Chapter 45 #2
“I’d told Ray what to wear, then made sure Rich’s partner was dressed in the same kind of clothing.
Rich killed Wilmer, and the two of them drove off in his car.
Rich dropped his partner off not long after, making sure he was in one of the spots we’d identified as not being within sight of CCTV.
” Winter made a face. “And that was no easy feat, believe me. I’d told Ray that Rich would pick him up and take him to Wilmer’s place, except of course, when that pickup was due to take place, Wilmer was already dead. ”
“Didn’t Eddie figure something was wrong when Rich showed up in Wilmer’s car?” Gary asked.
“He didn’t know it was Wilmer’s car. Rich asked him to drive, Ray got behind the wheel. You know the rest.” He shook his head. “We planned that down to the nth degree, and you worked it all out less than twenty-four hours later.”
“We worked it out—we just couldn’t prove any of it. All we had to go on was Dan’s conviction that Eddie was only there for show.”
“Was the plan to come after me next?” Sam looked Winter in the eye. “You might as well tell me, now it’s all over.”
“It’s not over until that pathogen is destroyed,” Winter declared.
Nathan blinked. “Won’t your superiors expect you to bring it home to them?”
“Only if I still work for them, and seeing as how I let myself be compromised, they might not be happy to continue employing me.” He rubbed the back of his neck.
“I haven’t worked out yet what I’m going to put in my report.
” He turned to Sam. “And yes, you were the next target. Until you ended up dead.” His eyes twinkled.
“May I congratulate you, by the way, on the timing of your… death.”
“Then Powell didn’t see Sam in Provincetown? That day he saw me there?” Dan shivered. “Dear Lord. I could’ve led him right to her.”
“He’d followed you and Mitchell. We both thought she was dead. He watched you, waiting for the chance to take you out, but then he got a call from the professor, and he had to return to Boston.”
“Look, this is all very interesting, but can I ask a question about something that’s been bugging me?” Johan scowled. “Why did he pick Johannesburg? Why conduct his test in South Africa? Was he some kind of racist?”
Stu snorted. “Considering he did this on US soil too, I don’t think that theory holds water—unless he was also being homophobic by letting monkeypox loose in a gay bar.”
“He wasn’t being racist or homophobic,” Sam remonstrated. “You have to look at this from a scientific point of view. Africa is the perfect petri dish. He could map the spread of infection without too much medical intervention. That’s why he was looking at the DRC too.”
“How did Michelle Martin come to be involved?” Nathan inquired.
“She wasn’t, originally. Robert said he kept her in the dark. All that changed when he learned Sam was onto him. So he told Michelle everything.”
“And because Dale’s death had torn her life apart too, she didn’t see anything wrong with his plans. That’s what happened, isn’t it?” Sam’s eyes were pained. “His death broke both of them.”
Winter gave her a sympathetic glance. “Yes. Robert called us and said she’d volunteered to go to South Africa and release the pathogen for him. Robert had come up with the nebulizers, but it was Michelle who suggested the stadium. She devised the plan.”
“No wonder she looked at me as though she hated me,” Sam murmured. “I was the bad guy trying to stop Robert from achieving his goal.”
Nathan coughed. “Can we talk specifics now? Gerber brought out the nebulizer and the pathogen?”
Winter nodded. “Michelle wouldn’t risk coming into contact with the pathogen until it was absolutely necessary, even though she’d been inoculated. The biosecure flask was in Gerber’s diplomatic pouch. They scanned it but didn’t search it.”
“But how did he get it? And why did he do it in the first place?”
“He visited Robert’s home, carrying a doctor’s bag and with a MD sticker on the windshield. Anyone watching wouldn’t have thought anything of it. And as for why he did it….” Winter arched his eyebrows. “Money, of course. Plus he had his own reasons.”
“What reasons could justify his actions?” Sam demanded.
Winter gave her a sad smile. “There are more people out there who think like Robert than you could possibly imagine, unfortunately. And that’s the really frightening thing about this.”
“There were two nebulizers, weren’t there?” Dan asked.
“Yes. Gerber set up the bag, minus the pathogen, and handed it to us at the golf club, along with the biosecure flask. Michelle brought a spare nebulizer and a laptop. That was also her chance to see what we looked like. Up till that point, we were just names.”
“So she was to assemble it once she was in the country?” Nathan asked.
“Yes, if needed. She knew how to put it all together—Robert had made sure of that. I’d set up Gerber’s nebulizer in the restroom at the stadium, but when we realized we had a tail, we abandoned it.
I’d given Michelle a burner phone when we met at the golf club, so I called her and we formulated our backup plan.
She had her nebulizer. All Rich had to do was hand her the pathogen—well, what she thought was the pathogen.
We changed the plan to deploy it after the game.
We arranged a little scene for after the halftime whistle so we could pass it to her. ”
Nathan stared at him. “Powell was wearing a Sharks shirt, wasn’t he? One of Bosman’s men saw him bump into a spectator. That was Michelle?”
Another nod. “He dropped the pathogen into her purse, sealed in Bubble Wrap. All she had to do was add it to the cup in the nebulizer. Then once she was done, we would meet up and get her—and us—onto the next flight back to Boston.” He glanced at Gary.
“That was very clever, sending her a message on my phone. She must have thought she’d be safe to walk out of the restroom. ”
“Speaking of Michelle….” Gary frowned. “What happens now?”
“As we speak, she’s in a cell at police headquarters.
” Nathan removed his phone from his pocket.
“I was just about to call Bosman to arrange a time when we can see her tomorrow morning. We aim to leave at ten in the morning, or sooner, if we can. We’ll be back in Boston by ten o’clock Sunday night.
And the plan is to have her on that plane with us.
” He grimaced. “That’s going to be the tricky part.
I think Bosman wants her to stay in South Africa. ”
“She’s coming on the plane with us?” Gary imagined that would be an uncomfortable ride.
“Yes, but she’ll be in cuffs.” He glanced at Winter. “If you’ll excuse me.” He got up and wandered out onto the patio, his phone in his hand.
“Why will she be cuffed?” Sam demanded. “She didn’t do it.”
Gary sighed. “Yes, she did. It doesn’t matter that all she dispersed was water—she believed it to be the pathogen. She knew exactly what she was doing. That’s attempted bioterrorism, and she will be charged with that when we get back to Boston.”
Dan held up a hand, and Gary stilled. “What’s up?”
He frowned. “Listen. Something’s wrong.” He pointed to where Nathan stood.
Even at a distance, Gary could see Nathan was flustered, his voice rising.
“He looks really pissed,” Gary murmured. “I guess Bosman’s playing hardball.”
Everyone around the table fell silent, and although Gary couldn’t catch the words, he knew Nathan was enraged, his face red, his body stiff.
At last he finished the call and walked back to the couches, his face like thunder.
“You’re not going to believe this. An hour ago, someone from the US Embassy turned up at police headquarters—with diplomatic credentials for Michelle Martin.”
“What?” Gary froze. “She isn’t a diplomat.”
“You know that, and I know that, but apparently all the paperwork checked out. Bosman’s guys were told it was a matter of national security that she be taken back to the US.”
“But where would they get diplomatic credentials?” Dan frowned, and then he face-palmed. “Gerber, of course. It’s easy to get hold of the right papers if you’ve got a diplomat in your pocket.”
Nathan nodded. “That’s why he didn’t leave on that flight. He must have been told to stick around in case he was needed.” He scowled. “Christ. They played this perfectly. There’s no way Bosman would’ve let her go if anyone else had turned up for her, but he couldn’t go against diplomatic immunity.”
“Let her go?” Gary felt sick. “Tell me they didn’t hand her over.”
“They had no choice.” Nathan’s eyes were dull. “She’s gone.”