The Leaves in Winter (25 page)

“Like what?”

“There’ve been some studies coming out in scientific journals explaining the drop in teenage pregnancies around the world. The studies claim there are chemicals in the environment that appear to be causing delayed fertility in some mammals.”

“
Delayed
….fertility.”

“They say the findings are preliminary.”

“You don’t actually believe that, do you?”

“At this point, we can’t discount anything. It would make sense for The Project to run their own trials on animals just in case. It could be a factor in what we’re seeing. If so, we have to isolate it and determine how it fits in.”

“Where were these studies done?”

“I’m not sure…
Germany
,
Japan
. The only study like it in the
U.S.
that I know of is in
Manhattan
,
Kansas
.”

Faye heaved a sigh. “I don’t get it. We already know why there’s a drop in pregnancies. It sounds like another cover story. Something else must be going on inside The Project.”

“Nothing that I know about.”

“That’s not reassuring.”

“At least it explains one thing. To do my job, I don’t need to know about the lab in
Kansas
. There’s nothing sinister about me not being told about animal trials in
Manhattan
. As it should be, everyone knows only what they need to know.”

“Your bosses aren’t scientists. How do they know what I need to do my job?”

“You’re not the only scientist working on this. I imagine everything you find is being routed to The Nest. Someone, somewhere is probably putting it all together.”

“That makes me sound pretty expendable. There should be no problem letting me go home.”

“It doesn’t work that way.”

“Then we have a problem.”

“What can I say to convince you?”

“For once, you can tell me the goddamn truth! Tell me what you know about this or I walk. I won’t be kept in a box, fed lies, and made to wonder if I’m helping to save the world or ruin it.”

“I don’t know what you want to know!”

“You picked the wrong person to team up with. I know you. I can tell when you’re holding back. We’ve been too close to think you can lie to me.”

“Nothing I say will make any difference. The children will still be sterile.”

“I don’t care. I want to know. Tell me or take me to the surface. I’ll walk out of here. I swear it. At this point, I don’t care how big the desert is up there. It’ll be on your head.”

The two of them glared at each other. Faye was heartbeats away from bolting.

Colin blinked first. He spun a chair around and offered it to her.

“Here. You better sit down.”

Faye held up until she sensed the offer was genuine. As soon as she sat down, Colin leaned back on the desk opposite her.

“What I’m about to tell you I’ll deny. You want to know? So be it. I still think some things are better left alone.”

“I don’t need your disclaimers. I get it.”

Cut short, Colin nodded his acceptance of terms. He took a long breath and looked up at her with an expression drained of emotion. It was a game face, hollow of feeling like she had never seen before. It seemed fitting in such a place.

“Fourteen years ago, I was liaison between an intelligence task force and the RIDIS project. My work was at GeLixCo in
Puerto Rico
. Because of my USAMRIID background, I got recalled to
Washington
to be briefed on a special assignment. Little did I know then, but that assignment was where a deeper side of The Project began.”

“I thought The Project was all about the RIDIS database.”

“That’s my part of it now. It’s been so much more.”

“Go on…”

“I was told with high confidence that someone was using a lab in another part of the
Puerto Rico
complex to synthesize a new virus combination. The two labs were strictly insulated from each other. We didn’t know who was behind it, but it was obvious they planned on releasing it worldwide.”

“What was the point? A pandemic?”

“Yeah. What else could it be?”

“So why didn’t the Feds just shut them down?”

“Maybe we should have. The problem was, if we had done that the only people we would have stopped were the mercenaries, the bit players. My bosses wanted to catch the masterminds behind this. By letting the lab stay open and watching it, infiltrating it, we hoped to find out more about who or what was behind it.”

Faye was ahead of him. “So what went wrong?”

“We didn’t find out about some key information until it was almost too late. We thought the
U.S.
lab was the only place working on this. It turned out they had several locations, all but one in other countries. We were blindsided. By the time we got confirmation, we discovered their schedule to release the pandemic was farther along than we thought. We had the impression they were midway; in fact, they were almost finished.”

“You didn’t move in and stop it?”

A shake of the head. “By then, shutting them down wouldn’t have made any difference. The plot was international. Any one of the other labs would have completed the plan. We couldn’t get to them all. Luckily, the
U.S.
lab was their synthesis point – that’s where they merged what the others had done.”

“What happened?”

“We did the only thing we could. We hatched a plan to sabotage the final agent.”

“Wouldn’t they find out and just start again someplace else?”

“That’s why we had to do it in a way they wouldn’t suspect. We wanted them to go through with their plan – only, we had to make the released agent harmless.”

“How did you manage that?”

“We substituted a benign payload – into the sputnik.”

“Sputnik! You’re talking about Ghyvir-C!”

Colin nodded.

“You knew Ghyvir-C was engineered all along.”

“The difficulty was – it wasn’t engineered by us.”

“So how was it supposed to work?”

“As you’d suspect. The common cold was the best way of spreading the virus. The sputnik parasite went along for the ride. It was designed so Ghyvir-C going active in a host would signal the sputnik to hijack Ghyvir-C. That’s when the real damage would start.”

Faye stood and paced. “Wait a minute. If you sabotaged it, then why are we here? Why are we facing sterility in children?”

“You’ve hit upon the big question.”

“You don’t know?”

Colin’s half-shrug was noncommittal. “We had operatives on the inside. At the last minute, they switched payloads in the sputnik. Everything went as planned. The benign agent replaced the deadly one. Ghyvir-C got released. For fourteen years nothing happened – nothing but the common cold. There was no pandemic. For The Project, that was success. It appeared our sabotage worked.”

For Faye, another piece of the puzzle fell into place. “Until a few months ago. That’s when you found the sterility markers in RIDIS.”

Colin nodded. “Only weeks ago we traced the markers back to Ghyvir-C.”

“Maybe you’re looking in the wrong place. Maybe those studies about a chemical in the environment are right. What if it’s not sterility, just delayed fertility.”

“Don’t patronize me. You’ve been in the lab. You’ve seen the markers. We’ve done enough test cases on children. You know sterility is real.”

“Then why is the
National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility
doing animal trials? You’re still holding something back.”

Colin shouted, “I’ve told you what I know!”

“Don’t lie to me, Colin! It doesn’t add up. What are we really dealing with? If you succeeded in stopping them fourteen years ago, then what is going on?”

“You want to know what’s going on? Extinction! Is that clear enough for you! Stop chasing your tail. All the dirty little secrets in the world won’t change the fact that unless we do something – the last human generation has been born.”

For Faye, the gaps filled in. “I see now why back at USAMRIID we were under such a tight regimen. Janis was right – it was all about dual-use. They gave us a modified virus because The Project didn’t want us to inspect their benign sputnik. But why? Why hide something so benign from their own government lab?”

“Don’t overthink it. There were good reasons to separate the two viruses. It wasn’t sinister – it was simply good lab procedure.”

“Is that the way you were told to spin it?”

Colin stepped close to confront her. “Listen, we need you here to help solve this. It’s got to be done with or without you. What good is it to win the point and lose the game? Arguing with me may give you some satisfaction, and you can go home and pat yourself on the back for being so assertive – but how long will that last? How long can you sit and home, doing nothing, and watch the children grow up?”

Faye was torn between storming out and staying.

Colin added, “In a few months, your baby will be born. Are you going to be all right with that?”

Tears filled Faye’s eyes.

Colin didn’t let up. “You have a choice. You can sit at home smug, knowing you won the argument – or you can help do something about this. What’s it going to be?”

The silence between them raised the intensity to an unbearable level.

For Faye, something about being that deep, that isolated, that surrounded by penetrating cold and impersonal electronic hum evoked feelings of oppressive dread.

She had truly reached
the bottom of the hole
.

She gathered all the strength she had left and stared back at Colin. “If you want me on The Project, I have one condition…”

“Name it.”

“Janis and Alyssa need to be part of the research. I want access to
both
of them.”

“You expect me to bring Janis into this?”

“What’s the matter? Afraid to face her after what you did to Alyssa – what you did to
her
?”

Colin flinched and redirected off topic. “At my level, I can only deliver so much.”

Faye failed to steady her nerves but her voice was strong. “
Impress
it on your bosses – if they want to solve this, they need
both
of them. Now take me home. I’ll come back when my terms are met.”

She stormed off in the direction of the Landing Zone.

Colin stood flatfooted for a second then followed her into the elevator.

During the ride to laboratory level, the silence between them only deepened.

Chapter 24

NovoSenectus Corporate
Business
Park

Hyderabad
,
India

Standing at his ninth-story office window, Eugene Mass looked down on the unexpected arrival with a mixture of confusion and annoyance. A black Suburban with tinted windows trailed the limousine along the circular drive. Security cameras pivoted at the corners of the central administration building’s rooftop and tracked progress of the cars nearing the south entrance.

The guards had called ahead to give Mass advance notice. He had done nothing with the lead time other than wait. Without more detail, there was nothing else to do.

When forward motion stopped, suited bodyguards exited the Suburban and took up point positions around the limousine. The limo driver scurried back to open the rear door. From the back seat stepped Mass’ wife Leah in a uncharacteristic hurry. Obviously, the energy given her steps belied a matter too important to heed doctor’s orders to stay at home and rest.

With everything in his day, the unanticipated visit forced Mass to reconsider the decision to bring his wife with him from
Brussels
. Leah had joined him in
India
so corporate scientists could treat her mysterious chronic fatigue. She had struggled with it since completing
GenLET
treatments. Doctors had followed up with tests and trial prescriptions as much as she wanted. All the while, they informed
Eugene
they believed the ailment was psychosomatic.

Not dissuaded, Leah was certain her symptoms proved she was having an adverse reaction to all she had gone through to secure a greatly extended lifespan.

As Mass watched Leah strut towards the building’s entrance, he reflected on the next hundred years. After receiving
GenLET
, ’
til death do us part
took on challenging new potentials and problems. He sighed at confirmation of a reality he suspected but had hoped to avoid – even the gods have issues, after all.

He turned from the window and glanced across his work desk without inspiration. Moving on, he stepped into a sitting area on the other side of the room. He fixed himself a drink and waited for the inevitable. He could only guess what new emergency had prompted Leah to need face-time with him.

A female voice sounded on the intercom.

“Mr. Mass, your wife is on her way up to see you.”

Eugene
took a sip of scotch. “Very well. Hold all calls and appointments until further notice.”

“Yes, sir.”

Two sips later, the door opened.

In came Leah with a distraught but determined face.

“
Eugene
…,” she gave him a brief hug. “I’m sorry; this couldn’t wait.”

“You couldn’t call?”

Leah froze as if affronted. “Aren’t I welcome?”

Already exasperated, Mass closed his eyes. “All I meant was, it might have been better to rest.” He opened his eyes to find Leah settling on the couch. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m beside myself. Haven’t you heard?”

Mass restrained the sarcasm of asking if those statements were meant together. “I’ve been a little busy.”

“I told you something was wrong. I should have listened to my intuition.”

“Hold on, now – start at the beginning.”

Her eyes filled with tears. “It’s Jayden!”

Eugene
felt her concern and drew near. He sat on the couch and took her hand.

“What about Jayden?” Mass expected to hear that his nine-year-old grandson had suffered an accident.

Leah was overcome by all the emotion bottled up during the limo ride.

“You’ve got to put everything on hold! Something isn’t right!”

“Put what on hold? What are you talking about?”

“
GenLET
…3rd Protocol. We can’t be sure of any of it.”

“
GenLET
is out. We’ve already given or sold it to so many. What does that have to do with Jayden?” Mass held her by the shoulders to calm her. “Just tell me. It’s all right. When did this start?”

“I went to the clinic; I had palpitations.”

“This morning?”

“A while ago…I just came from there.”

“Go on…”

“I was in the office, telling them how I felt when they got a call.”

“About Jayden?”

Leah nodded. “The results came back from his post-therapy tests.”

“Post
GenLET
…,” Mass confirmed.

“Something isn’t right genetically. They found an anomaly.”

“What exactly?”

“Something’s abnormal.” Leah bent forward and sobbed. “They say he’s sterile. He’ll never have children.”

Mass took a moment to let the news sink in. He settled back.

“That makes no sense. How do they know this? He’s only nine years old…”

Leah’s temper fought her grief. “Something’s gone wrong with
GenLET
. I just know it.”

“What did the clinic say?”

“What do you expect? They aren’t going to take the blame.”

“Just tell me what they said!”

“They said no way. It’s not their fault.”

“What’s the reason? Did they explain?”

“Of course! They compared genetic material taken from Jayden before
GenLET
therapy and matched it with his test results. They found the same genetic variance before and after. They claim that proves Jayden was sterile before he got
GenLET
.”

“Then
GenLET
didn’t cause it. If they had this before, why didn’t they see it?”

“According to them, they only do this kind of exhaustive review when they confirm the therapy is complete. They said there’s no reason to do the same review before treatment. It’s a comparative test; before, there’s nothing to compare.”

“You don’t accept that?”

“I know what I feel. There has to be more to it. How can they explain it away so fast? It doesn’t seem right.”

“Why, because you want it to be so much more?”

“The best thing to do is put everything on hold. We have to take time to look into this. We need to be sure.”

“It’s not that easy.” Mass stood and sauntered to the window.

“Of course it is!”

“I know you’re upset, but let’s think this through…”

“A lot of
GenLET
research got used in 3rd Protocol.” Leah’s statement was an accusation.

“We’ve already gone over this. Neither one of us are scientists. We can’t tell them how it works. If they’re certain
GenLET
isn’t involved, we have to trust the evidence.”

“I have chronic fatigue for a reason…now this.”

“The doctors say the fatigue has more to do with you than anything.”

“It’s
not
all in my mind.”

“Nobody else receiving
GenLET
reports the same symptoms.”

“
GenLET
is something new. It could go wrong in each person
differently.
”

“Leah, please…I don’t have time for this. There’s too much to do.”

“Your grandson is sterile! Aren’t you the least bit concerned how that happened?”

“How does
any
birth defect happen?”

“Birth defect! Now who’s jumping to conclusions? You said you’re not the scientist, so stop all of this until they have the evidence.”

“I’m sorry but there’s too much at stake to put everything on hold.”

“The schedule is ours to make; no one’s forcing us to do anything right now.”

“Janis Insworth has been taken into custody in
France
. They’re preparing to extradite her back here.”

Leah was confused. “But that’s good news.”

“Not necessarily. We didn’t get to the laptop first.”

“But they’ll bring it back with her, won’t they?”

“Yes, but we don’t know who’s been looking at it. You know the French won’t pass up the chance to examine it.”

“What was she doing in
France
anyway?”

“Trying to make a deal with André Bolard.”

“My God!”

“All the more reason why we must accelerate the schedule, not slow it down.”

“It’s that damned memo again!” Leah stood and paced. Anger dried her tears.

“It’s the only thing that can hurt us.”

“If you hadn’t been so sloppy to let Riya get a hold of it...”

“She was more resourceful than I thought.”

Leah stood and paced. “That wasn’t it. The whole plan was flawed. Whatever possessed you to think that baiting her was a good idea in the first place?”

“I needed to find out who she was passing information to, where it was going, and what they were using it for. I needed to give her something to find. Why not make use of it?”

“She was a corporate spy. She should’ve been handed over to the authorities.”

“She was our top scientist. Losing her meant
GenLET
might not get finished.”

“So you fed her lies that only complicated things – especially when some of the lies were true! Admit it, you were trying to be too clever.”

Mass turned from the window to confront his wife. “If it wasn’t for that one memo, we wouldn’t be arguing about this. Nothing else Riya transferred to GeLixCo can hurt us. Nothing on the laptop matters but the memo. For chrissakes, it has my initials on it – it names Javier, Oliver, Labon, and the lab in
Kansas
.”

“What about the rest? You put out there the whole plan!”

“It mentions 3rd Protocol – so what? There’s nothing going on in
Austria
and there’s no deal with the Chinese. The white papers on population collapse were published years ago from think tanks funded by The Group. Anyone using that information will be crying wolf. If anything, The Group will have to duck and over. That’ll delay their 2nd Protocol which is want we want. The exposure on us will only
protect
our plan. If someone else comes after us with conspiracy theories, they’ll look ridiculous. Mixing the truth with lies can only insulate us.”

Leah looked to the floor. “You never found out why Riya betrayed us…”

“No sense going into that.” Mass stood his ground. “We’ll never know. After 3rd Protocol, it won’t matter.”

Leah steamed silently for a moment. “What are you going to do about the memo?”

“There’s not much I can do. We have to assume it’s already out there or soon will be. If we had gotten to the laptop first, we’d have more maneuvering room. As it is, I see no choice but to give Oliver the go-code.”

“With all that’s going on, that’s your only concern?”

“The crisis isn’t going away. If we wait longer, more can go wrong.”

“And what about Jayden? What about our dynasty carrying forward?”

Mass was brutally pragmatic. “His parents now have hundreds of years together. Lots of time. We’ll have other grandchildren.”

Leah looked up and stared at her husband. “You’re no scientist, but somehow you know for a fact that the same
birth defect
won’t happen again? You’d rather rush forward than wait and be sure.”

Mass couldn’t dispute her point. It was easier to placate. “I’ll have the lab look into it. If you want, I’ll have every
GenLET
recipient tested. Will that make you feel better?”

Leah felt no closure. “Don’t do it to make me feel better. Do it because it’s too important not to get right. This is our future – and now there’s so much more of it.”