The Sirani Connection

by Estelle Ryan

  “Bloody hell.” Manny turned to Roxy. “Maybe you can be more useful, Roxanne.”

  “I hope so, Manfred.” Her smile lifted her cheeks and crinkled the corners of her eyes when she used his full name.

  “Oh, bugger off.” Manny pushed his hands in his trouser pockets. “Tell me what kind of weapon was used in Moscow that is also related to our case.”

  “You know this.” My frown was deep and my tone impatient. “The moment Antonin referred to Moscow, I saw the recognition on your face. You know he was talking about Kolo...” My frown disappeared when I registered his expression. “You wanted Roxy to confirm your theory.”

  “Well, you just did, missy.”

  “Wait. What?” Roxy’s eyes were wide as she looked from me to Manny and back. “Are you talking about Kolokol-1?”

  “Um, I don’t know what you guys are talking about.” Ivan looked at Roxy.

  “In 2002, Kolokol-1 was speculated to be the agent used in the Russian theatre hostage crisis.” Roxy’s lips thinned. “Eight hundred and fifty people attending a performance were taken hostage by around fifty armed men. On day four, the Russian government pumped some chemical into the complex. Official numbers put the death toll at a hundred and seventy people, but it’s highly disputed.” Her curly hair bounced as she shook her head. “Not relevant, I know. What’s relevant is that the Russian media reported the drug used to be Kolokol-1. It’s deadly.”

  “Doctor Ferreira.” Ivan studied Roxy for a few seconds. “If you take into account Shahab, Doctor Jan Novotný, his research and everything else you know about him, what conclusions do you reach about a poison Shahab is said to have created?”

  “Firstly, call me Roxy.” She paused and pulled at one of her wayward curls. “Secondly, hmm. If I take everything you just mentioned and I add your talk about Kolokol-1 and your visit with Antonin, it’s easy to jump to conclusions about a chemical weapon that could wipe out as few or as many people as Shahab wants.”

  “Do you think Novotný could’ve developed this weapon for Shahab while held hostage?” Manny asked.

  “Without a doubt.” Roxy looked at me. “What do you think?”

  “And don’t say you’re not going to speculate, Doc.” Manny lowered his chin to stare at me. “We need something to work on, so share whatever theory you have.”

  “It’s not difficult to come to a theory similar to Roxy’s.” It might not be based on irrefutable evidence and facts, but there was far too much circumstantial evidence not to reach these conclusions. “In order for Doctor Novotný to develop a cure for opioid addiction, he would’ve needed exhaustive knowledge of all forms of opioids, their effects on the human body and much more we’re not even thinking of at the moment. All of this can be used in reverse as well. Not as a cure, but as a weapon.”

  “Bloody hellfire.” Manny looked around the empty foyer. “What numbers are we looking at?”

  “Numbers?” I wished people would be more specific in their questions.

  “What kind of casualties?” Roxy inhaled deeply. “It could be catastrophic, depending on what kind of agent or narcotic Shahab has weaponised.”

  “This is too much speculation.” I didn’t feel comfortable talking about theory as if it were fact. I inhaled to continue, but paused when a man still dressed in his hazmat suit walked towards us.

  “Ivan.” The man continued talking in Czech, his nonverbal cues clearly communicating his respect for Ivan. I also detected puzzlement and concern.

  Ivan held up his hand to stop the man and turned to us. “My apologies. Václav doesn’t speak English. As soon as he’s debriefed me, I’ll share.”

  Immediately, Václav continued talking, his eyes frequently going towards the elevators.

  “While they’re talking, I have a question.” Roxy waited until we looked at her. “Where is Shahab getting money to do all of this? Scientific research and development is awfully pricey. Since he’s not paying Doctor Novotný, I’m not talking about labour, but rather the outrageous cost for the equipment Doctor Novotný would need to do this kind of work. We’re not talking about things the price of a computer or smartphone. This equipment can easily reach half a million euros each.”

  “Seppo-Tommi.” Francine smiled when we looked at her. “What? You think I was sitting in the hotel painting my toenails while you were speaking to Antonin?”

  Manny swore under his breath. “Speak.”

  “So, I found out that Seppo-Tommi is a small, but ridiculously successful company. It was established in Finland three and a half years ago and registered to trade in the fields of research and development and human resources.”

  “That’s vague,” Daniel said.

  “Absolutely.” Francine nodded. “And of course I think it was done on purpose.”

  “Do you have any useful information?” I wanted her to get to the point.

  “I do, my bestest bestie.” She winked at me. “The real owners of the company are Anna Elg and Sven Laakso. The Seppo and Tommi who are listed as owners are false identities. Those people don’t exist. I looked Anna and Sven up and they are as good as married. They have been a couple for fifty-three years.”

  “Huh? How old are they?” Vinnie asked.

  “Anna is eighty-one and Sven is seventy-nine.”

  “There’s more.” I recognised the look on her face. She enjoyed building up the anticipation.

  She rubbed her hands. “Anna and Sven are both in a care home in Vaasa, a small city on the west coast of Finland. This care home is an exclusive place where the richest of the rich put their parents.”

  “So who are their children?” Manny glanced at the hazmat official leaving and Ivan turning back to us.

  “They don’t have any.” Francine’s eyes were wide with enjoyment. “Anna and Sven met at university when they both studied optometry. They opened consulting rooms and worked together until their retirement. They did a lot of charity work, gave a lot of free eye-care and donated a lot of glasses to refugees. I didn’t find one negative thing about them.”

  “Are they paying for their care?” I asked.

  “Nope.” Francine leaned forward. “They were put in the care home, guess when?”

  “Three and a half years ago,” Daniel said.

  “Ding-ding! You win the prize.” Francine spread her hands as if to emphasise the obvious. “Someone used their identities to register a company and as payment put them in the best possible care home.”

  “Can we interview them?” I asked.

  “I suppose we could, but it wouldn’t help much. Sven has advanced Alzheimer’s and Anna suffers from dementia.” Her pause and micro-expressions warned me. “I phoned the home and asked a few questions. They said both Anna and Sven were in a very bad state when they arrived. It took four months just to deal with their malnutrition.”

  “You didn’t phone.” Why would she lie? “Did you hack the home’s system?”

  “Never!” Her eyes shot to Ivan before she looked at me, her eyes widened in an expression I was familiar with.

  I pointed at her face. “You’re a terrible liar. And your threats don’t work on me.”

  “You’re the worst bestest bestie.”

  Manny glared at her, then looked at Ivan. “See what I have to deal with all the time?”

  “I don’t agree with this illegal action, but we got answers.” Ivan cleared his throat. “What else did you learn?”

  Francine smiled. “Not much more on the care home’s system. There are loads of internet search results about them—lots of newspaper articles. I’ll go through those later. But once I learned all of this, I looked a bit deeper.” She glanced at Manny. “And you can shout all you want, but I got us great intel.”

  Manny sighed. “What did you do now?”

  “I might’ve peeked into the care home’s bank records.”

  “Dammit, Francine.” He rubbed his hands over his face. “What did you find?”

  “Anna and Sven’s bill is being paid by a co
mpany that is registered in Cyprus. That company is owned by a company that is registered in Turkey. And that company is owned by a company registered in guess where?”

  “Iran,” Colin said quietly.

  “Yuppers. And what’s even more exciting is when I took a quick peek at Seppo-Tommi’s finances. Guess who their main client is?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “Yes, you are right. This Iranian company. Almost eighty percent of their financial transactions is with them.”

  “Do you think Shahab has a relationship with Anna and Sven?” Daniel scratched his chin. “No, I can’t see it.”

  Neither could I. “Nothing in our research about Shahab revealed any such connection.” I looked at Francine. “Did you check the timelines we built about his whereabouts when he was in Finland?”

  “I did. And no, Shahab was never close to the care home. He didn’t buy any old-people stuff, didn’t mail anything, didn’t hire a car to go there. Nothing.”

  “Then what is this connection?” Ivan rubbed the scar on his hand. “Do you know who owns or is connected to the company in Iran?”

  “Uhm. Yeah. About that.” Francine raised both shoulders. “I tried to get into the registration records, but this is Iran. I need to finesse my way around their system a bit more and you guys phoned about this.” She waved her hand towards the hotel foyer. “I’ll get into that later.”

  “Let me see if I can look into it through legal channels.” Ivan waited for her to nod, then looked at Roxy. “We need to know much more about the research Doctor Novotný developed.”

  “Oh, I agree.” Roxy’s curly hair bobbed as she nodded. “It would be ideal if we could go to his workplace and speak to his boss, look at his lab and nose around. We will learn a lot more than just reading their website.”

  “I thought you would say that.” Ivan glanced at his watch. “It’s almost five, so we won’t make it to the company before they close. But I phoned them earlier and asked if they would stay until we got there. Everyone agreed. It seems like Doctor Novotný was very popular with his colleagues. They want to do everything they can to help us find out what happened to him and why.”

  “We’re not going anywhere until we’ve eaten.” Vinnie looked at me. “You haven’t eaten since breakfast and that was just a puny bit of fruit.”

  Had this been seven years ago, this case would’ve sent me into a state of hyperfocus and I wouldn’t eat, sleep or shower for days on end. Being in a team with neurotypicals had taught me the importance of breaks, meals and taking a step back to regain perspective.

  “We’re not bloody going anywhere until I know what happened here.” Manny looked at the staircase, then at Ivan. “What did your pal have to say?”

  “They’ve cleared the building. The only place they found the opioid that killed Jarda Zonyga was in his hotel room.” His lips thinned. “It was aerosolised. They took samples and are going to test it to find out exactly what it is.” He looked at Roxy. “And whether it is an opioid analogue.”

  “Why did your colleague look perplexed?” I became concerned when experts looked confused.

  “He told me he’s never seen anything like this before. I’ve asked the ME to rush this autopsy. We need to know as much as possible about this.” Ivan took out his smartphone. “I think I’ll just phone them again.”

  “Do we still need to be here?” Colin turned to me. “Do you want to see something? Ask anything?”

  I considered my answer, then shook my head. “I would rather go to Doctor Novotný’s laboratory in Prokop Industries.”

  “First food.” Vinnie put his hands on his hips. “No arguments from anyone. The only choice you get is to choose restaurant food or my cooking.”

  I had enough occupying my brain space without having to obsess over the cleanliness of an unknown restaurant. “Your cooking.”

  His pleased smile brought a soft feeling to my chest.

  Chapter FOURTEEN

  “SHE DOESN’T SPEAK ENGLISH.” Petra Sudova pointed at the shortest woman in the laboratory, who was looking at us with tears in her eyes. “Nikola worked with Doctor Jan on a daily basis. She’s heartbroken.”

  “We all are.” Dominik fiddled with a ballpoint pen that was adding to the stains on his fingers. He’d introduced himself as Doctor Novotný’s work neighbour. Their offices were next to each other. Of all Doctor Novotný’s colleagues, only Petra had introduced herself giving her surname. The others had said foreigners found their surnames too hard to pronounce. Dominik had said his was the hardest. “The rest of us speak English and will translate for Nikola.”

  “Doctor Jan loved English.” Tears formed in Petra’s eyes. “He said it was a noble language. International. He insisted we use it as much as possible. He did all his work, all his writing, everything in English.”

  We were in a large open workspace. Long work tables ran along the walls as well as across the room. The florescent lighting made it easy to forget that it was dark outside. After one of Vinnie’s quick pasta dinners, we’d arrived here no more than an hour and a half after we’d left the hotel crime scene.

  Francine, Vinnie and Daniel had stayed behind. Ivan had made a valid argument that we should not arrive in a large group to interview the scientists. Manny had insisted I join him and Ivan, and had agreed when Colin had stated he would travel with us, but wait in the car. But Manny had argued with Vinnie when Roxy had agreed to join us. It had taken a threat from Roxy before Vinnie had relented in his insistence on accompanying us as protection.

  Roxy and I were standing behind Ivan and Manny as the two men spoke to Doctor Jan’s colleagues. This allowed me to observe their nonverbal cues.

  I witnessed a lot of deep sadness.

  “How can we help?” Emil Nedvěd had met us at the entrance of the four-story building and had introduced himself as the director of Prokop Industries and Doctor Novotný’s friend.

  “What can you tell us about Patrik?” Ivan asked.

  “Who’s Patrik?” Emil—the man who’d told us no more than seven minutes ago he knew everything about Doctor Novotný—frowned.

  “A person of interest.” Manny took his time looking at all eight individuals in the room. “Any of you know about Patrik?”

  They silently shook their heads. I observed no deception cues.

  “Hmm.” Manny leaned against one of the long tables. “Can you tell us exactly what Doctor Jan was working on?”

  “I’ll do it.” Petra took one step forward. “I had to give a presentation to our investors and had to change the scientific language to something non-scientists would understand.”

  “That will be greatly appreciated.” Ivan heaved an exaggerated sigh of relief that made the scientists laugh.

  “Okay, so Doctor Jan started this research four years ago, but it was only the year before his sabbatical that he started making significant breakthroughs.” Petra paused and shook her head. “We never understood why he took a sabbatical. He just disappeared.”

  “Now we know.” Dominik, standing next to Nikola, paused in his translation, his fist on his hip. “He was being used by a madman and then killed.”

  “What do you mean used by a madman?” Manny’s question came out slow and soft. Angry.

  “It’s on the news.” Dominik took out his smartphone. “It was breaking news early this evening.”

  Manny jerked and turned to me, his lips in a thin line. “Did she do this?”

  “I don’t know.” I wouldn’t have expected this from Bree. I’d only witnessed sincerity when she’d given her word not to betray our trust in her.

  Manny turned back to the group, his body tense, but his expression open when he looked at Petra. “You were telling us about Doctor Jan’s work.”

  “Yes. Well. Um. Where was I?” She snapped her fingers. “Yes, he started out using machine learning, but then chose deep learning to search for links between genomes and the proclivity to addiction. He was part of the study that showed some people’s genomes carried a type of anc
ient retrovirus called HERV-K HML-2 which made them more likely to become drug addicts because this virus affected the production of dopamine.”

  Manny just stared at Petra. Then he turned to Roxy. “I think it’s best if Doctor Ferreira translates what you just said into a language I understand.”

  Roxy smiled at him, then at Petra. “Can you explain artificial intelligence, machine learning and deep learning in one sentence?”

  “No.”

  “Exactly. These are extremely complex fields to define.” Roxy put her hand on her chest and looked at the scientists. “Please forgive me for how much I’m about to simplify this.”

  Petra smiled. “Oh, please go ahead. It’s too hard for me to skip all the defining detail.”

  Roxy turned to Manny. “Okay. Hmm. Artificial intelligence is like an umbrella term. If we had a diagram, AI would be the encapsulating circle that contains machine learning and deep learning. The basics of AI is a machine that shows a form of intelligence by solving a problem. Are we good so far?”

  Manny nodded once and pushed his hands in his trouser pockets.

  “Great.” She smiled. “Now, at its very most basic, machine learning uses algorithms to analyse data, learn from it and then make a prediction or determination based on the results. This is when machines are learning by experience and acquiring skills without human involvement.”

  “This sounds like a horror sci-fi movie.” Ivan’s arms were crossed, his brow furrowed.

  “Ooh, then you’re really going to like deep learning.” Roxy giggled when Ivan shook his head. “Deep learning was inspired by the human brain and all the interconnected neural paths. In deep learning we have neural networks that are algorithms that look very much like the biological structure of the brain.

  “A deep learning algorithm learns from large amounts of data. I’m talking ridiculously large. The same as we as humans learn from experience, a deep learning algorithm repeats a task, but each time, it tweaks it a little bit to improve the outcome.

  “Deep learning is actually machine learning on steroids. Deep learning has many more layers than machine learning to process data. Basically each layer extracts different pieces of important information. A good example here would be a self-driving car. One layer would detect the edges of the road, another layer the lane lines, another the distance between cars ahead, another the distance between cars behind and so on and so forth. Still with me?”