The Cassandra Compact

by Robert Ludlum

  At first, Beria thought that it was some makeshift holding cell. The thought had reassured him. He’d had brief experiences with jail cells. But then he discovered that the diameter of the silo was barely large enough to accommodate his shoulders. He could lean a few inches in any direction, but he could not sit down.

  After a while, he thought he heard a faint hum, like a distant radio signal. As the hours passed, the signal seemed to get stronger and the walls whiter. Then they started to close in on him. That was the first time Beria had closed his eyes, briefly. When he opened them, the whiteness was even starker, if such a thing were possible. Now he dared not open his eyes at all. The hum had crescendoed into a roar and beyond it, Beria heard something else, something that might have been a human voice. He had no idea that he was screaming.

  Without warning, he staggered back, falling through a concealed door that Kirov had opened. Grabbing Beria’s arm, he yanked the assassin out of the silo and immediately slipped a black hood over his head.

  “Everything’s going to be all right,” Kirov whispered in Serb. “I’m going to take away the pain, all of it. You’ll have some water, then you can talk to me.”

  Suddenly, violently, Beria threw his arms around Kirov, holding him as a drowning man would a piece of driftwood. All the while Kirov continued to talk to him and still him, until Beria took his first halting steps.

  Smith was shocked by Beria’s appearance—not because he was scared or hurt, just the opposite: he looked exactly as he had the last time Smith had seen him.

  But there were differences. Beria’s eyes were glassy and washed out, like those of day-old fish on ice. His voice was a monotone, with no timbre or texture to it. When he spoke, it was as though he’d been hypnotized.

  The three of them sat on the porch around a little table with a small running tape recorder. Beria sipped water from a plastic cup. Next to him, Kirov watched his every move. In his lap, covered by a cloth, was a gun, the barrel pointed at Beria’s shoulder.

  “Who hired you to kill the Russian guard?” Smith asked softly.

  “A man from Zurich.”

  “You went to Zurich?”

  “No. We spoke on the telephone. Only the telephone.”

  “Did he tell you his name?”

  “He called himself Gerd.”

  “How did Gerd pay you?”

  “Money was deposited into an account at the Offenbach Bank. It was handled by Herr Weizsel.”

  Weizsel! The name Peter Howell had gotten out of the corrupt Italian policeman, Dionetti…

  “Herr Weizsel…Did you meet him?” Smith asked softly.

  “Yes. Several times.”

  “And Gerd?”

  “Never.”

  Smith glanced at Kirov, who nodded, indicating that he believed Beria was telling the truth. Smith agreed. He had expected that Beria would have worked through cutouts. Swiss bankers were some of the best frontmen in the business.

  “Do you know what it was you took from the Russian guard?” Smith continued.

  “Germs.”

  Smith closed his eyes. Germs…

  “Do you know the name of the man you passed the germs to at the Moscow airport?”

  “I think it was David. It wasn’t his real name.”

  “Did you know that you would have to kill him?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did Gerd tell you to do this?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did Gerd ever mention any Americans? Were you ever contacted directly by any Americans?”

  “Only my driver. But I don’t know his name.”

  “Did he ever talk to you about Gerd or anyone else?”

  “No.”

  Smith paused, trying to keep his frustration in check. Whoever was running this operation had constructed seemingly impenetrable firewalls between themselves and the assassin.

  “Ivan, I don’t want you to listen to this.”

  “All right.” Beria looked away, his expression vacant.

  “Jon, he’s got nothing left to give up,” Kirov said. “We might be able to get a few more details, for what they’re worth.” Kirov spread out his hands. “What about the Lincoln?”

  “It’s a NASA fleet vehicle. Dozens of drivers use it. Klein’s still running down the particulars.” He paused. “We should have snatched the driver. By now, he’s reported that Beria’s missing. The controllers will assume the obvious. They’ll be much more careful from here on in.”

  “We talked about that,” Kirov reminded him. “It would have been impossible for just the two of us to take down Beria and the driver. We would have needed reinforcements.”

  “Beria gave us two names: the Offenbach Bank and this Herr Weizsel,” Smith said, and told Kirov about the Venice connection.

  The Russian looked up. “Weizsel would have had to deal with Gerd. He would have talked to him, maybe even met him….”

  Smith completed the thought: “So he would know Gerd’s real name, wouldn’t he?”

  Chapter 22

  When Ivan Beria failed to appear within the allotted time, the driver of the Lincoln walked away from the car. In that neighborhood, chances were good that it would be stolen within the next few hours. After that, it would either be professionally stripped in a chop shop or dismembered by petty thieves. Either way, it would disappear.

  Even if the authorities somehow got to it first, the car would yield few clues. The driver always wore gloves; there would be few if any forensics to link him to the car. Nor did his name appear on any NASA paperwork. The car had been checked out in the name of a driver currently working in Pasadena, California.

  At the Metro stop on Connecticut Avenue and Q Street, the driver called his principal. Quietly, he explained what had happened and suggested that the assassin had been taken. The party on the other end instructed the driver to go immediately to Dulles Airport. In a designated locker he would find two overnight bags, one with money and identity papers, the other with a change of clothes. There would also be a ticket for Cancún, Mexico, where he was to stay until further notice.

  As soon as he hung up with the driver, Anthony Price called Dr. Karl Bauer, who had returned to Hawaii after delivering the altered smallpox sample to Dylan Reed at Cape Canaveral.

  “The problem you sent your boy to fix?” he said abruptly. “Now it’s worse than before.” After giving Bauer the scant details, he added: “If Beria’s been taken, then you can bet it’s Smith who has him. In the end, Beria will talk—if he hasn’t already.”

  “If he does, what of it?” Bauer demanded. “He never saw any of us. He doesn’t know our names. Treloar is dead. The trail stops with him.”

  “The trail has to stop with Beria!” Price snapped. “He needs to be dealt with.”

  “While he’s in Smith’s custody?” Bauer replied sarcastically. “Pray tell me how you propose getting to him.”

  Price hesitated. Smith wouldn’t keep Beria in a federal prison or holding cell. He’d squirrel him away where no one could find him.

  “Then we have to move up the schedule,” he said. “Create a diversion.”

  “Doing so would endanger Reed and the entire project.”

  “Not doing it endangers us! Listen to me, Karl. Reed was going to run the experiment the day after tomorrow. There’s no reason why he can’t run it now.”

  “All the experiments are on a fixed schedule,” Bauer replied. “It might look suspicious if Reed changes the sequence.”

  “Given the consequences, a change in sequence will be the last thing anyone thinks about. The key is to get the mutation down as quickly as possible—and cover our butts.”

  There was silence on the other end of the line. Price held his breath, wondering if the old scientist would play along.

  “Very well,” Bauer said at last. “I will contact Reed and tell him to move up the schedule.”

  “Tell him to work as fast as possible.”

  “As fast as is prudent.”

  Price was at the en
d of his tether. “Don’t split hairs on me, Karl. Just tell him to get on with it.”

  Karl Bauer stared at the now-silent phone. He thought that Anthony Price was one of those bureaucrats who become infected with a Napoleon complex, intoxicated with their seemingly limitless power.

  Leaving his office, Bauer took the elevator to the sub-basement. This was the heart of his communications center, a room the size of an air traffic control center where technicians, using three private satellites, kept their fingertips on the electronic pulse of the Bauer-Zermatt empire. There was also a fourth satellite, which, until now, had remained inactive. Crossing the room, Bauer entered his private chamber and locked himself in. He seated himself at the console, activated the high-definition screen, and began typing on the keyboard. The satellite, built by the Chinese in Xianpao, launched by the French out of New Guyana, sprang to life. As hardware went, it was a relatively unsophisticated piece of equipment, but then again, it had only one purpose and a very short life span. When its job was done, an explosive charge would destroy any evidence that it had ever existed.

  Bauer piggybacked on the NASA frequency, prepared his message for the microburst transmission, and opened the circuits. In nanoseconds, the message was beamed to the satellite, which in turn relayed it to the shuttle. Its mission accomplished, the satellite immediately went dormant. Even if the burst was inadvertently noticed, it would be almost impossible to fix not only its origin but also the relay point. With the satellite silent, it would appear that the burst had come from a black hole in space.

  Sitting back in his chair, Bauer steepled his fingers. Of course there would be no direct reply from the shuttle. The only way Bauer would be sure that his transmission was received would be to tap into the shuttle—NASA transmissions. When he heard Reed’s voice, he would know.

  Traveling at 17,500 miles per hour at an altitude of 202 miles, Discovery was on its fourth orbit around the earth. Stowing away her temporary seat, Megan Olson worked her way out of her launch/entry suit and into comfortable overalls studded with Velcrolined pockets. She noted that her face and upper body were puffy. Virtually every wrinkle had disappeared and her waistline had shrunk a good two inches. This occurred because there was little gravity to pull down blood and bodily fluids. After four to six hours, the excess fluids would be removed through the kidneys.

  With the help of her teammates, Carter and Wallace, Megan activated the shuttle’s power, air conditioning, lights, and communications. The payload bay doors were opened to release the heat built up by the firing of the solid rocket booster and main engines during liftoff. They would stay open for the duration of the mission and help regulate the temperature inside the orbiter.

  As she worked, Megan listened to the chatter among the commander, Bill Karol, the pilot, Frank Stone, and mission control. It was all routine give-and-take about the shuttle’s status, speed, and position—until she heard Karol’s puzzled voice.

  “Dylan, are you copying this?”

  “Roger that. What’s up?”

  “Something just came in over the circuits for you. But there was no mission-control input.”

  Megan heard Reed chuckle. “Probably one of my lab guys slipped on a headset. What’s the message?”

  “Apparently there’s been a change in the order of your experiments. Megan’s been bumped to number four. You take the opening slot.”

  “Hey, that’s not fair,” Megan spoke up.

  “Been listening in, have you?” Reed said. “Don’t worry about it, Megan. You’ll make your bones.”

  “I know. But why the change?”

  “I’m checking the schedule right now.”

  “I’m on my way up.”

  Drifting in microgravity, Megan maneuvered her way up the ladder to the flight deck. Reed was suspended like a diver in neutral buoyancy behind the pilot and the commander, checking his log.

  Glancing up, he remarked, “You look ten years younger.”

  “Please, five years. And I feel bloated. What’s up?”

  Reed passed her the log. “It’s a last-minute schedule change I forgot to mention. I’m going to run the critter tests first and get them out of the way. Then you can have the place all to yourself and your Legionnaires’ disease microbes.”

  “I was really hoping to get into it first thing,” Megan replied.

  “Yeah, I know. First trip. All the excitement. But if I were you, I’d grab some sack time while I slave over a hot petri dish.”

  “Would you like a hand with the tests?”

  “Appreciate the thought, but no thanks.” Reed took back the log. “Well, I’d better go open up the Factory.”

  The Factory was the crew’s nickname for the Spacelab.

  On the monitor, Megan watched Reed maneuver his way to the mid-deck, then float into the tunnel that connected to the Spacelab. It never failed to amaze her that only the curved walls of the tunnel and its outer skin separated Reed from the frozen waste of space.

  Megan turned to Bill Karol. “Who sent that transmission?”

  Karol checked his screen. “There’s no name attached, just a number.”

  Steadying herself, Megan read over his shoulder. The six-digit number was familiar but she couldn’t grasp why.

  “Someone was in a hurry,” Stone, the pilot, said laconically. “Probably a last-minute snafu in the ground lab.”

  “But you said this didn’t come through mission control,” Megan said.

  “What I meant was that there wasn’t any of the usual chatter. But hell, Megan, who else could have sent it?”

  As the two men returned to their duties, Megan backed away. Something was not right. A moment ago she’d remembered where she’d seen that number before. It was Dylan Reed’s NASA ID. How could he possibly have sent a message to himself?

  As soon as Dylan Reed entered the Spacelab, he overrode the circuits that controlled the cameras’ recording activity at the Biorack. Pulling back the Velcro strap on one of his pants pockets, he removed the stubby, titanium cylinder that Bauer had given him less than twenty-four hours ago. Although the tube had been carefully sealed, Reed understood that he was dealing with a “hot” product that had been left unrefrigerated for too long. He opened the freezer and slipped the tube next to the maise cells and nematode worm specimens, then reset the cameras.

  Relieved that the variola was secure, Reed began to prepare the Biorack for the procedures he would carry out. At the same time, he tried to fathom what had happened back on earth to cause Bauer to move up the schedule so dramatically. The last he’d heard, Beria had been set in motion to remove Smith. Since Bauer had been able to transmit his message, and there had been no emergency relays from ground control indicating any unusual developments, the logical conclusion was that Beria had run into a problem—serious enough for Bauer to act.

  Reed knew that Bauer would not contact him again unless it was absolutely necessary. The pilot and the flight commander would not be suspicious about one message lacking the usual NASA doublespeak; a second would be challenged and investigated. Since at the moment Reed had no way of contacting Bauer, he had to rely on blind faith and finish the work the old Swiss had begun.

  Reed would have preferred to be rested for his task. As it was, he would have to ignore the liftoff fatigue and pace himself for the grueling session ahead. As he slipped his feet into the restraints embedded in the floor in front of the Biorack, he estimated the amount of time the job would take. If his calculations were right, the rest of the crew would be having their dinner just as he was finishing up. They would all be in one place, just as he wanted.

  Nathaniel Klein’s eyes were as hard and flat as river rock. Sitting in Rosebud’s living room, he listened without comment as Smith presented his account of how Beria had been taken and the details of the subsequent interrogation.

  “A known killer is connected to a Swiss bank and one of its principal officers,” he murmured.

  Smith indicated the cassette on the coffee table. “Be
ria gave up a lot more than that. Some of the top people in Russia and Eastern Europe have had him on their payrolls. Events that seemed to make no sense to us can all be traced back to assassinations and blackmail that Beria was a party to.”

  Klein grunted. “Fine. We have a lot of dirt and one day it might be useful. But there won’t be a ‘one day’ unless we find the smallpox! Where are Beria and Kirov right now?”

  “At a secure location. Beria’s heavily sedated. Kirov’s watching him. The general forwarded a request: he’d like to bring Beria back to Moscow—quietly—as soon as possible.”

  “We can certainly arrange that—as long as you’re sure he has nothing left to tell us.”

  “I’m sure, sir.”

  “In that case, I’ll arrange transport at Andrews.”

  Klein rose and paced in front of the picture window. “Unfortunately, taking Beria didn’t solve our problem. You know how notorious the Swiss are about keeping their financial dealings secret. The president might be able to get them to open up the Offenbach Bank without disclosing why we need their cooperation, but it’s a long shot.”

  “This can’t be a government-to-government operation, sir,” Smith said quietly. “We don’t have the time, and like you, I suspect that the Swiss would stonewall us.” He paused. “But Herr Weizsel might be more forthcoming. I have Peter Howell standing by in Venice.”

  Klein glanced at Smith and understood what it was he was really talking about. He took a moment to weigh the risks.

  “All right,” he said at last. “But make sure that he understands there can’t be any exposure or comebacks.”

  Smith went into the small room that had become Klein’s nerve center at Camp David and made the call.

  “Peter, Zurich is a go.”

  “I thought it might be,” the Englishman replied. “I’m booked on the early evening flight.”