by M. C. Miller
With mention of the name, the man’s anger flared. “Why are we here?”
Janis turned from the shop window to face him. “Mass is preparing to collapse the world’s population. I have proof. I’ll give it to you in exchange for my daughter.”
“Whatever would he want to do that for? His thing is life extension.”
“I guess he wants to live a long life – in a new kind of world. In some ways, he agrees with you. People are killing the planet. His solution – fewer people.”
The news took the man off-guard. He turned and walked away lost in thought.
Janis paced along at his side. “Riya Basu discovered the plot and was killed to keep it from getting out. Same thing with Malcolm Stowe.”
“That’s not what the tabloids are saying.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I did an internet search on your name today. I found several sources that claim the three of you were in a love triangle. They say jealousy killed Riya.”
“That’s ridiculous!”
“All the same, it’s out there. By the way, Indian authorities are still eager to talk with you. They don’t like the fact you ran out on them.”
Janis’ mind raced. “That’s convenient for you, isn’t it?”
“It’s not a bad thing.”
“What about the police in Stockholm? They’ve gone on record saying they believe members of New Class Order killed Riya.”
“Yeah, well, that’s no longer their only possibility.”
“Did New Class Order plant these rumors about me?”
“Why should we take the fall? We didn’t kill Riya.”
“I should believe that?”
“Why would we do such a thing? It’s bad PR, driving people away from our message.”
“It’s more complicated than that. Admit it – there are radical elements within New Class Order you can’t control.”
“All I care about is what the police and the public believe.”
“So shift the blame.”
“Shift it back where it belongs, on Mass and the people who work for him.”
“But why me?”
“It’s perfectly plausible, all about sex and violence – the public will eat it up.”
Exasperated, Janis shook her head. “All you’ve done is make it harder to expose what Mass is planning. Now, people won’t know what to believe.”
“Doesn’t matter. People think they believe what they want to believe. In reality, they believe what they’re told. Fortunately for me, they like sordid tales.”
“What’s more sordid than murdering six billion people?”
“You have proof of that…”
“Riya had proof. Before she died, she gave it to Malcolm.”
“But Malcolm is dead.”
“Before he died, he gave it to me.”
“If I were you, I wouldn’t like that progression. No wonder you want to get rid of this thing you call proof.”
“I want my daughter.”
“So I’ve heard.”
“And you want to bring down Mass. I have the way to do it. Pretend all you want but your campaign against GenLET isn’t working. You need something else.”
“I take it you won’t trade your proof until you get your daughter.”
“That’s right.”
“I’d need to verify this proof. How do I know what you have is genuine unless I have a way to confirm it?”
Janis produced paperwork from her pocket. “I’ve brought sample redacted pages, enough to demonstrate its value.”
The man stopped walking, turned, and drew closer. He took the offered pages and stepped closer to a shop window to read them.
Janis studied the changes in expression on his face. Curiosity became genuine interest, then surprise. Wiping his face clean of emotion. he handed the pages back and walked on. Unexpectedly, there was an aura of menace and mischief about him.
“I have to confess. I didn’t search the Internet for you. There are no stories out there about your love triangle. I made that up.”
“I don’t understand…”
He smiled. “I wanted to see how you’d react. I needed to impress on you the importance of this. You’ll leverage anything to get your daughter back. Likewise, I’ll leverage anything to move my agenda forward.”
“Are you threatening me? Cooperate or you’ll spread rumors of a love triangle to implicate me in murder?”
“You came prepared to negotiate. So did I.”
“Riya’s proof is all I’ve got to give. What else do you want to negotiate for?”
The man restarted their walk. “You’re a scientist. Eventually, you’ll go back to the lab. There’s still work to do. You need to perfect GenLET.”
Janis was wide-eyed. “You want GenLET?”
“No. But I want to know what’s going on with it. I want regular reports on its status. What’s possible, how it works, its limitations, its weaknesses.”
“How does that help you?”
“I’m a realist. I hold no allusions about my chances at stopping the powerful few from getting what they want. When they do, the game will change. With it, so will the rules. I need to know what I’m up against and how to fight it.”
“I’m not signing up to be your source of information forever.”
“Then we have no deal.”
“Do you want the proof or not?”
“Sure I do. But that’s not all. If you want your daughter, I need assurances you’ll give me ongoing reports about GenLET. I need someone on the inside. I need to know what’s possible with life extension, and what isn’t – the same way Eugene Mass knows it. That’s my offer. Take it or leave it.”
“You’re admitting you have Alyssa…?”
“I’m telling you I can get her for you.”
“How soon?”
“When can you have all the pages – without redaction?”
“Tonight.”
“Very well. Meet me back by the carousel at 9 o’clock.”
“You’ll need to bring something that proves you have access to Alyssa.”
“No problem. But let’s be straight about this. I want the proof but I also want ongoing reports from you. If you’re not willing to do both, don’t bother coming.”
Janis nodded and the man leaned in closer. “And don’t think you’re going to get your daughter and forget about the ongoing reports. Do that and you’ll see love triangle stories popping up all over the Internet.”
“A kidnapper and blackmailer…”
The man’s sudden grin became a grimace.
Just then, four men in suits converged on them from front and back.
In French and English, they shouted orders. “Arrêt! Restez où vous êtes. Police! Turn around. Show your hands…”
“What is this!” The man stiffened as two detectives grabbed him by the arms.
“You’re under arrest…both of you.” One of the men flashed a badge.
The other two plainclothes officers took hold of Janis. Before she could speak, both of them were hustled back down Rue Saint-Ferréol under the watchful gazes of startled shoppers and passerby. With a relentless urgency, the detectives rushed Janis into the backseat of an unmarked car. The other two officers frisked the man with her and put him in a separate car. Janis craned her neck around in time to see the other car driving off in another direction.
“Where are you taking me? What’s this about!” Her cries were ignored.
Silent, the detectives sat out the ride with steely-eyed determination. Down side streets and into an underground parking structure they flew. After a ride in an elevator and escorted walk down a hallway, Janis found herself in an interrogation room facing a metal table. It was bare except for one object – Malcolm’s laptop. Seeing it laid out by itself stunned her with waves of panic.
The door opened and a middle-aged man in suit and tie strolled in. In his hand was an open file folder. Closing it, he looked up. “Janis Insworth…”
“A tourist in our fine city, I suppose…” Janis kept silent. The man sat down opposite her. “For a tourist, you keep company with the oddest people.”
“Who are you?” demanded Janis. “What agency is this?”
The man dropped the folder onto the laptop and eased back. “Direction Centrale du Renseignement Intérieur. You would call it the Central Directorate of Internal Intelligence. My name is François Dufray.”
Janis offered, “I have no idea what this is about. I’ve done nothing wrong.”
Mr. Dufray used one fingernail to pick at another. “I’m not here to arbitrate right and wrong. I’m more concerned with what’s legal and illegal.”
“I want to talk to a lawyer.”
“Of course, in due time, I recommend it.”
“I want a lawyer now!”
“I’m afraid it doesn’t work that way. Not here. Not now.”
“What am I being charged with?”
“Did I say you’re being charged?”
“You arrested me.”
“We took you into custody. You’re on an Interpol watch list. We’ve been following you since your arrival.”
“If that’s true, why didn’t you pick me up when I first arrived? You must have known about the watch list when I went through customs in Paris?”
“We were curious to see where you would go – what you’d do.”
“So why end it tonight?”
Mr. Dufray was flippant. “We’ve seen enough.”
“What you saw tonight proves nothing.”
“Maybe, maybe not. But it’s time to put an end to it.”
“Nothing is going on.”
“What was your purpose in coming to France?”
Janis said nothing.
“You told the custom’s agent in Paris you’re on vacation. You then flew to Marseille, checked into two separate hotels and acquired two safety deposit boxes. Into one of those boxes you deposited this laptop. Only hours later you met with a representative of the radical group New Class Order. Now, tell me, whose idea of a vacation is that?”
“I want to talk to a lawyer.”
“Oh, you should. When you get back to India, it’s the first thing I recommend.”
“India?”
“Yes, the authorities in Hyderabad want you extradited. Apparently, this laptop doesn’t belong to you.”
“It was given to me – for safekeeping.” Janis felt the last shred of her plans unraveling.
“Ah, safekeeping. Why, because it’s valuable? It’s odd you should risk international travel with it, don’t you think? Unless you were going to use it to make some kind of deal.”
Janis slumped in her chair. “You don’t understand…”
“I understand intellectual property rights. I understand corporate espionage.” Mr. Dufray turned the laptop over and rubbed a thumb over an affixed asset tag. “NS-L31-4186. NovoSenectus laptop model 31, sequence number 4186.”
“That’s right. I work for NovoSenectus.”
“Is this your laptop?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Oh really. Have you checked with NovoSenectus on that? Do you think they want a laptop from one of their top security agents falling into the hands of New Class Order? Did you know a global search has been underway for NS-L31-4186?”
Janis felt her nerves take over. She began to shiver. Tears filled her eyes.
“It’s not like that. I just want my daughter back.”
Dufray casually dropped the redacted pages taken off her onto the table. “So you admit stealing the laptop in hopes of bartering the release of your daughter.”
“No! I didn’t steal it. He has to be stopped!”
“Who?”
“Eugene Mass!”
“Why would Mass want to kidnap your daughter?”
“No!” shouted Janis. “He wants to kill six billion people!”
Bemused skepticism furrowed Dufray’s brow. “Really. And New Class Order is going to stop him. Is that what you were told tonight?”
Janis held her hand to her head. “They didn’t tell me – I told them!”
“Now I’m confused. But, of course, I find most wild excuses like that.” Dufray glanced at his wristwatch. “The local authorities will be here at 9 o’clock to take you to a holding cell. In a couple of days, extradition paperwork will be complete and you’ll board a flight back to India. My job will be done.”
The mention of 9 o’clock sank heavy on Janis’ heart. That should have been the hour of the follow-up meeting and exchange – the laptop for Alyssa. Janis had been so close to securing a deal with New Class Order. Suddenly, all hope swept away and an arrow of pain shot through her.
Out of a mother’s hurt, an upwelling anger blinded her judgment.
Needing to vent, she jumped up, reached across the table, and grabbed Dufray by the coat. “Do you know what you’ve done! I was so close! Now what will happen to her? You bastard! You don’t care what they do with my daughter!”
Mr. Dufray recoiled and grabbed Janis’ wrists, preventing her attack. He pulled her hands away from him and held them at arm’s length.
“Theatrics aren’t going to save you, Ms. Insworth.”
Just then, a guard who heard the outburst rushed in to secure the situation.
Mr. Dufray picked up the laptop while Janis was handcuffed. He paused on his way out. “I’m sorry about your daughter but the ends rarely justify the means.”
Janis’s rage ebbed away. “What’s going to happen to André?”
“André?”
“The man I met with – André Bolard.”
Mr. Dufray raised an eyebrow. “You think you met with André Bolard, the leader of New Class Order?” Dufray gave a laugh and shook his head on his way out.
The deceit was complete. Suddenly, it made sense. André Bolard would never risk himself when a foot soldier of his organization could be rehearsed to fill in.
The guard led Janis one way down the hallway. Mr. Dufray walked in the opposite direction. At a reception area, he was met by an associate.
Dufray handed over the laptop. “Here, take this to forensics. I want a full report on what they find. This has to be done tonight, before we hand her over.”
“Yes, sir.” The associate nodded and started to hurry away.
“Tell them, not a scratch…,” Dufray called after him. “It’s important. If we looked at nothing – it must seem that way to a trained eye.”
Chapter 23
Granite Peak Installation
Dugway Proving Grounds, Utah
The bottom of the hole.
That’s what computer technicians called it. At the lowest basement level reached by elevator, the data center evoked a morbid fascination for most staff members of Granite Peak. The fact that only the freight elevator went down that low was just part of it. Universally, the place made reluctant visitors feel claustrophobic if not creepy.
Few people had reason or inclination to visit the bowels of the buried facility. Something about being that deep and isolated, that surrounded by the sameness of penetrating cold and a slight electronic hum evoked feelings of the grave. Some said even if you knew you were down there alone, it didn’t feel that way. You certainly didn’t want to be alone if you could help it.
Faye Gardner reassured herself. Much of the basement’s macabre mystique was inflated by bored specialists who liked being seen as a rare breed for braving duty assignments in such a place. In fact, the sealed-off data center was an elaborate raised-floor cocoon with low ceilings and super-chilled air. Nothing to fear.
The place was abandoned most of the time, except for an occasional visiting technician seated at a console or making a system tweak to one of the precisely racked components. Automated systems and the impressive array of sensors kept computers and redundancy systems operational. If all was working as it should, nothing and no one else was need
ed.
Faye had seen the bottom of the hole only once. That visit was brief but she’d been more than happy to take the elevator ride back to her laboratory floor. Today’s visit would be as much a surprise for Colin as it was when Faye was told by security she could find him there. The more she thought about it, the basement might be the perfect place for the discussion they had to have. What better place to give a sense of the way she felt about the inscrutable project that had taken over her life.
The elevator doors opened and Faye stepped into the LZ, the security Landing Zone. From here, she could access the raised floor directly or head off to the side into a storage area or back farther into the darkened power plant.
After a RIDIS scan, Faye stepped up as doors slid open granting her access. Down an aisle between rows of imposing lockers of black Plexiglas, Colin stood behind a technician seated at a console. Startled by the arrival of a visitor, Colin turned. He was even more surprised to see who it was.
“Faye – is everything all right?”
“I was told I’d find you here. I have something that couldn’t wait.”
“What is it?”
Faye drew her arms in close around her to ward off the cold. She glanced at the technician. Colin took the hint and sent him away. Once the young man was beyond the LZ, in the elevator, Faye felt she could speak freely.
“I’ve made a discovery. I wanted you to be the first to know.”
“You haven’t shared it with anyone in the lab?”
“No, no one.”
“Why keep it from them?”
“I need to hear from you what’s going on before I get them involved.”
“What’s going on? I don’t understand…”
“You know I’ve been studying everything we have on Janis. Now that I have the complete virus – with sputnik intact, we’re making progress. As we suspected, Janis’ Ghyvir-C infection explains a lot about how the viruses work together.”
“Good so far…”
“When I started this, I assumed my research fourteen years ago at USAMRIID was just a starting point. We know the common cold doesn’t cause sterility.”
Colin sat back on the console desk. “OK. So, what’s the discovery.”
“You said Janis was pregnant at the time of the infection.”