The Escape (John Puller, #3)(141)

When Pritchard unlocked the door to the large water main room, Puller and the others began frantically searching the space. Puller found it, cleverly concealed in some metal framework built around the massive water pipe supplying the sprinkler system. The three silver canisters had been attached to the pipe such that they would feed directly into the water going to the sprinklers.

“How often do they check this area?” asked Puller.

“I’m not sure,” said Pritchard. “Probably not that often. There would be no need to more than perhaps monthly.”

“Even though there’s a fire drill today?” said Knox.

“It’s only a drill. No one expects water or the sprinklers to come on. They just want to test the alarms and make sure people follow the evac plan. The alarm control center is located in another part of the building.”

“Should we just pull the canisters off?” said Rinehart.

Puller shook his head. “It’ll take too long. And they might be booby-trapped. In fact, I’d be stunned if they weren’t.”

“What if we cancel the drill,” suggested Rinehart.

“It won’t matter, sir,” said Puller. “I’m sure what they plan to do will happen regardless.”

“But if the Ebola virus has been placed in water, maybe it’s been diluted,” said Rinehart.

Knox said, “Johnson also said that one drop of liquid laced with Ebola getting into the body is all it takes to kill you.”

“Where’s the water shutoff?” asked Puller.

“Over there,” said Pritchard.

They rushed to the corner. Knox saw it first.

“They sabotaged it,” she said. “They broke off the lever.”

“We can call the water company and see if they can turn it off at their end,” said Pritchard.

“Good luck with customer service,” said Puller. “We’ll all be dead from Ebola and you’ll still be on hold listening to a Bee Gees song.”

“We have to do something,” barked Rinehart. “We’ve only got minutes left.”

Puller kept looking around the space. “The virus can’t infect people so long as the sprinkler system doesn’t come on.”

“But they must have arranged a way for it to come on,” snapped Rinehart. “Otherwise all of this is pointless.”

Puller turned to him. “I understand that, sir. But if we find out how they plan to turn on the system and neutralize it, then we can deal with the canisters safely later.” He looked at Pritchard.

“Can they activate it remotely, via a computer?”

“No. That would be a bad design if someone could do it remotely when a fire hasn’t been detected. It would cause a lot of water damage.”

Rinehart had a sudden thought. “But can you disable the sprinkler system remotely? I mean by using the computer controls?”

Pritchard shook his head. “Negative, sir. Again, that’s a safety feature. We wouldn’t want someone hacking in and disabling the system. Then if a fire did start there would be nothing to combat it with.”

Puller kept looking around. “The best way to engage the sprinkler system is to start a fire. Flames and smoke will set off the alarm and the sprinklers.”

Knox said, “That’s obvious enough. But where? Like Pritchard said, this is a really big place.”

“Well, it would have to be somewhere that people didn’t frequent. Otherwise, someone might discover it and report it.”

Pritchard said, “What if the folks are in the building right now? And they’re going to engage it directly?’

“I doubt they would want to be here if they’re going to unleash Ebola-contaminated water,” said Puller.

“Right. They’d want to be as far away as possible,” said Rinehart.

“Just like I would,” muttered Knox.

Puller looked at Pritchard. “If the sprinklers do come on, will it be all over the Pentagon? Even if the source of the fire is small or contained in a particular area?”

“The sprinkler system is on zones,” replied Pritchard. “For example, because this room houses the water main for the sprinkler system, a fire here will trigger a very large deployment of water, the theory being if the fire knocked out the water supply for the sprinkler system you want to wet down as much of the place as possible before that happens.” He pointed upward. “And right above us is the E Ring. Lots of senior people up there. They’d definitely get hit with the water.”

Puller kept looking around. “They took a risk bringing this shit in here. But getting to one place is easier than getting to a second place. You risk getting stopped and your whole plan unravels. But this room is the key. A fire here triggers a ton of water like Pritchard said.”

“Here?” said Rinehart.

“Yes. If they could go to one room to do everything they needed to do, they would probably opt for that.”

As Puller walked around the room his gaze drifted upward.

“There,” he called out. He was pointing to the ceiling in a darkened corner about forty feet from the water pipe. “Best place to set the igniter is right here where the canisters and water supply intake are.”

“We’ve got two minutes, Puller,” warned Rinehart.