And if it enters the Japan Current and is carried south, it could poison every man, fish, animal and bird it touched along the West Coast as far south as Mexico. The human death toll could conceivably reach into the hundreds of thousands. Fishermen, swimmers, anyone who walked along a contaminated shoreline, anybody who ate contaminated fish-it's like a chain reaction. I don't even want to think what might happen if it evaporates into the atmosphere and falls with the rain over the inland states!"

Fawcett found it almost impossible to grasp the enormity of it.

"Christ, what in hell is it?"

"Too early to tell," Sandecker replied. "The Environmental Protection Agency has a computerized mass data storage and retrieval system that contains detailed information on two hundred relevant characteristics of some eleven hundred chemical compounds.

Within a few seconds they can determine the effects a hazardous substance can have when spilled, its trade name, formula, major producers, mode of transportation and threat to the environment.

The Alaskan contamination doesn't fit any of the data in their computer files."

"Surely they must have some idea?"

"No, sir. They don't. There is one slim possibility-but without autopsy reports it's strictly conjecture."

"I'd like to hear it," the President said.

Sandecker took a deep breath. "The three worst poisonous substances known to man are plutonium, Dioxin and a chemical warfare system. The first two don't fit the pattern. The third-at least in my mind-is a prune suspect."

The President stared at Sandecker, realization and shock on his face. "Nerve Agent S?" he said slowly.

Sandecker nodded silently.

"That's why the EPA wouldn't have a handle on it," the President mused. "The formula is ultrasecret."

Fawcett turned to the President. "I'm afraid I'm not familiar.. ."

"Nerve Agent S was an ungodly compound the scientists at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal developed about twenty years ago," the President explained. "I've read the report on the tests. It could kill within a few seconds of touching the skin. It seemed the ineal answer to an enemy wearing gas masks or protective gear. It clung to everything it touched. But its properties were too unstable-as dangerous to the troops dispersing it as to those on the receiving end. The Army gave up on it and buried it in the Nevada desert."

"I fail to see a connection between Nevada and Alaska," Fawcett said.

"During shipment by railroad from the arsenal outside Denver," Sandecker enlightened him, "a boxcar containing nearly a thousand gallons of Nerve Agent S vanished. It is still missing and unaccounted for."

"If the spill is indeed this nerve agent, once it's found, what is the process for eliminating it?"