The Viral Epiphany (23 page)

Dan just shook his head and stared at Brendan.
 
“Incredible.”
 
Then he also broke into a smile and laughed, “But brilliant, I must say. Brilliant, Brendan.
 
Just brilliant!”

The room suddenly shook violently and a crashing sound like a thunderclap reverberated outside the window.
 
Brendan ran to the window and looked out.
 
Off in the distance he could see flames and smoke rising up from the university campus.

“There’s been an explosion on campus!” he said, “It looks like it came from the biosciences building. There are flames shooting out some windows.”

“Where?” Dan and Sheila said together.

“I’m not sure,” he said turning back and looking at Dan, “but I think it’s your office.”

Twenty-Three

           
Bright, fiery plumes of yellow and red were pouring from the windows of Dan’s office, illuminating the softly falling snowflakes that melted into little pools of dark water as soon as they touched the ground.
 
Moments after the explosion, emergency lights lit up the gray stones of the outside walls of the biosciences building, even as the lights inside flickered once and then twice, and then died.
 
Two men, each wearing black windbreakers and knit hats, ran from the building, and were momentarily illuminated by the floodlights before they disappeared into the deepening shadows.
 
The men paused and looked back only for a moment, and then began climbing the slippery, slushy, cut stone stairway that led to the parking lot above the bioresearch facility.
 
Off in the distance, and unnoticed by the men, the battlements at the top of the tall, gray tower of the administration building were glowing shadowy red, while far below, in the building’s open-air corridor, piercing sea-winds howled past the ancient standing stones, and filled their enigmatic, etched carvings with ghostly white ice.
 

           
“Hell of a job, Sam.” Lenny said to his partner as they stopped beside their jet-black Audi rental car, “That charge was just about right.
 
Now we’ll wait and see what happens.”
 
The sound of alarm bells filled the evening, alternately becoming louder and then softer, in the wind-whipped air currents.
 
From somewhere, perhaps from the burning building – it was hard to tell – came a single faint cry and then silence, while the falling ice crystals clacked coldly against the roof of the car.

           
“Come on, hurry up and get in,” Sam said fumbling for his keys with his wet fingers. “I hate this weather.”
 
He got into the drivers seat and closed the door but didn’t start the engine.
 
Lenny ran around to the other side and sat in the passenger seat.
 
From their vantage point in the first row of the parking lot, they could see the main entrance to the biosciences building.
 
Frightened workers were beginning to run from the exit, holding their hands in front of their faces to protect them from the falling snow and ice, before they disappeared into the darkness.

“Look, Lenny,” Sam said a minute later after they were settled in the car.
 
“I’m not so sure of this.
 
I mean, do you really think this guy’ll come by after we blow up his office?
 
Think about it.
 
You know, if it was me, I’d be running in the other direction right now.”

           
“Yeah, I know.
 
Me too. But see, these university professors are different.
 
They’re not really all that smart.
 
Not like us anyway.
 
They’re academics, see?
 
So they’re really good at studies and tests and stuff like that. They can read books and pass tests better than us, sure.
 
But there’s something they don’t have,” Lenny replied.

           
“What’s that?” Sam asked.

“Common sense. They don’t have any.
 
Trust me. I had an uncle that was a professor.”

           
Sam rubbed his hands together, trying to restore the circulation to his fingers. He gave Lenny a hard look.
 
He wasn’t sure about Lenny’s judgment, but Lenny was in charge of this operation.

           
“OK, Lenny.
 
Maybe you’re right.
 
I don’t know.
 
But it seems like a big risk to me.
 
Do you have any idea what will happen to us if we get caught?”
 
Sam looked in the rear view mirror. There was no one there.

           
“What do you mean? Caught by who?”
 
Lenny replied while making himself comfortable. He was prepared for a long wait before his prey came to take the bait.

“
An Garda Siochana,
the Guardians of the Peace” Sam said turning his eyes now towards the window of the burning office.
 
The flames seemed to be decreasing slightly but huge volumes of black smoke had begun pouring out.
 

“
An Garda
who?
 
What the hell are you talking about?”

Sam gave him a look of unbelief. “Didn’t you even read the briefing documents?”

Lenny smiled, “Hell no. I don’t need that stuff. Just tell me what to do and I’ll get the job done. It’s simpler that way.” He took a Marlboro from his pocket and put it in his mouth but didn’t light it.

Sam took a very deep breath and waited a few seconds before replying.
 
“The
Garda
is the national police force of Ireland, Lenny,” he said. “Look, I know you don’t care or give a shit about this place, but these guys have a very long and very, very tough history.”

“Oh yeah?
 
No kidding?
 
Like what?”

“Like dealing with the IRA and the UDF and a bunch of other Irish groups that practically invented terrorism…and these guys won.”

“IRA huh?
 
Yeah, I heard of them.
 
Who the hell is the UDF?
 
Anyway, so what?
 
Those guys probably don’t amount to crap compared to what me and my guys was doing in Iraq.” Lenny replied.
 
Neither said anything for a minute and then Lenny said, “So how long did they fight these guys anyway?”

“Since before you were born, Lenny.
 
Long, long before you were born…”

The wailing of the sirens of fire trucks and ambulances could now be heard in the distance. The sounds raced along with the trucks up the Western Road towards the university.
 
Moments later three white, yellow and blue striped,
Garda
cruisers arrived on campus.
 
The
gardai
officers, wearing highly reflective yellow coats, ran from the cars
and took up positions outside the building.
 
As usual, none of the
gardai
were carrying guns.
 

While the two Omega special agents kept watch from their car in the parking lot, a few hundred meters further up the hill Dan turned away from the apartment window and looked at Sheila and Brendan.
 
They could see the shock on his face.

“The
gardai
just arrived,” he said, almost in a whisper.
 
“Can you hear the sirens?
 
There’s more on the way too, I’m sure.
 
I have to go down there.”
 
He started walking to his coat that was hanging on a hook by the door.

“What?” Sheila exclaimed while she ran over to him. “You can’t do that. It’s too dangerous.
 
Dan, somebody just tried to kill you!
 
You have to stay here!”

Dan smiled at her reassuringly.
 
“I don’t think so, Sheila.
 
This wasn’t an attempt to kill me. They were trying to destroy my office, and it looks like they probably did.
 
They really must want those letters destroyed. I think it’s time I told the
gardai
all about this.”

“Dan,” she said, “Remember Tim’s warning in those letters?”

Dan took his coat from the rack, “Yes, Sheila, of course, but I have to do something!”
 

“But Dan they’re after you too, not only the letters!
 
Think about it!
 
They might be out there waiting for you right now!”
 
Sheila’s eyes were beginning to flame with anger.

Dan put his coat on and turned to her.
 
“I know there’s a risk Sheila, but look out the window. See all the
gardai?
There are more coming too.
 
Whoever did this won’t stick around.
 
I have to make sure the
gardai
see those letters right away. That’s the only thing I can do.
 
I’m not going to run from these people forever!”
 
He started to turn towards the door.

Brendan and Sheila looked at each other for a few seconds, and then Brendan said, “OK, in that case we’re coming with you. You’ll need all the help you can get.
 
Besides you’ll be safer if we are all together.”

While Dan, Sheila, and Brendan hurried down the apartment stairs, the Cork fire department trucks arrived at the burning building. Torrents of icy water, pumped from the nearby
River Lee
, soon flooded the first floor hall of the biosciences building and in minutes the hungry flames flickered and died.
 
As the three of them walked into the floodlit area near the entrance of the building, ambulance crews were attending two passersby who had been hit by flying glass, and uniformed
gardai
were interviewing workers who had stumbled out of the building minutes earlier.
 
The snow was finally beginning to let up and the scene began to take on an air of calm.
 
Dan went over to introduce himself to one of the
Gardai.

           
                       
           
*
           
*
           
*

While Dan spoke to the
Garda
, video scenes, transmitted from over a dozen campus security cameras, were being urgently reviewed at Cork City
Garda
headquarters.
 
The images showed two men walking into the building, one of them carrying a briefcase. Minutes later, both could be seen leaving the building, without the briefcase, shortly before the blast occurred.

In the nearby emergency operations control room a plain-clothed
garda
detective
was watching live transmissions from visible and infrared cameras located on towers in the upper parking lot, above the biosciences building.
 
He was talking quietly into his headset.
 
His monitor showed two men sitting and talking in a black rental car.
 
He had already traced the registration plate to Avis Ireland and he had also had obtained the name and Utah driver’s license number of the driver.

           
           
           
*
         
           
*
         
           
*

Inside the parked car, Sam practically shouted as he pointed to the area outside the building. “That’s them! Look, see the redhead?
 
That’s gotta be the one that was in the report. Come on, let’s go. We’ll take’em both out right now!”
 
He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a pistol that already had a silencer attached.

“Whoa, whoa, buddy.
 
We can’t do that!
 
Not yet.” Lenny said putting his hand on Sam’s arm, “Look, the place is crawling with cops!”

Sam stopped and looked at him.
 
“Yeah,” he said then with a big smile on his face, “but I guess I know something about them that you don’t know.
 
You oughta read the briefing materials, Lenny. The
gardai
don’t carry guns.
 
This will be a piece of cake. We’ll be in and out before they even know what happened.”

Lenny thought for a moment, and then looked at Sam with resignation on his face.
 
“College kids,” he muttered; then he reached into his jacket pocket, pulled out his gun, and attached the silencer. “OK,” he said. “You win.
 
Let’s do it.”

They stepped out of their car and began quickly walking towards the biosciences building when a voice with a distinctly Irish accent called out from behind them. “That’s far enough, lads.
 
Just stay where you are.”