We All Fall Down Read Online Free PDF Page A

wrist,” Carrolton said. Her voice was muffled through the mask. “Push down on the first, and you can talk to me.”
    “How’s this?” I said.
    Carrolton gave me a thumbs-up. “Perfect. Your audio is set up to talk to me and Ellen only. It’s good up to about a mile, give or take. If I’m standing right beside you, it’s usually easier to just talk through the mask. If you need to speak to the other scientists, let me know, and I’ll put you on their net. Now, hit the other button.”
    I pushed down on the second button. Images of scientists in suits collecting samples appeared on the upper quarter of my visor.
    “What you’re seeing is a video feed from one of the working areas along the tracks. We can hook you into data feeds as well, but that’s going to be up to Dr. Brazile.”
    I pushed the button again, and the video link disappeared.
    “Where is Dr. Brazile?” I said.
    “Follow me.”
    We stepped through three sets of plastic partitions and came to a curved glass divider, set into a metal frame and sealing off the rest of the platform and tunnel. A double-door system allowed access to the area. Inside the first door were two large machines, and a series of hoses connected to two gray bladders. The machines groaned like an old man who’d spent his life smoking five packs a day. The bladders wheezed like they were his charred lungs.
    “Airflow system,” Carrolton said.
    Maybe that was supposed to make me feel better. It didn’t.
    “Ready?” She looked back, but all I saw was my visor reflected in hers.
    “Open her up.”
    She cracked the second door, and we stepped through. They had set up a run of temporary stairs at the edge of the platform leading down to track level.
    “Third rail is dead,” Carrolton said. “But watch your step.”
    We walked down the middle of the track bed, our boots kicking up small puffs of black soot. Carrolton paused at the mouth of the tunnel. “Five minutes, that way.”
    She handed me a flashlight, turned on one of her own, and ran it into the darkness. The light singed a couple balls of fur that took off for points unknown.
    “Rats are still alive,” Carrolton said.
    “Albert Camus would say we have nothing to worry about.”
    Carrolton’s head turned. “Is he a bio expert?”
    “You’re kidding, right?”
    She waggled her flashlight up and down. “Just playing to type, Mr. Kelly.”
    “Funny.” I ran my own light across the scarred walls of the subway. “Seems like an awfully big area to try and seal off.”
    Carrolton began to walk. “Not really. If we got the external seals right and our readings are accurate, containment should be pretty good. Of course, that’s not the real problem with a subway deployment of pathogens.”
    “No?”
    Carrolton shook her head. “The real problem is the trains themselves.”
    “How so?”
    “Think about it. A weaponized pathogen is released in the tunnel. A train barrels down the track and into the station. The train’s momentum is going to carry some of the pathogen with it. Then the train opens its doors, allowing passengers out  … ”
    “And some of the pathogen in.”
    “Exactly. The train heads to its next stop. And the stop after that. And so on. Each time the train opens its doors, it creates a natural vacuum, and releases a little bit of the pathogen.”
    “So the train becomes a vehicle for distribution.”
    “That’s the beauty of a subway release. Homeland Security has done extensive airflow testing in tunnels like these. Developed a pretty sophisticated model for what a dispersal would look like.”
    “Great. How many trains went through here this morning?”
    “Best we can tell, maybe three before they shut things down. Two were headed toward street level and Oak Park. The other went down into the Loop  … ”
    “And O’Hare?”
    “Yes. So even if we found and contained a live pathogen this morning, what’s already left the barn  … ” Carrolton shrugged. “There’d be