Binary - Michael Crichton [0]
JOHN LANGE
For Jasper Johns, whose preoccupations provided solutions
First published 1972
BINARY: any system composed of two interacting elements. As in binary stars, binary numbers, binary gases, etc.
Chemical agents lend themselves to covert use in sabotage against which it is exceedingly difficult to visualize any really effective defence... I will not dwell upon this use of CBS because, as one pursues the possibilities of such covert uses, one discovers that the scenarios resemble that in which the components of a nuclear weapon are smuggled into New York City and assembled in the basement of the Empire State Building.
In other words, once the possibility is recognized to exist, about all that one can do is worry about it.
- Dr Ivan L. Bennett, testifying before the Subcommittee on National Security Policy and Scientific Developments, November 20, 1969
This book was written before it became too embarrassing for the Republican Party to hold its 1972 convention in San Diego, and I preferred not to follow the convention to Miami Beach.
John Lange
PROLOGUE
BETA SCENARIO
The facts are these:
1. On August 22nd, 1972, seven men flew into Salt Lake International Airport, Salt Lake City, Utah. The men came from Las Vegas, Chicago, Dallas, and New York. All seven men have been identified; they all have connexions with organized crime. Thus far four have been picked up for questioning and their testimony provides the major portion of this report.
Each man was first contacted in his home city by an anonymous telephone call. They were each paid a thousand dollars in cash to do an unspecified job. All they knew in advance was that the job would take forty-eight hours, and that they must bring heavy boots and dark, warm clothing. Each was given an assumed name which he was to use for the duration of the job.
The men arrived in Salt Lake between noon and four PM local time. They were met separately. When all had arrived, they were transported in a 1968 white Plymouth sedan outside the city.
The trip out from Salt Lake was made in total silence. After an hour of travel they arrived in Ramrock, Utah, a town of 407 persons located in the north-central region of the state.
2. The men remained in Ramrock until nightfall, staying in a one-storey wood frame house previously rented by an unknown party. While in the house, the seven men wore surgical rubber gloves so that no fingerprints could be recovered. The men changed into their dark heavy clothing in the house, and received instructions on their job from the leader, a man identified only as 'Jones'. Jones is described as a heavyset muscular man with a broken nose and greying hair. Positive identification has not yet been made of this person.
3. Jones told the assembled men that they were going to steal a quantity of insecticide from a train. He told them that he had not personally planned the theft, that it had been worked out by someone else. They believed this when they heard the plans. Although not formally educated, these men had a well-developed sense of personality and they all agree that Jones, who was described by one as a 'drill-sergeant type', lacked the acumen to formulate the plans.
4. The plans were remarkable for their detail. For example, the men were told that the train would be travelling at 35 mph, according to Department of Transportation regulations covering shipment of dangerous cargo. The men were told the timetable the train would follow from its point of origin in Dugway Proving Grounds, Utah, through the state. The men were told of the existence of impedance trip sensors in the rails, and were instructed in relay timing mechanisms involved. They were told that the insecticide would be stored in 500-pound canisters of two varieties - one kind painted yellow, the other black. They were told that they must steal one yellow canister and one black canister. Two yellows or two blacks would not do.
Equally important is what the men were not told. They were not told that the train would be guarded. This is an important point. It