Michael Crichton
Binary
BINARY: any system composed of two interacting elements. As in binary stars, binary numbers, binary gases, etc.
Chemical agents lend themselves to covert use in sabotage against which it is exceedingly difficult to visualize any really effective defence… I will not dwell upon this use of CBS because, as one pursues the possibilities of such covert uses, one discovers that the scenarios resemble that in which the components of a nuclear weapon are smuggled into New York City and assembled in the basement of the Empire State Building.
In other words, once the possibility is recognized to exist, about all that one can do is worry about it.
Dr Ivan L. Bennett, _7r testifying before the
Subcommittee on National Security Policy and Scientific Developments, November 20, 1969
This book was written before it became too embarrassing for the Republican Party to hold its 1972 convention in San Diego, and I preferred not to follow the convention to Miami Beach.
John Lange
PROLOGUE
BETA SCENARIOThe facts are these:
1. On August 22nd, 1972, seven men flew into Salt Lake International Airport, Salt Lake City, Utah. The men came from Las Vegas, Chicago, Dallas, and New York. All seven men have been identified; they all have connexions with organized crime. Thus far four have been picked up for questioning and their testimony provides the major portion of this report.
Each man was first contacted in his home city by an anonymous telephone call. They were each paid a thousand dollars in cash to do an unspecified job. All they knew in advance was that the job would take forty-eight hours, and that they must bring heavy boots and dark, warm clothing. Each was given an assumed name which he was to use for the duration of the job.
The men arrived in Salt Lake between noon and four PM local time. They were met separately. When all had arrived, they were transported in a 1968 white Plymouth sedan outside the city.