17. Finally on Threeme
18. Down to business
19. Clued in to Robert Fuschon
20. Superintendent Boggin matures
21. Clearing Michael
22. Cornering a lion in its den
23. A good day for Michael and Kicha
1. MURDERS, MURDERS EVERYWHERE
Dr. McBarnette pathologist for the City of Bainbridge, sprayed the hose over the slightly tilted aluminum table washing off the the thin red liquid mixed with some blood clots and lumps of yellow looking fat. There was a large hole in the floor covered with metal grating down which all liquids from the whole room sluiced. She had already taken samples of skin, and all internal organs from brain to eye fluids, cerebrospinal fluid, heart, liver and kidneys. All of those organs had already been measured and weighed. She was dictating into an overhead microphone as she did each task. Her assistant in the morgue Mr. Teke, had already closed up the lower half of the body bag after suturing close the abdominal cavity. He was finishing up with sewing back the the breastplate over the chest cavity and would still have to do the top of the skull or calvarium as he called it. Family wanted to see a normal looking dear departed and the mortician would do his or her best to make things handsome for the family to get their last look. It was pretty clear to Dr. McBarnette that this was one of the many recent mysterious poisonings that has puzzled the law enforcement establishment. There were two investigators in the room videoing and asking questions. Everyone in the room was in full hazmat gear from head to toe and with respirators so that they did not have to breathe the air in the room unfiltered at all. The whole room had vigorous air exchanges so that every two minutes there was completely new air brought in and there was negative pressure to prevent air that may be contaminated from finding its way into neighboring offices. There were jars labeled with Mr. Jenkins name, date of birth and case number on the side table immediately adjacent. Inside were the parts removed, most floated in liquid preservative. The whole room smelt of a pungent combination of harsh preservatives and strong scented cleaning disinfectants with a small undertone of decay. All of the walls and floor was one continuous smooth surface that could be hosed down with impunity. Everyone in that room was used to that bouquet, should one decide to call it that. Unless one had a very good sense of smell, it would have been impossible to pick up in the midst of all that, the extremely strong ‘good’ scent daubed on Dr. McBarnette’s face mask and that of Mr. Teke as they bent directly over the object of their study. It did help those two to get through their chores though.
The team had been at their task for three hours, getting close to lunchtime, a bit longer than usual. This case had been special though. The deceased gentleman had been found not far form his workplace, four hours ago and had been put on the priority list for autopsy by the criminal division of Bainbridge City Securinet here on Toigan. He was actually observed walking toward his workplace with a warm drink in hand as he did most mornings, having picked it up at his favorite coffee shop. He was forty four years of age, married with one daughter and a loving wife left behind. He was the deputy Mayor of the city and very well known. He was very friendly and popular and when a young lady in a pink top barely more than a teenager ran up to him waving, as observed by several passers by, no one thought much of it. They were seen to have a brief conversation and he was seen to reach up and wipe the right side of his neck as she briskly walked away and onto the back of a three wheeled trike driven by a young man that had pulled up alongside. The deputy Mayor had turned around with a puzzled look on his face for a moment, was seen to shake his head as if in puzzlement, and continued his walk. Not more than half a block later, his drink fell from his hand, and he crashed heavily onto the sidewalk, gave two twitches of his legs and was dead.
Nearby folks rushed to his aid, and one of those who did was a paramedic off duty. She quickly shooed other responding passersby away from touching the deputy Mayor, when he observed a pale green splotch on his neck with a pungent odor and the skin of the fallen man seemed to be turning into a brown celluloid parchment around the liquid. She recognized that this was likely a very dangerous poisoning. Just in this city alone, there had been reports of seven mostly middle aged males and one female all between thirty-five and fifty-five having unexpected sudden deaths determined to be of some type of poisoning. Hence all the paramedics and other first responders were on alert. One helpful passerby who had gone to the assistance of one such victim, had also succumbed to the poisoning. The off duty paramedic who was on her way home from the night shift, dropped her bag, rummaged inside, put on two pairs of gloves, grabbed some tissues from her sack and swabbed the obviously deceased man’s neck, then discarded the whole lot, gloves and all into a zip-able impervious bag. She knew that certain poisons would evaporate and that it was crucial to save a sample. She promptly got on her vid phone and called for hazmat as well as emergency services. She explained to the concerned citizens who now surrounded her and the unconscious likely dead victim, that touching him could be lethal to whoever did so. She explained that there was no pulse when she had with gloves on, while touching his neck. Within fifteen minutes there were five quick response vehicles and multiple drones scouring at low altitude in the area.
2. THE CHASE
Satellite and drone footage showed the couple on the three wheel bike had travelled one mile away zigzagging through the labyrinthine streets and finally parked under trees on a residential street. Then they disappeared into a garage between Mulligan and Altman Streets that served a few multistory residential multiplexes and cameras showed them with every inch of their bodies covered up with scarves and masks. Then they must have changed their clothing in some little nook it was felt, and walked out separately obviously disguised. There was monitoring being done within the parking structure and among the people emerging were two elderly people who did not seem to ‘belong’ to those units. One of the task force members had gotten on the phone to the supervisor of the building and was able to send him a quick video grab of the two elderly folks along with their van and was told that they were not known tenants. The monitoring team at the local Command Headquarters (CH) had immediately focused on this crime scene and had in minutes mobilized all of the members of the special task force that had been set up to deal with this very scenario. Luckily, all task force members led by Sarah Whiteman were already at work since there had been an already scheduled early morning meeting. So when the elderly man with silver hair who walked bent over with a cane was picked up by another elderly woman driving a brown nondescript van that also came out of the parking area, it was being followed closely by every traffic camera and drone available. They had driven to the southern side of the city, southbound on the main north south highway and the van had pulled up behind a clothes cleaner shop. The security units serving that section of the city suburb was mobilized to keep the whole area under patrol. One of the elderly folks seeming to be the male gentleman with his cane, had emerged walking slowly out of the shopping strip and started down the sidewalk. The task force members realized that there was a utility complex two blocks down the street and on the opposite side to the possible attacker. Instructions were given to delay the traffic lights to make it difficult to cross the street for pedestrians.
Thinking ahead, it was felt that the next target might be managerial level folks connected with the large city controlled utility company. The company operator was called and the whole building was put on lockdown with only the main door unlocked and their security personnel armed and ready. The task force leader Miss. Whiteman explained to the head of security Mildred what had transpired with this couple earlier and what kind of target they may be after. He warned her that if there were any company executives coming in from the parking lot or on approach to the building, they may be in deep trouble. They could see that Mildred took this information to heart and was exiting the building to do a survey of the parking area with her hands deeply buried in the pockets of her trench coat. Then the bra
ve lady went back to the front of the building near the front door and looked both ways down the main sidewalk approaches. She stood there nonchalantly for a while and then slowly sauntered with her head down, as if in deep thought toward the direction of the laundry cleaning shop. Then she abruptly stopped and reversed course back toward the Utility building front entrance, just as the elderly male attacker was seen in the crosswalk at the traffic light coming over to her side of the street.
Mr. Calder, the chief of the water distribution network to the Southern half of the city of Bainbridge, was dropped off by his wife in front of the Utility building where he worked, at the usual 0920 am time. He was expected in by 0930 and often worked until 0630 pm to deal with late arising issues. His wife’s office was two blocks away and she being a dentist, also worked late on three days per week. Therefore it was their tradition to carpool on those days. As she pulled up behind two cars that were stopped at the light, he quickly hopped out of the front passenger door and up onto the side walk. There were still people in the crosswalk and the light was close to changing. As the front vehicles started to roll, he turned to his wife and waved, mouthing ‘see you soon baby’. He stood for a moment watching her drive away. She was his bride of eighteen years and they had one son who was seventeen. His son was about to go through the Immersion which is a post high school procedure to pump into his brain all the college and beyond knowledge that used to be imparted over four years plus. He was forty three and his wife forty two. In that moment of reverie, he was amazed at how quickly time had passed and how lucky he had been in life to get such a wonderful partner in life.
He took the first few steps that would involve walking to the side of traffic light where pedestrians got off the crosswalk merging with the sidewalk and then in fifteen more feet he would make a right turn to enter the driveway where autos and people on foot could travel the two hundred feet to the covered overhang over the main door of the building where his office was. That same driveway could be used to access parking in the rear. There were a few people jostling in that area as they came out from the crosswalk and were turning right or left. His vidphone went off on his wrist making him jump. As he brought it up to his eye level, he saw it red all over the display. That caught his attention. It said, ‘EMERGENCY, EMERGENCY CALDER SUSPECTED TERRORIST TEN FEET IN FRONT OF YOU AT THE ENTRANCE TO UTILITY DRIVEWAY. SECURITY CHIEF MILDRED FIFTY FEET BEHIND YOU. DELAY AND WAIT FOR HER TO PASS IN FRONT OF YOU. DANGER OF DEATH BY POISONING. WATCH ELDERLY MALE AND DO NOT GET CLOSER THAN EIGHT FEET.’ Calder slowly turned around and saw that indeed Mildred the pleasant chief of security was walking at a brisk clip toward him with her head down determinedly and hands in her pockets. She was ex-military and was in her forties too. She had built up some fat over the years but still went to bruising training sessions with much younger folks and was rumored to be superbly sharp and fit. She was not the type of person to have against you in a physical fight. He brought his left hand up to click the ‘ok’ button and brought his right hand down to fiddle in his pocket as though looking for his long lost keys, while turning to look toward his wife’s disappearing auto with a sort of despairing look.
He realized that his own security people were undoubtedly in the building looking at him as were Securinet folks who were likely converging toward them in droves too. He was aware too from the recent news that there had been several puzzling deaths of mid and upper level managers and that there were no real leads on the perpetrators and he found that his heart was suddenly pounding in his chest at the realization that he was staring death in the face from a few feet away. Somehow all this talk of executives and managers had not had a mental impact on him until this very moment. He now faced the realization in full that he in fact, was one of those being targeted.
Mildred walked past him with nary an acknowledgment and looking left and right as she reached the crosswalk junction with the sidewalk, as if to make sure that she wasn’t going to bump into other pedestrians, she then turned into the driveway of their workplace. As she turned, he noticed her earpiece in the right ear and he knew that every move she made including the sudden slowing of her gait, had a purpose. The elderly gentleman was slowly but somewhat hesitantly making his way up the driveway with his cane and his bent back but clearly was giving furtive glances all around. As Mildred drew abreast of him, she looked over in his direction and said,
“Sir, would you like some help?” He turned his head toward her and raised his left hand cupped to his left ear as if he couldn’t hear well and with a slightly cracked voice said, “This is the Utility building yes?” Mildred had slowed to his pace now and he slowed down even more. She said, “Yes you are in the right place. Can I ask you a big favor?” He said, in his crackling voice, “Yes ma’Lady, by all means.” She said, “I have a few friends who need to speak with you. Do you mind very slowly removing you left hand from your pocket so I can see it and drop your walking stick on the ground right now.” There was a sudden screeching of brakes and tires as no less than four local Securinet vehicles blue lights flashing, pulled up to a stop in the intersection. Uniformed officers raced toward them, blasters at the ready. The elderly man slowly removed his left hand from his jacket with Mildred watching him like the proverbial hawk. He kept a puzzled look on his face as he swerved around rather briskly belying his age. He realized that the ‘game was up’ and went down on his knees, hands behind his back. Mildred backed away and one of the Securinet Officers deployed his special set of hand and leg cuffs from his special machine. He was told to lie all the way flat on the ground. It appears that the brown van with the ‘elderly lady’ was already on the move to make her pickup, expecting the job to be done. That vehicle was blockaded by several Securinet vans about one block away from where the laundry cleaning business was located. Unfortunately, the young lady behind the wheel was seen to pop something in her mouth, then slump lifeless over the controls. Mildred walked back to Mr. Calder and together they hustled away from the commotion and into their building through the front door.
3. OLD WORLD POISONS, BUT WHY?
One of the officers donned a hazmat suit and with a cordon being secured around the ‘elderly man ‘ on the ground, approached him. Carefully using large bags, the assailant‘s walking cane was examined and stowed. Next came his shoes, jacket that was cut away, followed by his pants and shirt. He was now lying in his skivvies surrounded by four officers to give him a modicum of privacy. He was carefully examined from head to toe looking for hidden weapons. Body cavity searches were to be done in the back of the Securinet vehicle. His jacket pockets though revealed a tube that resembled a blowtorch like that used by vintage humans on their first planet called earth more than fifty thousand years ago. There was a special exploding vial of pale green liquid in it. Undoubtedly this was the main agent. His cane also had a cap at the top that when removed had an almost identical device- thought to be a backup. His pasted on gloves and face mask were carefully photographed and removed, revealing a young man of probably twenty eight. His eyes were pale blue with blonde hair. He had the hopeless far away look of the defeated. When asked, he gave his name as ‘Ashley Dunn’ from Devon, a city sixty miles to the south of Bingham. There had been three deaths there in Devon too, of a similar nature. He hesitated when asked his young female friend’s name, but realized it was silly to hold back, said she was ‘Felicity Morgan’ and that they became friends playing on VidDarknet which is the more hardcore version of Playernet. At that point, the officers paused their questioning as they listened on their earpieces and lifting Ashley Dunn to his feet, marched him into the back of one of the task force vans. The temperature was in the sixties and since he was undressed was now shivering. This seemed to be the first big break, capturing a live assassin and he was ready to spill. He was officially being brought in for ‘questioning’ at this time. That designation would give the top of the line interrogators who would be called, more time to spend quality time with him before he could lawyer up.
The top
Officers in Securinet in this city were in contact with their division commanders and knew that this was a slow building crisis not just in Bainbridge but all over Toigan. Seven suspicious deaths caused by different means in five months was very unusual for this city. The first five of them were two by shooting, one by sword and one by decapitation and the remaining four by unknown agents likely poisoning. It wasn’t even known if all these deaths were truly connected, but the poisonings surely seemed to be, especially since the victims all were managerial types in government type services. There seemed to be an element of escalation going on here with the assailants perhaps becoming more confident and more comfortable, getting up close to their victims. The poisoning agents were ones that seemed to dissipate quickly, leaving little trace on the skin or in the body. There was unequivocal evidence for the old earth poison cyanide and residue of succinylcholine type injections and even trace old fashioned nerve agents that had long since been banned from human society. Somebody seemed to be cooking up some old and very scary historic human poisons, but this is in the year 52235. Whoever was orchestrating this nightmarish set of attacks seemed to have a big beef with mid level bureaucrats in Government or entities that serviced Government contracts, it seemed. It was a puzzle. The head of the city water commission was one of those killed mysteriously too. No one could come up with a working theory of what was afoot. What was worse, is that no solid arrests have been made yet. The information was passed onto the Regional Securinet Authorities and up the chain within minutes.
4. BREECHER AND TEAM FIVE
KILLER GAMERS Page 2