Chapter 113

 

 

Calla frowned into the mirror in the small hotel lobby when they stepped into a bed and breakfast in the village across the Mont twenty minutes later. The reddening in her eyes brought on by the stagnant water was lessening now. She took in the surroundings, her eyes scanning the bar and restaurant. Jack had arranged passage for Fiora to get to London to a safe house, until the auctions ended. No one would find them here at the small auberge.

A noisy football game played on the little TV in the corner on the wall above the bar. Murmurs and low voices were heard below the clink of glasses and small talk. They could stay here for a few hours and dry off. Unassuming the building was probably once a coaching inn. It was now their lodge.

Nash pulled out an electronic device from his backpack that blinked red. “Give me your cellphones.”

“Mine’s drenched and non-functional,” Calla said. “What’s that?”

“A little de-bugging device,”he said.

“NSA standard,” Jack said, whistling as Nash turned on the device, unable to disguise his impressed tone.

“My boss doesn’t need it at the moment. I do. I’m borrowing it,” Nash said.

Nash placed the gadget on top of his and then Jack’s phone. Connected by a wireless signal, it sprang to life and Nash pressed down a button that turned the signal to green on both phones. “We’re now clear. No one can find us. This device works on my shadow network that debugs just about any wireless network making us invisible and still able to use a phone. It will shield us from prying satellites.”

“Believe me, I’ve had a hand in setting them up,” Jack said.

“What now?” Calla said as she took a seat at a quiet table away from diners.

A concerned glance hit Nash’s face. “I just downloaded a classified NSA software on my phone. It shows the NSA network blueprint. If anything, the auctions must be on some radar. I also have access to all intelligence facilities and we can see if they’re monitoring the Blackhorse Group.”

“We’ve little time to find the next digital auction otherwise we lose the lead on the whole list,” Calla said willing every muscle in her to relax.

A waiter set down two bottles of beer and a fizzy water Jack had ordered at the bar. “Nash, you knew both Haven and Alex during their time at the NSA,” he said.

“I also knew Haven for a semester in high school. What are you thinking? Are they with the group?”

“No. Don’t think so. They need them though,” Nash said.

“I picked up something from them,” Calla said, managing a weak smile.

Jack’s eyes lit up. “What do mean?”

“It’s never happened to me before, but I actually picked up their emotions. I usually pick up thoughts, never emotions when my mind connects with an operative.”

“They’re operatives?” Jack said.

“Lascar, we already know, but yes. I think both of them are,” Calla said.

Nash’s lips tightened into a thin line.

“You all right, Nash?” she said.

He eased back in the chair, stretching his long frame out. “Why didn’t I see it?”

“Because they can mix well in all sorts of communities and were raised by non-operatives like me. They’re also damn good liars,” Calla replied.

“You really think they’re operatives?” Jack said.

“When you grow up without parents and you’re different from most people around you, you try to become a chameleon, blending in to disguise your…”

“Abilities?” Nash said looking into her eyes. “Cal, you are gifted and there’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

“I know, but when you’re an adolescent, I don’t think you know that and that’s what I sense from the girls. Something happened to them when they were adolescents and it’s driving everything they do. They’ll stop at nothing to finish those auctions. They see it as their revenge.”

“Revenge for what?” Nash said.

“I don’t know but that’s what we have to figure out.”

Calla swallowed her fizzy water. The bubbles sizzled down her throat and the bicarbonate tingled her nose. “Nash, what do you remember about Haven in high school? Was there anything out of the ordinary?”

“Nothing I recall, she seemed very normal. At the NSA, she was part of a team I was asked to join. Only as a coordinator, though. In the end, I left that team. I do recall she was extremely ambitious, almost desperate.”

Calla’s mind seesawed back and forth. “She’s running the auctions to raise money for someone who she owes a favor to or even a debt. I couldn’t read more but those were the emotions she was giving off.”

Jack arched a quizzical brow. “Do you think this someone possibly created the list and knew many people would be willing to pay to get the technologies?”

Nash’s lips twitched as he held Calla in view. “Haven isn’t that smart. Being in want of money doesn’t surprise me, but her connection to the technologies is suspicious. She never worked anywhere near classified technology. But even so, why not keep the list to themselves?”

Calla mused over a thought. “We still don’t know the target amount they want to raise. For all we know, it could be upward of twenty billion dollars. They’ve clearly decided the best way to get it is to raise money through selling technologies and art to the Blackhorse Group.”

Nash emptied half his beer. “We’ve been on two strands. Alex’s vault lures billionaires who would be natural collectors of art, but the real motive is to get them to bid for technologies that seduce them with power. There are two powers at work here.”

“That’s right, Nash. Jack, could you bring up the Vault again on your phone?” Calla said.

Jack brought up the Blackhorse website, the encrypted cipher flashed at them.

“Maybe this is simpler than I thought,” Calla said. “I was trying to decrypt the cipher posted on the gambling net, but it’s clear we need to follow the source of the hack placed on that site.”

“What do you mean?” Jack said.

“I should have stuck to my instincts. Think of it. We first chased a lead via the prime minister’s emails that took us to this Blackhorse site, which we now know were hacked into by Alex or Haven followed by ransomware activity. They threatened to release UK government data if he didn’t pay up. Is it possible someone else isn’t only involved but running the whole thing? The style of hacking is different. One seems to hold people at ransom and the more sophisticated one is the VR environment where one not only hacks their minds through sense, but into their bank accounts. Here one might make a decision based on what their senses are experiencing.”

Calla squished her eyebrows together. “The VR hacker has infringed on the ransomware hacker. One aims to terrorize for money and the other aims to manipulate for it. Question is, who is who?”

Nash settled back onto the chair. “What if they both have been in competition with each other? What if one was selling art and the other technology to the group and now they’ve teamed up to take the Blackhorse Group on once and for all?”

“They have revenge on their mind,” Calla said chewing at her lip.

Nash raised a quizzical brow. “Revenge?”

“Yes. Haven has been trying to sell art to raise money. But Alex has also been trying to raise money. Look at this.” Calla took the phone from Jack’s hands. “I saw this when we were with Melun. An icon hidden on the Blackhorse site, invisible to the naked eye.”

“I don’t see anything,” Jack said.

“She can. With her penetrative vision,” Nash added.

“Yes, Alex hacked Haven’s malware on the Vault and is the mastermind behind the VR auctions.”

“You figure?” Jack said.

“If we think back, a cipher was posted on the Blackhorse’s gambling net, the Vault,” Calla said. “This must’ve started out as just a vault luring art lovers like the prime minister and Salib. This was Haven. Nash, you said though she didn’t have access to NSA technology, she certainly could steal it.”

I believe what happened next is Alex found she needed the same clients for her auction so she tagged a spy hack onto the vault to observe not only the group’s movements, but Haven’s as well with the intention of stealing her buyers.”

“That would explain why the auctions have been random,” Nash said.

Calla jerked upright in her chair. “But at some point they must’ve realized they needed to work together to get the most out of the group.”

Nash rubbed his chin for a moment. “Alex wouldn’t have that type of technology. That was beyond any tech scope she’d ever worked with at the NSA. Those VR auctions not only work with senses like sight, but have an ability to connect to a network and a person’s mind until the person is unaware they’re in a game. They’re so real, even the NSA hasn’t reached those lengths. Sight, yes, illusion, but emotions, and smell, not yet.”

“That’s where Lascar comes in,” Calla added. “He’s the third piece to the puzzle and must’ve perfected the VR environment using operative know-how.”

“Sounds like a move he’d make. Are the operatives working against us?” Nash said.

“No,” Jack said. “But as you know Lascar is. He has something to gain here too.”

“Okay,” Nash said. “But still, this can’t just be about money?”

“Haven, Lascar and Alex have decided to team up and sell that list themselves. I don’t think they own the list and that’s the only reason they’re working together. They’re being fed the list. The question is by whom?”

 

 

 

 

Calla’s lips set in a grim line. “What we need to do is make them an offer they can’t refuse? Anonymously.”

“Like what?” Nash said.

“Genes from an operative child. Ours. It’s our bargaining chip.”

Nash’s eyes widened and lines wrinkled the length of his brow. Calla understood his emotion but made her point. “Nash, I don’t think that ransom hack came from Alex, Lascar or Haven.”

“Calla, your genes under a microscope allows anyone to understand how to reproduce them. It will only be a matter of time. We don’t even have—”

Nash’s confusion was clear but Calla persevered. “I know they didn’t send that note, if they had, the auctions would be over and they would have sold them by now. They’d make way more money than probing us.”

“But we don’t have them,” Jack said.

“They don’t know that. Okay, then let’s post something in those auctions that’s hard to resist even for a billionaire. It will lure the auction masters out of their shell,” Calla added.

“What?” Jack said.

“Nash, you should know this,” she looked at him. “Didn’t the FBI issue a list in the hope of enlisting public help in solving some of the world’s most notorious art thefts, and impose a restriction on the black market trade worth an estimated $6 billion a year?”

“That’s right. They posted photos of stolen artwork on the FBI website, along with descriptions of the theft, hoping it will get the public to come forward with information.”

Calla thought for a second. “Yes, and The Scream and another work by the Norwegian master, The Madonna.”

“That’s right,” Nash said. “Other artworks from the agency’s top ten list are still at large including 10,000 figurines, seals and other artifacts looted from the Iraqi museum. What do you have in mind? The Group has its eyes set on bidding for future technologies worth way more than past artifacts,” Nash said.

“Not necessarily,” Calla said. “Despite advancement of technology, man has always wanted to have a link to their past. We need to cause a distraction until we get the genes back.”

“Like what?” Jack said.

“Give them what they want most. Give them something from the past that has puzzled history for years,” Calla replied.

“You thinking what I’m thinking?” Jack said.

“Yes, they want to know the future fate of humanity like: can we solve aging? Can an AI army exist? Will the singularity be the answer to industry and cultural dysfunctionality? What about the power to manipulate weather forms? But even more than that, these guys are curious about the origin of humanity and how to understand it. I read a couple of volumes on spin-off groups of the Maltese Knights in Melun’s library and their operations. We post what we can on their net. I bet you any billionaire would like to know the secrets to starting a global population of anything for that matter. Anything that might challenge humanity in some way, or even threaten it.”

 

 

 

Fort Meade, Maryland

 

Day 22

Monday, July 28, 11:26 a.m.

 

The teenager set her hand against the dented wall. She pulled open a locker that stood near the fire extinguishers. Her paint-stained fingers indicated her art class was over.

Alex drew a hood over her head. It had been the best way to blend in. She’d seen enough school halls to last her into her eighties. The memories flooded back of the giggling cheerleaders unable to understand her knack for mathematics, and her lack of a steady boyfriend. The sneers that followed her because of her dyed burgundy tresses that hung just below her midriff and her baggy clothes that didn’t live up to their trendy catwalk-ready clothes.

Alex drew in a deep breath witnessing a mirror image of herself. A figure emerged through the hallway divider door and slipped past her in haste toward the high school parking lot.

Alex paced behind the girl at a distance.

“Layna! Layna C!”

Layna turned in the direction of the voice. Two other teenage girls appeared behind her at the high school double doors that led back into the main building. Alex slid behind the door to avoid their intrusion.

“Layna, I’ll make you a deal, geek,” announced the first girl. “You do my coding homework and then we make have a deal. You get an invite to Saturday night’s midnight car challenge. The only way you’ll ever get into that race. You might need a better car though,” added the blond girl, eyeing the hatchback Layna was about to climb into.

Layna approached the bully and gripped the flash disk she held up. “You’ll get your homework delivered only when I get the code to enter that race.”

The girl nodded. “Wash up before you come to the race. Anyone on my invite list has to look the part.”

She flipped her head and joined her giggling friends.

Layna didn’t even give the other a glance and turned in the direction of her Ford Hatchback. Rusted by the bumper, Alex looked on and wondered what Layna was doing with such a poor car.

Alex followed and set a hand on the hood of the Hatchback as Layna reached for the door handle. “Do you always let pretty girls bully you? Wise up, Layna.”

Layna whipped round in one abrupt movement. “Who are you?”

She drew a stun gun can from her shoulder bag.

The teenager was too nosy for Alex’s peace of mind. Alex grinned. “A gift from daddy? I don’t have time for childish games. I’m not after you, I’m after something your father has. It’s time he pays for his past.”

Layna’s eyes narrowed. “What do you want from my father?”

Alex grinned. “I suppose you know that your father is a powerful man.”

Layna’s brow creased with worry. “Stay away from him.”

“Some would say he’s the most powerful man in the intelligence world. So no, I’ll not stay away from him. He took something from me a long time ago.”

“Get away or I’ll use this,” Layna said edging her back into the car, her stun gun marked at Alex’s midriff.

“Fine, I’ll leave, but not until you give me the key.”

“What key?”

“The access key to Room 717.”

Layna stammered a half reply. “I –”

“I know you hacked into your father’s NSA files and since he’s the only one who has access to that room, I believe you have learned a thing or two by observing your father and the teams that sometime come to his house. Now let me guess, he sent you to this school, only miles from his NSA office, doesn’t give a damn what you turn into. He’s ignored the best hacker on the planet, his very own daughter who sat at his dinner table observing everything she could learn from, let me see, the age of five perhaps?”

Dread grew on Layna’s face.

“Come on, Layna, your father may be a fool and oblivious to your talents, but I’m not. You dug deep into his most classified files to get his attention.”

Alex mined the pistol into the girl’s temple.

Her eyes bulged.

She set a second hand on the hand that held onto the stun gun and squeezed Layna’s wrist. The gun toppled to the ground.

An icy emptiness entered Alex’s heart. “For a while now, I’ve followed a trace on Room 717 and any movements on our end. I may be the list vendor, but it’s time I knew what I was selling. It’s time I’m in the driving seat and you’re going to help me get Rodney Cook’s access codes. I was out of options, until I tagged your phone and tablet and realized that the biggest hacker into the NSA wasn’t a foreign enemy but his own daughter who’d observed him all her life.”

“I have nothing.”

Alex cocked the gun and saw a gulp slide down Layna’s throat. “Care to repeat that louder?”

Layna shook her head, angry tears threatening at the corners of her blue eyes.

“Didn’t think so. Now, of course, as the daughter of the Head of the Psychic Spy Program at the National Security Agency, it must rub off,” Alex said. “Tell me, does it come from daddy ignoring you? Why did you do it?”

Layna struggled for an answer. A bead of sweat tricked down her forehead. “I—”

“You hacked into his files, hoping one day you’ll get close to him or even bribe him, anything to take him away from a job that takes him away from you. Right, we’re going for a drive. You heard the blond just now, we need an outfit for that car race. Get in.”

Alex shoved Layna into the car and took control of the steering wheel after her. Her gun remained on Layna as they sped off the parking lot.

 

Several minutes later the car entered an underground parking lot.

“What are we doing at the mall?” Layna said.

“I told you we were going shopping. And just for future reference stop letting pretty girls bully you. There’s more to life than a deranged boyfriend.”

Alex held the girl by the arm, her gun poking into Layna’s back as they made a move two floors up to the main shopping arcade. They paced for half a minute before Alex turned them into a lady’s clothing store.

“I’ll call the police,” Layna grunted under her heavy breathing.

“With what?”

Layna’s brow creased with worry when she saw her cellphone in Alex’s pocket. Alex knew she was trying to understand how it had made it out of her shoulder bag.

Alex reached for a cocktail dress and called out to the shop assistant. “Where are the fitting rooms?”

“At the back,” the woman called back.

When they made it to the changing rooms, Alex shoved Layna into a stall. She twisted and shot three rounds into three CCTV cameras with her silencer pistol. A nagging suspicion clouded Layna’s eyes and she edged back against the wall. She reluctantly drew out her tablet. The gun’s aim was uncompromising against her temple.

“Now start a swift upload of your father’s files to my phone,” Alex said, opening a network feed from her phone to the girl’s tablet.

Layna obeyed.

“Ten seconds. That’s how long your tablet must run from zero to one hundred per cent on the upload. I’ll know if it’s working because I upgraded the servers myself.”

Layna tapped furiously at the tablet.

Alex kept watch as the percentage bar filled up on her phone. When the bar reached ninety-nine percent, Alex’s eyes met Layna’s. “Your ten seconds are up. Lucky for me you are faster than I thought.”

Alex released a puff of smoke from her phone. The girl dropped to the floor smashing the tablet.

“Have a good sleep,” Alex said. “When you wake up, it’ll be too late for daddy.” Alex tore out of the fitting room, a feeling of triumph settling in her. “Now let’s see if the keys that unlock the world’s most sophisticated quantum computer are all that.”

 

 

 

 

London

ISTF Headquarters, China Section

 

3:01 p.m.

 

“Miss Cress, what can I do for you?” China’s ISTF head said.

“A word, if you don’t mind?”

“Please,” he said, letting Jack, Nash and Calla take a seat in the office space on the thirtieth floor of the office skyscraper overlooking the Thames.

Mid-afternoon sunlight hit the room, setting glares off just about every surface in the room, mostly of sterile, metallic decor. The room was spacious, the furniture modern and minimalistic. White to the bone the only color visible came from the view outside. They took a seat around a large board room table.

Chen was a short man despite the powerful allure he exuded. With China a permanent member of ISTF, he knew he had one vote of on ISTF decisions.

He’d been very against her appointment as head of ISTF and something told her he knew more than he was revealing.

Calla broke the silence. “Mr. Chen, you were on the scientific board that investigated the latest sophisticated study of the Y and X chromosomes of the human race, revealing incidentally, the mother of all women and the father of all men. That study was concluded the week before my hearing two weeks ago.”

“And, what of it, Miss Cress? My interest in genetics is as valid as the next man.”

“I need that research,” Calla said.

“Why?”

“Because without it, as head of ISTF I can revoke China’s membership?”

Nash shot her a quick glance. “Calla—”

“Nothing to be alarmed about. I’ll simply let the committee do it once they know Mr. Chen bought China’s membership by granting ISTF a peek into that research. I knew that day at the hearing that that was the only reason you had a voice. You see, such research is important to ISTF and Mr. Chen simply had to let in only three members on the profits from that genetic research, which he heads, in order to gain China’s seat.”

Nash nodded slowly. “Let me guess, Germany, France and Russia. You conveniently left Britain and the US out knowing the buy-in would be tougher.”

Calla leaned forward, her elbows on the table. “Your little mind hid that information from the members who weren’t on a need-to-know basis. Well I have come to let you redeem yourself. You planned to sell the program to the Blackhorse Group, getting yourself and your country a seat in the auction but failed to find any information on their auctions. That’s why China needed ISTF.” She paused squinting an eye at him. “Give me the research and we’ll find you the highest bidder for it in the Blackhorse net.”

“You talk nonsense.”

Nash set his gun on the table. “She never talks nonsense, Chen. If I were you I wouldn’t talk to a lady like that.”

Chen studied his visitors. “I don’t have what you want.”

“Mr. Chen, you were so opposed to my being elected by the UK prime minister as the head of ISTF and, like him, you’re part of the Blackhorse digital underground. Which tells me you not only know where the next auction is being held, you want to know how high a bid you can get for that research, and right now you’re conspiring as to where to sell on the research.”

“You’re in above your head, Calla Cress,” Chen said.

“I don’t think so.”

“Where is the next auction? I know you know. The reason China sent you was to give you a playing card on the world’s technology gambling table. China wants to stay ahead of the technology and science race just like every prominent super power.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Chen began.

“I think you do. I also know that you’ve been after the Treasure of the Copper Scroll for some time.”

“Nonsense,” Chen said.

Nash leaned forward. “Don’t use that word again.”

Chen pulled back, fear entering his gaze as Nash fingered his pistol. “Mr. Chen. Let’s try again,” Calla said. “Seven years ago, you tried to get into ISTF by offering the Treasure of the Copper Scroll, hoping for a bite.”

“I’m not sure you understand,” Chen said, a visible sweat bead rolling down his temple.

“I believe I do understand when an artifact is worth 1.2 billion pounds. I’m a curator, after all. You hoped to offer the Blackhorse Group more intel on the artifact found recently to the West of the Northern tip of the Dead Sea and near the town of Kalya. I believe this was in the Qumran archeological site, even though they weren’t yours to sell.”

Nash interjected. “Is she getting warm?”

Calla winked at Nash, his gun still pointed at Chen. “The Dead Sea Scrolls were initially discovered by Bedouin in 1946. Later, eleven caves were excavated by archeologists sponsored by the Jordanian Department of Antiquities who uncovered 972 parchment, papyrus texts and two unusual scrolls made of copper. These would turn out to be one scroll that had been divided into two pieces.”

Calla’s lips twitched slightly at the corners. “This rare find was discovered on March 14th 1952 at the back of cave three, somewhat separate from the other finds. Badly oxidized and fragile to touch, it was obvious that this scroll was different from the other leather and paper scrolls. It detailed a list of sixty-four locations where significant amounts of gold and silver had been hidden. Have I now hit the jackpot, Chen? You have a history of amassing anything valued at a billion dollars or above. That money is the fish hook you need just to get even an inch near the Blackhorse Group auction.”

Nash smirked. “China needs as much information on this group, so if you can’t beat them, you decided to join them by sitting in on their game.”

Chen stared ahead more bewilderment descending on his face.

Calla continued. “The scroll was written as if anyone reading it would have familiarity with the places mentioned and is believed to have been created between 110 and 30 BC. Should I go on? Do you still hold on to the lie that you don’t know what I’m talking about?”

Chen nodded, it was obvious he didn’t know the full extent of what he’d been offering as greed lit his eyes with every detail she revealed.

Calla registered his keen interest in her knowledge about the scrolls. “Some of the treasure may have been located by the Romans during their occupation of the region. Well at least that’s what I thought when I started as curator at the British Museum in charge of Roman and Byzantine antiquities, but it is reasonable to think that at least some of the locations were never revealed … well, not until now. They’ll be revealed at the auction, Chen. Because you’re going to do it, which only tells me you know how and where the auction will be run.”

“So how much of a bid were you going to put in?” Jack said. “A simple tap on my phone and MI6 files will happily reveal your dealings in dark net auctions to anyone we wish. Damn, we’re good!”

Chen’s eyes grew dark. “He will kill me.”

“That’s why you opposed me as head of ISTF. You knew I knew about the scrolls, because I was on that dig as a student at the University of Chicago. It was my last year and my first dig. I knew you looked familiar. Now, as a curator at the British Museum, I’m the last person you’d want snooping around stolen artifacts. Now, have I clearly explained why China could lose its place at ISTF? How important is it to you or should I ask your boss?”

Chen receded in his chair. “The scroll’s capture was ordered by my superiors. I had no choice.”

“Okay, I’ll give you that. Return the scrolls but also hand over the chromosome research. The world will soon, rightly or wrongly, believe is the origin of life. My guess is when you failed to gain the attention with the scrolls you looked for the next best thing, an offer any Blackhorse member could not resist.”

“The research is not complete,” Chen said,

“They don’t need to know that,” Calla answered. “What they need to believe is they have the answers science gives them and that the answer is for sale in the auction. The only difference is I’m selling them with your ticket. I need the perfect distraction in that auction.”

Nash rose causing Chen to cower backward.

“Okay, I don’t know how you found that all out, but my government can’t know I bought them without their approval. They would never have approved my tactics but demanded answers, I had no choice,” Chen said.

“Tick, tick, tick…” Jack said, eyeing his watch.

“All right, I’ll tell you. The auction is in—”

The words failed to find volume.

Chen’s hands flew to his throat, a suffocating gurgle becoming audible. Calla had seconds to note the invisible hands that pressed against the Adam’s apple of his neck. As Chen sagged to the floor, they felt a swift breeze steal past them.

Damn it!

She hated that invisible cloaking technology.

 

 

 

 

ISTF Research Hospital, London

 

5:06 p.m.

 

Calla scanned the signs in the hospital lobby. She should’ve been familiar with it now, the number of times they’d been in here including the time Nash had recovered for three days after a nasty spell in Cyprus. The sound of a nurse being paged on the interphone caught their ears.

Two nurses pushed a heavy carriage, possibly a delivery of medicines. Chalky plastic capsules were visible in large plastic containers, each labeled with names unpronounceable to most of the human population.

Calla ran her finger down the list of departments on the elevators’ floor indicator. “We need to get to the research on the origins of life. We follow that cart.”

Nash raised an eyebrow. “Seriously?”

“Yes.”

“Surely the origin of life isn’t on that cart.”

Calla paced at a distance behind. “No but we want to find out where the research took place. ISTF is heavily involved in the medical and scientific investigation of these phenomena.”

Nash drew in a quick breath. “The Adam and Eve genetic research.”

“Precisely. You see the Blackhorse Group would love to get their hands on the answers those chromosomes gave.”

Jack kept pace behind Calla. “Somebody better explain this to me now, or—”

Calla turned and stopped abruptly. She pulled the men to a side room after memorizing the floor number the nurses pushed on the elevator.

“We need two things here,” she said. “Chen, and the location of the DNA research store room, possibly not far from where that cart was going.”

“Chen is unconscious,” Jack said.

“Not anymore, I asked the nurse to give me an update and looks like he’s come to.”

Jack’s shoulders dropped. “Calla—”

“You’re right Jack. It’s a far stretch, but if we give the auction masters something as comparable as the genes in my body, they will be distracted. Giving them the answers to creating a civilization, a population, may distract them from the answers of investigating an unknown phenomenon like my genes. That’s what they have, and believe me they’ll not hesitate to use them for God knows what. The message in Munich was very clear.”

Jack called up the blueprint app on his hone. The app connected to an ISTF satellite link. “Chen is on floor six, but before we go, give me the full picture?”

Calla glared at the men. “Scientists put together a big piece of the puzzle by sequencing the entire genome of the Y chromosome of roughly seventy men from seven global populations, all the way from Africa to Siberia. The scientists also found that all males in their sample shared a single male ancestor in Africa, now let’s see, from about 125,000 to 156,000 years ago. When it came to the women they concluded that all women on the planet can be traced back to an “Eve,” who lived in Africa roughly 99,000 to 148,000 years ago. This was also about the same time in which the Y chromosome, Adam, lived.”

“Do you believe it?” Jack said.

“It’s not important what I believe. What I know is that the Blackhorse Group will want to believe it because they believe in science and research, and possible are the largest financers to cause enough distraction from… me.”

“The results are amazing but aren’t conclusive,” Nash said.

She nodded. “Yes, another analysis discovered that men shared a common ancestor. This man lived between 180,000 and 200,000 years ago, making him a much-suited candidate.” She sighed. “All we need is the research to show that it’s possible we have the only scientific evidence known to man of the oldest origin of life on Earth. We don’t need to believe it or even verify it. We need the Blackhorse bidders to and that will get us into the auction buying enough time to get into the network of the action and find its vulnerabilities.”

“You have a point, Calla.” Nash said.

“The Blackhorse Group will be smart enough to know these primeval people aren’t parallel to the biblical Adam and Eve,” Jack said.

She smiled. “They’ll be gullible as long as the science adds up. Our research will unveil an unbroken male or female lineage that continues to present day. The power of longevity in those genes and legacy is money some will pay for.”

Jack scratched his nose. “Sometimes looking at the past is almost as important as looking to the future.”

“Believe me,” Calla said smirking. “I’ve made a living from it. We ready?”

Nash nodded. “I’ll lead the way.”

They stole out of the hallway and made their way to the elevator. Calla observed as Nash called for the sixth floor of the ten-story building. Once on the sixth floor they scanned the labels on each door.

“Here’s in here,” Nash said, as they approached an unmarked door.

Jack said. “A door with no name,” Jack said.

Jack nodded following Nash’s gist as they eased into the room. A sleeping figure lay still in the single occupant room.

Chen stirred a little. His breathing was steady.

The quiet sound of the breathing machine, with Chen’s body was attached to it hummed in the otherwise still room.

“Someone got to him before we could,” Jack said observing Chen’s immobile frame.

“We tapped his house, his phone and office and everything,” Nash added.

“What if his actions weren’t self motivated?” Calla said. “What if he needed the money for somebody else?

“Like who?” Jack said.

“Someone like his wife or a family member. What if he needed the money desperately but not for his government?”

“Look here,” Jack said angling his tablet toward them. It pulled up a bugging app that had tapped into a group of wealth management banks. “There’s a transfer here for a large amount of money to Chen’s from someone with an unidentified name. Do you think he has already sold the goods?”

Nash raised an eyebrow. “How much money is it?”

“Twenty million Euros.”

“That’s not much for the Group. Not enough for that research. Wait a minute,” Nash said. “It was a down payment.”

Chen moved his head slightly and they flipped round. Strangulation had removed all color from his cheeks.

Chen’s eyes opened and his focus fell on Calla’s face. He moved his mouth in slow movements. Calla lowered her ear to his lips.

“You need to find Jay Fasso.” The words were barely audible but Chen repeated his words. “Find Jay Fasso.”

Calla turned to Jack. “Can you check your government databases for a Jay Fasso?”

“I can locate at least eighty in about twenty locations. Who’s this Jay Fasso?”

Chen’s eyes lit up with more life. “The girls were part of a research program at both the NSA and a group recently reformed at GCHQ under a certain Rowe Norkus. They came on the radar of intelligence agencies when governments recruited some of the greatest minds in science, physics, engineering and, most importantly, computer science. He let out a cough, his words pouring out with difficulty.

Nash approached. “What are you saying, Chen? GCHQ is in on this?”

“You need to find Jay Fasso and a certain Elvio Escalante who paid the Massachusetts social services to release the girls for a period of twelve months under his care.”

Chen’s heart rate was accelerating and the machines illuminated, flashing a blood-pressure warning. Nash skirted back to the door and peered into the hallway. “We need to go, we have company.”

“Where’s this Elvio?” Calla said.

Chen’s heart rate signaled for assistance.

“We’ve got to go,” Nash insisted.

Calla scanned the name in her mind.

“Andalusia.” She shot Nash a short stare. “Elvio’s the world’s longest career bull fighter. He owns an empire that breeds sporting bulls in Granada.”