Page 36 of Thorn

That could be an individual or it could be the government.

The Russian government liked to keep an arm’s length from any actions, either overt or covert that took place on foreign soil. Of course, they did. Every country did. That was one of the reasons why Iniquus existed, to do the work that the normal channels couldn’t. That’s why Iniquus had signed a contract, but the operatives remained in the dark as to whose signature was scrawled on the bottom line.

Knowing who had hired them would sure give Thorn a better way to frame up this operation.

It wasn’t the lynch pin, though.

Right now, he was on a fact-finding mission. A person-finding mission. He’d probably start to wipe some of the fog off his lenses as he went along. As soon as that metaphor came to mind, he thought again about Brigitte’s secretly-passed information on the bathroom mirror. Why was the Mossad involved?

With the plane in the air, Thorn lifted his plastic cup of water and took a drink as he scanned the first-class cabin. Sitting in the last row, with the carpet-covered wall behind his chair, everything around him looked copacetic.

He angled his body away from the aisle and opened the files list. Now, he’d get a clearer picture of what was to come.

Chapter Eighteen

Thorn

Air France, French airspace

Saturday, Twenty Zero Three Hours

Thorn tapped his finger on the file that Lynx had marked #1. He scanned down the medical journal article about members of the American diplomatic corps who had been stationed in Cuba and had recently returned to the United States with odd symptoms. They called this “The Havana Effect” and referenced the term neuroweaponry.

“Neuroweaponry.” Thorn moved his lips as he pronounced the word to himself. That seemed every bit as dangerous and difficult to contain as biological weapons.

There was a mystery that the scientific community was grappling with. More than two dozen officials from the American diplomatic corps were living and working in Havana when they heard a series of strange sounds. They remembered the specific events because they couldn’t figure out what could make those particular noises. They also remembered them because soon after those noises occurred, the officials started experiencing some fairly alarming medical issues. They had cognitive issues including forgetfulness and poor focus, as well as physical issues like dizziness, headaches, and hearing loss.

Here was another word that he hadn’t come across before… “neurosensory dysfunction,” which the article went on to describe as mostly effecting balance.

And what’s more, the article said this experience was not unique to Havana. US diplomats out of Guangzhou, China were reporting the same symptoms.

At first, the scientists thought that the diplomats were the victims of microwaves. It wouldn’t be the first time, Thorn thought. In the 1960s, Russia had shot microwaves toward the US embassy. The US government knew this was transpiring in real time, but the reaction was simply to monitor the diplomats’ blood. Only after their white counts started elevating were any actions taken. The staff hung curtains in the windows that reflected microwaves back out into the atmosphere rather than allowing them to penetrate the interior.

Thorn looked out the oval window at the lights twinkling far below him.If they knew it was happening, why didn’t the government send the curtains right away? Why did they let their diplomats get microwaved?He shook his head.Crazy.

He scanned down the page to find where he’d left off. His eye caught on the name Dr. David DuBois.

Here it was talking about DuBois and peer reviewed research. David DuBois, after performing his studies on all the effected diplomats and officials, had concluded that they didn’t have brain damage. They weren’t suffering from a traumatic brain injury (TBI). He thought that what they were seeing could be isolated to the individual’s damage in the inner ears. He believed that the balance issues came from the otolith organs in the inner ear and that would explain the dizziness the officials described.

Thorn took a minute to humanize that information. What would it be like to be one of those officials, going about life in a healthy way and, all of a sudden, have issues with balance, forgetfulness, headaches, and hearing loss. That would be disabling to Thorn. He wouldn’t be able to do his job. He wasn’t sure what kind of job someone could hold down under those circumstances. How bad were the symptoms, scale of one to ten? Thorn wondered. Could they drive? Could they walk? Could they make safe decisions? Thorn hoped, that as he moved through the files, he’d find answers to those questions. It sounded like someone had taken out a large number of diplomats on not one but two diplomatic missions.

Thorn finished the last paragraph, which stated that DuBois’s findings stood counter to those found in other medical facilities where the subjects were examined.

Swiping his finger across the screen, Thorn found he’d read to the end of the first article. He wanted to know what the other facilities had concluded.

He opened the next file that Lynx had marked as #2. She must have had a reason for placing them in a specific order. This article was also from a military medical journal. Thorn’s finger traced down the page as he read along − twenty-one American service members from an undisclosed location were the subjects of the study team headed by David DuBois, M.D. PhD.

The article began with the notation that all of the subjects had newly arrived to the theater of operation and none had a previous blow to the head.

There was a list of symptoms. Most of them were described in medical vernacular that Thorn didn’t have the background to follow. He’d have to research those terms later when he had some down time. Or get Nutsbe to write a report in lay-speak. Thorn picked back up when it mentioned headaches, sleep abnormalities, and auditory symptoms. He swiped through the pages to find the conclusion. As he took a sip of his water, he read, “While these individuals present with the dysfunctions that are indicative of brain trauma, their symptoms do not fit the military definition of traumatic brain injury, further inquiry is required.” The researchers suggested MRIs be taken to see if that offered further information.

Why didn’t they do MRIs right away?Thorn wondered.

The third file was a letter filled with redactions, referring to our allies Great Britain, Germany, Canada, and France, all of whom were reporting instances in their Chinese embassies where their diplomatic officials had heard something odd then became symptomatic.

There was David Dubois’s name again.

DuBois had asked to be allowed to examine those who heard the sounds and became symptomatic and those who heard the sounds and didnotbecome symptomatic.

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