Free Exit 9 by Brett Battles Page A

shipping containers. If Matt was right, each must have been filled with the virus.
    Matt stopped on an image of a loading dock where sealed shipping containers were being lowered onto big-rig trucks. He let it play for half a minute before turning it off.
    “So we don’t even know where they went from there?” Ash asked.
    “Does it matter?” Billy said. “Out into the world. The only reason we know none of it has been released yet is because there have been no reports of outbreaks.”
    Ash thought about it for a moment, his face becoming more confused. “None of this explains where the three-week window comes in.”
    “You’re right,” Matt said. “It doesn’t, but this does.”
    He pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Ash. On it was a series of letters coupled together. Lower on the paper was what he guessed was the decoded version:
     
It’s a go. Sometime in the next seven weeks. Project Eden calls it Implementation Day.
     
Best location BB n of sixty-six. Sci fac.
     
    “That was sent four weeks ago by the only person we have left on the inside.”
    “Implementation Day?”
    “That’s what they’re calling it.”
    “How confident are you that this time frame is right?”
    “Our man’s instructions were simple. The one and only time he was to contact us was if Project Eden moved into the active phase. Our confidence is one hundred percent.”
    Ash stared at the message for a second, then looked at the others. “We have to let someone know. It’s the only way to stop it.”
    “And who would that be?” Billy asked, as if the question was the stupidest thing he’d ever heard.
    “The government. The military. The media. There’s got to be someone who’d do something.”
    Matt stepped in before Billy could respond. “You’re probably right. There are good people in important positions who would try to step in and stop it. But they’d never get far. Your own experience should be proof of that. All the governments and military and media who could do anything are riddled with Project members in high positions who would do anything to protect the plan. The moment anyone tries to move against the Project, they’ll be discredited or even killed.” He paused. “I’m not just saying this because we think that’s what will happen. We know it will because we have tried. Many times. And each time we did, people died and nothing changed. We’ve even cut together news reports ourselves and uploaded them to the Internet, but they get pulled down almost quicker than we can put them up.”
    Pax turned to Ash. “We’re on our own. Just like we’ve always been.”
    “The last part of the message is perhaps the most valuable,” Matt said. “It gives us a ray of hope.”
    Ash glanced at the paper again, and reread the last line. When he looked up, Matt touched the remote, and a map of the Arctic Circle appeared on the monitor.
    “BB refers to Bluebird,” Matt explained. “That’s the name Project Eden uses for its main headquarters. N of sixty-six?” He touched a dotted line on the map. “North of the Arctic Circle, where there are dozens of science facilities—sci fac. Right after we received the message, we sent out several teams to the Arctic in search of the Project’s headquarters.”
    The Arctic. It made a certain crazy sense to Ash. The isolation would provide not only a formidable natural defense against any rogue virus, but against man himself. And with technology these days, they could still maintain contact with their people throughout the world even in such harsh terrain.
    “Did you find it?” he asked.
    Rachel leaned forward. “We might have. One of our teams has gone missing. We sent another team to check on it. They found wreckage and a signal beacon, but no bodies.”
    “So it was an accident.”
    She shook her head. “The searchers believe that the debris was staged so we would think it was an accident. Looking back, there were also some irregularities in the last