4.
Now
Ira and Misha’s first stop would be the news agency that Jeffrey Eiley had been working for while he was investigating his current story about a large number of people that had gone missing over the last couple of months.
Jeffrey had noticed a lot of people considered to be ‘invisible’ or unwanted were suddenly gone and so had some of his fellow journalists. But they somehow had decided did not follow up on the story which made Jeffrey even more determined to find out the truth.
The news source Jeffrey worked for, the Washington Examiner was part of a well respected media organization, the Baxtely Group which also ran more newspaper publishers, online media sites, and even had news channels across the US and in other countries as well as its own movie and television production company.
Through the police the police had already talked with Jeffrey’s editor and employer during the investigation into his disappearance Ira still thought it was a good starting point for the investigation into the missing Jeffrey Eiley.
“What kind of stories does your brother seek out?” Ira asked Misha as he drove the two to the officer building where the news agency was located where Jeffrey used to work. It was relatively quiet on the road, Ira and Misha’s journey only slowed down when they hit the heart of the city as a lot of people were moving from work back home or the reverse, many were people working for the various departments and organizations that made up the US government. This could be seen in how expensive the cars were the bureaucrats, from small second hand jobs to luxurious cars that were driven by hired chauffeurs rather than the owner itself.
Fortunately Ira and Misha did not need to hit Capitol Hill and the Malll and get over a bridge over the Potomac river as the traffic there was locked tightly according to a news source who was watching the progress of the traffic in and out of Washington DC from a helicopter.
“The stories that are either too controversial or the ones that journalists for some reason not follow up on, not beings sensationalist enough, or being inconvenient.” Mischa replied, she respected it a lot that her brother went for these reasons under the radar of most of the audience as he focused on the stories that didn’t rumors and exposure of celebrities or people of influence and great wealth. The people whose dirty wash often gained the most attention but which Jeffrey considered to be sensationalist. Misch could not agree with him more
“My brother was always interested in uncovering the truths that his colleagues didn’t consider sensationalist enough or required too deep digging, potentially leading them into trouble.” Mischa smiles as she recollects these details about her brother, “That makes him such a good journalist, never the easy way, risking his own career and reputation if he has to.”
Ira understood that Jeffrey was quite an impressive journalist, the one who would dig to find his stories but also willing to accept the risks that would come with such stories, no doubt making himself an inconvenience for some people at least, and some very powerful enemies at best who rather would see the reporter keep his mouth shut.
“You told me earlier that he was looking into disappearances of people from throughout the state and later on people disappearing in other states as well and that there are similarities to these disappeared people, factors that made them all common despite these people being from different layers of society.” Ira decided to inquire. What if Jeffrey had possibly upset the people who were kidnapping these seemingly random people.
Many of them were considered the dregs of society, the unwanted, the troublemakers.
There were the homeless and the addicts, people living on the street that were considered missable. But then the line of kidnapping moved ‘up ‘, isolated individuals who never had made much of an impact on the world, psychiatry patients who could never be cured. And eventually prisoners, some minor ones but many being in prison for life and even on death row.
Did the ‘quality’ of the kidnapped person matter to the kidnappers? Why not go for better quality targets. Ah, but that would get you real attention of course and the people that are disappearing now, they are basically invisible.
Mischa nodded as Ira went through the mindset that would be behind the kidnapping. Someone wanted bodies, a lot of them, but there had to be a certain quality that made the lower ‘crop’ less favorable compared to the better quality ‘crop’.
“My brother theorized that whoever is behind these kidnappings wanted to make sure that it was not only unnoticeable but also being seen as something desirable. Removing people that are ‘in the way’.
My brother became aware of the kidnapping when a social support organization noticed clients of their disappeared, homeless people that seek to integrate into society again and who receive help to deal with their drinking and drug addictions, helping them to reestablish themselves as members of society, getting out of the cycle of poverty and addiction and own a home again.
Suddenly dozens of people just went missing and the police had no real interest to investigate these missing people reports. The cops just assumed that the clients had fallen into their old flaws again and had fled to another part of the state to continue ruining their own lives there.”
As they were waiting for a traffic light Ira turned to look at Mischa. Mischa was a rather attractive woman, she has a beautiful round chin, a nose that barely peeked, nice round cheeks, decent full lips but not exaggerated, brown intrusive eyes that observed all details, and long brown hair set in a style ending with a braided tail that gave Ira the idea that he found it appealing even if he could not feel the emotion
She has a petite but curvy body, not looking in any way overweight at all.
Mischa wasn’t exactly a centerfold model but she would definitely qualify as the attractive neighborhood girl next door young pubering men would dream about.
But while Misha would be considered physically appealing, it was her mind that drew Ira the most, she had as much an inquisitive mind as her brother had she described even if her career had take her into a different direction than Jeffrey did. She was an analyst type, working for a big company to go through the various reports that would come in and she would dig through them to find the relevant information about the company’s investment and current market tactics and provide these important details in a well formulated way to her superiors.
But she was driven by a.. Hunger? A drive to find facts between all the grammar fluff and overcomplicated reports that could be some much better written if the long windedness had been removed from them.
Ira realized he liked such inquisitiveness. Well a part of him said that he should feel that he like it as he wanted to hear more of her own viewpoint on his matter.
“Your brother did not go for that explanation, did he?” Ira correctly assumed that being what drove Ira to investigate the disappearances.
Misha shook her head, “The story that these people just moved up and left to be drunks and addicts is too convenient an explanation, especially the numbers they disappeared in. That was for Jeffrey the biggest clue, the number of people that kept disappearing. When he talked with me about it he told me it started with smaller manageable numbers that could be kept hidden, just the random hobo here and there, or the runaway teenager there, but the numbers kept doubling.
Using that as a basis he started to look into other increasing numbers of disappearances and finding them in the prisons throughout the country but also illegal immigrants. The homeless and the addicts clearly no longer fulfilled the basic needs as whoever wanted these people wanted people that are also mentally sane, possibly quite intelligent.” Mischa continued. The idea that the kidnappers wanted ‘quality’ kidnapees felt weird to her. These people were not taken because they were of any value regarding the person they were other than what their physical and mental well being was like. Not because they would be useful to demand ransoms for as jeffrey had discovered that the kidnappers never asked for ransoms
He found it disturbingly similar to some of the kidnappings and disappearances that had taken place that had reached the public. People that were ideological opponents, part of religions not approved by the state, political rivals, and people who were plainly a nuisance and needed to go,
Jeffrey had joked that whoever the kidnapper was, they should have set up shop in China, the Chinese government would have turned a blind eye and even assisted as long as they got their part of whatever the kidnapper was earning with these kidnappers.
But the people disappearing here were not so much enemies of the state but people that just for some reason are ‘in the way’.”
Even without feeling any emotions on it ira found it a disgusting idea, that someone was doing en mass kidnapping of people that were considered undesirable or unwanted, doing who knows what to them.
“So Chambers offered to publish the story once it was complete.” Ira asked Misha as she was going through the recollection of what her brother told her about his latest article that would probably cause quite some controversy once he had it online and in the newspapers.
“He at least did at the start when my brother came to him with it. Last time I talked to him over the phone he seemed to have lost all interest for it and asked me to tell my brother not to continue on it further. Then not one day later my brother was gone from the face of the Earth.” Misha replied back. Visible worry could be seen on her smooth round face such as in the dimples underneath her eyes.
Ira found her face visually really appealing. Somewhere it triggered something, as if he had seen it before but then the thought faded again.
“Ehr, maybe you should focus your attention on driving that checking out my face, Ira Calburn, because we are swerving into the lane of the traffic that is coming towards us.
Ira immediately rectified the mistake and he was rather confused that for the first time since eighteen months ago someone could actually distract him with just her appearance alone
The rest of the ride went pretty smooth and undistracted as Misha believed that she had accidentally drawn Ira’s attention from driving his car as her story had been too engaging for him.
The journey took Ira and Misha to a relatively modern looking building that definitely did not match the older style house and buildings around the classic heart of the Capitol.
The building completely belonged to the Baxtely group but some other companies had bought space in it as well
Most of the space was however reserved for the news agency which included the ground floors where still old fashioned papers and magazines were being made despite the steady move to the digital format.
As Ira drove the car into the parking space, Misha turned to Ira. “Know that Bradley Chambers, my brother’s editor, will not be expecting us. I wanted to surprise him so that he can not prepare to make up a cover story or lie to us to get us to go away. We need to confront him. Even Jeffry found him a pain in the ass sometimes to work with. There is professionalism but there is also cowardice and Jeff considered Chambers somewhat of a coward, most likely getting the job so that he could shoot down stories that could make things difficult for the Washington Examiner. Chambers is anything but an expert.”
Ira nodded on hearing that. He now knew that the editor Bradley Chambers would be lying in case he knew something about what had happened to Jeffrey.
After having parked the car the two headed to the elevator car that would bring them to the floor where the Washington Examiner’s main offices were located, including the one of editor Bradley Chamber’s. The biggest trick now was getting past the receptionist, but Misha had prepared for that when the two were at the desk that she needed to talk to Chamber now about her brother Jeffrey as otherwise she would go to a rival paper and present with the story of the Washington Examiner was in collusion with whoever had made her brother disappear as he was looking into a story that would have been a front page one.
“I am sure that the people of the Constitution would love to know about that story which my brother gave me details on along with the story that the Examiner played a role in the disappearance.”
The young reception worker immediately called chambers and ten minutes later Ira and Misha were sitting in front of the desk of a very annoyed looking Bradley Chamber, a middle aged man who really should put some more effort on the stomach he was getting because of his diet and maybe less concerned with trying to hide the bald spots on his head with his combover.
“Misha, as I told you over the phone, I don’t know what happened to your brother. I told everything I knew to the police, which wasn’t much.” Chambers said, a line he clearly had been practicing on Ira concluded.
“And you are here sitting with a private detective. Are you this convinced that I am a liar?”
“No Bradley, I am not but I often feel that once a mind has had some rest, all kinds of details that seem minor at first can have more impact once you think about them again, such as what my brother was doing before he disappeared. He must have told you about some of the sources he was talking with before he disappeared.”
The look of annoyance on Bradly’s aging face became more clearer which to Ira meant that Chambers did indeed know something and he did not want to talk about it.
“We could of course inform the police that you didn’t tell everything you know, putting you into collusion with whoever made Jeffrey Eiley disappear. It probably won’t get you behind bars without evidence but it would probably cause problems for the examiner when one of their editors is connected to a disappeared man.” Ira suddenly said as he took over from Musha, questioning Chamber on minor and yet possible useful details. There was not threatening tone in his voice, more an analytical one that built on the cues that Ira was receiving by just looking at Chambers.
Chambers looked shocked and even Misha looked surprised but in a good way as she liked Ira’s approach, subtle yet very effective.
“You have no proof for that.” Chamber responded, feeling insulted and having no intention of being dragged into a possible scandal.
Ira now knew that Chambers knew something that he had not shared with the police. He needed to hold on to this and take it further.
“The fact that you try to throw it off, Mr Chambers, only suggests to me more that you are hiding some information connected to the disappearance of Jeffrey Eilley. I think it would be much wiser to share with us what you know as all we want is to find Jeffrey. We are not interested in getting you accused by the police and possibly having to appear in court for withholding information during an official investigation that could get you and your employers into deep trouble and possibly damage both your personal reputation or that of the Examiner. I am sure that the people at the Constitution don’t make an issue about information that is true or hearsay.”
Ira still showed no single emotion while he was logically tearing Chambers a new one.
Chambers looked pissed but he also knew that this private investigator had him under a knife. Either he confessed and told Misha and this Ira Calburn what he did know but had not shared with the police, or the police could soon be found in the office with the charge that Chambers has been obstructing an official missing person’s investigation. And the folks at the Constitution would be doing a story about how Bradley Chambers had played a role in the disappearance of Jeffrey Eiley, if just indirectly once readers opened the newspaper or the website article.
But the title would be enough to draw newspaper buyers and website readers.
“You bastard”, He murmured under his voice. Ira heard it but was not impressed or even affected by the insult.
Misha just remained impressed on how cool blooded Ira Calburn was when it came to questioning an unwilling witness by really paying attention to his face and posture, and knowing how to twist whatever information the unwilling witness was willing to share. Chamber’s was Ira’s the moment Misha mentioned the day before Jeffrey disappeared by visibly giving away that Chambers did know something.
“Alright, alright.” Chambers decided to come clear though he felt forced by the cold calculating private detective. Chamber had no doubt that this guy must have been CIA or FBI in the past. The type they let loose on people to extract information from a subject by whatever means possible.
“Jeffrey told me before he disappeared he had a meeting with an informant. But the informant wanted to be paid, cash.”
“So you gave Jeffrey the money?” Ira inquired.
“Not directly, I transferred the amount to his bank account so he could take it from an ATM.” Chambers replied, feeling that he was now beneath a magnifying glass as this Ira Calburn was picking him apart.
“We may be able to track down which ATM machine Jeffrey used to withdraw the amount from,”, Ira said to Misha who just watched how Ira went to play. She thought she was the one who had to trick Chambers somehow to cooperate but the private detective she hired took charge the moment he had something to draw upon. Who was this guy?
Ira turned back to Chambers, “So you did see something in this story.”. The tone in Ira’s voice, despite Ira being unable to convey emotions, showed that Ira was interested in what Chambers had to say.
“Absolutely,” Was the reply as Chambers felt some of the excitement again like the first time Jeffrey told Bradley how deep this story might go, and how up the inner echelons of the government. Jeffrey was about to get some dirt on some really high ranking people that when the Examiner published this they would leave the Constitution and all other news sources in the dust. “This could have been bigger than Watergate. Government officials involved in missing people cases. And this would not be some conspiracy bullshit and actually involve experiments like project Midnight Climax.”
Chambers wanted this story, that was why he was willing to invest that much money for a bribe. But then things had all gone to hell. Jeffrey disappeared. The police could not find a trace of him, and then those government spooks showed up. Clearly military types in civilian clothes.
And now Chambers became worried again and Ira noticed it. “Someone threatened you if you should continue with this story with what you have.” He asked Chambers, Chambers did not respond but Ira could see the nervous look in his face.
“I…I don’t know what you are talking about.” He managed to stumble to Ira, not wanting to give away that Ira was right. Chambers still remembered the soldiers in civilian clothes too well, especially the one who clearly was the superior of the two who made it very clear Chambers should let this one go, he didn’t want to end up in a bad position like someone else did.
Ira gave Chambers a piercing look not that dissimilar to the military type weeks ago, again Chambers felt like he was under an examination lens. Now Chambers saw the similarities between the two.
Ira felt he could push it but it may cause Chambers to break down and part of Ira did not want to do that to Chambers even if he really wanted to know who the person had been who had threatened Chambers, it could be another lead to Jeffrey. Perhaps one more try?
Then Ira felt the gentle hands of Misha on his arm, her face without saying it telling Ira to let go before he really pushed Chambers to the breaking point. At least they had some new clues. Clues the police had either not picked up on or had not followed up on.
Ira nodded to Misha's unspoken request. “Thank you for your time Mr Chambers, maybe we’ll talk again in the future,” Ira said to Chamber as he stood up.
“Maybe we will.” Said Chambers reluctantly, “But I sure hope not.”. Chambers felt that he had just met a twin brother of the man who had told Chambers not to continue on this story and to hand over everything that Jeffrey had collected on the case. Well almost everything.
Just before Jeffrey disappeared he had sent Chambers a voice message because Chambers couldn’t answer the phone at the time, being occupied by something else, either work or his private life, and he had never bothered listening to the voice message or tell about it to the police or the men who came later and demanded that Chamber dropped the story and the search for Jeffrey Eiley
“Wait” Chambers said hesitantly. Misha and Ira who were about to leave the office, turned around and looked at Chambers, Ira’s eyes gave an indication that he knew that Chambers had forgotten to tell something and that it was only his persuasion that made Chambers remember.
Chambers gulped when he saw that look before he continued. “Before Jeffrey disappeared, he tried to call me, but I couldn’t pick up the phone, he left me a voice message. I never listened to it and I thought it was irrelevant, that is why I did not tell the police. If I share this with you two will you promise me you will not go to the police with it, and leave me alone after you heard it?”
Ira suspected that it wasn’t so much the police that Chambers wanted to have another visit from but rather someone else who might alerted as well the moment the information came out that Chambers might have hidden some important information or a clue to what happened to Jeffrey that could lead to whatever it was this unknown party did not want to be discovered.
But Ira agreed as did Misha. They would stay silent about this.
“Agreed Mr Chambers. Let us hear the message, then erase it and we will not talk further about it to you, the police or everyone else.”
Chambers was nervous as he did not like this. He was just an editor, he did not have the nerves like someone like Jeffrey Eiley had when facing situations that were uncomfortable or potentially dangerous. He rather left that to other people.
He typed in the phone number and put the phone on his desk on loudspeaker. He, Ira, and Misha surrounded the phone to hear Jeffrey’s last messenger.
“Brad, this is Jeffrey. I have no time to wait for you to call me back as I have a hot lead to where the missing people are taken. There is about to be several buses full of people send on their way to whatever this place is they are being delivered too
I just watched these guys transfer the population of a homeless camp into buses on the promise that they would be given food and shelter if they boarded the bus voluntarily. A number of them willingly entered the bus, but the migrants, especially those afraid of being deported after taking all this effort to get over the border refused.
That is when the people that are handling this transport pulled out guns and forced these people to get into the bus. None of them were allowed to stay and they went through a lot of effort to make sure no one on the street saw this mass kidnapping taking place.
I would probably be in trouble if they saw me. I had to be extra cautious and hit myself among the trash and the junk. Definitely will need some shots when I come back and take a shower to thoroughly disinfect myself.
If what my informant said is true the people that are just being taken are being brought north to a research facility that is operated by an unknown group. I hope once there I can confirm if it is this mysterious organization I have mentioned before to you.
I have been gathering information from my usual sources on the internet and in person and other than my copies at home and the office, I have also made one that I have put in the hands of someone I can trust that will make them public should something happen to me.
But without the evidence I hope to gather today it will just be another conspiracy story.”
Ira noticed that Misha looked slightly up when the voice of Jeffrey said ‘someone I can trust.’
Misha must have noticed as she tried looking away and give the appearance that it was just coincidental but Ira knew for sure. For some reason he was very good at reading the bodies of other people and their emotions even if he for some reason could not get in contact with his own.
“I plan to meet up with you once I have gathered the final pieces we need to go public with this Brad. And for once don’t chicken out on this one. This story will do more than just make our careers, it will reveal that there is indeed a shadowy government organization involved in the kidnapping of American homeless, mental patients, the condemned, as well as illegal migrants for possible use in experiments.
I hope to prove today that the DPRI really exists.”
That was the last sentence Jeffrey said that anyone would ever hear, and Misha was rather reluctant to have it erased but she and Ira had made the promise to Chambers that the message would be destroyed as Chambers did not want to have another encounter with the people who had threatened him before.
If Misha had watched Ira and she had been good at body reading she would have noticed Ira slightly raising an eyebrow on hearing the abbreviation DRPI, as Ira most definitely knew what that was, or at least what it stood for; the Department of Parascientific Research and Intelligence.
They were the civilian organization the OWCF had been working with on project Threshold, though what that project was Ira just couldn’t recall..
The fact that people were taking North gave Ira an idea of where they were taken or at least a strong hint of an idea but he wasn’t sure. For it to be true he would have to go to the place that Jeffrey had been looking for.
Could it be the same place? But Ira can’t recall why the DPRI, if it was DPRI, did so much effort to bring so many people to it. If anything the place was top secret.
Ira returned to the here and now. Their business with Chamber was done. He somehow had managed through his forgetfulness managed to preserve the most important clue Ira and Misha needed
“So we have an agreement now. I let you listen to the message and now I will erase it.” Chambers said to Ira and Misha as he went to the online menu of his phone and erased the voice message.
Misha had wanted to stop him but she had promised him before he ran the voice message to have it erased so he would be permanently out of whatever would happen next when Misha and this private investigator continued their search for Jeffrey Eiley.
Just to be sure Chambers even planned to get rid of the phone itself.
Ira and Misha said their goodbyes to Chambers who felt greatly relieved that he was now finally out of the clear with this whole mess involving the disappearance of Jeffrey Eilley. Little did he know that this last final message was monitored by the people who he sought to avoid meeting a second time as through secure hacking they had put a trace on the telephone.
Back in the parking lot Misha turned to Ira. She was very impressed how Ira had handled chambers but she had to ask about Ira’s emotionless rational way how he broke Chambers into talking about details he had left out to the police.
“Are you always this rational and emotionless?”, Mischa asked Ira Calburn as she observed how meticulous Ira handled everything including conversations with other people, as if he was following some kind of instruction manual on how to communicate with people.
“No,”, Ira replied, trying to have some tone in his voice but he felt more like an android in a popular science fiction television show than a true human being.
“I used to be very emotional, but eighteen months ago an incident happened that made me become ‘deaf’ to my emotions.
He could not tell Misha what that thing was what had happened to him as it was declared classified and top secret by the US government; that Ira Calburn has been caught and kept prisoner by a Concept until his captor and tormentor apparently had enough of playing with his captive and expressing itself on Ira, letting him stray through the Dark Side where a team led the now Captain Roland found him.
At least that was the story of what had happened to Ira Calburn. The dreams suggested something else, especially the dream in which lieutenant Roland appears, running away with a grin saying “See you later Ira.”
Little did Ira know that it was Roland who had appeared in Chambers’ office weeks ago to collect all the research material Jeffrey had left with his editor, and that Chamber saw the similarities between Ira and Roland just now, hence why he was cooperative as he was terrified.
Not far from the office complex where the Washington Examiner had its office, several men sitting in front of a very impressive looking computer set that was made up of various screens that displayed a variety of imagery, from camera feed to computer readout, had also been listening in on Jeffrey’s final message that Chambers had kept.
It was a subdivision of the NSA that the DPRI had on permanent loan for situations like these. To monitor potential witnesses and determine which could be problematic.
Now Chambers was unlikely to do so, the ‘treatment’ he had been given ensured that he would keep his mouth shut, the cameras just showed him throwing his phone away. BNut these two civilians could be a different situation.
The woman was identified as Misha Eiley, sister of the investigative reporter the OWCF was forced to deal with when he had learned too much about the DPRI and project Threshold. That it was project Threshold that required so many people.
Apparently the sister was as persistent as the brother. She too needed to be ‘approached’ to silence her less she needs to be made to disappear.
But it was the man that caught the NSA team’s attention the most. According to the files they had on him this man named Ira Calburn had been part of project Threshold itself as he was a former OWCF member.
Some accident had happened to him while on duty that had cost him the memories he had about the DPRI, OWCF, and project Threshold.
And now this investigation could potentially lead him back to it.
This needed to be reported as soon as possible. A former member may become a leak and that can’t be allowed.
