Legacy of a Mad Scientist (28 page)

"For what it's worth, I told him this is wrong,”
Stanwood said. “I believe we have no legal right to be holding you
like this. It's not up to me, of course. As a suspected traitor,
technically, we can hold you forever, but we'd need to strip you of
your citizenship. They're trying to get the paperwork through
justice. Believe me, once they do, this gate won't stay closed.
Miller wants to use the same tech you developed for Black
Willow.”

Stanwood paused.

“Can you believe it? I don't know if that's the
textbook definition of irony, but it makes me smile.” The smile
came through in his voice.

Fox didn’t answer.

"So, here's the deal. You have until the Attorney
General signs whatever warrants he's going to sign. You have that
long to save your family. He's going to sign the warrants, and when
he does, you and your family will be stripped of your citizenship
rights.

"Miller already has a lien on your wife and children.
He’s claiming them as line items in previous budgets. He says he
owns them, and the first thing he intends to do is cut them up, to
see what you've got going on under the hood.

“I explained that if he did that, we wouldn't have
any leverage on you. I got him to agree to just take one,
preferably your wife, and to let us use the children to keep you
talking. I figure, that way, everyone gets something. It’s all
about compromise, after all. You still have some interest in
cooperating and thereby ensuring your children's continued
safety.”

Fox heard fear in Stanwood's voice.

“We all know your wife was a traitor to the republic
before you even met her. So there’s no doubt about what is going to
happen to her."

“She is a patriot, as am I,” Fox said, hearing even a
little fear in his own voice.

"We know he's going to sign them, the AG thinks
you're dangerous enough that we don't have to wait for you to
betray the country. After what happened at Epsilon, it's in the
nation's best interests to remove you from society.

"By the way, did you know they have a triggerman on
your block? Apparently, they have a wet worker, dedicated to you,
undercover for the almost seven years now, Mister Justin Case."

Stanwood fell silent for a moment.

Fox remained motionless.

"That's what they've got lined up for your pretty
wife and those two adorable children, unless you talk. Right
now.”

Stanwood waited.

"You have answers they want, and if you don't tell
me, they're going after your family. Don't you even care?”

“I care, and you do not exist.”

At the same moment, several hundred meters away, Fox
sat on the small sand dune. There was no point in thinking about
Stanwood, about where he was being kept or if he would be rescued
in time.

There was no
in time
.

There was only now.

Fox spread his fingers and his power into and through
the tiny crystalline grains and contemplated his existence.

Sand, mostly silicon, number fourteen, a chemical
analog for carbon. Fox pushed his sensory perception into the
grains of matter surrounding him. He could feel himself, he could
feel the earth as himself. At the same time, he could feel himself
inside his cell and could hear Stanwood make his idle threats.

What he found strange was how normal, how natural it
felt.

He had not changed.

It felt more like he had come home and that home was
all of creation.

Wednesday, July 22, 2308

It was still early in the morning when Stanwood
arrived. Fox had come to recognize the sound of his shuttle.

A few minutes later, Stanwood spoke from the other
side of the opaque door. "The Attorney General still hasn't signed
your arrest warrant, but he will, and when he does, it's not just
you. We're closing down everything, all your projects, everything,
unless you tell me what I want to know. You can stop all of this.
Just say the word.”

Fox opened his eyes. The opaque door was closed.

“Suppose I were to cooperate? I would need you to
swear to leave my wife and kids out of it.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

“You have to swear.”

“You have my word.”

“Then I guess you’ll want the codes to my secret
bases?” Fox offered.

“Yes,” Stanwood said. “To start with.”

“There are three you need to get to rather quickly,
seven in total, oh, wait, nine. Just find my Chief Operations
Officer, Angus MacPhail.”

“Angus MacPhail?” Stanwood asked.

“Yeah, yes.”

“Where will I find him?” Stanwood asked.

“Glasgow, usually. He’s a security consultant.
Schedule a lunch with him and ask about the Manx kipper rouge. You
have to get this just right. If you don’t get the code word right,
he’s under standing orders to destroy everything. Tell him you
heard it was good and ask if you should try it.”

“The Manx kipper rouge?”

“Yes, just like that. He’s got the keys to three
units we have in the UK and to all our research material, all my
secrets, everything is hidden on the Midway.”

“After that, you need to go see Henry Porter. He
keeps rooms at the Anserini-Chen Lodge in Dresden. You can find him
any time during the Annual Snipe Hunt, which is all summer
basically. We’ve got an industrial park just over the border in
Czechoslovakia, Wolpertinger Industrial Park. He’s the only guy who
can get you across the check point.”

“Okay.”

“Pay attention, Joseph, you only get one shot at
this.”

“Is there anything I need to tell Mister Porter?”

“Oh, yes. Tell him his real name in Charles. Tell him
I said Hi and to give you whatever you want.”

“And the third one,” Stanwood asked.

“John Wyndham. You’ll find him in Los Angeles, Chile
and he’ll take you to Patagonia and from there onto McMurdo Station
in Antartica.”

“Can’t we just go straight there from here?”

“You could, but John has the keys.”

“I’m glad to see you’ve come to your senses,”
Stanwood said.

Fox laughed.

“What’s so funny?” The intel director asked.

"Stanwood. You coward, did you touch it yet?”

Stanwood didn't answer.

"You know you're the only one they left out. Everyone
else knew. You do realize that, don't you? They've all been
interfaced already, all your superiors. Miller, Phillips, Croswell,
even the old man himself. They're all on the inside.

“You're the scapegoat. By coming after me, you're
doing them a favor. They'd love to see us kill each other.”

"Wake up, Fox, it's you in the cell. You're the loose
cannon. But maybe you're right. Perhaps I'm overextended, but
you're being naive if you think you're untouchable. From a
mathematical perspective, this was inevitable. You have crossed too
many lines.”

"I'm just one person, Joe. You can kill me, but you
can't control all of mankind. Maybe no one else will frighten you,
the way I do, but you've never been of any interest to me. You
can't stop evolution. I am insignificant. You are insignificant.
You have no real power.

“By the way, I’ve cut off your access to my networks.
I found the hole you were exploiting. You won’t access President
Conway’s footnote files anymore.”

Stanwood remained quiet.

“You thought I wouldn’t figure it out?” Fox
asked.

“Bite me, Andrew,” Stanwood retorted.

"Look at us," Fox continued. "Here I am helpless,
locked in a cell, but you're so scared you can't even face me as a
man. You need someone else's approval, someone else's permission to
shoot me while I'm handcuffed. Tell me, who's the coward here?”

"I'm not afraid of you.”

"Then open the door. If I'm not who you're afraid of,
who is it?”

"I'm not stupid, Andrew. We're going to find the
prototype, and then we won't need to keep you around. It will all
come out in the wash.”

Fox burst into laughter. "You idiot, it was in my
pocket! When your men arrested me, it was in my pocket. You're
worried about evidence and procedure. There's not going to be any
trial. I'm a national hero, you idiot. The cover up has already
started, and you, my friend, are not invited to the after
party.”

"That's impossible.”

"I think it's more likely your own men don't answer
to you.”

“I’m going to check out your info. This will go a
long way in your defense.”

“God, what would you do without someone to
double-check all your decisions?” Fox laughed as Stanwood stomped
from the cell door.

Obviously Stanwood’s number two, Von Kalt, was in
possession of the Metachron now.

How long would it take the Metachron’s new disciple
to seek him out? Would he even bother?

He might go after Ashley, after all, she has the
Micronix now.

Fox could never have predicted the Metachron’s
appearance. It could unbalance everything.

To think Astral, Ashley rather, to think she, a mere
slip of a girl, could be ready for what Fox knew must be coming. He
had miscalculated, terribly. Fox feared the Metachron had entered a
transition cycle, like a caterpillar going into a cocoon before
emerging as a butterfly.

Fox remembered that Butterflies had horrifically
short life spans. They were terribly beautiful for a terribly short
period of time.

Thursday Evening, July 23, 2308

As the sun reached the horizon, Fox noticed a figure
cresting it. From where he sat on the bluff, he could hear the
patrols behind him.

He watched the creature approach from the west. He
could tell it was a four-legged animal, but it was some time before
he could see it was a cat and not a dog or coyote. Before it became
any clearer, the animal disappeared into a shallow wash.

In the desert, the cat pressed on, padding forward,
its robotic legs pulling it forward across the sand, gliding as
smoothly as any cat in real life ever did.

Fox could feel the animal as it continued its
approach. He could feel the vibrations caused by the padded feet,
each step bringing it closer. A few minutes after the sun had set,
but long before its light had faded from the sky, the mechanical
cat emerged from the shallow ravine.

Fox could hear the hum of electrical components,
capacitors and servos, magnetic fibers contracting and releasing as
the animal continued its approach. The robot wore a tawny blonde
fur coat, its whiskers and ears shifting in the breeze.

Its eyes looked directly at Fox and spoke to his mind
in the voice of his wife. “Te really outdid himself time.”

Fox smiled.

In a single moment, his mind shifted through the
emotions of envy, curiosity, frustration and then fascination.

Te had obviously continued down the path they had
originally started on. Using the progress they had made wiring the
centaurs, he seemed to have reversed the process. Fox realized that
he had simply re-mapped the translator, in effect, placing the user
inside the robot, as opposed to bringing the robot’s senses
directly to the user. On one end, he mapped the user’s mind, then
simply projected it to meet a shell program inside the robot.

Te’s creation was impressive; there was no doubt
about it. The electro-magnetic muscle fibers behaved like real
muscle only better. The carbon-nano coat and protective layers made
the cat water and bulletproof, while the terillium chassis and
frame gave an operator complete control over the cat’s weight,
elevation and momentum.

Fox was impressed. Hell, he felt positively jealous.
Then he remembered; he’d kind of gone past that now.

“What do you think?” Ana asked. “It’s like I’m really
inside it.” She lifted a paw and turned it. Then turned the cat’s
head and ears back to Fox.

He was amazed. ”It’s awesome.”

“So, what, they just let you wander around, free like
this? I guess there’s not really anywhere for you to go.”

Fox laughed. “Let’s walk a little bit.”

“Where to? It’s the middle of the desert.”

Fox gestured with his arm, “How about down to that
little grove, by the mountain over there.”

“That’s like fifty, maybe seventy miles away,” Ana
replied.

Fox rose and took a couple of steps toward it.

Ana looked around and realized they were there
already. Fox had teleported them to the foot of the mountain.

“How did you do that?” she asked. “Don’t you need the
amplifier, and all that equipment and the giant golden floor?”

Fox smiled, raised a hand, and transformed himself
into a full grown, flesh and blood lion.

Ana was frozen, speechless.

“I’m not actually here. Technically, I’m still in my
cell,” Fox explained.

Ana switched through her spectrometer, Fox’s body
showed the same temperature as the rapidly cooling sand.

“You’re not real?”

“I’m real. I’m more than real,” he answered.

“And here I thought the robot was impressive.”

“It is impressive. This is weird. I was just sitting
in my cell, no amplifier, no nothing. Hell, they’ve got me in a
plastic box. I was just sitting. Then I stood up and walked out.
I’ve been wandering around out here for three days.”

Ana blinked, and Fox had transported them from the
edge of the forest grove, back to the low rise where she found him.
Fox was no longer a lion, but again a man, in spectacles, white
linen clothes and sandals.

“By the time, I got to this spot, I was actually
leaving tracks in the sand,” he explained.

Ana, the robotic cat, stood and padded around Fox.
“These tracks are almost a day old.”

“I mostly walk at night. Sometimes, during the day,
it gets hot out here, so mostly I just sit and think.”

Fox looked down at the ground.

The daylight was quickly fading from the sky, blue
and red chased into the west by violet and black.