Rebecca Simmons's contact, a bank associate, provides information regarding a private company, Echelon, that is buying substantial real estate in Rosemont-Mather as well as other major cities using offshore bank accounts, shell companies, and Merchants National Bank.
Under coordination by Sheriff Lina Moretti, and based on investigations by Jacque, Garrett Prosper and Derek Menzies, Echelon had been contracting private construction firms to build a surface structure extending underground that utilize privacy fences and security detail. Echelon's influence extends to criminal, financial, judicial, and law enforcement purview.
A number of executives are identified and targeted for investigation.
Mable Wood and Garrett Prosper investigate a construction site, confirming the presence of hired gangs attempting to intimidate those on the street from becoming too curious. Using his Animalism, Garrett is able to use hoards of rats to confirm that lots of digging is going on in the construction site. It is overheard that a reporter is said to be investigating the site as well.
Lina Moretti, Adam Exlibrist, and Derek Menzies rendezvous with one of Echelon's executives in business development, Erika Alten at a hotel. She is known to frequent all Echelon properties and contracts high priced GFE/BFE prostitutes. Moretti, under the alias Alicia Abernathy, meets a Ms. Harriet Wilson, a middle-aged matron with Alten. The meeting is a high-end escort bidding for two clients. They bid through a tablet app that is unlocked using facial recognition software. Derek is able to identify an account number being used and the meeting adjourns.
Rebecca Simmons and Jacque head to the strip club, Rancho Cordova Deja Vu, in search of information on Jeff Cummings, Echelon's facility manager that frequents the venue. They discover him in a private VIP room dead, poisoned by an unknown toxin that seems to have been ingested.
After Lina Moretti works with Prince Alessandra to get Echelon's lawyer, Alejandro de Antonia, to cooperate, she calls everyone together to share information. Using the acquired account number from the Alten meeting, they link it to an account holder, A.Giessen. Samples of poison taken by Jacque from Cummings is acidic with a green hue and is dangerous to Kindred. New orders are given and the Kindred disperse.
Using his contacts, Jacque is unable to acquire the medical files for Jeff Cumming. They were sealed by the Chief Medical Examiner under suspicious circumstances.
Garrett Prosper acquires A.Giessen's full name, Arnoud Giessen, from a financial contact. He is rumored to have strong ties in the banking world with influence at City Hall and runs his money through Merchants National Bank.
Lina Moretti meets privately with Alten at the nightclub Ambiance as Alicia Abernathy's client. Alten is 29, masters degree at Harvard Business, likes gin, headhunted by Echelon's CEO, Owen Comgal. Moretti is under surveillance during their date and believed her cover may have been compromised.
Rebecca Simmons studies the discovered poison. It appears to act like a nerve agent, VX, though somehow combined with the pesticide, Pyrothrin. She sets up a meeting with Doctor Yuya Johnson at UC Davis who is researching chemical weapon countermeasures. His research has been funded by anonymous donors and they are preparing for an inspector to come through. She provides a generous donation to receive more details about his work. It is determined that the compound was derived from their work but not completed by their team. The financier is then identified as Echelon.
Mable Wood, Derek Menzies, and Lina Moretti go to Alten's apartment to uncover information about Echelon. Once inside they discover a dead body in the bedroom, stabbed multiple times who looked remarkably like Moretti. Wireless surveillance cameras spot them and the doors and windows are secured remotely. A phone rings that Moretti answers. It's clearly an attempt to frame her, to send her a message and stop her investigation. Bright lights turn on and armored police burst in with shotguns, only to be dispatched by Moretti and Wood.
