Earthbound : A gripping crime thriller full of twists and supernatural suspense by Fynn Perry (popular romance novels TXT) 📗

“Yes, both the scientist and the guard called it ‘brewing,’ but then the scientist said something about microbes in yeast strains producing cocaine and heroin. It sounded impossible because those drugs can only be made from plants, right? And I didn’t see any plant-growing facilities.”

“Right,” Jennifer muttered. “There’s an article here from UC Berkeley dated last year,” she said, skimming through the text. She gasped. “You’ll never believe it! A Professor Wilkinson writes that a growing number of medicines once obtainable only from plants can now be made using genetically modified yeast organisms in a process known as synthetic biology. Researchers want to add opiates to that list because they are part of a family of molecules that may have useful medicinal properties, including antibiotic and anticancer properties. Genetically engineered yeasts could make it easy to produce opiates such as morphine anywhere. Wilkinson thinks a low-yielding strain could be made in two or three years.”

“That’s what the scientist meant when he said his work could be used to help cure diseases,” John said, remembering.

Jennifer nodded in acknowledgement as she read out another section from the same article: “Other scientists are working on producing tropane alkaloids––a family of compounds that includes drugs such as cocaine. Cocaine-making yeasts are further off…but there’s no reason why we cannot engineer yeast to produce any substance that plants produce, once we understand the mechanics, says biochemist Jonathon Falconi of the University of Calgary in Canada.”

“That can’t be the scientist I saw. Falconi sounds Italian. The guy I saw was definitely Middle Eastern.”

“But they could know each other. They might have met at a conference or something. There might be a photo of them together.” She searched for Falconi, and yeast-manufacture and a screenful of results appeared. She clicked the images tab in her browser. The screen showed around twenty photographs at a time. She slowly scrolled downward, giving John time to scan each one.

“Can’t see him anywhere,” he said, disappointed. “Maybe look up ‘missing biochemist.’ ”

She did so. The top result was a link from a website named ‘Silicon Valley Science,’ and it bore the title: Prominent Scientist & Family Go Missing.

She clicked it and an article came up on the screen with a photograph of the scientist.

“That’s him!” John said as he looked at the photo.

They both read the article, which was over a month old.

Ekrem Yilmaz, a thirty-four-year-old, Yemeni-American bioscientist, has gone missing together with his wife and three children. Work colleagues of Mr. Yilmaz reported him missing after three days of unexplained absence at work, and neighbors confirmed that the family’s Santa Clara home is empty. Yilmaz, who has won numerous awards for his research in the genetic engineering of yeasts to grow plant compounds, was awarded a grant for an undisclosed amount last year by the US government and a Silicon Valley Bioscience Foundation. The grant was awarded after Yilmaz made a breakthrough in his field using yeast to grow a trial batch of morphine. He had just moved into a new research facility in Cupertino, apparently also paid for by the foundation, when he and his family mysteriously went missing. Police are baffled by the disappearance but have not ruled out that Yilmaz may have returned to Yemen with his family.

“As if he would give up a career like that in the US. And with all the unrest in Yemen, it would be very difficult for anyone to track him down and confirm that he had really moved back there,” Jennifer said.

“That works in El Gordito’s favor. He has gotten away with kidnapping the only person in the world able to brew heroin and cocaine without fields full of plants. Can you imagine the power he will have?”

They stared at each other for a moment as the magnitude of this discovery slowly sunk in.

“Do you have an address for the logistics place?” asked Jennifer, back to her usual, proactive self.

“The company name was Supreme Logistics Fulfillment Center, and it’s in Bellevue Logistics Park in Newstone, New Jersey,” John told her.

“That’s good enough,” Jennifer said, smiling.

After she typed the address into her browser, about twenty results came up for Bellevue Logistics Center, but under each website link was the same message: Missing: Supreme Logistics Fulfillment Center.

“That’s strange, Supreme Logistics isn’t coming up in the results,” Jennifer remarked. She clicked on the official site of Bellevue Logistics Park. The landing page announced there were twenty-four separate buildings in the park. Some major blue-chip international companies like GE, Whirlpool, and Electrolux had their own buildings.

Jennifer went straight to the plan of the site. John checked twice, but the building he had walked around wasn’t shown. The fulfillment center also didn’t appear on the building roster. Jennifer cross-referenced the name of the park against the New Jersey Herald and other newspapers until they found an article about the construction of the park. It had been built five years ago, under special planning rules, to encourage major international firms to invest in the area and boost employment. At that time, the first phase of twelve buildings was constructed, with the intention to build a second phase with a further twelve.

“Try Google Earth so we can see a satellite view of all the buildings. The fulfillment center for Logistics must be shown there,” John said with the confidence of someone about to bust open a coverup.

Jennifer gradually zoomed in from the Eastern Seaboard to the Tri-State Metropolitan Area, then onto New Jersey, and finally Newstone. As she zoomed in further the words ‘Bellevue Logistics Park’ appeared in white type. John examined the image of the park and studied it carefully, following the meandering spine road through the site.

The building John had been in was at the end of that road, he was certain, with the road leading directly to its front entrance. But on the satellite image, the tarmac terminated in a dead end. The area beyond was pixelated, making it impossible to see