“So, a perfect storm,” said Jamison.
“That’s right.”
“So then who killed Cramer? The people behind All-American?”
“They would be the ones with a motive. Same for Parker and Ames. They had learned things and had to be eliminated. And Purdy might be in that mix as well.”
“And maybe Cramer had some evidence, which she swallowed, and they cut her open to get it back. And they blackmailed Walt Southern to mess with the post reports.”
“It all fits together,” agreed Decker. “In fact, it’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“So whoever is behind this has some serious money.”
“And the sort of firepower they’ve brought to this area isn’t cheap either, like Robie said.”
“But what would be the reason to release biochem weapons in a remote area like this? I mean, I get that it would be terrible to happen anywhere. But to do the most damage, you’d set the stuff off in a large city where millions of people and billions of dollars of property could be impacted.”
“Well, it might have been impossible to dig the bunker up without anyone knowing. And if they did succeed in digging it up, how were they going to safely open that crypt and collect the stuff inside? And then transport it out of here without anyone knowing?”
“But still.”
“And you forget that while there aren’t millions of people here, there are billions of dollars’ worth of property in North Dakota.”
Jamison said, “Of course, the oil and gas. It could have made this place uninhabitable and contaminate the oil and gas fields for centuries.”
“That’s right.”
When they got back to the hotel Jamison pulled the SUV to the curb and said, “What now?”
“I don’t know about you, but I’m going to take a shower. Maybe none of that stuff got out of the pipe, but maybe some of it did. Who knows? I’m going to call Stan and tell him to do the same thing.”
Jamison’s eyes widened. “Right. I think I’m going to take a shower, too. And go through a couple bars of soap.”
They were about to climb out of the SUV when Jessica Reel appeared at the driver’s-side glass and said, “You need to come with me.”
“Why?”
“Decontamination.”
“Do you know what was down there?” said Jamison anxiously.
“Not definitively, but the speculation mandates that you two go in for decon and testing.”
“My brother-in-law—” began Decker.
“We’ve already picked him up. And the men from the pumper truck.” She pointed down the street. “We have a van over there. Get in the back and put on the suits that are in there.”
“Wait a minute—are you saying we’re contagious?”
“I’m saying we don’t know. We’ll take charge of your SUV. It needs to be tested, too. So leave the keys.” She moved back and pointed to the van.
They climbed into the back of the van and put on the hazmat suits that had been laid out for them. They even had their own closed-loop air pack systems.
“Okay, this is scary,” said Jamison, through her face mask. “Do you really think we’re contaminated?”
“I guess we’ll find out soon enough,” said Decker. “But we better not be.”
“Well, yeah, duh.”
“No, I mean we have murders to solve.”
IT WAS THE NEXT DAY and every known test had been run on them, Baker, and the other men and their vehicles before they’d finally been given the all clear. Whatever was in the pipe, first the water and then the concrete had stopped it from escaping. A federal hazmat response team was currently at the site, walling it off and using sophisticated detection technology to assess the situation.
Jamison and Decker were in a small conference room at their hotel. Robie, Reel, and Blue Man sat across from them.
Blue Man said, “You are to be commended. What you did saved a lot of lives.”
“The target had to be the oil and gas,” said Decker.
“Which explains the chatter we were getting from the Middle East,” said Blue Man.
“Meaning the threat came from there,” said Jamison.
“We believe so, and it would make sense from a geoeconomic perspective. Fracking in North Dakota helped in a very large way to make this country mostly energy independent,” stated Blue Man. “That is good for us, and that is very bad for every other petroleum-producing nation, including those who are members of OPEC, especially the Saudis. We still import oil from them, just not nearly as much as we used to.”
“So what exactly was down there in the ground?” asked Jamison. “No one’s told us.”
“That’s because we don’t know for certain. But since I learned of your discovery, I have been in touch with some high-level contacts from the DoD and informed them of the situation here. With some prodding from my superiors, they, in turn, did some deep digging within certain old records.”
“With what result?” asked Jamison.
“It seems that decades ago certain elements within the Air Force community might not have followed the presidential directive to discontinue all work on such weapons and destroy the stockpiles that did exist. Work on one project may have continued. The results of that work may well have been what ended up in that bunker.”
“There’s no maybe about it,” said Decker. “It did.”
“Any idea what that project was?” asked Jamison.
“We can’t be sure until they get into that bunker and examine the contents. That will take some time. In addition to the concrete that was poured down that pipe, they will be using vapor seals, pressure chamber technology, and other protocols to ensure that what is in the pipe and bunker remains there until it can be permanently dealt with. The problem is that if an explosive was used in piercing the bunker, some of the contents may have escaped already into the surrounding earth. The response team understands that and is using every tool they have to contain it until a complete study is conducted and a full-scale remediation plan can be implemented.”
Jamison persisted, “Don’t you have some idea after talking to those people?”
“I have come to learn that back then the Air Force, as an alternative to the deployment of nuclear weapons, was very keenly working on developing ‘synthetic’ airborne weapons, including ricin, anthrax, sarin, a substance today known as compound 1080, and an inhalable form of the world’s most lethal poison, botulinum. If I had to guess, I would say that the medium used was some type of laboratory-crafted spore. I say that only because I was aware of a similar project being undertaken by the Soviets during the Cold War.”
“Wonderful how really smart people spend so much time trying to kill each other,” commented a clearly disgusted Jamison.
“Yes, well, anyway, it was intended that these weapons would be deployed from aircraft—making the Air Force the perfect medium to deploy them, of course. I have also learned that the intent back then was to devise these toxins in such a way that once released they would linger in the ground for centuries, in the same way that radiation from a nuclear explosion would. Years later, if you happened to walk along and disturb such toxins on the ground and then inhaled them, you could be dead within hours or even minutes without ever knowing what had killed you. And I was told that one of the other goals was to make some or all of these poisons, once inhaled, capable of being transmitted through the air from one living thing to another. In other words, they wanted to make a synthetic plague that was actually far deadlier than the original version.”