The Panic Zone Part 51

This was the power.

Ahead was the glory.

65.

Fort Detrick, Maryland That night, the ramifications of Gretchen Sutsoff's new creation dawned on Foster Winfield.

He turned to his colleagues Tolkman, Weeks and Kenyon, seated at the table in a small meeting room. They had worked nonstop, a.n.a.lyzing material transported by jet fighter from Sutsoff's secret lab on Deus Island. The four scientists sat in silence, then Kenyon said what everyone was thinking.

"She's insane."

"This defies the science," Tolkman said. "How did she do it?"

"Why did she do it?" Weeks asked.

"I'm responsible," Winfield said. "I brought her in to Project Crucible."

Major Powell entered the room carrying a briefing binder.

"They're all set in Was.h.i.+ngton." Powell positioned a telephone console and speakers at the center of the table, keyed in several numbers and linked them to an emergency teleconference call with a spectrum of security agencies working on the new threat.

"Who've we got there?" a voice asked.

"Major Powell in Fort Detrick. With me are the four agency scientists who'd worked on Project Crucible."

"Thank you. Everyone, identify yourselves when you speak, please. We'll get started with the chair of the meeting."

"This is Lincoln Hunter, a.s.sistant to the National Intelligence director, the president's advisor. Time is an issue here, let's keep things simple and keep it moving. We'll go to the FBI. We have a suspect--a former agency scientist, Sutsoff, developing an attack. Updates, please."

"Robert Lancer, FBI. She's a Bahamian national. We believe she'll attempt to enter the U.S. We've alerted Customs and Border Protection."

"And if she's already here?"

"We're going out with a public fugitive alert as soon as possible."

"And the target city for the strike, Lancer?"

"We have information suggesting it's New York. We suspect it could be the Human World Conference."

"In Central Park?"

"Yes. We strongly urge consideration be given to canceling the event. We're working with the NYPD, the Port Authority and New York State Police."

"Are we even close to this suspect's trail, Lancer?"

"We're working 24/7, a.s.sessing information obtained from Sutsoff's island lab, her residence, her staff and from the child-care center on Paradise Island. We believe a number of foreign families with children will be traveling to New York and could be involved in the operation. We're working with police agencies around the world."

"Anything else?"

"We're a.n.a.lyzing new information on other potential players. A person of interest is Drake Stinson, a former employee with the agency, now based in Brazil with a law firm that has ties to the operation through illegal adoptions. Stinson may have knowledge of the bombing of the Cafe Amaldo in Rio de Janeiro. His last known whereabouts was Europe."

"And the weapon? I understand Sutsoff's stolen something from Project Crucible and will turn it on us, is that correct?"

"Yes." Winfield cleared his throat. "Foster Winfield here. I was the chief scientist on Crucible."

"I've been briefed," Hunter said, "but need you to tell me in simple terms, Dr. Winfield, what we've got, so I can brief the director. I understand Sutsoff's unleashed a new virus?"

"No, not exactly. It's complicated."

"Simplify it, please, Doctor."

"She's created a new super-lethal agent to attack DNA. She can manipulate it to work at a hyper rate to target any specific group, or combination of groups."

"How?"

"We've just completed deeper a.n.a.lysis that shows evidence of molecular electronics and manipulation on a supramolecular nanoscale."

"Which means?"

"She can control her new lethal agent using radio-frequency command via wireless technology, from a cell phone or computer."

"But to do what, exactly? I still don't understand. If I were carrying this super Pariah V1 agent, infected as it were, wouldn't I be dead?"

"No, that's part of the sophisticated, unbelievable aspect of her engineering. The agent acts less like a virus and more like a dormant remote-controlled bomb."

"How?"

"I could carry it and remain in perfect health, then transmit it to you or a thousand people through contact. Those people could continue transmitting it to others and so on, that's the virus-like aspect she's developed. But the agent would remain dormant as it were. Nothing would happen to anyone until Sutsoff activates the agent using remote manipulation. And she could target people with specific DNA characteristics. It would be like creating armies of microscopic lethal time bombs, transmitting them to a large group and then commanding them to detonate in everyone in that group according to the targeted DNA characteristic. Or put another way, targeting everyone in the group who has a 212 area code, or everyone who has a 212 area code with a 555 prefix and so forth."

"Or anyone at all?"

"Yes, she can establish whatever range she likes."

"I've seen the photos from the cruise-s.h.i.+p victim and the two victims in Na.s.sau. They're gruesome. The potential here is apocalyptic."

"Yes."

"Mr. Hunter," Lancer said. "While we do not have irrefutable evidence of a planned attack in New York, we strongly urge cancellation of the Human World event."

"Agent Lancer, this administration does not govern by fear. You know as well as I that it will never allow potential threats to dictate its agenda. As you say, you do not yet have irrefutable evidence of a planned attack. You have not yet confirmed your suspect is in the country, or the city. There are many complications, many considerations," Hunter said. "I need to know, what if Sutsoff succeeds in pa.s.sing along this lethal agent but never activates it?"

"Nothing happens. The agent pa.s.ses harmlessly through your system, like a placebo, in about twenty-four hours."

"So how do we stop it?"

"We don't know yet."

"We better find a way and fast. We expect over one million people to gather in less than twenty-four hours for the main event of the conference in Central Park. This morning, the Oval Office said the president and first lady will attend and greet as many people as possible."

66.

New York City It was down to hours.

Robert Lancer checked his watch against the wall clocks.

Long before the sun rose over Manhattan, law enforcement for New York City notched up security for one of the largest peace-time gatherings in the city's history.

No word on the possibility of pulling the plug on the event.

Not far from the Brooklyn Bridge, on the eighth floor of One Police Plaza, Lancer had taken his place at Operational Command. The NYPD was the lead agency for the conference.

Now, it was coordinating with the FBI's Command Center at Federal Plaza and the city's Office of Emergency Management, which was on full alert for a biological attack. Other local, state and federal agencies were also bracing for a possible strike, and the U.S. Secret Service big-footed its role to protect the president. Security had been heightened over concerns arising from Gretchen Sutsoff's emerging threat.

It was 3:50 a.m.

The next security status meeting would start in ten minutes. Lancer was checking e-mails when his cell phone rang.

"Bob, it's Norris at Federal Plaza Command."

"Go ahead."

"Our emba.s.sy in Kuwait City says Drake Stinson's just been detained for questioning by Kuwaiti security."

"Did he give them anything on Sutsoff?"

"No, they've had him for twenty minutes and will transmit the interview live. We're setting up to share it with Operational Command."

"Is that it?"

"Yesterday Dutch police arrested a couple at Schipol in Amsterdam bound for New York, traveling with a two-year-old with a forged German pa.s.sport. Under questioning they said they knew a Dr. Auden."

"One of Sutsoff's aliases. They get anything more from them?"

"They're still in questioning. In France last night, police intercepted a couple with a toddler at de Gaulle. They were bound for New York. Their pa.s.sports were suspect and the pair admitted knowledge of Auden in the Bahamas. Bob, there's talk she made a video."

"A suicide video?"

"We don't know. But add the most recent couples detained to the others yesterday from Madrid, Hong Kong and Argentina, and we now have twelve couples linked to the doctor."

"That's twelve out of the seventy we found in her computer files. Keep me posted, Norris. I have to go."

The meeting commenced with updates and arguments over the best course of action.

"We have to pull the plug on the Central Park event," a state official said. "If this is a significant threat, we have to shut it down."

"Organizers are dead set against it," said a woman from city hall.

"What about the president?" an NYPD official asked.

"The White House hasn't indicated yet if the president and first lady are pulling out," the Secret Service official said. "We're flowing all updates to the Oval Office. However, it's still a go. To answer the question that was raised at the last meeting, when the Pope celebrated Ma.s.s here, we had twenty-three real threats. Four were deemed significant and involved evidence of weapons and explosives. We thwarted all of them and the event went ahead without incident. Nothing made it into the press."

"This is Johnson with Tactical. At our last briefing we were advised that this weapon could be remotely activated by wireless. Do we know what frequency range? Can't we jam it, or shut down towers, block satellites?"

"Captain Tillser, NYPD Comms. We're exploring that option with the NSA and wireless providers. Bottom line, if we go that route, we risk disrupting or disabling all emergency communications for police, fire, ambulance. It would render us useless."

"Where are we on Sutsoff, Lancer?" The NYPD captain shot him a sour look. Lancer was checking the new message he'd received.

"We got her alert out to Customs and Border Protection and Interpol. The public alert goes to media this morning. Ahead of all that, we gave Interpol our intelligence for some seventy suspects we think are linked to Sutsoff and the Human World Conference. Several people around the world have been detained for questioning, including Drake Stinson, who at this moment is being questioned by police in Kuwait. Stinson is known to be a member of Sutsoff's secretive inner circle, a doomsday group known as Extremus Deus. He is a person of interest." Lancer nodded to the large screen at the far end of the room. "I've just been alerted we're receiving video of his questioning in Kuwait, which we'll share with the task force now. Okay, Norris, send it through."

Three seconds pa.s.sed before Drake Stinson appeared on the screen.

"Is this live, real-time?" someone asked.

"Aside from a five-second delay, it's live," Lancer said.

Stinson was seated at a table in a stark room across from the two men questioning him.

"Mr. Stinson, what can you tell us about Dr. Sutsoff's operation?"

"It's too late. She's crazy, you can't stop--"

Stinson grimaced.

"Mr. Stinson?"

Stinson's chair sc.r.a.ped and his body spasmed.

"Are you all right?"

Stinson wrapped his arms around his stomach and groaned. Agony spread over his face and his skin began to bubble as if corn were popping under the surface. Bloodstains blossomed on his s.h.i.+rt as his abdomen expanded.

"Oh, G.o.d!"

Stinson's eyes liquefied and he slid to the floor, bones and spine cracking as his body contorted into a hunched position before he died.

The two Kuwaiti agents stood over him, their mouths agape, before the video signal was switched off.