"How much worse than experiments on human beings can it get?"
Castle's voice had returned to the exasperated tone from earlier in the break room as they gathered around Beckett's desk, a definite sense of anxiety flooding the entire area.
As discretely as possible, Ryan checked his wristwatch, his stomach turning to knots when he realized Javi was late, an unusual occurrence for an ex-military man who understood the need to be on time.
Glancing back up, he met Beckett's somber gaze, sharing the same worry.
"A lot, actually.", Vargas replied matter-of-factly and sat down in the guest chair, back rigidly straight, knees bent on a perfect 90-degree angle.
"So if he's not experimenting on homeless veterans, what is he doing and how does it connect to Lieutenant Harrison's and Larry Anderson's murder?"
Looking over the bullpen inconspicuously, Vargas cringed slightly, the heinous nature of the crime shaking him enough that it made it past his neutral military façade.
"We have reason to believe that he is experimenting on veterans. But not for the reasons you might think, detectives. Just how much do you know about PTSD?"
At the sheer mentioning of it, Ryan clenched his jaws, hating the loathed topic before the conversation even began. And yet, Beckett looked over at him, nudging him to talk.
"Well, I know that it is a response reflex in the brain following a traumatic event. It kind of puts the person into a permanent stun mode, unable to move past whatever occurred.", Ryan began, grateful to see the other man nod.
"Correct. It all starts with a severely traumatizing event, a death in the family, witnessing violence, rape, natural disasters. You don't have to be a combat vet to suffer from it. Our theory is that the initial shock lowers brain function, puts the patient into severe fight or flight mode. Now, due to decreased brain activity, the event witnessed erroneously gets filed away in the short-term memory instead of the long-term memory and in doing so, it puts the body into a constant state of stress and shock. The mind literally cannot move on from the event, it's stuck in a loop, assuming the event is still going on long after it occurred. Because of that, anything related to the event, even if the patient can't remember it because their mind blanked out…any small detail will become a trigger and put them right back into that severely stressed state. In other words, all the reflexes and emotions continue to react to the event like it is still happening, putting the patient into a near- permanent fight or flight mode."
"Almost like a hamster wheel…", Castle muttered, drawing everyone's attention toward him.
"In a matter of speaking yes, Mister Castle.", Vargas answered patiently, "Consider it reliving the worst day of your life over and over again. The patient might do so consciously or subconsciously, but it keeps happening and after a while…it wears on the body and mind alike."
"That sounds awful."
"Unfortunately, it is what a lot of our returning vets face, Detective Beckett. The human psyche is not equipped to handle some of the graphic scenes our warriors have encountered. I would imagine that working homicide has provided you with some of that insight."
Ryan watched her nod briefly, then point her chin back at the murder board.
"So where does that leave us with Lafayette? If he's not conducting his experiments to help vets recover from PTSD, what is he doing?"
With a disapproving grunt, Vargas shook his head, needing a moment to formulate the right words.
"What he is doing is using the fact that these patients suffer from PTSD."
"How so?"
Again, Vargas hesitated for a beat, giving Ryan a chance to check his watch once ore, his heart dropping when there still was no sign of his partner.
"As you know, I am sure, the military has spent decades studying PTSD and how to treat it. A lot of information has been gathered in that time frame on just how the traumatic event is stored in the short-term memory and how it's being recalled. As I said earlier, some vets don't even realize they suffer from it because their body reacts to it subconsciously. And we have reason to believe that Lafayette has tapped into some of that research, hoping to abuse that very finding."
"So, he wants people to be unaware of what they witnessed?", Ryan asked curiously, earning himself another nod.
"Why would he want that?", Beckett pried, her expression growing increasingly worried.
"I think you know exactly why he would want that, detective. Think of how many times you had to pull that trigger and wished the memory would go away. That's the key element here. Our cherished Doctor Lafayette is trying to create the perfect soldier."
"I knew it!", Castle blurted loudly, disrupting the tense conversation going on, "I just knew it. I told you he is working on ninja assassins!"
The unbridled enthusiasm had Vargas smile faintly, before he nodded.
"I wasn't going to put it quite like that but yeah, you are correct…at least temporarily. The problem is that this isn't as easy as it sounds. The human psyche won't withstand that sort of manipulation for a long time. Eventually, there will be grave side effects."
"So you're saying that Lafayette is trying to create some sort of army of super soldiers? Why?"
"I think he's just trying to finish his experiments and then sell the idea off to the highest bidder, Detective Beckett. China is chafing at the bit to get their hands on it, so is Russia and North Korea. We've been keeping an eye on him for the past few years but he wasn't making any headway until recently. Now we've grown worried."
"And Lieutenant Harrison was helping sponsor some of his experiments because…why?"
"If you put your ethics aside for a moment, think about the viability of deliberate mental manipulation, DMM for short. You could deploy soldiers to missions without worrying about them remembering exactly what they did or why, much less deal with PTSD. They wouldn't be able to recall what they saw once it happened. Nobody would be able to torture the truth out of them. They would never even know that they killed another human being. If this method could be used for frontal assault missions, it would prove invaluable."
Unable to hide her disgust at the sheer thought, Beckett scoffed.
"Yeah, but that's if DMM is used for the sake of the soldiers. In our case, I think it's safe to say that Lafayette is using those drugs to turn veterans into robots, a mindless shell to execute any mission they've been programmed to do, whether it is legal or not. But how does he do that? By the sounds of it, these drugs don't last long and cause severe side effects."
"We don't think he's just using the drugs.", Vargas countered and pointed at the murder board, "When he initially hooked up with Lafayette, Sergeant Anderson talked to one of our operatives, mentioning something about alternative methods that the doctor used to get him to relax…"
"It's all in the books!"
Raising his index finger hurriedly, Castle circled Beckett's desk as though he was reenacting their visit to the vet center.
"Those books I saw on the shelves; all that talk about massage and hypnosis and such. He might be using hypnosis to coerce his victims into carrying out all those terrible deeds for him. It explains his alibi- like we said, he's got somebody else doing the dirty work for him using DMM."
"That is the one part we haven't been able to establish beyond a reasonable doubt. Our contact with Anderson ceased shortly after and you know the end of that story. The other problem is that people who have been subject to hypnosis typically can't recall it. So even if he'd still been talking, he may not be of much use."
"Are you seriously saying that Lafayette uses hypnosis to program his victims and then uses the drugs to keep them in line?"
"As outlandish as it may sound, that's what I am thinking at this point, Detective Beckett. And I have something else to share with you, but I must warn you, it may not be good news."
At the sheer mentioning, Ryan stepped closer as Vargas pulled a grainy picture out of the breast pocket of his elegant suit coat.
"This was taken from a security camera right outside a nightclub. We'd traced Lafayette there but couldn't figure out why until we saw him drag another man out of the place, throw him into his car and drive off. The quality of the image wasn't good enough for our facial recognition software, but if I am not mistaken, this might be your guy Esposito?"
Unable to hold back a gasp, Ryan reached for the image before anybody else had a chance to take a look, his fingers gently running over the person depicted in it.
"That's the club where he was going to meet with Chantal for a date a week or so ago. You are telling me he got drunk with Lafayette instead and things wen awry from there?"
"Not necessarily, Detective Ryan. My guess is that he was drugged. Lafayette must have singled him out for one reason or another, drugged him, then started working on him."
Much to Ryan's surprise, Beckett frowned and stepped closer, her intense gaze penetrating Vargas.
"I'm sorry, but I don't believe you. This wasn't just a lucky guess. You've known all along that it was Esposito. Why didn't you come forward sooner and tell us? Do you have any idea how much danger he might be in?"
"I had my hunches and once I did some research into your department, it all made sense.", Vargas countered defensively, "But we couldn't be sure and Anderson claimed he knew nothing about your detective or any other operative. Just like you, we need to rely on things like probable cause and evidence. All we have to tie them together is this image and whatever we can get out of Lafayette or your detective. We shadowed Esposito for several nights, but he did a great job eluding our men. Judging by the fact that he isn't here right now, I think it's safe to assume he went AWOL. Am I right, Detective Beckett?"
