Use of Force

CHAPTER 84

Inside the container was a rough but fully functional laboratory. In addition to the chemistry area, with all its beakers, tubes, and Bunsen burners, there was a workbench with large vises and shelves full of tools.

It was the empty jugs of chemicals, though, that Harvath was most interested in. As the ROS operatives picked them up, Harvath read the labels aloud.

“Methylphosphonic dichloride. Hydrogen fluoride. Isopropyl amine. And isopropyl alcohol,” he said. “They’re making sarin.”

Sarin was a tasteless, odorless nerve agent that was banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention, but that had been used in the Tokyo subway attack in the 1990s and, more recently, in horrific attacks in Syria that garnered international condemnation.

Sarin was considered a weapon of mass destruction. Just a drop of it could kill a healthy person. It was easily transformed from liquid to gas and could remain on clothing for over a half hour, thereby creating additional casualties by affecting many of those who came in contact with it.

Because sarin was so dangerous and had such a short shelf life, ISIS had purchased what were called “binary” artillery shells. The shells were essentially a delivery device with two separate compartments. On one side, methylphosphonyl difluoride, made from reacting methylphosphonic dichloride and hydrogen fluoride, was added. On the other, a mixture of isopropyl amine and isopropyl alcohol was added. In between them was a “rupture” disk that broke down in flight and allowed the compounds to mix and become sarin.

When the device detonated, it sent a cloud of sarin gas into the air, killing everyone who breathed it in or whose skin it touched. Sarin was considered twenty-six times more lethal than cyanide. Whatever attack ISIS had planned, it was going to make everything up to this point look like amateur hour.

“I need to go to the building,” Harvath said.

Argento looked at him. “What for?”

He held up his phone. “I need to identify the nearest cell tower.”

The Italian asked one of the containment specialists if it was safe to go in. Until testing had been completed, he warned them against it.

Argento, though, came up with a compromise. Hopping in one of the ROS vehicles, they drove the three blocks to the warehouse.

After pulling up in front, turning his phone off and then on again, Harvath and Argento drove around to the back and did the same thing. Harvath then reached out to Nicholas.

A half hour later, back at the command post, his cell phone rang. “Six brand-new phones were turned on last night for the first time. All six pinged off your tower in Civitavecchia,” the little man stated. “Then they were all turned off.”

“What about since then?” asked Harvath.

“They all popped up just once more. Each sent a one-word text later in the evening. It was likely a code of some sort. The texts all went to the same number.”

“Do we know where they are now?”

“Negative,” said Nicholas. “After the one-word text, they all went dark. Whether the signal is purposely being blocked, or they tossed them in a bathtub, I can’t tell.”

“When they did pop up that one time, where were they?”

“I’ll text you the coordinates.”

“And the number that received the text messages?” Harvath asked.

“That one also went dark, but I’ll send you its tower location as well.”

Asking Nicholas to keep an eye out for any activity on the phones, Harvath hung up and waited for the text to come in.

When it did, he read the information to Argento, who had one of his people pull the locations up on a map. All were in random spots around Rome.

The maximum effective range of a comparable American mortar was almost sixty-five hundred yards, or nearly six kilometers. With that kind of reach, you could hit anything in the city, regardless of which cell tower you were closest to.

“Connect the towers,” said Harvath.

Argento relayed the command and everyone watched as a red circle appeared on the screen.

At that moment, everyone’s eyes were drawn to what sat right in the middle — the Vatican.