Legacy of a Mad Scientist (25 page)

Von Kalt did not rise from the lounge chair, even to
relieve himself, until well after midnight.

King’s false identity had been in place for years, a
standard merc package of storage drives and sensory amplifiers that
he mostly ignored. His own amplifier, one of the first copies of
the Micronix, rested in his pocket, undetected by Von Kalt,
granting King access to power far beyond what the newbie was
capable of.

King let the deputy director explore. If necessary,
he was close enough to take action, if it came to that. For now,
all he had to do was watch the watchers.

It was frustrating, being unable to communicate with
Ross, Croswell or Snow. Fox had long ago established a
radio-silence protocol, if the amplifier network was ever
compromised.

Von Kalt’s not-so-secret possession of the device was
ominous but not completely out of control.

King hoped they’d found Fox, or his trail. None of
the men present had any inkling as to the doctor’s whereabouts.
They had all been assigned, as had he, the day after Fox vanished.
It seemed clear to King that the key to finding the doctor lie in
finding Von Kalt’s last contingent of bodyguards.

Ross had footage of them handling the rendition, so
they had probably been given the task of guarding the doctor, as
well. After Von Kalt walked Johnson off the deck, King had changed
his mind. This was definitely the best place to be right now. When
the time came, he’d be very useful next to the deputy director.

Thursday, July 9, 2308

Von Kalt used the restroom and returned to his
investigation of the camp, moving through the registry servers, the
wired teenagers and their souped-up counselors. He looked for
anything that might even resemble a hint of the Fox family, but the
data was clean. He went back and combed through it all again.

The transports had delivered the children to this
facility. A second, private shuttle had delivered their mom, no
less than three hours later. They had to be there.

Finally, he realized his mistake. It was an
unregistered net user that caught his attention. He’d been looking
for some trace of the mother and her children, but if their
attendance were discretely being covered up, he needed to be
looking for the gaps.

Someone had gotten on a terminal and accessed a
gamer-stream account, but the user had not logged in to the lab’s
access tree. Von Kalt quickly found the user’s history, and that it
mirrored the Science Program’s assigned lab hours. He figured,
given the games accessed, and the fact that the camp was geared
toward eight to ten year olds, this was most likely Fox’s son,
Geoffrey.

Using the same process of elimination, he quickly
found similar discrepancies in two other programs. Like the science
camp, the gymnastics program had a roster for forty-four people and
matching room assignments, but forty-five people were clicked
through the cafeteria at their assigned meal times. Forty-five
people were reported attending the daily functions, but there were
only forty-four names on the daily roster.

He found the same anomaly in a martial arts program.
All three programs fed and housed someone whose name never appeared
in any of the daily logs. It almost would have been better for them
to use an alias.

Von Kalt wondered why Fox hadn’t chosen to give his
children an alias, to better protect them. A moment later he
realized the answer; pride, hubris. Fox didn’t want his wife and
children to go under assumed names out of pride. He wanted them to
introduce themselves and Ana, Ashley and Geoffrey
Fox
.

Then, as Von Kalt was doing now, he could simply use
the Micronix to sweep the registries for any mention of their
names.

Von Kalt looked out over the subdivision, the ground
based, albeit moderately expensive neighborhood. He wondered why
Dr. Fox had insisted on living here? He could afford a perfectly
protected castle in the sky. His children would be safer that
way.

The edges of Angel City hovered overhead, replacing
half the stars with their own blinking and twinkling lights.

The answer came to him like a bolt of lightning.
The Micronix could not have fallen from the balcony of Fuji Dozo
to land at Ashley’s feet, if she lived in the sky.

Von Kalt dismissed the idea as ludicrous. The Fox
family had been living at the same residence for over a decade.
There was no way Fox planned Fuji Dozo over ten years ago.
Von Kalt realized
That
thought was ridiculous. Whatever
Fox’s reasons for living on the ground, he wouldn’t have hesitated
to take advantage of the fact.

Von Kalt paused. He needed to think - clearly.

Fox had created the Micronix and by default, the
Metachron. How could Von Kalt, a user, take the creator by
surprise? How could Von Kalt out think the man who had turned him
into a God?

Perhaps Fox was already listening; hearing his every
thought, able to read the history of everything he had done since
taking the Metachron. Perhaps Fox had
Let
him take it.

But even gods could be manipulated; it is just a
matter of leverage. And even gods could be killed, if you learn
their weakness. Surely, even Gods fear open Rebellion.

Having devoured Anastasia Zelena’s infamous case
history, as both a spy, and later as a special operations officer,
Von Kalt suspected she most likely volunteered as an assistant to
the martial arts camp.

However, that was rather obvious. It would be a
better cover for her to be helping out with the gymnastics
program.

Yet, that would mean the ballet-obsessed daughter
would be doing a kung fu camp? And there was no ballet or any sort
of dance program on the entire facility. The Heart of the City Inc
had lost that market to a summer charter branch of Wellstone.
Questions and the search for answers consumed him. He lay on the
lounge chair, silently seeking and finding.

Friday, July 10, 2308

Ross sat at his desk while Secretary Croswell leaned
against the wall.

The communications terminal lit up with the incoming
call they’d been waiting for. Ross transferred it to his monitor,
illuminating the images of Anastasia and Doctor Te, in
Jerusalem.

“I was just explaining to Dr. Te that our friend has
gone missing,” Ana said.

“Missing?” Te echoed.

Ross nodded. “Stanwood’s goons gassed a café.”

“Who is Stanwood?” Dr. Te asked.

“Back when you were working out here, he was Senator
Miller’s right hand. He’s the National Intelligence Director
now.”

“God help us,” Te replied.

“I say it’s time we got rid of him, but Fox says no,”
Ross answered

“If Fox is accused of murder, perhaps murder is not
the solution?” Te suggested.

“I guess it would depend on your definition of the
problem,” Ana replied.

“Right now, the problem is that he is missing, yes?”
Te asked. “I think I can help with that. I have always thought that
the key to finding anything lies as much in where it is not, every
bit as much as where it might be.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Croswell asked,
stepping forward.

“I mean, where would Stanwood not keep Fox?” Te
asked.

“He’d keep him away from Terillium,” Ross
answered.

“And that means far away from any city,” Croswell
added.

“We just need to find Stanwood and make him tell us,”
Ana said.

“We can’t do that. For one, we can’t prove he was
involved, and he still has the President’s ear,” Croswell said.

“Well we have the footage of Von Kalt,” Ross
countered. “And I still owe the both of them for what they did to
my arm.”

“I put King on Von Kalt. If he pays Fox a visit,
we’ll know about it.”

“Let me skin his face. He’ll tell us,” Ross said.

“I’m telling you, we can find Fox. No problem,” Te
asserted. “Stanwood has already told us where he will be.”

“How’s that?” Ross asked.

“As you said, he won’t be in a city or around other
people. He won’t be over water, because as you said, he won’t be
around any metal at all.”

“That would mean desert, most likely,” Ross said. “He
won’t set up in a forest. He’d want to be able to see someone
coming.”

“He might have gone underground,” Croswell said. “I
mean literally underground.”

“He’d be somewhere he could go unnoticed, which
eliminates all military installations. He wouldn’t risk that, not
with you as Sec Def, ” Ross said, nodding to Croswell.

“You’re right. It will be the Department of Science
and Energy, or DARPA, or the old NASA bases. There were a ton of
those,” Croswell said.

“Once we find them, how do we get in? They’ll have a
full protection suite set up,” Ross added. “Even in our phase cam,
we’ll still set off their thermal sweepers.”

“
There is no way to get in quiet
over sand. Stanwood’s at least that smart,” Ross said.

“You have an answer for that, don’t you?” Croswell
asked, nodding to Doctor Te.

“I didn’t think you sent Ana back out of the goodness
of your heart.”

“I don’t know why anyone would ever want to ascribe
personal motives for anything I do.” Croswell smiled. “This is
sheer tactics.”

“I do have a way to approach over open terrain…” Te
said.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We don’t even know
where he is yet.”

“And we won’t know until we actually start looking,”
Ana said.

“We’re running recon from Kojima. We’ll have likely
locations in another day or two, we’re still combing through the
data dump.”

“We are almost ready for field operations. She just
needs a few more days with the operation interface,” Te said.

Ana looked at Dr. Te as if he were crazy.

“Not like we have any locations yet anyhow,” Croswell
looked pointedly at Major Ross.

Dr. Te gestured and turned the camera, “Well, here
she is… This is Sabor.” A robotic cat walked into the frame. She
sat and turned toward the camera, her ears turning
independently.

“Numa, the lion, is in pieces on a table in the lab.
He’s going to be there for a while,” Te said, looking over his
shoulder. “Anyhow, she won’t show up on thermal sensors, or
silhouette registers. She can land outside any perimeter and just
walk in.”

“I’ll see what I can do to narrow things down,”
Croswell said. “How many of these Sabers do you have ready to
go?”

“She’s the only one,” Te answered.

“And the Lion? What do you think, maybe next
week?”

“Numa’s got at least a year before he’s ready,” Te
answered.

“Then Saber will have to do,” Croswell said.

Dr. Te didn’t bother to correct Croswell’s
pronunciation. He’d gotten Numa right easy enough.

“We’re just talking recon, right?” Ross said. “I
mean, we don’t want to just walk off with your life’s work,” he
said to Dr. Te.

“Oh, don’t worry.” Te said. “I’m curious to see how
she does in the field. I also have some insects and mice. Hopefully
we can also put them to work, but they have limited range.”

“I can’t believe you sent me out here now,” Ana said
directly to Croswell. “But at the same time, I get it.”

“This has been planned for months,” Croswell
said.

“My husband’s abduction has not been planned for
months.”

“Technically, he’s Anastasia Zelena’s husband. You
are Captain Analynn Snow of the United States Marine Corps.

“And why are you always in my shit anyhow? I’m doing
the best I can, same as you. I’m doing everything I can to protect
you and your children and it is a full time job.”

Croswell was smiling, clearly putting her on. “What
do I get for it?

“Grief. Who wants an eternity of this nonsense?

“It has to stop, Captain.” Croswell was smiling,
shaking his head. “You’re the only one he listens to anyhow. Why
haven’t you talked any sense into that husband of yours?”

Ana sighed, “He doesn’t listen to me any more than he
does to any of you. The only way
She
stays with him is
because she doesn’t ask him any questions, or give him any advice,”
Ana countered.

“We need to test the cat, so test it,” Ross said.
“This is a great test.”

“Is Fox in on this?” Ana asked. “Is this some ploy to
get him political points? Playing the victim card?”

Croswell shook his head. “I can’t believe you would
even say that.”

He looked her in the eye, across the digital telecom
channel, “No. I promise you, none of this is planned. This is not a
test, I swear on my mother’s grave.

“And President Conway approved nothing. I know for a
fact. Stanwood is running his op off-book.

“And since there’s no reason to believe he wouldn’t
send someone after Dr. Te, the best place for you, is exactly where
you are.”

“You said that,” Snow pointed out.

“It’s still true,” Croswell answered.

Friday, July 10, 2308

After breakfast, Von Kalt abruptly ordered his men
pack up their gear. They left the cameras running on their
automatic settings and had locked the doors in less than forty
minutes.

Von Kalt checked them into the penthouse of a luxury
hotel, directly across the street from the Heart of the City camp
facility. New surveillance equipment was delivered, and the main
room was soon cluttered with screens and control boards.

“Now what?” Lieutenant Hernandez asked.

“Now we wait,” Von Kalt answered.

“It’s your money.”

A new card game started at a new dining room
table.

Ashley’s Journal, Saturday, July 11, 2308

I’ve tried not to hurt anyone since Jason, but today
Sihing Shou got in my face about it, I was taking it easy on this
kid, Anthony. I could have beaten him, but I didn’t want to.