Chapter 30
Chapter Thirty
Lexi
As soon as we got back to the penthouse, Gray shut the door with a solid, reassuring thud.
“Home sweet casino home,” Gwen said, dropping her purse on a side table.
“For one more night, at least,” Gray replied, turning the dead bolt and clearing the balcony and the bedrooms.
Basia dropped onto the couch with her hand on her stomach while I kicked off my shoes and headed straight for the dining table.
The girls, minus Basia, who was now taking a nap, and plus Barbie, helped me set up the table with phones, tablets, charging cords, and notepads. Barbie put her folder and laptop at one end of the table as I opened my laptop and Wi-Fi enhancer at the other.
“Okay, guys,” I said. “As I mentioned before, our priorities are multifold. First, we need to find a solid link between Al-Nadir Nexus and Tango Bio, and by extension Yahir Al-Rashid. Second, I need to obtain the municipal blueprints to the lab so I can have a good idea of what is where, including the potential location of the animals. Third, I need to do more digging into the security system and may need some help from Gwen’s little sister, Angel, to expedite things.
Once we have this information, we can start to formulate an actual plan. ”
“I have materials that can help,” Barbie said.
“You guys are welcome to go through all the research I’ve collected in the past and more recently.
Maybe something will pop. I’ve worked so hard to get the information I need to put them away, but I’ve fallen short of the proverbial smoking gun I need.
I’m going to see what I can dig up on this Yahir Al-Rashid guy. ”
“I’ll take a look at what you’ve got,” Gray said, and Barbie slid her a bunch of papers.
“Me, too,” said Gwen, and Barbie gave her another pile.
“Lexi, remember that I also have an extensive network of specialists and people who may be able to help us,” Barbie said. “So, keep that in mind. If we need to reach out to them, we can.”
“Thanks,” I said. “I will.”
I decided to start with a hack into the Washington Township building permit department, which would certainly have the blueprints to the lab. In less than thirty minutes, the blueprints were sitting open on my laptop.
I zoomed in on the rear quadrant of the first floor and rotated the schematic. The lab hadn’t been laid out like an office. It was segmented, compartmentalized, and designed for containment.
“Guys, check this out,” I said.
Everyone came to look at my screen, leaning over my shoulder. “What are we looking at?” Barbie asked.
“The blueprints for the lab,” I said, tapping the screen.
“Wow,” Gwen said excitedly. “See the reinforced walls here? And this corridor only exits in one direction. That’s a classic biocontainment layout.
As I recall, the lab had a biosafety level four certification fifteen years ago.
That must be where it was. I’ll bet that’s where the animals are being held. ”
I followed Gwen’s finger, pointing out a narrow hallway that ran along the back of the structure, terminating in a double-door airlock.
It seemingly opened directly to the fenced yard we’d seen earlier.
The blueprint labeled it Exterior Exercise Access (Controlled).
Beyond it were a cluster of rooms arranged like spokes around a central monitoring station.
Animal holding. My stomach tightened.
“Those rooms,” I said quietly, reading the tiny print. “They’re all individually sealed.”
“Observation kennels,” Barbie explained. “Climate controlled with drainage in the floors. Independent ventilation. Whatever they’re doing to those animals, they don’t want cross-contamination.”
Gwen made a small sound. “I think I might be sick. I bet that’s where Ginger is, and Tootsie, too.”
“Almost certainly,” Barbie said. “They built the yard access directly off the holding wing. Quick in, quick out. No walking animals through the rest of the facility. That’s deliberate.”
I traced the path with my finger. From the rear door to the kennels. From the kennels to a surgical suite two rooms over. From there to a secured lab marked Restricted Operations. Authorized Personnel Only.
Gray exhaled slowly. “Look at the scope of this. It isn’t a side project.”
“No,” I agreed. “This is the project.”
And now we knew exactly where to find Ginger. The animals weren’t hidden in some random corner of the building. They were at the heart of it.
I glanced up from my screen and saw Barbie watching me. “This already feels really familiar,” she said quietly. “Too familiar.”
I sighed. “I bet, and I’m sorry to put you through all this again.”
“Don’t be sorry,” she said, anger flaring in her eyes. “You’ve given me another opportunity to bring them down. And this time, hopefully, once and for all.”
We returned to our researching until Barbie suddenly jumped up from her seat. It startled me so much, I almost fell backward in my chair.
“I found it,” she said, pumping a fist in the air.
“What did you find?” I asked as the girls gathered around again.
“First, I reread my notes on Vision Zone,” Barbie said.
“I was trying to remember the details of what little I’d dug up on the possible foreign funding connection.
And guess what? The suspected financier for Vision Zone back in the day was the Al-Rashid family.
So, I looked up his family and, lo and behold, they invest heavily in energy, biotech, and defense contracting.
They’re a quiet and private Saudi family with really, really deep pockets. ”
My fingers flew over the keyboard. After few minutes, I found what I needed. “No kidding. Check this out. The Al-Rashid family controls about one-eighth of the nation’s oil reserves through various holdings and companies. Deep pockets indeed. This is not a coincidence.”
“No, it’s not,” Barbie said.
“Give me a few minutes to put this all together,” I said. “I feel like we’re close. Barbie, you just gave me a shining, golden thread I need to pull.”
Everyone gathered around me, including Basia who had awoken from her lap and wandered over to see what was going on. Fifteen minutes later, I sat back in my chair, satisfied.
“Guys, we’ve got ourselves the smoking gun,” I said. “It just so happens the Al-Rashid family owns controlling interest in Al-Nadir Nexus. This also confirms what we found earlier—one of their sons, Yahir Al-Rashid, is the director of operations in the US.”
Gwen’s jaw tightened. “Operations for experimental research on animals, perhaps.”
“Perhaps,” I admitted. “No way to know for sure…yet. But this is the solid connection we were looking for. Al-Nadir Nexus and Al-Rashid to Tango Bio Research Solutions.”
Silence fell over the room.
Basia broke it first. “Do you think this Yahir guy is the one coming tomorrow morning see Ginger?”
I lifted my hands. “I don’t know. He could be the Al-Rashid coming to the lab tomorrow. It would make sense. If Ginger is Tango Bio’s prized prototype funded by Al-Nadir Nexus and by extension the Al-Rashid family, it might be why they needed her safely secured before he arrived.”
Basia crossed her arms, uneasy. “Or before she could disappear again.”
“Yes, or that.” I stared at the screen, following a new thread that had just surfaced. “Wait. This is interesting. There’s something else about this family.”
“What?” Barbie asked.
“The Al-Rashids are heavily invested in horse racing,” I said, reading through the material on my screen. “International circuits. Bloodstock breeding. Performance analytics.”
Basia frowned. “What does that have to do with Ginger?”
I sat back in my chair, interlocking my fingers behind my head and thinking.
“We might have been wrong on our guesses as to why the lab is doing this research. It might not be for espionage. Not directly, anyway. That’s not to say it wasn’t how it started, like with the CIA, but it may have developed into something entirely different. ”
“What are you getting at, Lexi?” Barbie asked. “What do you mean, entirely different?”
The pieces slid together in my head, cold and precise. “Think about it. If the Saudis could replicate what they did with Ginger, enhanced cognition, pattern recognition, emotional responsiveness, and apply it to horses—”
“They’d dominate every race,” Gwen finished.
“And more than that,” I added. “They’d control a technology no one else has. A new category of bio-enhanced intelligence. Civilian, military, commercial—it doesn’t matter. Whoever owns it sets the rules.”
Gray exhaled sharply. “Whoa. That’s a stunning theory to contemplate. Stunning and worrisome. I even think it’s something my superiors at the CIA should know about.”
“You have superiors at the CIA?” Barbie asked, looking at Gray with wide eyes.
“That’s strictly off the record,” Gray said sharply, and Barbie nodded.
“Well, this is just our speculation at this point,” I said, waving a hand. “We have no definitive proof of any of this. We need to have more information or we’re just talking fantasy and conspiracies.”
“But, if we’re right, Yahir Al-Rashid could show at the lab in the morning,” Basia said. “And he could take Ginger away and do God knows what to her. They might hurt Tootsie again, too. We might never see either of them again.”
“There’s a worst-case scenario, too,” Gray said quietly.
“If Ginger doesn’t perform up to expectations, they may put her to sleep on the spot.
They might destroy all the dogs and any other animals they may have in there.
Consider the experiment a failure and cut their losses because Al-Rashid would likely cut off their funding lifeline. ”
The penthouse went dead silent as we all contemplated this horrific possibility.
“So, what do we do?” Gwen asked.
I glanced back at my laptop. “First, we build an airtight case against Tango Bio, as much as we can in the few hours we have left.”
“Then what?” Gray asked.
I exhaled a deep breath. “Then we break into the lab tonight and free the animals. Just like Barbie suggested.”