page15 (1/2)

Garchik said, “Well, this is a lot of dae for a stick of TNT or even a pound of Semtex Maybe it was a cocktail of components Maybe HMX or CL-20 That stuff is scary powerful They’re all in the fah explosives But it most likely wasn’t military ordnance”

“How do you know that?” asked Stone

Chaprade is oil-based, leaving a black smoke trail White is usually commercial”

The ATF agent s and tagging now Taking residue from the blast seat” He pointed at two burly black Labradors being walked around the grounds by their handlers “Roy and Wilbur,” he said “Those are the dogs’ nas are the cheapest, s can screen an entire airport in a couple hours So they’ll burn through this whole park in no tiuys won’t even be able to see with all our fancy technology”

“Impressive,” said Chapman

Garchik continued with enthusiasm “There aren’t even any machines in existence that can ’s nose But I can tell you that people have about 125 es Our Labs have twice that We’ll run all the evidence up to our Fire Research Center in Maryland We can torch a three-story building up there and have a hood large enough to capture every molecule of the burn-off Be able to tell you exactly as used”

Stone said, “Anything left of the guy in the hole?”

Garchik nodded “Borees We’ve pulled body parts out of tree canopies, off surrounding rooftops Two, three blocks away Found a piece of a foot on the White House lawn A partial index finger on the roof of St John’s Church Then there was tissue, brain matter, the usual stuff DNA field day Guy’s on a database soh” He nodded at the NRT truck “Of course, the first thing we did was shut down the area and send in our dogs”

“Secondary strikes,” noted Chapman

“Right They’ve er off a bomb, everybody rushes in to help, and they pop the secondary strike to take out the first responders But we found nothing” Garchik added in a proud tone, “And our Labs are exceptional They’re -school dropouts that can sniff out nineteen thousand different explosives based on the fivechemical compounds We train the for food”

“They can never be fooled?” asked Chapman

“Let me put it this way Roy over there found a four-inch-square C-4 block that was covered in dirty diapers and coffee, packed in Mylar bags in cee room And he did it in about thirty seconds”

“How is that possible?” asked Chapman

“Smells occur at the molecular level You can’t seal them up, no matter how hard you try Plastics, metals, pretty much any container or cover-up method can’t trap molecules because those materials are still perases, but sether different They can pass right through those substances If the detection h it really doesn’t uys do Trained bomb detection canines have an olfactory capacity that is humanly impossible to fool, and believe me, lots of people have tried”

“How do you think this bomb was detonated?” asked Gross

The ATF agent shrugged “Basic rule of three To make a bomb you have to have a switch, power source and the explosive Bo that can violently expand at extremely fast speeds while trapped in a confined space You can detonate a bomb any number of ways, but the basic two are via a timer and by e call command detonation”

Chap the detonation is present?”

“Either the bomber or soainst the bos in Iraq are detonated by third parties for that very reason”

“I take it you’ve been there,” said Gross

Garchik nodded “Four tio back”

“So where was the boer?”

“Nope, don’t think that’s possible,” said Garchik

“Why?” asked Stone

“He went to the dogs”

“What?” said Gross

“I’ll show you Come on”

CHAPTER 17

GARCHIK LED THEM to the ATF’s command unit Inside he fired up an array of electronic equip soht before When a particular scene caer at the screen