Probe

by Douglas E Roff

  “Nice use of the term ‘we’. I assume by ‘we’, you mean you.”

  “I’m in charge, so yes ‘we’ means me. Happy now?”

  “I am. Now, do you want our help in finding these folks and stopping them before they start a war?”

  “Is that even possible?”

  “Yes, of course it is. But you’ll have to trust me, and I understand that might not be feasible under the circumstances.”

  “What do you need?”

  “Get a pen, Paulo, this may take a little while.”

  ***

  Adam and Team Hannah knew of Saldana Ri, the Black Shirts and some connection to the Vatican and Cardinal Bellinelli. And they knew, or suspected, that there was coordination of some sort. But while Adam knew a lot more about contemporary Black Shirt behavior, research and locations, he and his Teams did not yet fully understand intent. Paulo probably didn’t either, but he could suspect and conjecture far more accurately than Adam.

  Again, had parties all worked together, much death and anguish could have been avoided. But, it hadn’t been, and would never be.

  Chapter 25

  Demitri entered the secure facility being used by Paulo. “I have news, Paulo.”

  “Which is?”

  “Frank and Charles are both dead. Hands tied behind their backs; gunshots to the head. No CCTV footage in or out; all cameras down. Looks like they were turned off remotely.”

  “Well, at least we now know who most likely helped from the inside.”

  “What next? We’re getting calls in from all over the world. Every council imaginable wants to know what happened and what we’re doing next. The Black Shirt propaganda machine has kicked into high gear. They’re on all our channels of communication, plus a few of their own we never knew about. I have no idea how they got access unless it was Frank. It will take some time to lock them out and we may have to go dark for a while. Without Frank and our people in Princeton, not sure even where to start.”

  “Call our Swiss organization or maybe the Germans. I can give you some names, but if Frank was a Black Shirt, his contacts abroad might be Black Shirt too. It’s important that we take back every means of communication and shut down theirs. If only one story is getting out, especially now, we could’ve civil war before we know it. If the Gens folk feel threatened, they may opt for the strongest voice.”

  “What else?”

  “Then we must contact all the Councils; the Great Councils, the Regional Councils and every local council. Then schedule a conference call with each group. About four hours each, over two days. We may need two calls for the locals. Start senior and work your way down. Give them a day and a time, plus call in details. No RSVP; if they can’t call in, tough shit. No excuses, I’m not going to start kissing asses until I absolutely must. And Demitri?”

  “Yes, Paulo?”

  “Don’t take any shit from anyone. If they get aggressive, tell them they will need to take it up with me. Personally. The Chinese are going to try to capitalize on this; they’ll push back and claim to not want to get involved in Western problems. Nobody absolutely is required to participate, but I will be taking attendance. Make sure they understand that ignoring this call isn’t in anyone’s best interests. Feel free to imply that failure to cooperate and participate will have consequences after this is resolved. Understood?”

  “I do.”

  This is what Demitri liked about Paulo and why he was so loyal to him and his Clan. No panic, dealing with the issues in front of him calmly and never ever backing down. Demitri had no doubt that Paulo would solve the mystery of the Black Shirts; he would also be dispatching his Captains and Trackers to dispatch Saldana Ri. Of course, he had to find her first and Saldana would surely now go to ground. This was no longer simply annoying; this was active insurrection. For the first time in millennia, civil war was a real possibility. Paulo had to get control of the propaganda machine, shut down the Black Shirts and make an example of Saldana Ri. He would ferret out the leadership of the Black Shirts, hunt them down and quell any possibility of rebellion.

  He was composed on the surface, but his rage dwelt just below. The Grand Canyon episode had demonstrated a weakness in the organization and perhaps a lapse of judgment on Paulo’s part with respect to his brother. Perhaps he had closed off too many opportunities for other Clans and, maybe that was a mistake. He would open the process, at least enough to cycle through new opportunities in leadership, just not the important positions he needed to maintain order. Can’t ignore the opposition, but he had underestimated the Black Shirts. Badly.

  Saldana Ri was obviously at the bottom of all of this. Clearly, she had out maneuvered him in the short run, but Gens leadership had always been a marathon, not a sprint. Paulo was bloodied at present, maybe even slightly wounded, but not mortally so.

  His next move would be to see what he could do with the Human. They seemed to have superior resources and technology. Maybe he could finesse them into solving the Black Shirt problem for him. He sent Alana/Adam and email.

  The email read:

  Need to speak to you again. Urgent. Please call in the morning.

  Paulo

  The reply came quickly.

  Nine your time. Don’t waste my time; I need to have answers to the questions I posed. If you have them, let’s talk. Send the answers ahead of our call by reply to this email. Otherwise your problems are your own.

  Alan

  ***

  Adam called Paulo precisely at nine as per his email. “What’s on your mind, Paulo?”

  Today the room included not only by Adam and Alana, but also by Edward and Misti. Neither Misti nor Edward were particularly pleased with Adam for contacting Paulo on his own. He had ignored good advice from Alana and proceeded without consulting the team. In fact, they agreed with his strategy and tactics, as well as the goal of his strategy, but were annoyed that he had barged ahead on his own as if this was his decision alone. It hadn’t been that long ago when he had outright refused to help; now he was forging ahead without heeding the input of his family. Lives were always at stake, and not just his.

  They would’ve a chat with him after the call. This would’ve to cease, and cease before any, or any more, mistakes were made.

  “I need your help.”

  “I should mention that I have some colleagues on the call. Only proper form. How about you?”

  “Just me.”

  A lie, of course. Demitri and one of the senior Captains was also present.

  Paulo continued, “Why don’t you introduce your colleagues, so we can meet formally.”

  “Sure. There’s Janis Joplin, along with Big Brother and the Holding Company, James Brown and Jimi Hendrix. I think a couple of the Beatles are here somewhere too.”

  “Well, a pleasure to meet you all. Thank you sincerely, Alan.”

  “Now why don’t you introduce the two men sitting across the desk from you. We have their facials, so we’ll be running them through facial recognition software as we talk unless this conversation ends quickly. You might as well save us the trouble and since you have already lied to me once this morning, please don’t expect very much out of this call.”

  Paulo wasn’t sure just how much he hated this Human, this snotty ass wipe who was unfit to clean his boots. The kid could be smug now, but later he’s going wish he’d been more cooperative. Payback, as the human witticism went, was going to be a bitch.

  “Just a little test, Alan. That’s all.”

  “Lie number two, Paulo. You got caught and now you think you can box your way out of the corner. I keep warning you and you keep abusing my good will. So, the penalty is no call today for you. If I have any questions about any of the information you sent, I’ll contact you. If it turns out to be incomplete or inaccurate in any way, there will be another penalty. A severe penalty and I believe you are familiar with my concept of severe. We clear on all this?”

  “We are. I may update you on
some of the information and clarify other portions. You’ll have that information right away.”

  “You are amazing, Paulo. And a real stranger to the truth. In any event, as the old saying goes, ‘don’t call us, we’ll call you’.”

  Adam hung up.

  Misti looked at her husband, a look of displeasure he had seen many times before. And in that look of displeasure, he could see something was wrong.

  She said, “Let’s talk.”

  Chapter 26

  Adam asked, “OK, now what’s wrong? What have I done now?” His voice was perturbed.

  Misti looked at him, Edward was looking down at the floor and, if it were possible, Alana would’ve preferred to be on another continent. Misti bore the incredulous look of a wife who sometimes doesn’t comprehend just how dense her mate can be.

  “When you got your incredible brain storm to contact Paulo yesterday and who did you tell about it?”

  “Alana was here, so she knew.”

  “What did Alana say, exactly.”

  “Uh, something about waiting and getting you guys involved before I called.”

  “And did you? Wait?”

  “Didn’t need to, really. It was just a quick chat to rattle Paulo’s cage and get the information Alana and I needed. Seriously, it was no big deal. Alana found something, and we wanted to follow up on it.”

  “You mean ‘you’, not ‘we’, and without the team?”

  “Uh, I guess not. I am getting the sense that I should’ve waited. And involved the Team.”

  “Your sense is correct. A few months ago, you wanted no part of this. Now you’re making important decisions on your own, in spite of good advice: wait and talk to the Team.”

  “Is ‘I’m sorry’ going to get me out of this trouble?”

  Edward looked at his son and understood his dilemma. His instincts were correct, and the Team would’ve agreed to do as he asked. But Adam was, so used to making critical decisions on his own in the software department that his confidence sometimes bled over into other areas. Sometimes he was right. Someday it might get someone killed.

  “You get a free pass on this one, mister. If it’s software, do what you want. We wouldn’t understand your neural pathways anyway. In all other matters, tell someone. It needs to be evaluated for the potential for harm in other areas. Things are connected, and the project is not yours to make those kinds of decisions. We need to discuss matters and evaluate options.”

  “All right. Next time.” Adam looked over at Alana, stuck out his tongue and made a face at her.

  “Snitch,” he said to her.

  “Brat. Know-it-all,” Alana shot back.

  “So?” Adam hardly thought either were insults.

  Misti looked at Edward, then at Alana. “How do you work with him every day?”

  Alana shrugged. “He’s cute. And his quickie oral skills are passable.”

  Turning to Edward, Misti said, “And you, old man, he’s your son. I wonder where he got all his bad habits?”

  Edward said, “I have no idea. Probably from his wife. I hear she can be just horrid.”

  “Yeah, that’s right, blame the wife. That’s the only possible explanation.”

  ***

  Adam and Alana settled in to her office and began looking over the information that Paulo sent along with his subsequent updates. That Adam had caught him lying was due solely to the fact that Alana had figured a way to remotely activate the camera app on Paulo’s cell phone and computer, using a RAT, a remote access Trojan. Alana was proving an immensely valuable member of the Team, all the Teams, and Adam had finally found another computer genius he could relate to. He had no idea how she did what she did, but he was always amazed with what she could accomplish. Sometimes he felt the pure ecstasy of a little schoolboy who had just done something naughty and gotten away with it, but it was mostly just Alana doing computer parlor tricks to amuse him.

  Nonetheless, Adam looked forward to their days working together in their new cubby hole even though she still escaped every afternoon to go visit Pops across the yard where his new Lab was located. Pops didn’t like the Tech centre. She now had her own workspace in his enlarged Lab at the Manor as well as a new couch in case she wanted to just sit quietly and read or take a nap. Pops for his part continued to enjoy her company and her deep understanding that silence wasn’t the enemy. She would ask him about one thing or another, and he to her, but there were longs intervals where they just worked quietly and without distraction.

  Pops was never one to be too nosey about the private, and personal lives of his family; if anyone needed his advice, he would consider carefully the question or dilemma posed then give his best advice. Whether anyone heeded his advice was of no concern to him nor did he have any pride of authorship. Alana knew the value of “conservation of speech”. With her, less was more. So too was it for Pops, whose brevity was legendary.

  ***

  Adam asked, “Is that what you needed?”

  “Yeah, this will do. I’ll find out soon enough if this is all of it, then we can reconstruct their internal communications. I’m going to focus on Enzo Fortizi, the Hanley brothers and a couple of the scientists that Fortizi thinks may have disappeared. Personally, my money is on the Hanley’s; close enough to avoid suspicion, far enough away to be overlooked.”

  “We need to find those Black Shirt locations, and look for correspondence between Princeton, possibly Chicago, and the chaps in London. Particularly this Derek Nobilus guy. And we need to find him. Did Paulo have any insights into the two guys that actually lit the fuse?”

  “The dead guy, no; he was apparently a human boxer connected to the Nobilus guy who was a promoter and agent. The other guy, a Gens, is a distant relation of the Fortizi’s. As I said before, I think that this caper used email and wire transfers from Princeton’s bank accounts. It would likely have been anonymous using Collective resources and disguising themselves behind actual identities. Maybe even using Enzo and Paulo’s name. But that doesn’t mean that either Enzo or Paulo had anything to do with it. Or, on the other hand, maybe they did it all and are lying through their teeth.”

  “That assumes that this is all that we can know. There may be more that Paulo doesn’t want to show us, something that will lead us to things he wants kept secret. Maybe even proof of his actual involvement.”

  “Right. Might have their finger prints everywhere, but I see no good reason for Paulo to do any of this. I don’t even think he knows who any of us are. Does someone else? Maybe. Enzo? Doubtful.

  “Probably right. If he knew who we were, why start with Vera?”

  “Correct. I mean, killing Vera, or even killing Hannah doesn’t really help them much. Killing you, Edward and Misti, yes.”

  “And you.”

  “Yes, and me. But I don’t think Paulo gets much out of the deal. However, from what we hear of the Black Shirts, and this Saldana Ri woman, that’s an entirely different story. That lights a fuse. It doesn’t help them directly, but indirectly by pissing you off and starting an internal conflict within the Collective; it could really, really be effective. If she’s being fed intel from the inside, like the Hanley brothers, that’s a different story entirely. I almost admire the woman.”

  “Do you think I shouldn’t have retaliated?”

  “Hard to say right now. Even if we got the ‘who dunnit’ wrong, it’s likely they are both out to start a war with humanity and kill us off. But I will have something more concrete soon if Paulo has given us what we want, I mean.”

  Adam’s cell phone buzzed. He looked at the text.

  Then Adam said, “The brothers Hanley are dead. Shot to death in New York City. Looks like you were right, Alana. Saldana Ri seems to be tying up loose ends and making the Collective’s leadership look inept. Maybe you’re right; maybe she is admirable. Let’s find her and stop this tragedy from getting out of control.”

  Chapter 27

  A few days later A
lana and Adam were busily back working in their adjoining offices in the Tech Centre, Adam on new software for one of Maria’s new toys, while Alana was busy tracing emails, financial transactions, and airline flights.

  Alana thought she had found the whereabouts of the Gens who had scattered to the four winds by comparing employee lists she had secretly downloaded previously, with airline manifests of scheduled carriers. The Gens had been clever in their deception just not careful enough. On the other hand, they probably thought ‘who was watching anyway’? Normally they would’ve been correct.

  Not this time, however.

  Adam wanted to know not only where they had gone, but, if possible, where they were working, living and what they were doing. Alana would probably use the DL Main to search property records, but she had no idea even where to begin. With the Gens Collective, whose imaginations could be quite limited, everything was titled ‘BioGen this’ or ‘BioGen’ that. No such luck this time in the half dozen communities where the fortunate ones had landed. Of course, there was no assurance that those communities were their final destinations.

  Alana would check DMV records, buses, trains, rental car agencies and any other mode of local transportation to see what she could dig up. They went somewhere; she would find them if they left a digital footprint. Having been given full access to the DL Main at her computer workstation, with ISO access, Alana was in heaven. What a toy she thought. Work was a new adventure every day and she found Adam easy to work with and always seemingly happy and helpful. He zoned out from time to time, for hours on end, but when he came around, he was regular Adam.

  It was getting past lunch time, which they often shared with Misti and Noki if around, but then they were back at it for an afternoon session on most days. Frequently, in the early afternoon, Alana would pack up and go over to visit Pops in his Lab.