won't be active anytime soon, if ever."
"Could they have followed you?" Randi wanted to know.
"Think not. But it's likely they'll eventually decide Griffin or Marty informed us of this lodge and that we're here. They could arrive with reinforcements any minute."
Jon said, "You hear that, Mart?"
"I've tried everything I know," Marty snapped testily. "Now I'm working to establish an untraceable link with my computer so I can use my own programs. Give me another few seconds."
Both the testiness and the quickening of his speech showed his meds were almost gone, and they waited as patiently as they could.
"Someone better go down and watch," Smith realized. "Not you, Peter."
"Samson can go. He'll be a better lookout than any of us."
As Peter sent the dog off, Marty shouted, "I'm connected!"
"Thank God," Randi said fervently.
"All right, let's start a search for the company that operates this computer." Marty worked the keyboard, and the screen began to flash permutations too fast for them to see. Finally on the screen appeared the logo and name of Blanchard Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
"That means Victor registered the machine to us, and we pay for it," Haldane said. "An unexplained extra computer system was one item the accountants found they couldn't trace to any authorized research program.
Marty played across the keyboard. The screen continued to flicker through a series of computations. Finally a name flashed on: VAXHAM Corporation.
"What the devil is VAXHAM?" Haldane wondered.
Marty was leaning forward, concentrating. He clicked on VAXHAM, and it lit up with a long series of directories. One was "Laboratory Reports." He punched in and scrolled rapidly through the dated entries all the way back to the very first one: January 15, 1989. Jon leaned over his shoulder.
"Wow," Jon breathed. "A report of the first restriction enzyme mapping of the monkey virus from Peru! Now we're getting somewhere." Smith pulled up a stool. He studied the restriction map of the virus and in his mind compared it to the same mapping of the one that had killed Sophia that he had studied at USAMRIID. He let out a long whistle and looked up. "No surprise, but at last we have confirmation. They're almost identical--- in fact, they may be identical. The monkey virus and the one killing people are the same."
Randi said angrily, "Victor Tremont knew it all along."
Each year listed a summary of the technical findings for virus and serum. They showed a steady lessening of the incubation time in victims before the final fatal outbreak and the steady increase in serum effectiveness on the virulent stage--- at least in a petri dish and later in monkeys. Again it was confirmation of what they had guessed. But Marty could find no data about the Iraq experiments nor how the virus had suddenly spread like a contagion across the world from remote Peru---- or from Victor Tremont and his VAXHAM Corporation.
"The last directory is blocked by a password," Marty announced. Then he sneered, "Complacent fools, they think they can keep out Zellerbach the Magician!"
He raised his hands as if he were a concert pianist and attacked the keyboard. Using his own software, he sent the screen into a paroxysm of kaleidoscopic words, questions, commands, and images. It took a matter of seconds.
"There!" Marty chortled. "How absurdly commonplace."
A single short phrase appeared on the screen: Lucifer at Home.
"Hades," Jon groaned.
"People," said Marty pompously, "are both unimaginative and predictable."
He entered the password. The first documents that appeared were a meticulous series of financial spreadsheets and summary reports covering every year from 1989 to the present. The corporate officers were listed: Victor Tremont, with some 35 percent of the stock, and George Hyem, Xavier Becker, Adam Cain, and Jack McGraw with 10 percent each.
In his heightened state, Marty saw the connection instantly: "VAXHAM. With Tremont, an acronym of first and last names: Victor, Adam, Xavier, Hyem and McGraw, with an extra `A' to make it look like a word."
"Those are some of the best people in the company." Haldane was aghast. "All of them head departments, and McGraw's security. No wonder they could get away with so much for so long."
Major stockholders were listed: Mal. Gen. Nelson Caspar and Lt. Gen. Einar Salonen (Ret.). "There's your army connection," Randi told Jon. She shook her head with disgust.
"Also the government," Haldane said furiously. "Nancy Petrelli. She's Health and Human Services. And there's Congressman Ben Sloat."
Marty was still searching. "These seem to be year-by-year statistics of progress on the project. Reports of operations, I guess." He paused. "Here are data