The Nexus

by Gary M Martin

  Stone knelt beside Candace. He raised his left forefinger so she could see. Instantly, the skin-like material at the tip of his finger split open the width of a fingernail. A thin, sharp, black rod stretched out about an inch.

  “What are you going to do with that?” Candace asked.

  “Like a hypodermic needle, I need to insert this rod just beneath the skin. The computer will dispense nanobots, microscopic robots, so to speak, that are composed of both organic and inorganic material, into your body. These nanobots will travel to the affected area and communicate to the computer in my arm its findings. The computer will in turn instruct the nanobots on how best to make repairs. The nanobots go to work. When they are finished, they die out and are harmlessly absorbed by the body. That’s the simple explanation.”

  “That’s the most insane thing I’ve ever heard of!” Walter exclaimed.

  “Do you know much about nanotechnology?” Stone asked.

  Walter glowered at him. “No, but I know crazy when I hear it.”

  “It’ll be alright, Walter,” Candace said. “I trust him.” She smiled, trying to assure him that it would be okay.

  “I won’t hurt her,” Stone said.

  “You’d better not,” Walter warned.

  “Go ahead,” Candace said. “Let’s do it.”

  CHAPTER 17

  Special Agent James Tarter opened the folder he had just retrieved from amid a stack of insurance forms. It was information pertaining to the Nexus case. He wondered how the folder ended up there. Had Horace tried to hide it? If so, why?

  He had already read the case file on Horace’s office computer. Interesting, no doubt. It included counterfeiting, an explosion, and possibly multiple murders. But these were things that Horace and his people should have been able to handle. Why call him in?

  He had talked to Horace about a week ago and then again two days ago. Horace hadn’t said much about the case, only that he wanted someone who had no ties to this town. James had asked why. Horace had said that he would explain it all when he got here. Now he couldn’t.

  Horace had been a good friend. During the few times they had worked together they had gotten along great. Not to say they always agreed with each other. There had been times when they were on opposite sides of the fence. The thing was they always respected each other during those times and would often give and take a little to reach an agreement. When it involved a case that they just couldn’t agree on it would always be up to the superior directly in charge of the case. There would be no hard feelings. Inevitably, when things got slow, they would end up at some bar downing a few beers.

  Apparently, Horace had informed his superior of his intention of bringing James in because he had immediately been given the case. What furthered that decision was that everyone else was tied up on other cases and wouldn’t be able to get to this one for a while.

  James wondered about Horace’s untimely death. It didn’t feel right. Horace’s body was found in the basement where the gas leak occurred. According to the initial investigative theory Horace had gone down to the basement because he had no hot water for his shower. Investigators found the showerhead leaking and figured Horace hadn’t completely shut it off when he realized that he wasn’t getting any hot water. Once in the basement, not realizing that there is a gas leak, he attempts to light up his cigar with his cigarette lighter. The resultant spark of the lighter causes the place to explode.

  It didn’t make sense. If Horace was going down to the basement, he must have suspected that there was some malfunction with the gas. And if the gas leak was strong enough to cause an explosion than wouldn’t he have been able to smell the gas as soon as he entered the basement? So why would he decide to light up his cigar?

  He had been told of the so-called accident that had killed Horace late last night. He had just settled into bed when he got the phone call. It had hit him hard. He had not slept much the rest of the night and had gotten up extremely early the next morning to get to Madison by daybreak.

  His wife was not too happy last week when he first told her that he might be going up to the FBI field office in Madison to help on a case in a small town called Nexus. But Denise, his wife, had learned to manage her frustrations over the span of twenty-three years of marriage. She understood early on that James’ job would sometime take him away from her and their daughter, Christine, who was now in her first year of college. She just hadn’t realized how hurtful this would sometimes be.

  Denise was more supportive than at other times when they learned that Horace had died in a fire. Horace and his wife had eaten dinner with them on a couple of occasions and Denise had grown close to them.

  James couldn’t accept that Horace’s death was an accident and he wasn’t about to let it go. He was determined that before he left Nexus, he would know the truth. With a little help, of course.

  His two friends, both special agents had arrived not long after him. He had called them last night after he had gotten the news about Horace. They knew Horace as well but were not as close to him as he was. Right now, they were in Nexus. He asked that they look around and get a feel for the place.

  He was their boss, but sometimes he didn’t feel like it. For the last few years, they had worked closely together. They made a good team. They had broken some difficult cases and had put their lives in danger more than a few times. Somehow, they had crawled and clawed their ways out each time to work another day.

  Nearly a week ago when Horace had called him to ask him and his guys to come up, he had mentioned that he would be working with a relatively new agent named Candace Caine. He spoke very highly of her saying that he thought she would move up in the ranks quite quickly. After the high praise, he was anxious to meet her. He still was but for a different reason.

  She was a wanted woman, the suspect in a murder. But the story he was told didn’t make a lot of sense. It brought up more questions than it answered.

  He hoped that she would call again. Her last call was unexpected, and he hadn’t thought to trace her number. This time he was ready.

  James continued skimming through the writings in the folder. There seemed to be nothing significant or eye-catching in them. There were a few blank pages. He almost closed the folder but decided to flip through the few empty pages. Stuck in the middle of the pages was a sheet of scribbled notes. At the top of the page was written Nexus. Below it was about twenty or so names. To the side of each one was either the name of a city and state or a question mark. Most had question marks. At the bottom was written: How many?

  He didn’t know what this last part meant. Maybe he would discover the meaning later. Right now, he was getting impatient to get this case started.

  He thought about the mayor. According to the notes, he was the primary suspect in the investigation. Could this mayor be somehow linked to Horace’s death? It was worth checking out. It was best to investigate while the case was hot.

  Earlier, while running through the case on Horace’s computer James had seen where the mayor’s office had been bugged. He wondered if the bugs were still in place. He called his two agents to check it out and call him back with their findings. He would then give them further instructions.

  CHAPTER 18

  Candace pushed to her feet and stood unsteadily for a time wondering if she would be able to walk. At least the pain was gone. It seemed to go away as soon as Stone removed his finger from off her leg.

  “You need to eat something,” Stone said. “That will speed up the healing process.”

  Walter breathed away a bit of pent up stress. Seeing Candace stand on her own without any obvious pain lightened his spirit. “I think we could all go for a bite to eat.”

  Stone wandered to the front door. “I think it’s time I finished my business here, so I’ll leave the two of you.”

  “No,” Walter said. “As an officer of the law, I can’t let you go. There’s a warrant for your arrest.”

  Stone smiled and seemed about to laugh. “That war
rant is a part of your law, not mine.”

  “But you’re on our planet,” Walter countered. “Doesn’t that make you subject to our laws?”

  Stone thought a moment. “Good point, but no. According to the laws of my planet, a bounty hunter is not subject to the laws of others unless it involves the taking of innocent life. The men that I killed was in self-defense. They were not innocent.”

  Walter gritted his teeth, frustrated because he felt certain he couldn’t physically stop Stone from leaving. He wasn’t convinced that Stone was completely innocent in the deaths of the two men in the restaurant. He needed time to decide what to do and if Stone left on his own he may never see him again. He quickly changed tactics. “Look, I’d like you to stay for a little while. I’m afraid for Candace. What if she were to have a reaction to your injection?”

  “She won’t. No one has ever had a bad reaction to these injections.”

  “So, you’ve injected other humans with these … nano things?”

  “Well, no, no humans, but …”

  “Just for a few hours. Then you can continue your manhunt.”

  Stone was silent a moment. “Okay,” he finally said. “I guess a couple of hours won’t make much of a difference.”

  “Let me ask you something,” Walter said. “If you’re from a galaxy far far away how come you look so human and you speak our language so well?”

  “I don’t have a lot of answers. I don’t know why our bodies are so similar. There are many theories that there has to be a common thread connecting our worlds, but few can agree on what that is. Our languages also have some uncanny similarities, though I still had to spend several hours studying your language before I was proficient at it.”

  “Okay, then,” Walter said. “That answer didn’t explain much.” He looked to Candace. “So, Candy, what do you feel like eating?” He knew that she didn’t like to be called that name.

  She grinned. “I told you not to call me that.”

  “I’m sorry, I just wanted to see if you were listening. So, Candace, what are you in the mood for?”

  “Anything edible and outside of Nexus. I’d like to stay in the shadows until I can determine who I can trust and get some idea about what’s going on. I also need to find a public computer. Horace had set up a site that I could go to for information on this investigation if I was unable to reach him for any length of time.” She paused after her last statement as the death of Horace suddenly seemed more pungent. Tears clouded her eyes but she refused to let it go any further She swallowed hard then continued. “I can’t use my phone. They would be able to trace my location through the cell towers. And, they may even be able to tap into my phone to see my activities.”

  Where are we going to find this computer?” Walter asked.

  “In a library. I’m sure there’s one around here somewhere.”

  “Why don’t you look up a library on my phone,” Walter suggested. “There should be no reason anyone would be monitoring my phone. Meanwhile, I’ll rent the room for another night. We don’t want to return here later to discover there’s no vacancies.”

  “Okay,” Candace answered. Walter handed her his phone.

  The elderly clerk looked startled when he first saw Walter step into the lobby of the motel.

  “Can … can I help you?” he asked as Walter stopped in front of the counter.

  Walter thought it odd that the man should seem so nervous, but quickly dismissed it as just part of the man’s personality. “I’ll need the room for another night.”. He handed his credit card out to the man.

  “Yes sir,” the man said with a slight quaver in his voice. “I thought you had rented the room for another day. I guess I was mistaken.”

  “I guess so,” Walter said, somewhat confused by the man’s reaction.

  A few minutes later Walter left the lobby and headed out to the car where Candace and Stone waited.

  There were two libraries within a forty-mile radius of the motel. Candace chose the furthest away in case she was somehow traced to the library. Walter agreed.

  They stopped by a Wendy’s to eat because it was only a couple of blocks away from the library.

  When Candace exited the car, she was surprised to find that there was no pain to her leg. It felt strong and supple and she walked into the restaurant without a limp. She could hardly believe that less than twenty-four hours ago she had been shot in the leg.

  The place was crowded which Candace found comforting. It was unlikely that anyone would attack her with so many people around. Even so every few minutes she would look around at the faces to see if anyone was paying particular attention to her. It didn’t seem that anyone was.

  Only a few people were in the library when they arrived. The library was small and only had six computers for use. Luckily only three were being occupied.

  Candace signed in and sat at a computer at the end of a long table. Walter and Stone stood behind her as she maneuvered to a site that told her that there was an error. Though it had no box for any name or password she quickly typed in a series of letters and numbers. Another site opened up. This one claimed to be a site for ordering window treatments. A timer in one corner of it began counting down from thirty seconds. Candace quickly typed in the second code. It finally opened up to what she needed to see.

  Candace turned to the two men. “Might as well find you a book to read,” she said. “It looks like I’ll be tied up for a while.”

  Reluctantly, the two men moved away and began to browse through the shelves of books.

  It was nearly an hour later when she walked over to where Walter was sitting reading the blurb on the back of a Stephen King novel. She had three sheets of paper in her hand.

  “I’ve got about as much information as I’m going get,” she said. “We can go now.”

  “I’ll go get Stone. If he hadn’t already bolted.”

  “I don’t think he’d do that.”

  “I hope you’re right,” he said. He put his book away and began to search for Stone. Candace followed.

  They found Stone looking through books of world history. Reluctantly, he put up the four books that he had been looking at and went out to the car with the others.

  “Can you talk about your findings?” Walter asked.

  “There’s not much here,” she said. “There’s no mention of aliens. If the bureau suspected—namely Horace—that there are aliens living in Nexus, it’s not revealed in these documents.”

  “So, this was a waste of time.” Walter said.

  “I don’t know,” Candace said. She began to peruse the sheets of paper.

  Walter started up the car and headed out of the parking lot.

  “I’ve got names of people of interest,” she said. “A few pictures. Mira and Stone are included as well as the mayor. It basically just tells me what I had previously been told.” She shook her head. “There must be more files somewhere.”

  “May I see those?” Stone asked.

  “Eh, I probably shouldn’t, but, then again, I’ve already said too much. Besides, the rules changed when my own people tried to kill me.” She turned and handed him the few sheets of paper.

  He quickly looked through the sheets. “The names are not familiar, but I recognize one of the faces.”

  “Only one?” Candace asked.

  “Yes. That doesn’t mean that the others are not from my planet. It only means that they’re not on my list of fugitives to be picked up.”

  “Can I see your list?” Candace asked.

  “My list is on my computer.”

  “And where is your computer?”

  “It’s my arm. Like I said before, It is a computer among other things.”

  “So,” Candace began, “how do we access this computer?”

  “It’s tied in with my brain waves, my thoughts. I can call up the information by merely willing them. And in my mind, I can see the information before me as clear as if I were looking directly at a computer monitor.”

&nbs
p; “That’s great,” she said, “but I don’t understand how we’re going to see your list.”

  “I hadn’t thought of that.” He paused and seemed to be in deep thought. After nearly a minute he spoke again. “I can usually make a hologram of the faces I have stored but they look like they may come out blurry.”

  Walter shook his head wanting to say something but didn’t.

  “I guess we won’t be able to see them then.”

  “I can make paper copies,” he said quickly.

  Walter turned briefly to Stone. “How’s that? You got sheets of paper rolled up in that arm of yours?” he laughed.

  Stone smiled. “No, of course not. I’ll need a printer.”

  “What exactly are you going to do? Put your finger in the port?”

  “Pretty much.”

  Walter looked to Candace. “I guess we can’t go back to the library for that.”

  ‘No,” Candace laughed. “I’m thinking there would be a few questions when others witnessed Stone sticking his finger into the printer.”

  Walter laughed. “I can imagine. I’ve got a solution, though. How ‘bout I borrow a printer from the office?”

  “If you think you can,” Candace began, “that would be great.”

  “I can try,” Walter said. “If not, I’ll just have to go buy one. It’s not a problem.”

  The clerk had his back to him as Walter stepped up to the counter. He was sorting a short stack of papers into a file cabinet. After a minute he turned around.

  “Can I help you?” he asked. It was the same elderly man who had waited on Walter earlier. “You haven’t changed your mind about staying the night, have you?”

  That seemed like an odd question. “No. I just need a printer. I wonder if I could borrow your office printer for about an hour.”

  “My printer? Eh … no. I can’t do that. It belongs to the motel.”

  “They’re not going to know. And for your trouble let’s say I rent it from you. How does twenty dollars sound?