“The victors get to rewrite mythology,” the pythia pointed out. “And that’s the only version anybody remembers.”
Daniel turned to Lars. “The Saami tribe you spoke about earlier. I assume they’re matristic. Do they still worship Freya as their principal goddess?”
Lars smiled. “The Saami lived in this land long before the farmers who worshipped Freya. They pray to Ahkka but that is a story for tomorrow when we visit her mountain.” He rose unexpectedly and announced, “I am going back for more food. These plates are not big enough.”
Chapter 37—Global Warning
Erik slipped inside his room and relocked the door. He leaned against the wall and breathed a sigh of relief. He’d managed to get to Metcalf’s office, search it, and return undetected. It was around one o’clock in the morning, but he immediately retrieved his cell phone and dialed Maddie’s number. She was going to want to hear this.
He sank into his easy chair and waited for her to pick up.
“Wha...?” came the drowsy response.
“Maddie, it’s Erik. Sorry to call so late.”
“Hang on...”
He heard background sounds as she shifted the phone, switched on a light and readjusted her position. “It’s the middle of the night. This better be good.”
“Oh, it is. I just got back from Metcalf’s office.”
“You searched it like I asked?” The chatelaine sounded alert now.
“Yup. And I found it.”
There was a shocked silence on the other end. “You mean the list?”
“The very one.” He couldn’t keep a gleeful tone out of his voice.
Ever since Maddie had ordered him to bug the diviner’s office, she and her security team at the vault had been obsessed with discovering the details of Metcalf’s plague attack. The chatelaine wanted to know who he was targeting and why. The spy app on the diviner’s phone had been helpful to a point. The Arkana now knew that Metcalf intended to unleash pneumonic plague at particular locations around the globe. They knew he had ordered Joshua to select 150 vaccinated men to distribute the plague in metal water bottles which were actually gas canisters of the deadly airborne virus. However, none of the conversations they’d overheard gave any clue as to which countries were being targeted much less which regions in those countries would be the plague epicenters. Tonight, Erik had stumbled across the answers to both those questions.
“Well? You’re testing my patience.” Maddie sounded as if she were growing irritable.
“Sorry, I couldn’t resist a dramatic pause.” The paladin chuckled. “I had to pick a lock on one of his desk drawers, but I found the countries he’s targeting. I wrote down the names, but I don’t want to risk texting them to you. Have you got a pen?”
He waited until Maddie fumbled for pad and paper, then read off the list.
“Those are the top fifty developed countries in the world,” she murmured as she finished capturing the names.
“On every continent, too,” Erik remarked. “I think that was intentional. Metcalf probably wants to impact the largest possible geographic area.”
“I suppose it’s feasible,” Maddie admitted. “It only took a dozen Genoese merchant ships with twenty plague-infected crewmen each to start a pandemic that wiped out half of Europe in the fourteenth century.”
“I think it’s kind of creepy that you know that,” the paladin said.
“Ever since your return from the dead, I’ve made plague history my personal trivial pursuit.” She hesitated as another thought struck her. “Fifty countries are a pretty big target. With only a three-man crew deployed per country, it would take years for the plague to spread.” Yeah, but he isn’t planning on taking down an entire country’s population.”
“I’m almost afraid to ask.” Maddie’s voice held a note of dread.
“I’m almost afraid to tell you,” the paladin countered. “I couldn’t find details on each of the countries except for some scribbled notes about one. The good old US of A. I’m assuming his strategy will be the same in all the others.”
“And that is?” Her tone remained wary.
Erik sighed. “He’s targeted the Capital Building, the New York Stock Exchange, and Atlanta International Airport.”
The information was met with dead silence as Maddie processed the information. “My goddess!” She seemed stunned. “He’s trying to bring down central government, transportation, and the economy.”
“It’s a surgical strike,” Erik elaborated. “A single canister of plague virus could be carried in a back pack through an airport terminal or the lobby of the stock exchange or the visitor’s gallery of Congress. Even if the carrier was stopped at a security checkpoint, he could always leave his innocent looking empty water bottle near an air return vent somewhere around the building. If only a fraction of the people who worked in those places was infected, the virus would spread exponentially. Visitors just passing through any of those target locations would contaminate people during their travels. By the time the CDC even figured out what the problem was, it would be too late. There are no antibiotics that can kill this strain of virus and no known vaccines that could stop it.”
“So, he wants to destroy a country’s infrastructure,” the chatelaine speculated.
“I think he wants to do more than that.” Now Erik’s tone was grim. “Remember the sarin gas attacks in the Tokyo subway a few years back?”
“Yeah, I do. What’s your point?”
“Well, the lunatic in charge of that cult believed that he could stir up a global war by blaming the attacks on Japan’s enemies. While everybody was busy fighting everybody else, he thought he could step in and take over.”
“You think Metcalf wants to rule the world?” Maddie seemed unconvinced. “That’s a bit of a stretch.”
“No, chief. That’s not what I think.” He hesitated. “Metcalf wants the Fallen World to destroy itself. If all the superpowers suspect each other of orchestrating the plague attacks, they’ll start a global war. One that nobody will survive.
