Public Enemy Zero

43

When Baylor arrived at the Super Center, fire engines blocked the streets while hazardous materials teams under the direction of the DHS were in the process of sealing off the entire building. Baylor watched the scene from next to his car as large pieces of plastic were wrapped around the entrances, exits and air handlers.

The unfortunate people who were inside at the time were being held in sealed trailers parked near the garden center while men and women in blue and yellow hazmat suits with different agency names written on them went about the process of containment.

Since Baylor was on the scene in an advisory capacity, his access would be determined by the DHS director. Fortunately for him, the director knew of his political connections. Getting access wasn’t going to be a problem.

The real challenge was going to be trying to contain the story. He needed to make sure that attention wasn’t directed to where he didn’t want it. His work for the country was too important for that.

A rental car sedan like his pulled up next to him. A man got out dressed in slacks and a blue polo shirt. Slightly receding hair, middle-aged, he looked like any of the dozen other government functionaries running around the scene. At his waist was an ID badge that said he was with FEMA.

Baylor nodded to Mr. Lewis and went to his trunk. He took out a locked box from a suitcase and opened it. Inside were three small glass cylinders. He carefully removed one and placed it into the folds of a towel he’d put in the trunk for that purpose.

Mr. Lewis took the wrapped object and sat inside his car and finished the assembly of the package. Baylor shielded him from view and watched as he worked. The spray canister was a stroke of genius.

Mr. Lewis finished sealing the glass vial inside and then wrapped the canister in the towel. He finally turned to Baylor and spoke.

“You have a preference?” Baylor looked at the Super Center. It would be tempting to have Mr. Lewis plant the canister inside, but too many people had already been on the scene. He also didn’t know what kind of coverage the surveillance cameras had. He trusted Mr. Lewis’s sleight of hand but wanted to avoid anything that could even bring up the idea that it was planted.

It was one thing to have the press start spreading conspiracy theories; it was something else to have different federal agencies suspicious. From experience, he had no doubt believing that they would accept the narrative he created, no matter how many gaps and leaps of logic, if all the puzzle pieces looked like they were part of the same picture.

“I’m going to tell DHS and the FBI to go out of their way to tell Roberts that they’re ready to go along with him. That should bring him in faster. When he surrenders, I want you to put that somewhere on his person or his belongings.” He looked at the ID Mr. Lewis was wearing.

“When he surrenders, I’ll tell them to keep a 500-foot perimeter and to only approach him using hazmat suits. Once you’re in a suit, you should be able to move about the perimeter freely. Try to put it in a bag or a pocket if possible.”

“I can put a strap around it so it’ll look like he wore it under his clothes slung from his shoulder,” said Mr. Lewis.

Baylor nodded. Mr. Lewis was a practical man. “Very good.” Baylor pointed to the towel with the cylinder inside. “Is that a functional device?”

“Functional enough. Do you want me to use it?”

Baylor shook his head. “Good lord, no. What’s inside of there isn’t quite the same as what I think is wrong with Roberts.” Baylor paused. “It’s not as discriminating.”

Baylor wasn’t sure what the canister would do if unleashed in a crowded area. The most likely scenario was the Mongolian prison experiment but this time on hundreds of police and rescue personnel. He decided to stay well clear of the location for the surrender.

Of course, if the material in the glass vial were released, it would solve the problem — at least partially — of the lack of evidence of aerosols at the other locations. If the object found in Roberts’ possession was shown to cause the rage on a large group of people, it would make a much stronger connection between him and the device.

“I might have you solve two problems at once. If it’s possible to spray it on Roberts and then get him in proximity to someone without a suit, I want you to take the initiative. If you can end-of-life him on the scene, we can clean things up more easily.

“Also, as a backup, keep a set of respiratory gear with you at all times in case we do need to activate it.” Baylor reminded himself to ask for a hazmat suit to keep in the back of his car if need be.

“Anything else?” asked Mr. Lewis.

“One more thing after this. I’ll send you the information. I’m going to need you to take the other two cylinders to Los Angeles. I have an Estonian post-doc working at UCLA in a lab theoretically capable of this. I think he would make a good point of origin.

“We’ve already got evidence of him soliciting the Chinese for certain things from the lab. I just don’t know yet if we want to go with a Chinese connection or a Middle-Eastern one.”

After Mr. Lewis left, Baylor walked over to a group of vans and trucks parked in the middle of the parking lot. The regional FBI director was talking into his cell phone while trying to get information and give orders to a dozen people. He put his hand over the mouthpiece of the phone and looked at Baylor.

“I think you need to tell the press that you’re willing to meet Roberts’ request.” For Baylor’s plan to work, he needed to convince them that they were putting on a show for a man who wanted to believe he was contaminated, while making sure that they took the precautions they needed to avoid actually getting exposed to Mitchell.

“I’m with you,” said the director. He tilted his head toward the Super Center. “One more day of this and people aren’t going to want to leave their homes.”

“How’s the search going?” asked Baylor.

“We still haven’t found any cars with the license plates he stole last night. We’re trying to figure out why he’s still in South Florida if he has a car. We think he may have an accomplice that’s driving him around.”

Baylor knew that was an almost impossibility but nodded his head. There was still a possible third person in the Oklahoma City bombing. The FBI was never fully clear on who was responsible for the anthrax scare. The Olympic Park Bomber, Eric Rudolph, also had supporters who were never charged. There was a precedent there. The more they bought into the idea that he was involved in a conspiracy, the less he would look like a victim.

Baylor told the director he would be available if he was needed and then walked back to his car to call Steinmetz back at the lab.

“Ari, I need you to come down here.”

“What’s going on? Is it …” asked the concerned scientist.

“We don’t know yet. But I want you to be on the scene so we can take possession of the body.”

“Body? What body?”

Baylor backtracked. “Sorry. It’s chaotic here. I mean when Roberts comes into custody I want us to run some tests on him.”

Baylor hung up the phone. It was stressful keeping track of who needed to know what. But that was the burden he had chosen.