January 20th; 12:56 p.m. (Local Time)
Munich, Germany
Hoffman-Koch Labs
Each making a distinctive sound, Dahlia’s black knee boots and Charity’s one-inch flats clicked against the tiled floor, as a short woman led the agents to an area outside a third floor sterile lab. Sheer nylons, leather skirt and a knee-length leather jacket—all black—with a navy blue turtleneck completed Dahlia’s look. Charity wore blue jeans, a white long-sleeved shirt and a blue knee-length blazer.
“Right this way,” said the woman, pushing and holding open a door. Once her visitors had crossed the threshold, she nodded. “Wait here.” Her broken English had a thick German dialect. “I’ll get doctor.”
Charity smiled. “Thank you.” She turned to Dahlia after the door closed. “I wonder how Hardy and Cruz are doing.”
Dahlia separated the vertical blinds with a finger and peered out the window. “I don’t know, but I think we drew the short straw on this one, Cherry. We have to talk to the eggheads, while they’re probably living it up in London.”
Charity stood in front of the window, mimicking her partner. “Have you read our assessments yet?” Each woman was forwarded a copy of Darling’s report on the other two as part of the ‘getting better acquainted’ theme.
“I have.”
“And?” said Charity, facing Dahlia.
“And what?”
“What did you think about Cruz’s evaluation?”
Dahlia let go of the blinds, glimpsed the other woman and turned around. “It doesn’t bother me a bit. I’ve seen her in action. Cruz can handle herself.”
“Yeah,” said Charity, her mind wandering to the first time she met the FBI agent in a Texas restaurant. “I agree.” Special Agent Cruz was the only person standing between Charity and three men with guns and a kill order. “I’m not worried either. When the time comes, she’ll do what needs to be done.”
The door opened. A tall and lanky man in his mid-thirties walked into the room, shutting the door behind him. With jet-black hair, slicked back, he looked like a 1950’s hoodlum, white lab coat replacing the leather jacket, however. “Good afternoon, I’m Dr. Kimmler.” His English was perfect, but with a prevalent German accent. “I was told you wanted to speak with me about the Anthrax that went missing several months ago.”
“Dr. Kimmler, I’m Dahlia James with the Centers for Disease Control.” She motioned. “This is my associate.”
Charity held out a hand. “Charity St. Clair…World Health Organization.”
Both women presented credentials that verified identities that had been created for them during the flight.
The doctor shook hands with the women and gestured toward a table and chairs. “Please, sit down.” He pulled out a chair and sat. “How can I help you?”
“We’re here,” Dahlia sat, “to conduct a follow-up investigation on the missing virus you mentioned.”
“I’ve already been over this with the authorities and the WHO back when it happened. I’m not sure how much more help I can be.”
Charity leaned back in the chair before opening and resting a file folder on her lap. “If you could just start from the beginning…when you noticed the virus was gone, how much was missing, who you told.” She clicked a pen.
“Well,” said Kimmler, “as the lead scientist, I’m usually here at least an hour before anyone else arrives. I noticed the Anthrax was missing right away, as I had planned to conduct an experiment with it first thing.”
Dahlia crossed her legs. “How much was missing?”
“All of it.”
Charity scribbled on a note pad inside the file folder. “How much is all of it, Doctor?”
He turned his palms upward. “I gave all this information to the other CDC people already. Don’t you have it in your notes?”
Dahlia interlaced her fingers on the table. “Our superiors wanted us to start fresh. They didn’t want the new investigation to be tainted in any way. As a scientist, I’m sure you can understand the importance of control measures.”
Charity raised an eyebrow at her partner. Control measures?
“Of course, of course,” replied Kimmler. “Well, let’s see…there were ten cases and each case contained fifty vials. One case was down a few, so I’d have to say a little less than five hundred. If you want a specific number, I’d have to check my notes.”
Dahlia lifted her interlocked fingers off the table. “That’s all right. Tell me, Doctor, if that much Anthrax were to be weaponized, how many people could be affected?”
The doctor sat erect. “Do you think that’s what’s happened?” He glanced at Charity. “Someone is going to use it as a weapon?”
“At this point, we’re looking into all possibilities.” Dahlia stood, circled behind her chair and leaned against it. “Who at the company had access to the virus?”
Kimmler stared and tapped a finger on the table. Fifteen seconds passed before he looked up. “I’m sorry. Did you say something?”
Dahlia exchanged glances with Charity and repeated the question.
“Everyone with a level five clearance,” said Kimmler, “had access to the lab.”
Dahlia stood straight, “Who would that be, exactly?” and crossed her arms.
“All of my scientists and lab personnel.” He paused, looked away and came back to Dahlia. “Um…I suppose all the department heads…upper management too.”
“Forgive me, Doctor, but you seem distracted. Is everything all right?”
Kimmler looked up at Dahlia. “You said that someone might be interested making a weapon out of the virus.”
Dahlia nodded.
“Well, the missing Anthrax was a new strain. It was found in permafrost in Russia.”
Dahlia took her seat, “What’s so special about that?” and crossed her legs under the table.
Kimmler leaned forward and spoke with his hands. “With the planet getting warmer every year, new areas of the arctic are being exposed. Germs that have been frozen for thousands of years are coming to the surface. One boy recently died from Anthrax poisoning. And, hundreds of reindeer died from the disease in the same remote area of Russia.”
The man shifted in the chair. “We sent a team up there when we heard about it to collect samples for study. We also came back with two new giant viruses that had been frozen for thirty thousand years. We were experimenting with the heartiness—”
“Excuse me…” Charity made a note, “giant virus?”
“Giant viruses are so large they can be seen under a normal microscope.” He waved a hand. “That’s not the alarming part. When we thawed these giant viruses, they quickly became infectious again.”
“So, why did you it?” Dahlia interjected. “Why not just leave them alone?”
“If the earth is going to continue to warm and bring back to life diseases the human body has never encountered in three hundred centuries, then we need to study those germs and find cures.”
Charity’s words from the OR meeting came to Dahlia—know thy enemy.
“Anyway,” continued Kimmler, “we found one of the giant viruses to be highly infectious. Nothing we threw at it killed it. It exhibited a special immunity from all our antibiotics.”
Dahlia showed him her palms. “How is this relevant?”
Kimmler stared at Dahlia. “It went missing along with the Anthrax.”
The women looked at each other.
“That’s why I was so surprised when the first investigation just died. I thought for sure the CDC would have moved heaven and earth to find the missing vials. You know, get the police involved and find those who have it.”
“How easy,” said Dahlia, “would it be to create more of this giant virus?”
“All we needed was a small amount. When it was combined with the new strain of Anthrax, the contagion was magnified exponentially.”
Dahlia methodically placed both hands flat on the table. “Doctor, define exponentially…in terms of the number of people who could be infected.”
“With that much Anthrax and no viable cure,” Kimmler slowly shook his head and shrugged, “there’s no telling. We could be talking about an ELE.”
Dahlia turned toward Charity.
The latter woman arched her eyebrows. “Extinction Level Event.”
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
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