing directly in front of the keypad would have been a bad idea when trying to open it.
“Well I’ll be damned. Okay, you stand on that spot while I open the door.”
Once the door was open, they saw that the door jamb was rigged with jets for intense flame. They would have been incinerated as soon as it opened.
The spy gathered up 6 vials of the virus and sealed them in the bulletproof case he had been carrying. Then he and Bass tossed several incendiary grenades into the room before quickly shutting the door. That would be that for the rest of the virus.
Back in the cabin, Bass had a question.
“So why would Yaros stash the virus here if he was making it way over in Turkey?”
“Because this particular area is somewhat remote, he knows it well, and if the virus were to escape, it would only encounter the six guards, who would die within minutes. After that, without living human hosts to live in, the virus dies off rapidly, especially in this clear air and sunshine. Of course, now that we have these samples, a vaccine won’t be far off, just in case somebody manages to recreate it.”
Removing a small device from his pocket and entered a code. Seconds later, it beeped and a message appeared.
“Well, it looks like my friend in Turkey managed to eliminate both Dr. Yaros and his laboratory. I think that calls for a fine dinner when we get to Milan.”
The Dociverse Blog 