Michael Crichton - Binary

The facts are these:

1. On August 22nd, 1972, seven men flew into Salt Lake International Airport, Salt Lake City, Utah. The men came from Las Vegas, Chicago, Dallas, and New York. All seven men have been identified; they all have connexions with organized crime. Thus far four have been picked up for questioning and their testimony provides the major portion of this report.

Each man was first contacted in his home city by an anonymous telephone call. They were each paid a thousand dollars in cash to do an unspecified job. All they knew in advance was that the job would take forty-eight hours, and that they must bring heavy boots and dark, warm clothing. Each was given an assumed name which he was to use for the duration of the job.

The men arrived in Salt Lake between noon and four PM local time. They were met separately. When all had arrived, they were transported in a 1968 white Plymouth sedan outside the city.

The trip out from Salt Lake was made in total silence. After an hour of travel they arrived in Ramrock, Utah, a town of 407 persons located in the north-central region of the state.

2. The men remained in Ramrock until nightfall, staying in a one-storey wood frame house previously rented by an unknown party. While in the house, the seven men wore surgical rubber gloves so that no fingerprints could be recovered. The men changed into their dark heavy clothing in the house, and received

instructions on their job from the leader, a man identified only as `Jones'. Jones is described as a heavyset muscular man with a broken nose and greying hair. Positive identification has not yet been made of this person.

3. Jones told the assembled men that they were going to steal a quantity of insecticide from a train. He told them that he had not personally planned the theft, that it had been worked out by someone else. They believed this when they heard the plans. Although not formally educated, these men had a well-developed sense of personality and they all agree that Jones, who was described by one as a `drill-sergeant type', lacked the acumen to formulate the plans.

4. The plans were remarkable for their detail. For example, the men were told that the train would be travelling at 35 mph, according to Department of Transportation regulations covering shipment of dangerous cargo. The men were told the timetable the train would follow from its point of origin in Dugway Proving Grounds, Utah, through the state. The men were told of the existence of impedance trip sensors in the rails, and were instructed in relay timing mechanisms involved. They were told that the insecticide would be stored in 500-pound canisters of two varieties - one kind painted yellow, the other black. They were told that they must steal one yellow canister and one black canister. Two yellows or two blacks would not do.

Equally important is what the men were not told. They were not told that the train would be guarded. This is an important point. I2 means either that plans were drawn up for the robbery one month before -when there were no guards on the trains - or else that the presence of the guards was known by the planners; who elected not to inform the men. This point is still in debate.

The men were also not told why they were stealing the insecticide in the first place. Significantly, none of them asked. Apparently it was a matter of total indifference to them.

5. They remained in the wood frame house in Ramrock until 8 rns. Then each man was issued a machine gun and a pistol. The machine guns were of the usual variety, that is, war surplus equipment sold with plugged barrels. Some other party had simply machined new barrels and replaced the original plugged barrels (cf Memorandum 245/779: Abuses of War Surplus Weaponry). The men then climbed aboard a Land Rover which was stored in the garage of the house. It had apparently been there waiting for some weeks, because it was dusty. They drove off into the desert to meet the train.

6. They arrived at an unnamed site in northeast Utah shortly after 2 Am. They carried out their preparations quickly and efficiently in the light of a full moon.

One man was sent down the tracks until he found the impedance trip sensor. He blocked the mechanism of this sensor by attaching an electronic override device. Thus no one knew for six hours that the train had been stopped farther up the tracks; it was assumed that the trip sensor had broken down.

Meanwhile four other men walked across the sand towards a half-dozen cattle grazing nearby. The robbery site was minimal rangeland and had been chosen specifically because of this. The men shot the steer nearest the tracks. The other cattle ran off at the sound of the shot.

The men looped ropes around the dead steer and dragged it across the railroad tracks. The animal was doused with gasoline and a timing device was attached to it.

Then all seven men climbed aboard the Land Rover and rode it to a nearby hiding place behind some low dunes. They waited approximately fifteen minutes before the train appeared in the distance. The men were surprised to see that it was a government train consisting of three flatcars lettered US GOVERNMENT PROPERTY on the sides. They were also surprised to see an armoured caboose at the end of the train.

7. The engine slowed, apparently as the engineer sighted the obstacle across the tracks. When the train stopped, the timing device caused the dead steer to burst into flames. At that moment six of the men ran forward, intending to remove the canisters. There was some scattered firing from the armoured caboose. One man ran up to it, stuck his machine gun into an armoured port, and delivered a-burst of fire to the interior. All five soldiers (and one physician) inside the caboose were killed. The engineer was also killed a few moments later.

8. The men unloaded two canisters from the train, one black and one yellow. Each was marked with lettering so vivid that the men remembered it well; stencilled warnings to the effect that the canisters contained highly dangerous chemicals.

They carried the canisters across the desert to a flat location nearby. They set them down 100 yards apart and burned a red flare near each.

9. Two or three minutes passed, and then two helicopters appeared over the horizon. The helicopters landed in tandem alongside the flares. They were commercial helicopters of a nondescript nature. The only unusual aspect was that each had been fitted with a nylon web sling to hold a canister. The men loaded the canisters onto the slings. The helicopters lifted off again into the night.

10. The men returned to the Land Rover and drove back to Salt Lake City, arriving at 6 not on the morning of August 23rd, 1972. Over the next eighteen hours they flew out of the city to their points of origin. None had any knowledge of what happened to the canisters. None had any knowledge of the true contents of the canisters.