CHAPTER TEN
Logan slept much better than he had the previous. At least until his phone began buzzing like crazy. He rolled over and looked at the clock.
Quickly he rinsed off in the shower, pulled on some running shorts, a t-shirt, and his running shoes. He might as well get in a quick run after the meeting.
Logan was surprised to see that it was nearly the entire team in the room. Ham, Tanner, Hiro, and AJ were at the front whispering with Cowboy, Gator, Jak, and his own father, Rush.
“Shit,” muttered Logan.
“It gets worse,” said Jak. “We now know that the men with Fitzwilliam are indeed the doctor and medic from base. Dr. Ike Wadston.” Logan shook his head.
“Never heard that name,” he said.
“You were never sick,” said Rush. “Wadston isn’t his real name. He’s better known as Isaac Rickson.”
“Rickson,” frowned BJ. “Why does that sound familiar?”
“Rickson was researching DNA among tribes throughout the Middle East, India, and Mongolia. He was trying to find connections between inter-family marriages and deadly diseases.”
“That doesn’t sound horrible off the bat but I’m going to assume it is horrible,” said Tobias.
“It is because he’s looking for a way to give these people an injection, a drink, a pill, anything that will eradicate their bloodlines,” said Tanner.
The shocked faces, which were not shocked often, stared back at him.
“His mission is to find whatever connects them all, find their kryptonite, and kill all members not first-blood related. Meaning, those not aligned by parents.”
“Jesus,” muttered Logan. “That’s why he took the organs. He’s dissecting them to find similarities.”
“Yes. That’s what we believe. In Fitzwilliam’s sick mind, if he can find one simple thing that will kill off anyone too closely related, he could eliminate about half the population, possibly more. Estimates suggest it could be between thirty and sixty percent of the population,” said Hiro.
“Shit. He tried to throw me off track with the sexual references. He was taking pieces of those kids to get DNA information,” said Logan. “Why not just take blood?”
“I have a theory,” said Riley, yawning at the group.
“Sorry, I’m not used to the crack of dawn meetings.
I’m here because of my background in research.
I think he was trying to find out exactly who was related to whom.
He would cross-reference the markers he found and probably work his way through the list by those too closely related.
“By examining their organs, he might also have been looking for the various ways in which he could attack or kill them. Some poisons work better on some people, especially poisons they were trying hide. Like yours.” She nodded at Logan and he frowned.
“The bloodwork that Doc brought back was insightful. The poison injected into your body was morphing within your system, making it impossible for anyone to ‘catch up to it’, for lack of a better term. It went in with one molecule formation but finished differently, making it look benign, as if you’d eaten something bad. ”
“Shit,” muttered Ham.
“If you don’t stop this man, he could do exactly what he’s attempting.
It would be so easy. This is not about harvesting organs, it’s about data gathering for all those in the region which means he won’t stop.
We need to try and find a way to warn officials there and keep an eye on orphanages, schools, children’s hospitals, anywhere that he might easily get access to. ”
“His passport has been flagged but we all know it would be easy to get another,” said Cowboy.
“I’m going back to bed,” said Riley. “Let me know if you need anything else from me. Oh, and Logan. The documents sent to us from the coroner on Olive showed that there were no markers that would indicate any significant inter-marrying. It appears that perhaps her great-grandparents might have been fourth cousins but it removed any dangers for her or her sister.”
“Thank you, Riley.”
“We need to approach this from a different perspective,” said Gator.
“We’ll be reaching out to the POTUS and the Joint Chiefs to see if we can get cooperation with their peers in the affected countries.
We’ll be notifying all customs and immigration officials and border control.
They’re not going to stop until they figure out how to do this. ”
“You all understand the severity of this. If they figure this out, we’re talking about the potential of sixty percent of the population in the entire Middle East, dying,” said Cowboy. Ham nodded at them.
“Stay close. We might have to move fast.”