Part 46 (1/2)
”Then explain what's happening.”
”I can't.”
Rudy asked, ”Could Bliss have done that if she was alive?”
”No way,” said Auntie. ”She was a computer engineer and-”
”Yes,” said Hu.
All eyes snapped back in his direction.
”You keep forgetting that Bliss wasn't just a genius, she was a supergenius. That's not a casual phrase. Her intellect was staggering. If she had the information and enough resources, she could either do it or arrange to have it done. That was one of the things we were all afraid of when we discovered that she was copying information and planning on selling it. Her level of genius was profoundly dangerous.”
Auntie said, ”So what are we talking about? We know Bliss is dead. Could she have obtained Berserker science and sold it elsewhere while she was alive? Sold it and then cleaned up after herself?”
”I don't ... think so,” said Bug tentatively. ”MindReader tore her computer apart, and if she'd ever had that information there would have been some record. You can't erase that much data without leaving a trace.”
”Couldn't she have bought another computer?”
”We hacked her banking records going back a lot of years,” said Bug. ”We were looking for that kind of purchase, but there was nothing. We found the stuff she actually stole, and that's why we busted her.” He paused and c.o.c.ked his head thoughtfully. ”You know, though ... if she was still alive, then I could build a pretty good case for her being Mother Night. The level of genius, the subtlety and complexity. She had that by the bagful. And I've played a lot of games with her. She was devious as s.h.i.+t.”
”But she's dead,” said Circe.
”She's dead,” agreed Bug.
”Guys, guys,” I said, ”let's stick with who might actually be alive. Bug, have Nikki run a thorough background check on Bliss. I know she was adopted from China, so see if you guys can hack Chinese adoption records and-”
”I already did that,” said Hu. ”She had one sister, but the girl was adopted by a family in Des Moines. School records indicate above-average intelligence, but only just. There's nothing to indicate that she had anything approaching Artie's genius. And there's no indication that Bliss ever had contact with that girl.”
”Check again,” Church said to Bug. ”Find that girl and run a deep background check. Also establish her whereabouts on all dates and times relative to this case.”
”On it.”
”And send information to all law enforcement agencies about the Berserkers.”
Bug hesitated. ”Really? That's going to raise a whole lot of questions.”
”Do it.”
Chapter Seventy-three.
The Hangar Floyd Bennett Field Brooklyn, New York Monday, September 1, 5:53 a.m.
I was on my sixth cup of coffee and my hands shook with the aftereffects of violence and way too much caffeine. The last hours of Sunday had burned away and now we were four and a half hours into Monday. We'd spent all night going over every bit of data going all the way back to Arlington and up to the news reports of violence all across the country.
The number of bombings was now eight.
Random acts of violence, fifty-three.
Arsons, eleven.
The release of weaponized pathogens, four. DMS teams were handling each of those, but with plenty of help from local law. Word came down from the White House through subtle channels to drastically but quietly diminish any show of federal involvement in matters that might involve a trigger pull. At the same time, the press secretary and his team were doing heroic spin control. Experts were being trotted out to decry the government's involvement. Those experts included a number of writers, pundits, and scientists in various extreme groups, but people who were willing to partic.i.p.ate in a conversation rather than rant and shout. So far it was working. A bit.
The radical right and left, the loudmouth extremists on both sides, were being jacka.s.ses. As they usually were. A lot of the moderates were keeping mum for fear of standing on the wrong side when the full story finally came out. If it ever came out.
The president made a few short and very calm statements to the nation, and attended one press conference. Even that, I learned, was staged pretty well, with handpicked members of the White House press corps.
So far, Was.h.i.+ngton was not burning.
Other places were not so lucky.
At one point I turned to Hu. ”Doc, that was definitely the seif-al-din down in the subway, no doubt about it, right? One of the early generations.”
He nodded. ”I know, though my people are running tests.”
”Here's the kicker, though,” I said, and ran the footage from the subway attack. Not our part in it, but the earliest parts of the video. We watched a sweaty man in a hoodie and yellow raincoat make his announcement about Mother Night and then attack a black teenager. I froze the image. ”There! See that guy? He was the patient zero of that attack, right? But he's talking. That means-”
”-he was infected by one of the later strains,” said Hu. ”I know. I already instructed the forensics team to locate his corpse and take samples.”
”My point,” I said, ”is that someone had access to two different strains of the pathogen.”
”Obviously.”
”How?” I asked.
There was a beat.
”I mean ... where'd they get them? As far as we can tell, the original lab in Afghanistan blew up. The only person we know of who was infected with Generation Twelve of the pathogen was Amirah, and I put a bullet in her head.”
It was true. After El Mujahid tried to release the seif-al-din at the Liberty Bell Center in Philly a few years ago, I took Echo Team to Afghanistan and hunted Amirah down. By then she was already infected and driven mad by the experience. I offered her a chance, live as a monster or ride a bullet into paradise. She made the best choice for everyone.
”So who else has both generations?” I asked.
Hu and Church exchanged a look, then Hu said, ”There are three places that have both samples. The Locker in Virginia, the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, and right here in the Hangar.”
The tension in the room was palpable.
”And do we know the status of all three sets of samples?” Rudy asked quietly.
”Nikki conveyed your request for a full security scan of the Locker,” said Aunt Sallie. ”All the lights were green.”
”What about the CDC?” I asked.
”Same thing, and they called in additional security.”
”And the stuff we have here?” I asked Hu.