The Z Contingency

Chapter 24

Tina, the assistant to the OPS agents sequestered in the Treasury Department, who also posed as an admin for the group's supposed Treasury-related activities, was an extremely capable individual who had the acumen to be an excellent field agent in her own right. In addition to the typical administrative duties of coordinating schedules and making travel arrangements, she also created and cultivated elaborate alternative identities for each of the agents, complete with legitimate credentials. Her skills and connections would have been the envy of any mafia boss. One of her duties was to monitor inter-agency calls and scan for potential national security concerns.

She walked over to Simon's door and knocked. After making sure no one was looking, she pressed a hidden indentation on the edge of the door jamb to signal she was there on OPS business.

"Sir, we've intercepted a call from the CDC to the FBI's Atlanta Field Office. They reported a break-in at their Biosafety Level 4 lab. Do we intervene?"

"Damn it!" Simon hissed under his breath. Sanchez really screwed this up. How could she let her intrusion be discovered?"Yes," he replied calmly. "I'm due to be in Atlanta anyway, so I'll look into it personally. I'll take Agent Sanchez with me. This could be a good training opportunity for her. Please make the arrangements."

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After the two agents collected their FBI credentials, they walked briskly to the Metro Center station of the Washington Metrorail, hopped on the first Yellow line train that arrived, and rode in silence to the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport station. From there they caught their flight to Atlanta.

The two spoke very little during the flight, and then only in hushed tones, as there was little that they could discuss openly.

Five hours later, Agents Zaine and Sanchez were standing in front of the door to the BSL-4 lab that Sanchez had visited only days earlier.

"Dr. Robert Dobbs. I'm the acting lab manager." Bob held an outstretched hand to Simon, and then let it drop as it was ignored. "They decided to call in the big guns from Washington?" asked Bob. While Gary's group was on furlough, Bob was left in charge of the BSL laboratories. He knew he was going to catch hell from Gary when he learned about the break-in.

"Yes," said Simon. "We've been hearing some chatter hinting at bioterrorism, so we wanted to make sure everything was thoroughly investigated. Please show us what's been taken."

"This way," Bob said, gesturing to the window allowing a view into the lab. "You won't be able to enter the lab directly. I'll suit up and show you what we found. Hit the button here and speak into the microphone," Bob pointed to the intercom on the wall.

"Yes, thank you." Simon acknowledged.

Bob donned his suit, and stepped into the BSL-4 lab. He walked over to the window towards the Agents.

Simon spoke into the intercom. "Now, what has been taken?"

"Well, that's the odd part. As far as I can tell, everything is accounted for."

"So how do you know there was a break-in?"

"There was an unauthorized opening of this freezer," Bob said, gesturing to the freezer that Agent Sanchez had opened only days before. The system records the entry code that was entered every time the door is opened. When I got in this morning, I noticed the door was unlocked. I ran a diagnostic on it and found that it had been opened over the weekend without a code being recorded.

"Can you open it up for us now?"

"Of course." Bob entered his personal code allowing access to the freezer, and opened the door for the agents to see inside.

Agent Sanchez peered intently at the open freezer. "It's not there," hissed Agent Sanchez. Simon glared at her. "Not now. Cameras. We'll discuss this later."

Bob walked over. "Anything else I can show you?"

"No doctor. That will be all." Bob made his way to the airlock to degown and show the Agents out.

After some perfunctory questions and answers, Simon shook Bob's hand. "Thank you. You've been very helpful. We'll get right on it. Someone will contact you if we need more information." They swiftly departed leaving a puzzled Bob behind. He couldn't remember getting either of the agents' names. He would have more explaining when Gary got back.

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"Alright, what were you trying to say back there," Simon asked when they were back in their rental car. "What's not there?"

"The tray," then added "the one marked Reference Samples. It's gone."

"How could this have happened?"

Agent Sanchez paled at Simon's baleful stare. "It must have been that strange power cycle that occurred when I was entering the lock sequence. Someone may have noticed the unlocked freezer and opened it up after me."

It was Simon's turn to pale. "You know what this means, don't you?"

"A domestic terrorist has twenty-seven vials of a Bioterrorism Category A virus?"

"That we may be about to witness a bioterrorism event," Simon paused, and then added "and we made it possible." My God, what have I done? "Alert the team. We've got to track them down, and recover those vials before we have a pandemic on our hands. Call back, and have Tina route this back into the FBI. They can get their local agents searching here. Let's get back to the airport. We're catching the first flight back to D.C."