Chapter 4
The autopsy of the dead man showed that in addition to the bullet hole in his forehead, he had suffered extensive radiation exposure. The burns were so severe that they had to have come from a restricted source. Material like this must have come from the military, a power generating facility, or a nuclear waste treatment company.

The hole in the dead man’s skull definitely came from a nine millimeter bullet.

I first learned of the death three days after the body was discovered. Our agency is supposed to receive a report of any incident that involves radiation. The wheels of the bureaucracy, despite the heightened awareness after 9/11, however still churned at their own speed. Even reorganization, formation of new federal departments, new software and databases, and untold billions of dollars spent beyond what was publicly communicated to remedy the situation wasn’t enough to speed up the flow of information all that much. After all, turf wars are hard to eliminate and knowledge and information had always been the cornerstone of power.

The message of the autopsy results arrived via fax; how outdated! The phone rang just as I put down the piece of paper.

“Mr Stanley, I have Director Roberts on the phone for you.”

“Thanks. Please put him through Beverly.”

“Hey Jim, it’s Tom Roberts. How are you doing today? How’s the weather out there in San Francisco?” the voice said. Most of us on the West Coast chuckle to ourselves during phone exchanges like this. Invariably the right-coasters enviously ask about our weather and just as often we decline to answer, letting them guess.

And before I could respond, he continued, “Did you get the report on the Southern Oregon incident?”

“Good morning Tom. Yes, I just received it just a couple of minutes ago. Quite a surprise! I don’t have any other information yet. Have you received the police reports? Anything of interest in them? Do we have an ID on the man yet?” I questioned.

Tom Roberts was my boss back in Washington, DC. Somehow he always seemed to receive information about things happening in my territory before I did. His network was particularly solid.

My secret group is responsible for all field operations relating to terrorist activities involving radioactive materials. Our territory ranges from the Southern California border all the way north to the Alaskan oil fields. Our office in San Francisco was established in early 2002 as part of the Homeland Security Office, HSO.

In reality however, our whole staff comes from the CIA and each of us has worked together in the past, mostly in clandestine operations. Prior to this gig, we worked exclusively abroad chasing down lost or stolen radioactive materials mostly in Asia and Africa. After the fall of the USSR, we had plenty to do.

We still maintained a strong dotted line reporting relationship straight to the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI). For all practical purposes, our job hadn’t changed, just the territory. Because we were CIA, we had to be careful about exposing the fact that we were working on US soil. The HSO disguise worked well enough, at least to the satisfaction of our superiors.

The majority of our time now is spent attempting to monitor the major west coast ports - San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Anchorage, and Prudhoe Bay. We have partnered with the Canadians so we also co-monitor activities in Vancouver and the British Columbia coastline.

But the fact is, we have thousands of miles of coastline that is vulnerable and we have budget only for a staff of twenty agents. We rely extensively on other groups working in a matrix environment to be our eyes and ears. The sad truth is, as everyone on the inside knows, that there just isn’t enough money so solve the problem correctly.

“Nothing of interest from the police. Not their fault but the rural cops’ forensic capabilities are still lagging way behind. Actually I was impressed that the Coroner even identified the radiation burns. He probably has never seen them before.” Tom replied. “I asked that a sample of the man’s skin be sent to our lab in Mc Lean.”

We both knew that most radioactive materials have a signature radiation ‘fingerprint’ that lets us identify the source. Our secret lab had all the right equipment to perform the necessary tests.

“We should know in a few days where the material that burned the dead man came from. I asked the lab to get the report to you as soon as they have something. In the meantime Jim, I think your staff should increase their alert levels” Tom concluded.

“Thanks Tom. I agree. We have a fairly good network of snitches out here. Ill spread a little money around and we’ll see what comes up. Also Ill personally go to Oregon to check things out with the locals.”