"You know, at some point you're going to have to tell your sister how big your Team
actually
is," Linda said from the driver's seat as they drove the ten minutes from the mansion to the base itself. "Same's true for Andy. Shit, I bet he's figured most of it out already."
"At this point, I'm just going to hold off telling him everything until we're a little further past this. Maybe sometime next month he and I can sit down, and I'll walk him through everything, lay it all out so he knows everything behind the curtain," Phil said, watching out the backseat window of the Tesla Model Y. "Of course, I'll have to get him cleared for everything first."
"I've already started putting some of the clearance paperwork through, babe," Linda told him with a smile. "I figured you'd want to let him in at some point, and knowing you, as soon as you decide you want to do it, you're going to do it, whether or not you've stopped to clear it all in advance or not. So I'm just trying to stay a few steps ahead of you."
"Why do I have a feeling today's going to be a total mess?"
"It's just one of those days, baby," Linda said to him.
Once the car was on the base, they drove over to Phil's designated parking space near the entrance and headed into the building they used as their headquarters. Phil needed to get to his office first and do a sweep and clear of what had come in overnight before moving on to writing up the guidelines about the variants they knew about.
While his office had been cleaned up some for the interview with Katie Couric, it had devolved back into its chaotic state almost immediately after, as Phil never seemed to be able to keep stacks of paper in order, always having a sort of filing system in his head that nobody else understood. It was almost some sort of natural defense screen, so that if anyone broke into his office, they wouldn't know where to find anything, much less what anything was for.
He opened up his laptop and scanned through his inbox, which was a veritable nightmare of messages all marked Top Priority, something that made Phil grumble with amusement every time, as he knew of no way for 37 messages to all be his current top priority. But a few of them came from key names he knew and recognized - some people from the Gemivax team, some from the pharmaceutical production teams and one from the White House Chief of Staff.
Needless to say, he opened that one first.
When the President had been on site, her Executive Assistant had given Phil an encryption key that was meant for him to use when communicating with the White House, a little keyfob authenticator with a 15-digit number that changed every thirty seconds. He typed the number it was currently showing into the decrypter and the message became legible.
"Hey Phil, just saw the footage from New Eden that Katie Couric's team shot in sort of an early first cut at the piece," the message read. "Everyone at the base looks great, and your friend Andy Rook certainly seems like he was an excellent choice for a spokesperson. That said, you and I both know that Sarah Washington's meet-cute story, while true, isn't the reason why they ended up in his care, and Katie Couric has some pretty harsh accusations about the rot that it sounds like has infected the base over there. We're hoping the encryption will keep anyone else in New Eden from reading our communications, so if there's people we shouldn't trust, you should tell us, and we should start looking into it. Even if you can't prove it, if you have suspicions, that's good enough for us."
Phil sat and stared at the message for a few minutes before he finally composed a reply.
"Hey. There was a compromise in the system for a while, but we've figured out how they were doing it and patched up the vulnerability, as well as made a list of whom got paired with incorrect Oracle results. I suspect that General Fielder is in the know about these issues, if not even directly responsible for them. I know Miguel Cunningham, the creator of Oracle, is
not
one of the guilty parties, as he helped me fix the problem. I suspect there may also be ties to local rich businessmen, including a guy named Arthur Covington the 4
th
and the mayor of New Eden, James Haunton. I also have reason to suspect that the person who confessed to the murder of Veronica DeLaCruz, Brian Morrison, did so under orders from Covington. I should've known that we were definitely going to get flies with this much honey lying around. My opinion is not to do anything directly yet, but to begin preparing whatever it might take to replace Fielder with someone more stable here in New Eden. Things aren't off the rails yet, but it feels like it wouldn't be too hard to get them there with a little push, which means sooner or later, things are going to go to hell. Being ready ahead of that would probably be useful. I don't think having a man in charge of this base is the best decision, so if there are female Generals in the Air Force, or if there are going to be some soon, getting one prepped to take over here wouldn't go amiss. Also, it's worth letting you know - the wife of original Quaranteam developer and Russian defector Adam McCallister, Eve Merriweather McCallister, is apparently attempting to
de
-defect (refect? double defect?) back to the States, and apparently has a method of reassigning a woman from one man to another without that man having to be dead or present. While we don't have confirmation of this, the fact that she attempting to return to the U.S. without her husband indicates to me a strong likelihood that she's telling the truth. I don't have on-site data to confirm yet, but if this is true, it would give us what people have been asking for since this project began - a second chance. I will keep you updated as to this when I have more concrete information, but insist this information be kept between you and the President and
no one else
. I have kept the loop incredibly small on my side - only a handful of people know, and I am not bringing the woman onto the base itself until I can confirm the veracity of her claims and get her reassigned to someone other than her husband, which she insists is her plan as well. It may be a week or two before I can get back to you on this, and I know how odd that is, considering you are just aware of the expected ten-day max between dosages, but Eve was paired using one of the very earliest iterations of the Quaranteam serum we had. She might be able to withstand longer-than-normal periods between dosages. That said, we are sure she's returning from Russia, so the trip itself provides a number of complications. But it's
hope
, Madam President. Hope that we can undo the pairings of people with those undeserving, that we can correct mistakes that we made along the way, that we can undo some of the mess we made along the way. Will keep you informed as soon as I have news."
He encrypted the message using the tool he'd been given and his keyfob, and then sent it off to the Chief of Staff.
The next thing he needed to do was draft up a document covering all the DuoHalo Variants they had discovered, so he opened up a Word document and started typing up the list.
"Known Major DuoHalo Variants:
Red Variant - Thought to be now extinct. Much higher fatality rate among both men and women, higher transmission rate but extremely low survival rate outside of body, dying within minutes of exiting the body, unlike the standard 120 hours typical DuoHalo can live on surfaces. Originally named as such because of the telltale bloodshot eyes carriers displayed as a symptom.
Orange Variant - Second variant of DuoHalo. Slightly higher fatality rate. Increased time for imprinting, even if not regenerating. Those who have been cured of the Orange Variant will experience more frequent need for dosing (sexual transfer with partners), capping out at about a week, for the next 2-4 months, although that varies from person to person, with some women experiencing the increased demand permanently. Also, a
permanent
side effect of having contracted the Orange Variant is that semen from a man other than the man the woman is paired with will have less toxicity to the skin of that woman (around 50-60% efficacy) but it will also send the woman into a furious rage where she will attack anything she considers to be a threat, meaning her principal is always safe, but other Team members are not always guaranteed. This information should be given to anyone exposed to the Orange Variant. It is somewhat less contagious than standard DuoHalo. Often detected by the telltale stuttering of the subject's saying of the word 'imprinting' during the process although we suspect that's just a tic.
Yellow Variant (Smooth) - The Yellow Variant, or the Smooth Variant, as it is often referred to, will cause a woman who is imprinted to lose all of her hair upon imprinting, although this condition is temporary. She will also have a more intense reaction to the Daniels effect, the short version of this is that it means these women will be slightly clingier and more protective of their partners. No other long-term effects have yet been noticed, although the Smooth Variant seems to be a great deal less common these days. Contagion rates seem small.
Green Variant (Waxed All Over) - The Green Variant, or the Waxed All Over Variant as it was first called, seems to be an offshoot of the Yellow Variant, in that it also causes a woman to lose all of her hair, however upon imprinting, she will not have the overprotective nature we have seen in Yellow Variants. There is, however, a secondary side effect that occurs post-imprinting, rapidly accelerating hair growth. While this does not seem to push body hair beyond its normal capacity, the hair atop a woman's head will grow at a remarkable rate, approximately half an inch every hour, for somewhere between 10-20 days afterwards. Again, no other major side effects seem to have been detected. This seems to have higher contagion and survival rates, and we have seen a recent uptick in reports of this.
Blue Variant (Me First) - This variant seems to induce a certain level of competitiveness in Team members, almost trying to counteract the Daniels Effect, making Team members vie for the principal's attention, even to the level of violent confrontation, thus the nickname 'the Me First Variant.' Again, this effect only seems to last for a couple of weeks post-dosing to flush the virus from the system, but reports are those two weeks are utter hell with everyone at each other's throats. This Variant seems to mostly be contained to Africa, although some reports of it outside of that continent have been reported.
Indigo Variant (Florida Spring Break) - This variant causes poor judgement and aggressive behavior in those it infects, and we have found that it is incredibly powerful in temporarily lowering both inhibitions and common sense. People infected with it will start fights, cause property damage, and often spread the virus through blood and spittle, shouting and bleeding over anyone they come in contact with. This variant seems to mostly be in Europe, although there have also been reports of it in both Mexico and Australia, as well as sporadic reports here in the United States. We suspect this variant may have originated from rogue researchers in Canada but have been unable to find proof of that.
Violet Variant - This variant causes disorientation and clouds memories, making it difficult for the person to easily access their long-term memories, although short-term memory seems to function mostly well. Imprinting/dosing these individuals does seem to remove its effects but they may find themselves unable to recall what happened during the time they were under the influence of the variant.
Zulu Variant - At this point, we had run out of colors and decided to use the NATO alphabet, starting at the end. The Zulu Variant is mostly a Canadian variant, and it seems to have mostly had only the side effect of decreased hearing and vision during the infection, with no side effects post-imprinting/dosing.
Yankee Variant - One of the more dangerous variants, the Yankee variant interferes with the language portion of the brain temporarily, rendering those infected with an aphasia of speech, an inability to say what they intend to correctly and consistently. This effect does seem to mostly go away post-imprinting/dosing, however there may be a lingering juxtaposition of two words permanently that the Team and person will simply need to learn to live with. Our first case, the woman in question has swapped the words "pedicure" and "defrosting," for reasons we are still unable to explain. (This happens in only 2-5% of those infected with Yankee Variant.)
Xray Variant - Another dangerous variant, those with the Xray Variant also develop temporary hemophilia, which prevents the blood from clotting after injury, and those infected run the risk of bleeding to death from a relatively minor injury. This is purged with imprinting/dosing. No known aftereffects post purging.
Whiskey Variant - The most recent high-risk variant, the Whiskey variant causes a version of the Dunning-Kruger effect in those infected, where the infected become convinced that they have extreme knowledge and skills in subjects they know nothing about. A person with the Whiskey Variant will consider themselves an expert in all things and can often be argumentative. Most of this disappears post-imprinting/dosing, but in some cases, we have seen a tendency for those previously infected with it to have a predilection to get fixated or even mildly obsessed with whatever it is they are focusing on at the time. This variant currently seems confined to the eastern seaboard of North America, with no cases having been reported any further than 100 miles west of the Atlantic Ocean."
