Grasp the Straws |Year 2036: Lex|

Sherlock is a great detective. If he were presented with everything I knew and my understanding of science, what would he find? It is an impossibility for me to act like I can mimic the deductions of a detective, but I lack any other means to find the unknowns that are continuously escaping me. I crunch a stale nutrition bar and close the only distraction in the room, my laptop positioned on the freezing floor. I clear the fully bulletin wall I’ve set up with pins, pictures, questions, and concepts. I wish I had some help. I could call Anneka. I haven’t seen her since we graduated, but none of this is under her skill set as well. Maybe I can after I put together anything slightly cohesive. I need to find any connections I can to understand the present status quo and predict the future.

In this investigation, it is always necessary to believe that the opponents are perfectly intelligent in every decision, because these viruses could only be the work of a genius. If that is the case, I am thinking about it slightly wrong, it would be a waste to attempt to cure the virus at any point. Even if I do, they can easily edit a new and stronger version while they are in hiding. The only solution at my level is to just stop them from creating the problem in person. Of course this creates the burden of having no rebuttal if they do succeed in releasing the virus before I can do that.

I pinned new papers on the wall. If they have released a virus with only non-acting modifications, then this group must have just started. That was the prototype, and I can expect that they will do some further modifications again to reach their hidden goal which I mark as a question mark in the center. The release point seems to be the West Coast of the United States, around the city of Seattle. The perfectly logical culprits must realize that location could be an important clue, so I can assume that Seattle is irrelevant. The one clear connection is that the virus spreads by water and the city is wet and coastal. Why use water? Well, it is highly infectious and that should be a benefit for them. I mark another question mark. Infectivity is important despite not being used for traditional violence and devastation.

Going through everything, it seems pointless to think of them as a group from now on, when their actions can be seen as a monolith or singularity. I’ll call them “V” from now on for convenience and their relation to viruses. I look closely and can connect some of the emotional subtext in their actions. V must be brash and emotional to release any virus to the world even if it is harmless, these actions could represent a person of a younger age. Oh? I stop drawing lines on the board and connect them sharply in my head. The unpredictability of youth. That is the reason I couldn’t attribute this person to any of the umbrella or broad solutions I found for Dr. Aline. V’s goal post isn’t war or money; it must be something unimaginable. I need to understand that this person could be my age, yet their mind must be completely nonconventional with holes or contradictions to what I and other people find logical or pre-established. Any logical person would use viruses as a tool to gain something quantifiable, but this figure seems to have no interest in those traditional values. The goal V has must only be possible with viruses and because they are hiding, it must go against the world, either in laws or morals. I need to consider what their next moves will be so I can catch them in the act and not be left in the dark again.

I use my laptop to post a research report in my company’s channels and an anonymous post to a public research forum on my findings that have a secondary purpose as a call for peer help. I can tell that I’m no detective, but I am going to come face to face with this person and prevent their unknown goal.

Youch. I pull myself out of my sleeping bag and touch a tiny welt on my forehead. I see Anneka sitting on a chair next to me and continuing to flick air with her fingertips.

“You awake, sleepyhead idiot? Oh. Are you too comfy on the ground?”

I’m bewildered. “How’d you get here and how long have you been here?”

“Ok, that means you are awake. Good.” I can’t help but grin. “I’ve been here for two hours waiting for you to get up and I waited awhile because you had nice and big eyebags. Second, I got in through the front door.”

I motioned with my hands. “What about the lock on the door?”

“You never got around to giving me a key, so I just lock-picked it. Your house is old, Lex. Made in the 1960s? Real simple.”

“The heck, you can have your key. It’s somewhere in this house, and I’ll give it once you are done, promising to never do that illegality again. Why did you need to get in so bad, Anneka?”

I rotate Lex’s laptop and point to his company post. “You weren’t going to tell me normally. I had to find out this way. By coming across company news from 2 weeks ago?”

“I didn’t have things figured out yet.”

“You mostly do from the amalgamation on the wall and this post. I can already tell what is happening. Here, want some water?” I pass a bottle.

I gulp down the blue for a long time.

“After seeing the news and that article, Lex, I had a feeling that they were connected. All over online, Beninsprout Corporation’s water product has been said to be the ground zero for a new strain of virus. Many authorities and agencies are calling for a recall and halt of production after finding the claim to be true. There are lawsuits. The brand has collapsed under the scandal and the stock price has dropped 78% in the last 13 days. December 12th has proved to be their day of reckoning. You were right, Lex. I am sure the person you are hunting is real and making continued moves. Before I came today, I made sure to get a hold of the new genome and confirmed that the genome on the news is 77% similar to the first one you were observing when I compared them with multiple software trials of DNA analysis at our work.”