Black Rose

CHAPTER 65

Nick, Selena and Ronnie were in Elizabeth's office.

"Are you sure Gutenberg didn't get away?" Elizabeth asked.

"I don't see how he could have," Nick said. "There wasn't time for him to get very far and he was wounded. The building came down fast. It would have crushed him underneath."

Elizabeth nodded, once.

"The containers of plague were destroyed," Nick said, "but there could still be samples around. We never went into Krivi's corporate building to check the labs there."

"It's handled. Langley sent a team in. They recovered samples of the bacteria and two hundred vials of vaccine. We have what we need to stop the spread, once it's in production."

"How many have died?" Selena asked.

"I don't know the exact figure, but at least twenty-five thousand so far. There'll be more before it's done. It's still spreading. The borders of Brazil are closed and the entire country is under quarantine. It's wrecking their economy."

"So AEON wins after all," Nick said.

"Not quite. Aid is pouring in from all over the world. It seems not everyone in power thinks knocking out Brazil is a good idea. Don't forget, you stopped them from releasing the plague here. If Gutenberg had succeeded, millions would have died before a vaccination program was put in place."

"What about the Russians?" Selena said.

"What about them?"

"They could still have some samples."

"They might. If they do, they'll add it to their biological weapons inventory. Just like us."

Selena looked shocked.

"Us?"

"We'll store it with the other bio weapons we have."

"I thought all of that was illegal."

"It is. Technically speaking, we don't have biological weapons. We only have research facilities and samples stored for the purpose of creating vaccines and preventive measures."

"Yeah, right," Ronnie said.

"It's part of the MAD policy," Elizabeth said. "Mutual Assured Destruction. If our enemies know we have the capability to retaliate in kind against a biological attack, they might think twice about launching one against us."

"It's insane," Selena said, "immoral."

"But necessary. War has nothing to do with morality."

"Why did Vysotsky go after AEON?" Nick asked.

"It's not hard to understand," Elizabeth said. "It was Vysotsky's men who lost the samples in the first place. As far as the Kremlin was concerned, it was his fault and it was up to him to correct the problem. I think there was another element as well. From what I know of him, Alexei would take the deaths of his men as a personal insult. He's not a man to let an insult go by. He wanted revenge. Not to mention the fact that AEON posed a direct threat to the Federation."

"Does the president know about Senator Mitchell?"

"I intend to brief him later today. He needs to know so he can discover what Mitchell was doing. Whatever it was, you can be sure it wasn't in our interests."

"What are we going to do about Vysotsky?" Selena asked.

Elizabeth looked at her.

"Nothing. What would you have us do?"

"He sent my sister over here to kill an American senator. I know Mitchell was part of AEON but…"

"Selena. There's nothing we can do."

Selena opened her mouth to speak and closed it again.

Elizabeth reached into a drawer and took out several file folders.

"Nick, these are service records. Lamont's made it official. He's leaving at the end of the month and we need to replace him. I want you and Selena and Ronnie to look at possible candidates."

Nick reached over and took the files from her.

"It's not going to be the same without Lamont."

"No, but we don't have a choice."

"We'll get on it."

"That's all for today," Elizabeth said. "I just want to say that I'm glad you all made it back. Good work."

"We get a break?" Ronnie said.

"Count on a week unless something comes up."

Nick stood. "Come on, Selena. Let's go buy some furniture."

Elizabeth watched them leave and wondered how much longer the team would hold together. They were old for the kind of missions she sent them on. Ancient, by the standards of modern combat. Somehow they kept pulling it off. Lamont had been lucky, if you could call being left with a permanent limp lucky.

She got up and walked over to the counter with the coffee. It was the fuel that kept her going. She poured a cup and watched steam rise from the surface. She blew on the hot liquid to cool it and looked out through the bulletproof glass of the French doors at the patio and flowers that provided an illusion of normalcy.

AEON was finished, at least she hoped it was. Everything indicated that it was. But Elizabeth had learned that when one threat was finished, another waited in the wings. She opened the patio doors and took the coffee outside into the sunshine.

There would be time enough tomorrow to worry about what would come next.