by Edwin Dasso
Using QuIEK, she brought up everything she had on the Pit. She found what she was looking for and started working.
It really came down to telling QuIEK to link to the quantum processing that was apparently still happening in this facility—negotiate with the strange LTE signal and communicate with the system that kept things running here. She’d done this to open the door, but maybe there was more she could do.
QuIEK caught on to what she was trying to accomplish and assisted.
Lights snapped on all around them.
But more than that.
Throughout the facility, a trail of lights was clicking on, pointing the way to where they were.
“Agent Denzel,” Kayne said to her phone. “Agents Symon and Mayher… follow the yellow brick road. All lights lead to us, and to our bad guy!”
“Roger that,” Denzel’s voice came back. “I’m on my way.”
“So are we!” Symon said.
Kayne smiled, then slumped, slipping her phone back into her pocket. She looked around, breathing heavily.
The cubical farm was lit up now. She could make out every detail. The light was comforting, in its way, but it was still an eerie feeling, being here in this place knowing what it was and what it was for.
“Turn them off!”
She was startled and looked up to see the Comrade standing only a few feet away. The curved and wicked blade was raised, ready, hungry.
This was it.
“Turn off the lights!” the Comrade shouted, and for the first time Kayne realized that there was a note of fear and panic in his voice.
He was afraid of the light?
No, she thought. He’s afraid of this place. This American, capitalist symbol. He doesn’t want to see it in the light.
She was going to say something, to snap a witty remark his way, maybe. She was going to tell him to go to hell. But before she could say anything, he lunged to kill her.
A sudden scream changed all the Comrade’s plans.
Kayne had closed her eyes, waiting for the inevitable. When she opened them, she saw the Comrade standing only a foot or so from her. She saw the arm holding his wicked blade slowly lower, the blade falling to the floor. And then, seconds later, the Comrade joined it there.
Kayne blinked, not quite sure if she could believe what she was seeing.
The Comrade was lying face down and embedded in the back of his skull was some sort of blade. Something sort of familiar, but still unbelievable.
Is that a paper cutter?
“Kotler?” She asked, looking up and past the heap of the body at her feet.
“Wasn’t me,” Kotler huffed from somewhere beyond the cubicle wall.
Kayne scrambled to her feet, rising slowly, unsure how much she should trust what was happening.
Standing outside of the cubicle, huffing and panting, eyes wide with some emotion—fear or horror, Kayne couldn’t be sure—was a woman. A woman Kayne had only seen in photographs.
“Dr. Rivers?” Kayne asked.
Rivers didn’t look at her. She just stared at the Comrade, and then at the curved blade.
“Móki,” she said quietly. She looked at Kayne, and then back at Kotler, who was limping into the space, leaning on one of the cubicle walls for support. “That’s what he called that… thing. ‘Móki.’”
“Death,” Kotler said, quietly. He looked at Kayne, and she was giving him a strange expression, shaking her head.
“Móki the Hopi word for death,” Kotler offered.
Kayne looked down now at the Comrade’s lifeless body.
“Death,” she repeated, nodding.
She kicked Móki away from the Comrade’s dead hand. Just in case.
The three of them were standing in those exact positions when the FBI agents burst into the room. All three had weapons raised and were yelling commands.
The commotion ended quickly once they realized that Kotler, Kayne, and Rivers were all good guys, and all safe.
Kayne stepped over the Comrade’s body, out of the cubicle. She went to Dr. Rivers, who was standing as still as a stone, staring at the Comrade. Kayne tentatively reached out, and in an instant Rivers gave over, allowing herself to be enfolded in a hug, sobbing into Kayne’s shoulder. It seemed like exhaustion more than anything. Relief. She didn’t seem injured, but there were signs she might be in shock.
Kayne gently directed Rivers to another part of the office, finding a chair for her to sit in. She stayed with her as the agents checked on the Comrade and started making calls to the outside—facilitated by QuIEK, and relaying from Kotler’s iPad.
It was over.
The mission was complete. Kayne was seeing the aftermath. She knew what that meant.
Rivers had been rescued.
The day had been saved.
The agents were on the scene.
Now, it was time for Kayne to go to prison.
14
Kotler was standing beside their 4x4. His leg had been bandaged, and he’d been given pain killers. He was, by most rights, feeling pretty good.
Denzel was standing with Agents Symon and Mayher, the three of them debriefing. They’d already gotten statements from Kotler, Kayne, and Rivers.
Dr. Rivers herself was sitting in the back seat of the 4x4 that Agent Symon had brought in. Agent Barr’s body was still inside the Pit, covered, and waiting for the team of agents, paramedics, and other personnel to arrive.
Alex Kayne was handcuffed to the front of Symon’s vehicle.
It wasn’t right.
They wouldn’t be here, without her. Kotler, at least, would be dead twice over. They’d likely have spent days trying to get into the Pit without her, and in that time Dr. Rivers would likely be dead as well.
Alex Kayne had saved the day. One out of many times she’d done so, at great personal risk. At the risk of both life and liberty.
It wasn’t right, that she was shackled and waiting to go rot in a cell somewhere, buried, her only hope of freedom coming at the cost of giving the government a weapon too powerful for anyone to control.
Anyone other than Alex Kayne.
Kotler moved to her, limping, but determined. He leaned against the front end of the 4x4 and shook his head.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“For what?” Kayne asked, giving him a wisp of a smile.
“For getting you into this. For getting you arrested.”
Kayne shrugged. “It happens. I knew what I was getting into. I’ve been in positions like this before.”
Kotler nodded. “So what happens now?”
Kayne shook her head. “No way to know, honestly. But best-case scenario is they put me into a deep, dark cell somewhere and keep me there until I agree to give them QuIEK.”
“And… will you?” Kotler asked, eyeing her.
She smiled. “Doesn’t seem likely.”
Kotler shook his head. “So you’d rather sit in prison for the rest of your life than trust the US government with this tech?”
She sighed. “Is it just the US government? When this started, it was the Russians, and the US government, and who knew who else. QuIEK—it isn’t just a piece of software, you know. It’s the ultimate digital skeleton key. And it’s also an advanced AI. You can tell it what you want, and it can go make it happen. Like a genie. It’s better if someone smart is at the helm, but it’s dangerous enough all on its own.”
Kotler considered this and nodded. “When you made it, I’m sure that the intention was something good, right?”
“It was,” she said, looking off toward the hillside, her eyes soft. “I was stupid enough to think it would make the world a better, safer place.”
Kotler thought for a moment, then said, “I think that’s exactly what it’s doing. Of course, with someone smart at the helm.”
She looked at him then nodded, laughing lightly.
Kotler sighed. “Well, maybe I can put in a good word? And so can Denzel and Symon. I’m sure Liz—Director Ludlum—could do the sa
me. It might help.”
Kayne was watching him and shrugged. “It might. Thank you.”
He sighed. “It’s the least I can do, since you saved my life in there.”
She laughed. “I think we both owe Dr. Rivers for that one,” she looked back to see Clara Rivers sleeping in the back seat. “She’s the brave one.”
“Yes,” Kotler agreed. “Plenty of brave ones here, though. And you’re one of them.”
Kayne shrugged again.
It was at that moment that a sound started echoing over the hills. The chop-chop-chop of a helicopter.
“They got here faster than I expected,” Kotler said, shifting to get a better view of the approaching chopper.
“Yeah,” Kayne agreed. But there was something in her voice that made Kotler look at her.
She was standing beside him, as before. But her hands were free.
She held up a small piece of flat metal, about the width of a fingernail, maybe six inches long. “Hold this for me?” She handed him the little shim.
Kotler’s eyes were wide, and a smirk slowly appeared on his face. “You did tell us you were going to get a helicopter,” he said.
She smiled at him, then turned and sprinted down the hillside, toward the approaching aircraft.
“Hey!” Denzel shouted, and he and the other two agents raced forward. “Kotler, did you let her loose?”
“Wasn’t me,” he said, shaking his head. “I don’t have a key.”
They ran past him, and he watched as Kayne leapt to clutch a roper ladder that was dangling from the helicopter. The chopper rose then, banking as Kayne held on for dear life, and in moments it disappeared over the hillside, the sound fading as she raced away into the distance.
Kotler looked down at the little shim, then to the ground in front of the 4x4’s bumper. He spotted something shiny at his feet and stooped to pick it up.
A ring. And inside of it, a little channel where the metal shim would have fit, disguising it.
He remembered Kayne had been wearing this ring. He’d thought nothing of it, had barely taken note of it.
As the agents stood scanning the skies, Denzel on his phone and giving orders to find that helicopter, to track it and relay back to him, Kotler took a moment to work the shim back into the ring’s inner channel. With that work done, he slipped the ring itself into his pocket.
He’d keep it, as a little souvenir.
The agents all returned to grill him, and he told them the truth. Kayne had gotten out of the cuffs and had run for the helicopter. He indicated his injured leg, saying that he couldn’t have pursued.
Denzel gave him a look, but shook his head.
Soon enough, their own helicopters arrived, and everyone got busy.
He suspected that Denzel and Symon were merely putting on a show of being upset over Kayne’s escape. But he knew Denzel well enough to know that he’d been serious about taking Kayne in. Symon, too, seemed the type. They were both duty bound, even if they didn’t like the duty.
They had more in common than either man might have thought. It was a shame there was still some animosity between them.
Kotler would have to give a full debriefing later, he knew. But everything was going to be fine.
Alex Kayne, once again in the wind. She wasn’t the big story here anymore, if she ever really was.
Things were wrapping up, and Kotler was angling to try to catch a ride home on one of the helicopters, when the real chaos started.
The Pit started to make noise. An alarm sounded, loud and obnoxious, and as all the agents present pulled back, something started happening deep within the mountain. When the noise stopped, a team cautiously entered, and emerged moments later to inform them that many of the tunnels leading into the facility had collapsed.
“They apparently had some kind of security measure in place,” one of the agents reported. “Like a self destruct. Charges were set to collapse all the entrances.”
“And it just happened to engage after all these years, after we were cleared out?” Symon asked.
The agent had offered some theories, but Kotler had a one already in mind.
Kayne had recognized the danger of what the Pit represented. The quantum encryption and other technology still present in this place might be old school, but it was still dangerous. In the same way QuIEK was dangerous.
And she’d used QuIEK to make sure none of the secrets of the Pit fell into the wrong hands.
It might not be enough. The tech here was likely cataloged somewhere. It was old, by decades, so there was every possibility that some updated and current version of it was in play elsewhere. But as a measure, taking out the Pit wasn’t a bad idea.
Kotler glanced toward the horizon, where Kayne had literally ridden off into the sunset.
Some heroes have the whole world against them, Kotler thought, smiling. And they do the right thing anyway.
Epilogue
Kayne sat in a coffee shop in Cypress Park, Texas, about 45 minutes from Austin. She’d been here for the past three days, working out the details of her next case. The events of the past couple of weeks were still fresh, but fading. Just another day at the office.
That was what she kept telling herself.
Her current case involved a lot less “secret government facility” and a little more “overzealous HOA.” A master-plan community being a little too quick with the foreclosures was hardly the same as an abandoned secret base full of dark science, but the people who might suffer were just as important, and needed help just as much.
She was working out the best approach to making things right for the homeowners here when she got a chirp from her laptop.
She smiled.
She knew he’d try it. He was just the type.
She opened the browser tab, then looked around at her surroundings, making sure no one could see over her shoulder.
She normally liked to take as many precautions as possible, keep the visual and audible clues to her whereabouts as down low as they could go. But she felt like she was safe on this one. She felt she could trust him.
Which didn’t necessarily mean she’d taken no precautions.
She’d had QuIEK arrange it so that only Dr. Kotler could use the video chat URL—the same one she’d given him before. If anyone else was present, physically or virtually, or if anyone else attempted to use that link, it wouldn’t work.
So it was Kotler, or nothing.
She opened the window and popped in her earbuds.
“Well,” Kotler said from her screen. “I didn’t think this would work.”
“Don’t get used to it,” she smiled back at him. “It’s a onetime thing.”
Kotler held up a tiny circle of metal. The ring she’d left behind. “You dropped this.”
“Keep it,” she said. “Maybe you can return it to me next time we meet.”
“So there will be a next time?” Kotler replied.
Kayne smiled. Kotler was a charmer. He was good at getting people to trust him, mostly because he was worthy of their trust. “There always seems to be a next time,” Kayne said.
Kotler nodded at this. “How can I reach you? If I ever need to?”
She thought about this. “You still have the same phone? The one you were using at the Pitt?”
Kotler held it up.
“Don’t lose it,” she said.
“I’ll keep it safe,” he replied, nodding. “Might get a new one and put this one someplace special.”
“Probably a smart idea,” Kayne agreed.
“And what about you?” Kotler said, suddenly becoming serious. “Are you… safe?”
“As much as I ever am,” she replied. “But thanks for asking.”
He nodded again. “Ok,” he said. “I just wanted to say thank you for your help. I know what it meant, to put yourself in that position. But I don’t think we’d have found Dr. Rivers without you. Oh! She wanted me to pass on a thank you as well, if I ever saw you. So, double thank you.”
“Don Quixote reference? Careful… you don’t seem to have a Sancho Panza. And Don Quixote was kind of nuts.”
Kayne smiled, laughing lightly. “Fair enough.”
Kotler again nodded, then reached out and tapped something on his side. The call ended.
Kayne closed the window. That URL would never work again. But she’d make sure that regardless of what phone Kotler used, there’d be a way to reach her. He just didn’t necessarily have to know about it.
She might not have a Sancho, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t have a friend or two.
It was still true that friends were a luxury she might not be able to afford. But she had a feeling about Dr. Dan Kotler. He seemed to be as much trouble as she was.
And trouble was always best when it stuck together.
A (Quick) Note at the End
Usually, at the end of my novels, I write an afterword I call “A Note at the End.” It’s typically where I share some notes about the book, and the process of writing it. Totally optional reading.
Since this story is being included in a box set with a bunch of amazing authors, I’m going to keep this one short and sweet.
If you enjoyed this book, I have dozens more thrillers that you may love. Find them all on my website.
And while you’re there, sign up to get a free novella, and you’ll be part of my mailing list. You can also click on the Contact tab and let me know how you found me. I love hearing from readers, so I’m looking forward to getting to know you!
God bless and happy reading,
Kevin Tumlinson
Sugar Land, Texas
2 December 2020
About the Author
Kevin Tumlinson is an award-winning and bestselling thriller author, with books available in hundreds of countries worldwide. With a long-standing career in film, television, radio, and podcasting, Kevin is a seasoned world traveler and has produced documentary programming and films on topics ranging from historic aviation to military history. He spends his time traveling with his wife and their little chihuahua-terrier, Mini, while he writes from various cafés and coffee shops around the world.