Tampa Monday October 10
Kate spent the morning inputting data on the two terrorist incidents into her laptop, and organizing the many individual pieces of evidence. This case had almost too many pieces of evidence, the truly significant ones were buried in a mountain of trivia. She just had to find the one piece that started a chain reaction of linking and crosslinking till the full picture emerged.
Around 10:00 Hayley stopped by with the preliminary CSU report, and they went through it line by line updating her laptop with new information. The most interesting finding came from fingerprints of the terrorists. Five of the ten generated hits on the FBI database. The other five were sent to Interpol, and the results were expected sometime on Tuesday.
The five hits were individually interesting as well:
Hovan Arutyunyan - Chechen, 39 years old, PhD. Chemical Engineering, University of Kiev, professor of chemical engineering at Chechen State University before the war, Wanted by the Russian Police for terrorist activity using chemical weapons during Chechen War.
Chulmoo Soh - North Korean, 34 years old, Pyongyang University, major unknown, wanted by South Korea and Japan for espionage.
Azad Esfahani - Iranian, 38 years old, M.D., Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Member of Iranian Revolutionary Guards
Vojin Milutinovic - Serbian, 43 years old, education unknown, member of Serbian White Eagle Militia. Convicted of genocide by U.N. War Crimes Tribunal, but escaped before sentence could be carried out.
Kuan-Yin Jiang - Chinese, 32 years old, Sergeant in 3rd Airborne Brigade, PLA, discharged in 2005 for shooting a prisoner during a demonstration in Tibet, Whereabouts unknown.
Hayley looked up to meet Kate's gaze and shook her head in frustration. "What a motley collection of goons. I don't see any connection other than they decided to do their thing on the wrong golf course at the wrong time."
Kate sighed, "I agree, other than maybe the Iranian, none of these other groups have a history of going after Americans. So who were they working for and what was their objective?"
Kate's phone rang, she answered and reached over to activate the conference feature, "Go ahead Guy, I just put you on speaker, if you don't mind, would you please reintroduce yourself?"
"Guy Ahearne, Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix office."
"Thank you, I'm Supervisory Special Agent Kate Beckett and also here is Special Agent Hayley Shipton. What do you have for us?
"We cross referenced the GPS data you gave us with the sales records for the cylinders, and one location popped out. It's a leased factory building in an industrial park on the southeast side of Phoenix. The sign outside says Victory Pharmaceuticals. We did a quick canvas of the surrounding businesses and no one has seen any activity for over a week. Do you want us to move in now, or wait a while longer to see if any one shows up?"
"Now" Kate spoke firmly, "but you need to take appropriate precautions, as we suspect they were producing chemical and biological weapons. I wouldn't put it past these bastards to leave some behind on purpose."
"I have three agents who have been trained in NBC investigations and they have the proper equipment.
"Very good!" Kate applauded, "Go for it"
Hayley leaned forward. "Guy, I think you should send an EOD team in with them to sweep for booby traps."
"Okay, good thinking Agent Shipton"
Kate hit the mute button, "What made you think of that?"
"Something Rick said at the golf course - 'Why waste a target rich environment'?"
Marveling, Kate turned the phone back on, They'd only known Rick for a week and already he had them thinking like soldiers.
Kate's phone chimed an incoming text. She saw the sender was Rick; and Hayley smiled at how her face lit up. The message read - Good Morning Beautiful.
She quickly composed an answer "Good Morning did you get any sleep?
"A little, you?
"Same, I'll make it up to you this weekend"
"OOOH, I like the sound of that"
"Do you think you could come by this afternoon? We have new information."
"Sure, I have some for you as well. Two-ish okay.
"Yeah, that's good see you then."
Guy Ahearne came back on the line, "Agent Beckett?"
"Yes, we're here."
"My guys are ready to enter, a couple of them have helmet cams , I can send you a video feed if you'd like.
"Sure," and she read off her IP address. In a few seconds, the video appeared on her screen, and she and Hayley slid forward in their seats gazing at the screen intently. The bomb squad finished examining the door and gave the all clear sign. One of the entry team used an axe on the door, and it swung open. The team leader was the first through the door and he had a helmet cam. Kate felt a wave of nausea hit, and clapped her hand over her mouth. Hayley went pale and turned away from the screen. The floor of the building, as far as the camera could see was covered with bodies and pools of congealed blood. The bodies were mostly dressed in white clean-room suits and each had a single gun shot to the back of the head.
"Looks like we found the right place," Guy offered a bit redundantly.
"Guy are there any surveillance cameras in the parking lot?" Kate asked.
Unfortunately no, not that we've seen anyway. The owner of the building is supposed to be here in a couple of hours, maybe he'll be of some help."
"Okay we'll get out of your hair, give me a call if anything pops up and thanks for your help.
"You bet, I'll be in touch."
When Kate looked at the clock, she was surprised that it was already 11:40. She turned to Hayley, "How about we grab a salad at Whole Foods?
"Okay"
An hour later, they returned from lunch and Kate noticed her voice mail light blinking. The message was from Guy Ahearne and she dialed his number immediately. "Hello Guy, What's up?"
"Kate, the owner is here now, and he says there are surveillance cameras, they are hidden because people kept stealing the others. I'm going to send you the last ten days, that should cover the time you're interested in."
"Thanks, keep in touch."
Twenty minutes later, Kate had finished downloading the video and burning two copies onto DVD's. She and Hayley settled back to watch the video at 20 times normal speed. The two black SUV's were parked near the building at the beginning of the video, then that night there was a good bit of activity around the two vehicles, and then they pulled out and disappeared.
They were still scrolling forward, trying to determine when the SUV's returned, when Kate's phone rang. She checked the caller ID and accepted the call when she saw that the caller was Gerhard Hoch. "Good afternoon Gerhard."
"Hello Kate, I have good news and bad news."
"Okay, give me the good news."
"The good news is that I'm sitting in Professor Tsiapinski's office drinking a lovely caramel macchiato.
"I'm glad you're comfy Gerhard, so what's the bad news?"
"The bad news is, the professor is gone."
"Gone?"
"Gone. As in 'took it on the lam', 'got out of Dodge', 'hit the road',….
"OK Gerhard," Kate chuckled, "I get the picture"
"No one has seen him since Friday before last, he seems to have pretty much left everything behind, other than his laptop. " I've got one of my best agents and the Crime Scene Unit on their way to tear this office apart, and I'm waiting on a warrant to toss his condo."
"Sounds like you've got it under control Gerhard, keep me informed please and call if you have any questions."
"Goodbye Kate."
She hung up and noticed Hayley looking at her with a quizzical expression, "The good professor has flown the coop."
"Well, look on the bright side." Hayley urged.
"There's a bright side?""
"Sure, 'flight to avoid arrest' is a pretty good indication that we have the right guy."
"Yeah, I guess. He's got a week head start, but let's notify TSA and the Border Patrol anyway, maybe he hasn't left the country yet."
"Okay," Hayley agreed, and she headed back to her office.
Kate rested her elbows on her desk and supported her head in her hands. She used her thumbs to massage her temples. Looking at the grainy video had given her a headache.
"I could take care of that for you…"
She looked up startled, she hadn't been aware of anyone entering her office, "Rick?"
"Hello beautiful. Rough day? "
"Yeah, this case is weird, there's so much evidence that it's hard to sort it all out." She noticed that he was carrying a takeout tray with three large Starbuck's cups, then the tantalizing aroma made her taste buds tingle in anticipation.
Rick extracted one cup and handed it to her, "Maybe this will help a little. Pumpkin Spice Latte."
She sipped tentatively and sighed with pleasure. "This is good." She gave him a smile that threatened to buckle his knees. "It was sweet of you to think of me."
He grinned sheepishly, "That's all I've done since you left yesterday."
"I assume one is for you, who's the other one for?"
"My number 2 main lady."
Kate hit speed dial 1 on her phone, "Hayley can you come back to my office, please."
"Can I sit," he asked.
"Oh sure, I was just so blown away by you showing up with coffee that I forgot my manners."
Hayley bustled in, "What's up Kate….Oh hi Rick"
"Hello Hayley."
He handed her the third cup and she sniffed appreciatively, "Pumpkin Spice Latte, I love this flavor." She sat in the other guest chair and took a large sip, "Mmmm."
"How about I give you my update," Rick offered, "And then you can show me what you have." Both women nodded. "Well, by some combination of wizardry, alchemy and sheer genius, Lainie and her group were able to identify the source of the tritium/deuterium in the small cylinder."
"Where did it come from." Hayley questioned.
"Ukraine, Khmelnytskyy Nuclear Power Plant to be precise."
"How did Ukrainian nuclear material find its way to the U.S." Kate wondered, "Do we import the stuff from the Ukraine?"
"No, we make our own at the Savannah River Plant. Actually most of the world's supply of tritium used for civilian purposes is made either at Savannah River or at Khmelnytskyy. It might not be a bad idea to to have your legal attache in Kiev pay a visit to the site. They're usually meticulous in their material control and documentation. Probably won't find any thing but it won't hurt to check.
"Okay," Kate agreed "I'll get Roy to call them, bossing around legal attaches is above my pay grade."
"So ladies, what do you have for me?"
Kate filled him in on all the info that had accumulated that morning.
Rick whistled tunelessly when she finished. "I see what you mean by data overload. May I see the video?"
"Sure," Kate restarted the video at the point where the unidentified figures appeared to be loading something into the SUV's.
"The video quality sucks," Rick grumbled, "They could be loading a baby hippo into that SUV and we wouldn't be able to tell." Then he slumped back in his seat and seemed to stare at the opposite wall. Kate and Hayley just smiled and sipped their latte's. They knew exactly what was happening, Rick had just thrown the 'box' out the window and his mind went into overdrive, forming ideas, testing them, modifying, linking until he had a solution. He shivered and seemed to shake off the trance, a smile growing that gave both Kate and Hayley chills. Things were about to get interesting.
Rick addressed them both, "Is there a picture of the location of this camera?"
"Not that I know of" Hayley responded, "But I can get one quickly enough"
"Please," Rick nodded.
One text message and five minutes later, a passable photo of the light pole was displayed on Kate's laptop. Rick studied it for a minute. "I want the whole thing brought to the institute. It can't be damaged in any way." He gave Kate a quizzical look. "Can your folks handle that , or do I need to send someone out from the institute.?"
"They know how to handle a crime scene, Rick."
"Okay, just checking. There are some other things that I'll need before they take the pole down."
Kate turned over a fresh page on her legal pad and posed her pen over the page "Just tell me what you need, and I'll pass it on to Guy."
Rick started counting off on his fingers, "One - the exact location of the pole, Two - the exact orientation of the camera, Three - exact locations of any landmarks within the field of view of the camera, …"
"Whoa, hold on a minute," Kate interrupted, "What do you mean by 'exact'?
Rick reached into the inside breast pocket of his blazer and pulled out a calculator, "Give me a second and I'll tell you precisely." He busied himself punching the keys on the calculator and occasionally making cryptic notes on a sheet of paper he stole from Kate's legal pad. Making some final notes on the paper, he slipped the calculator back into his pocket and met the women's expectant gaze. "If we can measure distances to within 2 millimeters and measure angles to within plus or minus one minute of angle, then we should be able to improve the video resolution by a factor of a hundred. That should allow us to recognize faces. If we could measure distances to within 0.1 millimeter, and angles to plus or minus a tenth of minute of angle, then we should be able to improve the resolution by a factor of ten thousand or so. That would allow us to read a newspaper at that distance."
"Is that even possible?" Hayley asked.
"Oh yes, not easy, but doable."
"Rick, I think you've moved out of FBI territory and into the 'mad-scientist' realm."
"And I know just the mad scientist to call." He scrolled through his contact list and placed a call. "Professor LoPilato please, Rick Castle calling" While they were waiting,Rick activated the speaker on his phone so that Kate and Hayley could follow the conversation.
"Rick, are you in town, where are you, why didn't you let me know you were coming….?
Rick interrupted the rapid fire string of questions, "Dan, calm down, I'm not in town. At the moment I'm in the Tampa FBI office and you're on speaker."
"FBI? Are you in trouble, of course you are, they found out about the …Wait a minute did you say I'm on speaker?
"I did Dan and I assure you that they are not after me."
Kate gave him a quarter glare and mouthed -"Yet."
"Oh my god, that means they're after me. They know about the twenty boxes of Cohiba's that I brought back with me when I went to Mexico last month, I am so busted…
"Dan, did you take your medication today?"
"I don't know, let me look. Oh crap, I'll be back in a minute."
Kate and Hayley struggled mightily to stifle laughter, but were losing ground rapidly, so Rick muted his phone."Come on you two, show a little respect," Rick chided.
That triggered new gales of laughter "Rick, you've got to be kidding," Kate choked out, "The guy is a maniac."
"He has adult ADHD, he is not a maniac. He's also a full professor at Arizona State."
"Sorry Rick, we'll behave." Hayley promised.
The voice of Professor LoPilato came back on line considerably less manic than before "Rick you still there buddy?"
Rick unmuted his phone, "Yeah Dan, still here, try not to confess to any more felonies, okay?"
"I'll try. What can I do for you my friend."
"First let me introduce the folks on this end of the line, there's Special Agent Kate Beckett."
"Hello Professor"
"Hello"
"And Special Agent Hayley Shipton."
"Hi, Professor"
"Hi, you weren't kidding about the FBI thing were you Rick?
"Nope, ladies this reformed maniac is Professor Dante LoPilato, professor of engineering at Arizona State University.
"Rick are these ladies half as gorgeous as their voices would imply?"
"Oh, considerably more than half Dan, considerably more."
"So you're telling me that you're in a room alone with two smokin' hot federal agents and you didn't even have to get arrested? Rick Castle you have all the luck. It's not fair."
"Dan, can we get back to the point of the call?"
"Sure, sure"
"I have a consulting opportunity for you. It would involve developing some new technology and pushing back the frontiers of science a bit."
"Publishable?" the goofy professor was suddenly all business and the women marveled at the sudden transformation.
"Oh yeah."
"Then I'm in."
Rick proceeded to give his friend an overview of what he needed to be done at the crime scene. Thirty minutes later, they had pretty much nailed down the basic approach to acquiring the precision measurements that Rick needed. "Dan, once you finish with your measurements, the Bureau will dismantle the light pole containing the camera and ship it back to the institute. I'm assigning one of my interns to characterize the camera and write the code to do the analysis on Leonardo."
"Must be a pretty special intern, to get a shot at something like this."
"She is." Rick grinned, "Dan, I have an idea, how about you assign a grad student to work with her. That way your group can be involved in the work that's done at the institute as well as what you do in Phoenix."
"I like it" Dan replied, "I have just the kid to do it too."
"Anybody I know?" Rick wondered.
"Could be, I was thinking of young Rutledge, just got his PhD, and we were looking for a good post-doc opportunity. This would be right up his alley."
"South Carolina Rutledge?"
"Yeah, you know him?
"I know the family, played baseball with a Rutledge at MIT. Why don't you have him call me tomorrow and we'll chat. In the meantime, the Special Agent in Charge in Phoenix should be getting in touch with you to get you started on the crime scene."
As soon as Rick ended the call, Kate made the call to Guy Ahearne and proposed that Professor LoPilato assist in the investigation. She was expecting some resistance, but it failed to materialize. "I've worked with the professor before," Guy admitted, "And besides I've been instructed to fast track this investigation as much as possible."
"By whom?" Kate wanted to know.
"The Director, but he was in the Oval Office when he called"
"Oh my…"
"Don't worry Kate, I want to get these guys as badly as anyone."
"Thanks Guy."
"Anytime. Goodbye Kate."
Kate turned to Rick "How long do you think it will take to get the enhanced video?"
"10 days or so. Maybe a little less if the Rutledge kid is any good"
Hayley suddenly straightened in her chair, "I think I just had one of Rick's blinding flashes of light!"
Rick held out his hand for a fist bump and Kate looked at her quizzically "Care to share with the class?"
"Yeah, but first we need to know when the SUV's came back. We know that they left for Florida on 10/2, so they had to come back before if we get their average speed and number of stops from the GPS data for the Florida trip, we can superimpose that data on the elapsed time for the earlier trip we can at least estimate how far they went and maybe a possible target will pop."
"Worth a try," Rick nodded at Hayley approvingly, earning him a smile. Kate started the video again and they barely had time to settle back and get comfortable before one of the SUV's made its appearance. Kate stopped the video and wrote down the time on her pad. Doing some quick mental arithmetic, she calculated the elapsed time - 12 hours and 17 minutes. Hayley was studying the printout of the GPS data and pointing out numbers to Rick, who was manically manipulating his calculator. He looked up to find both women leaning forward in anticipation. "With 90% confidence, the trip radius is between 327 and 397 miles."
Kate cleared her throat, drawing her companions' attention. "I have a question." Rick and Hayley both nodded, "Why did they send two SUV's to Florida? Everything that we found at the golf course would have fit in one vehicle, so why send 2?"
"Maybe they knew they would need more manpower for the attack at The Claw, so the second SUV was just carrying more goons." Hayley theorized.
" But if they just wanted to move people, why not fly them in, it would be a lot less risky? Kate countered.
"We only know the route for the vehicle that has the GPS," Rick interjected, "We're only assuming that they traveled together. Who knows what the other one was doing."
"I know how we can find out." Kate grinned at the other two, "We pick a traffic cam on the interstate, and since we know exactly when SUV No. 1 passed any given point, we know when it passed the traffic cam. If we get the video, we should be able to tell if they were traveling together."
"Great idea" Rick acknowledged, "But even if they weren't traveling together, we should be able to scan the major roads coming in to Florida, the time window we're interested in is not all that wide."
"I'll call FHP, they've done things kind of like this for us before." Kate picked up her phone, consulted her contact list and placed the call. Ten minutes later she ended the call and shared a satisfied grin. "They'll have the info by this time tomorrow."
Rick spoke up, "Getting back to Kate's original question, I think the hypothesis that best fits the available data is that they brought more than what they used at The Claw."
"Which means that there's more of that stuff floating around that hasn't been used yet" Hayley continued Rick's thought.
"And maybe it hasn't been used yet because we took out the people who were supposed to use it." Kate said.
"Which raises the question, do they have buddies that will be able to find it, or is it lost until some modern day Pandora stumbles on it and unleashes the apocalypse." Rick wondered. "What if we had the local news organizations run a PSA showing the three cylinders and …heck, offer a reward."
"Good idea," Kate agreed, "And we'll issue a BOLO covering the entire 'll get all the local law enforcement agencies on board."
"Oh crap!" Rick muttered under his breath.
"What's wrong Rick? Kate asked with a look of concern.
"I can't believe I overlooked it. I must be getting old."
"Overlooked what Rick?" Kate was a little exasperated.
"Sorry, Kate did your CSU check the SUV's for radiation?"
"I doubt it, it's not part of the normal protocol…Oh crap, the small cylinder. You think they may have transported the rest of a bomb?
"Why not?, it fits all the data. How soon can we get the scan done?"
"Tomorrow morning probably."
"Okay," He stood, "Kate, do you have plans for tonight?"
"Actually, I do. Hayley and I are going to grab a bite to eat and then get some shopping in."
"Cool, can I go?"
"NO!" they answered in perfect harmony, and laughed at his crestfallen look.
"Well, in that case, I guess I'll make an appearance at the Board of Trustees meeting at the University. The food's usually pretty good and it'll save me from having to go home and cook." Kate stepped around her desk and walked into his arms.
He held her lightly, but firmly; individual energy diffusing, mingling, building until Hayley felt she could literally feel the warmth rolling off the two of them. Not the raw heat of animal passion, but the gentle warmth of the rising sun on a crisp autumn morning. She willed her feet to leave the office, but they seemed permanently attached to the floor, unwilling to lose even the pale reflection of the experience.
In the event, Kate saved her from her struggle. She rose on tiptoes and gave Rick a quick peck on the cheek, and whispered something in his ear. He released her with a grin, gave Hayley a one-arm hug and with a final "Until tomorrow, ladies" he disappeared down the hallway toward the main entrance.