CONTAMINATE

12. Daddy's Girl

Harrison Morris

Harrison Morris was not a handsome man. He also did not possess the height of most of his peers. Simply put, his few friends and colleagues who were handsome men, towered over his 5'2 height. But there was something about Harrison Morris that intimidated most men his age and drew women of all social standing to him.

Harrison Morris was a genius, literally. He graduated from the university when he was 19. Since he came from a poor family who migrated to America after the Holocoust, although of small stature, he was built for hard work. He worked his way through school. From being a paper boy, a dishwasher, convenience store clerk/cashier and other odd jobs here and there, he was able to save enough money to get him started at the university. Being smart, ge got into scholarship and graduated with honors. Top companies fought for his employment. He declined all offers. He built his own company and now, world leaders and government kissed the earth he tread on. He built his empire building war armaments and weapons of mass destruction. He was a ruthless man and had no time for love or compassion. He was invincible. Or so he thought. Until he had his only child, Natalie Morris Bane.

He loved his daughter more than anything in the world. He loved her mother too, but she died in childbirth. When his wife died, Harrison became bitter towards everyone. He hated his business partners and those politicians who can be bought with a few million dollars.

When his daughter told him she was marrying someone she was in love with, Harrison, for the first time in his life, was speechless. "He is only after your money! Don't be a fool Natalie!"

But when he met Gareth Bane, he changed his mind. He saw himself in Gareth, smart, ambitious, ruthless. There was just one difference. Gareth Bane was devilishly handsome. And Harrison knew that his only daughter was head over heels in love with him.

He gave them a wedding of the century. The couple hit front pages of magazines and society columns. The buzz on their marriage subsided for almost half a year before it finally died down. "Prince Charming marries Ugly Duckling" one of the tabloids screamed on the front page. After a day, the writer vanished into thin air and was never heard of until today. Nobody dared write against Natalie Morris Bane, daughter of Harrison Bane and heiress to BCDC.

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When Harrison heard of the incident that brought a lockdown to BCDC. There were just four people who has access to his testing chamber, himself included. Three people he trusted has proximity cards to that place  ~ Natalie, Gareth and Rachel Monroe. The latter being a necessity because she was the creator of his most expensive and most sought after virus, the Frozen Z. The former two will someday inherit all that he had. He was extremely worried because Rachel Monroe was the most likely to have had encountered an accident. They were scheduled to test the Frozen Z Virus on a human subject in a couple of weeks. But Dr. Monroe would not proceed without him. She was too professional to go against protocol.  That leaves Gareth and Natalie...

For the first time in his life, Harrisom Morris felt fear enveloped his whole being.

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He walked hurriedly, as if the devil was after him. He went into the BCDC office and laboratory buildings. The front-most building which housed the reception area and executive offices was deserted. He went directly to the largest office in that building. His office. He had his proximity access card, thankfully. During lockdowns as an aftermath of contamination, only the Chairman and CEO of the company can open automatically-locked doors in the entire BCDC premises.

"Jamie!" he hollered for his secretary.

"Where is my daughter? Where is Dr. Monroe?" he asked the cowering-in-fear secretary.

"Sir Dr. Monroe resigned couple days ago. Her resignation was tendered to your daughter and she signed her acceptance. She was also the one who gave it to me to attach to Dr. Monroe's 201 File..."

"What?! She was not authorized to accept resignation from anyone! Much more Dr. Monroe's! She is too valuable to the company! And what about Natalie? Where the hell is she? And Gareth? Where the fuck is everybody?"

The secretary just looked blankly at her fuming mad boss, tears almost spilling from her eyes smudging her mascara.

"Oh for Pete's sake! Stop crying and come with me. We'll check the CCTV room in the Engineering Department!" Harrison Morris did not wait for Jamie to follow him and turned around, the leather soles of his Armani shoes clicking on the marble floors.

They reached the engineering office housing the monitors of all CCTV cameras in the entire BCDC compound. There was just one place without CCTV camera-the testing chamber. Having such there would be too risky. Harrison could not afford to have leakages of what his company is doing. The nearest CCTV to the testing chamber was the one in the Chairman & CEO's lounge in that same building. He checked the recorded footages of each CCTV personally. He first looked at the one in the CCLounge. What he saw have her hope that his daughter and Dr. Monroe were just somewhere in one of the offices having a meeting. He saw the receptionist Missy shaking and hugging her knees in the farfhest corner of the lounge, hair a mess, her silk blouse torn and dirty, tailored Versaće suit lying in a heap on the floor. Missy kept glancing towards the door, looking very frightened.

"Sir, Mr. Bane is locked down in his office in the Physics and Chemistry department. He seemed to be alone there. No sign of Dr. Monroe, maybe ...maybe because she already resigned..." Jamie faltered, now finding Harrison Morris' logic on the entire Rachel Monroe resignation that it seemed odd.

They spent another 30 minutes looking through all the monitors unsuccessfully.

"Let's go get Gareth first, then Missy. Maybe they known where Natalie is?"

Jamie followed Harrison Morris to the Physics and Chemistry offices.