“What are you — hang on a second, let me get some privacy,” he said, pronouncing it with a short “i.” After the sound of a door opening and closing, he continued. “Where are you? I thought — well, I thought I’d never hear from you again.”
“That makes two of us. But let’s just say it was necessary. And I’ve got something you should know about. Do you trust me?”
“Well that’s as stupid a question as I’ve been asked since — well, since you were here last time.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence. Listen, we’ve come across some intel—”
“We? You’re not alone?”
“We’ve come across some intel in a …” She did not want to use the term “terrorist” in case the Brits’ GCHQ, or government communications headquarters, was monitoring calls and sifting for key words. “A tango’s flat. Believe me when I tell you this is credible information. My friend hacked the subject’s computer. There’s an attack planned on MI5 headquarters in—”
“What kind of attack?”
“We’re still decrypting files we found on the hard drive—” She turned to Uzi—“You find anything else?”
“Blueprints for the building, but I’m having to decrypt each document separately. Key thing you’ve got to know is that they’re planning to use osmium tetroxide.”
Vail put the phone on speaker. “What’s osmium — osmium hydroxide?”
“Osmium tetroxide,” Uzi said. “An extremely poisonous chemical. Even small concentrations gets into the airways, it’ll destroy the lungs. It’s got a chlorine-like odor, but you wouldn’t think it’s deadly and wouldn’t even know you’ve been infected until hours later when you suddenly can’t breathe and start coughing up blood. And die. The stuff is so caustic it has to be stored in glass because it eats through plastic.”
“They were going to use it against us ten years ago in the tube,” Reid said. “We had a snitch, found their stash before it went anywhere. Some of our chemical weapons blokes didn’t think it would’ve worked because it’s unstable and because the blast would’ve dispersed the toxin before it could be inhaled.”
“Even if true,” Vail said, “ten years is a long time. They may’ve found a better way to deliver it. Are you willing to take the chance it won’t work?”
Reid groaned. “No.”
“Here’s the bad news.” Vail found the dashboard clock and hoped it was accurate. “Whatever they’re planning, it’s going down in thirty-five minutes.”
“Shite.”
“My thoughts exactly. We’re on our way — but honestly, we have no plan for when we get there. What about CO19?”
“If this were a preplanned infiltration, a specialist firearms officer unit would go in. But yeh, I can get CO19 there and the hazardous materials division. Maybe an SAS antiterrorist team too, but that’ll take longer because they go through COBRA, the crisis management command center. There just isn’t time.”
They heard Reid giving orders to what sounded like a nearby colleague.
“Hang on a sec,” Uzi said. “Reid — it’s not MI5, it’s Two Marsham Street. That’s the Home Office, isn’t it?”
“Home Office, yes. But there’s also a block of residential flats, shops, and restaurants there.”
“Yeah, but that’s not the target.” Uzi struck several keys and then turned to Vail. “The government, that’s what they’re after. There’s an analysis of the building, how and why the release of osmium tetroxide gas was the best method to use for the most casualties — without anyone suspecting a thing.”
Vail looked at the screen. “It’s in Arabic.”
“No shit. I can see that.”
“I mean, how good are your language skills? Are you sure of what you’re reading?”
“I’m pretty sure.”
Vail looked at him.
“Very sure. Look, I’m telling you. That’s what it says here.”
“Did you hear that?” Vail asked Reid.
“Got it.”
“This is obviously written by a chemist. I don’t understand most of it — I mean, I get some of it, but … they’re talking about using osmate salts and osmium trichloride hydrate to oxidize it to osmium, and tertiary amines to cause a ligand acceleration—”
“You made your point,” Vail said. “About your Arabic skills.”
Uzi looked up. “Sounds like they know what they’re doing. This attack is a legit threat.”
“So the Home Office is the target?” Reid asked.
“Best I can tell, yeah. There are several more docs here that I have to crack. But from what I’ve read, they begged off Thames House in favor of the Home Office.”
Vail followed DeSantos’s car as it turned left onto a wide road. “Remind me what’s in the Home Office?”
“Lots of people,” Reid said, huffing a bit. He was no doubt on the move while they were talking. “Immigration, passport office, DNA database, surveillance office, police national database, lots of research labs for biometrics, chemical profiling of illicit drugs, counterterrorism—”
“I get it,” Vail said. “It’s an important government law enforcement building and it’ll be a huge blow if they kill a lot of people in those departments.”
“I’m begging off,” Reid said. “I need my phone to make some calls. And then I’ve gotta figure out how I know about this. Because they’re going to ask.”
Vail shrugged. “Anonymous tip. It’s true, right? We never gave you our names.”
Reid chuckled. “I’ve missed you guys. Life’s been rather mundane.”
“Not anymore.”
“Right. Wish me luck. We’re gonna need a bushel of it.”
Vail disconnected the call. “Okay, so if you were doing this, how and where?”
Uzi sat back in his seat and thought a moment. “There are a number of options. It could be something low-tech or fairly sophisticated. If they’ve got inside help, it’d be more toward the sophisticated end of the spectrum, like releasing it in the ventilation system. If not, maybe a truck bomb that can be driven through a wall and then detonated. We know they’re not afraid to die. Given their MO, that scenario is more likely than not. But there could be a dozen other approaches, just as effective if not more so.”
“But one of the docs said something about the chemical being the best to use because no one would suspect a thing.”
“Right. So you’re saying no bomb.” He stopped working the keyboard and thought a moment. “An insidious release. Ventilation ducts.”
Vail handed her phone to Uzi. “Text that to Reid. Tell him what we think and why.”
But just as he began typing, Vail’s phone rang.
“It’s Reid,” Uzi said as he pressed a button.
“Put him on speaker.”
Uzi hunted for the right key and then pressed it. “Reid? Just about to send you a text.”
“Hold that. We just got an order to evacuate Thames House.”
“I know what I read,” Uzi said. “That plan was changed. It’s the Home Office.”
“You said you hadn’t finished opening all the documents. Maybe it was changed back. Or someone senior superseded the change.”
“We can sit here and guess,” Vail said, “but that’s not going to get us anywhere.”
“Who gave the order to evacuate? Based on what?”
“Anonymous tip came in to the service.”
Uzi returned to attacking the keys, but stopped abruptly and looked up. “No. That anonymous call is a ruse. Don’t evacuate. There’s a sniper, he’s gonna pick people off as soon as they leave the building.”
“A sniper? Are you sure about this?” Reid asked.
“No, I’m not sure. I’m — I’m just trying to take what we know and put it together, try to think like them. In New York, they drew us to a crime scene where they’d stabbed a woman in the middle of Times Square. As soon as we got there, we were right in the middle of the plaza when a sniper opened fire on us.”