to the office of Terry Cassidy this evening. She’d find that damn safe and, she hoped, whatever was inside would help her figure out her next move.
CHAPTER 28
ONE MONTH EARLIER
David Mars arrived in Edinburgh with Fox, Hines, and a full security crew of six men who knew how to dress, act, and move as if they were not a security crew. They wore civilian attire, and nothing that screamed “Tactical Tuxedo.” Their weapons remained perfectly concealed. HK MP7s with folded stocks under arms or in instantly accessible gym bags over their shoulders, and various makes and models of pistols carried under their shirts in the appendix position. As Fox, Mars, and Hines headed along Lauriston Place, past buildings that made up part of the University of Edinburgh, the UK-born-and-trained security detail commander walked ten yards ahead. The principal was flanked by two armed protection agents, and two more walked twenty feet behind the trio but not in any set formation. A sixth man was one hundred yards ahead, looking for threats but in a low-profile manner.
Mars, Fox, and Hines finally entered the building that housed Janice Won’s research lab, passed through an unmarked door, and took an elevator to the third-floor lab. While three of the detail remained outside to keep their eyes open for trouble, the security commander and one of his men came with the protectees. The point man was already in the lab, checking over everyone there.
Won was there, in the middle of the laboratory, at a stand-up desk with a laptop computer. Around her two technicians worked on one of the fermentation vats, monitoring temperature and moisture via gauges on the side of a cylinder that looked like a large high-tech oil drum.
“Good morning, Doctor,” he said as he crossed the room. “How lovely to see you.”
Won did not return the smile, but she did shake his proffered hand. He always felt her do this with reticence, and he remembered reading in her file that the Russians had found her to be psychologically damaged and unable to form intimate relationships or even friendships. Something from her childhood, Mars imagined, but he didn’t really care.
He said, “We just wanted to drop in and see how you are getting along with the task of growing the spores from the material taken from Stockholm.”
She replied curtly. “We will speak in my office first.”
Mars raised an eyebrow at Fox but followed her compliantly.
A minute later they sat in the small and spare office, cups of steaming tea in front of them. Mars didn’t love green tea, but his English manners, learned in the last thirty-five years of his sixty-two years on Earth, obliged him to sip it.
He tried a little small talk but, as usual, Won was mission focused in the extreme.
She interrupted his comment on the weather to say, “Regarding the development of the plague spores, it is impossible for me to give you a progress report, with completion percentages and time projections, because I do not yet know how much developed Yersinia pestis is needed for our operation.”
“Understood. Perhaps just let me know the percentage increase in the bacteria you have grown. I can make a layman’s estimation from that and—”
Janice Won interrupted. “No. I am a scientist, Mr. Mars. I don’t want a layman’s estimation. I need firm information to do my job. I need more information.”
“What are you telling me?”
“I am telling you it is no longer negotiable. You reveal the target to me, now, or I leave this project.”
Mars was not a man to take ultimatums quietly, even if they were reasonable, as he had to allow that this one was. But he caught himself from lashing out. He saw Won as a crucial and powerful weapon, but one that needed to be carefully handled to prevent a misfire.
Despite some misgivings he said, “Doctor . . . you are quite right. It’s time.” He put the tea down on the table and sat back, crossing his legs. “Do you know what the term Five Eyes refers to?”
The younger woman made a face of frustration. “You do know I have training as an intelligence operative, don’t you?”
Mars held a hand up. “My apologies, Doctor. I did not mean to be patronizing. Well, you are probably also aware that Five Eyes has a conference each year in a different location, but you might not know that this year it will be here, in Scotland. First there will be a series of meetings in London, but only among