The Leaves in Winter (24 page)

Janis offered, “I have no idea what this is about. I’ve done nothing wrong.”

Mr. Dufray used one fingernail to pick at another. “I’m not here to arbitrate right and wrong. I’m more concerned with what’s legal and illegal.”

“I want to talk to a lawyer.”

“Of course, in due time, I recommend it.”

“I want a lawyer now!”

“I’m afraid it doesn’t work that way. Not here. Not now.”

“What am I being charged with?”

“Did I say you’re being charged?”

“You arrested me.”

“We took you into custody. You’re on an Interpol watch list. We’ve been following you since your arrival.”

“If that’s true, why didn’t you pick me up when I first arrived? You must have known about the watch list when I went through customs in
Paris
?”

“We were curious to see where you would go – what you’d do.”

“So why end it tonight?”

Mr. Dufray was flippant. “We’ve seen enough.”

“What you saw tonight proves nothing.”

“Maybe, maybe not. But it’s time to put an end to it.”

“Nothing is going on.”

“What was your purpose in coming to
France
?”

Janis said nothing.

“You told the custom’s agent in
Paris
you’re on vacation. You then flew to Marseille, checked into two separate hotels and acquired two safety deposit boxes. Into one of those boxes you deposited this laptop. Only hours later you met with a representative of the radical group New Class Order. Now, tell me, whose idea of a vacation is that?”

“I want to talk to a lawyer.”

“Oh, you should. When you get back to
India
, it’s the first thing I recommend.”

“
India
?”

“Yes, the authorities in
Hyderabad
want you extradited. Apparently, this laptop doesn’t belong to you.”

“It was given to me – for safekeeping.” Janis felt the last shred of her plans unraveling.

“Ah, safekeeping. Why, because it’s valuable? It’s odd you should risk international travel with it, don’t you think? Unless you were going to use it to make some kind of deal.”

Janis slumped in her chair. “You don’t understand…”

“I understand intellectual property rights. I understand corporate espionage.” Mr. Dufray turned the laptop over and rubbed a thumb over an affixed asset tag. “NS-L31-4186. NovoSenectus laptop model 31, sequence number 4186.”

“That’s right. I work for NovoSenectus.”

“Is this your laptop?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Oh really. Have you checked with NovoSenectus on that? Do you think they want a laptop from one of their top security agents falling into the hands of New Class Order? Did you know a global search has been underway for NS-L31-4186?”

Janis felt her nerves take over. She began to shiver. Tears filled her eyes.

“It’s not like that. I just want my daughter back.”

Dufray casually dropped the redacted pages taken off her onto the table. “So you admit stealing the laptop in hopes of bartering the release of your daughter.”

“No! I didn’t steal it. He has to be stopped!”

“Who?”

“Eugene Mass!”

“Why would Mass want to kidnap your daughter?”

“No!” shouted Janis. “He wants to kill six billion people!”

Bemused skepticism furrowed Dufray’s brow. “Really. And New Class Order is going to stop him. Is that what you were told tonight?”

Janis held her hand to her head. “They didn’t tell me – I told them!”

“Now I’m confused. But, of course, I find most wild excuses like that.” Dufray glanced at his wristwatch. “The local authorities will be here at 9 o’clock to take you to a holding cell. In a couple of days, extradition paperwork will be complete and you’ll board a flight back to
India
. My job will be done.”

The mention of 9 o’clock sank heavy on Janis’ heart. That should have been the hour of the follow-up meeting and exchange – the laptop for Alyssa. Janis had been so close to securing a deal with New Class Order. Suddenly, all hope swept away and an arrow of pain shot through her.

Out of a mother’s hurt, an upwelling anger blinded her judgment.

Needing to vent, she jumped up, reached across the table, and grabbed Dufray by the coat. “Do you know what you’ve done! I was so close! Now what will happen to her? You bastard! You don’t care what they do with my daughter!”

Mr. Dufray recoiled and grabbed Janis’ wrists, preventing her attack. He pulled her hands away from him and held them at arm’s length.

“Theatrics aren’t going to save you, Ms. Insworth.”

Just then, a guard who heard the outburst rushed in to secure the situation.

Mr. Dufray picked up the laptop while Janis was handcuffed. He paused on his way out. “I’m sorry about your daughter but the ends rarely justify the means.”

Janis’s rage ebbed away. “What’s going to happen to André?”

“André?”

“The man I met with – André Bolard.”

Mr. Dufray raised an eyebrow. “You think you met with André Bolard, the leader of New Class Order?” Dufray gave a laugh and shook his head on his way out.

The deceit was complete. Suddenly, it made sense. André Bolard would never risk himself when a foot soldier of his organization could be rehearsed to fill in.

The guard led Janis one way down the hallway. Mr. Dufray walked in the opposite direction. At a reception area, he was met by an associate.

Dufray handed over the laptop. “Here, take this to forensics. I want a full report on what they find. This has to be done tonight, before we hand her over.”

“Yes, sir.” The associate nodded and started to hurry away.

“Tell them, not a scratch…,” Dufray called after him. “It’s important. If we looked at nothing – it must seem that way to a trained eye.”

Chapter 23

Granite Peak
Installation

Dugway Proving Grounds,
Utah

The bottom of the hole.

That’s what computer technicians called it. At the lowest basement level reached by elevator, the data center evoked a morbid fascination for most staff members of
Granite Peak
. The fact that only the freight elevator went down that low was just part of it. Universally, the place made reluctant visitors feel claustrophobic if not creepy.

Few people had reason or inclination to visit the bowels of the buried facility. Something about being that deep and isolated, that surrounded by the sameness of penetrating cold and a slight electronic hum evoked feelings of the grave. Some said even if you knew you were down there alone, it didn’t feel that way. You certainly didn’t want to be alone if you could help it.

Faye Gardner reassured herself. Much of the basement’s macabre mystique was inflated by bored specialists who liked being seen as a rare breed for braving duty assignments in such a place. In fact, the sealed-off data center was an elaborate raised-floor cocoon with low ceilings and super-chilled air. Nothing to fear.

The place was abandoned most of the time, except for an occasional visiting technician seated at a console or making a system tweak to one of the precisely racked components. Automated systems and the impressive array of sensors kept computers and redundancy systems operational. If all was working as it should, nothing and no one else was needed.

Faye had seen
the bottom of the hole
only once. That visit was brief but she’d been more than happy to take the elevator ride back to her laboratory floor. Today’s visit would be as much a surprise for Colin as it was when Faye was told by security she could find him there. The more she thought about it, the basement might be the perfect place for the discussion they had to have. What better place to give a sense of the way she felt about the inscrutable project that had taken over her life.

The elevator doors opened and Faye stepped into the LZ, the security Landing Zone. From here, she could access the raised floor directly or head off to the side into a storage area or back farther into the darkened power plant.

After a RIDIS scan, Faye stepped up as doors slid open granting her access. Down an aisle between rows of imposing lockers of black Plexiglas, Colin stood behind a technician seated at a console. Startled by the arrival of a visitor, Colin turned. He was even more surprised to see who it was.

“Faye – is everything all right?”

“I was told I’d find you here. I have something that couldn’t wait.”

“What is it?”

Faye drew her arms in close around her to ward off the cold. She glanced at the technician. Colin took the hint and sent him away. Once the young man was beyond the LZ, in the elevator, Faye felt she could speak freely.

“I’ve made a discovery. I wanted you to be the first to know.”

“You haven’t shared it with anyone in the lab?”

“No, no one.”

“Why keep it from them?”

“I need to hear from you what’s going on before I get them involved.”

“What’s going on? I don’t understand…”

“You know I’ve been studying everything we have on Janis. Now that I have the complete virus – with sputnik intact, we’re making progress. As we suspected, Janis’ Ghyvir-C infection explains a lot about how the viruses work together.”

“Good so far…”

“When I started this, I assumed my research fourteen years ago at USAMRIID was just a starting point. We know the common cold doesn’t cause sterility.”

Colin sat back on the console desk. “OK. So, what’s the discovery.”

“You said Janis was pregnant at the time of the infection.”

“That’s right. Frankly, I still don’t see how you missed that fact back at USAMRIID. You had to do blood work on her…”

“We went over this already,” snapped Faye. “At the time staff were on a tight regiment. Our research was restricted. We were instructed to operate within narrow parameters.”

“Sounds like standard procedure to me.”

“No. We all thought it was odd, Janis in particular. She was sure we weren’t being told everything. I told you – she suspected a dual-use project for weapon development. That’s why as soon as she got well and we released her from quarantine, she quit. When she left, we weren’t on speaking terms.”

“It doesn’t matter now. Go on.”

Faye stepped closer. “We know the virus doesn’t sterilize the parents. But it does something to the parents that affects the children. The children wind up sterile.”

Colin nodded, waiting for Faye to bring herself to the point.

“…so I got the idea of pulling up everything I could about Alyssa.”

Hearing his daughter’s name struck a nerve in Colin, both personal and professional. He kept quiet even though he suspected what was coming.

Faye was intense. “Janis was pregnant with Alyssa when she was in quarantine. So I checked the RIDIS database and every other source I could find. The results are conclusive. Of all the parents carrying the Ghyvir-C marker, Janis is the only one to have a child with a genetic variance from the others. Alyssa carries a different marker from all the other children with Ghyvir-C parents.”

Colin said nothing.

Faye was startled by Colin’s lack of response.

“You realize what this means? Alyssa might be the only child of her generation to be exposed to the Ghyvir-C marker – and not be sterile!”

“That’s a relief.” Colin stood and took a breath. “We were hoping you’d come to an independent verification of what we’ve known for a couple weeks.”

Faye felt a chill down her spine. “You knew this?”

“We found out just before you got the call to join The Project. It’s one of the reasons why we wanted you on the team.”

“What’s the point of keeping me in the dark! How am I supposed to work?”

“I don’t make the rules of who gets to know what.”

Faye spun around, incredulous. “That doesn’t make sense! Everyone on this project is handcuffed by ridiculous security rules!”

“Including me! You were there fourteen years ago. Until you told me, I had no idea Janis had been infected or was placed in quarantine. Someone scrubbed that from the record, remember?”

“But you knew Alyssa wasn’t sterile!”

“We knew she carried a unique marker. We weren’t sure what it meant.”

“But you suspected it.”

Colin shouted back, “I didn’t know Janis had been infected in the lab! There are lots of kids in the RIDIS database who aren’t sterile. Any child conceived before their parents got infected with Ghyvir-C is normal. As the virus spread, more couples were affected. The RIDIS database shows the trend line. It took a few months before all live births contained the marker. Alyssa was born in that closing window of time when it was still possible to have a normal pregnancy. We had to be sure!”

“There’s more to it than that! Janis is a special case, her infection’s unique.”

“How so?”

“I told you. USAMRIID removed the sputnik. The giant virus I studied fourteen years ago was missing its parasite. Janis was infected by a modified virus. Her infection was a rare if not singular event.”

The realization hit Colin. “That’s right…and the sputnik is the key element.”

“Janis passed the Ghyvir-C infection to Alyssa when she was still a fetus – but it got passed without the interaction of the sputnik being present.”

“So how would that work?”

“Don’t you see? Alyssa was exposed to Ghyvir-C in utero. Her system either developed or received antibodies to the giant virus before she was born. She also got her mother’s immune response. As she grew up, like everyone else she was exposed to the fully-functional Ghyvir-C in the wild, the one that contains the sputnik. But by then her system already knew how to attack it. With Ghyvir-C under attack, the sputnik inside never got a chance to go viral inside of her.”

“And that explains why Alyssa isn’t sterile…?”

“In part. It also explains why Alyssa’s future children might be protected. Like her, they won’t be sterile.”

“That’s a whole other line of testing…”

“Janis and Alyssa are the key! Their systems might contain the exact combination of elements we need to reverse sterility. The modified virus that infected Janis gave Alyssa the key marker. It’s unique. No other child has it. We need to study both of them.”

Colin paced back and forth before facing Faye again. “We might have to make do with just one of them.”

“Who?”

“Alyssa. According to my boss, The Project has her at a place called The Nest.”

“What!” Faye was enraged and nonplussed. “You kidnapped Alyssa!”

“I didn’t kidnap her. The Project did. Once I showed them her RIDIS markers were different from everyone else’s, they knew she was special. We had to protect her.”

“Protect her from what?”

“Riya Basu had just been killed and Janis worked with her. Some people might be crazy enough to want sterility if they found out it had happened. If there was any chance Alyssa was the key to this, we couldn’t leave her out in the open. We weren’t certain what was going on inside groups like New Class Order. We had to secure her just in case. Like you said, we needed to study her.”

“And kidnapping was the only way? When were you going to tell Janis about this? Were you ever going to tell me? Didn’t you think this might have a bearing on my work?”

“I was told it would be better if we tried working out a solution without you knowing.”

Faye crossed her arms and looked away, refusing to engage.

“They needed your expertise. They weren’t sure how you’d react.”

“Perceptive of them – the bastards.”

Colin held up a hand of truce. “Before you go off on this, let me explain.”

“What – more acceptable lies? Another necessary cover story?”

“You have to understand, the kidnapping was a spur of the moment thing. Lots of ideas were floated on how to gain access to Alyssa. Some inside The Project wanted to approach Janis; get her approval to do some testing. Others wanted to bring Alyssa in using trumped-up medical excuses. Nothing clicked.”

“Did you even try?”

“It seemed certain whatever we did would only have people asking too many questions. Above all, we weren’t going to risk exposure. If anyone snooped into why we needed Alyssa, our excuses had to hold up to scrutiny. The truth about sterility had to stay a secret to prevent a panic. The decision got put off.”

“Until Riya was shot. Then you saw an opportunity.”

“It made sense. Everyone’s attention was on NovoSenectus and New Class Order. Blame for the kidnapping went right to them. But we had to move fast. We never had plans to do it but it turned out to be the perfect cover for getting access to Alyssa for as long as we needed.”

“Meanwhile, you put Janis through hell and blindfolded the very people like me who need to figure this out!”

“It had to be done.”

“Oh, really? Well, here’s something else that needs to be done. I need to go back home. I need to get away from here.”

“Now, wait – let’s think about this.”

“If you’ve got anything to say, say it. Otherwise, I know what I need to do.”

“It’s not that easy.”

“Yes it is. I won’t work under these conditions!”

“I don’t believe you’ll walk away, not when you know sterility is real.”

Faye shouted, “What else are you hiding?”

“It’s not your place to design security for The Project.”

“I don’t even know what The Project
is
anymore. Do you? Have you figured out why there are animal fertility studies in
Manhattan
,
Kansas
? What else are they keeping from you?”

“I looked into it. There may be an answer for that.”