Silent Assassin(69)

“I will not,” said Flora, looking up with the same defiant expression, now sporting a bloody lip.

Wordlessly, the Russian walked to Julian, and motioned for the guard to come forward. The lab assistant drew back at the approach, but did not dare move his feet. The Russian told the guard to hold Julian. The lab assistant could offer little resistance as the much stronger man took his arms in a hold. The Russian took Julian’s hand and produced a knife.

“No!” cried Flora.

“You will do what I tell you, and you will not be a hero,” said Novokoff. “You will do that, or others will suffer.” He took Julian’s pinky, and in a flash, the knife had severed it at the joint. Julian screamed in pain.

The Russian walked out, leaving Julian on the floor, clutching his hand and howling. Next to him on the ground, Vogt saw the dead, bloody finger. Flora, meanwhile, just stared ahead, in blank horror.





CHAPTER 36


Boston, January 31





Morgan’s interrogation at Zeta headquarters took hours, as he went over every tiny detail of what had happened, with the voice. He left the room with stiffness in his legs, which melted away as he walked down a long corridor and then upstairs back to the main level.

He took a shower in the locker room and changed into a fresh shirt and pants that he kept on hand for situations like this. He was going to stay inside, so he didn’t bother to dry his hair all the way—the heat would take care of it. He walked out feeling refreshed. On his way toward the war room, he ran into Shepard, who was escorting the scientist that they had extracted from the Montauk facility.

“Morgan!” said Shepard. “Good to see you up and about. I really thought you were a goner back there.”

“I can’t say the thought hadn’t crossed my mind too,” he said.

“It’s really terrible about Rogue,” he said. “Such a tragedy.”

“Yeah. It was terrible.” The mention of Rogue awoke some anger in Morgan. Bloch had withheld information from them. They’d gone into a deathtrap, and Rogue had paid the price.

“Hey, Morgan,” Shepard said, “this here’s Emmett Pope. You might remember him from the secret underground facility filled with demented monkeys.”

“Apes,” Pope quietly corrected. He reached his hand out sheepishly to shake with Morgan. “I, uh, I think I should say thank you.” Morgan could tell right away that this Pope wasn’t used to talking to people. He seemed to avoid eye contact as much as possible, and spoke like he was mumbling to himself rather than having a conversation. “You know. For saving my life and all.”

“Just doing my job,” said Morgan.

“I’ve never had my life endangered before. I don’t think I like it much.”

“You get used to it,” said Morgan.

He left them and made his way to the war room, then up the curved stairwell to Bloch’s office.

“Welcome back, Morgan,” she said as he walked in through the threshold.

“Why don’t you tell me what the hell that was?” said Morgan furiously.

“Do not take that tone with me, Morgan.”

“I’ll take whatever tone I damn well please. You sent us in there to die. You knew what we’d find down there.”

“I had no idea what the nature of the—”

“You knew they were running experiments with bioweapons, didn’t you?” She remained silent. “What was that place, Bloch?”

“That’s privileged information.”

“Bullshit,” he said. “That was a goddamn government installation. Are we working for the feds now?”

“Does it look like we’re working with the federal government?” Bloch asked pointedly.

“You’re certainly well integrated with government agencies.”

Bloch took a deep breath. “The government is not a monolithic entity, Morgan,” she said. “You know that. There are a thousand competing interests. Functionaries trying to avoid black eyes or public outrage, not to mention those who want to screw someone else. There are things certain agencies would not like known to others. Such rivalries run deep. And we fit into these rifts. By assisting in maintaining certain secrets, we have a privileged position with every agency that we so help.

“The Montauk Project is as top secret as they come. Only a handful of people even knew of its existence. I myself only found out about it when the call came.”

“And what’s it supposed to be?”

“Wasn’t it clear? Biological weapons research. Deadly funguses and bacteria that can be deployed against America’s enemies.”

“And who’s behind this project?” he insisted. “DARPA?”