The Overlook

invaded his space.
    “I just told you what it’s about,” he said. “We need to get into the hot lab in oncology. If you can’t get us in there, then find somebody who can. Now.”
    “I gotta make a call first,” Romo said.
    “Good. Make it. I’ll give you two minutes and then we’re going to run you over.”
    The whole time he was making the threat Brenner was smiling and nodding.
    Romo took out a cell phone and stepped away from the group to make the call. Brenner gave him the space. He looked at Bosch with a sardonic smile.
    “Last year I did a security survey here. They had a key lock on the lab and the safe and that was it. They upgraded after that. But you build a better mousetrap and the mice just get smarter.”
    Bosch nodded.
    Ten minutes later Bosch, Brenner, Romo and the rest of the lab team all stepped out of the elevator in the medical clinic’s basement. Romo’s boss was on his way in but Brenner was not waiting. Romo used a key card to gain entrance to the oncology lab.
    The lab was deserted. Brenner found an inventory sheet and a lab log on an entrance desk and started reading. There was a small video monitor on the desk that showed a camera view of a safe.
    “He was here,” Brenner said.
    “When?” Bosch asked.
    “Seven o’clock, according to this.”
    Reid pointed to the monitor.
    “Does that record?” he asked Romo. “Can we see what Kent did when he was in there?”
    Romo looked at the monitor as though it were the first time he had ever seen it.
    “Um, no, it’s just a monitor,” he finally said. “Whoever’s on the desk is supposed to watch whatever is taken out of the safe.”
    Romo pointed to the far end of the lab, where there was a large steel door. The trefoil warning symbol for radioactive materials was posted on it at eye level, along with a sign.

    CAUTION!
    RADIATION HAZARD
    PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT
    MUST BE WORN

    CUIDADO!
    PELIGRO DE RADIACIÓN
    SE DEBE USAR
    EQUIPO DE PROTECCIÓN

    Bosch noticed that the door had a push-button combination lock as well as a magnetic key-card swipe slot.
    “It says here that he took one source of cesium,” Brenner said, as he continued to study the log. “One tube. It’s a transfer case. He was taking the source over to Burbank Medical Center for a procedure there. It names the case. A patient named Hanover. It says that there were thirty-one pieces of cesium left in inventory.”
    “Is that all you need, then?” Romo asked.
    “No,” Brenner said. “We have to physically inspect the inventory. We’ll need to enter the safe room and then open the safe. What’s the combination?”
    “I don’t have it,” Romo said.
    “Who does?”
    “The physicists. The head of the lab. The chief of security.”
    “And where is the chief of security?”
    “I told you. He’s coming.”
    “Get him on the speaker.”
    Brenner pointed to the phone on the desk. Romo sat down. He put the phone on speaker and tapped in a number from memory. It was answered immediately.
    “This is Richard Romo.”
    Ed Romo leaned forward to the phone and looked as though he was embarrassed by the revelation of the obvious nepotism at play.
    “Uh, yeah, Dad, this is Ed. The man from the FB-”
    “Mr. Romo?” Brenner cut in. “This is Special Agent John Brenner of the FBI. I believe we met and spoke about security issues a year ago. How far away are you, sir?”
    “Twenty to twenty-five minutes. I remember-”
    “That’s too far, sir. We need to open the hot lab safe right now to determine its contents.”
    “You can’t open that without hospital approval. I don’t care who-”
    “Mr. Romo, we have reason to believe the contents of the safe were turned over to people without the interests or safety of the American people in mind. We need to open the safe so that we know exactly what is here and what is missing. And we can’t wait twenty to twenty-five minutes to do it. Now, I have properly identified myself to your
son
and I have a radiation team in the lab right now. We have to
move
, sir. Now, how do we open the safe?”
    There was silence from the speakerphone for a few moments. Then Richard Romo relented.
    “Ed, I take it you are calling from the desk in the lab?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Okay, unlock it and open the bottom-left drawer.”
    Ed Romo rolled his chair back and studied the desk. There was a key lock on the upper-left drawer that apparently unlocked all three drawers.
    “Which key?” he asked.
    “Hold on.”
    Over the