“We believe the security clearance my boss — Special Agent in Charge Schweer — holds will be high enough to give him access to that latent print information we’re requesting if he makes direct contact with the appropriate people at our Pentagon and our National Security Agency.”
Schweer leaned toward the conference phone.
“Yes, that’s correct, Captain Kulawanit,” Schweer confirmed. “I’m flying back to Washington DC later this morning in an attempt to do just that. And if I discover my clearance level isn’t sufficient, I assure you that I’ll find someone with the necessary clearance if I have to go all the way to the Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service himself. No government agency should be attempting to hack into our federal crime lab servers; and I seriously doubt that any individual in our military forces — active, retired or otherwise — has been authorized to shoot at Thai Rangers, much less a member of Interpol. Someone will give us that information.”
“That’s wonderful, Agent Schweer,” Achara said somberly. “We will all be most grateful for your efforts.”
“Perfect job for a guy with a T-Rex personality,” Ferreira stage-whispered to Hager, who grinned and nodded in agreement.
“What was that?” Schweer growled, glaring at the two scientists.
“Ah, I was suggesting to Mr. Hager that I’m sure the intelligence community will be looking forward to your arrival, sir.” Ferreira smiled cheerfully.
“And, finally,” Bulatt broke in again before the playful forensic harassment of his boss got out of control, “I wanted you to hear from Donn Renwick, our firearms expert, regarding his work in this case.”
Renwick replaced Schweer at the microphone.
“Yes, Captain Kulawanit, Chief Narusan, Donn Renwick here. First of all, I want you to know that ran a background check on that M-Four carbine and determined that it was manufactured in the United States on October twenty-fourth, two-thousand-and-four, for our Military Special Forces Command. The weapon was officially transferred to Afghanistan on March seventh, two-thousand-and-five, as part of a re-supply drop for our troops hunting down bin-Laden; and was never heard from again, until a few days ago.”
“Are you saying our suspects may be American Special Forces personnel?” Achara asked, sounding shocked.
“Not necessarily,” Renwick replied. “Several of our allies dispatched Special Forces or Commando teams to Afghanistan in two-thousand-and-five, many of whom had access to U.S. weaponry; and I have no doubt our soldiers distributed U.S. weapons and ammunition to NATO and friendly Afghan troops. And if you add to that all of the firearms lost or stolen during that conflict, there are clearly many ways this specific M-Four carbine could have ended up in the hands of your suspects.”
“But would it be fair to say there’s an obvious link to soldiers with Special Forces training; especially considering the possible intelligence agency issues?”
Renwick turned to Schweer with a shrug, as if to say ‘your bailiwick.’
“Yes, that would seem to be the case,” Schweer said into the microphone. “I’ll have our office run a link analysis; but I think it’s fair to say the information we have so far corresponds nicely with Chief Narusan’s crime scene report.”
“I think very much, yes, a professional soldier who did shooting,” Narusan agreed.
“Also,” Renwick went on, “I helped Steve disassemble the rifle for latent print processing… and, in doing so, examined the individual parts fairly closely. Apart from some corrosion and recent impact damage, the weapon was well-maintained and otherwise in excellent condition, with very little wear on the bolt, chamber, barrel and firing pin. In my opinion, it hadn’t been fired very often; possibly only a few dozen rounds.”
“Use once, throw away; very smart, very professional.” Chief Narusan chuckled audibly.
“Yes, I think the Chief is correct on all counts,” Renwick said. “It’s probably not likely that we’ll ever be able to match this rifle to any other crime scenes; but I entered the bullet and cartridge data into NIBIN anyway, just to be safe.”
“Thank you very much for your efforts, Mr. Renwick; and all the rest of you as well,” Achara said. “It seems we are making some progress on this investigation, after all. If nothing else, we are certainly ruffling some powerful feathers.”
“A couple more things, Captain Achara,” Bulatt broke in again. “First of all, I think we may have located the manufacturer of the flashers found on the Clouded Leopards and at Tanga Island. I’m going to be checking on them tomorrow morning, and I’ll let you know what I find out as soon as I can.”
“Excellent. That would be very helpful for us,” Achara replied.
“Also,” Bulatt went on, “one of our lab’s electronics experts took a look at the photos you sent of the internal mechanisms of that remote transmitter. As best they can tell, with a nine-volt battery, the device should only be capable of activating flashers within a hundred-meter range. But they also say there’s no reason why the Chief couldn’t construct a new transmitter with much more power that operates on the same frequencies. It occurred to me that you might have other animals in your Wildlife Preserves with similar flashers attached to their necks — or, perhaps, a hidden stockpile of the flashers — that such a device might help locate, much to the dismay of our suspects. I asked our expert to fax the relevant technical information to the Chief at your office, and I believe he’s already done so.”
Chief Narusan laughed delightedly. “Yes, very good idea, Kuhn Ged. I will make new transmitter right away; easy to do.”
“I believe that’s all we have at the moment, Captain Achara,” Bulatt spoke into the microphone, and then looked quickly around the conference table. “Anything else, guys?”
“One more thing for the Chief,” Renwick said. “We’re assuming our wealthy hunter used an expensive rifle on his Thai hunt that he’s not likely to throw away after every illegal kill. As such, during your continuing search for evidence, we hope you can find an expended bullet or cartridge casing from this weapon that we can enter into our NIBIN system.”
The sound of muted and otherwise unintelligible conversation back and forth could be heard through the sensitive conference phone speaker for a few seconds. Then Achara voice came back on the air.
“Chief Narusan has asked me to inform you that — in addition to his temporary assignment as my primary crime scene examiner — he was recently designated the official CSI officer for his ship, the Sawaeke Pinsinchai. And as such, the Chief wants me to assure you that he will find these items if he has to search the entire southern peninsula of Thailand on his hands and knees, meter by meter. And with that, gentlemen, we wish you well in your endeavors, and bid you goodbye; the Chief and I have work to do.”
CHAPTER 27
In a helicopter over the Khlong Preserve
As Captain Achara Kulawnit smoothly piloted the blacked-out military surveillance helicopter fifty feet over the treetops of the massive Khlong Preserve with her night-vision goggles, a similarly equipped Chief Narusan monitored the bright-green lit forest from his copilot seat. Underneath the helicopter, mounted to its landing skid, Narusan’s jury-rigged — but extremely powerful — flasher-activating transmitter pulsed steadily.
They had almost completed covered the western edge of the Preserve with four successive passes when Narusan suddenly yelled out and then pointed at a distant burst of light — a flash that quickly steadied out into a rhythmic pulsing.
As Narusan carefully read out coordinates from a map into his helmet mike, transmitting the information to their ground team, Achara turned the helicopter toward the flashing light.
At a landing site in the Khlong Preserve
Ten minutes later, Achara landed the surveillance helicopter in a clearing near a pair of jeeps that were lighting the landing site with their crossed headlights. She and Narusan hopped out of the chopper and ran to one of the jeeps.
After a brief discussion about who was in charge of the operation that left no doubt in anyone’s mind, Achara jumped into the driver’s seat, yelled at everyone — specifically including Chief Narusan — to hold on, then
