Chimera

by Ken Goddard

  “These kids are going to tug at a tentacle — ?”

  “Actually, if they can get a good grip on one, they’re probably going to try to rip it out by its roots,” Renwick corrected.

  “And then what?” Schweer’s mouth had dropped open.

  “Good question.” Renwick shrugged. “I imagine it’s going to hurt.”

  “Jesus — ”

  “Might as well face it, boss,” Bulatt said, leaning back in his chair and smiling at to his stunned boss, “you’re a technological dinosaur, at best, and I’m rapidly heading toward — ”

  The jury-rigged conference-call system rang, and Bulatt lunged for the ANSWER button.

  “Hello?” he queried.

  “Khun Ged?”

  “Hello, Achara, it’s good to hear your voice again.” Bulatt smiled pleasantly, ignoring the raised eyebrows and suspicious looks passing between the three forensic scientists and his SAC boss.

  “And good to hear your voice as well, Khun Ged. As you requested, I now have Biology Professor Chalermchai and Chief Narusan here as well, and we are now speaking on a secure Interpol line.”

  “Excellent,” Bulatt exclaimed happily. “Professor Chalermchai, Chief Narusan, I have here with me this morning my supervisor, Special Agent in Charge Fred Schweer, the commander of our Special Operations Branch; Dr. Juliana Ferreira, our chief geneticist; Donn Renwick, our senior firearms examiner; and Steve Hager, our senior latent print examiner. As I told Captain Kulawnit, I’m calling to make you aware of some things our forensics lab staff discovered with respect to your evidence, and make you aware of some other on-going issues as well. I’m going to ask Dr. Ferreira to speak first because her information, I think, is the most crucial.”

  Bulatt nodded to Ferreira who leaned in toward the speaker.

  “Professor Chalermchai,” Ferreira began, “the information I have involves the two Clouded Leopards that Agent Bulatt sent to us from Thailand. In examining the carcasses, and collecting samples for our analysis, we discovered that both animals have considerable numbers of nano-tube-based genetic probes in their blood and tissues. Are you familiar with these materials?”

  The men around the conference table could hear the Thai biology professor hesitate. “I’m familiar with the theory that nano-tube structures might, someday, be used as a transport mechanism for gene manipulation; but I’m not aware that such materials have actually been applied to wildlife populations.”

  “This is the first application we’ve seen, also,” Ferreira replied. “As I’m sure you’re aware, these nano-tube probes can easily pass through cell and nuclear membranes, including human skin; which makes them potentially very dangerous to the handlers. But, according to theory, the probes should be destroyed by the liver before they ever managed to escape the animal’s blood stream. Unfortunately, it seems that theory is no longer valid, because we found large numbers of the intact probes in the leopard’s saliva.”

  “Oh, dear,” Professor Chalermchai whispered.

  “On the positive side, based on the attached DNA segments, we believe these particular probes were specifically configured to increase the body mass of felines such as the Clouded Leopard. As such, they shouldn’t have any direct impact on humans; but as a safety precaution, we would strongly suggest you decontaminate your laboratory and any other facilities and personnel who might have come in contact with these animals as soon as possible. I faxed you the procedures we use for such situations a few minutes ago, and I’m sure there are several other neutralizing protocols that work equally well.”

  “Yes, thank you, Dr. Ferreira, I will see to that precaution immediately.” The sound of a scraping chair and then an opening door was audible to the men in the Ashland conference room.

  “Dr. Ferreira,” Achara Kulawnit broke in, “I gather from your comments that you believe these leopards were deliberately enhanced in size with an experimental genetic probe, and I understand from Professor Chalermchai that such research is not being conducted anywhere in Thailand. As such, do you have any idea where these leopards might have come from?”

  “No, I don’t,” Ferreira replied, “but we’re assuming, for the moment, that the leopards were brought into Thailand and let loose in the Wildlife Preserves by the suspect guides in this case. I’ve put out confidential queries to a few of my trusted geneticist colleagues to see if we can figure out who might have jumped the gun on this experimental technology, hopefully without alerting the perpetrator in the process. I’ll contact you and Professor Chalermchai the moment I hear anything of interest.”

  “Yes, please do. Thank you.”

  “Captain Achara,” Bulatt broke in, “Steve Hager, our latent print expert, has some information that may be of use to you and the Chief.”

  Bulatt nodded to Hager who leaned in toward the speaker.

  “Yes, I wanted you both to know that I processed all of the internal component parts of the M4 carbine and flashers that agent Bulatt brought to us from Thailand. And I’m sorry to say that I found no latent prints on any of the components. In fact, it’s fairly obvious from the oil smears that the individuals who handled the weapon — including disassembling and cleaning — wore gloves the entire time.”

  Achara sighed. “I suppose we should have expected these men to be careful about leaving incriminating evidence. I’m surprised they were so careless about that remote battery that Chief Narusan processed.”

  “I am too,” Hager agreed, “but I took that latent that the Chief found and sent electronic copies of it to several federal fingerprint database search engines. They all came back negative, which wouldn’t have been all that unusual, especially in an international case like this, except for the fact that one of the responses — the one from our Defense Department — came back almost instantaneously instead of hours later, like all of the others. I understand a similar situation occurred when Agent Younger sent that same print to his Interpol people.”

  “I’m sorry,” Achara said, “but I’m not sure I understand.”

  “Donn and I send out hundreds of queries to federal fingerprint and firearm databases every week, and we never get instant responses back,” Hager explained. “Probably because we’re working ‘bunnies and guppies’ cases that have a lower priority in the greater scheme of things; which is perfectly understandable, and fine with us, as long as we do get a response back within some reasonable time-frame. But in this case, the instant response seemed a little curious — not to mention suspicious — so we asked Linda Reston, our senior computer wizard to take a look at the response.

  “At this point, I’m going to let Donn explain what Linda found out,” Hager said, nodding to Renwick. “I’m talking a little over my head here.”

  “What Linda did was look at the packet-distribution data that’s attached in a ‘behind-the-scenes’ manner to every e-mail message traveling through the Internet,” Renwick said, leaning in toward the conference microphone. “When she didn’t like what she saw, she queried the chain of individual servers across the United States that received and transmitted the packets of data that comprised the response message.”

  “Yes, I understand that part,” Achara said. “What did she discover?”

  “That the message we received was an automated response from a fingerprint data search engine we’d never heard of, probably because it seems to be located within our National Security Agency; or, more likely, I suppose, at one of their off-site facilities.”

  “Am I correct: you did say ‘search engine’ and not ‘database’?” Achara asked.

  “Yes, Linda was very specific about that,” Renwick replied. “She believes this is a system specifically programmed to look for a small subset of subjects.”

  “But it did send back a response as if it was a database?”

  “Yes, according to Linda, that’s correct. Only the response wasn’t sent back to us, it was sent back to the Defense Department search engine. What we got was a copy of the response, probably transmitted back to us
accidentally — again according to Linda — because the DOD server that did the transmitting is no longer operational as of two hours ago. And, at this point, I’m talking over my head also.”

  “Uh, I don’t wish to be impolite, Mr. Renwick, but could I please speak to Linda directly?” Achara asked.

  “Yes, you could, except for the fact that approximately an hour and half hour ago, someone made a very determined and very professional attempt to penetrate the firewalls that protect our lab server systems,” Renwick replied. “At the moment, Linda and three of her sub-wizards are engaged in what sounds to us — if we’re interpreting her cussing and their activities correctly — like electronic warfare.”

  “This sounds terribly serious,” Achara said quietly, the concern audible in her transmitted voice.

  “Serious enough that Linda asked and received permission from our lab director to bring her fourteen-year-old twins in to help,” Hager commented.

  “Her own children… really?” There was a pause. “Are they, uh, sufficiently experienced to help defend against a professional probe?”

  “Actually, their forte doesn’t seem to be defense,” Ferreira corrected.

  “Oh.” Another pause. “Is your lab director authorized to do something like that, against another federal agency?”

  “I don’t think he asked,” Renwick said. “I gather he’s still a little irritated at the moment. I’m sure the shit will hit the proverbial fan at some point; but I guess that’s what he gets paid for.”

  “Then I suppose we should assume this conversation is being monitored?” Achara asked after a moment.

  “I don’t think so,” Renwick said. “According to Linda, your call-back was linked through an encrypted Interpol line at our end that would take NSA and their supercomputers several years to break into; and she also made some alterations to our conference phone which she claims will send out an extremely high frequency jamming signal that should fry any unauthorized device that attempts to link into our conference call. I probably should explain that we stole Linda from the CIA a couple of years ago, and she looked pretty pissed — but also pretty determined — when she was working on our conference phone, so I assume she knows what she’s doing.”

  “And the twins?”

  “As of fifteen minutes ago, they were working side-by-side at a pair of terminals next to their mom’s workstation, and occasionally whispering to each other. I assume she’s keeping an eye on them; but, to tell you the truth, I don’t think any of us really want to know,” Hager said.

  “But, in the meantime, Captain Kulawnit,” Bulatt broke in, “on the assumption that we may be dealing with a rogue element within the intelligence community, we’re going to try a more conventional approach to resolving the issue.”

  “Really, what’s that?”

  “We believe the security clearance my boss — Special Agent in Charge Schweer — holds will be high enough to give him access to that latent print information we’re requesting if he makes direct contact with the appropriate people at our Pentagon and our National Security Agency.”

  Schweer leaned toward the conference phone.

  “Yes, that’s correct, Captain Kulawanit,” Schweer confirmed. “I’m flying back to Washington DC later this morning in an attempt to do just that. And if I discover my clearance level isn’t sufficient, I assure you that I’ll find someone with the necessary clearance if I have to go all the way to the Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service himself. No government agency should be attempting to hack into our federal crime lab servers; and I seriously doubt that any individual in our military forces — active, retired or otherwise — has been authorized to shoot at Thai Rangers, much less a member of Interpol. Someone will give us that information.”

  “That’s wonderful, Agent Schweer,” Achara said somberly. “We will all be most grateful for your efforts.”

  “Perfect job for a guy with a T-Rex personality,” Ferreira stage-whispered to Hager, who grinned and nodded in agreement.

  “What was that?” Schweer growled, glaring at the two scientists.

  “Ah, I was suggesting to Mr. Hager that I’m sure the intelligence community will be looking forward to your arrival, sir.” Ferreira smiled cheerfully.

  “And, finally,” Bulatt broke in again before the playful forensic harassment of his boss got out of control, “I wanted you to hear from Donn Renwick, our firearms expert, regarding his work in this case.”

  Renwick replaced Schweer at the microphone.

  “Yes, Captain Kulawanit, Chief Narusan, Donn Renwick here. First of all, I want you to know that ran a background check on that M-Four carbine and determined that it was manufactured in the United States on October twenty-fourth, two-thousand-and-four, for our Military Special Forces Command. The weapon was officially transferred to Afghanistan on March seventh, two-thousand-and-five, as part of a re-supply drop for our troops hunting down bin-Laden; and was never heard from again, until a few days ago.”

  “Are you saying our suspects may be American Special Forces personnel?” Achara asked, sounding shocked.

  “Not necessarily,” Renwick replied. “Several of our allies dispatched Special Forces or Commando teams to Afghanistan in two-thousand-and-five, many of whom had access to U.S. weaponry; and I have no doubt our soldiers distributed U.S. weapons and ammunition to NATO and friendly Afghan troops. And if you add to that all of the firearms lost or stolen during that conflict, there are clearly many ways this specific M-Four carbine could have ended up in the hands of your suspects.”

  “But would it be fair to say there’s an obvious link to soldiers with Special Forces training; especially considering the possible intelligence agency issues?”

  Renwick turned to Schweer with a shrug, as if to say ‘your bailiwick.’

  “Yes, that would seem to be the case,” Schweer said into the microphone. “I’ll have our office run a link analysis; but I think it’s fair to say the information we have so far corresponds nicely with Chief Narusan’s crime scene report.”

  “I think very much, yes, a professional soldier who did shooting,” Narusan agreed.

  “Also,” Renwick went on, “I helped Steve disassemble the rifle for latent print processing… and, in doing so, examined the individual parts fairly closely. Apart from some corrosion and recent impact damage, the weapon was well-maintained and otherwise in excellent condition, with very little wear on the bolt, chamber, barrel and firing pin. In my opinion, it hadn’t been fired very often; possibly only a few dozen rounds.”

  “Use once, throw away; very smart, very professional.” Chief Narusan chuckled audibly.

  “Yes, I think the Chief is correct on all counts,” Renwick said. “It’s probably not likely that we’ll ever be able to match this rifle to any other crime scenes; but I entered the bullet and cartridge data into NIBIN anyway, just to be safe.”

  “Thank you very much for your efforts, Mr. Renwick; and all the rest of you as well,” Achara said. “It seems we are making some progress on this investigation, after all. If nothing else, we are certainly ruffling some powerful feathers.”

  “A couple more things, Captain Achara,” Bulatt broke in again. “First of all, I think we may have located the manufacturer of the flashers found on the Clouded Leopards and at Tanga Island. I’m going to be checking on them tomorrow morning, and I’ll let you know what I find out as soon as I can.”

  “Excellent. That would be very helpful for us,” Achara replied.

  “Also,” Bulatt went on, “one of our lab’s electronics experts took a look at the photos you sent of the internal mechanisms of that remote transmitter. As best they can tell, with a nine-volt battery, the device should only be capable of activating flashers within a hundred-meter range. But they also say there’s no reason why the Chief couldn’t construct a new transmitter with much more power that operates on the same frequencies. It occurred to me that you might have other animals in your Wildlife Preserves with similar flashers attached to their ne
cks — or, perhaps, a hidden stockpile of the flashers — that such a device might help locate, much to the dismay of our suspects. I asked our expert to fax the relevant technical information to the Chief at your office, and I believe he’s already done so.”

  Chief Narusan laughed delightedly. “Yes, very good idea, Kuhn Ged. I will make new transmitter right away; easy to do.”

  “I believe that’s all we have at the moment, Captain Achara,” Bulatt spoke into the microphone, and then looked quickly around the conference table. “Anything else, guys?”

  “One more thing for the Chief,” Renwick said. “We’re assuming our wealthy hunter used an expensive rifle on his Thai hunt that he’s not likely to throw away after every illegal kill. As such, during your continuing search for evidence, we hope you can find an expended bullet or cartridge casing from this weapon that we can enter into our NIBIN system.”

  The sound of muted and otherwise unintelligible conversation back and forth could be heard through the sensitive conference phone speaker for a few seconds. Then Achara voice came back on the air.

  “Chief Narusan has asked me to inform you that — in addition to his temporary assignment as my primary crime scene examiner — he was recently designated the official CSI officer for his ship, the Sawaeke Pinsinchai. And as such, the Chief wants me to assure you that he will find these items if he has to search the entire southern peninsula of Thailand on his hands and knees, meter by meter. And with that, gentlemen, we wish you well in your endeavors, and bid you goodbye; the Chief and I have work to do.”

  CHAPTER 27

  In a helicopter over the Khlong Preserve

  As Captain Achara Kulawnit smoothly piloted the blacked-out military surveillance helicopter fifty feet over the treetops of the massive Khlong Preserve with her night-vision goggles, a similarly equipped Chief Narusan monitored the bright-green lit forest from his copilot seat. Underneath the helicopter, mounted to its landing skid, Narusan’s jury-rigged — but extremely powerful — flasher-activating transmitter pulsed steadily.