The Plagues of Pandora

CHAPTER THIRTY SIX

“Starting with,” Hayden said, “where is your friend Dudley taking those samples?”

Under strictest security they had taken the General to a safe location. Now he sat handcuffed to a spartan desk inside a spartan room, a man alone in more ways than one. With the ongoing crisis Hayden had taken it upon herself to keep Stone isolated from standard protocol. She figured they had a few hours before questions were asked.

And anyway, time was hardly their ally today.

Stone glared impassively. “I am a United States general. This isn’t Afghanistan, young lady. I demand access to my representatives.”

“I have two representatives for him.” Alicia held up her fists. “Morgue,” she nodded to her left. “Hospital.” She indicated the right. “Let him choose.”

Smyth was dangerously close to breaking the door down. Drake dragged them both away and back behind the two-way mirror. “Give Hayden a chance, guys.”

Hayden took a moment to reveal to the general the severity of his situation, citing first Lauren and her revelations and then the Nicholas Bell sightings and several intelligence leaks including one where Washington DC came under attack by a drone, involving access codes which were stolen from Stone’s office. Even the general’s face melted a little at the charges being leveled against him.

“You think I’m a member of the Pythians? Are you insane?”

This time the bluster was gone, replaced by a lackluster rhetoric. Hayden slammed a clenched fist on the table, making its legs bounce. “None of that matters! Callan Dudley is in the wind with two mass-casualty aerosolized weapons. I’m not sure yet if we’re classing them as WMDs but do you really want that on your fucking résumé too?”

“You think I’m crazy,” Stone said quietly. “A monster of circumstance. But I see what happens in our government, I see the corruption and the games that are played, and I see the need for a higher authority. That’s what the Pythians will give you. Real leadership. Not power plays and six-figure bribes and intimidation. You will know where you stand with the Pythians.”

“Where has Callan Dudley taken the aerosols?”

“We are the Pythians,” Stone said. “We are everywhere and we will start a very real war. Through China and Taiwan we will find the lost kingdom. Then to the pirate galleons of America. And Saint Germain — the most important, shocking and amazing discoveries of our…”

“Shit, I wish we had chance to squeeze him for everything.” Drake saw how this was going. “But right now—” he looked at Smyth and paged Hayden.

“Time to send in the dogs?”

“Last chance, General.” Hayden said. “Speak freely whilst you still can.”

“You think we don’t know you? Ever since London the Pythians have been working you through their intelligence network. And it’s exhaustive, believe me. Text. Pictures. Video. Hayden Jaye, once liaison to the now very dead Secretary of Defense, Gates. Father — dead. Boyfriends — who knows how many, but at least one is dead. How many, Jaye? Pretty piece of ass like you — I bet those thighs have seen plenty of two-way traffic—”

Now it was Kinimaka who reached for the door, but he needn’t have bothered. Hayden was professional enough to keep her cool under such weak taunting, but chose this moment not to.

“I realize from surveillance of our own that if I try to bust your balls, General, you’re actually gonna enjoy it. So I’ll stay clear of that area. Instead—”

She delivered a fast strike to his face, breaking his nose at the bridge. When his hands came up in reaction she looped the chain of his handcuffs around his neck and pulled. Drake kept an eye on her face, impressed with the composure he saw there.

“She’s almost there,” he said to the big Hawaiian. “Give her a sec, matey.”

Hayden tightened the makeshift noose until the general could barely breathe. “All right, motherfucker,” she whispered into his ear. “This is now one very real world, where lonely, persecuted and misunderstood government agents use any and all means to save the men, women and children of their country and preserve their way of life. Even if some of those men, women and children protest that they don’t want or need this kind of help. Do you think they’d change their mind if a terrorist cell entered their kids’ school or the shopping mall? The airport or train station they commute from? How quickly past atrocities are forgotten.”

Hayden squeezed as she spoke, finally relenting and allowing Stone a little room to talk. The general struggled in her grip to no avail.

“Love… loving the sexual asphyxiation technique. Your hot breath. Your hands on my neck—”

Hayden wrenched the chains once again, catching some of Stone’s hanging folds of skin between them and earning a yelp. This time the general’s face was turning purple before she let go.

“I can keep it up all night,” she breathed close to his ear. “Can you?”

Smyth turned to Kinimaka with characteristic belligerence. “Shit, your girlfriend’s hot.”

Stone’s gasping filled the room. “Bitch, damn bitch. You’ll get nothing from me.”

Alicia stepped up. “I think it’s time your, um, ‘off-the-books’ associates sorted this out. We were never here, right?”

Drake was about to agree when Hayden thrust her gun into the general’s mouth. Unable to gulp air he began to breathe through his nose.

Until Hayden pinched his nostrils shut.

Stone kicked at the table and threw his head from side to side. Hayden clamped his body down. Still close to his ear she whispered once more.

“Ready to talk, General?”

Stone slapped his hands on the table, the freak inside possibly even excited by the pain. In the end Hayden’s determination chipped away all his resolve.

“Callan Dudley,” he said when she removed the gun, “left Greece with two boxes. Small aerosols. Once he reaches the second facility he will be able to incorporate them into anything we want. A mid-air bomb. A direct rocket. Street-level aerosols. Shit, we can even replicate a Typhoid Mary.”

Drake’s heart fell. Second facility. Oh no…

“Where?” Hayden pressed.

“At the Canadian north.” Stone gave her a location. “Hudson Bay.”

Hayden stepped back. “You mean the mountain? The ski resort?”

Stone flashed her an evil grin. “Yeah. Whatever.”

Hayden’s lips tightened. “You lying bastard.”

“Try Manitoba,” Stone said. “You might even be safe there.”

“And all the innocent people you’re about to kill. What about them?”

Stone shrugged emotionlessly. “In any war there are unintended casualties. Just ask your new Secretary of Defense.”

Drake narrowed his eyes as Hayden ignored the odd jibe. “But this is a war of your own making.”

“Every new world order must first make its mark,” Stone said coolly. “True respect only comes with a well-measured mix of fear and pain.”

Hayden shook her head and turned to the window. “That’s not respect, you asshole,” she murmured. “It’s hatred.”

Hayden used the gun and pushed harder. She pushed until tears ran down Stone’s cheeks. But in the short term, they had nothing that could break him further. The man turned into a gibbering idiot, but always there was that smug, aloof light of superiority in his eyes.

“We’ll get no more from him.” Hayden walked back into the outer office. “Whatever else he is, he’s US military, trained to withstand pressure at the highest level. If I’m being honest I believe he thinks the Pythians will come for him. Save him. What do we have?”

Drake nodded toward a computer screen where the inimitable Alicia Myles had already clicked onto a Superdry website to best illustrate the style of clothes she’d prefer to be wearing when they crashed the Canadian pole.

“So we’re nowhere with Lauren’s cure?” Smyth rasped. “Dudley’s capture? Give me a crack at that piece of—”

“Have you heard from Lauren’s doctors?” Hayden interrupted.

Dahl nodded. “She’s deteriorating quickly.”

“Just as important for Lauren,” Smyth said. “Is there any more news on this new version of the plague?”

“Only that it’s derived from a concoction of old diseases. They say that the virus dies quickly when buried, right? Well, what if sometimes they’re wrong? Check out these scientific absolutes we found. I quote, ‘the degree of preservation of a cadaver cannot be predicted by the type of coffin used or the location of the internment. Completely preserved bodies have been found in both wooden and lead coffins. Some contain dry bones but others occasionally contain a viscous black liquid, known as coffin liquor. This can include soft tissues’. You following me so far? Now ‘regardless of age soft tissue is recognized as a potential hazard. If present, expert medical advice should be obtained from the CDDC before proceeding’. This is particularly important with well-preserved bodies. My guess, the Pythians found the best preserved old gravesites in the world.”

Alicia leaned her head against the glass window. “Y’know, guys. Moving on, Stone could be right. Remember when we had Beauregard in custody and then his… whoops I mean the slippery snake turned up in Paris? The Pythians won’t let Stone rot.”

Drake stared at her. “So you’re saying we should let Stone escape? And then what? Follow him? Don’t be bloody daft.”

“Do you have a better idea? Or are you too busy falling over every time you get shot?”

“Piss off, Myles.”

“Seriously,” Kinimaka said. “Every second we stand here means the aerosols, Dudley and the Pythians get further away.”

“I’ll do this.” Dahl flexed his arms and fingers. “We have to be well above an executive rationale now. Stone will break… one way or the other.”

Hayden put a hand on his arm. “Let me call Secretary Price first.”

“Call him while I’m working.” Dahl opened the door.

“Shit.”

Drake was about to remind the room of Stone’s reference to Secretary Price when the opening chords of Foreigner’s Hot Blooded shook the room. Smyth fished his cell out of a pocket. “What the—”

Drake frowned at the shock on Smyth’s face. Hayden paused in mid-dial. Even Dahl halted for a second.

Smyth answered the phone. “Lauren?”