Dangerous Science

Chapter 6
Situation Room

The situation room was abuzz with activity as Rick entered. Men and women a variety of uniforms scurried this way and that. A few non-uniformed men in ruffled suits stood stock still amid the chaos, looking at a wall covered in photos. Rick recognised Henry at the centre of the group. Henry was in his mid-fifties, mostly bald with a horseshoe of grey hair left. He had a middle-aged paunch to his stomach and his skin was well weathered from years spent in the field on stressful assignments. He was looking particularly haggard that evening.

Rick went straight across the room to the gathered men, interrupting their conversation.

“I came as quick as I could,” he interjected.

The men looked at him warily but Henry seemed glad to see him.

“That’s fine Agent Dobson. Look there isn’t time for niceties right now, so I’m just going to read you in,” Henry explained. “Over the last few days the boys at NSA have been picking up a lot of chatter among a couple of groups we’re just getting familiar with. One is the New Islamic World terrorist group. They’re a group of Sunni extremists operating primarily out of Yemen and Somalia but with a small but particularly active Palestinian branch. The intel we’re getting indicates they’re planning a major attack somewhere in Washington DC.”

“Okay, do we have a timeline on that? Any indication when they plan to strike?”

“Yes. Tonight,” Henry replied gravely.

Rick’s eyes widened. “Tonight?” he repeated, horrified.

“Yes, that’s why it was so important to call you in quickly. The NSA boys intercepted an e-mail to a sleeper operative two days ago. They just managed to break the encryption this morning. We now know that it is a lone agent and he intends to strike somewhere in the city this evening. Unfortunately we don’t know where.”

“Well do we know how? I mean, is this a dirty bomb situation, is he a suicide bomber? What’s the threat level?”

“We know exactly what kind of weapon he’s using agent, and that’s why you’ve been called in.”

“What? I don’t understand.”

Henry shook his head ruefully. “We thought the programme had been swept under the rug successfully, but apparently we had a mole we didn’t know about. Somehow the Russians got their hands on the design plans and they sold them to the Iranians, who sold them to some of their affiliated terror outfits in Lebanon, who passed them on to this group. Well that’s the best we can figure at the moment, we may be missing some steps. The bottom line is they have it.”

Rick gave his boss a quizzical look. “They have what?” he finally demanded.

“The device designed by Dr Sara Sheppard of course. The device capable of turning anyone exposed to it into a drooling idiot.”

“Oh my God!”

“Yes, our thoughts exactly. They could be planning to use it on some of our brightest minds. We’ve already moved to secure the NIH. But really we’re just guessing.”

“Well it’s a tough device to use for mass panic really. I mean, how many people could he actually use it on, even if it is mobile?” Rick questioned.

“That’s not the point. We think this is a test run, the beta phase if you will. If the device works well they can alter it to be able to affect multiple targets. Of course, that’s assuming they haven’t already done so.”

Rick could see the danger now. A new type of gun that wiped minds. Hell why not a bomb that did the same thing to thousands of people at once. This was just the beginning.

“So what do we do? How do we stop them?”

“We narrow down the list of targets, we have agents at each likely location in advance. When the attack begins we stop it fast and capture the terrorist. We cannot allow local cops to intervene, we cannot allow the public to know about this weapon.”

“Because of the terror it would cause?”

“Because we designed it.”

Rick nodded. “Right, so that’s why you really need me then isn’t it? You don’t want more agents even knowing it exists, knowing we created a brand new potential weapon of mass destruction that’s now being tested against us.”

Henry nodded. “It will be up to you to neutralise the threat, by any means necessary.”

“So where do we begin?” Rick asked.

Before Henry could reply a young woman in a camouflage uniform wearing a headset interrupted them. “Sir, we’re monitoring a 911 call from a cell phone in Brookland. The caller is saying a lone attacker with a strange device is terrorising the Catholic University library.”

Rick felt his stomach drop, they were too late.