BioKill Read Online Free

you.”
    “Ah, an Americano. Please, let Alessio offer you a special coffee, roasted this morning.”
    Evangeline cocked an ear. “What special delight do you have for us today? I hope you’re not slipping and purchasing Robusta…”
    “Evangelina! That word is forbidden here,” he waved a finger in jest to his favorite patron. “I have acquired…” He leaned in to Evangeline and whispered, “I have acquired beans from none other than Napoleon’s own trees, the ones he planted at St Helena, the world’s most isolated island. They are magnifico.”
    “You didn’t?”
    Alessio looked pleased with himself, “Si, bella — and for you and your friend, I will brew them myself.” Without waiting for a reply, he left them to it, as he hurried away to do what he did best: make the finest coffee from arguably some of the world’s most expensive beans.
    “I can’t believe it!” Evangeline was beaming, “Napoleonic coffee! Now you must have heard of him!”
    “Like Napoleon as in Bonaparte?”
    “The one and only. You are about to taste the ambrosial delight of real coffee.”
    Lilburn had been briefed that as well as being one of the leading authorities in her field, her work at Plum Island considered among her peers to be exceptionally well researched and enlightening, Dr. Crawston was also known to be a coffee connoisseur. Not that he was here to smell the coffee. Plum Island, eight hundred and forty acres of near flat land one and a half miles off Long Island was the reason. One hundred miles from New York City. Named after the abundance of Black Plum shrubs that cover it, and home to the Animal Disease Center of New York, run by Homeland Security.
    “So, Mr. Lilburn, I am still utterly intrigued as to why you need to talk to me.”
    “What I am about to tell you is highly confidential.” Looking around to see no one else was in earshot, he continued. “The United States has a situation… a critical situation and I’ve been instructed to ask for your assistance.”
    Evangeline sat back in her chair. The man sitting before her now had her professional attention. “Before we go any further, I must ask to see identification.”
    “Of course — I wouldn’t have expected anything else.” Lilburn removed his wallet from his rear pocket. Taking out an identification card, he placed it on the table.
    “Thank you.” Evangeline looked at the dark-blue card. Along with a rather unflattering photo of the man before her was the emblem of an American eagle with outstretched wings. The wings were breaking through a red ring into an outer white ring containing the words US Department of Homeland Security. One talon held an olive branch with thirteen leaves and thirteen seeds, the other talon held thirteen arrows.
    Laying the card back on the table, Evangeline carefully slid it back to Lilburn. “Thank you. Now, how may I assist?”
    “We believe an attack on American soil is about to take place — the intelligence is reliable, and our leaders are concerned, to the highest level. While we’re short on specifics the best we can assume is that the attack will be deployed as a disease, and is imminent.”
    Scenarios played out in Evangeline’s mind — none of them good. The use of a disease, a biological attack, it could happen anywhere with devastating consequences. “Do we know what disease will be used?”
    “We believe it will be foot-and-mouth.”
    Foot-and-mouth disease, a highly infectious and sometimes fatal virus affecting cloven-hoofed animals. She might have known.
    Clearly he was reading her face. “You don’t seem surprised.”
    “I’m not. You sat in on my lecture — it was only a matter of time. Not if but when — remember? We all have a problem; a serious problem.”
    With obvious pride, Alessio Bavetta chose that moment to reverently lay two ornately decorated cups of coffee before his guests. Taking a step back he stood with a broad grin, hands linked together in front of him,