Chapter 58 Chapter 58

Early the next morning, the plane took off from Dulles Airport in Washington and rose smoothly into the sky.Puller downed a bottle of water and spent most of the short flight looking out the porthole.He glanced at his watch, it was almost six o'clock.He'd tried to sleep last night, but even the habits of long-trained troops couldn't send him to sleep, because his mind kept spinning like the plane's engine. The plane landed in Charleston in less than an hour.He pulled the Malibu out of the parking lot and arrived at Drake at breakfast.He called Cole on the way, and the two met at the Bullpen.He drank two more cups of coffee than usual and ate the big plateful of breakfast the restaurant offered.

Cole watched as the mountain of food faded away from Pooler. "Didn't they feed you in the capital?" she asked. Pooler took a bite out of the egg and the pancake. "I was not fed this trip. I can't even remember when I had my last meal, maybe yesterday morning." She sipped her coffee, broke off a small piece of bread and put it in her mouth. "You've gained a lot from your travels, haven't you?" "Not bad. Actually we have a lot to talk about. But not here." "Very important?" "You don't think it's a waste of time. How are you doing?"

"The court order has been passed," she pulled out a few pages, "and I've got the soil test report." Puller put down his fork and stared at the pages. "Go ahead." "All I'm going to say next is that I'm not a scientist." "Let me see." She handed over the report. As he took the report, Cole said: "The first two pages are legal chants, mostly pre-announcements, if there is a problem with their company's reporting, or their test results are not accurate enough to go to court. , they are 100% not responsible for anything."

"What a relief," Pooler muttered. He turned to the third page and began to read carefully.After a while he said: "I'm not a scientist either. I see words like apatite, rutile, marcasite, lead sulfide, sphalerite, and the like, which I've never encountered before. But I also see uranium mentioned here, a word I know of course." "Don't bet all your bets on it. Fifty-three of West Virginia's fifty-five counties produce coal, and where there's coal, there's usually uranium, too, though with lower radioactive doses. People tend to There is a very small amount of uranium in the air we breathe all the time, but it does not pose any harm to the human body. The radioactivity of uranium mentioned in this report is only a few parts per million, which is completely normal in nature.”

"Are you sure? You said you were not a scientist." "Of course, just as I can say with certainty that coal is a rock rather than a mineral. Minerals are inorganic substances. Since coal is formed by burying organic matter underground, it cannot be recognized as a real mineral academically. Accurate In other words, coal contains other minerals in it." "Do people in West Virginia understand these things?" "Oh, of course not everyone understands it, but many do. It's no surprise in a state like ours where bituminous coal is a major mineral resource."

Puller pored over the papers and said, "Can we figure out where this soil sample came from?" "The worst thing is this, we don't know. It could have come from anywhere. The report doesn't say where the sample came from. I guess the company thinks Reynolds knows where the sample came from anyway." "Well, let's assume it's from Drake's area, because I don't think Reynolds ever left here to go anywhere else." Cole fiddled with a small bag of sugar in his hand, bending it back and forth until it broke.White crystals scattered on the table, and Cole swept them into the tray under the coffee cup with his hands.

“Could Reynolds be concerned about something in another place? Maybe it’s not about Drake, maybe that sample came from Washington,” she asked. "I don't think so, especially based on what I've learned from there." "Then hurry up and finish your meal, let's get out of here quickly, so you can tell me everything." "Okay, but first we have to go to the police station. I have to fax this soil test report to two places." They paid the bill and got into the police car that Cole parked outside.She drove to the police station, and Puller faxed a copy of the report to Joe Mason in Washington and to Christine Craig at the Army Criminal Investigative Laboratory in Atlanta.

Back in the car, Cole turned to Pooler.She was wearing a police uniform, and the gun belt slung across her body made it difficult to turn around, but it seemed that she had to turn and face Puller directly. "Say it now, Pooler, and don't hide anything." "Are you qualified to know the classified information?" "I told you I didn't, unless you count the low-end secrecy certification I got while working in the State Police, but I doubt you federal agency guys take that seriously. " "I heard you clearly. Now I know you understand the truth of this. What I am about to say next is highly classified, and I may be severely punished for saying this to you."

"I heard that too. They'll never hear it from me." Puller looked out the window and said, "Dickie Strauss and his big friend are sitting in the bullpen looking at us." "More than half of Drake's people are watching too." "We still have to figure out how his tattoo sleeves relate to Trivel's?" "Yes, to find out. But all you have to do right now is hurry up and talk to me." "Get in the car. I'd rather tell you these things in a car moving forward, and drive east, please." "why?" "Because after hearing that you might wish to drive all the way to the East Coast."