Chapter 15 #2
“Dane Ryan goes by Striker.” Hammer waved to the man beside the Russian. “Like me, former Navy SEAL.”
Striker dipped his head.
“Bennett Ramsey.” Hammer motioned toward the dark-haired man with darker eyes on the other side of the conference table. “Former UK SAS from London.”
Ramsey lifted his chin.
“Dax Franklin.” The man beside Ramsey raised a hand. “Former Marine Force Recon, loving life in Europe.”
Hammer turned to an older man with a shock of white hair, seated at a computer console, an array of screens lit up in front of him. “Dmytro is one of our two-person technical support team. If he doesn’t know how to do it, he knows someone who can. He has contacts throughout Europe.”
Dmytro raised a hand. “The world,” he corrected, with a heavy Ukrainian accent.
Hammer’s lips twisted in a wry grin. “He’s right. And the young lady with the purple hair seated next to Dmytro is Lucy Monroe, amazing at anything related to computers, networks, and the internet, including the dark web. She’s an expert hacker.”
Hammer shifted his gaze back to the team from the States. “Have a seat. We’ll fill you in on what we’ve learned so far.”
Though the team was a little jet-lagged from the trip over, they gathered around the conference table, ready to get started on the mission ahead of them.
“Dmytro, fire up the drone footage,” Hammer called out.
A large screen at the end of the conference table lit up with a high-angle view of an industrial complex with a large building at its center.
In a second video clip, the grainy security footage from the complex’s surveillance system was shown, depicting the moment Marta was carried into the building.
Hammer pointed to a position on the large structure.
“That’s the loading dock where we saw Dr. Hale being carried inside.
Dmytro managed to fly a drone over the complex at a distance so as not to be detected by the security staff on the perimeter or the internal staff monitoring the video surveillance cameras.
He has amazing cameras installed on the drone that generate high-quality images and videos.
We sent Fearghas and Catya for an in-person intel gathering.
They can better explain what they observed during the four hours they hid in the woods surrounding the complex. ”
Crusher turned to Fearghas and Catya, eager for any information that would help them get to Marta.
“To begin, four hours just scratches the surface,” Fearghas said with his Scottish accent.
“The facility is surrounded by a ten-foot-high fence and has tight security. It appears that each entrance requires an ID card to deactivate a lock and allow the cardholder to enter. We’ll need to spend more time to observe and document everything from shift changes to contractor access, security camera positions and vehicle patterns. ”
“We don’t have much time,” Crusher reminded them. “We need to get Dr. Hale out and to a lab as soon as possible.”
“Incoming video call from the boss,” Dmytro called out from his corner. “Coming up now.”
Another monitor at the end of the table blinked to life, and Hank Patterson’s face appeared. “Glad to see you made it,” he said. “We have more information that might help.” He turned. “Swede?”
A man with white-blond hair appeared on the monitor.
“We cross-referenced Ms. Patel’s data with Helvetic BioSolutions' published research portfolio. The company has filed patents on water treatment additive compounds in all three regions. It appears as Ms. Patel and her colleagues suspect. The additives are the delivery mechanism for the current virus killing people in the three regions Helvetic deployed their clean water initiatives.”
“Folks, this is no longer a pharmaceutical company with a suspicious IP address,” Hank said. “This is a weaponized humanitarian operation.”
Crusher’s jaw hardened. “Corporate extermination at its worst.”
“Exactly.” Hank went on, “The IP address Dr. Hale gave us to research points to the Zurich facility where she’s been transferred. It’s listed as a pharmaceutical research and development campus with a BSL-3 (Biosafety Laboratory Level 3) certification. The lab itself has a staff of twenty-one.”
“In my deep dive into the true ownership of Helvetic BioSolutions,” Swede said, “I traced it to an entity registered in the Cayman Islands and from there to a foundation out of Liechtenstein. The primary beneficiary of that foundation is Pieter Teuling.”
“Surprise, surprise,” Crusher murmured. “The man whose non-profit is gifting remote communities with clean water. A gift they can’t refuse.”
Hank reappeared. “And we’ve discovered Teuling is one of the speakers at the Vienna summit.”
“The same summit we think Vasquez is targeting,” Crusher noted.
“Right,” Hank said. “My NSA contact unofficially reported that the Department of State received a threat that if they negotiate tighter anti-drug trafficking enforcement, there will be retaliation. Other nations involved in that conversation have also received the same threat.”
“Which confirms Vasquez’s intentions,” Crusher said. “What I don’t get is why Teuling would let Vasquez go through with his plan.”
“Unless Teuling doesn’t know where Vasquez planned to deploy the virus,” Hank said.
“Or he has plans to stop the release at the summit.” Crusher shook his head.
“That’s too many assumptions. We have to plan on stopping Vasquez before he or his people release the virus, and we need to expose the truth behind Teuling’s non-profit and the additives Helvetic is producing for the clean water initiative. ”
“I have my people gathering concrete data that can’t be disputed,” Hank said.”
“You’ll have to do better than that,” Crusher said. “Teuling is a billionaire. He can buy his way out of anything. He’ll claim ignorance and throw someone else under the bus to save himself.”
“We’ll work on that,” Hank promised. “Let us know if we can help in any other way. Out here.”
After Hank’s face disappeared, the monitor blinked, and a schematic appeared.
“These are the architectural drawings and floor plans for the Helvetic BioSolutions building,” Dmytro said. “I pulled them from Zurich records.” Using his cursor, Dmytro pointed to a section on the second page of the document. “This is the BSL-3 lab, located in the basement of the facility.”
The team studied the drawings and noted the corridors, elevators and staircases leading into the building and to the basement lab. They came up with a plan to stake out the complex. When they had sufficient data, they’d put a rescue plan in motion.
“I’d like to be on the first shift,” Crusher volunteered. “I need to see the complex and get a sense of what we’re up against.”
“I get that you’re anxious to free Dr. Hale,” Hammer said, “but think about it. If she was brought to Zurich because of her knowledge of viruses, she might be right where she needs to be in a BSL-3 lab.”
The man had a point. “But we don’t know whether they brought her here to work on the virus Vasquez plans to deploy.
We’re running out of time. The Summit is in three days.
She needs to work on the antiviral or at least be in a place where she can access Vasquez’s research database to jimmy the binding proteins, or whatever it is she does, to make the virus less effective.
Can’t we just storm the complex and bring her out? ”
Hammer and Jaz shook their heads. “This is bigger than saving one person. That operation has to be shut down before anyone else dies. We need irrefutable evidence to shut them down for good and put the people responsible away for a very long time.”
Crusher’s gut clenched. He didn’t give a damn about anyone else, but he did give a damn about Marta. He drew in a steadying breath and let it out slowly.
Yes, he cared about Marta. Yes, he knew they had to consider the greater good of all the souls who could be affected by a pandemic. That’s what Marta had insisted on from the beginning.
“You’re right,” Crusher said. “We need to gather the information necessary to shut down Helvetic and Teuling’s non-profit and put the people in charge, including Teuling, in jail so they can’t try something like this again.
Dr. Hale would want that, and so do I.” He squared his shoulders, ready to do whatever it took to make it happen and rescue Marta.
“I still want to be on the first shift.”