Matchup

THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION didn't have any "X-Files" division, at least in Sailor Moon's timeline, but they had developed an interest in the "anomalies" the NSA had been investigating--and covering up. The Bureau had developed a cordial hatred for the NSA that threatened to eclipse it's older feud with the CIA. It was especially galling because the Bureau needed to get the NSA's help in cracking encryption simply to carry on its efforts against organized crime. The NSA jealously guarded its prerogatives over cryptanalysis. For that help, the FBI had had to do endless dirty little favors for the NSA, favors that would tarnish the Bureau's reputation if, or more likely when, they were uncovered.

Since no one with any sense in the Bureau believed that the NSA was giving them the complete story, the FBI set up its own program to monitor the anomalies--a small one, but able to draw on Bureau resources at need. It was given an innocuous name: Intra-Bureau Coordination, or IBC.

It was not considered to be a plum assignment, and when Victor Ballin learned he was going to IBC, he assumed it was because he was tainted by association with Martin Tiggs, a name that was already anathema in the Bureau.

Victor Ballin noticed the e-mail from his brother Albert the morning after Albert sent it, but did not look at the attached files until the end of his day, when all the other IBC staffers (all five of them) had left. His brother had mentioned that Minako Jones was associated with the case, and, of course, she was connected with the Lake Merritt incident. Victor checked through what the Bureau had on her to see if there was anything new. There wasn't, really; no contact observed with any gang members since the funerals of her husband and brother-in-law, a major gang leader. And, according to what the IBC had dug up, no further association with the anomalies. There could always be something buried in the GALATINE files held by the NSA, but Victor doubted it.

That did not mean, of course, that there was no gang involvement here. Maybe the attack on the girl had been a warning, or an attempt to pressure the widows into turning over hidden funds to the new gang leaders.

One of the other documents was a list of names associated with the case--family members, and people who had visited the injured Chiba girl, people involved in her treatment--Minako Jones was not only a visitor; she was part of the surgical team that had initially treated the girl. The rest of the team: Dr. Chiba--the girl's father; against normal procedure but who would stop him . . . Dr. Gonsoles, Dr. Han, Dr. Mizuno . . .

Gonsoles? Mizuno?

He checked again. Carmen Gonsoles and Ami Mizuno. Victor Ballin remembered one of his last cases out of the Detroit bureau, just before he went to Miami. And, on the visitor's list, there was Alison Gonsoles--and Mizuno, too.

It had been a long time since the so-called "Christmas Miracle," but Victor had never forgotten, because he had been in the Gonsoles home hours after Alison had first been reported missing. And he had not forgotten that strange call from Mizuno, the one he had never been able to follow up himself. There had been something so out-of-place about that call . . .

And there was something else Victor knew now. Xavier Goudan, the so-called Cabin Killer, was the prime suspect for the abduction before Alison Gonsoles had returned alive. But Xavier Goudan had not been seen alive since the day of the abduction. And the manner of his death was perhaps the most tightly-guarded secret in GALATINE. So, Dr. Mizuno was linked, peripherally, with two anomalies.

The search also showed that Dr. Mizuno was associated with another GALATINE anomaly, the Smithfield case. She'd treated Smithfield's final victim, Lisette Pinatabo. She had also concealed the identity of the people who had brought Lisette in, some gang-bangers. No one had pressed her on that minor perjury; not surprising, since her husband was wealthy and a power in Silicon Valley.

And, for that reason, interviewing her directly was a bad idea. But he had Albert . . . he'd ask his brother to return this favor.

Putting speculation about Dr. Mizuno aside for the moment, he began running the other names through the enormous FBI database. He found out that Chiba's wife, the girl's mother, had been the victim of an unsolved shooting six years before--the case was still open in Palo Alto, but it was cold. Yet another thing that smelled, but it wasn't associated with an anomaly--

--Although it did happen the same night as one. Kevin Jones had been the only survivor. That one had happened in Oakland, California--minutes before Mrs. Chiba had been admitted at Stanford. Another coincidence?

Dr. Chiba, like most of the doctors involved in the initial, had quite a number of entries in the files, but most of these instances where they had treated crime victims and had been called to testify, or had submitted depositions. Eliminating those left only one instance for Dr. Chiba: he had reported finding a body, in Palo Alto. The case was another old, cold one: the possible murder of one Luther Ponds, who had an extensive arrest record.

It was now very late, but Victor Ballin pressed on. The next name that returned results was Shingo Tsukino, the wife's brother, and the blood uncle of Kimberly Chiba

The first item that turned up was that Tsukino had reported an abduction in Boston the night the Chiba girl was assualted . . . less than two hours before she was admitted to the Oakland hospital where her father worked. The girl who was supposed to have been abducted turned up alive, with a garbled story, the next day. But there was a major GALATINE anomaly that night in Boston, and something resembling one of the Lake Merritt angels had been photographed, possibly one of the ones that had appeared in the Sauvage video. And, the next day, Michael Joseph Cardift had been found dead, beheaded. Now he looked very good as the suspect for a string of serial murders from Boston to Washington. Well and good . . . not a firm connection, but a lot of the anomalous deaths and disappearances fit the profiles for serial killers.

Shingo Tsukino also had a brief arrest record, and Ballin now examined it. It was from Chicago, Illinois. The details were very skimpy. The official record stated that someone with identification as Shingo Tsukino had been arrested in connection with a homicide but had escaped from custody before booking. A fugitive warrant had been issued, but withdrawn when the actual Shingo Tsukino was proven to be in California at the time of the arrest.

The date was interesting. It was the same day as the Lake Merritt incident. That was also the date of a possible anomaly in Chicago. A little more digging and Ballin found out that the homicide was part of the Chicago incident. The Chicago Police had tried to bury that embarassment, but they hadn't acted in time to keep everything out of the comprehensive FBI files.

The only pictures from the Chicago incident were some poor-quality blow-ups taken from video. But the suspect arrested as Shingo Tsukino definately resembled the student ID photo, from MIT. And there was something else . . .

Along with the student ID photo, another one came up in the search. It was a file photo from the school paper's archives. It had this caption:

"Freshman students Shingo Tsukino (center) and Mika Kayama (right) stroll along the Charles, enjoying the last day of freedom before classes begin. Also pictured are four members of Shingo's family: wife Hotaru (left) with daughter Rhea (8 weeks), nieces Sarah Uer (14) (lower left) and Kimberly Chiba (10) (lower right)."

Victor Ballin sucked his breath in.

The one arrested in Chicago was Tsukino or his double. And the second suspect, the one that had beheaded a man in front of dozens of witnesses, was his wife. And the two nieces . . .

Ballin brought up the most famous frame from the Sauvage video. The angels were smaller, but the picture was two years old. Sarah Uer and Kimberly Chiba looked like the two angels. The resemblance wasn't good enough for a positive ID--but it was just too much coincidence to let go by . . .

The third Chicago suspect was also arrested in a strange costume, although she wasn't showing wings in the file photos. But she had a definite resemblence to Dr. Mizuno.

He brought up the grainy shots of the third angel from Lake Merrit, and shots of Minako Jones. There were hundreds available of her from the funeral and the days around it. Jones was made for the camera. He remembered seeing a huge number of shots where Jones was in front of Marvell's widow, obviously posing--and not so obviously shielding the smaller woman.

Shielding, protecting . . .

The first angel at Lake Merrit, the one that had come out of the lake, had carried Kevin Jones, covered him with her wings, and then carried him to shore, and tried to revive him. Now that Victor Ballin was sure the angels had civilian identities, it became obvious . . . especially when combined with the girl angels in the Sauvage video. All together, most of them living in the same house . . . no wonder so many of the anomalies were from the Bay Area.

This could make his career--or end it. But since Victor Ballin figured he might be on his way out, like Tiggs . . .

Tiggs. Did he know?

That thought stayed in Ballin's mind as he delved further, and as he prepared the archive disk that would accompany his Memo to the Director. But he left Tiggs out of it. His old friend was in quite enough trouble; and there wasn't anything directly linking him to this yet . . .

FROM: Special Agent Victor Ballin, Asst. Head of Intra-Bureau Coordination

TO: The Director

SUBJECT: GALATINE

Based on collation of the accompanying archival material, I have made preliminary identification for the following GALATINE suspects:

1. Hotaru Tsukino, aka Hotaru Tomoe: Chicago-A-1, Boston-C-7

2. Shingo Tsukino: Chicago-A-3

3. Minako Jones, aka Minako Aino: Merritt-1

4. Sarah Ami Uer: Merrit-2, Boston-C-1

5. Kimberly Chiba: Merrit-3, Boston-C-8

6. Ami Mizuno, M.D., aka Mrs. Ami Suri: Chicago-A-2 . . .

The current Director was a career FBI man. GALATINE was an irritant to him, a source of endless friction with the NSA, the CIA, and even the DIA. The last two weren't supposed to have any interests in domestic intelligence and counterintelligence, but of course they tried to get around that restriction, and succeeded, when they thought it was important. And GALATINE, with its ephemeral promise of secret weaponry, was irresistable to them.

Clarence McBride hadn't taken GALATINE very seriously until the Lake Merritt incident. But he still cast a leary eye on the whole mess. Still, it would be nice if the Bureau got credit for cracking this one . . .

But what to do next?

Sending Agents out to interview the suspects was a bad idea for several reasons: It would alert them, and some of them could be incredibly dangerous. And there weren't any federal warrants on any of the GALATINE suspects.

McBride didn't discuss these options with Ballin--he would give his opinion when asked. But he did mull it over with his Assistant Director, Annette Kerkorian, one of the very few people in the Bureau who was cleared for GALATINE.

"So, should we hand this to the Illinois Attorney General? Get the fugitive warrants re-issued?" the Director asked.

"If we want to handle this as a normal case. But this is GALATINE. The Illinois AG and the Chicago PD will have to be involved, and I don't think they will move very quickly. We'll also have to deal with the California AG and at least two local PD's. And if all that works, we just have three suspects."

"Yes, and not the most dangerous ones . . . But what else? The NSA will try to grab them and probably fall flat on their collective faces. And bet your ass they will represent themselves as Bureau people."

"We should take this to the top."

"The Attorney General?"

"No. The President. If we go through anyone else, the NSA will get wind of it and act. Not to mention the CIA, or even the DIA. Even the DEA will want a piece of it, since one of the suspects is linked to the Blues."

McBride wished he could light up, but smoking in the Bureau headquarters was a distant memory. "I think you're right . . . But I'm not Hoover. I have to go through the AG."

"Yes, for a formal meeting," said the Assistant Director, turning to Ballin. "But I'm going to a White House function Saturday night. I don't think my husband will be feeling up to it. Would you be my escort for the evening, Special Agent Ballin?"

Jack Crawford was surprised to get the invitation, but not completely gratified. He suspected it was because J. Kruppenhauer was also a guest, and for that reason, he was tempted to turn down the invitation. But he'd never been in the White House, other than as a tourist, and he was interested in the performance. Roland Descartes, his wife, and their famous lover, who formed a very public triangle, at least in Europe. It was an interesting gesture from an otherwise conservative President. Crawford thought it was probably more of an outreach to Kruppenhauer, a Francophile and a generous supporter of the arts, than a gesture to win the conservative gay and bisexual voters. It would be Michiru's first performance in many months . . .

The Chief of Protocol sighed with relief. "Well, this is it. The final guest list, Charlie."

White House Security Chief took the list from Martha Balsam and leaved through it, looking for names underlined in red or green. Green meant they were alternates; red meant they had not been considered before. There was only one redlined name. "Well, I guess an FBI agent will check out."

The FBI had not flagged the six suspects in the Ballin Memorandum, to keep from tipping the suspects or the NSA. Security measures so often defeat themselves . . .

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