Fort Detrick, a US Army Command location in Maryland, is the current and traditional home of the United States’ biological weapons program[1]. Fort Detrick is the source of William’s pathogen samples.
Background
Situated in the town of Frederick, Maryland, Fort Detrick is home to the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease (USAMRID), the National Cancer Institute-Frederick (NCI-Frederick) and to the National Interagency Confederation for Biological Research (NICBR) and National Interagency Biodefense Campus (NIBC).
The main historic focus of the sight has been in the research of biological weapons, both in an offensive and defensive capacity. Since President Nixon signed the Geneva Protocol, banning all offensive biological weapons, the work at Fort Detrick has been solely in a defensive capacity.
Biosafety Levels
As one of the few Biosafety Level 4 facilities in the world, Fort Detrick (and by proxy William's laboratory), would have seen research on the most truly deadly of biological warfare agents. Biosafety Level 4 facilities are mutually-agreed international standards capable of containing, studying, and destroying, samples of some of the most infectious agents known to medicine (Ebola, Marburg, various hemorrhagic fever viruses, Lassa, etc.)
William
William’s true employer is not known though he does work at a lab that was recently rewarded a Fort Detrick contract. Through his access, the KGB is able to discover the US’ bio-defense work. William currently only has official access to Level 3 samples, though has provided the KGB with stolen samples from Level 4 bacteria (the rat infected with Tularemia).
In the context of the Cold War, any and all intelligence relating to activity at Fort Detrick would have been of an immense value to the Russians.