31

 

Katie noticed the change in Josh. After his program ran successfully, there was no more talk about puking, and she heard a confident sound in his voice. This was the Joshua West she had hoped for, a man who could lead a family, a family that included a strong-willed woman like Katie Brandt. At least it fulfilled part of her hopes. The rest required a satisfactory conclusion to their aborted discussion.

Josh swiveled around to face her. “We found the man and the woman. Kate, here is their IP address. Track them down. And I’ve got ten collaborators identified. We need to locate them, also.”

“I’m on it.” Jennifer said. “Spool three copies of the file to the printer.”

“Done.” Josh stuck out a thumb toward the big laser printer in the corner.

Jennifer ran to it and grabbed the printout.

Katie took a copy from her mom and watched as Josh launched another run of his program with much more specific search parameters. She prayed this was the breakthrough needed to stop this attack.

A commotion behind them drew her attention.

A DHS employee was speaking. “We have a confirmed forest fire in the Bridger-Teton National Forest. Smoke jumpers have been dispatched. The National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, all forest service locations, and all firefighters, are on high alert. The military, including the National Guard, are on standby to respond—another report just came in. Satellite pictures show the fire starting with an explosion. We need to stop them all before this spirals out of control.”

Katie grabbed a report, now with eight locations on it, and ran toward the big monitor. “We’ve identified eight terrorist locations. Motels in Chicago, Illinois; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Seattle, Washington; Jackson, Wyoming; Taos, New Mexico; Farmington, New Mexico; Wallowa, Oregon; and Eagle Point, Oregon.”

Peterson stood. “We need to dispatch law-enforcement officers immediately and start air searches in the vicinity of the eight locations.”

“Kate!” Josh’s voice. She turned and trotted back to the workstation.

“My program crashed and core dumped shortly after I started this run.”

“We don’t have time to analyze a core dump. Just reduce the number of locations, rerun it, and hope for the best.”

“OK. The code’s pretty green, so it’s probably a stray pointer or some unhandled event.” He paused and typed in the command-line parameters. “It’s running. Let’s hope we find the smallpox release locations this time.”

She stood behind Josh, looking over his shoulder as the intermediate printout scrolled by on the screen.

“Josh, Katie.” Peterson called out to them in his deep voice. “We need you. There’s been a new development.”

With Josh’s program running smoothly they could leave it for a few minutes.

Peterson stood with a look of disgust on his frowning face. When they approached, he stepped toward them and spoke hardly above a whisper. “Local police just raided the motel you located in South Chicago. They took two men into custody along with a heavy canister they believe is a biological agent. I told the president we suspect it’s variola major. He wants an explanation of our suspicions. When I told him about your foray into Canada, he said he wanted to speak with you.”

She looked up at Josh’s frowning face. “You, or me, Josh?”

He sighed. “I’ll do it.” His mouth curved into a half smile. “I’m the one who reads thrillers about biological warfare.”

“And I’ll be standing beside you. The trip to Canada was my doing.”

“Actually, Kate, I’m the one who persuaded you to go to Burnaby and said we could do it safely. It’s my dirty laundry. I’ll handle it.”

She followed Josh as he moved to center stage in front of the video camera and stood near him, praying this would go well.

The president had a scowl on his face. “Mr. West, why do you suspect there is weaponized smallpox in the recently confiscated container?”

Josh briefly told the president of Kate locating the command and control element of this conspiracy in Burnaby, of their trip to Canada, and the information they found on the laptop about weaponized variola major. “Mr. President, thousands of pounds of this weaponized virus remain unaccounted for since the collapse of the USSR.”

“But my question is how could they possibly have gotten this into the United States?”

Katie had to bite her tongue to stifle a scoffing laugh. Was he really that arrogant, really that stupid, or just playing politics?

Josh turned his head toward her and rolled his eyes.

She nodded to Josh.

When he turned back toward the video camera, she knew what Josh would say. But what would the president’s reaction be?

“Mr. President, are our borders secure?”

“Yes, Mr. West. And we have sensors at all entry points to—”

“But, Mr. President, we don’t have anyone or anything at many entry points. Our border patrol estimates that nearly a thousand people enter the USA daily in unsecured areas along our southern border, bringing in diseases, drugs, and themselves. How could you not know there would be terrorists among them at some point, bringing things like weapons of mass destruction?”

“Are you finished stating your opinion, Mr. West?”

“No, sir, I’m not.”

Kate grabbed Josh’s shoulder and pulled hard.

Big, strong, handsome, Joshua West would not be moved.

“This isn’t a game were playing.” Josh’s voice grew intense, forceful, almost scary. “The kill rate on this virus is thirty per cent—that’s on the non-genetically engineered strain. We don’t know what strain may have been obtained by this group. Both sides of the Islamic house have ties with Russia, especially the Shiites in Iran.”

The president stood and walked away.

The vice president took his place. “The president has some urgent business. That’s enough, Mr. West. You can go back to whatever you were doing.”

Whatever Josh was doing? Katie clenched her jaw and her fists, drawing upon every ounce of self-restraint to keep from verbally assaulting the vice president.

Obviously, Peterson noticed. He hooked her shoulder with a hand and pulled her away from the camera.

Josh shrugged, and with a scowl on his face, followed Peterson and her across the room.

The tall FBI agent was mumbling softly, something about politicians. He corralled both of them near Josh’s workstation. “You can’t let the politicians get to you. Most have an agenda, a personal one. Just go find the rest of the conspirators and let us take care of them. We don’t need the president to accomplish that.”

How did anyone accomplish anything with people like this at the nation’s helm? Katie blew out a single blast of air, trying to release all of her frustration. She looked up into Josh’s eyes. “I’m proud of you. The president was posturing himself for political damage control. Just watch what he says to the media over the next twenty-four hours. You’ll see.”

“Come on, Kate. The last run I started should’ve finished by now.”

Kate looked at the text on the workstation’s screen. “Fifteen more IP addresses, Josh. We may have the complete set.”

He spooled the report to the printer. “Let’s split the addresses, get the locations, and give them to Peterson. We need to make sure they get this operation shutdown. Then…” he sighed, “…I could use a long vacation.”

“Can I come along?”

“Without you, Kate, it wouldn’t be a vacation.”

Things between her and Josh were heating up again. She hoped the completion of their unfinished conversation wouldn’t prove to be a bucket of ice water.

 

****

 

In four more hours, DHS sent word to all involved agencies that the threat was under control. The two canisters of a weaponized virus found inside the USA’s borders were disturbing, but at least they were in friendly hands and the CDC, or its military equivalent, would soon be analyzing them. When they were done, the biological threat would be known. Only one fire was actually started. However, six radio-controlled planes were seized, each loaded with explosives and a fire accelerant. The triple threat danger was over.

What troubled Kate was that the couple in Surrey had escaped again. Each time they had swung the ax, the serpent had moved its poisonous little head. Where had it slithered off to this time?