Mother Russia

<--Previous Chapter|Next Chapter-->

Chapter One

One hundred and sixty kilometers north of Irkutsk, the capital of the Irkutsk Oblast in southeastern Russia, lies the city of Yatovska. Nestled deep in a vast region of uninhabited forest, the city is isolated and hard to reach. Only one major highway leads there, a two-lane road that winds its way through kilometers of dense forest from the larger cities of Irkutsk and Angarsk.

Yatovska was originally founded in the 1950s as a military site. Top secret weapons research was conducted there, far from the prying eyes of American and European spies. By the early 1970s, Yatovska had grown into a city complete with grocery stores and schools, although the majority of the population was employed by the government, working at one of a dozen different research labs and weapons testing facilities. That was the height of the Cold War. The city continued to grow until the late 1980s, but when the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991, the city faced economic disaster. Most of the research labs, which employed three-quarters of the city’s residents, were abruptly shuttered, and many people were forced to consider moving away or risk financial ruin.

In 1992, mere months after the Soviet Union collapsed, the Umbrella Corporation entered into an agreement with the Russian government. The company moved into Yatovska and took possession of two large scientific laboratories that had just been shut down. Not just the buildings and the property, but all the equipment, machinery, and supplies that were still locked up inside. In return, Umbrella pumped millions of dollars into the Yatovska economy, and immediately hired dozens of recently-unemployed scientists. The company’s swift arrival saved the city, and the residents of Yatovska looked upon Umbrella as their savior.

In the years that followed, Umbrella expanded its holdings in Yatovska, and it became the home of the second-largest Umbrella facility in Russia. The work they did covered a wide range of applications, everything from cancer research to plastics technology.

Arkady Sobolev, the Senior Project Manager for the South Complex, watched as two large semi-trucks passed through the security checkpoint and pulled into the parking lot. And now, he thought with a sigh, we’re doing viral research as well.

The trucks were actually flatbeds with huge gray shipping containers heavily bolted in place. They didn’t have any markings at all to indicate what was inside. They didn’t even have the Umbrella logo. The drivers were not regular drivers, but soldiers armed with machine guns. One of them climbed down from the cab and walked over to where Arkady was standing. Most of the cars in the parking lot had already been moved, and Arkady stood alone, his hands in the pockets of his lab coat.

“Sir, I must see your identification,” the driver said.

Arkady handed him his Umbrella security card. The driver held it up to a handheld scanner, which beeped a confirmation that the identification was legitimate.

“Thank you,” the driver said, handing him the card back. “Now, your thumbprint, please.”

Arkady pressed his thumb against the scanner to confirm that he was indeed who he claimed to be. Now that his identity was fully confirmed, the driver seemed to relax a little bit.

“My orders are to unload this as soon as possible into a secure area. I was told that you’d already have a location prepared for us. Any other workers who come into contact with this material must also be scanned.”

“Yes, I know,” Arkady said. He pulled a folded sheet of paper from his lab coat pocket. He unfolded it and pointed at the map of South Complex. “This is the front lot. We are here. Take your vehicles around these two buildings and you may unload at these doors, numbered five and six. I have men waiting there for you, but they will not unload until I get there. Understand?”

“Yes. Thank you.” The driver walked back to his truck and Arkady turned on his heel and walked the other direction.

He entered the small lobby for Building #2 and turned down a long hallway. No one else was around, as most of the other scientists on staff had been carefully re-assigned that day to other labs in the complex. Arkady wanted as few people as possible to know about the arrival of the trucks, because the fewer people that knew, the fewer people might be curious enough to ask what they contained. In fact, Arkady secretly wished that he didn’t even know about the trucks either, but it was out of his control and he was the one who had to deal with it.

Normally, the Umbrella Corporation kept their top secret viral research totally separate from the normal scientific projects that the public knew about. The facilities that studied and experimented with Umbrella’s genetically altered viruses did only that kind of work and nothing else. Viral research was highly classified and extremely dangerous, not to mention illegal in many countries, so it made sense to keep those labs separate and even hidden from the public eye. Meanwhile, facilities like the one in Yatovska, which handled regular medical research and all kinds of normal scientific work, had nothing to do with Umbrella’s viruses in any capacity, and Arkady liked it that way.

However, the deadly outbreak in America changed all of that.

Umbrella was closing facilities all over the world. Arkady had lost count of how many laboratories and offices had been shut down. Thankfully, the Yatovska facility was not at risk of being closed. They were, in fact, expanding. For the past month, Arkady had been managing all kinds of deliveries from facilities that were shutting down across Russia and other countries all over Asia and Europe. Shipments of computer equipment and hard drives with tens of thousands of files of research data, trailers full of expensive medical devices and machinery so advanced that Arkady wasn’t sure what it all did, and even some new employees transferred from facilities as far away as Finland and Singapore. Umbrella was consolidating their holdings. All the equipment, research, and personnel at the closed labs had to be moved elsewhere.

And now, Umbrella had delivered two entire shipping containers full of viral samples from a secret facility in Turkey that was being shuttered. Arkady wished they had been sent anywhere else. To China, maybe, or perhaps to the North Pole. Or even better, send them to the bottom of the ocean, or maybe drop them right into an erupting volcano. But no, the people in charge had decided to pack up deadly viruses, put them on a plane, and send them to Yatovska.

Arkady thought it was completely insane. Viruses like these had already led to the destruction of an entire city, and Umbrella still wanted to keep doing experiments with them? It was sheer lunacy, but Arkady knew better than to speak that opinion out loud.

By the time he reached the west loading dock, which connected to South Complex, the trucks were both backed up against the doors and secured. The drivers had scanned and verified the men that Arkady had chosen for this particular task. Like him, they were long-term employees with significant security clearance, and they both knew how to keep their mouths shut.

Konstantin Rykov was a few years older than Arkady, and had dark eyes and a short beard peppered with gray. He had applied to be a Senior Lab Manager several times and been turned down each time, but Arkady sensed no bitterness on his part. Konstantin was a hard worker and a capable scientist, just not management material, and Arkady knew he could be trusted to follow directions.

Konstantin’s partner for this project, Pavel Voronin, was fifteen years younger, with bright blue eyes and blonde hair. Outside of work, he liked to party and fool around with women, but at work he was talented and detail-oriented, so Arkady chose not to judge him for his personal life. As long as it didn’t interfere with his work, Arkady didn’t much care what Pavel did in his off time, although he knew it would prevent Pavel from achieving promotions in the future.

Konstantin nodded at him as he entered the loading dock. “We’re ready here.”

Arkady spoke to the driver, who was waiting by the door. “I take it you’ll stay in your vehicles while we unload?”

“Yes,” the driver said quickly, maybe a little too quickly.

“Go ahead, then. I’ll inform you when we’re finished.”

The driver exited through the door and it locked automatically after he was gone. Arkady entered a security code into the loading dock computer and a heavy security door came down from the ceiling with a flashing red light to signal its descent. Once it was down, the loading dock was cut off from the rest of the lab complex. Arkady wondered if he was being too careful and shook the thought away. There was no such thing as “too careful” when handling deadly viruses.

Pavel rolled out a large yellow plastic case on a hand jack. Inside were orange biological hazard suits with self-contained air tanks and several layers of anti-viral protective coating. Wordlessly, he handed one to Konstantin and Arkady and then took one himself. It took several minutes for them to put the suits on and make sure they were completely airtight. A tiny green light on the inside of the face mask told them the suit was free of any leaks.

“All right,” Arkady said. “Open it up.”

The shipping container doors were locked and sealed to guarantee that they had not been tampered with. The drivers did not even have the key. It had been delivered by special courier to Arkady’s office two days before. Pavel unlocked the doors and then pulled them open. Behind the outer doors was another set of doors, this one with an electronic keypad. Arkady had been sent the code the day before, and he handed the slip of paper to Pavel so he could punch it in.

The inner doors opened with a loud click. The code did more than just unlock the doors, it also disabled the decontamination system built into the container. If the truck had been in an accident, or the plane that delivered the container had crashed, or if at any time the container was breached, the decontamination system would have ignited the entire container like a roman candle and burned it to ash.

Pavel looked up at Arkady one more time, just in case he wanted to change his mind, but Arkady just nodded at him and waved his hand impatiently. Pavel took a breath and opened the inner doors.

Lined in a row down the center of the container, strapped in place with tight metal banding, were four pallets that each contained a stack of oblong stainless steel cases like huge metal briefcases. There were five of them in each stack, and atop each pallet was a computer console. Each one of the cases contained up to twenty viral samples packed tightly in foam for protection.

Twenty samples per case, and there were forty cases, twenty on each truck. Eight hundred samples total. Eight hundred different viral strains. The number boggled the mind.

The top of the dock door was higher than the top of the truck, leaving a gap about a foot high open to the outside. Anything they brought into the loading dock could conceivably be exposed to the outside air. Without being prompted by Arkady, Konstantin climbed up onto a stepladder and unrolled a sheet of gray plastic installed above the dock doors like a giant window blind. They pulled it into the truck and fastened it in place, creating a simple barrier between the contents of the truck and the outside. If the lab had been properly-equipped to handle deliveries of this nature, then they would have driven the entire truck into a sealed garage for unloading. Unfortunately, this loading dock was not designed to be airtight. Under the circumstances, this was the best they could do.

Arkady watched closely as Konstantin unhooked the banding. Pavel grabbed the hand jack and rolled it into the truck. Unfortunately, they had no forklift here, but to be honest, Arkady would not have trusted a powered vehicle around these samples. One slight tap of the gas pedal might make the machine jerk forward and pierce one of the cases with the forks. Better to use a small hand jack for delicate work like this.

One at a time, they unloaded the pallets. After the first truck was unloaded, they repeated the procedure on the other truck. Eight pallets in all now sat on the loading dock.

Arkady broke the seal on the computer console on each pallet and typed in his Umbrella security codes. The screens lit up with a long list of letter and number designations representing each of the viral strains packed in each of the metal cases. Names like MVZ-74 and SDK-92, which meant nothing to Arkady. Each one a different strain of the Progenitor virus or even some other virus derived from the Progenitor. Looking at the lists, Arkady felt a sense of dread creep up his spine. So many viruses, so many variations, so many terrible possibilities.

Why not simply destroy them? What was the point in keeping these all these different viral strains? What possible purpose could they serve? Was there truly some sort of legitimate scientific or medical goal that would justify possessing such deadly viruses? If there was, Arkady couldn’t fathom what it could possibly be.

But it was his responsibility now, whether he wanted it or not. Once the trucks were unloaded, they tore down the plastic sheeting, rolled it up, and disposed of it in a huge cardboard bin to be burned as soon as possible. They closed the doors and put the outside locks back on, and then Konstantin doffed his hazard suit and went outside to inform the drivers that they were finished. After a few more verifications and authorizations, they truck drivers gratefully drove away.

Arkady, Pavel, and Konstantin stood together and looked at the pallets for a time. Finally, Arkady nodded to himself and said, “Okay, time to get to work.”

<--Previous Chapter|Next Chapter-->