The Asset

by Saul Herzog

  “All right,” Lance said, taking the gun back from Sofia. He went to the dead soldiers and took three side arms and three AK-12 assault rifles from the bodies, as well as ammo and a radio.

  “Don’t use them unless you have to,” he said as he passed out the guns. “They’ll give us away.”

  They nodded.

  “The plan’s simple,” Lance said. “We’re going to use the stairs to the second floor. From there, we’ll stay low and make our way to the main lab. You two stay behind me. We only have one silencer.”

  “What if we’re seen?” Sofia said.

  “I’ll take care of it,” Lance said. “We stay together no matter what. Under no circumstances use your guns unless the alarm’s already been raised. Right now, they’re still running around trying to figure out what happened outside.”

  “What happens at the lab?” Sofia said.

  “When we get there, we can set off the explosives on the servers. That will create another huge distraction. If we’re lucky, the chaos will allow us to incinerate the virus strains without being seen.”

  “And if we’re not lucky?” Sofia said.

  “If we have to light them up, we light them up. Then we’ll fight our way back to the east loading bay.”

  Vasily looked ready.

  Sofia looked worried.

  “Look,” Lance said. “Hopefully it doesn’t come to that. They’re carrying assault rifles. We do not want a gunfight. If that happens, there’s a very slim chance all of us get out.”

  Vasily and Sofia nodded.

  “Just stay low and don’t get seen,” Lance said.

  They went back to the stairwell. At the fourth floor, a soldier was sitting on the steps beneath them, smoking a cigarette. Lance took him out with a pistol shot to the top of his head.

  When they reached the second floor, Lance opened the door slightly and peered out. A scientist in protective clothing was walking down the corridor toward the main lab. He was about thirty feet ahead with his back to them. Lance motioned for the other two to follow and they crept down the corridor behind the scientist, careful to maintain their distance.

  When the scientist reached the door to the lab, they saw that it was unlocked and unguarded. There were large viewing windows looking into the lab about two feet from the ground.

  They crept along the corridor to the door, keeping below the windows. When they reached the door, Lance drew the pistol.

  He made eye contact with Vasily and Sofia before opening the door.

  “This is it,” he said.

  He inched the door open. Inside, the main lab was huge, occupying almost the entire floor. Some of the equipment had been partially dismantled by the scientists as they tried to figure out how to safely transport the live strains. The space was divided into sections by screens which could be used for cover.

  It looked like the scientists were concentrated at the far end of the lab. He could also see at least a dozen soldiers watching them work. The soldiers were only wearing masks and gloves.

  Vasily said, “They should be fully suited.”

  “We’ll be lucky if they don’t cause an outbreak,” Sofia said.

  Lance looked at her. “Where are the isolation pods?”

  “Those glass rooms along the back wall,” she said.

  “It looks like they haven’t started to dismantle them,” Lance said.

  “At least they’re aware of the danger,” Sofia said.

  Lance nodded. “What about the light switches?”

  “Over there,” Vasily said, pointing to the nearest corner. There was a panel of light switches on the wall, as well as a fire alarm and a hose.

  “All right,” Lance said. He took the detonator for the explosives from his pack and handed it to Sofia. “I’m going to go shut out the lights. As soon as they’re out, you press that button. Then follow me to the corner. Stay very low. It will be dark so just follow the wall.”

  Sofia looked startled but Vasily nodded.

  Lance took a deep breath and entered the lab. He crept to the corner without being seen. He waited a few seconds to make sure no one was looking, then reached up and shut off all the lights. It didn’t make the room pitch black, there were emergency lights, but it was a lot darker than it had been.

  “Hey,” one of the soldiers called out, “what’s going on?”

  At that very moment, the entire building shook from the force of the explosion on the sixth floor.

  Then the fire alarm went off.

  Water started pouring from sprinklers and the emergency light was supplemented by flashing red bulbs in steel cages on he ceiling.

  As Sofia and Vasily made their way along the wall to the corner, Lance used the flashing lights of the fire alarm to pick off one, then two, then three of the nearest soldiers with the pistol. In the confusion, none of the other soldiers even noticed what was happening.

  “Evacuate,” a soldier said, and everyone in the lab began rushing for the emergency exits at the far end of the lab.

  “Wait,” an officer shouted at his men, but Lance waited for the flash of light and then put a bullet in his head too.

  As the chaos continued, with scientists and soldiers scrambling for the exits, Lance said to Sofia, “You ready to do this?”

  “Yes,” she said, in a tone that left him in no doubt.

  Lance reloaded the pistol and handed it to Vasily. “You need to keep this exit clear. That’s our way out.”

  Vasily nodded.

  Lance and Sofia crawled between the desks toward the first isolation pod. In all the chaos, they were able to move undetected. They made it to the first pod and Sofia opened a panel on the wall, entered a pin code into a digital display, and set a five-minute timer.

  They made their way methodically to the next five pods and repeated the same steps, carefully sealing the door behind them each time.

  As they left the last pod, they looked up to see a soldier standing right in front of them. The soldier was as shocked as they were, and before he’d even drawn his gun, Lance pulled his knife from its holster and slit his throat.

  They were just getting back to Vasily when a torrent of flames filled each of the sealed isolation pods, destroying everything inside. The flames gave the lab an eerie orange glow and in the light, Lance saw that Vasily had shot two soldiers who’d tried to enter through the door.

  He looked at Vasily and Sofia.

  “Good work.”

  They nodded.

  “Now let’s get out of here,” Sofia said.

  64

  Laurel knew it was impossible. Her body no longer had the will to fight. Her limbs were so numb that even thinking of moving them made her tremble in fear.

  But it was the only way.

  The distance was twelve feet. Twelve feet of rope. The same amount used to hang a man.

  If she could climb that rope, she could get to the ventilation shaft. And if she got to the shaft, she could get the cover off and climb into it. And if she got into the shaft, she could get out of whatever building she was in. And if she got out of the building, she could hide somewhere and avoid being found and brought back.

  It was such a long shot that she had to force herself not to think about it. She knew her chance of escape was next to zero. And even if she did somehow get herself out of that cellar, her chance of finding somewhere safe to hide in the Russian winter without being turned over was little better.

  She had no idea how long she’d been suspended by the rope and therefore no idea how long it would take for her body to recover.

  She didn’t remember being fed, or even being given water, which suggested she hadn’t been there as long as she thought.

  She decided that if she was going to die, she would rather go out fighting, and it was that thought alone that made her struggle against the rope.

  The room was complete darkness, the kind of darkness that only existed underground, the kind her eyes would never adjust to.

  She tried gripping the
rope to see if she could even hold onto it. It took an immense effort, her hands barely felt like they belonged to her, but after a few minutes of trying, she managed to close them on the rope and get some semblance of a grip.

  Then she tried pulling herself. There was no way she could lift her own weight, not at first, but by just pulling against the rope and trying to take some weight onto her arms, she was able to gradually bring her limbs back to life. The blood began to flow, and with it, agony. It was so much pain that she was afraid she’d lose consciousness.

  She felt as if her arms were on fire.

  Tears poured down her face as she struggled to hold the full weight of her body.

  Eventually, after an eternity of trying, she managed to pull herself up toward her hands as if doing a chin up.

  And then she slipped, and in an instant, all her progress, all her strength, was reduced to nothing, to less than nothing. So much pain poured through her she thought her arms had been ripped out of their sockets.

  She cried and went limp.

  She gave up.

  She surrendered to the pain. To the despair.

  And then, she started over, trying all over again to regain the strength just to hold onto the rope.

  It took hours, and dozens of slips, and an ocean of agony, before she was able to get both hands onto the same piece of rope and heave herself up to it.

  She knew she wouldn’t be able to maintain that strength in her arms for long. She had to do everything she could to get her feet onto the rope as soon as possible. If she slipped before that happened, she didn’t think her arms would get her to this position again.

  Somehow, she managed to put one hand over the other and pull herself up. She did it once, and she did it a second time, and before long she’d done it half a dozen times. She was about a foot higher than she’d been when she started, and the slack rope looped down in front of her as she climbed.

  She was exhausted, every sinew of her body begged her to stop, but by some miracle, she managed to climb another foot, and another, until eventually, she was able to get her feet onto the rope and wrap it around them.

  Instantly, she felt the relief as all the weight came off her arms. The struggle wasn’t over, but little by little, with the help of her legs, she was able to make it to the top of the rope. Once at the top, she swung her legs over the metal crossbeam and pulled herself onto it.

  She lay back on the narrow beam and prayed she didn’t fall. When she felt stable enough, she untied the ropes from around her wrists. It had been so tight that the flesh was completely raw.

  She’d memorized the layout of the ceiling while Timokhin had been giving her his history lesson and she knew the next challenge was to get herself directly underneath the ventilation cover.

  Very carefully, with her back on the beam, she pushed herself along it until she was beneath where she thought the vent was. Then she reached up into the darkness and felt for it.

  She held her breath, not certain what her fingers would find, and when they felt the wire mesh of the vent cover, about twelve inches from her face, she cried for joy.

  The wire mesh was welded in place and she began to pull at it. It didn’t take long to realize it was securely fastened. She scrawled at it with her fingernails until they bled. She tried to squeeze her fingers into the wire mesh but it was too tight. She kept digging at the edge of the mesh, where it was attached to the shaft, and the sharp metal cut her fingers so badly that blood dripped onto her face.

  But the mesh didn’t budge an inch.

  There was no way she would be able to open it, not even with a crowbar. And when she realized that, the tears on her face stopped coming.

  She couldn’t do it.

  She couldn’t get out.

  65

  Lance, Sofia and Vasily ran down the stairs to the ground floor corridor. Lance ran ahead, and when he saw soldiers up ahead, he didn’t slow down but kept running, pistol outstretched in front of him.

  With four shots he took down four men at the east loading bay, but not before they managed to return fire.

  They missed, but Lance heard chatter on the radio about gunshots in the east corridor.

  He got to the loading bay ahead of Sofia and Vasily and used his assault rifle to take out three more soldiers standing outside.

  “Come on,” he yelled back at Sofia and Vasily.

  They ran from the building, but as they crossed the grass toward the brush, two more soldiers appeared behind them.

  Lance and Vasily sprayed them with bullets and kept running.

  The institute was in such a state of chaos that no one followed them.

  They made their way for the fence and heard dogs barking as they approached.

  They stopped before the fence and scanned it for guards or dogs.

  “All clear,” Vasily said.

  Lance nodded and they ran to the first fence and scrambled through the opening.

  As soon as they were through, Lance saw a guard in the distance. He was patrolling the space between the two fences and had two dogs with him.

  “Get down,” he said to Vasily and Sofia.

  They crouched and saw the soldier.

  He was about four hundred yards away. The gap to the other fence was only twenty feet, but he was coming their way and would see them as soon as they moved.

  “I really hope I don’t have to shoot those dogs,” Lance said.

  “What do we do?” Sofia whispered.

  “We’ve got to go,” Lance said. “We can’t go back.”

  “He’ll see us,” she said.

  “Just run for the gap. It’s right across from us.”

  “What about you?”

  “I’ll be right behind you.”

  Sofia went first. The instant she moved, the guard saw her and released the dogs. Vasily and Lance were right on her tail. She reached the fence and slid through to the brush on the other side. Vasily went next. Lance watched as the dogs approached rapidly. He still had the pistol in his hand.

  “Come on, Vasily,” he said.

  “I’m stuck.”

  Vasily’s shirt was snagged on the fence and Lance ripped it free. Vasily got through and began running for the car behind Sofia. Lance looked at the dogs one last time before slipping through the fence and sprinting after the others.

  Olga had the car waiting for them, engine running, right by the curb. Sofia rounded the car to get in front. Vasily got in the back and held the door for Lance.

  More guards were running down the street toward the car and Olga started moving, very slowly.

  Lance ran for all he was worth.

  “You, there,” the soldiers called out. “Stop or we’ll shoot.”

  Then they saw the two dogs on Lance’s heels. Lance could feel them nipping at him. They were about to pounce and pull him down, but he reached the car and leapt in. Vasily slammed the door as the dogs smacked up against it.

  The soldiers were running for them but the presence of the dogs stopped them from opening fire.

  “Gun it,” Lance yelled.

  Olga put her foot down and the powerful car leapt forward, burning rubber as it skidded around the first corner.

  “Where am I going?”

  “Just drive,” Vasily shouted. “Get us out of here.”

  Olga sped down the street, not stopping for red lights or stop signs. It was the middle of the night and the streets were deserted, which made it easier to drive fast but would also make them easier to follow.

  They whizzed passed intersections, one after the other, for about twenty blocks without stopping at a single one. At one of them, a huge tanker jammed on the horn, narrowly missing them as it swerved around them.

  Olga pulled onto a highway on-ramp and then really floored it. They drove about five miles to the first exit and Lance told her to take it before the military figured out what was going on and got their helicopters organized. There was nothing so easy to track from the air as a single vehicle on an empty highway.


  They were south of the compound and Lance said, “Are we close to the Empress Catherine Factory?”

  Sofia looked back at him. “We can’t,” she said. “They’ll be waiting for us.”

  “No they won’t,” Lance said.

  Sofia turned to Olga.

  “I know where it is,” Olga said.

  “We don’t have any more explosives,” Vasily said. “Or even an assault rifle.”

  “We won’t need them,” Lance said. “Stop here.”

  There was a gas station up ahead. It was deserted but the pumps looked like they accepted credit card payment.

  Olga pulled over and Lance got out and swiped a credit card at the first pump. He followed the instructions and the pump became active.

  They didn’t have a jerry can but the gas station sold one-gallon containers of washer fluid. The new containers were locked up for the night but there was a pile of empties and he grabbed five. When they were full, he put them in the trunk of the car and told Olga to drive on carefully.

  “What are you going to do?” Sofia said. “Burn it down?”

  Lance nodded.

  Olga drove them toward the industrial area and as they got closer, they saw police cars and fire trucks flashing their lights ahead. They were stopping cars and turning them back.

  “It’s a roadblock,” Vasily said.

  “Turn here,” Lance said.

  Taking smaller side streets, they avoided the roadblock and entered the Chkalovskaya industrial district.

  “Put your masks back on,” Vasily said.

  As they approached the production facility, Sofia and Vasily were shocked that no soldiers were present.

  “They had no clue what they were doing,” Vasily said through his mask.

  “It’s criminal,” Sofia said. “I tried warning them. I swear it.”

  “We’ll make it right,” Lance said.

  They stopped at the fence and looked through. There was nothing stopping them. Even the fence was falling apart.

  “This was an anthrax production facility just a few days ago,” Vasily said. “Can you believe that?”