Michael Prescott - Next Victim

Andrus inserted the card key in another reader, and the bank-vault door slid open.

"Just like Star Trek," Andrus said.

"Or Get Smart."

They walked through, and the door closed behind them. There was a second door just ahead. The space between the two of them, Tess realized, was an air-lock corridor-what biohazard experts called a gray zone. The two doors would never be open simultaneously. The gray zone allowed for decontamination before passing from the outside world into the secure interior of the bunker.

"It’s sealed off from outside contamination," she said. "But the ventilation system must bring in air from above ground."

"Sure-but the air passes through multiple filters to screen out biological and chemical toxins. Whatever’s outside can’t get in."

"So basically this is the safest place in town."

"That’s the idea, Tess."

Andrus punched the access code into a numeric keypad mounted near the second door, which opened with a beep. Together they entered the main space of the ATSAC facility, a large circular room arrayed with computer workstations, each with its own red-upholstered swivel chair. The workstations were modular desks fitted together to form two concentric semicircles, facing a video wall that served as a luminous, multicolored moving background for half the room.

Tess estimated that there were forty flat-panel display screens mounted on the curving wall, each showing a mixture of live video, scrolling data, and computer-generated traffic grids and maps. Some screens were quartered into four images; others showed only a single scene. The views were of major surface-street traffic junctures, including the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Veteran Avenue, where the Federal Building, home of the FBI’s LA office, was located. Tess had heard that it was the busiest intersection in the city.

She looked around. The facility extended beyond this central room into glass-walled offices to her left and right, and corridors branching into darkness. This was a sizable complex. And it was buried five stories under City Hall, accessible only by a secret elevator. She wondered how many Angelenos even knew it existed. The government, she imagined, had not been eager to spread the word.

The soft hum of equipment mingled with the burr of recirculated air. She had never been inside a NASA facility, but she imagined that it would be like this. The noise and grit of the city seemed far away.

Thirty or forty people were already assembled inside, a few seated among the rows of swivel chairs, but most standing and conferring in small, restless groups. Andrus went through the meet-and-greet routine with many of them, while Tess hung back. She knew nobody here. But of course she was an outsider-a stranger to this city, and an uninvited presence in this room.

At eleven o’clock precisely, everyone took a seat. Tess saw that a few people, Tennant among them, had special chairs facing the workstations.

Andrus sat beside Tess in the row of chairs farthest from the video wall. She was surprised he wasn’t up front, and said as much in a whisper.

Andrus just smiled. "This isn’t my show," he said.

A woman seated at the front of the room stood up and spoke into a microphone, introducing herself as Sylvia Florez, manager of the Los Angeles Office of Emergency Management. Her voice ticked like a metronome, rapid and precise, as she reviewed the major players present for the briefing-the mayor, members of the city council, the chief of police, the county sheriff. Then there was a quick rundown of the other participants seated at the workstations.

From the city of Los Angeles, representatives from the Department of Public Works, the Department of Transportation, and the Information Technology Agency. From the LAPD, the heads of the Emergency Preparedness Division and the Hazardous Materials/Environmental Crimes Unit. From the City Fire Department, the assistant chief of the Bureau of Emergency Services, as well as the battalion chief, who served as Antiterrorism Coordinator. Two representatives from the county fire department’s Office of Emergency Management. Two representatives from the Sheriff’s Department Emergency Operations Bureau. An agent of the Governor’s Office of Emergency Management-Southern Region. Somebody from the Terrorism Working Group, and somebody else from the Terrorism Early Warning Group, which was apparently a different entity.

There were more people mentioned, including Tennant and Andrus, but Tess wasn’t listening anymore. She got the point. The crisis managers were all on board.

"Now I’ll introduce Special Agent Jack Tennant of the FBI, who will present the details of the anticipated threat."

Tennant replaced Florez at the microphone. He addressed the crowd with an air of brusque impatience that made a sharp contrast to Florez’s polished performance.

"I guess you all want to know what the hell we’re dealing with. All right. It’s VX."

There was a rustle in many seats. Tess frowned. She had heard this term but couldn’t place it.

"Most of you know, but for those who don’t, VX is a nerve agent. A highly toxic nerve agent. The most powerful nerve agent ever developed. And it’s here in LA."

Tess wasn’t surprised, not really. She had known it would be something like this. Part of her was even a little relieved. A chemical weapon was bad, but a biological weapon could be worse. Unlike smallpox or plague, chemicals weren’t contagious. There was a limit to the death toll.

Which would be no consolation at all for those numbered in that toll, or for their families.

"We’ll have an expert up here in a minute to give you a complete overview of VX," Tennant said, "but for now, I want you to understand just what ‘highly toxic’ means. It means deadly. It means that one drop of this fucking-sorry-one drop of this stuff, absorbed into your bloodstream, will kill you in ten minutes.

"VX interferes with the brain’s signals to the vital organs. Specifically, it blocks the action of a certain enzyme, the name of which I can’t pronounce, and leads to a buildup of something called acetylcholine in the central nervous system. This buildup stimulates the organs to hyperactivity. Your whole body goes haywire, and bang, you’re gone. Just like that."

He snapped his fingers, then paused to look out over the audience and see if his words had made the desired impression. His gaze drifted toward the back of the room. He seemed to recognize Tess. She thought she caught a hint of surprised displeasure in his glance. Then he was speaking again.

"The toxicity of VX is zero point zero one milligrams per kilogram, meaning that if you weigh eighty kilos-that’s about a hundred eighty pounds-it’ll take only zero point eight milligrams of VX to stop your heart.

"In liquid form, VX is thick and viscid, with the density and color of motor oil. Normally, however, it’s dispersed as an aerosolized mist of fine droplets, like you’d get out of a spray can. As a mist, it can enter your body through your skin, eyes, nose, and mouth. Inhalation is the most dangerous route because of the high vascularity of the lungs. Once it’s in your lungs, the stuff can be very quickly distributed throughout your bloodstream. Onset of symptoms normally occurs within one minute of exposure.

"The mist is odorless and invisible. It can be all around you, and you won’t know it until you experience the initial symptoms of exposure: runny nose, sweating, upset stomach, headache. Like I say, this all starts happening within one minute or so. Move fast, get away from the source of exposure, and the symptoms will subside. Breathe in more of the stuff, and you’ll progress to localized fasciculations or tremors, shortness of breath-then to myoclonic jerks, meaning big muscular twitches like you’d have in a seizure. This leads to muscle fatigue, then flaccid paralysis, where your muscles go limp and become useless. By that time you’re suffering from apnea, severe respiratory distress, because your respiratory muscles are paralyzed. And then-well, then you’re dead.