New Helix is an unffocial Deus Ex story.
“VersaLife is here to make this planet a better place. That’s why we get up in the morning. It’s why we do what we do. We’re extending life. We’re making people healthier. Our founder, Mr. Page makes sure that children around the world aren’t going hungry. Our investment in the city of Seattle is one more stone laid on that road to a bright future.”
The voice echoed around the bare marble floors of the house. Karl took a sip of bourbon, a Tennessee No. 8, as he watched himself on the evening news. His television was enclosed in a massive golden frame, the kind that graced impressive paintings in old museums. The local Seattle Picus network had invited him for the interview. Seattle would be the site of a new VersaLife research facility, the largest VersaLife facility on the planet.
Karl would be overseeing the project. Bob Page, the illustrious billionaire who owned VersaLife needed the facility fully operational within two years. It would be the largest biological research facility of its kind in North America. Only the efflorescing corporations on mainland China could envision and execute anything bigger. Page didn’t seem to mind them though. He often joked to Karl that one day, he would own his adversaries on the mainland.
As he remembered his boss’s lighthearted remarks, Karl realized, that’s probably why Page relocated the VersaLife headquarters to Hong Kong. He wanted to be closer to the action. He was really planning on buying up TYM and the rest of those conglomerates. Page was nothing if not audacious.
“And what about the recent spate of unrest in Seattle, Dr. Austra? The city, and in fact the entire northwest seems to be falling increasingly at odds with Washington and multinational entities like VersaLife. Did that factor into your decision?”
“Sure. We absolutely consider these things. We’ve got our best analysts looking into these things when every decisions gets made. Our analytic corpus gives our people the ability to peer into these problems and really understand what’s going on. Not only can we use this data to understand what’s going on, we can predict with reliable confidence. We actually believe that VersaLife’s presence in the city will help be a stabilizing force. We will bring employment, lots of it, we will be good citizens of the city, and of course we will pay our fair share of taxes. These things will really make a difference to the city.”
The unrest could also be an “opportunity,” Page had told him. Law and order in the city must be maintained. But as the unrest grows, maintaining order will strain the city. Something will eventually need to be done. “Maybe we can help them,” Page had suggested to him.
Still, despite Bob’s optimism, Karl knew that instability would add another layer of complexity to the project. It would mean budget forecasts for the project needed to be revised upwards. Not that VersaLife couldn’t afford them, and then some. The incredible success of Neuropozyne had ensured VersaLife had access to more cash than most other organizations on the planet combined.
After the Incident, it became clear that VersaLife needed to start looking to the future. That’s what this facility was all about. Even if it wasn’t the largest compared to its Chinese counterparts, it would be the most advanced nanotech research facility on the planet.
Suddenly the video feed cut off, replaced with a message also conveyed over audio.
“Incoming message from Sara Andes.”
“Put her through.” Karl spoke as he put down his bourbon. A gentle beep signaled acknowledgement of his wish.
“Hi Karl. Sorry to bother you this late at night. But there was an incident earlier this evening. I thought we should let you know sooner rather later.”
Sara’s voice came over the speaker system, its volume dynamically reduced to a gentle level for the evening hours. Karl stood up and went to look out his penthouse window. The city of Seattle sparkled with life below him. Off in the distance, one of those sparks of light was Sara. And somewhere to the west of her some event had led her to call him at 11:53 at night.
“It’s fine, Sara. What’s the situation?”
Bullets of rain slammed into the car’s windshield and roof. The automated driver didn’t seem to care or mind. There were no wipers. The car used a myriad of sensors and algorithms to make its way to the old VersaLife offices in downtown. Karl himself was quiet, observing the torrential rain that had been pouring down over the region for the last week. It was too late to be making phone calls and too soon to be telling anyone else about what was going on. He needed more information. That’s why he was headed to the office.
Karl looked down at his phone. A green glow indicated a message. It was his wife asking how his day had gone. She’d seen him on the news and wanted to know how it all went. Great, from her perspective. He considered replying for a moment, but couldn’t find words for it. He’d never been very good with speaking about work with her. It was just something he did. The day to day stories never came up in their conversations. He preferred it that way. He needed all the simplicity he could find in his life.
A pleasing chime sounded, and the interior lights of the car creeped brighter.
”We will soon arrive at VersaLife Seattle, Dr. Austra.”
In the distance, Karl could see the glow of the elongated pyramid that was VersaLife tower in Seattle. The rain intensified even more just before the car pulled under the great triangular shield that protruded from VersaLife Tower and shielded the entrance from the rain. As soon as the car came to a stop, a tall man in a navy suit came out of the building and greeted Karl.
“Good evening, sir. Ms. Andes is waiting for you in the main conference room,” the man spoke.
“Thank you, Walter,” Karl replied to him.
He made his way to the conference room, walking past the massive VersaLife globe, stylized with gold triangular facets. It was gently spinning, like always, with golden lights from high above shining straight onto it. Warm reflections of this light bouncing off the golden triangles lit the lobby in the evening hours. The golden light slowly danced across the lobby as the globe gently spun.
Inside the conference room Sara was conversing with the VersaLife Seattle chief of security, Tom Silas. They finished their thoughts and then both turned to greet Karl. Given the tension though, it wasn’t much of a greeting, it was straight to business.
“What’s the damage?” Karl asked.
“We’re still running assessments. Early reports seem to indicate it’s extensive. They may have gotten to New Helix.” Tom replied.
“If that’s the case, we need to find them. And we need to find them fast.” Sara chimed in.
Karl sighed. He looked up at the vaulted ceiling of the conference room for a moment, looking almost anguished, and then replied to Sara, “Have you contacted Hong Kong?”
She shook her head, “I figured I’d wait to run it by you first.”
“Get on it. If the fucker has gotten to New Helix, we’ll need to bring this situation under control fast,” Karl told her.
Without missing a beat, Sara left the room to contact her counterpart in Hong Kong.
“There’s a chance this may have been a physical attack, Karl,” Tom said, pulling up some data on a monitor.
“The door log for Server Room Angel indicates some kind of malfunction about 27 minutes before the breach. And so does every damned security camera in sequence leading up to the room…” Tom says, his face looking more grim.
“You’re telling me that someone managed to sneak their way into the most secure part of this building and steal our data?” Karl asked him.
“Mayb-“ Tom started, but was cut off by an angry Karl.
“Where the hell were your people?”
“We dispatched security to assess the situation. They checked the door, it looked like some malfunction. An electrical outage in that section. They didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.” Tom replied, maintaining an even and calm voice, much like Karl’s own eternally calm demeanor. Maybe that’s why they worked well together.
Karl looked through the windows of the conference room at the VersaLife globe still spinning in the lobby. If New Helix got out it would jeapardize the entire development project in Seattle. That’s if they were lucky. It could put a huge dent into VersaLife itself.
He grabbed his phone to check the time and noticed the message from his wife again. This time he opened it and started typing, “Pretty good. Better than I expected. Exciting day, time for bed,” and he sent it to her.
“Everything okay, Karl?” Tom asked him.
“You have 24 hours to figure out what happened here, Tom. Don’t fuck this up.” Karl replied.