A Dubious Device: The Nanobot Terror (A Colton Banyon Mystery Book 10)

by Gerald Kubicki

  “Besides,” Loni argued. “If it is Schultz, he knows he can’t use the same distribution system twice. He has to have another place where he can manufacture nanobots to follow through on his threats.”

  “This is hopeless. One guy is outsmarting all of us,” Haleigh wailed. “Millions of people will die — America will never be the same.”

  “No, it’s not hopeless,” Banyon said heatedly. “Spies make mistakes. We just need to dig deep enough to find them.”

  “The death toll has just been updated to seven hundred and thirty people,” Marlene announced to the group.

  Part Seven

  The Hunt Begins

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  B

  anyon now made his first move using the information which Wolf had given him. “Marlene, have you found out anything about the unexplained large sums of money that Schultz recently spent?”

  “Some,” she replied. “We traced the money to a Cayman Islands bank account and a dummy corporation there.”

  “That’s a dead end,” Bart remarked with a frustrated flap of his hands. “No one can penetrate a Cayman Islands bank account.”

  “Not true,” Marlene said. “Not many know this, so you have to keep the secret, but we have people at the IRS who can see everything going on in the Caymans in real time.” Bart was suddenly agitated. Banyon thought maybe Bart had some of his accounts there.

  Marlene continued. “Anyway, we were able to penetrate the Schultz account and found that three million dollars was sent to a company by the name of ‘Goodness Products’. That was about two months ago. The company is in Tampa. Florida. We still haven’t been able to contact the owner to find out what was bought. He hasn’t answered his cell phone and it’s after hours there. I have two agents in Tampa trying to hunt him down, but so far no results.”

  “God!” Loni cried out. Every time we find a clue, it becomes a problem. Hope they find him soon,” Loni additionally remarked.

  “But we were able to check FedEx records and found that a large shipment of product was sent to the horse farm four weeks ago,” Marlene told them.

  “What does Goodness Products make?” Loni asked.

  “They appear to be a manufacturer of personalized novelty plastics products,” she said as she read the report.

  “I think we’ve got something here. It’s a clue,” Banyon announced and pounded his fist. “What about the other large expenses?”

  “They appear to be routine purchases of equipment to run the horse farm,” Marlene said with disappointment. But the data for the account goes back many years. It’ll take a while to sift through it all.

  “Can you tell us what they bought?” Banyon pressed her.

  Marlene took a second to get the list from someone off screen. “This is a long list, it’s several pages,” Marlene muttered as she perused the sheets of paper. “Do you want me to read them all?”

  “Just give us the highlights,” Banyon urged.

  “I’ll just give you the ones that seem unusual or large,” she agreed. “They bought some sub-zero freezing containers, some equipment to feed horses, two letter folders, two label machines, some sort of extruding machine and a small conveyer belt system in the last several months.”

  “They all sound like something which could be useful on a horse farm,” Chase the cowboy said. “I own a small one in Henderson.”

  “But,” Banyon quickly said. “If we follow the evidence and assume Schultz didn’t know his accounts could be penetrated, then we should be able to figure out why he bought these routine things through a dummy corporation. Otherwise, why didn’t he just buy them through his regular horse farm account? I think he has made a mistake.”

  “I agree with Colt,” Loni suddenly said.

  Banyon stepped up to a white board hanging on the wall in the conference room. He wrote down all the items Marlene had mentioned, he then turned to the others. “Let’s assume all these items fit together somehow. I want ideas,” he demanded.

  “Well, I think the conveyor belt is a giveaway, he is using it to assemble something,” Bart quickly noted.

  “And it’s something plastic and personalized,” Steve threw out.

  “They also could be putting things in envelopes and addressing them,” Haleigh quickly added.

  “So, what is the plastic component?” Banyon asked the group. He could see the enthusiasm and excitement rise as they all concentrated on the problem.

  “A plastic doll, maybe,” Haleigh guessed.

  “Maybe squirt guns,” Steve said.

  “To me, when I think of plastic,” Loni suddenly remarked, “all I can think of is one of these.” She held out a credit card for everyone to see.

  “That’s it,” Bart exclaimed. “They have set up an assembly line to pack and address letters containing plastic credit cards. It’s the delivery system,” he screamed. Everyone was suddenly excited and jumping up and down. Loni reached over and high fived Haleigh. Steve shook Bart’s hand. Chase made the touchdown sign. Everyone had smiles plastered on their faces. Marlene brought them back to earth.

  “Oh, dear,” she uttered uncharacteristically. “But who are the targets, where are the cards going and how long have they been in the mail? We also don’t know how many people are being sent one.” The group was somber again and went back to wearing their thinking caps.

  “The killings have already started,” the suddenly serious Steve pointed out. “We know Schultz lied and is not waiting two days as he said in the letter to the President.”

  “Since the post office usually takes two days to deliver mail, that means the letters are already in the system,” Haleigh realized with horror.

  “Can you stop the mail from being delivered until we find out more?” Bart asked Marlene.

  “I’m not sure we can, especially on such a short notice. The postal system is not part of the government. It’s an independent business.” She turned and barked out orders to one of her assistants to find out.

  “But you must be able to stop the mail if there is a national emergency?” Loni asked hopefully.

  “We have a procedure in place for local threats, but we have never considered dealing with the whole country,” Marlene responded. “We have postal inspectors at every major mail facility, but the post office delivers something like 660 million pieces of mail per day. There are around 31,000 postal locations in the United States. We don’t have enough people to cover all of them. It could take us weeks to sort through all the mail. Not to mention that the inspectors will all have to wear hazmat suits while checking.”

  “Oh, no,” Haleigh croaked. “This is getting very bad.” Banyon could see the excitement drain from her face.

  “We need to look at Chicago first,” Banyon stated.

  “Why?” The always suspicious Haleigh asked.

  “Think about this logically,” Banyon turned to speak to her and counted off the clues on his fingers. “We know the nanobots kill in about an hour. They also can only live for about an hour in the open air. We know Schultz intends to kill millions. If they were already delivered, people would be dying in heavier concentrations. That means the letters aren’t there yet. Also, the horse farm is located in Chicago and the plastic novelties were sent there. Shultz had to mail the letters from somewhere. Chicago is our best bet.”

  “You’re right,” Bart agreed and pointed his finger at Banyon. “He could have used the cargo vans to take the letters right to a central office there or even a local office if they were sorted by zip code. Local mail is delivered over night.”

  “There are 290 offices in the metro area,” Marlene cut in as she read from a page that someone handed her from off screen. “I’ll get people there immediately. This still could take a while, but we’ll have them confiscate any letters which appears to have a credit card inside.” She issued the orders to someone in the room.

  “Maybe, once we have found enough letters, we can figure out why those people were targeted and what they have in
common. I don’t think the targets will be random. The Effort is involved,” Banyon reminded everyone.

  Suddenly they all heard someone off camera in Marlene’s office say “Thirty seconds to takedown.”

  “I’ll put it on the screen so we all can watch,” Marlene said.

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  T

  he flat screen suddenly contained a very dark image. Banyon could see the farm house in the distance and noises which sounded like people moving in a group nearby. He could hear someone taking quick, short, breaths like they were running to keep up. The picture jiggled but pointed towards the farmhouse.

  “I have a professional camera man filming everything we find to document the evidence,” Marlene said in the background. “If we find anything, I want to make sure it is all recorded properly.”

  “Is the SWAT team connected with head cameras?” Banyon questioned. He was surprised that there was only one camera.

  “The SWAT team has a complete communications system but no cameras are included on this raid,” she replied clinically. “We can still hear them. You just can’t talk to them. Only I can talk to them.”

  “Why is that?” Banyon questioned.

  “We didn’t want to record what might happen during the takedown, especially if the suspects resisted. We want just the evidence of what we choose to shoot on video, just in case some ACLU lawyer works this trial.”

  “How many people are involved in the raid on the farm?” Haleigh asked. She was clearly intrigued by the process.

  “We have twenty SWAT team members, six FBI agents, six Homeland Security agents and the local police to block any runners,” Marlene responded.

  “Are there enough people to handle the takedown?” Steve wondered.

  “We know there were only about thirteen people on the farm an hour ago. We are doing a drone flyby in about every twenty minutes.”

  “Do you have a team of scientists to analyze what they find?” Banyon asked. He already knew that they would find evidence.

  “We sent out the entire Chicago based forensics team,” Marlene explained. “I have more scientists available if we need them.”

  ***

  Suddenly, someone spoke. “Report the number of hostiles and locations,” a deep male voice ordered. It was the leader asking the drone pilot.

  “Nothing on thermal imaging except in the barn, it’s probably horses though,” a technician said as he maneuvered the drone over the house. The technician was located in Arizona.

  “Okay, then, let’s go men,” the unnamed leader said. “Forward,” he yelled. Suddenly the camera was on the move again and headed for the front door of the big house. It took only seconds for the raiders to cover the ground.

  The camera man filmed two SWAT members break open the front doors with battering rams and recorded twenty black-dressed SWAT members rushing inside. After a few seconds, he followed.

  While the camera man took panoramic shots around the inside of the house, the SWAT team members went off to their designated locations to check for suspects. Soon the word “clear” was repeated like gun fire from all over the living quarters. They confirmed there was no one else in the house.

  “Got something in the kitchen,” a SWAT team member announced over the communications system. The camera man hustled to the location. He entered the kitchen. The picture showed that two of the three entrances to the large work area were blocked by counters and shelves.

  “What have you got?” the leader inquired.

  “Looks like some people barricaded themselves in here. But there is no one here now,” the man replied.

  “Could they have known the SWAT team was coming?” Haleigh asked as she watched the screen.

  “Or maybe the servants were afraid of being murdered by Schultz and barricaded themselves in the kitchen,” Banyon said. “But the question is this, where are they now?” He decided to find out more from Wolf later.

  “Team one, let’s check the barn for evidence,” the leader barked. They quickly formed up and took off out the door.

  ***

  The camera man struggled to keep up with the physically fit law enforcement officers. They soon entered the front end of the long horse barn and raced past stall after stall, each one filled with beautiful horses. The horses turned their heads to look, but didn’t react as the SWAT team flew by with their guns aimed straight ahead. After a few minutes the SWAT team cleared the stalls and entered a much larger barn which held supplies. They began to work through the piles of food and other materials needed to care for horses, searching desperately for any evidence.

  “This doesn’t look good,” Marlene spoke from off screen as she assessed the possible damage and lawsuits which could be a result of not finding any evidence. So far the SWAT team had not uncovered anything.

  “Marlene, have your men search for a section of open wall, that’s where the hidden door will be,” Banyon spurted out. Marlene didn’t hesitate and passed on the order.

  “How could you possibly know there is a hidden door?” The once again suspicious Haleigh uttered in disbelief as she turned to Banyon with her hands on her narrow hips.

  “Because all spies have hidden doors in their barns,” Banyon coolly replied. “If Schultz is true to form, there will be one. I’m sure of that. Besides, we haven’t found any of the things he bought through his secret account in the Caymans. They have to be somewhere.” Banyon shrugged his shoulders while saying it.

  The camera zoomed in on a section of the outer wall in the back of the barn. Several SWAT members were tapping the wall and others were looking for any sign of an opening. After a few tense minutes one of them spoke. “I’ve got a hidden panel of some sort here behind this section.”

  “I think I’ve found the access button,” another man sang out.

  The camera man rushed over. The view was of a yellow cement post, like one which is often used to protect something from being damaged from a vehicle. The top of the three foot post was swung open. Underneath was a red button. The SWAT team quickly refocused with guns ready to blaze away. They pointed at the wall.

  “Press the button,” the leader ordered. A portion of the wall recessed and slid behind another section. What appeared was a gleaming metal elevator door. It looked very out of place in the dusty barn.

  The leader stepped forward and went to push the button on the elevator, but was stopped by a sudden order from Marlene.

  “Don’t hit that button,” she screamed. “They may have left a little surprise for you in the lab. No one enters without a hazmat suit.”

  “Bring me the suits,” the frustrated leader spoke into his microphone.

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  W

  hile everyone waited for the hazmat suits to arrive the rest of the SWAT members and all the special agents methodically searched the house and property. The strategy team at Dewey & Beatem sat silently trying to piece together the other clues. They still had not made much headway in stopping the crisis.

  “The killings are up to 980 now,” Marlene announced from the TV screen.

  “They’re slowing down,” Banyon quickly said. “They might be running out of product or the nanobots are dying from exposure. That’s actually good news.”

  “That appears to be true Colt,” Marlene quickly replied. “Most of the new reported deaths are Senators though. According to my advisors, we now have one person less than a quorum for the Senate. They will not be able to take a vote. This could be very bad if the mass killings start tomorrow. The government is now effectively paralyzed and the President may have no choice but to declare martial law.”

  “This is a nightmare,” Loni screamed.

  ***

  A few seconds later a voice came through the speakers. “I’m in the garage. There is one van missing,” the man said.

  “Check the inventory list of vehicles and get a BOLO out on the missing van immediately,” Marlene ordered. “I want that van found.”

  “Already done
,” the unseen man replied.

  “Have you found anything else to report?”

  “We found several bags of luggage littered on the floor in the garage. It looks like the people left in a hurry and couldn’t fit all their bags in the van. We have sifted through some of them, but they appear to be personal items,” the man replied.

  “How many people could ride in the missing van?” the SWAT leader asked while attempting to pull on his hazmat suit.

  “The list says it was an eleven passenger model.”

  “I’ll bet the servants took the van,” Banyon cried out. “Schultz left the farm by some other means.”

  “We also found a security camera in the garage. Maybe the suspects were recorded,” the man said.

  The leader of the raid suddenly spoke. “Jeff you got anything?”

  Jeff was the Homeland Security agent charged with analyzing and securing the security system for the estate. It was located in a small room off the kitchen. Jeff responded immediately.

  “They only have streaming video here,” Jeff said. “There is no stored history. Schultz must have had someone watching the cameras 24/7. But the record shows the garage door was opened just twenty minutes ago.”

  “I want road blocks for a twenty mile radius from the estate and one for a fifty mile radius as well,” Marlene quickly ordered.

  “Yes, ma’am,” the agent replied. “But you do realize the area will include downtown Chicago, don’t you?”

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  M

  eanwhile, back at the barn. “Okay, we’re ready to go in,” The SWAT leader announced in a nervous but determined voice.

  There were five men dressed in hazmat suits. The cameraman was also suited. They looked like orange aliens from another planet. The rest of the search team retreated outside the building. No one knew what would happen when the elevator door opened.