by David Archer
He paused, and seemed reluctant to go any further.
Sam cleared his throat. “Joel,” he said, “are you telling me that you would be capable of making the kind of predictions that Herbert says Fei can make?”
“In a way, yeah,” Joel said. “I mean, when you told me what you were planning to do about getting Denny back, I thought to myself that there was a seventy-four percent chance that Fei would anticipate what you’re doing and use it to try to trap you, but there was a ninety-seven percent chance that he’d want you to get away with Denny at the moment in order to find out what evidence he was able to get.”
“And you didn’t bother to tell us?” Summer shouted at him. “If you had this ability, why did we not know about it before now?”
“Hey, would you really have believed me? I wasn’t trying to hold anything back, I just didn’t think it was relevant. And as far as what happened, I calculated a ninety-three percent chance that your people would be able to handle any threat that came up. I never would have believed that he would be able to take out two of your security guys.”
“All right, all right,” Sam said, cutting Summer off from another outburst. “What I’m concerned about is the fact that you’re saying Fei may have that third chip. Can you tell me how in the world that could be possible?”
“I don’t know,” Joel said. “Like I told you, it was sort of an urban myth thing. Nobody ever really thought it was true, but the story just went around. As for how it could be possible, well, I think we’d have to go find a medium. The only person who could possibly have done it would have been Doctor Williamson. I think we’ve already established that he could be bought, so maybe there was money involved. Whatever the case, if Fei has that chip, then he is absolutely capable of making the predictions you were told about.”
“It would also explain,” Jade said, “why he would be so determined to get his hands on the new one. He’s already got some idea of what this thing can do, and obviously he’s got someone inside C-Link, someone who could tell him what the new chip is capable of. If we could figure out who that is, it might tell us a lot.”
Walter, who had been sitting quietly throughout the entire exchange, suddenly said, “It’s Fei. He’s the inside man.”
“What?” Sam asked. “Walter, what are you saying?”
“Nobody knows who Fei is. That’s not even his real name, because Yue Fei is the name of a famous Chinese hero, a general who never lost a battle. No one knows what he looks like, so he could go anywhere and never be under suspicion. For him to know so much about the chip and what it takes to get it into his head, he has to have direct access to what goes on inside C-Link. That means he is the inside man we’ve been looking for.”
Darren leaned forward. “Holy crap,” he said, “I think he may be right. Do you know how many questions that would answer right now? I’ll lay you odds that he’s the man who helped Williamson steal the chip. I mean, this would explain everything. It explains how he would have gotten access to the gen-4 chip, how he could have gotten close enough to Williamson to bribe him to do the implantation, and how he could know so much about the gen-5. Remember what Walter said before? Williamson must have refused to implant the new chip, so instead, Fei convinced him to help steal it. It fits perfectly with the profile we built up of this guy, even down to the point of having Williamson and McGill killed. As far as Fa Ling buying it, Fei probably agreed to help them get it in return for getting one implanted in him. It all fits.”
Sam looked at Joel. “Joel? Can you access the list of employees?”
“I’m already on it,” Joel said. “There are thirty-seven Asian employees, of which twenty-three are male. Out of those, only two of them would fit the general physical description we got from Walter. Those are Daniel Huong and Li Chang. Daniel is in the marketing department, but Chang is a CAD engineer who was actually involved in the design and development of the chip, and he was the company’s liaison to Doctor Williamson.” His eyes popped open and he stared at Sam.
“That’s got to be him,” Darren said. “It’s so perfect, it explains everything. That’s how he was able to get Williamson to work with him, they were probably friends.”
Sam sat and looked around the table for a moment, then turned to Joel again. “Run your simulations,” he said, “or whatever it is you have to do, but what would be the chance Fei could predict that we would figure out who he is?”
Joel closed his eyes and kept them closed for almost half a minute. Finally, he opened them and looked directly at Sam.
“There’s one variable in this equation that I don’t believe he would have access to,” he said solemnly. “Without that variable, the chance that he would be able to predict that we would reach this conclusion is less than five percent.”
“And what is that variable?” Sam asked.
Joel looked at Walter. “Walter’s autism. I can find each of the rest of you online, through your work histories, social media, and stuff like that. No matter how I try, though, I can’t find any trace of Walter online at all. Nowhere is there anything about his ability to put together such unrelated facts and come to startlingly accurate conclusions, not even on your company’s website.” He looked at Sam. “Frankly, I find that amazing. It would seem to me that the news media would be all over him.”
“I don’t let them near him,” Steve said. “After that museum job, somebody at the museum sent the press to try to interview us, and Walter just about jumped out a fifth story window. He don’t like the press, so I don’t let them near him. We always laugh at any stories about our super genius crime scene investigator, because he don't want to deal with the publicity.”
“I don’t like reporters,” Walter said. “Publicity ruins your life. I don’t want people to watch me everywhere I go.”
“Then we’ve got a good shot at this. Joel, can you have somebody send us photos of Chang? We need to know what this guy looks like.”
“I can do that, now. I’m sending all of you his entire personnel file, straight from the personnel computer to your phones, right about—now.”
All of their phones chimed at once, and they looked into the face of their adversary. He was young, probably in his mid-twenties. As Walter had predicted, he was just about Walter’s size and would have gone unnoticed on most city streets.
“Hard to believe this is our newest Hitler,” Jade said. “He looks like a nobody.”
“Most mad dictator wannabes do,” Steve said. “I bet this ain’t what he looks like when he’s running the triad.”
Becky was looking at the picture on Pat’s phone, and she turned her eyes up to Sam. “Are you saying this is the man who arranged for Mac to die?”
“I’d say it’s a ninety-nine percent certainty,” Sam said. “But don’t you worry. We’re bringing him in.” He turned to Joel. “Now, assuming that the rumor of the third chip is true and that Chang is the one who got it, where is that going to leave C-Link?”
“I’m talking with Doctor Prentiss about that right now,” he said. “He confirms that there was a third chip, but Williamson claimed it was destroyed in an accident. He even had pieces of one that he pointed to as what was left, but nobody bothered to check to see if it was the real chip or not. Everybody was just too pissed off at the time to care, and by the time the rumors began, nobody knew what had ever happened to those pieces. I think we have to assume that we’ve got that mystery solved, as well.”
“Okay, then…” Sam cut off as his phone rang. He didn’t recognize the number, so he answered cautiously. “Hello?”
“Sam, old mate,” came a crisp, British accent. “Perhaps you might confirm to these Nazis just who I am.”
“Nazis? Denny? What’s going on?”
“I’m being bloody arrested,” Denny said, exasperated. “That’s what’s bloody going on. We went to get the evidence I promised you, but some of Fei’s men were apparently watching the area and spotted us. They followed us for a while, and the driver was able to lose them
at one point, but they found us again and opened fire. I’m afraid the other men are dead, and the bloody car rolled over and nearly killed me, and then the killers got out of their car and were about to blow my bloody head off when I found a machine gun and killed the buggering bastards, and the bloody San Francisco Police Department has hauled my ass off to the old nick, right?”
Sam’s eyes grew wide. “Denny, where are you?”
“How am I supposed to know? I’ll let this bloody copper tell you.” There was some muffled discussion on the line, and then another voice came on.
“This is Inspector Willis, SFPD. Who am I speaking with, please?”
“This is Sam Prichard, Windlass Security Services. That man is one of my investigators, and also a contract Special Agent of the Department of Homeland Security. If you’ll tell me where you’re holding him, I’ll have proof of that to you in minutes.”
“Well, that’s what he’s been telling us, too,” Willis said irritably. “It just seemed kind of strange to pick him up in the middle of a bloodbath on a city street with no ID of any kind on him. If you can clear this up, we’d greatly appreciate it.” He told Sam where Denny was being held, and Sam promised to make an immediate call to clarify the situation.
Sam called Ron Thomas immediately, and told him what was going on, then turned to Rob Feinstein.
“Rob,” he began, “Denny and the two men you sent with him were apparently attacked by some of Fei’s people. Denny survived, but I’m afraid your men did not.”
Rob looked at him for a moment, then lowered his eyes to the table. “That was Jack Dobbs and Bill Carter. Good men, both of them.”
Sam nodded. “Do they have families?”
“No, they were loners. Most of us in this business are, anymore. I’ll take care of the necessary arrangements tomorrow during the day.”
Ron, back in Denver, had made two other calls, and fifteen minutes later, Sam’s phone rang again. It was Denny.
“I don’t know who called,” he said, “but these blokes have done just about everything except kiss me on the arse. They let me go, and they’re giving me a ride out to meet you.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” Sam said. “Denny, were you able to retrieve the evidence you went after?”
“We got it, Sam,” Denny replied, “I’ve got the flash drives, but somebody owes me a new drone. Little Sparky just went up in smoke.”
“I’m sure Ron will be happy to buy a new one. Get here, we got plans to make. We’ve identified Yue Fei; he’s a nobody who works at C-Link.”
“Bloody hell,” Denny said. “I’ll be there in fifteen, don’t start without me.”
The line went dead, and Sam turned back to the people sitting around the table. “Okay, I don’t think Herbert or his friend have any more value to us. On the other hand, we can’t just let them go. We can use this as a staging facility, so I’m inclined to just leave them locked up here at the moment. Rob?”
Rob detailed two of his men, who took Herbert and his compatriot down from where they were hanging before locking them into a single room together. They were each given bottles of water and warned that any attempt to escape would get them shot. One of the men would remain on guard duty while the other went into another room to try to rest until it was his turn.
Sam turned to Steve. “You’ve been interviewing people who fit the description Walter gave us,” he said. “Have you spoken to Chang yet?”
Walter shook his head. “No,” he said. “We had only gone through about forty-five people, and he wasn’t one of them.”
“Okay.” Sam looked at Joel. “We’ve got an address on him, right? Let’s move, let’s see if we can take him tonight. I want to do everything we can to take him without warning.”Denny walked in at that moment, followed by two police inspectors. Denny stopped to whisper something to Rob. Rob shook hands with him and nodded, and then Denny sat down at the table. He laid the two flash drives on the table in front of him. Joel snatched them instantly and produced an adapter that let him plug one into his oversized cell phone.
“Couple of good men died to get those,” Denny said. “I truly hope they’ve got what we need.”
“So do I,” Sam said. He looked at the two men who had accompanied Denny into the building. “And you are?”
“Who’s in charge here?” asked one of the men, and Sam held out his ID.
“Sam Prichard, Windlass Security Services,” he said. The others produced their own IDs and introduced themselves, as well.
“Inspector George Albertson,” said the detective, and then he pointed at his partner. “This is Inspector Paul Garrity. What the hell is going on here?”
“We’ve been working on the CerebroLink stolen prototype case,” Sam said. “We’ve identified the primary actor in the case as the triad leader Yue Fei, who is attempting to have himself surgically enhanced in order to increase his power. ”
Albertson stared at Sam. “Okay, we’ve been trying to get anything on Fei that we could for months, and we never heard anything about any surgical enhancement. What kind of operation are we talking about, here?”
“Inspector, because the company has contracts with DARPA, some of the information you’re asking for is actually classified. What I can tell you is that the company has developed a device that would make it possible for someone to use his own brain to access many computer-controlled systems, such as utilities, defense systems, and more, and subvert them for his own purposes. Fei has managed to steal one and was trying to get it implanted into his head so that he could exert terroristic control over—well, over as much of the world as he chose. Now, in the course of our investigation, we have managed to identify Fei, and we were just about to call you in, anyway.”
Albertson and Garrity glanced at each other then looked back at Sam. “You’ve identified Yue Fei? Are you saying you know who he is?”
Sam nodded. “With better than ninety-nine percent certainty. His real name is Li Chang, and he is actually an engineer at CerebroLink. I was just about to call you folks because we’d like to stop him tonight, if at all possible. He’s already killed two of my men, and I know he’s ordered the murders of many others. Incidentally, we have two of his men here, as well. They were involved in kidnapping Mr. Cortlandt earlier tonight, and we took them for interrogation when we got him back.”
“You took them?” Garrity asked. “Just who the hell do you think you are? You can’t...”
Sam produced his ID again, this time flipping it over to show the Department of Homeland Security endorsement. “Actually, I can. I’m also a contract agent of DHS, as are the rest of these people. In matters that may involve national security and classified information, I’m authorized to take whatever measures I deem necessary, including laying claim to jurisdiction and interrogating suspects, but we would have been turning them over to you soon in any case.” He put the ID away. “Now, would you like to talk about Mr. Chang? I have enough evidence to justify dragging him in for questioning, I assure you, and once we’ve got him, it won’t be hard to prove that we’re correct.”
Alberston stared at him for a few seconds more, then nodded his head. “If it means taking Fei down, we’re in.”
“Then I suggest we get ready. If you’ll notify your department to come and pick up the two men we’ve captured, we can get on the way.”
Albertson nodded and took out a cell phone. It took him only a minute to get a patrol car on the way, and they arrived five minutes later. The officers took the two triad members into custody and drove away with them, and Albertson turned back to Sam.
“We’re ready,” he said. “Should I arrange backup?”
Sam looked around at the investigators and security team with him and grinned. “I think we’ve got you covered,” he said.
“Sam,” Joel said suddenly. “We got it. There’s a complete 3D scan of the C-Link chip and copies of all our research on the hard drive these were taken from, and plenty of other stuff that prove they came from Fa Ling computers
. I’ve also got the design of the chip they were making, and I can tell you that they’ve already made three of them. Those chip printers are awesome, but they’re slow; they take almost thirty-six hours to make one chip.”
“They didn’t seem to be working when I was there,” Denny said. “Does that matter?”
“No,” Joel said. “Three is the most they can make without approval, so it makes sense they’d stop there. He was going to get one of them, and they’d have two more for other testing.”
“Interesting,” Sam said. “He was willing to take an untested chip? I’d think he’d want to see one implanted into someone else, first.”
Joel shrugged. “Why? He can run computer simulations that will show him exactly what it would be like to have it in his head. I wouldn’t hesitate to get it, if I had the chance.”
Sam looked at the young man for a moment. “You’d want to upgrade yours? Have you talked to C-Link about that?”
