Sequence 77

by Darin Preston

  Feeling the beginnings of a headache that threatened to rival those induced by Leo’s taste in music, Seth was forced to agree. “He’s not wrong, Professor. We’ve been listening to you explain genetic theory for twenty minutes, but I’m no closer to understanding how any of this relates to the case.”

  Lifting her long black hair away from her shoulders, Manisha leaned back in her chair and rubbed the base of her neck. With deep brown eyes, she scanned the surface of the desk as she formulated a way to boil years of knowledge into small, digestible parts for her guests. She noticed how cluttered and scattered her work area had become in a very short period of time. Disorder wasn’t typical of her in the least, but she did have a tendency to let some things go whenever things got stressful. It appeared that spending several hours searching for any scrap of information to help reconstruct the stolen data, qualified as stressful. “I have to apologize for overwhelming you gentlemen with what must sound more like science fiction than true science,” said Manisha, nodding at the agents’ confused expressions with sympathy. “This might seem farfetched, but I believe our data was stolen to stop something important from being discovered.”

  He may not have understood the overall topic of discussion, but any worthwhile detective knows when someone’s describing a cover-up. “Do you think you can tell us what’s someone might be trying to hide without needing to enroll us in summer courses?”

  Placing her hands flat on her desk, Manish sighed heavily. “I’ll spare you the lingo as much as I can, but I need to get that hard drive back if I’m going to be able to narrow down exactly what’s going on. I’m beginning to feel bad for bothering you with all of this.

  “It’s no bother, Professor, we are happy to help!” chirped Leo as he scanned her office for signs of romantic attachment. Finding nothing to deter him in the photos or on her fingers, Leo took a deep, relaxing breath and turned his full focus back to the investigation. “Should we take a look at the computer lab? Maybe the thief left some evidence behind?”

  Frowning, Manisha shook her head. “Unfortunately, the room’s back in regular use already. When I asked to have the area fingerprinted, the police just laughed at me and said I watch too much television.”

  It was easy to understand why a simple theft might be taken lightly by someone who deals with more dramatic issues on a daily basis, but the professor’s persistence gave Seth the impression that there likely was more at stake than he yet understood. Hoping to dig into something more tangible than genetic theory, he began cataloging what they knew. “You mentioned that the information was on the hard drive, but someone had to input it, right? He pointed to the jumbled documents strewn about the surface of the professor’s desk. “Can we piece anything together from what you do have?”

  Throwing up her hands in frustration, Manisha did her best to put a finer point on the absurdity of the situation. “That’s precisely my point! The exact data I would need to put together a working theory was stolen. Not just the computer data, but also the hard copies of the blood work and genetic testing associated with it.”

  “Wait, I thought someone just took a computer?” an eyebrow raised as Seth found himself wondering why she would leave key information out until now.

  “Over the last few months, important notes have gone missing. I just lectured a lab tech for destroying key blood samples that she swore were marked for disposal.” Angry with herself, Manisha wondered how she could have missed such obvious clues. “I should have seen the pattern before now, but whoever is responsible knew exactly what information to take. I know of only a handful of people on the planet with enough knowledge in the field to even know what they were looking for.”

  Studying her face for a moment, Seth didn’t doubt her instincts that some sort of conspiracy was playing out, but his grasp of what she was suggesting still eluded him. “It’d take me a decade to understand genetics enough to know what you may be thinking, Professor, but there’s little question that someone had motive, beyond selling a used computer, for stealing your data.” He leaned back in his chair and brought his hand thoughtfully to his chin.

  Seeing a familiar analytical look on his partner’s face, Leo smoothly picked up the line of questioning. “When we first came to your office, you said that the missing data was unusual. What did you mean by that?” he asked, finally able to sustain eye contact with Manisha without feeling like he was about to forget his own name.

  “First of all, the testing we were conducting was not the random genetic testing we typically do for university studies,” said Manisha openly. “These particular genetic tests correlated one-to-one with more than a dozen patients who had been treated in the University Hospital recently,” she said, dropping her voice to a whisper so as not to betray the information by echoing it down the hallway.

  “Is that unusual?” inquired Seth as he snapped out of his analytical trance and back into the conversation.

  “Very, in my experience anyway,” she nodded. “Genetic testing is rarely used for individual cases due to high cost and a severe lack of techniques available to change genetic irregularities, even if they are identified.” Manisha picked up a pen and began jotting notes down on a piece of scrap paper. “In fact, genetic testing of this type is highly regulated and usually extremely well documented.”

  Pulling his chair forward, Seth felt as if they might finally be getting somewhere. “Are you saying that something was different about how these cases were documented?”

  As if finally able to tell a secret that had been weighing on her for some time, Manisha whispered her answer. “We weren’t allowed access to the original files and I’m almost certain the copies were different somehow. Almost certainly altered.”

  A seasoned FBI agent, Leo could appreciate the need for secrecy in some cases. “Wouldn’t they have been altered to protect the identities of the individuals being tested?” Following his partner’s suit, he pulling his wooden chair closer to her desk, causing a loud screech against the floor.

  “I’m not talking about privacy laws in this case,” she insisted, giving a curious look at Leo as he quickly leaned back and pretended to write in his notebook. “The files gave no indication of informed consent. I couldn’t even find a general rationale for testing, both of which are required as part of the university’s ethics code when working with human subjects,” she said, pointing to a thick packet of papers on her desk which appeared to have been dog-eared in many places.

  “Could they have been omitted by mistake?” suggested Leo.

  Motioning to the wall of filing cabinets behind her, Manisha dismissed the notion that it could have been an oversight. “With all of the redundancy built into the paperwork, it isn’t likely.” Biting the inside of her cheek, she thought of something else. “I remember thinking that there were irregularities in the birth certificates. At least with the ones we were shown.”

  Causing another loud screech as he pushed his chair back reflexively, Leo didn’t like where things were headed. “Birth certificates? Were these tests being conducted on children?”

  “I’m sorry, Agent Alejo,” she said apologetically, smiling warmly at the man’s genuine reaction. “I should’ve mentioned that each case in the testing population consisted of a mother, father, and their newborn. The strange thing was that the birth certificates only provided gender information and the delivery date. Everything else was redacted.”

  “Who prepared the files in the first place?” asked Seth, his eyes narrowing slightly as he guessed the answer even before finishing the question.

  “Administrator Kemp,” said Manisha, seeming to read Seth’s thoughts as she bowed her head slightly in his direction.

  Shifting in his seat, Seth again wondered if this was really a case for the FBI. “This sounds more and more like an internal issue. “Wouldn’t you be further ahead to take this to an ethics board or the Chancellor’s office?” he suggested, pointing back to the tattered ethics manual.

  Professor Shukla shook
her head as her light brown skin noticeably flushed in exasperation. “Without the files, I have no way to prove that Doctor Kemp was covering anything up.” The issues of the missing data again brought her back to square one.

  Shifting more cautiously in his chair, Leo wanted nothing more than a chance to play hero for the fair doctor. “What is it that you need from us? We might be able to dig where you can’t.”

  Manisha smiled broadly at Leo, causing him to sink slightly in his chair like an ice cube left in the sun. “I believe that you fine gentlemen may be able to gain access to the original hard copies of the patient files for me,” she suggested, her eyes wide in hopeful anticipation.

  “We’d need a warrant,” cautioned Seth, biting his lower lip as he could almost hear Bob’s reaction to the suggestion. “Can you give us something more to go on?”

  “If this is a cover-up, I’d bet Seth’s paycheck that any hard copies would have been destroyed by now anyway,” added Leo, lowering his head slightly in disappointment.

  There was a soft knock on the door to which Manisha quickly responded, “Enter please.”

  The door creaked open to reveal a young, red-haired woman standing rigidly next to, and practically leaning on, a slender, blond-haired young man who had the disheveled appearance of someone who hadn’t slept in some time. He held tightly to a small stack of manila folders. It was apparent to the agents that these were Manisha’s students, their bloodshot eyes reminding Seth and Leo of their own experience with occasional all-night investigations.

  “Do you have a minute, Professor? We think we found some….” The young woman halted, her green eyes widening as she noticed the two men seated silently in front of the professor’s desk.

  “It’s ok, Erin. These men are investigating the incident. This is Mr. Alejo and Mr. Alexander.” Manisha did not feel it was necessary to agitate the already uneasy students by indicating that these men were FBI agents. “Gentlemen, these are two of my students who also assist me in the lab, Erin Nicholson and Kevin Roe.”

  Rising to his feet, Seth pulled on Leo’s forearm until he stood up as well. “Should we come back later?”

  “Please stay, gentlemen. Hopefully, Kevin and Erin have something which will help with your investigation.” The professor looked expectantly at her two students, standing pitiably in the doorway.

  The wary couple entered the room without breaking step or losing the contact being made by their shoulders. Although reluctant to sever their physical connection, Kevin turned to shut the door quickly behind them and reunited with Erin. “I was able to piece together some of the information we had lost, Professor,” his voice ragged from fatigue. “Unfortunately, we were only able to compile four complete data sets.”

  Erin took the files, her touch lingering on Kevin’s hand for a moment in an effort to reassure him. “The data we recovered does show the anomaly we told you about,” she said, handing them to Manisha. “We just can’t tell how the gene might be expressed without the actual case records to pair these findings with.”

  “So we’re left with just half the picture then,” said Manisha as she pursed her lips and furrowed her brow slightly. Knowing how much it must have taken to piece even a partial database together, he smiled appreciatively. “But half the picture is better than nothing, which is what we had. Good work to the both of you.”

  Energized by their mentor’s praise, Erin and Kevin suddenly appeared refreshed and ready to keep at it. “Thank you, Professor. I’m just sorry I didn’t update the main server sooner.” Casting his gaze to the floor, he learned a hard lesson about putting things off. “I should’ve done it right away.”

  Waving off his self-criticism, Manisha knew that taking a step back was often the best way to get perspective. “There was no reason to believe someone was going to steal the server, especially from right under your nose. I take full responsibility here, don’t blame yourself.”

  After trying to raise her boyfriend’s spirits since it happened, Erin appreciated the effort. “I’ve been trying to tell him the same thing. I hope he listens to one of us, at least.”

  Clearing his throat, Seth turned toward Manisha. “May we ask your students a few questions about the night of the theft, Professor Shukla?”

  “I know they wish to help, but it’s up to them. You can probably tell I’ve been pushing them pretty hard to find this data for me,” she said, looking sympathetically at Kevin as he stifled a yawn.

  Nodding stoically, Kevin pledged his help. “Anything I can do, I will.”

  Grinning, Leo suspected that more might have been going on than just studying on the night in question. “Professor Shukla says that it was late at night when the computer was stolen. What were the two of you doing there so late?”

  “We, Erin and I, had been looking at data from an analysis Professor Shukla has us running,” said Kevin, blushing a bit as he glossed over Agent Alejo’s insinuation. “We had discovered a recurring anomaly which couldn’t be accounted for through sample contamination or other statistical error.”

  Seth pressed for more detail. “What kind of anomaly?”

  “We don’t really know, sir,” said Erin respectfully. “We only know that it was consistent, too consistent to be random.”

  “Without knowing exactly which cases the samples came from, we simply have no way to know what, if any, impact the genetic difference would have had on a subject,” said Kevin in support of her conclusions.

  Having just heard the same argument from Manisha, Seth took it as confirmation. “That’s consistent with our understanding. It doesn’t seem like a random mistake.”

  Holding up his pad of paper with pencil at the ready, Leo looked as though he were about to test out his skills as a sketch artist. “What about the incident itself? Can you tell us anything about the thief?”

  “I was talking with Erin and then the lights snapped off like there was a short circuit or something,” said Kevin. “They had only been off for a few seconds when someone rushed passed our table, ripped the computer off the back countertop, and then blew back past us and ran down the hall,” he recounted, shaking his head slowly as if recalling a dream.

  Stifling a shiver, Erin added her accounting. “I couldn’t see anything. It was like I could feel someone, no, more like something watching me in the darkness.”

  Leo jotted a few words into his notebook before inquiring further. “How long would you say the lights were off?”

  Looking up and to the right as he tried to recall details from the madness, Kevin made his best guess. “The emergency lights came on after about a minute, the main lights came back on a few minutes after that, I think.”

  “Sixty seconds can feel like an eternity in a situation like that, kiddo,” said Leo, putting his hand on Kevin’s shoulder for a brief moment. “Is there anything else either of you remembers? Anything might be on help, even a particular sound or smell.”

  “Just that the guy moved fast and, now that you mention it, I do recall a smell.” There was a detectable quiver in Erin’s voice.

  Keying in on the first thing she said, Seth asked for more detail. “First, tell us why you think it was a man.”

  “Well, to rip that computer tower off its base without unplugging any of the cords would take some major upper body strength.” Though she tended toward logical reasoning, Erin recalled the sensation as someone other than Kevin moved into the dark room. “I also felt like the person had to be pretty tall because of all the air movement they caused when rushing by.”

  As his partner added to the notes, Seth continued with the questioning. “Good, now tell us about the smell. Try to break it down as far as you can.”

  I could smell him, he was musty and anything but ladylike,” Erin said, crinkling her nose at the recollection. I think I smelled ammonia, or maybe chlorine?” Try as they might, she nor Kevin could remember anything beyond what they already shared.

  Scanning his notes, Leo nodded at his partner. “I think we’ve got everyth
ing we need for now,” he said, offering a handshake to Kevin and Erin. “Please have Professor Shukla contact us if you think of anything else.

  Walking to the door, Manisha opened it and motioned for her students to leave. “I know this hasn’t been easy, thank you. Go get some rest.”

  Kevin motioned for Erin to walk ahead of him into the hallway. Stopping short, he turned toward Leo and Seth, looking at them through bloodshot eyes. “Catch this guy. I want a chance to see him in the light.” He glanced at his girlfriend waiting anxiously in the hallway. He turned, walked into the hallway, and took her hand. The door closed behind them with a gentle click. Soft whispers could be heard as they walked down the long corridor together, hand in hand.

  Feeling more optimistic now that they had something to go on, Seth pointed to the stack of recovered records. “So now that you have some data, how close does this get you to proving that someone’s been manipulating things?”

  Despite their progress, Manisha understood how far they still had to go for answers. “I’ll need at least a full day to study this information, but the computer data alone won’t be enough.” Looking at her phone as if waiting for it to ring, she scowled disappointedly when it didn’t. “I called in a request earlier today with the hospital records department, but I was told several files were missing or had never been turned in.” Feeling stymied, she imagined her new friends might have better luck. Clasping her hands together in front of her, it appeared that she was preparing to pray. “As I’ve been saying, we need the hard copies of the case files each data set is associated with. Would you be willing to help them down?”

  Asking for a warrant still didn’t seem like the right move to Seth. “Let’s hold off on that for now. You might be surprised how often people forget to ask for a warrant when we flash our credentials.”

  “I was thinking the same thing,” winked Leo.

  Breathing a sigh of relief, Manisha was glad it was no longer just her, and two overwhelmed graduate students, against the world. “I can’t thank you guys enough, really.” Reaching for her phone, she offered to get them started on the next step of the investigation. “Please ask Alice to direct you to the records department. Would you like me to call her to come pick you up?”