“Buckley Field was Vixen 03’s point of origin.” He held his head in his hands. “What went wrong so early? They must have gone down shortly after takeoff.”

“It looks as though they had mechanical problems and tried to ditch in the only open space they could find. It being winter, the lake was frozen over, and they were fooled into thinking they were coming down in a field. The weight of the aircraft then broke through the ice and sank in a deep section of the lake, deep enough so that after the ice melted in the spring, her outline could not be distinguished from the air.”

“And all this time we thought…” Bass’s voice trailed off and he sat there in silence. Finally he said softly, “Those canisters must be retrieved.” (

Salvage I 129

“Do they contain nuclear material?” Pitt asked.

“Nuclear material …” Bass repeated, his tone vague. “Is that what you think?”

“The date stated in Vixen O3’s flight plan could have put her in the South Pacific in time for the Bikini H-bomb tests. I also found a metal tag on one of the crewmen, marked with the symbol for radioactivity.”

“You misread the evidence, Mr. Pitt. True, the canisters were originally designed to house nuclear naval shells. But the night Vylander and his crew disappeared they were used for a far different purpose.”

“It’s been suggested they’re empty.”

Bass sat like a wax statue. “If only it were that simple,” he murmured. “Unfortunately, there are other instruments of war besides the nuclear kind. You might say that Vixen 03 and her crew were carriers.”

“Carriers?”

“A plague,” said Bass. “The canisters contain the Doomsday organism.”

33

An uneasy silence settled over the two men as Pitt digested the enormity of the admiral’s revelation.

“I see by your expression you are shocked,” said Bass.

” ‘Doomsday organism,’ ” Pitt repeated quietly. “It has a terrifying ring of finality about it.”

“An apt description, I assure you,” said Bass. “Technically speaking, it possessed an impressive-sounding biochemical name that was thirty letters long and quite unpronounceable. The military designation, though, was short and sweet. We simply called it ‘QD,’ short for ‘quick death.’ “

“You refer to this ‘QD’ in the past tense.”

The admiral made a helpless gesture. “Force of habit. Until your discovery of Vixen 03, I thought none still existed.”

“What exactly was it?”

“QD was the ultimate in sophisticated military weaponry. Thirty-five years ago a microbiologist by the name of Dr. John Vetterly chemically created an artificial form of life that in turn was capable of producing a disease strain that was and still is quite unknown. As simply as I can put

130 VIXEN 03p>

it, a nondetectable, unidentifiable bacteriological agent able to incapacitate a living human or animal within seconds of exposure and disrupt the vital body functions, causing death three to five minutes later.”

“Won’t nerve gas accomplish the same thing?”