The Immortal Harvest (25 page)

The room was a standard security hub. There was a console with at least a dozen monitors on the wall above it. Each monitor flickered with a grainy black and white image gleaned from the myriad of security cameras that were interspersed throughout the building.

The computer server and archive room was attached to the office. This was a fireproof room which held the computer storage and hub for the hospital’s intranet service.

Stringer scanned the console and again cursed this inferior world for not having a neural interface which would have made his job very easy.

Unfortunately he realised that he would have to go ‘old school’ and go over each camera’s playback.

He needed evidence to prove that his target had been brought in and whether she had already been processed.

He tossed up the idea of just vaporising the whole building. He smiled at the thought and then dismissed it as he knew Mundus Nova would not appreciate him sabotaging their entire operation just save his skin.

First things first
, he thought as he quickly scanned each monitor.

“Yep, just what I thought. No fire, no smoke, no nothing,” he said angrily as he thumped his fist onto the console.

Those incompetent dickheads
, he thought as he reached forward and reset the fire alarm.

Lucky for them, the Inergen system and the sprinklers had been decommissioned!

He looked at each monitor and determined the number of the camera that was assigned to monitor the drop off point in front of the hospital. He then proceeded to the Archive room and retrieved the data disk which contained the video feeds from that camera.

He placed the data disk into the front of the main PC. The caddy slotted perfectly into place and automatically powered up.

Stringer grabbed the PC mouse and started the search for the past three days of video feed. He brought up the video console graphical user interface and clicked on the fast forward button.

He reclined in his chair and placed another infuser on his tongue. He relaxed as the drug melted into his bloodstream.

The image on the PC monitor showed the accelerated camera feed of the comings and goings at the front of the hospital. He enhanced his vision and carefully scrutinised each image.

His facial recognition routines ran in the back of his mind, constantly reconciling each of the Immortal Harvest victims as they were presented to the collectors.

Suddenly he leant forward and froze the image on the screen. The red flash in the extremes of his peripheral vision confirmed the identity.

Stringer smiled as he stared at the image and whispered quietly as he ran his finger down the screen.

“Hello Sylvan, where’s your little boy?”

He synchronised his neural net to the camera network and rushed out of the room to find his prey.

By utilising the Lo-Jack system, the two agents had successfully located Baxter’s abandoned car.

Unfortunately by the time Agents Durning and Webster had arrived in the nearby alley, there was an established crime scene, complete with barrier tape and a Police Department Forensics team.

Durning noticed the worried look on his partners face when she saw the body bag lying beside the Coroners van.

“It looks like we might be too late,” she said as her voice betrayed her outward visage of professionalism.

“Now hang on a minute Drew, we may have found his car but we don’t know for sure if that’s the boss.

“Let’s just take a look shall we,” Durning said as he strolled over towards the van.

He nodded acknowledgement at the Coroner and flashed his badge.

“Hello, I’m Agent Durning of the FBI and this is my colleague Agent Webster.

“Do you mind if we take a quick look at the deceased?” Durning said as he lent down and started unzipping the black body bag.

The Coroner grabbed Durning’s hand.

“I’m sorry, I don’t believe the PD boys had called the FBI, I don’t think this comes within your jurisdiction.”

Durning stopped what he was doing and stood up to confront the middle aged Coroner and noticed that one of the forensics team had arrived on the scene. He recognised the young officer.

He decided to ignore the Coroner and extended his hand towards the young officer as he approached.

“Dan, how are you? What’s the story here? Are you taking the lead on this?”

He could see the confused look on the young officer’s face. He moved towards Dan and put his other hand on his shoulder as he directed him away from the Coroner’s van.

They walked a few paces and then Durning turned and directed the officer’s attention to his partner who had followed them.

“You remember Drew Webster? She went through Quantico with your brother.”

The young officer blushed slightly and extended his hand towards Drew.

“Hi, yes of course I remember you. I met you at Phil’s graduation. How are you?”

“I’m ok”, Drew said as she shook Dan’s hand and then pointed to the van.

“What has happened here Dan? Who’s in the body bag?”

The young officer took a step back and looked at the Coroner.

“It’s ok Roger, I’ll look after them,” Dan said as he dismissively waved his hand at the Coroner and then frowned at Drew. He waited for the Coroner to move around to the other side of the van.

“I don’t understand why you are here? I mean, why is the FBI here? This is a standard ‘death of a homeless person’ case.”

Durning watched as Drew moved closer to the young officer and tried to disguise her anguish.

“We are investigating the disappearance of an agent. This is the locality of his last known whereabouts. We need to know what you know.

Let’s start with the deceased. Can we take a look so we can at least cross the deceased off our list?”

Durning watched as the young officer nodded and then walked back to the body bag and unzipped it. He then moved to the front of the van and returned with an evidence bag.

“All we know is that the deceased is a ‘John Doe’, he has no identification.

However we did find this hip flask in one of the pockets. It has the initials DB engraved on it. As soon as we get any trace off of it we will let you know.”

Durning could see the distraught look on Drew’s face.

“Hang on Drew let’s not jump to any conclusions ok,” he said as he crouched down and pulled the bag aside to expose the face of the victim and exhaled a long breath.

“It’s not him; this is some really old guy. What’s your take on the cause of death Dan?”

“It’s too early to say, but if I had to guess, it was probably natural causes. The body is in bad shape. I’d say that this guy has been on the streets for a long time.”

Durning frowned as he zipped the bag back up and stood up. He extended his hand to the young officer again.

“Thanks for your help Dan. I think we have all that we need. Can you get your lab to put a rush on that flask and send us a copy of anything they find?”

“Sure no problem,” Dan said as he shook both Durning’s and Webster’s hands.

“Just let me know if there is anything else you might need.”

“Thanks Dan. Do you mind if Drew and I take a quick look around before we go?”

“It shouldn’t be a problem; it looks like we have pretty much got the scene wrapped up anyway,” Dan said as he waved to the team who were packing up their equipment.

Durning left Drew behind to talk to Dan and started walking towards the area that had been taped up.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket and started taking a few photos of the area.

By the time Agent Webster had caught up with him he had taken a dozen photographs and had a close look at the piles of discarded cardboard that had been strewn around.

He couldn’t quite put his finger on it but there was something about the disarray of the cardboard that piqued his curiosity. He pointed to the scene as he spoke to Drew.

“Check out this scene. Does something not seem quite right to you?”

Durning waited until Drew had had a look around and he noticed her expression change as if she had had an epiphany.

“Well, what is it?”

He watched as Drew bent down and took a closer look at the ground and then stepped back.

“It looks like there had been some kind of struggle take place here. Can you see those scuff marks? And… wait a minute,” Drew said as she moved back towards the cardboard, bent down and pulled a plastic zip tie from under one of the pieces.

She smiled as she held up the zip tie by her thumb and index finger and held it out so that Durning could see what it was.

“I didn’t want to say anything earlier, but I recognised that hip flask. It was the boss’s. I would say that he was here at some point.

“He either gave it to the dead guy or he dropped it. Whatever happened, the old guy ended up with it and the boss has been taken by someone.” Durning said half jokingly as he looked up towards the top of the buildings.

“I’m not sure why they left the old guy behind; maybe they killed him before they beamed up the Boss.”

“Are you serious? This is evidence of a classic normal abduction; I doubt little green men had anything to do with the Boss’s disappearance.

“I hardly think they would use a zip tie in an abduction scenario and anyway, I think we need to see if there is anyone around here who might have seen anything or anyone,” Drew said as she started walking up the alley.

Durning stopped and took another look up the building opposite the crime scene. He noticed that there was someone watching them from one of the windows.

“How about we start with asking the guy who’s watching us from that window?” Durning said as he began walking towards the entrance to the derelict building.

“But what are we going to do about the Boss’s car Jason?

“Shouldn’t we get our own forensics team down here?” Drew said as she made her way back down the alley.

Durning saw her pull her mobile phone out of her pocket. He waved his hand in a dismissive manner.

“Yeah, yeah we’ll get onto that, let’s just talk to that guy first before he
disappears
,” Durning said as he strode up to the front entrance to the building and pressed all of the intercom buzzers. He smiled as he heard Drew’s reply.

“Seriously Jason I’m getting really worried about this alien obsession of yours.”

“Let’s just keep an open mind shall we,” Durning said as he waited for the front door unlock buzzer.

He drew his weapon from its holster and barged in through the door. He didn’t wait for his partner’s reply.

Durning strode quickly and quietly up the stairway, taking the steps three at a time. He considered himself to be fairly athletic so the stairs were not a challenge.

He thought of the disappearance of his boss and smiled at the irony of him looking for the man that Durning knew despised him.

He didn’t care that Baxter hated him. He loved being an FBI agent. He knew that it was a lot more satisfying than his last job where everyone hated him.

He had been an Intelligence Analyst for a UK based Multinational Defence Contractor in the Middle East.

He had despised every minute of it. The constant battle against an inept middle and upper management whose only concern was lining their pockets and pandering to their mega rich clients, eventually proved too much for him.

When he had confronted his boss about the obvious corruption and double standards taking place his reply was basically that if he wasn’t happy he should leave. Durning left the following day.

Those pencil pushers lost themselves an excellent Intelligence Analyst
, he thought as he banged on the door of the witness’ apartment.

“Open up, FBI!” he yelled and then moved to the side of the door as he waited as his partner arrived.

He signalled for her to cover him. After three seconds of no reply and in a routinely choreographed move he jumped in front of the door, raised his leg and smashed the door off its hinges.

Now this job is a lot more satisfying
, he thought as both Drew and himself charged into the room with their weapons drawn.

Joe wished he had the energy that the young boy had as he was dragged up the corridor. Thankfully the fire alarm had stopped. His ears still rang.

He clutched the sheet to his body as he lumbered behind the boy. He tried to be as quiet as he could.

They stopped frequently to peer surreptitiously into the rooms; he did not want to end up in one of those operating theatres. He wasn’t quite sure what the hell was going on but he knew that, judging by the way he had been drugged and kidnapped, it wasn’t good.

Even though the boy was only young, he had a hell of a grip on his hand. He was also suddenly feeling very tired. He guessed that whatever drugs the kidnappers had used was still in his system.

“Hey, hows about we slow up a bit eh? Old Joe’s a might tired,” he whispered as he slowed down and felt the tug on his arm.

“Please Joe, we have to hurry. Mummy might be hurt.”

Joe could see the anguish on the boy’s face. He admired the boy’s dedication to finding his Mother. He also realised how brave the boy was to be so calm in the circumstances.

Of course he also realised that cracks were beginning to show. He knew the signs of stress from his combat days.

He had listened intently as Justen had relayed to him how the
voice
of his Father in his head had helped him to escape from his bonds. Joe had listened quietly as the boy spoke.

He understood the delusion; he had seen firsthand how the how the horror of war had manifested in the mind of some of the troops.

He was just about to respond to the boy’s request when he heard footsteps approaching. They were near a set of crash doors that formed an entryway into the next corridor.

He looked around to see if there was an escape path. There was no time to react. He pulled Justen to him and whispered for him to stand with his back to the wall whilst he crouched in behind one of the doors.

Suddenly the door burst open and Joe sprang at the man that had entered their corridor and crash-tackled him to the ground.