Dream Killing (11 page)

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

The
alarm clock startled Drew. He jumped out of bed and turned the buzzing off. Max
was slowly rousing from sleep and turned her alarm off as well. They moved into
the kitchen, deciding to forego The Bean and just make their own coffee. No
sense in going to the coffee house if Adam wouldn’t be there.

After coffee and a small breakfast of
cereal and toast, they began packing for their trip back to Silicon Valley.
They had to go back to Max’s house and pick up some more appropriate clothing,
knowing that her casual workout clothes wouldn’t be right for the task at hand.
Once they returned to Drew’s place, they finished packing and gathered up their
research and laptops. When everything was ready to go, they decided to shower
and get ready to head to the airport.

Since they still had some time to kill
after they showered, they decided to turn on the news and read that day’s
paper. Judging by what they saw, it was apparent that the deaths were tapering
off. They weren’t sure if that was a good thing or not. They had so many
questions that were still left unanswered. Would the deaths pick back up here?
Would people now start dying in Arizona and Kentucky? Would they get the
information they need from Center-Tech?

Max received a text letting her know
that the car was waiting downstairs. They grabbed their stuff and headed out.
Again, a limo was waiting, the driver holding open the door. After the driver
placed their belongings into the trunk, they headed to the airport.

One convenience of having the
credentials provided by the CIA was not having to wait in the mile long line to
check bags and go through security. Their bag was taken by security and they
were ushered around the metal detectors. Once at the gate, they were brought
right to their first class seats. The plane was fairly empty, allowing Drew and
Max to not only get as comfortable as possible, but to talk freely without
being overheard. All of the other passengers were flying coach, so they had
first class all to themselves.

They talked about their plan for the
meeting over dinner. Max was surprised at how delicious her meal was. Having
never flown before these trips, she had only heard stories of how bad airline
food was. This food was fantastic. They decided to pass on the wine and
champagne the flight attendant offered. Knowing they would be picked up by
someone at Center-Tech, they really didn’t think it would be a good idea having
alcohol on their breath.

***

When Drew and Max walked into the same
suite they stayed in the last time, they found a bottle of wine and a card.
Inside the card the words read: I look forward to meeting with you. On the desk
you will find a packet containing information on the nano technology you will
be seeing tomorrow. It also contains our report on what it was supposed to be
used for and the information that led to Mr. Howard’s employment termination.
Enjoy the wine. Charles.

“Well, thank you, Charles, for the
lovely bottle of wine and the information!” Drew was surprised that they were
so willing to give out the information so freely. They obviously felt they were
in the right. Drew also assumed that Center-Tech was cooperating with the two
of them in hopes that the “three part series” they were supposedly writing
would paint the corporation in a good light.

They read over the information and then
enjoyed the bottle of wine. While the packet was filled with interesting facts,
it didn’t include the whereabouts of the nano-bots that had been created. This
was the main piece of information missing. Drew, up to this point, assumed that
they were either destroyed or are being housed on the Center-Tech laboratory
campus.

Max and Drew finished their wine,
plugged in and set their alarm clocks and then decided to watch an old movie
from the comfort of bed. When the ice cream sundaes they ordered from room
service arrived, they hopped into bed, turned off the lights and enjoyed ice cream
and a movie.

When the movie ended, they turned the TV
off and went to bed. The excitement of knowing that by this time tomorrow they
could have even more information that could end this game and all of the dying
kept them up for quite some time. Eventually, though, they drifted off to
sleep.

***

They both wound up back on the boat,
children at their side. Knowing that just staying there was causing their lives
to disappear one night at a time, they decided that it was best if they go.
They had to kill in order to stay in the game. Obviously, T won the game and
still died, so they knew they needed to stay in the game until they solved this
mystery. The idea of encouraging the children to kill people made them both
sick to their stomachs, but it had to be done to protect them.

Wanting to keep their new hiding spot as
secret as possible, they decided to go back to the park. It was easy going
until they reached the tree line. Once they stepped onto the path, bullets flew
from all directions. They grabbed the children and ran for cover in a patch of
bushes and plants. From there, they all fired in different directions. Every
once in a while they would look at their watches to see if they had made a
kill. In the process, they lost two children, but were able to get from the
path to the playground. Once at the playground, the three remaining children
took their spots on the swing set and Drew and Max went to the wall.

This time it was Max that first saw the
light on the water. They tried to figure out what it was, but it was too far
away to make out any shapes. It was the tiniest speck of light, but in an
otherwise dark city, it stood out. Drew found himself wondering if that was the
edge of the game; where the dream stopped and reality began.

Max and Drew also noticed that the
children never played on any other of the playground equipment. They always
went right for the swings, but then never really swung. The swings only moved
slightly as they sat there. It looked more like the children were birds on
their perches.

“Do you think he can read our thoughts?”
Max asked almost too softly for Drew to hear.

“Who?”

“Adam, or whoever is doing this. While
we are in the game, do you think he can hear what we are thinking?”

“I don’t know.” Drew sat for a second
thinking and then said, “Let’s just make sure we don’t mention anything from
the real world. If he controls this game, there’s no way around him knowing
where we are, but we shouldn’t give him any hint about anything from the
outside.”

“Yeah.” Max sounded and looked defeated
for the first time since Drew met her. She turned her head and looked out over
the water. There was no moon, there were no stars; the only thing out there was
that one tiny light.

***

After waking, Drew and Max went
downstairs and ate breakfast. They knew that the car would be there in an hour
to take them to their meeting, so they had a little time to mentally prepare.
They went over the questions they wanted to ask in order to keep up the
appearance of being journalists. Deep down, they were both hoping that
Center-Tech would be as forthcoming as Adam, Sr. was.

In the limo on the way over, neither
spoke. They only watched the scenery that passed by. It took longer to get to
Center-Tech than they thought it would, but when they arrived they were greeted
by a very friendly woman.

“Hello, and welcome. My name is Sandra.
I am Mr. Thompson’s assistant. He would like me to show you around the facility
first and then he will meet you in the conference room. Please, follow me.”

“Thank you,” Drew said as they shook her
hand.

The tour seemed to move at high speed,
but since the facility was so large and contained so many departments, it took
two hours to complete. Luckily Max was able to record it with her button cam.
They were guided to the room where Mr. Thompson was waiting.

“Good afternoon. I’m Charles Thompson,
owner and CEO of Center-Tech. Please feel free to call me Charles.” He extended
his hand to Max and then Drew. He was much larger than they expected, but
seemed quite friendly.

After going over everything that Max and
Drew learned in the packet last night, Charles asked if they had any further
questions for him.

“As a matter of fact, we were both quite
curious about something.” Max’s voice was strong and confident, and Drew had no
idea of where she was about to go with her question.

“Ask away.”

“We were just wondering what happened to
the technology that Mr. Howard developed. Did Center-Tech make improvements or
continue to develop the technology to be more in line with the company’s moral
standards?”

The woman is brilliant.
Drew was amazed at how she
was going about this.

“No, no. Heaven’s no. Once we found out
what he was developing, we quickly determined that it was too dangerous to
continue. Everything that he had created we stored in a secure area of the
lab.”

“Do you still have it? I am so curious
as to how small “nano” really is. Would it be possible to see one of the bots?”
Max just kept going for it.

“We call them chips, not bots, and no,
it wouldn’t be possible. You see, about three years ago, Mr. Howard’s son won
access to the technology. We had to let it go.”

It was Drew that spoke this time, “Won
access?”

“Yes, his lawyer presented us with
documents making Adam Howard, Jr. his father’s power of attorney. In the
documents, it awarded all of his father’s study material, notes and prototypes
to him. We had no choice but to let the chips go. According to the paperwork,
Adam, Sr. suffered a severe stroke and his son had taken over the estate.”

“I see. Well, that’s a shame. It would
have been great to see the technology up close!” Max tried to hide the
disappointment in her voice.

“If you have no further questions, I
really do need to get to a meeting. Sandra can show you out.”

Again, Max and Drew said nothing on the
ride back to the hotel. It was important that not even the driver could know
what they were really doing. Once back in their suite, the two went into
frantic mode. Max put in a call to her contact to see if there was any word on
where Adam was. Drew contacted the office and had them do a search for the
court documents awarding power of attorney, and the rights to the research, to
Adam, Jr. It didn’t make sense to either of them. They had just spoken to Adam,
Sr. and he seemed fine.

*****

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Rather
than head back to Chicago right away, Drew decided that they should try to see
Mr. Howard, Sr. one more time. While Drew worked that angle, Max checked in at
headquarters to see if they had any news about where Adam, Jr. might be.

“Okay, Sr. can’t meet with us tomorrow,
but he said if we give him about two hours he will be back home and we can give
him a call then.” Drew announced.

“Nobody has been able to locate Jr., but
he has not left the state of Illinois or the country as of yet. They also ran
his father’s name and his A. H. Stevens alias and found no registered travel
under either name.” Max was quick with her response. Drew found delight in
watching her be part of something she never dreamed she’d do. He also realized
that she was quite good at it. More and more, he found himself hoping that,
when this is over, she will decide she loves this work enough to keep working
with him.

While they waited to hear back from Sr.
and the office, they decided to pack up and be ready to head home. Then they
went down to the restaurant and had an early dinner. After they ate, they went
for a walk, enjoying the cool breeze that the area had to offer, being careful
not to go too far from the hotel. They needed to be ready to call Sr.

Realizing that it was just about time to
make the call, they hurried back to their suite. Max set up the recorder while
Drew prepared himself for whatever he may hear. He then dialed the phone and
put it on speaker.

“Hello?”

“Hi Mr. Howard, this is Drew. I have Max
with me and we just had a couple of questions to follow up on.”

“Hey! Sure, go ahead.”

“We had a meeting with Center-Tech to
get more of an understanding about the technology you developed and what
happened between them and you. We were told that your nano-chips were released
to somebody.”

“What?” Mr. Howard certainly didn’t
sound as if he knew what was going on. “Who did they give my chips to?”

“Your son, Mr. Howard.”

“Why the hell would they give the chips
to Adam?”

“We were told that Adam had court papers
saying he was your Power of Attorney and that he was awarded the rights to your
research.”

“My Power of Attorney? Why would he say
that?”

“According to Center-Tech, the paperwork
showed that you had a severe stroke. It showed that he had Power of Attorney
and that he had the rights to your chips and research.”

“I never had a stroke. How could he get
this paperwork without my knowledge?”

“I’m not sure sir. Can we meet? There’s
something you should know.”

“Absolutely.”

“Great, can you meet us at the Four
Seasons?”

“Yeah, give me about half an hour.”

“Perfect. Talk to you soon.”

The only way to learn more about Adam,
Jr. was to fill his father in on what was happening. They would have to expose
who they really are, but there would be precautions made. Drew then contacted
the agency and arranged for Adam, Sr. to come to Chicago with them. He would
have an agent with him 24 hours a day until the case was solved.

“This is getting more surprising as the
days pass!” Max couldn’t believe what was going on.

“We have to get a hold of the courts and
see if the paperwork was ever issued. I know the papers were fakes,” Drew said
with certainty.

“Do you think Sr. has anything to do
with this, Drew?”

“He sure did seem shocked at what we
just told him. I can’t rule out his knowing, but I get the feeling he isn’t
involved.”

After doing some digging around, they
found out that the papers were in fact fakes. They, however, didn’t tell
Center-Tech what they had found. It was better for the investigation if they
didn’t have them digging around also. With only moments until Mr. Howard would
be there, they straightened up the room and laid everything out on the table so
that they could show him what they had found.

Once Mr. Howard arrived they asked him
if he would like anything before they got started. Not surprisingly, all he
wanted was answers. Max handed him a bottle of water and they got started. Drew
explained who they were.

“Why would the CIA be interested in me
or my son? What is going on?”

Drew explained about the deaths and
about the game. It wasn’t as hard for him to understand how the chips come into
play as far as the game was concerned, but he did have some confusion about
something else.

“The only way that the chips can be
controlled is through a very sophisticated computer software program. I don’t
understand how my son could control the game. Sure, he was a gamer, but not
computer games. He hated computers. He barely knew how to use one except to go
on the internet.”

 “Running a program on a computer isn’t
all that hard, especially for a gamer, Sir.” Drew sounded as though he decided
to take on the role of “Bad Cop”. Max had never heard him sound so stern.

“You don’t understand. The program to
run the chips is very complex. You have to program each chip and then modify
each profile in the system to do exactly what you want it to. If he was using
it to control people in a dream game, that would take extreme skill, not to
mention the fact that it is more than difficult to control one person let alone
thousands. Besides, I have the program. That was the one thing I took from
Center-Tech when I left. If they don’t have the program, they can’t proceed
with developing the chip. They would have to start over. Anyone would have to
start over.”

“Where do you have the program?” Max
asked, hoping her softer voice would make him feel more comfortable.

“It’s in the safe in my office at home.”

“Do you think that Adam could have taken
the program without you knowing?” Drew spoke this time.

“I don’t see how. It is a safe that
nobody knew about in the floor. I am the only one with the combination.”

“We need you to check and see if it is
still there, right away. I’ll go with you. Max can stay here and see if the
office has any news about Adam’s whereabouts.”

“Yeah, sure.” Mr. Howard was slowly
sounding more defeated. The look on his face told Drew and Max that he hadn’t
known about what was going on.

While they went back to Mr. Howard’s
house, Max made a call to her contact. There still were no travel arrangements
made in the names they had checked earlier. Max ordered a check on any internet
service accounts listed in any of the names as well as any cell service
accounts. She sat back in the chair and glanced over the wealth of information
in front of her. There had to be something they were missing. After about
twenty minutes, she thought of one thing they hadn’t asked Mr. Howard about.

After about an hour and a half, Drew and
Sr. arrived back at the suite. Max let them know that there was no news about
where Adam was. She also let Drew know that she had her contact looking into
cell and internet accounts. Then she turned to Mr. Howard.

“Sir, I was wondering about Adam’s
mother. You never talk about her. Is she in the picture?”

“No. She left me when Adam was about
two. She wanted to travel the world, and a child just hampered that. She would
send postcards, but that’s about it. The last time I heard from her she was in
Ireland. She’s dying.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. What does she have?”

“She has an inoperable brain tumor. The
doctor’s don’t really know how long she’ll live. They say she could die in days
or years. It just depends on how fast the tumor grows.”

Max made a note of the information. She
would definitely check it out. While at Mr. Howard’s house, Drew let him know
that they want him to come with them back to Chicago. Not knowing if he was in
any danger was the premise used to get him to agree. He had two large suit
cases with him and some computer equipment. He would be staying in the suite
tonight and then they would all travel back in the private jet tomorrow
morning.

“This is what is being used to control
the chips?” Mr. Howard was looking down at one of the bean shaped alarm clocks.
They had told him all about the clocks, but it was different for him to see it
himself.

“Yes, sir,” Max replied.

“Wow. I’m impressed. Does it have to be
set to alarm, or does it just have to be plugged in?”

“The alarm has to be set.”

“You’ll have to forgive me, but I hadn’t
gotten this far in my research.”

Realizing that it was after midnight,
they decided to call it a night. Mr. Howard got himself settled in the main
room of the suite while Max and Drew retreated to the bedroom. They decided not
to plug in and set the alarm clocks and instead set an alarm on Drew’s phone.
With everything else on their minds, they really didn’t want to go through the stress
of the game right now. They knew that the children had plenty of lives left and
would be fine for one night.

***

When the three woke, they gathered up
their belongings, they checked out through the TV and then made their way to
the limo. Once on the jet, they sat down and enjoyed some perfectly brewed
coffee. Breakfast would be served once at cruising altitude.

“This jet is much nicer than mine.”

“We didn’t know you had a jet.” Drew was
surprised that they hadn’t been given that piece of information.

“Yeah. I rarely use it to travel now,
but back when I was working, I used it for business.”

Then Max asked, “Does your son have
access to the jet?”

“No. If anyone tried to take the jet
anywhere, the flight plans would have to be filed through me. I am the only
person with the authority to file a flight plan.”

“When was the last time the jet was
used, Mr. Howard?”

“Last week. I went on a sport fishing
trip.”

Then Drew spoke up, “When we land, we
will need for you to check on the plane. We can’t leave one stone unturned.”

“Consider it done. Please, call me
Senior. Mr. Howard is too formal and I can’t bear to be called Adam after
learning what my son may be responsible for.” he said, the look on his face
slowly turning to sadness.

“That’s not a problem,” Max chuckled,
“That’s what we have been referring to you as anyway.”

The rest of the flight Sr. sat in
silence. Drew and Max could tell that he was somewhat in shock over what he was
discovering about his son. They gave him the quiet he so obviously needed to
process what was going on. Breakfast was served and they all enjoyed another
lovely meal.

When the plane landed in Waukegan, they
were met by a van that would take them to the “safe house” Sr. would be staying
in until everything came to an end. As they drove, Drew explained to Sr. that
he would have access to phone and internet but that it would be monitored. They
led him to believe that it was only for his protection in case his son tried to
contact him. They did not tell him it was so he would be unable to contact
anybody else without them knowing.

As they pulled up to the house where Sr.
would stay, they figured he would be disappointed because it was nowhere near
the size of his home back in Silicon Valley. In fact, this house could pretty
much fit into Sr.’s garage. They were pleasantly surprised when Sr. stepped out
of the van.

“This is nice,” he said with a very
pleased look on his face.

“I know it’s not the mansion you are
accustomed to,” Drew said, trying not to sound snotty.

“It’s perfect. Most of the rooms at my
house have not been entered in years. It’s a waste really, but with the market
being what it is, it’s pointless to sell it right now.”

“I’m glad you approve. There are three
bedrooms. The master bedroom has been set up for you, the middle room will be
an office for you to do whatever it is you do now, and the third, smaller room
will be for the agents that will be staying with you.” Drew explained as they
walked into the house. The two agents went out to the van and grabbed Sr.’s
bags.

“This will be very nice,” Sr. said when
he walked in and saw the huge flat-screen TV hanging on the wall. They all
laughed.

“We’re gonna let you get settled now. If
you need anything, don’t hesitate to give us a call. There are menus on the
fridge, order whatever you want for dinner and the agent will take care of the
bill. Make a list of whatever food you want in the kitchen and it will be
brought here for you. There are only the basics right now, sorry,” Max
explained.

“No worries. This is really nice. I
haven’t ordered a pizza in years. It will be nice to eat some pizza and throw
on an old movie while I do some thinking. Go on, I know you’d like to get
settled back at your place. I’ll be fine.” They all said their goodnights and
Drew and Max went out to the van.

*****