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Seventeen

 

February 12

"Jack Theodoric."

The clean-shaven wide face and a portion of sport-shirt collar formed on Miranda's computer. "It's me again."

"Hello, Miranda, you're looking very well today. New outfit? Looks very nice. That color looks well on you—"

"Jack."

"Nothing personal, Miranda, it's just that I hate to talk to you. I seem just to have bad news. Maybe I should say things are just hunky-dory."

Miranda rubbed her forehead. "Six have died, two are missing, a cult is out for blood and that Allan Goth guy is counting down the deaths. And you say everything's hunky-dory."

"I don't say, Ms. Hawk-beak does. Her exact words."

Miranda smiled sourly. "Ms. Hawk-beak" was Jack's name for Radmilla Everett.

"I believe you said some strong emotions were going to be washing over everybody. You were right."

She stood up, paced the floor. "Wonderful. I predicted open season on Rewound Children."

"Could be. Romplin, Stangle, and Caslon were murdered, plain and simple. We have the perpetrators in the first two cases, a pretty good idea in the third. Coner and Bardnoth died under extraordinary circumstances."

"That leaves only Sandra Mellinfield who died by her own hand."

The silence made her look back at Jack's image. "She did, didn't she?"

"What I'm about to tell you does not go beyond your office door, at least for now. We are suspicious of Mellinfield's death."

"Suspect?"

"Her husband."

Miranda shook her head. "You said you were fairly certain about Myra's killers?"

"The cult or whatever left enough clues a blind person could follow. You heard what we said about the religious objects? Dead give-aw—uh, I mean, solid clues. We expect to announce arrests within the week. We are pressing the case, Miranda, in order to thwart copycat killers."

"Oh, lord." Miranda sat down at her desk, picked up a pen and began scratching at her desk blotter with it. "Jack, is the fact that all six v—of the dead individuals were cremated rather quickly coincidental?"

Jack's image regarded her for a moment. "Not in the least. Just as many funeral homes still refuse to embalm AIDS victims, funeral personnel will not touch these cadavers and insist on cremation. And in all six cases, survivors did not object. We managed to do some preliminary tests on Caslon's body, but we were not allowed to do a full-blown autopsy. Despite it being a homicide, state and church authorities stepped in and said no." The image looked down, then back up. "Is it important for you?"

"Yes, of course, so we can slice and dice them and stick the pieces in jars of formaldehyde and label them and show them to all our friends and charge admission—"

"Miranda, I'm not accusing you of anything, I'm not making any judgments. Honest. Would autopsies have been helpful?"

"The bodies of the deceased would have been good resources for further study. I cannot—and will not—deny that. But I am not a ghoul." She took a deep breath. "Despite what the Caslons say. And I'm damn sure not conspiring with the killers so we can get body parts. They've even accused me of setting this whole thing up with the Holn in the first place."

"I know. They've asked me to press charges against you. Nothing will come of that, of course."

"I'm not so sure," she muttered low enough so the microphone couldn't pick it up. Then, to the image, "I guess they figure we deserve it after the reports got out about the radiation studies. I suppose I should not be surprised at being told to go to hell when I contact the family."

"I'll talk to the Caslon family, ask them to back off a bit. We have six dead now, we don't need any more. They, uh, also keep asking me about the tabloid photos."

Miranda made a sound in her throat. "What about them?"

"Some, um, people are asking about pedophiles on the task force—"

Miranda didn't say a word, just stared at the image.

"Mir-uh, Ms-uh, Dr. Sena, our information suggests those photos came out of the task force, uh, somewhere."

"I will take care of that," she said evenly. "What about the missing two?"

The eyes in the image glanced downward. "In neither case have the ex-custodians told us to whom they assigned those rights. None of our business, both have told us. We finally got ahold of Adrienne MacQuarrie, Aaron Fairfax's sister, but she has not heard a thing from him. She only found out what the Holn did to her brother six weeks after it happened, believe it or not. The MacQuarries don't keep up with everything. Barring any proof of anything amiss, we cannot pursue the matter very far. Although MacQuarrie has asked us to."

"You think something is not right."

A hand rubbed a cheek in the image. "In both cases, ex-custodians suddenly came into a lot of money."

She leaned toward the monitor. "You're going to tell me those people were sold?"

"Dr. Sena, I hope to hell I never have to tell you that."

Miranda pushed herself back. "I think you will in the end. And, possibly, that the count will be eight."

"I will not say that until I see undeniable proof the missing two are dead. Meanwhile, I'll keep looking." The image's head turned away for a moment, then back. "I have a personal interest in those two. I think about them often, I don't know why."

"Jack, why weren't we told Myra Caslon had tried to commit suicide? TV is where I heard it first, and I called Olive and she said she hadn't heard a thing. A friend of a friend of someone in her group found out that in the high ranks of HHS, someone did know."

"Did you know Haley Caslon is related by blood or marriage to no less than three congressmen and at least six high-ranking officials in the government that I know of? The reason you didn't find out, Miranda, is because someone didn't want you to."

"I see."

"Go easy, Miranda. At the risk of sounding paranoid, there are a lot of people in the government who want this swept under the rug. Forgotten, shelved, filed under S for suppressed. In fact," Jack dropped his voice a notch, "some government people would like to see every one of the Rewound Children dead."

 

* * *

 

[["Members of the cult who are suspects in the death of Myra Caslon have all pleaded innocent to charges of first-degree murder. FBI officials and Salt Lake City prosecutors are remaining mum about the indictments. However, someone in the Soldiers of God, the group claiming credit for, as they call it, the kill, sent out DVDs to several media outlets. On it, Meg Parker, one of the suspects who still remains in jail, explains why the killing took place. This is an excerpt from that disk."

"You cannot accuse us of murder. We cannot murder that which is not human. Father van Kellin has no doubts, why should we? Did not the Elders of the Mormon Church decree Myra Caslon outside the province of God, unable to receive His blessings? Did not the Pope himself say that these beings cannot be true to God's creation? Are there not scientists who are saying these people cannot be human because you cannot make an adult into a child? These minds do not doubt. We should not doubt. We will not doubt. We will take the action that God has demanded of us."

"There's much more to the message, about four hours worth. FBI agent Jack Theodoric has been assigned to the investigation. Jack, does the FBI have any doubts about what 'replacement' means?"

"None whatsoever, Marinka. It means make them dead."

"What's the status of the Soldiers of God now?"

"We have most of the group in custody charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder. There's about four more people we're searching hot and heavy for."

"Is it a safe assumption some of the evidence the agency declines to discuss led you to this group?"

"Better than safe, it's a fact. I'll go ahead and give you an example. A lock of hair was removed from the victim. We found that lock in a silver dish on an altar in the room the group uses as a church. These are not professional killers. This is one reason we think we can nip this group before they bud out."

"I understand there's a mixture of religious affiliations in the group."

"Eight Protestants of various stripes, three Catholics, two Jews, one who calls himself a New Age minister, three Mormons."

"No Muslims, as prior reports had indicated?"

"No Muslims, no Anglicans, no Unitarians."

"Thank you. We now switch directly back to the Senate committee hearings on the National Comprehensive Health Care act.

"Marinka Svoboda, CNN, Salt Lake City."]]

 

* * *

 

"Why were those stupid photos taken in the first place?"

Avram's image on the computer screen was as placid as ever. "Miranda, we were faced with a total unknown. You know the procedure. Collect as much data as quickly as you can. The physical structure of those people was as important as anything else. For comparison, so we could go over inch-by-inch to see if there were any obvious changes. Such photos were needed and I will not apologize for that. Don't get too haughty; they have been part of the database you've been using yourself."

The image of Marian Athlington on her computer screen flashed through Miranda's mind. "All right. I see your point. I want authority to root out the people who sold them."

"And I want you to do that. Fire them. I'll see if we can't bring charges of some kind."

Miranda leaned back. "From our preliminary checks, we could lose most of our clerical staff."

"Lose 'em. Hire replacements. I want those people off the project. Now," he stuck the stem of his pipe in his mouth, "you had another question?"

"Jack tells me certain persons in HHS knew about Myra's suicide attempt almost as soon as it happened. We did not know a thing about it until we saw it on TV. Why the hell not? And what else are we not being told?"

Avram nodded. "I know. A friend of Jack's in the agency told me. I'm meeting Harrison tomorrow and I'm going to protest and demand they give us all they know—"

"Tell them this, too." Miranda leaned forward again. "We're not going to put up with this. I have some angry people working for me right now, Avram, believe me. And some of those people represent foreign scientific groups who are positive this is more information we've been hoarding. I've had a few offers from people with friends in high places, both foreign and domestic, to play some hands of our own. I will if I have to."

"I believe you." The eyes seemed to twinkle, but Miranda was inclined to put it down to noise on the line. "I will so inform Sumo and the Harpy."

 

* * *

 

[["In San Francisco Tuesday afternoon, two men broke into a house and tried to assault Cheryl Vroman, one of the Rewound Children. Ms. Vroman, a former attorney for a prestigious law firm in that city, evidently turned out to be more than the alleged attackers had bargained for.

"San Francisco Police Captain Don Smith described the events this way":

"When Cheryl Vroman called 911, the dispatcher thought she was talking to a child and tried to calm her down, but Vroman said she wasn't going to wait. Apparently, shortly after that, the perpetrators broke through the front door of the residence. Vroman found an aluminum softball bat belonging to her brother-in-law. One of the alleged assailants grabbed her, but she hit him with the bat, breaking his hand. The other assailant came in but Vroman ran into the kitchen and hid under a table. When the second assailant entered, she attacked and they fought. Sometime during this fracas she managed to break his right leg, but he in turn broke her right arm. We're not completely sure of the chain of events here, but both assailants suffered many hard blows from that bat. After breaking free, Vroman smashed out a dining-room window and was running away from the residence as the first squad car arrived. Uniformed officers quickly arrested the assailants, who were still in the house, nursing their wounds."

No motive for the attack has been ascertained by police, but police said they found nude photos of Vroman that had appeared in the National Sensation, a supermarket tabloid, in the suspects' pockets.

"Vroman is resting in the hospital. In an exclusive, Pacific Regional News taped a short statement."

"It was the death of poor Myra Caslon that woke me up, finally. I'd been in pretty bad shape over the last few months, as my sister, Grace, here, can attest. In fact, I celebrated New Year's Eve by getting so drunk I passed out and poured expensive Scotch on her new rug. After Myra was killed, I realized the trouble we are in and how vulnerable we are. I stopped drinking and straightened myself out because no one else is going to help us."

"The day after the attack, Harry Lanker, the editor of the National Sensation, defended the decision to publish the photographs, saying they were a bona fide news event and therefore fall under the protection of the First Amendment. Even so, two national grocery chains have announced they will no longer carry the tabloid, a development Lanker calls cowardly. He had this to say about the controversy":

"Ask those sicko scientists what they really wanted with those photos."

"Well, Roger Carson, a media spokesman for the Holn Effect Task Force, said today four people employed in the administrative offices and three technicians have been fired because they supplied the photos to the tabloid. Carson admitted, however, that they probably won't be lacking for money because he said the tabloid paid, quote, many dead presidents, end quote, to each.

"It might be a case of too little, too late, however. The images, uncensored and unretouched, have turned up on the Internet. A spokesman for the FBI's Computer Crimes Division said criminal charges can be brought in this case.

"Tamara Chin, Pacific Regional News, for CNN, San Francisco."

 

* * *

 

"Jupiter, Florida, police have asked the FBI for assistance in investigating an incident where a crowd of people threw rocks, bricks and sacks of animal feces at a house belonging to the mother of one of the so-called Rewound Children. Police said the crowd shouted obscenities and derogatory names, and many in the crowd carried pipes, clubs, and torches. Police arrived and managed to break up the crowd before any real violence occurred.

"The owner of the house, Joanna Yolbin, and her daughter, Pamela, age twenty-five when she was captured by the aliens, were not home at the time. Apparently, they received a warning from a sympathizer earlier in the afternoon and managed to slip away. They are reported to be in hiding and were not harmed.

"Police say several windows in the house were broken and exterior paneling was damaged, but they did not have an estimate on the damages. According to police sources, the Yolbins have been receiving threatening phone calls and letters over the past several weeks, and a neighborhood association reportedly has passed a motion to seek eviction. Joanna Yolbin is the designated guardian for Pamela, and the two women lived alone. Joanna's husband, William, passed away six years ago.

"We'll be taking a commercial break right now, and when we come back, we'll ask singer-performer Tish Goodbody how she answers critics who say her Body of Works album, video, book, and virtual-reality game have gone beyond the bounds of good taste and are unfit for children . . .."]]

 

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