The Genesis Illusion

Chapter 19

Owning a car in Singapore is expensive. The government, to control traffic, requires a costly permit to even buy a car. Only a few permits are issued each year and since more people want one than the number available, you must bid on them. The cost can vary but often is as much as $40,000. Then you add the purchase price of the vehicle, taxes, and various fees and don't forget the operating costs like gasoline. The ten-year cost of car ownership can be as much as $250,000. Because of these costs, many of the cars are high-end luxury vehicles like Mercedes or Lexus. The controversial system seems to be working, even though drivers constantly complain about the traffic, as Singapore is much less congested than most major US cities.

Nara drove his Mercedes while thinking about the inventors kidnapping case and his interviews with Paul and Maria. There is definitely a connection between the bombing in New York and the kidnapping in Singapore. Paul and Maria are somehow tied to these crimes. Someone doesn't want the inventors researched. Nara parked his car to think. He often did this to be free from the distractions of his office. He liked a particular covered car-park near the University. There were usually open parking spaces and he could look out at a park where residents walked their dogs.

A tablet computer and a cell phone comprised Nara's unofficial mobile office. Ideas danced in his mind while email messages appeared on the tablet screen.

Hello, greetings from New York. Thought I'd let you know we found a reference to an insurance policy Frank Wilson, the deceased, had from his work at the UN. The life insurance policy payout was $500,000, and the beneficiary was Maria Koh. Also, the explosive device was not purchased through either the military or our ATF supply channels. But we tracked the serial number, and it was among items stolen from an ATF depot a couple of years ago. Stay in touch, Jaylon.

That's interesting, but I still don't think that is enough motive for Maria to kill Frank Wilson.

A woman opened the door to the car parked next to Nara. What's that? Then two children shouting at each other bumped his car as they climbed in the back seat. After struggling to fasten them into car seats she backed out and drove away. Following the interruption Nara gazed at the tablet screen again where the email from Jaylon was still visible. I need to find out more about these inventors. There's got to be an important reason someone doesn't want them interviewed.

It's unusual, but I need help to examine the patent documents filed by the inventors. I'll call Jacobs. He is the best for this job. Maybe something happened at the time too. Jacobs said they applied for several patents around the same time. Perhaps there's a news article that could shed light on the circumstances surrounding these inventions?

Nara scanned his email for incoming messages. Here's a message from Officer Long. The CID forensics team has completed their search of the three inventors' homes. Nothing much found. But they did find a strange series of numbers written on a calendar in Ian Carlson's apartment, on tomorrow's date. We need to have these numbers evaluated by the cryptography group. Perhaps it's a coded message?

Nara attempted to make a call on his cell phone. He'd never mastered the technology that was second-nature for Singapore youth. After an aborted call, he connected with Paul. Paul agreed to help with the patent research without hesitation. Maybe he can see something we couldn't?

Paul was enthusiastic about this development because he needed to do more research anyway for the UN. He was free at the moment so Nara agreed to contact the protective surveillance officer to have him drive Paul to the Singapore IPO. But before he did, Nara ask Paul if he had time to look at the news articles around the time the first patents were filed. Nara knew this was a long shot, but he hoped that someone with Paul's keen eye for relationships could find something that might help. Paul agreed, but Nara detected uncertainty about that suggestion. Even so, he wanted to help, and he had time because of his restricted travel situation.