Chapter 27
“Iwas doing my usual perimeter check,” the night security guard said when I interviewed him.
"It was pretty quiet on the island. I took a little break to smoke a cigarette and have a candy bar. By the time I got back to the lab, all hell had broken loose.”
We had stepped away from the crowd for a little privacy.
"Did you see anyone else on the island?"
"No. We have motion detectors around the property, but none of them were tripped. No alarms sounded. Nothing was broken into. At least, not that I can tell. It's possible that somebody could have accessed the network and disabled the security systems."
"How long have you been working here?"
"Almost two years now," Zach said.
"Have you experienced any break-ins or intruders during that time?”
"Not really. I mean, from time to time, we’ll have protesters come out to the island.
A lot of people think what's going on here is immoral or unethical. They say we’re playing God.
I don't think they really understand what we’re doing.
As far as I understand it, it's like hitting the pause button on life.
What's the big deal if it’s not hurting anybody?
I mean, people pay good money to do it, and they know full well what they're getting into.” He shook his head.
"Just like everything else. The rich are going to live forever, and the poor are getting screwed.
But hey, the paycheck is nice. This is probably the cushiest gig I've ever had. "
"Did you know the deceased?”
"Nope. Never met either of them before. I work nights. First time I saw them was when they got added to the freezers. They were already stiff then. Didn't say much."
"The technician’s name is Bryan, right?”
Zach nodded.
In a hushed tone, I asked, “How long has he been around?”
"Since before me."
"Good guy?"
"Yeah. I mean, he's the only other guy around here to talk to at night, so I figured we’d better get along. He pretty much keeps to himself. A little on the nerdy side, but that's okay by me.”
"What was he doing around the time of the incident?”
"When I left the lab, he was on the phone with his girlfriend, I think. They were having some kind of argument.” He muttered aside, "They’re always having some kind of argument. If you ask me, he needs to move on. Nothing is worth that aggravation.”
“Tell me about the malfunction,” I said.
“I really don’t know anything about this stuff,” Zach replied. “Way over my head. When I came back from my perimeter walk, Bryan was freaking out. Both pods signaled a malfunction. Bryan tried to troubleshoot the units, but by that time it was too late.”
“What happened next?”
“We called Dr. Cameron.”
“Not 9-1-1?”
“What’s 9-1-1 going to do? They wouldn’t know how to deal with this. Where do you even begin?”
“So, you waited for Dr. Cameron?”
Zach nodded.
“What happened when he arrived?”
“He was pissed. Wanted to know what happened. Dr. Cameron went through the emergency protocols. When that didn’t work, and he confirmed the subjects were no longer viable, he called the county.”
“How long did he take to make the call?”
Zach hesitated. “Like, an hour. He and Bryan tried everything they could think of.”
“I need to see the security footage.”
“Sure thing,” Zach said.
He escorted us to the main control area. There were several computer terminals and flatscreen displays. Diagnostics from all the stasis tubes appeared on the monitors. There were all kinds of buttons, toggle switches, gauges, and meters. It looked like mission control for a space program.
With a few keystrokes, Zach pulled up the security footage on one of the flatscreen displays. The screen was blank, and his brow knitted with confusion. He hit a few more keys and scrubbed back through the timeline, but it was all blank.
I shared a concerned look with JD and the sheriff.
"Something is wrong. It looks like the cameras went offline a little before midnight." Zach tapped a few more keys and tried to pull up other camera footage.
Every camera on the island had gone down.
"Who has access to this network?" I asked.
"At this hour, just me, Bryan, and Dr. Cameron. Of course, there are the technicians on the day shift and two other security guards. We work in eight-hour shifts.”
"Has anybody else been on the property this evening?" I asked.
"Not that I'm aware of.”
"Alright,” Daniels grumbled. “I don't want anybody touching the system until we’ve had our computer forensic team take a look at it.”
Bryan and Dr. Cameron had noticed the commotion and stepped toward us.
"What seems to be the problem?" Cameron asked.
"It looks like someone has deleted security footage from the time of the incident forward," the sheriff said with a tight face and an accusatory tone.
Dr. Cameron looked astonished. "That's not possible."
He moved to the computer terminal, his fingers angling for the keyboard.
"Nobody touch anything!" the sheriff said. "I want a full forensic investigation of the network.”
Dr. Cameron's face twisted with annoyance.
"I’m going to remind you that there are 18 viable patients left in this laboratory.
I have a fiduciary duty to protect them.
I cannot, and will not, allow you to disrupt this operation.
I understand you want to preserve evidence.
But you're going to have to work with us.”
Daniels didn't like it, but Cameron had a point.
“Just FYI," the sheriff said. “When my nerd herd gets here and starts digging through the system, they'll be able to tell if anything was deleted and when. Everything leaves a digital footprint. So if you’ve got any funny ideas about tampering with evidence, I'd advise against it."
"I can assure you, Sheriff, as I said before, my intention is to offer full cooperation and transparency. But I would ask for discretion in this matter. Poor media coverage could make it increasingly difficult for us to function. And that would be a great disservice to humanity."
"At this point, I'm not so sure about that," Daniels said.
I gave Zach a card and told him I might have more questions for him.
Brenda and her crew began the process of transferring the remains from the stasis tubes.
We interviewed Bryan next. He was a skinny guy in his early-30s with short, curly brown hair, glasses, and a narrow face.
He wore a white lab coat with jeans and a T-shirt underneath.
His nervous eyes darted about, and it was hard for him to make eye contact.
The lab was cold, but sweat had misted Bryan’s skin.
We escorted him across the room, away from the control center and the commotion.
“What went wrong?” I asked.
“I don’t know. One minute, everything was fine. The next, everything went to shit.”
“Can you explain why it took so long to respond to the system failure?”
Bryan hung his head and stared at the floor.
He looked like a little kid who had broken out a windowpane with a baseball and was about to get scolded.
After a long beat, he said, "This is all my fault. I take full responsibility. I was on the phone with my girlfriend. I stepped away from the terminal for a few minutes. I was so preoccupied with our argument that I lost track of time. Usually, everything goes fine at this time of night. We’ve never had a problem before.
By the time I got back to the desk, I saw the alert.
But it was too late." His eyes brimmed. "Am I in trouble? Am I going to go to jail?”
“The system gives visual and audible alerts,” I said.
“I stepped outside,” he said in a sheepish voice.
"Did you purposely sabotage the cryo-pods?"
His brow wrinkled. "No! Of course not."
"Do you know what went wrong?"
Bryan shook his head.
"Walk me through the steps. Tell me everything that happened from the moment your girlfriend called to the time we got here."
Bryan recounted the events. His story was consistent with everything we’d heard so far.
I didn't think the guy had intentionally done anything. His distress seemed genuine. Was he guilty of negligence? Perhaps. But I don't think there was any criminal intent on his part.
Brenda and her crew bagged the bodies.
Crenshaw and the other computer forensic guys arrived, looking bleary-eyed.
These weren't their normal hours. The sheriff filled them in on the situation, and they went to work with the assistance of Dr. Cameron and Bryan.
They gained access to the system and ran diagnostics, trying to see what went wrong and if anyone had tampered with anything.
JD and I talked to the sheriff in private while the IT guys did their thing. It would take them a while to sort through everything.
“What do you make of all this?” Daniels muttered.
“Security footage is non-existent, possibly deleted,” I said. “Only two units malfunctioned. I think we need to consider the possibility that these two were targeted.”
The sheriff stifled a groan.
“What do we know about these people?” I asked.
“That’s what you two are going to look into.”