Activity was bustling at the command post. There was a light wind at the site, but no heavy gusts. The previous night's storms had moved completely out of the area, leaving behind a few scattered clouds.

Blair pushed the gearshift into park, turned off the engine and took the keys out of the ignition. Jim reached across the seat and grabbed the keys from his partner before he could pocket them. Gingerly, Jim exited the truck. Blair watched his partner's slow moving form and asked "Are you sure you're OK?"

"I'm sure. Let's go, Chief."

He and Blair looked around the command post for Commander Reeves. The decon area was already set up. A half dozen people already wore the Level-A containment suits, minus the hoods, and looked very much like giant blue Pillsbury doughboys.

Jim spotted Simon standing with Commander Reeves and what looked to be the entire hazmat team by the mobile command vehicle. It appeared that they were just getting ready to start the initial briefing. Jim tapped Blair on the shoulder and pointed over to Simon. "There they are."

The two men wove their way through the crowd over to their Captain.

"Hi Simon. What are you doing here?" Blair asked with a quiet but slightly flippant tone.

"Gee, Sandburg," answered Simon as he removed his cigar from his mouth, pointing it at the smaller man, "I hear a call over the radio about a hazardous spill, shouldn't I automatically assume that you two would be right in the middle of it? Where else should I be?" Simon replied in his usual gruff tone, with a steely-eyed glare at Sandburg. But Blair, used to Simon's posturing, smiled right back at him.

Simon paused as he fondly remembered the golden days when Sandburg had some minimum level of fear when he spoke. "Seriously, as senior officer on the scene for Cascade PD. I'm coordinating our services with the incident commander. So gentlemen, and I use that term loosely in your case, Sandburg, let's pay attention to Commander Reeves."

"...Davis, you're Safety Officer. Simpson, sorry about this but you're the designated Media Liaison this time. Please try to keep that pack of vultures out of our way. Walters, you're the Communications Officer. Fire Chief Branson, you're the Operations Coordinator." As Commander Reeves was speaking, she was handing out truly god-awful, hot pink vests with each person's designated title printed in large letters on the front and back. "Everyone, this is Captain Simon Banks of Cascade PD. He will be handling Security. Captain, there is no smoking in this area. The other two men with him are detectives on his staff, Jim Ellison and Blair Sandburg..."

As Simon reached out to take his vest, he spoke under his breath, in his best captain's voice, to his two detectives. "One word from either of you about this vest, and you will be doing the entire unit's paperwork for the next six months. Am I understood?"

Both Jim and Blair fought to contain their laughter at the image of their normally very conservatively dressed captain wearing that particular article of clothing. Simon extinguished his cigar and put on the vest. Staring at his men, he awaited their response.

Barely managing to keep a straight face, Jim and Blair replied simultaneously, with a sloppy salute to their fearsome leader in his new hot pink vest, "Yes, SIR!" As Simon refocused his attention on the meeting, Blair whispered to his partner, "I wish I had a camera. This is definitely a Kodak moment." Jim shook his head and bit his tongue to keep from laughing out loud.

When they finally succeeded in controlling their mirth, they were able to listen to the final instructions being given to the entry team. "Remember people, this is an initial recon only. Henderson, I want you to check out the driver. The manifest for the load should be on the driver's side door. Grab that on your way. Peters, you check those drums in the truck for labels or other identification. Let's move it!"

The entry team finished suiting up and headed for the cargo truck. The other team members quickly assumed their posts. Only Chief Branson remained. Commander Reeves turned around and faced the men standing behind her.

"What's the status of your teams?"

Simon started his portion of the briefing. "Cascade PD. has established an isolation zone a half mile in all directions around the spill site. Traffic is being routed away from this area at a distance of two miles as a safety zone."

The fire chief continued with his portion of the briefing. "We have two pumper trucks stationed one quarter mile downwind of the spill site. We are ready to create a water curtain to knock that fume cloud down as soon as it reaches us. My men are suited up and already in position. We have also laid out plastic sheets on the street in front of absorbent booms. That should prevent the contamination from spreading any further. We have a vacuum truck on standby to immediately clean up the runoff from the water curtain."

Blair interrupted the fire chief at that point. "The spill is not confined to the street. Several barrels were thrown into the park as a result of that explosion. Part of the grassy area on the far side of the truck has already been contaminated and the runoff may have already made it to the pond."

"Damn, there isn't much we can do about that right now. We have to get the initial spill zone and the fume cloud contained first, then we can worry about the cleanup of the park." Commander Reeves walked over to the mobile command unit to establish radio contact with her entry team.

"Henderson, what do you have for me?"

"Commander, the driver is definitely dead. It's really not a pretty sight. Whatever this stuff is, it's very corrosive to human tissue. It looks like the drums that were up against the back of the cab were the first to go. There is evidence that the chemical ate its way through the cab of the truck. It's probable that fumes overcame the driver, which resulted in the truck running off the road. There's no paperwork about the load anywhere in the cab of the truck. I don't see anything that could identify the trucking company, or where the material was picked up. The driver's logbook is pretty incomplete."

Commander Reeves shook her head in frustration. "How about you, Peters? What have you got?"

"Bad news: most of these drums have multiple labels on them, all indicating different chemicals in the same drum. No way to sort out which label is accurate. I've done a quick litmus paper check on several of the barrels lying on the street. So far, they have all indicated a pH less than 1. We are dealing with some type of acid..."

Jim noticed that Blair's attention was concentrated on the accident site rather than the radio conversation. He whispered to his partner, "Hey, Darwin, I can see the smoke coming out of your ears. Your brain is obviously about to overload. Want to let me in on what you're thinking?"

Blair responded with a thoughtful expression. "Why did that explosion occur? I understand that the barrels could have leaked. The metal on the truck's cab being eaten away and taking out the driver makes sense. The sulfur odor and the mist cloud, everything we've seen points to an acid like sulfuric being spilled. But, none of those facts explains that explosion. We are missing something here, something important. There is more going on inside that truck than a simple acid leak."

Commander Reeves overheard the two men's discussion, "I think you're right, Sandburg. We are missing something. Peters, I want you to check the drums on the park grounds, then check what you can inside the truck. Be careful, the explosion earlier was caused by something in that storage compartment. It was strong enough to launch those barrels through the side panel. Captain Banks, would you run the truck's plates through Motor Vehicles? Get me the name of the owner from the registration records."

Simon moved to the side of the command post to relay the license plate information to the dispatcher at police headquarters. As he waited for a response, he motioned to Blair for a pen and notepad. Blair reached into his jacket pocket and produced a pencil. Jim handed the Captain his notepad. Simon wrote down the name AAA Trucking Company with a phone number underneath. Simon then quickly dialed the trucking company, and explained the situation. The owner was extremely helpful. His regular driver had called in sick. He had recommended a friend, an independent driver, as a replacement driver. The schedule indicated only one pickup the previous night, a company called ChemCO, a large chemical factory in downtown Cascade.

Before Simon could dial ChemCO's number, Peters' voice crackled over the radio. Everyone at the command post fell completely silent as they listened to the report. "There are at least another twenty drums inside the truck, and none of them are in good shape. It's a mixed load. There are several different sized containers in the storage compartment; most of them are identified with lab pack labels. I also checked the drums on the park grounds. Three of those barrels are still completely intact. I think we had a BLEVE, Commander, though it appears that the temperature within the storage compartment has since stabilized."

The safety officer caught Reeves's attention and tapped on his watch.

"Peters, Henderson, come back right now, your time's up. There is just enough left in the air packs to get you through decon."

Reeves looked over at the three detectives. All wearing the same very confused expression, and translated what had been reported.

"The phrase 'mixed load' simply means we have a variety of different chemicals packed in the truck. Lab packs are bad news. Lab packs are a mixture of compatible chemicals that have been combined in the same container. Most lab packs are made up of waste material from a laboratory that couldn't be put down the drain. There isn't any way to identify the chemicals without an in- depth qualitative analysis. The word BLEVE is short for boiling liquid-expanding vapor explosion. When the temperature inside a drum or tank increases, the liquid inside can be converted to a gas, increasing the pressure faster than the safety valve can relieve it. It can reach the point where the drum can explode. Think of it as a large cannon. That's why several of the drums are still intact. They were literally launched from the truck like a cannonball, from the drums underneath exploding. Some of these explosions have been known to launch drums several hundred feet in the air. In this case, the majority of the force was dissipated by the energy required to penetrate the truck's side panel. Since the temperature has now stabilized, we can assume that the chemicals that have already spilled have completely reacted. Still it would be a good idea to contact ChemCO. See if they can identify the probable components of those lab packs."

The Commander, with a relieved smile, walked over to debrief the entry team as they left the decon zone. The worst of any potential problems with this type of incident had already occurred. As long as the remaining drums stayed intact, it was a relatively straightforward cleanup operation.

Simon was on hold. Again. He had explained the situation to three different bureaucrats at ChemCO already. Each person had been unwilling to give any details of the shipment and passed him up the executive food chain. He was currently speaking with the executive secretary of the President of ChemCO when he noticed two unidentified men wandering around the command post. Simon moved in their direction. Tapping the taller of the two men on the shoulder Simon asked, "Can I help you?"

The smaller of the two men reached for his identification. "I'm Inspector David Cole from the Department of Justice and this is Inspector Robert Williams from the Environmental Protection Agency. We were looking to report in to Commander Reeves. We have some information for her."

Just then, the secretary that had put Simon on hold returned to the line. Simon held up one finger to the men in front of him as he focused his attention on the voice coming from his cell phone. "I'm sorry, Sir, but the President is unavailable right now. Would you like to leave a message?"

"No, Ms. Witch, I don't want to leave a message. This is an emergency situation, I need to speak with someone who can give me some straight answers and I need those answers right NOW!"

Inspector Cole caught Simon's attention and mouthed the word ChemCO, pointing at the phone with one finger. Simon quickly nodded, and the inspector motioned for the phone. Simon, with a delighted smile, handed the phone over.

"Ms. Witch, this is Inspector Cole from the DOJ. Tell Mr. Edwards that I can be at his office in fifteen minutes with both a search and an arrest warrant, or he can speak with me right now."

"One moment please, Mr. Cole."

After he was put on hold, Inspector Cole with a smile explained, "It's not just her name, it's her personality too. My department has a long history with ChemCO. They have had numerous violations of both the air and water standards. Several audits of their records have been completed over the last six months revealing numerous problems with their shipping practices. Right now they are under several court orders to straighten out their... Hello Mr. Edwards. You seem to have a major problem..."

Inspector Williams continued the explanation. "The EPA just one month ago signed off on an agreement with ChemCO closing out one of those orders. One of the conditions was that all their people had to be trained on the handling of hazardous wastes. According to the documents they submitted to us, all their personnel had completed the training, so we agreed to discontinue the order. That's why the DOJ is involved in this particular incident. Up 'til now, all we have been able to do to ChemCO is issue civil penalties concerning violations. They have managed to avoid all criminal charges. This time, they can't claim ignorance, or that 'they are working on the problem'. This time the charges against them will be criminal. The law specifies that the company shipping the hazardous material is responsible for making sure that its wastes are disposed of in an appropriate manner, and that any truck leaving their facility is properly placarded and has the correct paperwork. This time there is no one else to blame. The law also states that any company shipping hazardous materials must maintain a twenty-four hour emergency contact number. In event of an accident like this one, information can be made available quickly to the Emergency Response Teams. If you send me a written summary of the run-around you've gotten, we can add another nail to ChemCO's coffin."