Silent Night - By Tom Barber Page 0,25

the week, each week of the year. It was also the setting for several nostalgic movies, including Miracle on 34th Street, where a little girl discovered that the store Santa Claus was real. However, as Archer and Josh jumped out of their hastily pulled-up Ford Explorer on 34 and 7, their thoughts weren’t so pleasant.

With lights flashing they’d cut through traffic and got down there in four minutes flat to find evacuation of the building was already underway. There were scores of pedestrians flooding the sidewalks outside the 7 Avenue entrance, ushered out by efficient store security and cops from Midtown South. Archer saw that an ESU truck had already arrived, the NYPD’s SWAT team, the officers already inside the building. Several Hercules Teams, armed Special Forces-type units, had also shown up and were spread out on the sidewalks, talking into radios and scanning the crowds. Showing their badges to the cops, Josh and Archer pushed their way through the glass doors and made their way into the building.

Inside, it was a similar scene to the sidewalk outside. There was a sea of people, men, women and kids, all of whom were being quickly herded towards the exits. The two detectives saw a large pool of ESU officers and store security guards gathered to the left, listening closely as they received orders from their Lieutenant who was standing in front of them, like a sports team receiving a half-time talk.

Archer and Josh fought their way towards the group, but the gathering disbanded just as they got there. The ESU officers and Macy’s guards headed off with purpose, some moving swiftly towards the upwards escalators, others headed downstairs to the basement. Standing beside a guy who looked like the head of store security, the ESU Lieutenant had spotted Archer and Josh pushing their way towards him. He was in his forties, dark haired, dressed in police fatigues, a Colt AR-15 assault rifle slung over his shoulder on a strap.

‘Blake and Archer,’ Josh said, showing his badge. ‘Counter Terrorism Bureau.’

‘Hobbs,’ the ESU Lieutenant said, shaking their hands quickly. ‘You the two guys who’ve come from the lab?’

‘That’s right.’

‘I spoke to your man Shepherd. He said a box containing a bomb might have been left somewhere in the building. Mind telling me what’s inside?’

‘It’s a Type-Three Pneumonic virus,’ Archer said. ‘Once it enters the human body, the host is dead within half a minute.’

‘Jesus Christ. Hang on.’ He grabbed his radio. ‘All teams, gas masks. This is a biological threat. I repeat, a biological threat. Put on your gas masks.’

‘One viral bomb already went off in Central Park last night,’ Josh said. ‘It killed a groundsman.’

‘I’ve got my men and the store team searching the building,’ Hobbs said. ‘We know the shape, or anything distinguishable about this box?’

Josh shook his head. ‘Rectangular. Like a shoebox. That’s it.’

‘Shit. I’ve sent them out in teams, working their way through each floor. But I need reinforcements. You have any ideas as to how we find this thing?’

During this exchange, Archer had gone quiet. Something Maddy Flood had said earlier surfaced in his mind.

‘Wait,’ he said.

Hobbs and Blake turned and looked at him.

‘Every ESU officer carries a radiation detector, right?’

Hobbs nodded. ‘One of the Department’s newest regulations. All my men have one. Why?’

‘We can use them.’

‘How?’ Josh asked. ‘It’s a virus. Nothing will show up.’

Archer shook his head. ‘The doc said that the virus was cultivated using cobalt. That stuff is radioactive.’

Josh looked at him. The penny dropped.

‘You think it’ll show?’

Archer nodded. ‘Those things are sensitive. It’ll show.’

Hobbs listened to the exchange, then lifted his radio again. ‘Attention, all teams. Use your radiation detection equipment, I repeat, use your radiation detection equipment. The package we’re looking for will give you a gamma reading.’

He put down the radio. Behind them, more police and a Chemical Response Team had just arrived through the doors, carrying their gear and making their way through the remaining crowd towards the command post. As they approached, Hobbs reached to his belt and unclipped a small radiation detection device, about the size of a stopwatch.

He passed it to Archer. ‘Here. I’ll fill these guys in. You two better get searching.’

Archer took it with a nod.

Then he and Josh ran for the escalator.

Three floors above, the viral bomb continued to count down silently, hidden from view under the wooden panel.

4:02.

4:01.

3:59.

3:58.

Inside the briefing room at the Counter Terrorism Bureau, Shepherd and Rach were still working on trying to find out where the man in the red