Madman's Monster

  Rogers walked a couple of steps away from Lei as he spoke, "Zach didn't know he was working a CIA angle when he was assigned to the detail here in Bangkok. He was simply given a long-term undercover recon assignment. Obviously, the OP went south when he was discovered, but if you were right about him being abducted as opposed to KIA, then it would be all the excuse we would need to launch a rescue offensive into the territory. Hell, we could have probably even gotten the Thai authorities to assist in the assault and recovery."

  "So?"

  Rogers shrugged, "So I saw an opportunity to accomplish two things at once. Potentially finding Zach, as well as making a case for the Agency."

  Larson didn't seem too upset, but I added, "And if we presented a potential threat to your mission?"

  Rogers looked sheepish, "I would have had the Thai police detain you, until I could arrange for your transport back to the States."

  Now Larson started to show the first signs of tension in his face, but I wasn't done.

  "Transport for all of us?" I asked knowingly.

  Rogers initially shot me a look of fury, but it cooled quickly and was replaced by a helpless look, "No, just the Major."

  "What?!" Larson didn't bother to hide the betrayal in his voice.

  Rogers held his hands up, "What else could I do?" He pointed at me, "He even said it himself, the part about technically, they are not American citizens. How would I have been able to justify that?"

  Larson stepped up to Rogers and looked him in the eye, "So what were you prepared to do with them?"

  Rogers couldn't meet his eyes, "The Agency would have had them turned over to the Thai authorities on some trumped up charges to keep them incarcerated until the crisis passed."

  "And after the crisis had passed they would certainly have taken every step to see us released from whatever pit of a prison that we were stuck in, right?" I added.

  Rogers just shrugged, "It's not like that's what happened. Don't punish me for something I didn't do."

  "No, but you were prepared to do it," Larson volunteered, "Damn man, what happened to you?"

  Rogers grew indignant, "What's that supposed to mean?"

  "This isn't like you," Larson spoke softly, but the disappointment in his voice was clear, "Even if they're not official U.S. citizens, we don't throw our assets into a meat grinder when they're no longer convenient."

  Rogers was quiet for a couple ticks of the clock, but then said, "The Agency does."

  The two men looked at each other and I could see the years of trust and bonds forged under the trauma of battle experience dissolve as the truth was revealed. I have to admit it was a little disheartening to witness.

  "In any case," I broke the silence, "Lei and I can be your best assets, if you'll trust us and if you will let us," I was putting extra emphasis in my words to help ease the tension that was now in the room.

  Rogers turned and looked at me, "How?"

  "We're going back."

  "Back where?"

  "To the village, and from there to the camp where they held Zach."

  Rogers' eyes shot wide and he whispered in surprise, "You found their encampment?"

  I shook my head, "Not the exact location, but I'm almost certain that Zach knows how to get back there. And for the record, Zach was adopting the girl as his own daughter. He had nothing to do with the intentions you had described to us."

  "Was that scenario even real?" Larson hissed.

  Lei chimed in, "Of course it’s real."

  Larson waved a hand dismissively, "I meant in this case Rogers. I meant with Zach, or were you just trying to put us off the trail?"

  "It was legit," Rogers confirmed.

  "Doesn't matter now," I said confidently, "What does matter is that we are going back in and we are going to finish this mess."

  "You'll never get through the security," Rogers volunteered.

  "We will...with your help."

  "Me?"

  "You?"

  "What do you expect me to do?"

  "We need equipment and information."

  Rogers shook his head, "As you can see, I'm packing everything up for extraction. No way that I can get anything shipped in at this point."

  I shook my head, "No need. You have everything we need right now. Or at least you did last time we saw you."

  Now Rogers looked interested, "The entire operation has been taken out of my hands. Not my call anymore."

  "You didn't have us on the table before. Now you have a team that can be completely disavowed. Now you have us, to do your dirty work and if we are caught, you can wash your hands of us, thereby taking none of the guilt or blame for whatever we do."

  Rogers thought about that, and his interest was obvious, but his face screwed up in a look of concern as he asked, "What information do you need?"

  "There's a piece of this whole thing I am not seeing. Zach's abduction, the experimentation on him, Dimitri Lagos involvement..."

  "Who?" Rogers asked.

  "Dimitri Lagos," I said, and when Rogers blank expression didn't change I explained, "He's kind of a...secretive character, who runs a vast portion of Russia."

  "What? Like a crime boss?" Rogers asked.

  "Sort of. In any case he's involved in this."

  "Involved how?"

  “I think that he and Whelan were working together on something, but they had some sort of falling out and are now working against each other."

  Rogers shook his head, "I can't believe I'm having to play this much catch up, but who's Whelan."

  I just looked at him, incredulous that he, and therefore the CIA by default, had absolutely no idea who they were dealing with.

  "Dr. Phineas Whelan. He's a medical doctor, specifically a neurologist, and scientist who has taken a particular interest in how to disrupt the normal processes of the brain."

  "To any specific end?" Rogers asked.

  I decided to remain a little vague at this point, "Lei and I came up against him before and, at the time, he was short-circuiting the transmissions between the skeletal muscles and the brain with one of his inventions he uncreatively called a "Flash Box". Later it was revealed that the device was only the tip of the iceberg. His true intention was to synthesize a vaccine that would make a person completely immune to all viral and bacterial pathogens for a short period of time."

  The part I held back was that the vaccine was derived from the blood of my people, due to our natural immunity to bacteria and viruses that we all possess. A culture founded on the consumption of natural blood products would have to develop an immunity over time, or it stands to reason that we would have been wiped out by blood-borne diseases centuries ago.

  Rogers nearly exploded toward me, "WHAT?!"

  I had to jump back to keep him from grabbing me, "What? What's wrong?"

  Rogers was completely unhinged, "Oh My God! It all makes sense now! I need to call this in and..."

  Rogers moved in the direction of a phone, but Lei grabbed him by his tropical shirt, spun him around and flipped him into one of his chairs.

  "Don't move," Lei had left her foot on his chest and pressed him into the chair, "Talk."

  Rogers pushed Lei's foot off and started to get out of the chair, "Let me up! I need to..."

  It was Larson who pushed him back down, "Give."

  "Rob?" Rogers looked surprised at Larson, but what he...what we all saw in Larson's face at that moment, told Rogers that he had run out of time to keep information from us.

  Rogers face turned from Larson, then to Lei and then me. Eventually his shoulders dropped as he gave in, "All right listen, Zach was assigned to investigate the possibility of someone having delivered some particularly nasty bugs to the area."

  "Bugs?"

  "Viruses. Controlled pathogens so virulent that they can be potential threats to the world’s human populations."

  Larson lifted his hand from Rogers’s chest, "What pathogens?"

  Rogers looked at him, "In this case, Hantavirus. Two strain
s, specifically Marhburg and Ebola virus."

  "Oh Christ!" Larson looked very frightened, "How could they risk moving it? It's a damn death sentence if it gets loose from the containment units."

  "Exactly," Rogers agreed. "The Center for Disease Control in the states keeps a very close watch on the presence of any outbreaks that may occur worldwide regarding a wide variety of pathogens. The World Health Organization operates in a similar capacity in Europe and Asia. Anthrax, cholera, small pox, AIDS, Ebola, Avian flu and more, way too numerous to mention all the ones having a high priority for regulation and control for obvious reasons. Anyway, there are very few stock piles of these diseases within government agencies..."

  "Why the hell would anyone deliberately stockpile the diseases?" Lei jumped in, "Why not just destroy them and remove them from existence?"

  "Because even without the disease being present at this time, that doesn't mean it won't manifest again in nature at a later date. The stockpiles are kept in case of a new outbreak so vaccines can be synthesized as necessary. One such stockpile is in Atlanta with the CDC, while the other was in Russia, when it was the former Soviet Union. Unfortunately, since the collapse of the USSR, the security of the stockpiles have become increasingly questionable. Rumors of the sales of small pox and anthrax to terrorist organizations are common, even if there is no direct proof, but the potential is real enough. So whenever we get information that someone is dealing in biologics we investigate."

  Lei and I never had any fear of diseases, after all, our immunity was something we had been born with, "So assuming Whelan has some of this stuff, what's he going to do with it? Let it loose in a specific area or something?"

  "Unless he's figured out how to weaponize it," Rogers suggested.

  "Not possible with hantaviruses," Larson cut in, "Our unit had to prepare for chemical and biological contingencies, so I know something about them."

  We all turned to Larson, Rogers even looked impressed as his former teammate continued, "I know our best and brightest people have been trying to make those particular bugs viable within a delivery system for years and without any success. Something about the structure of the DNA chains that makes it impossible. I doubt one man, even this mysterious Dr. Whelan, had any success where the top American scientists failed."

  "You don't know this guy," Lei stated with irony in her voice, "but why do it?" He'd poison any area he released it in for generations."

  "Again, unless you had a vaccine to protect you, and of course others that you selected," I said with a nod. "It would be a more effective deterrent that any wall or army ever could be, because who would ever want to cross your borders and risk certain death by Ebola or Marburg?"

  "Exactly," Rogers agreed, "it's the perfect dirty bomb. Better than a nuke because it does no damage to the property or the environment. It just kills off all the people. You could just walk in and take over without firing a shot, if you had immunity."

  "And if Dimitri wanted to keep people out of Siberia without damaging the resources he's coveting..." Lei suggested.

  Rogers looked at Lei, "Dimitri? Siberia?"

  Larson ignored Rogers, "But Dimitri's people wouldn't need the vaccine, so why all the experimenting and interest in Zach?"

  "I don't think Zach was part of that plan. My guess is that Dimitri wants him specifically for something else."

  "What?" Rogers asked.

  "I don't know, and last we saw Zach, he wasn't in any state to tell us, so that will remain a mystery until Zach regains his senses."

  "And if he doesn't?"

  I frowned, "Then I figure we'll have to ask Dimitri ourselves."

  Silence fell after I said the words, and I supposed that I might have put a little too much lethal intent into them.

  Lei broke the silence, "There's one thing I don't quite understand. If Whelan and Dimitri had a falling out, then who is he making the dirty bomb for?"

  Larson and Rogers simultaneously said, "Terrorists."

  They looked at each other and Larson nodded to let Rogers explain. "The Middle East is full of money, and people willing to use such an extreme measure, specifically on Israel. They could easily buy nuclear weapons from the stockpiles in Russia. The dissolution of the Soviet Union left a great deal of weapons of mass destruction lying stagnant and unaccounted for in numerous locations. Problem is they'd be dropping the Bomb on their own holy land and would have no way to celebrate their victory. On the other hand, these dirty bombs would clear out the "infidels" and leave the buildings standing."

  "Ah crap!" I cried out as everything just fit into place for me, "That's why Dimitri and Whelan had their falling out."

  Lei got excited, "What?! Why?"

  "Think about the kind of person we know Whelan to be. He figured out what Dimitri was up to and realized he could double dip by selling the bombs to any well backed terrorists, which according to Rogers would be in unlimited supply, and then sell the vaccine as well for an additional fee. He could double or triple his money by dealing with people who weren't naturally immune, like Dimitri and his followers."

  Lei nodded, "That does sound like our guy."

  "Exactly," I said, "Dimitri could probably get another type of dirty bomb made, maybe not one as sinister as what Whelan came up with, but deadly enough, but if Whelan turns around and sells the vaccine to Dimitri's enemies, then he'll be hopelessly outnumbered by an army equally immune to whatever biological bug that might be out there. Dimitri and his people will end up losing their edge and have no chance. They’d lose everything."

  Lei cut me off, "And that's why Dimitri needs Whelan's head on a platter and the information in his computers. He needs to know if Whelan sold any of the vaccine so he can take whatever steps necessary to be certain that it can't be used against him down the road."

  Larson nodded, "But that still doesn't explain Zach."

  I agreed, "No, but it does explain an awful lot that we didn't know before."

  "So where does that put you?" Rogers asked from the chair Lei had thrown him into, "and can I get up now?"

  "As I said, we're going back to the camp to get Whelan." I shot Rogers a look that let him know I would not be deterred. "He doesn't leave the jungle alive."

  Rogers looked as though he might put up a fight on that issue, but he kept his mouth shut on the topic, changing the subject.

  "Okay, so assuming that I give you the supplies you need, how does that help me?"

  I thought for a second, "Now that it's out of your hands, what will the next person in charge want to do?"

  Rogers shrugged, "Locate the camp. Then the priority would be to initially send in shock troops and scour the grounds for the pathogens."

  "And if that fails?" I asked.

  Larson finished for Rogers, "The military is concerned first and foremost with containment. They will want someone to laze the camp for a scorched earth contingency."

  I turned to Rogers, "That right?"

  He nodded, "Most likely."

  I paced a couple of steps in each direction, "Okay, you call your people. Tell them your good friend Major Richard Larson is with you, and he has a team ready to infiltrate the camp. Once they look up his record they will know he is both capable and expendable, no offense?"

  Larson was smiling ear to ear, apparently thrilled to be going back into action, "None taken."

  "They should also love the fact that the team he has put together is just as capable, but as off the record as it gets, so there will be no risk of it coming back on the United States."

  Rogers raised his eyebrows up and I knew I was speaking a language that the CIA couldn't resist.

  "They will need to provide you with the laser targeting system so that, if we are compromised, you can provide them with their contingency plan." I waited for Rogers to voice any objections and when he remained silent I asked, "Do you think they'll go for it?"

  He looked at me and then at Larson, who just shrugged his shoulders and said. "They're not my people. You’ll kno
w how they work better than I do."

  Rogers nodded, "Yeah, they'll probably go for it. It will save them days of searching the jungle with their drone spy planes."

  Larson volunteered, "Satellites a no-go?"

  Rogers shook his head, "The jungle canopy is too overgrown for any direct imaging and the thermals were coming up with too many possibilities. The heat here screws everything up. That, along with the deniability will make your idea a viable scenario for them."

  "So you'll call and sell them on it?"

  Rogers nodded, "If they go for it I can have the targeting system in a matter of hours. How soon do you want to proceed?"

  I turned to Larson and then to Lei. Both of them had wide toothed grins on their faces.

  I chuckled and shook my head, "Immediately. We go as soon as you get your laser."

  Chapter 46

  The ‘designated conference room’ was never truly suited to be any such space. Tucked away next to the computer mainframe was a small area left for additional storage, and it was little more than a walk-in closet modified for that purpose. At least, that was what it represented, now that the folding table and chairs had been set up. Three chairs, one for each person that would be attending the "meeting."

  Timberland was the only one who had been sitting in a chair, but now he paced the tightly enclosed space like a caged animal in a zoo. He had been on time: 1400 hours was the time the doctor had said to be here and he had arrived exactly on time. It was fast approaching the half hour mark, and he had been waiting and waiting. He told himself that if he was kept waiting a full thirty minutes, then he'd leave, and the two others would have to come to him. Come to him inside his tent and among his crew...his pack.

  He respected both of the men who were going to be present, but respect was a two way street. Earned, not freely given, and if he was going to be disrespected like this, kept waiting like an inconsequential pedestrian, then he'd remind them who he was and the power he controlled.

  At exactly 2:29 p.m. the only door of the conference room opened and Dr. Whelan walked in followed by a man Timberland hadn't seen since the "demonstration" that had taken place over a week ago. Mr. Pollard looked as though he hadn't changed his clothes in all that time. Sure the clothes looked fresh and pressed, but exactly the same style and color as last time. He felt a slight trickle of tension gather at the base of his skull as Pollard looked at him through dark shaded sunglasses.