spread,” Statham said, no longer able to hide his irritation.
“It’s a nice sentiment, but now look where we’re at. If we hadn’t allowed those—”
“They’re from an NGO,” Kennedy said, cutting her off before she could sidetrack the meeting. “Two of them aren’t even American citizens. We weren’t in a position to tell them where they can and can’t help people.”
“Well, maybe we should have been,” Barnett shot back.
“Agreed. But your committee has been reluctant to support our operations in Yem—”
“I was told that Sayid Halabi was dead,” she said, the volume of her voice rising. “If I’d known he was in Yemen looking to build a biological capability, I wouldn’t have taken that position.”
Kennedy wanted to remind her that the Agency had never confirmed Halabi’s death and, even if it had, he was only one of a countless number of dangerous jihadists now taking cover in Yemen. But what was the point? This wasn’t about truth. It wasn’t about protecting America. It was about her installing herself in this office.
The uncomfortable silence that ensued was finally broken by Statham.
“Since you mentioned Halabi’s biological weapons capability, let’s talk about it for a second. The main purpose of those videos was to look scary. Basically, a lot of fancy stainless steel equipment and three people wandering around in biohazardy-looking clothes. But the truth is, most of that stuff has nothing to do with the production of bioweapons.”
“What about the latest video?” Barnett said. “The one I just got a few hours ago? Halabi says he’s got Gabriel Bertrand producing a half ton of anthrax.”
“That video does suggest that he has the capacity to produce anthrax, but not in anywhere near those kinds of quantities. It’s just propaganda.”
“Whether it’s a little anthrax or a lot doesn’t matter,” Barnett said. “People are terrified. And they should be. It’s this government’s duty to protect the country from these kinds of threats. And despite the billions we squander on homeland security, I have to spend my days sitting around watching a video of Sayid Halabi building bioweapons.”
“How long before he has enough anthrax to attack us?” Alexander asked in an uncharacteristically subdued voice. He looked exhausted. Not only from his seven-plus years in office, but from the knowledge that everything said in this meeting would be used against him and his party in the evening news cycle.
“It depends on how much he plans on smuggling in,” Statham said. “The amount necessary for a small-scale attack might already be available.”
“Casualties?”
“Limited. Any biological weapon is serious and terrifying, but anthrax is hard to deploy. You have to get the granules small enough for inhalation and keep them from clumping. And then the victim actually has to breathe them in. It doesn’t spread from human contact and it doesn’t scale up well.”
“The Russians did it,” Barnett said.
“The Soviets did it,” Statham corrected. “They bred a very deadly spore capable of being deployed as an aerosol. When it got through their lab’s filtration system, it killed more than a hundred people. But we’re talking about a massive effort by a major world power. This is different. Think about the Aum Shinrikyo cult in Japan. They put an enormous amount of money, expertise, and effort into trying to do the same thing and ended up abandoning the effort in favor of sarin.”
“I keep being told not to worry about ISIS and I keep getting burned,” Barnett said.
Kennedy frowned but, again, kept her mouth shut. The number of written warnings her office had provided about ISIS in Yemen would fill a good-size closet.
“The bottom line,” Statham continued, “is that Halabi could kill a lot more people with a bomb or mass shooter. And it would be a hell of a lot less complicated.”
“But not as terrifying,” Kennedy said, turning her attention to Barnett and locking eyes with her. “The upcoming election’s widening the already dangerous divisions in America. He understands that the fire’s already raging and now he’s passing out gas cans to anyone willing to use them.”
As expected, Barnett glared back. What wasn’t expected, though, was the nearly imperceptible smile.
“Irene,” the president said, again trying to cut through the tension between the two women, “do we have any idea where Halabi and the French scientist are now?”
“That’s why I was a little late arriving,” Kennedy said. “We had a geological appraisal done on a cave wall visible in the last video. The general consensus is that it’s consistent with what you’d find in Somalia. Unfortunately, a country where we have even