“Then give him this information, and tell him for me this is his last chance. If they fuck this up, there is no place on earth remote enough for them to hide from what I will do to them… and you, too, Blackie.”
Blackie swallowed around a sudden lump in his throat. “Yes, sir, I’ll make sure he understands what’s at stake here.”
“Good.”
“But Mac, what are you going to do about Battersee? Won’t he know that you double-crossed him?”
“Naw, I’ll just tell him I passed his information on to someone at Navy, and that by the time the ship arrived at that location, there was no sign of his people. He’ll never check far enough to know there never was any ship sent there.”
“Okay, then we’re good to go.”
“Oh, speaking of good to go, have you taken care of that little matter of Janus at the CDC lab site?”
“That’s due to be taken care of by Bear as soon as he’s passed on the samples and blood specimens to my men in Mexico City.”
“Huh, well I hope he handles that little task better than he did the doctor.”
“He’s never failed me before, sir.”
“Good, ’cause it’s not only his ass on the line here, Blackie. Do you understand what I’m telling you?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Okay then, as long as we understand one another, I guess I can sleep easy tonight knowing you’ve got things under control.”
“Absolutely, sir,” Blackie said with far more certainty than he felt.
Chapter 34
“Hello, Congressman O’Donnell’s office, Jimmy Palmer speaking,” the young voice said into the phone.
Damn, Janus thought. The congressman’s aide sounds like he’s still in high school. “Hello, Mr. Palmer. This is Janus speaking and I need to talk to the congressman right now.”
Janus heard a deep sigh. “I’m sorry, uh… Janus was it? But all calls to the congressman must go through me. So if you’d like to state your business…”
“Listen, junior, what I have to say is way above your pay grade. So if your congressman is still trying to get the goods on Colonel Blackman, I’d suggest you put him on the line right now or I’ll take my information to the New York Times and let them get all the credit for bringing that bastard down.” Janus said bitterly.
“Wait… wait just a minute,” Palmer said hurriedly. “Who did you say…?”
“Cut the shit, Junior. You’ve got ten seconds to connect me or I take my story elsewhere. One… two… three…”
“Okay, okay! Hold on and I’ll get him!” Palmer almost screamed into the phone.
Five seconds later there was a click and Congressman Michael O’Donnell was speaking. “What can I do for you, Janus?”
“I hear you’re looking for dirt on Colonel Blackie Blackman.”
“I don’t know where…”
“Oh, for Christ’s sake!” Janus exclaimed. “Can’t you Washington assholes ever give a straight answer? I know what you’ve been doing, congressman, ’cause I happen to work for Blackman and he is very well aware of your… uh… interest in him and his activities.”
There was a pause, and then O’Donnell continued, “Well, Janus, if you’re so well informed, perhaps you can tell me what I need to know.”
“I know that Colonel Blackman has been working for years to subvert the will of Congress, and that he has committed countless acts of treason, murder, and other various felonies too numerous to count.”
Another pause. “I see, and I suppose you have proof of these… ah… nefarious acts?”
Janus said, “You bet…,” and began to talk rapidly.
“Slow down, Janus,” O’Donnell said as the words poured from Janus’s mouth.
“Look, Congressman, don’t try to bullshit me while you trace this call. I know you’re recording every word so if I speak too fast just rewind the tape later, okay?”
“Uh… sure.”
“And don’t waste your time with the trace; this is a black sat-phone provided to me by our mutual friend Colonel Blackman, completely off any lists and its GPS coordinates are untraceable, just like the ones issued to the CIA.”
Janus laughed. “Maybe my having one of those very special phones will give my accusations a tad more credibility, huh?”
“Since even I don’t rate one of those, it most certainly will,” O’Donnell answered, glancing up at Jimmy Palmer standing in his doorway listening to the voice coming over the speakerphone.
Palmer shook his head no, indicating the trace was unsuccessful.
“Let me start with the most serious and most recent of Blackman’s criminal acts,” Janus continued, the voice becoming less strident and more reasonable. “As I’m sure you are aware, there is a very serious plague of a type of mutated anthrax sweeping the entire world. Current estimates are that unless something is done and done soon, up to one-third of all the people alive today will succumb to this infection.”
“What?” O’Donnell started to say.
“Most of that hasn’t been made public yet, but if you doubt me, just put in a call to Dr. Battersee at the CDC and he will confirm what I’ve just told you.”
“Okay… okay… I’m having a hard time swallowing this, but even if this is true, what does this have to do with Colonel Blackman? Are you intimating that he started this plague… that this is one of his experimental bugs gone rogue?”
Janus laughed. “No, but the son of a bitch has found out that there is an imminent cure for this plague, as well as a possibility of a vaccine against future outbreaks, and he is doing everything in his power to gain control of both the cure and the vaccine so that he can extort the world to do his bidding.”
“But… but that would be monstrous!”
Janus chuckled at the congressman’s naiveté. “Don’t tell me you’ve been investigating Blackman for this long and don’t yet realize that he is just that sort of monster.”
When O’Donnell didn’t speak, Janus continued, “At this very moment, there is a team of CDC investigators down in southern Mexico who are very close to finding a cure for the plague, and Blackman has sent a team of hit men and mercenaries to hijack the ingredients for the cure and vaccine and to bring them back to Fort Detrick so that he can use them for his own purposes.”
“Now,” O’Donnell continued, “tell me more about this cure for the plague sweeping the world and Blackman’s attempt to steal it. I’m still a little unclear as to just how the colonel could benefit from possessing this cure.”
“Well, to begin with, Congressman, you’re going to have to add General Mac McGuire to your list of coconspirators in the theft of the plague cure. In fact, Blackman is operating under direct orders from the general in this particular instance.”
“Holy shit!” O’Donnell exclaimed.
Janus grinned into the phone. “This little revelation getting too rich for your blood, Congressman? Does the general have a little too much juice for you to take him on?” Janus asked mockingly.
O’Donnell took a deep breath, trying to calm the sinking feeling in his stomach. “No one committing treason has too much juice for me to take them on, Janus. So go on with your story.”
And so Janus did… detailing just how Colonel Blackman and General McGuire planned to extort the world with the cure.
When Janus was finished, O’Donnell said, “I have just one more question for you, Janus… why are you telling me all this?”
Janus grinned into the phone, “’Cause the son of a bitch made the mistake of planning to kill me!”
Bear ran as fast as he could back to his men’s camp and gathered them around him. “Okay men, the doctor and the lady have fucked us up but good.”