Exponential

by JM Addison

  Chapter 29

  She had lost about an hour in the Newspaper office. Overall, she felt pretty encouraged. At first, she almost turned around and went right back out again. What was she thinking? This was a small town, once a week paper. The kind that carried articles describing the calls on the local police scanner. They were in no position to do anything about a story that merited national attention.

  But the kind invitation of the woman inside held her long enough. She was sort of a news junkie - a Jack-of-all-trades. A little bit editor, a bit reporter, some administrative and technical skills all wrapped up in one. She introduced herself as Rae and it turned out that she worked at a bigger paper at one time. Where was it? Cleveland Mara thought she said. She came to Ashbury in a semi-retirement mood and landed at the Advertiser to keep from being bored.

  She knew a lot about news and seemed very interested in Mara’s story. Mara went over her notes as she told the story to keep from getting too far ahead of herself and to try to speak only of the facts and not to let her emotions get into the mix. She felt very confused when she relayed details regarding Dell. Again, she could not believe that he would betray her so.

  By the time she was finished, Rae was very excited. She asked a lot of questions and took a lot of notes. Obviously, this story was not one for the Ashbury Advertiser, but rather more for the Washington Post. Rae had some contacts and felt she could get an important story published, but this story might be considered a poorly sourced tale from a unreliable informant. The part about the way encryption worked and how the long forgotten mathematical “Tomb” was discovered was all quite confusing and not something of interest to most everyday news readers.

  But the bottom line was a dream-come-true hit for a reporter: The fact that secret information was systematically being gathered, stored and basically made available for profit was a ghastly thought. With all of the screaming privacy liberals in politics these days, this would be the scoop of the decade.

  However, there was the one little important detail – the “Proof”. What evidence did Mara have? This outlandish story might not be believed by a big Newspaper Editor. Mara was not willing to give up the electronic recording she held. It was the one bargaining chip she had left and she wanted to stay in control. She explained to Rae her reasons for not giving it up. Mara seemed very sincere and Rae had a knack for telling if someone was telling the truth and she believed Mara. She tried to put herself in Mara’s shoes and she had to admit, she probably wouldn’t want to give up anything she had control of either. The method of using some sort of radio transmission to video record through solid walls seemed somewhat fanciful, but then if they really could do it, it would make sense why Sequitus was a target as well.

  Rae could probably write a pretty good piece based on what Mara relayed to her so far. She wanted to know how it would end up and, more importantly, what did Mara want her to do with this story. Could she convince a big town Editor that this was real? Then for a moment Rae worried that if perhaps anyone knew Mara was here, it could be dangerous for both of them, because now there were two people with the whole story, Mara and Rae. Of course there was also the people from Sequitus who knew as well, so the circle was growing.

  She needed to get this into the paper. Once lots of people started hearing about this, the public would demand a thorough investigation of Viiradium. Wouldn’t that be something? The beloved gem of Wall Street, crooked as the Russian Mafia. And, at the top? Bob Danvers – Candidate for governor. Wow! No wonder they wanted her dead.

  “Where do we go from here?” Rae asked.

  “I still want to report as directed to Fiddler’s Rock tonight. I know it’s a long shot, but how would anyone but him and me know about it? I have to at least go and see.”

  “Well, let’s see, ‘Fiddler’s Rock’. Yes, isn’t that the place where people go by the little pool and throw coins into the water as if it was a wishing well? They’ve got a transmitting tower up there now. Cellular phone transmitter I think.”

  Mara’s heart sank. “Is it still there?”

  “Oh, yes. There’s a nice gravel driveway up to the tower, but the big ol’ rock is still there. Should be pretty easy to get to. I suppose it does seem pretty hard to believe that someone besides your brother could be sending you that message. Perhaps he is alive and he was forced to.”

  “I’ve thought about that. That’s why I don’t want to give up the evidence I have. I also want you to get this story ready to go, but don’t give it to anyone just yet. The knowledge that I have the story documented and ready to be publicized is another tool.”

  “You’re asking a lot. You came in here with a pretty big story – political and police corruption, corporate scandal, wide scale theft, murder, kidnapping – and you want me to hang onto it?”

  “Oh, I have every intention of letting you get all the credit for every last word, but not just yet. If I don’t come in here tomorrow by the end of the day, then they got me too. Then you can publish the story. If I do come in here tomorrow, well, I’m not sure what that means yet, but you probably can publish it then too, so I’m just asking for one day.”

  Rae gave her a penetrating look and after a moment said, “Agreed. One more day. That will give me enough time to work on this story and get it ready. Do you mind if I take your notes?”

  Mara handed over her notes. Between her notes and the ones that Rae made during their conversation, she probably had enough for a pretty good version of the story. Rae went on, “I’m pretty worried about you going up there alone tonight. By seven o’clock it’ll be pretty dark. Why not take someone along? I would be happy to be there.”

  Mara looked a bit panic stricken and Rae wondered what was wrong. “Right now, you are the only other person that knows the full story – beginning to end. You’re my hope of ending this thing. If you go along and something happens to you, they get to keep their little secret. Besides, I don’t want to risk showing up with an entourage and spooking whoever is going to be there to meet me. I want to find out and finally put an end to this thing.”

  “I could send someone else along. At least someone to give you a ride up there…”

  “Getting dropped off would be fine, But first there is one more thing I must do. I want to get there early, but there’s still plenty of time. I’ll be back later this afternoon.” She stood up to leave and Rae got up as well. “I can’t say how much I appreciate all your help, Rae.”

  “I haven’t done much of anything yet, but hopefully we can put this thing to rest real soon.”

  They briefly shook hands and Mara went back out into the sunshine heading across the street to the post office for one final task.