To Those in the Future, Part 9

The inside of the Ackerton mansion blew John away. He had grown used to the modern, monochrome style that the shelter's buildings were designed with, so to be confronted with ornate, traditional stylings was almost a culture shock. Kath, in comparison, walked through without a care, and quickly began examining her surroundings.

“Come on. Do you want to get caught gawking? There are still a couple of guards prowling the area.”

“I'm amazed this place isn't already crawling with guards. I know we came in through a side window, but there's nobody around.”

“Well, this is still the Ackerton home. They probably don't want too many guards around. In any case, be quiet. We need to make our way here: the server room.”

Kath quickly unrolled her map and showed their destination to John. “What are we going to do there?” he asked curiously.

“If there's any evidence to be found at all, it'll probably be in the server room. At the very least, it'll be the easiest for me to search through. Or what, did you want to try and interrogate Paul Ackerton?”

John winced. “No thanks. I'll leave it to you, then.”

Kath nodded, then guided John through the Ackerton villa. The building was surprisingly large, considering the shelter's overall size, and the occasional guard forced them to take several detours around the mansion. It took them the better half of an hour to get to their destination, but they eventually arrived at a small room no bigger than a walk-in closet.

The moment he was out of sight, John collapsed to the ground and let out a huge sigh of relief. In comparison, Kath was already hard at work. She plugged a device into the server and began working while John caught his breath.

“Can you keep an eye out for anyone walking by?” she asked as she tapped away at a portable terminal. “Just keep your ear to the door. If you open it, it'll probably attract someone's attention.”

John could only manage a tired gasp of air in response.

Ten minutes passed by, with nothing but the sound of the server hum and the clacking of Kath's keyboard. She was working so fast that at times, John worried that the sound of it would drown any possible footsteps coming down the hall. Eventually, however, the sound of her typing eventually stopped, with Kath swiftly pulling the cord out of the server.

“Alright, we're done. Let's get out of here.”

“Really? Then you know what happened?”

“Don't be ridiculous. We don't have time for analysis. We need to get out of here before we get caught!”

John needed no other explanation. He quickly looked into the hall to make sure that no guards were around, and the two made their escape. Thankfully, there seemed to be no signs that anyone had noticed their intrusion, and eventually the two of them finally made their way outside.

“What do we do about the guards?” John asked. “They're out cold now, but if they wake up...”

“It'll only matter if someone actually notices our presence, which is unlikely,” Kath explained. “I bet they aren't too keen on getting chewed out for screwing up, so they probably won't report it unless they absolutely have to.”

“I suppose so,” John said worriedly. “What now, then?”

“We analyze this data,” Kath said as she held up her terminal. “With some luck, we'll find out some clue as to why people are disappearing.”

“Should we head back to the alcove? That's probably the best place to do something like this.”

“No. It's gotten late. The guard patrols get more frequent in the late hours. We'll go to the alcove tomorrow.”

“Alright, then. What should I do now, then?”

“Now, you should carry on like normal. Pretend like it's business as usual. Go to that bar you like visiting.”

“I doubt I could just go to a bar like nothing happened.”

“Well, too bad, because that's where we're splitting off.”

“Huh? Why?”

“Cause I don't want you following me, duh.”

“You mean you still don't trust me? After all that?”

“It's going to take a lot more than that to win my trust. I mean, it's not like you did anything that would have cleared you of any possible suspicion, right?”

Considering it could be argued that he didn't do anything of value at all, let alone anything that would win her trust, John decided not to speak on the matter any more. Noticing his dejection, Kath gave him a reassuring smirk.

“Don't worry. We've definitely got something interesting here. I'll show it to you tomorrow, okay? So just be patient.”

John could only nod in response. The two walked through the quiet streets until they arrived at the bar, where the two bid each other farewell. As he walked through the doors and greeted Julio and Martina like usual, John found he could only keep thinking about the data they had retrieved from the Ackerton villa. What was on that data, and was it really connected to the disappearances? He kept thinking about it long after curfew, and eventually ended up sleeping in the bar's back room.

The next day, John waited for the shelter to empty out once again, then climbed into the alcove, looking around for Kath before he did so. He didn't see her, but somehow, once he was inside he heard her climbing up behind him. He wondered just where she was hiding, but decided it was better not to ask. She wouldn't have given him a straight answer anyhow.

The moment she was inside the alcove, Kath took out her portable terminal and began working away. “I had it working on the data encryption overnight, but there's still some kinks I need to work out before we'll be able to do some real looking around.”

“Is the encryption that complex that it'd take a day to get through it?”

“Of course not. But the terminals they let us have aren't the most cutting-edge. You couldn't believe how old the tech they've got us working with is.”

“I guess we should be glad that we get anything at all, to be honest.”

Kath grimaced, but she didn't argue back. Instead, she focused in on her work, and after another fifteen minutes of keyboard clacking, she finally managed to get the files open.

“Okay, look at this. This is a list of messages between some of the Ackertons' higher-ups. If there's anything going wrong in this shelter, it's going to be in here.”

“There's a whole year of messages in here, though. How are we going to search through it all?”

“We don't have to search through the entire year. Just the last few weeks. We should find something fairly quickly.”

Kath began opening the messages and read through them slowly, one by one. The first few were fairly routine reports with nothing of note. However, it wasn't long before she found something that gave her pause.

“John. What was the name of that window-washer again?”

“Huh? Oh, Nate Ballard.”

“Look at this.” Kath turned the terminal so that John could read the message. “This is clear evidence that the Ackertons know that something is going on.”

John looked down at the screen and read the message. Most of it was rather pedestrian politicking and corporate speak, but one particular statement stood out to him.

The Nate Ballard situation has been resolved. There should be no further issues going forward.

“What? What is this referring to?” John asked worriedly. He hadn't felt much apprehension before, but now it felt like every hair on his body was standing up straight.

“Let's take a look at the email thread. We might get an answer to that question.” Kath began perusing through the previous messages in the thread, looking for any explanation for Nate Ballard's situation. She eventually found one, though doing so didn't make her mood any better.

“What's the matter?” John asked when he noticed the sullen look on her face. “You found something, didn't you?”

“I did, but... it's a little shocking. They've even got images. Do you really want to see it?”

John hesitated for a moment, but quickly gathered up his resolve. “Yes. Show it to me.”

Kath nodded and handed over the terminal to him. John swallowed his nerves and looked down at the screen. On it was a single report written by a Derrick Ackerton.

The report was about a strange virus that had been discovered within the shelter earlier this year. Little was known about it, as few had exhibited symptoms so far, but the few samples they'd found so far yielded a bit of information for the few scientists permitted to study the bodies.

After a bit of study, there were a few symptoms that seemed to be common between the infected patients. Firstly, anyone infected wouldn't appear all that different from a normal person. However, at some point, the infected would begin to behave erratically. Their personality would change, they would begin lashing out, and eventually, they would succumb to the virus and die. This period between the showing of these symptoms and death was around two weeks.

John continued to read through the report, which often included images of the infected throughout various stages of their illness. He recognized the pictures of Nate Ballard, though he looked quite gaunt and horrifying in comparison to how he looked while on the job. As he pored over the various details of the virus, one particular statement stopped him in his tracks and nearly caused him to drop the tablet he was holding.

According to blood tests, every person inside the shelter has been infected with the virus. Right now, there is no conceivable cure.