Pop Travel (7 page)

“Gordy Maynor. So you managed to keep your job. I was hoping I’d run into you,” Cooper said when he got his breath back.

“I can’t believe it! My long-lost buddy! Coop the Scoop! Come in, come in.” Gordy kept an arm around Cooper and guided him into the dark room.

Hoping he could get Gordy’s help without much small talk, Cooper kept a big grin on and nodded. He didn’t have hours to rehash old times.

“What’s up, man! I haven’t talked to you in… what’s it been? Six years?” Gordy said with wide eyes, amazing himself.

Cooper nodded some more and followed Gordy to a desk with a wall-sized imager divided into 24 sections. Several other stations like Gordy’s lined the walls. With shimmering images the only illumination, and the guards staring at the screens, the scene looked like a horror flick. Cooper expected a grotesque hand to reach out of an imager and grab one of them.

Gordy cleared his throat, calling the attention of the other guards, who squinted to see the visitor. Cooper would enjoy a job in a place like this, minimal human contact.

“Hey, fellas. This is my old buddy, Cooper. He’s the one who got me my first job here,” Gordy said. Most of them nodded and went back to their duties.

“Looks like you are doing pretty well at the ATC.” Cooper wished he could fast-forward this conversation, eager to get the chitchat over with.

Sitting down, Gordy glanced at his monitors, then leaned back in his chair.

“Yep. I got promoted to first shift last year. I watch the monitors and rotate at the different checkpoints around the travelport. They like to keep us moving so we don’t fall asleep in the Pit here. Hey, Bob! Wake up!” he joked, and threw an empty can at one of the other guards.

The guy looked at Gordy like he was nuts and shook his head, then went back to his work.

“So how is Kristen?” he asked.

Damn. Cooper forgot many people from his old life didn’t know about what happened. A pang of grief grazed him. Choosing a random monitor to stare at, he watched a toddler cry while his mother tried to console him with a stuffed toy.

“She passed away in a plane crash five years ago.” Cooper lowered his face, feeling the weight of her absence, as the shimmering glow of the imagers brought flashes of memories to mind. He hoped his tone and downcast expression made it clear he didn’t want to talk about it.

“Aww, man. I’m sorry. She was an awesome lady.”

“Yes, she was.”

Cooper appreciated Gordy taking the hint and changing subjects.

“So what are you doing these days? What brings you to the ATC? Did I hear Vera say you were a detective now?” Gordy asked.

“Yeah. I gave up the lawyer act. Decided to change tracks. That’s why I’m here. I have a client whose wife disappeared. He wants to sue the company because he thinks she ran off with a guy from work and they’re keeping her location a secret from him.” The first test would be to see if the travelport staff knew anything about a low-profile disappearance, so Cooper made up a background story on the train ride into town.

“Sounds like a scandal. How can I help?”

Guess not. Now for the real questions.

“Well, for starters, have there been any problems with transmissions?”

“That’s not really my department, but I don’t think there have been. Any delays are usually due to passenger discomfort or ‘pop anxiety’.” Gordy looked over his shoulder at the other guards. Several chuckled and mumbled comments.

“Pop anxiety? What’s that?” Cooper asked, though he thought he might have a good idea. He probably had it himself.

“It’s like air sickness. Affects mostly first-timers. Some people get all worked up, can’t handle the process, and toss their cookies before transmission. They have to shut down the whole platform, if they make it that far.” He grinned as he explained. “Once, someone got sick in his dock when he arrived. I bet that was a nice surprise for the receiving nurse.” He stifled a laugh.

Great. That would be me.

“Yeah.” Cooper faked a smile. “I meant, have there been any glitches with the arrivals. Any travelers who didn’t come through?”

“Oh. Nope. Not that I know of.”

“Could anyone arrive and sneak past Security? Or maybe switch their destination at the last minute and go somewhere else?”

“I doubt it. It would be impossible to change the codes at the transmission docks with the handprint ID linked to their destination. And no one is sneaking past Security. You can see how many cameras we have. This isn’t even all of them. The platform cams have their own special room in the back. Only three guards have clearance high enough to monitor those. But if a receiving platform wasn’t expecting an arrival, it could be in use. There’s a safety alert that won’t let two people be received at the same time, or else there’d be a big mess.”

“And there’s been no problem like that? No messes?”

“No. Not here. The dock codes are uncrackable. Someone would have to know a specific one to be able to transmit here. The technicians don’t even know the codes. They just monitor the handscans linked to the travelers’ tickets and the computers take care of sending travelers to the right destination.”

“I see,” Cooper answered. He had a hard time swallowing such naïve trust. Leaving his life in the diodes of a computer made him even more wary of it. “Well, the lady I’m looking for is Dolores Engle, scheduled to arrive here at the ATC on May 10. Do you have records of her arrival? Is there any way I could see footage from that day?”

“No way. That’s totally classified, man. Sorry. I don’t have that kind of clearance,” Gordy answered and scanned his screens, squinting as if he’d caught someone up to no good.

Gordy’s quick, cutting response seemed out of character to Cooper, especially after all the friendly banter. His brow creased as he wracked his brain for a backup plan. Until his request fell flat, Cooper hadn’t realized how much he took for granted Gordy’s help.

“Oh. I hoped you might be able to help me. Who does have clearance that might be able to help?”

Gordy turned to Cooper and grinned.

“I’m just playin’ with ya, man!” He gave Cooper a punch in the arm. Good old Gordy. “Hold on. Let me take a look. I don’t have access to the platforms but I can check the causeway and public areas.”

He used his inset desk CC to search for the recorded arrival of Cooper’s traveler.

“Hunh! May 10 doesn’t seem to be in here.”

“What does that mean? You only keep records for certain days?”

“No, no. I think I know what happened. Let me check with Joel.” He called over to a paunchy, balding guy with light blue, framed glasses. “Hey, Joel. Do you remember if May 10 was one of our federal audit days?”

Joel rolled his chair out from his desk and adjusted his glasses.

“Uh. May 10. Yeah. That sounds like one of the dates. I’ll look.”

“Federal audit days? What’s that?” Cooper asked.

“Here it is. May 10.” Joel adjusted his glasses again. “Oh, the Feds come in once a month or so. Like a surprise inspection. They take some recordings and interview some of the employees. They call it random sampling, to watch for anything suspicious and keep up with our procedures. The Video Monitor Safety Act passed after the ATC revamped the whole travelport for pop travel. We made a deal with the government guys not to be connected to the Qnet in the interest of national security. Surprise federal audits are their way of keeping tabs on us.” Joel spouted with an air of authority, like he was the man in charge. He rubbed the faint stubble on his chin when he spoke, then adjusted his glasses again. A tell, making Cooper suspect he either had OCD, or he might have something to hide.

“Any backups?”

“They take those, too,” said Joel.

“But Audrey has a stash,” Gordy said and elbowed Cooper.

“She does?” Joel asked, raising his eyebrows. The guy reminded Cooper of the late, great Elton John as he fixed his bright glasses again. They glowed faintly in the dim light.

Gordy swiveled his chair around. “Yeah. She mentioned it when the Feds were here last time. Those guys weren’t very nice. They even took Audrey’s dataplate for giving them a hard time.”

“Oh. I remember that day. She was pissed.” Joel nodded.

“She sure was. That’s when she told me. She said she got them. Said she kept some backups hidden. ‘Never trust the Feds,’ she said. We should ask her. Do you know where she is, Joel?”

“I think she is checking a platform on Concourse C.”

“Let’s see if we can get her to show us the goods.” Gordy gave Cooper a mischievous grin. He called his supervisor by pushing the comlink speaker button on his desk and saying her name.

“Baumer,” she answered.

“Hey, boss. Gordy here.”

“Whatcha need, Gordo?”

“Well, I have an investigator here who wants to see if we have any backup files for May 10.”

“Tell him to take a hike.” Gordy laughed silently at her reaction. Then furrowed his brow like he was hurt.

“Hold on, now. He’s that old college buddy of mine I told you about. The attorney. But now he’s a private detective and he’s working for a guy who wants to sue his wife’s company. The guy thinks his wife ran off with a co-worker and is blaming the company for helping them get away.” Gordy winked at Cooper.

“Is it that guy you have a man crush on? The mysterious Coop the Snoop?”

Cooper turned away to hide his smirk.

Gordy lit up, red-faced. “No! I mean, it is. But no, I don’t! And it’s Coop the Scoop.”

“Hmm. But it’s Coop the Snoop now, right? Well, the story sounds like a good one. I guess I can see what I have. Meet me in my office. I need to stop by my locker, first. Give me fifteen minutes. And Gordy…” She paused.

“Yes, Miss Audrey?”

“Don’t leave your monitors unattended.”

“Of course not. We’ll see you upstairs,” he said and signed off.

After calling another guard to cover for him, Gordy led Cooper out of the Security office and they headed for the elevators.

“Hey, Coop. Wanna grab a sandwich or something? We have a few minutes to stop in the Atrium before we go up. I’m starved.” He rubbed his stomach and smelled the air with a big smile. The aromas of grilled burgers and spicy tacos grew stronger as they reached the elevator.

“No thanks. I had a late breakfast. I’m glad your boss might be able to help. This guy really wants to find his wife.” Cooper hoped the footage would give a simple explanation to the disappearances, but he doubted it. Nothing in life was simple.

“Glad we can oblige. I’m sure Audrey will do all she can. She’s a great gal.”

udrey signed off the maintenance check for Transmission Gate C19. All twenty-four docks on the fluorescent-lit, hexagonal floor met the rigid requirements. She nodded to the pop travel technician standing at his terminal and the anesthesiologist at the medical station, to let them know they were ready to go.

As she weaved between travelers, she checked off completed chores on her new dataplate. Audrey’s to-do list kept her busy. She never reached the bottom and there were always more tasks popping up to add to it. After looking it over one more time, she hugged the plate to her chest and concentrated on getting to her locker.

The list kept her mind off the accidents. Knowing about them ate at her soul. And now, with the new security measures and protocol in place to stop the docks from opening when an accident happened, she was the only one left at the travelport who knew the truth. This detour with Gordy and his friend put her behind schedule, but it gave her hope of a way to get out of the messy situation. When the Feds last spoke to her and confiscated her old plate, they made it clear they would not stand for any interference. They warned her they were watching her. And ever since their warning, she wondered if any of her employees were undercover agents. But the suits’ bullying only made her more determined to stop them. She just didn’t know how.

Audrey shifted her already swift pace up a notch as she walked down the wide causeway toward the center of Concourse C, her ponytail swaying behind her. She had backups all right. Those conniving Feds needed to go down! An unwilling accomplice, she hated helping them cover up the deaths, but had no choice. They made it clear, anyone who slipped up would be putting themselves in danger. Just holding onto the extra backups, she risked her life, even though she had no idea what she could do with them. She had no powerful connections and she couldn’t pass the information on to anyone with the Feds stalking her. And posting them on the government-monitored Qnet would come to the same result, with her dead and no resolution. Audrey grasped at the hope Gordy’s friend would be able to help her expose her evidence somehow.