Harry walked out of the National Institutes of Health building in Bethesda Maryland for the last time Friday. Tucked into the hollow battery case of Harry’s laptop were three vials of cold war weaponized small pox spores. The small pox countermeasures program was mothballed in 2002. Over time institutional memories fade, everyone involved in the pox-unit except Harry Bergen had moved on, retired or was dead.
The next day Harry drove his leased Bentley to an abandoned outlet mall in Laurel Maryland. A gray primer splotched Honda Accord arrived a few minutes later. Inside was a man. Harry got into the Accord and swapped his three glass vials for a quarter of a million dollars.
Three days later Harry’s body was found face down in a ditch on a frontage road near Interstate 270 with three bullets in his skull.
As investigators unwound the story, Harry’s theft of the last known weaponized small pox strain in the world was discovered. It was then Connor was called in to clean up the mess.