Waterkill (Dave Henson Series) (8 page)

Seeing the terrorist expired, Dave and Ron turned their attention in the direction of Chief Davis. Staying low behind a large boulder, Dave and Ron looked out into the clearing. They saw the Chief approaching the three bodies of the terrorists he had been speaking to seconds earlier. The agent who had been stationed on the left flank of the clearing was walking out of the woods, his rifle extended forward in his hands, smoke still exiting the barrel. Dave and Ron stood up from behind the boulder they were hiding behind and made their way out into the clearing.

The agent, with his finger still on his weapon’s trigger, approached the body of the leader. Chief Davis, Dave and Ron tailed just a few meters behind him. The agent looked down at the leader. He was still alive, but barely. Though blood pulsed from his chest and leg wounds, and his life rapidly growing dim, the terrorist looked up at the agent with a gritty smile. In his hand he still held the small object that they had seen earlier. The agent leaned over to remove the object from the man’s hand. As he did, the terrorist leader looked up at him and said, “Bismillah“,
in the name of Allah
, and opened up his fingers. The agent only had time to say “cover”, before Dave’s world went instantly black.

Chapter 11 (April 13, Thursday 11:00am, Germany)

Dana exited the Berlin, Germany train station and walked the final one hundred meters of her journey to the hotel where the World Health Organization (WHO) Conference on European Health Policy was being held. She was accompanied by a cameraman and soundman from the American Broadcast Corporation’s New York office. The trip from McCall, Idaho had been very long, even though she had taken the corporate jet from McCall to Boston, MA, before hopping a commercial airliner to jump the pond. Again, the weather was cold and rainy in Germany. Just a raw ugly day she thought to herself. She’d rather have the dry cold air and snow of Idaho over this weather any day.

Though exhausted from the long travel, she was still thankful that Jeff Kolosky had given her the feature reporting assignment. Ever since the recent outbreak of Ebola that had spread from Africa to the United States and Europe, more people than ever were interested in knowing what the WHO had to say about international health policy.

The conference had already started the night before with a formal dinner in the banquet center of the hotel. However, the first speaker events were just getting underway this morning. Though she and her team would miss reporting on them today, she planned on listening in on a couple of the lectures in the afternoon for her own personal curiosity. She would check into her hotel room, take a shower, and have a quick bite before working her way down to the main conference center. She was particularly interested in attending a presentation on the WHO’s recommendations for combating the spread of infectious diseases such as Ebola and the bubonic plague. Sam Davis, her cameraman, said he would join her. However, Denzel Cantor said he needed to call his wife and eight year old daughter, and then get some much needed sleep. Dana couldn’t blame him. She was exhausted herself. Also, his daughter had gone on a field trip the previous day and he had not had the chance to ask her about it before he left on the afternoon flight to Europe.

              Dana walked into the front lobby and hesitated for a moment to marvel at the grand entrance of the Estrel Hotel. The largest hotel in Berlin, the Estrel was another exquisite example of modern German engineering. She was standing in a large four story high atrium, where gold stars and angel like figurines hung from the ceiling. Centered in the middle of the atrium lobby was a large and colorful ceramic fountain surrounded by trees. Beyond the periphery of the trees and fountain were relaxing sofas and chairs, most of which were occupied with guests. Many of whom she presumed were participating in the WHO conference.

              A hotel attendant raced up to her and offered to take her luggage, which she gladly handed over to him. Similarly, a couple of other attendants came up to her two colleagues and took theirs as well. Dana’s arms were worn out from carrying and dragging her luggage throughout the airports and train stations. She had sworn to herself several times throughout the past two day journey to be more like Dave in the future and pack lighter. The attendant pointed her in the direction of the registration counter as he began to carry her bags to the hotel’s central luggage holding area.

              Dana walked over to the registration desk, introduced herself to the woman behind the counter, and handed over her passport. Her two colleagues did the same at adjacent stations along the long registration counter. Fifteen minutes later she was taking a hot shower in her room. Besides removing the grime from her body, the warm water was rejuvenating her. She thought of Dave as the soothing shower water ran down her neck and back. She knew he was in Alaska looking for the downed aircraft, and wondered if he and the team he was with had found it yet. She figured she would try giving him a call later in the day.

              At one o’clock in the afternoon Dana met Sam down in the lobby. He held a small digital SLR camera in his hand. They had not intended to do any video filming for the afternoon presentations, however, as a cameraman he never went anywhere without some type of photographic recording device. And an iPhone camera simply didn’t cut it.

              The two walked from the lobby through a long hallway that connected to the main convention center and conference rooms.

              “You didn’t have to ride shotgun with me this afternoon,” said Dana. “I wasn’t planning for us to do any filming until tomorrow. You should have gotten some rest like Denzel.”

              “I know. But like you, and most of the rest of the people on this planet, I’m interested to learn more about how to avoid catching one of those killer diseases.”

              “Yes, it is a pretty scary world we live in today,” responded Dana. “Sometimes I think I might be better off just to retire and maintain some level of isolation in McCall. But then I remind myself that that is no way to live life. Better to tackle life head on and do my little part in helping to make the world a better place, than to live in a bubble for the rest of my days.”

              “Amen to that,” replied Sam as his eyes drifted off towards a blond haired young woman walking past them. Dana noticed and whispered jokingly, “Stay focused Sam. Stay focused.”

              Dana and Sam sat through the two presentations that went on for nearly five hours before they made their way over to the evening cocktail party.  Dana hoped to meet one of the speakers that they had listened to in the first session. She wanted to talk with the speaker, a medical doctor specializing in epidemiology who gave an impassioned speech on the need for countries to establish formal isolation and containment policies on contagions. Policies that would provide clear procedures, and that could be swiftly enacted, to mitigate the lethal effects of highly contagious and life threatening viruses such as Ebola and Marburg viruses.

The cocktail party was in a large ballroom and was filled with conference attendees who were talking in small groups. By the size of the room Dana estimated a couple of hundred people were in attendance, most of whom were doctors and international policy makers from various European countries and the United States.  Sam leaned over to Dana and whispered into her ear.

“Would you like me to get you something from the bar?”

“Thank you, I’ll have a dry Martini,” replied Dana.

Sam gave a nod of silent acknowledgement and began to worm his way through the crowd towards the bar. It looked like Sam was going to be a while getting the drinks so she worked her way slowly around the room, carefully sliding through the groups of people looking for epidemiologist researcher Dr. Judith Baumann. When she had nearly given up hope she saw Dr. Baumann talking to two men. Dana walked over to the three and began listening to their conversation, hoping she could chime in with her questions at some point. Both men proved to be doctors from the United States.

“Concern for offending an individual or a group of individuals should be the least of one’s concern when dealing with an outbreak of a deadly contagious virus,” said Dr. Baumann. “Political correctness needs to be tossed out the window when fighting a deadly disease like Ebola. It does not discriminate who it attacks. If you don’t quickly isolate the sick individuals from the society, the entire population could become infected. And in the case of an Ebola outbreak, that means potentially losing sixty percent or more of the population to the disease.”

“The United States people wouldn’t stand for the isolation of groups of people,” responded one of the men, a large balding man who was wearing a tailored pin-striped suit and talked with what Dana guessed was a New England sounding accent.

“It would take a nanosecond before it was reported as being a racist move,” said the other tall thin and suave looking gentleman.

“I understand that may be the case,” replied Dr. Baumann. “But leaders need to accept the criticism, and do what is unequivocally right to protect their constituents. Or, alternatively watch the contagion systematically wipe them all out. Make no mistake, there is no talking or reasoning with a deadly contagious virus. It simply does what it wants. Period.”

“What are your thoughts on the risks of bio-engineered viruses for the express purposes of being used as a weapon?” asked Dana in between a brief pause between the doctor and two men.

Dr. Baumann looked over at Dana and asked dryly, “May I ask who is asking?”

“My name is Dana Cogswell. I work for the American Broadcast Corporation in the United States,” replied Dana in an apologetic tone for having interrupted Dr. Baumann’s conversation with the two men.

Dr. Baumann hesitated a moment as if she was storing Dana’s name in her memory, while at the same time collecting her thoughts on Dana’s question.

“Over the centuries many governments and their militaries have developed and used biological weapons on their enemies,” responded the doctor. “And today, yes, the deployment of synthetically engineered infectious diseases for military or terrorist reasons is a very real threat. At this point, I’d say biological weapons are more of a threat than their nuclear counterparts. I have read numerous reports in recent years, of individuals and terrorist groups around the world who have attempted to develop and deploy synthetically generated infectious diseases. Fortunately, they’ve had minimal success to date due to the complexity of making such a weapon. However, it only takes one time for one of these groups to get it right, and the entire world may find itself in a sudden and deadly pandemic. Sadly, I don’t think we’re far off from that day.”

The large bald man interjected. “Doctor, I’m sorry but it sounds like your crying wolf a little.”

Doctor Baumann gave the man a stern look before responding in a dour tone.

“The possibility of a terrorist group releasing a deadly virus in a large population is one of my chief reasons on why I am so passionate about governments around the world developing containment plans to deal with such deadly diseases. The natural outbreak of a disease such as Ebola, or even cholera, is difficult enough to deal with when it flares up in a small region of the world. A terrorist act of purposely deploying a similar type of contagion around the world would be a massive catastrophe. It would be unimaginable to many, including yourself sir, on how fast it could ravage the entire world’s population.”

Sam came up to the small group and handed Dana her Martini.

“Oh, thank you Sam. I could use this drink right about now.”

The tall suave gentleman was asking Dr. Baumann another question when Dana’s phone began to vibrate in her blouse pocket. She turned away from the group as she pulled her phone from her pocket. She didn’t recognize the phone number, but from the 202 area code she knew it was someone calling from Washington D.C. Suddenly, she felt a cold chill run down her spine. She anxiously hit the green button on her phone and put the receiver to her ear.

With her hand trembling nervously she said, “Hello, this is Dana Cogswell.”

As she listened to the man’s voice on the other end of the line, her face began to turn ash white and her head started to spin. She reached out to grab a chair, a chair that wasn’t there, to catch herself from falling. Sam caught her in his arms just before she hit the floor, the phone tumbling from her hand.

Chapter 12 (April 13, Thursday 12:30pm, Europe)

Two men slipped in through one of the back doors of Eberswalde, Germany’s water supply treatment center. It was in this facility that the town’s water supply was monitored and treated for removing contaminants before being pumped into the main waterlines that fed the village center of the town. The water treatment process included filtration, flocculation and sedimentation, and disinfection. Eberswalde’s public water system provided potable drinking water to nearly thirty thousand people, approximately three quarters of the town’s population.

The water treatment employees were still at lunch. So the two men dressed in the same clothing as the water treatment’s staff moved quickly and unnoticed through the dimly lit cement block-wall hallway that led to the facility’s main pumping station. They were wearing baseball caps pulled down low over their faces. Faces that had a honey-brown complexion to them and that matched their exposed hands. Both were carrying knapsacks thrown over their shoulders and draped across their backs.

The lead man saw a door suddenly open up in front of him only ten meters away.  He ducked into a doorway alcove beside him and quickly motioned the man behind him to do the same.   One of the employees of the water treatment plant stepped out into the hallway. The employee turned and began to walk down the hallway, away from the two men. Several steps later the man turned down a side hallway to his right.

The two men stepped out from the alcove and continued on, in the same direction as the employee. However, when they got to the side hallway, where the employee had turned, they stopped just short of it and looked carefully around the corner. There was no one in sight. They rapidly proceeded past the hallway intersection for another fifty paces before they came to a door on the left hand side that was labeled “Main Pumping Station”.

The lead man carefully looked in through the window on the door. He could not see, nor hear anyone in the large mechanical room. There was only the loud humming sound coming from the pumps working tirelessly away, pumping clean drinking water to the Eberswalde village center.

The man placed his hand on the door’s handle and attempted to twist it. The handle turned freely and the door opened. The two men quickly slid into the room and stayed low as they made their way further into the main pumping station, around the opposite side of the pumps, and out of view of the doorway entrance.

As they looked down, they observed treated water spilling out just below them and into a large and deep cement cistern like reservoir. As fast as the water flowed into the giant cistern, a large pump that sat in the center of it pumped water out of it. Thousands of gallons of water a minute poured into the cistern and were simultaneously drawn out of it by the massive water pump.

The lead man knelt down and glanced over for a fraction of a second to his accomplice next to him. He gave a slight nod and then removed the knapsack from his shoulder. The other man followed. Both men withdrew a stainless steel cylinder from their knapsacks. Then, each carefully removed the caps from the cylinders.

After removing the cap, the lead man pulled a pendant from underneath his sweatshirt. The pendant had Arabic lettering on it and was partially surrounded by a crescent moon. The leader raised it to his lips and gently kissed it as he said to himself “Allahu Akbar”, while the other man next to him watched silently. The leader then extended his arm out over the cistern and without hesitation poured the contents of the steel cylinder into the raging water below him. The man beside him did the same, extending his cylinder outwards over the cistern and emptying its contents into the cistern below.

The men screwed the caps back onto the empty cylinders and stored them back into their knapsacks. Then, just like they entered the water treatment facility, they quickly and silently exited it.

After leaving the facility the men walked down a wooded embankment next to the water treatment plant, to the Oder River, the river that supplied the water to the facility, and ultimately to the residents of Eberswalde. They changed into street clothes that were stored in their knapsacks. They then placed several large stones in the bags, while leaving the stainless steel cylinders in them, and tossed the bags into the river.

They made their way back up the river embankment and walked to a local pub in the center of the village. Each ordered a sealed can of soda, their first of what would be many that afternoon. They would wait to see the fruits of their labor play out. And in the meantime, say silent prayers to Allah to thank Him for letting them serve Him in such a powerful and righteous way.