PROLOGUE
The old man looked around the warehouse casually with his broom. He seemed to be looking at the ground emotionless as he sauntered along pushing it, although his eyes expertly searched the seeming endless rows of crates and boxes for the particular one he set out to look for. No one questioned his being there, he was just the custodian wasn't he? Even so, he was just an old gent slowly moving along slightly stooped over. There weren't more than three people in the warehouse anyway at this hour. He then found what he was searching for - a crate of womens shoes bound for various shoe stores. He slowed his pace and began to turn down that isle, once again shifting his gaze to see if anyone was around a final time, sweeping the broom along the floor until out of sight behind the stacks. Double checking it was the right one on the invoice, the old man opened up the crate and nodded. He reached in his pocket and took out what looked like a large pill bottle that read "PROJECT 13-T" and opened the first shoe box. Inside was a stylish pair of womens casual lace up sketchr shoes. Perfect... he reached inside and pulled the insole up partially, then opened up the bottle and sprinkled several of what looked like the size and shape of poppy seeds underneath the insole then replaced it how it was. He did this then to the other shoe, placing them both back inside the shoebox and closing it up. The next fifteen minutes were spent doing this operation to every pair of the different shoes and boots in the crate. The old gent replaced all boxes exactly like they were inside the crate and fastened the lid ontop, then walked back into the main isle pushing the broom once again. He walked to the nearest side exit still casually avoiding all security cameras, placed his broom on the wall and opened the door with his latex gloved hand, stepping out into the night and quietly closing it behind him - forever gone like a shadow that was never really there. His work here was done.
Inside the crate, the seeming undisurbed shoes were now part of Project 13-T, for underneath the insoles lie dormant the tiny eggs of a troublesome organism called skrills. These previously unknown creatures were discovered in the jungle of Brazil a few years ago by a recluse multimillionaire scientist who was bent on creating a thorn in the side of the worlds rapidly increasing population. He didnt want to harm anyone, only leave as his legacy an irritating problem that was not easily contained. The Skrill was found as a parasite that lived in the hair in the paws of certain wild cats in the jungle... for the most part during rainy hot weather. The cat would step on an egg which would get lodged in the hair of its pads, then once the temperature and humidity would be right it would hatch. The Skrill would rapidly mature within days into what looked like a tiny hairy worm with several fine stiff hairs that could be consciously raised so they protruded away from its body. The skrills eat bacteria and near microscopic dead skin, which are harvested as it raises its stiff hairs and moves agile like underneath the pad across the skin in a corkscrewing and erratic manner - vibrating as though electrically charged. The effect on the cats was near devestating. Occasionally the scientist would see a cat tearing around the bush as though mad, then stop intermittently and bite and lick at its paws. He initially thought it was a sickness similar to rabies until doing an autopsy of one of the cats the villagers found dead. He thought he saw as he put the cat on the table four or five blurs shoot out at different directions from the paw but put it off as seeing things. Until he really saw it... On the corner of the table there was a small pool of bleach water left behind from disinfecting the surface before the autopsy. One of the creatures must have tried to flee but passed thru the small pool with lethal results. The scientist looked at it and picked it up. It couldnt have been more than a centimetre long. He dried the remaining bleachwater from it carefully and inspected it, feeling the soft fur and the bristles underneath. He looked abruptly to the paw on the cat and then back to the creature - and began to put two and two together. The reclusive scientists jaw nearly dropped... Suddenly by mistake - he thought - I just may have found the project that I've spent so many years searching for... Within days he had a collection of live Skrills and the research begun. After twenty some months he had genetically altered Skrills to be larger - approximately twice the size - with a hunger for micrococci and coryne bacteria. This is a common bacteria found, usually in great amounts, on the human foot. There was a method to his madness, and now he needed to get these distributed properly... He sent his trusted old helper on a plane the next day.
To be continued...[/FONT]
The old man looked around the warehouse casually with his broom. He seemed to be looking at the ground emotionless as he sauntered along pushing it, although his eyes expertly searched the seeming endless rows of crates and boxes for the particular one he set out to look for. No one questioned his being there, he was just the custodian wasn't he? Even so, he was just an old gent slowly moving along slightly stooped over. There weren't more than three people in the warehouse anyway at this hour. He then found what he was searching for - a crate of womens shoes bound for various shoe stores. He slowed his pace and began to turn down that isle, once again shifting his gaze to see if anyone was around a final time, sweeping the broom along the floor until out of sight behind the stacks. Double checking it was the right one on the invoice, the old man opened up the crate and nodded. He reached in his pocket and took out what looked like a large pill bottle that read "PROJECT 13-T" and opened the first shoe box. Inside was a stylish pair of womens casual lace up sketchr shoes. Perfect... he reached inside and pulled the insole up partially, then opened up the bottle and sprinkled several of what looked like the size and shape of poppy seeds underneath the insole then replaced it how it was. He did this then to the other shoe, placing them both back inside the shoebox and closing it up. The next fifteen minutes were spent doing this operation to every pair of the different shoes and boots in the crate. The old gent replaced all boxes exactly like they were inside the crate and fastened the lid ontop, then walked back into the main isle pushing the broom once again. He walked to the nearest side exit still casually avoiding all security cameras, placed his broom on the wall and opened the door with his latex gloved hand, stepping out into the night and quietly closing it behind him - forever gone like a shadow that was never really there. His work here was done.
Inside the crate, the seeming undisurbed shoes were now part of Project 13-T, for underneath the insoles lie dormant the tiny eggs of a troublesome organism called skrills. These previously unknown creatures were discovered in the jungle of Brazil a few years ago by a recluse multimillionaire scientist who was bent on creating a thorn in the side of the worlds rapidly increasing population. He didnt want to harm anyone, only leave as his legacy an irritating problem that was not easily contained. The Skrill was found as a parasite that lived in the hair in the paws of certain wild cats in the jungle... for the most part during rainy hot weather. The cat would step on an egg which would get lodged in the hair of its pads, then once the temperature and humidity would be right it would hatch. The Skrill would rapidly mature within days into what looked like a tiny hairy worm with several fine stiff hairs that could be consciously raised so they protruded away from its body. The skrills eat bacteria and near microscopic dead skin, which are harvested as it raises its stiff hairs and moves agile like underneath the pad across the skin in a corkscrewing and erratic manner - vibrating as though electrically charged. The effect on the cats was near devestating. Occasionally the scientist would see a cat tearing around the bush as though mad, then stop intermittently and bite and lick at its paws. He initially thought it was a sickness similar to rabies until doing an autopsy of one of the cats the villagers found dead. He thought he saw as he put the cat on the table four or five blurs shoot out at different directions from the paw but put it off as seeing things. Until he really saw it... On the corner of the table there was a small pool of bleach water left behind from disinfecting the surface before the autopsy. One of the creatures must have tried to flee but passed thru the small pool with lethal results. The scientist looked at it and picked it up. It couldnt have been more than a centimetre long. He dried the remaining bleachwater from it carefully and inspected it, feeling the soft fur and the bristles underneath. He looked abruptly to the paw on the cat and then back to the creature - and began to put two and two together. The reclusive scientists jaw nearly dropped... Suddenly by mistake - he thought - I just may have found the project that I've spent so many years searching for... Within days he had a collection of live Skrills and the research begun. After twenty some months he had genetically altered Skrills to be larger - approximately twice the size - with a hunger for micrococci and coryne bacteria. This is a common bacteria found, usually in great amounts, on the human foot. There was a method to his madness, and now he needed to get these distributed properly... He sent his trusted old helper on a plane the next day.
To be continued...[/FONT]
