Page 39 of Cole
A pathetic quality that he couldn’t beat out of her. He’d tried. Now, she’d found a way to escape Syria and quite possibly straight into the hands of the Americans.
So be it. She’d chosen her fate and when he got his hands on her, she would realize the terrible mistake she’d made. No one betrays him.
Not even family.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
After breakfast the next morning, Kennedy and the rest of the medical team took Layla to the clinic to get her familiar with everything they had available at their fingertips. Gabi, Riley, and the legal team were working on getting her the opportunity to finish her final boards and become a licensed physician in America.
While they were busy at the clinic, the others met with the comms team.
“What did you find?” asked Jak. Gator and Ham were in the room, the seniors now sitting in the back of the room.
“It’s now what we thought,” said AJ. “The amount of plutonium and uranium wouldn’t be enough to create a nuclear weapon. It would cause damage but not what we think.”
“Then what is it?” asked Ham.
“One of the things that Nasif was curious about when he visited England, was the use of plutonium and uranium in medicine.”
“Like in medical scans?” asked Gator.
“No. Like how much would cause death and what that would look like. He’s not going to bomb anyone. He’s going to kill them slowly, poisoning them.” Everyone stared at him then at one another.
“Those villages,” whispered Bailey. “Two years ago we were told of a village that had been decimated. We were in the area and told to avoid the village at all costs. They said it was caused by a plague or some unknown virus. I didn’t question it but there was a Ranger who had been in the area, he and his team. He said that it was unlike anything he’d ever seen. They all look burned but there was no sign of fire.”
“He’s killing them with radiation poisoning. He’s killing his own people by testing this out to use on a bigger group of people. That’s why he needed Layla and her father,” said Angus.
“Get the Syrian government on the line,” said Jak. AJ nodded, turning back to his precious screens. A few moments later, Jak, Ham, and Gator went into another room to take the call.
“We still have to destroy all of this, right?” asked Bailey.
“My instinct is to say, yes,” said Angus, “but I don’t have any idea how that would affect those around it. It might wipe out an entire region of the country. And what if it goes airborne? Or can it go airborne?”
“I’m not sure,” said Bailey. “Maybe that’s why he was keeping those hostages. He was going to expose them.”
“It’s possible,” nodded Angus. “I guess the question is whether or not this is a test scenario that he was planning on using for a greater population.”
“It doesn’t matter,” said Cole. “He has to be stopped.”
“On that we agree,” said Rush, walking in with Tobias. Dan and Conor followed.
“We’ve been in touch with the Ranger and SEAL teams that have been in that area,” said Dan. “They were all told that they were searching for a nuke, not a live, open supply of plutonium and/or uranium. They could have been exposed as well.”
“But how is he exposing these people?” asked Bailey. “If it’s in the mountains, how is he exposing large populations?”
“Water,” whispered Angus looking up at the team. “If the plutonium and uranium are being held in a cavern that has a mountain stream leading down to the villages, he could bestoring it in the cool water, allowing it to poison anyone who uses the fresh water stream.”
“Shit,” muttered Dan. “That’s a real possibility. We need to get the government to check on any villages that use the streams coming from that mountain.”
“Already done,” said Ham walking back into the room. “Three villages have reported their people dropping like flies. A total of more than two-hundred people are dead, nearly the same number sick.”
“Fuck, he’s really doing this,” said Cole. “We’ve got to blow that mountain.”
“You can’t,” said Ryan walking into the room. “If you destroy that mountain, it’s going to take a shit ton of fire power and that will release all those poisons into the water, the earth, all of it. Everyone within a hundred miles will die.”
“Ryan, don’t you ever have any good news?” asked Tobias.
“Well, usually, I do,” he smiled. “Today? Not so much. The Syrians want to send a team into the mountain to remove all of the active ingredient. We tried to discourage that but they’re not listening.”
