part0021

D espite all of their preparations the day prior, before anyone knew it May 19th was upon them and the Little Italy festival had arrived. And the small section of Manhattan in which the festivities took place was even more crowded than usual. With thousands of people filling the street in what seemed like a New York version of Mardi Gras the team was under some pretty serious pressure to find the virus before it could be unleashed upon the crowd.

As Mason stared out at a young couple nearby, with a mother pushing a baby in a stroller, he could only imagine the carnage that would occur if the terrorist’s plot succeeded. He again vowed to himself to not allow that to happen. Benton and Raina were standing next to him as he waved at the throng of people filling the streets and declared, “I think you both understand the gravity of the situation—all of these people you see here today could be dead by tomorrow if we don’t do something.”

This prompted Raina to ask him, “So—any luck on finding the source of the device.”

Mason then patched Kyle in with the comm link and asked very much the same thing, “So have you found anything out Kyle? Any heat signatures?”

Kyle in a tone and manner of speaking that the group sometimes called his “condescending professor voice”, informed the group, “Well, it’s not heat-signatures that we need Mason, it’s wavelengths.”

Mason asked, “Wave—what?”

Kyle informed him, “Yeah—the device should emit subtle wavelengths just before it is put into gear to disperse the poison into the water or air.”

Mason wasn’t a scientist or chemist, and still didn’t quite get it, but being in the military long enough he knew that it didn’t matter. Kyle knew what he was looking for, and he needed to find it. So, without seeking any further explanation he told him as much, “Okay sure, just let me know what you come up with.”

Kyle shot back, “Will do. Over and out.”

Mason chuckled slightly at Kyle’s nerdy insistence at using archaic radio lingo but obliged him nonetheless, “Right Kyle—over and out. ”

Raina not sure what lay in store next, then asked, “So what do we do now—just wait?”

Mason knowing that there was always something else to do in the world of preparation, shook his head, “No—for now let’s just get a better feel of the place.” Benton agreed,

“Right let’s scope out all of the exits in case we need to evacuate this place.”

Raina a bit confused asked, “Exits? But we are out in the open street? What kind of exit do you mean?”

Mason then supplied, “Yeah but certain side streets would be used for crowd control in the event of a panic.”

Raina imagining the terrified crowd, choking on poison, stampeding through the streets like bulls, began to feel a little nauseous at the thought. Mason eyeing a line of police cars on 5th avenue with road blocks in place offered, “Opening up 5th Avenue would probably be the best thing for the authorities to do.”

Raina wasn’t so sure that would be possible however as she answered, “Good luck with that.”

It was shortly after this suggestion that Kyle piped in, “Hey guys I found it.”

Mason quickly responded, “You did?”

Kyle nodded “Yeah, it’s right in the center of the main thoroughfare on top of the main float.”

Kyle then paused before IDing the float exactly, “It’s a float of St. Genaro.”

The mention of which sounded familiar to Benton who supplied, “Yeah—the float of St. Gene, it’s a towering replica of the patron saint of Naples. They always glide that thing through the square.”

Mason groaned, “Great—now we have to climb a paper mâché behemoth in order to disable a weapon of mass destruction!”

Kyle inquired, “Can you get there?”

Mason hissed, “What choice do I have?”

Kyle tired of being snapped at, shot back, “Geez Louise…. Just asking.”

Mason not wishing to get into a fit of histrionics with Kyle however, answered curtly, “Alright, I’m going in.”.

Raina a bit perturbed at Masons’ treatment of Kyle asked, “Hey Mason, why are you so mean to Kyle, he’s just trying to help.”

Mason didn’t answer however, as he took off through the center of the crowd shouting, “Let’s go!”

The float towered above the crowd so it wasn’t hard to miss. Although they had to practically push and shove to get to it, they finally arrived at the platform upon which the float rested. There was only one person it seemed who was in charge of the float’s operation, a big burly man with a beer belly who was manning the control to release the float.

Mason and company were not exactly sure if he was part of the plot or just a useful dupe, but the second he hit the release button to send the float over the watching crowd below, the aerosols planted underneath would disperse Ebola down right on top of them. They couldn’t allow that to happen.

Mason at first sought to reason with the man. Getting his attention, he yelled up at him, “Hey mister! Don’t release the float!”

The man was startled at the sudden intrusion and at first didn’t get it. But Mason again repeated, “Don’t release the float!”

Raina then raised her voice above the din, as she too shouted, “Don’t release the float! There’s a deadly virus on board!”

As troubled of a history as NYC had with terror plots and attacks you would think that the man might at least consider the possibility, but he did not. And instead he shouted down at them, “Deadly virus? What the hell is wrong with you? Are you drunk? Or do you just think I’m an idiot! The float is going to be released on time!”

Mason realizing that this man was not going to be reasoned with, looked over to a nearby patron who was guzzling the last remnants of beer from a bottle and remarked, “Good beer?”

The man surprised at the remark turned to Mason, and loudly burped before replying, “Yeah…”

To the man’s shock, Mason without saying another word, then grabbed the bottle, and hurled it like a boomerang right at the float operator bashing him right across the head with it. The operator loudly groaned, “Ohhh…” before falling right off the platform with a sickening thud onto the pavement below.

Raina rushed over to check the man’s vitals; thankfully his heart was still beating and he was still breathing. ‘Mason lucked out with this one.’ She thought to herself.

Still as reckless as he was becoming when it came to civilians, she couldn’t help but wonder how soon until his luck ran out. And if he ever accidentally killed a civilian during the course of a mission there would certainly be hell to pay.

In a role that she was now familiar with, Raina attempted to clean up Mason’s mess. She flagged down a nearby EMS guy and pointing to the comatose float operator lied, “Hey! I just saw this guy slip and fall off the platform! He needs to go to the hospital!”

The EMS tech then got the attention of one of his associates, and had the unconscious man lifted onto a stretcher and placed in the back of an ambulance. The EMS guys then sought to get more info from the “good Samaritan” they had spoken with, but Raina had disappeared back into the crowd.

Mason meanwhile, had already leapt into action and climbed up onto the platform of St. Gene’s float. The first thing that he saw was what looked like some kind of generator or ventilation system surrounded by a circle of red paint.

Mason then informed Kyle on the comm link, “Alright Kyle! I’m right on top of the device! What do I do to deactivate it?”

Kyle instructed him, “Do you see two wires—one red and one green connected to a control panel?”

Mason seeing the Christmas colored wires announced, “Yeah! I see em!”

Kyle then informed Mason, “Alright, whatever you do don’t disconnected the red wire!”

Mason repeated, “Don’t disconnect the red wire?”

Kyle insisted, “Yes, the red wire actually runs to the activation switch and disconnecting it will be akin to pressing the activation button! As soon as you cut that wire it would send a jolt through the system to release its contents. Don’t do it!”

Mason responded, “Got it!”

Mason then ventured, “So I take it—it’s the green wire I need to cut then.”

Kyle affirmed, “Right, you do need to cut it. But wait a second—”

Mason muttered, “Just what am I waiting on—I don’t exactly have all day here.”

Kyle then came back, “The Green wire is what you need—but you don’t want to cut it either. You need to disconnect it in order to avoid a potential partial release of some of the residue.”

Mason nodded, “Okay...”

Kyle elaborated, “What you need to do is disconnect the wire from the power source, without damaging it so the system will go to idle.”

Kyle then added, “There should be two screws attached to the plug, just undo them and you should be good to go.” Kyle then asked, “Do you have a screw driver on you?”

Mason realizing the problem cursed, “Damn…”

Kyle asked again, “Well do you have one or not?”

Mason growing agitated, responded, “Yeah Kyle, I’ll go ahead and pull one out of my ass and get right to work.”

Kyle muttered, “Sarcasm…. How charming… Anyway—if you don’t have a screwdriver… you’ll just have to find another way to disconnect the bolts without damaging the wiring.”