#2 Shades of Gray: From Moscow, With Love
Page 32
Chapter Twenty-eight
Child Of Mine
The present...
October 24...
Sunday...
10:27 A.M...
Hellenistic Sector, Business Vicinage...
Sphinx Corporation Third Branch Office...
"Have you found any records pertaining to a project my wife may have been involved with about thirty years ago?" Mr. Griffin questioned as he sat in his office. He didn't dare divulge to his Head of Security that he was looking for information on his youngest child; a child he was led to believe died at birth.
"No, no project that long ago," Orthos replied as he sat in a chair in front of the Chairman. "At least, none I have found on the main frame. There may have been something in the old files from when you were head of security for this branch office, but since you ordered me three days ago to expunge all the files with your alias Janus, the computer records are gone."
Mr. Griffin questioned, "What about the Archive? The documents I'm looking for are far enough back they would have kept a hard copy. Did you destroy those?"
"No, I had not thought to do so." Orthos removed his H.H.C. "Do you want those destroyed as well?"
Mr. Griffin's view...
Is Orthos getting sloppy or does he have a hidden agenda? He's very ambitious. He could be eyeing my seat in the corporation.
"Not at this time," I answer him. "What of the other files the Vice President said he would send over?"
End Mr. Griffin's view...
"I have them right here." Orthos laid the pile of folders on the desk.
"Very good. That's all for right now. If there's anything further, I'll tell you at our Security Overview meeting later this evening."
"Yes, Chairman." Orthos stood, left, walked down the hall to the elevator, took the cab up, exited, and made his way to his office and once inside, Orthos locked the door, moved to a ground safe, unlocked it, and removed a white crystal. He examined the two inch obelisk. He learned that it was called a Data Crystal and that Theresa Griffin had created many of them and stored top secret information on them. He held it up to the light. Right now, it was no good to him, not until he found the devise that could retrieve the information from it, so for now... Orthos placed it back in the safe; he would keep the Data Crystal locked up. The Chairman didn't need to know he took the crystal from the Pandora Project.
Sometime later...
Mr. Griffin flipped through the new files, but saw nothing about his child and decided he would visit the Archive. He left his office and stopped at the secretary's desk. "I'll be out for a while. Reschedule my appointments for the next four hours."
"Yes, Mr. Griffin." Cathy started on the calls.
He walked to the elevator and took it down to one of the basement floors. He stepped out to a hallway on Sub-level 6, and a security guard looked up from a desk at him.
"Good afternoon, Chairman," the security guard said as he logged in his arrival time.
"Good afternoon." Mr. Griffin proceeded past the man and walked down the long white hall to another desk.
An older gentleman who was in his mid-seventies and wore bifocals glanced up and behind him there was about five hundred rows of shelves filling a large open room. The older man said, "Janus, it has been a long time since I've seen you. Good to see you."
"Yes, Claviger it has been a long time; it has been so long that I'm no longer known as Janus. I'm the Chairman now."
"Ohh... Moving up in the world. Good for you. What can I help you with Jan... I mean, Chairman?"
"I'm looking for information on a project my wife was working on about thirty years ago."
"Ah, yes. Theresa Griffin, she was a lovely woman." Claviger slowly stood, favoring his right side. He grabbed a walker and started toward the back. "Follow me, and we'll see if we can find the files." His walker stomped across the floor. "Did I tell you it was good to see you again?"
"Yes." Mr. Griffin glanced over hundreds of rows of storage shelves that rose twenty feet into the air; the place was huge. Dozens of dome-shaped robots the size of a football moved across the floor and shelves, keeping the Archive clean and sterile.
"I wasn't sure if I had said it. I'm getting a little senile." Claviger stopped at a golf cart. "Get in."
Mr. Griffin arched a graying eyebrow, noticing the clerk wore house slippers, and Claviger noticed his expression and glanced down at his feet. "Oh, these. No one's here to see me in them, and my poor feet really love them."
"It'll be our secret." Mr. Griffin got in on the passenger's side.
Claviger laid the walker in the back, turned the key to the cart, and started down an aisle. "As I was saying, besides the security guard, people don't come down here anymore. With the advancement of computers, all the information's a keystroke away. It gets kind of lonely down here."
Mr. Griffin turned to the clerk. "You have no H.H.C. How do you know where the records are filed?"
Claviger tapped his head. "It's all up here."
"What if something should happen to you, who else knows the filing system?"
"Who else?" He thought about it. "No one. There hasn't been another clerk assigned down here in ten years."
"I'll have to do something about that."
"Here we are." Claviger braked, grabbed his walker, and exited the golf cart. He removed a remote from the cart and pressed a button, and an automated ladder wheeled its way across the shelves, squeaking as it went and stopped in front of them.
"The box is on the tenth shelf. It's marked JS1324."
Mr. Griffin glanced up the ladder and back to the clerk quizzically.
Claviger tapped his walker with his hand. "I'd go up Mr. Griffin, but my knees aren't what they used to be."
"Right." Mr. Griffin removed his dark gray suit jacket and climbed the ladder, and soon he found the JS1324 box, brought it down, and opened it.
"Need any help going through it?" Claviger asked.
"No, I can do it myself. Thank you."
Claviger walked over to the storage shelf and pulled down a small mounted table. He laid the remote there, went to the golf card, grabbed a two way radio, and placed it on the table. "If you don't find what you're looking for, you might try box JB6741. It's up there." He pointed to the opposite storage shelf. "Or JU7895. It's down six units and up on shelf sixteen." He pointed. "If you need anything, contact me on channel two. I also left a remote. Press the button and the ladder will move to where you are standing." Claviger loaded his walker into the cart, sat in the driver's seat, and drove away.
Placing the box on the table, Mr. Griffin removed the lid, and started going through the files. He spent about a half hour going through them when he came across a folder, and it was labeled top secret.
Mr. Griffin's view...
I'm shocked to see the folder here. It had been thrown in with all the others. Were they hoping the hole the Archive had become would bury it? I go over the report. Theresa Griffin was present during the First Cross-Gate Event, and she was six months pregnant at the time.
I read out loud, "Study of the child could be valuable to the Second Trial."
I've never heard of the Cross-Gate Event or the Second Trial. Theresa should have told me about it. I find no other references to my wife or my youngest child, so I put the contents back in the box, climb the ladder, and put it back.
End Mr. Griffin's view...
Mr. Griffin climbed down, grabbed the remote from the table, and walked to the opposite side. He pressed the button on the remote, and a second automated ladder wheeled to the spot in front of him; he grabbed the second box, brought it down, started through its files, and found what he was looking for. It was another top secret folder, and he went over it, finding that Theresa Griffin had gone into labor early, but the baby was delivered in good health. It was decided by the Vice President to take the child away from its parents and study the effects of the Cross-Gate Event on it
s development. Theresa Griffin was told the baby died in child birth. A new project title will be given to the experiment, and the girl will be given the best of care.
Mr. Griffin looked up from the folder. He had another girl, and he beamed with pride, thinking about her. He searched the rest of the box, found nothing, moved to the last box JU7895, and found nothing more on Theresa Griffin or the unnamed baby girl. The little girl was part of a project, and it wasn't much to go on, but it was something. He picked up a small rectangular device and unwrapped an instruction booklet around it, wondering what it was. They were for some sort of test. He skimmed through the booklet and discovered it was a blood test to determine if Stable-flux Red Blood Cells were present in the blood. He remembered seeing Stable-flux R.B.C. and flipped through some files he had already gone through and found it. Anyone present during the First Cross-Gate Event and survived had the Stable-flux R.B.C. in their blood. He grabbed some of them and put them in his business coat pocket. Never know when they might come in handy, and then Mr. Griffin put the last box back and picked up the two way radio. "Claviger, I'm finished. You can come pick me up."
"Right away, Mr. Griffin."
The clerk's golf cart rolled down the aisle, stopped, and picked him up.
On the ride back, Mr. Griffin asked, "Do you know of any other files that might pertain to my wife or our second child?"
"Second child? You had a second child?" Claviger asked and when the Chairman didn't answer, Claviger replied, "No, but if they're more than a decade old, I might not. Before then, there were five clerks working down here, so I didn't file some of the records. I'll go through some of the older ones that were not part of my filing system and see if I can find anything, but it will take time."
"I'll send you some assistants. They can help you, and they can start cataloging these files. The Archive might not be used all that often, but I would like it in order so I may do so."
"Yes, Mr. Griffin, and the help will be greatly appreciated." Claviger stopped the cart.
"You'll have the clerks by the end of the day." Mr. Griffin got out, started down the hall, and passed the security guard.
Mr. Griffin's view...
I smile; I have a little girl. My smile quickly vanishes. She is little no more. She would be in her early thirties, and I have to find her. Theresa will want me to find her, so I better start looking.