Chapter 23 - T-Virus is...

"Captain, it's not fake," Chad Kaplan. He was the tech in their team. After hearing everything that was going on here, they came to a truce. Their communication devices taken and the punishment for trying to do anything against the truce was execution. Aurum's justification was that he would consider it as helping the mass murderer do just that…murder the masses.

Since they didn't fully believe it, they had their tech guy work the footage to find out if it was fake. As a result, they did check the authenticity of the footage, leading them to the conclusion that it was, like they were told, a suicide mission.

"If you ask me. Rather than going down there to risk your lives. It's better if you secretly pack your bags, take your family and disappear. Go somewhere far, where there are no humans around, stock up, and hope that when they spread the virus, it doesn't affect your family," Aurum rested his head on the couch's arms, his ankles crossed. He lay there, waiting for them to decide what they were going to do.

He was in no hurry to go down and kill himself. He had prepared everything, and what he needed was time. Also, he was waiting for someone.

"What do you mean it won't affect our family?" Medic worried asked. She was another member of Sanitation Team, working under James, while they were reliant on Umbrella, but not to the point that they'd give their lives for it. They all had a family to take care of.

"Well," Aurum scratched his cheek, 'I saw one of the Umbrella operatives death …I looked in them to figure out what they were planning…so I heard a few things that haven't happened yet.'

"I hacked a confidential report. If this virus spreads through the air, then about 1 to 10% of people won't be affected. All others will. That means, in a family, there is a chance that one of you might survive. Although the chances of all you turning are high."

"You talk like this virus is going to spread," Medic furrowed her brows.

"No, it will probably spread," James held his head, "This is the next nuclear weapon. You throw it in a city, and the whole city is dead. Army, power, president, guards, assassination doesn't matter. Moreover, the virus should fit in a small container. All you need to sneak it in is someone swallowing it. I can think of ten ways to smuggle it without even trying. Throw it in Moscow and the whole of Moscow is dead. Throw it in Washington…the enemy nations would give any money for such a weapon."

James took a deep breath and asked, understanding the severity of the situation, "Can we stop it?"

Alice interlocked her fingers, "I can't say. Hive might be the centre, but I don't think this is the only place where they keep the data. They must have backups in other places. If they told you to come and destroy the facility rather than retrieve the data…"

"They already have it," James furrowed his brow.

"They already know why Red Queen did what she did. I heard from Lisa that her College Professor was the one who worked on Red Queen and now was working on something better. If I am not wrong, they might not need Red Queen anymore," Aurum closed his eyes, resting his forearm on his forehead and palm on his chest, "But, if I can get to the Red Queen, I might be able to hack or work with her to figure out where else the data got sent. Then I am going to launch a full-on invasion. If possible, cripple their network, erase their data. Those things."

"That's not possible," Kaplan didn't want his Team Leader to be fooled, "Umbrella has technology that is way beyond what is available outside. It could be a decade in the future before the rest of the world catches up! How are you going to hack an AI and make it work for you?"

Aurum looked towards Alice, then the team that he wanted to put to work, "I guess there is no harm in showing you that."

'When I…remembered. Or woke up…or after the memory erase first came to. I didn't think I had supernatural powers. I felt good, healthy, but I thought it was the same for everyone. It wasn't until I gripped my mobile a little hard to the point it got crushed by my grip that I realised I possess insane strength.'

'Once that realisation stuck, I understood what kind of trouble I was in. I panicked thinking about the cameras when this power first showed itself,' Aurum sat up, putting his feet on the floor as he turned the laptop towards Kaplan, "you come here."

"What?! Me? Why?!"

James looked at Kaplan's reaction, sighing. He stood up, patting his shoulder, "If you don't mind."

"As long as you can understand," Aurum looked back at James, nodding. Alice shifted closer to him since others started to walk around, standing behind the couch to see what was going on.

Aurum placed his fingers on the keys of the keyboard, "I'll show you a magic trick. Now, watch closely, hands?"

He lifted the fingers away from the keys, "No hands."

"Hands? No hands?"

"Hands—"

"Yeah, we get it, no hands."

Aurum looked at the man standing behind him, before shrugging, "Alright. Now see this."

"Typing speed," Aurum typed his Username, and then, he pulled his fingers back, "And Hacking Speed."

The screen glitched, causing numbers to appear all over the screen and disappear before the password typed itself, and the account opened. He glanced at their faces, still trying to understand what had happened. It hadn't even sunk in yet, and he wriggled his fingers like showing them there was no trick, "See…? No trick. That's hacking."

"No, it's not!" Kaplan held his head, "that's clearly not hacking!!"

"Duh, it is clearly Technomancy, haven't you read comics?" Aurum retorted when his eyes narrowed, 'I…have read comics. That changes thing. Until now I thought Umbrella grew me in a test tube or something. Memories that exist and I am not aware of.'

"How did…how did you do it?"

"I told you, it's Technomancy," Aurum looked exasperated at James' shocked question. He stood up, taking distance from the horrified gazes that he had been getting from them, "It's like sending brain waves into the…into the…frame…um…wait…"

Aurum closed his eyes with a look of realisation on his face, "it's like…magnifying electrical impulses in the brain to the point that I am able to send them out, from the laptop to the wires, to the frame itself, and hack it from the source. The point is…these are electrical impulses…"

He tilted his head to the side, giving them an expressionless look, bombarding them, "clearly. I have T-Virus in me."