Element 94

by Kleiner Jeffries

  “He couldn’t have gone far” the terrorist addressed his subordinate. “We must find this little bastard.”

  “Yes, of course. But we are too few and the area is vast. It will take…”

  “Shut up, you idiot!” Azeez snapped. “Look here. This child is a skilled craftsman”. Azeez now proceeded to remove one of the carvings from Jopprie’s bag, which had been recovered at the bottom of the hillside. “Someone must surely know his work around here, and will lead us to him” the leader said assuredly.

  Azeez marched his team towards the farming communities to the South, and began inquiring as to the whereabouts of this troublemaker teenager. As suspected, the youngster’s handiwork was well known among the people of the region, and it was not difficult to get the natives to talk. The AK-47 Azeez and his companions wielded gave the poor and unarmed inhabitants little choice but to lead the men to the location of the village where Jopprie made his home. It was clear any who mislead the men would be hunted and killed. There was little choice but to turn the youngster in.

  Azeez found the mission suited him perfectly. He relished in the intoxicating effects of power, which he now enjoyed over the weak people who inhabited this region. Moreover, the swift apprehension of this troublemaker child would not only help put him back in the good graces of the Udeen leadership, but should be more than enough warning to any others in the area who might dare stand in their way.

  Shortly after nightfall, Azeez and three armed Udeen lieutenants strolled into an otherwise peaceful village. It was here, they were told, where the youngster whose possessions had been found in the satchel at the bottom of the hillside might be found.

  The terrified villagers remained still as the terrorists strolled through the tiny hamlet. Several of the elders were seated outside their chanteys and huts, carefully noting the intruders with brief glimpses. No one dared look for an extended period at the approaching men, who seemed eager and ready to fire the weapons in their possession at any who might stand in their way.

  “Where might I find the youngster Jopprie?” Azeez shouted. He received no reply.

  “Where is the one who goes by Jopprie, or you will all die” the terrorist threatened. Every Udeen soldier now raised his assault rifle in a ready position.

  “I am Jopprie” said a sturdy, courageous voice from the far extreme of the encampment. Jopprie stood in front of his dwelling, alone and unarmed. The youngster was scared, but knew what he must do.

  Azeez turned towards the voice, and began inching closer to the youth. Without warning, the terrorist commander removed his pistol from its holster and aimed it at the young African. All Jopprie could do was rush indoors, seeking refuge in the thatched hut that served as his home. Azeez meanwhile calmly continued his approach. As the terrorist neared the abode, he unleashed several rounds into the rickety bamboo door, and forced his way inside. The place was surprisingly bare, save for the youth standing tall in the center of the enclosure. Jopprie had made no attempt to hide from his pursuer, and courageously met the oncoming attacker with a hateful gaze.

  “You are very brave, Jopprie”, Azeez began, “I respect that. I just might spare the lives of your family. But there is nothing I can do for you now. You must now meet the fate which you have brought upon yourself.”

  For the second time that day, Jopprie was looking into the barrel of a gun wielded by one with the intent to murder him. And for the second time, he would miraculously be saved as a powerful blow to the chest sent the terrorist sprawling backward, knocking his weapon out of his grasp.

  Azeez looked up at his attackers, shaken and totally surprised. Staring down at him were two burly Caucasian men. They were dressed in local garb, although they made no pretense to conceal their identity as they spoke.

  “Get up!” shouted one of the attackers. Azeez realized he was staring back at two American soldiers, likely Special Forces or CIA operatives who had been dispatched to the area. The Americans must have come just prior to his arrival, and hatched this trap. The locals who had given him information must have been complicit in this plot, Azeez concluded. He resolved to burn the village to the ground and kill all those who played a part in warning the Americans of his arrival. But first he had to contend with the soldiers before him.

  “I said get up!” Mack reiterated forcefully, repeating the command in Arabic.

  The terrorist leader stood up, and was forced outside the hut, where a large crowd of villagers had now gathered. Several more American operatives were hastily controlling the mob, having subdued the other Udeen fighters with ease. The terrorists were all on their knees in the center of the village square, upright with their hands above their heads.

  “Everyone back!” Mack shouted to the mass assembling outside. He fired a warning shot once in the air, stopping the villagers from approaching closer. Turning his attention to the ground, he then addressed the terrorists before him.

  “Where is the American you captured?”

  When he got no reply, he repeated the question, striking the leader, this Azeez, in the face. This time he got a response.

  “I do not know what you are talking about”, Azeez quickly replied, the fear in his voice evident as he spit up blood on the dusty ground.

  Mack looked at Jopprie and asked “Is this the one?”

  “Do not speak child! You and your family will…” The outburst by the Udeen terrorist was quickly quenched by a fierce kick to the abdomen. Mack Sullivan, second-in-command among the CTG and the mission commander, was not wasting precious time with his new prisoners. Intelligence from locals in the area had indicated the presence of a captured soldier, and the trail had led them to this place only moments before the Udeen fighters arrived.

  “Do not tell me what to do!” Jopprie screamed at the man doubled over in pain. “Do not threaten me. You think I am scared of you? You are the one who should be scared! I could kill you right now!” Jopprie yelled with a frenzied look in his eyes as he leveled the pistol Azeez had wielded just moments earlier and directed it at the terrorist leader. With all the commotion, no one had noticed the youngster had retrieved the weapon before making his approach.

  “Whoa, put that down” Mack interjected. One of the other CTG operatives now aimed his weapon at Jopprie, who did not seem to flinch. Mack immediately motioned his subordinate to desist, and addressed the African youth in a smooth Arabic.

  “Put the gun down. We will handle the situation.”

  “This man tried to kill me. He and his people frighten and bully us all. This is as much my fight as it is yours!”

  Azeez realized the danger he was in, that this Jopprie was a strong, determined young man, who might just be rash enough to pull the trigger. But he had again misjudged the youth.

  “This was the one with the American”, Jopprie added more calmly after a brief pause, still focusing on Azeez with hate in his eyes. It was clear the youngster had mastered his emotions.

  “What did he look like?” Mack gently asked the young African.

  “He was tall, with dirty blonde hair and light eyes. I saw him well. This man had stricken him once while I was watching.”

  “He’s lying!” Azeez retorted. “He wants you to kill me, so he says such things!” the terrorist said desperately.

  “And he had a mark on his arm”, Jopprie added as if ignoring Azeez’s words and presence altogether. “Two snakes wrapped around the blade of a knife.”

  Mack’s eyes grew wide as he rolled up the sleeve of his jacket, revealing his own Special Forces tattoo.

  “Something like this I gather”, the burly operations chief said with a smile. There was no doubt this young African had seen C.J.

  “Yes”, Jopprie responded in a broken English, then adding in Arabic, “I hope he helps you find what it is you are looking for”.

  “Oh, don’t worry” Mack said as his eyes looked over his captive for added effect, “he will.”

  “Doctor, tell me you have something.” Kelly’s frantic voice blurted i
nto the telephone receiver.

  “Bill, you in house?”

  “Yes. Leo, did you figure out…”

  “I’m on my way up”

  Leo arrived with a content smirk on his weary face. It was clear the man had slept little over the previous days.

  “"Bill, you have a bird over DC right now?”

  “Yes” Kelly replied quickly, a nervous excitement in his voice. The agency had Predator drones surveying round-the-clock over each of the three suspected target sites since the initial report of element 94 in their homeland.

  Leo pulled up a chair in front of the terminal and spoke confidently.

  “Image us. Right now, right here."

  "What are you talking about?"

  "I've got pure 94, sitting in a vacuum. You have a visual you can tap into? Image us"

  Kelly complied, sitting down at the same terminal and immediately punched in the requisite access code. Following a confirmatory retinal scan, Kelly was granted access to the most powerful spy satellite system the world had ever known.

  An image appeared on the screen. First the eastern seaboard of the United States, followed by a more focused view of the capital, the Potomac river, and then…Langely." In under a minute, Bill Kelly had one of the nation’s vaunted surveillance cameras focusing its impressive lenses directly downward on their present location, CIA headquarters.

  "Okay, scan the area for radioactivity.” Leo spoke authoritatively, yet with an undertone of deference to his boss.

  "Leo, I can’t…" Kelly’s voice trailed off in resignation. The location, if any, of nuclear silos around the capital were strictly classified.

  "You never saw this” Kelly said matter-of-factly as he feverishly worked the keyboard.

  The Image on the screen was blank. Not a single dot, signifying the presence of a radioactive weapon, appeared on the RDS survey. Leo was puzzled.

  "But I thought…"

  "You thought there'd be something defensive around the capital?” Kelly answered before Leo could finish his question. “No, we decided long ago not to take any chances. No material within 100 miles of Washington."

  "Okay, this will simplify things.” Leo said. “Change the frequency of the sensors to pick up signals in the low giga-hertz range"

  "Leo, we'll pick up every microwave and cell phone in the area.” Kelly knew enough to understand the futility of such a request.

  "Just do it", Leo retorted. Something in the scientist’s manner told the CIA chief to comply. Just as Kelly had predicted, the entire screen was dotted with thousands of bright glowing dots, coalescing to fill the entire screen, each representing the myriad of “hot spots” on the surveillance satellite.

  “Leo, we’ve got enough background noise…”

  “I know”, Leo said in understanding before Kelly could finish his thought.

  "Okay now, focus in on this wavelength” Leo commanded as he pointed to the “.1 M” wavelength icon on the screen. Once again, positive signals engulfed the capital.

  “Okay, now save this image and close the window" Leo instructed.

  Kelly briefly looked up at the scientist before proceeding, and then did as instructed. Leo proceeded to remove a disc from his coat pocket, and loaded it on the computer terminal.

  “Give me a minute here” Leo asked, and then took over the keyboard. Once he was finished, Leo pushed himself away from the monitor so that Kelly could once again direct the RDS system from the terminal.

  "Okay, bring up the photo once again Bill.”

  Kelly again followed Leo's instructions. His jaw dropped as he took in the image before them.

  "Ask and you shall receive", Leo said proudly

  "How on god's green earth did you do this?" Kelly spoke softly, unable to turn his gaze from the computer monitor. An isolated, intense white signal scintillated brightly, corresponding directly to their current location. The minute amount of element 94 in the STAT lab had successfully been detected.

  "Magic." Leo then continued in a more serious tone, “It’s rather straightforward: 94's emission is in the microwave range. Once I figured out what to look for, well, all I had to do was run software analogous to the existing RDS programs. Only instead of ferreting out weapons-grade material from ordinary radioactive decay, this software enables us to distinguish the unique Giga hertz signal of 94 from all that other, how did you put it…’background noise’. You see, this software fingerprints the electromagnetic waveform of 94…Bill, you listening?” He was not.

  Kelly had stopped listening to Leo’s scientific explanation, and was now on the phone with the Pentagon.

  "Leo, is this software encrypted?"

  "Yes"

  "Good". Talking now into the receiver, "It's coming your way now". Kelly clicked on the mouse, beaming the precious software to the Pentagon's mainframe. The RDS network would be reprogrammed to detect 94.

  "In a few minutes, we're going to have the whole system upgraded. Leo, you’re a genius.”

  “My pleasure. One thing you should know though; these waves are not as penetrative as x-rays or gamma waves. You’re not going to be able to detect 94 if it is buried somewhere.”

  “Will it penetrate through concrete? We’ll need to see inside buildings. That’s where the bombs may be.”

  “Yes. But if the primary cache is stashed somewhere deep, say underground or within a heavily fortified enclosure, RDS won’t pick it up.”

  “Don’t worry. My men are hot on Udeen’s trail. Even if 94 is buried somewhere, we won’t need RDS to find them.”

  “Okay then” Leo said with a confident nod of his head. “You get those bastards”

  “Consider it done”

  A large, brown, nondescript truck pulled up near the corner of O Street and 21st in the Northwest section of Washington, D.C. Out of the back poured a team of over a dozen men dressed in what appeared to be something resembling a space suit. The blue, level A fully encapsulated suits were the latest in weapons of mass destruction (WMD) protective gear, and a necessary precaution should the area become contaminated. The block, along with several others in the vicinity, had already been evacuated as the men approached the entrance to the apartment building.

  The door to the building was left unlocked, and carefully the team made their entrance, scaling the stairway one by one, guns drawn at the ready. As they neared the door to the second floor apartment, an order over the airwaves commanded them to stop.

  “That’s it. It’s got to be that apartment, not more than fifteen feet from where you are” The newly updated RDS monitors were guiding the WMD response team directly to the source of the electromagnetic wave emitted by the collection of element 94 in the nearby apartment. Only

  fifteen feet to the bomb - they would have to be careful as they broke down the door.

  “Any sign of someone on the other side?”

  “No. Thermals are negative.”

  With one smooth stroke, the entrance was demolished and the team gained entry to the room where the Chechen terrorist Yuri had been not more than an hour prior. The explosives specialists quickly approached the device as the radiological experts from the NBC unit stood by.

  “It’s here. Got an old-fashioned timer, quite rudimentary actually. Shouldn’t be too hard to defuse.”

  “Roger that. Once you’re done, get out of there and let the NBC guys take over.”

  Leah Rhone scoured the magnificent building unsuccessfully. Two other personnel were called in to search the train station, but it was like looking for a needle in the proverbial haystack. The sound of her radio precipitously jarred her attention.

  “Lee, the package has been found. I repeat, the package has been found.”

  A feeling of relief swept over the agent at the news. Kelly had found the dirty bomb. But how? It didn’t really matter. They were safe now, at least for the time being. A counterstrike was in progress, and perhaps they would be able to uproot and defeat this organization once and for all before they could ever pose a thre
at again.

  “Leah, did you hear me? We are defusing the situation…”

  “Uh, sorry…roger. Great news; I’m coming home.”

  Leah headed for the exit to the station, now taking the time to appreciate the multitudes of passers-by around her. How many lives had been saved on this day? She wondered. All these innocent people, all so oblivious to the tightrope that had been walked that afternoon.

  As she passed below the mezzanine, she looked up at the venerable old locale that now housed one of her favorite restaurants. The balcony of the restaurant housed several tables with a bird’s eye view of the scenery below. She could make out a couple chatting at the far end, a family sharing a meal, a man sipping a drink, looking out at the crowd below…The man looked familiar…

  Yuri gazed at the scene below with haughty disdain. They would all soon learn of their own vulnerabilities. Ra’ed was correct; the psychological trauma from the assault would be far worse then the devastation from the physical assault.

  His eyes suddenly locked onto a lithe, sinewy female figure watching him from the concourse below. A look of recognition overcame them both as they simultaneously realized where they had previously met - at the Columbia physics lab that fateful day. She was the one who had saved the scientist from their clutches!

  As recognition of the man swept over her, Leah immediately mobilized and sprinted up the stairway. One poorly directed round was haphazardly released in her direction, and then Yuri sprinted out of the café in front of the operative, fleeing down the busy concourse. Ambidextrously, Leah removed her weapon with one hand, and brought her two-way radio to her ear with the other.

  “Got a mark. Union station, concourse B heading north” she gasped through deep, panting breaths.

  “Roger that Lee. We’ll get a team dispatched. Locals will seal the exits” in reference to the local police and guards normally stationed at the grand old station.