by M. V. Kallai
Their friendship was easy since Camden was smart enough to understand the things Lee talked about. Lee also never spoke of Rosa or showed the slightest sympathy for him, which helped Camden shut her out of his mind. Camden was then able to turn his focus away from Rosa and onto making Lee’s lab a thriving facility with a full staff, in addition to the lady at the desk, who was already working for Lee. And in return, Camden was able to function again.
Since the lady at the desk had been loyal to Lee for so long, Camden placed her in charge of the scholarship account, to continue fulfilling Rosa’s wish. In the years since, he had never once touched the account or even inquired about the money until today. Now, he was all but depleting the fund for a charity she’d never even heard of. It was a suspicious move on Camden’s part, but she knew he didn’t care about the money. While the lady at the desk worked to access the funds, Maeve scanned the lobby for a visible entrance to Tripple Laboratories.
“Ma’am, the funds are ready to be transferred,” the lady at the desk said. “Where would you like them sent?”
“Actually, due to the private nature of the donation, I will need the money in cash,” Maeve answered.
“Oh, well, that will be a little more difficult. I will have to go to the vault and pick it up.”
“I’m in no hurry, I will be happy to wait here for you,” Maeve said with a sweet smile. The lady at the desk hesitated and scrutinized Maeve with her eyes. She glanced again at the letter she received from Camden. “Completely anonymous,” it said, “without question and with utmost urgency”. She had authenticated the penmanship as well as the fingerprint Camden left on the letter by comparing it to the security system in the building. Maeve remained outwardly patient while she watched the lady at the desk wrestle with the thought of leaving the building. Finally, she stood and placed her hand on a security panel that shut off her computer system, picked up a brown case, and grabbed her jacket.
“I will be less than an hour. You may wait here in the lobby,” she said glancing inadvertently at the cameras in the walls.
“Might I use your ladies room?” Maeve asked.
“Yes, certainly. It’s just down that small corridor, to your left,” she said, and then exited the building.
As Maeve walked across the lobby she took note of where each security camera was pointed. The whole place looked to be under constant surveillance, but three cameras were aimed at a single spot, a flat wall panel in an alcove, just before the corridor that she was now walking through. Once inside the bathroom, she cut the power to the lights, and went into a closed stall. In complete darkness, she slipped out of her frumpy disguise and wig, leaving her in a black body suit with her hair in a bun. She quietly rummaged through her bag and found her night vision glasses and a multipurpose tool that she used to loosen a panel in the ceiling above her. She grabbed a smaller black pouch out of her bag, secured it around her waist and crawled in the space above the bathroom, in the direction of the flat wall panel. As she expected, she came to a wall built with square stones…an elevator shaft. Maeve pulled a laser cutter out of her pouch, hoping the wall wasn’t too thick, and began to carve one of the square stones from it’s place. She followed the natural grooves of the construction and within minutes, had loosened the stone from its place. With a flat lever and all of her strength, she pulled the small stone from the wall. Maeve squeezed herself through the opening and climbed down the lift pulleys, landing on top of the elevator compartment. She checked her watch. Fifteen minutes had passed since Maeve went into the ladies room. She cut through one of the ceiling tiles and slipped inside the compartment. Not sure of what she would find on the outside of the elevator doors, she took off her night vision glasses and pressed the ‘open’ button.
She looked out into a very gray and sterile looking hallway. Sounds were coming from a room to her left. Maeve crept down the hall and peeked inside to see four young people in lab coats eating lunch in a small cafeteria. They had metallic panels on the sleeves of their coats that Maeve assumed to be their access to the lab. Then, she heard footsteps approaching from the other direction, so she quickly searched for an unlocked door on the other side of the hall and ducked inside. She found herself in a small closet and held her breath as the footsteps passed. She used her night vision again and saw eight other lab coats hung in here, each of them emblazoned with the same metallic badges she’d seen on the four people in the room across the hall. She quickly put one on and slipped out of her hiding place. Then, she set off down the hall in the direction from which the footsteps came. At the end of the hall was a small door that seemed to have no handle. On the wall beside the door was a scanner, shoulder height, obviously to read the metallic badge on the lab coat.
Once scanned, a small piece of the metal door slid away, revealing a lock and handle. Maeve once again pulled a device out of her waist pouch and went to work disabling the lock. She was an expert at locks and was through the door in less than a minute. Before her was a small white room with a body scanner, fingerprint pads, and a moving camera that swept back and forth across the room. Maeve pulled a facemask out of her pouch, put it on, and flattened herself against the steel door. Everything in the room was automated and no doubt the door on the opposite side of the room would remain locked until each security obstacle was passed. She thought this was quite excessive for a lab and wondered what could possibly need so much protection. Maeve looked around for weaknesses in the system. There was a small booth in the corner to her right from which she assumed the system could be operated manually or even overridden. She would have to time her movement exactly with the camera to not be seen. After watching the camera sweep five times, she was ready. There were six seconds for her to get inside the booth. Two more sweeps of the camera and then Maeve went for it. She dashed to the booth and dived inside with a second to spare and soon found the camera controls. Maeve entered Camden’s password into the system and put five minutes of earlier footage on a loop, then, she shut off the live feed. She left the booth, made her way around the scanners and entered the access codes Camden had supplied Ganesh, on the keypad next to the door on the other side of the room.
She stood, successful, in the entrance of Tripple Laboratories, awed by the vastness of the space. The lights were off and it appeared empty, but she heard voices coming from somewhere in the back. Without making a sound, Maeve walked past an office she assumed to be Lee Tripple’s. Before she reached the voices, she came to another hall. To the left the hall led to a kitchen, and to the right, several rooms with closed doors…except for one. Maeve headed straight for the open door, away from the voices, and gazed in at a polished stone table in the center of the room. A small piece of biomer sat in the middle of the table by a notebook and several vials of a bluish solution. She snapped pictures of the notebook, pocketed one of the vials and left the lab as stealthily as she had arrived. Once out of the lab, she returned the camera to the live feed, replaced the lab coat, and got into the elevator. She made the climb up the cables and squeezed back through the opening in the wall, leaving the stone out of place in case she needed to come back.
When the lady at the desk returned, having only been gone for forty-two minutes, Maeve, dressed once again as an old woman, sat in the lobby thumbing through a science publication. The lady at the desk walked toward her and handed Maeve a satchel filled with cash. Maeve thanked her for getting it, and left. After she returned to her hotel room, she held the vial of light blue liquid up to the light wondering what it was. Maeve studied the pictures she had taken of Lee’s notes, which she’d blown up and projected on the wall. She had difficulty understanding them but the underlying message was clear. This blue stuff could disable bonded biomer. It seemed odd to her that something so small and weak looking could combat the indestructible machines in the TRU building’s basement.
Maeve carefully considered her next move. She had only planned to look around the lab today and here she had gone and stolen something extremely valuable. Maeve though
t about Naja and her mission to now help Tyrine. She opened a small padded safe and tucked the delicate vial inside. Then, she called Ganesh.
Later that night, Bearden left the lab and headed home to his flat. On the way, he called Major Magner to tell him of Lee Tripple’s breakthrough. As usual, Mace wanted to meet face to face, and right away, but with his new nighttime commitment to General Pike and Luke, he had to put it off until the next morning. This made Mace even more impatient than usual with Luke, who had finally figured out that he was a prisoner, even though he’d committed no crime. He’d had no contact with the outside except for the short encoded messages that he and Charisa sent each other everyday through their work. She promised she was doing everything she could to get him out, but Luke could not imagine how she could possibly help. His spirits were low and his nights were spent in constant fear for his life. And tonight, he struggled to tune out the rude and abasing comments from Major Magner. He was close to snapping, but managed to hold it together. If he lost control of himself while handling one of the biomachines, the result could be disastrous.
A few hours later, another secret meeting was about to take place between Ganesh and Maeve in Ganesh’s kitchen, as had become the norm. Ganesh once again left his sleeping wife in bed and sneaked downstairs where Maeve was already waiting for him.
“It looks like the weapons program will be shut down,” Ganesh started.
“But how many biomachines already exist?” Maeve asked.
“Too many…hundreds. And that doesn’t include the small arsenal of manual weapons.”
“When will they attack Tyrine?”
“There is nothing official that I have seen, but I think it’s time you start trailing Major Mace Magner. I don’t trust him, especially now that his work is threatened. Get close to him if you have to.”
“Fine. It should be no problem,” Maeve said.
“I also want you to check out this programmer, see what you can dig up. I have a feeling she is an ally.” Ganesh handed Maeve a piece of paper with the name “Charisa Jean Lind” on it. Maeve glanced at the name and nodded to Ganesh.
“I was in Tripple Laboratories today,” she said.
“Really? You got in?”
“Yes, and I have some information that you and Professor Riles might find useful. I don’t fully understand it, but hopefully Camden will,” Maeve said and handed him a folder with copies of Lee’s virus code notes. She considered giving him the vial of the virus code, but kept it hidden in her jacket for another purpose.
“This is huge!” Ganesh said looking through the notes. “I mean, if this is what I think it is…I don’t speak scientist.”
“That’s what I thought, too. It seems Lee Tripple has developed a way to disable the weapons.”
“It’s gonna take a lot of this stuff to shut down the entire inventory, not to mention figuring out a way to do it unnoticed,” Ganesh said.
“Well, you figure out how much is needed, and when you do, I will go back to the lab and approach Lee Tripple.”
“I can send word that you will be coming to see him.”
“No, don’t. Better to catch him off guard, so he won’t have time to censor his lab or the information we need him to share. I will break in again. Besides, if I go announced, the lady at the front desk will see me…and she is too much of a target to have as a witness.”
“I wonder if she’s already been approached,” Ganesh said.
“I know that if I were conducting a government investigation and wanted information on an untouchable facility, she would be the first person I would interrogate,” Maeve said.
“Hmph. Makes you wonder why she is still there and not locked up,” Ganesh replied.
“Yes, it does. That’s why she can’t recognize me,” Maeve said. “I have to go now, and I’ll be gone for a few days. But when I return, I’ll get right on that Major situation.”
Ganesh smiled sympathetically at her and grabbed her hand.
“Be careful,” he said.
“Always,” she replied and disappeared into the night. Maeve headed straight back to her hotel and packed some supplies and a couple changes of clothes. She was on her way to Tyrine with the vial tucked in her jacket before the sun came up.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Worth the Risk
At five in the morning, Bearden awoke to pounding at his door. Knowing it was Mace Magner, he dressed quickly and let him in. The major had dark circles under his eyes and he needed a shave. His face seemed locked in a permanent scowl.
“Good morning, sir,” Bearden suggested.
“Tell me what you’ve got, Sergeant,” Mace snapped.
Bearden told him about Lee’s breakthrough and the virus code that can destroy the bonded biomer. Mace, trying very hard to keep his eyes open, acted threatened by the breakthrough.
“I need that virus code. And the rest destroyed,” he said.
Bearden cringed at what he was most likely going to be ordered to do.
“Sir, does that mean you want me to…”
“No, not you. You keep your hands clean in this. I need you to keep your place in that lab.” Mace said and Bearden sighed with relief. “I’ll get someone to go in and retrieve it.”
“I’m not sure if that’s possible,” Bearden said. “That place is a fortress.”
“Surly there’s a loophole in security… probably with Camden Riles. Find it. I need that material before it can destroy my program. And remember, we have the good professor, so fingerprints and retinal maps are easily obtained.”
“Yes, sir,” Bearden said. He felt his heart drop to his stomach with extreme guilt.
“Let me know the second you find a way in,” Mace ordered.
Bearden nodded and the major stomped out. He went straight home to get an hour of sleep before the workday started. Bearden undressed and took a shower, knowing he would be unable to fall asleep again with this new weight on his mind.
Across town, Andreas awoke in Charisa’s bed. He leaned over and smiled at his sleeping sweetheart and kissed her on the forehead. Then he got up to make them both breakfast. Twenty minutes later, the smell of toast and eggs enticed Charisa from her bed. She put on a robe and went in her bathroom to get ready for the day...and it was going to be an exciting one.
When the two sat down for breakfast, they looked nervously at each other. Charisa and a small team of programmers were going to begin installing her signal amplifiers in the Phase One biomachines today. She had requested Andreas to oversee the soldiers who would be on hand and that they were armed in case of an incident. He would also provide a cover for her to test Luke’s first attempt at a self-destruct program that he was secretly working on. She would try it out on only a few of the biomachines, so it would look like a random event if it actually worked and the biomachines shut themselves down.
It was a big day for Camden Riles as well. He would begin working with some elite government engineers on turning his theoretical space-bending machine into a practical apparatus. After studying Rhys’s scribbles day after day, he’d made a few minor adjustments to his original plan, but still didn’t believe a working prototype was possible. When his usual entourage of Ganesh, Quinn, and Aldretti arrived at his living quarters, he was ready to go, enduring a healthy sense of sarcasm about their mission.
“The general plans to check on your progress sometime this afternoon,” Ganesh said as the four men walked through the space travel division of TRU.
“I can hardly wait. It will no doubt be an eye opening visit for him,” Camden said. Quinn snorted to stifle a laugh at Camden’s blasé attitude.
Twenty minutes later, five engineers were sitting around a conference table, staring at Camden with disbelief as he explained his space-bending theory and prototype plan.
“Is this some kind of a joke?” one of them asked.
“I almost wish it was. But unfortunately, this is what General Pike wants and we are the ones chosen to make it happen,” Camden replied, then
thought, and the sooner the better. So, I can get the hell out of here. He forced a smile that was meant to encourage his new team.
“Well then, ladies and gentlemen, let’s get started,” Ganesh chimed in with his own version of an encouraging smile. Quinn was busy taking notes on the entire proceeding. Slowly, smaller conversations broke out around the table as the engineers looked hard at Camden’s drawings and started making their own notes. Camden walked around the table answering questions about the physics of what the machine needed to do, and taking their suggestions to improve his work. By lunchtime, they were ready to move from paper to model building. Ganesh sent Quinn and Aldretti to the cafeteria for sandwiches and soup for the team, and then cornered Camden privately when they left.
“I have something for you,” Ganesh said. “Maeve brought it to me from Tripple Laboratories last night.”
“She’s been inside? Does Lee know?” Camden looked shocked.
“No, he doesn’t know. She snapped some pictures of his notes, that’s all,” Ganesh replied.
Camden shook his head with uneasiness. “I can’t believe she actually got in. Lee would have a conniption fit if he knew.”
“Aside from that, Cam, aren’t you the least bit curious about what she found?”
