Revson scowled but co-operated. This tray, too, was clean. He went through the same performance and had no sooner done so when Branson handed him a third tray.
This one had indentations on the underside of the lugs.
Revson broke the skin, sniffed suspiciously, tasted a little and at once spat it out. 'I don't know whether this is contaminated or not, but it tastes and smells even lousier than the other two. If that's possible.' He pushed the tray under Kylenski's hose, who sniffed it and passed it across to his colleague.
Branson said: 'Well?'
Kylenski was hesitant. 'Could be. A marginal, a border-line case. It would require lab. testing.' He looked thoughtfully at Revson. 'Do you smoke?'
'No.'
'Drink?'
'Birthdays and funerals only.'
Kylenski said: 'That could account for it. Some non-smokers and non- drinkers can have an extraordinarily acute sense of taste and smell. Revson is obviously one of those.'
Without consulting anyone, Revson examined another six trays. He pushed them all away and turned to Branson. 'My opinion, for what it's worth?' Branson nodded. 'Most — not all, but most — of those trays are off. With some, you've almost got to imagine it. Others stink. I think the whole damn lot is contaminated. In varying degrees.'
Branson looked at Kylenski. 'Possible?'
Kylenski looked uncomfortable. 'It happens. Botulinus can vary widely in its degree of concentration. Only last year there was a double family outing in New England. Ten in all. Among other things, they had sandwiches. Again the botulinus bug. Five died, two were slightly ill, three unaffected, But the sandwiches were all spread with the same meat paste.'
Branson and Van Effen walked apart. Van Effen said: 'Enough?'
'You mean you see no point in going ahead with this?'
'You stand to lose credibility, Mr Branson.'
'I agree. I'm not happy about it, but I agree. Trouble is, we've really, basically, only got Revson's word for it.'
'But he's identified twenty — in all — contaminated trays, three more than was necessary.'
'Who says so? Revson?'
'After all the proofs, you still don't trust him?'
'He's too cool, too relaxed. He's obviously highly trained, highly competent — and I'm damned sure that it's not in photography.'
'He could be in that, too.'
'I wouldn't doubt it.'
'So you're still going to treat this as a case of deliberate poisoning?'
'Where our vast viewing public is concerned? Who's to gainsay me? There's only one mike and it's in my hand.'
Van Effen looked towards the south tower. 'Food wagon number two on its way.'
Branson had the TV cameras, the honoured guests, the newspapermen and still cameramen in position in very short order indeed. The black thunderous clouds from the west were steadily marching in on them. Among those seated, the only difference in composition was that Hansen's seat had been taken over by the Vice-President. The cameras were turning and Branson, seated next to the President, was talking into the microphone.
He said: 'I am calling upon all viewers in America and throughout the world to be witnesses to a particularly heinous crime that has been committed upon this bridge just over an hour ago, a crime that I trust will persuade you that not all criminals are those who stand without the law. I would ask you to look at this food wagon which, as you can see, has its counter covered with food trays. Harmless, if not particularly appetizing food trays, you would think, such as any major airline would serve up to its passengers. But are they really harmless?' He turned to the man on his ether side and the camera was now back on them. This is Dr Cylenski, a leading forensic expert on the West Coast. A specialist in poisons. Are those trays really harmless, Dr Kylenski?'
'No.'
'You'll have to speak up, Doctor.'
'No. They are not harmless. Some are contaminated.'
'How many?'
'Half. Maybe more. I have no laboratory resources to hand.'
'Contaminated. That means infected. What are they infected with. Doctor?'
'A virus. Botulinus. A major source of severe food poisoning.'
'How severe? Can it be deadly?'
'Yes.'
'Frequently?'
'Yes.'
'Normally it occurs naturally-spoiled food, things like that?'
'Yes.'
'But a culture of it can be manufactured synthetically or artificially in a laboratory.'
That's putting it very loosely.'
'We're talking primarily to laymen.'
'Yes.'
'And it could be injected synthetically into already prepared but otherwise harmless food?'
'I suppose so.'
'Yes or no?'
'Yes.'
'Thank you, Dr Kylenski. That will be all.'
Revson, still without his camera, was standing by the ambulance with O'Hare. 'For a person who's never been inside a court-room, Branson seems to have mastered the prosecuting counsel bit pretty well.'
'It's all this TV.'
Branson said: 'I put it to all of you who are watching that the authorities — military, police, FBI, Government or whoever — have made a deliberate attempt to murder or at least incapacitate those of us who have taken over the Presidential entourage and this bridge. There must be someone on this bridge who knew how to identify poisoned trays and see that they fell into the right hands — that is. the hands of my colleagues and myself. The attempt, fortunately, failed, but there has been one casualty whom I shall mention later.
'Meantime, I would draw your attention to the fact that a second food wagon has arrived.' A camera obligingly drew the viewers' attention to this fact. 'It seems incredible that the authorities would be so obtuse as to try the same gambit again but, on the other hand, they have already shown that they are incredibly obtuse. So we are going to select three trays at random and offer them to the President, King and Prince. If they survive, we may reasonably assume that the food is uncontaminated. If, on the other hand, they become seriously ill — or worse — the world will know that the guilt cannot be laid at our door. We are in permanent radio-telephone contact with the police and military authorities ashore. They have one minute to tell us whether this food is contaminated or not.'
Mayor Morrison was on his feet. Van Effen lifted his Schmeisser fractionally but Morrison ignored him. He said to Branson: 'Apart from the personal indignity and affront you are heaping on the President and his royal guests couldn't you pick someone a bit lower down the scale for your experiment?'
'Such as yourself?'
'Such as myself.'
'My dear Mayor, your personal courage is beyond dispute. That is well known. Your intelligence, however, isn't. If anyone is to be put to the test it will be the three men who are probably the most important in the United States today. Their untimely disappearance from the scene would have the maximum inhibiting effect on would-be
