The O'Neal Saboteur

by Nathan Pedde

  “That’s good right?” Des said.

  “Yes,” Sheemo said, “But hopefully it isn’t too little too late.”

  Des Stood up from the table, “I better eat something so I can get some studying done.”

  “Yes,” Sheemo said, “I’ve got to get back. I’ll see you later.”

  Sheemo left the dirty dish on the table. He walked out of the room and townhouse.

  Des pulled out his phone and looked at the screen. He scrolled through the windows and got to Susan’s contact button. Des thought maybe he should call her. But he was unsure what to do.

  Then his phone rang. Des jumped slightly as it buzzed in his hand.

  It was Susan. Des took a deep breath and answered it.

  “Hi, Susan,” Des said.

  “Susan isn’t here,” an older Male Voice said, “It’s the ‘mystery man.’ The one from earlier.”

  Des clenched his jaw in a sudden flash of anger. He immediately thought of Cryslis.

  “What do you want?” Des said.

  “I’ve finally decided what I’m going to do to you,” the Mysterious Man said, “I want you to know, Ryder, or is it Des, I’m not quite sure who the real you is anymore. Anyways, I want you to know I know who you are, what you are, who your friends are, who your family is. I’m unraveling your little cell, piece by piece and there is nothing you can do to stop me.”

  “Keep him talking,” Cryslis said over the Neuronet, “I’ll record your entire conversation.”

  Des took a deep breath and unclenched his fist.

  “Where’s Susan?” Des said.

  “She’s fine,” the Mysterious Man said, “She’ll stay fine. She’s asleep.”

  “What have you…” Des began.

  “Shut it,” the Mysterious Man said, “Don’t you dare accuse me of hurting her. I would never do such a thing. Being a grown adult, she had a bottle of wine and passed out drunk. I think the stress of seeing a kid she’s practically raising turn to a life of ‘crime.’ I think it has stressed her out.”

  “I don’t believe you…”

  “And I don’t care what you believe, little pup.”

  “What do you want? Why call me? To gloat? Is your ego that low?” Des said.

  “Sticks and stones buddy,” the Mysterious Man said, “I’ve called you to let you know a little secret. Besides to mock you a bit.”

  “And what’s that?” Des said.

  “I know who the saboteur is,” the Mysterious Man said, “And I have evidence that’ll prove it.”

  “Why don’t you help a guy out and give me a hint?” Des said, “Allow us to finish this so life can go back to normal.”

  “What’s the fun in that?”

  “Then why tell me anything at all?”

  “Cause on top of having evidence that proves who the real attacker is,” the Mysterious Man said, “I also have evidence that’ll prove the saboteur is your older brother.”

  Des clenched his fist and slammed it onto the table.

  “Leave him out of this,” Des said.

  “No,” the Mysterious Man said, “You involved him. It’s on your head.”

  Des took a deep breath, he knew getting angry wasn’t going to help anything.

  “I’m still confused on why you called me?” Des said.

  “Cause I want to play a game,” the Mysterious Man said.

  “A game? I may be young, but I’m not a child.”

  “The game is simple,” the Mysterious Man said, “Find out who the real saboteur is, it’s one person. You have forty-eight hours. Do that, and I’ll destroy the false evidence about your brother. I will also send you all of the information you need to send the real saboteur to prison for a very long time.”

  “And if I don’t want to play?”

  “This isn’t a game you can get out of, kid,” the Mysterious Man said, “Either I’m sending a file of the saboteur to you so you can be a hero. Or the file will go to the cops, which will be full of incriminating evidence of your brother. Up to you.”

  Des was silent for a moment, he knew he needed to say something, but only insults came to his mind.

  “One more thing,” the Mysterious Man continued, “Congrats on not getting poisoned. I’m glad my shot missed, or else I would have had to wait to play the game, and no good would come from that. Not with what the saboteur is planning.”

  The Mysterious Man hung up, and silence filled the air. Des let the phone slip from his fingers to flop onto the table. He collapsed to the chair and sat, his head in his hands.

  “What do I do now?” Des asked Cryslis over the Neuronet.

  “I need to think for a bit,” Cryslis said, “Study for now. I’ll contact you in a bit.”

  Chapter 25

  Elsie had listened to the conversation between Des and the Mysterious Man. Fear rose up her spine as he made his threats and offered to play the game. She knew she had to keep her emotions under control. Even when Sheemo walked into the warehouse Cooley and herself both occupied. The small warehouse turned research lab for Sheemo to get the scanner system to work better.

  She wore her disguise and some street clothes. Cooley or Paul as he was calling himself at the moment hovered over Sheemo. She knew Cooley was getting impatient, but he didn’t show it.

  Sheemo listened in a headset while turning knobs on a big fancy computer. At least Sheemo and Cooley called it elegant. It looked like a play toy kids threw together and then called it a computer. The one that was more make-believe than was real. This one, however, was very real and worked very well.

  “This is the scanner?” Elsie said.

  “Yes,” Sheemo replied, “It is.”

  Cooley turned to Elsie, “Don’t mock it.”

  “I’m not mocking it,” Elsie said, “It…”

  “I didn’t have access to a big enough 3D printer to print out a fancy looking case for all the fancy hardware that’s inside of it,” Sheemo said.

  “But the previous version of it looked cool,” Elsie said.

  “Yes,” Sheemo said, “but I have made this one much better with much more sophisticated hardware. It doesn’t fit in the old chassis. Not if I wanted to include the cooling system in it.”

  Elsie bit her lip as she studied the equipment. She opened her mouth to make another quip, but before she could, Sheemo interrupted her.

  “I’m hunting for signals right now,” Sheemo said, “And I need some quiet while I do it.”

  Elsie closed her mouth and glared at Sheemo.

  Sheemo ignored her as he listened to his sizeable ugly computer.

  Cooley motioned Elsie over to one side. She followed him over.

  “What’s up?” Elsie asked.

  “I’m giving Sheemo some time to breathe and think without us standing over his shoulder,” Cooley said.

  “I see,” Elsie said, “Could you’ve figured out to do that? I mean, is it new technology?”

  “The hardware isn’t new,” Cooley said, “It relies on the same quantum tech that everything around does.”

  “Then what’s so special about it?” Elsie asked.

  “It’s the configuration of the hardware, the software of the program and the use of it,” Cooley said.

  “Could you’ve done it?” Elsie asked.

  “If I had enough time and if I had an idea of what was the end goal,” Cooley said, “It’s the problem with this machine, I don’t fully understand the end game of it. I’ve been studying it all week, and I’m still discovering little things about it.”

  “What do you mean?” Elsie asked.

  “It has been designed to find communication signals from around the individual scanner location, and it can tell various information about the signal.”

  “Like who sent it, where, when,” Elsie asked.

  “A little more complicated than that, but that’s the idea.”

  Sheemo pulled back out from the computer, “It doesn’t say who unless the signal has a name attached. Like a cell phone. But it assigns
a unique code to each signal, and it can flag when and where the signal reappears.”

  “What’s the end game?” Elsie asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “What’s this machines ultimate goal?” Cooley asked, “I discovered the machine can tell the difference in body temperature and you can tell who someone is from miles away.”

  Sheemo shuffled slightly in his seat.

  “That’s an experiment,” Sheemo said, “This is a tool for law enforcement officers to help them solve crimes. The technology for each of these pieces aren’t new but imagine a device that can be used to identify a criminal from miles away. Imagine the possibilities of its use.”

  Cooley and Elsie looked at each other.

  “This isn’t good,” Elsie said, “Imagine if the enemy has the same thing?”

  “Are you successful?” Cooley asked.

  “Kinda,” Sheemo said, “Come take a look at this.”

  Cooley and Elsie walked over to the screen. On display was a list and placement of the start and finish of each signal.

  “These are the signals in question,” Sheemo said, “You can see the list has expanded greatly from the stuff I found for Ryder before.”

  “Some type of scrambler?” Cooley asked.

  “A very sophisticated one,” Sheemo said, “And actually it might be multiple layers of scramblers. They’re protecting their tracks very well.”

  Elsie knew there was information they could use there, but she had no idea what. She needed to figure it out.

  What am I missing? Elsie thought.

  The meeting ended soon after. Cooley and Elsie left the warehouse, which left Sheemo to work by himself.

  ***

  Elsie sat in the passenger seat of Cooley’s hover-car. It wasn’t his real car, but a recent purchase as the large hover-van was easy to spot, while the hover-car was easier to hide in the sea of vehicles.

  Cooley drove the car down the small road. He weaved his way down alleys and little streets.

  “Is everything all right?” Elsie asked, she knew something was off, but didn’t know what.

  “We’re being followed,” Cooley said, “It has to be a Drone.”

  “Someone from afar," Elsie said.

  “Message Cryslis. Get her to go to the warehouse.”

  Elsie thought of Cryslis, and she was quickly connected to the Neuronet.

  “Yes, Elsie,” Cryslis said.

  Elsie quickly updated Cryslis on the status of Sheemo and what was going on with them and the drone.

  “Lose the drone,” Cryslis said, “I’m on my way to the warehouse to check on Sheemo. I’ll be in my disguise.”

  Elsie turned to Cooley and told him what she said.

  “What do we do now?” Elsie asked.

  “I need to lose this thing,” Cooley said, “or capture it.”

  “What are our assets?”

  “In the trunk is a pin shooter.”

  “That should work,” Elsie said, “If I can get to the trunk.”

  “Try the glove box,” Cooley said.

  Elsie opened up the glove box. In the glove box was another pin shooter shaped object. However, it didn’t look like a standard pin shooter.

  “Is that a gun?” Elsie asked.

  “It’s not a gun,” Cooley said, “That would be illegal. It’s a stun gun.”

  Elsie looked up from the glove box. They were flying down a darkened alley when a large dumpster dived out in front of the car.

  “Sweet Jupiter…” Elsie said.

  The car smashed into the dumpster. The car bounced off and smacked into the nearby building wall with a crunch. The dumpster flew away from the car to smash into a building on the opposite side of the alley. The vehicle crashed into the pavement of the lane, the hover-lifters failing.

  Elsie focused her eyes. Her seat belt kept her in the seat. Her head and her shoulders ached. Cooley lay limp on top of the steering wheel. His head had created a dent in the plastic glass but didn’t go through.

  “Cooley,” Elsie said, “Cooley, you alive.”

  Elsie reached over and touched Cooley’s neck. She felt a pulse.

  “Cryslis,” Elsie said, “I’m under attack. Cooley is down. The car is damaged. Acknowledge.”

  “Busy at the moment,” Cryslis said, “Two attackers at the warehouse. Where’s Des when you need him?”

  “You told him to go study,” Elsie said.

  “I know. I know,” Cryslis said, “Stay sharp. I’ll be there soon.”

  Elsie heard the Neuronet line disconnect. She opened up the glove box and pulled out the stun gun. It felt heavy in her hands.

  In the darkened alley, two figures walked in front of the car, while a third walked behind. They wore long dark clothing and held stun batons in their hands. The dark stick-like objects sparked with electricity.

  Elsie disconnected her seat belt and pushed open the door. She used the car door as a shield as she aimed the stun gun at the figure on the right approaching from the front.

  “Stop right there,” Elsie screamed.

  “Hold on girly,” a Voice she didn’t recognize said from behind, “I don’t want to hurt you.”

  Elsie turned and aimed the stun gun at the lone figure behind her.

  “Bite my ass,” Elsie said.

  “Fine,” the Voice said, “Have it your way.” the figure placed one hand to his ear. “All units. Attack.”

  Elsie fired her gun at the figure. The twin stun projectiles struck the figure. Bolts of electric shock ran up the figure, and the body dropped to the ground with a metallic crunch.

  “A stun gun,” the Voice said, this time from the figure who approached from the front, “Stun guns have only one shot, and you wasted it. There are still two of me.”

  “What the hell is going on?” Elsie said.

  The two figures charged at Elsie. Their feet clanked on the concrete of the alleyway.

  Elsie dropped the stun gun onto the seat of the car. She ran away from the car and the figures back towards the downed figure. Elsie grabbed the stun baton from the figure. She looked down at the face, except there wasn’t one. It was the smooth metal of a robot.

  “That’s not good,” Elsie said.

  She held the two batons in front of her and forgot all her fencing training. The two figures charge closer to Elsie. Their metal faces shown in the low light of the alley. They raised their batons in unison as they charged at Elsie.

  Elsie moved without thinking. She ducked under the two batons of the robots. She struck out with a baton as she passed. The surge of electricity sparked as it connected with the robot. The robot fell to one knee as voltage shorted parts of it out.

  The first robot jumped over Elsie to land behind her. She dodged and ducked the multiple attacks of the robot. Her baton blocked strike after strike. A quick jab of her batton managed to hit the chassis of the first robot, sparks flew from the baton, and it fell to the ground.

  The second robot struck with it baton, the metal rob hit her shoulder. Electricity surged through her as she fell to her knees and rolled away from the robot. Her eyes lost focus as she saw the second robot stand up from its kneeling position.

  “Get up, Elsie,” Elsie said to herself.

  Elsie pried herself off the ground to her knees. The robot stood over her. It reversed its stun batton and prepared to strike it down at her head.

  Then two small metal pins hit the chassis of the robot. The pins surged with electricity, and the robot fell backward.

  Cooley stood on the roof of the car, the stun gun was in his hands. Elsie felt nauseated as she realized she had almost died.

  She breathed deeply to keep the vomit down.

  “It’s okay,” Cooley said as he ran towards her.

  Elsie noticed there was fresh blood on his forehead and his face was an angry bruise.

  “But the gun was empty,” Elsie said.

  “A gun can be reloaded if you have more ammo,” Cooley said.

  Elsie n
odded.

  “Cryslis,” Cooley said.

  Elsie knew he was using the Neuronet.

  “Three targets down," Cooley said, "Robotic… No. We used stun guns and stun batons… No hope for recovery… Is Sheemo alright? Good. Affirmative.”

  Sirens rang out in the distance.

  “It looks like station security will be here in a moment,” Cooley continued to Cryslis.

  He paused for a long moment before he continued, “Roger that. We’ll recover the bodies. See what we can learn from them.”

  Chapter 26

  The next morning was like any other one. Des got up very early, headed out to his drop point and got to the military academy. He wore his Ryder disguise and the military academy uniform. Des grumbled at the early morning; however, he was getting used to it.

  Des was glad he didn’t have to face Cooley and Cryslis over the actions of the night before. He felt ashamed he wasn’t able to help.

  He knew Cooley would spend days taking apart the robots before he could discover anything. Des was also happy Sheemo didn’t even realize they were under attack. Cryslis had managed to take out the two robots before they approached the warehouse. He would be unaware of any danger.

  Des got to his class early and wrote some notes on what was lectured about the previous lesson. He wrote quickly on a piece of plasto-paper and a pen. He considered it ancient expensive techniques, but it was required.

  The classroom slowly filled up with students. Des wondered how many of them were wearing disguises and how many had their real faces on.

  As Des flipped over the paper so that no one else could look at his notes, Veer stomped into the classroom. He had a displeased look on his face.

  Veer sat down at the desk beside him and glared at Des. His face was covered in a large black bruise which stretched from his ear to his chin.

  “You okay Veer,” Des said, “Get into a fight.”

  “Funny you say that, Ryder,” Veer said, “I want you to send a message to Des.”

  “I don’t know any Des,” Des said.

  “I know you know him,” Veer said, “I’ll kill him someday.”