Deadly Conception
Page 11
“Oh?” Gabriel raised his glass.
“Yeah. His tox screens were all normal except for one. It had some of the markers for diamorphine, heroin, but some markers were missing. And some others showed up that shouldn’t be there.”
Gabriel set his drink down without taking a sip. “Raimy, speak English. I’m not a doctor. What are you talking about?”
Raimy took a deep breath. “Gabriel, I’m a medical examiner but I’m also a chemistry nerd. I nearly went into hard core research. I know this stuff inside and out.”
“Okay.”
“What I found wasn’t diamorphine. It wasn’t anything that exists. It’s not a synthetic. It’s not organic. It’s not anything on earth. Whatever killed that kid, it was not heroin.”
“Okay. I still don’t follow.”
“I’ve never seen this chemical anomaly before. Ever. I researched it. Nothing. I told my boss and he dismissed it. He even put me on administrative leave for two weeks because he thought I was just out of my mind because I caught my wife cheating.”
Raimy reached for his drink.. But Gabriel stopped him.
“Wait. What? Back up the truck. You caught your wife cheating? Christ, you must be on the edge.”
“Yeah, I caught her cheating. I’m getting a divorce. But listen to me. This kid, the one I met in the Vineyard. It was bugging me. I tried to let it go.”
“Yeah?”
“But last night your client, Asrani Patel, showed up in my lab. My night shift guy did the autopsy.”
“Right. It was a heart attack.”
“Yes. Well, no. I mean, yes, that’s what he called it. But I checked his work. And it’s messed up.”
“How so? What’s going on?”
“Patel had no apparent injuries. The results from the blood and tissue tests showed low levels of alcohol…no THC or cocaine…no markers for amphetamines, PCP, methamphetamine, benzodiazepine, or morphine.”
“Okay. So, he wasn’t on drugs, right?”
“Right. No drugs. Good. But my overnight medical examiner said the likely cause of death was heart attack. So, I examined the organs.”
“Huh?”
“Oh, sorry. During an autopsy we open up the body and remove the internal organs, all of them. We examine everything looking for clues to the cause of death. The preliminary report showed nothing out of the ordinary.”
“That’s good, right?”
“No. It’s not good. If someone has a heart attack you should see evidence of it. But Tanzler, he’s the night shift medical examiner, reported nothing. So, I took a look at the heart, looking for irregularities, calcifications, blockages caused by a clot, cholesterol build-up, fatty stuff, calcium, or fibrin. Those are the typical causes of a heart attack.”
“And?”
“Nothing. At all. So, I checked if any part of the heart was necrotic.”
“Necrotic?”
“Sorry. Necrosis occurs when cells or tissues die from severe injury or disease. With a heart attack there should be some necrosis. Again, nothing.”
“That’s weird.”
“Precisely. It’s very weird. So, I reviewed every page of the toxicological reports. Everything. And guess what.”
“Do I really want to know?”
“I think you do, yes. Everything was negative except one of the tox-screens for diamorphine. The mass spectrum test was different. This is technical, but the key ions ought to be 327, 43, 369, 268, 310, 42, 215 and 204. But extra ones were showing.”
“So?”
“Gabriel, this chemical anomaly with the extra ions does not exist organically…or synthetically. This substance is not found on earth. Literally. But I found it in that kid with tattoos, and now I found the same thing in Asrani Patel.”
“Holy shit!”
Pablo stepped up to the bar at that moment. “Hey fellas, you good?”
“Pablo! Welcome back. I’m glad to see you didn’t fall in. Raimy here was just telling me that some kind of alien toxin killed Asrani,” Gabriel deadpanned.
Raimy, already stressed, shot his arm across the bar, accidentally knocked over the drinks, and pulled on Gabriel’s jacket. Hard. “Goddammit, Gabriel. This is private. I don’t think you get how serious this is. Jesus!”
The clatter drew quick attention throughout the bar, and the barkeep quickly stepped up with towels.
“No worries, fellas. I’ll get this cleaned up right away and get you another round. No charge, of course.”
Gabriel nodded at the barman and then turned toward Raimy. He put his hand on Raimy’s shoulder. “Dude, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make light of it. I guess I don’t understand. But Pablo can be trusted. He has literally saved my life…more than once.”
Pablo cut the tension. “Yeah, yeah. I’m a hero. Gabriel’s an ass. And Dr. Death thinks ET killed our client. Have I got that straight? Because if I do then Raimy, please tell me what’s in a Sidecar cocktail because I should have one, too.”
Raimy settled, a bit. “Alright. Alright. You two are very funny. But I’m not kidding around with this.”
“Can you go to the cops or the science police or the Centers for Disease Control or something?” Gabriel asked.
“No. All those options ultimately lead back to my boss. I could lose my job because he already suspended me when I first brought this up. I can’t risk it. I’ve gotta pay for a divorce. I’m telling you because I don’t know who else to tell. You met the kid, sort of. You knew Patel, sort of. I don’t really expect you to do anything. I just had to tell someone.”
Pablo could see that Raimy was grimly serious. “So, bring me up to speed. What’s got your ass all clenched?”
Raimy and Gabriel explained it all. This time with more context, more detail.
“Look, let’s go to our rooms upstairs. I’ll break out my rig and make some queries. See what turns up.” Pablo signaled for the tab.
“What’s he talking about?” Raimy looked at Gabriel.
“Pablo is a hacker.”
“Really? A hacker?”
“A white-hat hacker. He works with me sometimes to help clients find weaknesses in their IT networks, data files, software. All kinds of crazy shit. He ran an authorized hack on Asrani’s bank. We’re in Boston to present the results. Then the shit hit the fan when Asrani died.”
“But how’s a hacker going to help out with this chemical anomaly?”
“I’ll tell you, my friend,” Pablo interjected after clearing the bar bill. “A lot of hackers spend time on the dark web…”.
“The dark what?”
“The dark web. It’s on the Internet but you can’t get on it unless you have special software or authorization. It’s not indexed by web search engines. It’s where you find child pornography, black markets, botnet operations…”
Raimy reacted to the one phrase that made any sense. “Kiddie porn?!?”
“Yeah. But I want to look at the darknet markets and political forums. One is the commercial exchange marketplace. Drugs, conventional weapons, cyber weapons, bioweapons. The other is a good source for government conspiracy theorists. Election fixes, assassinations, alien invasion cover-ups. A lot of it is bullshit but some is real. Maybe I can turn up something.”
The trio left the bar and headed to the lobby elevator bank.
Office Gerardi tapped out another message.
Both targets left the bar with a third man. The drinks were served but NOT swallowed. They are on their way to their rooms.
Pablo walked into the adjoining suites. “Gimme a few minutes to set up. Raimy, while I’m getting ready, I need you to write a sentence or two I can use to make a query. Detail is helpful.”
“Okay. I think I know what you mean.”
Gabriel scanned the room service menu and called out. “Hey, guys, you want some food? Something to drink? I’m ordering room service.”
“I’ll take a beer if you have one in the mini-fridge,” Raimy said. “And some chips. Nothing else, though. Thanks.”
Gabriel dialed.
“Yeah. Hi. This is room 15556 and I’d like some room service. Yes…thanks…okay, two John Hancock Burgers…medium rare…sure, fries, too. A six-pack of Diet Pepsi. Right. Thanks very much.”
Downstairs in the hotel kitchen, Lefty saw the order come in and moved quickly to claim the delivery.
Upstairs Gabriel and Raimy settled into the junior suite, comfortably reclined around the modest coffee table in the small living room. The pair discussed Raimy’s looming divorce, compared notes with Gabriel’s spousal break up, made a few chest-thumping declarations about manhood and were about to collide into the intersection of self-pity and inebriation when Pablo poked his head into the room.
“Do you two need me to turn out the lights so you can have a good snuggle together? For the love of God, snap out of it,” Pablo nagged. “What would Asrani do if he could get off that cold slab and change places with you? What a couple of pussies you both are.”
Gabriel turned to Raimy, smiling, “He’s a pain in the ass but he’s right.”
“Damn right, I’m right. Raimy, you got that scientific note about your Martian Heroin ready?”
Raimy rolled his eyes but handed over a notepad. Pablo looked it over. “Yeah. Good. I think this will do the trick,” he muttered, returning to his souped-up laptop and entered the note as written.
Seeking info on look-a-like element with mass spectrum key ions 327, 43, 369, 268, 310, 42, 215 and 204. Must have extra off-the-chart key ions showing.
“Now what?” Raimy asked, peering over the hacker’s shoulder.
“Now we wait. It could take a few minutes or a few days. You never know. Drink your beer,” Pablo counseled.
A knock at the door broke the sudden lull.
“Room service!”
Gabriel, hungry, leaped up, opened and held the door to let the young hotel employee into the room, pushing the noisy food cart. The smell of hot burgers and French fries filled the room.
“Thank you, young man. You’re a lifesaver. Those fries smell awesome. You can leave it right there. Thanks for getting it up here so quickly. I’m famished,” gushed Gabriel who added a healthy tip and signed off on the tab.
“My pleasha’, Mista. Any-tin else fo’ ya?” Lefty mumbled.
“Hey Gabriel, make sure the Diet Pepsi is there,” Pablo called out.
“It is,” Gabriel confirmed, handing the vinyl guest check holder back to the apparently shy young man.
Staring at the signature on the check Lefty realized the man in front of him was Sweeney. He gaped at the floor, unable to look his victim in the eye. He made a mental note that both targets were in the room. He never heard nor saw the third man, Dr. Raimy Robinson.
“Tanks, Mista. G’night.”
“You have a good one, okay?” Gabriel encouraged, closed the door and then muttered, “that kid looked scared of his own shadow.”
Gabriel pushed the food cart into the suite’s living room, uncovered the meals, and grabbed a handful of fries.
“Hey Pablo, toss me another brew,” he called.
The hacker pulled a beer from the half-size fridge and, as he entered the mini-living room, lobbed the can toward his buddy, “Heads up.”
Gabriel nonchalantly raised his arm for the catch, but he fumbled it.
“Nice catch, stone hands,” Raimy mocked.
But Pablo and Gabriel froze and stared at each other, each remembering the dinner with Asrani and the secret smartphone that fell on the floor.
“What?” Raimy was baffled.
“The memory chip,” Gabriel and Pablo answered in unison.
“What are you two talking about?”
While Pablo explained, Gabriel put down the fries, pulled out his wallet, and recovered the compact memory chip.
“Here it is!” Gabriel held up the tiny chip for the others to see. “I completely forgot about it.”
“Let’s see what’s on it. The cops asked a lot of questions about Patel leaving something behind. I wonder if this is what they’re looking for?” Pablo scrambled to his hacker trunk and returned with an Android phone and a different laptop.
Pablo inserted the memory card into the Android phone and quickly confirmed his suspicions.
“Yup, password protected.”
“Fudge nuggets. So, we’re out of luck?”
Gabriel chuckled with a mouth full of French fries. “Fudge nuggets? How old are you?”
“I got kids. Deal with it,” snapped Raimy.
“Got it. No, we’re not out of luck. Tell him.”
Pablo hefted the aromatic burger, took a purposeful bite then fiddled with the phone and his alternate laptop as he explained a few things to Raimy.
“We haf op-funs…”.
“Jesus, Pablo. Take human bites.”
“Fuff-foo,” he swallowed, “I mean, fuck you. We have options.”
He paused and gnawed another piece of the John Hancock Burger.
“I can oh-fun iz ee-eff fie-foo...”
“Pablo. Swallow your damn food, man.”
The hacker chewed the meaty bite, and finally swallowed.
“I can insert the password protected memory card into this Android phone, download and open ES File Explorer.”
“Huh?”
“Don’t worry about it. Look, now you can see the password…” beamed Pablo while writing down the information, “…and access the files.”
Pablo took another bite of the hamburger. Then he extracted the memory card from the phone, inserted it in the SD slot on the right side of his laptop. He used the track pad to open the proper drive, typed in the password when prompted, and sat back as the stored file names opened up.
“What are we looking at?” Gabriel murmured, leaning closer to the screen and slowly munching a mouthful of fries.
“I’m not sure yet. It looks like a lot of document files, spreadsheets, photos, and…uh-oh.”
“Uh-oh?”
“See these files, the ones with e-x-e extensions? Those are executable files. Each one supports some ability to run an automatic task. Other file formats just display data, play music, or run a video.”
“Whaddya mean, ‘run automatic tasks’? Raimy worried.
“Hang on.” Pablo clicked on the top nav bar, nimbly opening and closing dialog boxes in a blaze of speed. “Wow!”
“What?” Gabriel pressed.
“Every file on the memory chip…the documents, the spreadsheets, everything…has an executable file embedded in it. They were all hidden. I unhid them. Sheeeet.”
“Pablo. Would you please translate that? What on earth is going on?”
“Gabriel, the files on this memory chip are saved in a way that if anyone…anyone…clicks to open one of the files and doesn’t disable the embedded…the hidden…executable code then it triggers a program automatically. And the person clicking on the file won’t know it.”
Gabriel and Raimy struggled to make sense of what the hacker just told them. Meanwhile, Pablo clicked some more.
“Oh crap. Gabriel, I just opened a few of the e-x-e files. They’re all the same…so far.”
“So what?”
“I’ll tell you ‘so what’. Each of these hidden executable files is a virtual trigger. If you don’t disable the hidden file and open one of these document files, or spreadsheets, or a photo, then it automatically sets off a code programed to hack the email service provider and sends a message.”
“A message to who?”
“I dunno, Gabriel, but when I hacked Asrani’s phone I opened up a lot of files. That’s how I found the dirty pictures, the bank accounts, and everything else”
“So what?”
“When I did that, I set off the virtual trip wire and that triggered an email message, I didn’t know the hidden e-
x-e files were embedded. Those email messages went to someone on the other end. I don’t know who, but whoever it is…or whoever they are…they know those files were opened.”
“Why would someone do that?” Raimy questioned.
Pablo shook his head. “It’s how you can steal credit card information. But that’s not all.”
“Christ. There’s more?”
“Yeah. This is different. The automatic triggers on these e-x-e files all do the same thing. They send an email alert to someone. Sort of like an intruder alert.”
“So, someone out there knows you opened Asrani’s phone?” Gabriel asked.
“No, not quite. The way these virtual triggers are set up when I hacked Asrani’s phone the outbound trigger told the recipient that Asrani’s phone was used to access the files. The assumption is that Asrani opened the files. But I did, not him.”
“Hold on, fellas,” Raimy broke in.
“What?”
“When did you hack Patel’s phone?”
“Monday morning.”
“So, you hacked a bank CEO’s mobile phone Monday morning...and less than 24 hours later he turns up in my morgue, dead.”
Chapter 33
Gabriel and Pablo stared at each other, then looked at Raimy. “That is…weird,” Gabriel said, frowning.
“Weird? It’s fucked, man! You’re as crazy as these nuts on the dark web!” Pablo exclaimed, but he looked uneasy.
“Like heck, I am!” Raimy said. “Your client ends up dead, the morning after you hack his phone? And not just dead, but dead from some whack-a-doodle chemical that may, or may not, have caused a heart attack that I cannot find any evidence to support. And it happens to be the same strange, never before seen, chemical anomaly I found in a dead teenager two weeks ago. I think this is more than a coincidence,” he concluded.
“Pablo, can you download Asrani’s files?” Gabriel asked. “Without triggering the virtual alerts?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Good. Download it all for me onto a thumb drive. I wanna have a look at those files.”
“Doing it now.”
Gabriel opened a few random files. There were images of women…