Reliquary

= 47 =

THE NYPD’S CRISIS control center had been brought on-line for the drainage operation. As Margo entered, trotting behind Pendergast and D’Agosta, she noticed several banks of communications equipment still sitting on dollies. Uniformed officers were standing over benches overflowing with grid maps. Heavy wires, wound with electrical tape, snaked across the floor in thick black rivulets.

Horlocker and Waxie sat at a long table, their backs to the communications gear. Even from the door Margo could see that their faces were slick with sweat. A small man with a brushy little mustache sat at a computer terminal nearby.

“What’s this?” Horlocker asked as they arrived. “The ladies’ visiting committee?”

“Sir,” D’Agosta said, “you can’t drain the Reservoir.”

Horlocker tilted his head. “D’Agosta, I don’t got time for you right now. I’ve got my hands full, dealing with the Wisher rally on top of this shit. And meanwhile the roust of the century is taking place underground. I’ve got the force spread thin as a pancake. So just write me a letter, okay?” He paused. “What, you guys been swimming?”

“The Reservoir,” Pendergast said, stepping forward, “is loaded with deadly lilies. It’s the plant the Mbwun beast needed to survive. The plant that Kawakita derived his drug from. And it’s ready to go to seed.” He unshouldered the muddy plant and slapped it onto the table. “There it is. Riddled with glaze. Now we know where they’ve been growing their supply.”

“What the hell?” Horlocker said. “Get that goddamn thing off my desk.”

Waxie broke in. “Hey, D’Agosta, you just finished convincing us that your little green monsters in the sewers needed to be flushed out. So now we’re doing it, and you want to change your mind? Forget it.”

D’Agosta stared distastefully at Waxie’s bulging, sweating neckline. “You sorry sack of shit. It was your idea to drain the goddamn Reservoir in the first place.”

“Now listen, Lieutenant, you watch—”

Pendergast held up his hands. “Gentlemen, please.” He turned to Horlocker. “There will be plenty of blame to apportion at some later time. The problem now is that, once those seeds hit saltwater, the reovirus that carries the drug will be activated.” His lips twitched briefly. “Dr. Green’s experiments show this drug capable of affecting a wide variety of life-forms, from unicellular organisms all the way up the food chain to man. Would you care to be the one responsible for global ecological disaster?”

“This is nothing but a big load of—” Waxie began to blurt.

Horlocker laid a hand on his sleeve, then glanced at the large plant soiling the papers littering the command desk. “Doesn’t look that dangerous to me,” he said.

“There’s no doubt,” Margo said. “It’s Liliceae mbwunensis. And it’s carrying a genetically engineered modification of the Mbwun reovirus.”

Horlocker looked from the plant to Margo, then back to the plant again.

“I can understand your uncertainty,” Pendergast said calmly. “A lot has happened since this morning’s meeting. All I ask is twenty-four hours. Dr. Green here will run the necessary tests. We’ll bring you proof that this plant is loaded with the drug. And we’ll bring you proof that exposure to saltwater will release the reovirus into the ecosystem. I know we’re right. But if we’re wrong, I’ll withdraw from the case and you can drain the Reservoir at your leisure.”

“You should have withdrawn on day one.” Waxie sniffed. “You’re FBI. This isn’t even your jurisdiction!”

“Now that we know the manufacture and distribution of a drug is involved, I could make it my jurisdiction,” Pendergast said evenly. “And very quickly. Would that satisfy you?”

“Just a minute, now,” said Horlocker, darting a cold look in Waxie’s direction. “There’s no need for that. But why not just pour in a good dose of weed killer?”

“Offhand, I can’t think of any herbicides that could reliably kill all the plants without harming the millions of Manhattan residents who rely on this water,” Pendergast said. “Can you, Dr. Green?”

“Only thyoxin,” she said, pausing to think. “But that would take twenty-four hours, maybe forty-eight, to do the job. It’s very slow acting.” Then she frowned. Thyoxin. That word came up recently, I’m sure of it. But where? And then she remembered: it was one of the fragmentary words in Kawakita’s burned notebook.

“Well, we’d better pour it in anyway.” Horlocker rolled his eyes. “I’ll have to alert the EPA. Jesus, this is turning into one hell of a screwup.” Margo watched him glance at the frightened-looking man at the nearby workstation, who was still hunched over his monitor, an exaggerated look of concentration on his face.

“Stan!”

The man jerked up.

“Stan, I guess you’d better abort the drainage sequence,” Horlocker said with a sigh. “At least until we get this figured out. Waxie, get Masters on the horn. Tell him to proceed with clearing the tunnels, but let him know we’re going to need to keep the homeless on ice an extra twenty-four hours.”

Margo watched as the man’s face grew paler.

Horlocker turned back to the engineer. “You heard me, Duffy?” he asked.

“I can’t do that, sir,” the man named Duffy said in the smallest of voices.

There was a silence.

“What?” Pendergast demanded.

Looking at the expression on Pendergast’s face, Margo felt a stab of fear. She’d assumed their only problem lay in convincing Horlocker.