OLSEN: The Rickover called for search and rescue after it heard the submarine begin sinking. We'd had vessels on standby since it reported hearing gunfire on passive sonar.
MYERS: So it sank? The C-4 detonated?
TRENT: We'll get to that in a second. Right now I have a few things I'd like you to elaborate on.
MYERS: God, I haven't been elaborate enough? What's your question?
TRENT: Several questions, actually. First of all, you said Vazquez was infected with this virus. But why were none of the other SEALs infected, and what happened to the infected Korean crewmember you said started this whole thing?
MYERS: Well, the two are connected. As I mentioned, the documents we saw said it was transmitted only through body fluids. And Vazquez was the only one of us to come in contact with the body fluids of the Korean sailor who had been infected.
TRENT: You lost me. Could you—
MYERS: Remember how Vazquez said he fell on a corpse in the battery bay? And how his description of blood spraying from the corpse's mouth helped me determine a cause of death? Well, that must have been the body of the first Serpent. Lee's last-ditch attempt to kill it was successful. But the virus stayed alive in the man's blood. It wouldn't have survived much longer as the body's temperature continued to drop. Unfortunately, it found a new host before that happened.
OLSEN: You're saying the new host was Vazquez. He was infected when the blood sprayed on him.
MYERS: Exactly. It got in his eyes, his nose — we'll never know for sure. All it needed was a mucous membrane, and it obviously found one. Soon after, it began working its magic on Vazquez. And then he became the Serpent.
TRENT: But how did the virus begin spreading to begin with?
OLSEN: Do you think it was released from the locker you described? The one in the battery bay?
MYERS: One at a time. First, yes, I think it was being stored in that locker. Everything we read about the transfer of the research to the sub seems to indicate that it was transported in a container like that. And hell, the locker had "biohazard" stamped all over it.
TRENT: And how did it spread?
MYERS: I heard you the first time. I have no idea. Make up a story— it's just as likely to be right as anything I can come up with. The question is totally irrelevant at this point. The virus got out, that much is clear.
TRENT: No speculation at all?
MYERS: You want me to guess? Fine, I'll guess. Um… there was an interruption of the locker's power supply, and the virus's temperature rose to the point where it became active. Then a crewman trying to fix the locker accidentally got some on himself without knowing it. Then he set out to kill his fellow sailors. Happy?
OLSEN: You're saying it could have been anything.
MYERS: I'll say it again if you want.
TRENT: That's not very helpful, Dr. Myers.
MYERS: Not very helpful? Fuck you! I've told you everything I know, every fucking nuance I can recall. What's more, I eliminated this living, breathing bioweapon after fifteen SEALs died trying to do the same thing. I'd call that helpful. I'd call that a big debt that you owe me, and I'd call that a reason you should take your "helpful" comments and cram them up your ass. Is that helpful?
OLSEN: Doctor, try to relax.
TRENT: That's not what I meant.
MYERS: Yeah? What did you mean, then?
TRENT: Well, our people are going over the sub, and we want to make sure—
MYERS: Hold on a second. You have people on the sub? I sank the sub. I saw it going down. You said that ship, the Ricker, heard it sink.
OLSEN: Well. The Rickover did hear what sounded like a hull breach, and that's when it called for surface ships.
MYERS: So the Dragon didn't survive, right? Then how did you have people onboard? Wait, why did you just look at him like that?
OLSEN: Go ahead, Captain.
TRENT: Dr. Myers, the Dragon went down in less than three hundred feet of water. Its hull survived the low-speed impact with the seafloor.
MYERS: No.
TRENT: A salvage team used pontoons to raise it.
MYERS: Raise it?
OLSEN: The sub and pontoons were covered and towed to shore.
MYERS: Oh, fucking Christ. You've given it a chance to get away! It's going to get off that boat and it's going to spread the virus and it's going to kill and kill—
OLSEN: Doctor, the sub was completely searched. There was no one alive onboard. We didn't find Vazquez, but we did discover that one of the torpedo tubes had been flooded and fired. His fingerprints were found on the inside of the tube.
MYERS: I told you already, he faked his death there!
OLSEN: None of the documents you described were found. No diaries, no references to a super-virus, no reports on its development. The biohazard locker was empty. Completely empty. There weren't even any racks inside.
MYERS: Check my bag. I took notes, recorded observations.
OLSEN: No. All the tapes we found were blank. There were no fingerprint records, none of the evidence you said you collected.
TRENT: And the recording device in your bag had been disabled. Why did you destroy it, Doctor?
MYERS: Recording device?
OLSEN: A digital recorder was sewn into your bag before you left shore.
MYERS: Why?
TRENT: This was too sensitive an operation for us not to keep track of exactly what you knew. But you already understood that, didn't you? That's why you smashed it.
MYERS: Smashed it? I didn't smash anything! I didn't know there was anything to smash! Why would I think there was a bug in my bag?
OLSEN: It doesn't really matter.
MYERS: Don't you people understand? You've set a bioweapon loose on your own country! Check the crime reports in — where did you tow the sub?
TRENT: We can't tell you that.
MYERS: Wherever the Dragon was taken, check the crime reports. There will be rapes, lots of rapes. And murders. Those numbers will grow exponentially as more people become infected. It's happening right now. Why can't you see that?
OLSEN: We have no idea what happened onboard the Yong, Dr. Myers. But we suffered 100 percent casualties in a mission that yielded nothing. The sole bright spot was that secrecy was maintained. This was a black operation to begin with, and it's going to be invisible now. Absolutely invisible.
MYERS: That's it? That's your answer? Charlie — the division supervisor, Charles Weber — he knows where I was. He and Gen. Patterson aren't going to stand back and write all this off. What you people are doing is insane and illegal.
TRENT: Gen. Patterson authorized every step of the salvage and recovery process.
OLSEN: Operations just don't go this badly. Sometimes, in cases like this, you have to simply tie off the loose ends and stop asking questions.
MYERS: But I told you what happened. I told you everything. I answered your questions.
TRENT: Yes. You've done all you can for us.
MYERS: But you're not listening! Dammit, Vazquez is smarter than the three of us combined now. He sneaked off the boat after it was raised — remember what I told you about his skin camouflage? — and he covered his tracks. What's so hard to grasp about that? He took or destroyed everything that could substantiate my account of what took place on the submarine, including the virus samples, which he could be dumping in a reservoir right fucking now!
TRENT: We've been over that, haven't we?
MYERS: You don't believe me. I'm telling the truth, but I can see it's not registering. Why would I lie?
OLSEN: It's not a question of lies or belief. There comes a point where our views of truth — yours and mine — cease to matter.