Lopez led the way through the intense security measures, including full — body X — Rays and pat down searches. Ethan glimpsed their own images on monitors in the security stations: Lopez’s diminutive frame, radiating an attitude as usual that he was surprised didn’t show up on the X — Ray screens as a glowing red halo. His own rangy form followed, unkempt light brown hair, wide jaw and a loose — limbed stride.
They finally passed through the last of the checks in time for Jarvis to meet them in the main foyer of the building, the polished tile floor emblazoned with a large DIA emblem in the manner of all the senior intelligence agencies. Ethan wondered whether it helped them to remember which agency they actually worked for.
‘You made it through without being shot at,’ Jarvis observed laconically. ‘That’s a first.’
‘Why are we here?’ Lopez demanded, her arms folded. She had never been a fan of either Jarvis or the DIA, but the call to the headquarters had been sufficiently unusual for her to make the trip. As the new boss of the renamed Lopez & Warner Inc, their bail — bondsman outfit, she had become somewhat inclined to getting her way.
‘Come with me,’ Jarvis replied. ‘I’ll show you.’
Ethan followed them, aware of the large number of civilian staff walking through the building. Uniquely to a highly secretive intelligence agency, two thirds of the DIA’s seventeen thousand employees were civilian, which allowed select freelance operatives like Warner and Lopez to act in concert with official employees like Jarvis. Represented in some one hundred forty countries and with its own Clandestine Service, to which Ethan and Nicola were now attached, the agency’s only flaw was a lack of influence in law enforcement, forcing Ethan and Nicola in past cases to work alongside police and federal law agencies around the country.
Jarvis led them to an office on the third floor, which to Ethan’s surprise was emblazoned with the old man’s name once again.
‘Don’t tell me they’ve let you back in the door for good?’ Lopez asked with a resigned tone.
‘Such warmth, such happiness,’ Jarvis replied as he led them into the office. ‘It’s a wonder you don’t burst with joy every morning, Nicola.’
Ethan stepped into the office and Lopez kicked the door shut with a back — flick of her heel.
‘You’ve taken the fun out of my life one too many times,’ she shot back. ‘Spill the beans or we’re out of here.’
Jarvis sat down behind his desk and glanced at Ethan. ‘I might put you up for some kind of medal for coping with this every day.’
‘Just send me into a war zone for a break every now and again,’ Ethan suggested. ‘What’s the story?’
‘Assassinations,’ Jarvis replied. ‘I take it you’ve seen the news reports coming out of Georgia?’
‘The army general, ran riot and murdered a bunch of recruits,’ Lopez replied. ‘Tragic to say the least. What happened to him, PTSD?’
Jarvis shook his head and slid a series of photographs across the desk to them.
‘No. This happened to him.’
Ethan looked down at the images, all close up shots of a sliver of metal an inch or so long according to the dime placed alongside the exhibit, which was sealed in a plastic evidence bag.
‘Wow, he must have been good. The general killed all those people with this little thing?’ Lopez suggested.
‘In a sense, yes,’ Jarvis explained. ‘This was extracted from his frontal lobes during autopsy and sent here for analysis. Director Nellis briefed me on the case an hour ago, which was when I called you.’
Ethan felt something cold ripple like insects crawling under his skin as he digested what Jarvis had said.
‘It was in his brain?’
‘The frontal lobes,’ Jarvis repeated. ‘It’s made from a metallic alloy and is designed to be ejected from the body after death, upon receiving no further signals from the brain. It would have been lost had the general not been autopsied so quickly after his death.’
‘What did the lab say about it?’ Lopez asked.
‘That’s where it gets creepy,’ Jarvis said. ‘The device is a highly complex transmitter and receiver and was essentially plugged into the general’s brain. The guys in the laboratory are convinced, and have actually signed their report together, that this device in effect is a form of remote control.’
Ethan looked up sharply at Jarvis. ‘You’re kidding?’
‘Two dozen Fort Benning recruits are dead,’ Jarvis replied. ‘I wouldn’t be kidding about something like this. I know how insane it sounds, but that’s what the guys are telling me and I’ve got no reason to doubt them.’
Lopez picked up one of the images as she spoke.
‘So, you’re saying that this general was not in control of himself when he opened fire on his own people.’
Jarvis nodded slowly.
‘He killed his own family too, people he was well known to dote upon. We’ve never seen anything like this. The technology is of the highest order and is something that our own agencies like DARPA have been working on but have yet to make any serious headway. Right now they’ve been limited to hacking the brains of bees and rats, not taking over the minds of senior military leaders.’
Lopez startled. ‘You’re saying that it’s possible to hack a brain?!’
‘The technology is in its infancy but yes, it’s possible. I’ll let the geeks downstairs explain all that to you, but right now our main focus is on figuring out where this thing came from and who the hell put it in the general’s head.’
Ethan put aside his amazement at what he had just heard and began thinking quickly.
‘We’ll need to retrace his every step to figure out when this thing was put inside his head.’
‘And the general must have endured a medical procedure that he was expecting,’ Lopez pointed out. ‘He can’t have failed to notice somebody shoving this up his nose.’
‘Army personnel are already in contact with the general’s personal and army physicians, but so far they’ve drawn a blank,’ Jarvis replied. ‘The general hadn’t seen any physician for at least three months, so I can’t see how it could have been implanted through normal procedures.’
‘He must have known,’ Ethan surmised. ‘Do you think that he might have consented to such a procedure, perhaps under duress or the belief that it was for another purpose?’
‘I doubt it,’ Jarvis replied. ‘I knew the general from back in the first Gulf War, and he was bright as a button and not a man easily fooled. I have no reason to doubt that he’d changed much in the intervening years.’
Lopez frowned, still looking down at the images.
‘What about the control method? If this stuff is even possible, that means that it must have been remotely activated. Can we track down what frequency it might have used?’
‘Outstanding,’ Jarvis replied to her. ‘The techs are already looking into it, and we have teams studying X — Rays of the device. You’d better check in down there and get up to speed before you deploy.’
‘What’s the rush?’ Ethan asked, and then he realized immediately. ‘Damn, if this thing got into a senior army officer then they could be anywhere.’
‘That’s right,’ Jarvis replied, ‘and right now the president can only keep a lid on this for a couple of days before the storm breaks under its own momentum and the media pounces on anything it can find. Can you imagine the panic it will cause if it’s revealed that these things even exist and that they could be in the heads of any one of our senior military figures, even the administration itself?’