Synthetic nerve agent¶
The synthetic nerve agent is a poison close to VX that contaminates the sea off Marblehead and sickens anyone who touches the water, and which a radio contact at the end of the arc says leaked from his own group's destroyed advanced team.
| Type | Lore (toxin) |
| Aliases | VX-like toxin; broad-spectrum agent; nerve-agent-like illness |
| Source | The "advanced team" of the mystery covert group, according to the radio contact |
| Exposure | Contact with the sea or tainted water |
| First appearance | Radford Horror 08 |
Description¶
The lab results Diane relays in Summer Service 03 describe the agent as "not VX exactly" but "not that far from VX," bearing a resemblance to certain jellyfish toxins but apparently synthetic. It seems to enter the body through contact with the water. (Summer Service 03)
Symptoms¶
- Survey team. Their field journal records no carbon monoxide or methane poisoning, but shakes, lightheadedness, digestive issues, headache, restlessness and dizziness, which the EPA people compared to mild nerve agent poisoning. (Radford Horror 08)
- Lena Scott. A little girl who wandered onto the beach the day after the blast was found with loss of consciousness, breathing problems, vomiting, a very fast pulse, pinhole pupils and trembling. She was on a ventilator for a couple of hours, began improving after about eight hours and was fine within a day or two. Dante privately thought the picture matched a stimulant overdose. (Summer Service 01)
- Ma Gramoire. She says she dipped a toe in the water at the beach and was suddenly "fucking terrible." (Summer Service 03)
- The task force. According to the recap in Summer Service 03, Kurt, Huell and Andrew were poisoned on a dive in the unrecorded Summer Service 02, while the Biz was not. Kurt says he "just got my hands wet." He remains feverish from lingering effects and from an adult case of chicken pox, and jokes that he has "chicken pox and nerve agent and worms, apparently." (Summer Service 03, Summer Service 04)
History¶
Discovery. Diane tells Andrew that the CDC, FEMA and an agency called the NCEH are calling the FBI's secretary pool about the toxin, and that the governor may mobilize the National Guard. (Summer Service 03) The EPA notebook in the lighthouse basement records the same nerve-agent conclusion; see EPA field journal. Big Bill reasons that a foreign presence in the waters has enough nerve agent that some of it got out. (Summer Service 03)
Official awareness. When Kurt warns Big Bill that the Guard should eat nothing in town, Big Bill answers that a nerve agent was just reported at the water and MREs are on the way. (Summer Service 04)
Kurt's theory. In Summer Service 05 Kurt tells the others that the "water weirdness," meaning the glowy thing and the nerve agent, is unlike the weirdness on land, and wonders whether somebody else was trying to contain the worm problem before the team arrived. (Summer Service 05)
The source. On a pocket radio, an unnamed contact says his side developed a toxic agent for the worms, and mentions "the advanced team." When Rita asks whether the advanced team is the dead crew in the wreck with a bite out of it, he recognizes that the team knows. Asked about the nerve agent in the water, he says, "We had to bring something broad-spectrum because we weren't sure what it was gonna make. And then, you know, we got blown up, so it leaked everywhere." (Summer Service 06) The wreck itself is covered at The stealth wreck.
The contact's side also has a liquid poison for the worm-infected, which he says could be dumped in the ocean to deal with contaminated fish. Later the team finds a big metal spray canister of liquid on the freeway, and Dante notes that it is labeled VX. See anti-worm agent canister. When a Guard officer asks how the infestation relates to the nerve agent, Rita (as Andrew) answers that they are "not entirely sure yet." (Summer Service 06)
What remains unknown¶
- How the nerve agent relates to the worms; the team and the military never work it out.
- Whether the liquid the contact calls an anti-worm agent is the same compound as the nerve agent, given the VX label on the canister. Dante asks whether it is a treatment or merely a poison.
- Whether "the water" that the gray-skinned man warned Andrew about in a dream is this contamination; see Gray-skinned dream visitor.