Fearghas nodded once. “Good to meet the lot of ye.”
The woman beside Fearghas lifted a hand. “Catya Romanov.”
Hammer added, “Catya was SVR—Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki. She worked as a double agent for Russia and MI-6. You could say she was disillusioned with both and joined us for the good.”
Catya snorted softly. “That’s an understatement.”
“Dane Ryan goes by Striker.” Hammer waved to the man beside the Russian. “Like me, former Navy SEAL.”
Striker dipped his head.
“Bennett Ramsey.” Hammer motioned toward the dark-haired man with darker eyes on the other side of the conference table. “Former UK SAS from London.”
Ramsey lifted his chin.
“Dax Franklin.” The man beside Ramsey raised a hand. “Former Marine Force Recon, loving life in Europe.”
Hammer turned to an older man with a shock of white hair, seated at a computer console, an array of screens lit up in front of him. “Dmytro is one of our two-person technical support team. If he doesn’t know how to do it, he knows someone who can. He has contacts throughout Europe.”
Dmytro raised a hand. “The world,” he corrected, with a heavy Ukrainian accent.
Hammer’s lips twisted in a wry grin. “He’s right. And the young lady with the purple hair seated next to Dmytro is Lucy Monroe, amazing at anything related to computers, networks, and the internet, including the dark web. She’s an expert hacker.”
Hammer shifted his gaze back to the team from the States. “Have a seat. We’ll fill you in on what we’ve learned so far.”
Though the team was a little jet-lagged from the trip over, they gathered around the conference table, ready to get started on the mission ahead of them.
“Dmytro, fire up the drone footage,” Hammer called out.
A large screen at the end of the conference table lit up with a high-angle view of an industrial complex with a large building at its center. In a second video clip, the grainy security footage from the complex’s surveillance system was shown, depicting the moment Marta was carried into the building.
Hammer pointed to a position on the large structure. “That’s the loading dock where we saw Dr. Hale being carried inside. Dmytro managed to fly a drone over the complex at a distance so as not to be detected by the security staff on the perimeter or the internal staff monitoring the video surveillance cameras. He has amazing cameras installed on the drone that generate high-quality images and videos. We sent Fearghas and Catya for an in-person intel gathering. They can better explain what they observed during the four hours they hid in the woods surrounding the complex.”
Crusher turned to Fearghas and Catya, eager for any information that would help them get to Marta.
“To begin, four hours just scratches the surface,” Fearghas said with his Scottish accent. “The facility is surrounded by a ten-foot-high fence and has tight security. It appears that each entrance requires an ID card to deactivate a lock and allow the cardholder to enter. We’ll need to spend more time to observe and document everything from shift changes to contractor access, security camera positions and vehicle patterns.”
“We don’t have much time,” Crusher reminded them. “We need to get Dr. Hale out and to a lab as soon as possible.”
“Incoming video call from the boss,” Dmytro called out from his corner. “Coming up now.”
Another monitor at the end of the table blinked to life, and Hank Patterson’s face appeared. “Glad to see you made it,” he said. “We have more information that might help.” He turned. “Swede?”
A man with white-blond hair appeared on the monitor. “We cross-referenced Ms. Patel’s data with Helvetic BioSolutions' published research portfolio. The company has filed patents on water treatment additive compounds in all three regions. It appears as Ms. Patel and her colleagues suspect. The additives are the delivery mechanism for the current virus killing people in the three regions Helvetic deployed their clean water initiatives.”
“Folks, this is no longer a pharmaceutical company with a suspicious IP address,” Hank said. “This is a weaponized humanitarian operation.”
Crusher’s jaw hardened. “Corporate extermination at its worst.”
“Exactly.” Hank went on, “The IP address Dr. Hale gave us to research points to the Zurich facility where she’s been transferred. It’s listed as a pharmaceutical research and development campus with a BSL-3 (Biosafety Laboratory Level 3) certification. The lab itself has a staff of twenty-one.”
“In my deep dive into the true ownership of Helvetic BioSolutions,” Swede said, “I traced it to an entity registered in the Cayman Islands and from there to a foundation out of Liechtenstein. The primary beneficiary of that foundation is Pieter Teuling.”
“Surprise, surprise,” Crusher murmured. “The man whose non-profit is gifting remote communities with clean water. A gift they can’t refuse.”
Hank reappeared. “And we’ve discovered Teuling is one of the speakers at the Vienna summit.”
“The same summit we think Vasquez is targeting,” Crusher noted.
