The Ark: A Novel (18 page)

"Because they only have five days left," Dilara said. "They think we know something that would harm their plans."

"Do you?"

"Not really," Locke said. "It's still a big puzzle to us. But we think the Genesis Dawn is the next target."

"Why?"

"Because of something Sam Watson told Dilara."

Agent Harris spoke for the first time. "We'll have the autopsy rechecked, but preliminary reports showed no trace of poison in Watson's system. The coroner concluded it was a heart attack."

"That's what they wanted it to look like. Sam worked in a pharmaceutical company. Maybe it was them. They might have access to untraceable poisons."

"That sounds pretty farfetched to me," Perez said. "Why would they attack you in broad daylight with guns but kill an old man with an untraceable poison?"

"They're getting desperate," Locke said. "They thought it could be contained if they killed Sam Watson and Dilara in seemingly natural or accidental ways."

"What's 'it'? Who's 'they'?"

"It all has to be related to the bioweapon on Hayden's plane," Dilara said.

"Hold on," Perez said. "We're still not sure it was a bioweapon. It could be some natural phenomenon."

"Oh come on, Agent Perez!" Locke said. "Did you read what happened to those people?"

"We're working under the assumption that it was a terrorist attack, although no one has claimed responsibility, but we also don't want to jump to conclusions and panic anyone. That investigation is still ongoing."

"Yes," Locke said, "and Dilara and I are returning to Phoenix tomorrow to help with it. A lot of the wreckage has already been trucked back to our TEC facility, and our technicians are sifting through it all. We're hoping to find some kind of clue in it. We have to work fast, though. The Genesis Dawn sails Friday morning."

"We can have security beefed up at the Genesis Dawn gala and sailing," Agent Harris said, "but you're not giving us much to go on."

"What gala?" Locke asked.

"There's a huge party for big wigs the night before the maiden voyage. Lots of big names will be there."

That sounded like a tempting target to Locke, but he thought the real attack wouldn't occur until the ship was at sea. It fit the MO of the airplane disaster better.

"We have to stop the sailing," Locke said. "Or at least postpone it."

"Impossible," Perez said. "Unless I have a concrete threat to the ship, there's nothing more we can do."

"We have one more lead," Locke said.

"Let's hear it."

"Coleman Engineering and Consulting. We have reason to believe they may be involved."

"How?"

"I don't know. John Coleman and his top engineers were killed in an accident. I'm guessing the answers might still be in his records."

"What makes you think Coleman is involved?"

"Sam Watson said his name to me before he died," Dilara said.

"Can you get us a search warrant?" Locke asked Perez.

"With what? The accusations of dead man? The judge would laugh me out of his office."

"You don't think this shooting spree is enough?" Locke asked.

"But how is it related? You'll have to come up with a more tangible link than Sam Watson's dying words before I can get into Coleman's firm. I think our time will be more productive spent looking for the identity of the two dead assassins and seeing if they are linked to the man on Scotia One."

"So we're just forgetting about Coleman?" Dilara protested.

"Unless you have evidence to justify a warrant, yes," Perez said, "I suggest Dr. Locke focus on Hayden's airplane crash."

"But..." Dilara began, but Locke held up his hand.

"We'll head back down there tomorrow," he said.

"While you're in Seattle," Perez said, "I want the police to provide protection for you."

"That's okay," Locke said. "Miles Benson has hired a private firm for our security. They're on the way to pick us up now."

Perez raised an eyebrow. "Fine, then. When I know anything about your attackers, I'll let you know." He and Agent Harris walked away together.

Dilara turned on Locke.

"How could you give up so easily?" she demanded. "Coleman could be the key to this whole thing! We need to know about Oasis."

Locke looked directly at Dilara. "I don't give up. We're going to get into Coleman's office tonight."

"How? Without a warrant..."

"We don't need one," he said.

"Why not?"

"I don't think John Coleman died in an accident. I knew him. He was a great engineer, very careful. Which means somebody murdered him. And anyone who could plan an oil platform disaster could have staged an accident that killed John. He may not have even known he was in danger. He wouldn't have been involved in something criminal, at least not wittingly."

"How does that help us?" Dilara pressed, sounding frustrated. "How can we get into his office?"

"You said Sam Watson told you they killed your father. Would you let someone search his office if you thought that person could find his murderer?"

"Of course. In a second."

"Well, let's hope your reaction is universal. John Coleman has a daughter."

Pharmacologist David Deal awoke drenched in sweat. His eyes fluttered open and took in the sparsely decorated room he had been confined to as part of his final initiation as a Level Ten. Other than the single bed with its thin blanket and sheet, the only objects in the room were a metal desk, a cane-backed chair, and the coveted Final Chapter of the Holy Hydronastic Church. An alcove held a sink and toilet. The thick door was the lone exit from the 10-foot-square room.

Human contact occurred only when meals were brought in three times a day during the last six days of the initiation that all Hydronasts aspired to. As a faithful Level Nine, he had been deemed worthy just two days ago and had been flown out to Orcas Island for the Ritual, as it was known. There were only 300 Level Tens in the entire church, and he felt blessed to be asked to achieve his ultimate goal.

He'd been through a process much like this for each level, but this one had been the most intense, the most spiritual. He had read and reread the Final Chapter until he had memorized it verbatim. Suddenly everything he had learned in the Bible made sense. It was as if his soul had been mired in quicksand, and the teachings of the faithful leader, Sebastian Garrett, had plucked it from its thrashing and soothed it with his wise and beautiful words.

He knew the isolation was an important part of the Ritual, and it didn't bother him at all. Dressed only in a pure, white robe, he was able to explore the visions he saw with rapt attention.

Since he didn't have a clock, Deal didn't know how long it had been since he finished dinner, but he had had enough time to read the Final Chapter halfway through again. The mind-expanding power of the words filled his head until he could feel his soul transcending its normal boundaries. The light weightlessness was the first sign of the impending vision, and he fervently waited for its arrival.

Then a firework of light exploded in his brain, causing Deal to fall backward into the bed. He opened his eyes, and the brilliant starbursts faded away. He had been told that the Final Chapter wasn't the whole Truth, that the visions were his personal insights into what the Final Chapter actually meant, and each individual Level Ten was the recipient of his own Truth. That was why he desperately wanted to see another vision, to reveal the last bits of Truth.

Then it came. The sounds, the lights, the words. They told of a new beginning for the earth, a beginning that he was to be an instrumental part of. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever experienced.

* * *

As he caressed the back of Svetlana Petrova, Sebastian Garrett watched David Deal on the three monitors, and the ecstasy on the man's face told him everything he needed to know. Another sheep had entered the fold.

"I love watching this," Petrova said in a Slavic purr from her perch on Garrett's desk. "It's so sexy. The power. The control." She ran her hand through Garrett's hair, sending a tingle down his spine.

"I thought the indoctrinations were complete," she said. "The target number was 300, no? We're almost evenly split between men and women. Why do we need this man?"

"He has special skills, ones that I thought Watson would bring to the project. With Watson gone, I thought it was prudent to bring in someone else to replace him."

"You are truly a wise man. That's only one of the reasons I love you."

Since he had his own vision for the Holy Hydronastic Church ten years before, Garrett had scoured the universities for the best and brightest scientists, engineers, and thinkers. It had been a lengthy and arduous process to recruit the men and women he felt would be amenable to the church's teachings. He had to find the right combination of intelligence and receptiveness to his philosophy.

The indoctrination process was finely honed through years of development. At the beginning, initiates didn't even know a church was involved. It was more about a common goal for a better planet, one rid of both human suffering and contempt for the earth's natural treasures.

Then they were wined and dined and brought to one of the church's facilities in a resort destination: Maui, the Bahamas, Acapulco. There they were treated not only to a fine vacation, but also to spirited discussions about how to improve humanity's lot. If they continued to show a willingness to further the same goals Garrett's church had, the next step was a trip to Orcas Island.

When they arrived, they were asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement so iron-clad that breaking it would bring penalties severe enough to make the signatory a pauper for the rest of his life. The NDA was intended to keep malcontents from revealing the church's practices. There were no exceptions, and those who wouldn't sign were immediately escorted off the property. Garrett didn't care about them; they weren't the types who would be useful to his cause anyway.

Then came the real test--the Leveling. David Deal was in his last Leveling to Level Ten, the most mind-altering of them. Each person progressed in Leveling at a different rate, but only the ones who showed the most promise were promoted to anything above Level Five. Garrett needed a pharmacologist in his New World. He thought it would be Watson, but he'd been disappointed when he found that Watson had betrayed him. Deal was his next choice, which was why the scientist was now staring in rapture at the hologram projected into his room.

It was a state-of-the-art setup, with hidden projectors in multiple corners of the room. The air was suffused with a light smoke, barely visible until laser light was played over it. The drugs that had been developed by Garrett's company and laced into Deal's food made him more susceptible to the suggestion that the images were a product of his imagination rather than technology.

All of these procedures were necessary to ensure that each person received the most deeply-felt religious experience of his life. Of course, there were risks associated with such an intense process. It was during one of these sessions that Rex Hayden's brother had a seizure and subsequently died. The autopsy had shown a genetic defect in his heart, and Garrett had been grateful that the man hadn't survived to become a flawed member of his New World.

Ever since the death, Rex Hayden had been relentless in trying to expose the inner workings of the church, which he felt was responsible for his brother's death. Cutter's idea to test the Arkon on Hayden's plane had been a just method for punishing Hayden's interference.

For the rest of Garrett's adherents, the effect of the leveling was profound. Few coming out of these rooms doubted that what they had seen was a spirit guiding them to a better life. The ones who still questioned what had happened were either excommunicated from the church, or they were disposed of in more permanent ways in the case of the most persistent troublemakers.

Somehow, Sam Watson had slipped through their carefully crafted vetting procedures. That's why Garrett had been forced to buttress his flock's loyalty with the lab demonstration. One way or the other, they would obey when the time came.

A knock came at his office door. He casually flicked off the feed from Deal's room with the knowledge that his indoctrination team was almost finished.

"Come!"

Dan Cutter entered and came to a rigid halt in front of Garrett's desk. He was careful not to glance at Svetlana, who was now lounging in a chair to the side of the desk.

"Sir, Olsen was unsuccessful," Cutter said.

"What happened?" Garrett asked without inflection. No need to betray his fury.

"There was a shootout at the Space Needle. Both he and Cates are dead, and the Seattle police and the FBI are now involved."

Garrett didn't bother to ask if his men had been captured and interrogated before they died. Neither of them would have let that happen.

"Was either of our targets killed or injured?"

"No, sir. Locke and Kenner are still alive. Should I have another team sent to take them out?"

Just like Cutter. Always a man of action. But sometimes inaction was the best course.

"No, it's too late now. They'll be protected. At this point, any future assassination attempts would be counterproductive. Besides, we have our contingency plan in place."

Locke was more resourceful than Garrett gave him credit for, already surviving two attempts on his life. Still, he shouldn't have been surprised. Locke was also a man of action.

"What about Friday?" Cutter asked. "Maybe we should change..."

"Nothing will be changed!" Garrett said, sharper than he intended. He calmed his voice. "We will not allow some errors in execution to alter our long-developed and well-conceived plan. And we won't let Tyler Locke dictate how we proceed. However, we can't allow him to find the device used in Hayden's plane and decipher its contents. Is your operation ready?"

"Yes, sir. I will be conducting the mission myself along with my top man. Our intelligence suggests that a large number of pieces have already been transferred from the wreckage site to Gordian's TEC facility in Phoenix. We should be able to find the device there. We'll begin the search tomorrow morning."