Mastermind- Rise of the Trojan Horse

by Tom Wheeler

  “Whoever it was got away,” Capucine said, running up to me, breathing heavily.

  “Did you see anything?”

  “Just that it looked like a woman, otherwise no,” she said as we headed back toward the hotel, my mind racing as to who might suspect I knew that Eva was an android.

  “I suspect the woman Representative Martinez brought with her is an android,” I blurted out, knowing this could be a mistake.

  “What?” she asked, stopping and grabbing my hand. “Who? What are you talking about, Mason?”

  “Her name is Eva Cruise. Listen, General Crane told me not to tell anyone, but I’ve told the only two people I trust.”

  “Who else?”

  “Dhilan.”

  “Are you kidding, Mason? Where did this prophecy come from?”

  “My eyes. Her hand had a light that was blinking. I can’t tell you how I’m connecting dots, but I am convinced.”

  “You told General Crane? Did he believe you?”

  “Apparently. He told me to keep my mouth shut.”

  “So why are you telling me?”

  “Because I don’t know who to trust, and I have to find out the truth.”

  “But—”

  “I suspected Ahmez at CEDRA, Capucine, and I was right.”

  “That would sure explain why someone is following you. Why didn’t you . . . ? Never mind. So, who is the real spy here?” she asked.

  “We need to get back,” I said as we resumed running back the way we came, my eyes continuing to watch everything in sight, whether it moved or not. We made our way back without incident and stopped at the hotel, breathing heavily as we paced outside, my eyes darting about.

  “Mason, be care—” Capucine said.

  “I will.”

  “No, I mean it,” she urged, looking me in the eye. “Don’t make assumptions about anything. Keep your eyes open. But don’t look around so obviously.”

  “What?”

  “Be discrete. Try not to turn your head so much. Use your peripheral vision.”

  “Oh, right.”

  “Is there anything I can do?”

  “No. Oh, yes. Can you leave with Alexandra Martinez when the session ends this morning?” I asked as we headed toward the elevator.

  “Why?” she asked with a look of concern on her face.

  “Like I said, I am going to discover the truth.”

  “How? Mason, this isn’t exactly your line of . . .”

  “Work? I know. Not sure exactly, although . . . ,” I said as Capucine took a deep breath, “I’m considering ripping off her hair. If she’s an android, I will know.”

  “How long did it take up to think up that plan?”

  “Funny.”

  “I have an EMP gun,” she finally confessed, moving her head to and fro to ensure nobody was listening. The elevator dinged.

  “What?! How the heck—? Who carries an EMP gun? How’d you get it into Finland? Or why?” I asked as we stepped inside.

  “When I was in Iran, I was instructed to confiscate the android. I was given a portable and untraceable EMP gun that I was to use in the event it was necessary. I have continued to carry it with me, knowing too many governments have secrets. Including my own.”

  “But didn’t you come through TSA?”

  “It came through in pieces. One piece looks like a curling iron, the other a small blow dryer. Listen, Mason—”

  “I know, Capucine.”

  “You need to be certain,” she said. “Have you considered what you will do if you are right?” she inquired. “Or wrong?”

  “I was going to—”

  “Call an ambulance?” she said, looking at me strangely. “You can’t do that. I can help. I have someone at the conference who is looking after me. I can’t tell you any more than that, but as long as you are in the hotel, he will be watching.

  “Then why didn’t he track down whoever was following us?”

  “He’s not that kind of help—I have to ask for him when I need him. If Eva proves to be an android, he will get her.”

  “Is this how you got Cedra?” I asked as we stepped off the elevator at her floor and began walking toward her room.

  “Yes. I suppose this is where we start finding out if we can trust one another,” she said, gazing directly into my eyes. “I love you, Mason. I would and will choose you over my career if it comes to that.” She pulled out her key card. “But for now, we have to see this through.”

  “Is the EMP charged?”

  “Fully. I’ll show you how to use it.”

  “I already know how, I believe. I have one, well, Dhilan’s.”

  “Then you know when you pull the trigger, the entire area will lose power?”

  “Yeah, about that. What exactly does that mean?”

  “You remember that restaurant we stopped at while running?”

  “Of course.”

  “If you shot it, the entire building would lose power, but the buildings next to it wouldn’t be affected. If you shot it down this hallway, the hall would lose power, but not the entire building. So you have a plan besides yanking her hair off her head?”

  “I found a blind spot in the cameras. Once I’m alone with Eva, I’ll shoot the gun. Then I’m going to grab her and take her to my car.”

  “That’s it?”

  “Well, unless you have a better idea? It’s not much, but as I see it, I have one shot,” I said as Capucine studied me, or her mind was racing through different scenarios.

  “She’s likely a couple hundred pounds if she is an android. Once you shoot Eva, let my contact grab her and rush her outside as if taking her to the hospital, while you head to the front of the building and jump in his car with him.”

  I took a deep breath. “As long as you assure me this isn’t a ploy to steal her.”

  “No, Mason. I know we haven’t had much time to process what is going on, but you can trust me. Be careful. And don’t forget to aim. Also, make sure nobody is watching.”

  “Got it.”

  

  Rihanna made her way back to her hotel, having watched Mason and Capucine run. She had wanted to introduce herself but was aware that if either one of them turned her over to authorities, her life would be finished.

  She said a prayer and then considered what she had witnessed the day before—a meeting between Mason and her boss, Roman, who had introduced himself to Mason as Jonah Soul. Who was Roman Gagranovich, or Jonah Soul, and why would he have her fly in the dark to Estonia to pick up Ayesha Bonin and then return her 10 minutes later, dressed differently?

  Thoughts were racing around in Rihanna’s head, but she couldn’t come up with any reason for the trip, which was why she wanted to talk to Mason, particularly since they were all at a robotics event. She had never even considered androids until she’d been hit by a human truck and then read the document she’d found in Ahmadi’s safe regarding a real android named Cedra. Since then, she had kept up with articles printed in US newspapers about a Wells Fargo bank being robbed by a mysterious being. Then she remembered where she’d encountered the name Jonah Soul before. She had seen his name in one of the articles about the robbery. He was CEO of Phoenix Corporation.

  Now she needed to figure out her next move. In the meantime, she was going to keep her eye on Mason.

  

  112

  The Shot

  Sokos Hotel Presidentti

  Helsinki, Finland

  Capucine delayed Representative Martinez and Eva Cruise as the room finally emptied. Everything was proceeding like clockwork, although after I had explained my plan to Dhilan, he’d decided to show up for the presentation and leave as soon as the session was over. He still showed no emotion about the potential discovery of another android, as if he had already known of her ex
istence, although I felt sure that he didn’t. How could he? Most likely he struggled existing in between two worlds—man and machine—something that might be impressive in a fiction novel but not in reality. At least, not if you were the hybrid human.

  “Hello, Ms. Martinez and Ms. Cruise,” I said, approaching them as the room emptied after Dr. Mescher’s talk. “What did you think of Dr. Mescher?” I asked as I noticed Dhilan speaking with the android Anna, a.k.a. Laura. It appeared he was giving her a directive of some sort. There was nothing unusual about Anna attending the conference, as those were her orders after leaving me at the embassy, but Dhilan hadn’t left—nor did I recall a reason for them to meet.

  “Brilliant mind. The future is . . . ,” said Ms. Martinez as Eva stood by, looking mechanical. I snapped back into the mission at hand.

  “. . . closer than many think,” Eva said, smiling.

  “You can say that again,” I said as my heart raced. I looked around one last time for Dhilan; thankfully, he was gone.

  “Well, Capucine, you ready?” asked Alexandra.

  “I am,” she answered. Capucine’s eyes met mine for an instant. My palms were sweating, my heart racing.

  “Eva, I will meet you back here in an hour,” said Martinez as Eva nodded. “Mason, please fill Eva in on Robonaut as if she were me, okay?”

  “Uh, yes, will do,” I fumbled, smiling a nervous smile.

  “Are you okay, Mason?” asked Martinez with a concerned look.

  “I am. Just considering Dr. Mescher’s remarks,” I said as Alexandra Martinez nodded and began walking with Capucine toward the escalator, which would take them to the first-floor lobby. Capucine glanced one more time at me.

  “Eva,” I said, standing near the doorway of the room as it continued to empty.

  “Yes?”

  “There is a room this way, but I was told to take my time, since there’s a meeting finishing up in the room and they asked us not to disturb them,” I said, stalling as I waited until Capucine and Martinez were off the escalator before heading down the empty hall. I noticed one discreet man who I suspected was the man Capucine had referred to as looking out for her. He sauntered around the corner as if he were just another participant. My heart palpitated, more like a thump. Capucine was right—this was out of my purview.

  “The room is, uh, right down there,” I said, pointing. “I’m just going to run to the bathroom. I’ll meet you there.”

  “Very well,” she said as she began walking toward the room.

  Oh my gosh, I said to myself as I pulled the EMP gun from the back of my pants, where it had been covered by the sport jacket I was wearing. I turned around slowly and pointed it at Eva; my entire body shook. Am I really doing this? The sweat on my hands was dripping, as if the significance of what I was doing had just met reality.

  Fire it, Mason! I demanded of myself. What was I thinking when I decided to do this? Almighty One, did I even ask You if I should do this or not? Eva continued her walk, then suddenly turned around, seeing the gun.

  “What are you doing?” Eva shouted. “Help! Someone, he’s got a gun! Help!” As she began running, she let out a high-pitched scream, the type that sent chills down your spine, while I continued to shake, my mind in overdrive. I squeezed the trigger and fired directly at her. The hallway went completely dark for a moment; then a battery-operated emergency light flickered on, allowing me to see Eva running away in the silence. A moment later, the sound of people chattering in reaction to the event rose in the background. In the dimness, I could see Eva Cruise dash down the hall of the hotel as if she had just missed being shot by a maniac. If she was an android, none of her components were fried by a direct hit from an EMP gun.

  I was wrong.

  “Oh, Emmanuel, what have I done?” I asked, frozen.

  “Mason! Follow me,” came a voice that caused me to dig into my memory, since it was vaguely familiar.

  “What? Who are you?” I said, standing with the gun at my side as if all life had been sucked out of me.

  “Rihanna. Mason, come with me or you are going to be in jail for a long time,” she said as I squinted in the darkness.

  “Run, Mason! Let’s go,” she said, grabbing my arm. Instinctively I ran.

  “What? You? Jail is better than dead. Why the hell would I go with you?” I asked, yanking my arm away, wondering why I would go with the woman who had tried to take me to Hassan bin Laden in Iran just a few months ago.

  “I am saving your ass this time,” she said as I heard commotion behind us. “Please, run,” she said causing me to trot through a door to the stairs lit by emergency lights, heading down toward the exit and out the back of the building as police sirens rang out in the background.

  “Put this on,” she said as she took off her sweatshirt and gave it to me while still moving. “Keep your head down.”

  “What are you doing here? And where are we going?”

  “Estonia.”

  “Estonia! Are you insane?” I said as we continued making our escape.

  She stopped. “Do you want to go to jail?”

  “I don’t know—who do you work for now, Crutin?”

  “I’ll explain later. Please,” she said as I followed. “I know you have every reason to distrust me, but I’m on your side.”

  I shook my head but realized I didn’t have a choice.

  “By the way, that was quite the ballsy move,” she said with a slight smile. “You actually shot someone with an EMP,” she added with a chuckle. “Something I would do—but a gun would have been more effective.”

  “Thanks. I didn’t want to kill her. I need to get Capucine,” I said as we continued down the stairs.

  “Call her and tell her to meet us at the Meilahti Heliport as soon as possible,” said Rihanna.

  “What? Where?” I asked. “How do you even know who she is?”

  “Just do it, Mason; please.”

  “Sorry, not until you tell me what’s going on,” I said, stopping as we made our way out the back door and were about to head down the alley.

  “I’ve been watching you both. Right now, it’s you they will be after.”

  “Who will be after me?”

  “Roman Gagranovich.”

  “Who is he?”

  “My boss. Apparently you know him as Jonah Soul,” she said, holding up her cell phone showing a photo of Jonah Soul talking with me the day before.

  “Where’d you get that?” I asked.

  “Like I said, I’ve been watching you. I was as shocked as you are now when I heard him answer to the name Jonah at the hotel.”

  “You were watching me then?”

  “The men in this picture are Roman Gagranovich—a.k.a. Jonah Soul—Carlos DaSilva, and Mikhail Smirnov, marshal of the Russian Federation. I found another picture with an unidentified person included. I figured he was a nobody.”

  “What the heck are you talking about?” I asked, still unsure what was going on.

  “A spy ring that you are involved with, obviously without your knowledge. Evidently Jonah is tied to the Russians as Roman Gagranovich. Carlos DaSilva is Capucine’s boss. If you show her this picture, she will know she is in deep poop,” said Rihanna. “Please, we need to go,” she urged as more sirens rang out, drawing nearer.

  “But Eva isn’t—”

  “An android? So that’s why you fired an EMP? Are you kidding me?” she asked. “That explains it,” she said. “I thought I had lost my mind,” she said with a smirk. “Or I was shadowboxing.”

  “Explains what?” I said as we hastened down the alley and to the car parked a block away—the same car Capucine and I had seen following us that morning.

  “Get in,” Rihanna said.

  “Explains what?” I insisted, now inside the car as she started it up.

  “There are two Eva Cruises,” she s
aid.

  “Now, how would you know that?”

  “Because I flew them both in a helicopter this morning.”

  “From where?”

  “I brought one from Tallinn here to Helsinki. Then I took the other one to Tallinn. Please, call Capucine. She needs to meet us.”

  113

  Double Trouble

  “Capucine, Mason,” I said, pressing the phone to my ear.

  “Oh my God, Mason! What happened? You shot a real person! Where are you?”

  “Can you get to my room?” I asked. “If Dhilan is there, tell him I’ll call him. If not, break in.”

  “Mason? There are police everywhere, looking for you! That is the first place they’ll go,” she said.

  “The room isn’t registered in my name. It will take them time to figure it out. Please, get my bag and in particular my computer, gather your things, and head to the airport without talking with anyone.”

  “Where are you?”

  “I’m with Rihanna,” I said as Rihanna tapped my arm.

  “Émilie du Châtelet,” she corrected, with a small shake of her head.

  “Excuse me, Émilie du Châtelet, the stranger who warned you about the drugged drink in Paris,” I said, frowning quizzically at her.

  “What?” Capucine asked, incredulous, as Rihanna grabbed the phone.

  “Capucine, it’s Émilie, a.k.a. Rihanna. I am sending you a picture. It was taken at the Russian embassy. You are likely in danger. Get out of there and get rid of your phone,” she said, and sent the picture. Then she handed me back the phone.

  “Oh my God,” Capucine replied, obviously looking at the photo. “No more calls,” she said. “I need to get to the Clarion first. I’ll meet you as soon as I can. Mason, where’s your Porsche?”

  “Keys are in the room. I parked it at the Rokkiparkki garage just down the block.”

  “You’re a saint!” Hearing me chuckle, she asked, “What’s so funny?”

  “Your saint is a fugitive,” I said.

  “Yeah, well. Nobody knows you have it, right?”

  “Sorry, have what?”

  “The Porsche.”

  “Oliver Blumenthau knows.”