Black Harvest

CHAPTER THREE

Project Director Elizabeth Harker was a small woman. She always dressed in black and white. Today she wore an all black linen suit with a white scarf tie at her throat. The suit matched her raven black hair. Her hair was artfully cut to frame the fine bones of her face. Her emerald green eyes were wide, cat-like. She had milk-white skin, small ears and a slim figure, like an elf or fairy sprite from a Shakespearean tale. Her looks tended to make self-important people dismiss her. It was a mistake they didn't make twice. Harker was no fairy sprite.

Harker's desk was wide and clean. She had a green desk blotter with leather corners. She had an antique ink stand and a silver pen that had belonged to FDR. There was a picture of the twin towers on 9/11 in a silver frame. A reminder.

Stephanie Willits sat between Nick and Selena. She had a wide, attractive face and dark eyes. This morning she'd chosen a red dress and white blouse and dangly gold earrings. There were three gold bracelets on her left wrist. Steph was responsible for all computer resources at the Project. She talked to her computers as if they were her family and could make the big Crays on the floor below do things no one else thought possible.

Nick couldn't put his finger on it, but she seemed different. She'd done something to her hair, but that wasn't it. She'd lightened up since Elizabeth had returned, but that wasn't it either. She seemed more alive. Even happy.

Harker played with her pen. "Selena, do you think McCullough was murdered because of the message from his friend?"

"It seems like too much of a coincidence."

"I wonder if the bomb was meant for you and Nick?"

Nick rubbed the scar on his left ear. A Chinese bullet had taken off the earlobe the first day he'd met Selena. Sometimes it burned like fire when everything was about to go bad. This time it was only an itch.

"It wasn't for us. No one knew we were going there. Besides, there are easier ways to take us out than blowing up a university. That bomb was Semtex, someone with serious resources like a terrorist group."

"You're sure it was Semtex."

"I'm sure."

"Steph, see if you can find out what the police in New Hampshire know about the murder up there."

"I'll do it now." She got up and left.

"I wouldn't bet on the local cops finding much," Nick said. "Whoever sent that bomb knew what they were doing. If they killed Campbell they won't have left clues."

"Why would someone target these men? Selena, I'd like a full translation on those notes McCullough gave you."

"I'll have it done later today."

Harker toyed with her pen and set it down. Picked it up again. Began tapping. Thinking. Carter watched her.

"The Bureau will be on it because of the bombing," she said.

"Do we want to get involved with them?"

"Not if we can help it. You know what it's like, they try to control everything. They're good at what they do, I'll give them that. If they get a lead, I'll take it. They don't know about you and Selena being on the scene. They won't have any reason to think it's more than a routine inquiry."

Stephanie came back into the room.

"That was quick. What have you got?"

"I talked with the chief up there. It's a small department. They don't have much. McCullough's friend worked for CDC down in Atlanta. The killer cut off an ear before he cut Campbell's throat."

"Only one reason to do that." Carter absently felt his ear. It was still attached to his head. "Torture. They wanted something from him."

"Cash and credit cards still in his wallet." Stephanie sat down. "His laptop is missing. No phone, either. Someone broke into the library where Campbell was working and got into the restricted archives. No one knows if anything is missing yet."

"No night watchman?"

"He drinks. He was asleep."

"Lucky for him, or he'd probably be dead. I think we can guess what's missing."

"The tablets." Harker thought for a moment. "Stephanie, bring up Campbell's phone logs. Let's see if he called anyone else. Maybe he sent that message to more than one person."

Steph went to a computer console off to the side of Harker's desk. The console fed into the big Crays downstairs. The Crays linked to the NSA database. Most messages sent over a cell phone or digital line were somewhere in that database. For sure all domestic messages. Campbell's calls would be there. Steph entered a string of commands.

"Got him. Several calls to Atlanta in the days before he was killed. Two a day to his home number. One long call to someone named Arnold Weinstein at CDC the day before he was killed. On the night of his murder, two calls. One to Kevin McCullough. Another to Weinstein. Those calls are back to back. Sent at 10:09 in the evening."

She began entering commands on her keyboard. "I'm checking on Weinstein now."

Nick tugged on his ear. "We need to talk with him."

"You'll need a hell of a connection." Steph stared at her monitor.

"What do you mean?"

"Weinstein got in his car to go to work this morning. It blew up when he turned on the ignition."

"A car bomb? Steph, can you retrieve the message from Campbell to Weinstein? Put it on the speakers."

"It will take a minute. Hold on." They waited. "All set."

They heard Campbell's voice. A voice from the grave.

"Arnold, it's James."

"Jim. Enjoying the weather up there? It was 78 here today."

"Arnie, I've got something." Campbell sounded excited.

"Oh?"

"I've been looking at records from Persia and I found something from the time of Alexander the Great. There was a devastating crop failure in Persia right after Xerxes the First returned from Greece. The famine that followed almost brought down his empire. These tablets I've been looking at might be a clue to the cause."

"Was there a draught?"

"That's what I thought at first. But water wasn't the problem. I think it was an unknown variant of Fusarium graminearum."

"Ah. That would do it."

"It's possible a store of Fusarium spores from then may have survived."

"You can't be serious." Weinstein sounded shocked.

"I am. One of the tablets describes a sealed vessel, an urn of gold. It's supposed to contain the curse of a goddess."

"Oh, come on, Jim. A curse?"

"Not a spell, something real. Xerxes brought it back with him from Greece around 490 BCE. I think it had spores in it, maybe from infected grains. It may even have been the cause of the famine. The Greeks could have isolated the cause without really understanding how it worked. They could have seen it as something to use against their enemies. The myth linked with the urn centers on the goddess of the harvest."

"You mean Demeter?"

"Yes. The urn was kept in the royal treasury. It was still there when Alexander defeated Darius III."

"What happened to it?"

"Alexander sent it back to Greece, along with the treasure."

"Then it's gone."

"What if it isn't? What if we could find it? This could be what the Pentagon has been asking for. If it is, I don't want to give it to them."

In Harker's office, they heard Weinstein sigh.

"Jim, this isn't a secured line."

"I don't give a damn. I didn't get into this field to turn science into a way to kill more people."

"Jim, please."

"If we can find this urn and it's what I think it is, we might come up with a way to wipe out Fusarium once and for all. Think of it, Arnie! New genetic material, uncontaminated. We have nothing that old to work with."

"It might not be different."

"No. But if it is…"

"How do you propose to find it? If it exists?"

"I think I know how, or at least how to begin."

"When are you coming back?"

"Tomorrow."

"Jim. Be careful."

"They wouldn't dare touch me, Arnie. You either. They need us. See you tomorrow."

The call ended.

"What's Fusarium whatever?" Nick asked.

"Let's find out." Steph's fingers moved over the keyboard. A picture came up. "It's a crop blight. Caused a lot of problems in the past. Spreads quickly, hard to stop, kills grains like wheat and barley. Reproduces with spores. Nasty stuff."

Elizabeth studied the picture on the screen. A field of wheat, rotten, black, spoiled.

"Campbell and Weinstein were working on something for the Pentagon and Campbell wasn't happy about it. They were virologists. It must be some kind of bio-weapon." She leaned back in her chair. "Campbell didn't seem to think he was in any real danger."

"Guess he was wrong about that," Nick said.