Дэвид Балдаччи - Zero Day

“Seven people have been killed. He should be scared. Along with everyone else.”

Cole left to take care of some paperwork back at the station. They arranged to meet later. Puller drove off in his car. Three minutes later he parked and sat there thumbing in a phone number.

The voice said, “Mason.”

“Agent Mason, it’s John Puller.”

Puller could hear the squeak of the man’s chair as he presumably leaned back. While the normal world went on around them, Mason was working 24/7 to keep the monsters at bay.

“I’m glad you called. We got one more piece of chatter and some additional intel that have combined to ratchet this sucker up to a new level.”

“I thought it was pretty high already. What new stuff do you have?”

“Another KGB code-encrypted piece of Dari. This time they said some shit about Allah the great and good. That didn’t get me excited. What did get me excited were numbers.”

“What numbers?”

“A date, Puller. They gave us the D-day, at least that’s what we think.”

“And what was the date?”

“You’re not going to like this because I sure as hell don’t. Three days from today.”

“You said you had other intelligence. Does it at least give us some idea of what they’re planning?”

“Yes, the mystery on that score is finally solved. And that’s the real scary part. There’s a gas pipeline that runs through Drake, northwest corner of the county.”

“Okay.”

“We didn’t think anything of it, really. Pipelines are natural targets, but not that popular because the human damage potential is not that significant. This pipeline supplies natural gas for three states: West Virginia, of course, Kentucky, and Ohio. The pipeline is owned by a Canadian outfit but operated by an American company. Trent Exploration. From what you told me you’ve had some interaction with Roger Trent, right?”

“Right.” Puller thought rapidly. “You think anyone at Trent is involved in this?”

“I’m not ruling out any possibilities at this point.”

“But what’s the vulnerability of the gas pipeline? And even if they did blow it up, how much damage are we talking about? Like you said, it would be limited.”

“The structural damage could be severe, but manageable. And then you’d have disruption of service. Not that sexy for a terrorist. They like body parts hanging from trees, not gas customers complaining because their stovetop isn’t working. And there are resources in the area that can respond to any damage to the pipeline and bring things under control.”

“Okay, so the pipeline is the target?”

“We don’t think it’s that simple.” He paused and Puller could visualize the man organizing the words in his head. “What’s a very popular tactic that the Taliban employs in Afghanistan? You should know this better than most.”

Puller did know better than most. “A feint and then the real hit. One bomb to draw in the first responders. Second bomb goes off to kill them.”

“Right, only here we believe it’s a variation on that tactic. We believe the attack on the gas pipeline is a diversionary tactic.”

Puller felt the hairs rise on the back of his neck. “So what’s the real target?”

“If that gas pipeline explodes first responders from a hundred-mile radius will get there ASAP. That’s not guesswork. There are tri-state teaming agreements in place in the event that pipeline goes up in flames. Those resources are committed to that contingency and they can’t be stood down for any reason.”

“Okay.”

Mason continued. “Now, there’s lots of forest in that area. It’s been dry as hell. You could be looking at a fire that could cover three states and fed by a mountain of gas, at least until they could shut it down. As I said, disruption in power could be severe. Hundreds of thousands of homes are fed by that gas. No telling when they could get it up and running again, especially with a forest fire raging around it.”

“That sounds bad, but like you said, not very sexy for a terrorist. Then what’s the primary target?” Puller said again. “By definition that has to be worse than the diversionary target.”

“Forty miles from that pipeline is a light water nuclear reactor that feeds power right to the national grid.”

Puller drew a long breath. “You think that’s what they’re after?”

“It’s the only asset we can see in the area worth their while.”

“How would they attack the plant?”

“Right now security seems tight. But we can’t afford to find out later it wasn’t good enough. But if they can pierce that place, and somehow blow the reactors, it would be devastating. A radiation cloud could cover multiple states within a few days. And with all emergency crews fighting a gas pipeline eruption and potential fire, together it would be catastrophic.”

“So beef the security the hell up at the nuke plant.”

“We think they have folks on the inside there. That was the separate piece of intelligence I was telling you about, Puller.”

“Can you find out who?”

“In three days, probably not. And if we change security in any way there…”

Puller finished the thought for him. “The insider will easily find out, tell his people, and they go early and try to blow it anyway. And the same for the pipeline.”

“Right. At some point we have to make that decision, Puller. We have to beef up security at both places. But ideally we nail these bastards before that becomes necessary.”

“Necessary? Joe, it’s three days.”

“I told you it was bad.”

“I haven’t seen one Middle Easterner in Drake while I’ve been here.”

“Well, I have to believe they’re keeping a pretty low profile.”

“What do you want me to do? I’m just one more.”

“Keep doing what you’re doing. Find these guys, Puller.”

“And if I don’t, in time?”

“Then I have to pull the trigger.”

“And they’ll pull the trigger too.”

“Way it goes. Keep me in the loop, and I’ll do the same to you.” He paused. “I wish I could send you some assets, but the brass here thinks that might tip our hand.”

“Yeah, I know. I do have one local asset.”

“Right, Cole the cop.”

“No, guy named Dickie Strauss.” Puller filled Mason in on what he gotten Dickie to do. “At the very least it gives me another pair of eyes on the ground here. He was a former soldier.”

“I’m not thrilled you engaged this guy, Puller. We know nothing about him.”

“I didn’t have a lot of options,” Puller replied.

He could hear Mason sigh. “When are you meeting with him? We don’t have much time.”

“I can meet with him tonight.”

“You got a safe place to do that?”

Puller thought for a moment. “Yeah, I do. Place called Xanadu.”

Puller climbed out of his car and walked into the Drake County library. It was a one-story orange brick structure that was architecturally tasteless and had not worn well. He went inside, asked a librarian at the front desk a few questions, and was shown what he needed. While there were a few computers in the library, Puller found himself using the old-fashioned method of looking through newspapers by hand. He covered the time period that seemed relevant to him. What he discovered was nothing, which in itself was significant.

As he was leaving his phone rang. It was Kristen Craig, the forensic tech from USACIL in Georgia.

“Got some preliminaries for you, Puller.”

He sat in his car with the air running and wrote down what she told him.

“We did a super-fast rush on the DNA samples you sent. Looking at the exclusions list we found one set unaccounted for. We uploaded it to the FBI’s Combined DNA Indexing System. We might get a hit.”