“Wouldn't the Chloroform be enough to indicate the murder?”
Chris shook his head, “You'd think so, but the body gives off a certain amount of Chloroform naturally as it decomposes, not specifically around the mouth and nose per se, but defense attorneys have a field day with our office if the only indication of foul play is the presence of Chloroform. In this case though, it was only one part of the explanation of how a man could be injected in that particular anatomical location without putting up any kind of struggle.
I shook my head both in astonishment at the brazen lack of empathy the victim's killers displayed to have performed such a cold act. I also had to wonder where Chris was going with this whole thing.
“So how did that case turn out?”
“Would you believe less than thirty minutes after I filed my report the NSA swooped in and confiscated all the files, photographs and recordings, as well as the victim's remains? I was also given standing orders to never speak of it again or I'd disappear as well.”
I smiled, “And yet here you are blabbing all of it to me.”
Chris smiled back and when he spoke again his words dripped with irony, “I am in the Russian territory of Nazran, Ingushetia and on the other side of the planet from those NSA guys, not to mention the fact that I am now believed to be dead while, in reality, I am a vampire telling the story to another vampire who also happens to be a Detective with the LAPD.”
Chris let the inanity of the situation he described linger in the air for a moment before finishing as he gave me that wolfish look of his again, “If the NSA wants to come and get me, then fuck 'em, they can come and get me.”
My smile widened at that. It was classic Chris, just being Chris, but I still didn't get how it related to me.
“Great story bro, but how does it apply to our situation?”
“I think your brain is mentally locked in one position, specifically on the task of getting to Dimitri in order to have him reveal the location of the girls.”
I nodded, “Sure, he's kind of our only link to them in this country.”
“And there's my point, this little technique of mine was never something I would ever admit to while I was working for the LAPD. I mean, I really had no idea how true to life my re-enactments were, but as the ‘conversation' evolved in my head, and I combined that with what I had already learned on the autopsy table and the victim’s file, somehow my brain started formulating ‘what if’s' that I would never have come up with by concentrating only on what was right in front of me.”
Chris pointed a finger at the top of my head, “That's what you need to do. Think sideways.”
Well, I didn't have any other ideas, so I let out a frustrated sigh and asked, “How do I get started?”
“You've been focusing on Dimitri,” Chris shrugged, “maybe if we were to grab one of his people?”
I interrupted, “Dimitri wouldn't make a trade, mostly because he treats his people like expendable assets.” I thought about what I had just said and amended myself, “Well, he does likely have some people who are more important than others, like the giant that Alexei seems to be after, but we have even less intel on them than we do on Dimitri. Not to mention the fact that just because a person has value to Dimitri, it doesn't mean that he or she will know the information we need.”
“Not worth a try?” he asked.
I shook my head, “A lot of risk just to gamble on the reward.” I looked somberly at Chris, “not that it won't come to that before this is all over, but it's definitely not a best option.”
“And you're sure that Dimitri wasn't hiding the girls at his offices?”
Again I shook my head, “It didn't feel right to me. I don't think he'd be keeping them in a locked office space while everyone around just went about their normal day. I mean it's possible, but if I were to make an educated guess, then I'd say he was keeping them in an isolated location, and away from the city... especially now that he knows we're here.”
Chris took in a deep breath and let it out with a loud sigh, “Alright, so what do we know about why he needs the girls in the first place?”
Chris was switching the topics around and attacking the problem from different angles. I recognized the tactic as something I used to do as a Detective, so I didn't react badly to the abrupt change in subject.
“Initially, he was going to use the girl, Pha, as a bargaining chip against keeping William in line. We never really found out why he needed William precisely, but we do know that he had been psychologically programmed to attack Alexei.”
“So there is something about Alexei that Dimitri is afraid of?”
I thought about the fight in Dimitri's office and how Alexei had matched blades with the ancient vampire. “Alexei would seem to be a potential threat to Dimitri if they were to have a one-on-one duel, but that doesn't explain going to the time, effort and expense that was put into William's abduction and subsequent brainwashing.”
“Aha!” Chris raised a finger to the air in triumph, “so we know that Dimitri is afraid of something, and that he believes he needs William to fix the problem.”
“Which is why he kept the girl alive after William's brainwashing was complete.” I agreed.
Chris was getting excited thinking he had put something into motion, “So we need to figure out what it is that Dimitri is afraid of, and use it against him! Right?”
I inclined my head as I nodded, “That would certainly be useful information for us, and if Alexei were here I might be able to ask him the questions that could give us the answers, or at least send us in the right direction.”
Chris' shoulders dropped and he deflated a little bit, “But, Alexei isn't here, I gotcha.” Not to be dissuaded Chris immediately perked up again, “So what could William be preventing?”
“We don't know, Chris,” frustration seeping into my voice, “it's something I'd hope Alexei would know, if he were here to talk to.”
Chris waved his hands in front of him, “No, no. I mean, what is it that Dimitri wants to do, in general, that would be ruined by whatever he's afraid of?”
I thought about that for a moment, “You're saying that you think William was programmed to be more than some kind of bodyguard or assassin?”
“Exactly! What if the task William was intended to perform was to act as a kind of buffer against something that could alter or destroy Dimitri's plans.”
It seemed impossible to me, “I'll admit that William is pretty impressive, but he's still only one man, and we're talking about Dimitri wanting to take over a huge amount of land. A territory larger than most countries.” I looked away from Chris, despondent, “I just don't see how one man could make that much of a difference.”
Chris asked, “So how is Dimitri planning on taking over the world?”
“Siberian territory,” I corrected.
Chris waved off the correction, “Whatever, stay on topic.”
I rolled my eyes but continued, “At this point he seems committed to contaminating the area with Dr. Whelan's biological weapon.”
“And why would he do that?”
“You know full well why!” Anger filled my voice and I glared menacingly at Chris.
He only smiled back at me, “I think you're missing the point of this exercise, just go with it until you hit the ‘Eureka’ moment.”
I growled, but said, “Because our kind are immune to bacteria and viruses, which makes the biological contamination of the territory more effective than any boundary line or border wall. The entire area would become a great big ‘Hot Zone’ for human beings and the contamination would keep the Russian government, or any other government, from entering and retaking the land.”
“And why won't the government just lob some sort of missiles into the arena from a safe distance?”
“Because they need the non-organic resources that come from the area. Things like minerals, gold, diamonds, coal and oil.”
“Won't they be contaminated too?” Chris wondered aloud.
“You can sterilize those things, while not taking anything away from their intended use.”
Chris nodded with understanding, “So even if the government did manage to drive Dimitri and his people out they still couldn't go in and access the resources because the area would still be a biological Hot Zone.”
“Right.”
“There's a flaw.”
“There is?”
“Sure, Dimitri can't possibly have enough skilled people to run all of the different operations simultaneously.”
I nodded, “True, but remember what brought that crazy bastard Whelan to Dimitri in the first place?”
Chris eyes widened as he remembered, “The damn vaccine Whelan created from our blood that makes regular humans immune to all pathogens. It would make them immune to the biological contaminants that constitute the Hot Zone.”
“And, as a vaccine, it is probably designed to only work for short periods of time, so anyone not a part of Dimitri's collective would eventually have to leave or risk dying from the contamination.”
Chris thought for a moment before he asked his next question, “Do you think he was going to constantly drain William in order to get the raw materials for the vaccine?”
“No, William is huge to be sure, but I'm guessing that Dimitri would simply take small doses from his entire collective and use them as needed to make the vaccine.”
“And then what? Just drop the biological equivalent of an atom bomb on Siberia?”
“No, even if the biologics were spread out by the wind, Siberia is still far too vast to simply bombard one area in the hopes for complete coverage. He'd need to...” I froze as the revelation began to wind itself together in my head.
Chris saw my face and said, “Is this where I yell ‘Eureka’?”
I held up a hand and tried to keep the thoughts from swirling apart as I followed the latest topic of conversation, “He'd need to distribute the biologic over vast areas simultaneously before letting the wind finish the process.”
“And that tells us what?” he questioned.
I looked up, eyes wide, “That he can't use bombs to deliver the biologics, any military planes capable of carrying such a payload would be seen as a threat and shot down before he could complete the runs necessary to cover the entire area.”
“So what would he need?”
I nearly jumped out of my skin, and did jump out of my chair, slamming my fist on the table, as the answer came to me, “Air tanks!”
Chris jumped up as well and copied my exultation with the same exuberance, complete with accompanying fist slam on the table, “Yes! Air tanks!”
“Yes!” I fist pumped a couple times in victory and Chris started doing a touchdown dance just as our hostess came back into the room with another plate of food.
Chris walked over to her, put his arms on her shoulders and said, “Air tanks!” with celebratory gusto before planting an individual kiss on each of her cheeks.
The woman gave us a look as though she was certain we had lost our minds, before she carefully put the plate of food down, then turned and left without saying a word.
Chris was beaming as he watched her go, then walked back over to me and held his hand up for a high-five, “Air tanks!” he exclaimed as I slapped his raised palm in celebration. After that he just smiled and stayed quiet for about two whole seconds before he confessed, “I have no idea what's going on!”
“I know!” I said, my enthusiasm undiminished, “Chris, do you have internet out here in the sticks?”
Chris raised a small device from his pocket that I could see had a cable extending from it with a USB port, “I'm a supergeek. I always have access.”
“Then get your computer Geek-boy,” I laughed, “we got work to do!”
“Um...” Chris looked unsure, “....Eureka?!”
Chapter 32
It turned out the Internet was less difficult to attain than was a simple electrical outlet. Chris' laptop battery had run down to nothing as Alpha, Alexei and he had been rescuing me from Nightengale Industries, and the only compatible outlet for his charger was located on the gas powered generator we had stashed in the barn.
I was pacing in agitation as the laptop battery slowly absorbed electricity from the noisy generator and Chris took the opportunity to ask, “So, do you want to let me in on our magnificent discovery?”
“Remember back in Thailand when we found the area where they had tested the biologic?”
“Sure.”
“The testing device looked like a small scuba tank and they had released the biologic as a gas into the area near the village.” I reminded him.
“I remember, it had killed off everything in the area. Pretty disgusting really.”
“The point is, the delivery system was basically an aerosol. That means Dimitri is probably going to deliver it the same way, just on a far more grand scale.”
“So he's going to do what? Have his people walking around with industrial spray bottles on their backs, spraying down everything in their path like glorified pest control agents?”
I smiled, “I was thinking more along the lines of crop dusters and other small aircraft, customized to deliver the aerosol.”
Chris checked the laptop's charge and then looked at me dubiously, “You think a few crop dusters could cover enough ground to blanket Siberia?”
I shrugged, “He'll need a hell of a lot more than a few, but yes.”
Chris shot me a skewed glance, disbelieving my theory.
I elaborated, “You're used to seeing crop dusters on T.V. or in the movies, delivering their payload a few feet above the fields. That stuff they drop is heavy and falls straight down to the crops below. In this case we're talking an aerosol that will be released at altitude. It will trickle back down to earth, but not before being carried by the wind, mingling with the moisture in the clouds and eventually coming down as rain. It will descend hundreds, if not thousands of miles away from where it was released. It will also contaminate the water systems and be carried throughout the lands in the water supply.”
Chris frowned, “But there will be no way of controlling the spread outside of Siberia. The contaminants will spread everywhere across the continent.”
My face grew serious, “Chris, I don't think Dimitri is concerned about the collateral damage.”
Chris' eyes widened slightly, “Holy shit.”
We were silent after that as we waited for the laptop to gather enough electrical juice into its batteries to start working. The computer's start up chime set us back into motion and Chris accessed the Internet.
“So what am I doing?” he asked.
I took in a deep breath, and metaphorically jumped, “The air tanks that Dimitri would need to distribute the material have to be large enough to hold several cubic feet of aerosol, but still need to be small enough not to overweigh the small aircraft he is going to need to use, in order not to raise any military suspicion.”
“So?”
“So that means he's going to need an enormous number of smaller air tanks to attach to the multitude of airplanes required for the job.”
“How many tanks are we talking about?”
“Enough that storing them all is going to be an issue.”
“Really?” A pang of worry entered into Chris' words, “the city has plenty of abandoned buildings and warehouses that he could use.”
“True, but most of them are falling apart. If there is some kind of accident that releases the gas too soon and the people of the city start dying, then the government will find out before Dimitri is ready and his plan is shot to hell.”
“Okay, so what am I looking for instead?”
“A warehouse sounds promising, but it would need to be isolated and away from the city.”
Chris' fingers flew over the keys as he began his search, “Still pretty vague. Any way to narrow it down?”
“It would have to be warehouse built with a loading dock for the trucks that will be delivering the ta
nks. The tanks may not be huge on their own, but they are still heavy enough that, once stacked up on a pallet, they are going to weigh a ton.”
“So any tilt-up box warehouse won't be enough to handle the deliveries, got it. Anything else?”
I stood behind Chris so I could see the laptop’s screen, and placed my hands on his shoulders as I said, “He would need to be by an airport, probably a private one, where he could modify the planes and install the tanks.”
Chris stopped typing, “Oh, that's good! There can't be that many private airports in this backwater burg.”
“Exactly,” I patted his shoulders, “my guess is Dimitri will be keeping the girls at whatever location he is using as his base of operations, which will also be the place serving as the initiation of his plans. It will be well guarded, isolated and have a ton of his people his working to get his plans together.”
Chris resumed typing and chuckled, “Heh, eureka.”
“Yep,” I confirmed, “eureka.”
It wasn't exactly a needle in a haystack search, but I could tell it wasn't going to be an instant gratification scenario either, as Chris struggled with the computer searches. I didn't remember falling asleep on the floor, but almost two hours had magically passed when Chris kicked me awake. I noted the sun was near the horizon and the sky had begun to color with sunset, as I knelt to one side of the computer while Chris delivered the results of the search.
“Okay,” Chris started, “as far as I can tell there are only two locations that are both functional airports and possess the warehouses that you said would be necessary.”
“Only two?” I smiled at how narrow our search had become.
“More or less,” Chris replied with less enthusiasm that I had been hoping for. “Look here,” he indicated, pointing a finger at the screen, which had been split into two different windows. “Both of these locations currently have multiple aircraft of varying styles and are literally situated next door to a large grouping of warehouses that appear to have been used in the mining industry, but they were abandoned at some point within the last decade. It should be a simple enough task to clean them up for simple storage.”
Rasputin's Prodigy Page 28