Gideon's Corpse by Douglas Preston Read Free Book Online Page B

“For example, I’ve been denied information about the private contractor you’re working for.” He smiled, then went on in his dry voice. “An analysis of Chalker’s vomitus indicated his last meal took place at around midnight. It was crab soup, bread, ham, lettuce, tomatoes, Russian dressing, and french fries.”
    “Whew,” Gideon said. “No wonder he’s radioactive.”
    Another shuffle. “We recovered two credit cards, a driver’s license, a Los Alamos ID card, and various other items from his wallet. Those are being analyzed now.”
    “What about the autopsy?” Fordyce asked.
    “The preliminary results indicate damage to his thyroid gland, consistent with exposure to iodine 131. This—” He glanced at Fordyce—“is a major fission product of U-235 and indicates Chalker was exposed for some time to a low level of radioactivity before the criticality incident.”
    “Do you have a sense of how long?” Gideon asked.
    “Cell necrosis indicates more than eleven days.” Shuffle. “There were also classic indications of a massive exposure to ionizing radiation in the criticality incident, with exposure on the order of eight thousand rads. The skin and the internal organs all showed evidence of acute radiation syndrome, beta as well as gamma burns. The exposure was from the front, with the greatest exposure on the hands. The traces of highly enriched uranium on his hands suggest he was actually handling the material when it went critical.”
    “Without gloves?” Gideon asked.
    Dart looked at him. “Yes. And that’s something we’re wondering about, too, why he didn’t wear protective gear. Unless of course he…did not expect to live much longer.” A short silence followed this statement, and then Dart shut the file. “That’s all we have so far.”
    Gideon said, “If that’s true, we don’t have a lot of time.”
    “Why’s that?”
    “It seems to me he was assembling the bomb.”
    “How do you know?” asked Fordyce, turning to him.
    “The simplest nuke—the one terrorists would build—is a gun-type bomb. Two pieces of U-235 are fired together in a tube to achieve critical mass. With a bomb like that, you keep those two halves shielded and you don’t bring the pieces anywhere near each other until it’s time to actually assemble the bomb. Because those two pieces, if they get too close without proper shielding, will exchange neutrons, go critical, and let loose with a burst of gamma radiation exactly like what hit Chalker.”
    “So you’re saying Chalker was assembling the weapon and botched it?” asked Fordyce.
    “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
    “So was the weapon ruined?”
    “Not at all,” said Gideon. “It might be a little hot, but nothing a suicide bomber would need to worry about. The fact that the uranium went critical would have caused physical changes in the core that will, unfortunately, enhance the yield. It’ll make the bomb more powerful.”
    “Son of a bitch,” muttered Fordyce.
    “Very good, Dr. Crew,” said Dart. “Our own internal evaluation team has come to much the same conclusions.”
    Fordyce asked, “What about his laptop computer? I heard they recovered one from his apartment.”
    “The contents are encrypted. We haven’t been able to extract any information yet.”
    “Then you should let me look at it. I recently finished a six-month tenure in the FBI’s Cryptology Unit.”
    “Thank you, Agent Fordyce, but we’ve got a crack team on it and I personally feel your talents would be better used in other areas.”
    There was a brief silence before Fordyce spoke again. “Any indication of the target?”
    Dart looked at him steadily. “Not yet.”
    Fordyce took a deep breath. “We need access to Chalker’s apartment.”
    “Naturally you’ll have access. But NEST is first in the queue.” Dart consulted a calendar. “It’s going to be a couple of weeks, I’m afraid. We’ve got a long line of government agencies ahead of