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A few hours later Mic twitched in her seat in the conference room at FBI headquarters. She saw the people around the table were the same group who’d met a week ago after the poisonings at Busy Burger. She wondered if they felt as defeated and useless as she did. She looked around the room and was overcome by a sense of failure. She’d had enough terror discussion and wanted out of there. She dreamed of going down to Biddy’s and tossing back a couple of Irish whiskeys. But first, I’ll go by and make sure Angel’s okay and then check on Dottie. She was on a roll a couple of hours ago. She listened to Special-Agent-in-Charge Burnley as he reviewed the case frame by frame. He showed slides of Boris’s lab the police had finally located over on Porter Street. The slides were of lab equipment, cigarette butts, a bloody sofa, and a large fish tank with dozens and dozens of dissected fish. Mic tuned off her brain and looked out the window. Her attention returned as someone asked Peggy Grey a question.
Dr. Grey said, “Folks, we’ve identified the poison used on Saturday. As best we can tell, the killers injected the poison in lethal amounts into the hoses leading to the beer kegs contaminating the kegs and hoses with poison.
Slade asked, “But, why did so many people die? They were only serving beer for about fifteen minutes.”
“That’s true,” Dr. Grey said, “but the level of toxins in the beer was lethal. Based on laboratory tests, we believe the kegs were initially poisoned on Friday evening and then additional poison was added on Saturday morning prior to the beer tent opening. So the beer was extremely toxic.”
“Yeah, it was.” Chief Herndon added, “The RVA brewery had at least twelve guys pulling the tap handles and they had eighteen taps on the truck. A couple of the other breweries had four to eight guys pouring. That’s a lot of beer poured in a short time. Folks were lined up for the beer. Visualize eighteen plus men pouring beer as quickly as they can.”
Burnley added. “That’s true and a couple of the beer managers admitted to pre-pouring beer a couple minutes before one o’clock so the first round was already available. No waiting. Folks drank what was poured. So, in some respects, it could have been a lot worse.”
Mic shook her head. She couldn’t imagine worse.
A FBI agent added, “Yeah and remember, a couple of the small breweries were offering flights, just a couple of ounces of five or six beers so they were available in small two or three ounce cups. I saw lots of people sharing a flight of beer.”
“Peggy, what was the poison? It must have been pretty lethal stuff to kill so many people so quickly,” Mic commented.
Dr. Grey exchanged glances with at Dr. Duncan and he signaled her to go ahead. “Michaela, you’re right. It was very lethal. In fact, the poison used last week is one of the most lethal poisons in the world. It was Tetrodotoxin and it comes from a fish, most commonly found in Asia.”
“Ah,” Slade said, “so that explains the fish tank.”
Burnley was surprised. “A fish? A poisonous fish killed all of these people?”
Dr. Grey nodded. “Yes, specifically a puffer fish and a small blue octopus. The poison, Tetrodotoxin or TTX as it’s called, is a potent neurotoxin that interferes with the movement of body fluids. It’s particularly effective on nerve impulses and produces muscle paralysis almost immediately. This prevents the diaphragm from moving and the victims can’t breathe so they die.”
So you suffocate to death. Anger surged through Mic.
“But... how can it be so lethal? There were a lot of dead fish, but honestly, it was just one aquarium,” Slade asked.
Peggy continued, “It is one of the most lethal poisons in the world. Tetrodotoxin is extremely potent and found mainly in the liver and sex organs of puffer fish, globefish, some amphibians and octopus. Human poisonings occur when the flesh and organs of the fish are improperly prepared and eaten.”
“How much does it take to kill a man, or precisely, several hundred men?” asked Chief Herndon.
Peggy shook her head. “It doesn’t take much. The blue-ringed octopus secrets the same tetrodotoxin as the puffer fish. Research suggests that less than an ounce of tetradotoxin can kill up to ten or twelve adult men. We speculate a similar dose for the pufferfish.”
There was silence in the room. No one spoke around the table.
“To put it more in perspective, it takes very little to kill an adult. And there’s no antidote. Injected, as little as 1-2 mg will cause death, making it one of the more lethal substances known to man. Consider that a drop of water is about 50 mg, so what that means is that 1/50th of a drop of water will kill you. Unbelievable, isn’t it?” Dr. Grey added.
“So, it’s more potent that cyanide?” Slade asked.
Peggy nodded. “Oh, yes. Much more potent. It’s estimated that TTX is 1200 times more toxic than cyanide.”
Slade shook his head.
“Man, that’s some powerful stuff,” one of the FBI agents said.
Dr. Duncan nodded. “Yeah, it is. Very lethal. Very hard to harvest, but Boris had the training, knowledge and expertise to do it. He used poisons to assassinate; in fact he developed poisons for stealth assassination.”
Michaela racked her brain. She’d heard of puffer fish. “Isn’t puffer fish considered a delicacy in Japan?”
Dr. Duncan nodded and said, “Yes, it is. It’s called fugu. Many people have died from eating fugu, another term for puffer fish, usually about a hundred or so a year. Japanese chefs train for years to be qualified to prepare the fish. The first symptom of a toxic fish is numbness around the mouth that spreads and affects voluntary muscles. Then the person’s respiratory center shuts down and he can’t breathe. In fact, it is believed an assassination using TTX occurred in London just a year or so ago.”
“So, why Richmond? Why did the Russian’s attack Richmond?” Slade asked FBI Special Agent Burnley.
Burnley spoke up and said, “I’m going to defer to General Rothrock.”
General Rothrock stood and spoke for the first time. “We’re not sure. We do have several theories. One is they’re angry at the RPDs crippling of the Bratva’s East Coast human trafficking organization a few months ago and this attack was in retaliation.”
“Bratva? That’s Russia’s organized crime syndicate. Not the government, right?” a man asked.
General Rothrock nodded and smiled. “Now, that’s a good question. Even though each group pretends to dislike the other, the Russian government and Bratva are in bed together. ”He paused and continued, “Another thought is that Boris had ties, possibly family ties, to the Bratva official, Dimitri Kazimir who was shot and killed by the Richmond police. There’s a backstory that suggests Boris was an orphan but some speculate he was Dimitri’s son. We haven’t been able to validate that yet. It’s possible Boris attacked Richmond in retaliation for Dimitri Kazimir’s death, in essence, for killing his father.”
Slade shook his head. He wasn’t convinced. “Does that mean Boris acted alone?”
Rothrock shrugged his shoulders. “We don’t know, Slade. It’s possible, but we don’t know. Boris was a valuable Russian asset. He’d created chemical and biological weapons for the Russian government for years. Why send an asset as valuable as Boris to kill a few hundred Americans? We are still investigating this. We’ve still got lots of unanswered questions.”
“Any other theories, General?” Chief Herndon questioned.”
Stuart Rothrock shook his head. There were other theories, but he wasn’t able to share them due to national security. “Not really. Just that it was a terror attack. Perhaps to show us that if they can attack two hours from the Nation’s capital, they can hit Washington, D.C.” Rothrock paused for a second and added, “But make no mistake, the message is clear. It’s not over. They’ll be back.”
Burnley interrupted and said, “We’ve got to remember that other U.S. cities have been attacked by terrorists without any reason other than the convenience and contacts of the terrorist. Look at San Bernardino and Orlando.”
Herndon nodded. “What about the other guy? The one that got away? Do we know much about him?”
Burnley shook his head. “Snake. Not a lot. He’s a mercenary and he’s been around for years. He’s a killer. We don’t think he has ties to any one group, but he is a Russian national. We’re looking for him,” Rothrock replied in a matter-of-fact voice. “He’ll turn up.”
Michaela felt fear settle in her chest. She knew he was right. And Snake would come back for her. Perhaps Madame Toulescent had been correct all along, and she’d refused to listen. Boy she was dumb sometimes.