It was midnight now and all was quiet. Arnie had said that there was usually only one person that would sometimes come in to work at that time of night, but no one ever really knew when. His name was Dr. Semenov, a supposed oil and natural gas scientist, but King could tell that Arnie really had no clue. The outer door buzzed and King jumped, not ready for that noise to break the silence.
King moved his head to the monitor watching the main entrance. A white-haired man in a white lab coat was removing a parka as he stared back at him, and King was shook. The last thing he’d expected to see was a familiar face that night, but sure enough, one was looking him right in the eyes.
Dmitry Kuznetsov.
King had studied and memorized the profile of this scientist of infectious diseases and world-renowned virologist before he burned it. Kuznetsov was the central theme of the reason King had been sent to Barrow. And there was no mistaking this man. His nose was big enough to have its own zip code, and his white eyebrows each looked like the hair on a troll doll. He had a very worried look on his face. King was shocked that he would already be able to report back to Sam and President Gibbons that Kuznetsov was in fact in Barrow.
This put King square in the belly of the beast.
Right where he wanted to be.
Kuznetsov shouted into the camera in a Russian accent, “Come on! I haven’t got all night!” Then he held up his badge to the camera as if he understood that maybe the new guy wasn’t sure of who he was. He seemed as though he was in a hurry.
“X, what are you doing?” Arnie rushed over and pressed the button allowing Kuznetsov to enter the front door.
“Sorry,” King said. “Wasn’t expecting anyone to buzz in this late.”
“Well, this is the exact guy you don’t want to piss off. You’ll be gone in no time if you do.”
Kuznetsov walked through the front entrance, then scanned his ID badge so the internal doors would open. On the computer screen in front of King, the ID card flashed up. It was in fact Kuznetsov’s face, but unsurprisingly, his name was different. The badge read Doctor Ivan Semenov. King could feel the adrenaline seeping into his system for the first time since he’d arrived in Barrow. Until that moment, no one was certain that Kuznetsov had disappeared to Alaska; it had only been speculation. Now it was reality. And King was ready to dive headfirst into throwing a wrench in these Commies’ plans.
Arnie rushed over to the glass doors that opened when Kuznetsov scanned his badge. “I’m sorry, Dr. Semenov, Xavier is new. It won’t happen again.”
Kuznetsov walked right by Arnie and stared King down as he passed. “It better not.”
“Yes, sir,” Arnie said as he chased behind him. “It won’t, right, X?”
King didn’t speak. Kuznetsov was already on his way through the security door, so there was no reason to. He was walking the hallway to the only building King hadn’t been allowed to see, and it didn’t surprise King at all—because they weren’t studying the land for oil or for gravel extraction; they were building a weapon. An invisible killer that would give the Russians back world power that every American involved in the intelligence community had known they’d been looking to gain since the Cold War.
King felt a hard slap on his shoulder. “Well, you blew that one, didn’t you, buddy?” Arnie had a big goofy grin on his face. “Don’t worry, I covered for you.”
King smiled. “Thanks, Arnie.”
“Hey, nice cut on your forehead you got there. I heard you went down like a lead ball off a high table when Ryker hit you.”
“How did you already hear about that? It just happened a couple of hours ago.”
“Nothing happens here without everyone knowing about it. Especially when the new guy gets pummeled trying to hit on Cali.”
“I wasn’t hitting on Cali.” King put his hands on his hips.
“Well, seems Ryker was definitely hitting on you. Does he hit as hard as they say he does?”
“Aren’t there some doors you need to make sure are locked or something?”
“I knew he did. Just glad you’re okay. Wouldn’t want to lose you before you really even get started.”
“I think I’ll make it.”
“All right,” Arnie said. “I’m gonna go check the eastern buildings. Try not to break anything while I’m gone.”
“I’ll do my best.”
As Arnie walked away, King watched the monitor as Kuznetsov walked toward the forbidden door. He didn’t know what it was, maybe it was the fact that he was sent to Barrow to investigate that made him long to go through that restricted door, but he really felt it was something even deeper. Something buried in the human DNA that when someone tells you that you can’t have or see something, it makes you want it that much more. Either way, King needed to find a way to see what Volkov Mining and Dmitry Kuznetsov were hiding. And he needed to do it fast.
With so much security, and so many cameras focused on that forbidden door, it was going to be near impossible. King was a lot of things, but an expert in evading cameras was not one of them. The viral videos of his efforts in London and his fight with Husaam Hammoud in Athens were perfect examples. He was going to need help. He didn’t know anyone in Barrow, but fortunately you don’t have to be in the same place to take out digital cameras. He needed a techie.
The good thing was, he and Sam kept one on call: Dbie Johnson.
King glanced over his shoulder to make sure Arnie was gone. Thankfully he did know enough about video equipment to know how to rewind. He did so until Kuznetsov appeared on the screen again, and paused it when Kuznetsov held his ID badge up to the camera. King pulled out his phone and snapped a picture of the ID. He now at least had proof that Kuznetsov was there in Barrow. And he knew where to go to find what Kuznetsov was working on. The hacking into the cameras part to keep King from being seen would be up to Dbie.
Either way, for the first time since he’d flown into Barrow, King felt like his reason for being there was being realized.
Now all he had to do was stop a deadly global pandemic before it started.
No pressure.
5
Washington, DC
President Bobby Gibbons finished nuking his popcorn and was adding in some dark chocolate chunks. He didn’t care much for the chocolate, but his wife, Beth, loved the salty sweet combo. It was rare that the two of them were able to sit down and enjoy a movie together, so he was really looking forward to it. It had been a whirlwind of a year already, and it was only the last of January.
He and Beth were still getting used to their new home. The White House was old, but you wouldn’t know it by the living quarters. It had all been remodeled to Beth’s specifications before he was sworn in a week ago. The only real request Bobby had was that there was a movie room. Movies had been a way for him to escape ever since he was a kid, and he was excited to take two hours and think of nothing but the story he was being told as he nibbled on some popcorn.
Bobby walked down the hall, and at the end was the movie room. He walked in and Beth had already queued up the movie. The room was basically just a couch and a massive hundred-inch television fixed to the wall in front of it. The sound system was state of the art, something he was ready to put to the test.