Lilburn nodded. He didn’t do small talk.
With everyone buckled in the pilot throttled up and the helicopter lifted off the ground, spun forty-five degrees then headed skyward, in a northerly direction.
Lilburn looked out the window over his left shoulder, past Evangeline, towards the west. As they started to gain altitude, he could see the Atlantic Ocean falling away from sight, the rooftops and spires of Brooklyn growing smaller and smaller.
The helicopter flew a direct route to Albany. From her seat Evangeline watched the city’s suburbs pass by opening to the green forests and pastures further inland, past beautiful blue expanses of lakes and the mighty Hudson River which they seemed to follow, past the state borders of Connecticut and Massachusetts in the distance.
“Landing in ten minutes, folks.” The pilot interrupted their respective thoughts.
Albany, the capital of the state of New York, appeared before them. Sitting on the west bank of the Hudson River, the CBD was dominated by a small group of tall buildings, whose presence reigns over the surrounding area. Approximately three miles northwest, the headquarters of The Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services sat next to Washington Avenue. The EC120 touched down on one of its many rooftop landing pads.
Lilburn unbuckled his safety belt. “Follow me; someone will take care of your bag.”
Inside the third floor artificial lighting illuminated the large central command center, where the masses of intelligence gathered was correlated, formalizing the countermeasures and disseminating the result as instructions to agents in the field. Only problem was, for this specific mobilization there was very little intelligence to go on.
The operations room was crowded, and humming. The room was a hive of activity with men and women talking on telephones, computers and headsets. Large inbuilt screens along one of the walls showed maps, others appeared to be transparent glass, coated with polymer film, providing interactive touch screens, with people in front of them, discussing their contents in muted, intense tones.
A short stout man in his sixties with an air of authority looked up, alerted to their arrival. He nodded, finished what he was saying to the group around him, then approached them, his hands extended. “Good to see you made it, Matt. I would have been pulling my hair out, if I had any, if you hadn’t brought back the good doctor.” Allan Hall was at least five inches shorter than Lilburn, but inch for inch emanated the power of a rhinoceros in full charge… with a thick skin to match.
“Director, I would like to introduce Dr. Evangeline Crawston. Dr. Crawston, Allan Hall, Director of Counter Terrorism.”
“So pleased to meet you.” Evangeline offered her hand.
“Good firm grip, I like that in a lady!” The director’s voice was deep and gravelly. “Come with me — I want to introduce you to our Director of Emergency Management.” Director Hall spun around and proceeded to one of the interactive screens, barking out an instruction to a staff member as he walked. Evangeline found herself having to quicken her steps to keep up.
“Suzanna!” A woman of similar stature to Evangeline but at least fifteen years older stood standing, her arms crossed, staring at the screen. Upon hearing her name she turned towards them. “Dr. Evangeline Crawston, Director…”
“Yes, Allan, I know. Dr. Crawston.” Director Lopez looked Evangeline over with critical eyes, her arms remaining folded.
Evangeline felt as if she’d just been introduced to the back end of a brick wall. The coldness within the director’s dark eyes was a surprise. Alert now, she extended her own hand in greeting. A challenge.
Director Lopez ignored her and turned back to the screen. “Allan, we have a problem. It’s simply impossible to decide where we should deploy our resources!” Lopez sounded frustrated.
“Tell me something I don’t know.” Hall’s eyes had narrowed at the little scene. He turned to Lilburn. “Go see Jones over there, he’s sorted out accommodation for Dr. Crawston, grab a quick coffee and a bite and be back here in fifteen.”
“Yes, sir,” Lilburn gently touched Evangeline’s upper arm and indicated she should accompany him. Following Lilburn’s prompt, Evangeline turned away from Director Lopez, who was steadfastly ignoring her. She was introduced to the officer, who provided her with the details of her accommodation and transport to a local hotel, after which she and Lilburn continued down to the staff cafeteria.
The coffee came from a machine, was thick, black and tasted like tar. Evangeline screwed up her nose and pushed the paper cup aside. Matt laughed, and fetched her a bottle of water.
“So you’ve now met the two senior players. What do you think?”
“I’m sure they’re extremely good at their jobs. Director Lopez is… interesting.”
Lilburn gave a short chuckle. “Interesting is right. I don’t know a lot about them… other than by reputation. I’ve met Director Hall before on a couple of assignments. Lopez I’ve only heard about.” Lilburn took a sip of his coffee. Tasted fine to him. “I was seconded here two days ago. I’m based elsewhere, and rarely get to come to headquarters I was given a briefing and the next thing I’m on a plane for London to bring you back. From here on in I’ll be working in close support.”
“And how were you so lucky to get to be my babysitter? Where does your skill set lie?”
“Guess you’ll just have to wait and see.” Lilburn spun his paper cup around on the table with one finger. “At some point all the intelligence and speculation about what we’re dealing with will spill out from the ops room. If I have any strengths, then it’s out there in the big wide world. I much prefer it.”
“Mmm.” Evangeline smiled. “I need more information. Shall we go back into the lion’s den and find out what your country really knows?”
Reluctantly Lilburn agreed. Here he was going to have to take a back seat and let others take the lead. And that didn’t come easy.
“Good, you’re back.” Director Hall saw them reappear in the ops room, and Lilburn knew he’d been waiting. “Matt, take Dr. Crawston to the meeting room over there, I’ll just grab Director Lopez and meet you inside. We need to get the doctor up to speed.”
A closed door led to a small room, uncluttered except for a meeting table, chairs and conferencing technology. It wasn’t long before Hall and Lopez entered, shutting the door behind them. Evangeline and Lilburn were already seated.
“Let’s get into it.” Hall took the lead. “Doctor, let me expand on what you will have already been told. A couple of days ago we received reports a virulent unnamed disease was going to be released somewhere within the States, which would cause significant disruption and damage to our economy. The information came from Israeli Intelligence; and at this stage we have no reason to doubt its veracity. We’ve since learned the disease is probably foot-and-mouth. As I speak, agents are crossing the border into Rafah, located in the Gaza Strip. Apparently they know the exact place where the virus is coming from. Don’t ask me how or why — that’s between the President of the United States and his Israeli counterpart. Any questions so far, Dr. Crawston?”
“Is the virus in the States right now?” Evangeline had leaned forward slightly.
“Don’t know, we just don’t damn well know!” The frustration was clear in the director’s voice. “We need you to start an immediate profile on the terrorists.”
Evangeline nodded; she had already done some thinking on the flight. “We have a starting point. If we assume the intelligence is correct and the virus does indeed originate from the Gaza Strip, that fits what we already know, giving a high degree of possibility. Recently, with the Hamas takeover, veterinary work on control of the disease has deteriorated. The Gaza Strip has had numerous active outbreaks of the disease, which would make it relatively easy to find infected animals. The latest outbreak occurred in Rafah, which adds foundation to your intelligence. So we now need to know who or whom has an interest in seeing that disease in the States.”