by Aman Gupta
“Sweat doesn’t contain DNA, but dead skin cells do,” said Marie.
“Does it have any?” asked Sylvia as her eyes lit up.
“Umm… 2 different kinds actually,” said Marie. “Now, running tests against the database.”
“How long will that take?” asked Sylvia.
“Patience, girl. You’ll die if you’re also so hyper every moment. Meet a guy. Get laid,” said Marie.
“Nope, not interested,” said Sylvia.
“I’m not talking about Jason,” said Marie.
“You too? I don’t know him,” said Sylvia.
“You hurt my feelings by lying to me, but okay, your choice,” said Marie, chucking.
“By the way, Victor is pissed that Sun and Moon are taking a long time,” said Sylvia.
“I have to start everything from scratch. How is it my fault they lost two celestial bodies in space? I mean, how exactly you lose access to something that big?” said Marie.
“You still couldn’t reach it?” asked Sylvia.
“Nope, unless they are planning to send someone to fix those two satellites, I don’t think I can access them from here,” said Marie.
The console beeped thrice. Sylvia asked why to which Marie deflected that the first beep was customary.
“Wow, found a match for both,” said Marie.
“Wow, really?” said Sylvia.
“First belongs to surprise, surprise...Anthony Arnold,” said Marie.
“How is that possible? He’s dead,” said Sylvia.
“Traces are small. Whoever created this chip, probably used stuff from Anthony’s lab or stash,” said Marie.
“And the second?” asked Sylvia.
“Anton,” said Marie.
“Okay,” said Sylvia.
“That’s pretty much it. I’ll run additional scans to find more information,” said Marie.
“Okay, see you,” said Sylvia.
“Bye,” said Marie.
They hugged, and Sylvia left. Marie looked at the surveillance footage and saw Sylvia boarding the elevators a few minutes later.
“Okay, so who has been naughty enough to place this tracking device on you, my dear?” said Marie.
She connected the chip to the console and monitored all the signals being transmitted by the chip. After scanning for all frequencies, it found a match.
“Okay,” said Marie. “Now, let’s see who wants to know where the chip is.”
She isolated the destination using the headers of data packets and sent a small tracking code to that destination, hiding it inside the chip’s message body. The message was routed through various private nodes, before ending up on one of Vik’s private server.
“That’s strange. The data isn’t being accessed by anyone,” said Marie. “Looks like we’re waiting. I wonder if I should Sylvia about it.”
It took her an hour to breach the firewall setup by Vik, but she finally gained root access to Vik’s server. She saw that the server was setup only a couple of days ago, and there were no past access logs on the server.
“Someone’s been clever,” said Marie. “Not so clever when you’re against me!”
Marie had also found a third DNA on the chip, which she hadn’t mentioned to Sylvia as she didn’t have a name to go against it. To her, half information was useless and unworthy of sharing. She ran a wide search to find a DNA match but failed. She went to a hidden room behind the wall in her office and turned on the lights.
The room had a couple of screens mounted on the front wall, while the rest of the walls were filled with images and photographs. She turned on the console, and the screen displayed the planet. It was zoomed towards North America.
Marie had managed to access the last moon couple of months ago by hacking its central node, but she didn’t want Victor to know. Victor believed Josh still had the control of Verati’s remaining sun and 2 moons, which had survived 1/1. Their counterparts had been destroyed when it rained fire on Earth, twice. First on Christmas, then again on 1/1. However, the reality was quite different. Josh only had access to the sun, while the other moon had left the Earth’s orbit on the eve of 1/1. The remaining invisible moon was now serving as Marie’s personal gadget. It was the smallest moon in Verati’s arsenal, each cluster nearly the size of five football fields, in terms of its biggest clusters. All 3 of the moon’s clusters were still operating together, spread evenly around the orbit.
“Let’s check TS – 17,” said Marie.
She accessed the moon’s cameras to check TS – 17 East, the place where the chip was last seen as per the analysis. She moved the cameras to a radius of 500 miles near TS – 17 East when the heat signature failed to pick up anything. After searching around for fifteen minutes through various feeds sent by the central node and clusters, she saw a car driving at impossible speeds, heading towards Fedric County.
She zoomed in on the video to check the plates and realized the car belonged to Morrow. The heat signature suggested there were two people in the car. She followed the car as it travelled tens of miles before it came to a stop.
“Oh, why did you stop honey?” said Marie, as Vik stepped out of the car to change the tires.
The trees around the spot prevented her from seeing the face clearly.
“What are you doing here in this strange town?” said Marie. “You should be in Morrow, and why is someone lying on the backseat of your car? Are you a killer? Do I show you the wrath of God?”
After getting bored a few minutes later, she wrote an algorithm to follow their car, and click photos whenever a face was visible, even if partially.
She returned to work on creating her own Moon 3.0. She learnt from her mistakes when Moon 2.0 crashed a few seconds after the launch.
In the evening, she returned to see hundreds of pictures had been captured. As she looked through them, her eyes popped out wide as she looked stunned.
“It’s you,” said Marie.
She ran to her wall of images and looked through them. The wall contained everything that she considered worth storing. Major events around the world, fires, possible military bases, secret buildings and campuses, and what not. It even had pictures of Atlantis as it was destroyed. She looked at the pictures and picked out one.
It was the picture of Vik on the day he left Atlantis after destroying Locus. Next to it was a picture of him running with Ally Drew, and Olivia in his arms. They were aerial shots, but his face was partially visible.
She brought those pictures back to her desk and compared it to the picture that was captured an hour ago.
“I don’t need a program to check. It’s definitely you,” uttered Marie. “Who are you? Are you connected to Victor somehow?”
She opened the live feed. After an hour, she saw him pushing the car down the road. The heat signature suggested there was someone else on the driver’s seat.
“Definitely a friend steering that car,” said Marie.
Marie fell asleep watching Vik push the vehicle. When she woke up early morning, she saw the car was parked near a structure. She zoomed out and saw it looked like a hospital.
She headed out of the room and walked past her laptop, glancing it through the corner of her eyes. She stopped immediately and went back to her laptop.
Someone had accessed the server. Her tracking program traced the IP address, but it was hidden behind proxies. Marie spent another thirty minutes working through those proxies, before finding out the real IP address. It belonged to a range that belonged to Morrow. She only knew about it since Anthony Arnold often used to communicate with a similar IP address.
It took a minute to connect the two dots.
“So this mystery person is the one who planted this tracker in the chip,” said Marie. “I’m almost tempted to meet. Should I take you on a wild ride or lead you here to Sierra?”
She wrote an algorithm to alter the information sent by the tracker. She changed the coordinates to make it look like it was transmitting from across the Pacific. But sh
e couldn’t get herself to run that algorithm. She wasn’t a fan of Victor and was curious to meet the person who was smart enough to outsmart Victor and Anthony on several occasions.
She had also hit a roadblock stabilizing the exponential increase in output due to solar flares. Her simulations predicted Moon 3.0 would be rendered useless within a year of operation.
She let the chip idle on her desk. A few hours later, the tracker consumed itself.
**********************************************************
Sylvia briefed Victor about Marie’s findings. She did her best to shift the blame to Marie, by repeatedly saying Marie’s name, which was unlike Sylvia. She often felt the messenger deserves the credit as much as the person whose message was being delivered. Victor dismissed her shortly after and called Anton to his office. Anton arrived with a cigar in his hand, to which Victor took a slight offence. He felt Anton was either making a point or disrespecting Victor because he felt irreplaceable. Victor told him that it was possible that Anthony might have given a fake chip to Olivia, and the real one was still out there.
“What should we do?” asked Anton. “We already checked 19 and Morrow.”
“I want every inch of Atlantis to be scanned. Maybe our blue phoenix is too weak to rise out of ashes on its own,” said Victor.
“Why can’t we just bring Jay and force him to tell us?” asked Anton.
“He loves his daughter. She is his weakness. He is Josh’s. Our whole plan hinges on that. There’s no way he would’ve given a fake chip to Vicky in exchange for Katie. He didn’t have any reason to distrust Vicky. Plus, he already has his own chip hidden somewhere and would know that even if Vicky had one out of three chips, it would be useless to her. He thinks I died on 1/1, and thus, in his mind, my chip’s whereabouts are unknown at best. Even if she had gotten hold of it, she would still be short by one. It was a no-brainer. Maybe Anthony had outsmarted everyone, after all,” said Victor.
“What if Jay destroyed the chip?” asked Anton.
“Do you have amnesia, or are you just stupid?” yelled Victor, finally letting go of his anger that had been burning his heart. “He’s too smart for that. Without the chips, Josh and his spawns would be unstoppable.”
“Just for the sake of my curiosity, what happens if a chip is destroyed?” asked Anton.
“He told me the chip is programmed to regenerate on a person’s 75th birthday,” said Victor. “A fail-safe in case things go awry.”
“Regenerate how? How do we get it?” asked Anton.
“That’d be all for now. Keep me updated about Atlantis,” said Victor, dismissing him.
Anton stomped out of there, feeling a little embarrassed and angry.
Chapter 21: Extraction
Emma returned for active duty less than 16 hours post her discharge from the hospital. As she was walking into the building, which was undergoing some construction in the parking lot, Vik was leaving. He was still thinking about Karen’s agenda for lunch and walked past Emma without looking at her.
“Rude!” yelled Emma.
He turned around and looked at her.
“What? Why?” asked Vik in a contrite tone, as he came up to her.
“You didn’t ask how I was,” said Emma.
“You look good, but still, how are you?” said Vik.
“Little frail,” said Emma.
“Too bad you can’t just leave and take a day off,” said Vik.
“Why? I can totally do that,” said Emma.
Vik sighed and walked away.
“Oh, you mean…” said Emma, but he didn’t stop. “I was bored, but I guess you don’t care about that.”
Shortly after, Joey and Kate arrived within a minute of each other, only to find Emma sitting on her desk.
“Look who’s back!” said Kate.
“I couldn’t stay away,” said Emma as she smiled and hugged her.
“How are you?” asked Joey as they hugged.
“Fine. See. It’s such a natural think to ask,” said Emma.
“What?” asked Joey.
“Nothing, I ran into Vik just now. He didn’t even ask how I was doing,” said Emma.
“And that matters because?” asked Kate.
“I know it doesn’t. But you know..common courtesy,” said Emma.
“Stop stressing your mind so much,” said Joey. “Anyways, I gotta go pee.”
“Too much information,” chuckled Emma.
Kate laughed too.
When Joey left, Emma conveyed to Kate that Vik still blamed Emma for what happened with Katie. Kate told her that Vik must be busy with other things. Emma noticed Kate was looking aloof but didn’t think much of it.
A couple of hours later, Emma went outside the precinct to make a call. No one picked up the first time, she got tensed and redialed the number. This time, someone picked up.
“Hey, it’s Emma,” said Emma.
“Mrs. Walker is sleeping,” said the woman on the other end.
“How’s she?” asked Emma.
“She’s fine. She was asking for you earlier,” said the woman.
“Yeah?” asked Emma.
“We went to the cemetery today,” said the woman. “She wanted to meet Hattie on her birthday.”
“Good. Has she been taking the medicines?” asked Emma.
“Yes. Your guy dropped a fresh batch couple of days ago and supplies,” said the woman.
“Are they working? The medicines?” asked Emma.
“It’s too early to say. We caught it early, but it’s still Alzheimer’s,” said the woman.
“I know. How did Hattie look?” asked Emma.
“Beautiful as ever. Nice of you to drop flowers,” said the woman.
“Flowers? I didn’t leave any. I haven’t visited her for the past 3 years,” said Emma. “You know that. You think I would visit her grave and wouldn’t walk another fifty yards to visit my mother?”
“Sorry, I thought it was you. Well, someone has been leaving her favorite white lilies on her grave for the past three years,” said the woman.
“Who?” asked Emma.
“Don’t know, really I thought it was you,” said the woman.
“Okay. Have her call me when she gets up,” said Emma.
“Your mother would like that,” said the woman. “Bye.”
“Bye,” said Emma.
Emma wiped away a tear in her left eye, took a deep breath, and went inside the precinct.
*****************************************************************
Vik was waiting for someone in Arnold Park on 7th Street. He was sitting at his usual bench near the south side of the park, and arms spread out resting on the bench’s backrest. He was casually looking at visitors entering the park a hundred yards away. A few minutes later, someone tapped on his shoulder. He turned around and saw Xavi Nino, one of his black market dealers. Xavi was dressed in his black leather jacket, which was a requirement for middlemen in bed with the local mafia.
Xavi sat on the opposite bench a few feet away and made small talk about the birds and the flowers. When they were alone in the park, Xavi took out a pad and a pen.
“Busy streets today,” said Xavi. “Lots of trucks.”
“Supply and Trade day, to last for the next 3 months,” said Vik.
“I know. I’m selling cookies,” said Xavi.
“Haha, really?” said Vik.
“Yeah, Sheriff himself stopped my car at the gate,” said Xavi.
“Well, things have been quite strange lately,” said Vik.
“That’s why all the cameras,” said Xavi. “Except here, of course.”
“So, what do you got for me?” asked Vik.
“You know, the usual stuff. But if you got something special to order, I’m your man,” said Xavi.
“Of course you are,” said Vik.
“Heard you’ve been unfaithful lately. I thought our relationship was special,” said Xavi.
“It is. You all serve my needs,” said
Vik.
Xavi smiled.
Vik threw a piece of paper towards Xavi. Xavi unrolled it and read the list quietly.
“These are pretty rare,” said Xavi.
“And?” said Vik.
“The last two will cost you a bit more this time,” said Xavi.
“How much are we talking?” asked Vik.
“Worth 8 figures,” said Xavi.
“I’m going to need an exact number,” said Vik.
“I don’t have a number yet,” said Xavi.
“But you can get these, right?” asked Vik.
“If I can’t, no one on the east coast can,” said Xavi.
“Good,” said Vik.
“Anything else?” asked Xavi.
“Why, you got something you are looking to unload?” asked Vik as he tried to read an anxious Xavi.
“Lots of things. Weapons, Food, Servers, Cables, you know, electronic stuff. I raided a major establishment couple of months ago,” said Xavi as he came closer. “Got a couple of trucks for you.”
“How much?” asked Vik as he closed in so that they could talk in whispers.
“10000 Storage belts,” said Xavi.
“Greedy much? Make that 100 trucks for that many storage belts,” said Vik.
“It’s fuel belts, not gold bricks,” said Xavi.
“Do you think I’ll be sitting here if I had that much gold on me?” said Vik.
“50?” said Xavi.
“50 belts?” asked Vik.
“50 trucks,” said Xavi.
“Big or small trucks?” asked Vik, smiling.
“Now, you’re just messing with me,” laughed Xavi.
“When can you deliver?” asked Vik.
“5 days,” said Xavi.
“Who’s the seller?” asked Vik. “Don’t say it’s you.”
“Don’t worry. You’ll never see them. You know how I work. I deliver the belts, get the trucks, and deliver the trucks to you,” said Xavi.
“This time, I want the trucks first,” said Vik.
“Why?” asked Xavi.
“I don’t even know what I am buying,” said Vik, trying to pass off the risk to Xavi.
“Sorry, no deal,” said Xavi.
“Okay,” said Vik. “Call me when you complete my list.”
Vik got up and started walking away.