Synbat

by Bob Mayer

  Atlanta

  _5:15 P.M._ Kate grabbed the phone on the first ring. "Westland." "Go secure." Kate switched on the scrambler. "I'm secure, Drew." Patterson was businesslike as he gave her what he'd found. "You've got two strange people working on this Biotech project. Which one do you want first?" "Start with Ward," Kate said. "I found out why he's working for Trollers. He got caught four years ago working with fetal tissue -- that was after the president put the ban on it. He was working for one of the top bioengineering firms in the country; when Trollers's people latched onto him, they used what they found to lever him out of there. He claimed he was innocent, but apparently they had a good case on him. The firm kept quiet because they didn't want the bad publicity, and Ward went along because he didn't want to go to jail." "I wonder if he got set up by Trollers," Kate said. "There's nothing to indicate it from what I found, but I wouldn't put it past him. You do have to remember, though, that there's a hell of a lot of money involved in bioengineering." "So we know why Ward was at Biotech," Kate said. "What else?" "That's it on Ward. I found some very interesting stuff in the classified intel background check on the other one, Merrit. I'll start with the most recent and work back. "Three months ago Merrit tried to quit working out there at Biotech. It's not really clear what her reasons were, but the DIA locked her in with one of those 'we'll make sure you never work again for anybody else' speeches. "Backing up from that, she was cited at the University of Texas at Austin, where she worked, for conducting unauthorized experiments on cats. Seems she had some strange theories about their brains and was running her own little experiments. She got caught and was almost fired. The faculty member they interviewed down there stated that Merrit had an unstable personality. "The real interesting thing about her, though, is her family -- more specifically her father. He was one of those caught inside when a government nuclear plant making materials for weapons malfunctioned in Idaho in the early seventies. It never made the news, but they damn near had a meltdown out in some place called Cedar Creek. One of the rods blew, killing four men. The place was too hot to even try to get the bodies out, so they just brought in loads and loads of concrete and covered the place up with the four bodies still inside. Merrit's father was one of those four." "Damn," Kate commented. "That might account for an unstable personality. But what does it have to do with this stuff that's going on now?" "Well, first off," Patterson replied, "the investigating officer on Merrit's clearance recommended disapproval. He said that he'd been told by several people that she still harbored great resentment toward the government for not only her father being killed, but the fact that his body was never recovered." "I would have had to agree with his recommendation," Kate said. "So why did she get clearance?" "Ward pushed real hard for it and Trollers backed him up. She was just too good at her job to pass up. I guess they felt they had nothing to worry about. Nothing in her background suggested that she might be a security risk, just a flaky person." "Did they do a psychiatric evaluation on her?" "Yes. I managed to take a look at the psych eval they gave her before she went to work out there. Nothing significant other than that the doctor felt she was extremely idealistic while at the same time very paranoiac. A strange combination. But..." Patterson paused. "What?" "But I think part of the eval's missing. It's not complete." "Why would someone have pulled part of her psych eval?" Kate asked. "Maybe because the complete report would have caused Merrit to have been terminated from the project. Maybe Ward convinced Trollers that Merrit was too important to the project and that he could control her. I'm not sure if this information is any help, but it's always good to know who you're working with." "I agree," Kate replied. "I really appreciate everything you've told me. I'm not sure any of it matters now anyway. They've alerted 5th Group and some other units on Campbell to deal with this problem, so at least Dave won't be out there alone anymore." "That's good. Let me know if you need anything else." "All right, Drew. Thanks a lot. I owe you one." "Out here." As she put down the phone, Kate considered what she'd been told. It really didn't amount to much useful information. She wrote a summary of it and picked up the phone. She had to get it to Powers before he deployed, so he could pass it on to Dave.

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  *Chapter 15* _Lake Barkley_ _5:34 P.M._ "Slow. Slow. Lower." Sergeant Major Powers was leaning out the side of the UH-60 helicopter, looking at the surface of the water as he spoke into the headset, guiding the pilot down. The dark water of Lake Barkley was being churned by the downdraft of the blades as the helicopter glided along slowly at an altitude of ten feet and a forward speed of ten knots. Powers glanced at the other three men in the aircraft. He received thumbs-up from all. "We're launching," he announced to the pilots. "Roger." The left pilot was looking over his shoulder at the men in the back while the right one flew the aircraft. "Releasing!" Powers yelled as he slammed his open palm on the quick release for the Zodiac slung beneath the helicopter. The boat separated and dropped. Powers pointed at the two forwardmost men sitting on either edge of the cargo bay. "GO!" They threw their waterproofed rucksacks overboard and immediately pushed off, following the rucks. Powers slid his legs over the edge of the aircraft. "GO!" he yelled over his shoulder, and the other man went as he did. The four men were all out within six seconds. As Powers had exited the aircraft he threw his ruck -- attached with a fifteen-foot safety line -- out ahead, then pushed himself off, tucking his head into his chin and putting his hands behind his neck. The shock of the cold water as he speared into it took his breath away. The air that was trapped inside his dry suit popped him to the surface. He put on his fins, pulled his ruck in close, and, lying on his back, stroked toward the Zodiac. He clambered on board, his injured knee protesting the contortion. Two of the other members of the team were already putting the forty-horsepower engine onto its mounting and priming it. They were from the B Company, 3d Battalion, scuba team. The team sergeant had been on emergency leave all week, so Powers had quickly volunteered to be acting team sergeant for this operation. In the confusion of the alert and deployment, the battalion commander had not discovered the move. The engine roared to life, and Powers directed them to their designated position. As they moved, Powers had one of the men unzip his dry suit; he peeled it off, then returned the favor. A second helicopter flashed by overhead and another boat was dropped along with four men a hundred meters farther up the lake. Within ten minutes there were nine boats in the water, spread out in a loose line from the Bacon Creek Boat Ramp, south to below Fords Bay. Overhead, an OH-6 gunship from Task Force 160 flitted by, minigun slung off the right skid, pilots scanning the water. Powers slid a round into the chamber of his M16 and smiled. He was back in action. The pain from his injured knee was a dull ache submerged in the rush of adrenaline. * * * *