Chapter 13: Reversal of Fortune
Perspective: Eddie
I tried to make sense of the general chaos happening around me. Even as the AFA’s forces retreated and the general sense of safety returned, the dust settling, our forces were in disarray trying to figure out what had happened.
What I could piece together was this: There had been a squadron of spies, a group of furries embedded within the ranks of the AFA group that attacked us. They had broken through the quarantine rooms and been hit by the second virus. Once it began to spread, they started to change, taking anthro form and thus blowing their cover.
"Escort the newly transformed into the spare quarantine rooms, as many as you can fit in whatever room we have left." I sighed.
"You know, it’s funny." Daniel sighed next to me. "I keep expecting Gordon to show up and start barking orders, make sense of everything, keep everyone focused, you know?"
"Yeah." I said. "I know what you mean. Everyone seems a bit disorganized without him." I looked at him. "You okay?" I asked.
"I will be." he sighed. "They’ve got therapists here, so… I’ll be fine."
I nodded.
"Well," I said, looking toward the group of recently-turned anthros in AFA armor, "looks like we’ll have our work cut out for us. More so than usual."
"I’ll let you get to it, then." he said.
He walked off and as he did I turned to Jess, who was looking around the lab nervously, her ears twitching.
"Hey…" I said gently. "You okay?"
"I… I don’t know." she said. "I just… I feel like it’s all happening again."
"Hey, we don’t know if any of the other AFA were infected." I said. "And if they were, they of all people would be keen on keeping such an infection from spreading."
"But if it didn’t… if it spreads unchecked…" she whispered.
"It won’t." I said. She nodded and offered a small smile.
"Thanks." she said.
At this moment, a neurologist from the FSF’s science team walked up at a brisk pace. He was one of the few humans I’d seen; an FSF supporter who wasn’t an outright furry. I caught the smell of sweat and panic on him before he came close, then heard his rapid heartbeat as he came closer, but after all the drama we’d just seen I didn’t think anything of it until I turned to face him and saw the panic and dread in his eyes.
"We’ve got a problem." he said, panting. "An AFA team managed to get in and grab a contained sample of the second strain."
My stomach lurched, but I raised an eyebrow in confusion as I saw he held a biological sample container in his left hand.
"What’s this then?" I asked.
"This…" he said, "is a sample of a virus stolen from the AFA labs, retrieved by one of our recently transformed and unexpected friends."
"The AFA has a virus?" I asked, staring at the container. He nodded grimly.
"We haven’t analyzed it yet, but the spy group that just came in claims it was reverse engineered from ours." he said.
"Reverse engineered… to do what?" I asked, though I dreaded the answer.
"To kill off anthros." he said. "It’s meant to be lethal to any and all members of the furry fandom. The AFA prison camps we’ve been liberating these past few months? That’s what they’ve been doing with them."
"They’re testing them…" I murmured, a shudder of horror going down my spine as I glanced toward the quarantine rooms. The thought of an entire group of people captured and tested by force, against their own will…
"Thankfully, it’s incomplete. They didn’t manage to fully reverse engineer the virus."
"But they might manage to with a stolen sample of the second strain." I said. "Get this thing analyzed immediately. We need to know how close they were to a viable reverse engineered virus."
"Right away." the man said.
——
I walked into the FSF council room stone-faced, ready to deliver the bad news.
"According to the intel gathered by our unexpected allies now in quarantine," I said, "the FSF was attempting to reverse engineer the first strain of our virus into a weapon to use against us. Our analysis on the sample we obtained from this embedded spy group confirms this to be the case." I felt the dread fall over the room. "Unfortunately, with the sample of the second strain from our lab, they will be closer to this goal than before."
"That’s why we have to act fast." Iona said, standing. "The spy group has given us the location of several bases of the AFA, one of which is their virus lab. However, another is the location of a base where they are likely to be holding Gordon. And unfortunately, after this attack, we don’t have the resources to pursue both."
"If you attack the virus lab, they’ll know we have the location of their bases and they might move Gordon to another location. We might never find him again." I said. "It will take them awhile to reverse engineer the virus. We have time to stop that, who knows how long they’ll keep Gordon alive?"
"And if we manage to rescue him, they’ll only move their virus to another location." Iona said. "And if that happens, many more people will be in danger."
I sighed.
"Lieutenant Warner, surely you have something to say about all of this?" I asked Lana. She pondered the situation for a moment.
"A lot of us like to believe Gordon was the moral center of our group." she said. "But I don’t think that’s true. I have to believe that even though he’s gone, we can still do the right thing. Tracking down this virus is the right thing to do."
She dismissed the meeting and I approached her quietly and discreetly.
"I admit, I’m surprised at your decision." I said.
"Mm," she murmured, "well, about that."
I raised an eyebrow, my ear twitching. She waited until the room was clear and everyone was out of earshot, which took awhile with the superhuman hearing of many of the anthro council members.
"I need you to fetch Daniel for me. Tell him to round up a small group of operatives." she said.
"Lieutenant?" I asked.
"I said Gordon would do the right thing." she said. "But he’d also do everything he could to rescue a friend."
I nodded and smiled.
"I’ll get him." I said.
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