His fingers raced along the surface, back and forth. But it was eight feet of tank—too much surface to cover easily. It was probably a small timer, too. Perhaps miniaturized, perhaps the size of a thumbnail.
“Damn!”
“I get it,” Lewis said. “That was why he wanted inflammable plastic for the tanks. It’ll explode and burn without leaving a—”
“Coming up on five sixteen,” Nordmann said, looking at his watch.
Where was the timer?
“I can’t find it,” Graves said. “Come on.” He picked up the tank by the nozzle and began dragging it back into the apartment. “Help me,” he said.
There were three of them, but the 500-pound tank was bulky. As they entered the apartment, the cop at the window was on the bullhorn saying, “Clear the area, clear the area.”
Graves had a quick glimpse out the window and saw that people were running. He helped lift the tank up to the sill.
“Listen,” Nordmann said, “are you sure you should—”
“No choice,” Graves said. “We’ve got to get the tanks separated.”
“Five sixteen,” somebody said.
They pushed the tank out the window.
The huge cylinder fell slowly, almost lazily, but picked up speed as it went. It was halfway to the street when it exploded in a violent ball of red and black flame. Graves and Nordmann, who had been looking out the window, were knocked back inside.
A moment later there was a second explosion inside the building. The walls shook. The men looked at each other. Everyone was pale.
“Jesus,” Nordmann said.
“I knew it,” Graves said. “We had to get that separation.”
Even so, he was thinking, there might be some mixture of the gases. And just a few droplets could kill …
“We better get everybody out of here,” he said. They walked back toward the stairwell. Acrid stinging smoke billowed up toward them. Graves said, “Did the cops carrying that thing get away?”
Nobody seemed to know.
The smoke coming from the stairs was so harsh that they were unable to descend. They returned to the apartment and to the windows looking down on the street. A heavy cloud of gray smoke was clearing. On the pavement there were globs of burning plastic, and smoke rising. In the distance they heard the sound of sirens and fire trucks.
Graves reached in his pocket for a cigarette, brought one out, and dropped it from his shaking hand. He took out another and lit it. He went to the window and looked down at the street. The fire trucks were coming. He watched them turn the corner and move past the police barricades.
Directly beneath him the pieces of molten plastic continued to burn on the pavement.
He turned to Nordmann. “Is he dead?”
“Who?”
“Wright.”
“Yes,” Nordmann said quietly. “He’s dead.”
Graves watched as the fire trucks pulled up and sprayed the burning plastic with long hoses. The water formed reflecting puddles, gleaming red from the firelight and the San Diego sunset. He watched the harsh, streaming water for another moment, and then turned away from the window.
“Let’s go down,” Nordmann said.
“Yes,” Graves said. “Let’s.”
By a complicated mechanism, John Wright, an ordinary American citizen, arranged to disperse one half-ton of ZV nerve gas over the city of San Diego at 5 p.m., August 23, 1972. This event was to coincide with the political events occurring in that city at that time.
The plan was halted by intervention of the Defense Department, with some minor assistance by State Department personnel, particularly Mr. R. Phelps.
The Department of Defense is to be congratulated on its successful efforts in this matter.
Three weeks later, the Secretary of Defense ordered a contingency study based upon reevaluation of RAND Scenario Beta (theft of CBW or nuclear components).
The contingency study advised the following:
Destruction of all unnecessary chemical stockpiles. This includes all chemical agents stored aboveground (as in Rocky Mountain Arsenal, etc.). This includes all chemical agents combined with outmoded delivery systems (as in 12,000 Bolt rockets evacuated to ocean in 1969). This includes all redundant chemical agents (as in all gas GB stockpiles, now outmoded by VX, ZV).
Severe limitation of transport of chemical agents. This includes all chemical agents, in whatever quantities. The necessity for any transportation must be verified by direct order from the Secretary of Defense himself.
Severe restriction of total stockpiling locations. Chemical agents are now stored in 22 locations in the continental United States. The contingency study concluded that there was no rationale for maintaining more than 4 (±1) stockpile locations.
Severe regulations governing transport of chemicals. No quantity of chemical agent, however small, should travel with less than two platoons (80 men) who are trained to deal with subversive attempts and also with accidents during shipment.
Severe regulations governing data bank access. Classified information should be unavailable over any temporary line system. No multidrop lines should be utilized. Codings should be changed no less than every 48 hours. Permutations on each code should be no fewer than 25.
The report of the Beta Scenario contingency study was evaluated by the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff on November 10, 1972. The evaluation committee consisted of R. Gottlieb (RAND); K. Villadsen (Defense Systems Review); P. Lazarus (Defense C/C); L. M. Rich (State); A. Epstein (JCS); R. Dozier (Advanced Research PL); R. Phelps (State Intelligence). It was the unanimous conclusion of those present at the meeting that none of the recommendations needed to be acted upon at that time. A review committee was suggested for further evaluation of the report. Members of the review committee will be appointed in the near future.
In the meantime, present regulations and operating methods remain in effect.
A Biography of Michael Crichton
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) was a writer and filmmaker, best known as the author of Jurassic Park and the creator of ER. He was born in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in Roslyn, New York, along with his three siblings.
Crichton graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College and received his MD from Harvard Medical School. As an undergraduate, he taught courses in anthropology at Cambridge University. He also taught writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
While at Harvard Medical School, Crichton wrote book reviews for the Harvard Crimson and novels under the pseudonyms John Lange and Jeffery Hudson, among them A Case of Need, which won the Edgar Award for Best Mystery in 1969. In contrast to the carefully researched techno-thrillers that ultimately brought him to fame, the Lange and Hudson books are high-octane novels of suspense and action. Written with remarkable speed and gusto, these novels provided Crichton with both the means to study at Harvard Medical School and the freedom to remain anonymous in case his writing career ended before he obtained his medical degree.
The Andromeda Strain (1969), his first bestseller, was published under his own name. The movie rights for The Andromeda Strain were bought in February of his senior year at Harvard Medical School.
Crichton also pursued an early interest in computer modeling, and his multiple-discriminant analysis of Egyptian crania, carried out on an IBM 7090, was published by the Peabody Museum in 1966.
After graduation, Crichton was a postdoctoral fellow at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, where he researched public policy with Dr. Jacob Bronowski. He continued to write and published three books in 1970: his first nonfiction book, Five Patients, and two more John Lange titles, Grave Descend and Drug of Choice. He also wrote Dealing or The Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues with his brother Douglas, and it was later published under the pseudonym Michael Douglas.
After deciding to quit medicine and pursue writing full-time, he moved to Los Angeles in 1970, at the age of twenty-eight. In addition to books, he wrote screenplays
and pursued directing as well. His directorial feature film Westworld (1973), involving an innovative twist on theme parks, was the first to employ computer-generated special effects.
Crichton continued his technical publications, writing an essay on medical obfuscation published by the New England Journal of Medicine in 1975 and a study of host factors in pituitary chromophobe adenoma published in Metabolism in 1980.
He maintained a lifelong interest in computers and his pioneering use of computer programs for film production earned him an Academy Award for Technical Achievement in 1995. Crichton also won an Emmy, a Peabody, and a Writers Guild of America Award for ER. In 2002, a newly discovered dinosaur of the ankylosaur group was named for him: Crichtonsaurus bohlini.
His groundbreaking, fast-paced narrative combined with meticulous scientific research made him one of the most popular writers in the world. His novels have been translated into thirty-eight languages, and thirteen have been made into films. Known for his techno-thrillers, he has sold more than 200 million books. He also published four nonfiction books, including an illustrated study of artist Jasper Johns, and two screenplays, Twister and Westworld.
Crichton remains the only person to have a number one book, film, and television series in the same year.
He is survived by his wife, Sherri; his daughter, Taylor; and his son, John Michael.
Crichton and his younger brother, Douglas, co-authors of Dealing or The Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues, which was published under the pseudonym Michael Douglas.
Telegram from Harvard College announcing Crichton’s acceptance, May 4, 1960. (Courtesy of the Office of the General Counsel of Harvard University.)
Lowell House Harvard yearbook photo, 1961. (Courtesy of Harvard Yearbook Publications and Harvard University Archives.)
Crichton as an anthropology major at Harvard College.
“Peabody Papers.” (Reprinted from “A Multiple Discriminant Analysis of Egyptian and African Negro Crania” in Craniometry and Multivirate Analysis, Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 57, No. 1, 1966, courtesy of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University.)
Harvard Crimson article featuring Crichton, March 1969. (Courtesy of the Harvard Crimson.)
Crichton as a postdoctoral fellow at the Salk Institute, 1969.
A photo of Crichton for his memoir Travels.
Crichton hiking while doing research for his novel Micro.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1972 by John Lange
Cover design by Andrea C. Uva
Cover illustration by Omar F. Olivera and Theresa Burke
978-1-4532-9928-9
This edition published in 2013 by Open Road Integrated Media
345 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10014
www.openroadmedia.com
EBOOKS BY MICHAEL CRICHTON
FROM OPEN ROAD MEDIA
Available wherever ebooks are sold
Open Road Integrated Media is a digital publisher and multimedia content company. Open Road creates connections between authors and their audiences by marketing its ebooks through a new proprietary online platform, which uses premium video content and social media.
Videos, Archival Documents, and New Releases
Sign up for the Open Road Media newsletter and get news delivered straight to your inbox.
Sign up now at
www.openroadmedia.com/newsletters
FIND OUT MORE AT
WWW.OPENROADMEDIA.COM
FOLLOW US:
@openroadmedia and
Facebook.com/OpenRoadMedia
Binary: A Novel Page 14