Read Online the Devil's Workshop (1999) by Stephen Cannell - Free Book Online
Authors: Stephen Cannell
Ads: Link
since the Nonproliferation Treaty of 1972."
"You really believe that, Wendell?" He didn't answer, changing lanes instead to get around a school bus. "A hundred nations signed that treaty," she said, "and we know now that at least a dozen of them continued to actively develop bio-weapons afterward, including Russia, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Great Britain, Egypt, and who knows who else. With all this illegal science taking place, some of it by enemy nations, you really think the CIA and the Pentagon didn't know about it? And if they did, you can bet they found a way to keep our bio-weapons program operating."
Wendell Kinney was quiet for almost a minute. "What did you say to those people back at Fort Detrick?" he finally said, changing the subject.
"I told them I thought Max found out something, became a problem, and was disposed of."
"Ugggh," Wendell groaned.
"Well, why not call it like it is?"
"Because since you left town, your Quals have been postponed indefinitely," he said. "The Microbiology Department is putting your doctorate under review."
"Somebody made a call," she said, shaking her head in disgust. "Wendell, how much money is quietly given to universities all across this country by the Pentagon for biological research?"
"You don't wanna know."
"Does USC have some kind of covert arrangement with those pricks at Fort Detrick?"
"Not as far as I know," he said. "After all, Max was the one who ran the program. He was a humanist. I don't think he would have agreed to use government funds to develop illegal research that could be turned against people."
"You're damn right he wouldn't!" she said hotly. Yet he went to Fort Detrick to study Prions with Dexter DeMille, who had been criticized in the past for questionable science that could have military applications.
Both of them were privately exploring these same thoughts, but neither wanted to express them.
"What about the secret rooms discovered at Fort Detrick in the eighties?" Stacy continued. "That was well after the end of our bio-weapons program. Those rooms were loaded with sarin and different strains of anthrax."
"R and D," he said.
"Research and Development of what?"
"Anti-toxins."
"There was enough shit in there to kill the entire population of the world two or three times over. They faced Congressional oversight hearings on that. The program was censored. Who are they kidding? They were manufacturing and stockpiling that stuff. And what about those mosquito tests by the CIA, where they dropped female mosquitoes with dengue fever and yellow fever on Carver Village, that black town in the Florida swamps, where thirteen people died? The government ended up paying millions in damages to shut the story down. What about airborne bacteria dropped on San Francisco and the subway tests in New York in the mid - seventies to late eighties? The government has already admitted to all that. Innocent U . S . citizens died, so the CIA assholes at Fort Detrick could study aerobiology."
"Look, Stacy, I'm not saying that our program is without horrible ethical lapses, or that there aren't some rogue scientists, or military and CIA people who are devoted to staying in this field at all costs. But our government is not knowingly pursuing this course of strategic weaponry," he said hotly.
"Okay," she said, "okay. It's just..." And she fell silent.
"Just what?"
"I wish I knew what Max was working on, what was on his computer. You know how he was, how he wrote everything down, kept duplicate files. If he was killed because of something he knew, then a copy exists somewhere, believe me. What they erased off his hard drive wasn't the only record of his research."
"I'm afraid we'll never know," Wendell said.
They arrived back at Max and Stacy's apartment, and Joanne took her bag out of the trunk and put it in her VW. She was still too quiet, off someplace else, and had said almost nothing all the way back from the airport. Before she got into her car, she held Stacy's hand.
"You really believe that, Wendell?" He didn't answer, changing lanes instead to get around a school bus. "A hundred nations signed that treaty," she said, "and we know now that at least a dozen of them continued to actively develop bio-weapons afterward, including Russia, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Great Britain, Egypt, and who knows who else. With all this illegal science taking place, some of it by enemy nations, you really think the CIA and the Pentagon didn't know about it? And if they did, you can bet they found a way to keep our bio-weapons program operating."
Wendell Kinney was quiet for almost a minute. "What did you say to those people back at Fort Detrick?" he finally said, changing the subject.
"I told them I thought Max found out something, became a problem, and was disposed of."
"Ugggh," Wendell groaned.
"Well, why not call it like it is?"
"Because since you left town, your Quals have been postponed indefinitely," he said. "The Microbiology Department is putting your doctorate under review."
"Somebody made a call," she said, shaking her head in disgust. "Wendell, how much money is quietly given to universities all across this country by the Pentagon for biological research?"
"You don't wanna know."
"Does USC have some kind of covert arrangement with those pricks at Fort Detrick?"
"Not as far as I know," he said. "After all, Max was the one who ran the program. He was a humanist. I don't think he would have agreed to use government funds to develop illegal research that could be turned against people."
"You're damn right he wouldn't!" she said hotly. Yet he went to Fort Detrick to study Prions with Dexter DeMille, who had been criticized in the past for questionable science that could have military applications.
Both of them were privately exploring these same thoughts, but neither wanted to express them.
"What about the secret rooms discovered at Fort Detrick in the eighties?" Stacy continued. "That was well after the end of our bio-weapons program. Those rooms were loaded with sarin and different strains of anthrax."
"R and D," he said.
"Research and Development of what?"
"Anti-toxins."
"There was enough shit in there to kill the entire population of the world two or three times over. They faced Congressional oversight hearings on that. The program was censored. Who are they kidding? They were manufacturing and stockpiling that stuff. And what about those mosquito tests by the CIA, where they dropped female mosquitoes with dengue fever and yellow fever on Carver Village, that black town in the Florida swamps, where thirteen people died? The government ended up paying millions in damages to shut the story down. What about airborne bacteria dropped on San Francisco and the subway tests in New York in the mid - seventies to late eighties? The government has already admitted to all that. Innocent U . S . citizens died, so the CIA assholes at Fort Detrick could study aerobiology."
"Look, Stacy, I'm not saying that our program is without horrible ethical lapses, or that there aren't some rogue scientists, or military and CIA people who are devoted to staying in this field at all costs. But our government is not knowingly pursuing this course of strategic weaponry," he said hotly.
"Okay," she said, "okay. It's just..." And she fell silent.
"Just what?"
"I wish I knew what Max was working on, what was on his computer. You know how he was, how he wrote everything down, kept duplicate files. If he was killed because of something he knew, then a copy exists somewhere, believe me. What they erased off his hard drive wasn't the only record of his research."
"I'm afraid we'll never know," Wendell said.
They arrived back at Max and Stacy's apartment, and Joanne took her bag out of the trunk and put it in her VW. She was still too quiet, off someplace else, and had said almost nothing all the way back from the airport. Before she got into her car, she held Stacy's hand.
Similar Books
