Jericho 3 (32 page)

The camera zoomed in for a close-up of the spokesman.

“TICK-TOCK, TICK-TOCK.”

The picture went dark.

Sainte-Consorce Suburb

Lyon, France

When Lieutenant Colonel Raines, US Navy Captain “Camp” Campbell and retired FBI agent Billy Finn arrived at the Gaudin’s house, Marie and Philippe were already in bed and the dining room chairs were filled with Interpol, Europol and Lyon police department officials. Raines had called General Ferguson quickly before she was led out of LyonBio. Ferguson called the SECDEF’s office who quickly informed CIA and State. Europol and Interpol were briefed on the international security ramifications of the project, but no specific details were mentioned.

Thierry Gaudin knew what he was manufacturing, but he had no idea who the beneficiary of the vaccines would ultimately be.

Rochelle Gaudin’s face was red, and her eyes were swollen. Bernard had only been missing for nine hours, but his mother had endured a lifetime of agony already.

When the Lyon police officers ushered Raines, Camp and Finn into the Gaudin home, Rochelle had no idea who they were, and Thierry only slightly recognized his new client. It was, in fact, “her” project that caused the rhesus monkey deaths. All the money in the world that he might generate for this project was not worth the life of his oldest son Bernard.

“It is finished, Leslie.  Done. I want no more part of this project,” Thierry said surrendering with his hands and dismissing her arrival. “I know this is a classified project that the Americans want completed, but no more…not with LyonBio, Leslie. Done.”

Camp and Finn stood in the back of the dining room as Leslie moved in and sat next to Rochelle.

“Parlez-vous anglais?” Raines asked.

“Yes, I studied two years at Boston College, nice Jesuit school,” Rochelle said.

“I’m so sorry about your son. I can only imagine the fear you must be going through.”

“What’s your name?”

“Leslie…Leslie Raines.”

“My name is Rochelle. Do you have children, Leslie?”

Raines paused.

“No…no I don’t.”

“Then I assure you…you cannot imagine my fear.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Thierry said this is your project…these were monkeys for
your
experiments…perhaps you can imagine how I must feel about
you
right now.”

The Interpol, Europol and Lyon police officers stared at Raines, Camp and Finn with no attempt to hide their disgust.

“Americans!” one of the officers uttered under his breath as the others affirmed the same contempt.

Camp stepped up and over toward Thierry.

“Mr. Gaudin, would it be possible to have a private conversation with you and your wife?”

“I don’t even know who you are,” Thierry said with a face full of anguish.

“My name is Camp…I’m a trauma physician…my friend here is Bill, he’s an investigator. These police agencies of yours are the best in the business. They have an international reputation, and I’m sure they are working diligently this very minute trying to find your son. Please, sir, may we have five minutes alone with you and Mrs. Gaudin?”

Thierry looked at Rochelle who nodded, so he asked the French officers to step out for a few seconds. They all reached for their cigarette packs and begrudgingly complied.

“I’m going to tell you something that I shouldn’t, but I don’t think we have any other options at this point,” Camp started.

Raines and Finn shot a concerned look over at Camp as Finn started to pace behind the dining room chairs.

“We believe a group wants to launch a biological weapons attack on an entire country. The lives of more than seven million grandparents, children and parents are at stake. Your company was selected to manufacture this vaccine out of thousands of potential companies around the world. You give seven million people their best chance of surviving the unthinkable.”

“You want me to trade my son for seven million people?” Rochelle asked as tears welled up in her eyes.

“No, I want you to give us 24 hours to find your son and seven weeks to manufacture this vaccine.”

“No. Absolutely not. This program is over,” Thierry demanded.

“Then your company is over, Thierry, as well as the future of biomedical research and the hopes of improving human health. It doesn’t matter if you use monkeys, beagles, rats, worms or fruit flies, the animal rights extremists will always paint a target on your back. We have to fight extremism wherever it exists. We can fight this, and we can get your son back unharmed. We have a plan.”

Thierry was indignant. He didn’t want to hear anything Camp had to say.

“How?” Rochelle asked.

Billy Finn stepped in.

“Announce tomorrow morning that you are stopping all research using non-human primates. We have arranged for two GEFCO trucks to return to the loading docks tomorrow morning. The local TV news and newspapers will carry the story immediately.”

“I thought you wanted us to continue,” Thierry said now thoroughly confused.

“Thierry, I want you to gather up all of the workers who have access to the pilot plant and hold a private meeting with them. Tell them that you must conduct one more test with four more monkeys.”

“Four more dead monkeys mean I have a dead son, Mr. Finn,” Thierry said as his anger began to boil.

“Leslie will change the test chemical to an anesthesia. The monkeys will fall asleep for a few hours. They won’t be dead.”

“What’s the point?” Rochelle asked.

“You have employees who have, perhaps unknowingly, caused this to happen.”

“That’s impossible,” Thierry said.

“Thierry…think about it.  Someone took video inside the pilot plant on a cell phone camera. No one other than your employees has authorized access. If they took unauthorized video once, then this man or woman will want to take it again, especially if they think you lied on TV.”

“So they give the video to these terrorists, and then they kill our son?” Rochelle asked.

“No. We will be monitoring the pilot house to see who your video artist is. They may not know it, but they will lead us to your son,” Camp said adding the final components.

“How do you know this will work?” Thierry said as he softened a bit.

“Have
they
offered you a better plan, Mr. Gaudin?” Finn said pointing to the gaggle of Interpol, Europol and Lyon police officers smoking outside on their porch.

“You can do this alone?” Rochelle asked.

“No. I have a friend who runs security for a life sciences company in Switzerland. He’s a former MI6 officer with British intelligence. He has more experience with animal rights extremists than anyone else on this planet. This is
his
plan. If you give us the go ahead, he can be here by sunrise,” Finn said.

“What about them?” Thierry asked referring to the conclave of investigators in front of his house.

“Let them continue on a parallel path. One of us will find your son,” Camp said.

LyonBio

Lyon, France

A
ll of the LyonBio employees were gathered in the main lobby of the office complex. A podium was set up outside the glass walls of the executive offices. Media microphones adorned with call flags and logos filled the podium as three TV news crews were positioned with cameras on tripods 30 feet back. Employees gathered on all sides.

Camp and Raines stood in the middle of the throng of onlookers. In the very back of the lobby, Billy Finn was dressed in a janitor’s uniform and stood next to another janitor. Marvin Jones had just arrived from Geneva, Switzerland and was quickly outfitted in a LyonBio custodial uniform complete with an ID badge and access cards.

Nobody paid attention to the cleaning crew at LyonBio. New faces came and went each week depending on which area an employee was working in.

Everybody saw Billy Finn and Marvin Jones, but nobody noticed them.

Thierry Gaudin, the handsome and proud 45-year-old president and chief executive officer of LyonBio exited his office and stepped up to the podium. He clearly had not slept since news of his oldest son’s abduction had been given to him the previous afternoon at 4:30pm.

“As you now know, my son Bernard has been abducted. Many of you have seen the video that was posted on the Internet last night. So, it should come as no surprise as I announce that all animal research involving rhesus monkeys has been terminated as of this morning. Two large freight trucks will be arriving at our facilities shortly, and the non-human primates will be removed.”

There were gasps in the audience but general approval as well. The employees knew this was a necessary step in order to gain Bernard’s release.

Thierry looked into the cameras directly.

“I have done what you’ve asked…now please do what you have promised. Let my son come home. I would ask all of you to return to your important work and allow the authorities from Interpol, Europol and the Lyon police do their work as well. I will be meeting with each department and the lead scientists throughout the day. We must all continue to work and trust that my son will be released soon and unharmed. Five minutes from now, I would like to meet with all of you who work in the pilot house. Then I will visit the rest of you throughout the morning. Thank you.”

Thierry stepped down and slipped back into his office without taking any questions from the media. Through the main entry doors, employees could see two large GEFCO trucks passing the front of the building on the way to the loading docks in the rear.

Billy Finn and Marvin Jones pushed their carts toward the pilot house as Camp followed Raines back to her office where Raines quickly closed the door.

Camp pulled out the two small monitors that Jones had given him at the Lyon Hilton Hotel before they drove in separate cars over to LyonBio.

The video feed from a button camera mounted on Jones’ cap was clear and perfect on one TV monitor, and the video feed from the center of Billy Finn’s eyeglasses was on the other.

Thierry gathered a small group of 25 employees and cleaning crew in the cramped control room outside the pilot house. Finn and Jones stood on opposite sides and scanned the audience with their bodies, and cameras, as Thierry spoke.

“What I said out front, just a few minutes ago, was not exactly true, and I must apologize to you now. The investigators asked that I say those words hoping to buy more time for my son. I will do anything it takes to bring my boy home, but I will not stop making safe and effective vaccines that keep your children alive and well. If there was a better way than using animals to test for safety and efficacy, I would do it today. But there isn’t. This project is too important to stop now. This morning we will have to run one more test on four monkeys, and then we can move this project to manufacturing. I am sorry, but these monkeys will die. I am relying on each of you to be professional. No one must know that we conducted this final test.”

Camp and Raines examined the faces of all those gathered. Most seemed to understand Thierry’s mission and mandate, but a few looked irritated.

“You
know
what we’re doing, Camp,” Raines said as she looked at her monitor, “we’re profiling.”

“Got any better ideas?”

“There…that guy…he looks pissed. Is he pissed at Thierry over the monkeys, or did he break up with his girlfriend last night?” Raines asked.

Finn and Jones worked over the crowd too. Nothing stood out.

“Thank you for your thoughts and concerns. Let’s get back to work,” Thierry said as he left the pilot house.

The employees went to their workstations as the lead veterinarian asked the animal technicians to bring in four more monkeys. Several employees went to the observation windows, as cages were rolled in and the doors were sealed.

The veterinarian had met with Raines before the mandatory meeting in the lobby. The only thing Raines told him was to change out the lethal project chemical with the aerosolized anesthesia gas. It would look the same, but the monkeys would go down much faster than before when it took a few days before death.

Finn and Jones were positioned on both ends of the observation glass as 16 people gathered to watch the final test that would certainly kill four more monkeys. Raines and Camp watched as well from the monitors in the office behind closed doors.

The gas vapors started to fill the room as the monkeys looked up and started to smell the fumes with abundant curiosity. One sat down, then another, then all four. Within minutes all four were lying down in their cages, apparently dead.

The employees started to peel away as the deed was done. The research had been administered, and the information had been recorded in the tissue samples that would soon be seen under a microscope. A small group of four remained, eyes fixated on the monkeys lying on the bottom of their cages. After one more peeled away, they saw it.

There in the reflection of the observation window glass was an iPhone in the grasp of a young male who was wearing a lab coat. He quickly left the observation area as two others slowly moved away.

Jones carried a broom and walked after the man as Billy Finn went down an opposite hallway. Camp walked quickly out of Raines’ office and toward the lobby as Raines stood watching in her doorway.

The young man walked into the main building and over to shipping and receiving, an odd place for a veterinary technician in a lab coat to be. Jones followed the man into the shipping and receiving room and started to gather trash, as Finn swept the floor in the hallway outside the door.

A young woman was filling a vaccine box with bubble wrap and was about to seal the box when the young man in the lab coat walked up to her. He spoke a few words silently then handed her his iPhone. She looked shocked and stunned. The young man left his iPhone with her and exited shipping and receiving as fast as he had arrived. He walked past Jones, who grabbed another trash can to appear busy, and then out into the hallway past Finn and back down to the pilot house.

Jones moved over by the woman who picked up her cell phone and tried to make a discreet call.

“Claude…this is Odette…I have more video…he lied…okay, on my lunch break…give me 30 minutes.”