discovered that both animals have considerable numbers of nano-tube-based genetic probes in their blood and tissues. Are you familiar with these materials?”
The men around the conference table could hear the Thai biology professor hesitate. “I’m familiar with the theory that nano-tube structures might, someday, be used as a transport mechanism for gene manipulation; but I’m not aware that such materials have actually been applied to wildlife populations.”
“This is the first application we’ve seen, also,” Ferreira replied. “As I’m sure you’re aware, these nano-tube probes can easily pass through cell and nuclear membranes, including human skin; which makes them potentially very dangerous to the handlers. But, according to theory, the probes should be destroyed by the liver before they ever managed to escape the animal’s blood stream. Unfortunately, it seems that theory is no longer valid, because we found large numbers of the intact probes in the leopard’s saliva.”
“Oh, dear,” Professor Chalermchai whispered.
“On the positive side, based on the attached DNA segments, we believe these particular probes were specifically configured to increase the body mass of felines such as the Clouded Leopard. As such, they shouldn’t have any direct impact on humans; but as a safety precaution, we would strongly suggest you decontaminate your laboratory and any other facilities and personnel who might have come in contact with these animals as soon as possible. I faxed you the procedures we use for such situations a few minutes ago, and I’m sure there are several other neutralizing protocols that work equally well.”
“Yes, thank you, Dr. Ferreira, I will see to that precaution immediately.” The sound of a scraping chair and then an opening door was audible to the men in the Ashland conference room.
“Dr. Ferreira,” Achara Kulawnit broke in, “I gather from your comments that you believe these leopards were deliberately enhanced in size with an experimental genetic probe, and I understand from Professor Chalermchai that such research is not being conducted anywhere in Thailand. As such, do you have any idea where these leopards might have come from?”
“No, I don’t,” Ferreira replied, “but we’re assuming, for the moment, that the leopards were brought into Thailand and let loose in the Wildlife Preserves by the suspect guides in this case. I’ve put out confidential queries to a few of my trusted geneticist colleagues to see if we can figure out who might have jumped the gun on this experimental technology, hopefully without alerting the perpetrator in the process. I’ll contact you and Professor Chalermchai the moment I hear anything of interest.”
“Yes, please do. Thank you.”
“Captain Achara,” Bulatt broke in, “Steve Hager, our latent print expert, has some information that may be of use to you and the Chief.”
Bulatt nodded to Hager who leaned in toward the speaker.
“Yes, I wanted you both to know that I processed all of the internal component parts of the M4 carbine and flashers that agent Bulatt brought to us from Thailand. And I’m sorry to say that I found no latent prints on any of the components. In fact, it’s fairly obvious from the oil smears that the individuals who handled the weapon — including disassembling and cleaning — wore gloves the entire time.”
Achara sighed. “I suppose we should have expected these men to be careful about leaving incriminating evidence. I’m surprised they were so careless about that remote battery that Chief Narusan processed.”
“I am too,” Hager agreed, “but I took that latent that the Chief found and sent electronic copies of it to several federal fingerprint database search engines. They all came back negative, which wouldn’t have been all that unusual, especially in an international case like this, except for the fact that one of the responses — the one from our Defense Department — came back almost instantaneously instead of hours later, like all of the others. I understand a similar situation occurred when Agent Younger sent that same print to his Interpol people.”
“I’m sorry,” Achara said, “but I’m not sure I understand.”
“Donn and I send out hundreds of queries to federal fingerprint and firearm databases every week, and we never get instant responses back,” Hager explained. “Probably because we’re working ‘bunnies and guppies’ cases that have a lower priority in the greater scheme of things; which is perfectly understandable, and fine with us, as long as we do get a response back within some reasonable time-frame. But in this case, the instant response seemed a little curious — not to mention suspicious — so we asked Linda Reston, our senior computer wizard to take a look at the response.
“At this point, I’m going to let Donn explain what Linda found out,” Hager said, nodding to Renwick. “I’m talking a little over my head here.”
“What Linda did was look at the packet-distribution data that’s attached in a ‘behind-the-scenes’ manner to every e-mail message traveling through the Internet,” Renwick said, leaning in toward the conference microphone. “When she didn’t like what she saw, she queried the chain of individual servers across the United States that received and transmitted the packets of data that comprised the response message.”
“Yes, I understand that part,” Achara said. “What did she discover?”
“That the message we received was an automated response from a fingerprint data search engine we’d never heard of, probably because it seems to be located within our National Security Agency; or, more likely, I suppose, at one of their off-site facilities.”
“Am I correct: you did say ‘search engine’ and not ‘database’?” Achara asked.
“Yes, Linda was very specific about that,” Renwick replied. “She believes this is a system specifically programmed to look for a small subset of subjects.”
“But it did send back a response as if it was a database?”
“Yes, according to Linda, that’s correct. Only the response wasn’t sent back to us, it was sent back to the Defense Department search engine. What we got was a copy of the response, probably transmitted back to us accidentally — again according to Linda — because the DOD server that did the transmitting is no longer operational as of two hours ago. And, at this point, I’m talking over my head also.”
“Uh, I don’t wish to be impolite, Mr. Renwick, but could I please speak to Linda directly?” Achara asked.
“Yes, you could, except for the fact that approximately an hour and half hour ago, someone made a very determined and very professional attempt to penetrate the firewalls that protect our lab server systems,” Renwick replied. “At the moment, Linda and three of her sub-wizards are engaged in what sounds to us — if we’re interpreting her cussing and their activities correctly — like electronic warfare.”
“This sounds terribly serious,” Achara said quietly, the concern audible in her transmitted voice.
“Serious enough that Linda asked and received permission from our lab director to bring her fourteen-year-old twins in to help,” Hager commented.
“Her own children… really?” There was a pause. “Are they, uh, sufficiently experienced to help defend against a professional probe?”
“Actually, their forte doesn’t seem to be defense,” Ferreira corrected.
“Oh.” Another pause. “Is your lab director authorized to do something like that, against another federal agency?”
“I don’t think he asked,” Renwick said. “I gather he’s still a little irritated at the moment. I’m sure the shit will hit the proverbial fan at some point; but I guess that’s what he gets paid for.”
“Then I suppose we should assume this conversation is being monitored?” Achara asked after a moment.
“I don’t think so,” Renwick said. “According to Linda, your call-back was linked through an encrypted Interpol line at our end that would take NSA and their supercomputers several years to break into; and she also made some alterations to our conference phone which she claims will send out an extremely high frequency jamming signal that should fry any unauthorized device that attempts to link into our conference call. I probably should explain that we stole Linda from the CIA a couple of years ago, and she looked pretty pissed — but also pretty determined — when she was working on our conference phone, so I assume she knows what she’s doing.”
“And the twins?”
“As of fifteen minutes ago, they were working side-by-side at a pair of terminals next to their mom’s workstation, and occasionally whispering to each other. I assume she’s keeping an eye on them; but, to tell you the truth, I don’t think any of us really want to know,” Hager said.
“But, in the meantime, Captain Kulawnit,” Bulatt broke in, “on the assumption that we may be dealing with a rogue element within the intelligence community, we’re going to try a more conventional approach to resolving the issue.”
“Really, what’s that?”
