“But what I want to know is this.” Brenda asked. “How do you know the authorities won’t find this place?”
“It’s not in my name,” Bernard announced with a wicked smile. “It’s in a fake name, just like the land where you will be heading to in a few minutes to dig out the treasure. I developed the persona over thirty years ago and have funded everything from my little stash by the mine. It is untraceable.”
“Hey, I thought you said you have never taken anything from the mine,” Brenda pouted. “Except for the stones you took the first time you were there.” Brenda wondered if there was any treasure left. Was this some kind of trick to get me into the desert?
“I haven’t,” he replied. “But Thomas Brown, my alias has. Don’t worry, there is plenty left,” he laughed at his deception.
Brenda was consumed by the possibility of great wealth, so she let the old man’s comment slide for now. She looked around and pointed at something. “What are those five big tanks in the corner?”
“Those are our sub-zero storage tanks,” he told her proudly. “Each one contains enough nanobots to wipe out a city the size of Miami. They are segregated by the race we are targeting for each phase of the plague. You will observe that each one is color coded by the color of the race that is the target.”
“Very clever,” Brenda gasped.
“The tank in the front is not marked because it contains nanobots that will kill indiscriminately,” Bernard gushed.
“What about the larger fifth one in the back?” She asked as she pointed.
“That’s our horse sperm supply, from the horses on the farm. We use a lot in making the nanobots. We are going to have to get another supplier, though.”
“But why make more nanobots, don’t you have enough already to ensure the takeover of America?”
“We do,” he nodded his head. “But we are targeting a race. We do not have enough to eliminate an entire race from earth yet,” he proudly said. “We will soon though.”
“So you plan to make South America vacant?” she asked.
“Only until we can recolonize it ourselves,” he replied.
“That’s incredible, Bernard!” Brenda exclaimed as the thought bounced around in her brain. Maybe I can get him to give me a country.
“And that is not all,” Bernard continued. “Carl believes he has found a chromosome which only people of Arab descent carry. Think of it, if he can perfect an Arab killing nanobot there will be no more Arab terrorists. No more people screaming jihad.”
“More people other than the Arabs use terrorism you know,” Brenda reminded him. They were doing the exact same thing.
He completely ignored her comment. “We are actually going to test our new nanobots on some live subjects in a few minutes. Want to watch?”
“Actually, I have something better to do,” she replied, “like getting your talisman, for example,” Brenda said sarcastically. She was beginning to feel a little creepy and just wanted to get away from the warehouse.
“No matter,” the old man replied in a cheerful voice. “Let me show you the office and lab area and then I’ll introduce you to the men who will help you. It will only take a few more minutes.”
“Alright, I’ll watch your experiment,” she agreed reluctantly as she rolled her eyes. Brenda wanted to go after the money but realized Bernard wasn’t going to let her go until he showed her all his toys. She decided to play along.
They entered the office and lab area. It took up about thirty percent of the building. Brenda saw people working in offices in white jackets as she wheeled Bernard down a long hall. The people were monitoring computers and talking on the phones. It looked just like any business office she had ever seen.
They passed through the offices and came to the actual manufacturing area for the nanobots. The room was not huge, she realized, as she looked through the large window built into the wall. It gave a full view into the operation. There were four workers, all dressed in thick white suits for protection working inside the room. It looked as sterile as a hospital operation theater.
“Most of the work is done by replicator nanobots in those seven pools,” Bernard said as he pointed his bony finger. The human workers only monitor the solutions and add more materials to keep them working. These little suckers work twenty-four hours a day,” he said proudly and chuckled.
“It’s impressive,” Brenda said to move him along. But Bernard wasn’t done. He wanted to explain the process.
“The nanobots in the first three pools build the machines. Once a new machine is built, they are sucked into the next pools where another kind of nanobot loads them up with plague serum. The largest and last pool is where another set of nanobots finishes the worker nanobot and activates it. See that small pipe that runs into the pool?” Bernard asked as he pointed to a tube in the last pool.
“Yes, I see it,” Brenda said.
“That tube brings the horse sperm from the tank I showed you. When the sperm hits the solution, a special kind of nanobot grabs it and rips off the head. They then attach the tail to the new nanobot and they become the finished product. The new nanobot is immediately frozen and sent to storage.”
“Yuck, that’s disgusting,” Brenda said. “I think I am going to be sick.” She bent over with her head between her legs.
“Well, let’s move along then,” Bernard suggested. They continued up the hallway and came to another room also with a large picture window. Bernard told her to stop so they could observe.
Brenda could see three naked people in the otherwise empty, white padded room. Two were young women. They all looked frightened and disoriented as they moved around the confined space looking for a way out. Brenda could clearly see terror in their eyes. The man and one of the women looked like they were of Arab descent. The third person was a young white woman. Carl Catfish stood by the window with a clipboard in his hand. He didn’t bother to greet them as he was intently watching the people.
“What’s going on in this room?” Brenda asked suspiciously.
“This is the experiment I was telling you about,” Bernard explained happily.
“Why are they naked?” Brenda wondered out loud.
“There have been some reports of distortion of some body parts in the past experiments,” Carl Catfish replied clinically. “We are trying to determine if they are helpful by observing the process.”
“Brenda, the subjects have already been exposed to the new nanobots. We should start to see some results any minute now. The white woman is the control subject.” Bernard informed her. She shouldn’t die or have any body distortion,” Bernard explained.
“But what if she dies too?” Brenda asked.
“Then we have failed and will have to change the formula and try again. That is what experimentation is all about, my dear,” Bernard said seriously.
“Where do you get the people for the experiments?” Bernard’s callous approach to people’s lives was really starting to bother Brenda. She was a white supremacist, but she didn’t want to get her hands dirty.
“We pick them off the street in Las Vegas, Phoenix or Los Angeles. There are plenty to choose from.”
“How many experiments have you already conducted in this laboratory?” Brenda asked curiously.
“About thirty,” Bernard replied. This stunned Brenda. A lot of people had died for the sake of his experiments.
“Bernard, what happens to the white woman if she survives?” Brenda asked with concern as she eyed the naked, shaking woman. She looked primal with a feral look in her eyes. She was terrified.
“Oh, she won’t live long after the experiment,” Bernard replied matter-of-factly.
Carl Catfish suddenly spoke clinically again. “We’ll have to wait at least an hour before we go in and collect her. The nanobots will be long dead and gone. Then we’ll conduct some experiments on her and then…” He stopped when he saw movement inside the room.
Suddenly, the two Arab looking people became very agitated. They c
lutched their chests and went down on their knees. Their faces contorted into horrible positions, their eyes bulged. Their genitals began to swell out of proportion. The white woman scrambled to a corner of the room and assumed a fetal position, shaking with fear. She started screaming, but the sound couldn’t penetrate the hallway. As Brenda, Bernard and Carl watched, the eyes of the Arabs rolled up into their heads and they fell over dead.
Carl pressed a stop watch and recorded the time on his chart. “Hmm, it only took one hour and one minute. We are making progress.”
“Looks like we have a winner,” Bernard croaked and raised his bony arm in triumph. Carl Catfish slapped it like they had scored a touchdown.
***
A few minutes later, Brenda pushed Bernard into a large office-like bedroom on the second floor of the office area. They had taken a small elevator up to the second story. Bernard explained that the second floor contained the living area and kitchen for the workers. It was where his quarters were located.
“This is where I will stay until we take over the country,” he said brightly. “It won’t take very long now. The killings in Chicago will start just a few hours from now.”
Brenda surveyed the room. It was maybe thirty feet by thirty feet. A full bedroom was set up in one corner with the heavy wood furniture which Bernard preferred. There was a desk and office furniture in another corner, but the majority of the room was furnished like a lab. It was loaded with beakers and equipment. “Not my style,” she uttered.
“The equipment is here so I can continue my experiments,” Bernard said to explain. “I’m still looking for a way to kill Jews.”
“Bernard, I really need to get going if I’m going to retrieve the talisman for you tonight,” Brenda pressured him.
Bernard wheeled over to his desk and pressed an intercom button. “Send Tom, Dick and Harry to my office,” he said into the device. He then turned towards Brenda.
“Those are their names, really?” Brenda nearly laughed.
“They have been told this is a top secret mission and were given code names. You need to make them believe their mission only ends when they bring me the treasure. But, you, of course will shoot them as soon as they load the truck.” He handed her a fanny pack which was on his desk.
“What’s this?” she asked.
“It contains two guns with silencers and four clips of ammo. Strap it to your body and don’t let them think there are guns in there,” he ordered.
“Will they have guns?”
“They may, there is no way to stop them without making them suspicious,” Bernard replied. “But they are my most trusted employees.”
Brenda suddenly realized getting the treasure wasn’t going to be a walk in the park. It was going to be dangerous and may even involve a shootout. She needed an edge to make sure she survived.
“But if their reflexes are faster than mine, we could be in trouble and you won’t get your talisman,” she said in a worried voice.
“You tell them they each can have a handful of precious stones from the last crate. While they are digging into the crate, you shoot all three — what could be easier?” Bernard said expansively.
“I hope it is that easy,” she responded uncertainly.
There was a knock on the door and Bernard said, “Enter”. Three men walked in wearing grey workman uniforms. Bernard heard Brenda take a sharp intake of breath. Each man was the size of Rhode Island.
Chapter Seventy-Four
O
utside the warehouse, three black SUVs, with their lights out, pulled into a parking lot of another warehouse. It was a little over a block North of the checkpoint and Schultz’s facility. An unmarked police car was already there. The two men inside were the officers watching the warehouse and also the blue van. Bart and his Dewey & Beatem army quickly piled out of the SUVs and collected behind one of the vehicles to map out their strategy. The two police officers were included.
“Where are your other officers stationed?” Bart quickly asked.
“There are two men just south of the building,” one of the watchers pointed to the map. “The other two are in the desert behind the building with sniper rifles, in case anyone tries to exit that way.
“Can you communicate with them?”
“We all have ear pieces,” the officer replied and pointed to his ear.
“Good,” Bart nodded. “Steve, please hand out our ear pieces, will you. Give one to this officer here, so we can all keep in touch.”
Steve reached into a black canvas bag and tossed everyone a communications device. “Good luck, everybody,” he said softy.
Bart divided his group into four teams of three people and included the two police officers. There were four women, so he placed a woman with each team. They did not have SWAT type gear in the law office, but did have Kevlar vests. So, each shooter had a vest over the clothes they were wearing when they were called in to the office. As he looked around the group he saw some dressed as baseball players, some dressed in camouflaged army fatigues, Chase still had on his suit, and one woman even wore a dress. Bart and Steve were in different clothes as well. What they wear, doesn’t matter, he thought. I know that each of these people can and will fight.
“We go in four minutes, even if Banyon doesn’t get here by then,” he said through gritted teeth.
“He’ll get here,” Steve said encouragingly. “He always shows up for a conflict and Loni is always ready for a fight.”
“Bart, I’ve got movement outside the warehouse,” one of the watchers cried out. He quickly studied the area through powerful binoculars. “A man just went to a white van with a cat logo on the side. He started the engine.”
“Let me see,” Bart said and quickly scrambled over to look through the glasses. He saw the van pull up near the side door to the warehouse. The driver left the engine running and swung open the back doors of the van. To Bart it looked like he put three shovels in the cargo area and slammed the doors shut. He then stood patiently and smoked a cigarette.
“Someone is going somewhere,” Bart reported. After about a minute, the warehouse door opened and out stepped Brenda Schultz wearing grey work clothes. She was followed by her three helpers.
“It’s Brenda Schultz and she has three men with her who are the size of Delaware,” Bart told everyone. “It looks like they are going to go dig somewhere.”
“Are there any bodies?” Steve asked. “They could be burying some dead worker or evidence.”
“I don’t see any bodies,” Bart admitted. “All I see is a piece of paper Brenda keeps waving in the air.”
“She probably doesn’t know where she is going and needs a map,” Steve spoke over Bart’s shoulder.
“Then maybe they are going somewhere to dig something up and bring it back to the warehouse,” Chase said.
As Bart continued to look through the glasses, Brenda and her workers jumped into the van and took off. They turned left out of the parking lot and drove right towards the assault team’s location.
“Get down everybody,” Bart yelled as the headlight beams passed over their parked cars. They could hear the roar of the motor as the vehicle slid by them.
“Should we send some of us to follow them?” Chase asked.
“Can’t do that,” Bart replied. “It would cut our manpower too much and it is already too slim for the assault.”
All of a sudden they heard another engine start. Bart peeked over the car and saw the blue van the police were also watching, pull a U-turn and accelerate past them.
“The two servants are following the Schultz woman,” Bart told everyone.
“Brenda must be going to pick up something valuable. It must be buried somewhere,” Haleigh said to the group.
“Or perhaps the servants plan on kidnapping her and using her to get at the old man,” Steve offered.
“In either case, we are too short of people to go after them,” Bart said sadly like it was a decision.
“Maybe Colt and Loni can fol
low them?” Haleigh offered brightly. “They should be coming down the same road that Brenda’s van is traveling. If they can locate them, they should be able to at least follow them,” she reasoned.
“Haleigh get Banyon on the phone,” Bart ordered. She quickly dialed his number and waited for him to answer.
***
“Hey, Haleigh, what’s up?” Banyon said into the phone. He put the call on speakerphone so everyone could hear.
“Colt, are you guys near the warehouse yet?”
“We are about three minutes north of it right now,” Banyon lied. The Banyon team was actually heading down a dirt road towards the mine. Banyon had expected the assault team to have already entered the warehouse. “Why do you ask?”
“The Schultz woman is on the move in a white van that has a cat logo on the side. She has three burly men the size of Rhode Island with her. They have brought shovels. She is also being followed by the two servant guys from Chicago in a blue van. They are headed right at you,” Haleigh quickly told him. “Can you pick them up and follow them? When you find out where they are going, call me back and maybe we can send some people to help you.”
“I see a white van coming my way now,” Banyon said as another lie. “We’ll follow them. Don’t worry about us,” he added. “Let me talk to Bart.”
Bart was quickly on the phone. “You got anything?”
“Sorry we are going to miss the party, but you’ll do alright.”
“Wish I knew more about the warehouse though,” Bart acknowledged.
“I’ve been studying the blueprints,” Banyon replied. “If I was them, I’d store the inventory of nanobots in the Southwest corner of the warehouse in the big open space. Go there first and disable the sub-zero containers, it will kill the nanobots.”
A Dubious Device: The Nanobot Terror (A Colton Banyon Mystery Book 10) Page 25
