Episode 3.06 - Deliver the Helpless
Familiars' Laboratory, Sector 12 - July 1, 2021, early morning
A scowl on his face, Ames White kicked the metal trashcan across the floor of the laboratory. The cell phone had been silent for too long; he had heard nothing from Thula or any other members of the Phalanx for several hours, so he could only assume that their mission to release the disabling gas within Terminal City had failed.
"Damn!" he shouted, startling the lab technician, who nearly dropped the vial he was holding.
"What's the status?" he asked testily.
"First dose ready for dispersal, sir," the lab tech replied, his voice trembling a bit in response to the other man's display of temper.
"Good," White said, walking over to a large map of Seattle. He pointed to a vector near Terminal City. "It goes right here. This better work as well as the trial run in the Himalayas did."
The lab tech nodded meekly.
"Right now," White snarled. "I want their allies dead as soon as possible. And those National Guard and Sector Police idiots. When the good guys start dropping dead and spreading this, that should stop the pro-transgenic movement in its tracks and cause widespread panic. Now, how soon can you have the rest of the biotoxin ready?"
"I can have a batch ready every two hours, sir."
"Good. I want a batch released every two hours, then, in this pattern." He shoved pins into the map in a widening spiral pattern. Then he turned on his heel and walked away, muttering.

The Sewers, Terminal City
Lydecker, standing amid the rubble and dead Phalanx members, looked down at their bodies with regret. He shook his head.
"Too bad they were fighting for the bad guys. They were formidable opponents. I could have done a lot with them if I could have taken some of them alive." He turned to Krit and Syl. "Make sure they're buried with soldiers' honors."
He walked away to find Sandeman and report the casualties.

Advanced Recombinant Genetics Laboratory, Terminal City
The old laboratory was as dusty and disordered as Max remembered it from months ago, when she had confronted CJ, Sandeman's younger son, there. Most of the equipment was still where it had been left when the previous occupants had hastily decamped, although Logan and Dix had recently commandeered most of the computer setups for the Command Center. Joshua, happy to be with his 'father' again after so long a time, accompanied them.
"We didn't get the chance to talk yesterday," Sandeman said.
"I know. I had to - take care of some business," Max replied.
Sandeman nodded in understanding. "May I?" he asked, indicating an old chair. Max nodded and Sandeman sat, wearily. "My people are ancient," he began.
Max rolled her eyes. "You're not gonna tell me how your alien spaceship crashed here, back in the days when we all lived in caves, are you?"
"No. We are human also, a variant of the human race that evolved in an isolated part of the world. A natural disaster forced us from our homeland and we encountered other humans for the first time. Only then did we realize that they were not like us. Some of us were immune to pain, some to disease, some to poisons like snake venom. That was when they began breeding."
"They who?" asked Joshua.
"Most of us were content, and still are, to live quietly among other humans. But some saw that selective breeding could create a superior race. And then they began to believe that only they deserved to live, that the weak and inferior should die. These are the ones you know as Familiars. They believed this so strongly, they turned it into a cult, a religion, instead of the science it actually was. They even believed that the heavens themselves would signal the Coming."
"The stars. They watch the stars," guessed Joshua.
"Yes, Joshua. Meteors, comets. Signs." Sandeman shook his head. "Periodically, plagues and epidemics decimate the human race. We who are immune to the snakebite are also immune to these diseases. For thousands of years, the Familiars have waited for the epidemic that would kill the unworthy. Each time, however, humanity has survived, and the Familiars have grown tired of waiting."
"So White thought he'd give Mother Nature a hand," Max said.
"Yes. Once they had the science, the technology, they could take matters into their own hands, unleash destruction on their own timetable. That was when I began Manticore, racing against time."
Max snorted. "I still don't get why you dragged me into this."
"I need your blood, Max, to give humans immunity. Our blood is incompatible with human blood. The rejection would kill them."