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“Das It’s already in our clothes, foods, coss And most people have no idea it’s even there Half the scientists think it’s perfectly safe And the other half say we don’t know enough and it could have unforeseen and possibly disastrous long-term consequences”
“So they found soht they were microscopic?”
“They are They were only revealed after being put under the scope”
“Why would they have been there? What would be the purpose in the context of a bomb?”
The president snedly “There’s the rub, Stone We don’t know What we think is that someone out there has coy in ways that were never intended”
“You mean for criminal or terrorism purposes?”
“Yes”
“What are people speculating? I mean, for why the nanobots were there? There must be some theories”
“There are TheThat theory involves sorafted onto the explosive When the boion that is now in the systely carried it on to others”
Stone flinched and moved away from the man “I’ve been to that park I was knocked over by the blast I could be contaminated You shouldn’t be near me”
“I’ve already been exposed, Stone Through Agent Gross, Garchik and others Hell, the FBI director was out there too But I can tell you that I’ve had every test known to the doctors and they’ve given me a clean bill of health”
“Is there any evidence of the existence of such a contagion on the debris?”
“Not that we know But you knohat they’re telling me now? That the dae certain molecular structures of other substances This ‘transforinal for theion problem, but the truth is we don’t know for certain We’re not even sure what to test for So all the things the doctors checked me for may be worthless And furthermore, they could have used nanobots to produce a totally new contagion It’s likewhack-a- shows up in another”
“And Agent Garchik?” he said
“We thought it best to remove him from the field for a while He’s currently at an ATF safe house in—”
Stone put up a hand “I’d prefer not to know the exact location”
“You mean?”
“In case soet it from me Yes”
“Dangerous times, Stone Uncertain times”
“Enemies closer”
“Right If only we knew exactly who they were any harder and harder on that score”
“I think every soldier deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan would agree with you on that”
“It’s ironic, actually,” said Brennan
“What’s that?”
“I originally sought you out to go fight the Russians in Mexico Now I find theht across the street from the White House”
“You know of course about the gun found and Kravitz’s ties to Moscow?”
“Yes, yes, all of that, but there’s so else”
Stone waited expectantly
“When the Soviet Union was a world power they had an iram Labs all over the place and tens of billions of dollars to fund those efforts”
“So nanobots?”
“Nanobots There are few countries or organizations with the ithal to pull so like this off The Russians are near the top of the list”
“What do you want me to do now, sir?”
“Your job, Stone And I promise you that I’ll have your back”
Stone gazed hard at the man The president seemed to sense Stone’s doubts