“Dr. Henry Wigginton. I thought you were dead.” Pam sounded a little disappointed when she said that. I don’t suppose I blame her. She stared at me for what felt like a full minute, and then opened the metal box I’d set on the table in front of her. “Is that what I think it is?”
“It is,” I said.
The young man hoverin’ at her side said, “That’s the code generator that opens the vault.”
“It is,” I repeated.
“Stanford doesn’t have it,” the young man said. He got excited, almost jumpin’ up and down. “Stanford doesn’t have it!”
Pam glared at me again. “Why did you do it? Stanford didn’t even know the CDC had a containment lab here. We could have – -”
I cut her off: “I didn’t trust you with it, either.”
“Stanford doesn’t have it, Pam!” The young guy shouted. That made Jimmy jump. If the Plonk soldiers hadn’t taken our guns, he probably would have drawn on ‘em out of instinct. “We don’t have to go through with…” The guy’s voice quieted as we heard the gunfire outside. It was too late in the day for any such recalculation.
