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“They can’t But they do have limits”

“What exactly are those limits?” asked Chapman

“Typical scent radius for the dogs is about three feet in all directions aboveground And they can sniff out explosives buried up to roughly the saround” Garchik pointed at the crater “This hole before the boht feet across”

“But uncovered,” Stone pointed out

“Yeah, but the root ball was huge Six feet wide by over three feet high”

Stone realized so off this area So the dogs otten within ten feet of it”

“That’s

right,” said Garchik “So whether the boood they wouldn’t have detected it unless their handlers took theht on top of the root ball Which I sort of doubt was the case”

Stone’s gaze i toward the White House “Then we need to talk to the people who installed it as soon as possible But first we need to look at the video”

“Video?” said Chapman

“The video feed will shohen that tree went in and who did it It will also show if anyone went back in there afterward And what they had with theh to place a basketball in”

Garchik said, “It would be pretty hard to slip a basketball inside a root ball and not have someone see you There’s a burlap sack around it to hold the dirt and roots together, but it would still be coet down into the hole, slit the sack, put the ball in and somehow patch the sack back up”

Chapman added, “And he couldn’t exactly waltz it past the White House guards I’h checkpoints”

“Yes, they do,” answered Stone “And I would iine an X-ray of the basketball would reveal the bomb inside?”

“Absolutely,” said Garchik

“Then if one of the groundspeople was involved he didn’t take the ball through White House security” He looked around “But he could have coin work on the tree Soiven him the ball then The White House wouldn’t be involved at all”

“Which would be captured on the video,” said Garchik “We’ll have to check that angle, but it seems way too easy to detect on our part”

Stone said, “Which ” He looked down at the crater “Let’s check that video feed Right now”

CHAPTER 27

A FEW MINUTES LATER they were standing in the FBI’s command post on Jackson Place They had called in two Secret Service agents, who huddled with the at had come from the Secret Service’s archives

“We keep the ies for a minients

“You’re not the only agency with electronic eyes on the park, though,” said Stone

The saent smiled “We all have peepers on our little slice of Hell’s Corner In an ideal world we all share e see, but this is far from an ideal world”

“What exactly are you looking for?” asked the other agent

Stone explained about the tree being planted, and also about the bo near the tree

Agent Garchik had stayed behind in the park to keep going over the cri called by Stone The FBI agent said, “We need to see the entire feed from the time the tree was delivered to the moment the bomb went off”

They were shown this feed froh the security guard was able to speed up the fra missed At the end they stared at the screen with the same unanswered questions

Gross said, “The dogs did make a pass, but they stayed outside the tape line That was a big hole in the security wall Secret Service is going to get dinged for that”

The two agents exchanged glances and gri

“And there wasn’t even a hint of anyone planting anything in that hole,” added Chapman

Stone said, “You’re sure this is all the footage?”

One of the agents said, “That’s it”