The Leaves in Winter (27 page)

Chapter 26

New Year’s Eve

Mt. Pleasant,
Maryland

“Sophia, can I call you back? There’s someone at the door.”

Faye Gardner tapped her Bluetooth headset to disconnect and left half-made guacamole resting in a ceramic bowl on the kitchen island. The doorbell rang again. Wiping hands on apron, she strutted through the entrance hallway. It couldn’t be Jacob. He wasn’t expected for another hour.

She opened the door. Cold air and late afternoon light rushed in.

Colin Insworth stood his ground on the welcome mat. “We need to talk.”

Faye recoiled. “What are you doing here?”

“It’s necessary.”

“It’s New Year’s Eve.”

“Doesn’t matter. I won’t be long.”

Faye hesitated then took a step back, widening the opening to let him in. He moved forward as she turned away and headed back to the kitchen.

“You’ll have to talk while I work. I’m in the middle of something.”

“No problem.” Colin shut the door behind him and followed. “Aren’t we all.”

Faye busied herself preparing tapas and let Colin find his way to a stool.

“Nice place.”

Faye ignored the compliment. “So, what chased you out of your hole?”

“You’ve been following the news?”

“I have – that’s why I’m surprised you’re here.”

“Really, why is that?”

Faye tapped her smartphone, navigated to a saved page and read from it.

“Janis Insworth, top
GenLET
scientist and coworker of slain Nobel laureate Riya Basu, was arrested in Marseille last night while meeting with a representative from the radical group New Class Order. Police will not comment more, other than to say they are following up on a request from Interpol to extradite Ms. Insworth back to
India
for questioning regarding possible intellectual capital crimes connected with Malcolm Stowe, a security agent for NovoSenectus who died in a car accident shortly before Janis left the country.”

Colin nodded. “Yeah, that came out a few days ago.”

Faye went back to dicing tomatoes and accenting her words with flourishes of the knife. “You know the deal – I come back only if Janis is added to The Project. I don’t see how that can happen now.”

Colin got up and helped himself to a beer from the refrigerator. “May I?”

“Go ahead, it looks like you need it.”

He popped the top and took a swig. “Did you read the speculation swirling around the meeting she had? What was she doing in Marseille? Of all things, why meet with New Class Order?”

“I saw it.”

“Then you’ve seen the shit storm of rumor coming out of this. There’s more news being reported about what they
don’t
know rather than what they do.”

“Typical.”

“Except they could be onto something. You know there has to be more to it.”

“What does it matter? When did anyone get the full truth listening to the news.”

“But you’re not just anyone – you know Janis, far better than I ever did.”

“I knew her in a different time and place.”

“And yet you insist on working with her now.”

“Not because of who we were in college. There’s no one else in the world with the genetic markers that she and Alyssa carry. It’s as simple as that.”

“And that’s enough. It’s nothing personal.”

“It doesn’t matter; it’s what’s necessary.”

“Regardless. That’s pretty cold.”

“What do you want me to do – vouch for her? There’s no telling how she’s changed.”

“Enough to commit espionage? Enough to barter state secrets with terrorists?”

With the accusation, Faye stopped chopping. “If you know something, tell me.”

“I know the full story isn’t out yet.” Playing it casual, Colin sat back down on the stool. “I can tell you what the headlines are going to be tomorrow.”

Faye set down the knife. “What’s happening to Janis?”

“It’s bigger than that.” Colin nursed his brew and made her wait. “You recall what I said about
Manhattan
,
Kansas
?”

“The animal experiments on delayed fertility.”

“Exactly. Environmental chemicals in combination that might be causing delayed fertility in mammals – or more specifically, primates.”

“So what? I read similar studies out of
Germany
and
Japan
. Given the drop-off in teenage pregnancies around the world, there’s nothing controversial about that. Sooner or later, people outside of The Project would notice something isn’t right. It makes sense they would launch studies.”

“Even in the
United States
– home of The Project?”

“That’s a stupid question. You know the kind of security we’re talking about.”

“That’s right. The government is schizophrenic that way – one group studies what another group already knows about. It can’t be helped around Unacknowledged Special Access Programs.”

“And TS-4 security oaths.”

“I’m not talking about
what’s
being studied – I’m more interested in
where
.”

“
Kansas
.”

“More specifically, the N-B-A-F.”

“What’s your point?”

“Homeland Security builds a Level 4 biodefense facility in the middle of the heartland. Naturally, there’s blowback. Some believe the breadbasket of the
United States
is the absolute worst place to build such a thing. It doesn’t make sense.”

“Some people would have an issue no matter where you built it.”

“But their question hasn’t gone away. This is a place where the government works with the most dangerous agents, the kinds of things that pose the highest risk of fatal disease in humans. Why put such a thing in the middle of your prime area of food and biofuel production?”

“I’ve read the excuses – cheap land, remote from major population centers.”

“And what happens if something screws up – by accident or on purpose?”

“What’s your point? Are you saying there’s some kind of conspiracy?”

Colin threw back his head and drained the rest of his beer. Setting the bottle down, he stepped up his delivery. “Conspiracy theories wouldn’t be nearly as fascinating if they didn’t have so many strange and sobering facts on their side. Granted, the conclusions might be daft but that doesn’t prove everything is all right.”

“What kind of facts?”

“90% of the world’s food comes from just 15 plant and 8 animal species. 75% percent of genetic diversity of crops has been lost in the past century. 15% percent of the Earth’s land area has been degraded by human activities. It takes 500 years to replace one inch of topsoil lost to erosion. In the past 40 years, almost one-third of the world’s cropland was abandoned because of soil degradation and erosion. More than half of the world’s population live in urban areas – any disruption to food stocks would trigger a global food crisis in short order.”

“What are you getting at?”

“An accident in
Kansas
would have global repercussions. Food futures would skyrocket. It would get very expensive to eat. Even if nothing serious happened, the scope of BSL4 vulnerability would be exposed. An accident like that would launch an already heated discussion far beyond the theoretical. One accident at NBAF would do more to shut down biodefense and panic world markets than years of worldwide activism could ever hope to do. You have to ask yourself – who would benefit from handcuffing biodefense and causing that kind of panic and financial instability?”

“Are you saying something’s about to happen?”

“Something already did.” Colin slid off the stool and stepped around the kitchen island to stand nearer to Faye. “Tomorrow the news will say a man named Oliver Ross was arrested in
Manhattan
,
Kansas
. The FBI has evidence he was about to create a major biological accident at the site.
U.S.
agents are claiming they stopped the plot in the nick of time.”

“Who is he?”

“A scientist who worked there – researching delayed fertility in animals.”

“My God….” Faye absorbed the impact of the news even as she raced to put it in context. “What was he trying to do?”

“He had a virus tailored to infect poultry. If it had gotten out and spread, the poultry industry would have been devastated. The
U.S.
is the largest poultry producer, about 40 billion pounds of chicken a year. 20% of that gets exported.”

“How was he discovered?”

“The French tipped us off – but you won’t hear that on the news.”

“Marseille?”

Colin nodded. “Something found on a laptop Janis had in her possession. We told the French it’s imperative we keep the source of this hush-hush.”

“It doesn’t make sense. Why would she have something like that?”

“She got it from Malcolm Stowe – who got it from Riya Basu. Riya secretly tried to pass it to
U.S.
agents – and failed.”

“Riya?”

“Yes, she’s been very helpful to The Project for many years.” Colin’s words came low and quick. “Riya’s group was subcontracted to complete early investigations of radiation effects, the kind that ultimately went into the design of RIDIS. The only problem was, she decided to borrow classified Project work and use it to jumpstart her own
GenLET
research.”

“When was this?”

“Twelve years ago – the year RIDIS went operational and
GenLET
was still a theory. A year after I joined The Project.”

“What came of it?”

“We gave her an ultimatum – cooperate or be prosecuted. The
United States
would not pursue legal action on the security breach under one condition, a condition she must keep to herself. She had to pass regular updates to us on her work. I was named her one and only contact. She knew me only by a codename,
Senex
.”

“You blackmailed her?”

“We let her do the work she loved. Of course we wanted something in return.”

“She gave you
GenLET
?” Faye was stunned.

“It only seemed fair. Without RIDIS technology,
GenLET
research might have never taken off.”

“You don’t know that for sure.”

“It doesn’t matter. Riya knew how valuable RIDIS research could be so she took it despite her security oaths, confidentiality agreements, and Top Secret classifications. All she cared about was the work; it didn’t matter who had rights to the technology. She had this thing about her – she liked to say that knowledge should be free. All we did was call her bluff on that one.”

“You boxed her in.”

“She had a choice. Remain primary scientist and pass along updates to a drop-spot in
Puerto Rico
, or have her crime exposed and lose any future doing the work.”

“How long did this go on?”

“Several years. When the RIDIS database got huge and needed a caretaker, I got reassigned and The Project stopped monitoring the drop-spot. I notified Riya no further updates would be necessary. By then, The Project had other sources of information inside NovoSenectus. It made sense because we suspected that NovoSenectus security was getting close to discovering what was going on.”

“And what if they had?”

Colin shrugged. “No biggie. That’s why we located the drop-spot where we did. GeLixCo is their prime competitor. It would look like corporate espionage, nothing more.”