Plum Island

Thursday, July 1, 2004, 1:30 a.m. EDT

Plum Island Animal Disease Center, Plum Island, New York

The agents, wearing their navy blue jogging suits (with optional ski masks and rubber gloves), hiked down the island toward the ferry dock by way of the roads. Their map showed that there was a mine on the island. They decided to investigate it first, then return to check out the air shaft if the mine didn't pan out. They turned off the main road and took a smaller trail that ran close to the mine site. When they closed in on the mine, they left the trail and hiked through the woods with the aid of a GPS unit and light amplification goggles.

A grass covered track ran in front of them. MICHAEL's trained eye could tell that the track was made by wheeled vehicles and was previously used some time within the last three months or so. The track ran up to a vine-covered mine entrance. The mine appeared to be abandoned, even if the track suggested otherwise. A sign in front of the mine entrance read, "Danger, Unsafe Mine".

The agents didn't see any light coming from the mine, and they didn't hear anything other than bugs. Ignoring the sign, they moved closer at the mine entrance. They didn't notice anything untoward. MORGAN slid right up to the entrance and slowly stuck his head through the vines. He saw vehicle tire tracks running further into the mine. The tracks were too large for a car. The tunnel slowly curved to the right; the tracks disappeared after about 30 or 40 yards. MAYA sneaked forward to join MORGAN, but crunched some twigs while doing so. The agents froze until they thought it was safe. She sidled up beside MORGAN. She didn't see anything MORGAN hadn't noticed. MICHAEL moved forward to join them. MORGAN thought to look for cameras. They inspected the mine entrance. The agengs didn't find any cameras but MAYA discovered a small metal box at calf height, mounted to a support beam.

MORGAN always carried a small container of baby powder to make it easier to slip on his rubber gloves. He puffed some powder and discovered a laser beam emanating from the box. He sprayed some more powder and discovered two more beams, one at stomach height and the other at upper chest height. After a brief discussion, they decided to try and creep through the gap between the beams. MAYA, regarded as the clumsiest of the three, went first. She climbed between the beams, with MORGAN and MICHAEL checking to see if she interrupted any of the lasers. She was almost clear when she broke the lower beam with her ankle. There was no alarm and no immediate motion, other than that generated by the light breeze. Nonetheless, MAYA looked for a place to hide further in the mine. She quickly hid behind a support beam. The male agents hid back out in the woods. They waited for a minute, but no one approached. The men went back to the mine entrance.

MORGAN climbed between the beams without interrupting any. MICHAEL wasn't so lucky; he tripped the middle laser beam. MORGAN looked around. He couldn't find a good place to hide. MICHAEL found a support and stood behind it. Unbeknownst to him the support was broken off at the bottom and his legs and feet were visible from the mine entrance. MORGAN ran further down the mine tunnel. He found a support beam of his own to hide behind.

They waited three minutes before they figured they are safe. MORGAN stepped out from behind his beam. MICHAEL and MAYA began to move. Suddenly they noticed a light approaching the front of the mine. They jumped back into their hiding spots. MICHAEL tried to catch MORGAN's attention with hand gestures, but MORGAN wasn't looking their way. MORGAN finally realized the others weren't following and looked to see what was keeping them. He saw MICHAEL signalling. He jumped back behind the beam a split second before a flashlight illuminated the mine entrance.

Someone they couldn't see played the light around the inside of the tunnel, but no one approached. A second light shone in. MAYA heard someone speaking into a radio. "Negative, we don't see anything. It's probably animals again." Pause. "Roger that." The people with the lights shone it quickly around the inside of the mine once more, and then they crept away.

After they were sure they were alone, the agents left their hiding places and moved down the tunnel.

The tunnel continued for almost 100 yards. The rustic wooden beams gave way to steel supports and a concrete floor as the agents progressed. The agents pulled on their ski masks and gloves as they walked. Ahead of them the tunnel came to a vertical shaft, then continued for a short distance on the other side. A large freight elevator spanned the shaft. The elevator was large enough for an ore carrier... or a good sized truck. A metal frame supported a solid roof. Instead of walls, the elevator car was ringed in wire mesh. Two sets of wire gates allowed access to the elevator from either side. The agents walked up to it. There was a sizable gap between the elevator and the shaft on either side of the elevator car. They looked down the shaft. A ladder was mounted on the side of the shaft and continued 50 feet to the bottom. The agents could squeeze past the elevator and climb down the ladder. The bottom was illuminated with a faint fluorescent glow.

They figured that it would be too noisy to descend via the elevator, so they agreed to use the ladder. They began climbing down, MORGAN first, then MAYA, and finally MICHAEL. The agents were halfway down the ladder when the elevator started to descend on its own. The three agents pressed close to the ladder. The elevator slipped past them, but just barely. As the top of the elevator car passed, MICHAEL jumped onto it with a clang. MAYA was just as noisy. MORGAN landed smoothly and quietly beside them.

The elevator only stopped when it reached the bottom of the shaft. Morgan peered over the edge. He saw three men enter the elevator. MAYA whispered to Michael, asking if there were pebbles she could throw as a diversion. They didn't see any. Suddenly MORGAN jumped from the elevator roof to the ladder. The elevator began ascending. The car passed MORGAN without any of the three men noticing him. A sharp, damaged piece of the elevator's bottom plate happened to catch the pants of MORGAN's track suit. MORGAN was dragged upwards. He quickly pulled out a scalpel and slit his pants. MAYA and MICHAEL continued to ride to the top while MORGAN remained on the ladder.

MORGAN climbed to the bottom of the shaft and looked around. In front, lying in the opposite direction to the mine's entrance, was was a corridor about 150 feet long. The corridor ended in what looked like a garage door. There was a small offshoot corridor about 30 feet down on the right. A security camera, mounted halfway down the corridor near the ceiling, rotated back and forth. MORGAN slowly slipped to the back of the dark elevator shaft and hid behind a support strut.

MICHAEL looked up and saw that they were safe enough where they were, but MAYA was unsure. She asked MICHAEL, "What do we do now?" He pointed upward. "Okay, get flattened. Now I know how Play-doh feels." The elevator stopped at the upper level; MAYA and MICHAEL were, indeed, safe on the roof of the elevator.

One of the men in the elevator opened the mesh gate. The three men turned on flashlights and walked toward the mine entrance. As they men disappeared around the tunnels bend, MAYA and MICHAEL jumped off the elevator roof. Their landing was less than silent. They heard one of the men down the tunnel stop and turn back. There was no time for both MICHAEL and MAYA to disappear down the ladder beside the elevator. MAYA slipped down the ladder while MICHAEL quickly climbed back on top of the elevator. The guard walked all the way back to the elevator shaft, searching with his flashlight. When he didn't see anything, he shrugged and headed back to the mine entrance to join his colleagues.

MAYA quietly climbed down the ladder. When she got to the bottom, MORGAN motioned to her to hide behind the second support strut, which she did.

After searching for a couple of minutes, the three men walked back to the elevator. Their small talk suggested that they thought it was animals in the tunnel, probably raccoons. From what they were saying, MICHAEL figured that this happened quite often. They shut the elevator gate and rode it back down the shaft, with MICHAEL hidden above them. The elevator stopped once more at the bottom. MICHAEL glanced over the edge of the elevator car's roof. The men wearing standard white security guard uniforms, though they were armed with pistols. The patch on their uniform said they worked for "Arsenal Security". One of the guards closed the elevator's mesh gate and pushed a button. The elevator started up again. Michael grabbed hold of the edge of the roof and flipped off the elevator, landing quietly beside the rising car. The guards didn't notice him. He hid beside MAYA as the guards walked down the corridor. When they got to the garage door, they opened a door to the right of the garage door. MORGAN hadn't noticed that door before. It slammed shut behind the guards.

"What took you guys so long?" asked MORGAN.

"We were retrieving bits of your pants from the elevator," replied MAYA.

"Lose something?" said MICHAEL, as he handed over a piece of MORGAN's pants that had been impaled on the elevator.

The agents quietly discussed investigating the nearby side corridor. MORGAN was sure they could reach the intersection while the security camera was pointed the the other way. MAYA was sure she couldn't make it in time. MICHAEL wasn't sure one way or another. They voted, and it was two to one in favour of going down the side corridor. MORGAN went first, followed by MICHAEL and then MAYA. Their timing was perfect and they weren't spotted by the camera.

The side corridor was only about 20 feet long. It terminated in a metal door that opened by way of a big metal lever. MICHAEL pressed his ear to the door. He heard machinery. MORGAN and MAYA saw a sensor attached to the door. If the door opened, the sensor on the door would break contact with the sensor on the door jam. Presumably this would set off some sort of alarm.

MICHAEL asked if they had anything to complete the connection. MORGAN replied that there had to be wires in their thick-rimmed glasses, the ones they bought at the spy store with the cameras mounted in them. MORGAN had MICHAEL break his glasses. They extracted two wires, which together measured a total of about 18 inches in length. MORGAN stripped off the insulation with a scalpel, connected the wires, and then stuck the wire to both contact plates with surgical tape. Now if the door opened, the electrical connection would still be maintained.

MAYA slowly opened the door while MORGAN prepared to use the "Bloat" spell on anyone inside. MICHAEL was in his "ready stance" as the door revealed a generator room. There was no one in it. MICHAEL relaxed and slipped inside. Large machines, pipes, and thick wires filled the bulk of the space. A big panel on the far wall was marked with a sign that said, "Danger! High Voltage". He found an electrical schematic, but he couldn't make heads or tails of it. He left the room, closed the door, and removed the wire.

The agents were now left with the choice of giving up or going through one of the doors at the end of the long corridor. They weren't prepared to give up.

Without deliberation, MICHAEL timed the rotation of the camera in the corridor, and then ran underneath it when it wasn't pointed his way. He watched it through a couple of additional rotations and then ran to the same small door that the guards went through. He pressed hard against the door so he, hopefully, wouldn't be seen. He heard voices inside.

MORGAN followed MICHAEL's lead. He, too, ended up beside the door. Unfortunately, there was only room for one of them...

They both stood there, discussing their next move in whispers, when the door opened behind them. They quickly turned around. Two guards pointed guns at them. "Freeze!" yelled one of the guards. The agents raised their hands. One guard put away his gun and pulled out handcuffs. He moved toward MICHAEL as MICHAEL and MORGAN slowly backed away. MORGAN began chanting quietly to himself...

The guard with the gun began to swell as MORGAN's "Bloat" spell took effect. The first guard approached MICHAEL. The second guard was in shock with his mouth hanging open as his body swelled uncontrollably. His gun went off as his finger swelled to the point where it filled the trigger guard. The bullet ricocheted off the wall. The guard's gun could no longer fire as the trigger was still pressed.

The first guard was distracted by the gunshot. He pulled out his gun. MAYA — hiding in the short corridor — jumped out and threw the remnants of the video glasses at the wall. The guard, now doubly distracted, turned his back on MICHAEL and fired at MAYA. The shot missed her head by a couple of inches.

MICHAEL hit the guard, briefly stunning him. The guard turned toward MICHAEL, raising his gun. MORGAN grappled with the bloated guard. MICHAEL struck the other guard again, knocking him unconscious. The bloated guard and MORGAN continued to grapple.

MICHAEL tried to aid MORGAN. He struck at the bloated guard, but missed badly, leaving himself open for a counter attack. The terrified guard flailed at MICHAEL, hitting the Delta Green agent with a blow that rattled his teeth. MICHAEL jabbed at the bloated guard a second time but, once again, missed badly, leaving himself exposed and off balance. MORGAN injected the guard with a sedative, but not before the guard hit MICHAEL a second time. Finally the bloated guard collapsed.

MAYA joined them, and they pulled the guards through the doorway. MORGAN felt a little woozy, which he put down to the after effects of the Bloat spell. The agents handcuffed the guard MICHAEL had knocked out. The other guard was left sedated on the floor. The room was a guard post. A bank of monitors displayed images from a dozen video cameras. Below each monitor was a video tape recorder. MAYA and MORGAN ejected the tapes. They found a gym bag and stuffed the tapes into them.

The monitors displayed the corridor they had just travelled through, a storage and garage area behind a garage door, and a very long, wide corridor they hadn't seen before. The corridor was so long, in fact, that there were huge gaps in the camera's coverage, suggesting that there were no intersections. Another guard was casually making his way down the corridor. He would be there in a couple of minutes.

MAYA told the others to get the guards' radios. She disrobed one of the guards and slipped on his uniform shirt. She rolled up her ski mask, slumped in the chair, and turned her back to the door. MORGAN pricked the bloated guard's finger. He released enough fluid that the gun slipped off the guard's finger. MICHAEL took the other guard's gun. MORGAN and MICHAEL waited on opposite sides of the door, guns drawn. The guard entered the guard post. "Hey, Carl, how's it..." The male agents pointed their guns at him. MORGAN took the guard's pistol while MICHAEL motioned the guard to get down on his knees.

"You'll never get away with this," said the guard, apparently unable to think in anything but cliches at the moment.

MICHAEL pistol whipped him. As the guard lost consciousness, MORGAN sedated him to make sure he stayed put.

MORGAN injected each of the guards with 3cc's of the blue fluid they captured last year in Maine. They stripped the guards and took their uniforms, but they did not put them on. They also took their ammunition and security badges.

The agents entered the long corridor, stopping beside the nearby garage door. The agents opened it. The room was the large storage they saw in one of the monitors. The room was half full of medical and laboratory supplies. Parked in the room were half a dozen large golf carts that were obviously used to move supplies down the long corridor. The agents jumped into one of the carts, started it, and drove down the corridor.

Their GPS systems didn't work in the tunnel, but MICHAEL's compass still functioned. He figured that they were heading east northeast in the direction of the main laboratory facility. After a few minutes they came to the end of the corridor. They got off the cart and walked up to the door.

A card reader let them open the door into an airlock. MICHAEL saw a camera inside the airlock. They quickly closed the door without entering. There must be another guard post somewhere. They decided to don the uniforms. MAYA's and MORGAN's was a size too small, MICHAEL's was a size too large. They put them on, anyway, and entered the airlock. MICHAEL quickly pulled the plug on the camera. They used their badges to unlock the other door in the airlock.

The door opened on a room with an elevator and a door leading to a set of stairs. The door had a metal reinforced window. MORGAN glanced inside. There was another video camera in the stairwell.

The agents debated between taking the stairs and taking the elevator; the stairs won out. They swiped the reader beside the door and quickly hustled past the camera. MORGAN's radio chattered. "Carl, that you entering the stairwell, over?" The agents looked at each other. "Carl, do you read? Over."

MICHAEL whispered to MORGAN. "Keep it brief."

MORGAN responded with, "Roger that. Be right there. We got coons down here, we're chasing the little buggers." He looked at the others, sheepishly.

The guard answered, "Roger."

"See, that's brevity," said MAYA, as she smacked MORGAN upside the head.

The stairs continued up past a landing. There was a door in the landing, and a camera mounted beside the door. The agents quickly hustled past the camera as it rotated to point toward the second flight of stairs. The door opened up onto a hallway with half a dozen doors per side. The nearest door had a small mesh-reinforced window. MORGAN crept into the hallway and quickly glanced through the window. There was a guard yawning and looking at a bank of monitors, with a second guard reading a magazine.

MORGAN crept back through the door. He called over the radio, "I could use some help caging this thing, over," while covering the microphone with his hand to disguise his voice.

"Where are you Carl?" The guard that had been reading the magazine exited the room and made for the stairwell. As he opened the door, MICHAEL kicked at the guard's head. It stunned him, but didn't knock him out. MORGAN pistol whipped him into unconsciousness. The agents rushed into the guard room, guns drawn. They made the guard kneel and MORGAN injected him with a sedative. MORGAN injected both of them with the blue fluid. He only had two doses left.

The monitors had video recorders hooked up to them, just like the other guard post. The agents rewound the tapes to the point where they were first visible, and they erased the tapes from that point. They then ejected the tapes so that the cameras were no longer taping anything.

The monitors showed the interior of several laboratories. Only two were lit. Both of these labs had a single person inside conducting an experiment. In one laboratory a person in a hazmat suit was doing an autopsy (or what looked like an autopsy) on a male human corpse. In the other lab someone stuck probes into a canister. This person, too, wore a hazmat suit. The agents decided that the second experiment was likely what they were looking for. They took the badges from the guards and proceeded down the hall.

The lab they were after was the third lab down the hall on their right. The labs had clear glass walls. They looked inside. The experimenter had her back to them. In front of her were animal cages. In one cage was a monkey, in the other cage was a grown man.

The Delta Green agents quietly slipped into the airlock room adjoining the lab and quickly put on hazmat suits. Apparently the lab was fairly sound proof, as the experimenter didn't seem to notice them. They then opened the door to the lab. As they entered, a klaxon went off. The researcher swung around. MICHAEL aimed a gun at her and made her drop to her knees. The guy in the cage snarled at MICHAEL like an animal, then growled, "Let me out!" in a very disturbing voice. The agents ignored him.

MICHAEL pushed the researcher into a cage and locked it behind her. MORGAN and MAYA checked out the canister. Inside was a metallic crimson fluid. Two probes were stuck in the fluid. The wires of one probe were connected to an electrical generator, which in turn was connected to a multimeter, which was connected to the other probe. MICHAEL joined them. He figured out that the researcher was measuring the electricity passing through the fluid. MORGAN and MICHAEL pulled out the probes. The viscous fluid briefly stuck to the probes before it slowly slid back into the container.

MORGAN sealed the canister with its lid. He took the canister and MICHAEL unplugged the probes and took them. The agents left the lab. They walked out into the corridor, still wearing the hazmat suits. The klaxon continued to sound.