Corrector

by Blink, Bob

  “Cut it off,” Susan Carlson commanded, impatient to get on with it. She was already certain they wouldn’t find anything at this site, but one had to be thorough.

  Jake watched as Laney worked the bolt cutters they had brought with them. The lock snapped as Laney applied force to the handles, and moments later they were pushing aside the resisting gate and stepping into the weed covered and soggy grounds. Jake had found watching Carlson instructive. While the two agents, and himself for that matter, ducked their heads against the rain, Carlson simply accepted the weather and walked through it as though it was the mildest of irritants. She seemed to retain her focus, and noted briefly in her log the fact they had cut the lock at this facility. Jake was certain someone would be charged with replacing the lock and contacting the owner at some point in the future.

  Inside they quickly discovered why this facility hadn’t been bothered like the previous one they had visited. That one had been broken into, and a large number of homeless had been using it to live in. Makeshift rooms were set up inside, including a number of small fires built on the concrete floors of the building. They had encountered most of the current trespassers, which had been helpful because they could confirm that nothing unusual had taken place in the facility in recent weeks. Here there was no one. The roof had collapsed a long time ago and the what remained of the factory was mostly the exterior walls that for the most part were still standing. Many of the interior walls, made of less rugged materials had collapsed into ruined piles of rubble. It would have been possible to hide a bomb from casual view, but this wasn’t the kind of place Jake would have chosen. Nonetheless, they made a sweep of the facility with the HPRID (High Performance Radioisotope Detector). The place was clean. Check another one off the list.

  As they made their way back out to the street, Laney looped the broken lock through the catch in the gate. It would hold the gate closed, but wouldn’t prevent anyone who wanted from simply lifting it out and going inside. Jake couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to, or why anyone would care if they did. This place needed to be torn down and something new built on the land. It was surprising that such a derelict could be found so close to the center of town.

  They splashed their way back to the SUV, climbed in, and headed off to the next place to check. This one was more like the first. Any locks that had been on the gate were long since gone, and the grass had been worn away from the numerous feet that had passed through. Inside the echoing concrete walls they again found signs that many homeless had made this place their home. Burned out remains of fire pits were common, and the walls were marked where individuals had designed their territory. The big difference was the fact that no one was living here any longer. The place was deserted and had been for some time.

  “What was this place?” Carlson asked as their footsteps echoed through the cavernous spaces.

  “It was a cannery,” Evans replied. “Been closed almost twenty years.”

  “I wonder why they left?” Jim Laney asked, speaking of the transients, not the workers who had once been employed here. “It’s as nice as the first place and that one is still occupied. It’s dry, with lots of room.”

  “Maybe the owner found them in here and had the local police chase them away,” Evans guessed. “It can’t have been too long ago. The grass would have grown over the path last summer. We’ll have to ask the police what they know.”

  Jake noted that the building was basically sound. The walls were intact and the roof didn’t leak. A couple of windows up high on the outer wall were broken, and several more cracked, but he could see that with a modest amount of renovation, it could be made serviceable once again.

  They walked the length of the structure, using the HPRID to check for any sign that the place might hide what they sought. The needle stayed stubbornly pegged at the bottom of the scale.

  It was past noon when they finished checking off the site, and they returned to the vehicle. At least the rain had stopped, and there was a hint that the clouds might be starting to drift away. They had just climbed inside when Carlson got a call on her cellular.

  “Let’s go back to the house,” Carlson instructed. “The crew for the mobile units has arrived. The vehicles are being brought into the area here. I’ll need to coordinate their efforts.”

  They dropped Carlson at the house, then the three of them continued on to the next place on their list. They spent a fruitless afternoon and checked off three more places before they headed to the district police station where the various teams were to meet and review progress.

  The police commander in charge of the effort was there ahead of them, and Carlson came while the meeting was in progress. Her technicians didn’t need to be here and they could contact her if there was a need. Her mobile units would continue their sweeps while the rest of them planned and reviewed the status.

  It took very little time to establish that little had been learned. The police had received very little cooperation from the locals. This was not surprising, as the residents had a long-standing distrust of cops, and would not reveal anything to them if they could avoid it. It was bad business. Even if something seemed out of place or potentially detrimental to the inhabitants of the ghetto, the cops really didn’t have the best interests of the residents at heart. If something was going on, it was likely to be something that someone they didn’t want to anger was behind it, and who would make his displeasure known in a painful way if it was learned they had spoken to the authorities. Best to be mute. The lower class residents of the area, the druggies, the drunks, and the bums, often weren’t sober enough to provide useful intelligence.

  Less than twenty percent of the area to be searched had been covered thus far. At the current rate they wouldn’t have completed their search by the time Jake’s deadline ran out. They would continue to press, but with the night coming on, progress would be much slower until the morning. It would be dangerous even for the police to try and work the area after dark. The most useful information came from the badges that the officers had turned in after the completion of the shift. None showed any signs of radiation above the normal background levels.

  The next couple of days passed much the same. The mobile units had swept the entire area and had found nothing. Carlson had tasked them with repeating their sweep, taking special interest in the more deserted areas. The police continued to find nothing, even after rousting some of their snitches, and Jake and the two FBI agents searched countless other buildings to no avail.

  “A day and a half left,” Jake said as the three of them drove back to the house for the evening. He felt they should continue the search, but he was dog tired and discouraged.

  “So you say,” Laney replied.

  Jake could tell that Laney’s doubts had grown as they continued to find no sign of the weapon.

  “I don’t think there is a bomb here,” Carlson said that night as they sat around the great room and reviewed their lack of progress. “With the manpower we have put into this, some indication that something unusual was happening should have turned up, even given the lack of cooperation by the local populace. In addition, there hasn’t been even the smallest sign of an usual radioactive trace in the area.”

  Carlson looked at Jake. He felt her doubts. She had a lot riding on the outcome of this effort from a professional point of view. It was due to her insistence they were here.

  Jake gave voice to the thought he’d been having all afternoon. “We haven’t found anything because it isn’t here yet,” he said.

  “What are you implying?” Laney asked.

  “I think the bomb will be brought in close to the time it is to be used,” Jake said. “I’ve thought about it a lot, and have been watching the area. You could bring almost anything into this area and it’s unlikely anyone would pay much attention. Put it on a large enough truck, and drive it into place. Walk away, then set it off. Maybe it is triggered by remote control, and maybe it has a timer.”

  “You’re guessing,” Lan
ey replied.

  “Yeah, I am. But I know there will be a bomb, so if we can’t find it here now, then it might be because it isn’t here yet.”

  “Maybe your information is wrong,” Evans said. He didn’t know exactly how Jake fit in, and thought him to be some kind of consultant. They had made a point of not sharing that their source of knowledge came from a hard to believe capability that Jake claimed to have. Laney had enough doubts. The earnestness with which the team would approach the problem would be seriously degraded if they knew the whole story.

  Carlson was considering the idea carefully. “How large a vehicle would be required to bring something like this in?”

  “I’m no expert, but I can’t see it fitting into a normal van,” Laney said. “It would have to be something larger. I think we should consult some of the experts. That would give us an idea of what to watch for. Then we could mount a watch for anything moving into the area of that size or larger.”

  “If they did get into the area, they would want to keep it out of sight until it triggered,” Carlson said thinking out loud. “That suggests they would want to hide it in one of the larger buildings. That brings us back to the factories we have investigated. Anything else simply wouldn’t work.”

  “It might be wise to assign the mobile units to a sweep of the factory areas again tonight,” Jake said.

  “I’m concerned that they can get close enough to detect anything without going onto the grounds,” Carlson said. “I think we need to mount a repeat sweep of those facilities on foot.”

  “You mean tonight?” Laney asked with a groan. “We spent three and a half days going through the first time. We can’t cover them all tonight.”

  Now energized, Carlson shook her head. “Not just us. We’ll make up three teams, with each of us in the lead. We will have one or two of the specialists and a couple of police officers on each team. That should allow us to move quicker. We’ll also have the highway patrol and the police mobile units alerted to watch for large vehicles moving into the area.”

  She pulled out her phone and started making calls. In less than a half hour the new plan was in place. While they waited for the people to arrive, they divided up the places that were the most likely candidates. Jake would go with Carlson, and Laney and Evans would lead their own teams.

  It was just past six AM the next morning when Jake and Carlson struck pay dirt.

  “That was locked before,” Jake explained with certainty.

  The lock on the large gate used for vehicular traffic was missing. The gravel on the old unused road was slightly depressed and showed signs that something had been driven through here recently. The road wouldn’t have shown anything if it hadn’t been for the heavy rains the past week which had softened the roadway.

  “What about the HPRID?” Carlson asked the technician who stood off to one side.

  “The background reading is still about normal. It might be a little higher than average, but nothing to indicate something is close.”

  Making a decision, Carlson called for reinforcements. It took ten minutes for the swat team to arrive. She hadn’t wanted to pull Laney or Evans away from their own search, as this could still be a dead end, and getting help from the FBI office at this time of day would take far too long. It was impossible to say how many bad guys they might encounter if this was really the place they had put the bomb.

  “You can wait here,” she said to Jake.

  Jake shook his head. He meant to see this through.

  As a group, with the swat team taking the lead, they started into the enclosure. They had reached the outer wall of the old plastic bag factory when the technician spoke up. “The background level has increased.”

  Carlson looked meaningfully at Jake. “Looks like you might have been right.”

  The next step was a job for the pros. While the technician, Jake and Carlson waited, the swat team made their entry into the building. No shots were fired, and a few minutes later they received a call.

  “You need to come in here,” the swat team leader told Carlson.

  Inside they found a medium sized U-Haul truck parked in the center of the larger empty central area. A body lay on the ground some thirty feet away. It was wearing some kind of radiation suit, although the headpiece had been removed.

  “He’s been shot,” the swat team leader said.

  “It wouldn’t have mattered,” the technician said. “Whatever is in that vehicle, that cheap suit he was wearing wasn’t enough protection. We shouldn’t stay this close to that thing. I don’t know what kind of bomb is in there, but they have packed the thing with some kind of radioactive waste. We are getting far more than an unexploded bomb would provide.

  “No one else is here?” Carlson asked, while signaling everyone to move farther away from the vehicle.

  “The building is secure. Whoever shot him appears to have cleared out. They must have positioned the truck, killed the driver, and left. We can only guess when they plan to set it off.”

  “We have a pretty good idea,” Carlson said, looking at Jake. “Clear everyone out. Get the experts in here. We need full suits and the bomb squad.” Then she called Evans and Laney to let them know what they had found.

  Chapter 36

  It took longer than anyone liked for the team to assemble. The time of day hadn’t helped getting everyone together. Some of the members were sleeping, others showering and getting ready for the day, while the rest had already departed for breakfast. Everyone had to adjust, get organized and gather before being able to report to the site. Finally, however, one of the specially equipped vans and one of the common black SUV’s drove up to the enclosure where Jake and the others waited.

  “Wow!” exclaimed Chris Baker after a preliminary check to verify their readings on the U-Haul. “You are right. That thing is hot. I don’t know what there is for a bomb, but they have packed it with nuclear waste. It’s going to require full suits, and at that we will want the minimum exposure times.”

  Chris had his team suit up as did Josh Slater who was the lead man on the bomb disposal team. He didn’t appear particularly nervous, but Carlson told Jake that this was the first time they’d actually been placed in a situation where they had to try and disarm a live rogue nuclear device. That was assuming that’s what was inside the back of the rental vehicle.

  “It’s nuclear,” Josh reported back a few minutes after going inside to have a look. “They’ve piled containers of waste around the thing. Chris and his people can offload some of that while my team goes to work on the bomb. A first glance says it isn’t a very big bomb or very efficient. But it’d be enough to scatter this mess and take out a few blocks of the city. The mechanism is surprisingly complicated, which makes me wonder why the bomb is as crude as it is. It’s almost as if they didn’t want a full yield device. I also hope we have time. I don’t know how long this is going to take.”

  “It’s set to go off at noon,” Carlson informed him.

  Josh glanced at his watch. “Just over three hours. You’re certain of that?”

  “We have excellent intelligence on that aspect,” Carlson assured him.

  Josh nodded. “I’d best get back at it. Roy has been having a first look, but he’ll need my help. We will set up the usual video and audio so your team can monitor progress. I’d recommend you go back outside. There is no need to be any closer to the radiation than necessary. Of course, it won’t matter if this thing goes off.”

  Then it was a matter of waiting and letting the professionals do their job. The clock moved swiftly it seemed to Jake. Laney and Evans appeared uncomfortable, but Carlson was stoic and calm. Jake had yet to see anything faze her iron control.

  “It’s as complicated a mechanism as we’ve seen,” Josh reported over the net some time later. In addition to the timer circuit, there appears to be a microwave link that suggests that someone could trigger the device remotely if they desired. It will be important to keep that in mind in the event you come across any of tho
se responsible. Depending on their willingness to die, they might be in a position to set it off. I’m a little surprised by the fact the microwave circuit suggests transmit capability as well. Perhaps the device is able to send status to those watching remotely. We’ve checked and there is no carrier at the moment, but that function might be remotely activated or come on as the time for the detonation gets closer. We’ll just have to see.”

  “Can you tell if the timer circuit is activated?” Carlson asked.

  “The only indication is a red light switch on the activation circuit which is lighted. That almost certainly indicates the circuit has been activated. A quick scan shows voltage is present on the circuit, which also supports that it is operational. There is a monitor timer that is set to one minute which is currently frozen. Our belief is that when the count down reaches that point, the final sixty seconds will be counted off. That would be a useful feature for whomever made the bomb as it would give them warning the explosion was imminent giving them time to stop it if they wished. If we are correct, it will give us a warning if anything trips the circuit for the final countdown. It is likely that counter would be activated if the remote link were triggered as well. It would be a reasonable safety device.”

  “So what is your intent?” Carlson asked.

  “We believe that four wires need to be cut. The question, of course, is which four wires and the appropriate order. There are a lot of wires in the damn thing. A lot of effort went into making access difficult and masking the view of what can been seen to make the determination as difficult as possible.”