Megan figured it would also get them out from underthe feet of the team here, a group probably accustomed to workingwith each other. They didn’t need agents they didn’t know, verifiedor not, adding themselves to the mix and muddying things up.Procedure had to be followed. And when unknown elements werebrought in, that gave the potential for things to be missed.
No one wanted that when there was a killer—a possibleterrorist—to find.
He showed them inside the RV, and they sat on thecouch across from a couple of padded chairs. No one asked forcoffee, even though Megan could have seriously used a cup. Thosetwo people who’d died would never get to enjoy simple things likethat again. So now wasn’t the time to worry about her stomach.
Ramirez pulled a tablet computer off a clutteredtable top and swiped the screen. “One man carrying a bulky thingthe witness said looked like some kind of sci-fi movie weapon firedat the building. Seconds later it began to disintegrate.”
Megan felt her eyebrows raise. “Itdisintegrated?”
Ramirez nodded.
Adrian said, “The sonic weapon is tuned to thefrequency specific to the material the building is made out of. Inthis case, the concrete on the exterior walls. The steel likelyremained intact, but when the walls fell, the rest of it wascompromised.”
“Much of it is still intact, as you said, but theroof was concrete. It fell in, crushing everything. One of the meninside managed to call out. He was trapped.” Ramirez paused. “Hedied before emergency services could dig their way to him. Ran outof air. The second deceased man was inthe lobby.”
Megan shook her head. “So it’s specific to thebuilding material.”
Adrian nodded. “Which meanshe has to know how to recalibrate, or he’ll have to carefully picktargets.”
“Wouldn’t a bomb have been so much easier?”
Ramirez shrugged. “This is destruction to a veryspecific target. The buildings around it were unaffected and stillstanding. They weren’t damaged at all apart from debris and dust.If you want to be precise, then it’s a good weapon to use.”
“But it was experimental,” she said. “So theblackmailer had to know it existed back when it was in a secretresearch lab.”
“My office is looking at who knew about thatfacility,” Adrian said. “But its more people than you’d think,given the government. Oversight committees. The Pentagon. Adminstaff. It wasn’t top secret. It was auditory research.”
“But the weapon was high level clearance stuff,right?”
Adrian nodded. “Thesecurity guards even knew what was in there. Cleaning staff. Thereare a lot of people to interview, and we won’t know if they’reconnected until we find another place in which their name comes up.There have to be multiple points of contact.”
She knew that. Why he needed to explain it, shedidn’t know. Megan had gone through FBI training. She’dinvestigated crimes. She knew that someone could only be considereda suspect if their name came up more than once, and they wereconnected in more than one way to a crime. That was the kind ofperson who warranted more than basic scrutiny.
Someone with something to lose.
Adrian wrapped it up with Ramirez, getting thetimeline of exactly how things had gone down.
Ramirez said, “I’ll send you everything we have onthe two victims.”
They gave him their email addresses, and Megan pulledit up on her phone. She debated whether to send the information onto Steve. Was the blackmailer that deep in their system? He couldhave someone able to get past any kind of encryption they usedworking for him, even the kind the FBI employed. This whole thingwas a delicate balance. Not letting the blackmailer know where theywere at with the case, but keeping everyone in the loop.
She scrolled through the information on the two deadmen—one on the janitorial staff, and the other was a former Armygeneral, retired now. He had been part of the thinktank’s project.
“Do you know what they were working on?” she askedRamirez.
The agent shook his head. “Maybe you guys can findthat out when you speak to Almonde. Apparently, he’s some kind of genius in biological research.”Ramirez paused. “We have agents locating everyone else who was partof the think tank, including the staff. Trying to find out what wecan from them. Why most of them weren’t here this morning, and whatthey were working on.”
Megan nodded. It was always a long process, unpackinga tragedy after the fact. Trying to understand who had perpetratedsuch an act—and why. If they knew who the target was, then theywould be one step closer to figuring out the blackmailer’s endgame.
Because she didn’t think the target had been concretewalls and a roof.
There was more going on here.
**
Adrian went first into the lobby of the building indowntown Chicago. The company was only two years old, a start-upthat’d come almost out of nowhere to become the leading edge intechnology with a biology interface. Literally, plugging peopleinto computers. Though, much of it was still research.
He didn’t think there would ever be a day where thatwas a good thing, no matter the applications for medical science.It mattered who was in charge and what their priorities were. Andthe man behind the think tank, the man who had started thisbusiness, was supposed to be a young free-thinker. A visionary.
Was he also someone who would push the boundaries ofmorality?
The receptionist looked up, still talking on herheadset. “Yes, I will.”
Adrian flashed his badge. Beside him, Megan did thesame. They’d stopped for food and a fresh change of clothes. Meganhad secured her hair in a ponytail, but still wore Conversesneakers with her skinny black pants and blouse. She looked like anoffice worker who’d left for the day and had to walk ten blockshome, so she’d changed her shoes to do so.
Or she’d forgotten dress shoes today.
Everything about her lived outside the tiny box hespent his life in. He was starting to enjoy the feeling of beingchallenged on literally everything he thought and did. Maybe shedidn’t even realize she was doing it. Still, he kind of admiredthat about her—the fact she was who she was, and she wasn’t goingto change or apologize for it.
Strength born out of a fire that
