Murder on the Fly by Jeffrey Alan Lockwood

Author:Jeffrey Alan Lockwood [Lockwood, Jeffrey Alan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781683131243
Publisher: Pen-L Publishing
Published: 2017-12-29T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 23

I nearly spit out a mouthful of Gustaw’s coffee—not that it was too strong (I’ve seen new customers screw up their faces in the most entertaining ways on a first encounter with his brew). Rather, the front page headline in the Chronicle was sputter-worthy: Eco-Terrorists Take Credit for Medflies. According to the story, the newspaper received a package late yesterday containing a letter and a plastic bag filled with insects and rotting fruit.

The letter said, “We are the protectors of Mother Earth. The spraying of pesticides that kill all forms of life while contaminating water and soil must stop. Human arrogance is killing the planet and poisoning children.” The propaganda was not original, but what these nut jobs were doing to stop the aerial applications was both twisted and novel. “We are producing Medflies in our facility and spreading them to expand the infestation beyond the spray boundaries. If you doubt our abilities, examine our handiwork. We will make the use of malathion or any other biocide economically and socially unacceptable. Our program to stop the chemical industry and corporate agriculture from murdering our Mother will continue until the corrupt powers cease their program of death. [Signed] The Breeders.”

State and federal officials were interviewed and said the package contained a number of insects identified as Medflies, so it seemed the Breeders had some access to these pests, whether or not they were producing them. An unnamed source close to the control program admitted there had been some “unusual patterns” in the expansion of the Medfly outbreak but covered his ass by saying, “We don’t really know a great deal about this pest, so it’s difficult to say what would be normal. There are certainly many explanations for what we’re seeing other than the work of criminal extortionists.” A spokesman for the CDFA said the Breeders’ tactic would only result in greater use of malathion, which the government was applying in the safest ways possible and “If the public is upset with the spraying, they should direct their anger at this group of radicals who were putting the state’s agriculture at dire risk and costing taxpayers millions of dollars.”

The article continued on page 12 and included a photo of a helicopter with a blanket of mist being laid down from its spray boom. There was also a picture of a guy with thinning hair, a toothbrush moustache and a weasel face. The caption explained that he was Dr. Jerry Tabachnik, “a former US Army researcher at Fort Detrick, Maryland, and now associate director for invasive pests with the USDA-APHIS office in San Francisco.” This was evidently the big shot from back East who Clell had learned about. The guy was quoted as saying, “My military experience with defending the nation from biological warfare attacks translates into critical leadership in positioning our agency to respond to an accidental or intentional outbreak of a voracious pest in an area of vital strategic value to the nation.” Maybe the guy was an overpaid

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