She looked back at him. “You lied to me.”
“I know. I’m sorry, Maggie.”
Taylor nodded, though it wasn’t clear if she was accepting the apology. She was probably questioning how much this had influenced Brodie’s decision to stay in Berlin. And it was a good question.
He said, “We need to finish what Harry started. What Anna started. We need to find Odin.”
“The German authorities will be conducting their raids on NordFaust—”
“Fuck the authorities. They’re missing something, and they’ve missed it for thirty years.”
Taylor thought about that, though her mind was clearly still on the other subject. She looked toward the half-open door to Anna’s office and said, “I understand now why you thought to come here.”
Brodie didn’t respond.
“We’ve been followed, Scott. This whole time. These bastards knew we spoke to Hasan, and they killed him. And Anna…” She hesitated, then looked at him and said, “Maybe they knew more about your activities last night than I did.”
Brodie considered that, and it occurred to him that they were dealing with complete psychopaths. He said, “They are not worried about being caught. Not anymore. They put a lot of effort into throwing everyone off the trail with the Neukölln bombing. But it didn’t work. And now something’s changed.”
Taylor looked around at the ruined artwork, at the screaming words across the walls and canvases, at the swastikas sprayed in thick red paint that dripped down the walls like bleeding gashes. She said, “Taking Harry’s eye was a clue, but a relatively subtle one. It didn’t make sense unless you understoodwhoHarry was looking for.”
“Right. There are murderers—like Odin—who see it as a game. They are arrogant and want to show that they are smarter than the law. So they leave a clue that has to be first identified as a clue, and then understood.”
She nodded again. “Odin is telling us he’s alive.”
“And he’s not living a quiet life in a retirement community. He is associated with a powerful group that has the resources to plan and execute the assassination of Harry Vance and the false flag bombing in Neukölln.”
“And then,” said Taylor, “they murdered Hasan, and they murdered Anna Albrecht. This is a new message, and it’s not a subtle one. They know we are onto them, and they don’t care.”
Brodie looked at her. “An attack is coming. Soon. The cluster bombs.”
Taylor considered that and shook her head. “The run-up to an attack would be the time to be themostcautious. NordFaust can’t afford mistakes that might jeopardize their mission. You heard what Trent said. The authorities are actually accelerating their raids on NordFaust because of the murder of Hasan. And this…” She gestured around the gallery. “It’s like they’re shining a spotlight on themselves at the moment they can least afford to do so.”
That was a good point. But maybe they were not dealing with a rational enemy. Or maybe there was something more that they were still not seeing.
As Brodie considered his next move, his phone rang. It was a German number. He picked up. “Brodie.”
“Mr. Brodie. It’s David Katz from Hyperion Lab. I had to really convince my colleagues to get priority for your sample, but I’m glad I did. This is some nasty stuff you brought me.”
Brodie put the phone on speaker so Taylor could hear. “I’m listening.”
Katz said, “This is an old strain of Yersinia pestis, first identified in 1979 in the Soviet Union after a lab leak from a secret biowarfare research facility in Siberia. Killed dozens of people and animals. This strain is not genetically modified, but a naturally occurring form of bubonic plague that happens to be particularly deadly. It was believed that the Russians were culturing it for potential deployment in a bioweapon. The only other documented incident of this specific strain was in 1996, when United Nations weapons inspectors found it, among other pathogens, in a biological weapons production facility in Iraq.” He added, “The inspectors also discovered a mass grave ofIranian POWs, and a few of the corpses showed traces of this bacterium. The belief was that these prisoners were used by the Iraqis as human guinea pigs in experiments during the Iran-Iraq War.”
This was beginning to fit. A plague strain first cultured in a Russian lab in the 1970s ends up in Iraq during the war with Iran in the 1980s. What was the link?
The East German biowarfare facility in Storkow. Stefan Richter. Colonel Tariq Qasim. Odin.
Brodie said, “This pathogen… could it have been part of East Germany’s biowarfare program?”
Katz replied, “Could have been. The Soviets had a much larger and better-funded bio and chem warfare division than East Germany, and it would make sense that they’d share some of their research and maybe even specimens with their East German allies.”
“Right.”
Katz was silent a moment. “You know, this might be a long shot but… You said this sample is evidence in a homicide case?”
“Correct.”
“There is a German genetic engineer named Reinhard Dorn, well-known in my circles. He used to work in biological and chemical weapons defense for East Germany before bringing his skills to the reunified country in the nineties. He’s an expert on Yersinia pestis, and he also pioneered some of the earliest research into synthetic biology. He founded his own biotech firm here in Berlin maybe ten years ago. Titan Genetics. It’s become a major firm. I’m sure he’s a difficult man to get a sit-down with, but perhaps not for you and your colleagues, given that this is a homicide investigation. And he might be able to give you a clearer background on this specimen.”
