“Oh right, because these hybrid beings are smart enough to know when a microscope is coming and recognize the second their hosts die,” Swartzman said.
“You got it,” Trainer said, without detecting his friend’s strong hint of sarcasm. “They’re real clever. Now do you see how this works? Bacteria are dumb. They can’t control an animal, much less a person. But these hybrids imbed themselves into the nervous system, and the brain. They rearrange the chemistry, and the interior makeup. We’re talking more than just redecorating here. The hosts acquire the same biological preferences as the bacteria. They crave iron and sulfur. They relish baths in sulfuric acid-like what the lagoon is turning into. I don’t understand how they do it, but somehow they tinker with the genetic code, and the hormones get all out of whack. Then the animal takes orders from their hybrid masters.”
His aggravation finally swollen so large that it popped, Sneed smacked his hand on the edge of the table. “Listen old man, blaming your crimes on corporations and politicians is offensive enough, but at least it doesn’t insult my fucking intelligence. Now, making this a yarn about body snatchers? This doesn’t sit well with me. Do you think I’m a complete idiot? Or are you still trying to sucker me into declaring you insane?”
The Lagoon Watcher slumped to his side. He raised his hands so he could bury his face in them, but the shackles limited his reach. Instead, he wiped his nose on his shirt. The man’s theories had been ignored for decades, yet he apparently had never lost the impassioned belief that he stood on the right side. This time, Aaron believed that he did.
Those “hybrids” could serve as the missing piece that fills the enormous hole in this case, Aaron thought. Moni had described a gator with the two snakes growing out of it. Aaron had seen that video of the dolphins with human hands. These mutations went beyond what bacteria alone could do. The murder victims had organs removed cleanly from the inside almost as if they were disassembled from their bodies. Aaron had first compared it to tiny construction workers. Maybe those early impressions were right on the money. If they could remove organs, they could carve off a head just as smoothly.
Sneed signaled to the officer standing behind Trainer. The husky man approached the inmate’s back. If they dragged him out that door, they wouldn’t see him for a long time.
“Hold on a second. I’ve got another question,” Aaron said.
“Will this episode of the X-Files ever end?” Sneed remarked, as he waved the officer back into the corner.
“I only wish it was fiction,” Swartzman said. “I’m afraid that what Mr. Trainer described might be all too real.” Almost giddy, the shackled man tapped his feet. Then the professor delegated the next move to his student. “Didn’t you have a question for the gentleman?”
Despite the gravity of the moment, Aaron couldn’t contain his goofy grin at having his professor finally recognize that he could actually help him in a tight spot. It counted as more than a tight spot, really. The task was stopping a false conviction of one of Swartzman’s friends-the man who had saved his career. And then they had this little issue with the heinous water quality in the lagoon.
Aaron cleared his throat and dove right in. “When you saw these hybrids, what were they made out of? What exactly has been blended together?”
“I’d call it nanobot, but it’s not anything like we know it. I could call it a highly adaptive virus, but it’s not completely organic.” The Lagoon Watcher held his hands in a ball as if he were molding a new form of life. “It’s nanobiotechnology. We’ve only begun to scratch the surface in this field, or that’s what I thought until I saw them. Someone has advanced it centuries into the future. Part of it is a composite metal. I’m not sure if it’s a shield or a battery pack or a mini computer. It might be all three. This metal can slice and dice its way through anything in the body, even bone. Then it has interfaces made of biomaterial that work sort of like keys. They unlock a genetic code and change it. When they need some bacteria soldiers, they pop one out and it starts dividing into an army.
“Remember the Borg on Star Trek? It’s kind of like that, but a tiny version of those cyborgs.”
Wearing a serious expression, Sneed leaned in close to the man. “I had no idea it was so serious. Are the Klingons involved too?” The detective threw his head back and guffawed. “What about the guys with the pointy ears? I bet they’re inside our bodies blasting their phasers.”
As the officer behind him joined the laughter, the Lagoon Watcher’s face burned so hot that Aaron could see the red through his over-crisped tan.
“Stop it! This is no joke,” Trainer said. “The hybrids are real. If you’re looking for who’s responsible for the polluting of my lagoon and all the murders, blame them, not me. Want evidence? Look into a microscope for once in your life, and you’ll see.”
Sneed got in the man’s face again. This time he didn’t seem so jovial. “I don’t need to search the globe looking for the killer who poisoned the lagoon. I’m looking right at him. If you’re an innocent man, why’d you kidnap that child?”
“Kidnapping? Please. I was trying to save her,” Trainer said.
“From the real killer?” Swartzman asked.
“From herself,” he replied. “Or, what’s inside her. I heard that she hasn’t said a word since spending the night along the lagoon. That’s consistent with the behavior of the infected animals. None of them can vocalize. The hybrids are in that girl. I’m not sure how strongly they’ve taken hold, or whether they can control the human brain, but they’re doing some damage, or else she would talk. I was looking for a blood sample so I could at least see how potent the bacterial infection has become.”
When Aaron thought of the diminutive girl, he couldn’t compare her to the frenzied snake that tore through the window screen after him, or the dolphins drowning those teenagers in the harbor. She didn’t bath in sulfuric acid and eat bowls of iron for breakfast. But at the same time, he knew the girl didn’t come anywhere close to acting like a normal kid. He had assumed that the apprehension that backed her into a silent corner came from her fear of being victimized again. Perhaps what really scared Mariella was dwelling among people and socializing in a culture she didn’t understand. How could little bio-machines make sense of a second grader’s world?
He couldn’t say for sure whether the Lagoon Watcher had just blown open the case. For Mariella, and Moni’s sake, he wished that he hadn’t. Not this way. But if Trainer was right, Aaron couldn’t let the girl succumb to the invaders inside her body.
“You believe me, don’t you Herb?” the Lagoon Watcher asked.
“It certainly is plausible. But it’s not important whether I believe you. It’s all about what this man right here believes.” The professor pointed at the detective seated beside him.
“Damn straight,” Sneed said. “And if I were you, I wouldn’t get my hopes up.”
Trainer hung his head.
“Then it’s a good thing we can test this hypothesis,” the professor said. “We’ll go over some live samples from an infected rat tomorrow and see if we find what you described.” Trainer nodded eagerly. His face beamed as if he were one step away from leaping out of his seat and clicking his heels together as a free man. “I didn’t say it would completely exonerate you. But it might lead us to the real inventor of this bizarre technology and help us clean up the lagoon.” Swartzman faced Sneed. “What do you say? Can we have another day or two to examine the suspect’s claim?”
Sneed gazed upon the pencil-pusher as if he would rather yank his tie until his windpipe caved in than give him the privilege of yet another scientific jaunt.
“You’ve got two days until I start lining up a grand jury,” the detective said. “If you find anything, you better get it on video or else I’m liable to accuse you of forgetting.”
Swartzman nodded in spite of the obvious slight. With that, Sneed had the other officer pull the Lagoon Watcher from his seat, and drag him away. The moment before his head passed out the door, the man stopped and faced his three former interrogators.