Socrates and the Councillor

by Thomas Fay

  ‘You could have just knocked,’ John said, aiming his handgun directly at Zachary Wallman.

  Fifty-Two

  The inner courtyard of the Iona Corporation’s manufacturing facility was partially open to the sky while the rest of the area was protected by a steel roof structure extending around the core manufacturing and processing areas. The courtyard was filled with rows and rows of Flux Cells, packaged individually, waiting to be transferred to the distribution centre in Macquarie Park via a fast-moving underground conveyor belt. Automated lifters moved amongst the rows of Flux Cells while a swarm of miniature drones hovered in between them, encoding holographic shipping documents.

  ‘Well, looks like I may have underestimated you Sentinels after all,’ Zachary Wallman said. He was dressed in a jet-black outfit that left only his face exposed. He held a compact handgun casually at his side.

  ‘I’ve got you this time,’ John said. ‘Drop your weapon. You’re both under arrest.’

  Wallman slowly bent down and placed his weapon on the ground. He straightened back up. The other man, Tobias Jan Neumann, didn’t even manage to stand up before Socrates restrained him. The hacker tried to squirm out of Socrates’s grasp but the android held him in his vice-like grip.

  ‘Tell me, Sentinel. What made you decide to abandon the Opera House and come here instead?’ Wallman asked.

  ‘Call it a hunch. Plus, I’m starting to understand how you operate.’

  John decided to take a chance.

  ‘Rainmaker.’

  A flicker of emotion passed across Wallman’s face. It was difficult to read but John suspected he’d guessed correctly.

  ‘Where did you hear that name?’ Wallman asked.

  ‘Let’s just say I know all about your methods.’

  ‘Interesting. I guess you don’t really know that much, given you’re here and not at the Opera House.’

  ‘Nice try. I know what you’re really after and it has nothing to do with the UN Security Council summit or the gala event. That’s a cover. You’re here for one thing—the Flux Cell.’

  A slow smile spread across Wallman’s face.

  ‘Who says you can’t achieve two objectives at once? Now if you’ll excuse us, we really must get going.’

  John released the safety on his handgun. The loud click echoed around the metallic crates surrounding them.

  ‘I don’t think you heard me when I said you were under arrest.’

  ‘Yes, and I think you’re forgetting about one rather important thing.’

  ‘Which is … ?’

  ‘That weapon I had brought into Iona on the light plane. My weapons expert is holding it right now aimed directly at you. If you don’t let us leave, then he’s going to turn this building into rubble.’

  John stared at Wallman, trying to gauge if he was telling the truth. He realised there was one way to know for certain.

  ‘Socrates?’ he asked.

  ‘I believe he is telling the truth, John.’

  John began to lower his handgun when a sonic boom reverberated off the courtyard. A Ruling Council transport ship hovered into view, its quad engines pulsing with a steady thrum as it curved around in a wide arc. Levelling out above them, it began to descend towards the inner courtyard of the manufacturing facility. John frantically reached for his phone. Flicking it open, he hit redial. Councillor Alara Green answered on the first ring.

  ‘John, what—’

  ‘Get that ship out of here now!’

  ‘What? Why?’

  ‘Do it now before—’

  The projectile burst into view with a flash of light from the back corner of the courtyard. It accelerated rapidly. The transport ship had no room to manoeuvre. The projectile slammed into it with tremendous force, sending it into a spin. The ship’s engines flared intermittently as it struggled to maintain altitude. It spun faster and faster. Then it struck the ground. John felt himself being pulled back inside the manufacturing facility by Socrates.

  The sound of the transport ship hitting the ground was like a thunderclap. The resulting shockwave passed through the facility, shattering glass panels, knocking drones out of the air and toppling the rows of Flux Cells. Just as quickly it was gone and silence filled the air.

  John stood up. The smoke from the wreckage of the transport ship was filling the air with an acrid burning stench. Flaming pieces of debris were scattered around the courtyard. He knew without looking that no one could have survived the impact. Of the rogue operatives, there was no trace.

  ‘They knew we were coming,’ John said, suddenly.

  ‘What leads you to that conclusion?’ Socrates asked.

  ‘They had that third operative ready, which meant they were expecting us.’

  ‘Or they were expecting a transport ship.’

  ‘No. Wallman wasn’t surprised we were here. He knew we were coming,’ John said. ‘Come on, we need to speak to Agent Koelmeyer.’

  ‘You wish to apprise her of these most recent developments?’

  ‘No, I want to find out if she knows.’

  ‘Knows what, John?’

  ‘Knows that we know she’s one of them.’

  Fifty-Three

  They were back on the Harbour Bridge within five minutes of leaving North Ryde. The lights of the Iona CBD shone before them. Socrates drove the Sentinel cruiser while John spoke to Councillor Alara Green.

  ‘I’m sorry about your people,’ John said.

  ‘I know, John. You tried to warn me. I should have listened.’

  ‘Do you need any Sentinels at the plant?’

  ‘No. We’ll handle it from here. Looks like you stopped them just in time—they didn’t get anything.’

  ‘I’ve been thinking about that.’

  ‘You don’t think that was their target?’

  There was a momentary silence as John considered his response.

  ‘I don’t know, to be honest. Zachary Wallman is an arrogant son of a bitch but he’s also extremely smart and very well resourced. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s playing several angles.’

  Now it was the Councillor’s turn to pause. Finally, she said, ‘Can you stop him?’

  John let out an explosive breath. His back was hurting again, a souvenir of the second explosion he’d managed to survive in so many days. Keeping him alive was becoming a full-time job for Socrates. So far, the android was doing an exemplary job.

  ‘I think I’ve finally got a way of shutting him down for good.’

  ‘Well, you have my number. Call if you need anything.’

  ‘I will.’

  John could have sworn Councillor Green was smiling when she hung up. He flipped his phone closed and watched the city lights getting closer as Socrates drove along the Cahill Expressway, in the leftmost lane on the Harbour Bridge.

  ‘John, I have been reviewing the data from the past two days including every encounter I’ve had with Special Agent Vanessa Koelmeyer. I am unable to determine how you have arrived at the conclusion that she is one of the rogue operatives,’ Socrates said.

  Turning to look at his partner, John realised there were limitations to the android’s abilities. He could only think along certain logical paths. Something humans were certainly not burdened with.

  ‘I’ve been thinking about who could have compromised my phone since our cruiser was blown to pieces. The list of people I came into contact with during the initial twenty-four hour window was quite a long one and I had to start with everyone—even that overzealous detective Jastrzebski who kept showing up everywhere. It took me a while but I finally narrowed that list to four people: a new neighbour Robert Osten, Sorensen, Vanessa and you,’ John said.

  ‘Me, John?’

  ‘Yes, I … kind of suspected you were one of them for a while there.’

  ‘And yet you followed me to the distribution centre without backup?’

  ‘Well … I had backup.’

  ‘You mean Sentinels Fernali and Streeter? That was a rather obvious phrase you
employed to request assistance from Michael Fernali.’

  John laughed.

  ‘I guess it is but you’d be surprised at how many people miss it. Anyway, yes you’re probably right that I shouldn’t have gone but sometimes you have to take chances to learn the truth.’

  ‘You eliminated me as a suspect after the distribution centre when you learned the truth about what I am. That left three potential suspects.’

  ‘Yes. I had our guys run a background check on Robert Osten. It came back clean. I even went one step further and asked Metz to review his movements over the past couple of days. He checked out.’

  ‘That still left two potential suspects.’

  ‘Yes, Sorensen and Koelmeyer. To be honest, I had my suspicions about Sorensen. She identified that projectile launcher very easily and she was the first one on the scene after they blew up my cruiser. She’s also got a military background and I always wondered about her motives in moving here.’

  ‘How can you be certain she’s not one of them?’

  John smiled.

  ‘I guess I can’t but I’m certain it’s not her.’

  ‘I don’t understand, John.’

  ‘I know, and even if I tried to explain it you still wouldn’t understand.’

  Socrates turned to look at John. Despite the seriousness of the situation, John couldn’t keep the grin off his face.

  ‘Should I interpret your statement as some form of payback for the times when I advised you that my explanations would only leave you with more questions?’ Socrates asked.

  John’s grin got wider.

  ‘I will take your silence and the smile on your face to mean yes.’

  ‘See? You do get it.’

  They turned left off the bridge onto the overpass running above Circular Quay. Socrates drove at a more normal speed of one hundred and thirty kilometres per hour, with the traffic override disabled. They slowed at the intersection, waiting for the red-light force-field barrier to dissolve. The moment it did, they turned onto Macquarie Street. Driving down the street, John replayed Wallman’s words in his head. As they approached the roundabout near the Opera House, where the police cordon was set up for the gala, two things happened.

  A barge on the harbour released a cascade of multicoloured fireworks. Then a loud explosion rocked the ground beneath their feet.

  Fifty-Four

  The scene at the Opera House was one of chaos. Emergency vehicles stationed inside the police cordon sprang into action, while police and Sentinels shepherded people out of the venue. The tactical team led by Sorensen emerged from the Opera House. Their armour showed signs of blast damage but they appeared to be intact. Smoke was rising steadily into the air from the underground entrances.

  ‘What the hell happened here?’ John asked. They had left their cruiser further up Macquarie Street and raced down the road.

  ‘Explosion in the underground car park,’ Muller replied. ‘Luckily Sorensen and her team found the device hidden in a storage locker in the lower levels of the Opera House. They managed to move it to the underground car park before it went off. If it had exploded inside the Opera House the results could have been catastrophic.’

  ‘Sorensen is the best,’ John said. ‘Have you seen Agent Koelmeyer?’

  ‘I thought she was with you?’ Muller replied.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘She left here about ten minutes ago. Your wife was with her.’

  John felt something drop in the pit of his stomach.

  ‘Are you sure?’ he asked.

  ‘Yes.’

  John turned and raced back up the road. Reaching the cruiser, he opened the driver’s side door and got in. Socrates got into the passenger seat just as John fired up the ignition. Pulling a U-turn, he accelerated back up Macquarie Street. His hands gripped the steering wheel to the point that his knuckles were turning white.

  ‘John, where are we going?’ Socrates asked.

  ‘HQ. We need to figure out where they went and fast.’

  John pushed the cruiser up to a hundred kilometres an hour as they accelerated up Macquarie Street. He reactivated the Sentinel override, causing the red-light force-field barriers to spring into existence along the side streets. John swerved right onto Hunter Street, cutting several cars off. He then veered left onto Phillip Street. Slamming the brakes on in front of the Sentinel building, he jumped out of the car. Racing into the lobby, he pressed his finger to the turbo-lift sensor. The turbo-lift doors slid open. He got in, with Socrates right behind him. The turbo-lift travelled up, the doors opening on level twenty-five. John raced down the narrow grey corridors. He stopped at the entrance to the Hub. Clearing the authentication, he pushed the door open. Georgia Metz saw him enter.

  ‘Tesh, what can—’

  ‘I need everything you’ve got to locate Special Agent Vanessa Koelmeyer. She was last seen leaving the UN gala at the Opera House.’

  ‘Adam, give me overlay while I run street level.’

  The LED screens changed to display a tracking grid over the CBD while the side screens showed street-level images. They wound back fifteen minutes. Vanessa could be seen walking out of the main entrance of the Opera House, Lauren beside her. They walked across the open plaza. Reaching the police cordon, Vanessa spoke briefly to Muller, who waved them through. They crossed the road and got into a parked car. The car drove away.

  ‘Can you track it?’ John asked, his eyes never leaving the screen.

  ‘Yes.’

  The overlay shifted rapidly, following the moving vehicle. Finally, it came to a stop. It was an apartment building in Potts Point. The image changed to street-level cameras. Vanessa and Lauren could be seen getting out. They closed the car doors and went inside the building.

  ‘Are they still inside?’ John asked.

  The images on screen shifted to five street-level cameras covering various sides of the building. The images accelerated until they reached the current time.

  ‘Looks like they’re still inside.’

  John turned to Socrates.

  ‘Let’s go.’

  ****

  John didn’t bother with the Sentinel override on the front door to the apartment block in Potts Point. He stepped aside and motioned to Socrates. The android burst through the door without even slowing down. They were inside the foyer a moment later. John hit the button for the turbo-lift. Reaching into his suit pocket, he took out his phone. He handed it to Socrates.

  ‘Do your trick. Lauren’s number is in there,’ John said.

  Socrates took the phone. His eyes blurred momentarily. The turbo-lift doors slid open.

  ‘Got it?’ John asked.

  ‘Yes. Top floor. Penthouse apartment 1206.’

  John hit the button for twelve. The doors slid shut and the turbo-lift ascended rapidly. John drew his handgun.

  ‘You should let me go first, John.’

  ‘I got this.’

  The doors slid open on the twelfth floor. John stepped out, handgun at his side. Socrates followed. Reaching the door to apartment 1206, John raised his handgun as he waved Socrates forwards. The android kicked the door down with one swift motion. A split second afterwards John was inside the apartment. The first thing he saw was Lauren seated in a chair facing him. She was still wearing the cerulean ball gown.

  Then he saw Vanessa.

  ‘Hello, John. I’ve been expecting you.’

  Fifty-Five

  There is a general understanding that those in high-stress, potentially life-or-death, professions shouldn’t take cases which involve family members. Surgeons are generally prohibited from operating on family members as emotion can cloud their professional judgement, jeopardising the patient’s life. Law enforcement officers are also prohibited from taking cases involving family members, as emotion can lead to mistakes being made and failure to follow due process. John’s current emotional state could only be described as extreme as he faced off against the Rainmaker’s hidden agent while his wife sat terrif
ied between them.

  ‘Lauren, are you alright?’ John asked.

  ‘John, get me out of here. Please.’

  ‘It’s going to be okay.’

  John assessed the situation. Vanessa was standing behind Lauren, about four metres away from him. She held a compact handgun in her hand. It was aimed at the back of Lauren’s neck. John had a relatively clear shot but he knew, if he was off by even a centimetre, he could hit Lauren.

  That left Socrates. John knew Socrates was standing just behind him. He knew the android was fast. But was he fast enough? If it had been anyone other than Lauren, he may have taken the chance. But it wasn’t anyone else. It was Lauren.

  John lowered his handgun.

  ‘What do you want?’ he asked.

  Vanessa smiled. Before, when she’d smiled, John had seen her as an attractive woman. Now he saw someone who had manipulated him and those around him. He tightened his grip on his handgun.

  ‘Lauren, you lucky girl. It looks like your husband really does care about you. From what I’ve seen of the famous John Tesh, I didn’t expect him to give in so easily.’

  ‘Don’t push it. Tell me what you want,’ John said.

  ‘Alright. I want full immunity for my actions and Sentinel protection.’

  ‘Are you serious?’

  Vanessa laughed.

  ‘No, not really. I just wanted to make sure you hadn’t lost your sense of humour.’

  ‘Don’t worry. When this is over, when you’re in Sentinel custody, then I’ll be laughing.’

  ‘Now, now, John. Let’s keep things civilised. You wouldn’t want anything to happen to your beautiful wife, now, would you?’

  Vanessa ran the edge of her gun along Lauren’s cheek, causing the other woman to flinch.

  ‘The Rainmaker isn’t some unstoppable ghost,’ John said.

  A flicker of emotion passed across Vanessa’s youthful features.

  ‘Knowing who we are doesn’t help you,’ she said.

  ‘That’s where you’re wrong. Knowing your enemy is the first step to defeating them. Understanding them—what they want, how they operate and what they’re after—is the second step.’