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"Peter Howell," he said. "An Englishman... Do you have business with the Offenbach Bank?" "I have business with you." Weizsel blinked rapidly. "There must be some mistake. I have never heard of you." "But you've heard of Ivan Beria, haven't you, old son?" Howell had his hand on Weizsil's arm, just above the elbow. Weizsel's mouth worked furiously as Howell pressed down on a nerve. "There's a nice, quiet table in the corner. Why don't we have a drink?" Howell steered the banker into the corner of a banquette and slipped in beside him, effectively trapping Weizsel. "You can't do this!" Weizsel gasped, rubbing his elbow. "We have laws---" "I'm not here about your laws," Howell cut him off. "We're interested in one of your clients." "I can't discuss confidential matters!" "But the name Beria rang a bell, didn't it? You service his account. I don't want the money. All we need to know is who sends it in." Weizsel glanced around, looking at the growing crowd at the bar. He strained to catch the maitre d's eye. "Don't bother," Howell told him. "I gave him money not to disturb us." "You are a criminal!" Weizsel declared. "You are holding me against my will. Even if I give you what you want, you will never leave---" Howell placed a small recorder on the table. Plugging in an earpiece, he handed it to Weizsel. "Listen." The banker did as he was told. After a moment, his eyes widened in disbelief. Yanking out the earpiece, he flung it across the table. Peter Howell thought that it had been farsighted of Jon Smith to provide that particular portion of the interrogation where Beria mentioned Weizsel. "So my name is spoken. What of it? Who is this man?" "You recognized his voice, didn't you?" Howell said softly. Weizsel fidgeted. "Perhaps." "And perhaps you remember it belonging to someone called Ivan Beria." "What if I do?" Howell leaned in close. "Beria is an assassin. He works for the Russians. How much Russian money do you handle, Herr Weizsel?" The banker's silence was telling. "I thought so," Howell continued. "So let me tell you what will happen if you don't cooperate. I will make sure the Russians learn that you were quite forthcoming when it came to their money--- where it comes from, how and when it's moved, all those little details they thought were safe because, after all, they paid you handsomely for your discretion." Howell paused to let the import of his words sink in. "Now," he picked up, "once the Russians know this, they will be upset---understandably so. Explanations will be demanded. Excuses will not be tolerated. And once trust has been broken, my dear Weizsel, you are finished. You've dealt with enough Russians to know that they never forget, never forgive. They'll want revenge, and your precious Swiss laws and police won't stand in their way. Am I making myself clear?" Weizsel felt his stomach sour. The Englishman was right: the Russians were barbarians, swaggering about Zurich, flaunting their newfound wealth. And every banker wanted a piece of their booty. No questions were asked. Demands made became demands satisfied. The Russians groused about the fees, but in the end they paid. They also made it very clear to brokers like Weizsel that they could not run, could never hide, if they broke trust. The Englishman was the kind of man who could make it seem that Weizsel had betrayed his clients. And nothing the banker could say or do would change the Russians' minds once they were convinced of his treachery. "What was the name again?" Weizsel asked almost inaudibly. "Ivan Beria," Howell replied. "Who feeds him his money?" ___________________ CHAPTER TWENTY THREE ___________________ Five hours had elapsed since Dylan Reed had sequestered himself in the Spacelab. During this time, he had monitored the crew's movements and conversations via his headset. Twice, Megan Olson had asked if he needed some help; another time she wanted to know how much longer he would be. She was eager to start her own experiments. She wouldn't be so anxious i f she knew what was going on in here, Reed thought grimly. Politely but firmly he told Megan that she and the others would have to wait until he was finished. Because Reed had to monitor the crew, the work was taking much longer than he had hoped it would. Another distraction was the almost nonstop conversation between the crew and mission control. Nonetheless, Reed worked as quickly as he could, pausing only to rest his hands, which, encased in the long rubber gloves attached to the box, tended to cramp. The enormity of what he was doing almost overwhelmed him. Staring through the microscope, he gazed upon a world of smallpox that had never been seen before--- except by its creator, Karl Bauer. In his Hawaii laboratory, the Swiss scientist had managed to take the variola virus and reengineer it so that it tripled in size. He was then able to open it up so that it would be receptive to even further growth. But Bauer had been constrained by earth's gravity; Reed was not. The genesis of Bauer's work could be traced back to one of the first shuttle missions. Astronauts had discovered a two-day-old bag of sandwiches that they had forgotten to eat. The food was stored in a sealed plastic bag that was floating like a beach ball. Opening the bag, the crew thought the sandwiches would be fine--- until one member pointed out that the only way the bag could float was because the bacteria in the food had produced enough gas to make the bag puff up. This impromptu observation gave scientists incontrovertible proof that bacteria grow faster and bigger in a microgravity environment. When Karl Bauer read the NASA report on the phenomenon, he immediately concluded that what was true for bacteria might also apply to viruses. The initial research proved heady, but hampered by gravity, Bauer was unable to reach a definitive conclusion. Years would pass until he found Reed and a way to conduct the final experiments in space. Now what Reed observed was a variola ten times as large and potent as anything on earth. Its protein bubbles, which on earth would burst at a certain size, retained their integrity and lethal capacity. As a battlefield weapon, this strain would have no equal. Reed shuddered when he imagined how quickly entire populations would be decimated if this variant was released through an air-burst bomb. The variola would speed its way from the respiratory tract to the lymph nodes, then spread to the spleen, bone marrow, and other lymphatic organs. Eventually it would make its way to the small blood vessels in the skin. With a normal strain of smallpox, such a process would take five to ten days. Reed estimated that the incubation and infection period would now be measured in minutes. The body would simply have no chance to rally any defense. Reed withdrew his hands from the Glovebox, wiped them, and took a moment to compose himself. Then he activated his throat mike. "Hey, folks. I'm just about done here. Is it dinnertime yet?" "We were just about to call you," Stone replied. "Everyone's ordered steak and eggs." Reed managed to laugh. "Wait until you see what it looks like." He paused. "I'd like everybody in the mess so I can go over the schedule." "Roger that. We'll save you some of that steak. See you in a little while." Reed closed his eyes and willed himself to stay calm. He switched off his mike but not his earpiece. He did not want to hear the next sounds the crew would make. They would be nothing human. But to gauge how fast the variola acted, he had no choice but to listen. Returning to the Biorack, he once again donned the rubber gloves and carefully filled the small tube with the altered variola. Securing the tube, he removed it from the Glovebox through a small air lock and placed it in the freezer. Using the footholds, he moved to the back of the lab and opened a locker. Inside was a fully contained extravehicular mobility unit, or EMU, the suit used on space walks. After slipping inside it, Reed was reaching for his helmet when he caught his reflection in the visor. He hesitated as the faces of his fellow crew members floated in the coated Plexiglas, people he had worked and trained with for months, even years, people whom he genuinely liked. But not enough to show them compassion or mercy. In that reflection, Reed also saw the faces of his two brothers, killed during a terrorist attack on the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, and that of his sister, a Peace Corps volunteer, abducted, tortured and finally murdered in the Sudan. What Reed was doing was not for the greater glory of science, and certainly not for public recognition or acclaim. This new strain would never see the light of day--- unless circumstances dictated that it be unleashed. General Richardson and Anthony Price were the kind of men who did not tolerate the kind of losses Reed had suffered. To them, payback wasn't just a few cruise missiles lobbed into some tents or bunkers, but a swift and total devastation by an invisible, unstoppable army. By helping build this army, Reed believed he was laying a marker at the graves of his kin, keeping a promise made long ago that their sacrifices would never be forgotten. Securing his helmet, Reed made his way back to the Biorack. He plugged his air-supply hose into an independent feed that crew members used during space walks. Calmly and deliberately he broke the seal on the Glovebox. Within seconds, the dried variola particles in the dish began forming spores as tiny as dust particles. Inexorably they found their way to the rent on the Glovebox seals and outside. Reed stared in fascination as spores seemed to hang there. For an instant, he was seized by the irrational thought that they might attack him. Instead, the circulation stream caught them and they swirled like a minuscule comet into the connecting tube linking the Spacelab to the main body of the orbiter. __________ "Are you coming, Megan?" Carter asked as the two of them completed their report to mission control. Maneuvering past the sleep stations, Megan called over her shoulder, "Yup. I'm starving." At that moment, both crew members heard a squawk over their headsets. "Discovery, this is mission control. We understand you're looking to break for dinner?" "That's affirmative, mission control," Carter replied. "Discovery, our instruments show a possible pressure leak in the air lock on the lower deck. Be much obliged if someone could check it out." Stone's voice came over the sets: "Megan, Carter, you're the closest." Carter looked at Megan with puppy-dog eyes. "I'm really hungry!" Reaching into one of the sleep stations, Megan pulled out a deck of cards from under a strapped-down pillow. She tore away the cellophane, shuffled carefully so that no cards would slip out, and held the deck out to Carter. "Cut. High card wins." Carter rolled his eyes, reached for the deck and turned over a ten. Megan came up with a seven. Carter laughed and propelled himself toward the food station. "I'll save you some Oreos!" he called back. "Sure, thanks." "You okay to do it, Megan?" Stone asked. She sighed. "I'm fine. Just make sure that Carter doesn't hog the veal cutlets or whatever." "Roger that. See you in a bit." Megan knew that "a bit" meant at least an hour. Checking out an air lock meant getting into an EMU. Gripping the handles, she descended the ladder to the lower deck. Tucked behind the cargo and the equipment that the shuttle carried was the air lock. The red light over its door was blinking, indicating a possible malfunction. "Damn wire is all it is," Megan muttered and pushed off. __________ "Watch this." Carter tore open a packet of orange juice, held it up, and squeezed out some of the liquid. Forming a rough sphere, the juice floated in front of Carter, who pierced it with a straw and began to sip. In seconds, the solid that was a liquid had disappeared. "Very nice," Stone said. "You can come do magic tricks at my kid's next birthday." "Uh-oh, the sauce is loose," Randall Wallace called out. Stone turned to find that while he had been talking to Carter, the shrimp-cocktail sauce had lost contact with his spoon. He picked up a tortilla and made a swiping motion to catch it. "Wonder what's keeping Dylan," Carter said through a mouthful of chicken with gravy, which he was eating out of a plastic baggie. "Dylan, do you copy?" Stone said into his mike. There was no reply. "Probably in the can," Carter said. "He has this thing for barbecue beans. Maybe he smuggled some on board." Beans, along with broccoli and mushrooms, were never on the shuttle menus. Excess gas was much more painful in space, and flight physicians still weren't sure how gases behaved in microgravity. Carter coughed. "You're eating too fast," Stone chided him. Carter's reply was drowned out by a fit of hacking. "Hey, maybe he's choking on something," Wallace said. As Stone moved toward him, Carter suddenly grabbed the pilot by the shoulders. Another paroxysm swept through him and he vomited blood up into the air in front of him. "What the hell!" Stone cried. His words were cut off as he clutched his chest and began to claw at his jumpsuit. His body felt like it was burning up. When he wiped his face, the back of his hand came away all bloody. Karol and Wallace watched in horror as their shuttle mates rolled over, their arms and legs kicking out as though in seizure. "Get up to the flight deck and seal yourself in!" Karol roared. "But---" "Do it!" As he shoved Wallace toward the ladder, a voice from mission control came over his headset. "Discovery, do you have a problem?" "Damn right we do!" Karol shouted. "Something's tearing Carter and Stone apart---" Karol's body spasmed. "Oh, Jesus!" As he doubled over, a trail of blood swirled away from his eyes and nostrils. Somewhere far away he heard the urgent voice from mission control. "Discovery, do you copy?" A reply formed in his mind, but before he could get the words out, a red haze descended across his eyes. __________ Working inside the air lock on the lower deck, Megan heard the cries and groans over her headset. She jabbed the transmit button on her EMU. "Frank? Carter? Wallace?" All she heard now was static. Her communications unit was malfunctioning. Ignoring the wiring she'd been checking, Megan reached for the lever to open the air lock. To her horror, it refused to budge. __________ In the Spacelab, Dylan Reed clutched a stopwatch in his gloved hand. The mutated variola was working with frightening speed. He knew that he should measure exactly how fast it was infecting and destroying the crew. Bauer had been adamant that human test subjects were the only way to gauge the lethal capacity of the new smallpox. It was also a way to get rid of any potential witnesses. But to do that would have meant looking at the stopwatch. Dylan Reed would have had to open his eyes, something he didn't dare do because then he'd surely see the faces behind the screams. __________ A world away, mission director Harry Landon was in a cubicle down the hall from mission control, catching up on some much-needed sleep. A twenty-year NASA veteran, ten of those years spent in the pressure cooker of the Cape, Landon had learned to rest whenever the opportunity presented itself. He was also able to wake up instantly, alert and ready. Landon sensed the hand even before he felt it on his shoulder. Rolling over, he found himself gazing into the face of a young technician. "What is it?" he demanded. "There's a problem onboard Discovery," the tech replied nervously. Landon swung off the cot, grabbed his glasses off a filing cabinet, and moved for the door. "Mechanical? Flight? What?" "Human." Landon didn't break stride as he called back over his shoulder. "What do you mean, `human'? " "It's the crew," the tech stammered. "Something's wrong." Something was wrong--- terribly so. Landon sensed it as soon as he entered mission control. All the techs were huddled over their consoles, talking urgently to Discovery. From the snatches he heard as he passed by, Landon realized that no one onboard the orbiter was responding. Moving to his command post, he barked, "Get me visual!" "We can't, sir," someone called back. "The video feed must be down on their end." "Then get me audio!" Landon slipped on a headset and tried to keep his voice level. "Discovery, this is the mission director. Come in, please." Static crackled against his eardrum. "Discovery, I say again, this is the mission director---" "Mission control, this is Discovery." The strangled voice made Landon's blood run cold. "Wallace, is that you?" "Yes, sir." "What's going on up there, son?" Landon had to wait out more static. When Wallace was back, he sounded as if he was choking. "Wallace, what's wrong?" "Control... Control, do you read?" "Wallace, just tell us---" "We're all dying...." ___________________ CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR ___________________ During the shuttle's pioneer years, in the early 1980s, procedures were set in place to deal with the inevitable mishap, malfunction, or tragedy. Enumerated in the so-called Black Book, they were first implemented in January 1986, after the disaster that took Challenger 51-L. Harry Landon had been present in mission control that day. He still remembered the mission director's expression of horror when the shuttle exploded seventy-three seconds after liftoff. Then he watched as the director, tears streaming down his face, reached for the Book and began making the necessary calls. Landon's fingers trembled as he fumbled for the key to unlock the drawer he'd prayed he would never have to open. The Book was a slender three-ring binder. Landon opened it to the first page, reached for the phone, then hesitated. Getting to his feet, he plugged his headset into the intercom system that connected him to all the headsets used by the staff. "Ladies and gentlemen," he said somberly. "If I can have your attention... Thank you. You all heard the last communication from Discovery. If it's accurate--- and we don't know that it is--- then we are in the middle of a true catastrophe. The best thing we can do for our people up there is to follow procedures and be ready to respond to any request for assistance. Continue to monitor all aspects of the flight and of the shuttle's condition. If there's deviation or anything unusual--- no matter how insignificant--- I want to know about it. I want the data team to review all the tapes, every conversation, every transmission. Whatever happened up there happened quickly. But there had to be a trigger. I want to know what it was." Landon paused. "I know what you must be thinking, and going through. I know what I'm asking you to do is difficult. But we cannot lose hope that there may be survivors. That's whom we're working for. Whoever's left, we want to bring them down safely. Nothing else matters." He looked around. "Thank you all." The silence that had settled over the room began to break up. Landon was relieved that the grim expressions were replaced by ones of resolve and determination. He had always believed that the people he worked with were the best; now they were proving him right. Landon's first call went to Rich Warfield, the president's science adviser. A physicist by training, Warfield was familiar with the shuttle program. He immediately grasped the magnitude of the mishap. "What can I tell the president, Harry?" he asked. "He'll want the bottom line, no bullshit." "Okay," Landon replied. "First, there has been no communication with Discovery since Wallace's last transmission. In it, he indicated that the crew was dying or dead. I'll have someone play you the actual tape in case the president wants to hear for himself. "As for the shuttle, it appears stable. There's been no change in flight path, speed, or trajectory. All onboard systems are green." "Give me your educated guess, Harry," Warfield prompted. "All air-supply readings are normal," Landon replied. "That means no toxic contaminants. No smoke, no fire, no gases." "What about food poisoning?" Warfield suggested. "Could it be something as mundane as that?" "The crew would have been having their first meal. But even if all the food were contaminated, I doubt that the poison could have spread so quickly--- or virulently." "What about the payload?" "This wasn't a classified flight. The Spacelab had the usual menagerie of frogs, insects, and mice to be used for experiments..." "But what, Harry?" Landon double-checked the experiments' schedule. "Megan Olson was slated to begin work on Legionnaires' disease. That's the only bug in the program. She never got started on it." "Could the bug have filtered out somehow?" "Chances are ten thousand to one that it did. We have all sorts of sensors to detect a leak in the Biorack. But let's say it did. Legionnaires' doesn't work that fast. Whatever killed the crew did so in a matter of minutes." For a moment there was silence. "I know it's not my area of expertise," Warfield said finally. "But if you carve away the other possibilities, it still sounds to me like a bug got loose." "Off the record, I'm tempted to agree with you," Landon replied. "But I wouldn't go planting that idea in the president's mind. Right now, we just don't know." "The president will have questions," Warfield said heavily. "I think you know what the first one will be." Landon closed his eyes. "This is the procedure, Rich. During launch, the range safety officer tracks the flight. His finger is never far from the destruct button. If anything goes wrong, well... You remember Challenger? After the external tank blew and the shuttle exploded, the solid rocket boosters kept going. The RSO brought them down. "The shuttle has a destruct sequence that can be activated by us when it's on its way down. At that point, it's still far enough out that if we had to, we could blow it up without any danger to the population below." Landon paused. "Rich, when you tell him this, remind him that he's the one who has to give that order." "All right, Harry. Let me pass along what we have so far. Don't be surprised if he calls you direct." "The minute I know more, I'll let you know," Landon said. "Harry, last thing: can we bring the shuttle down on autopilot?" 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