The Diary of Professor Gilbert Rasher
Page 13
“I've already sent in a student who scraped up some of the debris. We checked it for taggets and there were none. The bomb was ammonium nitrate and diesel fuel. That was already in the news as was Wilber Stull, the name of the driver the guard shot. We looked him up and he's a member in the parish Bishop Long gives his sermons in.”
“I’ve found all of Bishop Longs sermons on the Web and am downloading all of them now. Something useful should be in some of them.”
Abe: “I was going to do that next. You saved me the trouble.”
“You would have been too late, they just removed them from the website. Somebody knows the videos are incriminating. I'm going from last to the earliest. I've already found several interesting things. Here’s some shots of the audience and Wilber is always there with another fellow next to him. They often stay after the sermon and head back toward the rectory. Usually Priests go out the front door and say good-bye to the parishioners and say a word or two to each as they leave. He doesn't in any I've viewed so far and he is seen in several going toward the rectory instead. The implication is, he's in the back with Wilber and this other person. I have an enlarged picture of these two on the printer. We need to round up some students to go to the neighbors of Wilber's house and learn as much as they can about these two. I have a working hypothesis.”
Abe: “We have more help than you can possibly use.”
“Twenty will do. I have printed twenty questionnaires and twenty pictures of the pair. They should just ask the questions from the questionaire and video the results.”
Abe: “I'll call a meeting immediately.”
In less than a half hour twenty students were on their way together on a CMU bus.
At 5:00 PM they came back and dumped their video interviews onto the server.
“Abe, the other guy's name is Mike G and they were a gay couple. They had terrible guilt about being gay and talked about suicide often. Oh, here's a good one. Wilber told a fellow that he was going to carry out a mission for Bishop Long and get absolution. He certainly didn't keep that a secret. Several people knew he intended to destroy what he termed the CMU android factory. No one took him seriously. I'll forward these to the ATF and FBI with pieces of Bishop Longs video showing them together. I'll add some of Bishop Long's ranting on homosexuality, androids and CMU's work in particular.”
Abe: “That was quick work and you didn't even need the access to the CSI databases.”
“It's not over yet. We need to link the explosive materials to Bishop Long. There's no possibility those two guys would have access to that quantity of ammonium nitrate. Besides, retail ammonium nitrate has taggets. I think I'll know the answer to that tomorrow.”
Abe smiled, “I think you're just too damn smart.”
I smiled back, “When you're a minority you've got to have an edge.”
Abe laughed, “And a damn good one it is.”
7.5.2127:
Overnight, I located all the wholesale suppliers of ammonium nitrate. Seven were within a fifty-mile radius. I then obtained the pictures of the trucks and license numbers off the university surveillance cameras. The vehicle license database indicated they were sold at a military surplus auction to a boys camp run by Catholic Charities a year ago. I checked with the police database and they were not reported missing. That struck me as curious. I found a register of the full-time employees at the boys camp and located the manager, obtained his home phone and called him at 6:00 AM and he wasn't happy. I put on an official sounding voice and he didn't ask who I was.
I asked him, “Who's in charge of the camp vehicles?”
Manager: “That would be Mike Grinnel. I haven't seen him since he was going to sell two trucks to the junkyard. He goes by the name Mike G.”
I described the trucks and he said both required ring jobs and were not worth fixing. I then told him what the trucks were used for and he was shocked. I was surprised that he hadn't already been contacted by either the ATF or the FBI.
“Do you have a picture of Mike?”
Manager: “Not here but he has a website with pictures and hate filled video diatribes about everything from gays to androids to the signs of the end-of-time.”
He provided me with the Web domain name and I immediately pulled it up. It contained a good head and profile shot that I enlarged and sent to a printer. I also e-mailed the Mike’s image with an explanation to the ATF and FBI.
Students were beginning to show up at Abe's lab and if they had a car I sent them to one of the ammonia nitrate suppliers with a questionnaire and pictures of the suspects and trucks. By 10:00 AM we got a hit, so I told the others to return. Camptown Farm Supplies’ salesperson identified Mike as coming there twice and filling the entire truck bed with 55 gallon plastic drums filled with ammonium nitrate. The ammonia nitrate was purchased the day before the explosion. He bought the fertilizer with the boy's camp credit card. I forwarded the information to the ATF and the FBI.
I finally got a phone call from Jack Roberts, a senior ATF agent.
Jack Roberts: “You've certainly been very busy. Our agents have been scrambling to catch up. Would you like a job here?”
“No, thanks. This has been a big distraction. I'm just trying to help get the culprits caught and behind bars so I can get some work done. While any of these self-righteous homicidal clerics and their crazed followers are running loose, this can happen repeatedly.”
Jack Roberts: “We have Bishop Long in custody and he will be charged with conspiracy to commit a terrorist act. I think his words will convict him. Your videos, showing the two bombers provide an extra measure of circumstantial evidence. We have a dragnet out for Mike Grinnel.”
“Mike updates his website once a day. I would go to his website ISP and wait for him to log in and put a trace on him. It's going to be irresistible for him not to brag about what he was a part of.”
Jack Roberts: “We didn't think of that. So you're a profiler too. Are you sure you don't want a job here?”
“Nope! Thanks anyway. If you go to Mike’s website, there’s a picture of the Bishop with the other two. That should help also. From now on, I will be out of the loop. It's all yours.”
Jack Roberts: “Thanks for your help. You know, if you were anyone else, we would have arrested you for obstructing an ongoing investigation.”
“I know. But I'm not anyone else. Perhaps you can deputize me the next time this happens.”
Jack Roberts: “Now there's an idea! I remember that!”
I laughed, “I'm afraid you will.”
CMU Reacts
8.6.2127:
Mike Grinnel was picked up after the third time he made changes to his website. Bishop Long pleaded guilty to undue influence and got a suspended sentence. The Catholic Church sent him to a mission somewhere in Fderick, Tiris Zemmour in Mauritania. It's a militant Islamic area so he will have his hands full. No one else seemed involved.
I met with Bishop Longs replacement Father Richards. He was cordial, not alarmed that I was an android and was full of questions about my emotions and feelings as an android. After a half hour of questioning he said, “If you were an A4 android, I would see you to be a new intelligent life-form perhaps with a soul. However, you have cheated death so I don’t know what to make of you.”
I responded, “I don’t expect you or the church to fully accept me. I just don’t want to see hate mongering and the resulting tragic deaths.”
Father Richards, “You have my assurances that won’t happen from my pulpit. I can see that you are decent android and devoted to your work. I worry about evil people that become androids.”
“So do I and I plan on giving that a great deal of thought. I realize that androids will all be endangered by a single bad actor. I have an appointment so I will have to leave but I would like to maintain a dialogue with you.”
Father Richards, “I think much can be gained by both of us. I look forward to future talks.”
The CMU regents are to decide today whether this research can continu
e on campus. I'm to testify before the board in an hour. My ace card is the grant money. If they cancel the project, the grant money will have to be returned and CMU won't get their 30%. Whatever I might think about Joe Tarrington he writes a contract without loopholes to get what he wants.
At 2:00 PM I walked into the meeting. Twelve of the thirteen regents were there. I stood there waiting for someone to say something. Finally, the chairman of the regents said, “Please sit down.” I grabbed an empty chair.
Chairman: “Tell us why we should continue to pursue the android research when it has already caused seven deaths.”
“Actually eight, one perpetrator died while being chased by the police. Two others were also perpetrators and were essentially suicides.
Technically you are right but not even the media have framed it that way.”
“When we started this project the idea was to save lives and we have done that for four people including me. We have also made major contributions to making androids more human and with feelings for human beings. I feel this is very important because androids are a new life-form deserving of same rights and privileges that humans enjoy. What we are witnessing is prejudice against this life-form. If you close this lab, you are saying 'you win' to these murderers. I'm not saying this won't happen again here, or elsewhere, but 'giving in' will embolden these fanatics. They’ll destroy even more androids and any humans that get in the way.
“Much