Lethal Profit (33 page)

Silence. The two men looked at each other as the full extent of what was unfolding began to crystallise.

‘You mean, this stuff is everywhere?' said Chard, ‘I thought it was a localised London problem.'

‘Oh no, Mr Chard, haven't you seen the news? The entire country is choked with it now.'

After they finished the phone call Legrand and Chard spent several minutes just staring at each other.

‘Why didn't you tell him about the virus?' Legrand asked, referring to the algae spores that seemed to be the cause of the deaths. A virus had seemed the most sensible label for what was being spread by the algal spores as the plants died.

‘I got the sense he wouldn't handle it well. Besides we need to contact someone much higher up.'

Legrand nodded. ‘I'm going to call my ex-wife.'

He reached for the phone.

E
VA
WATCHED
A
SMILE
PLAY
AROUND
the edges of Daniel ‘March' Marchment's lips as she was fastened into a chair next to Leon, inside one of the buildings that made up Daniel's ranch. She had not seen him since that night in Paris when he had dragged her into an alleyway and tried to rape her at knife-point. Seeing his face as she had looked up from the tarmac had been a complete shock. Here, suddenly, in the middle of this anonymous mess was a link both to her own life and to Jackson's. It made her wonder how much more there was about this situation that she had missed.

They were now deep underground and the ‘olde worlde' shooting lodge atmosphere of the upper floors they had glimpsed when they arrived had been replaced by bare concrete with rough edges and functional furniture. Eva was strapped down to a metal chair bolted to the floor.

It had taken two of Daniel's men to get her into the chair but there were now four fighting to get Leon sedentary.

‘Oh please,' said Daniel regarding the failing men scornfully. He walked over to a metal workbench, grabbed a small gun and shot it into the exposed skin at the nape of Leon's neck. Immediately Leon's body went slack.

Eva looked at Daniel.

‘Relax, it's just a sedative. ‘I'm sure we can find a more imaginative way to get rid of him.' He smiled.

Eva was unresponsive. She was trying to figure out what was going on and how – and why – Daniel had become involved in this.

‘What is this, Daniel? I don't understand how you are caught up in this situation.'

‘I'm not
caught up
, silly girl, I created this!'

‘But why?'

‘Well now that you're here, I may as well tell you all about it.' He seemed inappropriately, alarmingly jovial, which scared Eva much more than if he had been trying to threaten her.

The room was cleared apart from Daniel, the man who appeared to be his second-in-command, an unconscious Leon and two armed guards who stood absolutely still.

Daniel pulled a chair up in front of Eva, but just out of reach, and leaned in as if he were about to tell her a bedtime story.

‘You might be wondering why you're here.'

‘It was you who had Jackson killed, wasn't it?'

Daniel stared at her, his blue eyes cold. ‘No,' he replied sharply, ‘I did not.'

‘I don't believe you.'

‘Believe what you like.'

‘After what you tried to do to me in Paris, I imagine you're capable of just about anything.'

Daniel recoiled in mock horror. ‘Oh come now, Eva, you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I needed you to leave, that was all – that seemed an effective enough way to encourage you to go crawling back home.' He stared at her, challenging her to talk about what he had tried to do that night, sensing her discomfort. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction of vocalising it.

‘
Fuck. You
,' she hissed.

Unexpectedly, Daniel's face creased in anger and he stood quickly from the chair and threw it across the room. The crash when it landed made Eva jump violently.

Daniel stormed back across the room and he was looming large in her face.

‘Your brother did this,' he spat, great drops of spittle landing on Eva's skin.

She stared at him, a cold hatred settling in the pit of her stomach.

‘He did nothing to you.'

‘He is responsible for the way all of
this
has nearly come toppling down on me, he is always trying to undermine me. If it wasn't for him and that woman Sophie then all of this would have been flawless.'

‘All of
what.
'

‘This… ' He raised his hands and looked upwards towards the sky, which was of course the ceiling of the enormous bunker they were in.

‘You're killing people for money, Daniel, that's all you're doing. It may not be the same as cutting their throats with a knife but by feeding them those supplements the result will be the same. There is nothing elevated or clever about
this
,' she mimicked his gesture, ‘you're just a common criminal.'

Daniel's face had turned a violent shade of pink. She sat and waited for a physical blow, a sharp retort or an explosion of words but he just stared at her as his expression gradually settled to a smile.

‘Well then,' he said, almost laughing now, ‘seeing as you have such a low opinion of me, that will certainly make this moment so much sweeter.'

Eva stared at him, the satisfaction she had felt in insulting him seconds before disappearing as a deep sense of foreboding settled over her. ‘What do you mean?'

Daniel walked over to her, ripped off the right arm of her jumper and pointed at her bare skin. Eva craned her head and bent her right elbow out at a right angle so she could see what he was pointing at. Two angry red welts sat side by side on the flesh of her upper arm. She had felt her arm aching but assumed it was just the injected sedative.

‘What's the second one?'

‘What do you think it is?'

Eva blanched.

‘Is that how you killed Jackson too?'

‘Oh stop going on about him, Eva,' said Daniel, angry again.

Eva looked again at her arm. ‘If this is the same substance as in the syringes in Paris, why am I not dead?'

‘It's slower acting, less potent. I need you infected but I need to time it with an engagement I have tomorrow morning at 5.'

Eva stared at him, lost for words.

‘You just don't get it do you?,' he said, laughing at her. Then, seeming to lose interest, he walked away from her and towards a large bench that contained three stacked monitors and several layers of computer equipment. He began tapping into the keyboard and then moving some of the equipment around. Finally, he produced a small hand-held camera on a tripod and positioned it in front of her.

Eva looked at the camera; she began to feel very nervous. She glanced over at Leon but he was still out cold.

Daniel left the equipment and walked back towards her.

‘Don't worry, this is all for later.'

‘Later… ?'

He started to walk away again and then stopped as if something important had occurred to him. ‘Would you like to know why all this is happening?' Eva said nothing.

‘Well, I'll tell you anyway. I own a company called Bioavancement S.a.r.l. – heard of it?' He laughed. ‘My company has signed a deal for supply and delivery of pools full of algae – lovely harmless algae – genetically engineered in our factory in the Sudan to produce a ground-breaking health supplement. With me so far?'

Eva remained quiet. He was going over old ground and he knew it.

‘Of course, what your little adventures have uncovered is that this supplement is part of a money-making scheme of mine that has involved collaborating with several rather well-known pharmaceutical giants to make a little extra profit and to exercise a little power. As you may or may not have seen, this supply and delivery has already taken place – rather earlier than agreed – and the UK's waterways are now well populated with our algae.'

‘Presumably you didn't tell them about how quickly the algae would spread – these pharmaceutical companies. I can't imagine they would have signed up for the PR disaster you've created for them.'

‘No,' said Daniel, ‘we didn't tell them that. Neither did we tell them how it is resistant to every algaecide on the planet,' he continued helpfully, ‘except of course the one we have here,' he said, indicating the room around him.

‘But surely anyone can manufacture an algaecide?'

‘Well, that's where this little plant is so clever because it is designed to hide its own genetic structure. Without knowing the genetic code, you'd never be able to make a guess at how to kill it, even a very well-educated one.'

Eva suddenly remembered the document she'd read on the memory stick that confirmed what he was saying.

‘The other very clever thing about the algae is that it has been programmed to be a carrier.'

‘What for?'

‘A virus, Eva.' He nodded at her arm. ‘A virus we have developed, the virus that my Sudanese friends used on several victims in Paris and the virus that will eventually kill you. Now this, I don't believe was in the documents you have seen.'

‘You can't put a virus into a plant.'

‘No, that's quite right. But this algae is genetically engineered, Eva, and we have engineered it to
hold
the virus. At least until it dies.'

‘But the algae is everywhere. You're going to infect hundreds of thousands of people.'

‘Millions, I should think.'

‘Why have you been injecting it into people – why try and inject it into me in Paris?'

‘It seemed logical to use it as a weapon. A gunshot or a knife would attract so much attention but the virus, well that would take much longer for anyone to figure out the cause of death and attribute it to murder – if they ever did. Besides, when it comes to the crunch, the more people already dead or dying from the virus, the more desperate the need for the vaccine, and the more leverage I have.'

‘Leverage?'

‘Leverage.' He smiled at her and Eva felt convinced she saw a flicker of insanity dance across his eyes.

‘I suppose you'll use the vaccine for the virus and the algaecide as a bartering chip.'

‘Right. Although that's not the only leverage I'm looking for.'

‘What do you mean?'

‘There are… other interests involved in this. I can't take
all
the credit unfortunately.'

‘Other interests.'

‘Yes. I need the leverage that I have in mind with them to secure my future career.'

‘You can't possibly have a future career after this. If what you're saying about the virus is true you've done much worse than profiteering.'

‘It will blow over. Until it does I'll simply disappear – for a while. Change my identity. It would be easy to get lost in one of the three countries bordering this lawless region and there are some excellent plastic surgeons here who specialise in giving people like me a new lease of life.' His eyes flashed. ‘All you need is money these days, Eva, and you can do anything.'

A
LONE
IN
THE
HOLDING
CELL
WITH
an unconscious Leon, Eva thought about what Daniel had said. People were so fragile and so complicated. How had someone she had known with grazed knees and a conker collection turned into such a monster. Eva pulled her ripped jumper further around her as she stood leaning against the wall. Daniel had locked them into a windowless cell with only a metal cot and a toilet furnishing the bare, concrete room.

In the corner, Leon began to stir on the metal bed. Eva glanced over at his huge form as the sedative began to wear off. He murmured quietly in his state of drugged semi-consciousness and Eva noticed his fists were clenched. Suddenly he sat up, swung his legs over the bed and took two enormous steps across the room. He paused for a second and then lunged at Eva; picking her up by her neck, he flung her against the wall.

‘Leon!'

He stared blankly at her and continued to tighten his grip on her neck.

‘Leon!' Eva clawed at the fist clamped around her throat with her left hand but he continued to squeeze his fingers around her airway, his eyes unseeing. Suddenly, Eva realised he wasn't even awake. She raised her free hand and slapped him hard around the face, with as much force as she could muster.

Immediately, his eyes focused. He looked confused. Then he released Eva's neck and she shoved him away from her.

He looked at her, uncertain.

‘I'm sorry.'

‘Jesus, you nearly strangled me,' she said rubbing her throat.

‘Eva, I'm really sorry.' He took a step towards her.

She held up the palm of her hand, indicating that he should keep his distance.

Leon retreated back several steps and sat down on the edge of the metal cot he had been lying on minutes before. He rubbed his face with his hands and then looked up at Eva.

‘Why don't I know how we got in here?'

‘Daniel shot you with something – another tranquilliser, I imagine.'

Leon frowned. ‘What else have I missed?'

Eva sighed, walked over to Leon and sat down on the metal bed next to him. She rubbed her neck and glared at him.

‘Eva, I'm s… '

‘Yes, I know.' Eva didn't enjoy the fact that, as a woman, she was genetically programmed to be physically weaker than Leon. She didn't want to be reminded of it.

‘I still can't really figure out why Daniel is involved in this,' she said after several minutes of silence.

‘How do you know him?'

‘He was a friend of Jackson's from school. I… well, I met up with him when I first arrived in Paris, when I was looking for information. He wasn't very helpful.'