HAS ANYONE CLAIMED responsibility?” Vanderwaal was tired. Even the sight of the cherry blossoms in full bloom around the Tidal Basin couldn’t perk him up.

     “Someone claiming to be Al-Qaeda,” Newman said, “but it’s got a pretty low confidence coefficient.”

     Vanderwaal was lost in thought. One of the biggest heists on record, and for all the leads they had, they may as well be looking for someone taking pencils home from work.

     The only interesting aspect to the case so far was a group of top secret army guys who had taken possession of the speaker stuff. They also collected samples of the grass, tree leaves, and flowers from the immediate area. All terribly hush-hush. Need to know basis. National security and all.

     Word had it they suspected someone with knowledge of some super-secret weapon they had developed, then discarded back in the ‘60s. Made sense. Special ops could probably pull off something like this.

     But what kind of weapon could render hundreds of people comatose almost instantaneously yet allow others to walk around like it was Sunday afternoon at the park?

     And if such technology did exist, why hadn’t local law enforcement been told about it? Dickheads. Jesus! They were lucky the terrorists hadn’t robbed the bank while they were at it. No one would have tried to stop them. Everyone, both inside and out of the bank was, for all intents and purposes, asleep at the switch.

     Come to think of it, why didn’t they rob the bank? The vault would have already been opened. There were several million dollars in untraceable cash, not to mention whatever valuables might be in safety deposit boxes. Missed opportunity, or what?

     And who pulls off a job like this without a single fatality? A few drivers banged their heads on steering wheels when their cars slid into each other or telephone poles or trees, but nothing serious.

It’s almost as if it were planned that way …