Case:Black - 36. Chapter 36

White Sands Missile Range, NM

Department of Homeland Security

Section 39- Secure Biohazard Lab

July 17, 2016 0000MST / 0200CST

Ray James looked at his boss incredulously. “You need what?”

Sal Martino said, “We need the hard drives from secure lab-3.”

James said, “That’s what I thought you said. Do you have any idea what we went through to seal that area off? The whole thing is contaminated.”

Martino looked at the blue prints and said, “The orders come from the Director. There might be a vaccine for Pandora stored on those drives. We’ve got to get in there.”

James scratched his head and said, “We poured 500 tons of cement down the elevator shafts. We did the same for the air shafts. That’s after we pumped the whole level full of chlorine dioxide. It’s a crypt Sal. A bunker buster wouldn’t even rattle the wall hangings.”

Sal said, “I know that I’m asking for the impossible. I’m open to any ideas- however stupid, half- baked or out of left field they seem.”

James asked, “Can I bring my crew in on this? We built the place. If there’s anybody that can figure out how to get in there, it’s one of us.”

Sal nodded and James went to the door. Martino’s secretary was busy manning her station. No one had left since the orders came down. She looked up and James asked, “Get AJ, Phil and Tyson in here ASAP.”

She went to the phones and James went back into the Lab Chief's office.

James stood over the plans and said, “Wait a minute.”

Sal looked up and asked, “What are you thinking?”

“When we built this thing we ran right into a… what do they call it… a grotto?”

Sal slapped his for head and said, “Yeah, the caves. Yeah. I remember now. We had to build structure and concrete around our elevator and air shafts to keep the water out. Where does it go anyway?”

James said, “When we ran into it we contracted with a guy from the Geological Survey to map it. It’s big and it runs for miles. At some point in the geological past, there was a lot more groundwater in the area. The lab is actually deeper than the caves here and, there’s no known connection to the surface.”

Sal said, “Tell me there’s access to the caves.”

James grinned and said, “There’s not just one. All of the labs use technology a lot like nuclear submarines. They are a solid hull with trunks and airlocks to prevent accidents. Back in ’05 when we had the disaster, everything worked. Containment was breached when people who were infected and didn’t know it just walked out the door.”

Sal sat quiet for a moment and said, “All four of the secure labs have trunks that open into the cave?”

James said, “Yeah. It just made sense in a lot of ways. There no way in from the outside and it made construction so much easier.”

Sal said, “Nobody has been down to Lab 3 since the accident. If you look around, you might be able to answer a lot of questions.”

James crew arrived and the three engineers entered the Lab Chiefs office. Phil Tarkington asked, “What’s up boss?”

Ray James said, “Guess what we’re about to do guys.”