Untruthful Speech (eBook)

Ron Cisneros, Michael Padjen (Autoren)

eBook Download: EPUB

2021 | 1. Auflage
246 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-0983-4747-5 (ISBN)

Infos

UNTRUTHFUL SPEECH Authors Ron Cisneros and Michael Padjen introduce us to Nick Griego, an anguished young man struggling with the loss of his brother to cancer. Nick decides to take a break from his life in the States to volunteer as a teacher's assistant in Bangkok, Thailand. Little does he know his decision will entangle him with the CIA, Mossad, and a hitman from Argentina, who will kill anyone who gets in his way. Nick embarks on a mission with the help of Nigel, a lobster boat captain turned smuggler, and his wife, Elli, a biochemist who has developed a genetically engineered coronavirus super vaccine the dark side of the world wants and is willing to kill for. The story is a global adventure taken out of today's headlines, with Bar Harbor, Maine as its backdrop. 'Untruthful Speech' is a remarkable thriller. A group of extraordinary individuals embarks on a deadly adventure searching for a stolen formula that can permanently alter the power structure of the world, leaving death and destruction in its wake.

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UNTRUTHFUL SPEECHAuthors Ron Cisneros and Michael Padjen introduce us to Nick Griego, an anguished young man struggling with the loss of his brother Steven to leukemia. Nick's anger with Steven's death drives him to become a staunch and vocal advocate against institutional pharma and traditional cancer research. Eventually burning out, Nick decides to take a break from his life in the States to volunteer as a teacher's assistant in Bangkok, Thailand, where he is recruited by a cunning Mossad agent, Talia Levy, who has been monitoring his advocating activity. Talia invites Nick to join her in a made-up group advocating for the same things Nick is impassioned about. Unbeknownst to Nick, his decision will eventually entangle him in a race to keep a significant new medical discovery out of the wrong hands. The story's cast includes the CIA, a spy cell being run out of a restaurant in Bar Harbor, a freelance spy from Hong Kong, an ex-CIA operative in Shanghai, loyal only to himself, and a hitman from Argentina, and an incredibly helpful rat. Nick embarks on a mission assigned by Talia to monitor the progression of the research being led by Elli Brunetta, a biochemist with a secret past, who has developed a genetically engineered coronavirus super vaccine based on a new medical technology called CRISPR. Nick takes a job with Elli's husband, Nigel Shackelford, an ex-MI6 agent, now a lobster boat captain turned smuggler. Although Elli's development of Intelligent CRISPR or I-CRISPR was meant to significantly curtail the threat of pandemics and treat cancer in ways unimagined, the world's dark side wants it badly. They are willing to kill for it when they discover I-CRISPR can be used as a weapon to stop created or natural viruses from spreading in one location while letting it expand in others. The story is a global adventure of espionage taken out of today's headlines, with Bar Harbor, Maine, Bangkok, Thailand, and Shanghai, China as the backdrops. "e;Untruthful Speech"e; is a remarkable thriller. A group of extraordinary individuals embarks on a deadly adventure searching for a stolen formula that can permanently alter the power structure of the world, leaving death and destruction in its wake.

Textauszug

Chapter 13

Nigel, Derek, and Nick pulled in the anchor as quickly as possible. Evenings were ending early that far north, even in May. Between the weather and dusk coming on they had adequate cover, but Nigel didn’t want to take any chances. They would have to leave the bodies behind and get the hell out of there. They got back just after sunset and headed to Elli’s house, where she was waiting.

Nigel felt Elli had been hiding something from him for a while.

“Elli, you need to come clean. What was in that box? For us to fix this, I need to know everything. I know I fucked up, but you know I would’ve never brought Derek and Nick or anyone else along if I’d known it was going to be this dangerous.”

Elli nodded her head, looking over towards Nick, who was trembling but otherwise calm considering what just happened. “We’ll talk later.”

“Geez Elli, we have two dead deckhands. All of us could have been killed at the cliffs. Why did you have to bring the stuff down to the cliffs? I did recognize you even with all the rain gear. What else can Nick see or hear that will change anything at this point?”

“In the first place, I wasn’t supposed to be the one going to the cliffs. I was supposed to hand things over in the parking garage, and my contact was supposed to bring the package down, but I got called just before the handoff. One of my handlers couldn’t reach my contact and had spotted possible “unfriendlies” in the garage. There had always been concern security would see me leaving the building with the box. My handler also told me there was a lot of unusual action near the handoff area, so the plan was nixed. The handler in the garage instructed me to go out of the lab’s delivery entrance to the cliffs where they were planning on passing the package off to you. They knew of some camera blind spots and I couldn’t be tracked if I followed their instructions.”

“OK, Let’s hear the rest.”

“ Elli continued, “Since that night in early April, when the young kid, supposedly from the CIA made contact and extortion was put on the table, things had gone a little crazy. Today was insane. As the days moved ahead, I came to find out someone very high up in the CIA organization had strongly requested a big favor be done for them. When I heard this, I couldn’t believe they would approach us after so many years, especially with a request of this magnitude.”

Nigel was only surprised it had taken them this long.

Elli explained further. “Derek was brought into the mix to be more of a hostage than anything else. The CIA wanted eyes on everyone at all times and wanted as few people as possible involved. Unfortunately, Nick pushed his way into a bad situation.”

Lerdell Labs, is one of the preeminent genetic study labs in the world. Elli was in charge of a study analyzing how feasible it would be to use a new technology called Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats or CRISPR (pronounced “crisper”). CRISPR is a family of DNA sequences found in bacteria. DNA carries the genetic code for most organisms, and molecularly defines that organism.

CRISPR DNA sequences are obtained from bacteria that have been attacked by a virus. The bacteria will have remnants of the virus DNA that had infected the bacteria. The bacteria’s use of these sequences plays a vital role in their antiviral defense system, much like the human immune system works using antibodies. In Elli’s research the use of the technique was primarily focused on coronaviruses. She rarely talked to Nigel about her work. It wasn’t because the conversation would be over his head; it was because Nigel was too busy running a lobstering and smuggling business. Plus, the only thing he knew about corona was it was a beer, and great with lime.

“The entire time, after initial contact from the CIA, all they told me was our smuggling operation was needed to retrieve a package from Lerdell Labs, date unknown. In the meantime, it was our responsibility to learn everything we could about the waters off of Sols Cliff. That is why I told you about and asked you to be sure you understood the waters at Sols Cliffs.”

What Nigel and Derek didn’t know was they would retrieve a package containing all the study records and samples of two vital compounds. The first was ribonucleic acid (RNA). Its principal role in Elli’s research on viruses was as a carrier of genetic information. The second compound was newly discovered CAS enzymes, a family of proteins used for genome engineering from the CRISPR project Elli had been heading up for a couple of years. Elli had been made aware of what would be retrieved early on and, should she tell anyone, would be responsible for her husband’s and son’s deaths.

CRISPR isn’t too difficult to understand on an elementary level. It works like the cutting and pasting tool used in word processing programs. Much of the research done in most labs is on DNA, but in Ellie’s research, it was being studied to stop RNA based viruses similar to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

The process used was to introduce to the host a solution containing a “guide” or “targeting” RNA, looking for a specific genome section particular to the virus. The CAS enzyme then acts like a pair of very tiny scissors and cuts the sequence out, rendering the virus useless.

Elli’s project was different. Her team had discovered a way of inserting several guide RNAs and CAS enzymes, some newly discovered, into the solution. That combination could seek out hundreds of targets, significantly increasing the CRISPR’s ability to destroy almost any natural or man-made coronavirus or its mutations.

The CIA wanted control of that technology, as did the GRU (formerly the KGB), Mossad, and, even more so, the Chinese MSS. They were even aware an operative had infiltrated Elli’s team. Once the project was near completion, they would make their move. Elli was instructed not to publish anything on the study. There was to be no history of it left and she would not be allowed to start another study, or else. Ellie continued, “Well, I guess I should have come clean earlier. The goons at the CIA, or wherever they were from, told me they’d kill you two if anyone found out.”

Derek was still a little shook up and in a sarcastic mood. “I guess that didn’t matter, did it? They tried to kill us anyway.”

“Honey, why would they do that? They didn’t have the package yet, and we were cooperating. They had no reason to try to kill us. I don’t think our guards would do that either. They’d just make a note of who was in the boat, then report it.”

It was at that point Nick finally broke his silence. “I don’t think it was CIA or Lerdell guards.”

“How would you know that?” Nigel asked

“Because I recognized one of the shooters. I saw him on the cliff for just a second.”

“Are you positive?”

“Yeah, When I got to town for this trip, I went to the Chinese take-out place to grab lunch. I saw him come out of the kitchen, where there were two more Asian guys. They were waving goodbye to each other. One looked like the cook or maybe the owner, and the other was wearing a white lab coat.”

“Well, you might be more valuable than I thought.” Elli mused.

Elli’s phone rang. It was Sam Wilder, the head of security at the labs.

As she listened, her eyes grew wider. “Let me get this clear. You found two dead at the base of the cliff, and one at the top.”

She turned on the speakerphone.

“Yeah, Dr. Brunetta”

“Did you recognize them?”

“Unfortunately, we recognized two of them. One was Justin Straw, the other Del Williams. We’re trying to contact their families. By any chance, do you think Nigel might know anything? I know he had hired them on a couple of times in the past when he was in a pinch.”

“I’m not sure, Sam, I haven’t seen him for a couple of weeks now, but you may want to call him. As far as I know, he was only out with Derek and another hand named Nick. What about the third guy?”

“Never seen him. Young kid, wearing a suit and a knitted tie that looked like it came from the eighties. By the way, I need you to know someone ransacked your office, and, according to one of your techs, it looks like some files were taken. Do you know why someone would be going through your office?”

“Gosh, I don’t, Sam. Do I need to come to the lab?”

“No, we’ll lock everything down for the night. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Bye Sam”

Derek again sarcastic in tone, “We obviously have one hell of a shit show going…”

All of a sudden, the front door came crashing in, splintering into several pieces. Two men, dressed in black from head to toe, followed the door, pushed their way through what was left. They carried semi-auto rifles and spoke in Mandarin. One was similar in size to the shooter at the cliffs; the other was much taller and heavier but moved like a deer.

The larger one looked over at Elli, and in English, said, “Where is the box?”

“Mom, tell them. It ain’t worth dying for.”

Elli pointed across the room, “Over there, behind the sofa.”

The smaller one grabbed the box. Both intruders ran out the door. After making it across the yard, they got into a black Jeep Wrangler.

No one in the house saw them drive up or leave, but Derek was happy he had installed a state-of-the-art security system a year...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 8.2.2021
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Krimi / Thriller / Horror
• ISBN-10: 1-0983-4747-1 / 1098347471
• ISBN-13: 978-1-0983-4747-5 / 9781098347475