John Krygelski - The Aegis Solution

There was a rapid triple-beep tone, and Faulk pulled out his cell phone, answering it in the walkie-talkie mode. “Faulk.”

“Communications blanket is deactivated, sir.”

“Good. You’ve placed the charges?”

“Yes, sir. Two are missing. One of them is the primary.”

“I believe we’ve solved that problem. Bring your men and join us at the exit corridor. On the double.”

“Yes, sir.”

Faulk put the phone back in his pocket, and turned to one of his agents, instructing him to release Boehn. To Elias, he said, “I presume you have a key for the handcuffs.”

Elias glanced at Tillie and gave her a slight nod. With a loud chuff of disgust, she reached into her pocket and threw the key on the floor in front of Faulk. The agent picked it up and trotted to the end of the hall, where Boehn was still shackled to the steel framing piled outside the exit door. The two moved back to join their boss.

“Quite a touching scene,” Faulk snarled with undisguised venom, “seeing the two of you reunited.”

Elias bit his lip and said nothing.

“I must admit, Leah, you surprised me. All of the time and effort we expended to break you and you never gave us a thing. Even Khalid, with his barbaric bent, failed.”

“What’s the point of all this, Faulk? You faked her death and grabbed her two years ago. That’s a long time to work anyone over. Whatever she had learned…whatever she might have known…would have resulted in someone taking action against you at some point during that time. Holding her that long doesn’t make any sense.”

Faulk gave Elias a withering stare. “I suppose you are right, old friend. Oh, wait, as you have corrected me at every possible opportunity, I am not your friend and never have been.”

Elias let the comment slide.

“If all we were worried about was whether Leah revealed our plans, we would have disposed of her almost two years ago. But it was much more complicated than that.”

“I’ll try my best to understand.”

“As she played the part of cabin maid for Khalid, she found two things, the report we sent him on the completion of the pathogen, and something else. Something much more important.”

“Do I have to guess?”

“No. And I doubt that you would be right if you did.”

“The vaccine.” The two words came from Wilson.

Elias spun around to stare at his friend as he explained. “That is the only logical explanation which fits all of the facts. It appears that the goals of Mr. Faulk, and whomever he has associated himself with, have taken a turn for the eschatological. You and your people have created a doomsday bug, something that will exterminate all human life on the planet. No complex delivery system needed. No infiltration into enemy territories required. One infected person anywhere in the world will do the job for you.”

Faulk glared at him. “Not bad, old man. Please go on.”

“As Elias mentioned, a weapon like that is worthless, insane…unless you have a vaccine to protect yourself. With my admittedly shallow knowledge of you and this brief interaction, it appears that you are indeed insane, but of a type very different from that of a suicidal madman. My diagnosis, as a layman and not a trained psychiatrist, is that you are a classic narcissist. You vaccinate every person whom you have chosen to be a part of the new world and turn the bug loose on the rest of us. Leah must have found that vaccine. I am guessing that by the time Eric Stone captured her, she no longer had it with her. Only that single fact had the potential to completely ruin your plans. You needed to make absolutely certain that she hadn’t passed it into the hands of anyone who wasn’t on your list. You also needed to know that she hadn’t delivered it to a place where it could be replicated and widely distributed.”

“I’m impressed. You are quite perceptive, Doctor Chapman. I guess that the cat is out of the bag.”

“You couldn’t cancel the ongoing operation to infiltrate Khalid’s camp,” Elias interjected. “It would have been too difficult to explain. That’s why you sent Eric. He wasn’t there to provide cover and support for Leah; he was there to watch her, to make sure she didn’t stumble upon your secret.”

“Obviously true and obviously required, as, unfortunately, she did.”

“You weren’t certain that you wouldn’t need me at some point, to help you break her. But you didn’t want me spending every waking minute searching for her, so you had to stage her death.”

“Also true. And killing her off had the additional advantage of allowing me to take over your position. Sadly, as entertaining as this game of Jeopardy might be, I do need to finish my business here and move on. And now, thanks to the good professor, we all know what it is I want from her. I also assume that you have the missing bombs, Elias — which I need.”

“If you think, after all of this time, that Leah will talk now, you’re crazy,” Elias uttered coldly.

A nasty grin spread across Faulk’s face. “I think you are wrong, Elias. Because, for the first time, we have at our disposal a tool previously not utilized by us…you.”

Faulk motioned to one of his men, who stepped forward and pointed his gun directly at Elias.

Despite her weakened state, Leah jumped up. “No! Don’t.”

Faulk shrugged and, in an almost conversational tone, explained, “But, Leah, we’ve tried everything else: beatings and torture, drugs, sleep deprivation, starvation. Nothing has worked. Starting to shoot holes in your beloved husband is really the last trick in the bag.”

“Leah, don’t.”

She had stepped next to Elias, and he could see that she was biting on her bottom lip so hard that she was drawing blood. No one moved. No one spoke for several seconds as Faulk allowed his intentions to sink in. Blinking back tears, she turned to Elias. “Baby, I’m sorry. I can’t tell him.”

Elias felt no anger at hearing his own death sentence coming from the mouth of the woman he loved more than anything in the world. “Don’t be. I would have made the same choice.”

Their intense connection was shattered by a harsh laugh from Faulk. “Heartbreaking. No, it truly is. We will test the firmness of her admirable resolve when you are on the floor, screaming in a pool of your own blood.”

He turned to the armed man. “Let’s start with a leg.”

The agent switched his rifle out of automatic mode and lowed the barrel so that it was pointing at Elias’ right thigh. As he was about to pull the trigger, Leah stepped in front of Elias, blocking the shot. The gunman, momentarily flummoxed, moved closer, raising the rifle with the clear intent of bashing the stock into her face.

The proximity of the man was what Leah was waiting for. As he swung the rifle to strike her, Faulk, recognizing her intent, shouted, “GET BACK, YOU FOOL!” but it was too late. She ducked under his arms and pivoted, burying her elbow in his groin. As he doubled over, Elias, who had reacted instantly, pulled the rifle from him and, using the same butt of the stock the man was going to use on his wife, battered the top of his head, sending him to the floor.

The other three men were already bringing their weapons to bear, when Tillie, taking advantage of the distraction, snatched up the shotgun and quickly fired a booming shot in the their direction. Given the distance, the shotgun blast did little damage, but served to send Faulk and the other three diving around the two opposite corners for cover.

Elias, still holding the rifle seized from the now unconscious agent, went to take Leah’s arm, but she was retrieving the AK-47. After she grabbed it, she and Elias dashed for the utility room, following Wilson, who was already running in that direction. Tillie kept the shotgun pointed in the general direction of the intersection, ready to fire off another round if a head suddenly appeared, as she also backed toward their former hideout.