Collision of Centuries by John LeBeau

Author:John LeBeau
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oceanview Publishing
Published: 2015-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

GAMSDORF POLICE STATION

“Gentlemen, it’s like this. We’re up against a man who is as embittered as he is lethal, and, I admit, I initially failed to see it.” Waldbaer leaned backwards, bracing himself on his solid, scarred desk and looked at his two-person audience. They sat on an Ikea couch, Braun in his police uniform slouched against the office wall, and Dr. Mayerling straight and attentive, hands clasped in front of him.

“We have a name, though it is admittedly of limited utility. Christian Slatner. It is an alias, and we know that, but it’s all we have at the moment. What do we know about the man who uses the name Slatner? Nothing, nothing at all, or nearly nothing. But we can speculate about him, based upon what Slatner has done. In my view, this says legions about Slatner.”

Mayerling and Braun watched him, neither one saying a word.

Waldbaer crossed his thick arms on his chest. “To begin with, Slatner, or whatever his true name is, has an advanced education in medical science, or in laboratory research. He may have had—and I admit to stretching here—contact with a Russian scientist who was formerly employed in his country’s biological weaponization programs in the final years of the Soviet Union. At any rate, Slatner became interested, I would say obsessed, in infectious diseases. Somehow, he focused on the plague, probably because it was such an appalling human catastrophe centuries ago and because it still exists today.”

Not expecting a response, Waldbaer continued after a short pause. “I am informed that the disease Slatner has worked with has its origins in Africa, on the island of Madagascar, to be precise. He took the samples from his medical research, and, using a self-made laboratory in a former slaughterhouse in Florida, he biologically reengineered the plague. It must have cost quite a bit of money, so we can assume Slatner had access to generous funds. He was in Florida for six months, and I gather that is how long it took him to do the engineering to his satisfaction. Then, he took the reengineered plague with him on a flight back to—presumably—Germany.”

Waldbaer looked to see if his diminutive audience was following him. They were. “So, Slatner is here, probably hiding somewhere in Bavaria, because all of the victims of plague have contracted the disease in this region. But precisely what type of person is he?”

Waldbaer again paused for a response, got none, and continued. “He has an enormous ego. He is probably a solipsist—a person for whom all other people are regarded as inferior and unworthy. In his day-to-day dealings, Slatner is, in my estimation, a good conversationalist and can be amusing in a cynical kind of way. For all of that, he is deadly dangerous. He is determined to kill hundreds, maybe thousands of people without a whim. It is, in the end, all the same to him. And that, gentlemen, is what keeps me up at night. I do not know at this stage who Slatner really is, or where he is.

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