Covert-One 2 - The Cassandra Compact

by The Cassandra Compact [lit]

  Beria had seen the police composite on the news. He thought it a poor rendering, nothing like him at all. But maybe someone had seen him in the area, even though Beria rarely left his apartment until after dark.

  No. If he suspects I'm here, he would not have come alone. He's not sure. He's guessing.

  "Stay where I can find you," Beria told the driver.

  The driver pointed to a restaurant called Dunn's River Falls. "I'll be in the lot."

  Stepping out of the car, Beria trotted across the street in time to see Smith duck under an archway bordered by a bar and a poster shop. Now he knew exactly where his quarry was headed: the small quadrangle between Twenty-first Street and Florida Avenue. He thought it quite clever of Smith to hunt him in a place that Beria might naturally gravitate to. But it was also a location Beria knew he could control.

  Beria disappeared under the arch, then stepped under the awning of a Macedonian coffee shop. At one of the tables, a group of old men were playing dominoes; the soft crooning of a native folk song crackled over indoor-outdoor speakers. There was Smith, walking toward the fountain in the center of the quadrangle. Not so quick now, looking around as though expecting someone. Beria thought he could smell Smith's discomfort, the unease of someone who realizes that he's out of place. His hand dipped into his jacket pocket, fingers curling around the cork handle of his spring-loaded stiletto.

  Thirty paces ahead, Smith felt his pager vibrate against his kidney. Kirov was signaling that Beria was in the zone, within fifty feet of Smith. Slowing his pace even more, Smith drifted across the front of a stall with rugs draped over clotheslines. Stopping, he checked his watch, then looked around as though searching for someone in particular. Given the hour, there were customers about--- mostly people on their way to work or to open their shops, stopping to get a coffee and pastry. Smith thought Beria would accept that this was a logical time to meet an informer who might be passing through.

  The pager vibrated again--- twice. Beria was within twenty-five feet and closing. Smith felt a cold tingle dance along his spine as he moved past the carpet display. Still looking around, he saw neither Beria nor Kirov. Then he heard soft footfalls behind him.

  From his vantage point in the doorway of a closed dry goods store, Kirov had picked up Beria the instant he'd stepped through the arch. Now he approached him on the diagonal, his specially designed sneakers making his footsteps soundless.

  Don't look around, ]on. Don't bolt. Trust me.

  Beria was now less than a dozen feet behind Smith, closing fast. As his hand came out of his pocket, Kirov caught a glimpse of the cork handle and a flash of stainless steel as Beria depressed the mechanism that causes the blade to spring into place.

  Kirov carried his ordinary-looking black umbrella. It swung lightly in his grip as he closed the distance to Beria. At the precise moment when the assassin took another step, his back leg lifted slightly, calve raised, Kirov brought the umbrella down. The razor-sharp tip sheared the fabric of Beria's pant leg, caught flesh, and cut down a quarter inch. Beria whirled around, stiletto glinting in the pale sunlight. But Kirov was already two steps away. Beria caught sight of him and his eyes widened in shock. The face from Moscow! The Russian general from the train station!

  Beria took a step toward Kirov but never reached him. His right leg faltered and gave way. The stiletto fell from his grip as he pitched forward. The drug that had coated the umbrella tip was singing through his veins, blurring his vision, turning his muscles to putty.

  Glassy-eyed, Beria was faintly aware of being propped up by a pair of strong arms. Kirov was holding him, smiling, talking in Serb, telling him what a bad boy he'd been and how he'd been looking for him everywhere. Beria opened his mouth but could only gurgle. Now Kirov was drawing him close, whispering something. He felt Kirov's lips brush his cheek, then a shout, in Serb, from someone insulting his manhood.

  "Come on, lover," Kirov said softly. "Let's get you out of here before this turns nasty."

  Beria twisted around and saw the old men making rude gestures at him. Now Smith was beside him, propping him up by his other shoulder. Beria tried to move his feet but found that he could only drag them. His head lolled and he saw the underbelly of the arch. Outside the quadrangle, the roar of traffic was like that of a giant waterfall. Kirov was sliding open the door to a blue van, bringing out a collapsible wheelchair. Hands on his shoulders forced him to sit. Leather straps snaked around his wrists and ankles. He heard the whine of an electric motor and realized that the wheelchair had been rolled onto a ramp that was being raised. Then Kirov was pushing the chair into the van, locking the wheels. Suddenly everything disappeared except for the Russian's cold, blue eyes.

  "You don't know how lucky you are, you murdering bastard!"

  After that, he heard nothing at all.

  __________

  The back porch of Peter Howell's hideaway on the Chesapeake shore looked out on a still pond fed by a meandering stream. It was early evening, almost eight hours since Beria had been taken. The low sun warming his face, Smith sat back and watched a pair of hawks circling for prey. Behind him, he heard Kirov's heels fall on the tongue-and-groove boards.

  Smith had no idea who really owned this rustic retreat, but as Peter Howell had told him in Venice, it was both very private and well equipped. Clean and comfortable, the cabin had a larder stocked with dry goods. Under the floorboards in the main room, in a small oubliette, was a cache of arms, medicines, and other essentials, indicating that the owner was undoubtedly in Howell's line of work. Out back, in what looked like a large toolshed, was something else.

  "It's time, General."

  "He should be left a little while longer, Jon. We don't want to do this again."

  "I read the same medical literature you do. Most men break after six hours."

  "Beria isn't most men."

  Smith walked across the porch and leaned on the railing. From the moment he and Kirov had conceived the operation, they had known that, when taken, Beria would not talk. Not without inducements. It wouldn't be anything so primitive as electroshock or rubber truncheons. There were sophisticated chemicals that, in certain combinations, were very effective and reliable. But they had drawbacks. One could never be sure if the recipient might have an unexpected reaction, go into shock, or worse. Such a risk could not be taken with Beria. He had to be broken cleanly, completely, and above all, safely.

  Smith did not deceive himself. Whether it was electricity, chemicals, or anything else, it all amounted to torture. The idea that he had to sanction its use sickened him, both as a human being and as a physician. He'd told himself over and over again that in this case, such tactics were justified. What Beria was a party to could expose millions to a horrible death. It was vital to get at the information in his head.

  "Let's go," said Smith.

  __________

  Ivan Beria was surrounded by white. Even if he kept his eyes closed, which was most of the time, he saw white.

  When he had regained consciousness, he discovered that he was standing in a deep, cylindrical tube, a kind of silo. About fifteen feet high, its walls were perfectly smooth, coated with plaster that had been painted and then finished with something to make it shine. High beyond his reach were two big flood lamps that burned continuously. There was a total absence of darkness, not even a hint of shadows.

  At first, Beria thought that it was some makeshift holding cell. The thought had reassured him. He'd had brief experiences with jail cells. But then he discovered that the diameter of the silo was barely large enough to accommodate his shoulders. He could lean a few inches in any direction, but he could not sit down.

  After a while, he thought he heard a faint hum, like a distant radio signal. As the hours passed, the signal seemed to get stronger and the walls whiter. Then they started to close in on him. That was the first time Beria had closed his eyes, briefly. When he opened them, the whiteness was even starker, if such a thing were possible. Now he dared not open his eyes at
all. The hum had crescendoed into a roar and beyond it, Beria heard something else, something that might have been a human voice. He had no idea that he was screaming.

  Without warning, he staggered back, falling through a concealed door that Kirov had opened. Grabbing Beria's arm, he yanked the assassin out of the silo and immediately slipped a black hood over his head.

  "Everything's going to be all right," Kirov whispered in Serb. "I'm going to take away the pain, all of it. You'll have some water, then you can talk to me."

  Suddenly, violently, Beria threw his arms around Kirov, holding him as a drowning man would a piece of driftwood. All the while Kirov continued to talk to him and still him, until Beria took his first halting steps.

  __________

  Smith was shocked by Beria's appearance--- not because he was scared or hurt, just the opposite: he looked exactly as he had the last time Smith had seen him.

  But there were differences. Beria's eyes were glassy and washed out, like those of day-old fish on ice. His voice was a monotone, with no timbre or texture to it. When he spoke, it was as though he'd been hypnotized.

  The three of them sat on the porch around a little table with a small running tape recorder. Beria sipped water from a plastic cup. Next to him, Kirov watched his every move. In his lap, covered by a cloth, was a gun, the barrel pointed at Beria's shoulder.

  "Who hired you to kill the Russian guard?" Smith asked softly.

  "A man from Zurich."

  "You went to Zurich?"

  "No. We spoke on the telephone. Only the telephone."

  "Did he tell you his name?"

  "He called himself Gerd."

  "How did Gerd pay you?"

  "Money was deposited into an account at the Offenbach Bank. It was handled by Herr Weizsel."

  Weizsel! The name Peter Howell had gotten out of the corrupt Italian policeman, Dionetti...

  "Herr Weizsel... Did you meet him?" Smith asked softly.

  "Yes. Several times."

  "And Gerd?"

  "Never."

  Smith glanced at Kirov, who nodded, indicating that he believed Beria was telling the truth. Smith agreed. He had expected that Beria would have worked through cutouts. Swiss bankers were some of the best frontmen in the business.

  "Do you know what it was you took from the Russian guard?" Smith continued.

  "Germs."

  Smith closed his eyes. Germs...

  "Do you know the name of the man you passed the germs to at the Moscow airport?"

  "I think it was David. It wasn't his real name."

  "Did you know that you would have to kill him?"

  "Yes."

  "Did Gerd tell you to do this?"

  "Yes."

  "Did Gerd ever mention any Americans? Were you ever contacted directly by any Americans?"

  "Only my driver. But I don't know his name."

  "Did he ever talk to you about Gerd or anyone else?"

  "No."

  Smith paused, trying to keep his frustration in check. Whoever was running this operation had constructed seemingly impenetrable firewalls between themselves and the assassin.

  "Ivan, I don't want you to listen to this."

  "All right." Beria looked away, his expression vacant.

  "Jon, he's got nothing left to give up," Kirov said. "We might be able to get a few more details, for what they're worth." Kirov spread out his hands. "What about the Lincoln?"

  "It's a NASA fleet vehicle. Dozens of drivers use it. Klein's still running down the particulars." He paused. "We should have snatched the driver. By now, he's reported that Beria's missing. The controllers will assume the obvious. They'll be much more careful from here on in."

  "We talked about that," Kirov reminded him. "It would have been impossible for just the two of us to take down Beria and the driver. We would have needed reinforcements."

  "Beria gave us two names: the Offenbach Bank and this Herr Weizsel," Smith said, and told Kirov about the Venice connection.

  The Russian looked up. "Weizsel would have had to deal with Gerd. He would have talked to him, maybe even met him...."

  Smith completed the thought: "So he would know Gerd's real name, wouldn't he?"

  ___________________

  CHAPTER

  TWENTY TWO

  ___________________

  When Ivan Beria failed to appear within the allotted time, the driver of the Lincoln walked away from the car. In that neighborhood, chances were good that it would be stolen within the next few hours. After that, it would either be professionally stripped in a chop shop or dismembered by petty thieves. Either way, it would disappear.

  Even if the authorities somehow got to it first, the car would yield few clues. The driver always wore gloves; there would be few if any forensics to link him to the car. Nor did his name appear on any NASA paperwork. The car had been checked out in the name of a driver currently working in Pasadena, California.

  At the Metro stop on Connecticut Avenue and Q Street, the driver called his principal. Quietly, he explained what had happened and suggested that the assassin had been taken. The party on the other end instructed the driver to go immediately to Dulles Airport.

  In a designated locker he would find two overnight bags, one with money and identity papers, the other with a change of clothes. There would also be a ticket for Cancun, Mexico, where he was to stay until further notice.

  As soon as he hung up with the driver, Anthony Price called Dr. Karl Bauer, who had returned to Hawaii after delivering the altered smallpox sample to Dylan Reed at Cape Canaveral.

  "The problem you sent your boy to fix?" he said abruptly. "Now it's worse than before." After giving Bauer the scant details, he added: "If Beria's been taken, then you can bet it's Smith who has him. In the end, Beria will talk--- if he hasn't already."

  "If he does, what of it?" Bauer demanded. "He never saw any of us. He doesn't know our names. Treloar is dead. The trail stops with him."

  "The trail has to stop with Beria!" Price snapped. "He needs to be dealt with."

  "While he's in Smith's custody?" Bauer replied sarcastically. "Pray tell me how you propose getting to him."

  Price hesitated. Smith wouldn't keep Beria in a federal prison or holding cell. He'd squirrel him away where no one could find him.

  "Then we have to move up the schedule," he said. "Create a diversion."

  "Doing so would endanger Reed and the entire project."

  "Not doing it endangers us! Listen to me, Karl. Reed was going to run the experiment the day after tomorrow. There's no reason why he can't run it now."

  "All the experiments are on a fixed schedule," Bauer replied. "It might look suspicious if Reed changes the sequence."

  "Given the consequences, a change in sequence will be the last thing anyone thinks about. The key is to get the mutation down as quickly as possible--- and cover our butts."

  There was silence on the other end of the line. Price held his breath, wondering if the old scientist would play along.

  "Very well," Bauer said at last. "I will contact Reed and tell him to move up the schedule."

  "Tell him to work as fast as possible."

  "As fast as is prudent."

  Price was at the end of his tether. "Don't split hairs on me, Karl. Just tell him to get on with it."

  Karl Bauer stared at the now-silent phone. He thought that Anthony Price was one of those bureaucrats who become infected with a Napoleon complex, intoxicated with their seemingly limitless power.

  Leaving his office, Bauer took the elevator to the sub-basement. This was the heart of his communications center, a room the size of an air traffic control center where technicians, using three private satellites, kept their fingertips on the electronic pulse of the Bauer-Zermatt empire. There was also a fourth satellite, which, until now, had remained inactive. Crossing the room, Bauer entered his private chamber and locked himself in. He seated himself at the console, activated the high-definition screen, and began typing on the keyboard. Th
e satellite, built by the Chinese in Xianpao, launched by the French out of New Guyana, sprang to life. As hardware went, it was a relatively unsophisticated piece of equipment, but then again, it had only one purpose and a very short life span. When its job was done, an explosive charge would destroy any evidence that it had ever existed.

  Bauer piggybacked on the NASA frequency, prepared his message for the microburst transmission, and opened the circuits. In nanoseconds, the message was beamed to the satellite, which in turn relayed it to the shuttle. Its mission accomplished, the satellite immediately went dormant. Even if the burst was inadvertently noticed, it would be almost impossible to fix not only its origin but also the relay point. With the satellite silent, it would appear that the burst had come from a black hole in space.