EniGma

Darkness. Silence. The Sound filled the place. In the moment the lights went out, Dr. Harrison knew something was wrong. He placed the conical flask he was holding down on the bench before him, careful not to stir its contents. In the blackness of the lab, he felt his way through high benches and testing stations, where mice could be heard squealing from the poisons they were fed. Beakers with acid bubbled threateningly over slick flames, their scum glowing with a vicious aura. As he weaved through these fragile obstacles, he could hear soft footsteps on the floor above him. That wasnt good. But there was something else that worried him more. There was a Light, glowing, pulsing, beating, sending faint blurs of colour over the basement walls. A red colour. It came on three times, on, off, on, off, on, off. Then, nothing. The light turned itself off. The doctor swallowed. The Alarm had been activated. Reaching the east side of the basement, Harris looked for the familiar sight of the Cube. It was a safe, really. It had a sleek, futuristic design, so the scientists at the laboratory had nicknamed it the Cube. The Black Cube. Exactly one foot in all three dimensions, the Cube was made of an artificially engineered carbon polymer, dyed black. Totally black, darker than anything hed ever seen. It was as if the thing absorbed the very light from around it. With walls five inch thick on all sides, the Black Cube was strong enough to withstand a ten-pound TNT blast from point blank range without a scratch. And there was a reason for it.

Inside, within the tiny two-inch cube that was left, laid the secret of the 21 st century. Enigma. The invention that came from the quarter trillion dollar budget of a secret project held under the Defence-Advanced-Research-Project-Agency. DARPA. The Bringer of Death. Only

God knows how many people have died as a result of a DARPA project. And every year they invent more; Weapons. To kill, to injure. To Pain. But once, just once, it all went horribly wrong. In early 2005 the American Government sought to create a new weapon. DARPA just thought of it as another project; with a 2 billion dollar average annual budget, DARPA was expected to produce results. It wasnt uncommon for the Pentagon or any other military-based government organisation amongst the hierarchy of the USA to hand DARPA a file of scientifically impossible results and expect and invention in return. But this file was different. It included research credible research top secret, too. It was a detailed explanation of what they wanted; the American Government wanted. They didnt want DARPA to do research for this. That had already been done. The American Government already knew what it wanted. They just wanted DARPA to make it. Enigma. A biological virus capable of choosing its victims. The idea was simple: make a deadly virus, immunise all your allies, and send it to your enemies when you needed to. Perfect. The budget: 235 billion dollars. Within the first two weeks of being handed the case, DARPA had combined two of its departments in order to specialise on the project. They summoned a dozen of the best virologists in the world. Through vigorous research, experiments, and testing on prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, they created Enigma. The three viruses that were combined remained confidential, even for those in charge of the project; only those who had created it knew. But all was still good. October had not yet passed and they had created the first part of the project. Now the hard part - immunisation. Two months passed with nothing to show for it, so they dug into their pockets. Immunologists, biologists, all of them the best if only they had known what they were getting themselves into. Of course, there was a reason only the scientists working in the lab knew the three viruses used to create Enigma. After immunisation, America needed to make sure enemies could not

gain that information, in case they too create an anti-viral. Then the whole project would prove worthless. So the scientists would have to be killed. In the eyes of the administration, there was no other option. It was going to be an unhappy ending, no matter what. The scientists families would be told there was an accident at the lab, perhaps a fire or a chemical spill, something bad enough to cover the gunshot wounds. But it never got to that. They werent that lucky. A month later it happened. The accident was inevitable, despite the projects funds that still largely remained collecting interest inside a bank. Forty-seven billion dollars and what? The worlds best science laboratory hidden underground, the best scientists in the world and a steel cased glass vial worth a few hundred dollars. With a hole in it. Even though the virus inside was kept at 250C below freezing, the hole was enough for the virus to escape. Everyone died. The entire building was locked down, and enigma killed everyone within twelve hours. Over a hundred staff perished. But that wasnt the concern anymore. America had a deadly virus of unknown origin on their hands. The only people who knew the combination of viruses used to make Enigma were now dead, meaning the chances of ever creating an immunisation for it was now hopeless. It was designed so it could not be immunised. Only one solution proposed itself when the heads of the country met in the state of crisis: hide it. Hide it, Lock it in a box and throw the keys away. Destroy all evidence of the project. And so it was. Just like that.

Dr. Harris stood in front of the awesome sigh before him and looked at the huge blob of darkness embedded deep into the basement wall. It scared the shit out of him, and he didnt even know what it was. All he knew was that, two weeks ago, some secret American organisation ordered the Cube to be hidden here, in the basement of a remote research laboratory, deep within the maze of the Great Amazon. The scientists were not told what it was only that is was a matter of

National Security, and they were to guard it with their life. They were even provided with the weapons to do so. They were given guns, for crying out loud. Scientists dont use guns. Why couldnt they stash this thing where they stash the rest of their nuclear arsenal? What about that stupid desert base, so called Area 51? Harris banged the Cube with the bottom side of his fist. In the darkness, he thought of his daughter, Phoebe and his wife, Katherine on vacation in their small holiday house on the beautiful coast of California. When Harris three weeks here were finished, they were planning a trip to Europe. England, France, for Phoebe, whos always wanted to go to the Disneyland there, and Switzerland, too. Kat wanted to go to Switzerland. She liked the chocolate there, she said. You could get the same imported stuff from any supermarket but that didnt matter anymore. Harris stepped towards the bench drawer beside the Cube, the red tape around the door clearly visible on it in his mind. As he swiped his security card on the lock, he heard screaming upstairs, then gunfire. No more screaming. The drawer beeped and opened, Harris pulled out two things, the Key, the key which he needed to lock this place down; seal it with five foot thick steel. The system was put here two weeks ago, the same time as that cursed Cube. Now, that was all he could concentrate on. Lock this place down. Seal in the bastards who were trying to take this thing away from them. Then he pulled out a gun. He didnt think hed use it, hed be useless at it anyway, but apparently it was good. The gun, that is. Some semi-automatic piece of shit made by the Germans, but nevertheless, he felt safer with it in his hands. Bang! On the floor above, the Security Door was blasted off its hinges, and boots ran down the stairs. Harris hurried, opening the lid over the emergency lock-down button with the Key. He flicked open the lid, and placed his hand on the big red button. He hesitated. Bang! The security door on the bottom of the stairs blew open, and half a dozen figures stormed through, their green laser sights mounted on their weapons probing their way through the

empty room, eventually resting onto the back of the doctors head. Harris could almost feel the heat of them, wavering only slightly as they ran over the top of his head. This is it, he said to himself. He pushed the button. The End