Annihilation: Love Conquers All (11 page)

“Why is that?” Colonel Ortiz asked.

“Because all four men were killed in less than six seconds,” she replied.

Inspector Connor was stunned and, glancing at Colonel Ortiz, he could tell that he was also surprised by her response. He said, “Slow down, let’s go over your data step by step.”

“All right, here’s what I’ve been able to determine,” Danielle said. “The first one to die was the gunman on the right.” She turned and pointed at the body with the knife protruding from an eye socket. “He died at exactly 11:46:11 by a knife that entered his right eye. The second one to die was the gunman on the left, and he died at exactly 11:46:13 by a knife puncturing the main artery in his heart. The third one to die was this fellow with the broken arm. He died from massive head trauma. Apparently he was slammed into the wall face first. His time of death was 11:46:15. The last one to die was this man with the severed tendons in his wrist. He also died from massive head trauma. Apparently he was thrown back hard enough to fracture his skull on the concrete. His time of death was 11:46:17. I checked my readings three times, and I used a different probe the third time, and the readings still didn’t change. I’ve matched the third victim with the blood on the wall here,” she said, and she pointed to a bloody spot on the wall about head high. “Also, the blood on the concrete here next to the fourth man matches his blood.”

“Thank you,” Colonel Ortiz said. “Is there anything else you’d like to add, Miss Ash?”

“Yes, there is one more thing,” she said. “The first and fourth victim had army serial numbers on their arms.”

“How do you know they’re army?” Colonel Ortiz asked quickly.

“I’ve run into serial numbers on victims before, so I went to defense five months ago and learned how to tell the difference between the different military branches,” she replied. “All army serial numbers begin with a ‘T’ and end with a ‘Z.’”

Colonel Ortiz was impressed. “You’re absolutely right,” he said.

“John, please contact defense and ask them to run a check on those serial numbers,” Inspector Connor said.

“I’ve already done that, Inspector. I used your name and they promised the results within the hour. I also asked them to flash it to the computer on your floater,” Danielle said.

“Thank you very much, Miss Ash,” Esa told her. This young technician impressed him. He made a mental note to get John to look into her work history to see if she could be transferred into his division. Most technicians her age were too timid to make a decision on their own, much less go out of their way to gather information.

“I think it’s my turn now,” Major Daniels said. “I’ve had my department download the material to your computer, Inspector. I’ve also brought a display to show the live tape on what happened here.”

He then opened his display, set it down on the floater, and said to the group, “There were six people involved tonight, and what I would like to do is show you what video we have on each participant. After we look at each one, I’ll combine all the videos into one screen so you can see how all their movements worked together.”

So they watched the videos and saw the five men moving through the park, the street, and the sidewalk until all five arrived at this point together. As they watched the video they would look out into the park at the routes that the five men used.

“Now, before I put all these together into one video, is there anything that stands out from what you’ve seen?” Major Daniels asked.

John Sinclair replied, “It’s clear to me that these five were working together. They were looking at each other as they moved, and I’m willing to wager that they all arrive at this point at the same time. Does anyone see anything different?”

Danielle said, “I don’t see anything on the man leaning against the wall.”

“I’ll get to that in a few minutes,” Major Daniels said.

“No, I agree,” said Inspector Connor. “Other than the points just made, I think we can all agree that they were working together. Let’s continue.”

“What I’m going to do now is show you the live tape we have. Understand that where this took place was covered with only one camera, so you’ll see ten seconds of video, then the camera will swing away, then swing back for ten seconds. All right, here goes,” Major Daniels said, and he started his display again.

The camera showed the wall, and no one was there. Then they could see it swing away and show the wall in the opposite direction. Then it swung back, and there were the five men surrounding someone sitting against the wall. As they watched they could see that one of the men was talking to the person sitting against the wall.

Major Daniels stopped the video at this point and said, “I want you to notice a few things.” He brought the video in close to the man on the right, and brought the view in tight to the man’s right hand, where they could see he had a gun pressed against his leg. As Major Daniels moved the video to a wider view he said, “Notice that this man is scanning the area away from where that man is sitting against the wall. I won’t take the time to look at the man on the left, you can do that on your own, but he’s doing the same thing. It seems their duty was to prevent anyone from interfering with what was about to happen.”

Colonel Ortiz said, “That is standard military practice. You place your scouts on the perimeter to make sure your main force isn’t surprised. Did everyone notice that they all arrived at the same time and that their victim was right in the center of their group?”

“So you think the man sitting against the wall was intended to be a victim, Colonel?” asked Inspector Connor.

“I think that’s obvious, and I think you’ll see why as soon as Major Daniels shows you close-ups of the three center men.”

“You’re a good observer, Colonel,” Major Daniels said. “I’ll show you what he’s talking about, Inspector.” He then moved the video to a close-up of the three center men. As the men moved in closer on the screen, they could see that there was something in their hands. Major Daniels then showed clear video that each man had a knife pointed at the person sitting against the wall.

“As you can see,” said Colonel Ortiz, “these three men in the center have their knives out and are moving in on whoever that is against the wall. These three are the attacking force. The big man in the center is the blocker. His job is to prevent the victim from trying to run. The men on each side of him are the strike force that will attack the victim simultaneously. These men have done this before. They moved into position smoothly and every man knew his place.”

“There’s something else,” said Danielle. “Major Daniels, can you give me a close-up of the knives that are being held by the man to the right and left of the center man?”

Major Daniels didn’t say anything, but almost immediately the screen split in half. On one side was a hand holding a serrated military knife, and on the other side of the screen was a hand holding a notched throwing knife.

Danielle walked up to the screen, pointed to the serrated military knife, and said, “This is the knife that severed the tendons in the fourth victim’s arm, and it’s also the knife in the first victim’s eye.” She then pointed to the other knife and said, “This is the knife that punctured the heart of the gunman on the left. One more thing,” she said. “Major Daniels, will you now show the picture of the three men again?” Immediately the picture was back on the screen. “I want you to notice that the man holding the serrated blade, standing right here,” and she pointed to the man on the screen, “had the arm holding the knife broken at the elbow.” She paused for a moment and then said, “And this man holding the notched knife had the tendons severed in his wrist on the arm that he was using to hold his knife.”

They all looked at each other while the implications of what she said sank in.

Major Daniels said, “Let’s continue the video.” And immediately on the screen the camera started moving away from the six people arrayed at the wall. They then watched the camera swing back and saw that four of the five men were sprawled on the sidewalk. They also saw the big man in the center still looking at the man sitting against the wall. The camera paused and, before it swung away, they could see the two men on the screen talking. When the camera swung back again the big man and the man against wall were gone and only the four dead bodies remained.

“Just a little more,” said Major Daniels. “One of my monitors took over manual control of the cameras in this area when one of them picked up the sound of gunshots.” He then started the video again, and they saw the big man running down the street until he came to an entrance into a building and went through it. The view then switched to the corridor that the big man entered. There were hundreds of people moving and they lost sight of him. “We lost him in the crowd.”

“How far were you able to follow the man sitting against the wall?” Esa asked.

“I’ll get to that in a minute,” Major Daniels said. “When our system detected two gunshots, one of the monitors on duty immediately took manual control of all the cameras in this area.”

Inspector Connor said, “Victim number two fired his gun twice. I don’t think he hit anyone, because the four dead men had no bullets in them, and there was no blood where the big man was standing or where the other man was sitting.”

Colonel Ortiz then said, “I think I can tell you what happened.”

“John, I want you to record what the colonel says, and also, if you don’t mind, please get a copy of Major Daniels’s videos.”

“Yes sir.”

Then Inspector Connor said, “Go ahead, Colonel.”

Just as Colonel Ortiz started to explain, two men walked up to the group. “Just a moment, Colonel,” Esa said.

Jack Chin, one of John Sinclair’s assistants, said, “Inspector Connor, you asked me to bring Sergeant Garcia when he arrived.”

“Thank you, Jack. Good evening, Sergeant.”

“Good evening,” said Sergeant Garcia. “Don’t let me interrupt you.”

“I’ve invited Sergeant Garcia here because he might have something that relates to the man sitting against the wall,” Major Daniels said. “I was working with him on another issue when the attack took place here.”

“If it’s all right with everyone, I’d like to stay on task,” Esa said. “We’ll get to Sergeant Garcia after I hear from Colonel Ortiz. Go ahead, Colonel.”

“Thank you,” said Colonel Ortiz. “The first one to attack was this man to the right of center. He thrust his knife at the person sitting against the wall. Whoever the person against wall was, let’s call him the victim, he stepped inside the thrust, twisted the arm, and broke the elbow with a hand blow that caused the attacker to drop his knife. The victim then caught the knife before it hit the sidewalk, as he was rolling under the man on the left who was slashing at his back. The victim placed his knife in the path of the attacker’s arm to use the attacker’s own slashing motion to sever his tendons and ligaments, which also caused him to drop his knife. The victim came out of his roll holding both knives. He immediately threw the serrated knife into the eye of the gunman on the right, who I am certain was about to begin firing.”

He paused for a moment and said, “I feel certain about everything so far, and I can see in my mind the moves that the victim made.” Then the colonel walked over to the four bodies and stood facing the gunman on the right with his back to the gunman on the left. “It’s this next move that I’ve never seen before,” he said. “There’s only one thing the victim could have done within the time restraints that Miss Ash has given. The gunman behind the victim fired a shot at him, but the victim anticipated that and had begun a roll. He threw the knife back between his legs, upside down in the middle of his roll, into the gunman’s heart, causing his second shot to go wild. His roll would have brought him in front of the first attacker, probably still holding his broken arm since only a few seconds had passed. The victim grabbed this arm and swung him face-first into the wall, then he rotated and kicked the second attacker with the severed wrist between the legs and then slammed his knee into the attacker’s face as he bent over. The attacker died when he flipped over backwards and hit his head on the concrete. He had a broken nose, which tells me how the victim flipped him backwards. The victim then sat back down against the wall just as the camera returned.”

“Colonel, what did you mean by the victim using a move you’ve never seen before?” Esa asked.

Colonel Ortiz looked at Inspector Connor, who could tell he was struggling with how to answer his question. “Inspector, the victim never saw the second gunman when he threw the knife.”

“What!”

“Let me demonstrate.” Colonel Ortiz walked over to the street and picked up a small rock. He then walked back to where he was facing the gunman on the right. “Now I want you to imagine that I’ve just rolled under the attacker on the left, cut his wrist, and picked up his knife as I came to my feet. I then throw the serrated knife at the gunman in front of me.” Colonel Ortiz demonstrated the motion of throwing a knife. “This rock in my left hand represents the other knife. I want you to notice at this point that I cannot see the gunman behind me, but I know he’s got to be lining up a shot at me, and remember that according to Miss Ash, whatever I do now must be done within one second, and I have to slam the attacker with a broken arm into the wall within two seconds after that.”