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Sergey shook his head. “I couldn’t begin to explain to you Sasha’s connection to the Evenki people. He ran away from Moscow for a week once to go to the Evenki. Came back with a tattoo and a story about drinking reindeer piss at the Tunguska crater. He calls their shaman his father now.”
“Kilaqqi. We met him. He took us into the Putoransky Reserve. The Evenki have been watching over someone who worked with General Sevastyanov for years. They say he was responsible for creating the virus that unleashed Hell into the world.”
“That’s what we saw two years ago from Gorodomyla. Hell on Earth.” Shadows flickered in Sergey’s gaze. “The infected weren’t even human anymore, Jack.”
“Do you think it’s the same virus?”
“The GRU is certainly capable of digging viruses out of the ground. They tried to dig Spanish flu out of frozen corpses in the permafrost. Could they have found this one two years ago? Dug it out of a corpse and tried to synthesize it, recreate it, at Gorodomyla? Possibly. But they killed themselves trying.”
“And you and Ilya cleaned up after them.”
“After the coup, there were pockets of Moroshkin’s supporters around the nation, but they were small. Isolated. They were desperate madmen, but we neutralized them—we thought.” He shook his head. “Now Iakov Zeytsev, Ilya’s second-in-command, is demanding I resign my presidency, damning me and my New Russia, and raising a call to arms the same as Moroshkin did. They have been under our noses this whole time, growing like a cancer.”
“As Ilya’s deputy, did Zeytsev have access to the most classified Soviet files? Could he have found out about General Sevastyanov? About his black projects?”
“Jack, even I couldn’t find information on his black projects, not without knowing exactly where to look. Someone had to tell Zeytsev. About this virus, Uchami, the satellite, everything.”
“Lazarus must have told them.”
“Who?”
“The man Kilaqqi’s people were watching, the man who created the virus. He was General Sevastyanov’s partner, and if Zeytsev tracked down what the GRU did at Gorodomyla, then he could have followed the trail right back to Sevastyanov and Lazarus.”
“Fuck.” Sergey tipped his head back. “But how does it end up in space? How the fuck does something forty years old end up on the ISS? And why is it threatening my Sashunya?”
“Kilaqqi said the general had two problems and one satellite when the Soviet Union fell. He had an illegal weapons platform and the virus. A man who was infected who needed to disappear—”
“The dead Soviet,” Sergey spat. “Blyad.”
“There was only one Evenki who survived the human experiments they conducted. One out of hundreds, Kilaqqi said. They used his blood to grow more virus. He became their carrier, their reservoir. A human virus incubator. Sevastyanov had a change of heart at some point about what they were doing.”
“And he launched the poor son of a bitch into space, along with his nuclear satellite, to get rid of his problems.”
“And burned down the lab at Uchami and banished Lazarus to the Evenki.”
Sergey swallowed hard, closing his eyes. “When they brought the body off the satellite, they were bringing the virus on board their ship. And onto the ISS. The astronaut who died, the American. His death was horrific. It sounded like what we saw at Andreapol.Blyad, it’s going to kill them all unless we do something, Jack!” Sergey’s face was wet when he turned to Jack, tears making shimmering trails down his cheeks. “No one from the White House or NASA will return my calls. They have shut me out. They’ve shut Russia out. Are they going to let them all die?”
“I wonder if they know about Lazarus—”
“Who the fuck is Lazarus?” Sergey snapped. “That’s not a fucking Russian name! Why was he working with General Sevastyanov? Who is this man who created this fucking virus—”
“He was American. Maybe a defector, a disgruntled scientist—”
That stopped Sergey short. He boggled, not breathing, his jaw falling open as he stared at Jack. “Youknewabout this?”
“No. Absolutely not. I found out seven hours ago, and the first thing I did was fly here to see you. His cabin is filled with American writings, American paraphernalia.”
“And now what? What is it you plan to do, Jack? What’s your great, amazing, American plan?”
“I wanted to talk to you—”
“I needhelp, Jack! I don’t need conversation!”
“Sergey—”
“Will you help me build a ladder to the stars? Strap my skinny ass to a slingshot and hurl me at the moon?I need to bring Sasha home! I need to get him out of there, get him away from Zeytsev’s nuke andstopwhatever is spreading in orbit! Isawwhathappens! I saw what will happen to them up there, to him—” His voice broke, fracturing into a sob as he clenched his teeth and screamed. “My country is falling apart, my nuclear weapons are in a madman’s hands, and all I want is to climb the mountains and leap off this fucking planet! Catch hold of the ISS and pull myself up there! Find my Sashunya and bring him home.”
“Sergey…”
