“What about your lab?” Steve questioned. “Does she know about the lab you’ve supposedly built in the basement?”

“What do you mean, supposedly?” Yuri asked. He was offended by the implication.

“We’ve never seen it,” Steve said. “We’ve never seen anything, after all the effort we’ve expended getting all the stuff you say you’ve needed.”

“You could have seen it any time you wanted,” Yuri said indignantly.

“All right, settle down,” Curt said. “Let’s not argue. But maybe we should take a look at the lab, just for reassurance. We all have a lot riding on this operation.”

“Fine by me,” Yuri said. He stood up, put his drink down, and led the way over to the basement door.

The group trooped down in single file. Yuri pulled the outer door open by its sprung hasp.

“What happened to the lock?” Curt asked.

“My wife pried it off this afternoon,” Yuri admitted. “I’d warned her not to come down here, and she didn’t, until today. She came down here a couple of hours ago and used a crowbar to break in. But she didn’t touch anything. I’m sure of that.”

“Why today?” Curt asked while trying to maintain his composure. He didn’t like the sound of any of this, and it kept getting worse.

“She said she just got curious,” Yuri said. “Which doesn’t make sense, since I told her I’d kill her if she came down here and messed with anything.”

“We might have to do just that,” Curt said.

“You mean actually kill her?” Yuri asked.

For a moment no one spoke. Curt finally nodded. “It’s possible. As I said, this is an important operation for all of us. Maybe the most important thing all of us are going to do in our lifetime. To give you an idea of how strongly I feel, over the weekend it came to my attention that the People’s Aryan Army had an infiltrator. His name was Brad Cassidy. Today Brad Cassidy is no longer with us, and his body is missing some of his favorite parts.”

“Your wife is a monumental security risk,” Steve explained. “Does she know what you’re doing down here?”

“She thought it was a distillery until today,” Yuri said.

“Which means she no longer thinks it’s a still,” Curt said.

“That’s right,” Yuri admitted.

“That’s too bad,” Curt said. “Since she knows you were involved in the Soviet bioweapons industry, it wouldn’t be hard for her to figure it out.”

“Let’s see the lab,” Steve said.

Yuri stepped into the entry room followed closely by Curt and then Steve.

“Do you use that class A hazmat suit we got for you?” Curt asked. He nodded at the protective gear hanging on its peg.