Chapter 13

Dale walked into the work area and looked around. The only ones present were Mike and Sanjay. Shaking his head, he said, “Somehow, I’m not surprised to see the two of you here hard at work.”

Sanjay frowned and asked, “Where else would we be? We are in the middle of the biggest crisis in the history of this country. People are counting on us.”

It was nice to hear Sanjay say that. Dale said, “We’ve been hit with a real bad case of fear flu. Almost ten percent of our people didn’t show up to work today.”

“That sucks,” Mike said.

“I thought it was a little too easy to find a parking space today,” Sanjay said with a sad smile. He was very disappointed by the behavior of his coworkers.

Nodding his head, Dale said, “On top of that, we suspended a bunch of agents this morning.”

Surprised by that little piece of news, Mike looked up and asked, “Why?”

“The Assistant Director decided that employees of the agency who were sending their families overseas couldn’t be trusted with our national security. If they weren’t willing to face the risks like everyone else, then they didn’t belong in the agency,” Dale answered.

“Good for him,” Sanjay said with a nod of his head.

“I’ll let him know you said that,” Dale said with a smile.

The Assistant Director had actually caught the end of Sanjay’s speech in the cafeteria the previous day. The sentiment that Sanjay had expressed had struck fertile soil.

“No need,” Sanjay said blushing.

Laughing at Sanjay’s reaction, Dale said, “I want the two of you to join the emergency task force that is meeting in the executive conference room upstairs. You two are to help plan how we’re going to operate in case our facility becomes isolated as a result of terrorist actions.”

“What do you mean?” Sanjay asked.

Dale answered, “Circumstances may make it difficult for people to show up here. Don’t forget that we’ve lost employees trying to get to work when some bastard shot people turning into the entrance. We may have to ask people to show up to alternative locations in order to keep them safe.”

It was a very diverse group of people who met in the executive conference room to discuss how to recover capabilities in the event that the worst possible scenario occurred. There were representatives from every major intelligence organization in the area. Mike recognized more than one member of the Intelligence 100 in the room.

The discussion centered on one topic from the very beginning of the meeting. It wasn’t how to reopen the facility. It was how to achieve access to intelligence information in the event they were unable to get access to the buildings. It was not only the CIA that was worried about that problem. The NSA, FBI, and people from the Pentagon were just as worried. Visions of planes flying into the Pentagon were not too far from the minds of everyone in the room.

Mike and Tim Brown sat off to the side listening to the discussion. Having learned that the servers used by the Intelligence 100 were in a vault underground a hundred miles away, Mike leaned over and whispered, “What about the internet cafes?”

“That’s a good idea,” Tim said. He listened to the discussion for a bit. Tim leaned over and whispered, “I’m going to leave here and set it up. We’ve got fifty secure cafes in the area and each one has over twenty computers. I’ll see about setting up an automated notification system that will send a thousand of our people from the various agencies to them. Cover for me.”

“Okay,” Mike answered.

“Don’t say anything about it. I’ll be back in an hour,” Tim said. He wanted to set up a secondary plan in case the primary plan fell through for some reason.

“Good,” Mike said. He whispered, “How about I suggest that we just take over the computing facilities of some of the local universities?”

“That’ll be perfect,” Tim said.

Mike waited until Tim had left the room. Leaning forward, he said, “Here’s what we need to do. We’ll plan on taking over the computer labs in all of the high schools, colleges, and universities in the area. I know that moving our operations into residential areas is not the best idea. However, if things get so bad that we have to use that option I think it won’t be an issue. We can make arrangements with the NSA to engineer secure access to the information. It might not be the most secure solution, but when the shit hits the fan I don’t think that is going to be an issue.”

With his head wobbling, Sanjay said, “That is a very good idea. All schools have at least one classroom filled with computers. I bet we could find at least five thousand seats at the various schools in the area.”

Mike sat back and listened to the discussion flow around the room. He didn’t even notice when Tim took a seat next to him. When the group broke for a fifteen minute bathroom break, Tim leaned over and whispered, “It’s all set up.”

“Good. They’ve been identifying schools in the area with sufficient computer resources to host five thousand of us. I figure that the law enforcement groups should be sent there,” Mike said.

Joining the meeting, Jack Lancer came over to them and said, “Tim, the role call is all set up. We’re going to confiscate another fifty internet cafes in the surrounding areas. There will be one of us in each place taking charge. We’ll have a mixture of agents from different agencies at each location. There won’t be any problems sharing information because we’ll all be co-located.”

Mike didn’t need to ask who would be put in charge. It was going to be the Intelligence 100. Smiling, he said, “Semper Fi.”

“OoRah,” Tim said with a smile.

“OoRah,” Jack said with a frown. Shaking his head, he said, “I just hope to God that we never need to do that.”

By two in the afternoon, the executive conference room looked like a disaster area. Lunch had been brought in and there were dirty plates stacked on one of the cabinets at the end of the room. Papers were scattered over the table. Cups half filled with cold coffee fought for space in the center of the table. The men inside the room looked disheveled and tired.

The meeting was about to break up when there was a huge noise and a general tremor of the building floor. Everyone looked around wondering what was happening. The image of a canister flying into the building at supersonic speeds spilling some toxic material flashed through Mike’s mind. He jumped up and went over to the cabinets on which the dirty plates had been stacked. He grabbed the cloth napkins and started handing them out.

He shouted, “Everyone get one of these and put it over your mouth and nose.”

“Why?” one of the men asked heading towards the door. He wanted out of there and he wanted out right then.

Jack moved to the door and blocked it before the man made it there.

Jack shouted, “Sit down everyone.”

There was another shudder in the building along with a loud bang.

Mike said, “We may have just been hit with that rail gun weapon you’ve all heard so much about. The dust in the air could kill you. So far there’s no dust flying into this room. Put on the napkin like you’ve seen the cowboys wear their bandanas during dust storms in those old westerns and make your way out of the building. Don’t get excited. Keep breathing through the napkin.”

As the group slowly made their way down the stairs and towards the exit, it was like walking into a dust storm. There were places where the dust was so thick that it was nearly impossible to see. Eyes burned as particulates scratched the sensitive surface of the eye. Mike wished that he had goggles, but he’d live with irritated eyes if it meant living.

The noise was almost deafening. Fire alarms were ringing. The radiation alarms were sounding. People were running to and fro screaming and shouting instructions. A woman who worked in the cafeteria was standing by the door shouting that the world was ending. Later, Mike would remember thinking that the world had indeed ended for that woman. He didn’t know what was in the dust, but all that screaming must have brought it deep into her lungs.

He ran into a woman who was holding her shirt up over her face. Half of her bra was exposed. There was a rather large Caesarian scar that ran down her abdomen. He had no idea who she was, but thought she was at least smart enough to try to cover her face. Who cared about exposing a little skin when that was the difference between life and death? He hoped she made it through that alive.

A man was seated on the ground crying. Mike couldn’t see his face, but he wondered how someone could give up like that. When Sanjay went over to help the man, Mike got his attention, and shook his head. He pointed towards the exit hoping that Sanjay would go with him.

Holding the mask against his face, Sanjay went over to Mike and asked, “Why shouldn’t I help him?”

His words were muffled, but Mike understood. Holding his mask tight against his face, he answered, “If the air is bad, he’s already dead. If it isn’t, then they’ll get him out later.”

“Okay,” Sanjay said thinking that Mike must have veins filled with ice water to think through things in such a situation.

The crowd following Mike seemed to grow with each step they took. Some folks who weren’t wearing masks decided that after seeing Mike and his group to hold their shirts over their faces. Mike tried to prevent them from doing it, but many of them did it anyway. They didn’t realize that they were putting the dusty side of their shirts right against their mouths and nose.

By the time the group made their way outside it had grown to almost a hundred people. Once there, Mike held his mask against his face and shouted, “Don’t remove your masks. Everything could be contaminated. Move upwind of the building and wait for the Hazmat teams. Don’t move around too much or else you’ll just spread the radioactive material in your area. Don’t go back in the building for any reason. Don’t eat or drink anything. You’ve got to get decontaminated before you put anything near your mouth or nose.”

One of the men who had joined the group said, “My car is right over there. I can be at home in half an hour. I’ll take a shower there.”

“You will contaminate your entire home. Do you want to kill your family?” Mike asked unable to believe what he was hearing. Looking in the parking lot, he saw people driving away. Shaking his head, he said, “This is a cluster f•©k.”

A couple of the men went to their cars anyway. Mike didn’t recognize any of them. After watching people walk off to return home, Mike and Sanjay tried to get the people around them to calm down and sit in one place.

Tim arrived and asked, “Have you seen Dale?”

“No, I haven’t,” Mike said. He looked around at the people around him. They were covered in dust. Most of them hadn’t bothered to cover their mouths. Shaking his head, he said, “This is bad. We’ve got to get people clean.”