The Genesis Plague (2010)

Officially from suicide, unofficially murdered. Anyway, after those investigations implicated USAM-RIID, Fort Detrick set out to account for every vial in the Infectious Disease unit’s inventory. Took them four months to complete it. By June 2009, over 70,000 samples had been catalogued … 9,000 of which had not been previously documented in the agency’s database. Everything from Ebola to’ - he paused to check his notes - ‘stuff called “equine encephalitis virus”. And among the overlooked samples were some very interesting specimens procured by one Colonel Frank Roselli.’ He looked at her and smiled. ‘Or, just plain “Frank”.’
    ‘Wait. Frank? Our Frank?’
    He held up a hand, and said, ‘Wait, it gets better.’ He referred to his notes. ‘In late 2003, Colonel Roselli was heading up the Infectious Disease lab at USAMRIID, but was asked to step down after it was discovered that he was overseeing unauthorized tests on live animals.’
    ‘What kind of tests?’
    ‘Didn’t say. But the important part is this: the specimens Roselli brought into Fort Detrick’s bio labs all originated from a cave excavation in northern Iraq.’
    ‘No way.’
    ‘Way. And …’ Flaherty put his elbows on the table and leaned forward. ‘When my office tried to contact him at home a little while ago, they were told by a babysitter that just this morning Frank Roselli wrapped his car around a telephone pole in Carver Park, Nevada. Only a few miles from Vegas.’
    ‘My God …’ she gasped. ‘That’s awful.’
    But Flaherty had more to tell. ‘So my office contacted the coroner, who said that no official cause of death has been determined. Of course, they suspect he had a heart attack at the wheel. But I think we’d both agree that foul play shouldn’t be dismissed.’
    ‘Can’t be coincidence,’ she muttered. ‘God, if they sent someone for him too … How high does this thing go?’
    ‘Pretty high.’
    ‘Exactly what samples did Frank send back from the cave? Had to be organic specimens, right?’
    ‘Definitely. But not the kind USAMRIID normally collects. Seems Frank was studying bone samples. Lots and lots of bones.’
    Brooke felt her blood curdle. ‘Bones? From the cave?’
    ‘Yup.’
    ‘So what … like, animal bones?’
    Flaherty shook his head, ‘Human. And strangely enough, the samples were mostly molars. You know, teeth,’ he explained pointing to his cheek. ‘Almost a thousand of ‘em. The inventory entry wasn’t very detailed, but did indicate that every tooth had been drilled to perform genetic analysis.’ He checked his notes again. ‘Oh, and this was weird too: every tooth was from a male.’
    Why teeth? she wondered. ‘That’s all the description said?’
    ‘No. It also said that, like most of the 9,000 mystery samples not formerly sanctioned by the programme, Frank’s tooth collection was incinerated.’

40
LAS VEGAS
    Stokes stared at the computer monitor, befuddled by this most peculiar turn of events. The mysterious blast had knocked two of the tunnel’s cameras offline. The heavy airborne dust was making it near impossible to see anything in the passage where Al-Zahrani had fled. What could have caused the explosion? Even a grenade couldn’t cause this much damage. And he didn’t recall seeing any of the Arabs holding one.
    ‘Shit.’ Stokes rubbed his knotted neck muscles. A sudden dread came over him. If Al-Zahrani was killed in the blast …Well that would prove most unfortunate. Could anyone have survived an explosion in such tight confines?
    ‘Come on … show me where you are,’ Stokes said, grabbing at both sides of the monitor with his hands and shaking it. ‘Come on you son of a bitch. Show yourself.’
    The desk phone suddenly beeped.
    A cautious voice came over the intercom: ‘Randall? Is everything okay in there?’
    Stokes stared at the phone, sweat beading on his forehead. ‘Everything’s fine, Vanessa. Just fine, thanks.’
    ‘Okay. By the way, your wife called again and was asking what time—’
    He jabbed a finger at the disconnect button. His swollen hands felt like they’d been held over fire. He rubbed his raw palms on his legs, leaving blood smears on his trousers. For a brief spell, his vision became blurry with stars as a wave of nausea churned his stomach. He put his head in his hands and waited for equilibrium to return.
    What’s wrong with me?
    Then his vision came back, crisp and focused.
    Before he could give the bout of