Special Talents (37 page)

"Is that what he was hiding?" Peters asked. "We'll need to get someone down her to open that safe."

"I can take care of that," said Janet.

She reached up and took hold of the handle on the safe. After a moment she pulled on the handle and the door opened easily. But it was obvious the locking mechanism was bent completely out of shape. She reached in and removed several sheets of paper from the safe.

"Who are you people?" Peters asked.

"Trust me, Glen," said Scarborough. "You're better off not knowing."

"This looks like Arabic," said Janet, looking the papers over and handing them to Scarborough.

"Yes it does," Scarborough replied. "Sorry, Glen, I'll have to take these with me and get them translated. It could be a matter of national security."

"National security," said Peters. "That seems to cover a lot of sins."

"It also happens to be true. Once I've had a chance to look these over I'll see about getting then back to you."

"Well, I don't suppose I have any choice," said Peters, looking at the bent and twisted safe. "I'm just not sure how I'm going to write this up in my report."

"Just tell them there was a federal agent present who was able to open the safe for you," said Jeremy. "You don't necessarily have to say how she opened it, do you?"

The lieutenant just shrugged and then went to supervise the search of the house. Scarborough and the others left the house, their work there being done.

"I'm surprised he didn't give you a hassle about jurisdiction or something," said Janet. "Aren't those papers part of the investigation?"

"Well, if it had been anyone else, he probably would have," said Jeremy. "But I've known Glen a long time. He and my older brother were partners for many years. He knows I won't step on his toes anymore than I absolutely have to.

"As for these papers, like I told him, they could be a matter of national security. That takes precedents over a local crime. Besides right now there's no proof these papers are involved in the crime. So technically they aren't evidence."

"Oh, they're involved," said Conrad. "Those papers are what Hampton was trying to hide. He was afraid the police had learned about them and had come to arrest him because of them."

"And just how can you know that?" Simon asked. "Hampton is dead. How can you read the mind of a dead man?"

"I have no idea," said Conrad. "I can only tell you I got the information from him."

"This is a new twist on your talent," said Jeremy. "It's believed that people store memories through chemicals located in the brain. Maybe you're not really reading someone's mind. Maybe you're able to tap into this chemical storage system and learn what the person had stored there."

"If that's true," said Scarborough, "we wouldn't necessarily need a living terrorist to get information. Conrad could get it from any terrorist that was killed while we were trying to apprehend him."

"It might not be that simple," said Jeremy. "Like the rest of the body, the chemicals in the brain would begin to decay once the body stops functioning. We have no way of knowing how fast that decay is. There might be a very small window of opportunity for him to learn anything before the memories become unreadable."

"Still, it's one more tool we have to fight terrorism," said Scarborough. "I need to get these papers to headquarters and have them translated. I'm very interested in seeing what Mr. Hampton felt was so important he was willing to die for."

"So while the Hampton was busy with the police, Jeremy just had me phase in behind him at the house and drag him out the front door," Simon told the others when they had returned to the house. "It was so cool. You should have seen the look on his face when we passed right through the door."

"I'll bet it was priceless," said Mariah. "And nobody even asked how you did it?"

"Well, the lieutenant did. I just told him, 'a magician never reveals his secrets'. He seemed to buy it but I really don't know why."

"Because I told him it was classified and that he should just forget it," said Scarborough. "Glen has been a cop for a long time. And he knows I work for Homeland Security. So he won't pursue it. But really, Jeremy, we can't go around having the team using their talents in front of witnesses. If this should get out there's no telling what could happen."

"Yeah," said Simon. "We might actually be famous. Have people asking for our autographs and have to do the talk show circuits. Maybe even get a movie deal or television series. Man, that would be such a drag. How would we ever be able to live like that?"

"Or some terrorist group might kidnap you and do experiments on you to learn how your ability works," countered Jeremy. "To give it to their people. There's always that side of the coin."

"Oh, I hadn't thought about that. Yeah, that wouldn't be so hot."

"Besides," said Scarborough, "you're supposed to be working undercover, remember? Not drawing attention to yourselves? I'd hardly call what you did not drawing attention to yourselves."

"Well, you did call us in to help," said Jeremy. "And we did learn that Hampton was using an ability. Under the circumstances I think things went pretty well."

"Yeah," said Janet, "and Conrad learned something new about his ability. He can read the mind of the dead."

"The dead?" questioned Kamalene. "As in deceased dead?"

"Apparently," said Conrad. "We were standing there talking and suddenly I started getting stuff from this guys' mind. It wasn't much but it was enough to find out why he freaked when the cops showed up."

"Conrad, I have a friend at one of the local hospitals," said Jeremy. "I'm going to talk to him and see if he'll let us have a little time in their morgue. We need to investigate this new side of your ability. See how well it works and how far it goes."

"Morgue?" questioned Conrad. "You mean where they keep all the dead bodies? I don't think I'm real crazy about that idea."

"Relax," said Jeremy. "Dead people never hurt anyone. Besides we need to find out if tonight was a fluke or not."

"Why not use the coroner's office?" asked Frank. "They'll have a lot more bodies than the morgue at a hospital."

"Most of which have been dead for a while," said Jeremy. "We need to start with some fresher bodies. See how long a body has been dead before Conrad can't read the mind any longer. So we need to go someplace where we can have access to a body very soon after death."

"Why not just go to an old folks' home?" suggested Simon wryly. "They have to be dropping like flies there."

"Have a little respect for the elderly," said Will. "After all, there's a lot you can learn from someone whose lived 80 years or so."

"Hey, I'm just saying if you want fresh bodies an old folks' home is a good place to find them. I got plenty of respect for old people."

"Just like you do for authority," said Janet.

"What about those papers?" Jeremy asked, trying to change the subject. "Any idea how long before they are translated?"

"The tech I gave them to said he'd have them for me first thing in the morning," said Scarborough. "From what he could tell he said they looked like some kind of medical papers or something."

"Medical papers?" questioned Jeremy. "That doesn't make sense. Why would someone be willing to die over medical papers?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," said Scarborough. "I'm having a more in-depth background check done on Hampton. That might tell us something. Anyway, thanks for helping out tonight. With that guys' ability there's no telling how many people could have gotten hurt before they stopped him."

"Glad to be of assistance," said Jeremy.

"Hey," said Simon, "does that count as our first assignment?"

"No," said Scarborough. "Your assignment is to help locate Moser and Chang. We'll just call this another training exercise."

"Hey, I risked my life out there," protested Simon. "If the cops had started shooting someone could have gotten seriously injured."

"And since you were phased the bullets would have passed right through you without causing any damage," said Jeremy.

"Well, what if one of them was using glass bullets?"

"Glass bullets?" questioned Scarborough, not believing what he was hearing.

"Well, it sounded good in my head," said Simon.

"That's probably the only thing in your head," muttered Janet.

"And on that note I'll say good night," said Scarborough.

"I'll meet you at headquarters tomorrow morning," said Jeremy. "If those were medical papers I might be able to help tell you what they are."

"Good idea," said Scarborough. "I'll be there at 8:00. I'll see you then."

"Hey, Harry, how's it going?" Scarborough asked the tech he had translating the papers.

"Fine, Assistant Director Scarborough," said Harry.

"This is Supervising Agent Dr. Jeremy Sloan. He's working with me on those papers I gave you last night."

"Nice to meet you," said Harry. "Speaking of which, I have that translation you asked for." He handed several sheets of paper to Scarborough.

"Did you have any trouble with the translation?" Scarborough asked, handing the papers to Jeremy to look over.

"Well, yes and no. Translating the words was easy. It was simply Farsi."

"I've never found Farsi to be simple," said Jeremy.

"That's because you're not a linguist," replied Harry. "Anyway, like I said, translating the words was easy. Understanding what I translated, now that's a whole other ballgame."

"What do you mean understanding it?"

"It was some pretty weird stuff. It was talking about mutagenesis and double helixes and northern hybridization and all kinds of strange stuff. I sent a copy to the boys in the lab to see if they could make any sense of it."

"You understand any of that?" Scarborough asked Jeremy.

"A fair amount. They look like some kind of research notes on genetic engineering. I'm not a geneticist but this looks like some kind of instructions for modifying a specific genome. But it doesn't say what type of modification or what genome."

"You mean like gene manipulation?" Scarborough asked.

"That would be my guess. It's not uncommon. Some scientists modify the genome of a specific species that has a resistance or immunity to a particular disease. They modify it so it can be used in gene therapy for patients with that particular disease."

"Or to make something more deadly," said Scarborough. "Like anthrax, eboli; there's a whole litany of biological agents that can be used as weapons. Even the common cold if it were modified properly. But genetically modifying a virus or bacteria is time consuming and costly. And they'd also have to bioengineer an antidote so they wouldn't become infected."

"They meaning terrorists," said Jeremy.

"Yes. A bioengineered disease could be catastrophic if it were released into a large metropolitan area. Millions could die."

"Well, it doesn't look like it's all here," said Jeremy. "Just a few pages. Whatever they're working on I don't think we'll be able to figure it out from these few pages."

"I'll have a geneticist look at them," said Scarborough. "He might be able to make more sense of it than you can."

"That's a good idea," said Jeremy. "After all, this is not exactly my field of expertise."

"Thanks, Harry," said Scarborough. "I appreciate you putting a rush on this one."

"No problem. We aim to please."

"He seemed pretty chipper," said Jeremy as they left Harry to his work.

"Yeah, Harry's always like that. It's like nothing ever gets him down. I've heard he's a real morale booster in the office. And pretty popular with the ladies, if the rumors are true."

"I wouldn't be surprised. What about that background check on Hampton? You think it's ready yet?"

"One way to find out. I was just on my way there."

The background check on Hampton proved to be of little help. He had spent the past couple of years living in Europe, travelling mostly. He had lived in Germany, France, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, and finally Italy. Scarborough could find no source of income but Hampton apparently had no shortage of money. This made Scarborough suspicious but there was nothing to connect Hampton with anything illegal. He was apparently a carpenter by trade and had suddenly quit his job and begun travelling in Europe.

The geneticist had no more luck with the papers than Jeremy had. He said they were definitely notes on genetic engineering but without more information he couldn't identify the exact nature of the engineering. He told Scarborough he would keep researching but he didn't hold out much hope of finding anything useful.

The next few weeks produced very little results. Search teams were constantly scouring the D.C. metropolitan area for any signs of the missing plutonium. But so far they had had little luck. Wherever the plutonium was being kept it was most likely very well shielded. And there was no trace of either Moser or Chang.