They waited an hour. The building was dark with no sign of movement. Forty minutes after they’d arrived, another pair of vans pulled through the gates. As before, a number of personal vehicles departed soon afterwards. A single personal vehicle remained in the lot. It was unlikely that another group would be returning. Leaving the two FBI agents to keep watch until Carlson could arrange for relief, Laney drove back toward Washington.
Chapter 31
A very tired looking Susan Carlson led the daily meeting and informed the team about the discovery of the attempt to place Sarin gas in the Air and Space Museum the previous two nights. She detailed the resulting covert monitoring that she, Jake, Laney and the other two FBI agents had instituted, which had resulted in the discovery of the small, run-down laboratory in Alexandria. She had already informed the Director of their discovery, calling him at home in the early hours of the morning, describing the events of the previous evening, and requesting additional manpower for the task ahead. She also informed him the previous day of the added threat posed by the Sarin gas.
“We’ve assigned a watch team for the next twenty-four hours,” Carlson explained, “but we need to significantly expand the number of agents assigned. I want a team of at least three agents on site at any given time. Even that number is too small given we might want to be able to follow any visitors to the facility who look suspicious. We will have to be selective on individuals, but anyone who makes a large delivery or pickup absolutely must be followed. Pictures and video are to be taken of anyone who visits the facility, with the results sent in at every shift change for the labs to process for identification through our recognition software. I want to know the names of every person that enters or leaves that facility. Even someone who seems innocent such as a FedEx driver. Starting this evening, when we believe they are most active, I intend to have sufficient agents on hand to allow us to follow each of the vehicles so we can determine the range of their activities.”
“How many people are we talking about?” someone asked.
“There were at least a dozen vehicles in the shed. We didn’t get a good look because it was dark and they didn’t leave the door open very long, but they appeared to be a mismatched group of delivery vehicles. For now, we have to assume that each vehicle requires someone assigned to follow it wherever it goes.”
“We don’t have that many people,” the same agent objected.
“The Director has authorized additional personnel. I’m not sure where they are coming from, but they were promised for close of normal business today.”
“That number of vehicles hanging around is going to attract attention.”
“There is a large used car lot several blocks away. We can gather there, with the onsite team alerting the trackers when a vehicle is departing,” Carlson explained. “We’ll work out the logistics in a planning session this afternoon. We’ll have satellite photos of the area by then, and be able to formulate an operational plan. We need to know everywhere they are putting this Sarin gas.”
Then she looked around the room.
“Brett, I need your people to find out everything you can about this company. How long they have been in business, what they normally do, how many people they normally employ, and especially who owns them. Everything.”
Brett nodded his understanding.
“Have we considered placing tracking devices on the vehicles?” Felix Chang asked.
“We are looking into that,” Carlson acknowledged. “Access to the vehicles inside the parking area might compromise our secrecy, but once they leave, it might be possible to plant a tracker on them. Last night, a single man was assigned to stay with the vehicles while the others went inside the museum to install the gas canisters.”
“We want to be certain anything we install won’t be detected,” Laney added from his seat to one side of Carlson. “We’ve asked supply to provide us with special units that gather information, but which don’t download it until a set time, or until they are properly addressed and requested to do so. That would make the devices passive and impossible to scan for. We’d be able to check and see everywhere a given vehicle had been after it is returned to the lot at the end of the evening. This approach also ensures a longer life since far less