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“It might not be fiction,” retorted Decker.
“Gee, thanks for that comforting thought.”
Decker saw only one doorway set into the far wall. “Let’s go see where that leads.”
Multiple sets of stairs led to a lower level, where Robie had previously told them the prisoners had been kept.
They were cages more than prison cells, obviously improvised by the look of them.
“They probably just dumped these things in here once they decided to use this place as a jail,” said Decker. “Doesn’t look like a lot of thought went into it at all.”
“Imprisoning and torture don’t require a lot of thought. Just a lot of immoral people doing all the wrong things for all the wrong reasons,” Jamison said forcefully.
“I can see you’ve given this some thought.”
“In my previous life as a journalist I did a story on the subject. It wasn’t pretty.”
They both noted the blood and what looked like bodily waste on the floors of the cages. And the smell of urine was strong in the air.
“Despite how disgusting this all is, I take it we won’t see any congressional hearings,” said Jamison.
“They’re going to bury it all like they told us,” replied Decker. “And so long as the people behind it are punished, I’m okay with that. We have enough to deal with as a country without having this added to the pile.”
“I suppose,” said Jamison doubtfully. “But what about the truth coming out being the cornerstone of democracy?”
He glanced at her. “Your old journalist’s antennae tingling for the truth to come out again?”
“But that’s in the past. I follow orders now.”
“No, it’s not in the past, Alex. It’s why we’re here. To find the truth.”
She smiled. “I knew I liked you for a very good reason.”
“If they did work on chemical and biological weapons, it must have been down here somewhere.” He eyed twin corridors that went off to the left and right.
“Do you think this place might be contaminated?” asked Jamison suddenly. “I mean some of that stuff can hang around a long time.”
Decker stiffened. “I didn’t really think about that. But people have been working here for decades. If the place had been contaminated, they would have shut it down. At least they should have.”
“Let’s hope you’re right. I’m not as confident.”
He led the way down the corridor on the right. After taking flights of steps down they reached a cavernous room nearly as large as the one containing the PARCS system above them.
“We went down several sets of long steps to get to this point,” noted Jamison. “So this space must be well underground. A hundred feet or more.”
Decker nodded in agreement as he gazed around. “Doesn’t look like they used this when they were running the prison. And it smells moldy, too.” He walked the perimeter of the room, examining the walls and floor. In one place the wall was lighter than the other sections. Decker looked this over and then kept moving.
He stopped abruptly and turned to Jamison. “Wait a minute. How did Ben Purdy even know that something like that had happened here? That there were chemical and biological weapons produced here.”
“I don’t know. But we saw the research he’d done on those pages.” She tensed. “Wait a minute. What would prompt him to evendothat research?”
“That’s what I was talking about. And I think the answer is Brad Daniels.”
“No, Daniels was the catalyst forCramer’scoming here. He had nothing to do with Purdy.”
“Why do you think that?” asked Decker.
“Your cardinal rule: There are no coincidences.”
