Page 24 of Bone Echo

“How so?” he asked. No question Kurt would take any help he could get. He just didn’t know how this particular help arrived on the scene. Then again Hanes had said the business with Ella’s old school and medical clinic had Feds written all over it.

“I think it’s best if I start at the beginning,” Cuddahy suggested.

Audra placed mugs of steaming coffee in front of them, followed by the cream and sugar before settling at the table next to Kurt with her own mug.

Cuddahy thanked her and then launched into his explanation. “During the latter part of World War II at least three brothers—scientists—escaped the troubles in Germany and came to the U.S. One of the brothers settled in a small town in Tennessee. Another in the DC area and another on the West Coast.”

Kurt alerted. Lawler or Meltzer, whatever his name, wasn’t old enough to be a character in this story. But he didn’t toss that out. He allowed the man to go on.

“Once those brothers were settled, they started families. I believe the man you’ve encountered here and in L.A., Josef Lawler aka Josef Meltzer, is a grandchild of one of these men.”

Audra looked from Cuddahy to Kurt. “Meltzer?”

“Meltzer was in L.A. before coming here.” Kurt withdrew the photo of the man he and Audra knew as Dr. Lawler and passed it to her. “He apparently changed his name and showed up here as a school counselor.”

While she stared at the photo, Kurt sipped the hot coffee. It helped chase away the chill that had penetrated the depths of his very bones.

“That’s correct,” Cuddahy said. “These three brothers were conducting the sorts of medical experimentation we don’t allow in this country. The ones those surrounding Hitler’s hierarchy are infamous for.”

A new line of tension slid through Kurt. This was way beyond the scope of what he’d expected to hear. “Such as.”

“The brother in Tennessee was responsible for the first cloned humans. Illegally of course. This information is highly classified and that is as much as I can tell you. Those people have been relocated and given new identities to protect them.”

Kurt wasn’t entirely sure how to take this news. He wasn’t actually shocked, just unnerved further. Rather than question the man, he waited for Cuddahy to go on.

“Another brother set up shop near my home. When my daughter was five years old, she went missing. The group he headed was responsible for the abduction of her as well many others.”

The twist in Kurt’s chest made him flinch. “I’m sure you’re aware my daughter is missing.”

Cuddahy nodded. “That’s what brought me here. The Amber Alert.”

Before Kurt could question that news, Cuddahy went on. “The group in the DC area was being led by Dr. Detlef Meltzer. His area of interest and expertise was in Cryogenics.”

Kurt drew back a little. This was headed toward the twilight zone. “Now you’ve lost me, Cuddahy.”

“I’m aware how it sounds,” he admitted, “but there’s no time to wrap this with pretty paper and tie a bow around it. I’m telling you what these men have done. My daughter was stolen and we found her five years later but she was still the same age as when she was taken. She’d been in Cryogenic sleep the entire time until just before we found her. There have been a few glitches in her cognitive skills but she’s doing great now. In fact, this is the first time I’ve left her since we found her. But my wife, Sarah, is with her. She’s a deputy chief with DC’s Metro Police Department now. I opted to retire and be the one to take care of our daughter. As you can imagine it’s difficult to trust anyone with her security after what we’ve been through.”

“You believe something similar is happening here?” Audra asked. Her hand trembled as she lowered her mug to the table.

Cuddahy hesitated for a moment. “Due to the classification of the investigation, there’s not a lot I can tell you. But know this, though I left the FBI I have continued to advise on the task force that is investigating and undoing the damage wreaked by these brothers and their offspring. I am privy to a considerable amount of information but I can’t share much of it.”

He looked to Kurt then. “The clinic your wife used in Los Angeles. The school your daughter attended there. They were part of this group. We hope the final part. We shut them down and have dismantled the organization. But they were smart. All the test subjects were numbered. No names, no addresses. No way to trace them. There was a single photo for each one. We understood from some of the files that weren’t destroyed that Josef Meltzer had escaped. We just didn’t know when or how or where to. Until you issued that Amber Alert. I recognized your daughter’s photo. She is number 14.”

Ella was part of some kind of bizarre medical experiment? “What the hell kind of experiments?”

“Josef Meltzer was working with precognition. The extremely heightened ability to anticipate danger and other events. This was a continuation of the work done years ago but the success rate was low. Paul Phillips is one of the few test subjects that was successful to a measurable degree the last time around. There didn’t seem to be a way to fine tune the results. Some test subjects were left with terrible consequences—brain damage, mental disorders. Phillips is an adviser with the task force as well.”

A new kind of fear grabbed Kurt by the throat. “Are you saying Ella may have issues we haven’t recognized yet?”

“I think you would know by now if she did,” Cuddahy assured him. “The work Meltzer did this time consisted of one hundred test subjects. Of that number we’ve confirmed that about twenty have the desired ability the gene tampering prompted. That result is far better than the original test set.”

Kurt wasn’t sure what to say to that. The very first thought that came to his mind was after Liz’s funeral he found Ella crying in her room and he’d tried to console her. She’d kept repeating that she should have told her mother that something bad was coming. An icy cold filled him.

“What about the other eighty?” He braced for more horrifying details.

“Some were marked as failures with no complications so they were released from the program. Others were terminated.”

Audra gasped. “What are you saying?”

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