Hazard 666

Forward

This novel is not entirely a work of fiction. Although it contains incidental references to actual people and places, these references are used to add to a realistic setting.  Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

The biological threats portrayed in this book are real.  In 1973 and 1974, the Soviet Politburo, (the Kremlin), formed and funded the organization known most recently as Biopreparat.  It was designed to carry out offensive biological weapons development, while concealing itself behind legal and civilian lines of biotechnology research. 

Although it was government controlled, a gifted civilian scientist in the Soviet Union could be ‘recruited’ at will, and forced to conduct activity at any of the 52 sites under the aegis of Biopreparat.  Ultimately the Ministry of Defense controlled it, but its tentacles extended all the way up the ladder to the Central Committee, which eventually became the Office of the President.

At its peak, Biopreparat employed at least 50,000 people.  Many of those in the program were scientists and technicians with very high security clearances.  Since this program was more secret than its nuclear weapons counterpart, its participants had no choice but to live on site.  Its capacity for production of agents was measured not in tons, but in hundreds of tons, and for each of at least eight separate agents; plague, tularemia, glanders, anthrax, smallpox, Marburg virus, smallpox, and Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis.  Many of these agents were genetically modified, and the resultant strains given code names.

The top priority of the program was to design agents that were resistant to degradation by heat, light, cold, UV radiation, ionizing radiation, and the most potent of antibiotics.  Just as important, these dry formulations were made capable of remaining viable for long-term storage.  Agents recently recovered from newly discovered bunkers, were found to be just as virulent as when they were created some forty years earlier.

Too many questions remain about this Russian program: What happened in the facilities that the Ministry of Defense would not allow western experts to visit?  What happened to plans detailing every aspect of production and deployment?   What happened to the fifty thousand personnel involved in the Biopreparat program?  What happened to the R&D centered on anti-crop, anti-plant, and anti-livestock biological weapons?  What happened to the stocks of seed cultures for each of the biological weapon agents?  Was there space-based biological weapons capability?  Where are all the human genetics-related biological weapons?  Where are the thousands of tons of biological ammunitions that were manufactured?

Despite the passage of nearly 15 years, the fundamental change in political structure of Russia, the extreme economic upheaval, and tremendous budget restrictions, to this day, the capability and location of all the Biopreparat sites remains largely unknown.

Chapter 1

Alan enjoyed his trips to Prague, the historic Capital of the Czech Republic.  Until the Iron Curtain fell in 1991, it was known for decades as Czechoslovakia.  As far as Alan was concerned, it’s the most enchanting of all the countries in the European Union.

Once again, he was here on business.  Alan Wheeler is President and founder of Hazard Robotics based in Peterborough, NH.  Before he set up this small satellite office in Prague two years ago, Hazard Robotics could only boast fair to moderate growth.  They advertised in many trade magaz