Eden Plague - Latest Edition by David VanDyke

Andrew Jenkins the Fourth, one of the program managers. Yale grad, BA business, MBA, recruited by these guys straight out of school. Old money, family has investments and concerns up in Connecticut and Massachusetts. Lumber, shipping, some other stuff. Probably being groomed for bigger and better things.” Vinny looked smug.
    “Ah. That’s not good.” If he had to kill someone, Daniel thought, why couldn’t it have been someone without a rich and powerful family?
    Vinny shrugged, looked down for a moment. In fact, unless Daniel missed his guess, Vinny was holding something out on them, savoring the drama and triumph.
    Daniel looked at Spooky, raised an eyebrow.
    He got it, shifted his stance that conveyed impatience to his nephew.
    “Okay, here’s the kicker,” Vinny continued hurriedly. “The other two employees are scientists as well. So we got a microbiologist – Elise – a virologist, and an epidemiologist.”
    “Only three. Ah’m only a po country doctah,” Daniel put on his best hick accent, “but that sounds like they were working on the XH. And that narrows it down to some kind of germ. A virus, or other disease pathogen. And I’d have a tough time believing that a team of just three people could come up with something like this, though stranger things have happened.”
    Spooky spoke up. “Then they did not make it. They study it. Experiment. Decode. Perhaps replicate. Try to fix it, to get rid of the problems.”
    Daniel nodded.
    “Where are they located?” asked Zeke.
    “They have a Norfolk, Virginia office address.”
    Daniel felt a surge of relief, and he could see that Zeke had gotten it too. “That means we’re not going up against a well-funded, well-supported Agency effort. It’s something off to the side, something maybe they don’t even know about. Just a couple people probably, maybe only one, and like all bureaucracies, they have been slow to realize what they got. And maybe INS, Inc. hasn’t seen fit to tell them. Maybe their top guy – who’s the CEO?”
    “Raphe K. Durgan. Medical doctor, biologist. Formerly of the USDA, at Plum Island Animal Disease Center.”
    “And the Department of Homeland Security took over the island in 2003, with the USDA becoming a tenant,” Zeke chimed in.
    “How’d you know that?” Daniel asked, surprised.
    Zeke grinned. “You get all over in spec ops.”
    Daniel shrugged. “Okay smart guy. So he’s working on disease, maybe some black projects there, because you know the USDA ain’t the only people doing biological work on the island. Not with Homeland Security running the show. He gets recruited because he has the clearances and has worked on stuff, maybe anthrax or weaponized smallpox or something we’ve never heard of. He gets put in charge of the research effort in this little company because somebody doesn’t want it in the regular system. The heavies are there to keep control of things. Must be the same thugs I saw at the Iron Saddle.”
    He was feeling better and better about things, now that he believed this wasn’t an official effort. It was compartmentalized, maybe even rogue. And while the memory of executing Jenkins still pained him, it pained him less now that he knew Jenkins was off the reservation, maybe making up his own op as he went along.
Probably read too many cheap spy novels.
Unfortunately Jenkins ran into me. The old me.
    I think the new me could have kept control.
    One more little piece of the puzzle clicked into place, somewhere at the back of his mind, the part that worked unconsciously. He didn’t know what it was, he just knew it was working, and it would come up with something eventually.
    Zeke replied, “That means we got a shot here. They don’t have the resources, unless their sponsor decides to call in some favors.” He looked at Daniel. “Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be careful. They probably put you on federal fugitive lists, no-fly lists, terrorism watch and report lists. But that’s routine,