The Slut Rose: Hammer, Part 1
** For background, read "The Slut Rose: Origins" before this.
Dr. Jason Barber nervously looked around as he slipped the vial of clear liquid into the pocket of his lab coat. Not one of the other two lab personnel were paying attention to him as they gathered their notebooks and left the lab.
It had been a late night, now 11:08pm he noticed, as he made his way to the door and placed his badge on the locking sensor. The sensor light turned green and he pushed the door open, the hissing air indicated the lab had a low pressure, making air rush into it. The lab technicians were taking off their lab coats and hanging them in the closet as he started to unzip his, trying to be slower than them.
"You ok, Dr. Barber?" Bob asked as he turned towards him.
Jason realized he was sweating. He wiped his forehead with his sleeve. "Yeah, yeah, just a little warm is all."
"Ok... have a good night," Bob said walking out of the small room behind the other technician. He quickly pulled the vial from his lab coat and slipped it into the front pocket of his pants. While it wouldn't be very comfortable, he'd be able to get out of the building with it.
He slid his lab coat into the closet and closed the doors. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a minute, wondering if he was really going to be able to do this. He told himself again why he was doing this.
Fluid X-271 was the most addictive, mind-altering substance he'd ever worked with. It was harvested from the oils of the so-called Slut Rose, a plant found in the Colombian rain forest. Rumor had it that it had grown from a toxic chemical spill when a truck crashed. Once the effects of the rose were discovered, samples were taken and the area was cordoned off and all the vegetation burned by government agents.
His company, ChemTech Industries, was recruited by the government to perform top-secret research on it. He reminded himself how harmful this research was and that anyone could use it for some seriously devious and controlling schemes. No one can ever be subjected to this kind of control. And he knew that's exactly what this company was going to do... what the government was going to do.
He knew they'd create a weapon... they'd subjugate people... control the population.
He had the only vial remaining and had already destroyed the research he used to create it. Those papers he'd slipped out yesterday and burned at home. All he had to do was make sure the vial was never found. It was the last of it... at least, he hoped so. He knew he should have just destroyed it. But if they had any ability to make more, he had to be sure at least someone had the ability to develop a counter to it.
He was shaking nervously as he approached the guard near the front entrance and willed himself to relax. He was almost out. He nodded to the guard as he always did and walked out the front door.
There were no alarms, no dogs, no running guards with guns yelling at him. He was home free!
He walked to the parking lot and slipped into the front seat of his Prius, starting it. He breathed a sigh of relief, finally, as he pulled out of his space and began driving out of the lot.
Two sets of twin lights suddenly appeared behind him, startling him as they obviously roared closer.
In a fit of panic, he hit the gas and sped down the road. But his 1.8 liter, 80 horsepower, 4-cylinder engine was no match for the two Humvees, with their 6.2 liter, 393 horsepower, 8-cylinder engines.
They closed the gap quickly.
Jason was looking in his rear-view mirror as the headlights closed on him, spotlights from the driver's side of the Humvees shown on the back of his car, illuminating the interior and almost blinding him. He drove through an intersection without even noticing, barely seeing the oncoming car as it just missed him and slammed into the Humvee behind him.
His hands were shaking as he gained distance once again, racing into the parking lot of a nearby strip mall. He pulled the car around the back side, trying to hide the small car behind a dumpster and moved cautiously back to the front of the closest store. He bent down and used a rock to break the lower window in the glass door and crawled inside.
He noticed it was a small pharmacy and he moved back into the aisles, trying to hide among the shelves. He leaned back against a shelf, breathing heavily as his hand toyed with the small vial. He wondered if he could hide the vial somewhere, spill the contents maybe... he had no idea. Even a single drop, if found, could be used to reconstitute the formula and he couldn't take that chance.
Flashlights shone in through the pharmacy's front window, the beams striking the walls, ceiling, and shelves near him. They were so close now. He heard the cackle of a radio, the voice echoing through the silent store.
"Front door's broken open. Subject likely inside," said the man. "Fan out."
He could tell by the multiple flashlights that there had to be two or three security agents here. They were going to find him and quickly.
"Dr. Barber," the man called out. "We don't want to hurt you. We just want to ask you some questions."
Jason peered uneasily around his shelving unit and watched two of the men placing silencers on the ends of their guns. He was scared. He reached onto the shelf and grabbed one of the plastic bottles and opened the top, slipping the vial inside. He carefully set the bottle back on the shelf, trying to remember where it was so he could retrieve it later. As quietly as he could he crawled away from that shelving unit and made a turn around another to head back to the door, trying to avoid the security guards.
"There he is!" a guard yelled as a bullet hit the shelving above him.
Jason shook so hard he couldn't move. "Oh my God," he moaned, his voice barely audible. He watched feet approaching him and looked up as the lights shone in his face, blinding him completely.
"Dr. Barber... you shouldn't steal," he said softly as three bullets fired from his gun.
Dr. Jason Barber fell the foot to the floor, dead before his head even hit it. Blood poured from the wounds in his chest, as the three men searched his clothes.
"It's not here!" one man hissed to the other. "Why the fuck did you shoot him before we found it?"
The shooter shook his head, knowing he made a mistake. "It's gotta be close by. Search the place."
The three guards began looking through the items on the shelves near his body, knocking cleaning products on the floor.
"Police on route," a voice said in their radio. "Silent alarm. Contact sixty seconds."
