From his office window, Darnell Price watched as Peter Savage drove away. He phoned Simon Ming, and they agreed to meet at Utopian-Bio.
“I gather that this person who visited you has caused you some concern,” Ming said. He spoke slowly, appraising his guest.
Darnell shrugged, but he couldn’t hold Ming’s penetrating gaze. “No. Well, a little, maybe. I just thought you should know.”
“I see. Under the circumstances, I felt it prudent to have my associate, Roger Corbett, present.” All three men sat around the conference table in Ming’s office.
Corbett cast a steely glare toward Darnell, who fidgeted with his hands on the edge of the table.
Ming’s eyes bore into the CEO sitting across from him. “Mr. Corbett may have an important take on your meeting this morning.”
“Why don’t you start from the beginning,” Corbett said, since he was not a party to the brief phone call Darnell had placed to his boss.
“Sure. As I told Simon, this businessman from Bend contacted me a couple days ago. He’d been helping a friend—who happens to be a member of the Warm Springs Tribal Council—to investigate the outbreak of the viral infections. He thinks bottled water produced by my company may be the cause. But, of course, he has no proof. So, he was looking for a sample.”
“Which you don’t have, so you couldn’t give it to him even if you wanted to,” Corbett said. Then facing Ming, he added, “I fail to see the problem.”
“He’s the person who got the CDC to investigate,” Darnell said.
“Does this person have a name?” Corbett asked, trying to hide his growing irritation.
“Peter Savage.”
Ming’s eyes widened, and Corbett noticed. “That name mean something to you?” he asked.
Ming nodded. “Another matter. But Mr. Price, please continue.”
“Well, I took him to the warehouse. He wanted to see if there were any bottles lying around from the donated production lot shipped to Warm Springs. I knew he wouldn’t find anything, so I thought, why not? So, I was showing him the pallets loaded with cases of bottled water, staged for shipping. All fairly normal.”
“If it was all normal,” Corbett said, “you wouldn’t be spooked and we wouldn’t be having this conversation. You’re holding something back.”
Darnell squirmed in his chair. “There was a shipment slated to go overseas, and he noticed it.”
Corbett pressed the issue. “Go where overseas?”
“Kano, Nigeria.”
“You surprise me,” Ming said. “I didn’t know Cascade Aqua had international sales.”
“No, of course not. This shipment is a donation to a local aid group.” Darnell twisted up the corners of his mouth in a forced smile. “All part of the plan. That water is doped with your virus, just like the bottles my company shipped to the tribal council.”
Simon Ming’s expression hardened. “We should have discussed this before you acted.”
“Oh, come on!” Darnell leaned back in his chair and folded his arms, trying to steady his nerves. “The test was an unqualified success. There’s no reason to delay any longer. You just keep sending the powdered agent to me and I’ll keep bottling it up and sending it out. First Africa, then the Indian subcontinent.”
“I only gave you the one sample,” Corbett said.
“That’s right. I used it to make the product that went to Warm Springs. But rather than cleaning out the line right away, I had the next shift produce a full production run before they sterilized everything. It only took one phone call to find an eager recipient in Kano. I thought the shipment had gone out already. I didn’t realize it was still in the warehouse.”
Ming had a menacing edge to his voice when he spoke. “You were only authorized to produce the specific number of cases of doped water that you shipped to Warm Springs. Yes?”
“Dr. Ming—”
“Yes or no!” Ming shouted, cutting off Darnell.
“Yes, I suppose you’re right. It’s just… Well, I mean this is what we agreed to do. The population is growing exponentially in Africa and the Indian subcontinent. So why not ship water there?”
Ming eased back in his chair. He steepled his fingers, considering Darnell’s argument. “Perhaps you are right.”
Darnell visibly relaxed with the approving reply, his body molding to the contours of the chair.
“Now tell me, Mr. Price,” Ming continued. “And I want you to be completely honest, do you understand?”
He nodded. “Yes, of course.”
“Do you have any more samples of my virus? Perhaps locked away in your office, or hidden in storage somewhere?”
“No, no,” he stammered. “No, sir.”
“You’re certain?”
Darnell nodded.
“Good. So there will not be any more miscommunications.” Ming pointed a finger at Darnell. “From now on, you will follow our plan to the letter. No more improvisations.”
“Yes, of course. And I apologize. It’s just that…”
Ming waved a hand, ending the matter. He’d heard enough and allowed his head of security to pick up the questioning.
“You’re certain all the bottles laced with the virus are staged for shipment?” Corbett asked.
“Positive. I double-checked myself. Anyway, he—”
Corbett interrupted. “You mean Savage?”
Darnell nodded. “Yes. Mr. Savage took special interest in the pallets waiting for shipment to Nigeria. Asked a lot of questions about that.”
“What questions?” Ming said.
“Like, why would my company ship bottled water all the way to Africa. And how could I afford to donate so much of my product. Maybe he knows something?”
“Give me a break,” Corbett said. “If he knew anything of our operation it would be the state or CDC investigators at your door, and not some nosey guy from the other side of the mountains.”
Chastised, Darnell sat silently, glaring at Corbett.
Ming steepled his fingers again, strategizing the next steps. The pause was beginning to become uncomfortable when he spoke. “Perhaps you are right to be concerned. This is something I must give more thought to. Unfortunately, I have an important business meeting and dinner to attend shortly. But this should not be put off any longer than absolutely necessary. Can you meet me here this evening at ten o’clock?”
“Uh, sure.”
“Good. Mr. Corbett will be in the lobby. When you arrive, he’ll unlock the door and let you in.”
Ming rose, followed by the other two. He patted Darnell on the back and ushered him to the door. “Thank you. You did the right thing by sharing your concerns.”
Corbett remained standing at the table as the door closed behind Darnell Price. “Something is bothering you,” he said to his boss.
Ming stood at the window, his back to Corbett. “Peter Savage is a name I know. He was responsible for the death of my father. It happened in Sudan, and Savage was working with American Special Forces.”
“How do you know this?” Corbett asked.
“Because… I was there.” He turned to face Corbett. “My father built and operated a secret biomedical facility. His specialty was genetic modification. Insertion of altered genes into refugees, using viruses. I was a young man, having recently received my doctoral diploma in biochemistry, and was learning first hand in his laboratories. The most brilliant minds worked under my father’s direction. And I was there, an eager student soaking up their collective genius.”
Corbett was speechless. For the first time he understood how Simon Ming had advanced the genetic engineering of the mumps virus so quickly.
“My father acquired a fortune doing research no one else could do, or was allowed to do. And now, I am humbly following in his footsteps.”
“You must have known that Peter Savage lived in Bend. If he’s a business owner as claimed by Price, it wouldn’t be hard to find him.”
“True, I knew where to find him. But I had preferred to enable others to deal with that situation, allowing me to focus on the task at hand. Unfortunately, it appears delegating that task was an error in judgement.”
“And now?”
Ming cast a steely glare at his head of security. “I think a meeting is appropriate, don’t you?”
“Do you want me to bring him here?”
“No, that would be too conspicuous. Mr. Price is a sufficient liability, and we don’t want to add further loose ends. We cannot allow ourselves to be distracted. Soon, when the time is right, I will deal with Peter Savage.”
s
The building was empty except for Simon Ming, Roger Corbett, and three hired enforcers that Corbett knew from his days working private security. These men had no scruples so long as the pay was good. And Ming always paid very well.
Alone in the lobby with only the normal security lights on, Corbett opened the door just as Darnell Price approached. He then locked the door again.
“This way. Dr. Ming is waiting.”
He followed Darnell into the executive’s office. “Have a seat,” Ming said. “I have been thinking about our meeting earlier today.”
Darnell turned his palms up and shrugged. “I told you what happened. Mr. Savage is asking questions, but I didn’t give him anything.”
“I believe you.” Ming paused, pressing an index finger to his lips as if he was deep in thought. “But still, I think you are losing control. Maybe your confidence in our mission is shaken?”
“Not at all. I’ve supported this program without any reservations. I’ve done my job flawlessly. As soon as you give the order and deliver more powdered agent, we can resume the operation. I can have a quarter million bottles of Cascade Aqua Natural palletized and shipped to Africa within six weeks. We’ll keep the runs short—maybe a week or so—and sterilize the line so we can mix in standard production runs to keep up with local sales. After six, maybe nine months, we can begin targeting Bangladesh, or Pakistan, or India, or wherever.”
Ming was shaking his head. “No.”
Confused, Darnell looked over his shoulder at Corbett, who was standing behind him, and then back to Ming. “What do you mean, no? That’s been the plan from the day we first met.”
“I’m afraid you misunderstood. That was never the plan. You see, I don’t care about ballooning populations in third-world countries. That problem will take care of itself. Disease, famine, war—the rich countries will never expend their resources to save those poor, retched people. Which means there will not be any reprieve for them. Nature will self-correct, just as you wished.”
“No, that’s not what we agreed to at all. We need to—”
Ming interrupted and rose from his chair, leaning over the table toward Darnell. “We need to do what? Enforce mass sterilization of populations against their will? Does that give you a clean conscious? Allow you to sleep at night?”
“We agreed to this,” Darnell said.
“You’re pathetic. And weak. That was never my plan. I only told you that so you would cooperate.”
Darnell started to worry. “I’ll destroy the product. Everything that is packaged and ready to ship to Nigeria. All of it.”
“Really? Do you think I care? And I suppose you’ll also threaten to go to the authorities. How will you explain that you willfully placed a human pathogen in your bottled water? You deliberately supplied that water to the Warm Springs tribe—you’ll be labeled a racist. I wouldn’t be surprised if you were convicted and sentenced to twenty years in prison.”
“If I go down, so do you.” He started to rise, and suddenly felt a needle jab into his shoulder. He rounded on Corbett, who was still holding the syringe.
He began to feel light-headed and his legs wobbled, but he still took a wild and ineffective swing at the security chief. Corbett easily ducked out of the way.
“You’ve got some spunk,” he said with a chuckle. Then Darnell Price collapsed onto the floor. “He should be out for a couple hours at least.”
“Take him to the warehouse. When he wakes up, have him sign the letter naming you as interim general manager.”
Corbett had rolled Darnell onto his stomach and was clasping handcuffs on his wrists. “And if he refuses?”
Ming shrugged. “Then your job will be to convince him. I need that document tomorrow morning.”