A Heartbeat Away - Michael Palmer [64]
“It wasn’t Griff carrying that bag,” Angie finished for him.
“No. But it was somebody,” Forbush continued. “Whoever did this probably used other security footage of Griff to cobble together a perfect digital forgery. It’s really flawless. Well, except for that one little gaffe.”
“And you showed this to Sylvia?” Griff asked.
“Oh yeah, I showed her. I didn’t come right out and confront her, though.”
“Confront her about what?” Angie asked.
“Sylvia Chen’s biometric profile. She’s one of the three left-handed primaries that we have in the system. I would bet the thief was her.”
“Maybe that’s why she disappeared,” Griff said. “The president told me that at one point there were dozens of FBI agents—I think he actually said hundreds—out looking for her.”
“Maybe it’s worth trying some more,” Angie said. “Does Sylvia have an office down in the lab?”
Forbush nodded.
“We’d have to suit up, but I can take you in there. A couple of agents have already searched there, though.”
“If neither of them were women, we ought to look again.”
“Why?”
“Most women have a special talent built onto their X chromosomes. The talent to find things. If we want to find out who’s behind Genesis, that office is the first place we should look.”
CHAPTER 28
DAY 3
4:00 P.M. (CST)
Griff had gone ahead to get his lab operational, and had left Angie and Forbush to get started in Sylvia Chen’s office. Angie held her security card up to the reader and the red light above the palm scanner turned green. Standing off to one side, Forbush next had her set her hand on the opaque plate that initiated the biometric scan sequence. As she was waiting for approval, Angie suddenly found herself imagining Sylvia Chen approaching the door from the other side, carrying Griff’s canvas bag, and knowing that she was setting up an innocent man who had been her friend and coworker for years.
Prison … Possibly torture.
The woman had to have known, Angie thought. She had to have known what was in store for Griff. Who paid her to do it? Why? Where had she disappeared to?
A sweet, computerized voice announced, “Biometric scan approved for Angela Jane Fletcher. Guest pass seven-oh-seven, security level Alpha Hotel Alpha. Please proceed to iris scan.”
Angie set her chin in place and readied herself.
“Who supplies all this equipment, anyway?” she asked through clenched teeth.
The scan failed and a loud warning buzz followed.
“Please clear the optical scanner and try again,” the voice demanded.
“You can’t talk during a scan,” Forbush said. “The algorithms that handle the matching are very precise. Keep your chin pressed in and your head as still as possible.”
“Sorry.”
Angie repositioned herself.
“The equipment comes from different vendors,” Forbush explained. “Staghorn Security from Indiana handles the ordering and then puts the system together and installs it. If every one of the companies dealing with the government were as efficient and detail-oriented as Staghorn, half the national debt would probably vanish. Those guys know what they’re doing and they know how to do it.”
This time the scan worked and Angie lifted her chin from the cup.
“What about the cameras?” she asked.
“Those came from Staghorn also.”
“Maybe we should talk to them. If they know the equipment inside and out, perhaps they’ll have some idea how Genesis and Sylvia managed to pull off the scam. The computer graphics don’t seem like they would be that easy to do.”
“If you know how, you know how,” Forbush replied