“What? Who did you tell?”
“I talked to Malita last night before I left to go to the airport.”
Placing his index finger to his lips, he whispered to Kat, “Shhh, stay close, we don’t know who might still be in here.” Motioning to Si Lei, “Let’s check the rest of the condo.”
The apartment only had a den, kitchen, bathroom and two bedrooms. The kitchen area was separated from the living room by a bar and a couple of stools. Their view into this space was unhampered. They could see the cabinets had been searched, and the drawer content of spoons, knives and forks were scattered across the floor. Coffee, sugar and flour had been haphazardly dumped on top of this mess, but Malita was nowhere to be seen.
The next room was the bath - the door was slightly open. Cautiously peeking around the door Sam Lin could see the small room was also empty; however, it had been given the same rough treatment as the living room and kitchen. Kat’s door to her bedroom was shut. Tiptoeing they approached the tightly closed door. Sam Lin pressed his finger to his lips again, softly counting, “One, two, three...,” he quickly swung open the door - empty! The clothes and other items in the closet had been tossed aimlessly onto the overturned bed. The room, like the rest of the apartment, was a total mess.
Only one room remained - Malita’s bedroom - its door was also shut. Quietly the three crept closer... ever so closer. Sam Lin was at the door. Si Lei was hugging so close to his back Sam Lin could feel the heat from Si Lei’s breath; Kat, almost as close to Si Lei was bringing up the rear; using his handkerchief from his pocket Sam Lin grasped the cold handle. Even through the cloth his sweat from the palm of his hand made the door handle feel as though the steel handle had been retrieved from a refrigerator. He instinctively jerked his hand away. He had a dreadful feeling in the pit of his stomach. He did not want to open this door, but he knew he must. Slowly he forced his hand to turn the stainless steel handle.
As the door swung open a couple of inches the smell he had first detected at the front entry was now overpowering. Its nauseating scent overwhelmed his senses. The smell was coming from this room! He could not see inside. It was dark, the lights were out, and the curtains at the small window were drawn tightly shut. He was glad the room was dark he could feel a gnawing, sickening feeling in his gut. His gut was saying he did not want to see what was waiting inside. Knowing the situation was not going to improve he cautiously opened the door wider - the bright light from the living room partially illuminated the dark interior of the bedroom.
Sitting in a straight chair, arms and legs bound with grey, duct tape was a limp body - moving closer Kay screamed from the bedroom door, “ It’s Malita!!” Blood from a hole in Malita’s right temple matted her blonde hair together. It had slowly seeped down her shoulder, dripped across her body and puddled into a sticky, red, gelatinous puddle on the floor. Blowflies seeking the syrupy goo could be heard buzzing within the room’s confines. Cuts and bruises were evident around her face. A trickle of blood had dried at the edge of her mouth. One eye had been totally swollen shut. It was quite apparent she had been horrendously tortured and savagely, beaten lifeless.
“Is she... is she — ”
“Dead? Yes, mercifully, she is dead.”
At the word ‘dead’, a loud gasp was heard from the bedroom door, and a harsh refrain of sobs coming from Kat. “No... no... she cannot be dead!!”
Sam Lin hurried back to Kat, clutched her by the shoulders and said as he tightly embraced her, “I know, I know.” Giving her a comforting pat on the back he continued, “I’m sorry... deeply sorry.”
In a few minutes, Kat had regained her composure. Between sobs and sniffles she kept repeating, “It’s all my fault. It’s all my fault.”
Sam Lin and Si Lei had been sitting with her until the shock of Malita’s death subsided, Sam Lin finally asked, “Okay Kat, I hate to ask, but a couple of questions - how did you know when we would arrive? And what did you tell Malita? Did she know about your father’s papers?”
“I don’t believe I mentioned the two of you to her, but your Director gave me your arrival information. It was on the note I left for my boss. As far as I can recall I do not think I told Malita where I was going. She and I talked about many private things; it’s possible I might have explained whom you were, and you were coming to Bangkok to investigate Ryan Rousseau. In fact, I believe I did mention your arrival – and I know one thing that I will never forgive myself for, she and I talked about my father’s papers and his satchel, but I never told her it was hidden in the basement.”
“Kat, why would you be so trustful of your roommate? Had you two been friends for a long time?”
Kat started by explaining her arrival back in Bangkok. Over the years a friend of her grandfather, who also worked for the Company, had keep in contact with her, as she grew older. In a letter, he mentioned if she ever returned to Bangkok she might want to seek out a CIA employee named Malita Smith and he provided Malita’s address. He told Kat she might want to find Malita since Malita’s mother had worked for the CIA at the same time as her grandfather Dr. Rusnak. When she got to Bangkok she sought out Malita. There was an immediate bond between the two and eventually they leased this apartment together, but as far as Kat could determine Malita’s mother had never disclosed anything about Ryan Rousseau or MK-ULTRA. Even though Malita had nothing to add which shed light on her grandfather’s murder the two of them had become close friends. She was beginning to tell Sam Lin and Si Lei more about her friendship with Malita when the conversation was interrupted by a phone ringing somewhere in the apartment.
“Where’s that phone...?
“That is Malita’s cell phone. It’s her ringtone. Sounds like it’s coming from over there next to the wall - underneath that pile of books pulled from the bookshelf.”
Sam Lin grabbed the books and began tossing them aside frantically searching for the ringing phone. “Hel... Hello,” he said placing it to his ear.
A disguised, computer generated voice on the other end replied, “Leave Bangkok, leave now! There is nothing for you here... both of you go home... now!! If you do not, it could be a deadly mistake… Your last... I repeat... deadly mistake!!” Before Sam Lin could respond, the connection was terminated.
“Who was it Sam Lin?”
“It certainly wasn’t the Bangkok welcoming committee. We need to contact the police, but before we do I would like to see those papers in the basement. I’m almost sure the people making the phone call were the same ones who slipped in here and killed your friend and ransacked your apartment. Kat, I believe they were trying to find your grandfather’s papers. Once the police arrive they will confiscate everything, and we will never get a look at Dr. Rusnak’s work.”
“Okay, I understand. All of Grandfather’s papers are in a large, brown, leather satchel stored in the basement. They are not in my 2B locker I put them in locker 3B. Come I will show you.”
THE BASEMENT
Leaving the apartment they bounded down the stairs toward the basement. Taking two steps at a time, they hurried as fast as humanly possible. Fortunately they did not encounter anyone on the way down. Opening the door to the storage room they were greeted by a musty, odor suggestive of mold and mildew. The room was cold, damp and un-inviting. Surveying the room they could see one side was full of grey, steel lockers with large three inch high apartment numbers on the doors – each apartment was entitled to one locker and one caged storage area – the lessee provided their own locks and keys.
Across from the row of lockers was Kay’s small, chain link enclosed storage area. It was large enough to hold her big, bulky items if need be, but at the current time it only contained a small kitchen table and a couple of chairs. They walked to the storage locker numbered 2B. The lock had been cut, but the lock still held the hasp closed. Since the contents of Kat’s locker were strewn about the floor, they did not bother to look inside. They were interested in the leather briefcase in 3B. To the left and a couple of lockers down w
as the locker they were seeking – 3B. It seemed to be undisturbed. Kat provided the key to the lock. Sam Lin un-locked the locker door and removed a large, brown, leather satchel.
There was a light in Kat’s wire cage across from the storage lockers on the right side of the room. Sam Lin, Si Lei and Kat opened the chain-link gate, went inside and sat the satchel on the table. The single overhead seventy-five watt bulb provided ample illumination to see inside and reveal the contents of Doctor Joseph Rusnak’s satchel. Freeing the strap binding the bag, Sam Lin could see a number of manila folders.
As he reached inside to get the first folder, Kat mentioned she wanted to see what the ransackers had done to her own 2B locker. Engrossed in the contents of the leather bag Sam Lin casually motioned Kay toward the gate. She swung the gate open, closed it, and walked back toward her own apartment’s locker. They had passed her 2B locker on the way from the door to 3B. Standing in front of 2B she fumbled to remove the cut lock from the ring holding the latch. After one or two attempts, the lock snapped out, she removed it from the hasp. The screech of the metal hinges could be heard as she slowly began to open the steel door... A metallic ‘click’ was heard...
“What the...” she never got to finish... the explosion which followed was the most ear-splitting imaginable. The building shook. Debris, dust and smoke instantly filled the room. The deafening blast hit Sam Lin and Si Lei as they were bowed over examining the contents of the satchel. Blown to the concrete floor they were immediately covered with dust and other debris. Some of the matter defied description. Many of the bits and pieces appeared to be flesh and bone, and most were covered with blood. The only thing that saved them from the horrific blast was the wire cage - it stopped the deadly pieces of steel and metal from hitting them directly.
Getting up from the floor, Sam Lin could faintly see through the haze of pink dust and smoke, and what remained of the once beautiful Katrina Sokolov. It was an understatement to say locker 2B had been booby-trapped by a powerful bomb; there wasn’t much left to see of her or the locker. By the sound of the explosion and the tell-tell faint scent of almonds filling the air Sam Lin recognized the signature of the explosive C-4. He also knew C-4 was a military explosive; it was not available to the civilian market; however, something the CIA would have ready access to.
“Are you okay?” Sam Lin asked, grabbing Si Lei by his arm and dragging him to his feet.
“Huh, huh, what did you say?” said Si Lei, shaking his head as he jarred it with his hand in a futile attempt to clear his hearing.
“ARE...YOU...ALL...RIGHT...? He said again louder and slower. His own ears were ringing so loudly he could not tell how loud he was talking.
“Kat?” Said Si Lei. “Did you say Kat? Sam Lin I think what is left of her is over there,” pointing toward the mangled human form lying where locker 2B previously sat.
“I said RIGHT! RIGHT!! Si Lei, not Kat! Oh, forget it, come on Brother.”
Sam Lin grabbed the brown satchel, crammed the folders back inside, pushed open what was left of their protective chain link cage door, and staggered through the dust and smoke towards Kat’s body where he fell on his knees beside her twisted and mangled body. Looking at her, he could tell the search for a pulse would be useless; however, a tiny breath of life remained. She was trying to say something. Bending over, Sam Lin gently wiped the blood from her lips and placed his ear close to her mouth; he slowly nodded his head, “Yes... sure... you got it.” There was nothing they could do, she breathed a couple more shallow breaths and then went limp - she was dead.
“What did she say Sam Lin?”
“She whispered, ‘Rousseau... get him...get him... for... me...”
Her purse had been blown against the wire cage opposite her body - there wasn’t much left of it, but he did manage to find her car keys, “Come on Si Lei we have to get out of here. The Bangkok police will hold us for days, if not weeks, for questioning.”
As they limped out the front door, they mingled with the crowd of people trying to flee the scene of the explosion along with the curious who had gathered to see what the explosion was all about.
The time was 7:00 p.m., Saturday, December 1, 2012.
DEATH ON THE HIGHWAY
Getting into Kat’s Cadillac they sped away from the Tiboon Condo Town parking lot without trying to attract any attention. They were successful; at least for the moment they thought they were.
Sam Lin drove to Highway Seven, turned right onto the on-ramp and within a minute or so was in the left lane maintaining the same speed as other vehicles on the eight-lane divided expressway.
Sam Lin, busy watching the roadway ahead, did not notice the imposing black, Mercedes-Benz sedan swiftly moving up from behind. For a couple of miles, the Mercedes matched their speed but remained close to their rear bumper. Suddenly, the Mercedes darted forward to parallel them in the right lane. If Sam Lin or Si Lei had looked to their right, they would have seen the passenger window being lowered on the mysterious black automobile. In Thailand driving is conducted in the left lane and most automobiles have the steering wheel located on the right side. Kat’s Cadillac had been shipped over from the U.S., and its steering wheel was on the normal American left side. Si Lei was wide awake and trying to ride shotgun for Sam Lin. Something caught his eye and he glanced out his side window just in time to see a passenger in the Mercedes slide the barrel of an imposing, black, automatic assault rifle out the window.
If Si Lei had not been wide-awake he was now, he yelled, “Sam Lin AK-47!! Look out!! Look out!! A man in this car is aiming a machine gun at us!!”
Sam Lin without hesitation pushed the accelerator to the floor. The speed limit on the expressway was one hundred twenty kilometers per hour or roughly seventy miles miles per hour. The Cadillac’s 469 horsepower V8 engine almost instantly propelled them to a speed in excess of 100 miles per hour. The Mercedes was not to be outdone - its driver did likewise. The speed increased – 110... 115... 120... at 130 mph Sam Lin would not risk a glance down at the ever increasing numbers on his speedometer; however, ahead on the side of the highway, he saw two signs, one in Thai and one in English. The English version read:
WARNING
CONSTRUCTION AHEAD
LEFT LANE ONLY
At the exact instant that Sam Lin saw the warning sign, a tremendous flash of brilliant, white light blinded him for a second. “What the... what was that white light Si Lei?”
“I don’t know brother, but I think someone set off a giant flashbulb! I’m still seeing spots in front of my eyes.”
Evidently whatever caused the flash of light that blinded Sam Lin also obscured the vision of the black Mercedes causing it to miss seeing the warning sign. It plowed into a parked piece of highway machinery that had been blocking the inside right lanes. Sam Lin could see, from his rearview mirror, the fire combining with the black and blue smoke bellowing from the inferno. No one could have survived that crash, he thought. Fortunately it was Saturday, and no highway workmen were on the expressway repair site.
Needless to say, Sam Lin and Si Lei did not stop to offer assistance.
As they sped away from the wreckage, Sam Lin ventured one last glance into his rear-view mirror. What he saw was an unbelievable sight - standing on their side of the tangled mess of wreckage watching them speed away was a diminutive person dressed in a brown overcoat. But what startled Sam Lin the most was... was... the little guy’s hat - an old, brown, sweat stained, tattered cowboy hat.
In less than forty-five minutes, they pulled into the parking lot of the International Airport. Still shaken from the previous experiences they found an empty parking space between two other vehicles. Parked among the other cars they became inconspicuous to anyone passing by. Looking toward the sky, Sam Lin uttered, “Thank you God for fast cars, big bulldozers and old, brown, sweat stained, tattered cowboy hats.”
“Amen,” refrained Si Lei.
“Si Lei, are you injured? No...? Good, I am not either... just scratches and bru
ises from the apartment explosion. Thank goodness for the steel wire cage. What? Oh, your ears? Yeah, mine too... I hope the ringing will go away soon too. Okay, give me a stack of those folders and you take a stack. Look for anything you think might be important.”
“Sam Lin?”
“Yes, Si Lei.”
“How will I know what is important?”
“I don’t know Si Lei,” Sam Lin answered annoyingly, “but you will know it when you see it!”
For the next couple of hours, they sat hiding in Kat’s car looking at the contents of the manila folders. The files were packed full of information on MK-ULTRA and Doctor Rusnak’s notes on his involvement with the human subjects. Here was definitive proof the CIA, in response to the alleged use of mind-control by the Russians, Chinese and North Koreans on our military prisoners, were trying to develop techniques of their own to use on our enemy captives. Here in front of them were papers and notes documenting the CIA and the Department of Defense’s role in conducting experiments on unwilling human subjects. Human guinea pigs unaware they were being used as part of an extensive program to influence and control human behavior. Behavior they wanted to manipulate and control through the use of mind-altering chemicals such as LSD, heroin, marijuana, amphetamines and other addictive chemical. Different methods of biological and psychological means were used on a regular basis, for years.
The front of one brown folder was labeled in large red letters, “TOP SECRET” and at the bottom “FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY”. A large round, seal of the United States was embossed in the center. Sam Lin slowly opened the folder. The first sheet of the file read “Human Test Subjects.” Sam Lin began to read, what a revelation, here in Dr. Rusnak’s own handwriting were page after page of human test subjects the CIA had used for illegal and sometimes immoral purposes. Down the list of names he read, all in alphabetical order, Adams, David... Allen, Paul..., Bradley, Ronald on and on the names went. Sam Lin started at the beginning with the As and proceeded to scan down and down the hundreds of subjects until he reached the names starting with the Ls, Ms, Ns and Os.
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