Annihilation: Love Conquers All (14 page)

Danielle looked nervous, wondering what she had done wrong. “Larry Wharton has overall command of my division.”

“Hold on just a moment, Miss Ash,” Esa said. He lifted his communicator and said, “Julie, get Larry Wharton on the communicator immediately.”

“Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb!” Danielle thought. “When am I going to learn to keep my big mouth shut? I just told a department head that he was wrong. I’m so stupid! People don’t want to hear the truth.”

She then heard Inspector Connor say, “Larry, Esa Connor here. I’m head of the Continental Security Enforcement Committee. I’m going to send you some directives in the morning, and I’m going to date them retroactively to tonight. I am going to transfer, just a moment…” He lowered his communicator and said, “Miss Ash, what did you say your first name was?”

“Danielle,” she said meekly.

“Right,” he said. He raised his communicator and continued, “I’m going to transfer a Danielle Ash out of your division and make her an associate inspector in mine effective immediately.” He paused for a moment, listening, and then said, “Larry, I don’t give a jolly good damn about your manpower requirements or any other problems you might have with this decision. If you’ll read the directives in the morning you’ll see that they’re being made on the basis of safety of the state power that I have. Now just so we’re clear, if you get in the way of this transfer in any way I’ll have you in front of a board of security so fast that you won’t have time to realize how you lost your job. Is that clear?” Esa listened for a moment and then said, “Larry, you don’t need to apologize. I know I’m being heavy-handed and I don’t like doing it and I can’t explain why. This young woman’s talents are being wasted and unused in her current position and we can use them. You’re going to have to trust that I’m making the right decision for the right reasons. Thank you for taking my call so late; you’ll receive the paperwork first thing in the morning.” Esa pressed the button on his communicator and Danielle heard him say, “Julie, did you copy all that? Good. Yes, that’s exactly what I want. By the way, what pay grade is a medical technician? A three!” he said as he looked at Danielle. He said into his communicator, “Then she probably won’t mind being raised to an eight.”

Danielle couldn’t believe her ears. Could this really be happening?

“Miss Ash,” Esa said, “you are no longer a medical technician. You will report directly to John Sinclair after our meeting, who will swear you in. You will continue to work with us on this case until we get it solved. You will work on weapons training during your spare time. This is not, however, a temporary transfer. I am not easily impressed, Miss Ash, but you have exhibited traits and insights that are rare and valuable in my line of work. You have shown initiative and the willingness to make a decision, along with saying what needs to be said regardless of consequences. I think you’re dead on in your analysis about the invisibility. Have you had any other insights?”

Danielle could not believe her good luck. Her mind was in a whirl. This was the sort of job that she had prayed for, where she could use her talents. She had to pull herself together. Then she had a thought.

“Inspector Connor, thank you so much for the promotion. You can count on me to work hard to be worthy of your trust, and I hope what I’m about to say doesn’t diminish your opinion of me.”

“Go ahead, Miss Ash.”

“I was mentally celebrating my transfer just a moment ago in my mind, and I pictured my name and title, Danielle Ash, Associate Inspector, with searchlights and fireworks going off. Then I had a thought.” She turned to Major Daniels and said, “Major Daniels, what if someone could see the view of your camera like the beam of a searchlight? What I mean is, if someone were turning a searchlight towards me I could see it coming, then I would look for something that I can hide behind when it got to where I was, or it may be as simple as lying down while it passed overhead. What I’m trying to say is, if I can see what your cameras see, then wouldn’t it be possible to avoid being seen?”

Major Daniels was quiet for a moment and then said, “Just like the attack scene tonight, we didn’t catch the entire event because the camera swung away. All of the cameras in our system are constantly moving, and it is possible that there are places in the overlap of the camera’s field of view where there are areas not seen. The point is, we never really looked to see if there are enough areas not being recorded so that someone could move through them and not be seen.”

Esa said, “Major, will you do an analysis to see if what she says has any merit?”

Major Daniels raised his communicator, spoke for a few minutes, and came back and said, “I’m having my second in command run an analysis of the area from that building south of us to the end of the park north of us. What the computer will do is lay down an overlay to track the patterns of non-coverage as they occur. I should have it; here is now.”

“That was quick,” Esa said.

“Inspector Connor, you know how good our computers are, and my assistant knows how to use them.” He lifted his communicator again and said, “Please download it to my display.” The display came on immediately and Major Daniels said, “Thanks, Arney.”

The six of them gathered around the display and watched the patterns. Major Daniels said, “I’m not sure where to start.”

“Start where the five men started moving in this direction,” Danielle said.

Major Daniels turned to Esa and said, “Be thankful you’ve got this young lady now, otherwise she would be working for me by morning. You’re right, Miss Ash, and since we know they were following our Superman, all we have to do is look at the patterns along the wall as they moved northward to see if there were any patterns that would allow someone to move unseen.”

Major Daniels began the video, and they could see that there were shadows moving along the sidewalk and parks that someone could walk in and not be seen. “This is shocking,” said Major Daniels. “I had no idea there was this much that we wouldn’t see.”

“Not really,” said Sergeant Garcia. “Someone would have to be able to see these areas and stay in them. Which begs the question: how could anyone see the areas that aren’t covered when the cameras aren’t sending out a beam but just receiving light? These cameras are not like searchlights. They don’t emit anything that someone can see.”

“That may be true,” said Colonel Ortiz, “but this hypothesis just feels right and explains partially how our Superman avoids detection.”

“What do you mean partially?” John Sinclair asked.

“I haven’t heard anyone explain how our Superman walked with Mr. Graham into his classroom without being seen.”

Esa thought for a minute and said, “You make a good point, Colonel, but I think that we all agree that what happened at the school and what happened here are probably connected, right?” Everyone nodded. “Okay, then the logical place to get our answers is at the school, so I’ll see all of you at 7 a.m. at Bill Clinton. John, get in touch with Julie and make sure we have enough people and equipment to do interrogations.”

“Inspector Connor,” Colonel Ortiz said, “please keep in mind just how dangerous this person is. If you uncover this person’s identity and attempt to prevent him from escaping, you just might have what he did to this team of well-trained criminals. I will order a platoon of armed naval marines to surround the school.”

“Thank you, Colonel. I hope we don’t need your help, but I feel better knowing that it’s available.”

John Sinclair looked at Esa and asked, “Are you going to notify Director Nicole about what we’ve discovered?”

Esa said, “Absolutely, the director should know that we have someone that possibly has a high level of psychic skills. I am also going to notify the Special Forces Team about what we’ve found.”

Colonel Ortiz asked, “Do you think they can help us find him?”

“I don’t know, Colonel, but those psychics should know more about finding him than anyone else. I suspect we can use the SFT’s help.”

They were about to leave when Major Daniels and Esa Connor noticed Miss Ash staring at Major Daniels’s display screen. She turned and said, “Sergeant Garcia, will you come over here for just a moment?” All six men stopped, turned, and immediately went back to look at the display screen. “Sergeant Garcia, what color is the cover of the test booklet that was taken from the school?”

“Red,” he said.

“Major Daniels, will you move the view closer to the crystal glass directly behind the man sitting against the wall?” The picture started moving in, and they could see that because he was leaning forward to hide his face it caused his shirt to ride up to the small of his back, which exposed his back pocket in a reflection on the crystal glass of the building. The video continued to move in and then they all saw it in the reflection. A folded booklet was sticking up out of his back pocket with a bright red cover.

“Yes, you better be thankful, Esa,” Major Daniels said, shaking his head. “She would have been mine by morning.”

T
he team of investigators split up and went to their floaters. Danielle Ash went to collect her medical materials so that she could turn her floater in to her former agency. Inspector Connor said, “Miss Ash, may I speak with you for just a moment?”

Danielle stopped what she was doing and stood up. She noticed that several medical teams were picking up the dead bodies for transfer as she walked back over to the inspector.

“Miss Ash, I don’t want you going with the team in the morning.” Esa could see the disappointment in her face. “It’s not because I don’t think you could help us,” he said, “but I have another assignment for you that I think would be more helpful to the investigation. How old are you, Miss Ash?”

“I just turned nineteen, Inspector Connor.”

“I think you could pass for a seventeen- or eighteen-year-old if you dressed the part, don’t you?”

Danielle knew that the people she worked with thought she was a lot younger than she was. She wore clothes to try and make herself look older but knew they didn’t help much. “Yes sir, I probably could. What do you have in mind?”

“I’m worried that if this so-called Superman is really good at hiding then we might not find him. I want you to play the part of a transferee to the school. I’ll arrange a background for you in which your parents were moved here because of a job change in the commercial banking division. Your first day will be tomorrow and you’ll go through the same questioning as all the other students. Maybe you’ll have to endure stronger measures such as multiple interrogations. I want you to tell anyone that will listen just how stupid it is to be interrogated when you just moved here.”

“After a day or so, if we don’t find Superman, then we’ll leave and see if you can turn up anything. I would suggest that you try to develop a relationship with the girl whose test booklet was taken. There’s got to be a reason why Superman went to all that trouble to steal it. Of course, this is a fallback plan providing we don’t find him tomorrow, and I want you in place before we leave. If we find him then you leave the school and report to John Sinclair to begin your training as an associate investigator. However, if we don’t, then I want you to report each evening to Inspector Sinclair and tell him what you’ve been able to uncover.”

“Where will I live while this is going on?” asked Danielle.

Inspector Connor raised his communicator and said, “Julie, I need you to set up something for me. I want you to find a living space north of where the crime took place tonight for Miss Ash. I’m going to place her undercover as a transfer student.”

“How far north, Inspector?” Julie asked.

“No more than five miles. I know the person we were looking for was moving north from the school. Any further than that and he couldn’t have made it home by daylight. I also want you to take two of our clerical people and have them pose as her parents, and they’ll need to be the right age for a seventeen-year-old student. I want them in the apartment tonight, and I want pictures available for Miss Ash in her communicator to support her cover. Also get in touch with Dan Onda in commercial banking to support our cover story.” There was a momentary pause, and then they heard, “I’ve found a living space and I’ve ordered furniture to be delivered tonight. If you would have Miss Ash flash me her sizes I will have the appropriate wardrobe waiting for her,” Julie said. “Do you want her to have her own floater?”

“Yes, but I’ll want her to use whatever transportation the students she’s observing use until she develops a relationship.”

“It will be waiting for her at the living space.”

“Thank you, Julie.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone that can make things happen that fast,” said Danielle.

“I think given time you’ll be just as efficient at what you do as she is in what she does, Miss Ash. You and she possess a lot of the same traits. I depend on her heavily and she doesn’t disappoint me.” He pressed a button on his communicator and said to Danielle, “I’m sending you her direct communicator code. Contact her and she’ll send you all the information you need to find your new living quarters. Also, just put all your equipment into your floater and I’ll have your department come pick it up. You go straight to your new home.”