Genesis by Keith R. A. DeCandido

illicit meetings, arranging to get her hands on the T-virus. Today was the day she would get it.
    After the last meeting, she had set things up with Matt. That was more of a challenge, since she couldn’t just call him on the phone—at least at first. She set up an e-mail account on a free service that was not likely to be traced to her. If somehow the e-mail was traced backto the Hive, the person Umbrella would assign to find it would be her, and even if someone else in the company realized it was specifically her, she could chalk it up to her account being hacked. It might cause her some embarrassment, but she could live with that.
    Once the account was set up, she sent out a mass e-mail to thousands of addresses with a text-only attachment that ninety percent of the e-mail programs in the country would interpret as spam and block. The remaining ten percent would get through and be deleted unread by the receiver. Anyone stupid enough to open an unsolicited attachment would find only a text file full of gibberish.
    However, one of the addresses that received the spam was one she set up for her brother. Matt checked that address once a day, and waited for an e-mail from this particular address. The gibberish was in a code that Matt had given her from his days as a Federal Marshal. Any halfway decent cryptographer could probably crack it in about five minutes, but the circumstances under which a cryptographer would even know of the file’s existence were extremely unlikely.
    Sure enough, two days after she sent the e-mail, Lisa got a phone call.
    â€œHey Lisa, it’s Matt.”
    Putting on a surprised face for the benefit of any coworkers that might be looking on—not to mention the Red Queen’s surveillance—she said, “Matt? What’s the matter? Are Mom and Dad all right?”
    Matt laughed. “They’re fine, really. What, I’m onlyallowed to call my baby sister when there’s a family crisis?”
    â€œAllowed, no, but it’s usually the only time you do call me. Besides, ever since you quit the marshals you’ve been penny-pinching. You wouldn’t make a long-distance call unless it was an emergency.”
    â€œWell, it’s not a long-distance call, actually, I’m in Raccoon.”
    Lisa blinked in mock-surprise. “What brings you out here?”
    â€œOh, just a visit. Got restless in San Francisco, so I thought I’d come up and visit my favorite sister.”
    â€œI’m your only sister, Matt.”
    â€œOkay, so it was easy to rank you first. Doesn’t change the fact that I came up to see you. Can you get away? I can be there in two hours.”
    That was the important part. She had arranged to meet with Alice this morning in the mansion. Matt just informed her that he, too, could be at the mansion this morning—specifically two hours from now. That was perfect.
    However, she still had a role to play. After all, she’d taken her leave for the month when she and Alice had lunch. “Damn, I can’t today. I’d have to run it by my boss. Maybe tomorrow?”
    â€œMaybe? Geez, Lisa, what’re you doing down there, the Manhattan Project Part 2?”
    Lisa swallowed. In a way, Matt’s joke hit closer to home than she was entirely comfortable with. The T-virus was as deadly as the atomic bomb. Maybe deadlier.
    Before she could reply to that, a high-pitched buzzing started.
    â€œWhat’s that noise?” Matt asked suddenly.
    Sighing, Lisa said, “It’s nothing. Fire drill.”
    â€œYou’re in a hole in the ground; what do they need with fire drills?”
    â€œSo we don’t die a horrible death when something catches fire here in our hole in the ground. Look, call me back tomorrow morning, okay? I’ve got to go do the drill.”
    â€œYeah, fine. Bye, sis.”
    Hanging up, Lisa got up and grabbed her gray suit jacket off the back of her chair. In some ways, this worked in