Sudden wondered how Borin knew about the code and Nazari’s statements. But she was GRU, after all. Perhaps she had a source in the police department. And, of course, there were always bugs. He didn’t bother to ask her, assuming she would only lie.

  “Are you going to eat that last croissant?” he asked.

  She slid it over to him. They all heard another car pull up. Sudden went to the door. It was Malek. Introductions were made. Rebecca got the French cop some coffee.

  “Sorry, we’re out of croissants,” she said, shooting a glance at Sudden.

  “Coffee is fine. I just came by to tell you that I am off the case. Transferred to Traffic Patrol.”

  “What happened?” Sudden asked.

  “Desmoreaux found out about our little surveillance. Said I exceeded my authority, went behind his back and was neglecting my real duties. A few other things, but those were the high points. He called me a ‘moutons putain musulman’.”

  “My French is a bit rusty, but does that mean what I think it does?”

  “Yes, sheep-fucking Muslim. It is so unfair.”

  Sudden was silent.

  “Gee, you fuck one sheep,” Malek deadpanned, “and you are branded for life.”

  They all laughed.

  “Nazari is a Muslim,” Sudden said.

  “There are Muslims and there are Muslims. Her daddy is rich. Very rich. Ghani Nazari owns Pan-Arabian Shipping Lines, which has a lion’s share of the cargo shipping in the Mediterranean and Atlantic. You can imagine the pull he has in Marseilles. Desmoreaux is happy to play the sheep for rich Arabs. He undoubtedly is on the payroll of many of them.”

  “What happened to the laptop?”

  “Desmoreaux confiscated it. It is probably gathering dust at his house. He’ll wait a bit and then sell it. Like he does with the drugs he confiscates.”

  “I’m sorry, Sami. I did not mean to get you in trouble.”

  “Eh, merde arrive,” as you Americans say. “Shit happens. Raul was going to get rid of me eventually. And Traffic Control has taken on a new meaning since the terrorist attack in Nice. Some officers are actually now applying to such units. To be on the front line, so to speak.”

  “This means that Nazari is uncovered,” Soul said.

  “One of my friends is keeping an eye on her this morning,” Malek said. “But I don’t want to get him in trouble, so you will have to make other arrangements. And I can’t be seen anywhere near her. I would not put it past that bastard Desmoreaux to check up on me.”

  CHAPTER 21 - POPSICLE

  Friday, as scheduled, Sudden and Soul drove to Amira Nazari’s apartment. The lab assistant walked unsteadily to their car. Sudden suspected she was putting on an act, but he solicitously took her arm.

  “I really appreciate you doing this, Amira,” Rebecca said when they pulled away. “And, don’t worry. I don’t think this will take very long. Afterwards, I hope you will let us take you out for lunch.”

  “That would be very nice, thank you.”

  On the ride to the lab, the three discussed restaurant possibilities. Sudden smiled. If he knew anything about Rebecca Soul, Amira Nazari was going to be the entrée.

  The guard in the lobby recognized Nazari but carefully checked the lab assistant’s identification card anyway. Since the murders, security had been intensified. Then he asked to see I.D. from her companions. They were happy to provide them, since the I.D.’s were both false. Nazari did not notice.

  “I think you are very brave to do this for me, Amira,” Soul said in the elevator.

  “Thank you. It is very distressing to me to return here. But I hope you will find something of value to you.”

  “I am sure I will.”

  Entering the lab, Nazari stopped short when she saw Irina Borin, who was sitting on a counter smoking a cigarette.

  “Who are you? There is no smoking in this building.”

  Borin dropped her cigarette into a beaker, where it hissed. At the same time, Sudden put an arm on Nazari’s back and shoved her roughly into the room. Rebecca shut the door.

  “She’s with us, Amira” Sudden said. “We have some questions.”

  Panicked, Nazari turned to flee. One look into the eyes of the three agents, killers all, told her it was useless. She was trapped.

  “What is this? What do you want?”

  “The truth,” Rebecca said.

  Sudden slid a chair across the floor. It bumped into the frightened woman.

  “Sit!”

  Nazari sat, hard. Sudden leaned back against a counter and crossed his legs. He would let Rebecca and the Russian start on Nazari. He almost felt sorry for her.

  “I told you the truth. And I told the police. I don’t understand.”

  “Whoever killed my sister and Remy spared you for a reason,” Soul said. “Did you know the shooter?”

  “No. I swear on Allah. He was a drug addict!”

  Borin got off her perch and spun Nazari around violently.

  “If I were you, I would limit my ‘Allah’ references. Did your accomplice get into the freezer?”

  “I don’t know what you are talking about. What accomplice? No one can get into the freezer. There is a code.”

  Rebecca Soul walked over to the freezer lock pad and punched in the numbers she’d memorized. There was a resounding click as the internal locks released. She pulled on the handle and the door hissed open.

  Rebecca entered and small mist seeped out. She quickly came out.

  “Nothing,” she said. “All the shelves are empty.”

  Irina Borin rushed past her to check for herself. Then she went back and put her face inches from Nazari’s.

  “Where is it? Where is the cooler with the tundra?”

  “What cooler?”

  Borin slapped the lab assistant hard across the face, and the girl tumbled to the floor. Sudden made a move but stopped when Soul grabbed his arm.

  Borin got Nazari by the throat and pulled her halfway up.

  “I’ll give you one more chance. Where is it?”

  The lab assistant looked at her tormentor with pure hatred.

  “Fuck you, you infidel American bitch! Allahu Akbar!”

  Uh, oh, Sudden thought. What do we have here?

  “Actually, Amira, she’s a Russian. And my partner is Israeli. I’m the only Yank here. I don’t know what the hell you are, but I don’t like your chances. So, why don’t you answer the lady’s questions?”

  “I would rather die than betray the cause!”

  “I have to ask you, Amira. Is it worth it? Do women martyrs also get 72 virgins in heaven? Do you really want to spend eternity with a bunch of losers who can’t get laid?”

  “You blasphemer! I hope you die like they all did!”

  “This is getting us nowhere,” Borin said, raising her hand.

  “Wait,” Sudden said.

  He took Nazari by the arm, manhandled her to the freezer and threw her in. Her screams were cut off by the closing door.

  “She will die in there,” Soul said.

  “I’m just going to let her cool off. And I think we should, too.”

  He turned to Borin.

  “Now, what was in the freezer? You’re not here about a goddamn Nobel Prize.”

  The Russian agent looked at him, and then at Soul.

  “I know what you are thinking, Irina,” Rebecca said. “But if you go for your gun, you might get one of us, but not the other.”

  Borin smiled.

  “I probably wouldn’t even get one of you. I checked you both out with my headquarters. They know all about you. Two of the C.I.A.’s top killers.”

  “I prefer the word ‘assassins’ myself,” Sudden said. “And I’d like to know who the hell GRU thinks are better than us. But I digress. Let’s have it. What was in the freezer? And who is the ‘they’ that nut case said died? Come on. We may have different agendas, but I bet we want the same result.”

  Borin stared at him a moment, and then made up her mind.

  “Grigor Rusayev is dead, as is everyone at his research station.”

  Sudden and Soul looked at each other.

  “What happened?” Sudden said.

  “A plague, an infection. It spread like wildfire. We only found out about it because the Russian Science Academy sent a helicopter to the station to find out what happened. The pilot reported back that everyone had apparently gone insane and killed one another or committed suicide. His account was confirmed by feeds from surveillance cameras that recorded everything in the labs and hallways. Russian facilities have many cameras.”

  “No surprise there,” Sudden murmured.

  “The pilot was told to stay at the station but he must have panicked because he tried to fly back. They had to shoot him down. Then, a scientific team in Hazmat suits landed at the station and traced the plague to some thawed-out tundra that contained a long-extinct virus that affects the brain. They destroyed everything, of course, bodies, equipment, everything. Burned it all. And they are tightening up the research protocols so this won’t happen again.”

  “So, Moscow thinks the virus is in the samples Rusayev sent to my sister.”

  “That is the logical assumption.”

  “Wouldn’t Rusayev have warned her?”

  “He probably wasn’t sure what was happening. His virus was only supposed to infect amoebas, like every similar virus of its type. He may not have guessed that it would infect human brain cells. Maybe there was a mutation, but it does not matter. And he was going mad, remember?”

  “You seem to know a lot about this,” Sudden said.

  “I have an advanced degree in biotechnology from the University of Moscow. That is why I was assigned to this operation. I was told to secure the tundra. I was still trying to figure out how to do that when you spotted me. I was sure it was still in the lab. We sent an email under Rusayev’s name telling your sister to keep the sample frozen and under lock-and-key. But obviously someone else knew about it and beat me to it. It looks like they killed your sister and her husband to make it look like a simple robbery gone wrong.”

  “Terrorists.”

  “You heard her. She’s a fanatic.”

  They could hear Nazari pounding on the freezer door.

  “You should have told the French,” Rebecca said. “A plague knows no borders. If my sister had known, she would have warned them.”

  “I did not know what was at stake until your sister was killed. My superiors told me only that it was urgent that I get the samples back. After the murders, the police were everywhere and I told my bosses that it was not worth the risk. That’s when they told me about the virus. They said I had to make sure, somehow, that it was dormant, still frozen.”

  “You lied to us,” Sudden said.

  “What did you expect me to do? I thought you might be after the virus, as well. When I found out that you were only interested in who murdered the Plantiers, I sympathized, but I had my orders.”

  “Which is to get the virus back to Moscow, where your military is probably figuring out how to weaponize it. Didn’t they save enough samples at the research station? I’m sure they did not destroy all of it.”

  Borin hesitated.

  “I believe they kept some samples of the virus that was in brain tissue. But they are having difficulty keeping it viable. They want the original particles from the tundra, to create a vaccine.”

  “Of course,” he said. “A vaccine. Ever been to Brooklyn?”

  “No, why?”

  “I have a bridge I want to sell you.”

  “Why would we use it as a weapon,” Borin said, angrily. “To what end. It makes people insane. Our enemies are crazy enough already. We don’t want them even crazier, so they launch missiles against us!”

  “She has a point,” Soul said. “But this is getting us nowhere. We have to find out who has the samples now. And how they knew they were here. Nazari only started working with my sister recently. She was probably a sleeper, activated quickly. That means someone on your end, Irina, is a traitor.”

  Borin nodded.

  “That is the obvious explanation,” she said, morosely. “I will notify my superiors immediately.”

  “Perhaps our lady popsicle can enlighten us,” Sudden said. “Let’s thaw her.”

  Soul punched in the code and opened the freezer door. Amira Nazari stumbled out, shivering. She fell to her knees, whimpering. There was frost in her hair and eyebrows.

  “You are monsters!”

  “You have not seen anything yet,” Borin said.

  CHAPTER 22 - NOISY

  Amira Nazari had gotten her shivering under control and was sitting in the chair, tied both hand and foot. Her eyes darted back and forth between the two women, who hurled questions and threats at her.

  But she still refused to talk.

  “This is senseless, Amira,” Borin said. “I can make you tell us everything. Spare yourself the pain.”

  “There is nothing you can do to me.”

  “That is where you are wrong, Amira. The Americans got their prisoners in Guantanamo to talk, and they are amateurs compared to the GRU.”

  “Irina, let’s talk,” Sudden said, walking away. Both Borin and Soul followed him.

  “Are you seriously suggesting that we torture her?” he asked.

  “What choice do we have? If I could get her back to Moscow, or even our embassy in Paris, there are drugs I could use. The same is true for your people. But we don’t have time. Now that we know someone has the virus, every second counts. I am not even going ask my people what to do with her. They are like bureaucrats everywhere. By the time they make up their minds, half the world could be infected.”

  “What are you planning?”

  She waved her arm at the tables and counters, all laden with beakers, burners, glass and liquids.

  “I will think of something. I have a degree in biotechnology, remember? She will talk. I guarantee it. But I will need help.”

  “I won’t torture a woman,” Sudden said.

  “I’ll help, Irina,” Soul said. “She killed my sister. Cole, you wait out in the hall. Make sure no one disturbs us.”

  Sudden hesitated.

  “Rebecca …”

  They stared at each other for a moment. And then Sudden left.

  “He is more squeamish than I would have thought,” Borin said.

  “He has been tortured. Waterboarded.”

  Borin nodded.

  “I see. Waterboarding is very effective, especially if you use something other than water. The choices are endless in a laboratory. ”

  They walked back to their prisoner.

  “You are not squeamish, Rebecca, are you?”

  “I do what I have to do. I was Mossad.”

  Borin looked down at Nazari.

  “Last chance, woman. You are about to make history and be interrogated by both the GRU and Mossad. What I don’t know about torture, she does.”

  “Go fuck a camel!”

  Borin shrugged and walked over to a counter. She lit a Bunsen burner and started rooting through test tubes.

  “You can’t do this,” Nazari squealed. “I am a woman!”

  “So are we, you idiot. That is why we know what you fear most.”

  Borin looked at Soul.

  “Gag her. This may get noisy.”

  ***

  Almost an hour later Soul and Borin emerged from the lab and motioned for Sudden to follow them down the back stairs of the building. They took separate cars back to the cottage, again without speaking.

  Once inside, they sat around the kitchen table. Soul, who looked shaken, found a bottle of brandy and poured stiff portions into three water glasses.

  “She was tougher than I expected,” Borin said, after gulping her drink and holding her glass out for more.

  “I presume she is dead,” Sudden said.

  “Very.”

  “What did you do with the body?”

  “It’s in the freezer,” Rebecca said. “She’ll keep.”

  “What did you find out?”

  “She confirmed what we suspected about the bullets. She was working with the killer.”

  “They belonged to a radical Islamic group with ties to the Chechen underground,” Borin added. “I presume that is how they knew about the virus. I have already contacted my superiors. They will track down the traitor.”

  Rebecca refilled their glasses.

  “Her accomplice pretended to threaten her life and Caroline and Remy opened the freezer,” she said, “not knowing she was betraying them. Then he killed them and wounded her to make it appear like a botched drug robbery.”

  “I’m surprised he didn’t kill her, too, even if they were in it together,” Sudden said. “She was a loose end. Fanatic terrorists are not known for their sentimentality.”

  “She kept referring to the killer as her ‘brother’,” Borin said. “At first, I assumed it was just religious palaver. But after a while, as she became more disoriented, we realized she meant it literally.”

  Borin held up her smart phone.

  “Her family is prominent. There are photos on the Internet. This is her brother. His name is Kaddour.”

  Sudden looked at the photo. Dark-haired, piercing eyes, movie-star features. In many photos he was accompanied by beautiful women.

  “I recognized him,” Rebecca said. “He was driving the car I passed when I was on my way to the lab when I found Caroline and Remy. He damn near ran me off the road. If only I had known!”

  “So, both brother and sister were radicalized,” Sudden said. “Where is this Kaddour bastard now?”

  “We believe he went to Jeddah,” Rebecca said. “That’s where the family shipping business is. And Amira kept babbling about the ‘Jeddah plan’ and ‘Jeddah’s revenge’, things like that.”

  “Did she say what the target is? Is it Saudi Arabia? I know the Jihadists hate the Saudi ruling family, even though they get indirect support from some of the princes, but would they attack their own country? The virus would not discriminate. It might kill some of their own kin.”

 

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