Michael O’Malley sat in the interrogation room smiling. Outside the door there was nothing but chaos, and two dozen cops and agents that wanted a piece of him. By the end of the night he’d either be dead or in jail, but still, he couldn’t stop smiling.
Outside the door a team of people congregated trying to figure out what to do.
Dan Sheridan was the Special Agent sent from the F.B.I. to takeover the case. The local police were mad but once the word terrorism was uttered everyone knew the feds were coming.
Some doctor from the CDC was trying to explain to Sheridan what was happening.
“I’ve called in to the field office. They’re alerting the Bioterrorism Response Team, within a couple of hours they should be in place and be able to help control the outbreak,” the doctor said.
“How long did O’Malley give us?” Sheridan asked one of the cops.
“Four hours, sir.”
“Can they be ready in that time?” Sheridan asked.
“Should be, every fire department and hospital has been notified and a CDC response team is one the way.”
“Good. We have a bioterrorism team coming too,” Sheridan turned to another agent, “call the SAC and try and get in touch with the governor. We might need the National Guard, and find the guy from FEMA, make sure he’s not screwing things up.”
There were still a million people trying to talk, but Sheridan yelled, “Hey, one at a time. I want to know what we know before I go in there.”
A young officer stepped forward, she was part of the team that brought O’Malley in, “Michael O’Malley, number three on the F.B.I.’s most wanted list made a video last night saying that in 24 hours he would release a virus. We apprehended him earlier today. He wouldn’t talk until the F.B.I. came.”
“Okay, do we know what kind of biological agent he’s got?”
The doctor from the CDC said, “We believe that he has gotten ahold of weaponized Small Pox.”
“How in the world did he…never mind. I take it that’s bad.”
“You’ve seen the Walking Dead?”
“Yeah.”
“Worse than that.”
“Oh boy. Okay, I’m going in.”
Sheridan walked into the room with the smiling terrorist, “Mr. O’Malley.”
“Mr. Fed.”
“Clever.”
“I thought so.”
“So Mr…”
“I’m going to cut you off their. You want to know where the virus is right?”
“Yes.”
“Get the news here and I’ll tell you.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Fine. You’ve got what? 3 hours left? I’ll wait.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“Try me.”
Sheridan tried to get him to talk but it was no use. He just kept smiling.
Finally, Sheridan relented after talking to his boss and with the deadline down to two hours.
Reporters were already around the police station anyway, so Sheridan grabbed one of the reporters and a camera guy and brought them to the interrogation room.
“Okay O’Malley talk.”
“Is this live?” O’Malley asked the reporter.
“Yes,” she said.
“I don’t believe it. Someone get me a TV. I want to make sure.”
And so a television was wheeled in, and sure enough O’Malley saw himself on the news.
“Okay. You got what you wanted. Now tell me where the canisters are with the virus.”
O’Malley started laughing. “Well, I hate to be the one to tell you, but I wanted the TV people here so I could announce it myself. I put the virus in the water supply yesterday so there’s nothing anyone can do.”
The room was speechless. And from that moment on it was pure chaos.
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That hit hard. The tension was real from the start, but that last twist—O’Malley saying it’s already done? Chills. You captured the chaos and fear perfectly, and the way everyone’s scrambling while he just smiles… unsettling to say the least. It feels like the kind of scene that would stick with me in a movie. Honestly, I felt the panic settle in my chest when he dropped the water supply line.
Nice work here. The ending leaves me on the edge of my seat, and evil scientist/doctor is one of my favorite character types. I'd love to see more to characterize the people in the story. There's definitely interesting seeds, but I felt I couldn't get a clear picture.
Nice to find a fellow short fiction author, will definitely follow for more short stories!