by J C Ryan
Seema swiped the security badge, hanging around her neck through the slot on the wall, walked up to the steel door and peeped into a retina scanner for a few seconds. The door slid away revealing a large room about the size of a basketball court.
A glass wall separated the back half where people in masks and white coats worked in a laboratory. Two of these workers were women; they wore white lab coats over their black jilbabs. In the front half, Mackenzie could see people at desks working with computers. She noted that there was only one woman among them.
Daiyan Nasser smiled as he stepped forward when she and Seema entered. “Good morning Dr. Devereux. Welcome to your new workplace.”
Mackenzie had to bite her lip for a second before she responded; luckily the niqab hid the odium on her face. She would have preferred to tell the man what she thought of him and his ‘new workplace.’ Labor camp was one of the words that came to mind, and another had to do with the part of his anatomy where she would like to have him shove this job. But she managed to respond with a polite sounding “good morning.”
Nasser nodded slightly. “Please, follow me so that I can introduce you to your new colleagues and then we will discuss your project.”
Over the next 15 minutes, she was introduced to everyone but when it was over she could only remember three names. Those of the three scientists with whom she would be working closely on the respirocyte project. They were: Andon, a Bulgarian professor of medical nanotechnology; Rameez, a Pakistani medical doctor, and professor of human respiratory sciences; and Duyi, a Chinese professor of microbiology.
Nasser led her and Seema to a small glass-walled breakout area in the corner of the room where he switched on a wall mounted screen. He asked them to sit down at the table while he started the laptop and brought a PowerPoint presentation up on the monitor.
This gave her a high-level overview of the respirocyte project that the current team had achieved, and what their objectives were. The arrogant smirk on his face made it obvious to Mackenzie that he was taking great delight in opening a folder that contained all her research work. It even included the last presentation she gave to Irene O’Connell, Director Hunter Patrick of A-Echelon, and the two DARPA scientists Drs. Cate Nelson and Scott Watson.
It was the second time in about half an hour that Mackenzie was actually glad she was forced to wear a niqab behind which she could hide her facial expressions. It was the treachery by someone in the midst of A-Echelon that was causing her absolute shock and horror. She noticed that Nasser was studying her carefully as he opened the files and she made sure that he would be none the wiser about her emotions. She kept her hands hidden in the black folds of the hijab and gazed, immobile and emotionless, up at the screen
“Dr. Devereux, I want you to have a good look at these files. I have already loaded them onto your computer here in the lab. If there is something amiss, we can retrieve it from the A-Echelon servers,” Nasser advised her.
Mackenzie nodded. “I will have a look and let you know,” she said calmly. She was struggling with another jolt of disgust to hear that not only did he know the name of the top secret organization, but it also sounded as if he had complete freedom to roam through their ‘impenetrable’ servers to copy data from there as if he was doing it on his own computer.
So much for securing my research.
Nasser was also very proud to let her know that he was able to get access to research from almost anywhere in the world. If she were aware of research that could help with this project she just had to say so and he would get it.
It left Mackenzie with no doubt that the Institute had their fingers deep into the filth of industrial espionage.
The next part of Mackenzie’s induction was a round table meeting and discussion with the Andon, Rameez, and Duyi. When they entered the room, it was the third time she was glad to be wearing the niqab because it hid the smile playing on her lips when the thought; the three stooges entered her mind. And she was soon to discover that the name was befitting.
The three of them took turns to tell her about their backgrounds and expertise and then showed her what they’d been working on. It included a trip to the lab where they showed her some of the animal experiments.
The demonstrations and explanations while they walked past cages with animals kept in a room adjacent to the lab almost reduced Mackenzie to tears. It took a lot of willpower not to start screaming at them and ripping the cages open to set the helpless and bewildered animals free; only the thought of Liam prevented such an outburst from her.
Four hours after she walked into the room Nasser called a halt and told them all to break for lunch. The lunchroom was on the other side of the steel doors through which Seema had to escort her. During lunch, the female coworkers all sat at the same table. No one was willing to talk about anything other than his or her work.
The afternoon session of Mackenzie’s induction started with a video of a marathon. It was sickening. The three stooges were so excited to show and tell Mackenzie how close they came with this human experiment they didn’t even notice that she had her eyes closed most of the time.
It was already difficult, to the point of revulsion, to see the animals suffering from their callous experiments. To see another human being suffering from it was driving her to the brim of an eruption.
She watched as the athlete coughed up a frothy pink blob of phlegm and fell to his knees before he started vomiting a pool of bright-red blood. The man’s face was distorted with pain.
She whispered, “He’s drowning.”
Andon stopped the video and looked at her. “What was that?”
“I said,” Mackenzie fought to keep the outrage and anger out of her voice, “the man is drowning.”
“Why do you say that?” He asked. The Stooges were looking at her skeptically.
Mackenzie spoke slowly and measuredly, controlling fury as best she could. “The pressure in the vessels in his lungs has augmented to the point where the fluid has begun to leak back into the air bags inside his lungs.”
From the dumbfounded expressions on their faces, she felt as if she was lecturing a bunch of sophomore students and she had to check herself not to turn sarcastic in her tone. “He is suffering from pulmonary edema. Those little sacks where the oxygen transfer is supposed to happen have been flooded with fluid. His lungs are unable to provide oxygen to his blood, which is causing hypoxia - oxygen deprivation. He will be dead in minutes.”
The three men looked astounded and turned to look at each other, and then slowly back to Mackenzie. “I guess I don’t have to see the rest of the video to know I am right? Is that it? He died a few minutes later?”
Andon and Rameez failed to meet her gaze; Duyi was the first to acknowledge when he nodded without saying a word.
Nasser had a depreciative frown on his face when he turned his glare to the three men. “It looks like we will have to go back to the drawing board,” he growled. He waved for the men to leave and then turned to Mackenzie.
“Dr. Devereux do you know how to fix this problem?” He held his hand up to stop her from responding immediately. “I want you to think very carefully before you answer me.”
Mackenzie could see Nasser was a worried man. It didn’t take much for her to add two and two together. She had been paying close attention to what she heard from the Stooges and Nasser since that morning. They had overspent their resources on this project, and it was a dismal failure. They were fooling around with something they didn’t have the expertise for, and it was obvious that she had more knowledge of the subject than the three stooges combined. She would use that to her advantage.
“I would be lying if I told you I can fix this. Respirocytes and the improvement of human red blood cells have been my field of study for many years. I can assure you that I am not aware of anyone who is even close to the point of human trials.”
Nasser nodded slowly. Up till this morning, he had been so sure that it would take just a little bit more work to produ
ce the desired result. They’d spent more than 50-million dollars on this project over the past two years, and so far they had produced a mountain of dead animals and killed nearly 50 people, possibly more. This had to be reported to his superiors; he tried to subdue the chill that was running down his spine. The directors of this institute didn’t take kindly to failures.
Mackenzie was watching him carefully and for the first time in 24 hours she felt a glimmer of hope igniting somewhere inside her as she detected the signs of anxiety on his face.
“If this was your project to run, where would you start?” Nasser asked and again he held up his hand. “And if I also say that I will make immediate arrangements for you to move to larger quarters and allow your son to be with you?”
Mackenzie kept her poise, although her smile behind the niqab must have filtered through to her eyes. “I will immediately stop all animal and human trials. It must be obvious that we are not ready for that yet.”
She was selecting her words with great care, making sure he could hear her using the word ‘we,’ indicating that she accepted she was part of a team, and she was enthusiastic, but not overly so. “I will sit down with Andon, Rameez, and Duyi and create a new approach and plan. As you already know from my research, which you have here, I have discovered how in ancient times oxygen-filled microparticles covered with a layer of fatty molecules were used as a transport medium to carry oxygen to the blood. Each molecule encapsulated a tiny pocket of oxygen. The microparticles were injected into patients in a liquid solution.”
Nasser stared at Mackenzie and slowly nodded. He didn’t like it that the day before he held all the trump cards in his hands, and now the roles had reversed. The only card he had now was her son and the lie about her husband. For now, those were two good cards. But it didn’t negate the fact that all of the sudden this woman was holding his future in her hands. No, he didn’t like this at all.
“Good. The job is yours. I will let the others know that you are the project leader. You will sit down with them and start planning. I want to see the first draft on my desk within four days. Is there anything you will need?”
“The first thing I will need is a translation of the Sirralnnudam; it’s a book of ancient medicine, specifically …”
Nasser held his hand up and stopped her midsentence. Mackenzie saw the look of defeat in his eyes. “I know. It’s a book in proto-Arabic, ‘Scroll of Secrets of blood’ and was kept at the Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia.” He was shaking his head by the time he finished talking. “It was recently lost, shortly after you left Armenia, in fact.” He was rubbing his nose when he said that last part and Mackenzie knew he was lying.
Mackenzie took a deep breath when she realized that she was being watched while she was in Armenia. How long had that been going on? She shrugged; there was nothing she could do about it now. Why is he lying? What did he have to do with the book’s disappearance? Then she smiled as she remembered, I will not tell you what I have. That might just become my son’s and my ticket out of this place at some stage.
She acted surprised. “Oh no! How did that happen? That book is crucial for our project.” The niqab was turning out to be a real blessing in disguise.
Nasser didn’t look at her. “Yes, I believe it was going to be a precious resource.”
Mackenzie threw him another lifeline. “Well, I guess we have enough to make a start. At least, we know where to start; it might just take a bit longer than it would have if we had the Sirralnnudam. There might also be other resources available. I trust you will be able to locate them for us when we need them?”
“Yes of course. The directors of the Institute have wide influence across the globe. You just have to let me know what you need.”
“Thank you; that could be very helpful,” She replied with a hidden grin of satisfaction. She took some pleasure out of seeing him experience the shoe on the other foot.
“Is there anything else you need?”
“No not for now. Thank you for allowing my son to be with me.” She just wanted to make sure he didn’t forget his promise. “But if I may, I would like to ask for two favors, please?”
He raised his eyebrows.
“Can I please have my watch back, and could you please arrange for the removal of the surveillance cameras in my bathroom? Please.”
Nasser smiled as he tapped his fingers on the table for a few moments. He smiled, “Yes of course. No problem, Seema will take care of everything.”
He stood and started walking to the door and then stopped short. “Dr. Devereux, I am very happy with your change in attitude and your willingness to cooperate with us. You will be well rewarded.”
Chapter 10 -
Moving him out
James sent Ben Friedman the photos he took of the suspicious looking car and its occupants outside his hotel. Later the same day, he got a call from Freidman on his secure phone.
“Jim, my friend, I see you haven’t lost your touch yet. Good catch.” Ben laughed. “I will be over in the next hour or so. I have more information for you.”
About two hours later Ben turned up at James’ hotel and knocked on his door. As always Freidman was dressed casually and looked like a tourist with his small backpack.
James started the coffee machine in the room and prepared two mugs of coffee. Freidman took a little scanning device out of his backpack and walked around the room checking for any microphones while he made small talk. He nodded and gave James a ‘thumbs-up;’ the room was clean. Only one thing remained. He took a box about the size of a pack of cigarettes from his backpack, flipped on a switch, and then placed it on the windowsill. It was an electromagnetic pulse generator, which would neutralize any directional parabolic microphones aimed at the window.
“Jim, let’s first talk about your two friends outside.” Ben started. “They are Saudi’s. My agents have planted a GPS tracker on their car and have been trying to drop in on their conversations with a directional parabolic microphone, but it seems they have the equipment to counter that. They are not on our list of bad guys, so we don’t have enough reason to move on them yet.”
James grinned. “What do you say we walk out there and have a chat with them? He knew what Ben was going to say.
Ben started to speak, but Jim held his hand up. “Don’t worry Ben I won’t do it.” He laughed. “I know it’s better to follow and monitor them – we will learn a lot more that way. But believe me, at this stage it wouldn’t take much to persuade me to go over there, pull their asses out of that car and have a nice quiet word with them in private.”
“Okay good, I was getting a bit worried there for a moment,” Ben grinned as he remembered the destruction and pain James could cause when he lost his temper. All he could hope for was that James had learned to control his temper a bit better with age.
James nodded. “Okay. In that case, I’m not taking any chances. I’m going to make arrangements to move Devereux out of here and back home immediately. And let me tell you; if I find anyone of those clowns near Devereux when he is back in the States they are going to be the sorriest Saudi’s in the universe.”
“Agreed,” Ben said. “In the meantime,” he paused and reached into his bag again and pulled out a 9 millimeter SIG Sauer P938, and three six round magazines, “you can carry this.”
James thanked him. He didn’t need any instructions – the P938 had been one of his hand weapons of choice for many years. It was a compact but lethal weapon, and due to its size, easy to conceal on the body.
“I’ve arranged for a few of my people to keep a close watch on those two jokers out there and to make sure you and the Andersons are safe.”
“Thanks, Ben. You have gone above and beyond. I owe you big time.” James smiled.
Ben waved his hand. “It’s the least I can do for the man who saved my life.”
“Ben, I’ve been in this business long enough to know I shouldn’t ignore my intuitions.” James had a sli
ght frown between his eyes. “I know we don’t have much, or in fact anything, that can corroborate what I am suspecting but I just can’t shake the feeling that this has something to do with the work my friends were doing. And those guys out there in the car have not helped to make the feeling go away.”
Ben thought for a moment, “Jim I have always believed that instinct is the result of a partnership between my emotions and my brain. It is a reality, and it's not to be ignored.” He hesitated for a moment more to look at James. “Let’s go over the latest reports I brought with me; maybe we’ll find something there.”
James nodded. “If you have more information let’s see it.”
James and Ben studied the latest reports. The numbers were still the same, 25 dead. However, 20 bodies had now been identified, and five remained missing or unidentifiable. The forensics report stated that they had matched all the collected human tissue to samples they had. There were no matches for Mackenzie and Liam. Their conclusion was that the remaining five people were either not onsite at the time of the explosion or had been vaporized.
James sat back after reading the report. “This doesn’t take us much further. All we know now is that Mackenzie and Liam were either vaporized or were not on site. It’s just a forensic confirmation of what we already knew,” he said with frustration in his voice. Ben nodded his agreement. “Easy, Jim.” It needed no further discussion, the only way to establish whether they were onsite or not would be an eyewitness report. “Let’s keep looking.”