Sea of Shadows eBook - Navy Thriller.com

SEA OF SHADOWS 77
“Yes, Mr. President. We also know how the agent was introduced into
the building—in carpet cleaning machines. It went right past the security
dogs, because they’re trained to smell explosives, not biological agents.
The shampooing process saturates the carpets with liquid soap, but—in
this case—the liquid in the machines was about 5 percent soap and about
95 percent mycotoxin. Every carpet in the building received a massive
concentration of the T2 mycotoxin.”
The president tugged at his necktie. “How much do we know about the
attackers?” he asked.
“There were two men, both American citizens of Middle Eastern
descent—Michael Umar and Raphael Ghazi.”
“Deep-cover operatives?” the president asked.
“Possibly, sir,” the national security advisor said. “So far, three
terrorist groups have claimed credit for the attack: Assi’rat, the Islamic
Revolutionary Congress, and the Hand of Allah. Langley is pretty sure
that none of those groups were actually involved in the planning or the
attack itself. Most of the major terrorist groups are denying involvement.
We haven’t yet turned up any links between the attackers and any known
organizations. There was a third man assigned to the carpet cleaning crew
as well, a nineteen-year-old American Sailor named Jerome Gilbert. He
was dispatched to the embassy with the other two men, but according to
the logbook, he never showed up. We’re looking for all three men, but no
luck so far.”
The president rubbed his eyes. “One of our Sailors was involved in a
biological warfare attack on the British Embassy?”
“We don’t know that, sir,” Brenthoven said. “Seaman Gilbert was
moonlighting, and he was brand new to the job. There’s a good chance
that he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. My guess is he
showed up for work and got assigned to a crew with a hidden agenda. It’s
even odds that Umar and Ghazi, the other two men on his work crew,
murdered him before the attack took place—to keep him from interfering.
I wouldn’t be surprised if his body turns up in a ditch somewhere.”
“If that’s true,” the president said, “then the attackers have another
murder to answer for.”
“Yes, sir,” Brenthoven said. “It’s a pity we’ll never get a chance to
bring them to justice.”
The president’s eyebrows went up. “Why is that?”
“They’re almost certainly dead, Mr. President,” Brenthoven said.
“They couldn’t very well arouse suspicion at the embassy by wearing gas
masks or biohazard suits. They would have had to do the job in their
regular work uniforms.