Tatyana was there to meet the head of the institute, the leading researcher in the field of paleo-pathogens. Her name was Sofia Ivanovna, and she’d made waves when she wrote a paper about some soldiers from the civil war who’d surfaced in the tundra with viable traces of smallpox and Spanish flu in their clothing. In her lab, she successfully reanimated the diseases, and in the process accidentally killed a lab technician in the only known case of small pox in Russia since the disease had been eradicated.

Under the illusion her job was curing disease, Sofia tried to publish her findings, but the GRU suppressed her article, seized her data, and made her an offer she couldn’t refuse. Run their new lab, or she and her team could sleep under blankets doused in small pox .

“The way the Americans did with the Indians,” the generals said.

Now she was working on weaponizing thousand year old strains of diseases that the world would be as powerless against as any Shawnee tribe ever was.

Tatyana went through the building’s extensive security procedures and waited for Sofia in a small lobby that reminded her of her dentist’s office.

When the doctor emerged, Tatyana was startled by how much weight she’d lost. The photos she’d seen of her were just six months old. This woman was a ghost of her former self.

“Agent Aleksandrova,” Sofia said.

“Please, call me Tatyana.”

“Very well.”

“I got your message,” Tatyana said, getting straight to the point.

She knew she had to be careful. This meeting wasn’t authorized. If anyone ever found out they’d met, they’d both be killed.

Sofia hesitated. Tatyana could see she was terrified.

“They sent us to dig up thousand year old carcasses from the ice,” Sofia said.

“And did you find what you were looking for?”

“We found pathogens. Ancient pathogens.”

“And were they viable?”

Sofia said nothing.

Tatyana could only imagine what this was like for her.

“You can trust me,” she said.

Sofia looked at her and there were tears in her eyes.

“There’s still hope, Sofia,” Tatyana said. “As long as people like you and I resist, there’s still hope.”

“I found what they wanted,” Sofia said hesitantly.

“A weapon?”

“It really is what they asked for,” Sofia said. “A biological Chernobyl. Unstoppable.”

“I see,” Tatyana said.

“Do you?”

Tatyana looked at the doctor closely. “You’re losing your resolve, Sofia.”

“It’s not a small thing,” Sofia said. “To unleash something like this. To be involved in something so…” Her voice trailed off.

“Destructive?” Tatyana said.

Sofia didn’t seem to hear.

She reached into her pocket and pulled something out. Two small glass vials. To Tatyana they looked like perfume samples they’d give out at a department store.

“You know it’s what ended the Soviet system,” Sofia said.

“What is?”

“Chernobyl.”