Black Rose

CHAPTER 9

It was six in the morning of a freezing February day. Three inches of new snow covered the grounds outside Project headquarters.

Stephanie was early for work, anxious to go over the surveillance report of the North Korean bio weapons facility. The report covered a period of several days before the raid and ended two days later. The computer had compiled a sequence of video shots taken from a hundred and twenty miles up by the NROL-67, the latest in a string of sophisticated spy satellites that formed the U.S. Space and National Reconnaissance Surveillance program.

The videos were astonishing, clear and sharp in every detail. The satellite provided a bird's eye view of everything. Most of the Korean complex was invisible, hidden inside a mountain. A paved road led up to the facility from a broad valley at the foot of the mountain. Anti-aircraft missile batteries were mounted in strategic positions around the complex. The computer identified the missiles as Chinese copies of the Russian V-750, using the obsolete S-75 Dvina launching system. It was the same system that had caused trouble for U.S. pilots over Vietnam. It was an old design but still deadly.

A high fence barred entry to the complex. A guardhouse and gate fronted a wide courtyard and vehicle park. The satellite was programmed to note activity at the compound and capture details of individuals and their movements. Rank designations on sleeves, collars and shoulder boards could be identified. Documents presented for inspection could be read, if the angle was right. Facial features were clear and could be matched by an analyst against a known database of personnel, Korean and otherwise.

Stephanie began watching the videos. She didn't expect to find much before the raid itself but she liked to be thorough. She was looking for anything unusual. Civilian workers left at the end of each day and returned early on the following morning. She noted routine guard changes and the regular arrival on alternate days of a white van. The van would come to the gate, pause for inspection, then be permitted to enter the compound. Two men in white utility uniforms and white caps would get out, unload boxes of produce from the back of the van, and cart them into the unseen tunnel leading into the mountain. Twenty or thirty minutes later they'd reappear with trash, load that into the van and drive off.

Nothing ever seemed to happen at the base except for the civilian traffic, the van delivery and the changing of the guards. She came to the day of the raid. The van pulled up at the usual time. A guard emerged from the hut for the inspection, as he always did. Then everything changed.

It was like watching a movie on television with no sound. A hand holding a pistol came out of the window of the van and fired. The guard stumbled backward and fell. Men in black balaclavas piled out of the van and began shooting at whoever was inside the guard shack. Stephanie saw the windows shatter. One of the men in black was larger than the others. He gestured and the others followed him into the complex.

The dead guard lay sprawled on the courtyard pavement. The van idled in the chill air, wisps of exhaust smoke visible on the video. An Asian looking man in a white uniform stepped out of the cab and lit a cigarette. He had a pistol in one hand.

Exactly twelve minutes and forty-three seconds later, the raiders came out of the compound into the daylight. One of the men carried an aluminum case.

The plague samples, Stephanie thought. The large man she believed to be the leader reached up as if something bothered him under the ski mask and pulled it off to scratch. For a few seconds his face was visible.

Got you, Stephanie thought. She froze the video for a moment and entered commands on her keyboard. The computer began searching the database for a facial recognition match.

He was a white man, not Korean or Chinese or Asian. She restarted the video. The leader got into the back of the van with the others. The driver was already behind the wheel. The truck pulled out through the open gates, past the dead guard, and started down the road. A minute later a thick cloud of smoke and debris billowed out of the entrance to the complex.

Twenty minutes later, the computer signaled a match to the still shot. Stephanie looked at the result and swore under her breath.

Elizabeth won't like this, she thought. She took the printout and went upstairs to Elizabeth's office. Harker was at her desk. It was still early. The others had not yet arrived.

"Good morning," Elizabeth said. She saw Stephanie's expression and the paper in her hand. "What is it."

"I have the results from the satellite surveillance."

"What did you find?"

"It was the Russians who hit the Koreans," Stephanie said. "Zaslon. I identified the leader. He's a Spetsnaz major named Kaminsky. We ID'd him in Aleppo last year."

"The Russians? Damn."

"Yes."

"I never would have expected that. Zaslon is General Vysotsky's group," Elizabeth said. "He had to be under orders from the Kremlin. If the Kremlin's involved, the stakes just got a lot higher. You're sure about the ID?"

"Positive."

"It's an act of war. Why risk war over something like this? The Russians have plenty of nasty stuff of their own. They don't need another bug for their collection."

"Maybe they just want to make sure it can't be used against them."

"That's possible, I guess. It's more likely they want to add it to their biological bag of tricks."

"Why does everyone work so hard at creating things that can kill millions at a time?" Stephanie asked.

"I don't know, Steph. There's something dark in some people, something barbaric and murderous. An impulse that leads to things like this plague being turned into a weapon."

"If I were more religious I'd think it was the work of an evil being. Satanic."

"I think humans can be evil enough," Elizabeth said. "We don't need Satan to explain it. But I admit it would make things easier to understand if it was about a conflict between absolute good and absolute evil."

"A metaphysical war between the forces of darkness and light?"

"Exactly."

"How do you know it isn't?" Stephanie said.