Case # 88 Page 2

  Finn decided that the stranger was not likely a new resident of the house. What were they doing in the middle of the night, searching through documents in the dark? The thud he’d heard earlier had sounded like a thick binder crashing to the floor, and he’d gotten a glimpse of some paperwork scattered on the desk. Pretending to be the police was out of the question. What kind of police officer would be armed with a bottle of bleach?

  “This is a private residence! Identify yourself! I’ve already called the cops!” Finn called.

  “Please!” A female voice replied from behind the door. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know the place was already occupied… I’m just here to pick something up for the previous residents! I got the keys from John!”

  “John? John who?”

  The stranger jangled what were presumably the house keys. “John Kevin, the real estate agent! I was picking up some things for him from the office!”

  Finn recalled the smiling real estate agent on the FOR SALE sign outside. That was indeed his name. But the sign was clearly visible to anyone, so knowing his name and rattling some keys that Finn couldn’t even see from behind the wall were not proof enough of good intentions.

  “Wait… These are supposed to be the only keys to the house right now. So…who are you?” The voice trembled slightly. “Is this…bleach?”

  Knowing he too was busted, Finn knew that crude bluffing wouldn’t be so effective now. It was time to give diplomacy a try.

  “Look… I’m a former cop, alright? I live…in the neighborhood. I heard some noise and came in to investigate.”

  It was too risky to reveal his true identity just yet. Whoever was able to make his parents disappear so thoroughly might be after him as well.

  “Okay, I’m a journalist,” the woman admitted. “I’m researching the previous owners of this house in connection to the article I’m currently writing.”

  Finn tensed up as a reflective object slowly popped up from the doorway. A scope? But it was just a mirror.

  “I’m coming out!” The self-proclaimed journalist slowly came out into the hallway, watching Finn in the mirror as she did so.

  She demonstrated that her hands were empty, apart from the mirror.

  Finn lowered his makeshift weapons.

  “My name is Alexa Ramirez. I work for the local newspaper.”

  “I see… Well, it’s nice to meet you, Alexa.” Finn wouldn’t trust her just yet, but at least she didn’t seem to present any immediate danger, and she might even have valuable information. “My name is—”

  “Finn Peterson! It’s you, isn’t it? The son?” Alexa was staring at him wide-eyed, lowering her guard entirely. “You left the police force after a head injury and went off the radar for months!”

  If she was indeed trying to trick him, her act was pretty good.

  “How much do you know about your parents? Have you heard about Project Orthia?”

  “Um…”

  Alexa opened her mouth to speak but stopped as an approaching siren suddenly came to a halt in front of the garage door. Through the window, they could see two officers begin approaching the porch. Either they’d been too loud, or the place was under active surveillance. Either way, they had no time to lose.

  Finn and Alexa quickly descended the stairs and retreated through the kitchen window before the officers even knocked on the front door. By the time they were shouting warnings, the escapees were well on their way to Finn’s car.

  As soon as they were safely out on the highway, Alexa began briefing Finn on the situation, sharing what she’d been able to glean so far.

  They drove in awkward silence for almost an hour while Finn digested the shocking information. At this point, he had little doubt in her story. And yet, it was simply too outlandish to believe.

  “So…all these years… Are you saying that Mom and Dad… They weren’t even my real parents?”

  Alexa was the only one who had any kind of explanation for Finn’s parents’ mysterious disappearance, and he was determined to find out as much as he could from her before dismissing her claims as impossible.

  “I know you don’t completely trust me yet. And for good reason! But if you stick with me, I promise, it will all make sense…” Alexa touched Finn’s shoulder reassuringly. “I’m sorry that you had to be a part of this, but it’s all true. And I want you to meet someone who may just be able to prove it to you.”

  Chapter Three

  “Finn Peterson? Are you sure it was him?”

  “Yes, sir, we are positive. And his fingerprints were found inside the house. Along with another set of prints. Presumably, a female accomplice, judging from the fingerprint ridge density.”

  “Luckily, we’d thoroughly scrubbed the house of anything on the Orthia Project earlier. They shouldn’t have been able to find anything of value.”

  “Okay…” Agent Spencer was agitated, fiddling with the fountain pen in his hands. “But we have to find them ASAP. Get on it. We can’t take any more risks.” He looked at the two police officers before him. “And the house... Such a shame it’ll have to burn down in an unfortunate accident… You know what to do.” He turned away, looking pensively out the window, indicating that the conversation was over.

  “Yessir!”

  “Right away, sir!”

  Still facing the window, Agent Spencer took out his phone and dialed. “Dr. Russo. We have a problem. It’s about Case #88… He’s alive.”

  Alexa talked nonstop for the first hour or so of the ride back to Manhattan. Finn had two missed calls from Max, but he didn’t care. At least not for the moment. According to her, Project Orthia was a scientific experiment commissioned by an entity within the Department of Defense. Its main objective was to develop a way to produce the perfect law enforcement agents. She didn’t have all the details, but she’d discovered that there were at least two stages of the project.

  Stage One consisted of training a group of carefully selected orphans at a secret facility in a controlled environment. It didn’t go so well and didn’t last long because the mental training methods employed in the project were too intense for even a robust mind, let alone the vulnerable psyche of a parentless child. The subjects would quickly become highly unstable and hard to control.

  Stage Two was more complex and consisted of growing the test subjects in a lab and then planting them in a foster family of two undercover scientists, posing as the unsuspecting child’s natural parents. The training was more subtle, and the better refined mental conditioning happened in several phases. The subject’s memory was suppressed and replaced using advanced hypnosis methods and psychoactive substances after each session. This stage showed more promise, and most of the subjects were able to make it to adulthood blissfully unaware of the exceptional circumstances of their upbringing and the constant observation they were subjected to everywhere they went.

  It lasted for a few years, with most surviving subjects making it successfully into the police force after graduating from the police academy with flying colors. But then the project had hit another snag. The test subjects were programmed to be sleeper agents. They would live their unsuspecting lives. They would generally excel at their service but nowhere near to the point of being a super-cop—that is until they heard the code phrase. It was designed to trigger a temporary altered state of consciousness where the subjects would remain fully aware but lose control over the decision-making faculty of their mind. They would suppress the survival instinct and several other subconscious processes that could keep them from completing their missions. But this part didn’t go as planned. The majority of the subjects would not respond to the code phrase, their mental defenses too strong, or the invasive programming too profoundly repressed. And, in the few cases where it did work, subjects would act erratically, either having a psychotic episode, incurring permanent damage to their psyche, or developing a mysterious, acute headache and dying shortly afterward. The project had since been scrapped, failing to produce any promising results. Or
at least it had seemed that way.

  “But finding you alive and well changes the story entirely!” Alexa concluded. “This is why you are key to this investigation. They might already be after you. We have to be very careful.”

  Still processing the new information, Finn finally called Max back, hoping for some good news.

  “Finn, my friend! You had me worried there for a bit! Not answering your old buddy’s calls? What gives?”

  “I was busy.” Finn didn’t feel compelled to waste any time on Max’s empty talk. “Did you find out anything important?”

  “Oh, you know me! I’m a professional!” Max paused dramatically. “Now, keep in mind... Sometimes, no news is good news.”

  Finn grunted in response, ready to hang up the call.

  “Now, now, I know what you’re thinking… But, hey, I did my part! Swing by my place, and I’ll give you everything I’ve gathered so far: previous owners, neighbors, cars registered from that address. And I assigned one of my top people to do some more digging. I gotta admit, though, I’m at a loss here. What could you possibly want with this place? All the previous owners are ordinary middle-class families. Absolutely boring. No criminal records, not even tax fraud! I think you should tell me more if you want me to….”

  Finn hung up.

  Max was waiting impatiently at the bar when the familiar black Supra pulled up and parked at the entrance at last. This time, Finn was accompanied by an attractive young woman with silky, chestnut hair.

  “Finn!” Max waved enthusiastically, gesturing for the ex-cop to join him at the bar. “Nice to finally see you again, my friend! And…ma’am?” He tactfully nodded his head at the young woman.

  “Hi, I’m Alexa! I’m Finn’s…coworker.” She extended an arm for a handshake.

  “I see. A pleasure to make your acquaintance.” Max shook her hand firmly.

  They were sitting in a booth, studying a thick binder of documents Max had acquired overnight. You gotta give it to him, Finn thought to himself. The guy is a hard worker, digging up all this information in such a short amount of time. If he were in a legitimate business, he could actually do some good in this world. But alas, for all the information Max had gathered, hardly any of it was helpful. Max was right. Nothing stood out. And, more importantly, there wasn’t a single mention of the Petersons.

  “Hey, don’t look so disappointed!” Max reassured Finn cheerfully. “If whatever you’re looking for really exists, it’s gotta be somewhere in these files. Besides, I’ve got a highly qualified associate working on it. I’m sure he’ll be in touch with you soon. Still…a deal’s a deal! I kept my side of the bargain….”

  “Okay, it’s yours.” Finn took the car keys out of his pocket, reluctantly placing them on the table in front of Max.

  “This is why I love doing business with you, my friend!” Max picked up the keys, spinning the ring around his index finger. “You’re a man of your word.”

  Alexa and Finn walked away from the inconspicuous restaurant with its secret underground casino.

  “So you just gave him your car? For this?” Alexa held up the binder. “I mean, I understand how personal this is for you, but didn’t you have anything else to offer?”

  “Hardly… The only reason he ever worked with me in the past was that, as a cop, I could turn a blind eye to his questionable activities in exchange for valuable intel. Besides, the car is probably already being tracked, so it would do us no good using it any longer. Sooner or later, we’d get pulled over by a patrol, and then—”

  Finn didn’t get to finish that sentence as a sudden shockwave picked the two up into the air and threw them violently forward, slamming them into the sidewalk.

  Chapter Four

  Before he knew it, Finn was lying facedown on the cold, sticky sidewalk. He lifted himself up little by little. The sticky part was his own blood, but, as far as Finn could tell, he wasn’t seriously injured. Propping himself up with both arms, he looked around. Alexa was lying beside him, seemingly unconscious. After the buzzing in his ears began to diminish, he noticed the commotion in the street. Ambulances and pedestrians rushed around a spot outside his field of vision. Something had exploded. And, before he could turn around and take a look, he felt like he already knew what it was.

  Finn carefully touched Alexa’s shoulder. She grunted, moved slowly, and sat up. Alexa seemed shocked, looking around wide-eyed. Judging from how fast she got up, she was in better shape than Finn. Aside from a couple of minor surface wounds on her face and hands, she seemed uninjured. They helped each other get up. Finn’s head felt like it was about to explode just like the car had. He hadn’t fully recovered from the nasty head injury he’d suffered just a few months ago, which still gave him periodic migraines, and now he might have a concussion on top of that. But there was no time to think about it now.

  “Was it…?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Your car…?”

  “Yeah, it was.”

  “Oh my god….”

  It didn’t look like much of a car anymore, just a ball of flames raging in the parking lot. Finn and Alexa had no time to stick around. Knowing full well the fiery surprise had been meant for them, they had to flee the scene as quickly as possible, using the commotion to blend in with the rapidly growing crowd of onlookers.

  Having put enough distance between themselves and the crime scene, they cleaned themselves up as well as they could in a diner bathroom to avoid unnecessary attention. Finn examined his face in the greasy mirror. Looking into his reflection’s cold but attentive gray eyes, he carefully touched his head. He wasn’t seriously injured externally. The best-case scenario for them right now would be if their assailant assumed they were dead. The explosive had probably not been detonated remotely but triggered from within the car itself—either by a pressure-sensitive device in the seat or a rigged ignition mechanism. Otherwise, the assailant would be able to ensure that they’d gotten the right person inside the car. There was a good chance that they weren’t under surveillance at the time of the explosion. But still…

  Alexa stared at the blackness inside the coffee cup she was holding in both hands. The surface of the thick beverage was shimmering, producing ominous reflections.

  “I can’t believe they’d go so far to get rid of you!”

  “Yeah, I expected them to use a more subtle approach. Hopefully, they think we’re out of the picture now. But we still got nothing in terms of leads. Aside from some superficial story about a secret government project from some conspiracy theory website.”

  “As a matter of fact, my source is very reliable. And I’ve arranged to meet with him later today. He’s the reason I was in the house last night!” Alexa was slightly offended by Finn’s presumptuous comment. “He gave me the address, but I guess I was just too late.”

  “I see.” Finn still seemed skeptical. “You mentioned you were writing for a local newspaper. What’s your beat? What kind of articles do you write?”

  “Well… I wanted to sound more legit when I told you that. I’m not actually working for a newspaper. I’m writing a blog. But I have a few thousand subscribers!” Alexa added hastily, seeing Finn’s eyes glazing over. “Look, we’re meeting with Dr. Trussel in a few hours. He actually worked on the project! That’s how I found out about it. He stumbled upon my blog.”

  Finn leaned in for a closer look at Alexa’s phone. She was scrolling through articles on a standard blogging website, probably built using a basic template. “The Neighborhood Watch,” the site’s banner proclaimed rather proudly. Most of the articles seemed to be about shady government-related activity. They weren’t the most outlandish conspiracy theories, like Chemtrails or Lizard People, but more down-to-earth subjects, like black budget projects, corrupt military officials, red flag operations, etc. Sources were credited at the bottom of each article, and, as far as Finn could tell from a quick glance, the claims seemed to be thoroughly argued and well-presented.

  “Okay.” Finn was a little mo
re convinced now. It was enough to at least give her a shot. “Where do we meet Dr. Trussel?”

  Alexa opened her mouth to answer, but the sudden vibration of Finn’s phone interrupted them.

  Sorry I couldn’t make it yesterday. Got caught up at work. I’ll see you at the memorial tonight at 9. Be careful, Finn.

  Finally, Finn thought. He’d been starting to worry about Doug, but it looked like he was still on the case after all. And, from the sound of it, he had some valuable intel to share.

  “Looks like our plans just changed.” Finn stood up. “I have to go meet my ex-coworker. Good cop. Sounds like he’s got something important for me. How about you go meet the doctor, and I’ll catch up with Doug?”

  “You sure about that?” Alexa seemed worried. “What if it’s a trap?”

  “Doug’s a good friend. We go way back. And I doubt that whoever is after me is looking for you too. We weren’t followed here, so we can meet up here again later. Right now, I need to hear what Doug has to share.”

  Alexa reluctantly agreed. Finn was already on his way out, wishing her good luck with her rendezvous with Dr. Trussel.

  Central Park was already shrouded in peaceful darkness as Finn approached John Lennon’s memorial. And indeed, a familiar figure was pacing back and forth, occasionally stopping by the circle with the word IMAGINE in the center.

  “What took you so long, buddy?” Finn waved as he approached.

  “Good evening, Finn.” Doug turned to face him, lifting his right arm as he did so.

  A metallic clicking sound made Finn freeze in his tracks. “I’m sorry, friend,” said Doug. “It’s for your own good. You’ll have to come with me now.”