The Windchime Legacy

by A. W. Mykel

  “It’s bad, Irv,” she rasped out, through her aching throat. “We’ve been through all the volumes and have come up with twenty-four missing schematics. It’s everything they’d need to build another SENTINEL.”

  “Good God in heaven,” Honeycut said. “Who is it?”

  “Looks like the Soviets. SENTINEL has gone back through Ed’s computer time for the past year. He apparently began researching for potential customers about six months ago. We can tell from his data requests that he eventually eliminated everybody but the Soviets, Chinese, and Israelis. Then his data requests for computer technological capabilities finally became limited to the Soviets. He did his homework,” Elizabeth answered.

  “How long will it take for them to get it operational?”

  Elizabeth thought for a few seconds. “About a year to get a functional memory mass linked to slave banks. Three to get to the point where we are now,” she answered.

  “That fast?” Honeycut asked with surprise.

  “Of course,” she said, shrugging her shoulders, “we’ve given them all the right answers to start with. We had to hunt and peck for ours. That took time.”

  “We haven’t given them anything, yet,” Honeycut growled.

  “That’s not all, Irv. We’ve got another problem, too,” Elizabeth said.

  The back of Honeycut’s neck began to redden. “Explain.”

  “The Raptor file. He’s been into it.”

  Honeycut’s face went crimson. “How?” he asked, choking back a growing rage.

  “I was out yesterday. Because of this,” Elizabeth said, pointing to her throat. “He apparently got into my office, somehow, without Gina knowing about it. He found the spare key to the drawer and helped himself.

  “I’ve checked the file carefully. He didn’t remove anything. But you can be sure he read it all.”

  “Are you sure he had the Raptor file?” Honeycut asked.

  “Yes. Division Two has lifted his prints from my desk, the key, and the file.”

  “What?” Honeycut frothed. “You let a Division Two team go through that folder?” His face was apple red now.

  “No, no, no! I’m not a fool. I removed the contents. They only checked an empty folder. But I’d be willing to bet that his prints are all over those sheets.”

  Honeycut began to breathe again.

  “Don’t worry, Irv. Outside of Bridges, no one is going to find out anything about Raptor,” she reassured him.

  “What about Division Two? They’ve been doing the analysis of the ashes from the journal. Operation Raptor is clearly mentioned in it,” Honeycut said with some worry.

  Elizabeth shook her head. “They’ve only handled the ashes. The analysis of the fragments is being done and collated by SENTINEL. The findings are immediately classified. No one without the proper Raptor clearance can get that information.”

  “Thank God we’ve got something under control,” Honeycut whispered sarcastically. “How much of the journal have we been able to get figured out so far?”

  “Assuming we have all of the ashes, about eight percent. SENTINEL estimates that we can get a fair reconstruction of between forty-five to fifty percent. That’s a lot, considering what we’ve got to work with. Without SENTINEL, that eight percent figure would be a maximum. It’s a very painstaking and slow process. It may be months before we finish. But that’s not so much of a problem now.”

  “The hell it’s not,” Honeycut rejoined. “I’ll accept that statement only when we have Spartan’s translation in our hands.”

  “Yes, it’s a problem,” Elizabeth said and nodded, “but one that we can survive. Bridges has created one that maybe we can’t. If they get that information, it will almost certainly mean a war to stop them from building it. If we let them build another SENTINEL, we’ll lose everything that we’ve worked for. All the years, all the lives, everything,” Elizabeth said.

  “You don’t have to tell me that,” Honeycut interrupted. “I’m the guy who told you, remember?”

  “So where do we go from here, Irv?” Elizabeth asked.

  “That’s what I’m asking. You tell me. Obviously, we have to find Bridges. What are our chances?” Honeycut questioned.

  “Frankly speaking, they’re poor, unless he makes a mistake somewhere. SENTINEL has been monitoring everything. Every form of public or private transportation that has a traceable record is being checked. It’s doing the work of thousands of people right now.

  “He signed out at seventeen thirty-six hours last night. Assuming he had everything with him, he could have just driven off anywhere, or even walked, for that matter. We’ve got a nationwide all-points bulletin out for his car. If he’s driving it we’ll find him. We’re doing all we can do at this point.”

  “I’m sure you are, but all I can imagine is him getting out of the country with that information,” Honeycut said.

  “He won’t be going anywhere in all likelihood,” Elizabeth said.

  Honeycut wrinkled his face. “Explain.”

  “I mean he’s on the move now, but he won’t get out of the country. They won’t take Bridges out. The question has been put to SENTINEL. In all probability, he will be considered expendable. They stand a clearly better chance of getting just the information out. Everything they need is on those sheets. The Soviets have all the talent they need to put it together from that information, without him. He’s good all right, but not that good. And you can be sure they know that,” Elizabeth explained.

  “You could be right,” Honeycut said. “That will only make what’s ahead that much harder.”

  “All we need is that first mistake,” Elizabeth said.

  “Well, let’s hope we get it,” Honeycut wished. “In the meantime, you’ve got work to do. Pilgrim and Badger are out there waiting to learn all about what’s happening. You’re also going to give them a quick cram course on SENTINEL.”

  “I don’t know that I agree with you on this, Irv. I don’t think that they should know any more about SENTINEL than they already know. It could hurt us someday,” Elizabeth protested.

  “Well, fortunately for all of us, I make those decisions. We’re asking them to go out there to bring back that information. It could very well cost them their lives. I want them to believe in what they’re doing and in what they may have to do. I want them to understand why. That one factor could make the difference between a gallant, sacrificing action to save the situation and the failure to react,” Honeycut said gruffly. “Now let’s go do it.”

  He rose and walked toward the door, Elizabeth right behind him.

  She still felt great reluctance in telling them about SENTINEL, but she would do it because she was told to.

  She had gone over their personnel and psychological profiles before Honeycut arrived. They were both highly intelligent men. Psychologically, they varied between characteristics found in sociopathic, paranoiac, and professionally paranoid personalities. They were a little bit of each. They were killers, men safely within the boundaries of sanity, but entirely lacking in conscience. They were both antisocial to a degree, more so in Badger’s case, and they were self-serving men with little concern for most others. Their actions were governed by cool, collected reasoning, and both were highly motivated achievers. They were alarmingly efficient—and two of the deadliest men alive. Killing was their profession, and they enjoyed it.

  Honeycut and Elizabeth walked into the seminar room. Pilgrim and Badger were gone. Then Honeycut spotted them. Fanning was in one of the upper corners, and Justin was in a lower opposite corner. Honeycut began to laugh loudly.

  “Gentlemen. Gentlemen, please. Nobody is going to attack you. Please, come back here and sit down. We’re about to teach you something,” he laughed.

  They went back to their front-row seats. Elizabeth walked around to the front of the big desk and leaned back against it. Honeycut stood to the side of the desk and addressed them.

  “Gentlemen, this is Dr. Elizabeth Ryerson, the creator of SENTINEL and dire
ctor of the science and technology section of the program. She is going to fill you in on exactly what has happened and what information is missing.” Honeycut looked at Elizabeth. “She’ll also give you a capsule view of what SENTINEL is. Beth, you have the floor.”

  “How do you do, gentlemen,” Elizabeth began. “As long as you know my name, no further introductions are necessary. I am familiar with both of you from your personnel files,” her hoarse voice rasped out.

  “I’ll try to be as brief and nontechnical as I can. Like most scientific minds, I am often given to academic and pedantic ranting. If that should happen, or if you have any questions, just raise a hand to stop me.” She looked into their faces.

  The two men nodded.

  “The man you will be looking for is Dr. Edward Bridges.” Immediately, Bridges’s picture was flashed on one of the black wall panels behind the desk. She turned slightly, thrusting a hand in the direction of the image on the panel. “That’s him. Look at it well, gentlemen. Remember every little feature in case you come upon him in a disguise. He’s not a little man. He should be easy to spot,” she said.

  “He took out twenty-four pages of information. That’s what you must find. Twenty-four pages. He absolutely must be stopped and the information retrieved.

  “I’m going to tell you about SENTINEL now, what it is and how it works. This will help you to realize just how much is at stake. I don’t know how much you may know about computers, so I’ll try to keep it as simple as possible for you.” She paused to look at Justin, who had just raised his hand.

  Elizabeth nodded to him.

  “Before you go any further, I’d like to have a few words with Pegasus, if I may,” Justin said.

  Elizabeth looked over to Honeycut. Honeycut raised his eyebrows and shrugged with a confused expression.

  “Go ahead,” Honeycut said.

  “No, I meant in private, please.” He didn’t want what he had to say to be heard by anyone but Pegasus.

  Honeycut thought for a few seconds, trying to figure out what it was that could be so important. “Okay, come with me,” he said.

  The two men filed into the room that Honeycut and Elizabeth had met in earlier. The door automatically closed behind them.

  Honeycut looked at Justin for several long moments, sensing his nervousness. Then he spoke. “What’s on your mind, son?” he asked softly.

  The gentle, understanding tone of his voice surprised Justin. He hadn’t expected it from Pegasus.

  “I, uh…” It was hard to find the right beginning. “Uh, if…if Dr. Ryerson is going to tell us something of a classified nature, I don’t want to hear it. I mean, I think I shouldn’t hear it,” Justin spat out, feeling a little foolish at his poor start.

  Honeycut looked down at the floor for a moment, confused by Justin’s statement. “You’re standing in the middle of the most highly classified government complex in existence. It’s a little late for that, wouldn’t you say? But before we go any further, why don’t you tell me why?”

  “I, uh…ah, shit. There’s only one way to say this.” He looked up into Honeycut’s eyes. “I’m resigning from the agency.”

  The words hit Honeycut like a sudden bolt of lightning. His face and ears reddened instantly. He broke eye contact with Justin, walked over to the long conference table, sat down, and motioned to Justin with a finger. “Come on over here and sit down, Justin.”

  The use of the first name again surprised Justin. It was the first time Pegasus had ever used it. He walked over and sat across from his boss.

  “Okay, now you tell me all about it,” Honeycut said. “Why do you want to leave the agency?”

  “It wasn’t an easy decision to make, sir. The reasons are purely personal, and I don’t want you to think that I’m trying to get out of this assignment. I’ll consider my resignation official after this assignment is completed. I owe you and the agency that much. But I think it’s best if I don’t hear anything out there that will make it impossible for me to leave. So, I think—”

  “Wait a minute, Justin,” Honeycut interrupted softly.

  “No, please, let me finish this,” Justin said.

  Honeycut nodded and waited for him to continue.

  “I think it would be best if you told Ted what you intended the two of us to hear. I’ll follow his instructions until we get Bridges and the information back.”

  “Now, hold it a minute, son,” Honeycut interrupted again. “You know, half of the art of communication between people is listening. And I don’t think you listened to my question. I asked you to tell me why you want to leave the agency, and I’m still waiting to hear your reasons. That’s what I want to hear first, not what we should do to make it easier. Now, suppose you back up a little bit and answer my question before we take this thing any further.” His voice was still understanding and soft, but it carried a little more authority.

  Justin breathed out once and paused for a few moments to collect his thoughts.

  “Well, it’s like this. Everything in my life has changed since I joined the agency four years ago. I’ve watched it fall apart all around me. My marriage went all to pieces and ended in divorce, for reasons that were in large part my fault. But those reasons were also a direct result of the agency and the work I do. I was always away from home, without any contact with my wife and son. There were never any good explanations for it, either, and maybe that was my fault for not being a more creative liar, I don’t know, but it created a very awkward and strained situation with my home and family life. And the nature of the work, it…well, it changed me. Maybe that’s the biggest part of my reasons, what the work did to me as a person. It changed me in a way that I couldn’t recognize—or wouldn’t recognize. A dark side of me came out that didn’t exist before I joined the agency. Maybe it was there all along, I don’t know, but it came out in me and took over until I was no longer the same person I used to be. I drove my wife to desperation and let my whole life and everything that was important in it slip away from me, until I couldn’t get it back.

  “When I was in training, they taught us about killing and told us we might have to do that someday. They taught us a lot of things, but they never told us what the job could do to a man, how it could swallow him up and make him a different person, a stranger to everyone, even himself. I understood about the killing, about how it might be necessary for one reason or another, to stay alive. And they taught us that well. So well, in fact, that when it happened the first time the worst possible thing happened to me—nothing. It didn’t bother me. It was easy to do.

  “The fact is that this work doesn’t bother me at all—and that’s what’s wrong. That’s the part of me that I don’t know or understand. It frightens me a little to think of what that could become—what I could become, as I get to know it better.

  “I don’t want to be owned by this profession. I don’t want to be swallowed up by it. And I don’t want to be killed by it or for it. I’m going to get my life back before it’s too late to do that. I want to be a good father to my son and a good man to some woman that I can give a part of myself to.

  “Can you understand what I’m trying to say?” Justin asked a silent Honeycut.

  Honeycut nodded. “Yes, I can,” he said, looking at the young man. He could understand it, but he knew it was already too late for him. There was no going back from the darkness.

  “I understand what you’re telling me, Justin. We know about what happened to your marriage and about Michael and Barbara. We know about the guilt that you’ve suffered over not being with your son enough. We know a lot about you, Justin, because we care about you and what happens to you. And we can help you—and will help you. You’ve reached out to us today, and we’ll help you. I promise you that.

  “Now, I want you to listen very carefully to what I’m going to say. Will you do that?” Honeycut asked, pausing until Justin nodded.

  “This agency has the most important job in the world. We protect the interests of SENTINEL, which, i
n turn, protects the interests of this country and keeps the world in a state of peace. We have a great many agents across the globe who see that this job gets done. It’s not an easy job. It demands extraordinary effort and sacrifice. We all give up something of ourselves in this kind of work—but it’s important. Someone has to do it. We have to do it, you, me, Ted Fanning, the Spartans, the Ryersons, and all the others—because it’s necessary. Without it there might not be a world for people to live in—for your son and all the children like him. And we do this job well, despite the hardships and the parts of ourselves that we give up in doing it.

  “It’s a job that’s growing in importance and is getting harder to do. We have the best, Justin—the very best—doing this job. We’ve chosen the finest in the world. And, of all of these people, you and Ted Fanning are two of the finest. I’m not just saying that, it’s true. And, in helping you, we can help ourselves.

  “This is what I’d like you to do. I want you to sit on that resignation for a while…now you wait a minute,” Honeycut said, holding up a hand to stop Justin’s interruption. “I let you finish. Now you let me finish. Fair? Good. I want you to sit on that resignation for a while. When this mission is over, you’re going to take a nice long paid vacation. Two…no, three months. Use the time to get your head together and to think about what I’m going to tell you. Go anywhere, do anything, take Barbara and Michael with you on a world cruise—I don’t care. You just sign the tab, it’s on us. That much we owe you.

  “Then, when you get back and think you’re ready, you come into Alpha again to talk with me. I’ll tell you now that I’m going to offer you a new job. You’ll be offered the directorship of the SENTINEL security agency, as my immediate assistant in all security and intelligence affairs.

  “That will make you a nine to fiver, with no more traveling, except maybe to Washington or to the other branch offices once in a while. There will be no more ‘special actions’ for you. You’ll have all the time in the world to be with Barbara and your son. Your salary will also be double what it is now, so you’ll be able to live in any style you choose. We’ll also provide you with a convincing cover, so that no one will wonder what you do for a living.”