As he was leaving, Curtis switched on his phone to find an alarming text from Kate. The vials of the deadly Ebolapox, together with those of the vaccines, had vanished and Dolinsky was nowhere to be found.
CHAPTER 92
K ate Braithwaite turned on the decontamination shower and let the water run over her face plate and the rest of her biosuit. She felt sick but she forced herself to remain calm and resisted the urge to cut the shower short, kicking herself that she hadn’t raised the alarm earlier when she’d questioned Dr Dolinsky about why he was preparing so many vials of the virus, and why there had been a semi-commercial production run of the vaccine.
Kate took the lift to the thirty-seventh floor and pressed the button beside the combination lock and swipe- card track. Neither she nor Imran had been given an access card that was programmed for Halliwell’s inner sanctum.
‘Can I help you?’ Simone Carstair’s voice sounded slurred.
‘It’s Kate Braithwaite.’ After an audible click, Kate pushed the heavy red door. Simone was not at her desk, but the door to Halliwell’s office was ajar. Simone was standing beside Halliwell’s desk with a large glass of whiskey in her hand, staring out at Stone Mountain.
‘Do you know where Dr Dolinsky is, Simone?’
‘No and I don’t care. Dolinsky hasn’t been around for the past two weeks,’ Simone said, swaying on her feet as she turned around. Kate realised she had been crying.
‘Are you alright?’ Kate asked. Simone Carstairs had not struck her as the type to give in to tears.
‘I will be, although I may not be around for much longer. I suspect I’m about to be replaced,’ Simone said thickly. The job application she had found in Richard’s drawer lay on the desk.
‘I’m sorry to hear that, Simone. Do you mind me asking why?’ asked Kate, surprised to find that Simone had been drinking heavily.
‘No, it will be public knowledge soon enough. Dr Halliwell has decided to replace me with a younger woman,’ Simone said, the alcohol loosening the grip she normally kept on her private life, ‘which is a bit rich after all the years I’ve given him here but that’s life on a rubber raft, honey. I told you he was a ruthless, ambitious bastard, I just didn’t think it would happen to me.’ She walked unsteadily towards Halliwell’s liquor cabinet and returned with the half empty bottle of Chivas.
‘Aren’t you going to fight?’ Kate asked, puzzled at the sudden change in demeanor of the fiery Simone.
‘I thought about it. I’ve got enough on that miserable, hypocritical prick to send him up the river four times over, but you know what? I’m over him.’ Her words were running into one another. ‘He’s a lousy fucking lover and if someone else wants to crawl over that prissy little wife of his when she becomes First Lady to get to him, then they’re welcome. I have myself quite a nice place in the Bahamas and I’m out of here.’
Kate didn’t hear Simone’s diatribe. She was staring at the roof of the Halliwell Level 4 laboratories. Something wasn’t quite right, then she realised what it was. When viewed from the thirty-seventh floor the area of roof was considerably bigger than the area she and Imran had shared with Dolinsky; not only that, Kate could count twice the number of venting systems.
‘Is there more than one entrance to the Level 4 laboratories?’ Kate asked.
‘Why do you want to know?’ Simone asked, sobering up a little.
Simone hadn’t denied it and Kate decided to probe further. ‘Can we sit down,’ she said, moving towards the leather lounge chairs. ‘Look, I know you’re upset at the moment,’ Kate began, ‘and I’m genuinely sorry to hear you might go but some of the programs that are running here are not all they seem. My colleagues and I think Richard Halliwell might be involved in some dangerous and illegal activities. If he is and you protect him, then your chances of getting to the Bahamas will be about zero. On the other hand, if you help us then you’ll be home free,’ Kate said, flashing her CIA badge.
Simone stared out at the gathering dusk. ‘Why not,’ she said, retrieving the key to the lift from Halliwell’s still-open desk drawer. ‘I’ve always wondered what was down there but first I gotta go to the bathroom, honey.’
It was amazing how alcohol could remove a veneer, Kate thought, as she punched in Curtis’ speed dial.
‘I can’t talk for long,’ she said. ‘I’m in Halliwell’s office. Simone’s legless but she’s about to show me a lift which I think leads to another lab at the back of the Level 4 complex.’
‘Where’s Halliwell?’
‘Not due back until the day after tomorrow, got to go,’ Kate said, not willing to risk Simone coming out of Halliwell’s private bathroom and finding her on the phone.
Halliwell negotiated the steps to his private jet almost before they hit the tarmac of Atlanta’s Hartsfield- Jackson Airport and he strode over to his McLaren that the valet parking service had brought around to the front of the VIP terminal. As he sped back to his headquarters Halliwell’s mind was racing. In two days time he had planned to return to supervise the dispatch of the vials of Ebolapox and vaccines to Beijing, and a visit by Professor Sayed to the office of the Speaker in Washington would normally not have concerned him. Halliwell knew the two men shared the same flawed views against the war in Iraq, but for him to be accompanied by the CIA agent in charge of P LASMID, and for the Speaker to cancel his entire program as soon as they’d left had rung alarm bells. Halliwell had already decided that Dolinsky and that stuck-up bitch Braithwaite would be meeting with a nasty laboratory accident as soon as the vials of Ebolapox were aboard his jet and on their way to Beijing, but Halliwell needed to be sure they were still safe.
It took Simone three attempts before she got the key in the lock but eventually the lift took them down to a small basement area where they were stopped by another heavy stainless steel door protected by a combination lock.
‘He changes his combinations on the first day of every month but he always uses the same series of numbers on all of the locks, so unless this is any different…’ Simone said, feeling for each button before she pushed it. ‘ Voila…’ The door swung aside, revealing the long tunnel to Halliwell’s private laboratories. At the far end of the tunnel, when they opened the second heavy door, Kate gasped as she was confronted with surroundings she was all too familiar with.
‘This is a Level 3 preparation area,’ she said, looking at Halliwell’s blue biosuit with its regulator and boots ready for use.
‘A what, honey?’
‘Never mind,’ Kate said, preparing to leave.
‘Don’t you want to see what’s on the other side of that door?’ Simone asked, pointing unsteadily to the airlock door marked with the international biohazard warning.
‘I’ve seen enough,’ Kate said, locking the door and guiding Simone back up the long tunnel they’d just come from.
Richard Halliwell’s steely grey eyes narrowed as he saw the half-empty whiskey bottle and the open desk drawer. The key to the lift was gone. Halliwell unlocked the other drawer to his desk and took out the Luger pistol he kept there. He slipped it into his pocket and pressed the button for the lift, putting his ear to the doors. The lift mechanism was humming. Whoever was down there had left the key in the lock. Two minutes later he stepped out of the lift and into the tunnel to find Kate and Simone about 200 metres away, walking towards him.
‘Well, well, well, what do we have here?’ Halliwell sneered.
Simone staggered to the side of the tunnel. Kate’s heart sank as she turned and looked back behind her. It was nearly 800 metres to the far door and on the other side was a hot lab. Halliwell’s slow and deliberate steps rang hollow on the concrete floor of the tunnel as his voice echoed off the walls.
‘You’ll be back there soon enough, I can promise you, Dr Braithwaite.’ Ignoring the sight of Simone slumped against the wall of the tunnel, Halliwell felt a surge of power as he got closer to Kate and another idea took shape.
‘Before I inject you with Ebolapox, you bitch, we’ll see what you look like naked and strapped to a trolley,’ he whispered under his breath. He could feel his erection hardening as he took the Luger from his pocket.
