The Moses Virus (25 page)

“Why?” asked Tom. “Doesn’t he have other toxins?”

“He does,” Crystal said, “but with your virus he’s like a kid with a new toy. He’s as furious with the corrupt officials running the third world as he is deadly serious about cornering the world market in food production. A toxin like anthrax might create the chaos he’s striving for, but the virus is a thousand times more powerful and gives him an extremely potent psychological weapon—it kills humans, rapidly, efficiently, ruthlessly. He believes it’ll be seen as the vengeance of an angry God.”

Crystal went on. “I’m prepared to help you stop him, since no one from the company is willing to stand up to him. Trust me or not, you’ll have to agree that standing in middle of the secret passageway that leads directly into his bedroom suite is not a smart idea, right?”

“What do you recommend?” Tom asked.

“Follow me,” Crystal said and started walking down the passageway. Tom, Gerard, and Hoener followed. Ten yards further down the corridor, Crystal stopped in front of a door. She turned the knob, opened the door, and walked in. “This is my room when I stay overnight,” she said.

Tom was incredulous, “You once told me there were only two doors to this passageway—the one you took me out by and the other leading to Bailitz’s suite. So, there’s a third?”

Crystal said nothing.

They entered a windowless room, with drapes covering the spaces where windows might otherwise be. Crystal had a double bed, a sofa with three chairs, a table, and a bureau. These added up to a comfortable room, fully appointed. Crystal sat and told that the three men to sit also.

“First,” Crystal said to Tom, “tell me who your colleagues are.”

Tom replied, “This is Gerard Pinet, a trained doctor and a member of E.I.S., the virus investigative unit of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. This soldier is a member of the GSG-9 team here to help us.”

“Your mission being to recapture the virus and destroy it. Is this correct?”

“We are tasked with recovering the virus, and, yes, our mission is to destroy it before it does irreparable damage,” said Gerard, with Tom nodding yes to this statement.

“We’re on the same wavelength,” Crystal said. “Our job, then, is to secure the virus canisters as quickly as possible, and you must escape with them.”

Tom was concerned. “What will happen to you? Would you leave with us? If you help us, and Bailitz finds out, he’ll come after you with a horrifying vengeance.”

“I’m going to have to live with the mess I’ve created for myself. I’ve got documents proving Bailitz’s insane plans are real, and I’ve got evidence that will destroy Belagri if anything happens to me. Even with this, I know I’m vulnerable,” Crystal admitted with some regret and resignation. “Let’s talk about what we need to do right now,” she said.

Crystal added, “The canisters with the virus are in the freezer in the lab. Bailitz ordered them to be opened the moment he had them in his possession—he wanted to make sure the virus was there in the quantity he hoped for.”

“Was it?” asked Tom.

“Just as he hoped,” replied Crystal. “But, once opened, he extracted a few samples for testing for potency as well as for samples to be used for creating an antidote. He also has one vial, which he has with him.”

“What for?” Gerard asked.

“He didn’t say,” Crystal replied. “The canisters are especially dangerous once they’re open and need to be kept at extremely cold temperatures. Bailitz is so keen on launching his plan as soon as possible now that he has the virus, that he’ll keep visiting the lab to see how the scientists are coming with testing for an antidote. Your best bet is to create a diversion to force an evacuation of the laboratories.”

Gerard said immediately, “Make them think there’s been a leak of the virus?”

“Exactly,” Crystal said. “Everyone in the company knows that we had a similar accident at our major plant in Chemical Valley in West Virginia. One of our best lab technicians was careless, just once, by failing to observe Belagri’s strict protocols. A very small mistake but a deadly one. This technician had previously handled the Spanish flu multiple times without consequence. But some of the virus escaped, immediately infecting her. Within hours, she died a horrible and painful death, but she had also become a carrier for the virus and infected virtually our entire team.

“We had a wide-scale minipandemic on our hands. We couldn’t report this to anyone, particularly the CDC, and so had to handle it internally. Bailitz decided he had no choice but to isolate everyone who had been contaminated, which meant most of our team of scientists and technicians, as well as certain members of their families. The infected people were rounded up and placed in total isolation, until they all died. There were rumors—never proved—that some of those who were locked up and left to die never had the virus. The process took only a few days. Once it was over, everything was burned—there were no traces left.”

Tom interjected, “How would we create panic among the scientists?”

“Set off the warning systems that alert everyone if a virus has escaped. The protocol is for everyone to evacuate as soon as possible.”

Tom asked, “How are polluted and nonpolluted areas identified?”

“Wall dividers come down, sealing off the tainted areas.”

“Where are the warning systems controlled?” Tom asked.

“There is a monitoring room within Bailitz’s private suite, which I know about and can access. I can set off the alarm. We don’t have much time. We need to move,” Crystal warned. “I’ll set off the alarm in one of the unoccupied labs. Once the alarm sounds there will be a mass exodus. Pandemonium will result. That’s your chance to seize the Moses Virus canisters from the freezer and escape.”

Gerard asked, “What about the retina scanner at the entrance?”

“Don’t worry, the evacuation alarms will drown out any other sounds. The lab technicians will already have fled from the lab. There’s risk, but I don’t think you’ll be noticed at all.”

Diethelm Hoener said to Tom, “Can we speak in private?”

“Certainly. Crystal, can you let us have a moment alone?”

“Don’t take too long,” she said and slipped out of the room.

“What did you want to say?” Tom asked after Crystal had left.

“I thought we should check with my GSG-9 leader.”

“Right,” replied Gerard.

The soldier spoke into his microtransmitter. Otto Kramer immediately responded. “I’ve heard everything. Trust her or not, what she says makes sense.”

Tom added, “If the GSG-9 attacks from the lobby and moves up the stairs, that would draw Bailitz’s mercenaries away from us. Once the evacuation alarms go off, and people rush out, there should be enough chaos to give us some time.”

Gerard and Kramer agreed. He added, “We’ve just received our search warrant from the Frankfurt police superintendent. The superintendent is mad as hell at being told to do this, but was leaned on by some higher-ups. We’re good to go. We’ll begin an assault immediately, starting from the lobby and working our way upstairs. I anticipate that Bailitz will have his mercenaries try to stop us. This diversion should buy you some time. I suggest everyone coordinate their watches.”

Gerard told Kramer exactly where the three of them were. Tom asked Crystal to return.

Tom said, “Crystal, we’re ready. The GSG-9 force has the search warrant and will engage Bailitz and his men immediately.”

Crystal looked surprised, but said, “It’ll take me a few minutes to set the alarm off. I’ll leave, and you wait here. After five minutes, head toward the lab the moment you hear the alarms.” She left them to get to the control room.

After Crystal was out of the room, Gerard said to Tom, “I was surprised you told her about the GSG-9’s plans.”

Tom replied, “If we’re going to throw Bailitz off balance, forcing him to deal with us on one side and GSG-9 on the other may give him more to cope with than he’s comfortable with. And, no, I don’t trust her.”

Gerard said, “She’s strikingly beautiful and obviously intelligent. I’ve never come across anyone like her before. She’s like a chameleon. One moment on our side and the next, she’s back with Bailitz. If she’s being honest with us, she’s in a very dangerous position if Bailitz finds out she’s the one who betrayed him.”

“You’re right,” Tom replied.

Tom called Alex, who was anxiously waiting in her car. Tom said, “We’re hoping that we’re about to gain control of the virus canisters in which case we’ll be downstairs right away. If alarms sound—they’re part of our plan. I’ve got to go. Love you.”

“What did you say?” Alex asked, startled.

“You heard me.” Tom laughed. “Wish us luck.”

Alex replied, “Good luck and . . . ditto.”

This time it was Tom’s turn to ask, “What did you say?”

Alex laughed and said, “Over and out.”

19

A
n excruciatingly loud alarm went off. It repeated itself, again and again. Doors started banging. The halls were filled with people, some in lab coats, others not.

With the alarm sounding, Kramer strode briskly through the lobby into the ceremonial hall. He pointed to the officious Belagri employee behind the reception desk, and one of the GSG-9 team members walked toward the receptionist. He took aim at the Belagri employee. There was a hissing sound as a tranquillizer dart struck his shoulder. The receptionist had raised his arms, crying out he was innocent: “Please spare me,” he said. The drug in the dart took effect, and he slumped behind the reception desk. The GSG-9 soldier now stood guard to make certain no one entered the castle.

Kramer headed toward the grand stairway. Far across the room, near the fireplace that glowed with a fire to take the edge of the chill out of the room, there was a small group of men dressed in ordinary business suits sitting at a table, talking. Their briefcases were open on the surface of the table. No one else was in the main hall.

As Kramer and his team reached the grand stairway, the men at the table stood up, taking out their weapons from under papers in their briefcases. Bailitz’s security guards began to yell to the GSG-9 to halt. The noise made by the evacuation alarms was deafening. Bailitz’s security guards waved their guns menacingly at the GSG-9 team, which had their own weapons out and were already at the stairs and moving up.

Bailitz’s guards rushed toward the grand stairway. There were four guards in plainclothes. “Clever,” said Kramer to his team. “Posting guards in the ceremonial hall dressed as Belagri employees is a shrewd precaution. Let’s go.”

Bailitz’s security force was no match for the swiftness of the GSG-9 team, who fired tranquillizer darts with deadly accuracy, hitting their targets. Within seconds, Bailitz’s security team was sprawled on the floor, breathing, but totally out of commission.

Seeing that the way was now clear, Kramer moved quickly up the rest of the stairs and was only a couple of steps from the top. As he neared the top of the stairs, he noticed that the huge glass chandelier, hanging in the large stairwell, had a hidden video camera, which was in position to photograph anyone on the steps.

Kramer took careful aim at the camera and fired. There was a shattering of glass as the bullets hit the camera and knocked it out of commission. But the bullets also severed the chain tethering the chandelier to the ceiling. There was a crack as the chain snapped. Abruptly the chandelier began to fall—seemingly in slow motion, then it gathered more and more speed. The chandelier hit the stone floor and shattered, sending shards of crystal to all parts of the ceremonial hall.

In the main corridor, between Crystal’s bedroom and the lab containing the virus that they were heading toward, Tom, Gerard, and Hoener walked quickly, hugging the wall. It was like moving against a torrent of fish swimming downstream.

Tom arrived first, finding the lab door swinging open and closed as one technician after another raced to get out. Tom, still flattened against the wall, kept an eye on those leaving and tried to get a look at those who remained inside. When he was certain that the last scientist had left, he grabbed the door before it closed and signaled to Gerard and Hoener to follow him. They were inside.

The retina scanning machine alarms, as Crystal had suggested, were ineffective due to the overwhelming noise from the evacuation alarms.

Gerard moved quickly to the freezer. He thought to himself that in the CDC lab in Atlanta, such a freezer would be securely locked. But in this Belagri lab, the retina scanner at the door of the lab provided the security, and the freezer itself was not locked. He opened the lid. “Three metal containers, right?”

“There should be waxed seals, and the canisters should have inscribed on them the words
Pestilentia Moseia
,” said Tom.

“Only if they haven’t been unsealed,” said a steely voice behind the three men. A tremor rumbled through Tom as he recognized the voice. Tom turned to face Bailitz. “I think you’ll find all three canisters are missing their seals. Perhaps because they’ve been opened. Perhaps because a minute amount has been removed.” With this, he waved a small glass vial in the air at them.

Tom, Gerard, and Hoener faced Bailitz, who had with him one of the Germans who had kidnapped Tom in Rome, and who had then knocked him out at Chillon. The German held a gun pointed at Tom. Tom felt instant panic. He tried to focus on the vial in Bailitz’s right hand. Then he looked at the German. Time seemed to slow. He had—it seemed—all the time in the world to study this German who was holding a gun pointed at him. The German had a prominent scar on his left cheek, which Tom figured was from an old dueling wound. A university skirmish? The scar made his face tough looking. He obviously meant business. Tom chastised himself for this bizarre mood he was in.

Bailitz spoke. “Let’s do some housekeeping. Put your firearms on the table in front of you. Empty your pockets. I don’t want any half measures. My colleague here is ready to deal with any of you who has a clever idea.”

Tom and Gerard had the guns Kramer had given them. Diet-helm Hoener had an MP5. They put their guns on the table.

“Go ahead, now. Empty your pockets of everything. Including cell phones.” This time quite a few items were placed on the table.

“Looks like an arsenal of guns and electronic equipment, doesn’t it?” Bailitz said. “This modern world of ours is really something.” At that moment, the blaring of the alarms suddenly stopped. Bailitz smiled. “There, that’s over. Now we can hear each other talk.”

“Dr. Stewart,” Bailitz continued, “did you think that the hidden passageway and the back stairway had no surveillance equipment? Cutting the castle’s power was a clever idea, but we have full back-up. I will admit there was some confusion while we switched to emergency power. Your every step was monitored, however, down to the fact that your car occupied by your friend Cellini and a police officer is parked in the darkness a hundred yards from the hidden back doorway. We have a man whose gun—a recoilless rifle, actually—is trained on that car—no one in it will get out alive.”

Tom shuddered inwardly at the thought.

Bailitz said to Gerard, “Please step over to the freezer and lift the three canisters out. There are gloves on the shelf above the freezer. Place the canisters in the leather case, which is on the floor beside the freezer.

Gerard went to the freezer, put the gloves on his hands, then lifted the freezer’s top, removed the three canisters and placed them in the leather case, and carried it over to Bailitz. “Give the case to me,” Bailitz said, extending his hand. He locked the case, then handcuffed himself to it with a handcuff he extracted from his right pocket. Tom observed that Bailitz had now put the small vial in his left pocket and had the case attached by a chain to his right wrist. “No one is going to take the virus from me,” he said with strident conviction.

Bailitz continued, “I expect that we have about ten to fifteen minutes before squadrons of police and fire engines from nearby towns arrive.” He looked at Tom and Gerard. “I know that I owe you for finding the virus, but I also have you to thank for setting off the alarms bringing a massive invasion of police and security people. The GSG-9 unit is undoubtedly making their way up here. We have little time. I’ll be leaving here with the virus in five minutes.”

He turned to his German henchman and nodded.

The German pointed his gun at Hoener. It was outfitted with a silencer. There was a muted, spit-like sound, and a scarlet mark blossomed on Hoener’s forehead as he sank quietly to the floor.

“Why was that necessary?” Tom cried out, staring at Hoener’s lifeless body.

“Evens the odds, that’s all,” Bailitz said. “There are two of you and two of us.”

With the evacuation alarms turned off, there was silence in the room, but outside there was the sound of gunfire. Bailitz said, “I hear the GSG-9. Despite my efforts to assemble the best possible security force, I expect that the GSG-9 will get through. I have at least five minutes and a score to settle: You’ve given me the opportunity to test the potency of your virus. Let us adjourn to the Nairobi room.”

The German waved his gun toward the exit door of the lab, indicating that Tom and Gerard should precede him. Tom and Gerard walked side by side, with the German following and Bailitz last, carrying the suitcase in his right hand. Under his breath, Gerard said to Tom, “Stay alert.”

In another part of the castle a few minutes earlier, Kramer and his team had arrived at the top of the grand stairway and found, on the landing, five doors arranged in an arc, all of them closed. They didn’t know which door led to Bailitz’s suite. The leader called out to one of his men, “Try the door on the far right first. We’ll cover you.”

Placing himself against the wall next to the closed door, the appointed soldier gingerly turned the elaborate door handle until the lock clicked, then gave the door a firm push causing it to swing open. Nothing happened. “There’s a long hallway, and I see no one,” he whispered.

Kramer said, “Okay. Try the second.”

The soldier moved to the second door, opened it, in the same manner. Again nothing.

The middle door was next. Tension was building. The leader said, “We’ve got to be lucky on one of these.”

The soldier moved into position to open the third door. With the quiet turning of the handle, it opened. He gave the door a push, and it swung all the way open. As it did, there was a hail of bullets traveling down the interior corridor, which burst out through the open door, striking the stone wall on the far side of the grand stairway.

Kramer signaled his team to cover for each other and begin firing back. Their objective was to enter Bailitz’s fortified quarters.

The Nairobi room, where Tom and Gerard were being taken at gunpoint, was a short distance down the corridor from the lab. No one was in the hallway, all the lab technicians and other employees having rushed out of the building. The German said to Gerard, “Open the door and go in.”

Gerard and Tom entered the large room with its fans and models of the city of Nairobi and the surrounding mountains. Bailitz was last in. He looked at the model city. “Interesting plan, don’t you think? Strike a city down with a plague-like virus, kill its animals, and wipe out its agriculture, just like the wrath of an angry God destroying the Egyptians. What do you think the fundamentalists around the world will think? Will the crazy groups that are always predicting the imminent end of the world seize on this virus as evidence of Armageddon? How much will each country pay to make certain this doesn’t happen to them?”

Tom was horrified. Bailitz’s plans were far more aggressive than he had realized—he now actually planned to extort world governments.

Almost as if he were reading Tom’s mind, Bailitz said, “New York is next, after Nairobi. A lot more money is at stake there.”

Bailitz said to the German, “We’ll be leaving shortly. We need to be ahead of the German police.” He withdrew his cell phone from his pocket. Holding it up, he carefully logged in a preprogrammed self-destruct code. At first, nothing seemed to happen. But suddenly, the room they were standing in was rocked by a distant explosion, followed by another and another.

“What’s that?” asked Tom.

“The interior spaces on this floor, the labs, the demonstration rooms, are being ignited, one by one. They are set to burn at a fast pace and at an extremely high temperature. Nothing inside can survive. Nothing will be left to be found—no evidence, nothing. I don’t like destroying my own property, but I’ve got what matters most,” Bailitz said, holding up his right arm with the leather case containing the virus dangling below, “and I’ve got other secret locations I’ll use after this.”

Tom, though his situation was perilous, ignored his own predicament and pressed Bailitz. “Where can you take the virus? You’ll be hounded by the police and the CDC.”

Bailitz replied, “I’ve got a second lab—totally private, not known, even to top management of Belagri. There we can work on the virus in complete secrecy. But, no more delay tactics.” Bailitz looked up. “It is time to start the fans. We have precisely five minutes until this room is ignited.” He took out the vial from his left pocket and a cold smile spread across his face. “I want to see how our two friends do with a taste of the virus.”