Elevated Threat

by William Robson

  Your authorities will soon declare to you that no contagion can survive the chlorination processes you use to treat the water. They will claim that any organism that did survive will be so diluted downstream that it will pose no threat to public health. In fact, I predict the governors of the states which have started using the ultraviolet sterilization processes, such as the one at the Tolt Hill treatment plant near Seattle, will proudly claim how 99.9% of all bacteria in their water is neutralized before it is pumped to your homes. Naturally, we have planned ahead for all these contingencies and have, with the help of God’s hand, found elegant solutions to each of these protections. Despite the assurances of safety by your leaders, when your news videos begin to show rows of patients at your hospitals around the country writhing in agony, you will know who is telling the truth, and who is not.

  As these last days unfold, and all that is remaining is revealed to you, remember this: Be at peace with your fate as it has been determined by God and has been delivered into our hands.

  Clyde never finished his turkey-bacon breakfast sandwich.

  PERCEPTION BECOMES REALITY

  Name: Dr. Garai Bayoumi PhD

  Age: 59

  Nationality: Egyptian

  Education: Faculty of Medicine Cairo University. Was a Biochemistry Research Fellow.

  Professional History: World’s leading known advocate for rapid cell development using nano technology with stem cell donors.

  Family history: Father (Hadji) was professor of chemistry at Cairo University. He was killed in the Arab Spring Revolt. Mother (Haqikah) taught English at the Cairo girl’s school.

  Current whereabouts: Unknown

  Current watch-list status: Green

  June 28, 2015

  Seattle, Washington

  There are a couple of very significant problems when trying to utilize a biological weapon as a means of attack. Generating, transporting, and then releasing a weaponized biological agent capable of killing everyone that comes in contact with it, is not as easy as it sounds.

  First, you have the problem of generating enough of it to create a large number of victims without being detected. Then you must find a way to store it in containers that will not degrade. Even microscopic leaks are problematic. Then you have the problem of containing it safely while you are moving it to the place you plan to use it. And last but not least, it is very difficult to be able to disperse a contagion in any effective way. All mediums available to do so either dilutes the pathogen to the point where it quickly loses its effectiveness, or it suppresses the pathogen’s ability to spread by weighing the agent down to the point that it just settles to the ground. And, of course, there is the small problem of not killing yourself with it during the whole process.

  Those obstacles have proven so daunting that even most governments limit their research into the offensive use of these substances. Private terrorist groups lack the resources to even begin the process of creating them so they typically do not bother. Despite the difficulties, there have been some terrorist groups in the past that tried, albeit rather unsuccessfully, to utilize a weaponized biological weapon.

  In Oregon, the Rajneeshee cult admitted that, during late September 1984, they executed a bio-chemical attack using salmonella typhimurium that caused 751 cases of severe gastroenteritis. And in Japan, on March 18, 1995, the Aum Shinrikyo cult attacked the Tokyo subway system with sarin gas, which fortunately, generated lots more press than victims. Less known was that the investigations after this incident disclosed that the Aum Shinrikyo cult had previously attempted 3 unsuccessful biological attacks in Japan using anthrax and botulin toxin.

  While these attacks did injure and even kill small numbers of people, the effectiveness of biological weapons to create widespread death by these types of groups has thus far been minimal.

  Fortunately for us, these groups didn’t understand how to utilize the psychological factor along with the physical result that these types of attacks can present. And they did not have the mass messaging systems now in place to help incite that panic. They just did not understand how to create a desired reality from the perception of using their weapons.

  01:30 AM PST – Carnation, Washington

  Almost all municipalities rely on their treatment facilities to clean contaminants from our water after it leaves the watershed instead of trying to eliminate the initial contamination upstream. Canada geese, deer, bear, and every other animal have little understanding of trespass sensors, and when thirsty enough, wire fences become little more than a nuisance. What the animals leave behind will always find its way into the water supply. Simple as that. Therefore, while upstream perimeter security has been established around public water shed storage facilities for most large cities for years now, the sophistication of the security employed still leaves much to be desired.

  The Tolt Hill reservoir east of Seattle supplies thirty percent or so of the water for the Emerald City, and yet, very few of the citizens that drink water from the tap even know it exists. The reservoir and its companion treatment facility is a model of efficiency and boasts some of the best security and modern water purification in the country. This unknown little watershed was about to become a household name to every person in the United States.

  Bob Constantine keeps an eye on the facilities during the night shift at the regulating basin at Tolt Hill. Bob is a twenty-something young man with big dreams of landing a job in law enforcement. He found out the hard way that barely graduating high school and partying for a year in community college was not the fast track to a position in the sheriff’s office that he’d hoped for. At least by working at Tolt Hill, he did have a government issued uniform and a badge. Everyone starts somewhere, his parents kept telling him.

  The Tolt Hill facilities have a half dozen buildings ringing the basin that need to be watched over. The perimeter gates need to be inspected four times a shift, and animals that sporadically wander in the area need to be chased off. The job became much less fun when the crew completed the project to control the water supply gates and pumps automatically by computers. After that there was very little left for Bob to do on those long night shifts. When you are twenty miles from the nearest other person, and deep in the nether parts of Eastern King County for a nine hour shift five days a week, it can get mighty dark, cold, and lonely.

  About the only excitement Bob encountered while on duty is when one of the large pumps break, or when the occasional drunk from the nearest town of Carnation ends up unwittingly at one of the station’s gates. Once, a truck full of such revelers ended up smashing through the main gate on Swan Loop Road. Bob had a difficult time trying to keep the partiers from leaving before the cops showed up. When the cops did arrive, even they were laughing at the sight of the local morons heaving the last remnants of the evening’s liquid delight into the bushes by the side of the road. Good times.

  So when Bob saw the light on his security panel glowing, indicating that the east side gate’s motion sensor had gone off, he was happy. Most likely it was just a deer sneaking in for a drink, but at least it was something to do.

  Duly armed with his big flashlight, radio, and company truck, Bob went off to investigate. When he arrived at the east gate on the Tolt South Hill Road, he found the gate was wide open. Now that was a first. When Bob heard some muffled voices coming from the woods behind him, he was sure he had the perpetrators in hand. His adrenal glands started pumping for all they are worth and a bead of sweat started forming on Bob’s brow. Bob started into a brisk walk along the dirt road west from the gate and toward where he heard the voices. With his oversized flashlight leading the way, Bob soon reveled his quarry. Parked deep into the forest canopy sat an ancient looking Ford Mustang with what looked like two youngsters inside.

  As Bob got closer to the car it started getting more obvious to him that the encounter he faced was more amorous than suspicious. Bob approached the car cautiously anyway. Since he didn’t have anything else to do, he decided spooking the k
ids could be fun. He tried valiantly to put on his most official looking face as he approached the passenger side of the car. Tapping his flashlight on the passenger window seemed like it would be a nice touch.

  To his surprise, the occupants of the Mustang were older than he first expected, in fact, they were not much younger than him. Bob used his big boy voice.

  “Excuse me. This is private property. What are you… I mean you can’t be here.”

  Oh, crap. That came out all wrong.

  The girl in the passenger seat cowered away from the flashlight and in hushed tone answered:

  “Oh, we’re so sorry... we had no idea this was private property. Please don’t tell on us. My mom will kill me if she found out I was out here with a boy. Pleeeeease?”

  Bob started feeling more like a Peeping Tom than a security guard when she looked up at him with those pathetic eyes begging for leniency. Still, he had to know if they were the ones that had broken open his gate.

  “Listen, before I decide what to do, I need to ask one question. Did you open that gate before you came back over here?”

  Now the young man in the car spoke up.

  “No sir, we came down the road and saw the gate open. We drove in about ten feet – just to turn around – and then came up back up here for, well you know.”

  Bob aimed his flashlight back down the road at the open gate and saw that there were tire tracks on the dirt road which went about ten feet inside the gate and no further, just as the man had claimed. Bob knew that would have accounted for the proximity sensors going off, but the story didn’t explain why the gate was opened in the first place. Bob was sure he had checked it right before dark and it was definitely closed then. Bob wasn’t so sure about the guy in the car, but the girl certainly looked innocent enough. Bob couldn’t help remembering all the countless times when he had been helped out by others looking the other way during times of his own indiscretion, so eventually he caved and just told the two lovebirds to be on their way.

  After the old Mustang had disappeared back into the darkness and down the road toward town, Bob started looking around the area between the water and the gate. There were no tracks, car or animal, and nothing suspicious that would explain why the gate was open or where the lock was that kept it closed. Bob decided to loop some bailing wire he had in the truck through the gate slide until he could retrieve a new lock from the security shed. After Bob secured the gate as best he could with the wire, he headed back to the office on the other side of the reservoir to look for a new lock.

  While Bob was digging into some storage bins in the security shed attic, he could have sworn he saw a light flashing across the attic window that appeared to come from the direction of the east gate. The light was only there for a second and then was gone. Bob stared out the attic window for what must have been ten minutes, but no light reappeared. This night was getting stranger and stranger. After all but disassembling the storage shed looking for a lock, he finally gave up the search and went back to the office.

  The east gate proximity warning light was still illuminated on his console. In his search for a new lock, Bob realized he had forgotten to turn it off. Once the sensor was switched off and back on, and now convinced there was no replacement lock for the gate, Bob sat down in his chair to do his least favorite part of his job: writing up his nightly report. At least for this report he had a cool story to add in the comments section. While he was doing his paperwork, he put in a requisition for some new replacement locks for the gates.

  The rest of the night was uneventful and dragged on with only Bob’s imagination keeping him awake. The night shift ended at 6:00 a.m., and despite working this shift for quite a while now, he never had gotten used to working all night. His eyes were struggling to stay open when the office phone rang at 5:30 a.m. Bob was real glad he had not slept through the ring, as it was his boss Kevin Lang on the other end of the phone and Kevin sounded like he didn’t want to be up and on the phone this early.

  “Bob, this is Kevin. Sorry to ring you up but I just got a call from Homeland Security, of all people. It seems some kook wrote an article on the internet and now everyone has their panties in a bunch about water security. They asked me if there had been any unusual activity at Tolt Hill. I told them there hadn’t been any since I assumed you would have let me know if there was. But I promised to check with you anyway.”

  Bob took a deep breath and looked out the window toward the east gate. The sun was just up enough now where he could see it with binoculars. The gate was still closed and no one was in sight. Bob let out his breath.

  “All is good out here, boss. We did have a couple doing a lover’s lane thing in the woods but I checked on them right away and they left after I explained they couldn’t be there. Other than that, it was a quiet night.”

  “Cool. That’s what I thought, but I had to check. Thanks.”

  Bob let out a sigh of relief, the guard job sucked but he needed it since he had failed the sheriff’s deputy exam three times now. When the day shift replacement guard showed up, Bob told him about needing a new lock for the east gate and said he would pick one up when the stores opened. As he left the office, Bob decided to swing by the east gate to look around.

  When Bob pulled up to the gate, the first thing he noticed was that even though the gate was closed, the bailing wire he had used to stuff the latch for the gate was laying on the ground. When he looked around further, he noticed the same tire tracks he saw when he went out there last night. But when he looked farther out toward the water, he saw a second set of tracks that went passed the first set. These tracks went all the way down to the water’s edge.

  Fear does strange things to our minds. It can make it easy to start to rationalize why we did or didn’t do something, especially when there is a penalty for choosing one path and a reward for following the other. After studying the tracks for a few minutes and thinking about the repercussions, Bob convinced himself that the second pair of tracks must have been there last night all along and that he just didn’t see them in the dark. Since his report was already turned in, he decided that the “facts” he listed in his report when his mind was sharp must be more accurate than what his sleep-deprived perception was telling him now. Bob convinced himself that his nagging intuition, which was now telling him something is wrong, must be caused by his lack of sleep. Bob decided to stick the bailing wire back into the gate and head for home.

  When Bob finally crawled into bed, sleep did come quickly, but it did not last very long. No matter how hard he tried, that nagging feeling he had been somehow duped by the lovers at the east gate kept coming back, and it was preventing him from getting the sleep he desperately needed. Eventually, after tossing and turning for hours, he gave up trying to sleep. He decided he needed to take another look around at the east gate. Stopping at the hardware store on the way back, he wasn’t able to find the exact same lock as the one lost, but he found one that would do. He even got some extra keys made so a set could be left in every building around the reservoir. Going above and beyond, he thought to himself.

  As Bob drove back out to Tolt Hill, the local talk show on his radio wouldn’t shut up about the big “Challenge to America” that had been delivered. To Bob, it was just another in a long line of events that would be replaced by next week’s big thing. Bob yelled at the radio,

  “Just put on some Eagles, would you already!”

  When Bob got back to the Tolt Hill east gate it was just as he had left it several hours before. That was a good sign. He decided to check the area back in the woods where he discovered the lovebirds. Nothing suspicious there. Then he decided to closely check the gate itself. Other than the still missing lock, it seemed normal. Always thinking ahead, Bob got on his company radio and told the day shift guard that he had a new lock for the east gate and that he was going to be heading down to the water’s edge just to check it out. Bob then asked the day shift guard to turn off the perimeter sensors so he wouldn’t set them off. When he
got the word back that the sensors were turned off, Bob opened the gate and walked down toward the water.

  He followed the path of the newer set of tire tracks all the way down to the water. Now that he was up close, he could see how the second set of tracks must have been from a large truck. Bob based his brilliant deduction on the size of the tracks in the sand made by the tires. It was also now obvious that the truck had backed right into the water. Bob could see how the wheels had dug into the dirt right below the water level. Bob quickly deduced that only a rear wheel drive truck would leave that kind of impression. Bob just couldn’t understand why he wasn’t a real cop when he possessed that kind of deductive reasoning.

  Bob decided to wander around out into the water itself. As soon as he made it ankle deep and started looking away from the shore, he saw something that caught his eye. Bob waded farther out into the shallow water and dug around a bit, and then retrieved his prize. It was a hand-operated air pump, the kind you might use to blow up an inflatable raft. Even odder than the pump being there in the first place was the fact that the pump looked brand new. In fact, it still had a sales sticker on it from the hardware store where Bob had just purchased the replacement lock for the gate. It didn’t take a supersleuth like Bob long to realize it was about time he came clean with his boss about these events.

  An hour and eight minutes after Bob’s revelation to his boss about the strange happenings at the east gate, he found himself sitting in an office building on the west shore of the reservoir, where he had never been allowed to go before, talking to a real big ugly dude with a bad attitude. Bob was now telling this big guy the story of last night for the fourth time.

  Agent Andrews was most definitely in a bad mood, even for him, and he was taking no shit from anyone today. Especially an idiot rent-acop like Bob.