RESTORATION (a science fiction novel) (RESTORATION (the science fiction trilogy)) (24 page)

She was up again now and backing him up against the dresser. 
         “Well, it seems that our stock went nuts and it split, uh, a few times.  My auto buy triggers kicked in and the stock went even higher and that caused my bonus to go up like twenty times more than normal.  Anyway were rich!”

Linsey’s eyes were huge, not because she was a money hungry person or anything, but mostly because she hated it when Dodge kept secrets from her.   Now she smelled a rat.
           “All right, out with it, how much?”  She demanded. 

Dodge had that look of a school boy caught in a lie.      “Well, um, you know, it’s up to eighteen million but don’t get excited.” 

“Eighteen million!  Oh my god!  Eighteen million!  Don’t get excited!  Are you nuts?  Who wouldn’t be excited?  A few days ago I was sacrificing my little savings to buy everyone a lifetime membership to the Medic-Star backup service.  You walk in here tonight and tell me we have eighteen million dollars plus this huge check and I’m not supposed to get excited!”

Linsey threw her arms up and let out a “woo
hoo” as she leaped onto Dodge, knocking him down onto the bed.  She leaned over on him and began kissing all over his face. 

“Dodge Kerrington, you’re the smartest, most handsome man, I’ve ever known.” 

She smothered him with more kisses and then paused to smile at him.  Dodge looked into her eyes.     

“Hey there hot mama, settle down!  We still got dinner and dancing to do before all that!”

“Touché, but just wait till I get you in this bed tonight!”
          “I’ll hold you to that,” said Dodge.

He playfully smacked her on the butt as they got up off the bed.
         “I’m going to finish getting ready now.  How about you, you gonna change?”  asked Linsey.
         “Yeah, I think I’ll take a long hot shower and change into some casual clothes.”

While he showered, he couldn’t help but think about Linsey’s reaction to the check and the fun night that was ahead.  He hadn’t seen Linsey that excited for a long time.  He hated that he would soon have to tell her about the hackers and the potential danger they were facing.  

People don’t usually want to hear that they are in a dangerous world of cyber-crime, where they could easily be the next targets.  LifeTech and potential restoration gave them an edge but somehow someone murdered Ron Simpson and his parents with no hope of being restored.  He and John would have to formulate a plan to guard against the same thing happening to them. 

They would need a method of avoiding permanent death no matter what the hackers did to
them, they had to outsmart them at their own game.  As he stood there in the shower relaxing in the hot water he began to formulate a plan, one that he would share with John and the ladies very soon but tonight it was all about having a good time.  It was about to get very dangerous and he wanted to be ready but he doubted himself, did he really have the balls to face down a killer?  He was just an engineer; he really wasn’t cut out for this sort of thing.  He would have to use his brain more than brawn.  He couldn’t beat them at their own game the way they played it.  He wasn’t normally prone to violence yet he felt an internal conflict beginning to brew and he knew deep down inside there was a welling rage.  A wildfire of contempt for these ass holes was burning ever hotter and he knew that if push came to shove he would fight hard for everything that he believed in.

Chapter 1
3
    It was party time.  Dodge and John knew that it was more than a party, it was in fact an act.  But to Linsey and Amanda it was just a party, just four friends having a great time.   Dodge knew that the ladies would be acting completely natural simply because they didn’t know anything was going on.  Dodge and John agreed that this was for the best and would be very believable for the watchers because it was real. 

They were hoping to bring down the hackers and get to the root of their diabolical plan.  Of course they were assuming that there was a ring of them but maybe there
was just one or two people behind it.  Hopefully that would be the case.

As he and Linsey headed out to the garage Linsey turned toward the Volvo while Dodge was heading toward the GTO.  They both hesitated then Linsey looked at Dodge and smiled before heading in his direction. 

“You sure do love this old hot rod don’t you?” 

Dodge grinned.  “She’s my mistress!”
         “You’re right,” said Linsey.  “Now that I have some major spending money I’m gonna get me a sexy little sports car.  Maybe even a convertible, something pretty to zip around in.” 

“That’s a great Idea, you should.  You’ve been driving that practical Mom taxi for way too long.  You should get whatever you want.” 

“All right Mr., I will, I might even start on that tomorrow?”  At first Dodge thought that would be a bad idea because they needed to focus but then he realized that would be a great thing to do.  It should throw off the watchers even more.  First they have a party out in the open and then they’re out buying a new car the next day. 

“Yes, let’s do it!”  Dodge said. 

He figured the hackers already had knowledge of his new found wealth.  It was public in the office and it would be in the stockholder’s report soon so it couldn’t be hidden anyway.  If the hackers were even halfway decent at what they were doing then they already knew.  Not spending any money would be considered unusual behavior and might even throw up flags. 

It was settled, they would buy Linsey a new car right away.  As they sped along the freeway toward John’s house, Linsey went on about the colors she liked and the different models that she found appealing.  Dodge tried to make suggestions where he could but she was so excited he couldn’t get a word in edge wise.  She was leaning toward dark metallic red and it had to have polished wheels and a sunroof, unless of course she got the rag top.  She also said that it had to have the latest entertainment system. 
“Why not?  We can afford it.”

They arrived at John’s house about five minutes early because Dodge couldn’t keep his foot out of the big block and pretty much sped all the way there.  If he kept it up, he was going to be getting a speeding ticket soon. 
“Who cares,” I can afford an occasional ticket!

As they pulled up to the gate, it began opening.
         “Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. Kerrington,” Said Jeeves through the intercom.  “Mr. Calhoun is expecting you.  Please drive up to the front entrance and we will valet your auto.”

They could see his face on the monitor.    

“Thanks Jeeves, you look dashing tonight,” said Dodge.

“You as well Sir and I see you’ve brought your lovely wife.
How refreshing to see such a pretty face.” 

Dodge knew
Jeeves was insinuating that Linsey was well out of his league. 
“The clever old dog. Jeeves? Really? I gotta find out this guys real name and then give him a hard time, what an act, especially the slicked back hair and starched shirt.”
 

When he got the time, he would pry out of John how much extra he had to pay that old fart to act like a 1950s butler.

When they pulled up in front of the house John and Amanda were standing there with champagne glasses in hand and a young server was standing alongside with two more glasses of bubbly on a tray awaiting them. 

Linsey looked at Dodge with the tips of her fingers over her mouth and let out a little laugh before
Jeeves got her door open.
         “Oh my god, it’s like life styles of the rich and famous act around here,” said Linsey. 

Dodge snickered.    

“I don’t think it’s much of an act Hun, the man is loaded.”  As they were getting out a young man quickly offered to valet the GTO.  Dodge reached back in his pocket to retrieve the keys that he had already put away out of habit, he wasn’t used to all this service.  He knew John was putting on the Ritz to make it extra fun for Linsey and Amanda and for the benefit of the watchers. Not to mention some good old fashioned showing off. 

“Yes, thank you young man.  Not a scratch now, she’s special!”
         “Yes Sir,” he answered politely.  As they went up the walk to the front doors Dodge looked back and was humored. The young valet was trying to idle the car around back but struggling with it.  He was used to cars that nearly drove themselves.  The GTO had tons of power and a touchy clutch that took some getting used to, but he did finally get it around there.

  Amanda and Linsey were already introduced to one another by John at the curb and were yakking up a storm with each other like two old friends while they made their way through the huge mansion that John humbly called a house. 

It became somewhat of a mini tour, as they went along stopping several times, to admire expensive works of art that John collected.  They made their way to the main patio which could very easily be seen with the right equipment from several different vantage points just off the boundaries of the property. 

John picked that spot in order for the watchers to have a clear view of the festivities and have a good chance at getting audio from their evening as well.  They wanted the watchers to believe that this group of people was completely oblivious to being watched or being in any danger whatsoever.  The better they could sell them on that point, the less they would be watched, and ultimately the more they could continue to research the hackers undetected.

John’s staff did an amazing job at everything including the food which was outstanding.  John’s Chef served a special fish entre that they couldn’t even pronounce properly, but words wouldn’t do it justice anyway.  They had plenty of the best white wine to go with it and great mood music playing in the background as they ate. 

It was a wonderful evening.  The weather was perfect and the clear skies allowed for some star gazing.  After the meal they talked for a while before the desert was served.  Some kind of French pastry with a dark sweet sauce poured all over the top of it.  It was delicious and would have probably made them all tired had they not got up to do some dancing. 

None of them were exactly ball room dancers but they knew enough to have a good time slow dancing to some classy music.  After two sets John cut it on Dodge and Linsey so they switched partners for a dance and that gave Dodge a chance to get to know Amanda better. 

She was a very pretty woman and at least ten years younger than John.  She had been a professional tennis player as a youth.  Having won many titles, she had become quite wealthy from all the endorsement deals.  She had also learned to play the piano as a girl and had become quite accomplished as an adult.  She promised she would play for them sometime. 

Her father introduced her to golf during college and she fell in love with the game.   Although not very good at it she still agreed that it would be fun if the four of them played together sometime.  She complimented Linsey and said that she was sure that she and Linsey would soon be good friends.  John and Linsey were catching up as they danced and talked about Bobby’s recovery from Restoration and also the progress that Alan was making.  Linsey told John how much she liked Amanda and what a great couple she and John made.

Off in the distance a man was watching them through the scope of a high powered rifle.  It wasn’t a typical sniper rifle that fired bullets but instead something only an assassin of the highest caliber would possess.  It was a technology that few people in the world were aware of.  It was based on a very old military design of a rail gun.  It was an experimental weapon that could accelerate steel projectiles using very powerful synchronized electromagnetic fields.  This weapon could be used to kill a person at long range without leaving a mark on the body and without making any sound.  The victim would simply fall over dead for no apparent reason.  The projectile was carried in a thin steel shell.  The contents within the shell were frozen in liquid nitrogen prior to being fired.  Based on careful calculations of distance and air temperature the outer shell of the projectile would break away at seventy five feet from the victim and dissipate into very tiny fragments that were nearly impossible to locate.  The frozen core of the projectile contained the poison crystals which were shaped as perfect spheres for accuracy of flight for the last seventy-five feet.  The spheres would land in the eye or the mouth where they were absorbed instantly.   The poison was completely untraceable by investigators.  The conclusion of any decent Medical Examiner would be death by natural causes due to heart failure.  The victim could be restored if their lifefile wasn’t corrupted, but the man with the gun was working for people who had already taken care of that little detail.  He had John Calhoun in his sights and was ready to pull the trigger.  He called it in.

“734 to Base.  Observing the target participating in what appears to be an outdoor dinner party.  They’re entertaining guest, Dodge and Linsey Kerrington.”

“Copy that 734.  Do they appear concerned for their safety?”
         “Negative Base, they appear festive.  They’re slow dancing out in the open to some kind of classic music.”

“Are they outside?”
         “Affirmative Base, for more than two hours now, do I take the shot?”

“Negative 734, stand down.  Continue to observe, record their activity and return to base.”