Page 108 of The Grey Wolf
“Merci.If this is real, how would they do it?”
“You know how, from your time on the committee.”
“That was a few years ago. I remember most, but probably not all, and things might have changed, evolved. Does ‘Chartreuse’ mean anything to you?”
“The color?”
“Maybe, but more likely the drink.”
“Only that Chartreuse would not be my poison of choice. Why?”
“It keeps coming up. I was wondering if any terrorist group was using it as a code.”
“I’ll look, but it doesn’t sound familiar. You asked how drinking water could be contaminated.”
“Oui.”
“It’s not as easy as people think, certainly as conspiracy theorists think. An organization would have to have access to three things to even come close to success. They’d have to hack the computers and override security to bypass the filtration systems at the treatment plant. They’d need someone on the inside to physically put the contaminant into the system, and they’d need the poison. Probably in liquid form. Almost certainly in some small household container that wouldn’t be questioned by security. Probably one of those pill bottles or a travel shampoo bottle, that sort of thing.”
“And what would the poison be?”
“Not Chartreuse, I can tell you that much.”
“Good to know.”
“There’s sarin gas, which is actually a liquid. It’s water-soluble and has a history of use. Look at what happened in Japan. But it’s unstable. The thinking now is that a bioweapon is most likely to be used in drinking water. Several have been weaponized. Anthrax. Q fever. Ricin. But if I was going to do it? I’d use botulinum.”
“Botulism?”
“Right. A neurotoxin. Works on the muscles. Causes paralysis. According to the latest data, a gram can kill a million people.”
Gamache walked over to a concrete block in the grand lobby of the Musée, barely making it before his legs gave way and he sat with a thump.
He stared straight ahead, absorbing what he had heard.
“And it can be put into water?” He knew that not all neurotoxins were effective in water.
“Yes. And remember, Armand, water splashes when it pours out, so the toxin would also become airborne.”
He felt lightheaded but had to pull himself together. “Where would someone get botulinum?”
“It used to be called the miracle poison. That’s where Botox comes from. But what we’re talking about is a whole other class of toxin.”
“Where, Sherry. Where would someone get enough to poison a whole city?”
There was a pause. “Well, it wouldn’t take much, and—”
“Yes?”
“We don’t know where it all went.”
“I’m sorry, what?”
“When the Soviet Union fell, so did its bioweapons program. By the time the West thought to look, most was missing.”
“Yes, I know about that. But that was decades ago. The thinking is, if any terrorist organization was going to use it, they’d have done it by now.”
“There’s domestic, state-sanctioned terrorism too.”
