Running Dark

44

EMMA FINISHED LINING UP THE SMALLER BOXES. SUMNER AND Janklow completed their allotments before standing back as well. Clutch had left twenty minutes earlier to get an update on the pirate situation from Wainwright.

“Remember,” Emma said, “ricin is odorless and colorless. What we’re looking for are any vials that appear to have been tampered with, or any vials containing liquid different from all the others, or crystals rather than liquid. If you find one, put it aside. I have only three testing kits, so we’ll test just the suspicious boxes. Ready?” The men nodded. “Let’s get to it.”

Emma slid her temporary fire mask over her head, turned it on, and bent to open the cartons. She still wore gloves but had removed the heavy work coverings, leaving the surgical gloves in place. She opened the top to find twelve sealed vials. She carefully removed each one, turning it back and forth before replacing it in its own little section. The first box looked innocuous. Each vial was in place, each contained the same-looking fluid, and each had a sealed top that appeared to be intact. She headed to the next, performing the exact steps. As she did, she cast glances at Sumner and Janklow. They worked with an efficiency that matched Emma’s, and in silence.

Forty-five minutes later, she straightened. She’d completed her allotment and found nothing. Each vial appeared to be factory-sealed, and each contained liquid that was similar in color and amount. Nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary. Sumner finished his vials and stepped back. Janklow was last. He, too, stepped back.

“Nothing tampered with on my end. Yours?” Emma said.

Sumner shook his head. “Same here. Janklow?”

“All looks in order to me.” Janklow sounded relieved.

“Then let’s pick three random boxes, and I’ll test one vial from each.”

Sumner picked three at random and handed them to her. She pulled out one vial from each, lined them up on the floor, and opened her kits. Each kit contained a test tube nestled in a small plastic stand. Emma placed the stand next to the vial it was to test.

She nodded at Sumner. “Can you open the first vial and pour it into the tube? Wait three minutes. If ricin is present, it will set off a chemical reaction.”

“What type of reaction?” Sumner was already opening his vial.

“You’ll see a luminescence. The liquid will literally begin to glow.”

They dumped the vaccine vials into the test tubes and waited. At three minutes the tubes remained the same.

“The intelligence must have been wrong. False alarm.” Janklow reached up to pull off his fire mask.

“Leave your mask on. We should have a few more minutes at least,” Emma said. She gazed at the vials, trying to decide their next step. Just because the vials were intact and the three random controls were clear didn’t mean that they were safe. Conceivably one could have added the ricin at the factory before the tamper seal was put in place.

“We need to destroy them all. It’s the only way to be sure.”

Sumner nodded. “I agree.”

Janklow looked grim but nodded also. “What a shame. The children need these vaccines. How do we go about it? Do we even have the right equipment to do that?”

Emma shook her head. “Not really. We need to heat it to eighty degrees centigrade for an hour. Generally you’d incinerate them. Water boils at one hundred, but I don’t think we should just dump the ricin into boiling water, because the particles could escape into the air with the steam. We’d end up killing ourselves. We would need to trap the steam as well.” She waved at the next large crate that also had the word PRICE stamped on it. “What’s that supposed to contain?”

Janklow checked a clipboard that hung on a hook at the door. He flipped through the pages. “A heart medication.”

“Do you know which one Price makes?” Sumner asked.

“Cardovin. Has to be,” Emma said. “Let’s open it. See if it’s really Cardovin in there or if we find some more vials. Then we can decide how to proceed.”

Sumner picked up the crowbar left by Clutch and applied it to the crate’s slats. He ripped off two from the side before moving around to the back. He stopped cold.

“Caldridge, come look.”

Emma stepped forward, Janklow next to her. Sumner pointed to the rear of the crate. It was clear someone had already ripped off the plywood slats. Two were missing from the center. The broken pieces sat on the floor. The remaining splintered slats formed a rough opening, like a window, allowing access to the boxes inside. Someone had slashed at the boxes with a cutter. Their cardboard sides were shredded. Pieces of paper and bits of plastic from the shrink wrap hung from the opening. The inside of the carton looked like it had been ransacked. Several round plastic containers marked CARDOVIN were strewn around. Some lay on their sides, others were upended on their caps, and one lay on the ground at Emma’s feet. It was clear that the container had been full, but the box was less than one-third filled.

“Someone removed handfuls of these pill bottles,” Emma said.

Sumner nodded. “Maybe the ricin was in here all the time.”

“Didn’t the intelligence report say that the ricin was in a vaccine vial?”

“Maybe it was wrong. Someone could have put ricin in a powder form in one of these and transported it with the heart medication. Whoever it was, though, got to it before we did. Now we just have to figure out where it is on this ship.”

“Has anyone disembarked since this whole pirate thing began?” Sumner spoke to Janklow, who shook his head.

“No. And only Ms. Caldridge arrived. Whoever did this is still on board.”

Emma wanted to kick something. She was too late. The ricin could be anywhere. She plunged her hand into the opening and moved it around, sifting through the remaining pill bottles. Her hand closed on a long, thin object at the bottom of the container. She pulled it out and held it up for Sumner and Janklow to see. It was a white EpiPen.

“Gentlemen, here’s your weapon.”

Janklow looked confused. “An antiallergy pen?”

Emma’s mask gave out. She pulled it off. Sumner and Janklow did the same. Suddenly she wasn’t worried about ricin inhalation anymore. She was beginning to doubt that it had ever been there in the first place.

“This is some sort of dopamine and epinephrine accelerator.”

“I know what dopamine is, but what’s epinephrine?” Janklow said.

“You probably know it by its former name: adrenaline.”

“What happens when these substances are accelerated?” Sumner asked.

“In my case, my reactions alternated between panic attacks, the urge to run away, and the need to drink.”

Sumner frowned. He cleared his throat, looking concerned. “Caldridge, those are the classic symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.”

Emma fixed him with a look. “Which I have, we know this. But my symptoms before getting stuck just entailed nightmares and headaches. Since I got stuck, these other problems have arisen.”

“Do you know if anyone else is being attacked and having the same reactions?” Janklow said.

Emma didn’t know, and there was currently no way to find out. She shook her head.

Janklow sighed. “The existence of the EpiPen doesn’t rule out ricin. We still have to address what to do with these vials.”

She turned her attention back to the task at hand. Janklow was right. The vials remained an issue. Sumner stood over them. He seemed to make a decision.

“I saw some empty aluminum barrels in the mechanical room. Let’s put the vials back in the small boxes and put the boxes in the barrels. We’ll seal them up, slap a skull and crossbones on them, and hide them someplace where they’re unlikely to be found if the ship is boarded.”

Emma felt Sumner’s eyes on her.

“What are you thinking?”

“That this ties back to me. Stark told me that a lobbyist insisted that Price hire me to analyze Cardovin. That Cooley would go easier on them if I backed their results.”

Sumner’s eyebrows rose. “Since when does Cooley help any of us?”

Emma nodded. “I know. He’s out to get us. Which leads me to believe that there’s a player here behind the scenes who’s manipulating this entire thing. It must all go back to the pipeline somehow.”

Sumner waved Janklow to the door. “Let’s get the barrels and pack the vials. We don’t have much time. Those pirates aren’t giving up.”