Chapter 74
Knuckles had them load up in one of the enormous black Taskforce Suburbans, now looking suitably like flunkies from a government
agency, and crossed the Potomac, entering the boundaries of the District of Columbia.
He began driving north to the National Zoo, saying, “Okay, let me do the talking. Creed, I’m going to gain access to their
video security system. I’m pretty sure they’ll have enough cameras to make London look like a desert. You take the photo from
the Qatar license and run it against the videos in the system. Please tell me that the software doesn’t have to literally
view the entire video.”
“Not if the video’s digital—which it will be. The program uses AI. It can skip real time, only stopping when it encounters
a face or faces, but it’s still going to take some effort. I can only review one feed at a time, and if they have a shit ton
of cameras, then that’s a shit ton of feeds. It’s almost six p.m. now, and that’s when they close.”
“Don’t worry about the closing time. I’ll handle that. And start the feeds after the time stamp of the license scan. Begin
at the entrance. If we don’t find him there, then he didn’t enter and we can forget about this.”
Twenty minutes later they rolled into the first parking lot of the zoo, mostly empty due to the lateness of the hour. Knuckles
made a pass through all three parking lots, but didn’t see the suspected rental vehicle. He returned to the first lot nearest
the entrance and parked.
They walked to the front and instead of a ticket kiosk, he saw a placard with a QR code. He read the instructions, then said, “Creed, see what that QR code does.”
He walked to the main gate, seeing a stream of people exiting. A man with a T-shirt identifying him as an employee said, “Sorry
folks. Latest entry is five p.m. We close in fifteen minutes. You’ll have to come back another day.”
Knuckles said, “How do you get a ticket?”
“Either online or you can use that QR code to do it from your phone. It’s free.”
Creed held up his phone, showing a form asking for personal information. He said, “You fill this out and they send a voucher
to an email address.”
Knuckles asked the attendant, “Do you keep the data when someone gets a ticket?”
The man said, “Beats the hell out of me. I just check them in.”
Knuckles pulled out his Department of Homeland Security badge and said, “I’m with DHS. We have reason to believe a suspect
wanted for questioning involving national security entered the zoo sometime today. Please call your head of security.”
The attendant’s eyebrows shot up and he went from the badge to Knuckles. Knuckles said, “This is time sensitive.”
The man said, “I have to get my radio,” and retreated to the rear of the entrance area to a table. He picked up a handheld
and started talking into it.
Knuckles turned to Creed and said, “I’ll bet they keep the information of the visitors. If he registered with a phone using
that QR code, would you be able to identify the phone from the information?”
“If I can get the actual email sent, I think I can find the IMEI of the handset that received it.”
The IMEI was the unique serial number given to each handset, and with it, Knuckles knew they could determine everything about
the phone, to include its current SIM card and more importantly, its location.
Knuckles smiled and said, “Do that first.”
Creed said, “I can’t find it with facial recognition. If he used all false information, it’ll just be one record out of a
million.”
“Maybe he’s stupid. Use the information from the license.”
The man returned, saying, “Ashley says to meet her at the Panda exhibit. It’s the first exhibit on the right.”
Knuckles nodded and they entered the zoo at a fast walk. They passed an education center on the left, then saw a sign for
the pandas. Knuckles followed the arrow to a path that wound through bamboo shrubbery, opening up to reveal the entrance to
a building. Standing at the door was a trim woman of about fifty wearing a safari outfit of brown cargo pants and a long-sleeved
khaki shirt.
She stuck out her hand, saying, “Ashley Norcraft. How can I help you guys?”
Knuckles shook it, showed his badge, and said, “We’re searching for a national security threat and we have reason to believe
he came here. First, we need access to your ticketing database. Do you keep that after they enter?”
“Whoa, wait. Is there a threat to the zoo right now?”
“No. We don’t believe he’s on site right now, but he was here earlier. We’re just trying to track his movements.”
She pursed her lips, like she was considering whether Knuckles was legitimate or not. He said, “Please. This is important.
We’re not trying to get email addresses for a scam.”
She said, “Okay, if they click the box saying they want future updates, then yes, they’ll be in the system. Otherwise, we
only keep the data for forty-eight hours.”
“So if he entered today, you’d have a record?”
She said, “Yes.”
“Okay, we also need access to every video feed recording you have. We’re going to try to spot him on that.”
She chuckled and said, “You have no idea how much video we have. I hope he’s not planning something soon, because that’ll
take a week.”
Knuckles said, “We have a way around that. Can we get started? Where do we go?”
She said, “Actually, since the pandas are the crown jewels, they get protected like the president. We have a security station
in here that can access all of that.”
She opened the door, letting them enter, then led them past enclosures full of tires, and platforms, the back open to an outdoor
space. Knuckles managed to catch a glimpse of a single panda before going through another double door leading to the exit.
On the right was an office behind plate glass, the area full of video monitors with a single person watching them.
She opened the office door and said, “Kirby, we need the room for a moment. Why don’t you take an early dinner?”
He left with a quizzical look on his face, but didn’t ask any questions. Ashley sat down at a computer terminal and began
typing. She finally looked up and said, “Do you have the information he used for his ticket?”
Creed sat down next to her and filled in the blanks. She typed, hit return, and Creed said, “No joy.”
Knuckles said, “That would have been too easy. Get started on the videos.”
Ashley stood up from the computer and went to the banks of video monitors, saying, “Do you have an area you know he went to?”
Knuckles said, “No. Let’s start at the entrance.”
Creed opened his laptop and said, “I need to slave to your system through this.”
Ashley said, “I don’t know how to do that. Should I call our tech guys? They’re probably already gone.”
“No, that’s okay. Just show me the CPU that’s running all this.”
She did and he pulled out an assortment of cables, hooking his laptop to the mainframe. When he was complete, he said, “Can
you pull up the entrance feed?”
She did, the entrance showing at the lower left monitor. He began typing, and the screen started to move in fast-forward,
the screen a blur that the human eye couldn’t register.
Ashley turned from the monitor and asked, “What did this guy do?”
Knuckles said, “I’m not at liberty to say, but we don’t think he’s after the pandas.”
She grinned and said, “Will I see it on the news later? Get a story to tell my friends?”
Knuckles said, “I pray to God he doesn’t make the news, because if he does, we’ve failed.”
The smile faded from her face. Creed turned around, saying, “I got a hit.”
They crowded around the screen, seeing the man from the driver’s license having his phone scanned at the entrance gate.
Knuckles said, “So he was here.”
Brett said, “And he used his phone to enter. Man, I wish we knew the name he put on that ticket.”
Ashley said, “So is that it?”
“No. We need to watch him until he leaves. Can you walk Creed to the next cameras step by step?”
She agreed and began working with Creed. They followed his path through the park, a snippet here, a split second there, until
he entered the elephant community center. Knuckles saw him standing near two men and said, “Start that one from the beginning
of his appearance.”
Creed backed up the video until he disappeared from the screen, then started it again. Knuckles saw the target walk in and
move straight to two men. They held a discussion, then broke up, with the target moving to watch the elephants.
Knuckles said, “Those are the assholes mentioned in the Signal chat. He’s trying to convince them of something.”
After a couple of minutes, the men approached him again and they continued to talk. Eventually, the meeting broke up and they
exited the building separately.
Brett said, “That was a final preparation meeting. They’re on the warpath now.”
Knuckles said, “Creed, get the best stills of those two UNSUBs you can find.”
He went to work and Knuckles turned to Ashley, saying, “We’re probably going to want to get back into your systems after we leave. Can you give Creed the security access so he can do it remotely?”
Ashley said, “Yes. Should I be worried now?”
Knuckles said, “If we can’t identify those two guys, yeah. Probably so.”