by K C Gillis
“Very funny. I just need to get familiar with the controls. Not everyone jumps headfirst into things.”
“What can I say? Some of us are born to take action.”
Travis’s drone practice complete, they arrived at the road to what they thought could be the NeuSterone site just after eleven a.m. Jordan drove down the road, slowing to a crawl as she went past the start of the driveway that led to the gate. She couldn’t quite see the main gate as she drove by, continuing to the end of the road before turning around. She parked the car on the left side of the road, pointing back out toward Copper Lake Road in case they had to make a quick exit.
“Are you ready?” Jordan asked as they got out of the car.
“Not as ready as I’d like to be.”
“This was your idea. If you’re too nervous, you can just help me break in instead.”
“Nope. That idea is still worse.”
“Fine. Let’s go.” Jordan led the way into the woods.
It had worried Jordan it would be too difficult to get to the site through the woods. The forest was old, and the trees along this part of the fence—a mixture of mostly oak, maple, and ash—were packed together as close as big trees could be. But the large size of the trees contributed to there being relatively little undergrowth, allowing Jordan and Travis to make good progress.
“We should be getting close to where the buildings are,” Travis said. “Do you see anything?”
“It looks like there might be some open space up ahead.”
With an area in the distance to focus on, Jordan almost walked straight into a fence. “Wait, stop,” she said.
“What is it?”
“I found the fence.”
Travis came up beside Jordan and took in the fence. “Damn. They don’t make it easy to get in there.”
In front of Jordan and Travis was a thick wire-mesh fence. The fencing was about ten feet tall, topped with rolled razor wire, adding at least another two feet in height. The fence snaked through the forest, likely fully enclosing the compound.
“No one’s going to go over the top of that thing,” Travis said. “Not in one piece, anyway.”
“Do you have something metal? Maybe a coin?”
Travis reached into a pocket and pulled out a utility knife. “Will this do?”
“Perfect,” Jordan said, taking the knife.
She extended the long blade and held it in one of the spaces in the mesh fence. Then she released the knife, letting it fall and contact the mesh of the fence, tumbling to the ground. Nothing.
“What was that for?”
“I wanted to see if the fence had an electric current running through it. Looks like it’s just a fence.”
Travis picked up his knife. “How does that help?”
“It’s for future reference. Are you ready with the drone?”
“Not yet. Hang on.”
Travis turned on the drone’s power and set it on the ground. He made sure the controller was on and that the drone was receiving the controller’s signal. Travis put on his VR headset and confirmed the feed from the drone’s HD camera.
“We’re all set,” Travis said.
“Great.” Jordan stood beside Travis, looking at the same video feed as Travis, albeit via the app for the drone on her phone. “It looks like we’re about fifty feet away from the clearing. That long building should be the one closest to us. Will you be able to get through the trees?”
“I’m not going through the trees. I’m going over.”
Jordan looked up. Despite being in a forest, there was open sky above them. More than enough for the drone to get through.
“Oh. Good idea. I didn’t think of that.”
“That’s why I’m here.”
“Yes, you’re very useful. Now get flying.”
Jordan watched Travis engage the power. The drone lifted off smoothly and slowly climbed through the few branches directly overhead. Within a minute, it had cleared the trees.
“I’ll head for the clearing.”
“Don’t crash.”
“Funny. Now shut up.”
The drone reached the clearing thirty seconds later.
Jordan was about to direct Travis to ignore the grounds, but she remembered the little stream she had seen. It probably had no connection to her story, but it was never a good idea to ignore curiosity.
“Swing over to the back of the lot, near the trees. I saw a stream that entered the lake that looked like it came from the property. I’m curious if it cuts through anywhere.”
“You’re the boss. Do you think it has something to do with the fish?”
“I doubt it. But if some kind of illegal testing is going on at this site, I may as well learn all I can.”
Travis piloted the drone to their left, which was a westerly direction. The well-maintained lot had a surface that was primarily graveled. Much was of the tiny pea-gravel variety, but closer to the trees, the average size of the gravel increased. Approaching the edge of the lot and the beginning of what was mostly hardwood trees, Jordan could see no evidence of a stream. Not that she’d expect to see a stream running through the actual lot.
“Can you get a look into the treed area?” Jordan asked.
“I can try. But I don’t want to crash into the trees. I’ll find a safe distance and then zoom the camera view to the ground.”
Travis did as he said and then panned the camera slowly from right to left. The view was good and generally unobstructed, the amount of undergrowth being mostly on the low side. As the camera completed its movement to the left, Jordan saw what she was looking for.
“There,” she said. “On the left side of the camera’s view. Do you see that small stream?”
“Let me look,” Travis said. “Yeah, I see it. Let me sneak in a bit closer.”
Jordan watched the view improve. Sure enough, there was a small stream that flowed toward the lake. Without specifically following it, she couldn’t guarantee that it was the same stream she had seen earlier. But the location and direction were a good fit. But there was something odd.
“Do you see where the stream is coming from?” Jordan asked.
“Not exactly. It seems like it comes from under the main lot. Maybe there’s some drainage that runs underground.”
“Could be. So it’s safe to assume there’s some underground flow of water here. I guess that’s all we can see. Let’s head to the large building.”
“As you command.”
Travis reversed the drone, piloting it toward the large, long building. The drone approached primarily from the building’s side. Assuming there was no underground basement, it was a single level. The concrete walls were high, close to twenty-five feet, and were painted dark gray. The wall in front of the drone showed evenly spaced windows. They all had metal cages on the outside.
“Swing around to the end. We need a door.”
“Already on my way.”
The drone slowly rounded a corner of the building, lining up to look at the end that was closest to their position in the woods. In the center of the front wall, there should have been a large garage door, more than fifteen feet high and wider than a residential garage door. But someone had pulled the door up, leaving a huge opening to the interior.
“Shit,” Jordan said. “The door is open.”
“Someone must be inside. I should back the drone off.”
“The hell you will. Position it so we can see inside.”
“Are you sure? What if someone sees it?”
“Then you’ll fly it the hell out of there. They can’t see us anyway. Just the drone.”
“I guess.”
“Remember, my plan was to break in. This is almost as good.”
“I know, I know. Here we go.”
Travis eased the drone into position to see in through the opening. He maneuvered the drone at the edge of the opening while pivoting it to do some reconnaissance.
The inside of the building was open and immense, with steel supp
orts equally spaced along a roadway that ran the length of the building’s interior. Large LED lights hung from steel beams that crossed the width of the building, providing a consistent and bright light throughout. There was no danger of not being able to clearly see what the building was hiding.
Something along the wall to the left caught Jordan’s attention. “Head to the left.”
“Yeah, I see it.”
Travis eased the drone through the open door and maneuvered it toward the long wall. Despite the well-lit interior, it wasn’t clear what they were looking at.
“What the hell are those things?” Jordan said.
“I don’t know. Some kind of storage containers?”
In the center of the field view was a series of large circular structures, four or five of them, that stretched along the wall toward the front of the building. The walls of each structure stood about four or five feet tall and had some kind of cover or enclosure on the top. The top of the structure closest to the drone had a steel-rimmed glass window, apparently an opening to the structure.
“We need to see inside.”
Travis edged the drone closer. As it came up to the first structure, they saw a pair of pipes that ran close to the floor, connecting the structures in series. The pipes were a couple of inches in diameter, but it wasn’t immediately obvious what they carried.
Travis brought the drone up to where the open glass door provided a view inside the structure. It took a moment for the camera to adjust focus, as the lighting inside the structure was much lower than in the building itself. Only a small amount of the ambient light penetrated the structure’s opening, with only two dim lights in sight.
As Jordan watched the video feed on the drone app, she wasn’t sure at first what she was looking at. There appeared to be some kind of liquid inside, moving as waves and ripples across the surface. Then it hit her.
“Jesus Christ,” Jordan said. “It’s a fish tank. And it’s full of fish.”
Travis zoomed the camera view so only a portion of the surface of the water was visible. They could now both clearly make out fish moving around, constantly disturbing and breaking the water’s surface.
“Whoever owns this site is doing something with fish,” Travis said. “I think we’ve got the right place.”
“This has got to be the right place. But what are they doing? We need to find what they’re putting in these tanks.”
“Where do you want to look?”
“Pull the drone up. We need a broader view.”
Travis brought the drone up as high as he felt he safely could, making sure not to be right below one of the LED lights in case it affected the camera’s ability to focus properly. He pivoted the drone so it looked down toward the front wall of the building, providing a view of the width of the interior.
“Those pipes that run along the fish tanks. Where do they go?”
“They run past all five tanks to some kind of large pump at the other end.”
“What do you think it’s for?”
“Probably just to manage the water in the tanks. You know, keep it clean and oxygenated.”
“Really?”
“I bet they’re no different than the fish tank I have at home. Just bigger.”
“Fine, I believe you. If they’re experimenting with these fish, how do you think they give them a growth hormone or anything else they may test?”
“I’m no scientist, but I expect they could add it manually to the tanks. I suppose if they were testing the same thing in every tank, they’d run their chemicals through the waterline. I’d guess they’d be able to control what they’re testing better if they did it manually.”
“If that’s correct, they should have whatever they’re testing stored somewhere nearby, right?”
“I guess so.”
“Where?”
“Well, if it’s a growth hormone we’re looking for, we should find some kind of fridge or freezer.”
“Why a fridge? Wouldn’t it just be some liquid or powder that they’d dump in?”
“I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure they would keep it in a fridge.”
“Based on what?”
“I have a cousin who has a growth disorder. He just can’t grow to a height right for his age. A doctor put him on a growth hormone. I remember my aunt always kept the vials of the stuff in the fridge.”
“I never would have guessed someone in your family would be short. I guess you got all the tall genes.”
“His dad’s side of the family was pretty short.”
“Let’s look for a fridge, then.”
“On my way. Let’s hope the drone stays in range.”
Travis guided the drone down the middle of the building toward what looked like an office. As the drone approached the far end, it became clear that what they thought was an office was actually a much bigger room. The room appeared to be a square of at least twenty-five feet on each side.
There were no lights on inside the room, but the LED light from the building interior was sufficient to see inside. Jordan recognized what the space was right away. “That’s a laboratory in there. It reminds me a bit of the one Charlie has at his CDC building.”
“I won’t argue with that. But look at the wall on the left. There are five different refrigerators or freezers. Plus whatever that big metal tank is in the corner.”
“This is the room I need to get inside. I’ll need to come back.”
“Come back? You still want to break in?”
“Damn right. Whatever killed those fish is in that room. I need to get it.”
“Let’s argue about it later. Do we need to see anything else in here?”
“No, but let’s look at the side of the building we missed. We can take a look as you bring the drone out.”
“Roger that.”
Travis turned the drone to the right and piloted it toward the other long wall of the building. What they saw made them both realize that what NeuSterone was doing with the fish was just the tip of the iceberg.
“What the hell is that?” Jordan said.
“It looks like experimenting on fish isn’t all NeuSterone is doing.”
Along nearly the entire length of the long wall was a series of rooms of different sizes, all with lots of windows. While no two rooms were the same, many had what looked like animal enclosures or incubators, stacked two, three, and four high. As Travis moved the drone past the enclosures, they could see some had small animals inside. The animals they could see and recognize were small, but they were definitely farm animals. There were pigs, chickens, and ducks. About two-thirds along the wall, the smaller cages and enclosures were replaced with actual stalls. There were a few small cows and goats visible.
“Get the drone out of there, Travis. I don’t want to see what they’re doing to those animals.”
“I’m with you. I’ve seen enough.”
Travis guided the drone toward the open door. It went through and turned left. At the same time, Jordan and Travis both saw a man dead center in the field of view. He was tall, with a look of sheer incomprehension on his face.
They could see his lips move, and while they weren’t capturing audio, they knew he said, “What the hell?”
Travis panicked at the unexpected sight of the man and jerked the drone to the left. In executing the rapid movement commanded by the remote, the drone hit the side of the building and bounced off the wall.
Travis had a split second where it was possible to regain control of the drone. But his inexperience caused him to overcorrect, jerking the drone hard to the right and inadvertently increasing its momentum. The angle it took to comply with the physics determining its flight path sent it careening toward the ground. Not actually being able to see the drone and having to rely on the view through the VR headset left Travis unsure of the drone’s orientation. Before he could figure it out, the drone hit the ground and bounced, landing upside down.
“Oh shit,” Travis said. “Drone down. We gotta go.”
“Can you get it flying again?”
“It’s upside down. We have to leave it.”
As Travis said this, he saw the man come into view, upside down. His head tilted to the side quizzically as he stared at the downed drone. While Travis and Jordan watched, the man bent down and picked up the drone. He turned it around, looking for something. They saw him reach to where the power switch was. Then the view went black.
“Now we really gotta go,” Travis said. He removed the VR headset and started to move quickly toward the road and their car. “Come on.”
“Right behind you,” Jordan said.
Their return trip to the car was fast, with both Travis and Jordan running near flat out by the time they reached it. Jordan got in first and started the car as Travis got in. Jordan accelerated, the wheels spinning as the car sought traction on the loose gravel. Seconds later, they had cleared the NeuSterone driveway, and a minute later, they were heading south toward the marina.
Travis turned to Jordan. “You recorded that video feed, right?”
“Oh yeah, I got it.”
“Are we heading back to the marina?”
“Yep. I need Derek to get me some equipment to break into that place.”
“Shit. When do you want to do it?”
“It’s gotta be tonight. I just hope our drone getting caught doesn’t make whoever’s working there beef up their security.”
32
The chief didn’t know what to make of MacGregor’s call. Finding a drone crashed on the site could be problematic. If this had happened at any time other than the last few days, he’d chalk it up to kids messing around. But with Jordan Reed in town, the drone was more than likely a sign of trouble.
The gate to the site was open when Chief Foster arrived. He drove into the compound and saw MacGregor standing outside the first building, waiting for him. On the ground beside him was the offending drone.
The chief parked, got out, and walked toward MacGregor, pointing at the object on the ground. “I assume that’s the drone you found?”
