Chapter 17
We found Special Agent Frayer in another arc of the circular setup they had going on in their warehouse or whatever it was.
She looked up from her conversation with a nerdy-looking agent who I immediately pegged as Steve, her computer dude.
“This looks ominous,” Agent Frayer said. “Cassie, this is Agent Steve Knox.”
“Hi,” I said. He nodded back at me, his eyes a little bugged out behind his dark-framed glasses.
“Hi. You’re the Ranger girl,” Steve said.
“No. I’m not. I’m not a soldier and I am definitely not Ranger Qualified. Only people who have graduated Ranger School are Rangers.”
“Ah, sorry,” he said, looking a little shocked at my vehemence.
“Um, I’m sensitive about that stuff. Stolen valor and all that.”
“Right,” Frayer said, giving Agent Steele an is she crazy look.
“Cassie had a thought about the government official deaths,” Agent Steele said quickly. “Seeing as she just jump-started our cold case, we thought we’d listen in while she drops it in your laps.”
“I’m all ears, and Cassie, we’ll need you to look at our cold case corner too. Can’t let Counterterror get ahead,” Frayer said.
“Um, sure. Ah, the murders in that cold case followed a path, and the killer might be someone who drives that route. That made me think about these killings and I reanalyzed their pattern and dateline. They follow a track through the southeast to the southwest in the winter and now as summer approaches are climbing up the West Coast to the northwest. From there, they’ll head back east. I’m wondering if the perp or perps,” I said, then grinned at Agents Steele and Carmine at my use of perps, “are pharmacists. Retired, still licensed, and working temp jobs in the warm states during the winter. Covering for vacations, stuff like that. They would have access to medical records, would understand and could exploit health issues, and with the right meds filled could create heart attack conditions or anaphylactic shock situations. Might be ex-military, very patriotic.”
All four agents looked at me with raised brows. Frayer turned to Steve and nodded, and he practically shot off to a computer nest much like Red’s. Then she turned back to me.
“You reanalyzed the cases when?”
“Just now. While I was talking with Agents Colson and Hebert about the cold case.”
“Hmmpf,” she said with a frown. “You know, we had just decided that there was a better than seventy percent chance you were right about the deaths being suspicious.”
“Oh. I don’t understand,” I said.
“You’re racing out ahead of them,” Agent Carmine said.
“Oh. Sorry?” I offered.
“Sir,” Agent Kessler said, approaching the group. “The director wants to talk to you.”
“What line is he on?” Steele asked.
“He isn’t. He’s in your office. And he wants to meet Cassie too.”
Frayer and Steele exchanged looks while Agent Kessler just gave me a wink.
“Come with me, Cassie,” Steele said with a sigh, turning back toward the Counterterror area.
A minute later, we were walking up a staircase to a raised office that looked down through glass windows at the team’s bullpen. A dark-skinned man in a decently expensive suit was standing looking at Steele’s wall of photos which military people would call an I-love-me wall.
He turned as we entered, his almost black eyes going right to me. “Cassandra Blake,” he said. “Nice to meet you. I’m…”he started to say as he held out a hand to shake.
“FBI Director John Howard Brown,” I said, shaking his hand. “Nice to meet you, sir.”
“You seem more polite than Assistant Director Shire indicated,” the director said with an arched brow.
“She and I did not hit it off, sir. Leverage is key to law enforcement operations, but I don’t love having it thrown at me by high-ranking officials. Actually, by anyone. I’m afraid I may have knee-jerked a bit.”
“Hmm, well, be that as it may, you seem very polite,” he said.
“As I was raised, sir.”
“Yes, I imagine. I’ve heard a bit about your childhood from a friend of yours, Major General Octavian Argyle.”
“He’s been very kind to me, sir,” I said.
“Kind is not a term that I usually hear in regard to Tavi,” the director said before turning to Steele.
“The major general commands Fort Benning, among other duties. He has expressed concern about your young charge and our care of her. I also heard from Taylor Coors, who informed me he is your attorney and we had better give you a phone to call him soonest.”
“Yes sir,” Steele said. “We’ll make that happen. As for Cassie, our biggest problem seems to be keeping her from making all our agents obsolete. She’s solving cases we didn’t know we had.”
“Is that so?” the director asked, clearly fascinated.
“Exaggeration, sir,” I said. “I am good at identifying potential problems, but the true work, the real investigations to gather evidence or even prove that my suspicions are anything but fantasy requires trained agents.”
“Cassie has found evidence that indicates a wide-traveling serial killer of elected and appointed political officials. Thirty-one potential victims over three years.”
“What?” the director said, his carefully composed mask ripped by shock.
“We are investigating to verify if this trend is real or not,” Agent Steele said. “If it is, Cassie has already identified a possible methodology that would lead us to the killer or killers.”
The director stared at the senior agent, eyes wide and mouth slightly open. Then he glanced at me. “Cassie, if this is true, it is a monumental crime. One that will rock the foundations of our nation. Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir. I hope I am wrong.”
“I have some things to discuss with Agent Steele, but it was very nice to meet you, if a bit shocking. We will get you a call to Taylor.”
“Yes sir,” I said with a nod, heading out of the office.
“You told him about the political killer?” Agent Carmine said as she rose from a nearby desk.
“Agent Steele did,” I said with a frown.
“But?” Carmine asked.
“Now is the part where Bill Cramer’s influence takes over,” I said.
“Hmm, maybe, but that case you identified, if it’s real, it’ll take over everything,” Agent Carmine said.
“Each of the three task forces work their own cases, but the purpose of this place is cross-pollination of information and ideas. A case of this size will cause everyone to drop everything and solve it.”
“If it’s real and if it’s pharmacists, you should find them almost instantly. Building a case against them may be hard, though. Most people throw out dead family members’ meds when they die. A lot of these people probably didn’t have autopsies.”
“Ah, but it only takes a couple to build a case,” Carmine said. “Leave that to us. You just do what you do.”
“Can we go see Red?” I asked. “I haven’t really seen what she does up close yet.”
“Sure. She loves an audience.”
We found the computer expert studying an iPad, a frown on her face. She looked up as we got closer and blinked a couple of times. “Hi.”
“Hey,” Agent Carmine said before I could, so I just waved a little wave. “Cassie wanted to see your lair.”
“My home away from home,” Red said. “Or as I like to call it, World Command Headquarters.”
“Mwahahaha,” I intoned in as deep a voice as I could.
“Oh, you fit right in,” Red said. “But since you’re here, I have a question.”
“Shoot. Ah, maybe not shoot; bad thing to say to a federal agent. What do you need to know, Agent Red?”
“Agent Red… I like that. Cassie, you mentioned synthetic intelligence and William Cramer. What do you know about that?”
“I mentioned synthetic intelligence in passing. I also mentioned a large learning model, but you’re right.
He wants something that thinks differently,” I said.
“He comes up in artificial intelligence circles quite a bit, but if you study all of his interviews, the term synthetic intelligence is what he talks about most. He wants to create SI because he believes it will be easily able to outthink AI.”
“What do you know about his research?” Red asked.
“They’ve set up lots of experiments where algorithms are left to figure out answers to problems without any guidance.
Some where they don’t even pose a question or problem.
He’s also funded enormous amounts of money into research on neurodivergent topics.
He gets lots of accolades for donating money to early intervention and school programs.”
“Why?” Rose Carmine asked.
“Because people who fall under the descriptor neurodivergent tend to think in different ways than the bulk of humanity—the neurotypical,” I said. “Their wiring is different. It’s a natural area of study for someone interested in synthetic intelligence.”
“Cassie, this is a very personal question, but do you fall under that descriptor?” Red asked.
I shrugged. “Yes.”
They both waited but I didn’t add anything. Finally, after a glance at Carmine, Red sighed. “How?”
“You will not believe me.”
“You have a true eidetic memory? At the advanced age of eighteen?” Red asked.
I nodded.
“That’s never been proven in adults. And in children, the memories are temporary.”
“Right,” I agreed.
“But you believe you are different?”
I snorted. “Yes.”
“There are tests that have never been passed,” Red stated.
“That you know of,” I countered.
“You’ve been tested?” Red asked.
“Yes, but I can’t talk about it.”
Red frowned and glanced at Carmine, who shrugged.
“On a different topic, what is known about your mother?” Red asked.
“Almost nothing. It’s like she never existed.
No DNA, birth records, no fingerprints on any databases.
She had a fake social security number when she met my dad, which no one knew until after she disappeared.
I think my father knew more, but he would never tell me no matter how mad or sad I got.
He would just say the words op sec, and that would end it. ”
“Operational security?” Carmine asked.
“The last word on anything,” I said with a sigh.
“Why do you want to know?” Carmine asked Red.
“Because Cramer’s linked to some really weird shit. Not just computers, but biotech stuff like animal cloning and genetic engineering. He’s also had complaints, many complaints, and accusations, but they all disappeared. When did he become interested in you?”
“When I was born, according to Dad,” I said.
“Mom belonged to Cramer… or at least his company. That’s all Dad would say.
Any questions after that and he would invoke operational security.
But the way she left supported the claim that she was somehow bound to the company—American Vigilance.
I never had contact with Cramer or his people, which Dad said was because he and Mom covered up how different I was.
The company left us alone until I went to the casino. ”
“So you’ve gotten nowhere with your mom?” Red asked a little sadly.
“Well…” I said, drawing it out. “I wouldn’t say that. I spit in a tube. Dad wouldn’t, but I got Grandma and Grandpa to. Sent it off to a genealogy company. Now I can see who else in the world that spit in a tube matches my mother’s side. I’m working backward from there.”
“Oh, clever girl,” Red said with an admiring smile.
“In fact, I was wondering if I can get access to my account to check for updates. I have a lot of genetic matches in distant relatives, but none with common ancestors yet. I’m hoping any day now for someone to upload their family tree or build one out far enough to include me.
Then I can go back down the line and see if there’s a link to a grandparent on Mom’s side. ”
“Isn’t that risky?” Carmine asked. “Giving your DNA to a public company?”
“I’m sure Cramer’s people already have it, so the worst damage is done.
I made up usernames so it isn’t obvious, but it was all I could do.
My grandparents didn’t believe it would work because we didn’t have Mom’s spit, but they never really thought about how big the database could grow as more and more people signed up.
The systems are able to guestimate which half of my DNA is from Mom by eliminating Dad’s side. ”
“Red. Carmine. Boss wants us all in a task force meeting,” Kessler said suddenly from a doorway that led to the conference rooms. “Sorry, Cassie. You’ll need to amuse yourself.”
Red was already moving to her desk, grabbing an iPad and typing away furiously on it for a few seconds. Then she handed it to me.
“It’ll take you to your ancestor website but nowhere else,” she warned. “We’ll be back after this meeting… I think.”