Sweet Dreams (23 page)

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Pulling out her cell phone, she hit send button until she heard the voice on the other end. "It's done," she said.

"Good, you know what to do; do we need a clean-up crew?" The man's voice was firm, confident.

"Yeah, we have one whole left, but the partials will be okay."

"Okay, I'll send them right away."

Placing the cell back in her coat pocket, she walked back to her car. After she made it back to the main road, she put in a CD of Giulio Gari. A smile crossed her face as the sweet sound filled her ears.

Chapter Fifteen

GEOFF LOOKED BORED SITTING IN THE waiting area of a small barbershop. He flipped through a magazine as Kirk got a shave from an old, haggard barber. The pile of hair grew with each stroke of the razor as the old shaven Kirk came through. The shop had three chairs and was owned by the old man who now worked with steady hands. He was known as Big Bill and his son Billy looked on from the second chair where he sat watching and staring off into space as if to question his choices in life. The old barber was anything but big, he stood five-foot six and resembled a toothpick that was now bent over with age. His white well-trimmed hair and wrinkled face told thousands of stories if someone was only to ask. He worked with skill as he finished up with a warm cloth, cleaning off the leftover shaving cream from Kirk's face. He had shaved Kirk's head 206 AARON

just the way he liked it, no more
missing link
.

"There you go, son." The old man hunched over as he put away his razor and Billy who was not as fortunate in the hair department ran a hand over his own baldhead.

"What do I owe you?" Kirk asked.

"Forty-five dollars,"

Kirk pulled out some cash from his pocket and handed it to the thin old man, then took his coat off the coat rack and looked at Geoff motioning him to follow him. A tiny bell rang as they left and the door closed behind them with a small clunk. The air felt extra cold on Kirk's now baldhead and smooth face; he ran his hand over his head and reached inside of his coat, and pulled out an old beanie. He pulled it low over his ears and hunched his shoulders against the bitter winter's breath.

"What now, boss?" Geoff asked.

"We head back to the crime lab and see what Cassy found out. I think she might be able to tell us something about our mystery lady, as well."

The day looked warm, with the sun shining and not a cloud in the sky; but it was deceiving, a downright cold knife like wind cut up the boxed in city streets like a tunnel and when you stepped out into its path it would take your breath away. Kirk liked the rental car better than his open motorbike, but he still grumbled about all the gas it took. The CSI building stood alone with a parking lot in the front as well as in the rear of the building. Kirk parked the car in the back lot and proceeded to go inside with Geoff in tow. The old receptionist nodded them back, and they went down the long, dingy stairs to the basement. They could see

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Cassy looking through a microscope at something and she didn't look up as they came down the stairs. The room was open in the middle and had tables covered with all kinds of equipment, glass test tubes and machines that could test blood samples. Clean white tables that had under lighting so you could see what you were looking at from all directions. The place was jammed with boxes, file cabinets and a host of other storage devices, but everything was in order, not messy, just in dire need of a bigger room.

Cassy Meyers looked up when she felt Kirk breathing over her shoulder. "Hi guys, you won't believe what I found." Her smile lit up the room, which was a pleasant addition next to the clutter and dim blinking lights.

"What? Please tell me you have good news," Kirk said.

"I think you'll be pleased," She said with a twinkle in her eye. "The sample of cloth came back with no poison or any other substance in it, but I looked closer and found that this string from the cloth notes isn't cloth at all!" She motioned to the white single strand of string that lay in a round dish under the microscope.

"Really? What is it?" Geoff leaned over to look in the microscope.

Cassy pointed at a stool for Kirk to sit on and placed an open book in front of him. "See this here? It's a form of plastic and acid mix of some kind that eats away at the material. When the cloth starts to deteriorate, it put off a gas that the inmates breathed in as they slept."

Kirk looked puzzled. "So this gas stuff is what killed them?"

"No, by itself it is nontoxic; but I ran a few tests, and guess 208 AARON

what could be mixed with it to make it a lethal?"

Kirk shook his head.

"
Botconie
," Cassy looked at Geoff and Kirk, expecting them to understand what she was saying. "Okay. Remember that theory we talked about last year, about how every drug has its partner opposite?"

"Yeah, so what?"

"Well, Botconie is the partner to the anti-drug that was found in all the guards, it acts like a repellent to Dypethline,"

Geoff looked even more confused then Kirk did. "So what are you saying?"

"I'll just tell you what I think happened. The pillows somehow had this note put in them, over time, it filled the prison with a gas that could not be smelled or detected, and then the antidote, if you will was administered to the guards through their coffee, seeing as the guards have their own pot in their private break room, which is inaccessible to the inmates. The food was injected with Botconie, and when it mixed with the gas, it caused anyone who had it in their system to die instantly."

Kirk looked over at Geoff and nodded. "You're one smart cookie, Cassy, how did you come up with all this?"

"Easy, I mixed the samples of coffee with the sample of the note and nothing happened. I found traces of Dypethline in the coffee back when I was first on the case, and it was in the file with all my other findings."

"So the gas had been pumped into their systems, and the coffee drinkers were saved. I guess coffee does have its advantages."

"Yeah, and lucky for them, all the guards drink coffee, or

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we would have a few dead guards too. Whoever did this did their homework, not one guard or any other staff member down to the janitor was hurt. I do have some bad news, though, with all the tests I had to run, I don't have anything left of our note sample, which leaves us without any hard evidence outside of our own testimony."

Kirk scratched his head, trying to figure out a way to get something hard to nail this case shut. "What we need is a witness and to find out who is behind all this. That's the only way we will get this to stick and without something concrete we are still standing with nothing more then a fancy story."

Kirk pulled out a photo of the mystery woman and handed it to Cassy. "You think you can look in your computers and find me a match?"

She looked at the photo and nodded. "It's worth a shot,"

She took the photo and scanned it into the computer. "NCIC

will pull up anyone who has any kind of criminal record. It matches facial structure and bone lines, so even if they change their looks, it can tell with a ninety four percent accuracy rate who they are or were."

The pictures flipped over on the screen with the original on the left side. The screen ran through for about five minutes, as the three looked on, hoping to hit something.
Beep.

The sound jerked Kirk to attention. The screen flashed a sign, which read 'No Matches Found.' "Crap!" Kirk tried to think. "Can you access all past and present government employees?"

Cassy nodded. "Sure, hold on...this will pull up anyone in the CIA, FBI or any other government program."

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Geoff wondered aloud. "You think she might work for the FBI?"

"Well, the file was given to the FBI. Nothing was done about it, even though the evidence was clear that this was no accident, so I think somewhere along the line it was compromised," Kirk said as he looked at Cassy. "Who did you give the file to, exactly?"

"I gave it to Jenkins; he delivers all the files for our office to wherever they go, but it couldn't be him; he is the last person in the world that would be in on some sort of cover-up."

"Why are you so sure?" Geoff asked.

"I've known him for like ten years; he is very loyal; I trust him with my life."

"Okay, I still want to talk to him and see who he delivered that file to and everyone who had access to it in the FBI."

Kirk rubbed his chin. "Is he here now?"

"No, he'll be in tomorrow, he had to go to the dentist today, and so I gave him the day off." Cassy turned her head to the side as if just noticing, "Oh, and nice shave, by the way!"

"Oh, thanks--the beard was a little out there for me."

Beep.

The screen flashed up the same message from before,
No
Matches Found.
Kirk tried not to show how frustrated he was getting.
There had to be something else,
"Think, what else can we try? She has to be there somewhere!"

Cassy looked down at her keyboard deep in thought. "I could try one other thing, but it is a little on the--well, how do I put this? Risky!"

"I can do risky, what do you got?" Kirk perked up.

"There is a
top secret
project database we can run it

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against. It will pull up any active duty or underground programs that the government is running or used to run, but if they find out I hacked in, I'm dead meat!"

Geoff looked worried. "It isn't worth it, you could lose your job, and we don't even know if we will get a hit."

Kirk looked angry as he leaned over, looking Cassy dead in the eye. "Please, I need to find this woman; she is our only lead left. Without her, we're finished!"

Cassy thought for a minute. "Okay, I'll do it, but you better cover me if the fur hits the fan."

"Great!" Kirk said.

Typing in a series of commands, she pulled up a page filled with file names and a search box, and started running the list against the photo. Pictures flipped past the screen, and then suddenly stopped when a message in green flashed up on the screen:
'Positive Match.'

"Yes!" Kirk jumped up when he saw the message. "Isis Kanika--that's her, for sure, that's her!" Kirk was beyond excited and the likeness was undeniable.

Cassy read the bio from off the screen. "Looks like she used to work for the FIA, which is an intelligence agency based in foreign countries, mainly in European countries. They were disbanded about ten years ago, and she was killed in action on a mission in Paris but no body was ever recovered. Well, we know that's not the case, my bet is that she went rogue, and no one knows who she is working for now."

Geoff kept reading. "She was an assassin with over thirtyfive confirmed kills, with training in hand-to-hand combat as well as heavy weapons. Boy, I'd hate to be on her bad side."

The list went on for twenty more pages with notes on her 212 AARON

assignments and what missions she carried out. Kirk shook his head. "So we have a professional on our hands, and she isn't working alone; I am sure of it... That's weird, it looks like she was born in Egypt and moved here to the States after she entered the program."

"What is this program supposed to do...err, what was it doing?" Geoff asked.

"They--as far as I can tell, would go in under the radar and carry out hits for the military. However, what is unnerving is that this program seemed to be shut down for doing some sort of experimentation on its soldiers." Cassy scrolled down, trying to see if she could see anything more about the now dead program.

Kirk leaned back on his stool and tried to clear his head. This program must have set her off somehow and what was it doing that would cause the same government who set it up to shut it down. Something must have gone wrong. "Can you print off her information for me?"

"Sure, and if you know a good hacker, you might want them to look up anything on this so-called agency. The code name that is in her file is
Black Widow
. I'm not sure if that will help you, but it's a start."

"You've been a great help, Cassy." Geoff smiled and shook her hand.

Kirk took the papers from off the printer and nodded in agreement, as he walked from the printer. "Thanks for everything; I'll keep in touch, if you find out anything more, give me a call."

"No problem. I just hope you can find out who is responsible. Who knows what else they are capable of." Cassy

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walked with them up the stairs and waved as they walked down the hall toward the front door.

________________________________________

THE FIREPLACE ROARED WITH flames as they licked up the leftovers of Mark's clothes, coat, and anything else that he thought might have blood or DNA to trace him back to the cabin explosion. The warm heat drifted over Mark's face as he lay crumpled up on the floor in his apartment. He didn't know what to do or say or think; he just let his mind go blank, thinking about absolutely nothing. He had driven straight home and ran up to his place, grabbing a bottle of carpet cleaner and bleach from under the kitchen sink. The blood came out with ease from the leather seats, but the floor mats were a different story. They ended up in the fireplace along with the clothes Mark was wearing. After scrubbing out his car, he dragged himself to the elevator and up to his apartment. He was exhausted and drained of everything in him. His mind was racing as he saw the cabin exploding in his head over and over again.
What had he done?

He tried to feel guilty about the last two days, but he could not. He knew that this was the only justice his family would ever see but somehow he did not feel better and at the same time, he felt like a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders. After an hour, he passed out in front of the fireplace and did not wake up until the next morning. He looked around, trying to wake up from this nightmare, but it was not all in his head; it was real. Making his way to the kitchen, he started the coffee pot and jumped into the shower. The water seemed to clear his head as he began to notice something--