Belize

Chapter Eight

Edgar Saldivar walked into the lab and wiped his hand through his thinning hair, which had seemingly got much thinner since that morning. He waved over one of the junior scientists, who set down what she was working on and hurried over to him.

“Have you seen Dr. Garcia?” he asked.

“Um, not in a little while,” the junior scientist replied. “I think he said he had a meeting with someone? I remember this morning he was really angry about something.”

Saldivar knew full well what his old colleague was angry about, but he kept his face blank and said, “Who’s working as your team lead right now?”

The woman pointed. “Antonio. He’s over there.”

“Thank you,” Saldivar said.

He had called Garcia’s office three times and there was no answer. Saldivar had wanted to talk to him and hopefully get him to calm down. Garcia had been furious when he found out they were all being terminated, more angry than Saldivar had ever seen him in the twenty years they’d known each other. Truthfully, he thought Garcia had already known they were going to lose their jobs. The meeting had gone well up to that point, until Garcia realized the obvious and blew up at everyone. And now he wasn’t in his lab and no one knew where he was.

When Saldivar questioned Antonio, the team lead, he said, “Dr. Garcia came through the lab in a hurry, but he left again maybe half an hour later and he seemed fine. He said he was going to talk to maintenance about something.”

“And how long ago was that?”

Antonio looked at his watch. “I think it was about ten, so more than an hour ago.”

Saldivar sighed. “Okay. Well, if he comes back, tell him I want to talk to him right away.”

“Of course, sir. Is something wrong?”

“Well, we can’t seem to find him anywhere.”

He left the lab and walked down the hall. Why in the world would Garcia have to speak with the maintenance department? That didn’t even make sense.

Garcia had probably just left the lab to think about what he was going to do. Saldivar knew him pretty well after so many years working together, and he knew Garcia was the kind of man who let little things get to him. He didn’t really handle setbacks very well. It was one of the reasons he had never been promoted beyond Lab Manager. He couldn’t handle the stress of working in upper management. Finding out he was about to be unemployed was about as serious a setback as someone like him could be dealt, so Saldivar didn’t blame him for wanting to get away. He just needed some time to calm down, that’s all. Some private space to clear his head.

Saldivar wished he could do the same, but he probably wouldn’t even have time to eat lunch today, the way things were going. He had managed to make some quick phone calls to people he knew at other companies, asking about possible job openings. Under normal circumstances, he would have called his peers at the Umbrella lab in Belmopan, which was a larger and more state-of-the-art facility, in the hopes of getting a transfer. But there was no chance of that happening now, especially since he suspected they might be facing a reduction in the work force as well.

Hopefully, by the end of the day, he would at least have some leads. His wife was going to have a fit when she found out he was losing his job, but if he at least had some job opportunities lined up, it might lessen the bad news when he told his family.

He returned to his office and logged into the security system on his computer. The lab was not fully up to date on their security protocols, which was a constant source of embarrassment for him. He wondered if that played a role in Umbrella’s decision to shut them down. Most labs of this size, especially labs dealing with incredibly infectious diseases, had very robust security systems with large numbers of cameras and other tracking devices. The number of cameras in Saldivar’s lab was woefully inadequate, but they did have enough to at least keep an eye on most of the lab. Saldivar had authorized access to all of the camera footage, and he quickly scrolled through the cameras to find what he was looking for.

He watched the video of Garcia storming out of his office earlier that morning, and switched to other cameras to follow him back to his lab. Garcia had stayed in his private office for a little while and then left again, seemingly calm and composed now. His workers in the lab said he went to speak with maintenance, but instead, Garcia made his way to the main vault where all their biological samples and strains were stored. Saldivar had no idea why Garcia would have gone there. There no cameras in the vault itself, but after a few minutes, Garcia walked through the doors, this time pushing a cart in front of him. Saldivar didn’t know the all the details of Garcia’s experiment schedule, but as far as he knew there were no major projects planned. In any case, why would Garcia have bothered to retrieve samples when he knew the lab was closing soon anyway?

Saldivar looked closely at the footage of Garcia walking down the hall. He walked even slower than usual. In fact, Saldivar noticed something was wrong with him. Garcia looked ill, he was barely able to stay upright. Nervously, Saldivar fast-forwarded the footage until Garcia had made his way to the spare office supply rooms and went inside.

What was going on? Why would Garcia go there instead of back to his own office? Saldivar checked the clock on the camera. The footage was from over an hour ago.

He got up and walked out to the office waiting area. He called to his secretary, “Melissa, would you come with me, please?”

Something was wrong, he was sure of it. He wanted to call security, but held off for the moment. The last thing he wanted to do was have an embarrassing situation develop on today, of all days. Right now the two front office men from Umbrella were in the records office with two of Saldivar’s assistants, downloading years of financial and management records in preparation for the shutdown. They were scheduled to leave before the end of the day, and Saldivar didn’t want them to know something was going on unless he had no choice.

He and his secretary walked through the lab, trying not to appear as if they were in a hurry. Melissa already knew about the lab was being shut down. When she asked what was going on, and he said that Garcia was upset and they had to talk to him. He hoped that’s all it was.

Saldivar didn’t know what to expect when he opened the door to the spare office. He thought Garcia might be seated at a desk or maybe stretched out on a couch. But instead, Garcia was standing at the desk, his back to the door.

They came inside and let the door swing shut behind them, but it did not close all the way. Garcia didn’t seem to react, so Saldivar went over to him.

“Ricardo, listen,” he said. “I know you’re mad about everything, but until the lab is closed, we still have a job to do. You can’t just hide out –”

Garcia turned around and stared right through him. His face was slack and expressionless, and he opened his mouth just a little, drool glistening on his chin.

“Ricardo?” Saldivar asked, taking his arm. “Oh my God, are you okay?”

Garcia didn’t respond right away. After a moment, he seemed to finally notice Saldivar was standing in front of him, and suddenly lurched forward like he was going to fall down. Saldivar and Melissa both reached to grab him.

With a snarl, Garcia bit down on Saldivar’s throat and thrashed to the side. Skin and flesh tore with a sickening ripping sound, and blood spurted out of his severed carotid artery with such force that it splashed across the ceiling tiles. Saldivar gasped and slapped his hand across the wound as he fell backward onto the couch. Blood sprayed across his hand and down the front of his chest. He stared up at Garcia in wordless shock as the blood pumped out of him.

Melissa staggered back, covering her mouth with her hands. She was too terrified to scream, and too stunned to even try to help. Some of Saldivar’s blood had splashed onto the front of her blouse. She groaned, gasping for breath to scream, as Garcia turned and lunged at her, knocking her off her feet. She struggled for just a few seconds as Garcia ripped her throat out as well, biting down like a wolf killing a helpless rabbit. In her death throes, her arms flailed and her hands brushed the door, opening it just a few inches.

Saldivar gurgled and flopped onto his side, fumbling with his free hand in a desperate, dying hope he might make it out of the room. He was sitting in a pool of his own blood.

Garcia got back to his feet and looked at him. The entire front of his face was one grisly smear of blood and flesh. His teeth were coated in gore. His eyes were still blank.

“... Ric … Ricar ...” Saldivar whispered.

But Dr. Ricardo Diego Garcia could not hear him. The last thing that Saldivar saw was his old friend of twenty years leaning over him and opening his mouth, blood dripping off his teeth.

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