"Turn away from me and place your gun down on the floor," the chairwoman ordered.
Matthew, however, refused to do so for a moment. After all, what made her think that holding him to gunpoint would make him stop there? However, he realised that it wasn't rational for him to get himself killed there. As such, he complied and squatted, placing his weapon on the ground.
The chairwoman then brought his gun up as she stepped ahead of Matthew. She kept her own gun in one hand, aiming it at Matthew as she walked sideways. She then tossed Matthew's gun out of the broken window as soon as she arrived at the edge of the building. She walked back and went behind him, keeping her weapon on his back.
"I think I've given you enough chances to live already. You and your dumbass friends ruined my plans enough," the chairwoman said. "I even gave you a golden chance to join us and preserve your own life, but you refused to. And so, you will die today!"
Matthew scoffed, absolutely done with her words. "You pathetic shrew," Matthew insulted her. "I can't believe that you could even get your plans this far with that smooth brain of yours."
Instantly, the chairwoman was offended. And she wasn't going to tolerate Matthew's words anymore. As such, she grabbed him by the shoulders and threw him down to the ground forcefully. She aimed her gun down at him as he groaned in pain, cocking the pistol. "Shut up!" she screamed, her finger ready to pull the trigger.
Despite this, Matthew still smirked. He wasn't afraid to die. He would have still fulfilled his purpose if he were to get shot at that moment. To stop Yael and convict them. "Fine. Kill me," Matthew taunted, still chortling. "But before you do pull the trigger, you should look down at the main road in front of the building."
The chairwoman didn't take his words seriously at first, but after keeping silent and noticing some strange sounds coming from below, she relaxed her finger. She returned to the broken window, still holding the gun at Matthew. She then peered down at the ground level and found patches of blue and red alternating in colours. Sirens accompanied the lights, which meant that she was in deep trouble.
"Damn it!" the chairwoman blared as she walked back to Matthew. She squatted in front of him, putting the gun to his head. She laid her finger on the trigger again, ready to shoot him dead this time. "If I go to hell, then you'll go with me—"
"Drop it, Georgia!" Megan hollered as she brought a revolver up to the chairwoman's head. This time, the chairwoman was in jeopardy, just like Matthew. "I have the legal authority to shoot you and will not hesitate to do it!"
The chairwoman initially resisted Megan's orders. Her gun was still pointed at Matthew, but her finger gradually fell off the trigger. She then tried to turn to face Megan, but Megan stopped her.
"Don't turn around!" Megan yelled as a warning. "Just drop your gun, now," she added in a more patient voice.
However, her patience with the chairwoman wasn't working. The chairwoman remained resistant and didn't want to lower the gun. As such, Megan cocked her weapon, ready to shoot the chairwoman, just like how the chairwoman was ready to shoot Matthew. "Do it!" Megan screamed, losing her patience.
Finally, the chairwoman gave in, dropping her gun to the floor. Megan grabbed the pistol up from the floor before keeping it for herself. She then brought it up and walloped the chairwoman in the head, causing her to black out.
"Are you okay?" Megan questioned Matthew as she got down on her knees to assist him.
"Yes," he groaned as he got up. "I'm fine. I probably just sprained an ankle or something."
"Don't worry about that," Megan reassured him. "We'll all get to a hospital after this. Now, I need you to take a look at this first." She then brought up several documents from her pocket. They were all folded to fit, so she unfolded them so Matthew could read them properly.
He gently took the paper from Megan's open hand. There was some blood smeared on it—presumably from Megan's gunshot wound. However, the text was still readable through the blood.
"Project Salvation?" Matthew questioned as he read the title of the document, which was printed at the top.
"Read it for yourself," Megan said as she glanced at the paper, rereading it.
Matthew glanced at the bottom of the page first. Listed in the project details were a primary distributor, primary organiser, primary sponsor and primary supplier. And it reminded him of a similar document about the Lazarus initiative.
"The primary distributor is Palmer's company, while the primary sponsor and organiser is Yael. I think that's quite obvious, don't you think?" Matthew commented.
Megan nodded, pouting her lips. "Well, yes. But look at the primary supplier."
Matthew took a close glance at the supplier's name. In fact, they just seemed to be initials. It was almost as if the person or corporation didn't want their identity to be made known. It was strange that Yael didn't disclose the name, but it seemed unimportant then. "T.S.P.," Matthew read the initials out loud. "Looks like we'll have to find out who that is next time."
"And, look at the information regarding subjects infected by the BMEV-2 virus," Megan redirected his attention.
He then flipped the pages before finding the details on the creatures. Everything about it was documented—its nature, strengths, behaviour, anatomy and other things. But what drew Matthew towards the most was the section on its weaknesses.
"It says that its major weakness is... high sound frequency?" Matthew questioned as he read through the passage again.
"Anything above 6kHz damages their ears, and anything above 8kHz can essentially kill them," Megan summarised the information such that Matthew need not read the whole page. They had barely any time to waste. The chairwoman would wake up anytime soon.
"Wait a minute," Matthew stopped her. "There's a radio antenna at the top of this tower, right? Maybe it can transmit a signal throughout the city and beyond, if possible," he suggested, which sounded like a great idea.
"We could try that," Megan agreed. "We just need to find the transmission controls room or something."
"Let me take a look at one more thing," Matthew said, stopping Megan from making a move for then. He flipped back a little more and found details on the rationale of the project. And it all made sense after reading them. "AES-128 is used as a... bioweapon. That means Yael supplied Palmer with this substance, knowing he would want to test it with as many people as possible since he was desperate to save his diseased wife. They used Palmer as an easy way to spread the virus. And their ultimate goal after causing an outbreak is to supply a vaccine and cure after giving the outbreak time to develop, in which the government would pay them a hefty sum of money as they would be the only ones to even have a vaccine or cure," he said, which finally allowed both of them to understand what was really happening and everyone's motives had become clear.
"Well, let's get started now," Megan said, marking the beginning of their final task.
Matthew nodded before scurrying towards the unconscious chairwoman, who was lying on the floor. He then dragged her by the shoulders as he moved towards the elevator lobby. Megan followed him, assuming that they were heading to the roof.
"Hopefully, all goes well," she said as she moved with Matthew to the elevator lobby, helping a little with pulling the chairwoman up.
The chairwoman was slightly heavy, which was a little strange. However, Matthew found out what was causing the extra weight when he lifted her blouse a little and found a bulletproof tactical vest inside. He then covered the vest back with the blouse, which was useless, seeing how she was knocked out.
Megan laid her finger on the elevator call button to press it. However, she stopped when an elevator chime came about. She stepped back, expecting someone to appear in the elevator. And there was indeed someone in it.
As the doors slid open, a recognisable figure appeared in front of them in the carriage. A figure that they thought they wouldn't encounter at such a location. A person that was armed with a baton, although outnumbered by the two armed detectives.
Megan's eyes widened as she gasped in shock for a split second while Matthew brought up a pistol that belonged to the chairwoman. It didn't take Megan long enough to follow along. She grabbed out her mini revolver, taking aim.
"Drop the baton and keep your hands in the air!" Matthew bellowed as he glared at the person, fury painted on his face.
The person thus lowered his baton, knowing it was no match against two guns. However, it remained in his hand, and he was hesitant to let go. Eventually, he was forced to release his grip on the weapon either way, and so he dropped it to the group with a clank.
Megan stepped forward and pulled out a plastic wire, coiling it around the man's hands. She then turned him around, pushing him back towards the elevator. "Get back inside, Daniel!" she said as she forcefully shoved him towards the walls of the elevator.
Matthew dragged the chairwoman in before entering the elevator shortly afterwards. He then dumped her at a corner of the carriage, her hands also restrained with the same type of wire used for Daniel. After settling her down, he proceeded to press the button for the roof, which signalled to the elevator to close the doors and move up.
Daniel tried making the restraints on him more comfortable by attempting to loosen the wires. Unfortunately, it didn't work very well. Just wiggling his wrists within the coiled wiring was hard enough, which made loosening it seemingly impossible.
And before he knew it, Megan had already noticed his conspicuous actions. She brought her revolver back up to the side of his forehead. She then moved her mouth towards his ears before speaking discreetly. "Move your hands one more time, and I'll move a bullet into your skull," she whispered, warning of the consequences, before stepping back.
Daniel, however, didn't seem too contented. He gave a murderous glare as he kept his gaze on Megan. He was convinced that he would get out of the complicated situation, although the detectives were doing all they could to ensure that wouldn't happen.
After the seemingly eternal and intense wait for their arrival at the roof, the elevator finally stopped. The doors slid open to reveal the open space of the building's rooftop. The trio could already feel the powerful gusts of wind blowing against them, but they kept moving.
Megan kept her gun on Daniel as she pulled him out of the elevator. Meanwhile, Matthew began dragging the chairwoman out to the rooftop too. The howling gales that overwhelmed the atmosphere blew against her face mercilessly, causing her to slowly regain consciousness. Matthew, however, didn't change how he was moving her around despite noticing that she was coming round. He just found no purpose in treating her with respect if she couldn't do that with others.
He looked around, his grip still on the chairwoman. The radio antenna of the tower was visible from his spot, and it was enormous. It towered over him, its oversized shadow adding to that of the building, which fell on the rest of the city during the evening sun. And below the antenna was a broadcasting room, which was largely empty.
"Help me tie both of them up with more of the wiring, will you?" he requested Megan. She nodded before grabbing out more plastic wire from a small pouch that Matthew laid down.
As she coiled the wiring around the chairwoman's and Daniel's torsos, Matthew moved towards the room located below the antenna. He assumed it to be a radio transmitter room rather than a broadcasting one, seeing how the lack of equipment gave away the fact that it couldn't possibly be suitable for broadcasting news. After all, Yael was secretive enough to keep all the floors above the 12th isolated from the public.
He pulled open the door to the room as soon as he arrived in front of it, which was surprisingly lightweight. He had expected a heavier door to withstand the strong winds that were present at the elevation of two thousand feet. Whatever the case was, he still entered the room to get a better look at the few items present in it.
At the very front of the rather small room was a large radio transmitter machine that seemed highly advanced. At least a hundred buttons and sliders were present on the complex machinery, although Matthew could identify some key features that would be vital in operating the radio antenna. The rest of the functions were practically purposeless, leading him to ignore them.
Above the machine was a computer monitor and a central processing unit accompanying it. Both compartments were connected to the device by some complicated wiring, which indicated that the computer likely operated with the transmitter. Finally, there was a mini sound system consisting of twin stereo speakers on the left of the computer monitor and the right of the central processing unit.
Matthew proceeded to turn the radio transmitter, sound system and computer on by connecting the power to the whole room. The machinery of the transmitter could be heard whirring while an unreadable string of letters began running on the computer monitor. Meanwhile, the lighting in the room flashed on as power ran through the entire room.
After a minute of waiting, the transmitter and computer fully started up. A graphical user interface appeared on the computer monitor in front of Matthew. As he began making some changes to the controls on the transmitter board, the screen changed with it, identifying the changes being made and adjusting other statistics.
It was then that he realised that the monitor was displaying everything being outputted by the radio transmitter. He turned to face the central processing unit, which seemed to be running since it was making some noises. However, the software installed in the radio transmitter enabled it to work as a CPU itself, rendering the other one obsolete.
Matthew proceeded to turn the radio antenna on by supplying power to it. The process was silent, unlike that of switching on the transmitter. Within a couple of seconds, the antenna was fully operational, and Matthew could begin inputting some controls.
He then adjusted the radio signal to 10 kilohertz—a frequency fatal to subjects infected by the BMEV-2 virus. The creatures could easily fall prey to short-wave radio frequency, which severely harmed their ears and brains, as documented in the reports Megan had found in one of the laboratories.
Despite this, he didn't transmit the signals yet. He knew it was better to get more clarity and confidence on the situation before making any bold moves. However, even before he had begun the operation, a popup appeared on the computer monitor.