Stone - 25 - Collateral Damage

fifties, introduced her to a dozen men and women around the table, then offered her the chair at the head.
    “Good morning,” Holly said. “I’m glad to meet you all, and I want to tell you how sorry I am for your terrible loss of Tom Riley. I knew him pretty well and admired him.
    “The director has appointed me acting station chief until things become more… regular. I understand that I’m not Tom Riley, and I’m going to need the help of each of you to get through this.”
    Holly turned to Ann. “Now, I’d like to be briefed on exactly what happened, the casualties, and the damage. I’ll have to report to the director shortly, and I want to be prepared.”

Ann Tinney operated the video equipment from the seat next to Holly. “We’ve put together clips from a dozen surveillance cameras to give you a graphic idea of what happened.” She brought up the first video.
    “Here we have the DSL van, stolen, of course, pulling up to the barrier at the Upper Grosvenor Street end of Burnes Street. You’ll hear the police constable call in the driver’s request to deliver a large box, addressed to Tom Riley, with a return address of Langley.” The audio played, and the barrier was removed so that the crate could be wheeled to the back door.
    “Stop,” Holly said.
    Ann stopped the footage.
    “There’s something I don’t understand,” Holly said. “Why would Tom leave his office and go downstairs to receive a shipment, even if it was from Langley?”
    “We’re embarrassed by that,” Ann replied, “but as you heard, the delivery required his signature, and since it was from Langley, Tom thought it important enough to go downstairs himself. There is nothing in our security protocol that would prevent him from signing personally.”
    “Let’s get the protocol amended immediately to cover that situation.”
    “Certainly. Shall I continue?”
    “Yes, please.”
    The view from a camera inside the rear door. “As you see, the steel security doors are opened to admit the shipment. The driver is now in a room built of reinforced concrete with steel doors that we consider bombproof.”
    “Unless the bomb is inside the room,” Holly said. “Amend the protocol to check with the shipping company and the putative sender before admitting any package to the building.”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    “Holly will do, for all of you. Continue, please.”
    “Here’s a view of Tom entering the room, looking curious. He takes the clipboard from the driver and examines it.” The audio came on.
    “Get this crate out of here and secure the room!” Tom shouted.
    “The dog had not signaled, but apparently something about the clipboard aroused Tom’s suspicions, and he acted without delay. We see the rear doors opening, and then…”
    The video went to one frame at a time: Tom turned and shouted at the Marines, the crate exploded, and both video and audio ended.
    “Tom was seconds away from having the crate outside and the room secured when the bomb detonated. There was no action on the part of the deliveryman, so it would have been detonated by cell phone or radio,” Ann said. “Now we see the explosion from outside, from a camera on the State Department building across Upper Grosvenor Street, in slow motion.”
    The force of the blast blew a police constable out of the building and across Burnes Street, where his body collided with a neighboring building. A Metropolitan Police car parked in Burnes Street was blown into that building, as well.
    “Now we switch to another camera in Upper Grosvenor three minutes and twelve seconds later,” Ann said.
    The DSL van exploded with a ferocity as great as the first bomb. Cars and pedestrians were blown about and shattered.
    “Jesus Christ,” Holly said involuntarily. “What was the death toll?”
    “In the downstairs room, Tom, the police constable, two Marines who were there to examine the crate, plus another Marine at the desk, and the Labrador retriever sniffer dog were killed instantly. The room contained the blast, as it was designed to do, but the doors were open, so there was residual damage outside. A police constable in the patrol car was killed, and four people in the building across Burnes Street were seriously injured. Thirty-two other people were killed when the second bomb detonated—pedestrians, people in passing cars. The van partially blocked Upper Grosvenor, so traffic was bumper to bumper. Four of the dead were in the State Department personnel