Dream Killing (14 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

When
Drew woke up he was surprised to see that he was still in the cabin of the boat
they rented. When he rolled over to wake Max, she wasn’t there. He quickly
dressed and made his way topside. There he found Max, Sr., and the agent just
about to start breakfast. He walked past Max and kissed her on the head before
sitting down next to her.

The day was starting out beautifully.
The sun had just poked up over the horizon and it made for quite a spectacular
sunrise. There were clouds in the sky, but only enough to make the colors of
the sun appear like a painting. They reveled in the perfection as they ate
their breakfast.

When all were done eating, they stowed
all of the dishes and prepared to move closer to the area where the light was
coming from. After about an hour they could see the shape of a yacht taking
form in the distance. At first they decided to pass by at the required distance
so the people on the other boat wouldn’t think anything of it.

As they passed by the yacht, they got a
good look and were not surprised to see that it looked exactly like the one in
the dream. There was nobody topside, so they decided to go a little further and
then allow themselves to drift for a short time before turning back. While
drifting, Drew pulled Max aside.

“Did you play the game last night?”
Drew’s question struck Max as odd.

“Yeah, I was going to ask you about it
at breakfast, but though I should wait. Where were you? I looked everywhere for
you. The game wasn’t paused anymore.”

“I forgot to set my alarm. I can’t
believe I did that. I never forget to set it.”

“Well, the game was back in full force,
but I got my shots in before being taken out. It definitely wasn’t the same
without you though.”

“I assume the light was in place in the
water?”

“Yeah, and what surprised me was that
there were two lights. I could see our boat!”

Thinking that was odd, but not making
too big a deal about it, Drew prepared for the trip back. He made sure that the
binoculars were in reach and they were ready to get the name and number on the
boat. After getting the boat turned around, they headed back in, only they passed
on the yachts far side. As they passed the yacht, they were able to get the
number off of the boat. They saw somebody move, but by the time the binoculars
were trained on the person, they had already moved inside.

They passed by and the agent went to the
back of the boat and was able to get the name of the yacht.

“You’re not gonna believe this, boss,”
the agent proclaimed.

“What is it? Were you able to get the
name?” Drew asked quickly.

“Yeah. I got it alright. It’s ‘Just A
Game’.”

“No, this is not just a game.”

“No, Sir, that is the name of the
yacht.” Then the agent repeated the name of the yacht in air quotes so that
Drew would understand.

Drew ran down and got the print out of
all the boats registered for Lake Michigan and for some reason wasn’t surprised
to find that the person who owned ‘Just A Game’ was in fact Cami Lane, the name
that seemed familiar to them.

“I may be reaching, Drew, but could Cami
Lane be Lana Camille?” Max asked in a voice that was way more confident than
even she expected.

“Yes, of course.” The answer didn’t come
from Drew, but from Sr. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of it yesterday when
you were going over the list. She loved the ocean just as much as we did.”

“How would she afford something like
that?” Drew asked.

“She got a rather large settlement in
the divorce.”

“May I ask how much?”

“Forty million dollars.”

Drew and Max gasped at the number. That
was an outrageous sum to them. They quickly called the office and had them do a
comparison on Lana’s full name and Cami Lane to see if they could be linked.
Within minutes they were notified that the names did indeed belong to the same
person. It seems that her and her current husband purchased the boat for when
they wanted to vacation in the states.

“She always was partial to the Midwest.
I never understood it.” Sr. said sounding almost annoyed.

Now that they had the information they
were looking for, they decided to head in to the harbor. Once the boat was
neatly back in its slip, they decided to get a few more things from Drew’s
place and stay on the boat until their rental time was over. They felt it would
work out better in case the light moved at night. They also noticed that the
yacht had a skiff, so they wanted to watch and see if anyone would come ashore.

***

The second agent also came aboard so
that there would always be someone awake on the boat. They didn’t want to take
any chances. Once everybody was ready, they were once again under way. This
time they didn’t go out quite as far. They wanted to make sure they had a clear
view of the harbor and could see the light at night.

Once they dropped anchor, Drew brought
out their laptops and they went to work. Drew had gotten an update from the
office. Letting them know that they should check the news. He said to focus on
Kentucky.

Quickly, Drew, Max and Sr. all pulled up
different news sites on their computers. Kentucky was now experiencing
mysterious deaths. They knew they had to put an end to the madness, but also
knew that if they acted too fast many more people could die. They had to figure
out how he was controlling the game, how he programmed the chips and how to end
the game without more people dying.

They put Sr. to work trying to figure
out how his technology was put to use. That kept him busy for hours. While Sr.
worked on that, Drew and Max tried to come up with a plan. It wasn’t until
about three hours later that one of the agents approached Drew.

“Sir, may I make a suggestion?”

“Absolutely. We are stumped.”

“Well, Sir, I have scuba training. I
could swim to the yacht when the occupant leaves on the skiff. Once inside I
could copy his computer hard drive. That would give Mr. Howard, Sr. the actual
program to try and figure out.”

“That’s a brilliant idea. Nice work. We
will let you know when everything is in place.”

The next step they had to take was to go
back to the harbor and rent the scuba equipment. They knew that eventually he
would have to come in to get supplies, they were just hoping it would be in the
next few days.

Once they had the scuba gear onboard,
they headed back out, once again, to the open water. This time they moved in a
little closer to the yacht. They went within eyesight of the craft, but far
enough away to look like any other boat that set anchor off shore.

Luckily they had packed enough warmer
clothes because they hit a cool snap. The temperature dropped to the fifties
during the day and even cooler at night. Even still, they were willing to go
through whatever they had to in order to catch this monster.

The sun was beginning to set as they sat
down for a quick meal of sandwiches. They wanted to be ready at a moment’s
notice should Adam decide to leave the yacht. As they got ready for a long
night of nothing but watching for movement in the water, they heard a motor.

They all rushed over to the side of the
boat and Drew looked through his binoculars. It took a moment to zero in on the
skiff, but when he did he was absolutely shocked. It wasn’t Adam. It was
Charles Thompson, the CEO of Center-Tech.

“Sr. quick, get down below. He can’t see
us and he definitely cannot see you!” Drew was almost frantic as he ushered Sr.
and Max down below. The agents stayed topside and watched as the skiff drew
closer and closer. As the skiff passed by their boat, Mr. Thompson waved at the
agents and kept on going toward the harbor.

“It’s time, sir.” One agent called down
to Drew.

Within minutes, Sr. had the boat moving
closer to the yacht. When they were closer, but still far enough back to still
not be a concern, the agent slipped into the water, double air tanks on his back
and an external hard drive tucked neatly into a waterproof dive bag. It wasn’t
long before they lost sight of him. Max watched through the binoculars until
the agent appeared alongside the yacht.

“He made it. He is slowly stepping up
the ladder. He is now on the ski deck. He’s moving toward the sliding doors.
He’s inside.” Max was done with her job…for now.

“Lewis, do you read me?” Drew spoke into
his ear mic.

“I read you, boss. I’m inside. I’m
making my way to the stairs to the lower cabins.”

Drew sighed, but Max wasn’t sure if it
was a sigh of relief or of fear. Agent Lewis would come over Drew’s earpiece
periodically in a soft voice to keep him updated. As far as he could tell, he
was the only man aboard.

“I’ve found the control room. It’s
exactly as you described from the game. Plugging in now. It shouldn’t take
long.”

Now all they could do was wait. Max
watched for the skiff to return while Drew paced the deck. Sr. stayed below at
Drew’s request just in case something went wrong. Drew was thoroughly confused
as to why Mr. Thompson was on the boat and not Adam. To a certain degree it all
made sense. If one had the technology and the other wanted it, why not work
together.

“How we doing, Lewis?”

“It took some doing, but the drive is
copying now. Should be another five minutes.”

“As soon as it’s done, get the hell out
of there. Leave no trace.”

“Yes, Sir, Boss.”

The next five minutes were really
dragging. Drew was as stressed out as he had ever been. About three minutes in
Max ran to Drew and in a panic said, “He’s on his way back. I spotted him with
the binoculars.”

“Lewis, you read me?”

“Yes, boss, go ahead.”

“You’ve got to get out of there. He’s
heading back. Two minutes to our boat.”

“Almost done. One more minute.”

“Now, Lewis, now!”

Just then the computer beeped and the
files were done transferring. As Agent Lewis made his way back through the boat
he was careful to make sure not a thing was out of place. He dipped back into
the water just as Mr. Thompson was passing the rental boat.

Luckily, Drew and Max had gone down
below just in time. Mr. Thompson gave another wave to the boat and continued on
toward the yacht. Agent Lewis felt the skiff fly through the water just above
him.

Once Lewis was back on deck, they
celebrated their small victory. After Lewis changed into dry clothes, he came
back up to the deck and briefed Drew and Max on what he had seen on the yacht.
Other than the control room, everything else seemed normal. The only thing out
of place was the fact that there were two state rooms being used and there were
two wet suits on the ski deck.

Drew and Max wondered who the second
person was. Where was the second person? Was the second person Adam? Was he on
the skiff but staying low? Was he on the yacht and didn’t know Lewis had
boarded? The questions were piling up. Hopefully the hard drive would have some
much needed answers.

All were in agreement that they had seen
enough action for the night. Agent Lewis took the first sleep shift while the
other agent stayed on deck. Everybody else went down below and went to their
cabins. Drew chuckled at the thought that the three sleeping quarters on this
boat could all easily fit in the one room with the monitors on the yacht.
Still, they were comfortable.

Drew and Max decided to let another
night of the game go on without them. They had to get some sleep if they were
to figure out what everything on the hard drive meant.

*****

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

It
wouldn’t have mattered if Drew and Max had set their alarms, the waves on the
water would have been enough to wake them. The weather had turned pretty bad
and everybody aboard was awake before the sun even rose. Drew made his way
topside to find Max standing on deck watching the storm. No rain had fallen
yet, but it wouldn’t be long until it would be coming down hard enough that
visibility would be horrible.

Drew let Sr. know to head back to the
harbor. He knew that any work that needed to be done could be done so from the
safety of land. He would keep Lewis at the harbor to watch for any signs of Mr.
Thompson or Adam. They turned the boat around and in short time were back on
solid ground.

The van, driven by the second agent,
brought them back to Drew’s place. Sr. would be better served by Drew’s high
speed computer and large wall of monitors. All three of them were dying to see
what they would find on the copied hard drive. As they got everything going,
Max made them a small breakfast and a big pot of coffee.

Drew’s hands shook as he plugged in the
external hard drive. He stopped for a moment to get his composure. He was
surprised at how nervous he was. Never, in all his time as a CIA agent, had he
been this nervous about one aspect of his job; although, in all fairness, he
never directly held the lives of thousands of people in his hands. Sure, he had
been responsible for many people, but this type of killing was something he had
never come up against. He was treading in new waters.

Max secretly crossed her fingers as Drew
opened the drive. There in front of them were approximately 100 files. Drew
looked at the screen directly in front of him for a moment and then figured
he’d tackle the files one at a time beginning with the first on the list. Sr.
had other plans.

“Wait!” Sr. startled Drew as he hovered
the mouse over the first file.

“What’s wrong?”

“Before you do that, let’s look at the
names of all the files. I want to see if anything jumps out at me. He may have
dummy files that will incinerate them all if clicked on. At least, that’s what
I’d do.”

As they read over the file names, they
noticed that there was one for every city that had people dying, there were
some that only had numbers as file names and then there was one that simply
said, “The Game”. At the very bottom of the list was a file named, “Charlie”.

“Drew, look, at the bottom. It’s a file
named Charlie. Could that be Charles Thompson?” Max sounded excited.

“Could be. What do you think, Sr.?
Should we open it?”

“Any one of these files could be rigged,
but if I had to guess, I’d say they hadn’t thought of that tactic. I think it’s
safe.”

Drew opened the file and found multiple
files inside. All of them seemed to be email correspondence. Rather than
reading each one right away, Drew printed them out for Max to go over. The last
sub-file wasn’t an email, but rather a list of some sort. Drew printed that out
as well and then moved on.

Avoiding the file marked “The Game”
until everything else had been gone through, he began at the beginning and
opened each of the files and printed everything that was inside. It took hours,
but once completed, they stopped for a late lunch on the roof.

When they reached the top of the steps
to the roof, Sr. was once again impressed. It surprised Drew considering the
house Sr. lived in. Sr. said it was refreshing to be back in civilization. He
explained that he felt he needed to live where he did and have such a big house
to fit in with those he worked with and for. He also explained that he hated it
and would love to go back to a normal life surrounded by normal people. He
stood at the edge of the roof watching the waves crash on top of themselves on
the lake.

The weather was holding, but it was
definitely dark and ominous outside. They enjoyed half of their lunch and then
the skies opened up and a torrential downpour ensued. Gathering up their lunch,
they ran for cover, making it inside before the winds picked up to a dangerous
speed. Drew heard something hit the window and saw that it was the string of
lights from the roof.

“We should probably get back to work in
case we lose power,” Drew started, “We have generator backup, but I really hate
to use that loud, old heap of metal.”

They went back to the task of figuring
out what everything meant. Max went through the emails to and from Mr. Thompson
while Drew went over the information in the numbered files. Sr. was tasked with
looking over the files in “The Game” folder.

“Drew!” Max shouted.

“What’s up?”

“Listen to this. This is the first email
and it is dated right around the time that Adam served Center-Tech with the
phony court papers:

Mr. Thompson:

Attached you will find a copy of the
documents I have created that will give me authority over the nano-chip
technology. Brilliant plan on your part, I must admit. When served by my
‘attorney’, I trust you will respond in an appropriately angry manner. It will
be a pleasure to work with you on this project. Adam

“Can you believe it?” Max was amazed.

“Well, I must say, my son definitely
didn’t learn a thing watching me do business.” Sr. chuckled.

“What do you mean?” Drew was curious.

“First off, I would never do this kind
of communication for major projects. Second of all, when I would have to email
any information, I ensured that it was encrypted; even the files on my own
computer. It’s almost as if he thought he’d never be caught.”

They went back to the tasks each had been
assigned. It wasn’t long before Max was reading another email aloud:

A, The plans for the game are looking
great. This will be perfect. If all works as planned, your father will be put
away for a long, long time. Hell, he may even get the chair! The stubborn old
coot won’t know what hit him! C.

“Old, hah! I am two years older than
that S.O.B.” Sr. snorted as he commented.

“So, now we know that the two are
working together. We have confirmation that Adam is definitely involved in the
game. We need proof that their technology is causing the deaths. We have to be
able to tie them to both. Right now we just have them for trying to frame Sr.
and for mind control. We want them for murder.” Drew sounded like he was
thinking aloud.

Sr. looked over the files in the game
folder and noticed that most of them were the programming files. The last one
in the group was the executable file for the game. He stayed away from that
one. He needed to look at the programming to see what changes had been made to
his technology. If he could figure it out, he could figure out how the people
were dying.

Many of the emails that Max read were
vague, but still implied a working relationship between Mr. Thompson and Adam.
Drew flipped through page after page of his printouts. A lot of what he had in
front of them was the same information they had gathered; order confirmations
for the alarm clocks and shipping manifests showing how many clocks were sent
to each city. What Drew was having a hard time figuring out was, how the clocks
were manufactured to communicate or control when a chip is to be in use.

“We have to watch for any email
correspondence with the alarm clock manufacturer. We have to figure out how he
has the chips and the clocks linked. It would’ve had to have been done during
the manufacture of the clocks.” Drew was actually starting to feel overwhelmed
for the first time in a long time.

Max made it through the emails and
needed to take a break before even looking at the list. As she read, she had
highlighted everything that seemed to obviously incriminate the two men. Before
taking a break, Max organized the emails in date and time order. Finding a
collection of unused binders in the closet, she slipped each piece of paper
into a page protector and created a book of correspondence. Drew was, once
again, impressed with the way Max worked.

The already dark day grew darker as
nighttime approached. Drew checked in with Agent Lewis, but there had been no
sign of the skiff, Mr. Thompson or Adam. He then called the Irish pub down the
street to order some dinner, but he was told he would have to come pick up the
order because he wouldn’t be sending anyone out in the bad weather.

Max stayed at the apartment with Sr.
while Drew went to get dinner. He decided that since The Bean was two doors
down from the pub he would stop in and pick up some muffins for later. As he
walked through the door, he was shocked to see Adam, standing on the customer
side of the counter talking to the barista. He honestly didn’t know what to do.

“Hey! Drew!” Adam sounded happy to see
him.

“Hey, Adam, what’s going on?” Drew tried
to sound friendly.

“Not much. Just stopped in to pick up
some coffee and say hi.”

“What happened to you? One minute you
are working all the time and the next you quit. We miss seeing you around
here.” Drew lied about the last part.

“Well, I had something big come up that
took a lot of my time, so I decided to quit and focus my time on the new
project.”

“It sounds big, what is it?”

“Until I get it all squared away and
finalized, I’d rather not say.”

“That’s cool. Just stopped in to pick up
some muffins, I’m really busy. Maybe we’ll see you around.”

“Sounds great, Drew. Say hi to Max for
me.”

“Will do,” Drew said and then asked for
half a dozen assorted muffins.

As he walked from The Bean to the pub,
Drew could not shake the adrenaline rush he was having. He couldn’t believe
that Adam was there.
How had Agent Lewis missed him coming in? Was he
dropped off on shore when Thompson went to the harbor last night? If so, where
was he staying?
Drew was so tired of the questions. He became more
determined than ever to find the answers.

Drew returned with the enormous corned
beef and cabbage sandwiches and muffins just in time for the power to go out as
he made it halfway up the stairs. Hearing him in the stairwell, the agent made
his way with a flashlight to help guide Drew back up to the apartment.

“There are candles in the cabinet above
the refrigerator,” Drew said as he walked through the door.

Knowing that Max was too short to reach,
Sr. went and grabbed the box from the cabinet and started pulling out the
hurricane candles, setting them on the counter for Max to light.

“Hurricane candles in Chicago?” Sr.
found that quite odd.

“I’m from the Virginia area originally.
I always had to be prepared for a hurricane or strong storm hitting the coast.”
Drew was very matter of fact as he set the food on the coffee table.

Max grabbed the snack tables from the
hall closet and they all grabbed their dinner as if they hadn’t eaten in days.
Drew was thankful that it was cool outside. If it had been summertime, he would
have no choice but to run the generator for the air conditioning. He was also
thankful that Sr. knew what to do with the computer when the power went out.
The power supply he had the computer plugged into allowed time for saving and
logging off the computer.
A precaution taken that proves beneficial at times like these. It would be a
horrible setback if he had lost any of the information on the external hard
drive.

Since the power was still out after they
finished eating, Sr. was unable to work on the programming files. They all took
a chunk of the printouts and began going through them with a fine toothed comb.
There were close to a thousand pages of information, but between the four of
them, they hoped they would be able to find something more than what they
already had.

The list that Max found in the file
marked ‘Charlie’ was a series of 30 names; none of which looked familiar to any
of them. Max took a picture of the list with her cell phone and emailed it to
her contact. They would be able to do a search to find out exactly who these
people were.

The time flew quickly in the candlelit
room as the four poured over page after page of information. At about 11:00 pm
the weather tapered off to a light and steady rain, the wind settled down to a
breeze and the power came back on. Thankful for the power to return, but weary
from the hours of looking at information for hours on end, they decided it was
best to pick up where they left off after a good night’s rest.

Sr. was taken back to the ‘safe house’
by the agent and Max and Drew headed off to plug in their alarm clocks and go
to bed. While lying there, Drew told Max about the encounter with Adam. He
explained that he didn’t want to tell her in front of Sr. on the off chance
that he was somehow connected. After they talked about Adam being at the coffee
shop, they fell asleep.

*****