AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Given some time…”
“Some of the Gaia people—and some serious scientists, for that matter—think it’s already too late,” Letty said. “A woman, a biochemist who was Scott’s tutor years ago, at Oxford, put it right out there, and it’s been haunting me ever since. Kill half the people, you only need half the energy production, burn half the oil, need half the cars, you only chop down half the trees for lumber to build houses…Gaia is saved. In a year.”
“Jesus Christ,” Colles blurted.
Letty: “That’s exactly what I said.Exactly.”
McDonald spoke up. “At Los Alamos, Lionel was studying the patterns by which infectious diseases spread. That’s what we do there—work with numbers. We’re trying to figure the best ways to interfere with the spread of something like Covid. How do you knock it down, how you surround it and isolate it. Of course, that information would be valuable, invaluable, to a person who was trying tospreada disease.”
“He spent some time studying viral gain-of-function research atthe fort,” Sims said. “He didn’t do actual experiments, but he’s certainly familiar with the techniques.”
Lucas asked, “What does that mean? Gain of function?”
“It’s…mmm…research into increasing a pathogen’s ability to become more infectious, or more virulent, or both. We’ve pledged never to use it, but we need the research in case somebody else does. We need to know how to detect the pathogens and hopefully stop them. The thing is, if you’re looking for a WMD, this kind of research is much, much cheaper than, say, building a nuclear weapon.”
McDonald: “And more deadly.”
“Could one guy do it?” Lucas asked.
Sims shrugged: “With the right knowledge and equipment and access to the pathogens…possibly.” He looked at Letty. “And this young woman is telling us that he might have been trying to access the pathogens. Now he’s disappeared.”
—
Colles stood upand turned to Greet: “Billy: You need to set up a working group now. Today, tonight, tomorrow. You’ve got the hammer. You’ll need to provide information and physical support—plane tickets, cars, expense money—to Lucas, Rae and Letty, and anybody else who needs to go out there. They’ll be going to Los Alamos.”
Greet said, “We really ought to bring the FBI in. But they leak like crazy.”
Colles rubbed his nose and then said, “Do what’s best. I don’t know what’s best, I’m pulling this out of my ass. We can’t have leaks: people will freak out.”
Letty: “So what? If we plaster Scott’s face everywhere, maybe he’ll turn up tomorrow.”
Greet: “If it gets in the media, it would distort the hell out of the hunt for the guy. You’ll have law enforcement bureaucrats doing what they always do best, which is cover their asses, and of course the media will make it seem like we’re facing certain doom. And Scott will be warned we’re coming.”
“Not only that,” Lucas said. “If the guy has the viruses, and finds out we’re coming, and he hasn’t yet pulled the trigger, it might inspire him to do that. Even if we decided to put his picture everywhere, we don’t know that he’s acting alone. If he has accomplices, they could go on the run. We wouldn’t even know who we’re looking for.”
“Okay, but couldn’t we put out an ordinary, or a little more than ordinary, FBI missing persons alert?” Colles asked. “Get Scott’s photograph out to cops? We don’t have to tell anyone that he’s planning to kill the world.”
Greet nodded: “We could probably do that, if we’re careful. Maybe get them to use the TRAK network, put a little extra spin on it.”
Lucas: “When we find him…”
Greet: “Kill him. Kill him if you have to. Because if he’s suicidal and has made this new virus thing and infected himself, he’s a walking weapon of mass destruction. Don’t tell anyone I said that.”
Colles: “That seems premature, Billy. We don’t want to talk about murder, not yet.”
“Not murder—it’s self-defense. For the people who approach him, and the whole world, for that matter.”
Lucas turned to Sims: “This…binding of viruses…that’s not something you can do with a Crock-Pot and a microwave, right? He’d need a specialized lab, he’d need PPE, he’d need, what? Tell me what? What would he have to buy, where would he get it? If we can find that, his sources, we can find where they shipped it to.”
“I’ll get my people working on it—they’re all cleared for top secret. We’ll get you a list, tonight. Get me your cell number and email,” Sims said.
“Get it to Billy, her group will be controlling this. We’ll be in the field.”
And to Letty, Lucas said, “Call up this Alec guy: we need Scott’s credit cards, phone numbers, anything you can get. By now, he must have an American driver’s license, if he’s been in the States for years…”
Colles: “Screw a phone call. Let’s get him over here. Worse comes to worst, maybe he could talk this Scott down out of his tree. Oxford guys, that’s sort of like the Masonic lodge, right? Secret handshakes, special neckties, all that.”
“I’ll call him,” Letty said. “Maybe we could get somebody higher up to request him.” She was looking at Colles: “Think the Secretary would do it?”
