9.
I do need to get back to Baby Daddy but I'm sort of on a roll here...
"So we're just going into this guy's office?" Cam said exiting the car and joining alongside Sweets to the CIA office.
"I didn't call ahead, if I do he may bolt if he finds out why we're there." Sweets said opening the door for Cam.
"And if he doesn't see us?"
Sweets shrugged, "we're none for the worse, besides I have a feeling he will, why else would Genevieve leave the card?"
"Yeah, so I didn't get all that." Cam said pressing the elevator button. "You said she stopped by last night but it didn't sound like you got very many details."
"Yeah, she wasn't very chatty."
Cam's eyebrows crinkled as they stepped into the elevator. "Then what happened she's in your apartment, she hands you a card and…" Cam paused as she blushed. "Oh, I have an idea what might be, uh, distracting."
Cam now knew where that glow on Sweets was coming from.
"What?" Sweets asked not catching on, then he did. "Oh, well, it wasn't like that." Really Lance? That's exactly what it was like. Sweets sighed. "I'm a terrible agent."
Cam giggled lightly and shook her head. "That's not what makes an agent Sweets."
The elevator dinged and the pair exited towards a hallway. They were led to an office for Dean Wittner whom the pair saw before entering, neither of them recognized the man. He held a stern expression however, one that Sweets noticed as they shook hands and exchanged introductions. Sweets felt the man was hiding something as Cam explained their visit, they were looking for details on an unknown man.
"Why would I know anything?" The man asked. Sweets hearing was very good and finely tuned. At a young age he would listen for footsteps – he could tell the distinct difference from non-committal to angry form being locked inside a closet, sounds taught him what people might do. When he got older he could tell when it was going to be a lie, a talent that left Booth to referring to him as a human lie detector. He listened closely again to the man trying to place the voice.
"Why is it you came to see me about this case?" The man asked while Sweets detected a sense of apprehension in the man's voice, one he was trying to hide.
"We found your business card at the scene." Sweets lied but Cam played along. Sweets did not want to implicate Genevieve in any way.
"Oh, well I don't know how it got there. I've never seen this man." The man handed the photo back to Cam.
"Are you sure?" Sweets asked looking for a sign the man was lying.
"Did you not hear me the first time?" The man asked annoyed but Sweets recgonized the phrase from before, he was reminded of wet and rain. Sweets bit tongue to not say anything, he knew who the man was, and the fact the man said nothing left him with many questions for he surely would have recognized Sweets.
"Right, sorry." Sweets said answering the man's question. "Well perhaps our victim just took the card out of one of those sandwich places.
Cam wondered why Sweets wasn't pushing this guy all and ready to leave all of a sudden.
"One last question if I may." Sweets said turning back to the man. "I noticed you have an accent, tell me, where are you from?"
"Great Britain, why?"
"Just curious." Sweets said his eyes leveling with the lying CIA agent. "Just thought I heard it once before."
Cam could feel the tension emanate between the two men but Sweets turned to leave, giving her a glance that suggested they should go.
"Okay so what was that all about?" Cam asked as they headed back to the elevator. The elevator car was still several floors down so Sweets and Cam stepped off to the side to chat for a moment when something else caught Sweets' eye.
"What now?" Cam asked looking at what Sweets saw.
Sweets pointed to the board that was propped on the gold easel. In the center of the board was a photo of a US Naval officer, it was a commemoration of his sudden passing.
"U.S. Navy Commander Cameron Mahaffey." Cam read on the board then it occurred to her why that sounded familiar. "That's the owner of the boat we went to see."
"Yeah and he was the other guy who was in the alley." Sweets said. "The one who told the other guy that I was an American."
"The two guys who roughed you up in the alley?" Cam half asked and half answered herself. "But who was the other guy?"
"The guy we just met, CIA agent Dean Wittner." Sweets said.
"That's why the room got chilly." Cam realized.
"I didn't recognize him, I didn't see him that night, and I recognized his voice."
"But he didn't say anything, why?" Cam asked. "Why did Genevieve send us here if she knew he was the man who did that to you?"
"That threw me for a loop." Sweets admitted while rubbing his head. "I think she figured he wouldn't do anything here and it gave us a good lead, and she knew we'd see this." Sweets said pointing to the board.
"Yeah but what good is he going to do us?" Cam said looking at the at the memorial board.
"Probably quite a bit." Sweets said pointing to the dates on the board. "According to this he died two weeks ago, I saw him only a couple days ago."
Cam rubbed her head as the elevator finally arrived and they boarded.
"A British agent?" Cam asked thinking of CIA agent Wittner. "Something seems off, Kensitas only in Britain."
"The cigarettes the unknown man had." Sweets said thinking back to them. "Could be a connection." Sweets mind seemed to be on something else.
"You're thinking about something." Cam observed as they left the elevator and headed for the door.
"When I first met Genevieve in the library she told me 'he is your spy' and I assumed he meant American. But why would Wittner or a US Navy officer want him dead?" Sweets guessed.
"Maybe they didn't, maybe it's the other set of people you suggested, like the guy who blew up the boat, he seemed to want to kill you." Cam said. "Because he's evil, not because…" Cam didn't like how it sounded what she had said about killing Sweets.
"I know Cam." Sweets said offering her a smile as he opened her door but stopped before she could get it. His eyes lit with an idea and Cam felt anticipation at what it would be, Sweets was generally very insightful. "He is your spy." Sweets repeated with his eyes aglow. "She didn't mean American, she meant FBI spy."
"Do they, do that sort of thing?" Cam asked.
"Not officially, but it's not beyond the FBI to send people in undercover, a thin line with spying. That would only be American surveillance however, the CIA would go overseas. There must be some sort of connection though between out unknown man, the CIA and the US Navy." Sweets finished saying when Cam's phone rang.
"Yeah." She said in the phone and then added "It's Hodgins." She explained to Sweets. "Right, we'll be right there." Cam hung up the phone. "Hodgins thinks he has cracked another one of the codes and has something to show us.
Cam and Sweets arrived back at the Jeffersonian to see Hodgins busy at work. He was delighted when he had their attention. "ILIAOM" Hodgins announced proudly though Cam and Sweets only continued to stare at him. "The line of code, the only one that was crossed out, I figured out how it fits in our case."
"It sound like gibberish." Cam announced.
"Stay with me here." Hodgins urged. "It sounded familiar to me when I was messing with the order of the letters in each line. Then I cross referenced the jumbled words with the people we knew from the case. The US Navy officer with the boat, Mahaffey – he was tied to a project titled Iliaom."
Sweets and Cam's interest was now raised at the connection.
"And why did you know about this project Dr. Hodgins?" Cam asked suspiciously.
"It caught the attention of a lot of conspiracy theorists." Hodgins explained. "The project was sucking down millions of dollars and then suddenly it's shut down."
"Sounds like government cut backs." Cam said unimpressed and Sweets nodded in agreement.
"What was the project?" Sweets asked.
"That's what really drew the interest." Hodgins said his eyes lit with excitement. "The project was in the shipyard on the coast and it was released as being built to develop new techniques to pump for oil in the ocean."
"Controversial but not quite conspiracy." Cam deduced.
"Yeah except no one thought that was what they were doing." Hodgins said. "How familiar are you with the Philadelphia Project?"
"A little." Cam said and Sweets nodded. "Some idea that there was an experiment carried out by the US Navy to make a ship disappear."
"Yeah but it was like a hoax." Sweets said earning an eye roll from Hodgins.
"The US Navy destroyer escort was at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in 1943 where they were working on ways to make the ship invisible. Think of it, what's the most valuable tool in wartime?" Hodgins posed the question.
"Guns?" Cam asked.
"Surprise attack." Sweets answered. "The US was still reeling for the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, they wanted to be invisible too, but more so."
"The project was based on an aspect of the unified field theory, a term coined by Albert Einstein. The theory aims to describe– mathematically and physically– the interrelated nature of the forces that comprise electromagnetic radiation and gravity—in other words, uniting the fields of electromagnetism and gravity into a single field." Arastoo explained joining them on the platform.
"Oh Dr. Vasiri, he has you too?" Cam asked concerned with Hodgins conspiracy claws.
"No, I am just explaining the theory." Arastoo explained. "There are no reliable, attributable accounts, but in most accounts of the experiment, the destroyer escort USS Eldridge was fitted with the required equipment at the Philadelphia Naval Yard. Testing allegedly began in the summer of 1943, and it was supposedly successful to a limited degree. One test allegedly resulted in the Eldridge being rendered almost completely invisible, with some witnesses reporting a "greenish fog" appearing in its place. Crew members supposedly complained of severe nausea afterwards. Also, it is said that when the ship reappeared, some sailors were embedded in the metal structures of the ship, including one sailor who ended up on a deck level below that where he began and had his hand embedded in the steel hull of the ship as well as some sailors who went completely nuts."
"So….." Cam said looking at Hodgins.
"So Project Iliaom was the rebirth of the Philadelphia Experiment." Hodgins explained. "Invisibility in war is just as important now as them. Imagine the ability to transport soldiers, ammo, everything from one place to another, invisibly."
"It's science fiction." Cam retorted.
"A lot of things thought of in World War II seemed like science fiction then but are everyday tools now." Sweets reminded her. "Can you imagine a cell phone in 1942? Goggle glasses, the internet, 3-D printers."
"Yeah but that's a far cry still from invisibility." Cam reminded him hoping someone around her was still sane.
"Never know till you try." Hodgins said. "Now you know why I like so many experiments."
"Well if they are going to result in people reappearing embedded in sheets of metal let's not." Cam warned.
"Where was this Project Iliaom taking place at?" Sweets asked in all seriousness.
"Same as the original, at the Philadelphia Shipyards." Hodgins explained. "For being shut down the place is pretty busy."
"Dr. Soroyan, I need you to look at these remains from the case Booth & Dr. Brennan sent over." Arastoo said to Cam.
Sweets watched as they left and thought of the danger Cam may have been in when they went to the CIA office. By them going there, Sweets knew that Agent Wittner knew they were not obeying his desire for them to be off the case. Cam is safe here at the lab, Sweets said to himself. He mulled over an idea that he had, if I can get this case wrapped up then everyone is out of danger and this is all over. Sweets nodded to himself with resolve, slipping out to drive to the Philadelphia Shipyards. He couldn't however shake the feeling in his stomach, the same one he used to get as a kid when something was about to go wrong, dangerously wrong.
