The Genesis Plague (2010)

too.’ She took the BlackBerry and began finger-pecking the URL for Yahoo!.
    He smiled. ‘You always so shy?’ But he saw that she’d suddenly become preoccupied with the BlackBerry.
    ‘Huh. That’s weird.’
    ‘What?’
    She tried logging into her e-mail account again. ‘Says my username and password are invalid. Like my account is gone. That’s impossible.’
    Flaherty sighed. ‘No, actually it’s not.’
    ‘What do you mean?’
    He nodded. ‘NSA. That’s my guess.’ He knew that telling her this wasn’t smart, but he’d done it anyway.
    ‘But they can’t do that! I mean, who can do that?’ she protested. She felt violated.
    ‘Thirty thousand computer scientists and cryptographers under one roof in Fort Meade, dedicated to cracking data and voice communications can do just about anything when they have your number. Remember those geeks in high school, the computer hackers, videogame junkies, Dungeons and Dragons types? Imagine a building - a city - full of ‘em.’
    ‘God,’ she groaned. ‘I like videogames too,’ she confessed. ‘But I’m not snooping around people’s private information.’
    ‘You’ve got to have something else from this guy, right? A business card, a paycheque …?’
    She shook her head. ‘No card. And the money was wire-transferred to my account.’ Then she thought back to eavesdropping on the archaeologist who’d performed the carbon studies. ‘Wait. There was this archaeologist who was at the cave when I was there. He was outside the cave, making a cell phone call. Something about test results on samples he’d sent out. I overheard him mention an AMS lab where he’d sent samples for testing.’
    ‘AMS lab?’
    ‘Accelerator Mass Spectrometer. The machine used for carbon-dating studies.’
    ‘Remember the name of the place?’
    She tried to recall, but couldn’t. ‘No. Damn.’ Then she remembered something else. ‘But there were other tests results he’d mentioned. Biological cultures or something. He was reading from a report that had an official seal on its cover. Some kind of insignia, I think. But it was weird, because I remember it had a symbol representing a DNA helix, or chromosomes. And it had a long acronym that began with USA …’
    Flaherty tightened up, fearing he knew what she meant. ‘Did the insignia have a five-pointed star to the right of the helix and a circular symbol beneath it?’ He tried tracing the layout in the air with his index finger to help her picture it.
    She fished her memory. ‘Not sure.’
    He checked the mirror to ensure no one was shadowing him then pointed with his chin at the BlackBerry and said, ‘Type in this web address.’ He had to repeat the tricky URL three times before she got it right.
    Once Brooke brought up the home page, she immediately recognized the insignia. ‘Yeah, that’s it! That’s the insignia!’ She held the BlackBerry out for him and pointed to it on the mini LCD screen.
    For Flaherty, this was anything but good news. ‘Great,’ he grumbled.
    There was a long acronym beside the insignia: USAMRIID. ‘I remember the two “I’s” in the name too,’ she said. ‘Reminded me of Roman numerals. Says here “United States Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases”.’
    ‘Exactly,’ Flaherty said. He let out another sigh. This assignment was fast snowballing into something much bigger. ‘Among other things, that’s America’s bio-weapons division.’

25
IRAQ
    ‘What do you mean she got away?’ Crawford snapped through the sat-com’s microphone in a loud whisper. He practically bit the filter off the Marlboro that dangled between his lips.
    ‘There was someone else there already. A detective, I think,’ the caller replied.
    ‘ So? ‘ He circled around the MRAP to avoid be overheard by the marines milling around the camp.
    ‘I had her pinned down. Was moving in to finish her. The guy came out of nowhere. Took me down with his car, started shooting. He managed to take her away.’
    The inept assassin’s recap of what had transpired at the museum pushed Crawford’s rage to the boiling point. ‘Isn’t that Jim-fucking-dandy,’ Crawford spat. ‘You listen to me, you incompetent scumbag … You find her, you kill her. Or I’ll have your head, you hear me?’
    ‘I’m already tracking them. I’ll take care of it.’
    ‘You better be calling me real soon with good news.’ He terminated the call. He pulled a long drag on the cigarette, then flicked it