by E L Russell
Before Director Davies could respond, she held her hand up. “We have setup Jack Strake’s solitary confinement with a TV monitor of the President’s speech. We bragged to him about the meaning of the screen’s color if a poison is released. What we didn’t tell him is we can change the color of his monitor at any time for any reason. It is currently green, as is yours. We know he has a reputation for last-second-bargining and should he suddenly see a red screen, he knows which button will connect him to your office. It would mark his last chance to bargain what he may know to save his ass. Steve is waiting by for an ‘all-clear’ from you once we know the attempted Genecaust on the Capitol has failed. Steve will change Strake’s screen to red and that chicken-shit Strake should your be on your phone with a memorized plea-pitch.”
“Umph,” Davies said. “It reminds me of days gone by when we would sweat out a bad guy. We’re also using old school techniques with a spin by your colleague Zhen who is concentrating on building a real-time list of no-shows who should be in attendance today, but are not. Agents are using Zhen’s facial scan app on their smartphones, which will help build a valid list of everyone entering this room. That database may prove critical to just how well we’ve been able to keep our mission a secret. That’s a long-shot to pick up suspects who might have been involved in the attempted Genecaust. The size and composition of a suspect group could portend a new poison toxin if Katya had an option-B.”
* * *
They’d been sitting in the United States Capitol building for an hour and a half Meret couldn’t stand it any more. She called Zhen. “Are the agents checking in regularly?”
“Everyone of them, Meret.” Zhen’s confidence strengthened her. “The sniffer app on the BeetleBots is functioning perfectly. So far, so good. All clear.”
Davies waved to another person who recognized him while whispering to Meret. “He’ll let you know if there’s a problem. Trust your team.”
Meret felt the heat rise on her neck. Of course she trusted her team. They were the best anywhere. She just wanted to hear Zhen ‘say’ it was all-good. She placed a call to Steve who was watching events at the Capitol from headquarters in the white interrogation rooms in the basement, where he is monitoring Katya, Granger, and Jack Strake. “Steve, tell Jack the president’s speech is past the mid-point. If he has any hope of not dying in our custody, he must tell us what he knows before our monitors change from green to red or yellow. Don’t tell him what a green or yellow screen means, just get him to start talking. Alert the monitoring team not to miss a thing on the audio and video. Strake may not permit himself to give us info twice.”
Davies gave her a what-did-I-just-tell-you look and she turned away from him. Everything had to go right and she wasn’t taking any chances.
A commotion in the third row above the Speakers Well caught Davies attention and he put his teams on alert. Meret immediately checked her cellphone.
Still Green.
She couldn’t tell what was going on but the area was instantly flooded with paramedics, secret service, and capitol police. Director Davies sat with his finger on his ear trying to get the facts. When he stopped talking, she knew an Agent was making a report. She stood to scan the huge assembly and confirmed that whatever caused the chaos, it was confined to that one area.
Davies finished his call, “Copy, keep me updated.”
She glanced again at her cell phone.
Yellow.
Katya’s poison had been released. Meret hit the icon on her cell phone to release more anti-toxin
Davies shook his head. “Can you believe it, Meret? The good senator from South Carolina just had a heart attack.”
She shoved her cell phone in his face. “I’m calling Steve to tell him to take advantage of the visual chaos in the Speaker’s Well. The media’s all over it. It’s time to turn Strake’s cell screen to red. You can expect a call from Strake within seconds.”
Director Davies’ phone announced an incoming call. He glanced at Meret and mouthed the words “Jack Strake.”
Meret smiled and flashed a thumb’s up.
Within seconds Director Davies ended the call and stood next to Meret.
“Sweet mother of God. We caught a break. Steve is leading a team to empty Jack Strake’s mind. He said Jack already told him PharmCo had a full team of bad boys, lawyers, and wealthy people and politicians looking for more money. If Strake’s claims prove fruitful the courts will be working overtime for several years.” He selected an icon on his phone sent another alert.
“We are still on Code Yellow. Your phone has started a three-minute countdown. Stay calm and follow the plan. Do not panic. Follow Code Yellow’s protocol. Stand in place until you get the word to evacuate the room. If we see any evidence of a fatal attack during that count down, we will initiate plan B and evacuate.”
Her countdown clock showed he time remaining of the three-minute window of vulnerability. If no one exhibits symptoms of the poison, they are in the clear.
2:47. She swallowed hard and felt sick but it would be okay.
Davies’ team knew the drill. She knew it would be okay and repeated the belief to convince herself. If her antidote failed to neutralize Katya’s poisonous toxin, those infected without the antidote would show symptoms of the poison within minutes.
Please, god, make it work. She wasn’t a church-goer, but a prayer wouldn’t hurt
Davies sent out another alert. “Everything is progressing well. Continue using Senator Whipple’s medical team as a cover and maintain a clear path for his extraction.”
2:25 to go.
“How accurate is the progress of the poison, Meret? Are the three minutes real time?”
She pointed to the Speaker’s Well where the president stood patiently waiting for Senator Whipple’s medical team to exit. and said, “We are making good use of Whipple’s event. As soon as Code Yellow has expired we will return to Green. However, not wanting to take any chances and since Whipple’s heart attack has officially ended the President’s speech, we will encourage a complete evacuation by initiating a Fire Alarm.
Davies said, “Good decision. Whipple’s a great distraction. Are we safe to remain?”
“Yes. The symptoms are clinically predictable. Someone will vomit and or fall to the floor with convulsions.”
2:09 to go.
Meret’s cell vibrated. “What’s up Steve? I thought you’d like to know that Jack Strake started singing the minute he saw his screen go red.”
“Yeah, but what’s up?”
“I’m nervous, Meret. The Speech is done, let’s get the President out of there. Get him and the press on the front lawn, anywhere, but get him out. We’ve won this battle, let’s not lose the war in celebration.”
Davies leaned close. “The President’s speech is over. He’s left the podium to shake hands. Senator Whipple’s gurney has created a road block at the main door. Everyone’s trying to help but all they seem capable of doing is blocking his exit. We’re in the last minute of the countdown - have you seen anything like symptoms of infection?”
“No. its a bit too early but Steve is correct. Get the President out now. Use the press jam at the door as an excuse to use our Agents and the Secret Service an excuse to clear the way. I have new data that changes the protocol. I’ll fill you in after the president has cleared the building.”
1:09
Meret pulled Director Davies aside. “Now that the President and the press have left the room and are resetting the Q&A to the lawn you’ll notice we still have about half of the audience milling about the chamber acting social like it was old-home week at school. So if the attack had been automated we still could face large numbers of deaths, except for one thing. I detected a flaw in our data.”
“What new data do you have?”
She pointed at the audience. “This is a much older population than we had in the historical records. The average age of Congress is 57.0 years and for Senators, 61.0 years. So, with more than a handful older t
han 61 years, I’d expect to see at least ten or so violently ill and dying by now.”
He said, “That impacts our plan, because . . .?”
“We didn’t have to wait for three minutes. One and a half minutes should have been long enough to witness extreme distress and sickness ten percent of the audience. The Capitol was beyond full for the State of the Union speech. You do the math
0:32
He frowned. “Ten-seconds. Okay?”
She nodded. “We’ll be okay. Zhen, are you listening?”
He made another announcement. “Alert. Alert. Code Green, Code Green. Stand Down.”
79
Reunion
A VIP hotel in Rome, one week later
Meret, Poppy, and Debby walked down the middle of a side street toward the ancient Roman Forum. The light escaping from open windows within tightly packed row houses compensated for mostly broken street lamps.
The sun had set leaving the western sky aglow with subtle blues and yellows as the stars in the eastern heavens regained control of the night.
After walking for thirty minutes they were within two blocks of the Forum, now ablaze with golden ground lights. Debby checked the note on the back of a business card. “This is it. Here’s the VIP hotel with the restaurant he told us about.” She grinned. “And look, we can walk around the Forum after we eat.”
They climbed three dark steps, passed through a narrow door, and walked a short dimly lit hallway in single file toward the bright light of an open Dutch door.
Poppy nudged Debby with her elbow. “Are you sure we’re in the right place?”
With the top door open, the bottom half fronted for the VIP hotel’s small registration desk. It was several moments before a lead-footed woman clogged loudly up several steps from a darkened back room carrying a folio sized fat book. Meret recognized it as an old-time hotel registration book. After Debby signed them in, she asked for directions to the restaurant. The receptionist pointed to another narrow door three-feet o their left, which opened onto a small, dimly lit elevator. Debby’s slight push encouraged Meret and Poppy to enter.
Three pairs of eyes examined the naked flickering bulb in the car’s ceiling as the shaky elevator ascended, rattling and scraping at every possibility.
The light went out and the elevator stopped.
“Oh, shit.” The three voices squeaked in unison.
When the elevator door opened behind them, like Siamese triplet sand crabs, they took one long side step into the semi-darkness to escape.
“Hey,” Meret said. “Smell that? Wisteria. I’m sure of it. Mmm. Reminds me of when I was a kid.” She missed a beat and added, “And carefree.”
Poppy exhaled in obvious relief at being off the elevator. “We’re on the roof top.” She didn’t move farther until she had taken several fortifying breaths. Their enthusiasm diminished in the darkness. “A very dark rooftop.”
As they stood there unsure what to do next, the elevator door rattled to a close and as if a switch had been thrown, hundreds of tiny colored lights hanging within large trees and flowering shrubs throughout the roof sparkled on. They followed a soft glow illuminating a winding stone path. Within a few steps a single candle set on white tablecloth illuminated setting places for three. Somewhere in the darkness behind the round table, flowing water gurgled on rocks.
Debby stepped on the path first. “He said we had the only one table here.”
Meret’s mouth fell open. “Debby, you said we might be alone,” her voice dropped low as she looked around. “But this beyond . . .”
The table was artfully positioned under low arms of several trees and surrounded on three sides by thick undergrowth, the three were breathless at the ambience.
A waiter appeared from the shadows and presented a bottle of wine to Debby. She folded her hands on her lap and nodded, as though she knew one wine from another.
When their glasses were poured, Meret raised her glass. “To our absent friends.” She thought of Granger and Steve and gave silent thanks for all they had done for her and their country. She wished it were possible for Henri and Zhen to be here with Debby and Poppy. She had almost eliminated random thoughts for Katya and Subash Zen from her mind. They would be severely dealt with. She shivered. How could such evil exist?
Meret focused on tonight’s events. “Debby, how did you know there’d be only one table this evening?”
Shaking herself, she looked around them and smiled at the multitude of fairy lights. “Debby, this is truly lovely. Thank you.”
Poppy buttered a crispy roll. “Yes, lovely. Tell us how it came about.”
Debby waved a hand and sipped her wine. “Oh, you know,” and said no more.
“Well, all I can say is I wish all business trips were so enjoyable. Now that we’ve had the refresher course on the technology, networks, infra structure, etc. and etc.”
“And money,” Meret added. “Lots of money.”
Poppy added, “Yes, and while money is needed to support bioinformatics, we can just sit back and enjoy dinner.”
Debby asked, “Are there many Italian restaurants back home on Tasmania?”
“Nah. A few good ones, though. I suspect this one will be the best of my memories. Anyone seen the menu?”
Dabby said, “Restaurants of this caliber don’t provide menus. The chef decides. He’s been preparing our dinner since before we arrived. I hope you enjoy the meal.”
“I’m sure I will.” Meret said and leaning over the table closer to her friends, switched topics in a low voice. “Working with the ‘CIA,’ ” she mouthed, “means you rarely get the full picture, but now that you are both vetted and are deeply rooted in our consulting company, you have the right to know how things worked out.
Dramatically, she placed her cell on the tabletop and touched an icon. A yellow light near its top blinked and then held a steady green. “We’re safe from electronic eavesdroppers.” She pulled a side of her mouth back and grimaced. I guess that’s one of the things the Company taught me. Always be suspicious. I’m making sure this conversation is not being recorded or monitored.”
Meret tipped her wine glass toward Debby. “I’ll begin with you and Henri. Your efforts to convince him we could and should work together had immediate consequences. By giving us access to the embedded apps in the communication system be designed and built for Katya, we were able to find the eight oligarchs and get full access to their computers, as well as any devices linked to them.” She turned her gaze to Poppy to clarify. “Henri’s malware had the ability to embed spyware in any device connected to them. That including the GPS system on their smart phones, which give real-time feedback on current locations. The Company has used our beetle bots to tag them so now can track them, monitor their communication, or eliminate them anywhere they try to hide on the planet.”
“But there is a dark side to this knowledge,” Debby said.
Three waiters appeared from the shadows and stood behind them. No one spoke. Only the soft swish of plates for the antipasto salad could be heard over the sound of falling water on rocks from the darkness behind their table.
“What do you mean by a dark side?” Poppy asked when the servers disappeared.
Meret answered. “We soon found we had the power to kill the eight oligarchs no matter where they were. As soon as we had concrete evidence they were behind the Socotra Genecaust and the coming attack against our political leadership, they were as good as dead.”
Debby gasped. “You mean you had them taken out? You killed them? All of them?”
Meret waved her hand. “While they must die for their crimes against humanity, the plan is monitor them for more information. Remember, they have no clue we can see, hear, and record every minute of their miserable lives. While the genomic technology allows us to do that, even from a ‘deniable’ distance, it is Director Davies’s idea to eliminate the worst of them by ranking them in order of responsibility of who has done the most damage to us and also who could be of value
to us. He is hoping they will unknowingly work for us as assets until they prove they have nothing left to share.
Debby’s eyes widened. “And then?”
Meret frowned with one cheek. “And then they will die.”
“Meanwhile, we will monitor them and learn who worked for them on what we had hoped would be the last Genecaust.”
Poppy asked with a voice that could only be heard from the table. “What will the CIA do with their minions?”
Meret slid her the dull side of her butter knife slowly across her neck. “We must keep the Genecaust in Socotra and the attempted Genecaust on the Homeland a secret.”
Poppy and Debby sat open mouthed and silent as the waiters reappeared and efficiently replaced their antipasti course with a Primi Piatto and refilled their wine glasses. “If I hadn’t visited Socotra and witnessed the bloody suffering of women and girls, I might have been bothered more by our plan to kill the oligarchs. We had previously tested the procedure on twenty innocent primates. I am ashamed to admit that I feel the loss of ten of those primates in that experiment more than the three humans we killed in this operation.”
Poppy asked, “So, for sure, we have been able to keep the attacks a secret?”
Meret nodded. “Even the President and some 230 the members of Congress still do not know of our efforts. Director Davies wants to keep it that way but you know Washington.
The silent wait staff brought the main course, a huge platter filled the center of the table. Small portions of chicken and fish sizzled in sauces sat on the hot dish. Rich slices of meat and pasta dazzled their senses. Both red and white wine was placed on the table as Debby excused the staff.
Debby said, “They originally wanted us to choose between fish and meat so the correct wine could be offered, but I told them we were an international group, Poppy being from Tasmania, and they agreed.”