Black Rose

CHAPTER 25

Elizabeth had mixed feelings about the Zürich raid. On the surface, it looked like a success. The team had been in the right place. The plague-ridden corpses in the disposal room, the files they'd recovered and pictures of the lab proved that. The international papers were calling it a terrorist attack, although no one seemed to know why a pharmaceutical research lab had been targeted. The Swiss police were baffled and angry. Such things didn't happen in Switzerland. It was disorderly.

Although the samples in Zürich had been destroyed, she had a bad feeling that the plague was still in play. There was no firm evidence to make her believe that. It was a matter of intuition and years of experience. AEON was too clever to put all their resources in one place. The raid might have eliminated the threat but what if it hadn't?

The files recovered from the lab contained hard data and summarized research notes. The research notes weren't signed, but Elizabeth thought they were probably done by Karl Schmidt. She'd passed the file on to CDC in Atlanta. The file on the test subjects was gruesome and proved that human subjects had been used as guinea pigs. Twenty-seven had died before a new test batch of vaccine showed promise. Detailed autopsy reports and notes described the grim progress of the disease and it's inevitable outcome.

Things had moved past her resources and responsibility. She had proof that the plague was a genuine national security threat. She was on her way to the White House to brief the president.

Elizabeth's driver turned onto Pennsylvania Avenue and passed through new security barriers installed since the last time she'd been here. Secret Service agents met her at a side entrance and relieved her of her pistol. They gave her a visitor pass to hang around her neck and escorted her to the Oval Office, where President Rice was expecting her.

Rice was behind his desk. He was an average looking man at first glance. It was only on closer inspection that people were captured by the intensity in his eyes. They were blue with a hint of green and conveyed a sense of total attention when he looked at you. Like all who had held this office, he seemed surrounded by an intangible aura of power. Elizabeth had felt it before with other presidents. His face showed the strain of his job, here where there was no need to look good for the cameras and the public eye wasn't upon him.

Rice was not alone in the room. DCI Clarence Hood was present as well.

"Mister President, thank you for seeing me."

"Please take a seat, Director. I thought it best if Clarence sat in on this."

She nodded to him as she sat down. Clarence Hood had become a personal friend.

"Sir, I requested this meeting because I believe we are facing a threat unlike any we've dealt with before."

"That sounds ominous, Director," Rice said.

"You already know what we discovered from the papers of North Korea's defector. I followed up on that."

She briefed the two men on everything that had happened, ending with the raid on the Zurich laboratory.

"So that's why you wanted the safe house," Hood said.

"Why wasn't I told about this operation?" Rice said.

"Sir, that's why I'm here now. Until I had definite proof of what these people were doing, I felt you had no need to know."

"If the Swiss find out we're responsible, they'll make a lot of trouble."

"They won't find out, Mister President. I guarantee it."

"They better hadn't. You are certain it was the Russians that took the samples from the North Koreans?"

"Yes, sir, I am. We determined that through satellite surveillance. Then our source verified our finding before he was killed."

"This Adam person?"

"Yes, sir."

"Mm. Go on."

"Sir, there can only be one reason AEON subjected human subjects to this terrible disease. They are working to create a vaccine against it or have already done so."

Hood sighed. "You think they intend to release it."

"That's right," Elizabeth said. "It's a perfect terrorist weapon. There's no cure that we know of and it's always fatal."

"I can understand one of the fundamentalist groups wanting to do something like that," Rice said. "They hate everyone who doesn't believe as they do and they justify it as God's will. But why would a group of successful business men do such a thing? It doesn't make sense."

"I can only speculate on that," Elizabeth said. "AEON seems to want a world they can dominate and control. They've demonstrated that they have no concern for the cost in human life. I don't think they have any agenda beyond dominance."

"Amoral," Hood said.

"Totally. They have no ethical or moral considerations."

"Who else is part of this organization besides Gutenberg and Dass?" Rice asked.

"I can't answer that," Elizabeth said. "But we do know those two are leaders. Sir, the resources at my disposal aren't enough to tackle this by myself."

"I can set up full surveillance on Gutenberg and Dass, Mister President," Hood said. "They might lead us to the others."

"Do it," Rice said.

"Yes, sir."

"We could look into Gutenberg's finances," Elizabeth said. "Whatever else is going on, money must be part of it. Terrorist acts require funding. If we find a money trail, we can follow it. Dass is the one with the facilities to handle the samples and develop any vaccine or cure. We need to know what he's doing as well."

They waited as Rice considered what they'd said.

"All right," he said. "I want this kept between the two of you. Spying on foreign nationals influential in finance and industry is a mine field, politically speaking. We get enough flak about surveillance as it is from our supposed allies. They don't like us finding out when they act against our interests."

"If they don't like it, perhaps they should stop doing it," Hood said.

"Make sure the media never hears you say that," Rice said. "I'd hate to lose you."