The Aegis Solution (46 page)

"You must have developed a feel for their motives."

"We tried to get a handle on the motivations. We had group sessions, counseling, interventions,
hundreds of one-on-one meetings before the fact. Nothing ever emerged as an underlying reason."

"What reasons did they give?"

"Most of the time, none. But if they did, the reasons were best described as superficial, more akin
to a convenient excuse, rather than anything substantive. As an example, we had a young, healthy man
commit suicide because he had torn his favorite shirt."

"I have a theory, Mildred, about the so-called utopian mind-set, which I believe is far too
exclusionary, unrealistic, and eventually damaging. Over time, the never-ending progression of actions,
words, and even thoughts which must be forced into that tight mold of utopia gradually create such an
intolerance to even the slightest deviation that an almost allergic reaction, a full-body and full-mind
reaction, occurs, taking the person directly to furor or desperation. A house of cards has been
constructed, so high and so tenuous that literally anything can knock it down. There is no resilience.

"Altogether, how many have you lost to suicide?"

Mildred sat back in her chair and looked up at the ceiling for a moment before answering. "Over
the life of our community, approximately two thousand."

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Bonnie Schwartz refilled her coffee mug and laughed. "I can't believe he said that!"

"He did! Right in front of his wife and my husband," Jennifer exclaimed emphatically.

"What did you say?"

"I told him to dream on!"

They both broke into high-pitched squeals, causing the others in the break room to twist around
in their chairs and glance at them. Bonnie looked at the clock on the wall. "I'd better get back. I was only
supposed to be gone a minute."

"Yeah, me too."

Schwartz turned and walked hurriedly back to her station outside the lab. Thankfully, no one was
around to see her return. She placed the full mug on the desk, accidentally setting it on top of a pen,
which shot out from underneath, causing the coffee to slosh out of the cup.

"Dammit!"

She scurried to the restroom and grabbed several paper towels from the dispenser, returning to her
desk. After the spill was mopped up, Bonnie sat down and checked her work phone for any messages
she might have missed. Then she picked up her cell phone from the desk and checked for text messages.
There was one from Jennifer, which had arrived only moments ago: "By the way, I gave him your email,
lol."

Laughing again, she moved her thumbs madly as she typed back a threat to send the man Jennifer's
cell number. After having dispatched the text message, she checked her phone for any others and,
finding none, replaced the cell phone on her desk. As she did, she noticed something strange on one
of the video screens set up as an array in front of her.

"What the…?" Pulling out her keyboard, Bonnie typed in a few commands, and the video camera
she was watching zoomed in for a tighter view. She was instantly mortified by what she saw. Recovering,
she dialed the extension for her supervisor.

Sheldon Kennerley arrived within two minutes, winded from the jog to Bonnie's station. When he
stopped and his eyes fixed on the screen, he gasped. It was a close-up view of Syndi sprawled on the
floor in front of her work area. From the angle of the camera, he could see that a copious amount of
blood had gushed from apparently every orifice in her body, pooling around her and saturating the
white lab coat.

"We have a breach!" he shouted. "Sound the alarm. Thank God, no one has opened the air lock.
Bonnie, get Director Faulk on the phone."



Faulk opened the door of the Hummer before the driver had come to a complete stop, the wind
forcing the door shut again, almost slamming his leg against the frame. Putting his shoulder to it, he
pushed it open again and climbed out, holding on to the side grip-bars to prevent the gale from
knocking him to the ground. The roar made it impossible to speak to his team, but they knew their
orders and followed him out of the transport.

The group, leaning forward at an impossible angle, made their way to the entrance.



Boehn glanced over at Killeen. "Gather all your men. It's time we departed Aegis."

"What about him?" the young security chief asked, motioning toward the still-unconscious
Kreitzmann.

"Bring him and the others. Since the land line and the T1 are both down, I'll gather all of the files
on flash drives."

"It's going to be difficult to assemble everyone without the others noticing. What should I do with
them if they ask questions?"

Boehn's first impulse was to issue a harsh order. He quickly realized that extreme measures were
no longer required. "Bluff, bully...I don't care if you simply ignore them. I doubt that any of them will
physically attempt to stop you, especially since we have their boss."

"Done."



Elias and Tillie were crouched in the air plenum, both peering down into the corridor below.
Wilson was stationed back at the last junction, watching for any search teams.

"I hope you're right," Tillie whispered.

"So do I. It was the only spot on the perimeter that made any sense."

He referred to a note on the plan that indicated there had been a block-out, a temporary opening
in the continuous concrete wall which made up the envelope surrounding Aegis. Once they stood the
wall, there would not have been any access to the interior for the workers to use, other than the single
opening which was to become the permanent entrance. Having only one way in and out of a project of
this magnitude would have been impractical and unsafe. The temporary opening was actually a gap
formed in the tilt-up wall, a hole created when the panel was cast. After it was no longer needed, it
would have been filled in and covered.

"It is much easier to remove the in-fill of a former opening than to try penetrating an engineered
panel. Besides, I don't think it's a coincidence that Kreitzmann picked the section of Aegis where the
old opening is located to call home."

Tillie, still staring intently down, murmured, "Like I said, I hope you're right. It looks quiet down
there now."

Elias slipped the knotted rope off his shoulder. "Might as well take a look."

Gripping the edge of the lay-in grille, Tillie quietly pulled it up and out of the opening, while Elias
took one final look at the page from the plans, memorizing this section of the layout. He had already
tied one end of the rope to a nearby pipe and dropped the free end down to the floor below. "I'll go
first."

With the now functional AK-47 slung over his back, Elias gripped the rope and lowered himself
through the opening, taking only a few seconds to climb down to the floor. Tillie was already following
him down before he finished his descent.

"Should be only about forty yards that way," Elias whispered.

As they moved forward, Wilson had come to the opening and pulled up the rope, quietly sliding
the grille back in place, before returning to his post. The corridor was unnervingly quiet, almost as if this
part of Aegis had already been deserted. Elias began to worry that he was too late.

Ahead, at the end of the hallway, he could see that a door had been installed, a door which,
according to the plans, should not even exist since the hallway ended at the perimeter wall of the
complex. There was a keypad attached just above the door handle. On either side of the hallway were
closed doors, exactly as shown on the plan; on the right, the door entered into restrooms, and on the
left, into a larger than normal utility room.

It was irrelevant that they did not know the code to the door; it was not their intent to escape.
Carefully, Elias opened the utility-room door and peered inside. The room was connected to the
network of solar tubing, and it was not necessary to turn a light on. Looking back at Tillie, he nodded
and entered; she followed at once.

The room was filled with an assortment of what appeared to be spare parts for the plumbing,
electrical, and mechanical systems of Aegis. Rows of freestanding shelving were filled with items
segregated by category, including copper and galvanized pipes in various lengths, unions, couplers, and
a variety of fixtures. In another section were junction boxes, rolls of wiring, and replacement switches
and outlets, and in another were spare grilles and registers, thermostats, and barometric dampers.
Standing in one corner of the room was a job-site gang box with the lid open. The box was filled with
hammers, pry bars, and an assortment of power tools.

"So far, so good," Tillie muttered, once the door was safely closed behind them, and immediately
began to shed the various bags, packs, and other items she carried, arranging them neatly near the door
for easy and quick access.

"This is perfect," Elias noted, pointing at the closed door. "A peephole."

"That should be fun – the two of us taking turns with one eye plastered to that thing for hours at
a time."

He permitted himself a soft chuckle.



After patiently waiting for nearly two hours, Wilson, having stationed himself in the three-way
junction, was the first to hear them coming. Carefully, to ensure that he did not make a sound, he shifted
slightly to one side in an effort to see who they were.

Leading the pack were two armed men, followed by a sizable group of people he identified as
civilians from Kreitzmann's lab. The assemblage seemed to be evenly split between lab-coated scientists
or technicians and regular people who, Wilson assumed, must have been the subjects of many of the
experiments. From his vantage point, he was unable to distinguish most of the faces of the group.

Next came a much larger contingent of armed guards. Wilson counted seven more. And finally,
there were two men he did not recognize; but, based upon their position in the procession, they seemed
to be directing this movement.

Having seen enough and wishing that the three of them had devised some sort of communication
system, Wilson eased back from his viewport and made his way to the grille used earlier by Tillie and
Elias. As he looked down at the passing heads below, he realized that his two friends had insisted on
this position for him not because of any strategic or tactical reason, but merely to place the old man out
of harm's way.



"Someone's coming!" Tillie hissed in a loud whisper.

Elias, who had been exploring the array of parts and supplies for something useful while Tillie took
her turn as lookout, trotted over next to her. He noticed that he was still holding the five-foot length
of galvanized pipe he had been examining. "What do you see?"

"Two guards carrying assault rifles. But this is weird."

"Let me take a look."

She moved aside to allow him to peer through the peephole. Despite the distortion caused by the
fish-eye lens, Elias could see that there were several people milling around outside the door. They were
not a part of the security team, but appeared to be test subjects and scientists.

As he watched, someone came into view from his right, someone he did recognize. In a voice so
hushed that it was almost inaudible, he said, "It's Boehn."

"What is he doing?" Tillie whispered back at him, directly into his ear.

He did not answer her as he watched Boehn move past the crowd and approach the door. Clearly,
he was the one who knew the code. At the fringe of his left field of vision, Elias could see Boehn punch
numbers on the keypad. At the same time, he saw that at least four more men carrying assault rifles had
moved into his view from the right.

"This doesn't look good."

"What's wrong?"

"It isn't Kreitzmann opening the door; it's Boehn."

This was bad news for them; their plan had been to grab Kreitzmann as he passed in front of their
door, assuming that holding the leader would be sufficient leverage to direct any others, who might be
with him, to back off.

"Crud!"

Since the exit was at the edge of his view, Elias could barely see that Boehn had opened it.
However, instead of exiting from his view, Boehn backed away from the door and began shouting.

"Tillie, press your ear against the crack around the door. Maybe you can make out what they are
shouting."

She instantly did so and, with pauses to listen, relayed what she heard as Elias continued to watch
the hallway through the peephole.

"I think he said the exit is blocked....I guess the panels from the roof tumbled off and are piled up
in front of the exit....He's telling some of the men to get some tools."

"Tools?" Just as what Tillie had told him sank in, Elias saw two of the armed men hand their rifles
to their colleague and begin walking straight at the utility room.