Authors: Sean Black
‘So why do you even need me here for this?’
‘Because you have to sign off on the data. Your name means a lot to the Food and Drug Administration, not to mention the Department of Defense.’
‘So do it and send me the clinical results. I can make a judgement based on—’
Stafford cut him off by grabbing his arm and squeezing hard. It hurt. ‘We don’t have room for any more ethical dilemmas, even after the trials have taken place. That’s why we’d prefer it if you were as hands-on as possible.’
Richard felt a low terror start to form at the bottom of his stomach. ‘So these test subjects. What are they exactly?’
‘Think of them as higher-level primates.’
A fierce crosswind buffeted the Gulfstream as it began its final approach towards the airstrip, visibility severely hampered by the fierce rain which slammed into the side of the aircraft. The ski masks worn by the pilot and co-pilot didn’t help either. Neither man knew the other’s name, or who he worked for. The same held for the other eight members of the crew.
In the cabin, the plush leather seats, usually used to cushion the already well-upholstered buttocks of senior executives, had been replaced with six gurneys. On each gurney lay a person. Six in total. Five men and a woman.
Their heads were hooded, a slit cut in the cloth two thirds of the way down to allow breathing. Their hands were cuffed, each cuff attached to a welded bracket either side of the gurney. Their feet were similarly secured. Their clothes consisted of bright red T-shirts and pants. Underneath their pants they wore adult diapers. None of them had been unshackled during the flight for a trip to the bathroom.
Not that they had much interest in moving anyway. Before departure they’d each been injected with an amount of Haldol, a
powerful anti-psychotic. Pills could be slipped under the tongue or spat out, so intravenous delivery was deemed the most effective way to ensure that the drugs made it into their system.
Mareta Yuzik, thick-tongued and groggy, opened her eyes to darkness. For a moment she wondered if she’d been blinded. Then she remembered the hood. She could feel the fabric of it against her face. She smiled with relief.
There was a searing pain in her left side. She tried to reach a hand down to touch where it was tender but her hand wouldn’t move. The tightness around her wrists and ankles told her that she was shackled.
Not blind, only hooded. Not paralysed, merely shackled. And, miraculously, she could hear. Over the past few weeks, when she’d been moved from one location to another ear defenders had been placed on her head so she could only sense the loudest of noises, more through vibration than anything else. Being able to hear meant that she knew she was on an aircraft. It also meant she could hear the guards, even over the sound of the engines. She recognized their accents from the movies. They were American. She could hear two of them talking.
‘Man, it’s good to be home.’
‘How long of a layover you have?’
‘Week, maybe. Depends on how this goes. You?’
‘About the same. Let me tell you, I’ll be glad to get off this thing. These guys creep me out.’
‘Relax, they’ve got enough shit in their system to flatten an elephant.’
‘What’re they being moved back here for, anyway?’
‘Dunno. I heard something about a trial.’
‘Good. Hope they smoke ’em.’
‘I’d stick a bullet in them, save on the energy.’
The Gulfstream taxied to the end of the runway and turned
right, heading for a remote hangar no more than five hundred yards away. The doors of the hangar were already open and more than a dozen men were inside, along with six SUVs. Like everyone onboard, all of the men were masked.
The aircraft inched its way inside the hangar and the vast metal doors were rolled closed behind it. A few seconds later the aircraft door opened and the steps were unfolded and lowered to the ground. One of the men walked up them and disappeared inside the aircraft.
Only one of the detainees had been unshackled. The woman. One of the guards unholstered his sidearm and passed it to his partner. He helped her off the gurney and on to her feet. She struggled to stand and it was as much as he could do to prevent her keeling over. They lumbered down the steps of the plane like lovers stumbling from a bar.
As she stepped on to the concrete, she sank down on to her knees.
‘She OK?’
‘Be careful, she might be faking it.’
‘Dude, you’ve got an overactive imagination.’
‘You read that bitch’s file? She’s snuffed more people than Bin Laden.’
‘This is bullshit. I didn’t take any kid!’
‘Then what were you doing there, Cody?’
Frisk was facing Cody Parker and his court-appointed attorney, a Hispanic woman in her late twenties, across a table in an interrogation room on the third floor of Federal Plaza.
‘I told you. I got a phone call.’
‘That’s very convenient. From who?’
‘I don’t know. They said they knew who killed Gray Stokes and that if I wanted to know I should meet them at that address.’
‘They didn’t give you a name? You didn’t recognize the voice?’
‘Nope. Look, if I kidnapped this kid then where’s the money, huh? Or did you plant it in my truck?’
‘Why don’t you tell us where it is.’
‘Someone set me up.’
Frisk rocked back in his seat, stretched out his arms and yawned. ‘Go on, then, I’m prepared to explore alternative scenarios.’
‘It was that company. They were looking to get back at me.’
Frisk laughed. Unprofessional, but he couldn’t help it. ‘They arranged a kidnapping of the child of one of their employees in
order to exact some kind of revenge against you personally? OK, it’s certainly an interesting hypothesis. But it still doesn’t speak to motive. Why you?’
‘What do you mean, “why me”? I’ve been taking them on. And why aren’t you out there trying to catch whoever killed my mom?’
‘Because we don’t have any evidence that she died from anything other than natural causes. But it does bring us neatly to another event. Digging up Eleanor Van Straten’s corpse. That what you mean by “taking them on”?’
Cody glanced up at the ceiling. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘Except we’ve found particles of soil on your boots which match the soil from Mrs Van Straten’s grave.’
Cody’s jaw tightened. He gave his attorney the briefest of looks. ‘OK, so that was me.’
‘Finally,’ Frisk said. ‘And who was with you?’
‘I was alone.’
‘Moving a body, even a little old lady, is a two-man job. Minimum.’
‘I told you. I was alone.’
‘So this friend of yours, he the one who blew up the car, get rid of any forensics?’
‘You got me blowing shit up to get rid of forensics
and
sitting across the street from that boy?’
‘Well, you have to concede you were there. I mean, no one teleported you or anything.’
‘I was there. And I told you why. Check the phone records at the house if you don’t believe me.’
‘We already did.’
‘And?’
‘You received a call when you said you did.’
‘Then I’m telling the truth.’
‘Records don’t say anything about what was being said. And as for telling the truth, how many times were you questioned about Mrs Van Straten?’
‘Don’t rightly remember.’
‘Three times. And three times you denied having any involvement. So allow me some scepticism when it comes to your record on honesty.’
Cody stretched his arms towards the ceiling. ‘So what happens now?’
‘You’re arraigned. You wait to go to trial. You’ll have plenty of time to think about whether or not you want to plead guilty.’
‘You can’t put this on me. Or anyone in the movement.’
‘That so?’ Frisk said, getting up from his seat and crossing to a plastic storage box in the corner of the room. He removed the lid and pulled out a clear plastic evidence bag. Inside there was a photo album with a red spine and a plain grey cover. He brought it back to the table. ‘Go ahead.’
Cody opened the bag like something might leap out from the album’s pages and bite him. ‘This is mine. So what?’
‘Oh, we know it’s yours. It’s got your prints all over it.’
‘So why are you asking me then?’
‘Because it was with Josh Hulme when he was found. Someone dropped it at the exchange point. And it has your prints all over it as well as those of Josh Hulme.’
‘I had a bunch of shit taken in a robbery,’ Cody said flatly.
‘You report it?’
‘No,’ Cody answered, shaking his head.
‘Josh Hulme told us that this album was in the room where he was kept after he was abducted.’
Frisk reached over and opened the album to a random page. The eyes were big, brown and familiar to Frisk and Cody. So was the red raw flesh on top of the dog’s skull.
The door opened and a uniformed officer walked in. He bent down next to Frisk, lowered his voice. ‘There’s a Ryan Lock demanding to speak to you.’
Frisk got up. He picked up the album and held it up to Cody’s face. ‘Pretty sick thing to expose a child to, wouldn’t you agree, Mr Parker?’
‘You want me to one-eighty this investigation on the word of a teenage hooker you found in a strip club? Which, incidentally, you entered carrying a firearm. You keep going the way you are, Lock, and we’re gonna have to get some new felonies on the books just to keep up.’
‘But you’ll look into it?’
Lock had known Frisk would be a hard sell. Hell, he wasn’t even sure that Carrie believed him. But here he was in Frisk’s office asking the man for a favour.
‘For what it’s worth,’ Frisk said.
‘All I’m asking you to do is keep an open mind.’
‘This wouldn’t have anything to do with Brand replacing you as Meditech’s head of security, would it?’
‘I’m convalescing.’
‘Most people do that at home in bed with a nice bowl of chicken soup.’
Lock smiled. ‘I didn’t say I was any good at it.’
Frisk opened the bottom drawer of his desk and dug out a plastic Tupperware container. ‘The wife makes me lunch. You
know, try to ensure I eat my greens.’ He took the top off and held it up for Lock to inspect. ‘I mean, seriously, would you eat this shit?’
Lock waved it away.
‘You’ve had a boner for Brand since the first time I met you,’ Frisk continued.
‘He’s had a boner for me.’
‘Volunteering to testify against one of your own guys? Wouldn’t that usually get you fragged in the military?’
‘Not where I served. Not if someone had crossed the line.’
‘Oh yeah, I forgot you served with the Limeys. That why you and Brand don’t get along?’
‘Head over to Scotland. Try calling them Limeys and see what happens. I served in the same branch of the military as my father. I served his memory. Took a lot of shit from both sides for being a mutt while I was doing it. But I’ve never felt the need to wrap myself in any flag in order to prove my patriotism.’
‘Nice speech,’ Frisk said, putting the lid back on his lunch box. ‘Look, I have a perp.’
‘Who didn’t do it.’
‘There’s evidence you’re not aware of.’
‘Such as?’
Frisk stood up. ‘Who the hell are you anyway, Lock? Just some hired hand.’
‘This case is bullshit, and you know it.’
‘I know I’ve got a guy who’s now admitted to digging up Eleanor Van Straten’s body, and who was at the handover. All you’ve got is the fact that one of your co-workers was schtupping Richard Hulme’s nanny.’
‘Who had to have been involved in the kidnapping.’
‘A few months earlier she’d been giving out handjobs in the back of a strip club, so how do you know she wasn’t dropping her panties for more than one guy?’
Lock flashed back to the minutes he’d spent in Natalya’s bedroom after Richard Hulme had tracked him down. It seemed like a lifetime ago, but he could still see in his mind’s eye the photograph of the young girl with her family. All that optimism, all that promise. He clenched his right fist and started to draw it back, not even fully conscious that he was doing it.
Frisk watched the blood drain from Lock’s knuckles as he took a step back. ‘That would be an extremely bad idea.’
Lock was aware of a couple of agents at nearby desks watching him.
‘Y’know, when I heard about you running
towards
that sniper, I thought you just might be crazy. But now I’m positive.’
Lock took a deep breath and counted to ten slowly.
‘Are we done here?’ Frisk asked him.
‘Well, seeing as you brought it up. What about Gray Stokes? Anyone going to be charged with his murder?’
‘It’s ongoing.’
‘What did forensics say about the rifle that killed Stokes?’
‘An M-107 fifty cal sniper rifle.’
‘Traceable?’
‘Missing from a combat unit serving in Iraq.’
‘So we’re probably looking at ex-service personnel,’ Lock stated flatly.
‘I’d say that would be a fair assumption.’
‘And that doesn’t fit any of the animal rights people.’
‘They’re not all known to us,’ Frisk objected. ‘Hell, Cody Parker kept a pretty low profile, and look what he was capable of.’
‘Listen, when I went in the back of that store, I knew straight off I was dealing with something more than a bunch of people who break out in a rash about a beagle being handed a pack of smokes. If someone was prepared to go to all the trouble of laying their
hands on an M-107, and learning how to use it, you think they’d miss Van Straten and get the other guy?’
Frisk put on his coat and strode towards the door. ‘For Christ’s sake, Lock, next time bring me something more than a grudge.’
Brand stood outside the door with two other members of the team. All of them were dressed in full riot gear: visored helmets, body armour and heavy boots. Now that the Hulme situation was resolved satisfactorily, Brand would be taking personal charge of the day-to-day running of the isolation unit. In total they had twelve individuals to look after, brought in on two separate flights. Each of them deemed to be extremely dangerous.
In his hand, Brand held a small monitor which was receiving the live feed from the camera placed on the other side of the door. A peep hole, even one using glass or Perspex, would be far too dangerous.