Call to Treason - Tom Clancy [91]
"If that's true, why would someone have used it on William Wilson?"
McCaskey asked.
"Three reasons. First, the compound is readily available online.
Doctors routinely prescribe is as a counter agent for potassium depletion caused by high blood pressure medications. Finding out who ordered it, and from what national or international source, will be virtually impossible. Second, as you saw, potassium chloride is far more difficult to detect than cyanide. Third, the killer obviously had time to make certain the compound worked."
"Would you think a military medical technician would be familiar with its use?" McCaskey asked.
"Almost certainly."
"Do you happen to know, Dr. Allan, where on the human body field agents are told to give lethal injections?"
"In the muscles," he said.
"Not in veins?"
Allan shook his head.
"Why?"
"Muscle fiber has a very dense network of blood vessels and delivers drugs in just a few minutes," the physician told him. "The entry point is clearly visible, but that is the trade-off to a quick, efficient injection. That's another reason I do not believe your killer is a Company alumnus."
"I don't understand."
"Most of the people we send into the field are survivalists Allan told him. "They are not scientists or doctors. Techniques are dumbed down as much as possible to give agents as little to worry about as possible. It is easier to inject an individual in the buttocks or thigh than in the arm or a more exotic spot, such as between the toes.
An injection in the root of the tongue is relatively precise, not to mention dark and slippery. The person giving it cannot be a novice. In this case, maybe you should look for someone with dental training. The underside of the tongue is an entry point for a number of drugs used in oral surgery."
"I've already done that," McCaskey said. "Getting back to this question of novices, the Company has used precision assassins in the past. Poison in the tip of a blind man's cane, formaldehyde on a hero sandwich in a victim's refrigerator, even the abortive attempts on Castro."
"Yes, and those efforts against Castro are the reason today's killings are outsourced," Allan said. "Assassins can make millions of dollars a hit. Why would they work for salary and an inadequate pension?"
"Patriotism?" McCaskey asked sincerely.
"God and country cannot overcome greed," Allan replied. "When we engage in field work of this kind, it has to be successful. Often, it also requires plausible deniability, as you know. When we need it super clean, we go into a for-hire mode."
McCaskey had no more questions. But something the doctor just said did interest him. He stood. Allan also rose.
"Sir, I appreciate your time and counsel," McCaskey said.
The men shook hands across the desk.
"I am truly sorry it could not be more," Allan said.
"To the contrary," McCaskey told him. "This was very helpful, though I have to ask you, Doctor, to satisfy my own curiosity. What is it that drives you? Patriotism or greed?"
"Neither. I'm here for the difference in conjunctions," Allan replied.
"I don't follow."
"I asked myself that very question for years," Allan told him as they walked toward the door. "I deluded myself into thinking I came to work here out of civic spirit. Then I realized that, at the heart of it, I enjoyed more power than any other physician I know. I have power over life and death. That's and, Mr. McCaskey. Not or."
The difference in conjunctions.
McCaskey left the doctor's office. He was glad to go. The office that had seemed warm and personal when he arrived now had a pall about it, a subtle chill, like the waiting room of a slaughterhouse. Murder was conceived here, plotted with cool, impersonal efficiency.
The young aide was still waiting outside the door to escort McCaskey back to the lobby. They walked in silence. This time,