Effected Intent, page 20
“Yes there is, son. We’re going to spend the afternoon in the conference room, playing card games and telling stories. Everyone is a bit lost this week and it will be a good way to blow off some steam. I’ll be back, going to spread the word.” Kathy took off like a woman possessed. Bill and Margie had to laugh.
“She’s something else Margie, don’t know what I’d do without her.”
“That makes two of us, she’s been taking such great care of Joshua that he’ll probably end up calling her grandma.”
“How’s he doing? Is he crawling yet?”
“Good guess, he’s been starting to scoot around, funny how fast they change.” Kathy was back, waving them to the conference room. The rest of the afternoon was spent laughing and joking around, a great diversion for all.
Bill came in the next morning and saw that there were new files on his computer. Pfister wasn’t online but had been the night before. The keylogger file was big, meaning the chemist had typed a lot of things. Bill started from the top and found his email account password and logged on as to the mail provider as the chemist. There were a number of messages from Claire Pfister, apparently his wife. She was excited about an upcoming vacation they were going to take to Canada and was just about done with the school year, must be a teacher. No talk of children but Pfister was probably pushing sixty years old so they might all be grown and moved on. There were a few messages from someone called ‘Quiet Storm’ that Bill opened next, which is where his world went completely sideways.
He opened the messages from the earliest, which had been sent yesterday morning. Robert was telling the chemist that they were now bound together and their mission couldn’t fail. He also reminded Steve that his commitment was not retractable. Bill thought this was a bit ominous and wondered if there was some kind of CIA plot against someone that the chemist had got himself in the middle of. The next message was a reminder to Steve that he needed to provide a list of equipment and resources required to start production of the “vaccine”, odd to Bill that the word would be in quotes. Pfister had replied to this message with a long list of chemical equipment and a request for a few assistants who were at least smart enough to be trained in the basics of lab technician work if there wasn’t anyone on the team who had direct experience working in a chemical lab. He also reminded Robert that they were going to do the injection testing and they’d need a doctor or a nurse to administer the inoculations for their trials. Bill was starting to wonder why they were testing on themselves already, according to the project documents from Foundation the method was going to just begin trials in the lab and it was projected to be at least a year before they were cleared to test on humans.
The next message thanked Steve for the information and said he’d follow up on it immediately. He also wished the chemist a safe drive back to Cleveland and said he’d see him at the project facility the day after tomorrow. The last message had been sent and not even opened by Pfister yet. Bill clicked on the message, needing to remember to mark the message unread when he was done. He made a little note to that effect, didn’t want to forget and compromise his investigation. This message simply had a web site address that was all numbers, meaning that it had not been registered in the domain name service, which is a large integrated directory that helped translate IP addresses into friendly names that users could remember, such as www.google.com. Bill wrote down the logon information to the site, marked the message unread and then typed the IP address into his browser. The site that came up was unremarkable, simply prompting for a username and password combination. Bill entered Steve’s information and pressed the ‘continue’ button on the screen.
The site was eerily decorated in red with black skull and crossbones pictures in a random pattern, appearing to be floating in blood. The text was white and outlined “The Cause”, which was led off by a paragraph detailing how the United States government had been tried and convicted of treason against its citizens and armed forces over the past forty years. It read like any anti-government website but then the content shifted to a much more ominous tone, outlining a plot to overthrow the government by spreading smallpox around the world. Bill thought of the current economic conditions in the country and knew that something like a smallpox outbreak would cause the country to panic and potentially collapse.
The plan was outlined and it sickened Bill to read it, thinking of this new strain of smallpox and the millions of people that would die around the world. Bill was stunned as he read the hate spewing from the site and thought about the implications. He tried to determine where the site was but the route to the server was obfuscated by a number of network points that wouldn’t divulge information. It was most likely hiding somewhere outside of the United States, anonymized from the world. Even though Bill couldn’t determine where the site was, he had more information than he wanted about this diabolical plan. His hands were shaking as he tried to capture the information in his document. There is also specific information for all of the members of “The Cause” to stop using email for communication and to use the discussion board on the website for all communication. Bill didn’t want to click on the board for a couple of reasons. If he showed up as logged in, they might shut the site down. The chemist was driving from D.C. to Cleveland and wouldn’t be stopping to check out the web site. The conspirators, or more accurately terrorists, thought that using a single repository for communication would prevent data from traversing the web, the way email does. What they didn’t seem to understand was the data to show the forums would be transmitted the same way a mail message would and since Bill had compromised the security of one of the PCs involved, he’d have access to almost everything they were doing, as long as he was careful not to get caught by the terrorists.
This has all hit Bill like a ton of bricks, the seriousness of the situation setting in. No longer a game, this is a matter of life and death and Robert Swanson was right when he approached the chemical company. It is a matter of national security, just not in the way it was communicated by the CIA agent. Bill has to act, they are getting ready to start testing and production of the virus strain that will kill a significant portion of the world’s population. It’s no longer about giving up his privileges or having additional sentence time tacked on, he needs to act. There is a chance that he’ll be able to act anonymously but he’s not sure who to approach, it just can’t be anyone in the CIA. He thinks about the chemical company again but even if they lose the chemist at this point they might be able to mobilize somewhere else and launch the plan. There is no way in hell most people would believe him, he doesn’t even know if he’d believe himself in this situation.
Bill decides to turn to the web to see if he can find someone to approach. This isn’t going to be easy but it has to be done. The department of Homeland Security was a separate entity from the CIA and had even been at odds with them from time to time.
Searching for stories, he found one that looked promising. There were some stories from earlier in the month where a huge fraud ring had been broken up by Homeland Security. The thieves were praying on people whose homes were in foreclosure and had bilked millions of dollars from innocent victims just trying to hang on to their houses. The lead agent was shown in one of the articles, Darren Ward. Bill decided that he would try to reach out to Agent Ward and see if he’d do something to help stop this evil plan.
Chapter 19
Testing Begins
The ride home gave Steve plenty of time to think about what he was embarking on, his bravery level going down the further he got from Washington. The one thing that seemed certain is there were still a lot of hurdles in terms of getting the real virus out of the Center for Disease Control and also making sure they had the right vaccine for themselves so they didn’t face the same fate that millions of others would. He wondered if he could find a way to walk away, maybe stash away as much evidence as possible with a lawyer and let Robert know that he was walking away and if something happened to him the information would get out. That’s what they did in the movies but Steve doubted this would work in real life, especially in this case.
He forgot to stop for lunch and barely found a place to fill up the car. He called Claire from the road, forgetting that she was at school, and left a message on the home recorder telling her he’d be home around dinner time but needed to stop at the lab first to drop a few things off. Back in the car, he remembered the book on tape and put in on, letting it melt the stress away. The next section talked about being assertive and standing up for what you believe in. This had two meanings for Steve, it could be interpreted as sticking with the project, believing that the government was a terrible fraud and needed to be broken up or it could also mean that he needed to stand up for not killing innocent civilians the way he had in Vietnam.
If they made progress Steve was determined to talk to Robert about changing the plan away from the world’s population and focusing on the government. There had to be a way to leverage the intel to get the government leaders clamoring for the first vaccines, they wouldn’t want to wait with the rest of the population. Greed would lead them right to the fate Steve, Robert and all the others wanted for them. The collateral damage would be great but possibly containable in a shorter time period. It didn’t make sense that Robert would want to hurt civilians, especially after the rap that Vietnam veterans had taken. Maybe they could even make a single bad batch for the government leaders and then vaccinate the rest of the country with the real vaccine, which would leave a huge hole in leadership and a very clear message. Steve’s logic made perfect sense to him and he knew that he could convince Robert to follow a more pragmatic approach to the attack. The others should understand and Steve will be able to persuade them.
Feeling better about the situation Steve called Claire from the cell phone and told her to get dressed to go out again. She protested, saying that she was tired and tomorrow was the last day of work so he relented, agreeing to go out the next night instead. He could use the time tonight to catch up on the boards, he’d been so busy while in D.C. that he hadn’t had a lot of time to be active. So much to say now, especially after visiting the wall and Arlington national cemetery. He remembered how haunting it was to stand on the edge of the hills, seeing nothing but the haunting white headstones against the lush green grass of the cemetery. He couldn’t imagine what it must look like in the fall, the crimson leaves on the ground the bloodshed from the bodies of our young men.
The lab had a bunch of UPS stickers on the door, indicating that there were a bunch of deliveries waiting. Steve would call tomorrow and request a big delivery, he could roll the overhead door in the area adjacent to the lab and make it easy. Wasn’t much to do until the equipment arrived. He went to the kitchen, made coffee and waited, then sat in his office and logged in to Foundation, best to get the work out of the way first. There wasn’t much of consequence and he thought about the grind of corporate life; how much time was spent moving das machinery from point A to point B one click at a time, caught in the mire. By the time he’d finished his first cup of coffee he was closing the connection to Foundation.
The boards were another story, lots of activity in the past few days, especially since the presidential election was coming this fall. The anti-war contingency had found its way back to the forums and were spewing their bullshit. Steve thought about that tape he’d listened to and decided not to let the actions of other people bring him down, at least for the next few minutes. He looked for new posts from quietstorm but didn’t see anything. Steve created new discussions that talked about his experience in the capital city, especially the wall. Before he was done posting about Arlington there were already responses to his wall post, talking about their first times. He’d returned to the wall two other times, once during the day and another time at night and had gone through the book and found many of his friends. By then his heart was heavy and his brain taxed from the conversation with Robert and seeing the wall reinforced his thought that the plan must be rethought.
There were a few new emails from Robert, one telling Steve that the bird man was going to Atlanta, which he already knew, and another to order the material, which was done. One other message talked about a website and simply had an I.P. address, username and password. Steve logged on to the site and was shocked by what he saw, the background of the home page looked like bloody skulls and it sickened him to think of what was planned. The plot information was contained on these pages, as well as some of the key members and the role they had. There were no nicknames or code words, simply the first names of everyone involved.
He closed the site after a couple of minutes, afraid that if he kept looking he’d want to run away. Needed to stick with the plan of going after the government, it was the most practical in this situation. He spent the afternoon cleaning up the lab in preparation for the work ahead, didn’t want to be stuck doing it once all the new equipment arrived. It was Steve in his element, making sure everything was perfect and by the time he went home that night, the lab was spotless.
Friday brought a bunch of deliveries, even a couple of the things he’d sent to Robert had arrived. It took most of the day for him to sort through everything, find a place for it in their production line and test the equipment to make sure it was working. He left work early and stopped for flowers to bring home, hoping that Claire would be ready to go out before the Friday rush, better if they could get a table and enjoy a leisurely dinner without having to wait an hour to do so.
“Flowers again? What’s the occasion?”
“Celebrating the end of the school year for you and my return home from Disneyland on the Potomac.”
She shook her head, not wanting to get into a government conversation tonight. “Where are we going for dinner?”
“Surprise though my guess is you’ll have figured it out on the way.” Steve was hiding something, Claire could tell. He was trying to shine through a sullen undertone. The trip must have taken its toll on him but it was something he needed to do for a long time. She wished she could have been there to hold his hand the first time he approached the wall, knew that must have knocked him down pretty hard. Fighting back the urge to help, she simply held his hand gently as he drove. They were headed north, toward downtown, which didn’t give her any indication of where they were going. Once he picked up highway 90 westbound she knew.
“Pier W? We haven’t been there in so long!”
“One of these days I’m going to surprise you Claire, guess I’m too predictable.”
“Nothing wrong with that, I can’t wait to get there now and all of a sudden I’m really hungry for some seafood.” She grinned at him and he caught it out of the corner of his eye, pleased that they were going to get this time together. The dinner was pleasant but there was an undertone of stress, Steve wanting to tell Claire about the plan and Claire wishing he’d unburden to her. They talked about the upcoming trip next weekend, both really looking forward to it. Steve never gave her details of his wall visits or the trip to Arlington, the way he felt when he knelt at the Kennedy grave as the sun went down, the flame and the single long stem red roses someone had put there burning a lasting image in his mind.
When Steve arrived at the project site Monday he was shocked to see three other cars parked out front. He was used to this place being his and wasn’t sure what it would be like with other people there. It was necessary but another short era was about to end, one with a disaster on the other side. Walking in, he heard noise coming from the lab and wasn’t happy about that. He went into the lab and saw a man in his late thirties, short and skinny with straight blonde hair looking through the cabinets. “Lots of stuff here, shouldn’t be hard to get things rolling with The Cause. I’m Jay.”
“Hi Jay, I’m Steve Pfister.”
“Oh, the chemist. Cool, been wanting to meet you. I’ve done lab work for the past ten years but haven’t seen anything as cool as what you’ve got with the polymer spheres, that was genius.”
Steve paused, not used to such unabashed praise. “Thank you, look forward to working with you too. What has your lab experience been?”
“General chemical lab stuff, gas chromatograph, mass spectrometer, the like. I’m a quick learner and hope to be helping with synthesis of the polymer and formation of the spheres.”
“No problem, I can use the help. We’re on a short timeline and don’t have time for a lot of nicety. I run a tight ship and appreciate personal space. See that bench over by the hood? That’s my bench. Please keep your work off that bench and whatever area you take down here I need you to keep it clean.”
Jay didn’t expect this but had dealt with chemists for a long time and knew that most of them were extremely conscious of cleanliness, didn’t want to end up contaminating their work and end up with something they couldn’t repeat. “Loud and clear, sir.”
“You a veteran?”
“Desert Shield and Storm, been out for about ten years, I stayed on after the war and picked up some lab skills. You serve?”
“We all did, as far as I know. I was in Vietnam in the late sixties, did a couple of tours.”
“What did you do in ‘Nam?”
Steve hated when people who weren’t there called in that but didn’t get a chance to correct him because the UPS truck was beeping outside. They walked through the connecting door between the lab and the production part of the facility and rolled open the big overhead door. There were three big packages and Steve and Jay struggled to get them into place and uncrate them. The large centrifuge, autoclave, mixer and mill had arrived. “Hope there’s enough power in this place to manage all of the equipment we’re bringing in.” Jay said.
“There should be, this used to be a machine shop and they had a lot of big lathes, grinders and a bunch of electric welders so it should be ok. Forgot to ask something, I saw a couple of other cars in the lot, is anyone else here?”
