Final Act

by Van Fleisher

  ***

  Washington, D.C. FBI Supervisory Special Agent Zoe Brouet was in her office early on Monday morning, too. She was short in height, high in energy, an athletic, honey-colored young woman, devoted to her job. Her phone rang, and she was pleased that it was Vijay and not a report of a mass murder somewhere. They exchanged pleasantries, but Vijay sounded excited, so she asked, “What’s up?”

  Vijay gave her the short version, “This could be a breakthrough! On Saturday, our system picked up two simultaneous alerts from two VT2 wearers in Rome, Georgia. One was a Mildred Pierce, a Final Notice recipient and gun owner who displayed blood readings and hormonal changes that we believe are consistent with anger and revenge. And as an update, she died on Sunday of natural causes, consistent with her Final Notice prediction.

  “The other person is Harlan Snell, a VT2 wearer, and also a gun owner. Snell had not received a Final Notice, but he died suddenly, and there was an extreme hormonal spike – at the exact time of death – that would indicate fear. The time of his death coincided with a short spike in Pierce’s analysis that we believe shows happiness or satisfaction.”

  Zoe was writing down details as she took in the information. “Seems like more than a coincidence, doesn’t it? Any thoughts?”

  Vijay confessed, “I’ll have to admit to playing detective over the weekend so, what about this? Pierce knows she will die very soon, and something, perhaps an encounter with Snell, angers her, and she kills him. Snell is surprised by the encounter; his cortisol spikes, and he recoils in fear as Pierce shoots him.”

  Zoe smiled despite the grave nature of the conversation. “Very plausible. You’re hired.”

  Vijay laughed, “Check it out and let me know.”

  Zoe’s interest picked up. “OK, I will, but are you saying that you can determine the likelihood that someone might kill by these hormonal changes?”

  Vijay replied cautiously, “That’s the track we’ve been following, based on historical and current findings. We’ve been able to pull out some old data from earlier incidents, and, along with these current ones, I’m feeling more confident that we can make that prediction. Still early stages and we have a long way to go with the lead times. This event in Rome wasn’t captured until seconds before it occurred, so we have to look back historically to see if there’s an earlier pattern we can pick up sooner.”

  Zoe fought against being too hopeful. “Hmm. You’re right. Very short notices like that won’t help us unless we happen to be standing next to a potential shooter.”

  Vijay remained upbeat. “Let’s see where this leads us. At least I’m fairly confident that we’ve identified the right markers, and the device is capturing them.”

  “OK, but you know the pressure I’m under.”

  “I do, and I’m under pressure from myself, and that can be crushing. Let me know about Rome and if I still have that job offer.”

  Zoe laughed, “OK. Keep running those numbers.”

  She hung up, looked up the number for the Rome, Georgia police, asked for the ranking detective on duty, and was placed on hold. As she waited, she reflected that although it seemed like only yesterday, it was two years ago that the VT2 watch had hit the market. Vijay’s invention had brought an unintended consequence along with its technology, with fatal implications for a number of people. Sales had soared to over ten million, and 65-70% of those VT2 purchasers had a gun. The number of incidents was growing at a rate that significantly exceeded the FBI’s expectations, based on the earlier test period, and Zoe attributed this increase to two factors: Increased gun ownership (gun ownership had grown from 60% to 72% in the past two years) and significant publicity surrounding several high-profile VT2-related murders. These now-infamous murders had spawned copycat acts by users of the “Death Watch,” as some of the more incendiary publications called it.

  Zoe was interrupted from her thoughts when Detective Taylor came on the line. Zoe explained the situation to her carefully, given her desire to keep the level of cooperation between the FBI and VitalTech below the radar. She started with, “Have there been any shootings in Rome over the weekend?”

  Zoe detected a few seconds of silence before Taylor answered in a pleasant, very Southern drawl, “Why yes, there have been? Why are you asking?”

  Zoe picked up on the plural response, “Have been, as in more than one?”

  Taylor replied, “Yes. Two men were shot and killed on Saturday morning.”

  “Was one of them Harlan Snell?”

  “How did you know that? Yes. He and another local low life were gunned down in their truck. We think it was drug-related. What do you know?”

  Ignoring the question, Zoe continued, “Are you familiar with Mildred Pierce?”

  “Agent Brouet, Rome’s a small town, but that doesn’t mean we know everyone. Or at least, I don’t. What’s this all about?”

  “I’m sorry, Detective. I can’t give you any specifics, but we have reason to believe that a Mildred Pierce of Rome may have been the person who shot Snell or at least was involved with his and the other person’s murders. We also believe that Pierce is now deceased. Can you please have someone investigate and get back with me?”

  Zoe hung up without waiting for an answer and stared at the ‘VT2 Watch List’ on her screen. The report from VitalTech provided her department with the updated names and addresses of VT2 wearers, who had advised their doctors that they owned guns. The list also included all Final Notice recipients. Unfortunately, the information had been only marginally helpful for several reasons: First, gun ownership information was not comprehensively available and varied from state to state. The VT2 wearer’s doctors were the primary sources of the information. When the Affordable Care Act and its required mandate were phased out, the number of people who had a regular doctor had significantly decreased. Some states even prohibited doctors from asking about gun access. Also, illegally or unofficially acquired guns were often not listed. Not surprisingly, at least so far, none of this information had helped Zoe and her team pro-actively stop Final Notice recipients from killing.

  In the early stages of the device’s roll-out, many incidents were a result of older wearers taking revenge for real or perceived ageism slights. Then, several politicians had been gunned down by people who had received their Final Notice. Now, with an election looming, politicians were among her top concerns.

  Another trending category of incidents was the result of spousal abuse, sometimes involving women using their husbands’ guns to get retribution before their own ‘Notice’ period was up, or in some cases getting their MeToo revenge.

  Recently, too, CEOs and other senior or supervisory employees of companies, both large and small, had become prime targets, including a recent, high profile murder of a major airline’s CEO. The CEO had been credited with steering his company through bankruptcy, in part by dumping their existing pension plan off to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, an independent agency of the federal government. As a result, many employees saw their pensions cut in half, while the CEO got a multi-million-dollar bonus. A ramp service agent of the airline, who had received his Final Notice, shot and killed the CEO at a company gathering that had been called to quell strike action. Newspapers from around the country carried comments from fellow employees expressing their sorrow for missing the opportunity to do it themselves.

  As she thought about this incident, Zoe realized that even without the advance warning that Vijay was working on, this was one they could have stopped, by merely having access to one more piece of information – employment details: company, position, location. They needed to think outside the box to protect likely, high profile targets, as defined by her boss. She made a note to ask Vijay if employment information was available and brainstorm with him to see if there was any other information he could provide. In the airline case, if they had been collecting information about potential triggers such as bankruptcies, layoffs, and strike actions, they could have matched Final Notice recipients ag
ainst their list. The Final Notice shooter at the airline would have matched against the high-profile target CEO.

  Less straightforward were the political and judicial targets. After a number of Republican politicians were killed during the VT2 test period, including three by a fellow GOP senator, the next wave gunned down were Democrats killed by white supremacists and neo-Nazis. In response to this, the Antifada, on the left, decided that retaliation was required. Senators and Representatives from local, state, and federal levels, already avoiding confrontations with their constituents at town hall meetings, had begun to hold streamed television feed meetings from secure locations. Despite their precautions, a few congressmen at the state level fell victim to left-wing killings.

  Judges, too, often highly politicized, were at risk. Two judges, one at the federal level and another at the state level, had been gunned down by Notice recipients.

  The vast majority of Notice killings were more mundane, although sometimes more tragic, often involving recent or long-standing neighbor disputes, employee-employer issues, or perceived service industry slights and rudeness. Family disputes, too, saw their VT2 incident numbers rise, although these were, in some cases, a result of arguments that got out of hand, but within reach of a gun.

  Zoe was moved by all the tragedies she’d seen; in fact, she lived in constant fear of the next big one, especially after a tense meeting she’d had with her boss, Eric Hawke.

  ***

  It was early on a Monday morning a little more than a month ago that Zoe had arrived at her office, and jumped with surprise to find Eric Hawke, the Executive Assistant Director, sitting in her chair at her desk. He was a serious, all-business, career bureaucrat, with his eye always on the next rung of the ladder. So far, during the current administration in the White House, that ladder seemed quite rickety and rife with both opportunities and pitfalls. While Hawke appreciated the effort that Zoe had made in trying to control the Final Notice killings - he had promoted her and expanded her department - he was under extreme pressure to rein them in. He was also pretty sure that the current ‘after-the-fact’ system would not help in the newly evolving scenario.

  Curiously, Hawke remained in her chair, so Zoe sat in a visitor’s chair. He wasted no time with formalities. She listened to his somber words as he said, “Our country is more divided than ever and polarized in ways we have never experienced – politically and culturally. The result is that we have factions on both the far right and left that will do whatever is necessary to achieve their aims. Plus, hate crimes against Latinos, African Americans, Muslims, and Jews are on the rise. That means guns and bloodshed. And that’s on top of the credible belief that the Russians hacked into the last election cycle and plan to do it again. Even worse, other countries may join them.”

  The seriousness of Hawke’s opening words weighed on her as she asked if there were any specific threats.

  Hawke admitted that, at the moment, there weren’t any. However, with a Presidential election looming, there was an increasing concern, both with respect to intimidation as well as actual attacks on candidates. There were concerns about the Russians, Chinese, Turks, and Iranians, even the North Koreans and Saudis. But one that also concerned Hawke and Zoe was the increased likelihood and chilling willingness of Final Notice recipients to kill with impunity.

  Zoe’s mind was racing as she took in the implications and the new urgency that Hawke presented, when he asked, “Are you still in communication with VitalTech?”

  “Yes, sir. We’re still in the loop regarding VT2 users with guns …”

  Hawke interrupted, “How big is that list now?”

  “About six million.”

  “Jesus! Six million with guns? Have they been able to give us any help, other than names and addresses?”

  Zoe had been very non-committal, “Vijay Patel is working on various possibilities.”

  “I thought he sold the business.”

  “He did, but he’s doing this on his own.” And when she saw the puzzled look on Hawke’s face, she added, “The killings have always bothered him. I don’t think he would have ever invented the watch had he known.”

  Sarcastically Hawke asked, “So now he’s trying to atone?”

  “Something like that.”

  He had looked at her incredulously but then stated, “I want you to develop a plan that deals with the situation as we know it today, taking into account the added threat of the political circus that we’ll be dealing with, leading up to and during the elections. I need to understand our resource and capability requirements, lead times, and plans to deal with three threat levels, in reverse order of priority: Non-Political … High-Level Non-Political including business leaders, religious leaders, and any other celebrity level threats … and finally, Political and Judiciary.”

  ***

  Zoe’s phone rang, bringing her back to the present. It was Detective Taylor. She confirmed that Mildred Pierce had died of natural causes and that a gun was found in her apartment. An analysis of the gun confirmed that it was the weapon used to kill the two men.

  ***

  CHAPTER 3 – TOUCHING

  Washington, D.C. Zoe called Vijay with the news from Rome and telling him that the job offer was still open. She added, however, “But the pay sucks and the working conditions are awful.”

  Vijay passed on the job but said, “Looking at her hormonal readings leading up to what probably was when she killed the men, it looks like something triggered an immediate spike, and she went from very calm, and even happy, to a state of rage and then an immediate return to normal. Not long after that, her anger returned for a short while, although it was on a very different level than earlier, returning to normal from then on.”

  Zoe asked if he had any explanation.

  “I have no idea what happened when she killed the guys, other than saying it was sudden. Perhaps the killing gave her peace, and then she thought about it again, later and it agitated her once more. Something stirred her up twenty-seven minutes after the big spike.”

  Zoe commented, “I guess we’ll never know.”

  Then she asked about adding employment details for VT2 wearers to the information he was sending her.

  Vijay was uncomfortable with her request. “I’ll have to think about how to handle that. I don’t have direct control over VitalTech operations, and I’m not exactly close with their new CEO.”

  “That’s too bad. Let me know if you can find a way.”

  She hung up and looked at a note her assistant had put on her desk. It was a note from Hawke with four names and phone numbers.

  The note read, “Reach out to the U.S. Capitol Police, U.S. Marshal’s office, CIA and Secret Service. They will all be expecting your call.”

  Hawke had told her that the FBI would be coordinating with the other four agencies charged with protecting the high-profile targets, as he had defined them, and Zoe would be the point person. The four names were her contact points.

  She made the calls to the U.S. Capitol Police and U.S. Marshal’s office. Zoe had a good working relationship with the USCP, who protect U.S. Congressional members while in the Capital. She was also familiar with the contact at the U.S. Marshal’s office, which was attached to the Department of Justice, and protected the judiciary. Both contacts were aware of the threat that Final Notice recipients posed, as members of Congress and the Judicial branch had already fallen prey to these acts.

  The CIA contact seemed smug, and even a bit condescending, and it struck her that the rivalry between the CIA and FBI was alive and well. Zoe had explained that she was running point for the Bureau. The agent made a comment along the lines that they would continue to deal with the bad guys in Russia, China, and elsewhere while she tracked down her “very dangerous geriatric Final Notice killers hobbling away with their walkers.”

  After that, she didn’t know what to expect from the Secret Service, and she got the unexpected.

  Secret Service Agent Demi Magray was cordial, interested, and
sympathetic to Zoe’s situation. The Service’s Protection Division was used to defending against assassins and civilian crackpots, and their take on the world was more closely aligned with the FBI’s. As she had with the other three agencies, Zoe gave Demi a high-level overview of the FBI’s concerns, but Demi’s positive demeanor encouraged Zoe to hint that she may be able to provide better information shortly. Demi was more interested than the others and suggested they meet to discuss the situation in more detail and to start building a strong working relationship. Zoe agreed.

  ***

  They met at the popular Dirty Habit on F Street. Demi arrived first, and Zoe was impressed that she was seated in a prime, out of the way corner in the bustling and happening bar. Zoe thought she must have some pull. Demi was Zoe’s blonde alter-ego: on the shortish side, athletic, blonde bob cut and blue eyes to Zoe’s almost black hair, honey-hued skin, and dark eyes. They both shared the same subdued dark-colored clothing, sensible shoes, bright smiles, and handguns hidden away from view.