Balance of Power Shifted (42 page)

Looking up, Trigg saw Carl approaching.  “Did you catch all of that Carl?  The cocky son of a bitch thinks he has a right to run with Electricus just because he discovered it.  What a sucker” Trigg finished with a derisive snort.  A couple of the other committee members nodded their acknowledgement of Carl
, which he answered with a nod of his head.  Trigg was just about to go into another tirade when Carl held up his hand to halt him.  Gentlemen, I believe Mr. Carter was telling the truth about another organization.  We believe he has gone to the Vatican and has worked out some scenario where they will play a role to widely distribute Electricus to third world governments and use different religious organizations to help distribute Electricus based on their definition of the needy.  Hilliard jumped into the conversation by asking Carl, “Does this change anything?” “It does” Carl responded.  “We need to keep tabs on Efficio and see how this develops.  We may have to step in and take out some of the competition if it comes down to it to protect Mr. Carter until we can figure this out.  I’ll be in touch Carl said as he headed for the door.”

R
io De Janeiro was proving to be as exciting a place for a convention as Professor Roman Greyson had ever attended.  This year he was invited to be a speaker due to the discovery made in the South Pacific by William Bates, which came with a number of perks, as well as professional accolades.  Professor Greyson jumped on the offer by Mr. Bates to allow the University to take credit for the discovery, since this discovery was in a class of its own; it had generated excellent publicity for the Rutgers Marine Biology program. 

The professor was somewhat inebriated as he
staggered down the narrow street with a group of fellow convention goers and was enjoying the culture of Rio immensely.  The marine biology and oceanography industry was a small, close-knit community and he had known many of his fellow revelers for years.  This year they were attending the fourth annual convention on Marine Biology and Oceanography for the health and advancement of the global oceans at the Riocentro Exhibition and Convention Center.  Luckily, his presentation was not until 2 PM in the afternoon, since he already knew he would need some recovery time before then.

Roman had sat through all three presentations
in the morning session and had attended the vendor fair between sessions.  These conventions made it possible for him and others to get a chance to see some of the latest laboratory test gear in person and to talk to experts from each vendor.  In many respects, this access was even more important than the presentations.  Half of the vendors were companies that were promoting how to feed the planet from our oceans and were extoling the benefits of fish and shellfish farming.  There were at least three companies that were pushing their desalination processes to promote the extraction of fresh water from sea water.  The most fascinating were the vendors displaying the latest and greatest submersible research equipment.  They had every gadget imaginable from manned submarines to unmanned drones that could easily go down to depths of 3000 feet or more.  The professor was authorized by the University to evaluate the acquisition of a deep-water drone to complement the schools single research vessel.  Not wanting to miss the free lunch provided to all attendees, he cut short his vendor visits in favor of a Brazilian Barbecue lunch in the main hall.

Feeling quite full, Roman went to his room right after lunch to review his presentation.  He zipped through the 60 slides for his hour presentation and reviewed his speaker notes.  Since he was trying to get the University
to back him on obtaining a grant to search for other specimens at the original discovery site, he did not include the exact coordinates, but did provide a general description as well as the actual depth of the find.  He would include in the presentation his plans to search for the live specimens, in the hope he could team up with other organizations to help defray some of the cost since the Rutgers research vessel was not capable or available to go all the way to the South Pacific.  Looking into the full-length mirror in his room, the professor tried out his introduction.  After finishing, he took notice of the person looking back at himself.  What he saw was a heavyset, 60-year old bespectacled white haired and bearded man with a deep tan from being on the water regularly.  Talking to himself, he said, “I’ve seen worse” and conceded that he looked every bit of a college professor.  He decided to change up his shirt and tie to something more contemporary since he was going to attend the evening cocktail party, which every presenter must attend as part of receiving their perks, plus this bachelor wanted to see if he could score with a couple of the woman professors from the West Coast he had met last night.

Being used to the lecture circuit
, Professor Roman felt very comfortable up on the stage and felt some adrenaline pump in as the clapping at the end of his introduction was substantial.  The presentation took about 45 minutes, which was the targeted length and since the audience could not ask questions until the end, he was right on the mark.  Most of the question were regarding the methods used to classify the specimen and some speculation on whether or not any other aquatic plants were close enough in composition or not.  Based on the professor’s answers these questions died down quickly.  The discussion then focused on finding more examples of the specimen for further study where the professor circled around to his comments about trying to put a future expedition together. 

One audience member had the audacity to ask if he would be willing to disclose the exact location, which met with laughter from other audience members as every
one knew that these secrets were closely guarded until the organization taking credit for it maximized their access to it.  It was while laughter was still echoing that Roman, mister easy going, had a startling revelation.  Mr. Bates and his partner had announced Electricus not to long after passing the specimen to him.  Mmmm, was Mr. Bates altruistic offer to allow the University to take credit for the discovery nothing more than a feint to keep another discovery a secret?  Roman was so distracted that he could not focus on the audience discussion and questions so he ended the presentation abruptly saying they were out of time.

Roman came down from the podium area and migrated his way back to his seat.  Along the way he mildly acknowledged the ‘at a boys’ people were saying to him about his presentation.  For the last two presentations
, he remained focused on analyzing the trail of events and was almost positive, that the Electricus discovery occurred at the same time.  Poor Carter he thought to himself, he had the world at his fingertips, only to have some greedy bugger snuff out his life in an attempt to keep the status quo on the current control of power and money.  I wonder Roman thought if the University had any rights to Electricus if it was found during work done for the University.  By the end of the second presentation, Roman had worked himself up so much that he was tense in his neck and shoulders.  A little libation should do the trick he thought as he meandered with the crowd to an outside veranda area where cocktails and
hors d'oeuvres
flowed. 

For the next couple of hours Roman drank heavily and engaged in numerous animated discussions with
colleagues finally ending up in a circle of seven people all discussing the logistics and cost of putting an expedition together.  A Chinese and Japanese colleague each suggested that their government could sponsor an expedition since it was essentially in their backyard as they put it.  Professor Roman who had a bit of a reputation for being a jovial, but a sloppy drunk blurted out “there may be more to be gained from an expedition than anyone could possibly know.”  A chorus of “what do you mean Roman” came back from the rest of the circle.   “It is a secret that I can’t say at this time he slurred, but I have my suspicions I do” he rambled.  At just that instant they announced a drawing for door prizes that included iPads and GPS units which quickly disbursed the discussion group except for Roman who was too drunk to realize the raffle was going on and the Chinese colleague, Professor Yao Chan, from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Yao had a sixth sense that Professor Roman was holding back a significant piece of information and started to cajole Roman about holding out.  Academia is very competitive and having one’s name associated with a significant discovery could really open doors to more prestigious teaching positions, grants and even a lucrative private sector contract.  Roman seemed to be fading fast into a drunken stupor, but did utter a name.  “Did you say William
Bates?” he asked the professor.  “Yeah Bates,” he slurred.  “It is unfortunate he died before realizing his discovery.  A crying shame I tell ya.”  Professor Roman found a seat at an unoccupied table put his head down and fell asleep.  Taking a seat next to him Yao used his iPhone to Google ‘William Bates’ and what he saw got his heart pounding.  Everyone was familiar with Electricus, but there was always the mystery of where it had come from.  Sitting right on his screen was a biography on William Bates where it stated he was a graduate of the Rutgers Marine Biology program and of course the dear drunken professor in front of him was the head of the same program.  Could it be that simple he thought?

Yao headed up to his room to do a little more research online while the professor remained snoring at the table.  An hour later Professor Yao had wrapped up his Internet sleuthing and was almost certain of his suspicions.  His thought now moved in a different direction and
he was contemplating what his next steps might be.  Roman came slowly out of his stupor and only seeing small number of people still at the event staggered his way to the elevator and punched in his room number.  It took him two misdirected tries, but he eventually found room number 2808 and surprisingly worked the electronic card access key correctly the first time and literally fell face first onto the king sized bed and was out for the night.

At 9:30 PM Rio time, Yao hit send on the email he had just drafted to his department head at the university. 
Yao laid out the events of the evening and his summations on what he thought it all meant.  At the end of the email, he asked to form expedition with him as the lead at a suitable time.  I did not hurt to ask he thought. By 10:35 PM Rio time or 9:35 AM Beijing time, General Hu was reading the email for the third time and for the first time in a few months, he felt that they had a handle on the situation and actually cracked a rare smile.  How fortuitous he thought.  By noon Beijing time, he had a team of people working on an expedition as well as a team in Brazil receiving their orders to extract the coordinates from Professor Roman at all costs.  The Brazilian team was equipped with the proper drugs that should have the professor taking in minutes.

With the cold shower clearing some of the
cobwebs from his head, Roman pondered why he let himself get that drunk.  He knew better, yet once he started down the path he had no off switch.  As it was, he would be 15 minutes late for the first presentation, which was the reason for his haste.  Since this was the last day of the conference, they always scheduled the premier names as a way to keep the attendees from drifting away too early, since there were sponsors that helped pay for most of the convention in hopes of selling product or services.  Of all the speakers he wanted to listen too, the first one this morning was on top of the list.  This speaker had done a 2-year study on the impact of the Japanese Tsunami on local fishing grounds, pollution and even detailed data on the floating debris that had washed up on shores all the way to North America.  The abstract on her presentation drew people to listen and look at the detailed photos just as a car accident draws people’s morbid attention.

Roman ended up sitting in the back of the main hall since it appeared that everyone else was also fascinated with the subject matter.  The presentation got a healthy share of
oohs and ahhs and ended up being very interesting and well done.  Between sessions, Roman stoked up on coffee and local pastries and fruit.  While attending the second session his stomach got the better of him and started to roll in some distress.  Not liking the public restrooms, he decided to hike to his room instead.  By the time he got to his room he was rushing his key into the lock and was unbuckling his belt even before he got into the bathroom.  Relief rushed over him and all was better with the world he thought, especially with his newfound knowledge, which he could not wait to follow up on once he got back to the States.  Washing up, he exited the restroom only to feel a sharp bite in his right shoulder.  Turning his head, he was surprised to see two Asian men standing behind him.  He started to protest, but could not get his mouth to form the words and at the same time his knees started to buckle.  He was grabbed by his arms before he could hit the floor, and dragged to an easy chair near the window where he was unceremoniously dumped.

A half hour later the two agents had all the information that the professor knew, however the most critical information he did not remember.  With
the drugs still active, they plied him with more questions and found out the information was stored back on the University’s servers in an encrypted file.  When asked, the professor said he could not access the University’s system from his room, because the data was located in a secure network area not accessible from outside the University’s network.  This led to a conversation in Chinese between the two.  Out of exasperation the taller of the two agents, who had an ugly purple scar running the length of the left side of his face from hairline to chin, asked if the data was located anywhere else.  To their surprise the professor said “Sure, I have the coordinates right here on my smartphone.”  He then proceeded to show them how he encoded it as phone numbers in his contact list.  Scarface then made a call in which someone verified that the coordinates where in fact in the middle of the South Pacific.  The agent shook his head yes a few more times and responded in Chinese then hung up the phone.  Opening up his thin case, which contained the tools of his trade, Scarface selected one more hypodermic needle and filled it from a new vial.  Walking over to the smiling Professor, he said in English, “You have been very helpful, this should make you feel better” and he injected Roman with the contents.  As the two agents cleaned up any trace of their presence in the room, the professor’s breathing slowed and then stopped.  Roman never really knew what happened as his head slowly moved forward and rested on his chest as his life expired.  It was not until noon the following day that the housemaid discovered Roman slumped over and the house doctor declared him dead from a heart attack.