"So Pierce is dead, another notch in Mobius’s knife. Which we might say was just as well-even that he did the world a favor this time-except for one thing.
"In order for Pierce to establish her bona fides and seal the deal, she was supposed to hand over a sample of the VX produced at the Oregon lab. The lab had earlier confirmed to us that seven hundred and ten ccs, or twenty-four ounces, of the nerve agent were unaccounted for. It’s a safe assumption that Pierce smuggled out this quantity of VX, probably in its original packaging-a metal canister approximately ten inches long and two inches in diameter. The total package-cylinder and contents-would weigh two pounds. When she traveled to LA, she would have brought it with her, most likely in her suitcase."
"You could have intercepted this woman at any time," the mayor interrupted to ask, "isn’t that correct?"
"Yes, sir. We were holding off until she met with her contact. We wanted to collar them both."
"But you didn’t, and now she’s dead, and the VX…?"
"Is gone."
"Taken by this man Mobius?"
"We think so, yes."
"A serial killer."
"Yes."
"A serial killer who’s now armed with a weapon of mass destruction. A weapon that can kill ten thousand people."
"That’s it in a nutshell, sir."
The county sheriff put in a word. "Have you considered the possibility that her contact killed her and made it look like the work of this Mobius just to throw us off?"
Tennant hesitated. For the first time he was stumped.
"It was Mobius," Tess said from the back of the room. Heads turned. "I’ve worked the case for years. The signature of the crime scene is distinctive. There are details that couldn’t be copycatted, because they were never made public."
"Details like what?" a councilman challenged.
She could have answered: Like the fact that the carotid arteries were not cut…that the victim’s wrists were taped to the headboard…that duct tape was applied to her mouth…
But she said only, "Details that have to remain undisclosed for the sake of the investigation."
"That’s not an answer."
"It’s as much of one as you’re going to get."
Suddenly everybody was talking at once. The room seemed hotter and more crowded than it had been a moment earlier. People were talking back now, unwilling to yield the floor any longer. Tess had seen this behavior in every briefing she’d attended. Powerful people would not stay quiet for long.
"Folks," Tennant yelled over the clamor, "we need some order here. Chief Florez has to discuss the details of the counterterror procedures that are already under way."
The room quieted down as Sylvia Florez outlined the emergency plans.
"In the event of a mass-casualty situation, an emergency broadcasting system alert will notify area hospitals storing antidotes to biochemical weapons. Additional meds are being flown in from federal stockpiles. Medical strike teams will be mobilized to set up decontamination showers and other mobile facilities. We estimate that one hundred twenty nurses and fifteen doctors can process and decontaminate up to one thousand victims per hour.
"The efforts of the forty-nine thousand first responders in LA County will be coordinated with those of the Department of Public Services, the Departmental Operations Center, and Emergency Network Los Angeles.
"The LAPD’s antiterrorism division has been mobilized. The department’s response plans for a terrorist threat, available on the LAPD intranet, call for heavy deployment of LAPD undercover and uniformed units, concentrating on likely targets-sports venues, federal buildings, amusement parks, and so on.
"In compliance with Presidential Decision Directive Thirty-nine, federal assistance has been requested. National Guard units trained in WMD crisis management and U.S. Army chemical defense units are now on alert. Another available resource is the U.S. Marine Corps Chemical-Biological Incident Response Force-three hundred seventy-five men trained in NBC incident containment.
"Health and Human Services, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the EPA have been notified. As you’ve seen, the FBI is on the case."
Someone muttered audibly, "And doing a bang-up job."
Tess sucked in a hard breath. She didn’t like having the bureau dumped on. But the fact remained that the FBI had lost Amanda Pierce-and now the FBI had to find Mobius and stop him before it was too late.
When the presentation was over, Florez asked for questions. Tess raised her hand, but Florez wasn’t looking toward the back of the room and Tennant ignored her. Finally she stood without being recognized.
"When do we go public with this?"
"Never," Tennant said.
Tess wouldn’t accept that answer. "It’s Saturday. People will be going out to ball games, concerts, all sorts of crowded places. You already said that sports arenas are possible targets. So are theaters and shopping malls. People need to know."
"So they can panic?"
"So they can take precautions."
"What precautions, exactly, can the general public take against a psychopathic serial killer with a terrorist weapon?"
"Maybe we need a curfew."
The mayor waved off the idea. "There will be no curfew. We’re not throwing this city into chaos."
"I don’t think there’ll be chaos," Tess persisted. "We’ve had government alerts periodically since the World Trade Center attack."
"And most of those alerts," Tennant said, "have been false alarms based on unsubstantiated information."
"This one isn’t."
"We don’t know that, Agent McCallum. Suppose Mobius doesn’t even know what the hell he’s got. Then he hears about it on the TV news. Then we’ve given him the information he needs. We’re aiding and abetting."
"He won’t need our help. He’s smart enough-"
"I know, I know, he’s an evil genius who never makes mistakes. So let’s say we do it your way. We hold a press conference at two o’clock. Guess what the situation is as of two-oh-five. Every freeway is jammed bumper-to-bumper with people trying to hightail it the hell out of town."
"That’s ridiculous. If the information is presented the right way-"
"The right way? What precisely is the right way to tell ten million people that a nutcase is running around with enough nerve gas to depopulate an entire neighborhood? You’ll have mass panic, mass evacuation, breakdown of order, looting, riots, the whole nine yards."
"People are better than that," Tess said. "They’ve proven it in the past. Give them a chance, and they’ll prove it again. And they deserve to be told."
"Well, thank you, Agent McCallum, for airing your uplifting view of human nature. We can all benefit from your wisdom and perspective. But just in case you happen to be wrong, there will not be any public announcement."
The mayor seconded this, as did all the city council members.
Tess sat down. "What do you think, Gerry?" she asked Andrus in a low voice. "Am I crazy?"
"Probably." But he said it with a smile.
"So you wouldn’t announce it?"
"No. I wouldn’t."
"Suppose you had a wife or a son-"
"I’d tell them."
"So they get to know, and other people don’t?"
"Life isn’t fair, Tess." Andrus sighed. "I thought you already knew that."
She did. But she just kept learning it all over again.
24
Tess was walking on the palisades, the high bluffs that towered over the Pacific Coast Highway and the beach beyond. The salt air blew through her hair and caressed her cheeks. The sun was high in the sky, bright but cool, a California sun.
She wasn’t sure how far she had walked. Looking back, she saw the MiraMist in the far distance, its tiered balconies gleaming. A mile away, she guessed.