for VZ, Nordmann – a forensic scientist attached to the case – reasons that there are other chemicals that can stave off the effects of VZ, possibly long enough for Graves to enter the apartment, nullify the remote detonator and leave again. Graves takes the chemicals, noting with irony that they may also kill him, and enters the apartment. Once inside he finds that the booby traps are a sham, and the only danger is from the VZ gas itself which he vents through a window – being on the 19th floor the gas dissipates harmlessly into the unoccupied street below. Moments after he disconnects the pipes from the tanks the timer activates and click open – but being disconnected no gas is created, and Graves leaves the apartment pensive, thinking that the victory has been too easily achieved. To support this theory he discusses his psychological profile with Nordmann & Phelps, stressing that his key psyche flaw is that he considers tasks complete when in reality they are often only partially finished. Phelps is dismissive, but Nordmann supports Graves' theory, and he is partially vindicated when a booby trap disables the lifts, trapping everybody on the 19th floor – but the booby trap was timed to go off after the venting was complete. Graves takes this to mean that Wright knew he might disarm the tanks, and so had a backup plan. He recalls the flammable nature of the tanks, and the missing plastic explosive, reasoning that Wright had intended the tanks to explode after being emptied – thus destroying any lingering evidence. Panicking, he realises that if the still-full tanks explode in the same room, enough of the two agents would still combine to kill thousands, and that this is Wright's backup plan. One tank is frantically manhandled out of the open venting window and it explodes as it falls to the street. The other tank explodes in the hallway of the apartment block. The two binary chemicals are harmless by themselves, and nobody is injured by either the liquid chemicals or the explosions. In an aftermath Graves observes that in order to prevent public panic the incident is hushed up, being only referred to as a chemical theft "halted by intervention of the Defense Department, with some minor assistance by State Department personnel, particularly Mr. R. Phelps" and that although official departmental changes are recommended to prevent