with my colleagues to get specifics. I'm guessing it relates to this investigation, and I need to find the people who are behind it. Any information you can provide may help.'
Dr. Allan tapped his fingers anxiously on the desk for a few moments.
Then he folded his hands. 'Mr. McCaskey, I really wish you had not dropped this at my feet.'
'I'm sorry, sir. But there it is.'
'Yes,' Allan said. He thought for another long moment. 'Aw, hell.
We're on the same team, Mr. McCaskey, and if you ever try to quote me, I'll deny everything. I think you are on the wrong trail.'
'Why?'
'For one thing, the lethal injection described in the news accounts of Mr. Wilson's death. Potassium chloride is not a compound that we use for the purpose you just described.'
'Do not or would not?'
'Both,' Dr. Allan replied. 'It just isn't anywhere on our radar. For the purpose of incapacitating an enemy, potassium chloride is too unpredictable. Individuals have different levels of tolerance. A dose that would kill one person might end up giving another nothing more than an irregular heartbeat.'
'If that's true, why would someone have used it on William Wilson?'
McCaskey asked.
'Three reasons. First, the compound is readily available online.
Doctors routinely prescribe is as a counter agent for potassium depletion caused by high blood pressure medications. Finding out who ordered it, and from what national or international source, will be virtually impossible. Second, as you saw, potassium chloride is far more difficult to detect than cyanide. Third, the killer obviously had time to make certain the compound worked.'
'Would you think a military medical technician would be familiar with its use?' McCaskey asked.
'Almost certainly.'
'Do you happen to know, Dr. Allan, where on the human body field agents are told to give lethal injections?'
'In the muscles,' he said.
'Not in veins?'
Allan shook his head.
'Why?'
'Muscle fiber has a very dense network of blood vessels and delivers drugs in just a few minutes,' the physician told him. 'The entry point is clearly visible, but that is the trade-off to a quick, efficient injection. That's another reason I do not believe your killer is a Company alumnus.'
'I don't understand.'
'Most of the people we send into the field are survivalists Allan told him. 'They are not scientists or doctors. Techniques are dumbed down as much as possible to give agents as little to worry about as possible. It is easier to inject an individual in the buttocks or thigh than in the arm or a more exotic spot, such as between the toes.
An injection in the root of the tongue is relatively precise, not to mention dark and slippery. The person giving it cannot be a novice. In this case, maybe you should look for someone with dental training. The underside of the tongue is an entry point for a number of drugs used in oral surgery.'
'I've already done that,' McCaskey said. 'Getting back to this question of novices, the Company has used precision assassins in the past. Poison in the tip of a blind man's cane, formaldehyde on a hero sandwich in a victim's refrigerator, even the abortive attempts on Castro.'
'Yes, and those efforts against Castro are the reason today's killings are outsourced,' Allan said. 'Assassins can make millions of dollars a hit. Why would they work for salary and an inadequate pension?'
