by Tony Batton
"Even at night?"
"We have full floodlights. This would be the most difficult place to try and pass by."
"Do you have the relevant camera footage?" Lentz asked.
"Why? What are you looking for?"
"Humour me."
They scanned through the CCTV recording. Several police officers walked back and forth. There was no sign of Bern.
"See, I told you," Reems said.
Lentz crossed her arms. "Then I'm out of explanations. But we still have the undeniable fact that Bern has vanished.
Truman walked up. "So, did you find him?"
"No. No thanks to you," Reems said. "Now I have to report back to the Home Secretary. I will be sure to point out your contribution to events."
"And here I was hoping we'd buried the hatchet."
"Now there's an image," Reems said. "Don't tempt me."
Twenty-Eight
AFTER THE DOCTOR HAD FILLED two large vials with blood, Tom was unstrapped from the hospital bed and carried to a different room. It was small and stale, furnished with two grubby camp beds, a single strip light, and a window that had been enthusiastically but inelegantly boarded up. There were two power sockets but nothing plugged into them.
At least he wasn't strapped down any more, but otherwise his situation looked bleak. And, with the tranquilliser in his system, he couldn't make himself focus enough to work out what he might do about it. Everything around him was so basic, so purely mechanical. And the door looked solid. As he watched, it swung in, and a slim figure was pushed inside.
Mandy.
He sat up on the bed as the door was slammed, his head still foggy. "Are you OK?"
She glided over and knelt next to his bed, placing a hand on his arm. "I've been better."
"Why are they keeping you?"
"They keep asking me questions." She paused. "About who you are, and something you stole." She squeezed his arm. "You don't look like a thief."
"Because I'm not."
"Then what are they talking about? If you know anything, just tell them. Maybe they'll let us go."
"Believe me when I say that nothing I can tell them will help me."
"You don't trust me?"
He blinked. "You probably shouldn't trust me either. And it is complicated."
She sat on the bed next to him. "Did they drug you too?"
"Lots of tranquilliser."
"Then you're not thinking clearly." Her expression darkened. "They're not going to let me go unless you cooperate. We're both in danger here and it's not fair." She brushed her fingertips over his wrist.
As she did, Tom noticed something in her skin: a shift, like a tiny electric current. It wasn't static, rather he could feel the shifting patterns of electromagnetic flows in her body. Something was wrong. Something he should have noticed sooner, but the drugs were dulling his edge. And suddenly he knew what it was. "Back on the road, how did they tranq me?"
"What do you mean?"
"It was some type of tranquilliser gun. But all the windows were rolled up. Which meant whoever fired it was inside the car."
"That makes no sense."
"No. Not unless you're one of them," he said. She flinched, and he knew he was right. "You wanted to attach yourself to me from the start."
She stood up. "That's absurd."
But he knew that it wasn't. "Mandy, you have no idea what you've got into."
She looked at him, her lip curling, then she swore and shouted. "Get in here! He's not buying it."
The door opened and the large, shaven-headed man walked in. "Why is this proving so difficult? He's just some office worker. Maybe if your acting was better—"
"Bite me," she said. "And this room smells. Didn't I tell you to clean it up."
The large man shrugged.
Tom shook his head, still feeling the tranquillisers. "What are you, a bunch of backpackers with a laptop? Your weapons look like they were made in World War 2."
Mandy pulled a pistol from the large man's belt and pointed it at Tom. "Maybe. But they still work."
"You're hardly going to shoot me when you need me to cooperate."
She pointed the gun lower. "Maybe I'll just shoot you in the leg. But if that's the way you want to play it, then you've made the decision for us." She turned to the large man. "Contact the buyer. Tell him he can come inspect the merchandise."
Twenty-Nine
THE MINUTE REEMS WAS CALLED back to central London, Lentz had taken the opportunity to slip away. Now she was back in her lab on Level 61, CERUS Tower. She gripped the pair of carbon tongs and lifted the opaque polymer panel out of the bath of fluorescing liquid. She propped it carefully on a display stand then turned to the nearest computer terminal, where she called up a pre-prepared software routine. She was about to run a test when the door opened and Hallstein walked in.
"Are you nuts?" Hallstein pointed at the panel. "You're already in fabrication?"
Lentz raised an eyebrow. "I know I encourage free speech, but I am still in charge here."
"Not for much longer if you're manufacturing nanites again."
"These aren't intelligent nanites. The panel is merely coated with nano-particles – we're talking a far lower level of capability and risk. Besides, I can hardly mention this to Reems if I don't know it works."
"You still haven't told her?"
"She's had bigger things on her mind. Now watch this." Lentz pressed a key and there was a soft hum. The panel changed colour, from black to red.
"How... underwhelming. You needed nanites for that?"
"They're not... never mind. Keep watching." Lentz pressed another key. The panel changed to give the appearance of polished wood.
Hallstein shrugged. "It's just a display. Why not just use a hi-grade LED panel or something?"
"I suppose you could think of it like that. When I did the original work we had to make each material from scratch. We'd created specific particles that could be changed to render an image. Nanotech has made this far simpler: now it's all in the coating. In theory it could be applied to anything, no other mechanism required."
"OK, so I suppose that is a little neat."
"You could say that. And I think this is how Bern escaped."
"He hid behind a sheet of plastic that looked like a plank of wood?"
"No, but he might have been wearing something like one of these." Lentz turned around and picked up one of the three plastic capsules, the lid of which was lying next to it. She reached inside and pulled out what looked like an object made from thin, dull-grey material. She unfolded it to reveal a one-piece suit.
"Fetching," said Hallstein. "If you've got the figure for it."
"Very funny. The suit material is designed to be coated with the Resurface particles. We actually made the suits many years ago, as part of a number of alternatives for Tantalus. But they would work for Resurface, and now I'm thinking Bern's people got there, at least with the basic stuff. Wearing one of these, Bern could have looked like someone else. Perhaps a generic policeman."
"So a chameleon suit presenting a static change of appearance? Impressive, but not game-changing. Wait, how would he have hidden his face? Because if he hadn't, they would have picked him up on facial recognition."
Lentz slid her hands along the fabric then held up what looked like a hood with a face cover. "Credit us with realising having a suit like this would be less than totally useful if it didn't cover your face."
Hallstein peered closer. "Is that a special layer on the inside of the mask?"
"The plan was that the nanites on the outside of the mask would have a camera function and those inside would act like a display panel, so that the suit would show the wearer what everything looked like on the other side."
"Or the user would be blind?"
"Exactly," Lentz said. "You know, we could have used you on this project - you grasp things quickly. Why couldn't you have been born thirty years earlier?"
Hallstein smiled. "Let's agree to rese
arch time travel options once we've understood the current project fully."
"Fair enough. But there's more, and it is at least part way to being as extraordinary."
"Do tell."
"The key development we were working on back when I was originally at CERUS was a more sophisticated manipulation of light flows. The goal was not to make the coated item look like something else. It was to make it look like nothing else."
"I don't follow."
"Imagine the perfect stealth tool."
Hallstein frowned. "Surely you don't mean..."
"Invisibility," Lentz said with a smile. "It's basically just a trick of the light." Lentz tapped away on the keyboard. "I've been having some issues with the process – unplanned resonance occurring in the material." She pressed a key and stood back.
The panel started to vibrate. The wood-grain pattern vanished and the surface seemed to ripple. Then the panel cracked loudly and fell into several pieces.
"Some issues?" Hallstein said.
"Yes, well, still some kinks to work out: part of the problem is the amount of power required to sustain the effect. Either you don't have enough, or..." she pointed at the fragments, "it can't be contained. But I think it is possible."
"To go from a suit with pre-programmed camouflage settings - or even faces - to dynamic camouflage or invisibility? That's a huge leap. A percentage of the nanoparticles would have to serve as cameras for the signals to go to the rest of the nanites to replicate."
"That's exactly right. And we would use the same tech that works for the face mask. In order to permit the suits to move while "invisible," the Resurface nanites have to dynamically evaluate and track light sources in the area to bend the light around the suit. They bounce light's constituent waves around, adding up here and cancelling out there in such a way that rays in effect curve around the suit. They precisely undo the light-scattering and absorption of the object they are hiding: taken together the suit looks like empty space. And the wearer is invisible."
"And are CERUS the only one's to develop this?"
"It's been done elsewhere, but it's only been made to work under lamentably limited conditions."
Hallstein scratched her chin. "Perhaps you should tell Reems about this. Given what Bern has been able to do."
"It would only help show how he got away. I think we'll have to rely on other methods to find out where he is now."
"But why not tell her anyway?"
"I'd rather not have my project taken away from me. There were some other aspects to this that I always felt I could solve."
"Other aspects?"
"Changing surface properties other than light. For example, increasing surface tension, adjusting or reducing adhesion, varying the electromagnetic field, even boosting mechanics. Of course all of it is pretty speculative, but with the new nano particles, who knows?"
"You never could resist a challenge."
Lentz smiled. "This is what brought me to CERUS. Bern said it was the reason he hired me."
"You said that the suits were designed as an alternative for Tantalus. What did you mean?"
"Before we settled on more invasive procedures, we wondered if we could create the interface by full contact with skin. It is the body's largest organ. We didn't really know what we were doing, and it never reached anything like the right level of connectivity."
"But could it work now?"
"I don't know. So much about nanotech has transpired unexpectedly. So much has happened by chance. It would be wrong of me to make predictions."
Hallstein nodded. "OK, let's stick to what we do know. And see where that leads us."
Thirty
TOM WAS NOW TIED SECURELY to a chair. The doctor had set up his laptop on a table opposite, but it seemed the laptop wasn't connected to any network.
"So you're the brains of the operation?" Tom asked. "But if that's the case, why not decide to get out of this situation? Not exactly intelligent."
"We were intelligent enough to find you."
Tom shrugged, idly testing his bonds. They were tight and strong. "So who exactly is coming to see us?"
"He gave his name as Temple: a consultant representing the actual buyer, as I understand it."
"I presume you checked him out."
"We're taking a number of security precautions. We have three armed guards watching the street."
"And you're OK with being involved with this?"
"One corporation stealing from another? It's a victimless crime."
Tom coughed loudly. "Apart from me, of course."
The doctor hesitated. "You decided to get involved."
"No, I didn't."
"Why don't you just tell us where you've hidden it? Then we can take you out of the loop."
"How much is this Temple guy going to pay you?"
"Five million dollars."
"The rule is that when something looks too good to be true, it usually is."
The doctor shrugged and did not reply.
Tom frowned and looked at the computer. Could he connect to it? Would it help? He had to try, even through the fog of the drugs. Perhaps if he could get closer. He leaned forwards. "Have you asked yourself exactly what type of stolen property would be valuable enough for someone to pay five million on the black market?"
"Technology of some sort. Who cares?"
"Maybe you should. Maybe it's worth a lot more." Tom looked around conspiratorially. "Why don't I show you? It's complicated, so you're probably the only one who'd understand it, anyway."
"The buyer will be here any minute."
"Bring the laptop over here. I've got details stored on a private server."
The doctor picked up the laptop. "I'm not supposed to use the net."
"It'll only take a second. I thought you wanted to see it?"
"OK, but we need to be quick."
The man walked over and crouched next to him, pulling out a small hand-sized device that looked like a wireless modem. At least Tom hoped it was, and that he would have long enough to use it. Down the corridor he could hear voices. A surge of adrenalin hit him. He felt the tranquilliser in his blood. And he told himself it needed to be gone.
"So?" asked the doctor, a browser open on the computer.
Tom lost the feeling. He tried to shrug his shoulders. "I can't type with my hands tied."
"Nice try. Tell me the address."
Tom could feel the nanites doing something. Filtering the drug. Cleaning his blood. His mind started to sharpen. He reached out to the modem...
"The address?"
"It's..."
Heavy footsteps thumped down the corridor. The doctor flinched back, moving the laptop away. Tom's connection with the modem slipped out of reach. Mandy and the large man walked in, followed by an older, heavy-set man, dressed in rough street clothes. His eyes lit up as he saw Tom. "My, my. It's really him."
Mandy nodded. "We have the samples for you to test, Mr Temple."
"Excellent."
Tom looked at Temple. He didn't need any extra abilities to know that the man was not who he seemed to be.
Mandy cleared her throat. "You can see he's the right guy. We talked about a payment, if you're going to get the samples."
Temple shrugged. "We talked about it, but my people aren't going to incur any expenditure unless they know they have the real thing."
"That's not our problem. We had a deal."
Temple nodded. "We did. I'm changing it."
There was an explosion from down the corridor. Then two gunshots.
Everyone turned in the direction of the fracas, then noticed Temple raising a pistol. "On the ground," he said calmly. The large shaven-headed man glared and did so.
"Nice work," Tom said with a growl.
Mandy lowered herself to the floor. "I searched you! Used a metal detector."
"Ceramic pistol, carbon ammunition," Temple said. He touched his ear. "Are they taken care of? Good." He looked back at Tom. "You're coming with me." Two similarly
dressed figures, carrying identical pistols, appeared behind Temple, their expressions like granite. Temple gestured to Mandy. "Untie Faraday."
She muttered and pulled herself up, then over to Tom, and began fiddling with the ropes.
Tom lowered his chin and whispered. "Believe me now?"
"I hate you."
"Quit the chatter," Temple said.
Mandy finished removing Tom's bonds, and Tom stood up, a little unsteadily. "You don't need to hurt them," he said.
Temple gave a slight sneer. "What I don't need is to listen to you."
Tom knew that the crew of kidnappers were as good as dead. And for him it was worse. "Did they tell you about me?" he asked.
The man raised an eyebrow. "A little."
"Clearly not enough." Tom closed his eyes and let his mind unleash. He reached out into the room for the advanced electronics he knew would be there. He felt the encrypted earpieces in their ears. He started to weave his mind into their protocols...
A hard hand slapped his face. Tom's eyes flew open, his head reverberating.
"No, no. None of that crap," Temple said. "Now I have a present for you." He pulled a syringe gun from a pocket. In the chamber, a dark, flecked liquid, churned. "You're going to enjoy this." Then he reached forward, pressed it against Tom's neck and fired.
Thirty-One
IT WAS LIKE ICE HAD been poured into Tom's veins. A feeling of cold malice raced around his body, and he almost fainted. Within his blood he felt a million tiny voices scream out in pain and desperation. Something was attacking him. Attacking his nanites.
"What the heck was that?" he wheezed.
"A little something the boys in the lab cooked up," Temple said with a smile, then he glared at Mandy. "You were supposed to have him sedated."
"Go to hell."
Two large men appeared in the doorway. Temple nodded to them. Tom tried to concentrate, reaching out for the earpieces. He could still feel them, but everything else was different. They were like fizzing, angry hornets. It was like breathing electricity. He couldn't do this. Then he saw the two men advancing on the kidnappers, lethal intent in their eyes.
