Free Running With The Horde (Book 2): Delusions of Monsters by Joseph K. Richard Page B

I’m laughing, I’m sure you are quite serious about all this,” as tears streamed out of eyes. “Even if you have made this breakthrough you claim, have fun creating something that will reach every living person on the planet!” He almost had himself under control but then saw the angry looks on both their faces and started up again. “I mean, really, the only kind of delivery method that might work would be-” He stopped laughing when he understood why he was here.
    “A virus?” Dick said with a grin, “You win the door prize, Doc. And guess what, it already exists! We just need you to make it work.”
    “I want to go home. Now!” Andrew screamed. But then Dick started laughing. Andrew lunged for the bald bastard but Todd intercepted him and pinned his arms to his sides which made Dick laugh harder.
    “I’ve told you already, Doc, you are home. Now why don’t you, Todd and Dr. Farnsworth get better acquainted? I’ve got shit to do.”
    …
    He had several weeks with Dr. Farnsworth who gave him the lowdown as well as walked him through all of his research and progress. When the creature and the ship were discovered they were already infected with a deadly virus that had been combined with the most advanced form of nanotechnology Andrew had ever had seen. A truly terrifying creation which had, at some point, a very long time ago, been engineered by someone or something.
    Farnsworth would never confirm it out loud because the man was terrified of Dick and whoever he represented but in his own way he made it clear the creature from the ship had looked a lot different prior to infection. Two things became clear to Andrew almost from the start. The first was that the virus, the ship and the creature were very old, possibly millions of years old. The second was that Dick and his people had been searching for it for a very long time.
    Those fateful first weeks were now several years in the past. Dr. Theodore Farnsworth was long since retired though Andrew knew what that really meant. There hadn’t been any golden years for his distinguished service. Just an unlabeled box of ashes in some dusty storeroom right here in the facility. Of that there was no doubt in his mind but he also knew there was nothing he could do about it.
    At first he had tried to fight back after Farnsworth left. He refused to work, even went on a hunger strike. But that ended when Dick paid a visit to his room and showed him a video of his mother and stepdad at their house in Virginia. He didn’t make any threats. He didn’t have to, Andrew realized Dick would kill his mother if he didn’t cooperate. If there was one person he loved more than anything in the world it was his mother. So Andrew poured himself into the work with gusto.
    Thus Andrew spent a string of his best years slaving away in the lab. Forced to work with Todd who was both irritating and a pervert. In truth, he provided more of an obstacle to Andrew’s progress than a help so making sure Todd stayed around helped delay Project Simon. Andrew was having difficulty engineering a mutation of the virus that wouldn’t be deadly to human bodies but would still possess the mind control properties it had been designed for.
    The home sickness was difficult on Andrew, he would often sit alone in his room and cry as he looked at pictures of his mother. Todd didn’t help, the guy was so weird it set Andrew constantly on edge. It would impact his work from time to time and Dick would pay a visit to Todd and things would get better for a while. But Todd was a bully and similar to a herpes outbreak. They might appear to go away for a time but they always come back.
    For the rest of the team, the work progressed over the years and Project Simon was starting to take shape. Dick was constantly haranguing Andrew for better results. Kept pounding it through his head that a deadline was fast approaching. If Andrew couldn’t meet it, Andrew’s mom would pay the price. Dick seemed to have it