Interface: A Techno Thriller (34 page)

"How did you know to come here, to this office?"

There was a loud cough and Kate walked in. "He just showed his Service ID and said you'd asked him to fetch me. I guess you were so busy keeping his incarceration secret you forgot to deactivate his credentials. This story keeps on getting better. I don't think I'm ever going to have to work again."

"That can be arranged very easily," Reems said.
 

"I'm going to include a section on wasting tax payer resources." Kate turned to Lentz. "Do you know how she got here? By helicopter. She brought five of them."

Reems sighed. "It's a security measure to travel with decoy targets – given we just lost a helicopter to hostile fire, I would think that was obvious. So just what do you think you're doing, George?"

"You've been acting erratically since I became interested in CERUS, but it was only when you locked me up that I realised you'd been compromised."

Reems walked over to Bern's desk, sitting on the edge. "Hindering you doesn't mean I've been compromised, George. There are some people you need to speak to."

"I'm not keeping this internal. I'm taking you to Scotland Yard."

Reems shook her head. "You can't do that." She sighed and held up the pink folder. "Why don't we have a look through what I'm sure is in here and then we'll discuss it again?"

Croft waved his gun towards Reems. "You're just stalling."

"I don't think she is," Lentz said. "Only one thing makes sense. The file contains the records of the original Tantalus. Information that now exists nowhere else. I bet Bern wanted to keep them to hand in case they ever became useful. And I bet that's because they include signed authorisation from the person who originally approved the human testing. It's his trump card: leverage."

Reems nodded at Lentz. "You always had a sharp mind." She picked up the file and held it out. "But it's more complicated than that."

Lentz marched over and snatched the file, flicking it open. Her eyes narrowed as she turned the pages then she stopped. "You? I don't believe it."

"What?" Kate said. "Reems approved the testing?"

"Presuming," Lentz said, "that this signature is genuine. You were the MI5 liaison at the time. But, Stephanie, how can this be?"

"Do you want to read the rest of the file, or shall I just tell you what it says?" She looked around the room and pointed at Bern's whisky decanter. "And I don't know about you, but I could use a drink."

◇
◇
◇

Reems sipped from the whisky tumbler, running her free hand through her hair. "Tantalus was always a government project. A specific commission."

Lentz shook her head. "I would have known. I was in charge."

"I know you like to think that, but you were just a component in the machine."

"But why would the government need CERUS?" Kate asked.

"We needed each other. CERUS needed the government to blow away the red tape and provide funding: the government needed CERUS to provide resources, specific expertise and, most importantly, plausible deniability."

"Because the public wouldn't like you messing with people's heads, regardless of the potential benefits," Kate said. "So you closed them down when the human trials went so catastrophically wrong."

"Yes," Reems sighed, "but it wasn't Bern who forced the trials to take place early. It was us. Despite all our precautions, word had got out. We couldn't keep the project under wraps any more. It was either run a test or flush it. It was a mistake. Too many shortcuts. The test subjects died." She closed her eyes. "If it had just been that, we might have been able to come clean: admit our mistakes and deal with the fall out. But you know it went further."

"Child testing," Lentz said, turning away.

"Why would Bern keep the records?" Kate asked. "Wouldn't they implicate him?"

"Much less than they implicate us," said Reems. "I tried to clean house, but he kept data hidden, ready to use against us. We managed to cancel all nano projects, but he's played his hand well - there have been many initiatives that he forced past us in recent years."

"But why would you accept it?" Croft asked. "Why not arrest him?"

"Because," Kate said, "I'm assuming the government wanted what CERUS has been developing."

Reems nodded. "He knew it was a card he had to play carefully. It was an ongoing negotiation: part of a long game I couldn't share with you," she told Croft.

"I was just doing my job, but Bern was playing us all along."

Reems shrugged. "We were trying to play him back. But then he went and got himself killed. We're still trying to work out where that has left us."

Kate drained the whisky glass she was holding. "I still don't buy it. The part about experimenting on a child should have taken any deal off the table."

Reems nodded again. "There's one more thing in the file. The details of who those children were."

"
Children?
"

"Yes. There was Tom, of course, but there were also two others."

ONE HUNDRED EIGHT

"SO," LENTZ SAID, "WHOSE IDEA was it to experiment on the children? You're not saying it was yours?"

Reems puffed out her cheeks. "No, but we were aware of the initiative."

"You
knew
about it?" Kate said. "Even with everything else, I was presuming that was on CERUS."

"It's not quite how it seems. For the children it wasn't a speculative experiment. It was a treatment of last resort. We were trying to save them. All three had a rare brain condition. We hoped to do something about it through the chip."

"But you still programmed it to create the base for the interface?"

"We agreed it would only be used in ways related to the condition, but it was a way of proving the concept and so making it worthwhile to CERUS at the same time as potentially saving their lives. I thought you would understand, Dominique."

"Don't use the memory of my sister to justify your actions. Who gave you the right to make that call for these children? I don't believe you had parental consent."

"Actually, for two of them we did. And all three of them lived. Whereas we were told they each had no chance if nothing was done."

"So you picked children with the same condition? Isn't it very convenient that two were the children of CERUS employees?"

"What?" asked Kate.

"The second child was Alexis Marron – or Alex as you know her."

"The woman who tried to kill us?" Kate cried. "She's Peter Marron's daughter?"

Reems shrugged. "The branch didn't fall far from the tree there."

"So who was the last child?"

"His name was Connor." She paused. "Connor
Reems
."

A moment of silence hung in the air.

"Your own son?" Lentz said. "Your own son had exactly the rare condition that this process could help?"

"An impossible coincidence," Kate said.

Reems shook her head. "It didn't happen that way round. Marron found out about my son – don't ask me how – and they came to me. They offered me help if I would find a way to get myself tasked with managing the government's relationship with CERUS."

"And you just assumed it was chance that they had the perfect thing to offer you to make you do what they wanted?" asked Kate.

"I believed it because I wanted to believe it. By the time I realised what had really happened, the line had been crossed."

Lentz cleared her throat. "Where is Connor now?"

Reems shook her head. "A car accident, nothing to do with the chip. But it gave him fifteen years. I can't regret that."

Lentz lowered her eyes. "Stephanie, I'm sorry."

"What about Tom and Alex?" Kate said. "If this condition is so rare, how is it possible they both had it too?"

Reems bit her lip. "They didn't. I was lied to. CERUS lured me in then, when I realised what was happening, they made it impossible for me to walk away. When things went wrong, they threatened to reveal my involvement."

"So you admit you were compromised?"

"I decided not to play their game. I went to the then head of MI5 and we formed a plan to let things play out, to be ready to pounce if they ever created anything like Tantalus again."

"Or something
exactly
like Tantalus," Lentz said.

"And you expect me to believe all that?" Croft asked.

Reems pulled out her phone and pressed a number. "Yes, Sir," she said into the handset. "I apologise, but I have a situation at the Tower. Can you verify Project CT to one of my team?" She listened then handed the phone to Croft.

"Who is it?" he asked her, taking the phone warily.

"The Home Secretary. Hopefully he can allay your concerns."

ONE HUNDRED NINE

A NUMBER OF PHONE CALLS later, Croft and Reems had been officially designated to deal with the clean-up of the 'CERUS problem'.

"Congratulations on your security clearance upgrade, George," Reems said, pouring herself a second whisky.

"I'm just pleased I don't actually have to arrest you."

"So what next?" Kate asked.

"We need to get to Tom," Reems said.

"Perhaps you should be focusing on the bad guys," Kate said. "The ones responsible for all the deaths."

"Of course we will, but that doesn't make Tom unimportant. Dominique, I'd like you to reconsider your position. I think you'll find Tom will be better off under our protection. You know the other four subjects died because of complications. Even though Tom is clearly different, who's to say he won't develop different problems."

"Who's to say he will?"

Reems took a slow breath. "If you help me, I'll wipe your slate clean. This is an opportunity for you to start again. And let me reassure you: we don't want to cart Tom off to some black-site laboratory and stick needles in him for the next ten years. We want this technology to
work
. The inventive step has been taken. We just want to be able to take it again. And who better to lead the work forward than the person who created it?"

"You're not seriously considering it?" Kate said. "She's bribing you!"

"It's a proposal," replied Reems. "Not a bribe."

"And what," Kate asked, "are you going to offer me so that I don't publish this story?"

"My dear, I think you have an inflated sense of your own importance here."

Lentz folded her arms. "Are you sure? She was the one who discovered the truth of what happened with Tom's abduction. She made the connection with Croft."
 

Reems frowned. "She should stick to publishing lies and misrepresentations and stop dabbling in areas that risk national security."

"Is that the card you're going to play?" Kate asked dismissively. "Because if you want to talk to me about lies, I'll give you a new one I could write about."
 

"What do you mean?" Reems asked. "And I'd warn you to tread carefully, Ms Turner, with how you answer."

Kate rolled her eyes. "Do you really believe this is all Marron's doing? Look at the mess Bern left behind. How can you believe that he simply died in an accident? A very convenient one. Not to mention dying being a very comprehensive way of avoiding taking responsibility."

"You're suggesting it was suicide?"

"No I'm not. You should have another look at Bern's body."

"You think he was murdered?"

"Actually I'm wondering if he was killed at all."

Reems folded her arms. "That's ridiculous. The autopsy said it was him."

"Based on a pathologist who made a quick check of the dental records and assumed everything else. Think about this logically. What does Bern want more than anything?"

"I don't follow," Reems said.

"I do," Lentz said. "Bern always wanted to do whatever he wanted, free from any oversight or constraint. And, as I well know, being dead is pretty helpful with that."

ONE HUNDRED TEN

MARRON STOOD ON THE DECK of the yacht, staring at his tablet computer. "Where did you get this information?"

"From MI5 comms," Alex replied. "How did Faraday do it? I didn't think the interface worked like that."

Marron looked up as a crewman waved to him.

 
"A small motor cruiser is approaching our position," the man reported.

Marron smiled and nodded to Alex. "I think we're about to find out." Marron watched the motor cruiser stop for five minutes at a pre-arranged distance so that they could scan it.

Alex stood next to him, checking her own tablet. "No chatter on the coastguard or police channels. I'll tell them to proceed."

The motor cruiser began powering up its engines then slowly eased away, back towards shore.

Alex tapped the screen of her computer. "I have a small incoming submersible. Our visitor is here."

"Then we'd best go and greet him."

They made their way to the rear of the yacht and watched as the submersible docked. A man, clad in a heavy duty wetsuit and full breathing mask, pulled himself on board.

"Welcome aboard the Phoenix," said Marron.

The man reached behind his head and released a couple of heavy-duty clips on the mask.

Alex threw him a towel. "Nice boat you have here."

"Thanks. Although it's a yacht, not a boat." He lifted the mask off his head.

Marron smiled. "You look well, William, considering."

"Considering that I'm dead?" Bern replied. "Nice of Heidn to stand in for me in that regard."

"I meant considering you've been living off the grid for a week when I know how twitchy you get when your signal drops for a minute. But, yes, that too."

"It was necessary," Bern said. "Now, I want to know everything."

ONE HUNDRED ELEVEN

BERN HELD THE WHEEL, LOOKING out across the English Channel. Moonlight glittered on the water. Under his feet he felt the steady throb of the twin engines powering the yacht gently westwards. No need to get up speed just yet in these crowded waters and risk drawing attention to themselves.

"My crewman can take the helm if you want a shower," Marron said, appearing behind him.

"I think I'll stay for a bit," replied Bern. He took a sip from the champagne flute in his right hand. "It's been quite a few weeks, Peter."