by David Archer
Sam looked at the young man for a moment. “You’d want to upgrade yours? Have you talked to C-Link about that?”
Joel chuckled. “There’s no point,” he said. “In the contract I signed when I took this one, I’m specifically excluded from ever being considered for a future chip. See, even with this one, they were worried that I’d be able to think so much faster than a normal person that I’d see applications for the technology that they never dreamed of, and that proved to be true. They’d be afraid of what I might have thought of that I never told them, like how I can predict what I could do with the gen-5. Some of the things they’re planning to research when they get it into a test subject are things I came up with that they never thought of, and—well, let’s just say I read a lot of doomsday science fiction.”
“And Chang has had his chip almost as long as you have?”
“Yep. And he’s a hell of a lot more devious and ambitious than I am.”
Sam turned to Albertson. “Let’s move, now.”
It took them almost twenty minutes to get to Chang’s neighborhood, and they gathered in the parking lot of a convenience store that was two blocks away. Joel had downloaded an aerial view of the house onto a tablet, and they planned their approach while looking at it.
And then they moved. Jogging down the street and through the alleys, they came upon the house from both the front and the rear. Albertson and Sam were leading Summer and Jade and two of the security team, while Garrity and Steve Beck took the rest in through the back yard. Only Walter was left out, since he could not get a CCW permit; he waited in the alley, in case he was needed after the raid.
At the prearranged moment, Albertson announced police presence and kicked in the front door, while Garrity did the same at the back door. All of them flooded into the house, but it took only moments for them to realize that it was empty. There were plenty of signs of occupation, and they found many personal items that belonged to Li Chang, but the triad leader was nowhere to be seen.
“Looks like he might have known we were coming,” Garrity said. “He had dinner here, but he’s gone now, at one o’clock in the morning.”
“I don’t think he has any idea that we’ve identified him,” Sam said. “But that makes it a bit more disturbing that he isn’t here, to me. What could he be up to?”
Sam’s phone rang at that moment, and he snatched it out of his pocket to see Indie’s number. “Babe?” he said as he answered. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah,” she said sleepily. “Mom just called and said I had to call you right now. Beauregard woke her up and said you need to know that things are about to get worse. Sam, please tell me you’re being careful.”
“I am, babe,” Sam said. “And tell your mom I said thanks.”
30
Daphne hadn’t gone right to sleep. The things she had learned were racing through her mind, and she couldn’t help wondering just what she had gotten herself into. All she had wanted was to be at the forefront of technology, to be a part of something that sounded so grand and almost miraculous.
Instead, she had allowed herself to be led into what appeared to be a criminal enterprise, and one that would almost certainly have ended with her own death. She couldn’t help marveling at the great good fortune that placed her at the same hotel as the people who were out to stop this terrible monster.
Instead of going to bed, she had gotten onto the internet and started doing research of her own. Knowing the origin of the chip, she was able to find a number of scholarly articles that talked about its potential and capabilities, and from those, she had drawn conclusions of her own.
Adding those conclusions to what she had learned from Mr. Prichard, Daphne was appalled at just how close she had come to being an instrument of unspeakable evil. The thought that a single human being might control so much power was terrifying, to say the least, and she had come to the conclusion that Mr. Prichard had understated the danger.
As a specialist in brain-related surgery, Daphne knew a great deal about how the gray matter works. It didn’t take her long to figure out that eliminating normal sensory input and exchanging it for direct long-term memory implantation of data would mean incredibly faster reaction times, extremely rapid correlation of data and greatly enhanced predictive capabilities. Someone with the gen-5 chip was capable of analyzing information and reaching conclusions much faster than the average human. Combine this with the ability to access almost any computer-controlled system in the world, and you had a prescription for disaster.
Of course, this led to concerns about what would happen when many people had such a chip. There would have to be some method of limiting some of its capabilities, some way to prevent any individual or group of individuals from gaining so much power.
At one a.m., she decided it was time to try to get some rest and was just about to shut down her computer when it notified her of an incoming email. She opened it automatically, and then her eyes went wide.
I see that you are online, the message read. This is good, because the situation has changed. It will be necessary to perform the procedure earlier than anticipated. Please prepare yourself for surgery. Your transportation will arrive in a few minutes. Do not attempt to warn the security guards with you.
Daphne shut down the computer and hurried to the door. She yanked it open, and the security guard on duty leapt to his feet.
“Ma’am? Is everything okay?”
“Call Mr. Prichard,” she said. “I’ve just received an email that someone is coming to get me now. I was told not to warn you, but I have no intention of doing what this creature wants.”
The second guard, who had been relaxing on the sofa, was up instantly and dialing his phone. He put into his ear, then looked up at his partner.
“Signal’s jammed,” he said. “I can’t get through.”
Both of them were on their feet, then, holding their weapons at the ready. The first guard turned to Daphne. “Ma’am, go back into your room and shut the door.”
Daphne did as he said, and then hurried to her bags. As a world-traveling surgeon, she knew that there were dangers everywhere, and so she had gotten into the habit of carrying a stun gun. She didn’t know whether it would help her at all in this type of situation, but simply having it in her hand made her feel better.
There were some muffled sounds from the sitting room, and then she heard suppressed gunfire. The Ingram submachine guns the guards carried had sound suppressors, but they weren’t truly silencers; it sounded like loud popping noises as they went off, but then everything fell silent.
She crouched behind her bed and watched the door. It was more than a minute before it slowly began to open, and she gripped the stun gun as tightly as she could, holding it in front of her.
Three men stepped into the room. Two of them appeared to be Chinese, while the third bore an unmistakable Vietnamese appearance. It was the third man who spoke.
“Doctor? You will please come with us, now.”
“I will not,” Daphne said. “I am fully aware of what is really going on, and I want no part of it. I will refund the money I was paid, but you’ll have to find another surgeon.”
The Vietnamese man smiled and shook his head. “I’m afraid that is not possible. Please put down your weapon, because we do not wish any harm to come to you. You are coming with us, one way or another. Please don’t make this more difficult than it has to be.”
The three of them had spread out in the room and were walking toward her. Each of them held a pistol, but they were pointed toward the floor rather than at her. She tried to think, terrified that no matter what she did, she was about to die.
“I haven’t had any rest,” she said. “I cannot perform surgery without proper rest.”
“You will be given stimulants. There is nothing to worry about. Put down your weapon, and let’s go.”
They were close to her now, all of them within three feet. They were arranged around her in a triangle, so that while she might reach one
of them, she would never be able to turn the stun gun on the others.
There was no escape, and she knew it. The only way she could avoid performing surgery would be to force them to kill her, but she had no idea how to accomplish that. There was no doubt in her mind that her security guards were dead, and there was no way to notify Mr. Prichard or the others.
Slowly, giving in to what she knew was inevitable, she lowered the stun gun and laid it on the floor. As soon as her hand released it, the two Chinese men grabbed her by her arms and lifted her to her feet.
“At least let me change clothes,” she said. “I do not wish to perform surgery in a nightgown.”
The Vietnamese man nodded. “Do so quickly,” he said. “We’ve taken precautions to ensure that no one else in the hotel is aware we are here, but we need to leave quite soon.”
The two men released her arms and she turned to her bags. She took out some simple clothes and carried them into the bathroom. There was no window, of course, no way to escape from inside the bathroom, so she began changing slowly.
She caught a look at her own face in the mirror and began to cry. No matter how gentle they might try to be at the moment, she was quite certain that she would be killed as soon as the surgery was complete. The knowledge sank into her, bypassing denial and suddenly erupting in anger.
She hurried to finish dressing, then began looking through the bathroom for anything she might use as a weapon. Daphne Hu had never been much of a fighter, but she wasn’t going to die without at least trying.
There was nothing, nothing that might be used as a club or any other sort of weapon, but she kept looking anyway. There was a small bottle of shampoo, some soap and toothpaste, a toothbrush, and a comb, but nothing else except the wall-mounted hair dryer. She couldn’t imagine herself wielding it, or using the cord to strangle anyone, and her heart began to sink. There was no way out of this nightmare.
She was just about to step out of the room when her eyes rested on the shampoo again. It was a brand she had never seen before, but she had learned over many different journeys that hotel shampoo was always something cheap and utilitarian. It tended to be rough on her hair, and burned like fire if it got into her eyes, so she never used it. Her own shampoo was in the tub, but it was a much milder, gentler kind.
Mild and gentle were not what she wanted at the moment. She popped the cap off the hotel shampoo and squeezed the little bottle, squirting most of its contents into her hand. She dropped the bottle into the sink and clapped her hands together, smearing half of it into each one, then carefully opened the door and stepped out.
She bowed her head to the three men and held her hands together in front of her as she stepped placidly toward the door. The two Chinese men stepped beside her as the Vietnamese man opened the door into the sitting room.
She had been correct. The security guards lay dead in the floor, each of them in the middle of his own pool of blood. She fought back the urge to retch as she carefully stepped around the blood, and waited for the Vietnamese man to open the door into the hallway.
He reached for the knob, turned it, and pulled, and then froze. A large man stood there, pointing a small automatic weapon directly into his face.
The two Chinese men started to raise their weapons, and that’s when Daphne reached out and slapped both of them across their eyes. The shampoo smeared into them instantly, and they clamped their eyes shut as it started to burn them.
It was all Rob needed. He shoved the barrel of his gun directly into the forehead of the Vietnamese man, knocking him to the floor, then shot the two Chinese men where they stood. Their eyes quit burning as his three-round bursts blew out their faces. He dropped immediately onto the Vietnamese man, his knee landing on the man’s stomach and knocking the breath out of him, while Rob snatched away the pistol the man was trying to raise.
“Are you okay?” Rob asked Daphne, and she nodded as she gasped for breath. The shock of seeing the two men die right in front of her had stolen her breath, but she was forcing herself to get back under control.
“I will be,” she said haltingly. “How did you know?”
Rob was dragging the Vietnamese man into a sitting position. “We just got back a few minutes ago,” he said. “I called my men, here, just to check in and they didn’t answer. That told me something was wrong, and I was about to come through the door when it opened.”
“I thank heaven that you did,” Daphne replied. “I was still awake, I got a message saying they were coming for me, but they were already here. I warned your guards, and they told me to go back in my room, but it was too late. I heard the guns, but then these three came into my room. They said I was to go and perform the surgery right away.”
Rob nodded, then slapped the Vietnamese man across the face. The fellow was just getting his own breathing back under his control.
“Where is Fei?” Rob asked. “If you tell me now, I won’t kill you.”
The man shook his head. “And if I do, Yue Fei will kill me, and then he will kill my family. Do what you must do.”
Rob shook his head. “I can’t believe that so many people could be so scared of this punk who thinks he’s some kind of a God,” he said. “He didn’t see this coming, did he? Let me know where he is, and he won’t see us coming, either.”
“I cannot take that chance. I have a wife and two daughters. You would do the same, if you were in my position.”
“Well, then it’s a good thing for you that we already know where to find him.” Rob hauled him to his feet and cuffed his hands behind his back. “Maybe the DA will be lenient about all the murder charges, considering that you were all blackmailed, but I personally doubt it.”
He took out his phone and hit a button. “Sam? Rob Feinstein. Listen, I just caught three of Fei’s goons trying to drag Doctor Hu out in the wee small hours. Now, I’ve got her and she’s safe, but they’ve killed two more of my men. I took out two of them, but there is a third guy who seemed to be in charge, and I’m holding him right now. We’re going to need police, this time.” He listened for a moment, then nodded into the phone. “Yes, sir,” he said. He ended the call and dropped the phone into his pocket, then looked at Daphne.
“Doc, you’re going to have to wait with me for the police,” he said, “but I’ll stick with you through all of this. Fei isn’t going to get to you as long as I’m there.”
Daphne looked at him for a moment. They glanced at the two guards who had given their lives trying to protect her. “He does not seem to be easily beaten,” she said. “I heard your men using their guns, but it was they who died, rather than those who attacked them.”
Rob nodded. “That’s true,” he said. “I don’t know how they managed it, but somehow they took my guys by surprise. That’s the only way I can see that this could have happened.” He looked directly into her eyes. “Nobody is going to surprise me. You can count on that.”
Sam, followed by Summer and Steve, arrived a moment later. The three of them took one look around the sitting room and turned to Rob.
“Rob, I am so sorry,” Sam began, but Rob cut him off.
“They did their jobs, Sam,” he said. “That’s Jason Cooper and Kevin Donahue. I served with both of them in Iraq. They knew what they were signing on for when they took the job, but I still want to make this bastard pay for what he’s done to them. And no, before you ask, neither of them had family. We make a point of trying to hire the single men for these jobs, for that very reason.”
Sam shook his head bitterly. “Fei has taken four of our men,” he said. “You know, I understand that he’s apparently murdered many others, but they weren’t our people. He’s made it personal, and I intend to do everything possible to take him down in as personal a way as I can.”
He turned to the Vietnamese man who was sitting on a chair, right beside the body of one of his compatriots.
“What’s your name?” Sam asked.
“Arnold Nguyen,” the man replied. “I’m honestly sorry about the
men who died. You won’t understand, but I had no choice.”
“You’re wrong,” Sam said, “on two counts. First, I do understand that you felt you were forced into this, because I know how Fei operates. The thing is, you’re also wrong when you say you had no choice. There are so many of you that he’s done this to, if a number of you had decided to work together, you could’ve put an end to him long before now.”
Nguyen shook his head. “You think so, but you are so wrong. None of us actually knows who he is, we have no idea where to find him, how to stop him. I realize that’s hard to believe, but it’s true.”
Sam looked into his eyes, and a slow grin spread across his face. “Well, don’t worry too much,” he said. “Because I know who he is, and I’m taking him down.”
Nguyen looked up at him in shock. “But that’s impossible,” he said. “Fei is not a normal man that you can follow or kill.”
“You want to know something?” Sam asked. “He’s a typical, average guy, the kind you could walk past a hundred times and never realize that it was him who pulled all the strings. If you met him, you’d probably laugh yourself to death.”
“Sam,” Rob called to him, “police are coming. They’re in the elevator, on the way up, three patrol officers and two detectives.”
“That’s fine,” Sam said. “It’s time to bring the police in on this anyway.”
The elevator chimed a moment later, and they were joined by the policemen and a hotel security officer, who took one look inside the room and then rushed out again. Albertson and Garrity were with the officers, and looked at Sam after a quick glance around the bloody room.
“What the hell went on here?” Albertson asked. “How many dead we got?”
“Four dead,” Sam said. “Two of them are more of my men, and two of Fei’s. He sent them to get the doctor, said he wanted her to perform the operation right away.”
“And that’s supposed to happen out at the Fa Ling facility, in Petaluma?” Garrity asked.
“Yes. If he thinks she’s on the way out there, he could possibly be there and getting ready for the surgery now.”
