“This is not a suspected terrorist attack, is it?” she asked.
“Not that we know of. There is no evidence that some group is attacking Chinese. But our interest is in if it is possible to make an Ebola that attacks only one race. It would be an incredible weapon. For example, what would a Muslim group do with a Saudi financed Ebola that only attacks Jews? One sect of Muslims against another like the Sunnis and the Shiites warring in Iraq? Possibly an Ebola that attack Caucasians and not Arabs? What about an attack on Blacks?”
“I see what you mean. Pretty scary!”
“Please help us out. However, I must inform you that this comes under your agreement with the government as to confidential information.”
She answered his plea for help. “I was there with a small delegation. We were shown the building where the anthrax was made years before. There were other buildings, now closed down, that we did not go into, but those were not part of the lab itself in the back of the main anthrax production building, which is where we did go. The place is anything other than bustling. It’s dreary, cold, unheated, windows broken, and in decay. If not for the fact that the buildings are modern in shape, you might think it was an abandoned castle where Dracula lived.
“Other than maintenance, there were only two people working there, a Dr. Borislav Dorogomilov and his assistant, Dr. Anastasiya Volkova. They are aged and former USSR scientists. We have been providing them with funds to work on creating a fungus that will kill opium poppies but is not harmful to the environment, people, or animals. I saw nothing that was in any way suspicious, or that might lead me to believe the lab was used for anything else.
“And I’m happy to let you know that, just recently, our investment and my recommendations to continue the funding were realized as worthy, since Dr. Dorogomilov did create such a fungus and sent us all the details. In fact, he donated the method to the world and did not ask for any patent or compensation for it, although he was obligated to give the method to the US as part of the compensation he has been receiving. So it was not like he was giving up that much.
“When he sent the details to us, we asked him to come here to be given a recognition ceremony. I might have been able to raise some sort of monetary award, but he has not yet come or indicated that he will. Perhaps he’s not the sort who wants the limelight of public notoriety or recognition.”
“So then, you saw no indication that the lab, which I understand is huge, could be making any bio-warfare agents?”
“None whatsoever. We only saw one other person working there, an elderly man who maintained the small part of the place that Drs. Dorogomilov and Volkova used. I think he only gets the heat going in that horribly cold place and does janitorial work as far as I could tell. I would imagine that it would take a large staff of people and a very busy place to create any bio-warfare agents.”
“I’m interested in why he has not come here. Was he aware that there might be a bonus here for him? How much of a bonus were you planning to give him?”
“Nothing was promised in terms of money. He was paid for work on the fungus. For a bonus, I was hoping to get something together if he accepted the invitation. But there are a number of doctors who would like to have him give presentations to them, as doctors have to have a bunch of hours of continuing education every year, and attending approved seminars counts toward their quota. His would be an approved seminar.
“So he would be in demand to go around and give speeches. He would also probably be paid about fifteen hundred per speech, plus expenses. And, as he would go to various places, he would be asked to attend teas and dinners funded by doctors, who characteristically take good care of themselves.
“I wrote him by Internet about coming over, but I have not heard from him. I don’t know if he is even still at the lab. Since the fungi project is now finished, maybe he left. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to live or stay on there. It was the dreariest place I have ever been to.”
“Well, my many thanks. Based on your observations, it does not look like the lab is being used for bio-warfare. But nevertheless, please keep in mind that all this is confidential.”
***
Hauser and Ralls met in Hauser’s office. Hauser started out, as he sometimes did, with light-hearted joking as a way of salutation to begin the meeting. “What have you got on the hypersonic, female, redheaded pilot who does not have human DNA? Is she an alien invading us? Maybe she is connected with the epidemic in Tibet, having brought outer space Ebola to Tibet to reduce the population since aliens don’t like Chinese?”
“Hah!” Ralls answered. “That’s a good one. The way you put it, she is the ultimate terrorist. An Ebola-toting alien!”
The salutation and joking over, they got down to business.
Ralls told what he knew. “The only candidate that I have been able to find for the pilot of the hypersonic space craft is this one redhead whose trail I picked up in Poland where the hypersonic craft landed. There’s been no sign of the craft since that day. There have been no ransom demands as you know. There are no clues as to who built it, or even who might be able to build it. There is no trace of the craft taking off or orbiting before it entered the atmosphere above White Sands. No one who is involved in aerospace has any notion of how anything can go seventeen thousand miles an hour in the atmosphere without burning up. Aerospace engineers whom I have spoken to do not know of any material that could make up the skin of such a craft that would not burn up in the atmosphere at the speed she achieved.
“As for the redhead, her given name is Tak, which, oddly enough, means yes in Polish. She has no background, almost like someone invented her. Her marriage to Baron Von Limbach was recorded in Berlin, but the forms with the background information in Germany are sealed, much like here for the president and high officials, as the baron is very influential and in the arms business. They might say, for example, where she was born and parents’ names, but we can’t get them.
“We can find no history or records on her anywhere. We know of no language that she speaks other than English. We can’t even find out what country she came from. She has no driver’s license. She attended no schools that we know of. And--speaking of flying at hypersonic speeds--she does not have a pilot’s license.
“She has been traveling with Baron Von Limbach, and it appears that he may have found her in Poland at a salt mine tourist attraction then took her to Krakow and later into Germany, where they married. Keep in mind that Poland is where the hypersonic craft landed.
“She is now a baroness as they married in Berlin. He then took her to Taiwan and later to Stepnogorsk, Kazakhstan to a special spring fair there with medieval horse events that few Westerners ever see. There is an almost closed-down level-four bio-warfare lab there, a tiny part of which has been kept open with US money to fund two doctors who created an environmentally safe fungus to kill opium poppies. That lab was visited by a representative of ours from the state department, shortly before the baron and his wife went there.
“In case there was any possibility that the lab might have been used to make the Ebola, I interviewed the representative, and she saw no signs at all that there might be any bio-warfare activity. The two Russian doctors there recently developed the fungus, sent the details to us, and have now apparently left. So it looks like the baron and his new wife the baroness were there just for the spring fair on their honeymoon.
“But there are curious facts. She has seven fingers and all well-formed. She has no fingerprints. And the strangest part is that she does not have human DNA.”
“So is she a freak of nature?” Hauser asked. “Or do you mean to imply that she is actually an alien?”
Ralls was not sure if his boss was seriously asking if she was an alien. But he did not appear to be joking. “It would be most interesting to pick her up for questioning. But we can’t just do that and take her to Guantanamo for waterboarding as though she was a captured combatant. The only crime she is even suspected of is the misdemeanor o
f not filing a flight plan to enter US airspace at over eighteen thousand feet above sea level, which is called class-A airspace and requires a flight plan. The baron with his arms business stays clear of the US, as he is wise enough to know that we might charge him with some violation of US law and pick him up one day like Adnan Khoshoggi. And since his wife the baroness travels with him, we don’t expect either of them to ever come to the US.
“We have nothing to connect her to the epidemic whatsoever. She has not been to Tibet, as far as we know, nor to Africa, to our knowledge, where Ebola always originates. We can’t extradite them without legitimate charges pending here. The baron has an office in Taiwan and is very well connected with the Taiwan Army. He and his wife would be protected by the army itself if we tried to arrest them. The baron does have, however, a tea plantation and a house in the north of Thailand. We could go in there and pick her up. But he also has connections there, and we certainly would have to release them after a short interrogation. I would like to take her to one of our ships for questioning.”
“How could she be picked up in Thailand?” Hauser asked.
“I think we might just go in with one or two helicopters and pick her up without getting anyone’s permission,” Ralls said. “Maybe use the Navy SEALs.”
“Like we did with Bin Laden?” Hauser asked.
“Yes. We did not notify the Pakistani Government as it was a given that someone in the government there would have alerted Bin Laden if we had announced we were coming. Whether Bin Laden would have been informed because of his rich Saudi family, or his supporters in the immensely corrupt Pakistani Government who would have been paid money for revealing we were coming, or because of some Muslim loyalty thing, he would not have been there if we had notified the government that we were coming when we did. That is certain.
“But there is no Muslim connection with the baron, the baroness, and Thailand. Bribery is a possibility, but not as bad as with the Pakis. I still recommend we do not tell anyone if we want to pick her up.”
“To do that, we have to get the president’s okay,” Hauser said. “He would run it by his staff. It’s a pretty big deal going into someone else’s country with the military. Imagine if some other country came in to the US in their military helicopters, arrested someone, and took him out? It would be an act of war!”
“I’ve been on this woman day and night for some time,” Ralls said. “I’ve been working with the CIA, checking and rechecking, all to prove that she is the mystery pilot in the hypersonic craft as it presents a genuine security threat. But to answer your earlier question, I honestly think that she might be an alien, as far-fetched as that sounds. I think we should go pick her up and take her somewhere for questioning.”
“Oh, sure, how could that be a problem?” Hauser snapped. “I’ll just ask for an audience with the president and tell him we are on the trail of an extraterrestrial, who is also a German baroness, and we want to go into Thailand in armed military choppers with Navy SEALs to her home without notifying the Thai government so we can cart her away in handcuffs from her influential husband, a baron, to one of our warships for interrogation, as she is suspected of having entered US airspace without a flight plan, which is a misdemeanor. That’ll work for sure.”
“Not so good, huh?” Ralls said.
***
The final arrangements were made but with a compromise. The Thai government was notified and agreed to a plan including the Thai Army. Ralls decided to pick up both the baron and the baroness for questioning, instead of just her. The Thai military, not the US Navy SEALs, would go to the tea plantation with one of its helicopters, taking Ralls, to collect them for interrogation at a Thai military base. The interrogation would be conducted by US representatives, which would include Ralls, with a Thai representative monitoring. They would then be returned to the tea plantation after questioning, unless there was further reason to detain them.
CHAPTER 28
Baron and Tak returned from another motorcycle tour, this time to the Mekong River, where they had taken a tiny boat across the half-mile width of the Mekong to Laos. Once in Laos, they had walked up the steep bank of the river to see Ban Houei Sai, a quaint Laotian village. The roads were dirt, the huts teak, and the living primitive, but the people were warm and wonderful to visitors. The archaic living conditions were something completely new for Tak. She and Baron returned the same day, and just in time, as rain was about to fall.
After they showered together to refresh from the dust and heat of the day, they retired to the tower, overlooking the plantation. From the tower of the hilltop tea estate, they could absorb the ambiance of the many acres of lush, deep green tea trees.
The rains, combined with the harvest of fresh tea leaves, provided a unique and lovely fragrance.
As they sat in the tower overlooking the plantation in the late afternoon, a torrential downpour fell and then subsided to a steady rain.
Over the sound of the rain, she brought up the subject that they both knew to be inevitable. “Baron, I have completed my study. The starship will soon be nearby and I must go.”
A hollow feeling overcame him at the reality of losing his lover. “Is there any chance I might talk you into staying here on Earth with me?”
“Baron, now that I’ve seen a great deal of Earth and your lifestyle, especially after the contrast of visiting the village of Ban Houei Sai in Laos, I realize that traveling with you is hardly a typical example of life on Earth. But I have loved it and you as well.”
Baron knew there had to be a “but,” and there was.
“But there is an unimaginable amount of worlds yet for me to see as a Federation anthropologist. I simply cannot end my career here on this one planet, even though it has you.”
She looked at him, took a sip of her drink to fortify herself for making a suggestion that she feared might, if accepted, compromise her impartiality on the starship as an independent anthropologist. “Why don’t you accompany me? I believe I could get permission to make you part of a team of the two of us. As I would be sent to places with beings that are much like us, and that use oxygen and water, you would fit right in. You have unique language skills, and could easily learn languages of other beings in the places that I would take you.”
Baron was quiet. He looked at her, then out to the plantation, taking in the lovely rain, wondering if he could give up the luxuries he had created, his influence, wealth, powerful contacts, properties, languages, collections...
As he did not jump at the chance, she added enticements. “There would be benefits for you if you come. You will not need to worry about being wealthy, as where you will be going, you will not need money. You will not need to worry about medicine, and your life will be greatly extended. I know you like weapons, and I’ll get you some that you will really like. I understand that Earthlings consider there to be seven wonders of your world, and I assume that you’ve seen them. You would be amazed to learn of the wonders of the universe.”
Contemplating her offer, he asked, “When is your starship coming?”
“In about four days, and I’ll know exactly when they contact me. But I must warn you, if you do come, you cannot plan on returning. I wouldn’t be allowed to take you on a sightseeing tour of space, only to have to bring you all the way back if you got homesick.” She paused. “Would you be able to come with all of your business here?”
“I have made provisions for Mei Ling that are in my safe in Taipei if something should happen to me. I could send her an email to set things in motion.”
She leaned over and kissed him, her tone changing, “I want you to come. After all, we are married.”
He did not answer, as he was unable to accept her invitation to leave everything that he had worked for behind. He considered his mastering of many Earth languages, the many connections he had made, and his possessions. He was very comfortable here on Earth.
He avoided giving her an answer. “Now that I have been able to get the Dalai Lama back into
Tibet, and my mission is accomplished, there is something I would like you to do if you can. With your advanced medicine, when you return, could you make a formula for an antidote for the race-specific Ebola? Maybe even for all forms of Ebola? It would have to be able to be made with substances and equipment available here on Earth. You could transmit the formula to the World Health Organization without saying who it is from. It would put an end to the suffering in Tibet.”
Tak seemed a bit surprised at the request and looked at him for a few moments as she considered the interference with Earth activities.
She made her decision. “A piece of cake!” and kissed him passionately.
He then decided it might be time to get some information since she was going to be leaving. “Now that you are leaving, can you tell me what all that fancy wrist computer of yours can do? I’ve seen it act as a weapon and translator. What else?”
“Sure. It’s a sort of intergalactic laptop. It has knowledge of the parts of the universe that we have visited, which is relatively small on an intergalactic scale, and it can recall those images. Watch.”
She gave it a command to show a planet that she knew of. It sprang to life and projected a three dimensional holograph just above it of the solar system of that place, three feet in size in each direction. A projection of the planets circling their sun appeared, also showing their moons. The view moved in to a planet, a blue one, covered partially with water much like Earth. Some of the cities showed up by their lights on the dark, nighttime side.
“Here is one in your Milky Way, similar to yours. There are inhabitants, but they are not like you or me. There are so many of inhabited planets logged in our computers that you could spend your lifetime studying.” She shut down the image.
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