Alex couldn’t believe her ears. “By whom?”
“We don’t know, but we’re wondering if it was the Circle.”
“I have to say I’m surprised,” Alex said. “People keep telling me the Circle is bigger than I thought it was. That’s hard to believe if it’s true that very few copies of The Book exist, but I’m beginning to think they’re right.” She shook her head. “Everyone has to use a pseudonym. They’re not allowed to use their real names. How could such a huge group come from that?”
“I don’t know,” Harrison said. “But somehow they’ve managed it. The way they’ve organized this thing has made it almost impossible for us to track them down. That’s why Jimmy Gedrose is important to us. He’s the only known member of the Circle left alive we can talk to.”
“What about Marcus Pannell?”
“Dead end. Really dead end. The guy died a few months ago. Nothing sinister. Kidney disease.”
Alex looked at Logan. “I wonder if Jimmy knew that. Maybe that’s why he gave us that name.”
“Maybe,” Logan said. “At this point, we can’t be sure.”
“If the Circle is so deadly, why is Jimmy still alive?” Alex asked. “I have a hard time understanding that. He says he told the group he was ill and could no longer attend the meetings, and it seems they’ve left him alone even though he’s actually recovered. But he presents a hole in their secrecy. Even though I tend to believe him,we need to be careful. He could be a plant.”
“Noted,” Harrison said. “I’ll contact the Wichita office and suggest they proceed with caution. Hopefully he’s who he seems to be.”
“I think that’s wise,” Alex said. “If he is for real and the Circle finds out he’s helping us . . .”
“I’ve distributed your assessment and recommendations,” Harrison said, “but I want you to go over it with our team. You know the drill.”
Alex nodded. “We’ll do that here?”
“Yes. I’ll gather the troops.”
A few minutes later the agents assigned to the case and several of the detectives assigned from the Kansas City field office were gathered around the table. Karen was with them. Alex recognized some of them, but others were strangers to her. The group also included crisis-management agents and an attorney should they need warrants or legal advice. Alex was pretty sure she’d spotted the attorney when she came in. Black suit, shiny shoes, manicured nails, and carefully coifed hair all said lawyer to her.
Monty slid into the chair next to her. “Glad you guys made it back,” he said. He lowered his voice. “Between you and me, we’ve hit a wall. Hopefully, your friend in Wichita will help us.”
“I hope so. They’re picking him up today.”
“Good idea to keep him safe. People are dropping like flies.” He shook his head. “I’ve never been involved in a case like this. It’s crazy. It really is.”
“I understand,” Alex whispered back. “But we’ll get him.”
“As long as we’re in time.”
Monty hadn’t needed to mention time. Alex was certain everyone was thinking the same thing. She could almost hear the tick-tick-tick of an internal clock that wouldn’t shut up. When someone put a hand on her shoulder, she jumped, then looked up to find Mike smiling down at her.
“Mike,” she said. “Good to see you.”
“I asked to be assigned to the CP. Since I lived down the street from your aunt for years, I’m hoping I can help identify people coming in and out of her house. I’ll be working with a sketch artist.”
“That’s smart. You had a better chance of seeing them than I did when I lived there. I was busy hiding in my room.”
Mike sat down next to Logan and opened his notebook. Everyone around the table had either paper notebooks or electronic tablets.
Stephen Barstow came up to the table and sat down across from Alex. He smiled at her. “Good to see you again, SSA Donovan.”
“Good to see you too.” The detective’s dark hair and deep blue eyes made quite an impression. She noticed a female agent sitting a few chairs away from him reach her hand up to check her hair. Then she wiped the sides of her mouth with her finger, no doubt trying to remove any clumped-up lipstick. Alex was pretty sure the woman would have grabbed her purse and checked herself out a little more if she’d seen Stephen before he sat down.
Harrison moved to the end of the table and stood there flipping through some pages in a large notebook. Finally, he sat down, still looking at the information in front of him. The sound of fingers on keyboards created a steady hum from the other room as analysts searched for anything that would help them with the case.
Harrison cleared his throat. “Some of you know SSA Logan Hart and SSA Alex Donovan. We’ve given you all copies of their assessment, but I want us to go through it with them in case you have any questions. Also, I need to tell you that we’ve heard from the Train Man again.” He picked up another pile of papers and passed it to his left. “This is a letter the Kansas City Journal received early this morning. Read it, please, before we start.”
He waited a couple of minutes until everyone at the table looked up at him.
“We’ll go through the assessment first. Then we’ll talk about this letter.” He turned to Alex and Logan. “Let’s just hit the high points. Like I said, everyone has read the information you sent us.”
He turned back to the group. “We’re convinced we’re looking for a man named Adam Walker, and we’re pretty sure he’s part of the Circle. As you know, the local newspaper received a letter where the Train Man boasted about having a contagion that could kill millions of people.”
He gestured toward a woman sitting at the other end of the table. She was short, about sixty, and had blond hair streaked with silver, cut to just above her shoulders. Her expression was solemn.
“This is Dr. Grace Greene from the CDC. Grace, will you tell us what you know about the virus Walker may have?”
Grace nodded. “We’re trying to piece the puzzle together the best we can. First, we know a chemist in Ethiopia named Martin Kirabo colluded with a lab research assistant in the United States—the man we’ve identified as Adam Walker.”
Harrison jumped in. “And Kirabo has been found dead—possibly murdered, maybe by the Circle. We don’t know for sure. Authorities in Addis Ababa have retrieved his cell phone. He called the same number in the United States over thirty times. We discovered that number belonged to Walker based on information from his workplace. That definitely connects them, but that phone is no longer working. We suspect Walker has disposed of it and secured a new one.” He nodded at Grace to continue.
“We have a lot of concerns about the sample Walker may have. As I said, Kirabo was a chemist, and it’s possible he altered the sample. He may have attempted to turn it into something far worse than Ebola itself. Something we have no vaccine for.”
“Is it airborne?” a woman asked. Alex had no idea who she was.
“We hope not. Ebola is normally spread by contact. An exchange of bodily fluids—and before you think I’m just talking about sex, I’m not. A simple kiss on the cheek can spread the virus. The person kissed touches their face and contact is made. Someone coughing without covering their mouth can do it too. Unfortunately, then, it’s very easily spread. And we have no idea how this sample has been engineered. It could be much more lethal than a regular strain.”
One of the detectives raised his hand, and Grace nodded at him. “My understanding is that we have the capabilities to contain an Ebola outbreak, but you’re saying this guy may have created a superbug? One we can’t control?”
“We’ve come a long way in our handling of viruses. Our experience with COVID-19 has allowed us to be better prepared. We know outbreaks are usually in one area, and if we can track everyone who comes into contact with an infected person before they travel outside of our containment zone, we can usually stop the spread. But if someone releases Ebola in different areas of the country at the same time, or if it’s spread through different kinds of transportation—planes, ships, even cross-country buses—we could suddenly have such a high number of infected individuals that it would be difficult or impossible for us to locate everyone and contain the virus.”
“How do you think Walker might spread it?” Harrison asked.
“I have no idea. But he has the knowledge to spread it in a way that will affect the most people.” She sighed. “Walker is the worst kind of person to get their hands on one of these virulent viruses. His expertise makes him extremely dangerous.”
“But it’s just a small sample, right?” Stephen asked.
“It doesn’t take much to start the cycle.”
“Are you surprised Walker was able to get his hands on this virus?” one of the detectives asked.
“Yes, I am. The lab here in Kansas City is a biosafety level 4 facility. BSL-4 is the highest rating for labs that work with infectious agents. It was set up during the COVID-19 pandemic. You have to remember that the lab believed they were receiving inactivated samples, and a technician they trusted received those samples. Not until someone in Addis Ababa noticed that one of their active samples was missing did they become concerned. Of course, when Walker went missing the next day, as did the chemist in Ethiopia, that rang alarm bells.” She sighed. “The lab in Addis Ababa has been shut down, and the lab here is under investigation. I can guarantee you that something like this will never happen again.”
“If this thing has been reengineered, what are we looking at?” Harrison asked.
Grace took a deep breath, then let it out before saying, “If Kirabo created something new, we could see an outbreak beyond anything the United States has ever seen. And as I said, if infected people travel to other countries . . . Well, we could completely lose track of it. The good news is we do have ways to prevent infection. A drug called Ervebo can keep people safe as long as the virus hasn’t been altered too much.”
“But that drug is preventative,” Stephen said. “What happens if someone is exposed to Ebola?”
Grace paused a moment, then said, “We don’t have a magic drug that kills it. One on the horizon shows great promise, but it hasn’t been approved for use in the United States. And before anyone asks, no, the drugs that worked for COVID-19 won’t treat Ebola. For now, all we can do is hydrate victims, balance their fluids and electrolytes, maintain their oxygen status and blood pressure, and treat them with antibiotics to address any secondary infections.” She shook her head. “But again, if the virus has been altered, we may not be able to do anything to help.”
“What’s the mortality rate for those infected with Ebola?” Mike asked.
“Around ninety percent. All of you who will be in the field will be vaccinated with Ervebo. I hope it keeps you safe, but as I said, we don’t know what we’re dealing with. Will this vaccine work for a mutated strain? I can’t answer that. All we can do is go by what we know now. If you pray, this is the time to do it.”
Although Alex felt a call to prayer wouldn’t help, it was clear Grace was extremely concerned. All Alex had wanted since that day at school was to be a behavioral analyst for the FBI. For the first time, she wished she was back in the field. She wanted to go out there and find this guy. But that wasn’t her job. She and Logan had to narrow the possibilities so the field agents could capture the Train Man before he unleashed the virus. And she intended to do just that.