The Moses Virus Read online

  “What’s that?” asked Tom.

  “The interior spaces on this floor, the labs, the demonstration rooms, are being ignited, one by one. They are set to burn at a fast pace and at an extremely high temperature. Nothing inside can survive. Nothing will be left to be found—no evidence, nothing. I don’t like destroying my own property, but I’ve got what matters most,” Bailitz said, holding up his right arm with the leather case containing the virus dangling below, “and I’ve got other secret locations I’ll use after this.”

  Tom, though his situation was perilous, ignored his own predicament and pressed Bailitz. “Where can you take the virus? You’ll be hounded by the police and the CDC.”

  Bailitz replied, “I’ve got a second lab—totally private, not known, even to top management of Belagri. There we can work on the virus in complete secrecy. But, no more delay tactics.” Bailitz looked up. “It is time to start the fans. We have precisely five minutes until this room is ignited.” He took out the vial from his left pocket and a cold smile spread across his face. “I want to see how our two friends do with a taste of the virus.”

  20

  On Bailitz’s cue, the German walked over to a switch on the wall that controlled the fans.

  “The virus acts more swiftly with circulating currents of air,” Bailitz said as he edged toward the door. “At heart,” Bailitz added, “I’m a scientist. And as a scientist, I need to test the potency of your virus. So I’m delighted you’ve volunteered to be my guinea pigs.” There was a look of supreme satisfaction in his eyes. He seemed to be deliriously pleased with the fate he was about to administer to Tom and Gerard.

  The German henchman’s hand reached out to switch the fans on. In the split second that his back was turned to Bailitz, overly confident that his gun gave him superior power, the German was vulnerable. Gerard grabbed the small-scale model of an oil derrick from the display and hurled it at the German’s forehead. As the derrick flew through the air, Tom saw his opening and threw his arms around Bailitz, who didn’t see Tom coming. With the vial in his left hand and the suitcase attached to his right wrist, Bailitz was fairly easy to corral. He struggled but couldn’t escape, and Tom tightened his grip, immobilizing Bailitz.

  Just before he was struck by the flying derrick, the German pushed the switch for the fans and wheeled around, but he didn’t have the split second he needed to duck. The flying cast-iron oil derrick struck him on the forehead with a solid thud. His blue eyes widened, then he sank to his knees, dazed. Gerard rushed to grab his gun before the German recovered. It was over in a second. The fans kicked up a strong breeze.

  Tom glanced down and in horror saw that Bailitz had intentionally or unintentionally broken the vial. “Quick, the vial’s broken!” Tom screamed at Gerard. “Get out the door!” Gerard dove for the door. Tom gave Bailitz a shove, sending Bailitz to his knees. Tom made it to the door a split second after Gerard.

  They burst out of the Nairobi room and pushed the door into its closed position. There was the secure sound of an airtight seal forming. Both Tom and Gerard could look through the thick glass panel into the room. Bailitz was struggling to get up. He was encumbered by the leather case strapped to his right wrist. He had a cut on his left hand from the broken vial. Its contents had spilled into his cut and into the air. The fans moving air in the room swiftly picked up the droplets of the virus, spreading it everywhere.

  Over near the wall where he had fallen, the German was awake and starting to stand up. The German began to cough. Bailitz was racked with coughing. In a blinding flash, Bailitz must have realized that he had set in motion his own horrendous undoing and death. His grabbed his head in pain; his breathing was labored. His face was a mask of terror as he collapsed. Bailitz, the chief executive officer of Belagri, was trapped inside a ravaged body. Dimly, he must have realized that his dreams were over. He was in pain and having trouble breathing.

  Tom turned to Gerard, and said, “Fast—super fast.”

  “Apparently,” Gerard said. “The Spanish flu took effect in a few hours, with death in a day or two. This virus acts immediately. I think you’re seeing what happened to your colleagues in the Roman Forum.”

  Tom shuddered at his memory of Doc’s and Eric’s deaths.

  Bailitz’s body contorted in pain. He cried out for help. Then, with almost superhuman strength, he pulled himself together and inched slowly toward the door behind which Tom and Gerard were watching. The leather case with the virus inside was being dragged by Bailitz, who was mouthing a cry for help, to be let out.

  “Don’t even think about it,” Gerard said to Tom. “Without an antidote, which we don’t have, the damage to Bailitz and his henchman has been done. They can’t survive. Going back in there would only spread the virus to you and, if you left the room, to others. With what Bailitz planned for us, for Nairobi, for the world, this is a suitable fate for him.”

  Tom said to Gerard, “We should contact Otto Kramer.”

  “You’re right,” Gerard said.

  “We’ve been able to hear you since the alarms stopped,” said Kramer over the earpieces that Tom and Gerard were wearing. “What are those explosions?”

  Tom replied, “Bailitz has detonated each of the labs. He’s trapped in one, which is about to be blown up.”

  “He’s dead?”

  The lab suddenly exploded. There was a bright fireball of light, coupled with a loud noise that sounded like thunder. Tom felt the shock rock through his body, and he stumbled. But both he and Gerard were unhurt otherwise. The thick glass and steel of the door protected them.

  “He is now,” Tom said, staring at the carnage.

  “What was that?” Kramer asked.

  “That was the last lab,” Gerard said, “the Nairobi room—blown up. We’re standing just outside it.”

  “And Bailitz?” asked.

  Tom said, “Bailitz is inside—burned, or burning, to a cinder. The virus has been incinerated. It’s over.”

  The commander said, “Thank God. We have a couple of snipers between us and you, but we should be there momentarily.”

  The steel lab had contained the explosion, but Tom and Gerard could see through the thick glass in the steel door that the inside had become a fiery furnace. The room was burning furiously. Heat from the fire made the glass panel in the steel door extremely hot. “Don’t touch it,” Gerard warned after he came close to burning his own hand.

  Bailitz had collapsed, and the fire had engulfed him. The leather case was on fire as well. Tom couldn’t see the canisters that were in the case. The German’s body was also in flames. The two bodies were twisting into shapes that Tom recognized, from the Roman Forum with Doc and Eric, but also from the videos of the bodies in Imhotep’s tomb.

  Tom suddenly looked shocked. Gerard spotted this change that had come over Tom and said, “What’s the matter? Something wrong?”

  Tom muttered, “Imhotep’s mural.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “The Bible names ten plagues, but the Egyptian mural in Imhotep’s tomb has eleven panels, one of them depicting Egyptians being devoured by flames. Seeing Bailitz and the German engulfed, I was reminded of the mural.”

  “So, go on, tell me what you’re thinking,” Gerard said.

  “I think that the Egyptians who survived the final plague—a devastating virus that attacked humans—figured out that the virus could be snuffed out with fire. In the picture showing the flames, three canopic jars are depicted—not the usual four. The actual jars were found in the tomb, and none of them were filled with Imhotep’s organs. Their contents had samples of victims, including human samples. What occurs to me is that those highly shrewd Egyptians had figured the virus out—three thousand years ago, and sent a warning about it, how to fight it, and samples for their successors.”

  “Why do you think that the fire panel was not the last one?”r />
  “I’m guessing,” said Tom. “For the Egyptians, the afterlife was so important that everything in their culture was directed to preserving the human body for its next existence. Destroying a body by fire to kill a virus would be seen as treasonous. It was imperative to comment on the plague but not to present it in so obvious a place as either the first or last panel. If I’m right, I’m amazed at how sophisticated this ancient culture was. Some priests have reached to us across a gap of three thousand years. But I may be wrong—it’s just a guess on my part.”

  “Impressive deductions,” said Gerard.

  Tom and Gerard were mesmerized by Bailitz’s fate. They knew, of course, that the other labs would be burned into charred remains with nothing identifiable remaining. That meant that Diethelm Hoener, the GSG-9 soldier shot by Bailitz’s henchman, would be lost, as would all papers, documents, and substances within the rooms. Tom guessed that the contained nature of the burning labs might save the castle from destruction, but he wasn’t sure of this.

  Otto Kramer and his team reached Tom and Gerard. The Nairobi room was still white hot. The commander immediately asked, “Are you okay?”

  Tom and Gerard both replied, “We’re fine.”

  “Where’s my soldier?”

  Tom shook his head. “Shot by one of Bailitz’s men and left in another lab. We could do nothing. The lab is one of those that Bailitz blew up.”

  Kramer sent a detail of his men to see if his soldier could in any way be retrieved. Then he asked, “The virus?”

  Gerard replied, “It was in a leather case strapped to Bailitz’s wrist. We saw it burning. I assume the virus was vaporized. But we won’t know for sure until the room cools down and we can check it out.”

  Kramer added, “We picked up the blond woman. She was in the secret passage, heading for the back stairs. My men are holding her. We’re going to question her. She’s protesting that she’s not involved.”

  Tom said, “That’s a joke. She’s totally involved. You’ll want to question her, because she has valuable information. But there’s probably no point in detaining her, since she’s actually been very helpful to us.”

  Borrowing the commander’s cell phone, Tom called Alex, who was frantic with fear that something might have happened to him. She told him that she had heard the alarms, gunfire, and the intermittent explosions. She and the Bundespolizei officer had driven to the back entrance of the castle where she had been waiting impatiently for Tom.

  Gerard said to Tom, “I’ll need to stay here until the lab has cooled. I want to make certain the virus is completely destroyed.”

  “How long will that take?” Tom asked.

  Kramer replied, “All the local fire departments are here, battling the fires.”

  Tom said, “I’d like to go find Alex.”

  “Understood,” replied Gerard. “Once you’ve done that, come on back up here. It’ll still be awhile until we can make a secure examination.”

  Kramer said, “I want one of my men to accompany you. We’ve got Bailitz’s men rounded up, but if there’s a stray, hiding somewhere . . .”

  “I understand,” Tom said. “Thanks.”

  Tom, accompanied by a soldier Kramer assigned to him, proceeded down the hidden staircase without any incident and left the castle out of the secret entrance. Alex was standing beside the car, anxiously waiting. When she saw Tom, she ran toward him and he toward her, the two embracing with great warmth. Tom soothed her, telling her, “The Moses Virus was destroyed in the fire. Bailitz planned to use the virus on Gerard and me, but we escaped. Bailitz did not escape.”

  “You mean it’s over? The Moses Virus is destroyed? We’re free to go?” Alex asked.

  “Gerard needs to make certain that there’s absolutely no Moses Virus remaining, but I think the answer to that is yes, once he’s verified the conditions in the lab.”

  Tom and Alex, accompanied by Kramer’s soldiers, retraced Tom’s route to the second floor, finding Gerard standing at the door to the Nairobi lab. The heat within the Nairobi room had died down enough to enter.

  A Hazmat team from a local hospital had accompanied the firefighting teams and was stationed at the entrance to the Nairobi room. Gerard put on a spare Hazmat suit, and the Hazmat team, along with Gerard, entered the Nairobi room. Tom and Alex could watch through the glass panel in the laboratory door. Gerard went first to Bailitz’s charred body, or what was left of it. Strapped to the bones of his wrist was a chain. There was a metal handle at the end of the chain, but it had half melted. The leather suitcase had vaporized, but the three canisters lay on the floor. The tops of the canisters had blown off as the virus inside had become superheated. Gerard talked to Tom through his microtransmitter.

  Tom asked, “The tops were blown off? What about the virus?”

  Gerard replied, “With the temperature of the fire so searingly hot, the virus was vaporized and destroyed. I’m standing beside Bailitz’s skeleton, and it is severely contorted.”

  Tom replied, “Just like Doc and Eric. The virus certainly leaves its telltale mark.”

  To make absolutely certain, Gerard made another pass through the Nairobi room, turning over all objects in the area. Gerard also went to the lab where the virus had been stored in the freezer. Again, nothing. He returned to Tom and Alex. “You know,” Gerard said, “it’s closure, but an odd feeling just the same, don’t you think?”

  Tom replied, “I think I know what you mean. A substance that endured for three thousand years is gone—there’s no evidence of any amount, minute or otherwise, of the virus. I should be greatly relieved, and I am. But there’s a gap in what we’ll ever know about this amazing piece of history.”

  Gerard said, “Remember, Tom, we destroyed a menace, saved the world.”

  “Okay,” laughed Tom, “I’m over my nostalgia. Just remembering the hell that Alex and I have been living through is enough to cure me. I’m glad it’s gone, and we’re safe.”

  “Agreed,” seconded Alex.

  Otto Kramer had walked through Bailitz’s rooms and now returned. “We’ve rounded up all Bailitz’s mercenaries and are taking them in for questioning. That’s standard procedure. But they’re hired hands, and I doubt we’ll learn anything useful.”

  “What’ll happen to them?” Tom asked.

  “That’s not my call,” Kramer said, “but if asked I would try to recruit them. They’re good. The other Belagri employees who worked in the labs—we’ll let them go. We’ve got no case against them. The same goes for the woman—Crystal Close.”

  “You’ve nothing on her either?” Alex asked, somewhat ironically.

  “She was on the scene, but was in possession of nothing illegal. This is, after all, a property owned by Belagri. I checked with my headquarters and was told that if there is no supply of the virus remaining, we have no grounds for holding any of the employees unless we have evidence that some of the people were involved in stealing it or transporting it from Switzerland. But since she’s the senior-most officer of Belagri present, I’ve been ordered to take her in for questioning.”

  Gerard commented, “Without any of the virus left, we at the CDC have no jurisdiction or reason to detain her. What do you think, Tom?”

  “I’m a private U.S. citizen. I’ve got no view on her at all.”

  Alex said, “I don’t trust her.”

  Kramer asked, “Would you jail her?”

  “No, I suppose not,” said Alex, somewhat unhappily.

  “Fine, then. I’ll be taking her and leaving with my men. Our work is done. The rest of the cleaning up will be handled by the local fire departments. After that, I suppose Belagri will take over the reconstruction of the facility.”

  “Thanks, Otto. We’re very grateful for your help and especially sorry about the loss of Diethelm Hoener,” Tom said.

  “Diethelm was a very able soldier, and I already
miss him. He had a wife and two small children, and I’ll have to break the sad news to her this morning. Loss of any of my men is tragic, and nothing excuses this loss. But if the virus had been let loose on mankind, and if we could have prevented it but didn’t, then I’d never have forgiven myself.” With that, Otto Kramer and his team withdrew, leaving Tom, Alex, and Gerard.

  Gerard said, “I’ve still got my government car and driver. Would you like a lift to the airport? Will you be returning to Rome?”

  Tom looked at Alex, who nodded affirmatively. “We’d like a ride. Thanks.”

  The three walked down the back stairs to the car that Alex had left. Gerard was on the telephone calling David Baskin in Atlanta. Gerard apologized for calling at such an ungodly hour.

  Baskin said to Gerard, “Don’t concern yourself about the time. Please put me on your cellphone’s speaker. I’d like your colleagues to hear.” Baskin then continued, with Gerard, Tom, and Alex listening. “What’s important is the destruction of the virus. Absolutely the best news we’ve heard in years. Congratulations. I can tell you that everyone at the Centers for Disease Control will be tremendously relieved when they learn that the threat of a Moses Virus pandemic is over. ”

  Then Baskin added, “The scientist in me—to be frank—will always wonder what we’d have found when we analyzed the virus. True, we did have a few grains of it when we examined the moss that had housed and protected it. But this examination just whetted my appetite to study a larger sample of it. Was there something unusual about it? Did its origin being closer to the beginning of man’s recorded history make its properties unique? I’m sorry in a way the mystery of the virus will remain forever that—a mystery.”

  While Baskin was speaking, Tom chanced to see Crystal being escorted to a police car parked a dozen yards away. She was carrying in her left hand a suitcase filled with—Tom guessed—whatever clothes she had that hadn’t been ruined by either fire, smoke, or water. But, in her right hand, she had a much smaller leather suitcase. Crystal looked up, saw Tom, smiled, and while she handed the suitcase in her left hand to the driver, she continued to hold the smaller leather suitcase in her right hand as she got into the car. Her door closed, and the driver, police escort, and Crystal drove off.