Immortal

22

Doug Jarvis strode purposefully down a corridor toward a briefing center deep within the DIAC building, dogged by a sense of foreboding. Being summoned by a department head or senior analyst was one thing, but receiving orders to report to the director of the agency was another entirely.

The office of the director of the DIA was not quite hallowed ground but it represented the command of one of the most powerful and secretive agencies in the United States’ arsenal. Most everybody had heard of the FBI, the CIA, even the ultra-classified NSA, but the DIA straddled a mysterious line running throughout the Pentagon’s many departments. It was responsible for studying and protecting against all potential threats to United States security, and anything that the other agencies knew about, in all theaters, was also reported to the DIA.

Jarvis stopped at the director’s door, passing his assistant at her desk who waved him forward with a dutiful smile that did little to improve his mood. He adjusted his tie before knocking discreetly.

‘Enter.’

Jarvis walked in to see three-star Lieutenant-General Abraham Mitchell’s broad and craggy form hunched, as it usually was, behind a large desk cluttered with documents and photographs. More of a surprise was the man sitting opposite him, a hawkish-looking individual wearing the uniform of a full colonel of the United States Army, replete with a ceremonial silver pistol in a holster at his side.

‘Jarvis,’ Mitchell said, gesturing to the stranger with one shovel-like hand as Jarvis shut the door to the office. ‘This is Colonel Donald Wolfe, research director at USAMRIID. He flew in this morning from Santa Fe.’

Jarvis shook Wolfe’s hand, instinctively cautious of the man’s aquiline nose and sharp, beady eyes. He had heard of Wolfe by reputation, a high-ranking US Army officer specializing in nuclear, biological and chemical warfare, but he knew nothing of the man personally. They sat down and Jarvis waited for Mitchell to speak.

‘Doug, Colonel Wolfe is here regarding a series of events occurring down in New Mexico. You got any operations ongoing down there?’

‘I have a small team investigating a disappearance in Santa Fe,’ Jarvis answered before turning to Wolfe. ‘They’re effectively undercover, so I’m surprised that you’re here at all, sir.’

‘Donald,’ Wolfe murmured in a surprisingly soft voice. ‘The matter in Santa Fe was considered serious enough for us to find out who exactly was operating in the area.’

‘Serious?’ Jarvis asked, glancing at Mitchell. ‘I didn’t realize there was anything of any more concern than an unusual disappearance.’

‘It’s the nature of who, or what, disappeared that’s bothering USAMRIID,’ Mitchell rumbled. ‘According to USAMRIID there is believed to have been a possibility of some kind of infectious outbreak surrounding the theft of a corpse from a Santa Fe morgue, the same morgue from which the doctor your team is searching for disappeared.’

Jarvis raised a concerned eyebrow.

‘There was no mention of any kind of outbreak by local law enforcement,’ he said. ‘We received information on the case from the FBI, who had been approached by the Santa Fe county sheriff with biological samples from the corpse of a man shot dead the day before by state troopers. There were some anomalies, apparently, with the samples, so I sent two reliable detectives to Santa Fe to follow it up and see what had happened.’

Donald Wolfe spoke slowly, as though he were verbally stalking Jarvis.

‘You sent two agents from one of the government’s most powerful agencies to pursue the disappearance of a lowly doctor out of Santa Fe?’ He smiled in bemusement. ‘Shouldn’t you guys be chasing terrorists in Helmand Province or something?’

‘I didn’t say I’d sent agents,’ Jarvis corrected him. ‘I sent two detectives with a proven track record down there. It’s not considered a priority case, more of an interesting one.’

‘In what way?’ Mitchell asked, his big hands folded together on the desk before him.

Jarvis performed a series of rapid mental gymnastics.

‘Because it seemed like a planned abduction. Close-circuit cameras captured the kidnapping, involving several men who were masked and were smart enough to disable cameras and phones in the morgue before attacking. Whatever they wanted it must have been important or valuable, and thus worth sending someone down there to investigate.’ He turned to Wolfe. ‘Which is why I don’t understand why you’re here. If there was a biological aspect to this case, we’d have passed it on to the National Center for Medical Intelligence at Fort Detrick. But local law enforcement, forensics and the specialists who work in the morgue found no such thing.’

Wolfe shook his head.

‘One of the state troopers involved in the shooting reported that the victim appeared to be falling apart, as though he were decaying. The threat is in the corpse itself and any contamination it may have caused on site. I’d have thought that a possible case of leprosy or worse in the middle of New Mexico would have warranted at least alerting us to the event instead of sending two gumshoes down there.’

Jarvis grinned tightly.

‘One of them is a former United States Marine who’s worked for us before. The other is a former DC detective. Both are highly skilled and reliable. Quite apart from that, the morgue itself was wiped clean, a real professional job. Any infectious agents were removed from the site at that time. Which is why I don’t understand why the NCMI wasn’t involved if there was a biological case. It’s our own medical department, quite capable of handling epidemiological situations: USAMRIID has no place in this investigation.’

‘Nor do your investigators,’ Wolfe fired back. ‘They cannot be relied upon to handle the work competently should they indeed find an infected corpse.’

‘Ethan Warner and Nicola Lopez are highly competent,’ Jarvis replied without emotion.

Wolfe glanced at Abraham Mitchell, who looked down at his desk and read from a sheet of paper.

‘Warner and Lopez,’ he rumbled. ‘As I understand it, Warner was almost imprisoned last year after fleeing a major fire-fight in Israel and then killing a church minister in Washington DC. Lopez was hunted down by the FBI at the same time. Both escaped only by the intervention of this agency and the President himself.’

Jarvis shifted in his seat.

‘Ethan Warner saved the then Senator Isaiah Black’s life, sir, as did Nicola Lopez, who was forced into her actions after her own superior officer was arrested for fraud, corruption and the homicide of her partner. He’s currently serving life in a New Jersey penitentiary. Warner and Lopez are perfect for this kind of work. They’re incorruptible.’

Mitchell shook his head, clearly not convinced.

‘As I understand it, both parties are not at all incorruptible. Ethan Warner has a reputation as a live wire and Nicola Lopez has become known for several indiscretions, to which you appear to have turned a blind eye.’

‘In addition,’ Wolfe said before Jarvis could respond, ‘they’re not trained in dealing with infectious diseases, whereas doing so is my specialty. It is imperative that this investigation be handed over to USAMRIID, at least until we can figure out whether there’s anything to be concerned about. If not, your NCMI and investigators can carry on as they were.’

‘And risk letting the case go cold?’ Jarvis challenged. ‘This is a criminal investigation being conducted with the support of the state police, not an infectious outbreak. Putting it on hold and handing jurisdiction to a military outfit isn’t going to solve the abduction case.’

Wolfe was about to retort when Mitchell raised his hands, silencing them.

‘Doug, how long is it before your team finds the missing doctor?’

‘Days,’ Jarvis promised with a conviction he didn’t feel. ‘They’re already chasing several leads.’

Mitchell nodded.

‘Then there’s no good reason not to let USAMRIID into Santa Fe to work alongside Warner and Lopez.’

Wolfe snorted incredulously.

‘This is ridiculous. We could have a major infectious outbreak here, even a biological agent, and you want to leave an ex-soldier and a cop wandering about—’

‘If it were an infectious agent,’ Mitchell interrupted him, ‘then we would expect others to have become infected. They have not.’

‘Not yet,’ Wolfe snapped. ‘And what if they do? If we don’t keep this contained, both physically and from the media, we could have national panic on our hands.’

‘Not if your people work together,’ Mitchell pointed out. ‘The more people we have on this case, the sooner it can be resolved. There’s no need to involve NCMI while Warner and Lopez are already on the scene, if they’re as competent as you say they are,’ Mitchell said, fielding Jarvis’s protesting stare. ‘Given the potentially sensitive nature of this case, can your people be trusted to finish this without arousing unwanted interest?’

Cornered by his own defense of Warner and Lopez, Doug Jarvis straightened his tie and lifted his chin.

‘Believe me, there are no two better people for the job. Discretion, sir, is Ethan Warner’s watchword. You won’t even know he’s there.’