Silent Assassin(70)

“Morgan, you know that I can only relay a limited amount of information.”

“Oh, yeah? And what about the fact that they planned to blow the place up with us inside? Was that classified?”

“There was a hierarchy of priorities involved, including saving the facility and preventing Novokoff from escaping with what he’d come for.”

“And where in that hierarchy was keeping me and the tac team alive?”

Bloch looked down, and for a moment, Morgan thought he saw shame. “I’m sorry about that. Truly sorry. I wasn’t informed of the precise nature of what went on in the Montauk facility until after the mission. But you know what the job is, Cobra. You do the mission you’re given, with the information you’re given.”

“That’s not how I work,” he said.

“The mission won’t turn on your whims. You may get a degree of latitude here, but you are not a free agent in this.”

Morgan fumed. She was right, but it wasn’t a fact he was entirely comfortable with. “I want to be there when the scientist is questioned.”

“Fine,” said Bloch.

Dr. Emmett Pope was sweating profusely, even with the air-conditioning in the debriefing room at full blast. Bloch had let him take a shower in the Zeta facilities, so he had gotten the blood and dirt from Novokoff’s attack off his body and he was wearing a shirt and pants that belonged to a member of the tac team. They fit him snugly, but rather than from muscle, as would be the case with their owner, it was from his soft pudge. He was still jumpy from the harrowing experience. Morgan sat down next to Bloch, who was across the table from Pope. Bloch adjusted a small digital video camera that was connected to a computer in the other room, where Shepard would be watching.

“Uh . . .” Pope said, motioning vaguely at the camera. He was wringing his hands, then tried to hold them still, but they were trembling. “Does that really need to be here? I’m not really supposed to ever record this stuff. They were pretty serious about that back at—”

“I can assure you that this video will never leave this facility,” said Bloch.

“Am I a prisoner here?” he asked sheepishly.

“No,” said Bloch. “We saved you, remember? We’re going to return you to your people in a few hours. Just as soon as we get a clear idea of just what exactly Novokoff was after.”

“Novokoff—that’s the man who led the invasion on the facility? Who killed everyone? The grey-haired one who was attacked by Abe?”

“Abe?” asked Morgan.

“Sorry. The chimp.”

“That’s him,” said Bloch. “What do you think he was after?”

“Oh, I know what he was after,” said Pope. “The Fury.”

“Come again?” said Morgan.

“A human-engineered fungus. Its official name is BFN04, but we all called it the Fury. We worked on some other projects before, but a few months ago we were diverted to working with this pathogen exclusively. And it’s a real bastard.”

“What does it do?” asked Morgan.

“It acts on both the limbic system, which regulates primal emotions, and the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for impulse control. When infected, a person becomes increasingly aggressive and violent.”

“How is that even possible?” asked Bloch. “I mean, how can a fungus change a person’s behavior?”

“There were some species that did so before,” said Pope. “Like the fungi of genus Cordyceps. They infect mostly insects, and change their behaviors in specific ways that help the fungus reproduce. For example, they make the insect walk to higher ground so that the fungus has the optimal conditions to spread its spores.”

“Thanks for the science lesson, but I’ve seen it in action, and I know what it does to chimps. But I’d like to know what happens to people. What exactly did you mean by ‘aggressive’?” Morgan asked. “How aggressive are we talking here?”

“Animals,” said Pope. “Worse. Machines bent on destruction. Completely without humanity.”

“The monkeys were infected with this fungus?”

“The apes were, yes.”

“It’s the same fungus as the one that affects people?”

“Yes, the same fungus can infect humans as other ape hosts.”

“Novokoff was mauled by one,” said Morgan. “Do you think he might have caught it?”

“It’s likely that transmission did occur,” said Pope. It’s not airborne, so it won’t be transmitted by sharing a room with an infected person. But with open wounds like that . . . I think it’s likely that the man has been infected.”