by Liza Probz
“You,” he said, squatting down to address Herman. “How do we disengage the lock? There must be an override.”
The ball responded, a few lights blinking on and off on its surface. “There is an override. You must program the correct sequence into the master control panel.”
“What’s the correct sequence?”
There was a loud buzz from the robotic ball. “I’m sorry. I do not have access to that information.”
Drake straightened. He was getting angrier by the second. “Then who does?”
“This is Dr. Lakewood’s lab. He assigns the codes.”
“Fuck!” For a second, it looked like Drake would kick the little robot to Kingdom Come.
Jamie felt instantly protective of the little creature. She dropped to her knees in front of the ball, putting herself between it and her irate companion. “It’s not his fault,” she said. “What’s the big problem? Are we in danger if we stay here?”
Drake looked like he was close to spitting fire. “You don’t understand, Jamie.”
“So help me understand!”
He stared down at her, and she saw the emotions flit across his face. Frustration. Anger. Fear. Then he turned away and began inspecting the various panels around the room.
“Herman,” he said, “which one of these is the control panel.”
The little ball rolled around Jamie, moving to Drake’s side. “The control panel is the central-most panel on the back wall. If you’ll follow me.”
Herman rolled towards the back wall and stopped beneath a panel. It was comprised of a touch-screen computer interface alongside a bank of switches, knobs, and buttons. Drake followed, leaning in to inspect things.
“Where do you enter the override sequence?” he asked.
Herman gave out another loud buzz. “I’m sorry. I do not have access to that information.”
Jamie wandered closer, keeping her eye on the ball. She wondered what Drake would do now.
“Are there any consequences if I enter an invalid code? Will the lock remain on for longer? Will there be an alarm?”
Again the buzz. “I’m sorry. I do not have access to that information.”
Drake growled, then moved towards the touchscreen. Jamie rushed to grab his arm. “Wait! What if you do put in the wrong code and set off the alarm. Then they’ll know we’re here. Why can’t you just wait it out?”
“I can’t,” he replied, then let out a groan of such anguish that Jamie felt something in her chest tighten.
“What’s wrong?” she asked softly. “Talk to me.”
Drake looked down at her, his brown eyes full of an emotion she couldn’t name. There was something he wasn’t telling her, something important, and she needed to understand, not just for her mission to bring Sylvie home, but because it was integral to understanding the man in front of her.
And for some reason that was of the utmost importance to her now.
“I can’t,” he said again, his sigh almost shaking his entire body. “We have to find a way out of this room in the next two hours or everything changes.”
Jamie wanted to scream in frustration. He was less forthcoming than a monk who’d taken a vow of silence. But if he wouldn’t tell her what was going on, she’d do her best to help nevertheless.
Sitting with her legs crossed in the middle of the floor, she dug her cell phone back out of her bag. Jamie pulled up a search engine, then called out to the robot. “Herman, who did you say this lab belonged to?”
The adorable robotic ball rolled over to her side. “This lab belongs to Dr. Keith Lakewood. He has degrees in electrical engineering, robotic science, physics, computer science, and artificial intelligence.”
Jamie typed in the name and started searching the web for any information that might be useful in their current plight. “Looks like Dr. Lakewood won something called the AAAI Grand Challenge.”
Herman let out a few chirps. “Correct. Dr. Lakewood also won the Maslab autonomous robotics competition twice while a student at MIT.”
Drake ignored them, instead going over every panel inch by painstaking inch. Still, Jamie didn’t give up. “It says here that he was the youngest division head in NASA’s history, and that he’s being considered for the Nobel Prize in Physics.”
“Does it tell you what his override code is? Because if it doesn’t, then all of that is useless.”
Jamie scowled at his back. Drake certainly threw common courtesy out the window when he was upset. “I doubt Dr. Lakewood publishes his codes on the internet for the world to see.”
“Then you’re just wasting time.”
“And what exactly are you doing?” she bit back. “Trying to magically intuit how to override a lock designed by a guy who’s gonna win the Nobel Prize?”
Drake let out a snort. “Backwards humans,” she heard him grumble under his breath.
“We’re all backwards humans! But at least some of us are polite!”
He turned around, pinning her with his dark gaze. For some reason, whenever he looked at her like that, all serious and brooding, her heart started to pound harder in her chest. She wanted to blame it on fear of his temper, but if she had to admit it to herself, it was really excitement that made her heart race.
“You have no idea what you’re playing with, little girl,” he said, his voice low, his tone verging on savage. “But if we don’t get out of here soon, you’re going to find out.”
Jamie’s eyes narrowed at the threat, even as her pulse rate jumped. Although she didn’t consider him sexy when judging by his appearance, his confidence and the way he carried himself, with that edge of danger, it really turned her on. But she’d be damned if she’d admit it.
“I’m not afraid of you,” she said, even if she wasn’t sure if that was true. “And I don’t know what you think is going to happen in the next hour and a half. Are you going to turn into a pumpkin at midnight like Cinderella’s carriage?”
“Oh I’ll turn into something all right,” he growled. “And you’d be lucky if it was just a pumpkin.”
“Oh Jesus Christ!” she yelled. “Will you just calm down so we can figure this out?”
“Calm is the last thing I can be.”
Jamie had had it. She’d been working for months to bring her sister home, and now, the first time she’d actually been able to take action, her partner turned out to be a spy with secrets. And an anger problem.
She’d been ignored by NASA, turned down by her fiancé, and was now stuck with a guy who had brought her to an amazing orgasm with his mouth but refused to use that same mouth for talking sense.
“Listen, you arrogant asshole! We aren’t going to figure anything else unless you calm the fuck down and talk to me. Dr. Lakewood seems like some kind of super genius, and to be honest, we’re not. The only way to try and get out of this is to think like Lakewood. So come sit down and help me think, dammit!”
He was stiff as corpse walking over to her and sitting down, his eyes burning with a fire that his body seemed to douse. “Lakewood should have left some kind of instructions for an override, if anyone was to get accidentally locked in.”
“Makes sense,” Jamie said. “Too bad we can’t just call him and ask.”
Drake stared at her for so long she became uncomfortable. She was debating asking him what he was looking at or just hauling off and slapping him, but before she could lift her hand, he spoke. “Maybe we can.”
He ran his fingers through his hair while working things out. “What if we called him pretending to be the cleaning crew? Explain that we accidently got locked in and did he know how to get out, so that we won’t fall behind on our cleaning schedule.”
Jamie laughed. “It could work. But what if he calls our bluff, or asks why we didn’t call down to the security desk?”
“We could make up another excuse, like the security desk lost the codes. I don’t think he’s likely to be that suspicious, as the code only acts as an override to unlock this door from the inside, right?
”
“Even if we did want to call him, how do we get his number?”
They spent the next several minutes scouring the web for hints of a personal number for Dr. Lakewood. The only line listed went straight to voicemail, and was likely the phone they’d seen on the desk of the cluttered office next door.
“Dammit,” Drake yelled. “We’re wasting time. I’ve got little more than an hour left.”
Jamie put her elbows on her knees and rested her chin on her hands. They’d been so close to a possible solution. Her gaze landed on Herman, who sat quietly, lights blinking on and off occasionally.
She suddenly sat up straight. “What about this guy? He’s an assistant, right? And he’s helped us a lot so far.”
“Herman,” Drake said. “Do you have the personal phone number for Dr. Lakewood?”
“All personal and propriety information has been classified,” the robot replied, giving a series of beeps.
“But you can trust us,” Jamie said. “We have access to the lab, so clearly we have access to classified information.
There were several loud blips and whirrs from the ball as it tried to follow her logic. “Classified information is provided to security level three personnel only.”
Jamie sighed, but Drake wasn’t willing to give up so easily. “We are level three personnel. Give us the information.”
Another pause while Herman computed. “Please verify security level.”
“How, Herman?” Jamie asked. Then she elbowed Drake. “Show him your badge, Lance.”
Drake eyed her askance, but pulled out the badge. “See. I have the clearance, now provide the information.”
Herman rolled over for a closer inspection of the badge. “You are not Dr. Lance Cargraves,” he announced. “You do not have security level three access.”
“But he IS Lance,” Jamie said, patting Herman on what she assumed was his head. “He’s my fiancé. I think I should know my own fiancé.”
“Visual identification does not match photographic evidence presented,” the robot replied matter-of-factly.
“Oh that,” Jamie said with forced laughter. “Well, you see Herman, he’s in disguise. He’s deep under cover for NASA, investigating a conspiracy.”
There was a long wait as Herman went through a series of bleeps, bloops, and whirrs. “Dr. Lance Cargraves?” he asked finally.
“Yes,” Drake replied solemnly.
“You are seeking evidence of the conspiracy?”
A chill went down Jamie’s spine. Herman had said “the” conspiracy, not “a” conspiracy.
Drake looked at her, his eyes widening. He’d picked up on the discrepancy as well. “Yes, Herman. I’ve been sent here to uncover the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Dr. Sylvia Cohen.”
There was a mournful beep from Herman at the mention of Jamie’s sister. “Dr. Lakewood had warned me about a conspiracy. He himself was gathering evidence when I lost contact with him.”
“Dr. Lakewood knows about the conspiracy?” Jamie asked. “He knows what happened to my sister?”
Herman rolled closer to her. “Dr. Sylvia Cohen is your sister?” the little robot asked. “She was always very nice to me. We would race each other down the corridor and back. I was always faster but sometimes I wondered if she let me win.”
Jamie gave the little robot a sad smile while fighting back tears. “Sylvie’s like that. I need to get her back, Herman. Can you help us?”
He rolled back and forth a couple of times, and Jamie wondered if it was similar to a human head nod. “I will help. But Dr. Lakewood’s personal number will not matter. He has stopped picking up his phone.”
Drake frowned. “He hasn’t been in the office?”
“Correct,” Herman said. “He has not been here in approximately 167 days.”
“That’s close to six months,” Drake said.
“Correct.”
Jamie put a hand back on the robot, hoping to provide some sense of comfort. “Herman, do you know where he is?”
After a few beeps, the ball responded. “There is insufficient data to reply.”
“What data is there?” Drake asked.
“I had attempted to email Dr. Lakewood when I was unable to reach him via his phone. The automatic response I received stated that he would be out of the office for several months and working in his lab in the Chicago area. He warned that he would be unable to respond to all inquiries in a timely manner.”
“So he’s in Chicago,” Jamie said.
“Not necessarily,” Drake said, his face turning menacing. “Someone else could have set up that automatic response to cover their tracks.”
“So you think he’s missing?”
Drake shook his head. “I don’t know. I guess the next step is to track down Lakewood.”
Jamie laughed. “How are we supposed to find him in Chicago in the next hour?”
Drake put his head in his hands. “That’s not what I meant. I meant after we get out of the lab.”
To say that she was confused was an understatement. “But why would we track down Lakewood after we get out of this lab? I thought we needed to find him so we could override the lock.”
“I don’t think that’s going to happen,” he said, pinning her with a dark look. “Clearly Lakewood has knowledge of the conspiracy.”
He continued to look at her, and Jamie knew there was something else he wanted to say, something that he was trying to decide whether he could trust her with. Finally, he spoke. “I knew Lakewood might be involved once I saw this lab. The enemy has recently made some technological advances in electrical science, advances that wouldn’t be possible without someone with a genius-level intellect.”
“The enemy?” Jamie understood the idea of a conspiracy, but the idea of some unknown party working against her sister was frightening.
“What I’m about to tell you is going to be unbelievable,” he said. “But I need you to trust me.”
Jamie nodded. She wanted to trust him anyway. She didn’t like the thought of Drake lying to her.
“I know where your sister is.”
Jamie recoiled as if slapped. “You do? Then why the fuck didn’t you say anything about it before? Where is she?”
Drake took a deep breath, maintaining eye contact throughout. “She’s on my home world. A planet called Zanthar, but which you humans named JL-398.”
JL-398. She was familiar with that designation. It was the planet Sylvie had shot off towards in search of life.
“Your home world?”
Drake nodded. “I know it seems unbelievable, but it’s true.”
She cocked an eyebrow at her companion. “So you expect me to believe you’re an alien?”
“Believe me, to me, you’re the alien.”
Jamie felt her hands tighten into fists. “You’re not an alien. You’re an asshole.”
“I’m serious, Jamie. I’m a Zantharian.”
“Why are you playing around? Why can’t you just tell me where Sylvie is?’
“I’m not playing. She’s on Zanthar, with my people. So are Captain Brooklyn and her crew. Earth has been infiltrated by a race of shape-shifting aliens that can take on any form they like. They’re masquerading as humans while they infiltrate NASA.”
He looked down at the little robot blinking at their feet. “And now I think they’ve kidnapped Dr. Lakewood and forced him to work for them.”
Jamie shot to her feet. “Why are you doing this to me?” She was surprised she wasn’t screaming. She could feel the tears filling her eyes but was powerless to stop them.
“This has all been some kind of elaborate game, hasn’t it? Do you even work for NASA, or the intelligence bureau? Or are you some crazy stalker who gets his kicks lying to helpless women?”
Drake stood slowly, his eyes sad. “I’m sorry that you’re upset. I wish I could have told you sooner. But I had to maintain my cover so that the enemy didn’t realize that I was on Earth. It was the only way to gather data.”
“Stop lying! You’re not an alien.”
Drake took her shoulders in his hands but she tugged herself out of his grasp. “Okay, if you’re such an alien, how come you look like any average old human, huh? Where are the tentacles, or eye stalks, or whatever weird thing aliens are supposed to have?”
“I’m disguised as a human. If I had come to this planet in my real form, I wouldn’t have made it into the building before I’d been captured.”
“So you expect me to believe there’s some kind of alien body in there?”
“Yes,” he replied simply. “There is. I told you that our enemy is a shape-shifting race. We managed to capture one, or actually, Captain Brooklyn’s crewman captured one with the help of one of our lieutenants. Our scientists figured out a way to use their shape-shifting capabilities to disguise my real shape.”
“So you are not Dr. Lance Cargraves,” Herman piped up. “I did not think you were.”
Drake gave a small laugh. “You’re right. My real name is Drak’Karren Rasveen, Minister of Defense to the planet Zanthar.”
Jamie buried her head in her hands, fighting off hysterical laughter. “Okay, Dracula Ratsfeet, or whatever your name is, if you don’t look like a human, what do you look like?”
“You’re going to find out soon enough,” he said. “The shape-shifters can only hold their shapes for a certain length of time, and we’ve almost reached the end of that period. They then have to revert to their original form. Which means in the next half hour, this suit is going to melt off my body into a red puddle of jelly. It will stay that way for about ten minutes, and then reform to the shape you see right now.”
“So that’s why you were so worried about getting out of her in time?”
“Yes,” he said, his eyes seemingly trying to gauge her belief.
“So,” she said, facing him, “were you always crazy, or did you recently lose your mind?”
Chapter 12
Drake wished there was an easier way to convince Jamie that he was telling the truth. In another few minutes it won’t matter, he reminded himself. She’ll see the proof staring her in her beautiful face.
