Legacy of a Mad Scientist (40 page)

Finally Stanwood, Von Kalt and the unseen specter
hanging over their shoulders, were ushered into a massive hall.

The room looked as though it hadn’t been used in a
considerable length of time. Cedric entered from behind and hit the
light switches.

Stanwood and Von Kat turned on their heels while King
quickly went inverted. In his trailer, Ross activated the image
compensator and rotated the signal back to something not so nausea
inducing.

“Intelligence Director Stanwood, I presume?” A rather
small man, Dr. Bergstrom walked toward them and extended his hand
to Stanwood, completely ignoring Von Kalt, but only for a
moment.

Even before he reached Stanwood, his attention turned
to Von Kalt and he came to a dead stop.

“Who are you?” Bergstrom asked.

Before Von Kalt could answer, Bergstrom screamed,
“NO!

“I don’t want to know, don’t tell me!” Bergstrom
turned to Stanwood. “Please ask him to wait outside.”

“What?” Stanwood asked.

“Ask him to wait outside, please!”

Stanwood nodded to Von Kalt, who pursed his lips, but
turned and left the hall without a word.

“Go back to the goddamn car, please!” Bergstrom
yelled after him.

King righted himself, hanging behind the intelligence
director, just a few inches above the floor.

“So…” Stanwood said

Ross had returned his monitor to the natural setting,
once King had tired of his handstand. Now he and Croswell watched
as King practiced his silent draw. The first sergeant smoothly, but
silently drew his side arm and took a bead on the back of
Stanwood’s skull, over and over again.

Finally Croswell spoke up, “Knock it off, Steve.”

King laughed over their comm. link, but remained
silent as Bergstrom and Stanwood had their little stare down.

“It’s clear that Fox’s technology has made it’s way
to you, So you should understand my commitment to this sentiment
when I tell you, You have to Give to Get. Now, don’t waste my
time.”

“What’s your price?” Stanwood asked.

“Your partner is carrying one of Fox’s
amplifiers.”

“It’s his funeral,” Stanwood said.

“I’m glad we understand each other.” Dr. Bergstrom
looked into Stanwood’s eyes. “You’ve never been exposed.”

“Do you think I’d be here now if I had been?”

“No, I wasn’t asking. I mean it as a statement. I can
tell, just looking at you. You know what else I can tell? You’ve
never pulled a trigger.”

“What?” Stanwood asked.

“Even during your practical, you didn’t, did
you?”

“It wasn’t like that,” Stanwood said.

“Like what,” Cedric asked. “Explain to me how it is
that the Director of National Intelligence has never pulled the
trigger. I tell you what. You convince me how you got out of the
practical and I’ll hear you out about the rest of this
nonsense.”

“I’ve never told anyone this. But, it was… I knew
her. This girl I went to school with, she’d been out drinking and
got into an accident. The other driver died, she was just a young
mom. It wouldn’t have been a capital case, except the car had been
reported stolen. Jessica didn’t know, it belonged to the boyfriend
of one of the other girls and she’d taken it without saying
anything. He’d called the cops before he realized that the girls
were just out on a liquor run.

“They arrested her for a homicide committed in the
commission of a felony. It was an open and shut case. The jury
returned a unanimous guilty verdict and she was remanded to the
Hall of Justice.

“I didn’t know she was going to be there. I swore my
oaths of allegiance, served on my first jury and marched over to
the handgun-training course.

“I went in there totally committed to executing a
convict. I’d already been accepted into the officer’s program for
at Williamsburg and so going into the practical, I had my mind made
up. I was going to collect my executioner’s fee and spend it
getting drunk as hell.

“Instead I walked in and saw Jessica.

“She recognized me and started crying. I already had
the light nine in my hand, I hadn’t charged it, but I was fucking
holding it. I moved to walk past her and she called me by name.

“I didn’t think she even knew my name. I don’t think
she’d ever said it before.

“She screamed,
“Joseph, No!”
I looked over to
her and I couldn’t leave. As I walked over to her, she was sobbing,
“Please, please, please.”

I think I had been in love with this girl, for like
forever. But nothing ever came of it. She liked this other guy in
my class.”

Stanwood laughed.

“Anyhow, as I walked up to her, I realized I was
holding the gun. I holstered it, slid my newly minted ID through
the slot and hit that big green clemency button.

“She thanked me about a thousand times, but I never
said a word. She got carted off for a life of hard labor on the
farms, but it beats a bullet in the head. I couldn’t let that
happen to her.

“You could see all the closed tubes, that opaque
frosted panel, with the darkness splashed across it, or just dark
inside.

“I remember, as we left, it was my Dad who sponsored
me… As we left, he was crying. He was really impressed. We were
always really close after that. I didn’t see that coming
either.

“Anyhow, last week I put a bullet through the head of
the guy Jessie always liked more than me. A guy I have known all my
life. Don’t tell me you know anything about me, about me
pulling
a trigger
. Because right now, if you don’t help me find this
man’s children, you are going to be the next person I put a bullet
into.”

“Who might this guy be?” Bergstrom asked. “Miller
mentioned something about enemies of enemies and new friends.”

“His name is Andrew Fox.”

“Mm, hmm. And then his children… A daughter, named
Astral?”

“Ashley.”

“That’s pretty goddamn close.”

“I know you know about Fox. I know you’ve had
dealings with him before.”

“You don’t know shit, son.”

“I know that I killed him. And I know that I can kill
you.”

“But why come to me? She’s a twelve-year-old girl.
Why can’t you handle her? Are you an idiot? What’s your
problem?”

“Dr. Bergstrom, when Senator Miller approved your
Wolf Pack program, I was his associate. I wrote all his
correspondence. His fingers never even touched a keyboard while I
worked for him. I am now the Director of National Intelligence. I
know everything there is to know about you. You are going to help
me, or I will dismantle your life, one locked door at a time.”

“You know everything, huh? Tell me something,
shit-for-brains, did you watch the 3AM Trials? Did you see what She
did to those soldiers? She wasn’t much older than twelve when she
did that.”

“What do you know about it?” Stanwood asked.

“Enough to know better than to even try and help you.
I mean that was a cute story, and now I heard you out, even with
your silly little threat there at the end, but you’d better have
something of equal or greater value if you want access to these
guys.”

Dr. Bergstrom had approached a second set of switches
and now illuminated the rest of the massive hall. Almost a dozen
massive cyber suits stood in various stages of completion.

“Only about half of them are operational, but if
you’ve got to crack an especially hard nut, this is the tool you
want.”

“Name your price,” Stanwood said.

“My price… First, my Conditions are that I want a
support squad for every suit we activate. These things look tough,
but concentrated fire is a problem for anyone, so I want a squad of
bullet catchers for support and distraction on any incursion into
enemy territory.

“Second, I have a question… What is preventing the
return of Fox’s Centaur Cyber-tanks?”

“They are locked out of orbit. We have a magnetic
quarantine in place. If they tried to get in, we would know, and we
will stop them. It was the mandate that won Conway the
election.”

Cedric raised a hand, “So then we are going up
against the Black Willow Gun Trees. We can only go in force.
Meaning, when it comes to the Wolf Pack, I only have four pilots.
That means, you and your ass hat out there in the car will have to
pilot two of the suits. I’m not sending four, if they could be six.
If you want this, you must take it yourself.”

“Do we need training?” Stanwood asked.

“You’ll learn fast or you’ll die.” Cedric smiled.

“Encouraging.”

“Now, my price.” Cedric raised his hand. “You said
children, plural?”

“Yes, a boy and a girl,” Stanwood answered.

“My price then, dead or alive, I want significant
access to their DNA and dead or alive, I want The Girl.”

“That’s all?” Stanwood asked, shocked and
astonished.

“That’s all,” Bergstrom answered.

“Fine, you have a deal, Doctor.” Stanwood realized he
actually didn’t care. Suddenly the entire adventure had lost its
allure. Stanwood didn’t want to have anything to do with Bergstrom.
He felt dirty just standing in the man’s presence. He’d agree to
anything, just to leave this space. “How soon can we get started?”
Stanwood asked.

“I need forty-eight hours, more or less,” Dr.
Bergstrom replied.

“That’s fine. I’ve hardly slept in three days.”

Filled with revulsion, Stanwood handed Bergstrom his
card. “I’ll be expecting your call.”

King was invisibly holding his weapon on the two men
and switching his aim from one to the next and back again.

Croswell interrupted him. “First Sergeant, I want you
to follow the director back to his car and spray everything you see
along the way with the micro-transmitters. Acknowledge.”

“Copy, yes, sir,” King replied over the thought link,
and holstered his pistol to pull out the aforementioned transmitter
spray.

Tuesday Morning, July 28,
2308

At four in the morning, Ashley's phone went off. She
answered, still groggy with sleep.

Ross's voice came both over the phone and from right
outside the door. "Time to get up. I want you and the little guy
dressed and in the kitchen in five minutes.”

A few minutes more than five minutes later, Ashley
and Geoff walked down the maintenance hall toward the kitchen. The
lights were still off, and no light came in from behind the pulled
shades and blinds.

Ross met the children halfway to their destination.
"First things first...”

Ashley’s Journal, Tuesday, July 28, 2308

After early morning patrols, we had breakfast and
talked about ways to improve security. Ross had all the correct
answers, but he wanted us thinking about it. We discussed the finer
points of distributing weapons, ammunition and first aid supplies
where they could do the most good.

He explained that you had to think about it as
Fortifying Your Base
. As if you were always less than six
hours from an actual attack.

Where would you want weapons and ammo stashed during
a firefight?

It's a bit of a tie, actually, between the bathroom
and the kitchen. The bathroom has a reinforced tub and a window you
can occasionally escape through, but it’s also called a Kill Box
for a reason.

Tuesday Morning, July 28, 2308

The micro-transmitters Croswell had sprayed at
Stanwood’s home informed the secretary that Stanwood had finally
returned home for the first time since shooting Fox.

In full battle armor, Croswell arrived at Stanwood’s
residence. Hovering overhead, he performed an intimate scan. He
read the security entries and the residential event logs. Stanwood
had opened the fridge, taken nothing out, proceeded to the bathroom
where the relieved himself, showered and was now asleep in his
bed.

Von Kalt was nowhere to be seen.

Secretary Croswell, having already hacked the
rudimentary security system, instructed it to open the patio door
as he arrived. It closed a moment later, after Croswell had
invisibly entered, having made zero contact with the domicile.

The Secretary checked Stanwood’s room to be sure it
was actually him and that he hadn’t somehow been duped.

It was indeed the Intelligence Director whom Jim had
known since grammar school, lying fast asleep.

Croswell drifted into the living room and fixed
himself a drink. He was in no hurry. As long as Stanwood was here,
there was little possibility that he was piloting a war machine at
the same time.

The Secretary relayed his location to the other
members of his team. First Sergeant King acknowledged, from his
place above the orphanage, as did Captain Snow, from her monitoring
station above St. Vincent’s.

Ashley took notes in her journal as Ross spoke,
“There's almost never a way out, plus lots of tile and glass. So
where bathrooms are concerned, if you don’t know ahead of time,
avoid it. The kitchen is better for hiding weapons and ammo, and
there's usually a backdoor, but it's mostly open and indefensible.
They will believe that our transportation is out in the garage,
making that a definite target.”

"So that will be the first thing they go after,"
Geoff said,

"Exactly right. They'll try to disable any escape,"
Ross said.

"So they'll be watching the other exits too, right?"
Ashley asked.

"Yes. We've got two sets of bad guys to worry about:
those with limited budgets and exposure and those without limits.
That means, the people who want to keep their activity a secret and
those who can send forty agents after us."

"They're going to keep looking for us, as long as we
have this." Ashley pulled out the black rectangle and set it next
to the maps.

Ross smiled. "Despite how valuable it is, that's just
a piece of hardware. They want you.”