Viral (31 page)

“Last summer, VaxEze made a significant investment to quadruple its production capacity for anti-malarial medicines. The deal involved purchasing three modularized production facilities: one in Switzerland, two in West Africa. But I can tell you with certainty that what they have produced is not malaria vaccine. It’s
mammalian-based flu vaccine. It’s what’s being shipped right now to various locations in Africa.”

“So this was in the works months before this flu virus appeared,” Anna said.

“Yes. That is correct.”

“What’s considered a significant investment?” Charlie asked.

“In the neighborhood of ninety million dollars,” Keller said.

“Where would they be getting that kind of funding?” Anna asked.

He began to smile. “Not one of your five questions. But let me continue, and I will try to answer that. Now, GenVac has an R&D lab and a manufacturing/shipping facility that appears to be producing flu vaccine in very large quantities. Its drugs began shipping six weeks ago to a health consortium that serves three African nations: Sundiata, Buttata, and Mancala, but primarily Mancala. I’m told that a subsidiary of GenVac won a several-million-dollar contract with the government of Mancala in July to produce and distribute a flu vaccine. They also purchased large tracts of property at several locations in the country.”

This confirmed what they had already learned.
The three countries in the “emergency management plan.”

Keller continued, “Now, sometimes, in the course of an investigation, you get lucky. You find a connection that isn’t something you had imagined. I like the adage that the harder you work, the luckier you get.” He nodded at Charlie, trying to elicit a smile in return. “That happened here. As I was looking into GenVac, I found something else: a small, private research lab, which develops its own drugs and occasionally does contract research. According to my investigation, this firm developed and licensed the vaccine called Sera-Flu, which is what’s being shipped to Africa in large amounts now by GenVac. It’s based in Basel, Switzerland.”

Anna frowned thoughtfully. “Who’s behind it?”

“Who owns it exactly, I can’t tell you. It’s a holding company registered in the Cayman Islands. All right? But the scientists who are directing its programs, I
can
tell you. They include two former Russian molecular biologists who developed weapons-grade biological properties in Russia. Their names are Stefan Drosky and Dmitri Gregori.”

“Go ahead,” Charlie said.

Keller closed his eyes, nodded slightly and continued.

“Stefan Drosky is the head scientist. He also has an ownership stake in the lab. Drosky recruited several others, including Gregori. The lab he works for is called Horst Laboratories. It was acquired by GenVac recently. Now, here’s the interesting thing, and the main reason I was able to find this out: Drosky appears to also have interests in the black market. He’s basically an independent researcher and businessman, and he’s managed to establish a lucrative side market. A supply chain to distribute a generic version of this vaccine, which he is illicitly selling to a third party, a distributer known as Arnau Inc. The distributor is co-owned by Drosky himself. He thinks it will make him a very wealthy man, evidently.”

“Who is he?”

“Drosky? At one time, he was a lead research scientist with Biopreparat, the Soviet biological weapons program, as were two or three of those who work with him.”

“Any personal information on him? Background?” Anna asked.

“Some, but he’s very guarded. He left Russia shortly after the break-up of the Soviet Union, evidently. His father apparently once worked for Vector, which was the largest of the Soviet operations.” Keller’s eyes widened for a moment. “Oh, I did hear something else about him. Basel has a small red-light district. Drosky pays some of the women there to visit him at home. There’s more in here,” he said, tapping his index finger on a stapled report. “When the Soviet Union broke apart, the biological weapons program was largely dismantled, as you know. Many people lost their jobs. He was sympathetic to them and hired several for his lab.”

“Was Ivan Vogel one of them, by any chance?”

“No.” He frowned. “I’m getting to that.”

Third question: Ivan Vogel
. The man at the center of his father’s inquiry, who had left the government to work for private industry. For VaxEze. The researcher who had also worked with Anna.

Gebhard Keller sighed. “Unfortunately, there is not much to go on with this question. Vogel
was
hired by VaxEze in late 2006. But then, according to reliable sources, he was in very ill health during 2007 and 2008. I can find no definitive record of him after that. He has a
daughter in St. Petersburg and may have returned there. There are several accounts that he is there now, as you will see. A very secretive man, who left few impressions,” Keller added. “But bottom line, based on my research: I don’t think your Ivan Vogel is involved in what you’re looking into.”

“Fourth question,” he said. “Your key question, really.” He pursed his lips and seemed suddenly nervous. “The viral properties. The reason for all this vaccine.”

Charlie saw that his hands were shaking slightly as he pushed new documents in front of them.

“It might not be the only answer, but it is
an
answer. Stefan Drosky is also the scientist who developed the viral property, we believe. Under contract with VaxEze, and later GenVac. I’m told that small amounts have been produced at a viral plant in Basel, Switzerland. And these properties were shipped to Mancala in forty-gallon tanks, where it is now being stored.

“Which leads me to your fifth question,” he added, anxious, it seemed, to move on. “Is there any way of neutralizing this viral property.”

Keller had a trace of sweat now above his upper lip. Did he think they were going to harm him? That this information was too sensitive to allow him to walk away?

“Of course, the primary way of stopping its effectiveness would be the vaccine.” Charlie saw Anna shake her head. “But, of course, that isn’t your question.”

“No.”

“I spoke with a researcher familiar with bio-engineering of the flu virus. Not this specific case, but who has knowledge of a similar project. I’ve written out an evaluation that attempts to answer your question,” he said.

“How about a one-word version?” Charlie asked. “Yes or no?”

“In a word, yes. This sort of virus is obviously quite potent—but not invulnerable to intervention. I’m told Drosky’s project included an intervention mechanism—antibodies that attach to the viral agent and weaken or neutralize it, basically.”

“Plasmids,” Anna said.

“Yes. Plasmids. Good.” He forced a smile. A small sheen of sweat
shone all of a sudden on his chin. “Antibody-rich plasmids with altered hemagglutinin could be introduced to the viral property and neutralize it. In theory, at least.”

“In reality,” Anna said. “We did it. But who has this capability?”

“I cannot say definitively,” Keller said.

“But you’re saying this plasmid could be used in effect to destroy the viral property?” Charlie said.

“Yes. There were a number of provisions for neutralizing it, including autoclaving. Another is for neutralizing it right in the tank. Two steps. First, you coat the tank with an aerosol form of this plasmid. Then you fire a missile-like propellant device into the tank, which introduces the plasmid to the viral agent.”

“Where would you get that? The propellant device?”

“It was in one of the plans I saw written up,” Anna said. “I don’t think it was ever actually manufactured. They called it a DPG: Destabilization Propellant Gun. It goes with the technology. A safety mechanism to neutralize the virus.”

“Actually, yes, it was manufactured,” Keller said. “By Drosky.” He looked at Mallory. “In my estimation, the answer to this question would lie with Stefan Drosky.”

Charlie thought about that for a long moment, figuring something. “What else do you have?” he asked, glancing in Keller’s briefcase.

“Reports. Pictures of some of the players. All of this I will leave with you, of course.” He pulled out a pile of papers, thumbed through it. “This is Gregori. And this is Drosky,” he said, handing Charlie photocopies. The quality was not good, but Keller had done thorough work. Charlie passed the pictures one at a time to Anna. “This is a GenVac production facility site near Lucerne. This is a storage facility in Mancala, which Drosky apparently owns.”

Charlie studied this last one. “Where the vaccine is stored?”

“That’s right. One of about six such facilities. The viral property is there now. Five weeks ago, they began shipping vaccine by train and tractor-trailer trucks to private and public health clinics all along the perimeter of Mancala. Literally millions of doses.”

“Why then?”

Keller tilted his head. “That’s another investigation. I
can
tell you this: since the regime change, a lot of land has been sold off, and a lot has been purchased by these health consortiums. The central
government and military seem to be benefiting nicely from the purchases.”

Yes. Mallory had heard about that.

“President Muake has seized property in the southern part of the country. What is apparently a government-sanctioned version of ‘eminent domain.’ For quote infrastructure projects. And then he sold off much of the land for top dollar.”

Charlie heard a gasp. Anna’s face had gone pale.

“What is it?”

“This man,” she said. She was holding one of the pictures that Charlie had passed to her.

Keller frowned. “Yes, that’s Stefan Drosky.”

“No. It isn’t,” she said.

Keller reached across the table and took the picture from her hands.

“It’s not real clear but—yes.” He nodded, handed it back to her. “That’s Herr Drosky.”

“No. It isn’t. I’m certain,” she said. “That’s Ivan Vogel.”

ANNA PACED ACROSS THE
Savonnerie carpet in a different hotel room—this one on Unter den Linden, the main boulevard in the Berlin City Centre. Charlie sat in an armchair, watching her. The curtains were drawn.

“I don’t know, I had just hoped he wasn’t involved,” she said. “And yet I was afraid all along that it was true.”

“Does it matter a lot? I mean, he’s a part of the machinery now, right? If not him, someone else.”

“No, it
does
matter.” Her eyes turned to his, underlining the point. “He’s the sort of man who can actually make this work.
They
know that; that’s why he was recruited. That’s what your father feared. What
I
feared. He knows how this can work. He’s a man with utterly no moral bearings. He could make something like this happen and, in a sense, he would enjoy it. Like the person who sets fires because he gets a thrill seeing the fire engines respond. I heard him talk about it in those terms once. That if you let loose a genetically engineered virus, you could depopulate a city in a matter of hours.”

“But Vogel wouldn’t have the resources to do this by himself,” Charlie said. “This is obviously bigger than him.”

“Yes. But he is the one person who could carry it out. I don’t know that anyone else would want to be involved in that way. He was groomed for this, I’m sure.” She finally sat down again, perched on the edge of an armchair. “I heard the stories, too: that Vogel was ill. Or that he’d died. That he had gone back to Russia. That his daughter was ill. I had wished they were true. Maybe he spread those stories himself.”

“He expects to become a very wealthy man because of this, Keller said.”

“Yes, I’m sure he does. But it isn’t just the money. You don’t
understand. He has a certain madness driving him, too. I know that. That’s what I was afraid of.”

Charlie stood and walked to the kitchen bar. He poured himself a small drink of Glenlivet scotch in a shot glass. “Well,” he said. “I guess I’m going to have to find him, then, aren’t I? I just hope Keller was careful.”

“Yes.”

“We have an address now.”

Anna sighed. Moments later, her eyes changed. “Can we do something else, first?” she said, her voice sounding timid and childlike. Charlie sipped his drink and set the glass down. “Before it gets too late? That thing you wanted to practice?”

“Oh. Yes.” He smiled. “I think we probably should.”

She came toward him. Charlie felt her silk-like hair and smooth skin against his face. He folded his arms around her back and held on. In the bedroom, they began to take off clothes, hurrying, as if there was a need to do it quickly or the opportunity would pass.

“You’re not going to say this is wrong, are you?”

“I was thinking about it,” she said.

They reached for each other on the bed and kissed, then made love slowly and satisfyingly. He held her afterward and she held him.

Lying in the dark, he said, “You’re not sleepy at all, are you?”

“Not really.”

“You’re thinking about Vogel. What’s coming.”

“Of course. How could I not be?”

“Tell me more about him.”

She did, for nearly a half hour, unmooring thoughts that he knew she had never shared, relaying details about the projects she had worked on with him. Afterward, they held each other again, and Charlie closed his eyes and felt ready for sleep. He may have actually been sleeping when he heard her voice again.

“There’s one other thing,” she said.

“Hmm.”

“You never did tell me about the tattoo on your ankle. Angelina.”

“Oh.”

“You said the next time we met.”

“Did I?”

“Yes. You said that in Nice. Who was she?”

“Just someone I went to school with. Back at Princeton. A lot of years ago.”

“What happened?”

“I can’t really say.”

“Did she break it off?”

“I can’t remember. I think we both did, actually.”

“Why?”

“I guess because we looked into the future and didn’t see the same thing. She was on a fast track. An attorney. Someone who was destined to have a big public career. I wasn’t. We were smart enough to figure that out.”

“Any regrets?”

“None.”