Emily smiled, "Thanks, Carrie."
"No problem. But hey, remember, I'm also the one who just told you that we pay attention to witchcraft and voodoo too, you know?"
Emily laughed the first good laugh of the day. "That might actually be just what he needs at this point."
Lennie was standing in the hall as Emily left the conference room.
"Hey, we need to head back to the river."
"What? I mean, yeah, What's up?"
"The ARG people are going to be on-site in about thirty minutes. They'd like to meet with us. Plus, I think we just need to see how these guys do what they do."
Emily nodded.
"Our next meeting is at five back at the staging area anyway. I'll meet you there."
Chapter 38
As Emily arrived at the staging area, what grabbed her attention was the truck with its roof filled with antennae of every shape and size imaginable. Lennie was standing by the door with a man in a uniform. They spoke briefly before the man stepped forward.
"Agent Graham, welcome to ARG Central Command. I'm Lance Reyes, On-Site Commander."
Emily caught her breath. Though Reyes was older, his demeanor reminded her of Elliott. She knew she was probably reading too much into it, but she already decided that he was serious about what he was doing, was here to do a job, and didn’t intend to leave without that job being done. It was a different look than Dasiliva's. She was sure Reyes wanted to maintain an image, but he intended to do that through results, rather than game playing. She liked this guy.
"Thank you, Commander."
"Special Agent Ryan informed me that you are lead investigator for this incident, so if you would like to step inside, I'll fill you in on ARG operations."
"Yes Commander, thank you."
Emily had seen this type of mobile command facility during joint training activities. It reminded her of something she saw during a family vacation to Epcot a long time ago; the walls filled with screens, rows of desks with technology and people who know how to use it. There is a constant hum of activity, yet it was calm enough for you to hold a simple conversation. These were the people you called when everything else had left you needing more.
"Please, let me explain how we do what we do."
They moved to a large screen displaying a live satellite image of the area. Glowing figures were moving around on it, some across the levee at Grammercy Bridge, some moving south on the river and some moving north.
"This is our communications center. We track every ARG asset from here. We know where everyone is at all times, so we can respond to whatever we might find. Right now, you can see our follow-on team at the Grammercy Bridge. They usually do their work to avoid a detonation, but in this case, they are tasked with finding any remaining artifacts, and ensuring the location is radiation-safe."
Emily watched the glowing images move; one on each bank and two apparently in a boat in the middle of the river. The screen changed.
"And here you can see our initial response team, half of them heading to the Hale Boggs Bridge and half to the Sunshine Bridge. They are tasked with confirming the presence of the devices there. Normally, if they find something they would conduct an initial risk assessment, but since the risk here has already been demonstrated, they will target the devices and prepare them for the recovery operations."
"It looks like you have things well under control." Emily watched the moving images.
"This is just half of the current operations, focusing on confirming and securing these devices. Because of the unique conditions of this situation, we have a larger theater of operations for this incident."
"Larger theater?"
"Our people are in full agreement with your office that there may be more of these devices out there. Because of that, in addition to the work being done here, we have activated multiple AMS units from Nellis Air Force Base, as well as Joint Base Andrews."
"AMS? That's the..."
"I'm sorry; the Aerial Measuring System. We have so many acronyms and tend to forget that not everyone is familiar with them. AMS provide specialized airborne radiation detection. They can cover a lot of ground very quickly, and their equipment is the best there is. They can find things no one else can find. The plan is to have a fixed-wing fly down the Ohio river from Cincinnati, through Evansville, down to the Mississippi. He'll be underway in about an hour. Another fixed-wing has already left for Minneapolis to travel down the Mississippi to the same spot. If there is anything up there under any bridges, they'll find it."
"Excellent."
"For the lower river, we're bringing in the helicopters. They can get down closer to the river and do a more robust search. It’s slower, but it gives the best results. Plus, they will come in handy if we find anything interesting along the way."
Emily watched the screen, which had changed to a larger view showing the locations of the various members of the AMS forces at work.
"You can see the two fixed-wing birds, and one of the helicopters almost at its go station above Natchez."
Emily shook her head, "This is impressive Commander."
"All in a day’s work ma'am. If there are more of those devices out there, our birds will find them."
"And then?"
"If one is found, we send a recovery team to secure the device and neutralize it if possible. Then a follow-on team goes in to package it and transport it so we can fully neutralize it. The entire process should take about thirty-six hours; normally."
"But I'm thinking this is not a normal type of situation?", Emily said.
"No ma'am, this does not look like a normal situation for several reasons. The number of devices, and the sophistication of the design; it presents some unique challenges. We're not sure just how unique it is yet, but we're hoping your people can help answer that question."
"In what way?"
"The main question we have right now, even if these three or four devices are the only ones out there, is if they are actually three or four individual devices or if they are somehow connected, behaving more like one, very large device. We'll know more once we get a good look at one of them, and we're hoping your behavioral teams will be able to give us insight into the thinking behind them as well."
"Yes, in fact, I just came from meeting with them. And yes, we are confident that more devices exist. Plus, there has to be a large number of people behind it, some domestic and some other, and they've spent a lot of time putting it all together."
"Do we have any intel on who is actually behind it yet, or what they are hoping to achieve?"
"We have two of the key roles narrowed down to a shortlist, and should have more on that later this afternoon. Once we can target one of them, pieces should begin to fall into place more quickly."
"That is what we need ma'am. One more thing, what's the level of confidence in the idea that they are using a boat to place the devices? How solid is that?"
"If someone has other options to put on the table I'll be happy to listen. But at this point, I am convinced it’s one of the long-haul boats that can move the entire length of the river and never be noticed. If I were going to do something like this, I'd use a boat."
"Understood. I'll notify our birds to pay special attention to any boats along the way."
Emily began to speak, but Reye's continued.
"Not close enough to spook anyone ma'am. They'll take their time at the bridges, but as they fly down river, they'll side-scan any boats they pass. They don't get close and don't slow down, so it looks like they're paying no attention to them at all. But they'll get a clear sounding if there is dirty stuff onboard."
"Good, as you say, we don't want to spook anyone. That could get messy."
"Yes, ma'am. No worries about that. Our birds know how to stay out of trouble."
Commander Reyes turned from the screen and began moving toward the door.
"You'll have to excuse me Agent Graham, but I need to meet with my Grammercy follow-on team before we start getting dat
a from all of the others. Things tend to get a bit busy when we have this many teams on the field at one time."
"Absolutely Commander. I need to check-in with my teams as well. I'll be in touch when we have more intel for you."
"I'll do the same ma'am."
As Emily stepped from the trailer, "Agent Graham, one more thing ma'am."
"Yes?"
"Ma'am, I knew Agent Masterson. Elliot and I were in basic together a long time ago. We went in different directions, but kept in touch, at least the holidays and such, you know?"
Emily felt herself nodding.
"I was sorry to hear the news ma'am. He was a good agent, and a good man."
"Yes. Thank you. He was."
"We'll find these guys, ma'am."
"Yes commander, we'll find them."
Chapter 39
Emily felt the phone vibrate as she walked across the staging area lot for the five o'clock meeting. With that recurring sense of dread, she pulled it from her pocket. She relaxed a bit as she saw the caller ID was not Torchwood.
"Graham."
"Agent Graham, it’s Carrie Williamson, with behavioral."
"Carrie, do you have anything new for me?"
"Actually, we do. The team had a couple of lucky breaks, and I believe we have identified our nuclear expert. Our list is down to two, but I think we know which one is our guy."
"That is excellent. Tell me more."
"Both guys have been working at major universities involved in high-level nuclear projects. They both have the backgrounds and the access, and at some point, they have both crossed our radar in previous investigations for one reason or another."
"Really?"
"Yeah, but nothing ever came of it. But this time they both made the cut. As our investigation proceeded, we found one key thing that brought one of them to the top of the list.”
"And that is?"
"The first guy is still known to be at his university; in fact, he is leading a three-day seminar there this week. If he was involved, he's not right now."
"And the second guy?"
"Hasn't been seen for the past three months. He's supposedly on a sabbatical doing research in Europe, but we've learned that he came back to the U.S. over a month ago, and didn’t tell anyone. We don't know where he's been, and more importantly, we don't know where he is right now. For all we know, he's on your boat."
"Tell your team I appreciate their hard work. What do we know about our invisible guy so far?"
"His name is Doctor Peter Shallenger. He's originally from Austria, but has been a U.S. citizen since coming to the states twenty years ago."
"Ok."
"You name a high-profile school, and this guy has either studied there or been involved in some research with them. For the past eight years, he has been teaching at two schools and leads a half-dozen research teams at both schools. You want to guess what his primary focus is in that research?"
"What?"
"One of his grad students recently published an article entitled, 'Evaluating the Effectiveness of Particle Distribution Patterns in Radiological Dispersion Devices.’ Does that tell you enough? He credited Shallenger as being, and I quote, ‘the inspiration and guiding visionary behind his research."
"Damn."
"Exactly. Oh, and one more interesting little detail?"
"Yes?"
"One of the names on our short list for the engineer who built the devices...is one of Shallenger's grad students."
"Bingo! I think you're on the right path."
"We do too. We've not located that guy yet either, so it’s possible we now know two of the people we're after."
"I'll pass the news along. Let me know as you learn more."
"Will do. And just so you know, we've now built a short list of people with the skills needed to deal with the radioactive materials themselves. This person has to have some real skill in the safe handling of the stuff, and the best place to develop those skills is the military. After a quick look at Shallenger's grad students with military experienced, we have four strong possibles. We're looking for them right now, so I'll update you shortly."
"I'll tell you what, witchcraft or voodoo or whatever, you guys are good!"
"Thanks, Emily. Later."
"Bye."
"Agent Graham, over here!"
Dasilva was calling to her from a trailer across the parking lot. She walked in that direction as she slid her phone back into her pocket.
"We'll have the five o’clock briefing in here. There aren't as many involved, so we don't need the large conference room."
She followed him into the trailer and found a seat at the table.
"This will be brief people," Dasilva began, "I know you are all busy. First, as you may know, Agent Graham is now the lead on this investigation. We need to go around the group and bring her up to date on everything. I've asked Colonel Nichols from the Corps of Engineers to update us on the search for the boat and asked Commander Goodwin to update us on what the NRC has found about the radiation. I'll give a brief update on the communications and media side of things. Colonel Nichols?"
"Thank you, Agent Dasilva, and hello everyone. As you know the Corps is actively working with NRC, the Port of New Orleans, local and state transportation people, the Coast Guard, and several local law enforcement agencies. While ARG is conducting the direct search, we're looking at everything we have here locally, attempting to identify the boat that placed our devices. It’s more difficult since we are not certain just when the devices were placed, so we have tried to narrow the window of opportunity."
"How have you done that Colonel?" Dasilva asked.
"We can thank Colonel Goodwin and his NRC people for that." he turned to Goodwin who explains.
"Looking at the videos of the first device, based on the amount of silt around the device, we estimate that it was in the water no more than three or four hours. If it had been there longer, it would have shown more sediment build up."
"We narrowed our initial investigation to that window." Nichols continued. "Narrowing it further by only selecting those long haul towboats, as Agent Graham suggests, the list comes out to some thirty-four boats."
Someone whistled, while others shook their heads.
Colonel Nichols continued, "So now we're working to identify each of those boats and look at the data to see where they were, and where they are now. Fortunately, we track a lot of data on boats. Those that ever carry hazardous materials are monitored by Homeland Security's Vessel Tracking Service, and if we're lucky, most of the others subscribe to a system like MRTIS. If so, we can..."
"MRTIS?" Dasilva asked.
"Sorry, Mississippi River Traffic Information Service. It’s a system for everything from weather information, to fleet management."
"It sounds like we have lots of data available," Dasilva said.
"Yes, sir. However, as smart as these appear to be, I'm sure they have taken that into consideration. So we also have teams taking the approach of just sitting and looking at video footage too, just in case."
"Thank you, Colonel. We'll look for another update at our nine o'clock meeting. Colonel Goodwin, what do you have for us?"
"Thank you, Agent Dasilva. As you all are aware, ARG is now in control of the ongoing investigation of the Grammercy Bridge device. They are much better equipped to handle what needs to be done there. So, we have focused our investigation on the radioactive materials from the first device."
"The so-called casserole," Dasilva said.
"Yes, the casserole. While we still have work to do, we have confirmed that we have quite a mix of materials, from a wide range of sources. We have identified signatures of at least seven different elements, and in some instances, the same type of elements originating from multiple sources."
Dasilva raised a finger, "So what does that mean for us?"
"First, it means they did not have access to large amounts of any one material, which is what we would anticipate. So they had to collec
t materials from a lot of sources; basically get whatever they could find to put in the devices."
"Do we know where they found it?" Emily asked.
"Some of it, yes we do. For example, the signature of one element was traced to a handheld nuclear gauge stolen from the back of a pickup truck in Virginia earlier this year."
"A handheld gauge?" Dasilva asked.
"Yes, they're pretty common. They are used to measure things like soil density; in this case, for road construction. In fact, this is one of those instances of the same type of element coming from more than one source. We have the signature of the same type of cesium, but traced to a device stolen in Connecticut back in 2010."
"Really?", came from someone at the table.
"And that leads to the next point of our findings. To collect this much material, these people have been working at this for a long time, maybe since 2010, but perhaps even longer. That's honestly why we don't see more of this type of attack taking place; its just too damn hard to collect enough material to create a big enough device."
"But apparently these people did," Emily said.
"Yes ma'am, it looks that way," Goodwin answered.
Brief silence before Goodwin continued, "The one bit of good news I can offer is that the latest tests from the ARG confirmed our finding that there was no release of radiation from the detonation at Grammercy Bridge."
"Thank you, Colonel," Dasilva said. "Keep us informed. Agent Graham, what do you have?"
"Thank you. I've just met with our behavioral investigative team, and we believe we have identified one, perhaps two of the people involved here."
"That's good news!" Dasilva said.
"We are still awaiting solid confirmation, but we believe the primary person behind the incident is a Doctor Peter Shallenger, an academic, and a man with the specific expertise required. His location is currently unknown."
"We don't know where he is now?" Dasilva asked?
Disruption: A River Of Secrets And Betrayal Page 12