Chapter 392: Showdown
“Ding!”
After the “ding”, the two of them only saw the doors slide open on both sides, revealing an empty and clean hall outside the elevator.
This was a duplex-structure hall, occupying the first and second floors of the laboratory building. It covered an area of close to 5,000 square meters, almost like a small playground. Unlike other commercial premises, the decoration of the laboratory hall was minimalistic, mainly in white and silver.
It seemed that because it was already night, there were only a few dozen researchers in white coats in the hall.
Most of these people were a.s.sistants to professors. Some of them were walking toward the elevator with trays of medicines while others were unloading goods outside the gate from the trucks, ready to transport these biochemical agents to the warehouse. Some were also sitting on the sidelines, sipping coffee at the bar in the lounge area, chatting with other people.
Around the hall, more than a dozen people were dressed in black, wearing lifeless expressions as they stood quietly in the corner.
Danny and Annie walked out of the elevator as casually as possible. Fortunately, people were coming and going in the hall and almost no one noticed them. Not only that, but there was also a reception desk near the doorway in the hall, where a female receptionist was standing.
Seeing the front desk, Annie suddenly had a flash of inspiration. She leaned toward Danny’s ear and whispered something.
Danny immediately understood.
Then, he walked directly to the front desk, stared at the woman’s badge, and said, “h.e.l.lo, Miss Linda, I need someone from maintenance to repair the computer in the laboratory for me. There seems to be a slight problem with that computer.”
The girl at the front desk nodded when she heard this and smiled. “No problem, sir, what’s the number of your laboratory?”
“Don’t you even know me?”
Danny manipulated his somewhat stiff face and smiled slightly as if creating an air of suspense.
“Sorry... I’m new here, I haven’t remembered all the researchers yet.”
The girl at the front desk immediately displayed an apologetic look.
“I’m Samuel.”
Danny said, “I need the computer repair person to come right away. I’ll just wait here, okay?”
“No problem, Mr. Samuel.”
The girl smiled graciously and then picked up the intercom and said into it, “Is the maintenance department there? Mr. Samuel needs someone to repair the computer in his laboratory. Please come to the front desk of the laboratory building immediately after getting this order, thank you.”
“The maintenance department has received the message. We’re sending someone over right now.”
A deep male voice came from the intercom.
Seeing this, Danny acted as if he had just thought of something. He held up a finger and said to Annie, “Dear daughter, I forgot to take something from the car. I’ll go get it first. You go with the maintenance person and wait in front of my laboratory first.”
“No problem... Dad...”
Annie lowered her eyes and whispered back.
Seeing this, Danny turned around and walked toward the elevator, returning to the underground parking lot.
About five minutes later, a bald middle-aged man in the uniform of the maintenance department walked in. He went directly to the front desk, looked at Annie on the side and said to the front desk, “Linda, where’s Mr. Samuel?”
“Mr. Samuel went to the underground parking lot. He said that after you’ve arrived, you can bring his daughter and wait for him in front of the laboratory,” the front desk kindly notified him.
“h.e.l.lo, I’m Annie.”
Annie stepped forward. “Let’s go to the laboratory first, my father will be there soon. By the way, do you know which floor my father’s laboratory is on?”
“h.e.l.lo, I’m Trent.”
The middle-aged man spread his hands, wearing a helpless look. “I’m sorry, because there are constantly new projects, many people’s laboratories are constantly changing, so I don’t know where your father’s laboratory is.”
“In that case, let me check.”
Seeing this, the female receptionist at the front desk simply bent down, clicked on the computer for a while, then raised her head and said, “It’s No. 203 at the BSL-2 Biological Laboratory on the fifth floor.”
“Thank you.”
Annie nodded to the female receptionist, then turned and walked toward the elevator.
Trent, who was in charge of the repair, immediately followed.
After re-entering the elevator, Trent first verified his ident.i.ty with his pa.s.s and then pressed the b.u.t.ton for the 5th floor while smiling at Annie. “I’ve heard Mr. Samuel mention you a long time ago. Everyone said that Samuel has a beautiful daughter and as I see today, they are right.”
“Am I so famous here?”
Annie was taken aback for a moment. She stared at Trent in a daze, tears involuntarily streaming down.
“Of course, you are your father’s pride. He mentions you almost every day during his work here, even our maintenance department has heard of this behavior of his.” Trent laughed and then noticed Annie was crying. He was a little overwhelmed. “Uh... Sorry, I don’t know what happened, if I’ve offended you, please...”
“It’s nothing!”
Annie quickly lowered her head, kept wiping her tears, and murmured, “It’s okay, I also love my father very much, very much...”
Trent suddenly looked at Annie as if she was acting strangely and for a while, the atmosphere in the elevator became awkward.
Still, fortunately, the elevator only went up for half a minute before opening its doors again. The two followed the door numbers to find laboratory 203, only to see that the metal door of the laboratory was shut tightly. On one side, there were also devices used to verify people’s ident.i.ty.
“It looks like your father hasn’t come up yet.”
Seeing this, Trent reminded her. “If there’s someone in the laboratory, there’ll be an indicator on the door.”
“Let me call him.”
Seeing this, Annie took out her phone and dialed a number directly. At the same time, she said, “Dad, Mr. Trent, who is in charge of maintenance, and I are both already waiting on the fifth floor, room 203. When will you come up?”
“I’ll be right over.”
Danny’s voice came through the phone.
Annie nodded, then turned and said, “My father will be up soon, please wait a moment.”
“No problem.”
Trent replied, not sensing anything wrong at all.
They both waited only two or three minutes before they saw “Samuel” walking up the corridor. At this moment, Trent suddenly said, “Mr. Samuel, long time no see.”
“It’s been a while.”
Danny said h.e.l.lo without any trace of panic while walking to the door of the laboratory. He paused for a while and then pressed his hand on the blank screen by the side.
“Beep!”
The green light of the tester blinked on and at the same time, the words “Palmprint confirmed” flashed on the blank screen. After that, the words “Please look here” flashed, marking a black hole beside the screen with an arrow.
Danny bent down slightly and glanced into the hole and then the words “Iris confirmed” flashed on the screen again. Finally, the screen showed a “Please breathe” prompt.
“Ahem!”
Danny coughed slightly and stood directly in front of the verifier, blocking it with his body. Annie on the side understood tacitly. She walked to Trent’s side and picked at something on his head while wondering aloud, “What is this?”
Trent turned his head instinctively, only to see a shred of confetti in Annie’s hand. “Mr. Trent, you had a piece of this on your head.”
“Thank you, Miss Annie.”
Trent nodded and turned back again.
However, what he did not know was that as soon as he turned his head, Danny quickly took out a spray bottle from his pocket and sprayed the screen.
“DNA test pa.s.sed, ident.i.ty confirmed... Welcome, Mr. Samuel, B3-level researcher.”
With another flash on the screen, the door of the laboratory in front of them opened automatically, revealing the changing room inside.
As it was only a P2 laboratory, there were no extreme requirements for cleanliness. The three of them just put on an additional lab coat and walked in.
“It’s this computer.”
Danny pointed to an electronic computer in the laboratory. “This computer always restarts automatically. I suspect it may be due to poor internal contact.”
“Alright, let me have a look.”
Trent immediately turned on the computer to check, but in less than five seconds, he asked again, “What is the computer pa.s.sword?”
Danny was startled for a moment and stood rooted to the spot.
“It’s 20040518.”
When Trent had not gotten an answer for a while and was raising his head in puzzlement, Annie said quickly, “That’s the pa.s.sword.”
“It seems that this is a string of numbers with special meaning.”
Trent suddenly understood. He smiled and glanced at the two of them, and then he turned on the computer after entering this line of numbers.
Seeing this, Danny and Annie secretly heaved a sigh of relief.
“Your computer is alright, Mr. Samuel.”
Ten minutes later, Trent raised his head again and said helplessly, “I didn’t notice the restart phenomenon and after entering the command phase, I didn’t find any abnormalities.”
“Never mind then.”
Danny waved his hand. “I’ll just wait for the problem to come up again before I call you. I’ll have to trouble you then, Trent.”
“That is my job, sir.”
Trent nodded and took the initiative to leave.
It was only until this outsider had left that Annie and Danny looked at each other. Danny could not help but blurt out, “This is the craziest day of my life!”
Annie did not answer. If it were not to rescue Fisher, she would have fallen into extreme anguish now, but the antic.i.p.ation of seeing Fisher temporarily suppressed her pain.
Seeing Annie did not answer, Danny also knew that he had said something wrong. He muttered something to himself, then took out a special USB flash drive from his pocket.
This USB flash drive was transparent throughout and one could see that there were gears, mechanical springs, and other mechanical structures continuously operating inside. All of this machinery was golden in color. On the whole, it looked like a priceless piece of handicraft.
After taking out the USB flash drive, Danny did not hesitate anymore. He directly inserted the USB flash drive into the computer.
Suddenly, the computer screen flickered slightly as if endless bytes were flowing across the screen, but after Danny blinked, he saw that the computer screen was completely dark. Although the computer’s processor was still running, the screen was pitch black, and nothing was seen.
“Success!”
Seeing this, Danny was not alarmed but was delighted instead. He stood up in glee and said to Annie, “The quantum virus has invaded the intranet of the laboratory building. This company is done for and all their secrets will be exposed!”
Annie nodded. At this time, she should have been happy that they had overthrown this evil company, happy that Brother Fisher would be rescued soon, but for some reason, she still could not be happy.
It was as if something was blocking her heart. There was only a pang of sorrow.
“Dad.”
Samuel’s face flashed past Annie’s eyes. She stared at the door of the laboratory blankly, thinking of something known to no one else.
“We’ll leave now.”
Danny pulled out the USB flash drive and kept it with him. He received a warning from the higher-ups early on during the mission. The value of this USB flash drive was incomparable. Whether they succeeded or not, they must take the USB flash drive away, never letting it fall into the hands of Blacklight Biotechnology.
Still, in Danny’s opinion, this was to be expected. After all, this was a USB flash drive that could store quantum viruses. It was likely to be a unique existence in the world, like the quantum computer, so it was invaluable.
These thoughts flashed through Danny’s mind. At this time, he grabbed Annie and walked out of the laboratory without waiting for her to recover, but Danny’s face changed drastically after they went out.
At an unknown time, on both sides of the corridor, more than a dozen security guards with poker faces and in black suits had blocked their path in the corridor!
“What are you doing, don’t you know me? I’m Samuel!”
Danny tried to push his luck. He tried to yell, but before he had finished, he was interrupted by a round of applause.
At the same time, a clear and soft voice rang out from behind the security guards. “What a great show! Annie, Danny, I didn’t expect that current science and technology would be so powerful. Not only are there 3D human skin masks that are difficult to distinguish from the real thing, but there’s also the quantum virus. All this opened my eyes!”
The voice laughed. “Thank you for helping me locate a loophole in my defense. This is the second one I found this month.”
As their names were called out by a strange voice, despair finally spread across Danny’s gaze. He tore off the mask on his face and tore the print on his palm at the same time.
At this point, a sound of footsteps followed. Meanwhile, the security guards on both sides suddenly turned around and automatically made way for a narrow path in the corridor.
At once, a young girl from China, with bright eyes and white teeth, wearing a white dress, appeared in front of them.
The girl was only about fourteen or fifteen years old. She had an astoundingly beautiful face. There were no flaws in her facial features yet there was none of the artificiality of cosmetic surgery. The perfect facial features worked together to create a seamless harmony.