“You have quite the collection of expensive cars out there,” remarked Mitchell.
Houston grinned. “What can I say? I like nice cars and beautiful young women. What else is a single billionaire going to spend his money on?”
Mitchell shook his head. “Mister Houston, this is all very nice, but I’d like to see my friends.”
“You’ll see them soon enough,” replied Houston. “However, I’d like you to meet some friends of mine first.
“Come with me, Ryan,” said Houston as he led Mitchell out of the room. Standing in the hallway was Houston’s nephew, Owen, with a puzzled look on his face.
“Ah, Owen, I’m glad to see that you finally made it,” declared Houston cheerfully as he moved to embrace his nephew.
Owen stepped back. “Sir, just what the hell is going on here? You told me not to worry about how you were using your discretionary funds. However, this… this enterprise of yours is unbelievable. How much did this all cost?”
“That’s not important right now,” replied Houston. “Come with me, Owen, I have some people you need to meet.”
They walked together down a side corridor dug into the rock until they came to a set of locked doors. One of the guards unlocked the door and held it open.
The room was the old base’s command center. It had been substantially improved and upgraded. Numerous screens hung on the walls, showing images from CNN, BBC and several other news agencies. In the middle of the room was a large oval table where the other eleven members of the Plutus Society sat quietly. Mitchell could tell from the bitter looks on their faces that these people weren’t the slightest bit amused with what was going on.
“It’s about bloody time you showed up,” grumbled Gavin Dearan. “You have a lot of nerve making us sit here for hours. Your goons wouldn’t even let us out of this bloody room except to go to the bathroom.”
“It was for your own protection,” replied Houston.
“David, this is unacceptable,” added Dimitri Kazan. “You take half of our companies and then dare to treat us like common criminals.”
“Please everyone, please calm down,” said Houston as he walked to the head of the table and took a seat. He pointed over at a couple of empty chairs and waited until Mitchell and Owen sat down before continuing.
“David, I’m scared. Please tell us what is going on,” pleaded Reika.
A large screen on the wall lit up.
Mitchell watched as a map of the world came up on the screen.
Houston stood up and walked over beside the screen. “Folks, the last time we met, I told all of you — except my nephew, Owen, and Mister Mitchell — that I had already commenced operations to reduce the world’s population by one-third.”
Owen flew from his seat. “Sir, did you just say that you’re planning to kill billions of innocent people?”
By his visceral reaction, Mitchell saw that Owen was just as horrified and in the dark as he was. It was something he knew he could exploit if he had the time.
“Please hear me out, Owen,” replied Houston. “I know this all may come as a bit of a shock to you. If, after this meeting, you still have any concerns, I’ll gladly take the time to go into greater detail with you. You have to understand that the planet cannot maintain its current level of population growth. Already, economic refugees are making their way north from the impoverished nations of Africa, Asia, and South America. There is only so much land to grow crops, only so many fish in the sea to feed people, and something has to give.”
Owen protested, “Sir, you cannot play God with the lives of billions of people. To do so is unconscionable.”
Houston smiled over at his nephew as if nothing was wrong. “Owen, please take your seat.”
The black guard stepped close in behind Owen and cocked his weapon.
Owen scowled at his uncle and sat down.
“Now, where was I?” said Houston to himself. Turning to the screen, he pointed to northern Russia with a laser pointer. “Several months ago, I was able to acquire a baby mammoth that died suddenly sometime around 11,000 BC.”
“David, what does that have to do with why we are here?” asked Shofu, the heavyset Nigerian.
“Everything,” replied Houston. “We all know about the extinction of the dinosaurs millions of years ago. However, did you know that the last major extinction on the Earth occurred a mere thirteen thousand years ago? Across the globe, species of all kinds — from the woolly mammoth in North America to the giant apes in Africa and Asia to the giant sloths of South America — all inexplicably died off. There are many theories as to why they disappeared. Some scientists believe that man hunted them to extinction. Others believe that climate change drove them to extinction when they were unable to adapt when the world around them changed. While some theorize that it a hyperdisease of unknown origin, possibly transmitted by man, killed off the large animals of the era.”
Changing the image on the screen, Houston brought up a picture of the dissembled Luna 15 probe’s return vehicle. “Ladies and gentlemen, I can state categorically that the reason that the animals went extinct was a hyperdisease. Not a terrestrial one, but one of extraterrestrial origin.”
“David, how the bloody hell did you come to that conclusion?” asked Dearan.
“It’s the only theory that has ever made sense to me. In 1969, the Soviet Union accidentally discovered an unknown pathogen still alive in a rock on the Moon’s surface. It was this pathogen that caused the world-wide extinction 13,000 years ago.”
“Why have we never heard of this?” said Heike, Houston’s German co-conspirator.
“Because the Russians didn’t want anyone to know about their discovery,” replied Houston. “They were so concerned that the pathogen could be harmful to human life that they programmed their probe to burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere. Fortunately, for us, their calculations were shoddy and the probe landed safely on an island in the South Atlantic. Mister Mitchell and his people were instrumental in recovering the probe for us and for that he has my thanks.”
“Please don’t be upset if I say you’re not welcome,” said Mitchell sardonically.
Houston smiled. “No need to be a sore loser, Ryan.”
With a push of a button, Houston brought up the map of the world once more. “What my scientists believe happened is that a small asteroid containing the pathogen hit the Moon, shattering into thousands, if not tens of thousands, of fragments. Some of which were blasted back out into space and then caught in Earth’s gravitational pull. Coming down all over the planet, the pathogen spread death wherever it fell.”
“What exactly fell to earth?” asked Dearan, growing uncomfortable.
“Anthrax,” answered Houston. “Not the anthrax we’re used to dealing with today, but a highly virulent strain of the disease that spreads incredibly fast and is deadly to anything that contracts the disease.”
“There are vaccines for anthrax,” pointed out Kazan. “Even if you could engineer an outbreak, it would be quickly contained.”
“You are correct, Dimitri, there are vaccines for anthrax. However, the strain that killed off the giant mammals 13,000 years ago is unknown to modern science. From the baby mammoth’s blood, we were able to identify the virus that killed it. Regrettably, we were unable to synthesize the virus. That was, until I obtained the pathogen in its purest form from the sample brought back inside the Luna 15 space probe’s return vehicle.”
“You’ve been able to duplicate the pathogen?” said Reika, her voice unsteady with fear.
“Yes, I have. In fact, my people have turned it into an aerosol so it can be delivered via the air. As of now, we don’t have all that we are going to need in the long run, but there is enough for us to commence the operation in about twenty hours from now. The remainder will be ready for distribution in two to three weeks from today.”