The Chief’s gaze betrayed his desire to have me killed. I’d never realized the depth of his loathing before. Now that I recognized it, I could almost feel it radiating from him. How had I ever believed him a coldly emotionless man? He seethed with passion but hid it behind a snakelike mask.
“…it is a bomb,” he said.
“Anti-matter?”
His head twitched as if a slug had crawled onto his face. “You have heard of a neutron bomb?”
“That was something from the Seventies.”
“Correct,” he said. “Former President Carter eliminated it. It was a nuclear device meant to kill with radiation and neutrons but leaving the structures standing. It was a man-killer. The concept was to destroy the defenders but leave the terrain intact so an invading army could cross the attacked area. It was believed that since such a weapon did not leave an area irradiated for long, the political entities would be quicker to use it, and hence, the neutron bomb would be a more credible threat.”
“The cube is a modernized neutron bomb?” I asked.
“Is this a test to see if I understand its deadliness? You know what the cube does, Herr Kiel. It advances the theory of the neutron bomb. But instead of neutrons it slays through an organic molecular-chain decoupler.”
“It’s a mind bomb?” I asked.
“It acts like an EMP pulse bomb, but instead of destroying electronic devices, it overloads neurons. The mind is killed, although the theoreticians believe the body will remain breathing for some time thereafter. There is no damage done to anything, but the enemy is destroyed.”
“That’s insane,” I said.
“No, Herr Kiel. It is inhuman. And I have grown weary of this conversation.”
“How is it you’re even here?” I asked. “You’re obviously at odds with Polarity Magnetics—” Then I saw it. Why had it taken me so long to figure out? “Kay was your plant inside Polarity Magnetics, wasn’t she?”
“Now you are truly fishing,” the Chief said.
“She’s always been yours—ever since the accident.”
His eyes narrowed, and he shook his head. “Not always. She let you escape.”
“Why?”
“For the same reason she failed me here: she loved your friend, the one irreplaceably lost to the forces of out-of-control science. She had become rogue, and it killed her.”
“No,” I said. “You killed her because she’d become rogue.”
“You are all rogue, you, Cheng and Harris. I am here to make certain that unauthorized people do not reacquire the cube or continue their experiments with silicon chip nanoparticles.”
“You thought Kay was stealing the cube for you,” I said. “Harris thought it was for him. Yet she didn’t give it to either of you, but to me. Why?”
“I do not know. Perhaps it no longer matters why.”
“Does the Shop own a nanotech company in Texas or Argentina?”
“Please…” The Chief’s features closed up like a mask. “Doctor Harris’s laboratory is in Argentina. I know nothing about a Texas company.”
I glanced around, and this time I spotted Shop operatives. The assassins sprinted across the street toward the limo. The snipers were no longer visible on the tattoo shop.
Stepping behind the Chief, I touched the barrel of the gun to the base of his skull. “I could kill you, but I won’t. I’ve learned that each cold-blooded kill I make, steals a year of my life. And I no longer want such theft. What you did to us in Milan—it was evil. If you keep coming after me, I will begin to hunt you, every one of you, trading a year of my old age so I can survive now. My advice is that you go home while you still can instead of ending up in the morgue like Kay.”
“Jagiello will desire revenge for what you did to him.”
“Tell him it was payback for the time he beat me down with a shock baton on the Reservation.” I pulled the hammer until it clicked.
The Chief flinched, at least the tiniest bit. It meant he was human after all. The assassins reached the limo. One knelt beside Jagiello. The other looked around.
I stepped away from the Chief, and I used the darkness. The Chief soon turned around, and by the way his head swiveled, I knew he tried to spot me. Maybe the way I could use the darkness would give him pause. He’d finally had a live example of what I could do. But I doubted he would just go away, although I could still hope.
-22-
Forty minutes later, I was past the security fence and inside Polarity Magnetics. The stars were out but there was no moon, a perfect time for me.
I’d been pinpointing the security cameras, and watching Stone and his people make the rounds in their jeeps. I’d also been thinking about the Chief, the Shop, Doctor Harris, Doctor Cheng and Kay.
Kay had been the Chief’s spy, meaning that she had likely reported to him about what Polarity Magnetics did. According to the Chief, Kay’s motive had been Dave. She wanted him awake. How did the cube fit in with that? The cube destroyed people’s minds through scrambling their neurons. According to Kay and Harris, she had enlisted the doctor’s help. A Mercedes Benz limo sat in Rita’s garage. The limo belonged to a company in Texas. The parent company was in Argentina. Harris’s laboratory was also in Argentina. Did that link Harris to the Mercedes Benz?
I believed it did. If that was true, did it mean Harris had killed Kay? Suppose he had. Why hide the limo in Rita’s garage? Would that make Rita an accomplice? The woman acted like someone with a guilty conscience. She hated me, and she knew I was searching for Kay’s killer.
The others searched for the cube. If they knew I had it, why not search for me? Instead, Polarity Magnetics had taken Kay’s corpse and they had removed all the furniture from her apartment. Stone had planted an IED in the medicine cabinet, which implied he thought others would come searching in the apartment for something. The something was likely the chip in my pants pocket.
I raised my eyebrows and shoved my hands into my pants pockets. There was nothing in them! What had happened to the chip? Then I remembered. After fighting with Harris aboard his yacht, I’d returned to the Alamo, showered and changed my clothes. That meant the chip was aboard my boat in a pair of pants in the head. I couldn’t do anything about it this instant, so I shrugged. Maybe that was for the best. It meant no one could take it off me, and who would think to check someone’s used pants?
It was an oversight leaving the chip, but it was altogether human. That proved the Chief was wrong about us accelerated. Okay, the chip was on my boat. That didn’t tell me what it did. Why would the others want the chip? The cube, everyone was after the cube. Logically, therefore, the chip could help them find the cube.
If the cube were a bomb, wouldn’t it need a detonator? If one had a radio-controlled detonator, couldn’t he or she use that to locate the cube? If the cube had a detonator, first, where was it and second, why hadn’t the owner of the detonator used it as a locater and already retrieved the cube?
It would seem that Doctor Cheng lacked the detonator. Kay must have stolen it too. The conclusion seemed obvious. The chip was the critical component to the cube’s detonator/locator.
That being the case, I had a way now to locate Harris. I need merely inform him I had the chip and logically, he would come for it. How could I inform him? Through Rita, I believed.
I moved to Polarity Magnetics’ detention center, the brick building where Stone had played his tech games with me. There, I kicked open the locked door. Then I moved back into darkness and waited.
Soon, the roar of a jeep alerted me. I spied Mike Stone, with Rita beside him. Good, that would save time having her here. Stone wore a Kevlar vest and combat boots, with the strap of a submachine gun hanging from his neck. The weapon was a Heckler & Koch MP5. Rita wore a regular Polarity Magnetics uniform. The jeep rolled to a halt. Stone slid out, taking up his MP5. Rita came around the jeep beside him.
“Someone forced the door,” Stone said. He scanned the area, but failed to spot me.
“Gavin must h
ave done it,” Rita said. “It means he’s nearby.” She drew her gun.
Stone chewed the inside of his cheek. “Our sensors didn’t pick him coming over the perimeter.”
“He’s accelerated,” Rita said.
“That’s doesn’t make him immune to sensors.”
“It does to some of them.”
After a moment’s hesitation, Stone nodded, grunting agreement. “To tell you the truth, I was hoping he’d try something like this.”
“Then this is your lucky night,” I said, moving out of the darkness. My gun was out, aimed at them.
At the sound of my voice, they each half turned. Shock showed in Stone’s eyes. Rita scowled.
“Shoot him,” she whispered, although she did not attempt to bring her gun around. They both had their backs to me.
“Why should you die?” I asked. “I’m here to make a deal, to talk, not to kill. Now drop your weapons.”
Stone didn’t hesitate. He shrugged off the HK strap and set his submachine gun on the cement.
“If we’d fired together,” Rita said, “we could have killed him.”
“He could have shot us from behind,” Stone said. “But he didn’t. He could have shot me in the face earlier today, but he didn’t do that either.”
Good. For once, it seemed, mercy had gained me something.
With ill grace, Rita tossed her gun so it clattered on the pavement.
Stone glanced at her and then he turned fully around and studied me. “Why did you attack Rita in her house?”
“Is that what you told him?” I asked her.
She said nothing.
“Rita gave you a slanted version,” I told Stone. “I went to her place to talk. But she doesn’t like talking, as you can see.”
“Talk about what?” Stone asked.
“Kay, Harris and an armored Mercedes Benz,” I said.
“You saw that, eh?”
It surprised me Mike Stone knew, but it also made sense. It certainly muddied my understanding of the situation. “What’s going on, Stone? Who killed Kay?”
“Since you’ve seen the Mercedes,” he said, “you must realize that Harris did it.”
“Harris told me you did.”
Stone shook his head. “I wouldn’t have benefited from Kay’s death, so I didn’t have a reason.”
I noticed Stone didn’t deny killing her. “Did Rita help Harris kill Kay?” I asked.
Rita looked up, and anger twisted her features.
“Do you have a guilty conscience?” I asked her.
Stone glanced at Rita and then he shook his head again. “It isn’t what it looks like. Rita didn’t know it was going to happen. Harris got mad and started slapping Kay. Kay fought back. She had Rita’s strength, but you already know that. Kay’s strength must have surprised Harris. It’s what I think happened, anyway. I bet Kay hurt him and Harris hit her too hard trying to defend himself.”
“Is that what Rita told you?” I asked.
“How else do you think I’d know?” Stone asked.
“When did you find out that Rita was helping Harris?”
“Shoot him,” Rita whispered.
“You have it backward,” Stone said. “I set up Harris a long time ago in order to monitor him. He’s like thirteen packs of wolves, always prowling, waiting to pounce. He’s dangerous; even more so when you don’t know where he is.”
“Are you going to tell me that you planted Kay on him, too?” I asked.
“Kay was a mistake all down the line,” Stone said with a scowl. “I told Doctor Cheng that. How that lady ever got a security clearance for anything is beyond me. I know Kay was your friend, but all she cared about was Dave and bringing him around. There wasn’t a company bone in her body.”
“You’re the ultimate team player, is that it?”
“I’m loyal,” Stone said, “Without that, we’re just animals. Or did the Green Berets operate on different principles?”
“You missed something,” I said. “Kay worked for the Shop.”
Stone should have shown surprise. Instead, he tried to hood his features. I couldn’t understand why he would do that. Then I heard something behind me. I glanced back and I saw Doctor Cheng, with the neural whip in her hand. How had she managed to sneak up on me? Before I could figure it out, she stroked me with the whip along my side.
***
That hadn’t been my plan. Apparently, Doctor Cheng could use the darkness in a similar manner as I did. She had been able to sneak up on me, only making a slight sound at the end.
I felt groggy as I lifted my head. There were bright lights around me, but not glaring lights. I noticed, however, that I wore sunglasses. Someone had put them on me. There was a steady thrum in the room.
“He’s coming around,” Stone said.
I lay on the floor, and I could feel the thrum through my hands. I sat up, and that hurt my head.
“You should move slowly,” Cheng warned. “I stroked you with a more powerful charge than the last time you felt it.”
I rubbed my head. The thrum, it wouldn’t go away. Then I realized some kind of large machine made the sound. I climbed to my feet, looking around. Rita aimed a gun at me and Stone aimed his HK. Cheng had the neural whip holstered at her side.
“This is where we keep Dave,” Cheng said.
The room was more like a gym-sized chamber. It contained lots of heavy equipment, half surrounding a large, horizontal glass tube. Cables and other lines were connected to the tube. Blue light filled the cylinder almost like a liquid. Deep in the blue light was the ghostly outline of a naked man.
I took several steps closer. It was Dave, an outline of him and his features.
“He’s out of phase at the moment,” Cheng informed me.
“Does the equipment keep him alive?” I asked.
“Quite the contrary,” Cheng said, looking at me with her strange, oil-film eyes.
“He’s dead?” I asked.
“No,” Cheng said. “Call it a form of suspended animation. He phases in and out, but he cannot wake up as long as he remains in the blue field.”
“Don’t you want him to wake up?” I asked.
“That is the great question,” Cheng said. She gave me a worried look. “There is reason to believe… I am afraid his rationality might have been damaged.”
“I don’t follow you.”
“It is difficult to explain. But I believe Dave has been communicating with beings.”
“People?” I asked.
“Beings,” Cheng said. “I’m trying to be as precise as I can. There is reason to suspect his…loyalty I suppose you could call it. He might be offended at us, at humanity in general.”
“That doesn’t sound like Dave,” I said.
“Kay said similar things. Her love for him tinged her logic, making it impossible for her to view the facts impartially.”
“Does any of this have anything to do with the cube?” I asked.
“Oh yes.” Cheng pursed her small mouth. “Kay wished to awaken Dave, and I provisionally agreed. Unfortunately, when Dave phases out, there is nothing we have that can harm him. Therefore, should he prove inimical to us…”
“You needed something to hurt him?” I asked.
“When he phases out the cube is, we believe, one of the few weapons that can harm him,” Cheng said.
“And Kay wanted such a thing destroyed.”
“Precisely.”
“I don’t have the cube,” I said.
Cheng stared at me, and she did something with her eyes.
I felt pressure in my head. The pressure grew until my head throbbed. I rubbed it, and was on the verge of telling her to stop.
Then Cheng said, “You know the cube’s whereabouts.”
“I’m ninety-nine percent sure he found the chip,” Stone said. “Kay hid it in one of her light bulbs.”
“Is this true?” Cheng asked me.
“No,” I said.
Cheng frowned. She did her eye-trick a
gain and the pressure resumed until she said, “You are lying. You must understand that the chip is critical. Where is it?”
I shook my head, and I tried to think about anything other than the chip.
Cheng’s nostrils flared as the pressure increased.
“Stop,” I whispered.
She relented, and her shoulders slumped, as if using the power drained her of strength. “The chip is on his boat,” she said breathlessly. “It is in a pair of pants.”
“So you can read minds,” I said.
“No,” Cheng said. “It isn’t in the manner you believe. Mr. Stone, would you please—”
A door clicked shut. I turned, and so did the others. Rita was gone.
“She’s helping Harris,” I said. “Or did you miss reading that in my mind?”
“It isn’t possible,” Cheng said. “I should have been able to sense such a thing. Quickly, Mr. Stone, get her.”
He hurried to the door, but it wouldn’t budge. “She’s locked us in,” he said.
“She must be calling Harris,” I said. “He’s after the cube. With the chip, he can—”
“I know very well what he is capable of doing,” Cheng said. “This is preposterous. How can Rita have concealed this from me?”
“Maybe Harris taught her how to beat your mind probe,” Stone said.
“That will be enough, Mr. Stone,” Cheng said. She studied me.
“Kay worked for the Shop,” I said.
“She used to work for them, yes that’s true. Then she switched her allegiance to me. At least, I thought it was to me. Now I realize that her real allegiance was to Dave. I will have to reorganize my security department.”
“How many more are there like Rita?” I asked. “How many have your injected?”
“She and Kay were prototypes,” Cheng said. “Mr. Stone has volunteered for the alteration, but I must reassess the situation.” Cheng studied me anew. “Unless I have the cube, I will not risk waking Dave. From our tests, we have reasons to believe that he has power in great excess compared to any of us. He could be the most dangerous of the accelerated. If you desire to help your friend, you will give me the cube.”
Accelerated Page 20
