“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.
31
LyonBio
Lyon, France
All 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.