get it there in two hours.”
Agent Harris agreed only if she and one of the hazmat team members could accompany him, to which Locke gladly agreed. While they were in route, Harris would get the Bureau to begin the hunt for Garrett.
THIRTY-NINE
Dilara looked out the window of Garrett’s private jet, trying to get a sense of where they were headed, but the cloud cover and darkness below made it impossible. It had been about four hours since they had taken off. All she could tell was that they were flying vaguely west. She rubbed her wrist, which was shackled to the armrest.
When Petrova had told her Locke was dead, the pronouncement had been like a sledgehammer to Dilara’s gut. She had become attracted to this amazing man, and now he might be gone. If he were really dead — a thought that she couldn’t fully believe, not with what Locke had already survived — then she was on her own. No one was coming to rescue her. If she was to get out of this, she had to do it herself.
Garrett emerged from the forward cabin, now changed into crisp slacks and pressed shirt. He smiled and sat down across from her. He looked her up and down slowly, not bothering to hide his thorough scrutiny. She had not been allowed to change out of her dress, and his roving eye made her uncomfortable, but she wouldn’t let him see it. Instead, she had to use the opportunity to assess her situation. Thinking clearly was the only thing that was going to save her life.
“Where are you taking me?” The question was an obvious cliche, but if Garrett thought she was dumber than she was, it might loosen his tongue.
“Our facility on Orcas Island,” he responded without hesitation. “You have a beautiful voice. Of course, you’re visually striking, but your alto register is just as attractive.”
She was surprised at his candor, but she didn’t know what to make of his compliment.
“Why are you taking me there?” she asked.
“I’d think that would be clear for someone as well-educated as yourself. We need to find out what else you know.”
“Wouldn’t Agent Perez be able to tell you that?” She’d come to the conclusion that Perez had been working for Garrett. It was the only explanation for why Petrova was so confident about Locke’s death.
“Apparently, you and Tyler have not shared everything you know with Perez. There may be other items that you’ve been keeping secret. I need to know what they are.”
“I won’t…”
“And you can save your breath if you’re about to say that you’ll never talk.”
Dilara felt a stab of fear. Garrett smiled.
“Oh, don’t worry,” he said. “I don’t plan on torturing you. We have much more elegant and safe measures for getting information from you. You won’t have a choice.”
It had to be drugs. Maybe it would be better to start sharing now, possibly getting some information in return. Besides, she didn’t know anything that would compromise anyone else.
“You had Tyler killed.”
“Yes, that’s a shame. He was a formidable opponent. I forgave him long ago for spurning my invitation to join us, but he got too close to exposing my plans. I expect to get confirmation at any moment that, yet again, he has lost and I have won. It seems to be a pattern between us.”
“Maybe he got away from Perez,” Dilara said defiantly. “He knew about the bioweapon you planned to inject into the ship’s ventilation system. He’s probably disabled it by now.”
Garrett raised his eyebrows like he was impressed. “So Tyler figured it out? He certainly is clever. Was, I should say. Still, it doesn’t really matter.”
“What is Tyler’s connection to all this?”
“My fault, actually. I thought Tyler was the person best suited to help me construct Oasis, or what he knew as Whirlwind. Through intermediaries that assumed the roles of top-secret defense contractors, we convinced Gordian to take on the project, with Tyler to guide it. When he found out about the corners we were cutting on a project he was working on for me, I knew his curiosity would be a liability on Whirlwind. Eventually, he might have discovered a link between me and Oasis. So we fired Gordian and went with Coleman instead.”
“Look,” Dilara said, “we discovered the existence of your bunker anyway. We know what you’re planning to do. You want to wipe out the human race. And if Tyler got to your cabin, your plans are over.”
Garrett chuckled. “You didn’t really think that was the only part of my plan? I admit I liked the ceremonial aspect of starting our project using the Genesis Dawn, but it would be silly of me to put all my eggs in one basket like that, don’t you think?”
“You mean, there’s another release point?”
“Several more, actually. You were in one of them just days ago. LAX. I also have plans for New York and London.”
“When?”
“In two days, when the Genesis Dawn is en route to New York. Once all of our people are safely in the Oasis bunker, I’ll order the devices to be activated. They’re being prepped as we speak and will be shipped out tonight.”
“Sam Watson said you’re planning to kill billions.”
“I mistakenly thought Watson would be an asset to our cause, and he betrayed me.”
“That’s because Sam was a great man. He would never work on something like that.”
“Then you didn’t know him as well as you thought you did. Before he joined my church, he was working for the US government. I recruited him to a small subsidiary of mine, PicoMed Pharmaceuticals, where Watson thought he would be working on a germ warfare project for the Pentagon.”
Dilara was stunned. Sam had never told her much about his work, but she had assumed it was vaccine research.
“After working with him for several years,” Garrett said, “I thought he shared my goals, so I recruited him into my church. Then he found out the details of my plan and stole that knowledge, endangering everything I’d put into place. He was a fool. He didn’t see the bigger picture.”
“What picture?” She spat the words at him. “Wiping out humanity?”
“No. Humanity will go on. But it will go on the right way. As it should. And yes, billions will die, but everyone currently alive, including me, will be dead in one hundred years anyway. I’m not wiping out the human race, I’m saving it.”
“You’re crazy!”
“And you’re getting too emotional to see what I’m trying to accomplish. What if our leaders decide to start a nuclear war tomorrow? Then every single person on the planet will die, and the human race will cease to exist. Disease, environmental degradation, pollution, any one of these disasters could completely wipe us out. Even worse, humanity is on a path to destroy every other species, except the ones that are useful to it. It would repudiate Noah’s work to save animal life. I can’t allow that to happen.”
“So Noah’s Ark is involved in this? My father really did find it?”
“Oh yes. He discovered its location and a relic that has made my vision for the New World possible. I was so disappointed when I couldn’t reveal it to the world, but that would have interfered with my new vision.”
Dilara couldn’t help getting excited about the archaeological significance, even in her present situation.
“You actually saw it yourself?” She asked.
“I never went inside the Ark. It would have brought too much attention. But I know where it is, that it in fact exists, and that it holds an identical relic inside. All thanks to your father.”
She exploded out of her seat, but the handcuff kept her out of reach of Garrett. “Where is my father?” she shouted.
“That I don’t know.” For the first time, she could see that he was lying.
“My father helped you plan all this?”
“His work was instrumental in setting all this in motion. In fact, it was your friend Sam Watson who
