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“WE CAN’T DO THAT. THEY need to finish this lot of vaccines, or we’ll be accomplishing ourselves exactly what the terrorist wants to do. But you could ask if they can put those three on administrative leave. Cut off their access.”
“That’s a damned good idea.” She left.
Glenn sat and thought. And then he made some notes with a stylus on his tablet, his impressions of the three remaining suspects and their interview answers, hoping the act of writing would shake something loose.
The puzzle of an investigation was what appealed to him about his job. It was like having a jigsaw puzzle—or six jigsaw puzzles, their pieces all mixed together and some of them missing. His job was to put pieces together and then, to continue the metaphor, to hunt in the cushions of the sofa for the missing pieces until he had a complete picture.
The thought had been a pleasant diversion from the frustration of not knowing anything more than he had known when the knowledge of “Phase II” had first entered his mind. From the beginning, he had been doing a lot of guessing in his work for the FBI. At least now he felt more certain that this place would be the target, that these vaccines were what were at risk.
More certain, but not 100% certain.
He checked his messages. He had an urgent email from Lorraine. She had finally assured him that security had been tightened at all six-month vaccine facilities and at the national stockpiles. Knowing this helped him feel fractionally better. Other people were taking care of other places. He could focus entirely on this place.
He needed to brainstorm, and in some way that had a chance to move them forward in the investigation. The electronic tablet wasn’t right for this. He wanted paper, and big sheets of it. He’d work through his thinking by making tables, flow charts, and lists. Old school, but it usually helped him focus.
There was a legal pad in the room on the table, and pens, left there for them by Rogers or an assistant. They’d do for now. He tore off six sheets and spread them out into a large canvas. Then he imagined it full. He pushed two pieces to the side. He’d put lists on those two and a flow chart—like a decision tree—on these four pieces of paper. A credenza against one wall beckoned, and he dug through its drawers until he found some white gummed mailing labels. He’d hoped for tape, but these would work. He used them to tape the four pieces of paper together and started drawing squares and lines.
By the time Nydia came back, he was about half done.
“Look at this,” she said, handing him her tablet.
It was a picture of a man, from a high angle. His hair was thinning but dark, his complexion looked olive, and he wore glasses. “Who is it?”
“Dodd,” she said.
“No it’s not.”
“I know. It’s whoever flew from SFO to Philadelphia as Chase Dodd.”
“From the airport?”
“Yes. They’re processing video right now, looking for more of him that day, and for a better shot of the face.”
“Is it anyone working here? We’ve interviewed so many, the faces are blurred together.”
“No. I didn’t think so, but I checked with Rogers. He confirmed it. This is not an employee of this facility, not currently nor in the past.”
“Maybe it’s a real Mr. Dodd, flying legitimately.”
“The driver’s license,” she said. “Same number as this Dodd, remember?”
“Right, right.” It had slipped his mind for a moment. He took another look at fake-Dodd, to make sure he hadn’t met him at a conference—he hadn’t—and handed her the tablet. “How do you keep this all straight in your head?”
She shrugged. “I’m not sure. We train for it. But I admit, I’m able to hold a lot of pieces in place in my mind.”
“I do better by drawing my thoughts out,” he said, tapping a pen on his pages.
She came around and looked at what he’d done, resting her hand on the back of his chair.
He breathed in her scent, allowing himself to enjoy it for a moment before refocusing his mind on the puzzle.
“What next?” she said. “What’s most important?”
“You need to ask if the three suspects—or four, if you’re still interested in the woman?”
“Let’s drop her. What do you think?”
“I defer to your judgment. Anyway, you need to ask Rogers if the lab can do without the three people still on the list if you haven’t already.”
“I’m thinking two. Ravindu and Miller.”
“What about Gist? Where do you put him?”
“Upon reflection, I’m thinking he’s not it. He’s third on my list, but a distant third now, and slipping.”
“So, assuming the event is here, and the terrorist is a current employee, we’re saying it’s either Ravindu or Miller?”
“Or someone we missed altogether. Someone good enough to not even make it on my short list if I screwed up, which is possible.”
“Or someone in management.”
“None of the background checking on them rang any bells for me. But yes, maybe we should interview all of the managers.”
“What if it’s someone out there, not working here? The guy in the picture, maybe, coming here to do some damage?”
“We can’t interview six million Bay Area residents. We can only increase security on the street, keep anyone but approved people from entering the parking lot, keep all trucks out—but otherwise you and I have to proceed as if it’s an inside job.”
“So next you need to ask if Ravindu and Miller can be spared from the vaccine work.”
“And I need to have them watched if they are relieved of duty.”
“That makes sense. Probably makes sense even if they can’t be spared, if you have the manpower.”
“I’ll ask but I’m not optimistic. If I can’t get the FBI to assign anyone, would you do it for a few hours every evening? Means a lot less sleep.”
“Tail someone? Well, yeah, I’m willing, but I wouldn’t have the first clue how to do it. I’m sure they’d see me doing it.”
“You could take one and I could take the other.”
“But we need six, seven hours’ sleep minimum, or we’ll be useless.”
“I know.” She sounded frustrated.
“You could put them in our hotel, maybe.” He had no idea where that idea had come from, but he liked it.
“What? Explain.”
“Ask them to take rooms in our hotel, at the end of a hallway, and pay for them. If they left their rooms, it’d have to be past us. Or post one guard in the hotel hallway, if you could get the FBI to agree to that. If these two can be spared from the work here, couldn’t you basically put them under a kind of temporary arrest like that?”
“It’d also keep them from any records or materiel they have at home,” she said. “Maybe keep whichever one from executing his plan. Keep him from checking in with Jarri.”
“Is it legal? I mean, we can’t force isolation onto anyone for health reasons.”
“We’d start with voluntary, asking nicely. Their answers to the request might tell us something. If they say no, I’ll check with Washington and see if they want to hold them for seventy-two hours, make it official.”
“What if they’re needed here?”
“Could still work it that way, couldn’t we? If we had them sleeping in a strange place—the hotel—it might be enough to disturb the plan. Either they—he—wouldn’t have the resources he needed, or he’d slip up somehow because of the unanticipated change.” She nodded in approval at him. “Good idea. Okay, first things first. I need to make calls and see if they can or can’t be spared from the vaccine work. You keep doing what you’re doing.”
“Roger wilco,” he said.
