Special Talents (47 page)

"Walker," Conroy began to protest.

"Please, Jamison, just do what I say. I promise we'll get this cleared up as soon as possible."

Conroy looked at James and then at the two Secret Service agents pointing their weapons at him. It was clear they were as much in the dark as Conroy was. Conroy carefully reached into his waistband and pulled out the weapon he carried. Suddenly he turned and fired two shots at the agents holding their weapons on him. One of the agents went down, being hit in the arm. The second agent fired three shots in succession hitting Conroy in the chest. Conroy fell to the ground dropping his weapon.

When Conroy had fired, James, Scarborough, and the three Secret Service agents that had come with them had all drawn their weapons. James and two of the agents moved in to make sure Conroy was subdued. James kicked the weapon away from Conroy's reach and then started to kneel to check the body.

"Don't touch him," admonished Jeremy. "He's infected with the plague. As soon as the CDC gets here everyone is going to have to be inoculated. You'll need to cordon off the body and keep everyone away from here."

"Mike is okay," said one of the agents after checking the wounded one. "It's a clean wound. I think he'll be fine a soon as we get him treated."

"I'll take care of it," said Jeremy. "See if you can find a first aid kit or something. I'll patch him up until we can get him to a hospital."

"I never would have thought it," said James looking down at the lifeless body of Conroy. "He was the most dedicated agent I ever met. I never thought he'd turn traitor."

"If it's worth anything," said Scarborough, "he probably didn't have much of a choice. Moser has a way of getting people to do things they'd never do normally. He was probably being controlled in some way."

"Thanks," said James. He put his finger to his ear. "The CDC has an emergency unit on their way here now. It should be here within 30 minutes. Declan, you and Minter stay here and keep the area secured. No one comes near the body until the CDC gets here. And don't touch the body under any circumstances."

"Yes, sir," replied one of the agents.

"I'd better get inside and let them know everything is contained out here," said James.

"Use the radio," said Jeremy. "You've been exposed. If you go inside now you could infect everyone inside and Moser could end up winning by default."

"Good advice, doctor, thank you," said James. "We'll need to reroute the exit from the chamber so they don't come into contact with anyone who's been exposed. I'll call in some of the backup security to handle it."

"How serious is it?" Scarborough asked Jeremy. "This septi whatever it is?"

"It can be extremely serious," said Jeremy. "As I said there were really three plagues during the Black Death. Septicemic plague is fatal if not treated within 24 hours. In fact it's not unheard of for people to die from it the same day they contract it. Luckily it will respond very well to treatment. Antibiotics will usually reduce the mortality rate to between 4 and 15 percent. We've all been exposed to it for only a few minutes. I don't think there's going to be much to worry about."

"Come on," said James. "If this thing is as dangerous as you say then we need to isolate everyone who was exposed to Jamison. I've got permission to use a couple of the rooms in the Capital Building to isolate everyone. That should keep further exposure to a minimum. Dr. Sloan. What about Moser and the woman he was with? They were with Jamison before you identified the bomber. Wouldn't they be exposed to this thing, too? They escaped. They could be out there infecting others right now."

"I wouldn't worry too much about that, Agent James," said Jeremy. "Moser isn't about to put himself at risk. I have no doubt he all ready had been inoculated against the plague before ever allowing it to be used. Especially since he was here. No, Agent James, there's no danger of him infecting anyone."

"And probably no chance of catching him, either," said Scarborough. "He probably had his escape all prepared before tonight. But we'll try anyway. Who knows? We might get lucky."

"I wouldn't bet on it," said James. "This Moser sounds to me like the kind that doesn't make mistakes."

"Everyone makes mistakes," said Jeremy. "Sooner or later."

James left to collect the agents that had been exposed to the infection Moser had infected Conroy with. As he did Jeremy thought about Moser. How could someone who had taken an oath to help others and alleviate suffering do such a heinous thing as deliberately infecting hundreds of people with one of the most horrendous deaths such as Septicemic plague? It never ceased to amaze him the depravity that some humans were capable of sinking to.

Three days had passed since the attack on the Capital Building. They had gotten lucky. None of those exposed to the Septicemic plague had developed symptoms except for a couple who had quickly recovered. And thankfully they had been able to prevent exposing all those inside the House of Representatives chamber to the plague. Just to be on the safe side, everyone who had been there had been inoculated against it.

Scarborough had been right. There was no sign of Moser or Chang. He theorized that more than likely they had been able to escape on a private jet which would have prevented them from showing up on any passenger list. He was probably in some foreign country plotting his next attack.

A memorial service was held for Simon. It was a sad occasion for everyone, especially the team. Even Janet had good things to say about him despite the fact that he took every opportunity to hit on her. Even General Porter was there representing Secretary Napolitano. And the President had sent a personal message thanking Simon and the entire team for their loyalty and dedication to protecting Congress, himself, and all of America.

The current threat to America was past. But Jeremy wasn't fooling himself. There were still a lot of terrorists who would take any opportunity to strike against the United States. And many of them had special talents that would make them an even more serious threat than the so-called "normal" terrorists that the authorities had to deal with on a daily basis. And the team would be needed to protect America, and possibly the rest of the entire world, from the zealots whose only purpose was to enforce their way of life on people who did not agree with them.

Jeremy sat at a sidewalk café in Georgetown. He often came here to think, especially when he had a particularly taxing problem. And the last few days had been particularly taxing.

They had been able to prevent the destruction of the Capital Building and the deaths of hundreds of people. They had been lucky. Moser hadn't used a nuclear device as they had surmised all along. Just a regular bomb made with regular explosives. A decoy to allow the agent infected with Septicemic plague to get into the Capital Building and infect everyone there. Luckily they had been able to stop the agent, too. Even now his body was at a secure medical facility as the doctors there tried to reverse engineer the disease.

But they had not escaped unscathed. Simon had sacrificed himself to protect the others. And the millions of people that lived in the Washington, D.C. area. Although there could be no public admission of what had actually happened, the President himself had personally thanked Jeremy and the team for their dedication and loyalty. Even General Porter had finally admitted that he had been totally wrong about the team.

But Jeremy was still puzzled. Why didn't Moser use the nuclear device as they thought he would? He had the resources and the connections to construct such a device. And with the plutonium that had been stolen from Chernobyl that he had apparently found, it would have been a simple matter to construct one. Or more. So why use a regular bomb and not a nuclear device?

"Mind if I join you, Dr. Sloan?" said a man as he unceremoniously took a seat at the table opposite Jeremy.

Jeremy looked up from the paper he was reading to see a very well groomed man wearing a three-piece suit sitting opposite him. The man appeared to be about his age, clean shaven with neatly trimmed hair. He was smiling at Jeremy and Jeremy recognized him instantly.

"Please, don't make a scene, Dr. Sloan," said the man. "I have friends watching. If you make a scene the consequences could be . . . unfortunate."

"Moser," said Jeremy.

"Actually I prefer my true name, Aadil Hosaam Allah."

"The Righteous Sword of Allah? Isn't that a bit presumptuous and egotistical? Especially for someone who purports himself to be a humble servant of Allah?"

"Wasn't it presumptuous of Jesus to call himself the Son of God? Or Moses who claimed to have spoken for God himself? Not to mention all of the self proclaimed 'prophets' of today who claim to know God's thoughts? If you're just plain old Joe Smith people don't seem to take you seriously. You need something that's going to set you apart from everyone else."

"Point taken," said Jeremy. "What do you want?"

"I just felt we should meet, Jeremy. Oh, you don't mind if I call you Jeremy, do you? We are colleagues after all."

"I won't call you Aadil Hosaam Allah," said Jeremy.

"I never thought you would. Richard will be fine."

"I prefer Moser. Richard would imply we have some sort of friendship or relationship. Nothing could be further from the truth."

"But we have so much in common, Jeremy. We're both about the same age. We both come from wealthy families. We're both psychiatrists. We're very much alike, you and I."

"We're nothing alike. I don't try to kill people simply because they don't believe the way I do. I try to teach people to be tolerant of other ideologies. As a psychiatrist that should be your goal as well."

"Except when those differing ideologies persecute and murder innocent people. Women and children whose only crime, if you will, was to believe differently. Do you have any idea how many innocent Muslim people have died because of the policies of the United States? Policies leveled against countries whose only transgression was that they were Muslim?"

"I won't pretend that we're completely innocent. No one is. But they weren't targeted for being Muslim. Everything the United States government has done they've done so for legitimate reasons. At least they were legitimate at the time."

"Spoken like a true believer in the Zionist controlled government that seeks to destroy the one true faith."

"You're an educated man, Moser. You can't honestly believe that the United States government is controlled by Zionists. I'll admit there is a Jewish influence in our government. Just as there's a Jewish influence in our everyday lives. Most of the people who came to this country initially were Christian which is directly descended from the Jewish faith. But that doesn't mean that Jews control everything. No more than it did in pre-World War II Germany."

"You would compare the holy faith of Islam to the Nazis?"

"I won't debate the matter with you, Moser. You're very devout in your beliefs and nothing I say is going to change that. And I don't think you came here today for a philosophical debate anyway."

"You're quite right, Jeremy. I didn't. I wanted to meet you. To meet the man that foiled a plan that took so much time, effort, and money to conceive and implement. I must congratulate you. Not many men could have caused me so much trouble. I'm impressed."

"A good man died because of you. A man who only wanted to help people."

"Ah, young Mr. Rowe. Yes, I'm quite sorry about him. Collateral damage, I suppose. No one outside of the Capital Building was supposed to be injured. The man with the bomb was the only one who was supposed to be killed. Oh, maybe a few federal agents as well. But the bomb really wasn't designed to do any serious damage. But then, you all ready know that, don't you?"

"Why a regular bomb?" Jeremy questioned. "If you had access to plutonium, why use a regular bomb? You have the money and connections to construct a nuclear device. Why didn't you just use a nuclear device instead of normal explosives?"

"My dear Jeremy, I never had the plutonium. Oh, I learned that the plutonium stolen from the Chernobyl nuclear reactor had been stored at the defunct work camp in Siberia. I even attempted to get it. But when I got there it was all ready gone. Just a few fragments apparently missed by whoever actually did take it. No more than a pound or two. Not really enough to do anything with."

"But enough to leave a residual trace that could be found that indicated that the plutonium had been stored somewhere."

"Exactly. It was high enough grade to be considered weapons-grade. But not nearly enough to actually do anything with. So I just planted it somewhere for a while until it left a radioactive trace. I knew that once the trace was discovered, the authorities would believe I had the plutonium."

"To make us run around looking for a nuclear device instead of the biological weapon you really planned to use. And using the Septicemic plague was ingenious. One of the plagues that wiped out two-thirds of Europe."

"With a little tweaking to make it even more contagious. Had the plan worked your leaders would be dead, America would be in turmoil, and your 'war on terrorism' would be over."