Experiment 261 Chapter 6
Story and characters © Lavabat
Chapter 6 : Consolidating the Results
In the stations computer labs, a young female black and white Tabby sipped her tea from the disposable cup it came in.Amanda had being going through the various missing persons reports for over an hour. It had taken her a while, but she finally found a report that matched the statement given by the detainee interviewed by Warrant Officer Henderikse. She reread the report to make sure that she was right, then read the associated reports and witness statements. It was taking her longer than she thought it would to go through all the witness statements. She hadn't expected there to be so many! Several people saw the abduction from the road, four people who were out jogging saw the events unfold, and another witness managed to film the kidnapping with their phone. An off duty police officer from the tracking unit had recorded some detailed notes about the scents of the two kidnappers and the victim shortly after the incident occurred, andwas also the video surveillance from the cities cameras. Thankfully going through the video footage from the city's cameras would be someone else's responsibility.
She had contacted the missing persons unit to let them know that they had someone who may be Jana de la Rey, and did her best to explain the facts as she knew them. But she had not got a reply. They probably thought it was a prank or something. She would ask Captain Carter to contact the case officer in the missing person unit who was looking into Jana's disappearance when she got the chance. They might listen to him.
While reading through the last witness statements, Amanda noticed that the witness was able to identify one of the suspects. A second off duty police officer had recognized Terence Khumalo. She set the printed document aside and read the last report. It was about some blood found at the scene. It had been tested against the police's DNA database, and was found to belong to Piet Gouws. She sent a message to stations administrative department for any information about the two 'persons of interest', as the police called suspects. It wasn't long before she had a copy of the two Wolves criminal records and a few other documents.Not surprisingly they had both been flagged and there were warrants for their arrest.One document was an anonymous tip off that suggested that the two were living well beyond their means in recent times. Amanda had a hunch that money was the motive for the kidnapping. But if that was the case, who payed them?
While she was wondering what to do next, she heard someone stomping towards the computer labs. After a while she recognised the voice. It was Major Carter. He was swearing and muttering to himself as he poked his head in the door. Major Cater was clearly not in a good mood. His usual jovial tone was replaced with one of anger and frustration. "Assemble in the lecture room for a debriefing."
Amanda sipped her tea and looked at the cup distastefully, tossing the dregs into the nearby recycling bin. It was getting cold, and she had had enough anyway. "Yes Sir." She listened to the Majors muttering and deduced that someone had given the station the authorisation to hold the Hyena that everyone was talking about. Amanda could understand Major Carter's frustration. This was a police station, not a pound. And Jana had not done anything to warrant incarceration. Situations like this were not what the police were meant to deal with. But she could also understand why the civilian authorities didn't want an intelligent, self-awareHyena with opposable thumbs in their pound. Still, Amanda was surprised that William was taking it so badly. Surely there must be another factor that led to his foul mood?
By the time Amanda arrived in the lecture room there was already a lot of people there. They were fairly spread out, but some were clustered together into small groups, and all were in the front half of the room. Amanda took a seat near the small group of Special Task Force officers. Amanda had always admired the special operations element of the South African Police Service. Unlike most civilian counterterrorist units around the world, the STF also trained to conduct military special operations and had done so on many occasions with their military counterparts, especially during The Great World War some three hundred and thirty years ago. And they were complete hunks! Amanda happily daydreamed about the men of the STF for several minutes before Major Cater finally entered the room.
When the Major entered the room he was even more irate than when Amanda first saw him. Amanda couldn't understand it. Was it really that bad to have a sentient Hyena in the station? Major Carter cursed "damn bloody reporters!" as lent against the wall near the interactive whiteboard. He pinched the bridge of his nose as half of those in the room snickered and chuckled. 'That explains it' thought Amanda as she tried not to laugh too much.
Major Carter first looked at Nicole and Lauren, who were in the near the front "How did the interview go?"
Lauren was the first to answer. "It went well. We are convinced that she is who she claims to be."
"So who is she?" asked the Mau.
"Jana de la Rey. She claims to have originally been a Wolf. She also alleges that she was kidnapped by two Wolves in Johannesburg's Golden Harvest nature trail on April 4 sometime around 3:25pm."
"We will need someone to look into the missing persons reports" thought Major Carter out loud.
"Sir" began Amanda, "I have been looking into the missing person's reports while the interrogation was being done."
"Did you find anything?"
"Yes. The version of events given by Jana matches a missing person's report perfectly." replied Amanda.
"Have we established a liaison with the missing person's unit?"
Amanda sighed. "I have tried Sir; but I haven't gotten a reply yet. I don't think they believe me about Jana being a Hyena..."
Major Carter was disappointed, but not really surprised. Although it was being reported on every local, state, and international news channel, most of the details had been largely kept under wraps. The officers in the room likely knew more about the 'Experiment 261 Scandal' than anyone else in the world - aside from the perpetrators responsible for the scandal. He sighed, and thought out loud, mostly to himself."We will have to keep trying. I might need to make a video call or something."
Major Carter looked like he was about to ask another question, but Amanda cut him off. "Sir, one of the witness statements identified Terence Khumalo as a person of interest, and some blood found at the scene has been matched to Piet Gouws.Both have outstanding arrest warrants in relation to the kidnapping. I have a few documents on the two. Not much at the moment, but there is an unconfirmed report from an anonymous individual that the two are living beyond their means at the moment. An off duty officer from the tracking unit also recorded some detailed notes about the scents found at the scene."
William instructed Amanda to send him copies of everything she had on two suspects. "We need a financial search warrant...that should give us some more leads to follow up. But we need to know what institutions they are using for their finances. Could you look into that Amanda?"
"Yes Sir."
Now that he was certain he was not going to be interrupted again, William turned to Lauren and Nicoleto ask if they had contacted Jana's next of kin.
"No Sir. We only just finished the interrogation. But that is our next top priority. We keep you informed."
"Ok" replied William with a nod. "Do we have any idea what the motive for the kidnapping was?"
Amanda slowly shook her head. She had a hunch that the motive was money, but she had nothing to prove it. William turned to the interrogators. Lauren shrugged her shoulders and gestured with her hands to indicate that she didn't know. Nicole closed her eyes shook her head. Everyone else in the room was silent.
After a moment William addressed the officers. "OK. We have no motive, but we have a person of interest. If any new lines of inquires come up, then follow them and keep me informed. Standard stuff that you don't need me to explain. I will get in contact with the DPP to organize a warrant for the two persons of interests financial records. And we have to figure out how GeneTech fits into all of this."
After pausing for a moment, William continued. "Piet Gouws and Terrance Khumalo are to be apprehended for questioning. We will use Section 50 of the Internal Security Act if we have to. The same goes for any other persons of interest that we might find." No one was surprised that Section 50 was to be used if needed. While the more draconian sections of the Internal Security Act had long been repealed, the act still allowed for Warrant Officers and higher ranks to detain people for 48 hours without an arrest warrant in order to prevent extreme public disturbances, riots or public violence. It was a very controversial act, and it had a dark history, but it was still very useful to the police. Especially when the needed more time to gather intelligence on known suspects who were a flight risk.
Major Carter went on to explain Jana's current legal status as a person. It was a grey area. The laws clearly listed that Wolves, like all the other evolved sentient species on the planet, were people. But Jana was clearly not a Wolf anymore. If there was a significant amount of Hyena genes in her genome it would complicate matters considerably. Perhaps even to the point of no longer being a person as far as the law was concerned. There were various legal bodies and law societies trying going through all the relevant laws - but it would take a while. Regardless of whether or not she was still a person, Jana was not under arrest, but she was going to be detained until further notice. It was for Jana's safety, and for the safety of the public, but some officers seemed less than convinced. Jana would be staying in the station, but would be allowed to move around within the station as long as she had an escort. The computer and forensics labs, evidence storage areas, the armoury and other sensitive areas were obviously off limits.
The debriefing over, William dismissed the fur who were still present. As the officers started to leave the room, William pinched the bridge of his nose. There was still a lot to do! He needed to write a report for his superiors and the relevant government officials, and he wondered if he should get a doctor or vet or someone to examine Jana to see just how extensive the changes made to her were. Obviously he would need to talk to Jana first...He got his phone out of his pocket and checked the time. It was 1130 hours. He needed to get some lunch, which would be a perfect opportunity to talk to Jana. The Mau's mood improved as he walked from the conference room to the detention facilities. It got his mind off of the reports that he would have to write. Not to mention the politicians he would have to deal with. This was not something a Major in the police force normally needed to do. And it was the first time in his career that he had to do deal with politicians. It was getting on his nerves, and causing him some stress.
Jana was lying down on the cell's bed again. Her ears swivelled around as she heard Major Cater enter the detention area. She lifted her head and looked at him sideways, then sat up quickly as he unlocked the cell door. "We need to discuss a few things. I was thinking we could talk over lunch."
Jana smiled and her tail started wagging. "Yes please! Lunch sounds great! I'm starving!"
Major Cater led Jana down the walkway outside the cells and past three other cells which were identical to the one Jana had been in. At the end was a large plasteel door. Next to it on the wall was aniris scanner. The smart phone like device was attached to an anti theft display mount like the ones used in stores that specialized in smart phones. Here it was used to hold the scanner, which was connected to the mount with a retractable metal cable. William crabbed the scanner and held it in front of his eyes. The door unlocked.
He led Jana through to a large room with several tables, and numerous chairs of various types. On one wall was a recess with a sink filled with unwashed cups and mugs of various styles, a refrigerator, a small freezer, and a large stainless steel electric water heater for tea and coffee. She was led down a passageway past another secure area with a reinforced door and retina scanner, down to a junction in the passageway. They turned right, pasted a small computer area and into the stations main kitchen and lobby area.
Jana though it looked very nice. There were plush blue green carpets on the floor and the surfaces of the walls were covered in projections of light blue marble. There were two large tables stained wooden tables, and matching wooden chairs with black cushions. There were also some smaller tables with matching chairs in one of the room's corners, and a couch in another corner. Jana looked to her their right. She could smell food. She turned her head towards the smell. It was a large commercial style kitchen.It had everything you would expect to find in a commercial kitchen, but it also had a large food printer. In front of the kitchen was a cafeteria style serving counter, and at the end of the counter near the wall was a large commercial drinks fridge.
William and Jana walked to the kitchen and Jana was a little surprised to see a man she had not noticed before. A Fox that was much smaller than Jana, only 120 centimetres (4 feet) or so tall walked from the kitchen to the serving counter. He put both arms on the counter and rested his head on them while Major Carter and Jana approached. He was not concerned about Jana, who seemed weary. He had read all the memos that had been uploaded to the police covert net. And for a Hyena, she was...very easy on the eyes, so to speak.
The Fox spoke in asoothing voice, which was surprisingly deep for someone so small in stature. "Here for lunch, Major?"
William's stomach grumbled, as did Jana's. "Yes Christiaan. What's on the menu today?"
Christiaan stood up, but left his hands on the counter. "We have beef stew with vegetables served with bread, and roast lamb with chips and vegetables and either gravy or mint sauce. Everything else is gone."
Major Cater chose the beef stew, while Jana chose the lamb with vegetables. Their meals were served on plastic dinner trays, much like what Jana remembered from high school, but that did not matter. The trays were piled high with food, and it smelled wonderful!
William closed his eyes, smiled, and softly purred as he smelled his stew. Jana was salivating from the smell of her lamb roast. Looking around on the counter, Jana found some packets with sets of disposable plastic cutlery and napkins inside. She grabbed two. While she was getting the cutlery William grabbed two bottles of soft drink. They then sat down together on one of the smaller tables in a corner of the room to eat and talk. Try as they did to talk while eating, they ended up eating then talking. Both were too hungry to do both at the same time.
William wiped his mouth with a napkin from the cutlery packet that Jana had given him when he sat down. "Now, we need to talk about a few things Jana. Things are a little...complicated at the moment from a legal stand point. And that is without having to deal with the media. At this point in time we can't let you leave, but you're not a prisoner. You can go anywhere you want in the station, with the exception of certain sensitive areas like the evidence lockers, the armoury, places like that."
Jana's facial expression hardened. "...I can't leave, but I am not under arrest...so...Does that mean I'm not legally a person?" Her ears flattened and she looked away from Major Carter. Her expression hardened.
"We are not sure. You probably are, because you were a Wolf to begin with. And Wolves, like all other sentient species on the planet are people. But we have to make sure. We don't know if your being a Hyena now makes any difference. We aren't even sure you _are_a Hyena. Your...changes could be nothing more than cosmetic changes made at the genetic level. We just don't know."
Jana hadn't even considered the possibility that the changes made to her could be mere cosmetic changes. Her ears rose and her expression softened.William tried to lighten Jana's mood. "We are looking into contacting your next of kin. We will let you speak to them as soon as possible. We also have some leads with regards to who kidnapped you. We have their names, and the DNA of one of them. We are trying to establish a contact with the missing persons unit to work with them on your care, which was reported by your family and friends. We will let you know of developments as they occur, but we would appreciate it if you didn't contact the media for now."
Jana's mood lightened at the thought of speaking to her family, and the thought of her kidnappers being brought to justice. She smiledand nodded. William could tell the news was music to her ears.
Fishing out his phone once again William checked the time. It was 1212 hours.As William got up he spoke again. "We can also get some different clothes if you would like. And you can sleep in the lobby. We can get a portable camping bed and a sleeping bag."
Jana quickly got up and hugged him. Her tail was wagging. William smiled and let her continue to hug him for a moment. He then excused himself. "I need to go and write some reports. I will get an officer to come and meet you here. They will be your escort."
Jana was quite happy now. "OK!"
She was glad she was not going to be staying in the cells. Moving over to one of the sofas she sat down and waited patiently.