Black Harvest

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

Elizabeth hadn't heard from Yakov. She was worried. What if Vysotsky went to his boss? Anything might happen then.

Stephanie came in.

"The Pentagon. I found something."

"What have you got?"

Steph sat down. "They really had this buried. That place is like a Chinese puzzle box. I had to go through four separate revolving firewalls, each one worse than the one before."

Elizabeth waited.

"They have a war game scenario called Black Harvest."

"What's it about?"

"Occupying Russia."

"You have got to be kidding."

"No. Of course it's hypothetical."

"Sure it is. Unless they decide to implement it."

"It's a detailed plan based on one key element, catastrophic crop failure across the entire country. It assumes collapse of the government, chaos and famine. That provides an opportunity to enter Russia as the good guys bringing food and relief. Of course, supplies have to be protected by troops and the logistics to back them up. The phrase they use is 'Humanitarian Advisors'."

"They do turn a good phrase, don't they. Who can argue with that?"

"There's more."

"There always is."

"Guess how they propose to restore the food supply?"

Elizabeth reached for her pen. "Seeds." She began tapping. "Dansinger."

Steph nodded.

"Any mention of Demeter?"

"No. But the association seems obvious. Demeter must be a plan to initiate the crop failure. Black Harvest is the follow up."

"Lodge and Dansinger are going to do something to cause it."

"Demeter's curse. Something that kills crops and causes famine."

Harker thought about it. "Campbell finds the reference to the urn. He doesn't know anyone has it, he just wants to find it. He also doesn't want the Pentagon to know about it. He tells two people, everyone dies."

Steph brushed a speck from her shoulder. "Dansinger and Lodge didn't want anyone following up on it. Even though it disappeared more than two thousand years ago."

"Dansinger must have it. If anyone could use old virus material to create something new it would be him. He's got brilliant geneticists working for him."

"Lodge would be able to plant those bombs. But how did he know about Campbell?"

"He must have someone at CDC, Steph. Someone working with Campbell who knew Wiesner and Campbell were working on a bio-warfare program. Or maybe someone in the Pentagon."

"It still doesn't explain Gelashvili coming after Selena in Greece."

"I think Lodge sent him. He's gone to a lot of trouble to keep everyone away from that urn. It was a mistake."

"How so?"

"If he'd stopped after he killed Campbell and the others, it would have ended there. He probably thought it would. He couldn't have known McCullough would call Selena and give her a copy of those tablets. Somehow he knew she'd talked with McCullough and got worried. By sending Gelashvili and going after us he raised the ante."

"How would he know about Selena and McCullough?"

"I don't know."

"What do we do next, Director?"

"We wait for the team to get back. And we wait to hear from Vysotsky."