order to escape and warn someone.
“You’re right. I guess I’ll have to see.”
“Oh, I’m not delusional, Dilara. It will take time. You’re not there yet and will probably betray me at your first chance. But with six months’ time…well, a lot will have changed by then.”
Garrett got up to leave. Dilara tried to stall him.
“Wait! This is fascinating. I want to hear more about the Ark.”
“There will be plenty of time later. We’re about to land.”
“But I’d like to know everything. If I’m going to be a partner with you, I think I deserve it.”
“I’m the only one who knows everything,” Garrett said. Then he walked into the forward cabin and shut the door, leaving Dilara to ponder her next move.
FORTY-TWO
Locke was on the Gordian jet flying back to the TEC in Phoenix, but he wasn’t piloting this time. He had too much work to do.
His first order of business was to arrange with the FBI a ruse to put Garrett off guard. He had the FBI release that, along with one of its agents, Dr. Tyler Locke had been killed during a melee on board the Genesis Dawn. Garrett wouldn’t be concerned when Perez didn’t check in with him. He’d think that both of them were killed.
The next job was to find out where Garrett was taking Dilara. Locke suspected they kidnapped her as some kind of potential bargaining chip or maybe to question her. If they wanted her dead too, they would have killed them both instead of having Perez separate them. She was still alive, but Locke didn’t know for how long.
“Where’s Garrett’s plane?” Locke asked Aiden MacKenna using the jet’s satellite phone. Aiden had been working with the FBI trying to track down Garrett.
“According to the Bureau,” Aiden said, “they landed in Seattle an hour ago. Just missed them. We know they didn’t get on another plane, but we’ve lost their trail. They must be somewhere in the Puget Sound vicinity.”
“Do you have a list of Garrett’s facilities in the area?”
“I do. We found ties between Garrett’s company and PicoMed Pharmaceuticals, where Sam Watson worked. It’s in Seattle along with most of Garrett’s other real estate, including his company headquarters.”
“What I’m looking for is the place where the bunker was built. Garrett’s getting ready to release this prion. That means he should be holing up in Oasis. He wouldn’t have built it in the middle of Seattle. It would be on some piece of land that’s out of the way. Does he have a ranch somewhere?”
“Not that I’ve found, either under his own name or his company names.”
Locke thought about the possibilities. If Garrett were really trying to recreate the effects of the Flood, and he thought he was Noah…
“Aiden, what about the Holy Hydronastic Church?”
“Let me tap into the FBI database and crosscheck with a little illicitly-obtained financial data.” He paused. Locke heard typing. “I think we may have a winner. The church headquarters is in downtown Seattle, which wouldn’t fit your parameters, but they have a large property on Orcas Island.”
“What kind of buildings?”
“According to the latest DoD satellite imagery, it looks like five. Another mansion. What looks like an enormous hotel. And then three warehouses the size of airplane hangars. They’ve also got helipads and a huge dock.”
That was it. The perfect place to build a bunker that wouldn’t draw much attention.
“Do you see any earthworks?” Coleman would have had to move thousands of tons of earth to dig out the tunnels and rooms of the underground bunker.
“None visible on the satellite image.”
That was odd. Locke was sure the Hydronastic Church facility was the only option, especially since Garrett had landed at Seattle, only 60 miles from Orcas Island. Still, there should be ample evidence of earthmoving.
“Check to see if the coastline has changed.”
More typing. “As far as I can tell, except for addition of the buildings, it looks exactly the same over the last three years.”
“You said they were the size of airplane hangars?”
“Big enough to hold a couple of 747s each. I can’t imagine what they’re for.”
“I can.” That was it. The hangars. Locke knew why they were there.
A beep came on the cell phone, indicating an incoming call. Locke looked at caller ID and grimaced. It was the call he had been dreading.
“Aiden,” Locke said, “I have to take this. See if you can get anything that proves Garrett is on Orcas Island. Check all the boats and helicopters.”
“Okay, Tyler. I’ll call you back.”
Locke took a breath and switched over to the other line.
“General. Thanks for returning my call.”
“I heard about that mess on the Genesis Dawn,” came the blunt response. “What the hell have you gotten yourself into?”
Locke could already feel his hackles rising. Even after two years of virtually no contact, the man knew how to push his buttons. “It wasn’t really my choice, Dad. They’ve tried to kill me three times.”
“Three times! And you’re just coming to me now?”
This conversation was going just as badly as Locke thought it would.
Given the results from the CDC testing, Locke figured it was only a matter of time before the military got involved. The discovery of a new bioweapon was a matter of national security, and the FBI would have to coordinate with them. With Dilara taken hostage, Locke didn’t want to be left out of the loop, so he’d reluctantly placed the call to his father’s office and provided some details about Oasis.
“I didn’t have any evidence until now that you would be able to do anything about,” Locke said. “But the situation has become critical, and I think the military has the capability to handle it.”
The General made a clicking sound with his tongue. Disapproval. “Sounds like you’re in over your head.”
“What do you want me to say, Dad? That I need your help?”
“There’s nothing wrong with that, son.”
His father’s voice was harsh, but Locke also detected a concern behind it he hadn’t often heard. The hackles lowered slightly.
“Fine,” he said. “I need your help.”
“That’s what we’re here for. The CDC tells me we’ve got a Level Four bio-terrorism agent on our hands.”
“It’s bad stuff.”
“It looks like none of it survived, so we don’t have any way to develop a response.”
His father used the typical military code for a cure, but Locke suspected the General really wanted the weapon for the military’s use.
“I spoke to the president,” the General said. “When he heard how nasty these prions were, he decided, on my recommendation, that this was a clear and present danger to the country’s security. He directed the military to do anything in its power to secure them.”
“And the FBI?”
“When I briefed him about Oasis, the president decided that the FBI counterterrorism unit doesn’t have the specialization to take on a hardened facility like that. He’s authorized an Army assault team to attack it. He just needs to know where.”
“I know where. The Hydronast compound on Orcas Island.”
“Are you sure?”
