‘In addition, you flew from Santa Fe to New York City yesterday, to attend a function last night and this United Nations meeting. However, your flight took some eight hours longer than it should have done. I have proof that you traveled to Brevig Mission in Alaska, and that since your arrival there a scientist working on the glacier has been found buried in the grave of a victim of Spanish Flu.’ A flurry of horrified whispers filled the hall as Jarvis went on. ‘Tissue samples from the infected corpse were found in the laboratories of SkinGen Corp just moments ago, sir. Can you explain how you came to acquire them while in Alaska, or how they ended up in the hands of Jeb Oppenheimer?’
Donald Wolfe tried to answer but his jaw ached as he gaped and he couldn’t think of a single thing to say. Jarvis gave him no quarter, speaking before he could muster a reply.
‘You’re not here to convince the nations of this world to reduce their populations. You’re here to spread a lethal virus across the globe while trying to ensure the longevity of select groups of businessmen. You’re a eugenicist, using disease and genetics to shape the human population just how you think it should be, trying to remove those you deem to somehow be less worthy of life.’ Jarvis tapped his own forehead. ‘If I’m lying, hand your gun to these police officers and let them run tests on the blood residue that I know is on the handle. It will match mine!’
Wolfe stared with wild eyes into the middle distance, as though aware of his exposure and yet unable to bring himself to focus upon his inevitable demise. Jarvis took another couple of paces toward the dais, his voice carrying across the entire amphitheater.
‘Sir, I do not care if you are innocent, framed, incompetent or just plain guilty. Right now, all that concerns me is that if you do not inform us of where those men are, right now, several citizens of this country that you swore to protect will die. Do you understand?’
Wolfe swallowed thickly and then nodded once. As he did so, he saw one of the dignitaries watching the exchange discreetly reach into his pocket and retrieve a cell phone upon which he began typing.
‘Where are they?’ Jarvis repeated, getting Wolfe’s attention once again. ‘Where is Jeb Oppenheimer and the soldiers you sent into the desert?’
The words fell from Wolfe’s mouth as if of their own accord.
‘Near Rattlesnake Canyon, Carlsbad,’ he uttered. ‘East of the Guadalupe Mountains.’
A deep silence filled the hall as Wolfe’s guilt lay bare for all to see.
Jarvis turned and called out to the police behind him, who immediately began running for the exits with radios to their mouths. Wolfe glanced up at the dignitary with the phone, a Bilderberg member, who was looking down at him with a disapproving gaze. Wolfe realized in that moment that it was all over for him.
Jarvis turned toward him.
‘Sir, if you would accompany the police to…’
Wolfe stepped down off the dais in one fluid motion and reached down, slipping the ceremonial pistol from its holster. He barely heard the cries of alarm from the chamber around him as he cocked the weapon, scarcely saw the security guards draw their own weapons with amazing speed to point at him. Wolfe turned to face the secretary-general, saluted once with his free hand, and then put the pistol’s barrel to his head.
He saw Doug Jarvis rush toward him, his mouth open and his eyes wide.
‘Donald, no!’
A deafening blast filled the hall and Wolfe’s world vanished into blackness.
66
Ellison Thorne peered up from the shelter of the cave, and Ethan watched as his craggy face screwed up in fury, his big hands clenching and unclenching around the handles of his pistols as he bellowed back in reply.
‘You’re sure one cowardly tyke, Mister Oppenheimer.’
A distant laugh rippled down toward them from far above, the old man obscured now by the mercenaries working their way down the ladder.
‘A determined one,’ Oppenheimer replied. ‘You’re the ones cowering in a cave.’
‘Why don’t you come down here and join us?’ Ellison Thorne thundered back. ‘If’n you’re hankerin’ so bad to be here?’
No reply came, and Ethan turned to Ellison Thorne.
‘He’s already murdered one man,’ he said. ‘He’ll have no problem killing Lillian Cruz.’
Ellison squinted up at their attackers for a long moment, and then made a decision.
‘We don’t take orders from you, Jeb!’ he boomed. ‘We’ll decide how this goes down!’
Oppenheimer’s voice echoed down at them in reply.
‘You’ve got five minutes before we finish this for good!’
Ethan and the rest of the soldiers withdrew into the cave to see Lopez hurrying to join them.
‘Kip’s not good,’ she said. ‘He’s bleeding out and there’s nothing I can do about it.’
Copthorne, McQuire and Cochrane all looked to Ellison Thorne, who in turn looked at Ethan.
‘If’n that man gets hold of what’s in these caves, you say he’ll destroy the human race?’
Ethan nodded.
‘He’ll only let a certain few people have access to the drugs he’s going to develop using the bacteria in your bodies. Those people will become biologically immortal, just as you are, while the rest of the world will be prevented from raising families. Oppenheimer, and people like him, will rule without end over the population.’
‘But we’re dying,’ McQuire said. ‘Whatever this thing is, it doesn’t last forever.’
‘It will, once Oppenheimer’s had his chance to genetically mess with it,’ Lopez said. ‘Imagine a man like Oppenheimer being able to rejuvenate himself: young, fit, immortal and in control of a drug that every human being on the planet would kill to acquire. The world will be ruled by a dictator class with him at its head.’
Ellison Thorne turned away and rubbed his temples.
‘If’n we get deep enough into the caves they won’t be able to follow,’ he said quickly. ‘We can get ourselves sorted and come back out fighting.’
‘You’ll never be able to do it quickly enough to prevent Jeb from killing Lillian Cruz,’ Ethan said. ‘She’s innocent in all of this.’
‘So are we!’ Ellison shouted. ‘We didn’t ask for this, but how can we now surrender it just because of one man’s greed?!’
Ethan spoke quietly.
‘Because this isn’t about just you, or us, or Lillian Cruz. The simple truth is that people like Jeb Oppenheimer think they can control everything and they can’t. Sooner or later, the science of this bacterium will be lost, or stolen, or leaked. No matter how hard they try they won’t be able to prevent it from reaching the public domain, through a disgruntled employee or maybe one of those heroic whistle-blowers who leaks these things to the public for no financial gain, or maybe even through a population-wide revolution. It happened in the Middle East, the people toppling their dictators one after the other.’
Lopez stepped forward.
‘When that happens,’ she said, ‘and it will, then we’ll have an entire population of people who will never die. Can you imagine what will happen when the population rises so fast that the resources dry up, when there’s no more water, no more food, no more fuel? When people will kill each other for a morsel of food or a sip of water? One day, this will not result in a human population that lives forever. It will end our species, completely. We will all die.’
Ellison Thorne stared at Ethan and Lopez for a long moment, and then looked at the other soldiers.
‘What the hell do you think?’
McQuire, Copthorne and Cochrane exchanged glances, and then they nodded slowly. As they did, a voice came from behind them.