He felt electrified walking through the door to the conference room. Greely remained standing as the other members of True America's secret leadership cabal settled into their chairs. He scanned their faces, looking for hints of nervousness, and found none. The group exuded confidence and purpose. Perfect for those charged with reshaping America's destiny.
"You all know I'm not big on speeches…anymore," he said, incurring a few chuckles.
He turned to face one of the team members. Tommy Brown ran the tactical side of True America's militant arm. A former Green Beret, he had retired from military service after spending most of his twenty-year career bouncing back and forth between Africa and Central America as a military advisor. Lee Harding had recruited him nearly a decade earlier, after a heated discussion about the Iran-Contra debacle.
Brown had approached him immediately after one of his rousing speeches at the Crossroads of the West Gun Show. They talked for nearly two hours about the decline of America, which Brown claimed to have seen firsthand on active duty. He wouldn't divulge the details of his involvement in Nicaragua, but the intense Jamaican-born American made it clear to Harding that he was disgusted by the government's role in the fiasco. He cited Iran-Contra as the first in a series of government-sponsored disasters that had tarnished America's image abroad and weakened the nation's leverage. Harding liked what he heard and offered him a job in his fledgling political movement. Brown had proven to be one of their most loyal plank owners.
"Tommy, this is your first trip to the lab, right?"
"Yes, sir. Been a little busy at the compound," Brown said in his usual gruff voice.
"Welcome to ground zero," Greely said, shifting his gaze to a blond woman dressed in a casual gray suit.
"Anne Renee, always a pleasure. From this point forward, you'll be dividing your time between Mr. Mill's distribution center and the lab. I can't stress how important your job will be."
"I'm honored to be given this responsibility."
"You've earned it. I'll probably never understand the intricacies that went into unraveling the Al Qaeda network, but your group performed a miracle."
"Thank you, sir. I can assure you that the distribution operation will be given the same careful planning and security."
Anne Renee Paulson had been another gift from the heavens. A former army master sergeant, Paulson had served as an intelligence specialist, finishing her career at Forward Operating Base Falcon just outside of Baghdad, where she put her intelligence training to work scouring the new base for security threats. Greely nodded at her before continuing.
"The final shipments arrived last night. I've asked Jason Carnes to give you all a quick rundown of our projected timeline. Jason?"
A lanky, brown-haired man wearing a white lab coat over jeans and a brown shirt stood up to address the group. Carnes was their lead scientist, charged with the responsibility of overseeing production of the final product.
"The contents of all fifty canisters have been separated from their gel coatings. We are ready to mix the virus concentrate with avian blood, to promote the growth of more virus. We've tested this procedure with excellent results. Within two days, we will have enough biologically infected material to proceed with the bottling phase, though I will need at least the same amount of time to prepare the material and bottle it."
"Jason, will you explain how this works again? Why don't we just put it right into the water? I don't like the idea of preparing the material. You're planning to render it partially inert, right?"
"Correct. The biggest challenge we face is the amount of time the bottles may sit at an uncontrolled temperature. Until the moment the crates roll off our trucks, they will be kept at an optimal temperature that will ensure the virus's survival. Beyond that, we can't make any assumptions. The mixture I plan to put into the caps will contain live virus and partially inert virus. The partially inert portion will be enveloped in dried animal feces. Virology research has proven that humans have been infected with forms of equine encephalitis through breathing in the dust from dried feces. I've tested our combined delivery method extensively over the past month, and it never fails to ensure the delivery of a contaminant-level exposure. Once the bottle cap is twisted, the protective seal is breached. When the target takes a sip and replaces the cap, the virus will be mixed into the water. Trust me, Lee. This will work flawlessly."
"Unless they drink the whole bottle without replacing the cap," Greely said.
"Yes. If they don't replace the cap, then the virus won't mix," Carnes said.
"Or if they place the bottle down carefully. Doesn't water have to splash on the inside of the cap?" asked Owen Mills, owner of Crystal Source.
Mills had come up with the bottled water idea in the first place, funding a majority of the current plot from the vast fortune he made as the owner of northeastern Pennsylvania's most successful bottled water company. Crystal Source had been in his family for several decades and dominated the market in the Poconos region. Mills had secretly joined forces with Greely and Harding in the early 1990s, lured in by the promise of a seat at the big table when True America rose from the ashes.
"We've been through this already, gentlemen. Most consumers of bottled water replace the cap and toss the bottle in a backpack or car seat. I suppose if you planned to hand these out at the end of a 10K road race, you might want to reconsider the plan. I get the feeling that's not the case," Carnes said.
"We were just trying to shake the tree a little, Jason. I had to be sure of your confidence level in this design," Harding said.
"It's an effective design. Mr. Mills can attest to that," Carnes said.
"Jason worked with some of our engineers to create the cap, under the guise of research into a flavored water delivered by the same method. The only drawback I can see is the need for the water to hit the cap. He's right about the research. I funded it," Owen Mills said.
"All right. Sorry for the theatrics, Jason. I'm hearing four days until the bottles are ready to roll?" Greely said.
"Four days minimum on this end. The bottling assembly line is a miniaturized version of what they use at any of the big plants. We have one line dedicated to removing the caps from the bottles we've stockpiled and another to replace the caps with our own. We have the machinery to label and wrap the bottles in new pallets right here. I'm including this process in the eight-day estimate."
"We've been diverting pallets of water for over two months. Nothing that would raise eyebrows in accounting," Mills stated.
"Then we have to transport it by smaller trucks and vans to the distribution hub in Honesdale, to be loaded onto larger, refrigerated trucks. One day total to move the product. Once it leaves here, it's out of my hands," Carnes said.
"Everything is set at the distribution center. I've arranged for two private docking bays, not that anything would appear unusual. I'll talk with the site supervisor to make sure nobody gets in the way. Once the pallets are delivered and staged according to their final destination, we'll bring in the trucks. I figure it'll take them the better part of a work day to get the trucks loaded and on the streets," Mills said.
"I wish we could load it here. Too much back and forth bullshit," Greely griped.
"We're looking at massive, one-time deliveries requiring the use of refrigerated semi-trailers. We could never get anything that big in here."
"I know. It worries me. Tommy, we'll be leaning heavily on your friend here. Tactical and operational security will be critical at that site and everywhere in between. I can't stress the importance of your job, Renee. Once the product starts to leave this lab, we enter the final, tactical phase of the operation."