Biotoxin
by
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As Jon and Cindy each pulled themselves out of the light rubber Zodiac, they turned to face the nearly smooth clay colored cliffs as they loomed over the water on the other side of the river. Kurt was trying to disconnect the tangled wires from the electric motor.
Just then the ear splitting thunder of whining jets could be heard. As all of them spun toward the east just noticing the dim, gray first hint of daylight. Two Canadian Harrier jets were already passing over. The three people turned to follow the roar, mocking the viewers of a tennis match. The planes veered off, one going west, the other east in a well practiced, flawless turnaround maneuver.
Jon moved closer to Cindy and pulled her down into the long grass while he stroked her hair with his cheek. "It will be done soon and we can sit around explaining it all to each other", he murmured.
Jon really didn't know what the planes were or to whom they belonged. He could only sense that they were harbingers of failure.
Cindy pulled him closer as her arm went around his waist. They were both wet from the drizzle that had begun, making the sky even darker gray and their mission even more sinister.
Kurt Jackson was still sitting in the Zodiac, working on the motor. He had followed the Harriers’ pattern and knew what was to follow. His face seemed to reflect the gray light from the water's surface. Suddenly, Kurt called to Jon and simply pointed toward the cliffs some 700 feet away.
"Jon, I think we'd better finish our job. We've got company coming," Jackson said.
Jon and Cindy looked up to see a Canadian K-400 troop carrying helicopter hovering over the cliffs. Just then the words boomed into their minds from the loud speaker suspended below the red striped white helo. The thrumming of the blades seemed to intensify to compensate for the message from the loud speaker. Jon was trying to concentrate on the words.
"Stop where you are. This is the Canadian Coast Guard. You are under arrest. Your activities violate Canadian sovereignty. If you have not yet started your mission, please signify by raising your arms."
Jon continued the commitment to his convictions and slowly raised his arms while lowering his head. Cindy squeezed Jon's hand even harder, as he lifted hers along toward the sky.
"Kurt, how can we get them away from the area? We can't consider blowing them up. The specter of death has blackened us enough. I don't want it to be any deeper in my soul," Jon said. As Jon turned slowly away from the helicopter toward the Army engineer, all he saw was Kurt pushing the Zodiac back out into the current.
Jon and Cindy both came alive to begin screaming at Kurt. He was obviously bent on diverting the Canadians to allow Jon the time and space to detonate the charges.
Cindy grabbed Jon as he was about to lunge into the water. They nearly fell when each slid on the weedy clay that was damp with the drizzle of the night.
Cindy pointed toward the copter and hollered at Jon to make him understand. "Don't you see, Jon? The helicopter is following Kurt. They think he's up to something. They'll go after him and we can finish."
Jon looked from the water to the Canadian chopper and back to Kurt in the Zodiac. Kurt had managed to get the clumsy boat out into the current far enough that it was rapidly pulling away from the Cindy and Jon. Apparently, the Canadians felt he was up to something, because the chopper had banked steeply and was closing on Kurt and the bounding Zodiac.
Jon and Cindy scrambled up the bank and ran for the big Lincoln. They jumped in and Jon fumbled with the keys. With a roar the engine came to life. Jon spun the wheel right, and then left in a Hollywood reversal to get back from the edge of the cliffs. He was whirling his head constantly to locate the chopper and to gauge its distance from the point where the bombs were set.
As the Lincoln scrunched to a halt some five hundred feet from the edge of the St. Lawrence, Jon turned just in time to see the side mounted Gattling gun on the Canadian helicopter spit fire down into the river. He cringed and swore silently with a hatred for the waste of another life.
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About the Book
An EPA Scientist, Jon Kepler, discovers an unknown compound in a fish tissue sample from Lake Michigan. The compound seems to be related to the pollutant, PCBs. As Jon sleuths the source of the unknown chemical, he enters a race to convince both the EPA and the City of Chicago that some recent deaths might be related to the consumption of fish from the Lake. That deaths are recorded by the County Coroner, noting that the patients spent the last 30 hours of their lives in screaming agony as the Calcium was dissolved from their bones, making them “slug-like” in death. Jon teams with a biologist from an EPA contractor, a police captain and an Army Corps of Engineers buddy to try to stop the disease-carrying fish from reaching the St. Lawrence Seaway and from their into the worlds oceans.
A combination Clive Cussler-Stephen King novel, BIOTOXIN is a fast, energetic read and is a fascinating mix of mystery, terror, sex, and two people’s dedication to an ideal and the fate of the world population.
About the Author
William Gartner is a graduate scientist with 18 issued patents and more than 30 years experience in the environmental field with many appearances on television and in the press. This father of 5 children has long been a prolific technical writer and wanted to combine that scientific knowledge with a vivid imagination and motion picture mind to create the ultimate novel of environmental terror.
Mr. Gartner has traveled extensively throughout Asia and Europe visiting industrial sites that have been heavily polluted. The author lived in the Chicago area for more than 25 years and based the novel in the area. Many of the locations, buildings, lakes, tributaries and other geographical places are real. The circumstances on which the concept of a biotoxin is based is not outside the realm of possibility.
His education includes a degree in Chemistry from Lewis University and graduate studies at Northwestern University.
Mr. Gartner is working on two additional novels. The first, titled Canals, is about the first manned mission to Mars and what they fined in the Canals. The second is titled 2022 and is about a judicial computer program that loses its goals and direction.