“It is perfectly obvious that the whole world is going to hell. The only possible chance that it might not is that we do not attempt to prevent it from doing so.”

Robert Oppenheimer

5 years earlier…

Jacob Trials pushed his shades up the bridge of his nose as he walked through the automatic doors that led into S&L Laboratories, adjusting his collar as he walked past the shining marble reception desk so that his face was tilted at the right angle to be concealed from the security camera that stood out prominently above. His long, confident stride and air of preoccupation kept anyone from questioning his presence, and he made quickly for the little-used stairway at the back of the building, ignoring the more convenient elevators clustered near the front. Pushing on the bar to open the door into the staircase and swinging it open with such force that he barely broke stride, he swept forward and began climbing the stairs two at a time. He reached the 6th floor in short time.

Standing in front of the door out he peered through the frosted glass at the silhouettes that wandered around on the other side, then quickly swung his small leather backpack into his hands, removing from within a white lab coat and tossing the backpack down the stairs. Replacing his shades with thick-rimmed black glasses, he stepped out and headed purposefully down the corridor, ID badge hanging from his breast pocket.

He had made it almost all the way to the tech lab before he was questioned. Fortunately it was a lab assistant of some kind who went down unconscious at a single knuckle-duster blow to the temple, causing no problems for Trials except dragging him into the nearest toilet stall and leaving him there, door shut to keep him from sight. After that, he reached the tech lab with ease.

The 2 white-coats within the lab failed to see his approach despite the upper half of the walls being clear glass, so wrapped up in their research were they. He smashed one over the back of the head and span quickly, hitting the second hard under the jaw, sending him flying up and back onto the desk behind. Soon, he was standing over 2 unconscious forms and dusting off his hands.

He left them sprawled there and opened the opaque door to the rear of the lab, revealing a tiny space with just one desk and a computer upon it. Next to the computer stood a simple wooden test tube rack in which 5 stoppered test tubes sat. Trials stepped over and drew out one tube, taking a second to inspect the fine grey dust layered at the bottom of the tube before placing it into his inner pocket.

Next, he drew out a USB stick from his trousers and plugged it into the front of the computer. The whirring of the CPU fan was all that could be heard for a handful of seconds as the data-corrupting program seized control of the hard drive and through it the local network. Trials left once he was satisfied the program had uploaded itself.

He was halfway down the corridor before the incendiary grenade he had left behind triggered an inflow of air to the white phosphorous within, igniting instantly and melting rapidly through the computer's casing. Smoke began billowing thickly out of the room as he made his way back to the stairs.

There was only one slight surprise on his way out of the building, when another lab-coated scientist came running from further up the hall to investigate the smoke and noise. Trials knocked him down and out with barely a glance. Hopefully he, and the other unconscious figures he had left behind, would be found before the fire grew too large.

He descended the stairs and strode out of the building just as smoke started pouring from the windows above, the gradually growing flame licking up into the sky.