Ivan took the piece of paper she handed him and read it. “We have a meeting tomorrow. We have to go to this address.”
Enrique rose from his chair and retrieved the paper from Ivan. “It’s close by, in an industrial park.”
CHAPTER 30
May 23, 2003
So, what’s up with you and Sue?” Mike asked.
“What do you mean?” I was cleaning my gun in the laundry room. There was dust and moisture in it from yesterday.
“Are you officially a couple now?”
Had Mike come to talk to me purposely about that?
A sudden roar of drumming vibrated the house. We both looked out the window in the back door to see a heavy downpour of rain.
I had to raise my voice. “It doesn’t just drizzle here. It’s all or nothing.”
“At least it goes by quickly, not settle in for days like back home,” Mike said. “So, what about you and Sue?”
“Our focus is on what we’re doing here.” I decided not to deny the future possibility. “We’ll see afterward.”
“Good for you. She’s a keeper … even though she’s frickin’ sarcastic and bossy.” He gave me a thump on the back. “I oughta find me a nice senorita when this is over.”
“That’s a good idea. You deserve some lovin’.” The gun was clean, so I loaded a clip, placed it in the holster under my waistband, and pulled my shirt over it.
“It’s weird that we’re all packing heat now,” Mike said as he followed me to the communication room.
The fact that I was getting used to it made me uncomfortable.
Sue and Jorge were sitting in front of the screens, and Ivan was at a desk.
“We just saw Davis Lovemark in the Mercedes, going to the compound,” Sue said.
“Really?” I said. “He’s here?”
Ivan placed the pen on the pad he’d been writing on. “Something especially important must be happening.”
“What, I wonder?” I said.
“Dr. Smith drove by toward town as well,” Jorge said. “If that makes any difference.”
“It could. He’s important,” I said. “In the future, we should tail Dr. Smith. His movements may provide information.”
Jorge nodded agreement.
Ivan looked at his watch. “We have to go.”
Enrique walked in, a set of keys dangling in his hand. “Ready?”
We’d decided that Enrique would take Ivan, Jorge, and me to meet with the informant.
It only took ten minutes to drive to an area with rows of warehouses.
Enrique held up the piece of paper with the address on it. “That’s it, to our right.” He turned the car around, in case we needed a fast exit and parked it a hundred yards away from the building we were looking for.
Steam was rising from the pavement as the sun shone, evaporating the burst of rain that had fallen. The gray warehouse still had water dripping from a drainpipe in the corner.
Jorge pulled out his gun, and we stood opposite the dirty white door. Enrique opened it slowly and as quietly as he could. Jorge leveled his Glock and peered around the doorway. Satisfied no one was there to greet us with a hail of bullets, we entered.
It was an office, next to a large storage room filled with boxes.
A figure stood to the side.
Jorge aimed his gun at the person.
They raised their hands. “I’m unarmed, and no one else is here, so put the gun down.” It was a man with an American accent. He turned on a lamp that sat atop the desk beside him.
“You are Dr. Smith,” Ivan said.
“Yes,” Daniel Smith said. “I’m sure you can understand why I didn’t want to reveal who I was until now.”
“Of course,” Ivan said.
Our informant was the head scientist for Pharmalin. Shit. Good work, Ivan.
Dr. Smith was dressed in shorts and a lilac polo shirt, not the lab coat from the pictures and video, so of course he appeared somewhat different. In his hand was a thick manila envelope.
Ivan pointed at each of us. “This is Nick Barnes, Jorge Villegas, and Enrique Bautista.”
Dr. Smith nodded. “Nice to meet you all.”
“I don’t want to sound rude,” I said. “But do you mind telling us why you’re meeting with us and supplying information? I doubt Hendrick Schmidt would be very happy.”
“It’s my conscience.” Dr. Smith leaned on the desk. There was a slight twitch in his hand when he pushed his glasses farther up the bridge of his nose. “I don’t want to be a part of the scheme anymore. But I don’t have any other options. I can’t just leave. I’m hoping you can help stop these premeditated atrocities.”
“But you’re the chief designer,” I said. “Your creations made it possible.”
“That wasn’t my intention, and it’s gone too far.”
He was willing to give us information now, and maybe it wasn’t too late, so I decided to stop the sudden hostility I felt toward him.
“I have limited access here to the outside world,” Dr. Smith said. “So I don’t know the full extent of what’s happening. But I do know from overheard conversations that you have Hendrick V and the others worried because you’re on the right track. I want to support you. I know you’re affiliated with the Northern European Council for Ethical Farming, and they have the ability to verify what I’m giving you.”
“We appreciate the risk you are taking,” Ivan said. “We will do our best to verify the information, and when we make it public, we will not divulge the source.”
“I trust you.” Dr. Smith held out the manila envelope. “This is what I could get you right now.”
Ivan took it from him.
Dr. Smith exhaled and seemed to relax somewhat. “Will you be in Florencia long?”
“We can be if you’d like us to,” I said. “Do you want us to get you out?”
“Like I said, it’s too late for that.” Dr. Smith frowned. “The best I can do is forge ahead in the positive areas and slow the progress of the negative. If you stay at least another week, I can relay more documentation. What I’m giving you now is just the portion I was able to slowly compile without drawing suspicion.”
Ivan looked at me and then Dr. Smith. “We will wait for it. And if you change your mind about leaving, we will help you.”
“At least …” Dr. Smith sighed. “Let me get you everything I can first. Then maybe I’ll reconsider escaping.” He seemed to ponder what he’d just said. “If I were to run away, Schmidt V would have me hunted for the rest of whatever life I had.”
“Join the club.” I didn’t have much sympathy. “How bad is it, really, in terms of the plan’s progress?”
Dr. Smith took a deep breath. “The genetically engineered seed is spreading and infecting traditional crops at a much higher rate than was predicted. And it’s out of control—we can’t stop it. Glyphosate, and following close behind, neonicotinoids, are leaching into ground water in higher concentrations and not diluting as anticipated. It’s happening in every country that allows their use. So yes, it’s probably worse than you thought. The only positives, if you can call them that, are that it seems to take longer for people to develop cancer, and plants and insects are becoming more resistant. Also, the Plycite-spliced corn doesn’t produce ears big enough for commercial growing, and a solution hasn’t been found … yet.”
The words spreading out of control, faster and not diluting were bad. Even though we pretty much had known all of that already, it was harsher coming from his mouth. “What about the cancer drugs? We saw a short video from over a year ago. You were telling Dr. Schmidt IV that you may’ve found the actual cure for the colon cancer the genetically engineered food was creating.”
Dr. Smith looked surprised. “What video?”
“Someone, we don’t know exactly who, shot a video of you and Dr. Schmidt IV talking at your Bolivia lab. You said that you may’ve found the actual cure for the cancer. Dr. Schmidt got angry and said you were only supposed to extend people�
��s lives, not cure them.”
“I remember the conversation, but I didn’t know someone had taped it.”
“How are the cancer drugs progressing?” Ivan looked down at the envelope in his hands. “Did you provide us with information?”
“I can try to copy that data next.” Dr. Smith brushed away sweat that had formed on his forehead. “We decided to work on both. Life extending works on immune suppression and actual cure works on immune enhancing. But we’re having challenges with both and haven’t found solutions yet.”
“I heard on the news a while back that Pharmalin was releasing a new drug that was a breakthrough in the fight against cancer,” I said.
“That drug is a step forward but only meant as a stop-gap measure until life expectancy can be extended three to four years. That’s what Dr. Schmidt, and now his son, have been trying to achieve. To them, that length of time gives the most profit potential.”
Enrique gasped. He had not been exposed to as much information as the rest of us.
“And you’re just feeling guilty now?” I couldn’t hold back my re-emerging contempt. “It’s because of your talent that you’ve given these destructive tools to the Schmidt fuckers. And it’s just starting to bug you now?”
“I know …” Dr. Smith hung his head. “There’s no excuse.”
Ivan touched my arm and shook his head. I knew he didn’t want me to scare Dr. Smith into cutting off the flow of incriminating information.
“I was on a few days’ break in Bogota.” Dr. Smith was almost cowering. “That’s where Jack Carter found me and talked sense into me. I’m very sorry to hear about his death.”
So Jack had turned Dr. Smith but kept it secret that it was him. “Jack Carter was a fantastic individual, and yet he wasn’t the only one who’s died exposing what you’re aiding. For example, the whole Elles family was wiped out.”
“Yes, I know.” Dr. Smith did look remorseful. “Without Dr. Elles’s research, all this wouldn’t have been able to happen, yet that wasn’t his intent either.”
In that moment, his words hit me so hard I had to reach my left hand out to brace against a metal rack—if it weren’t for Dr. Elles’s research and what Dr. Smith had done with it, how much different our lives would’ve been.
Ivan raised his hand. “What is done is done. I had a part to play in this mess too. Now we must join together to do what we can to stop it.”
“The best we can do now is develop real solutions to counteract the conditions people and the environment will develop,” Dr. Smith said.
There was finality to Dr. Smith’s admission. Shit.
“So be it,” Ivan said. “We must work within the confines of the new reality.”
“I must go. I can’t be gone from the lab for too long, or they’ll get suspicious. Everyone there is paranoid—it’s the culture Hendrick V is breeding.” Dr. Smith walked toward the exit. “Check the drop-off spot starting in three days. As soon as I’ve compiled more, I’ll signal you to meet again.” Sunlight spread into the room as he opened the exterior door.
We followed and paused outside our vehicle to watch Dr. Smith drive off in a Mercedes-Benz SUV. Just as he passed the last warehouse and turned right onto the road, a small gray sedan came out from around the shadow of a warehouse and turned right as well.
I jerked. “He’s been tailed!”
“Everyone get in.” Jorge opened the back-passenger side door. “If it’s Naintosa security, they’ll have our license number and possibly pictures of us.”
Enrique got in and started the engine. “If we have someone following us, I’ll lose them before we go home. I don’t want anyone knowing where we live.”
“And you can’t use this car again,” Jorge said.
Jorge and I watched from the back seat as we turned left onto the road. When the warehouses were almost out of sight, a dark-colored car came out and turned our way.
“Do you see it?” I said. “It’s quite far back.”
Everyone said, “Yes.”
“Our cover’s blown now for sure.” What were we going to do? Was Dr. Smith going to be eliminated? Was Naintosa security going to come at us in full force?
“They’re too far behind.” Enrique sped up as we entered an area of stores and caés. “They’ll be easy to lose.”
We took sharp turns into alleys and streets. We raced past blocks of middle-class homes before driving back into the farm area.
After fifteen minutes, we drove down a long straight stretch. No one was behind us.
INTERLOGUE 9
Otto escorted Davis to Hendrick’s office. The two men Davis had brought with him waited outside the door.
Hendrick didn’t get up from behind his desk. “Davis, you didn’t need to come all this way to check on me. You could’ve just called.”
“I wanted to see this place for myself … and I did call, but you didn’t answer.” Davis pulled a foldable chair to the desk. “You could splurge for some decent furniture.”
“What’s the point? We’re in a jungle in the middle of nowhere.” Hendrick turned over the pad in front of him, hiding what he’d been working on. “How long will you be staying?”
“Until I don’t have to be here any longer.” Davis didn’t mince words. “I saw someone who had a striking resemblance to Nick Barnes outside. Who was that?”
Hendrick squinted. “His name is Samson. It’s hard to get good security down here, so I’ve had to bring men from Europe.”
Davis knew that was the man who’d impersonated Barnes when they tried to frame him for the murder of Schmidt IV. Why would he keep such a liability, and so close by, for further incrimination?
“In the last three months we’ve had three occasions when intruders tried to breach the compound, including yesterday,” Hendrick continued. “Each time gunfire was exchanged, keeping them at bay, but no one was caught. Someone hostile is out there, trying to figure out what we’re doing here.”
“Can’t you get assistance from the Colombian military? We pay the government enough.”
“I don’t want them getting too close. The Colombians think this is a test lab for glyphosate. We were asked to make adjustments because they don’t want so much damage to the villagers; they’re getting too much backlash.”
“Are you figuring it out?” Davis winced and changed position in his chair.
“We have one scientist working on it in case government officials want to see a progress report. But who cares, because all the villagers will be eliminated as the population control ramps up.”
Davis winced again. He was feeling sharp stabs of pain from his abdomen, most likely his condition aggravated from the flight.
Hendrick studied Davis’s face. “You don’t look well. You’re very pale and sweating. Have you lost weight?”
“It’s like an oven in this place.”
Hendrick looked toward the window where the air conditioning unit was. “I find it quite cool in here.”
“Is Dr. Smith here?” Davis looked serious. “I’d like to speak to him.”
“He should be in the lab. How about I take you for a tour around the compound?”
“After I talk to Smith.”
“Very well.” Hendrick rose from his chair. “I’ll take you to him.”
“Just point me in the right direction. I can see him on my own.” Davis didn’t want Hendrick overhearing the conversation he wanted to have with Dr. Smith.
“Nonsense, I will take you.”
Davis faltered as he stood and had to steady himself against the desk. He didn’t have the strength to argue with Hendrick. “Take me to him if you must.”
“Are you sure you’re, all right?” Hendrick asked. “Maybe you’d like to lie down for a period? We have visitors’ quarters.”
“No.” Davis took a deep breath. “I need to see Smith.”
At the office doorway, Hendrick didn’t acknowledge the two men standing there.
Davis nodded for them to follow. Stenson and Fur
yk, both counterintelligence officers, were on loan from the director of the CIA. Davis had incriminating information on the director that he used every time he needed services from him. He’d worked with Furyk before and found him competent. Davis had no background with Stenson. Davis felt he might need them in case he had any trouble with Hendrick. Also, he planned on leaving them after he left, to keep an eye on things. He didn’t want to spare his own people.
Davis found it hard to mask his frailty while proceeding down the hallway, needing to place his hand on the wall for support several times.
Hendrick narrowed his eyes in suspicion but didn’t offer assistance.
They passed Otto talking to a muscular man in a T-shirt a size too small for him.
From around the corner came Dr. Smith carrying a cardboard box.
“Where have you been?” Hendrick came up beside Dr. Smith.
“I had to go to the warehouse for more test tubes.” Dr. Smith walked through the doorway to the lab.
Before Davis entered the lab, he looked back at Stenson and Furyk and raised his hand for them to stop and wait there. He knew they didn’t like acting the part of bodyguards, but he didn’t much care what they thought.
Dr. Smith set the box down on a stainless-steel table and then reached for his white lab coat hanging on the back of a chair. He turned to look at the men. “Mr. Lovemark, I didn’t know you were here. Welcome to our lab.”
Davis lowered himself onto a stool. “I wanted to see for myself how everything was progressing. This is quite the state-of-the-art facility. How are things progressing?”
“Well …” Dr. Smith glanced at Hendrick. “You always hope that everything moves faster, and we’ve had our fair share of setbacks, but I’m confident that we’ll find our desired solutions. It’s just taking longer.”
“What exactly do you mean by ‘taking longer’?” Davis asked.
Dr. Smith hesitated before saying, “I’m working on the cancer drugs, and both the life-extending and cure formulas need adjusting. We’re just not quite sure which way to adjust at the moment.”
Davis grit his teeth and took a deep breath. When he thought he was sufficiently calm enough to sound the part, he said, “How long before the actual cure is ready?”
Beyond Control Page 25