I've got lots of pierced ears and no earrings. I've got a few fingers with ring marks and no rings. I've got some watchband marks and no watches. I do have one silver anklet chain, also hidden under a boot, and a labial piercing stud from Jane Doe eleven. The anklet chain is completely generic, but the piercing stud is handmade work.

[AUXWIN PRICE].

Jane Doe-11: Piercing stud [Image]

[VIDWIN GRAHAM].

Wowwch!

[VIDWIN BECKET].

Uh, different. We got any clues?

[VIDWIN PRICE].

Yes. It's Incan handworked gold. Not a knockoff but a genuine pre-Columbian artifact. It was probably an ear piercing, originally. Nearly all the clothing is generic-mostly Chinese and Canadian knockoffs of American fashions. If I had to guess, I'd say they were dressing to fit in.

[VIDWIN BECKET].

You said nearly.

[VIDWIN PRICE].

Right. John Doe twenty-six was a minor between three and five years old. He was wearing this shirt.

[AUXWIN PRICE].

John Doe-26: Embroidered shirt.

[Image]

[VIDWIN BECKET]Is that Guatemalan?

[VIDWIN PRICE].

No. It's Zuletena embroidery-from Ecuador.

[VIDWIN BECKET].

You sent off the dental records and DNA?

[VIDWIN PRICE].

Dental records. They don't have a DNA database, though if we get some matches we can do interpolations from closely related living relatives.

[VIDWIN BECKET].

Better try Colombia and Peru, too. Next door.

[VIDWIN PRICE].

Right. Stomach contents were mostly inconclusive with the exception of fried green bananas. That's popular in most of Central and South America.

[VIDWIN BECKET].

Patacones.

[VIDWIN PRICE].

Yeah, that's what my source called them. Cause of death in almost all cases was drowning. The one exception was an adult male with a chunk of shrapnel in his liver.

It was probably a piece of ship hull taken ballistic by cannon fire. We'll compare it metallurgically after they raise the Open Lotus. He must've died quick for there wasn't any salt water in his lungs.

[VIDWIN BECKET].

Anything else?

[VIDWIN PRICE].

Yeah-these weren't poor people. Their dental work is good stuff-ceramic gold crowns, some implants, some expensive orthodontia on two of the kids. Jane Doe eleven has breast implants. Most of the adult women had their leg and armpit hair suppressed, which is nowhere near as common down there as it is up here.

We'll be doing computerized facial reconstruction on the men and women, but that's it for me for now.

[VIDWIN BECKET].

When we get the adult male images, we should run them past DEA, especially Agent Ortiz in the Colombian section. They might not be members of somebody's cartel, but since there seems to be a South American connection, we might get alead. Did the Open Lotus put ashore in Colombia or Ecuador in the last month or two?

[VIDWIN GRAHAM].

We haven't been able to track the Open Lotus. As far as we can tell, the last time she put into an American port was three years ago when she was running a regular route in the Sea of Cortes up into the Imperial Valley. Nothing heard from since then.

It's possible that she's been mothballed someplace, out of the country.

[VIDWIN BECKET].

Or running under a different name and registration. We better make sure our freighter and that Open Lotus are one and the same. Any word from the navy on raising the wreck?

[VIDWIN GRAHAM].

Yes, sir. Captain Elmsford believes he'll have it ready to float by tomorrow. He's got a two-hundred-foot mobile dry dock coming from Beeville Naval Base and weather permitting, they'll get it up and moved into BBINS.

[VIDWIN BECKET].

Okay. That's where I'll want the team excepting Ensign Terkel. Unless, that is, Ensign Terkel has found a ballistic match on our fifty-caliber machine gun?

[VIDWIN TERKEL].

Negative, sir, but I still have five vessels to check. Two Witch Class Fastships and three fifty-foot patrol boats.

[VIDWIN BECKET].

Have you checked the Sycorax yet?

[VIDWIN TERKEL].

Negative, sir. I caught them at BBINS yesterday, but they are a gamma-level security installation, and I had to go through Admiral Rylant to get the authorization.

By the time we were done futzing around, they'd pulled out for a scheduled patrol.

The security issue is resolved, though. Just have to catch up with them.

[VIDWIN BECKET].

Oh, really? Do you have their schedule?

[VIDWIN TERKEL].

Yes, sir. They'll be on coastal interdiction patrol until next Wednesday, when they provide extra security when the INS detainee transport docks at the Abattoir.

[TEXTWIN] MSG TO ENS. TERKEL:why the gamma level for sycorax?

[VIDWIN BECKET].

Jazz, get me their log data as reported to GulfComOps for the last two weeks.

While you're at it, pull the same data for all Witch Class vessels in the region.

[VIDWIN GRAHAM].

Yes, sir. Do we actually want all that data?

[TEXTWIN] MSG FROM ENS. TERKEL:.

the sycorax is an advanced technology test platform, they didn't tell me what technologies.

[VIDWIN BECKET].

No, we just want to avoid our specific interest getting back to them. Luckily we can pull their personnel files without going through anybody else. I want those.

[VIDWIN GRAHAM].

So we have a specific interest in the Sycorax?

[VIDWIN BECKET).

We do. According to Ms. Beenan, that ship pursued her submersible with an interest well beyond normal operations. A helicopter, working with Sycorax, also opened fire on the submersible outside the rules of engagement. It stinks, but it might just be overenthusiasm. Or they might be trying to cover up something.

[VIDWIN GRAHAM].

Might she be lying?

[VIDWIN BECKET].

She might, but why? What's her gain? So far, her testimony maps to all other evidence, and I can't see any motivation for her to lie.

[VIDWIN GRAHAM].

In that case, sir, I have a suggestion.

[VIDWIN BECKET].

Yes?

[VIDWIN GRAHAM].

We should pull the component-level weapons inventory on the Sycorax. Ensign Terkel has been checking fifty-cal weapons all over the region. The word has got to be out. When he does a ballistics check on the Sycorax's fifty-caliber weapons, he should also make sure the weapons or their barrels haven't been switched out.[VIDWIN BECKET]

Very good idea. Anything else?

[VIDWIN GRAHAM].

No, sir.

[VIDWIN BECKET].

Okay. I want the team over to BBINS. Ensign Terkel, you'll continue as planned, but I'd like you to avoid the Sycorax for now. When you're done checking the other boats, I'd like you to find out where the officers and men of the Sycorax hang when they're shoreside. Dick will be continuing to work on the ID problem, and Jazz will keep after the missing chapters out of the Open Lotus's recent history. Last, I want to see about getting Ms. Beenan's surface tender released back to her custody. Find out why it was taken and under what pretext it's being held. Am I missing anything?

SESSION "JAZZ" ENDS.

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8.

Beenan: Intimidades escasas y grandes

Patricia was in landlord hell.

Mrs. Fong, the matriarch of apartment 3-C was talking a million miles a second, loudly, in Cantonese. Mrs. Fong's seven-year-old grandson, Lee, was trying to translate, but his English was much better than his Cantonese and Mrs. Fong never stopped talking, even when Lee was trying to tell Patricia what she was saying.