The Dark Side of Angels

by Steve Hadden

  Lewis pulled against the SWAT agent’s grasp toward Reed and the man yanked him back. Lewis threw a nod toward Kayla but kept his focus on Reed. “You should be arresting her. She killed my mother with her lies and so-called gene therapy.” He twisted toward Kayla. “She was ten times as smart as you’ll ever be. She despised what you were doing. She knew that manipulating the make-up of human beings was wrong, immoral. But after she got sick, you capitalized on her desperation and convinced her that you knew what you were doing, and the risk was acceptable.” Lewis’s face reddened. “You weren’t there for all of my discussions with her. We agreed that the human genome was sacred. Even if you accepted evolution, humankind was the result of four billion years of God’s work.” He stepped back. “And you thought you could change all of that in an instant in your fancy laboratories.” He spit on the floor.

  Kayla stared at him. She remembered Lewis’s mother. At the time, she was nothing like the man standing before her. She was gentle, kind, and only wanted a chance to live. Then, from some unknown recess of her mind, a crystal-clear understanding emerged and washed away the leaden guilt she’d carried since her son died. She walked to within inches of Lewis. She was surprised by the calm certainty in her body.

  “I’ve always done my work on the side of the angels. Yes, that day, your mother and my son died. But thirty-eight other people lived who would have been lost to their loved ones and the world. That trial led to other work that saved many more. And I’d do it again, even though it cost me everything dear to me.” She raised her head proudly. “I’ll take my chances with my creator, but after killing all those people, I’d suggest you help us now, because your chances with yours suck.”

  Lewis dropped his head.

  Kayla held her gaze on Lewis, then stepped back next to Harrison who embraced her and kissed her head.

  “Mr. Lewis?” Reed said. “What’s it going to be?”

  Lewis’s focus left the room, apparently considering his limited options. “I don’t know where the girl is. And I have no idea where the data or the treatment are.”

  “I’ll bet Mr. Wagner does. But guess what—Mr. Wagner has disappeared. You don’t know where he is, do you?”

  Lewis stared out the window.

  “Where’s your wife and kids, Mr. Lewis?” Reed asked.

  Lewis snapped his focus back to Reed. “She took the kids to their grandparents. She should be back any minute.”

  Reed shook his head and glanced at the floor, then back up at Lewis. “Your wife did cross into Canada late this morning. But guess what—the Royal Canadian Mounted Police did a welfare check for us at her parents’ home and they’re nowhere to be found. And she hasn’t crossed back into the US.”

  Kayla spotted a glaze of tears back in Lewis’s eyes when he seemed to realize his children were in play.

  “It seems everyone has abandoned you.” Reed leaned to within a couple of inches of Lewis’s face. “You can still help your country, sir, and maybe save some lives.”

  Lewis dropped his head, then looked back up at Reed. “Can you find my children?”

  “We’ll try.”

  After a loud exhale, Lewis described the operation and how Wagner had set everything up. He explained how SZENSOR forced them to keep a firewall between them and his wife to keep what they were doing from Charlotte.

  “I didn’t want anyone to get hurt, but then I realized what Wagner did when I saw the news. Those people were martyrs.”

  Kayla rushed him, but one of the SWAT agents grabbed her and held her back. “You can tell yourself that, but they’re all murder victims, you pompous asshole.”

  Reed briefly eyed Kayla. Looking back at Lewis, he resumed his questioning. “Where are the treatments and the data?”

  “I got the idea that Wagner had lost control of the situation. I think there was another buyer. But we did get the data, or at least some of it, and he had a lab make a modified version of the treatment.”

  “What?” Reed said. “What do you mean modified?”

  Lewis choked on his words. “They weaponized it.”

  The air in the room was suddenly thick. Kayla pulled against the SWAT agent restraining her. “My work. You weaponized my work?”

  “Where is it, Mr. Lewis?” Reed said.

  “I don’t know. Wagner had a dead drop to signal to deploy it. He activated it overnight.”

  Reed throttled Lewis by his throat. “Where? Deployed where?”

  “Seybold Island. In the San Juans. I told him to notify you so it didn’t get out of control.”

  “You what?” Reed said.

  “What did you do to the treatment?” Kayla asked. If she knew how it was modified, it might provide a clue to how to neutralize it.

  “Attached it to a viral vector with a high R naught to be deployed in an aerosol.”

  “R naught?” Reed said looking to Kayla for an explanation.

  “The reproductive number for the virus,” Kayla said. “It’s a term that describes the number of people an individual can infect. The higher the number the faster the community spread. He’s trying to infect the population as quickly as possible.”

  “Can they do that?” Reed asked.

  “Yes. There are challenges, but unfortunately, some scientists have solved the problems of production, fidelity and stability with synthetic vectors for bioweapons. They can do it.”

  Reed’s attention drifted away and he appeared to be stunned.

  “Agent Reed,” Kayla yelled. “With a high R naught it will spread through that island quickly. It’s the least populated island with ferry service. Maybe two hundred people. If we can’t stop them from deploying it, we can’t let it get off that island.”

  Reed turned back to Lewis. “How is it being deployed?”

  “Wagner didn’t tell me.”

  Kayla wanted to rip Lewis’s throat out. He’d bastardized her life’s work. It was the greatest breakthrough in the history of medicine and the treatment that would save her father’s life, and he was destroying it. A biologic attack like this would set science back by decades. She pulled against the SWAT member’s iron grip, still seething. But when she looked at Lewis slumped in the chair with every part of him sagging in defeat, she realized that losing his fortune and his family was already killing him. She stopped fighting and looked at Reed.

  “Get him out of here,” Reed said. Two agents dragged him from the room. Reed looked around. “Okay. Let’s go.” He started for the door.

  Kayla pulled her arm away from the SWAT agent. “You can’t leave! What about Emily?”

  Reed stopped in front of Kayla. “I’m sorry, Dr. Covington. We’ll find her.”

  Just then, another agent entered the room with Sienna Fuller. “Sir,” the agent said, “she said she had something urgent for you.”

  Reed raised one eyebrow. “Ms. Fuller?” Reed said it like Kayla’s father would when he was disappointed in his teenage daughter.

  Sienna’s knitted eyebrows and troubled eyes twisted Kayla’s insides.

  “Sienna, I told you to stay there,” Kayla said.

  “I couldn’t. I have a message for you.” Sienna bit her lower lip.

  Kayla detected panic in the young woman’s darting eyes. “From whom?”

  “I think it’s Emily’s kidnappers.”

  CHAPTER 65

  The agent accompanying Sienna clutched her arm and stood firm in front of the floor-to-ceiling glass panes. Through the windows, Kayla saw snowcapped Mount Baker glowing in the haunting moonlight. The snow had stopped, and the night sky had been wiped clean. For a moment, she wished she were anywhere but here. Despite her newfound youth, Kayla could feel her life slipping away with every second.

  Sienna scowled at the agent detaining her and yanked her arm from his grip. She locked her eyes on Kayla and slowly walked to her with a phone in her hand. Kayla waited in front of Lewis’s desk between Reed and the SWAT agent restraining her. She looked at Harrison, who stood next to her. His face already exp
ressed regret. Another SWAT agent moved in front of Reed to intercept Sienna.

  “Let her come,” Reed said in a somber voice that worried Kayla even more.

  Sienna stopped and offered Kayla the smartphone. “This came to me through my work account.”

  The video was cued up, and Kayla immediately recognized the paused image of Emily bound to a chair in the middle of a darkened room. Kayla hit “play.” The video stayed focused on Emily while the audio played a deep distorted voice.

  Come to the entrance to the footbridge to Snoqualmie Falls at midnight to exchange yourself for your daughter. The reporter can come. No one else. Any sign of anyone else, including the FBI, or any surveillance or wire of any kind and Emily will be killed. You will be watched. Further instructions will be posted at the entrance.

  Everyone in the room heard the audio and they all eyed her. A need to get to Emily stirred inside her. Emily needed her mother. Despite the hopelessness of Kayla’s situation, Emily’s survival depended on her. Kayla raised chin and pulled her shoulders back. The dread and uncertainty she’d been feeling shattered, replaced by a renewed sense of purpose that grew into a freight train of determination. Kayla checked her watch. It was already ten minutes after eleven.

  “You can’t do it,” Reed said. “It’s a death trap.”

  “I have to do it,” she said. She pointed at Reed. “No FBI.” She scanned everyone in the room. “No one.”

  “We have to get the treatments and the data,” Reed said. “Our national security—the safety of three hundred and fifty million people is at stake. Let us find another way.” He nodded toward the hallway where Neville had been taken. “You’ve heard what they can do with it.”

  “Let me go with you,” Harrison said. “I can stay out of sight. You can’t do this alone.”

  She appreciated Harrison’s offer, but it wasn’t an option. “No. I have to go alone. I won’t risk a chance to get Emily back safely.”

  “Your safety is my responsibility,” Reed said. “We can hold you.”

  Squeezing her arm again, the SWAT agent pulled Kayla closer.

  Sienna faced off with Reed. “No. It’s her life. Her daughter, her terms. You’d do the same thing for your son.”

  Reed leaned into Sienna and anger flashed in his eyes, but he didn’t respond. Kayla saw his anger melt a bit as Sienna held her ground. His posture relaxed and she took the opening.

  “They want me and the treatment,” Kayla said. “They want both at the exchange with their client. Once Emily is safe, I’ll try to find a way to get word to you once I’m done with the exchange. If I can’t, I’ll do everything I can to keep them from getting it out of the country.”

  “That’s just crazy,” Reed said. “What are you going to do? These people are trained assassins who already double-crossed that genius.” He pointed down the hall again where Lewis had been taken.

  Kayla waited for effect, then said, “You’re running out of time, Agent Reed.”

  Reed shook his head. He pulled out his phone, thumbed the screen, and pressed it to his ear. “Dan. Lewis was involved, but we have a bigger problem. I’ll have Connelly call right back and brief you.” He ended the call and nodded at the tall agent. Kayla assumed he was Connelly. As Connelly pulled out his phone, Reed added, “Brief him, then get to Seybold Island.” He turned to the SWAT leader. “Take your team with him.” He asked Kayla, “Do they have an airport on that island?”

  Kayla knew he was thinking about the route of the attack. “I know they have a helipad. Maybe a grass runway.”

  “It’s the ferry, then,” Reed said to Connelly.

  Connelly stopped talking into the phone for a moment. He started to leave the room, the SWAT team filing out behind him.

  To his back, Kayla said, “Connelly, heat or alcohol will destroy it.”

  Connelly waved an acknowledgment and kept talking into the phone as he and the SWAT team left the house. Two agents in coats and ties remained with Reed, who eyed Kayla like a hawk eyes its prey.

  “I need to make a call,” Reed said, and headed down the hallway. “I’ll be right back. Wait here.”

  ***

  As he walked down the hallway and into the living room, Reed sorted through his options. The exchange brought all the suspects together in one place. The alternative was to simply agree to the trade, but detain Covington and surround the exchange site. But these terrorists had an intelligence source as good as his. Maybe even a source inside the FBI. That move would most likely result in Emily’s death and the loss of the data and the treatments.

  He’d utilized the FBI’s exemption for arranging ransom to hostage takers two times in his career. While it could be utilized when the FBI believed it was useful for an investigation, Covington was exchanging her life for her daughter’s. That was much different than making a cash ransom payment. The only way the director and attorney general would approve the operation was if Reed could guarantee it would lead to the capture of Artemis and her team, secure the data and treatments, and safely return Emily to her mother. Otherwise, he was stuck with Neville Lewis, who now looked as if he’d been double-crossed and was of little value in finding Artemis, the remaining data, and the treatments. With the looming threat of Chinese involvement, he pulled out his phone and made the call.

  ***

  Fifteen minutes later, Reed entered the room and walked up to Kayla. “Okay.” He shook his finger at her. “But we do this my way.”

  He let out a long breath and stepped beside her so she could see Artemis’s image on his phone. “The killer leading this effort is Rosario Cordena, the best assassin the CIA had at one point. She also has an ex-Navy SEAL named Remy Stone. Cordena and Stone won’t be using their real names. Our friends at the CIA have just received intelligence from a source, and they think she’s using the alias ‘Artemis’ and he’s using ‘Forrest.’ Cordena—or Artemis now—had a tough childhood, including an abusive father. You might be able to use that at some point. We can’t risk any devices. Can you remember my number and e-mail?” Reed put his phone away.

  “Yes. No problem.”

  Reed gave her both. “Call it or text if you get to a phone. E-mail from a computer. If you forget, just call 855-TELL-FBI. They’ll get any information directly to us. We’ll have our Hostage Response Team staged and ready to deploy. We’ll set a perimeter so we can respond to your call. We won’t go near the exchange until Emily is clear.”

  Kayla felt Harrison step to her side. This was another moment—the moment when what she said meant everything, and maybe the last moment she’d ever have with him. She turned away from Reed, faced Harrison, and took his hands in hers. He’d always stood with her, but he’d also stood for her. She knew now he was the man she’d always wanted and needed. “I love you. I always did. I was just too afraid to admit it.”

  Harrison’s eyes glistened as he smiled and took her in his arms. She leaned into him, feeling his strength and tenderness. She could no longer tell where she ended and he began. He, too, apparently realized this could be the last time they’d be together. He buried his face in her neck. “I love you, too.”

  For a moment, nothing else existed and a warm glow filled her body. A wholeness enveloped her that she never had felt before. Then she thought of Emily, gently pulled away, patted him on the chest, and said, “Emily’s in trouble.” Harrison gave her a determined nod and she turned back to Reed. “Take him with you.”

  “We’ll follow you to the exit off I-90,” Reed said.

  Then, over Reed’s shoulder, Kayla spotted it. It was sitting on the mantel beside the gold urn that held Lewis’s mother. With Harrison, Reed and Sienna watching, she walked to the mantel and picked up the hand-carved fireplace-match holder. She removed two of the long wooden matches and broke them off halfway down their shaft, then bent down, untied her sneaker, and placed them under the tongue of the shoe, retying it tight. She went to Lewis’s desk. “I’m taking one of Lewis’s cars,” Kayla said as she grabbed the car fob on t
he desk. “Are you ready?” she asked Sienna.

  “Let’s go,” Sienna said.

  As Kayla led Sienna to the garage, she rehearsed the exchange in her mind. The tension returned to her body and she tightened her grip on the car fob. A feeling of bittersweetness swept over her. Her heart momentarily soared at the thought of seeing Emily again, but it was tempered by hatred for her captors that roiled her gut. Even though they’d only be together for a moment, she’d finally have her daughter back, just before she died.

  CHAPTER 66

  Charlotte Lewis read the message and channeled her excitement. After nine long years, her hard work would pay off. All the training she’d received on the trips to China to allegedly see her family had prepared her for this moment. That training included techniques for staying calm and balanced. Excitement clouded judgment, and she needed to be at her best over the next few hours.

  She sipped her coffee in the kitchen of the secluded home that had been purchased through an untraceable limited liability company. It was one of three in the area procured for the program’s agents. It sat deep in the evergreen forests on the outskirts of Carnation, at the end of a converted logging road. The nearest home was across the river and two miles toward town. The isolation further reinforced her certainty that she’d remained undetected.

  She’d played Neville perfectly from the start. Recruited by the Ministry of State Security while at the University of Washington when she was only twenty-four, she’d already established herself as one of the best behavioral scientists in the country. Her training and research in that field allowed her to leverage Neville’s upbringing at the hands of his dominant mother and use it against him. Her assessment of Neville as a textbook codependent had been spot-on. His self-concept of never being quite enough and the guilt surrounding his mother’s death made her manipulation easier than child’s play. She’d made it his idea to start the HPP and formed the fertile ground that helped turn one of the world’s greatest philanthropists into a killer.