Connected Infection

10. Upheaval - Chapter 5.1

5

London, UK

Tuesday, July 18th 2028

01:46 (UTC+1)

The phone at the side of the lab rang. Simon clapped his gloved hands together, shaking clouds of desiccant onto the bench, and walked over to answer it.

'Parfitt,' Odessa said, on audio only, before Simon could speak. 'Glad you're not sleeping. Anything to report?'

'Uh, well, I looked in some of the other 8075 batteries,' he began, 'and they too display the, um...'

'No, no,' Odessa said. 'Not on the phone. I'm coming down there.'

'Uh...'

Odessa hung up on him. Simon walked back to the bench where he'd been working. The carcasses of a number of lithium-based batteries were laid out in groups, all displaying the same fossil-like pattern as that in the first phone, the one he had lost his temper with, and the bench looked somewhat like a dusty morgue for arachnida. He had a variety of different autopsy tools scattered around, as well as magnifying glasses, a microscope, the hammer that had got him into this mess, a tub of desiccant, and a growing pile of plastic splinters and phone fragments. Several scorch marks stained the surface, and close to hand was his blackened jacket - he'd been using it to smother the phone fires, since it was already ruined. He'd dragged over a CO2 fire extinguisher, but hadn't used it after its first blast had blown all his equipment onto the floor, and he'd wasted half an hour cleaning up.

Simon knew Odessa wouldn't like what he had to tell him. They couldn't afford to lose the advantage the 8075s had given them on the market and in the consumer's eye, especially as retinal-reading earpiece-and-boom phones were making a comeback. Although it had been proven that the public liked phones they could hold, the market was fickle, and the company's lofty status precarious. If the bizarre patterns forming in 8075 batteries were the cause of the malfunctions, they needed to find a way to stop them immediately.

Simon glanced up at the clock by the door. It was nearly two. Drinking so much coffee and gingerly poking at things that were altogether too spider-shaped for his already-stretched nerves wasn't exactly what he'd had in mind for the night.

After a while he heard a voice in the corridor outside the phone labs. He wandered over and peered out. Odessa was leaning against a wall, on his phone, his other hand jammed in his pocket.

'No, honey,' he was saying. 'I know what time it is, but I am at the office. I promise.'

Simon briefly wondered whether he was speaking to Natalie, until Odessa spoke again, his voice rising and his face turning ruddy.

'Carol! Listen,' he snapped. 'Does it sound like I'm in a bar? Does it?' He held his phone out to the empty corridor. 'No, there's no background noise! And you know why that is? Because I'm still in the office!'

Simon shrank back, not wanting to be caught by Odessa in such a foul mood, but his side of the conversation carried into the lab anyway.