Black Rose (3 page)

CHAPTER 4

The Korean operation had put Major Igor Kaminsky in a good mood. Action always did. Kaminsky was a ranking field officer in
Zaslon
, a special ops unit so secret and ruthless that the Kremlin refused to admit it existed. He'd missed out on the Ukraine, though it was still possible his elite
Spetsnaz
unit would be sent there.
Or they might send me to
one of the Baltic territories
, he thought. For Kaminsky and his masters, the Baltic states were only temporarily independent entities. They all had large ethnic Russian populations, with strong internal movements that wanted to be part of
Novo Rossiya
, the New Russia. His unit would be part of any future operations in the Baltics.

In the meantime, he was enjoying the comfort of a first class railroad car in a special train. Kaminsky was on his way from Moscow to the Sverdlovsk-19 Military Laboratory outside of Yekaterinburg, on the Eastern side of the Urals. Six of his men rode in the car with him. An aluminum case containing the North Korean samples sat on the green plush of the seat next to him.

The attack on the research complex had gone off without any problems. Security had been surprisingly lax. Kaminsky had expected at least twice as many guards but it seemed that the Great Leader thought the hidden facility safe by virtue of its secrecy and difficulty of access. The most complicated part of the operation had been getting himself and his men into the area and on site without being detected. All of the men he'd chosen for the mission had Asian features. Two spoke fluent Korean. Multiple language skills were part of the basic requirements for a Spetsnaz operative.

Even scientists and guards had to eat. Kaminsky had driven right up to the gates in a produce delivery van, riding in back where his Western features could not be seen. Killing the sentries at the guardhouse wasn't hard. Once inside the gates, the rest was easy.

It was too bad about the girl in the lab. She'd been pretty, until he'd cut her throat. There could be no trail back to her boyfriend and his Russian contact. Of course the boyfriend was dead as well. Perhaps they'd found each other in whatever Korean heaven they believed in, if they'd believed in anything except the illusion of the South.

The train was still on the Western side of the Urals. Ahead, the mountains that separated European Russia from the rest of the country rose bleak and cold toward a winter sky filled with fast moving gray and black clouds. Snow lay thick along the railway embankment. A fresh storm was beginning, the wet flakes spattering against Kaminsky's window.

Kaminsky didn't mind the train ride. It made a pleasant change from the helicopters and noisy troop transports he was used to. He was thankful to whatever faceless bureaucrat had decided the train was the best way to send him and his package of bugs to the laboratory. Kaminsky reached over and patted the case next to him.

The train entered a long tunnel. The lights in the car flickered, then went dark. One of his men cursed.

"Lenin strikes again," someone said.

There was brief laughter, then silence in the car except for the rhythmic clacking of the wheels over the rails. In Russia, one accepted things like electrical failures as business as usual.

The train slowed, then stopped. It was pitch black in the tunnel. Major Kaminsky reached over to touch the case. It hadn't moved. Still, the darkness was unnerving.

Kaminsky heard the door at the end of the car open. 
Good
, he thought,
now I'll find out what's holding us up. There had better be a good reason.

He had time to see a red dot appear on his chest before a bullet drilled through his tunic and ended his thoughts about the train and everything else.

CHAPTER 5

Snow covered the gardens outside Elizabeth's office windows at Project headquarters. The room had a gas fireplace that radiated pleasant heat from behind a glass front. It looked like the real thing. A large, aging, orange tom cat named Burps lay curled up on the tile hearth in front of the flames. He snored. A damp spot on the tile showed where he drooled in his sleep.

"That cat makes a lot of noise," Lamont said.

"At least he's not burping or passing gas," Nick said.

Stephanie Willits was in the room with them. Harker's deputy handled the technology and communications end of Project operations. She was a legend among computer hackers, where she was known by her screen name;
Butterfly
. Stephanie used the big Crays in her computer room to tap into secure servers all over the world. Without her, Project operations would grind to a halt.

Selena sat next to Nick on the couch. She wore a diamond ring that sparkled in the light of the gas fire. Since they'd made the engagement official, the tension between them that always seemed to be part of their relationship had eased. Elizabeth was grateful for that. She had enough to worry about without having to deal with their personal problems on top of everything else. They still hadn't set a wedding date. She hoped it didn't turn into another problem.

"Let's get started." Elizabeth tapped her pen on her desk. "Selena has been translating the contents of Kim's briefcase. I've asked her to brief us on what she found."

"Most of it was the kind of thing you'd expect," Selena said. "Office memos, bureaucratic busy work, even an invitation to a birthday party."

"They have parties in North Korea?"

"Lamont..." Elizabeth's voice had a warning note in it.

"Sorry."

"The rest of it was notes and research that confirm what we learned from that intercept. North Korea has recreated a disease that killed twenty million people in the sixth century. It was called the Plague of Justinian, after the Roman Emperor who ruled Constantinople at the time. He was one of the victims."

"Twenty million is a lot of people," Lamont said.

"That was only the first time around," Elizabeth said. "It reappeared several times after that until it finally died out sometime in the eighth century. By then it had killed over a hundred million."

Lamont whistled.

"What makes it so lethal?" Nick asked.

"It's a variation of bubonic plague. The normal form is bad enough, but you can beat it with antibiotics if you catch it in time. This variation is one hundred percent fatal and it's airborne. That's the worst kind. Kim literally brought the disease back from the dead by manipulating genomes from victims dug up in Turkey. Then he tweaked it to make it resistant to all known drugs. There's no treatment, according to his notes. Apparently the Great Leader wasn't interested in finding one. Kim's lab was weaponizing it for use in an aerial spray, like they use in crop dusters. The thieves took live samples of the bacteria."

"Ah, hell," Lamont said.

"Yes."

Elizabeth picked up her Mont Blanc and tapped it on the desk. "It was an inside job. The woman who let the thieves in is dead and so is her boyfriend. The raid has the feel of a military op by someone's Special Forces.  We don't know who took the samples yet. When we find out, our job is to get them back."

"You mind telling me how we're supposed to do that if it was taken by a government?" Nick asked. "We don't even know it was a government. It could have been terrorists."

"I don't think so. Neither does DCI Hood. The operation was too good, smooth as silk, in and out with everyone dead and they disappear. Terrorists aren't that sophisticated."

"Not yet," Lamont said. "Give them time."

"That's not a good thought," Selena said.

"If someone decides to unleash this thing, millions will die," Elizabeth said. "Garden variety Spanish Flu killed millions in 1918. This is much worse."

"So how do we find out who has it?" Nick asked.

"That's where I come in," Stephanie said. "Freddie is working on it right now."

Freddie was a maxed out Cray XT super computer that Stephanie had modified for greater power. This was the second one named Freddie. The first had been destroyed with the old Project headquarters. Steph had names for all of the computers, even her laptop. That one was named Lily. Nick had caught Steph talking to them, more than once.

"I'm analyzing all the satellite and communications intelligence from the period leading up to the raid and after. When the program finishes running we'll know more."

"In the meantime there's something else I want to bring up," Elizabeth said. "The last year was rough. Lamont was out for a good part of it. Ronnie almost got killed and he's still not back. Lamont, you've been talking about retiring."

"I said I was thinking about it, I didn't say I was definitely going to do it. That dive shop I was looking at down in Florida got bought out from under me. I'm not ready for a rocking chair, not yet."

"I'm sorry about the shop, but I'm glad to know you're not leaving. My point is that we've been hampered by injuries and time down. I've been wondering if we should add a new member to the team. We could use more strength."

Her words were greeted by silence.

"Well? What do you think? Nick?"

"I think it would create problems."

"How so?"

"We work well together as we are. It's automatic. We understand each other. We add someone and it changes the dynamic. It could mess things up, especially when we know a mission is coming, like now."

"Or it could make things better," Elizabeth said. "There's always going to be a mission and never a good time to introduce someone new."

Nick looked at her. "I don't think it's a good idea. I can see it down the road, if someone decides they've had enough. But not now."

"He's right, Director." It was Lamont. "We have a rhythm going. It helps us get the job done. It's a real distraction if we have to break someone in."

"I agree with Nick," Selena said. "This isn't Langley. We should leave it alone."

"All of you?" Elizabeth said. "Do I need to remind you that this isn't a democracy?"

"You asked," Nick said. "You really want to disrupt things when someone is loose out there with a bug that could wipe out half the planet?"

Elizabeth looked at her rebellious team. It was the first time she could remember when they'd united against her. She knew Ronnie would back them up. She decided not to push it.

"All right. We'll discuss it in the future."

She picked up her pen and beat a quick tattoo on the desk. "Steph, when do you think you'll have some results?"

"Tonight. I'll check on it when we're finished here."

"Then we're done for now. Be here at nine tomorrow."

Outside, it looked like more snow was coming.

CHAPTER 6

The view from Selena's twelfth floor Washington condo reached across the Potomac to the rolling hills of Virginia and beyond. On a clear day, you could see the Appalachians in the distance. You got a lot of view for the kind of money Selena had paid for it. It never failed to impress Nick each time he saw it. Today everything was obscured by gray haze and snow beginning to fall from a threatening sky.

The remains of breakfast were scattered across the counter. Selena wasn't much of a cook but she could handle bacon and eggs. Nick picked up the plates and rinsed them in the sink before placing them in the stainless steel dishwasher under the counter. He looked at his watch.

"I need to get back to my place and get some fresh clothes before the morning brief," he said.

"If you lived here, you wouldn't have to do that," she said.

"It's a little early in the day for this discussion. It's not like we haven't had it before."

"We have, and it never gets resolved. We're engaged. We sleep together. We work together. Why aren't we living together?"

"Because we both like our own space?"

"You know it's not that simple."

"No, I guess not." He picked up his coffee cup and drained it. "As a matter of fact, I've been thinking about it."

"You have?"

"My apartment is too small, right?"

Selena nodded.

"This place of yours is beautiful," he said, "but it feels like yours, not mine or ours. Just like mine feels like that to you. Why don't we look for a new place, something different we could pick together?"

"A new place? But what about this one?"

"You could sell it. Or keep it as an investment."

She looked at him.

He glanced at his watch again. "I have to go. Think about it." He leaned over and kissed her. "Hey," he said. "It could be fun."

She watched the door close behind him.

It could be fun.

Sure. Why did men seem to think that disrupting everything was fun? She'd finally gotten everything the way she wanted it in the condo. Everything was perfect and now he wanted her to give it up.

Living together had been an issue since the beginning, once they realized they were caught up in something more than an affair. It had taken a lot of ups and downs just to get to this point, where he'd put the ring on her finger. They still hadn't set a date for the wedding. The whole relationship had been like that.

Then there was the issue of her money. She had a lot of it, more than most people would ever see, more than Nick could ever hope to earn or equal. He didn't say much about it, but she knew it was one of the things that came between them. Nick wasn't the kind of person who would let someone else pay his way. This condo alone had cost more than he'd likely make in a lifetime. She'd simply written a check for it to the agent.

Sometimes she wished he'd just let her take care of the money. Then again, if he was a man who was willing to be kept by her, he wouldn't be someone she wanted to keep.

She looked at the clock on the kitchen counter. She needed to take a shower and get dressed and head out to Virginia. She got up and felt a sharp pain in her lower back, right where a bullet had almost left her in a wheelchair for life. Every once in a while her body let her know that she was mortal and getting older. Lately the message had been coming through more often.

You should have taken up something safe, like making documentaries about sharks or jumping off skyscrapers
, she thought.
At least sharks don't shoot at you.

She had to hurry or she'd be late.