by Siegel, Alex
"You'll break that promise pretty quickly. You'll be as bad as Atalanta soon."
She furrowed her brow.
"Are we done?" Aaron said. "Can we proceed without further distractions?"
"Yes, sir," Tawni said.
Wesley nodded.
They entered the first apartment in the hallway. Aaron had to use his lock picks, but the cheap lock presented no challenge.
The main room of the apartment contained unpainted furniture which had been assembled by amateurs. A half-eaten bowl of macaroni and cheese was on the coffee table.
"I'll take the kitchen," Aaron said. "You two work on the bedrooms. Look under the bed, the closets, the dressers, under the sink, everywhere."
He went into the small kitchen. The floor was dirty with crumbs, and dishes were piled high in the sink. He went through the cabinets. He found a lot of cheap canned and dried food, but all of it looked normal. He poked around in the garbage with a spatula.
He waved his electronic sniffer around. It found nothing of interest in the air.
It took about fifteen minutes before they were done searching the entire apartment. Aaron realized they would have to move quicker. The building contained two hundred apartments, and the police would get suspicious if the "gas workers" spent more than a few hours fixing the mythical gas leak.
He, Wesley, and Tawni worked their way down the hall, checking each apartment. Aaron found the experience depressing. He couldn't imagine living in one of these dirty little pigeon holes. Even when he had been an underpaid cop, his lifestyle had been better than this.
"This is the kind of place I grew up in," Tawni said.
"Which reminds me," Aaron said, "you need to find an apartment for yourself. It has to be within walking distance of headquarters."
"How nice an apartment can I get, sir?"
"If you like it, take it. We'll create a false identity to sign the lease and pay the utility bills. Bethany can take care of all that for you."
Tawni smiled a little. "My own apartment for free. Where does the Society get the money, sir?"
"Bankers who work for the Manhattan cell manage our accounts."
"That doesn't answer my question."
"You're not allowed to know the rest," Aaron said. "I'll just say there are secret places where God orchestrates the elaborate illusion called the financial system."
"I thought money was the root of all evil."
"The Lord created good and evil. Both are required for free will."
She contemplated that statement.
When Aaron opened the door of the next apartment, he was assaulted by the noise from a loud television. It was showing an animated program involving militant penguins. They spoke in exaggerated accents like characters in a classic war movie. He immediately walked over to turn it off.
"Wait!" Wesley said. "Don't touch it, sir."
The boy came over and stared at the television. Aaron could see the light reflected in his eyes.
"It's just a dumb show for kids," Aaron said.
"Something is wrong."
Wesley touched the flat television screen. He slowly swept his hand across the surface.
The show was very annoying, so Aaron looked at the rest of the apartment instead. Dirty clothes and food wrappers were scattered around. There was a large burn mark on the carpet. A hole had been punched in the thin wall between the living room and a bedroom. The smell from the kitchen warned him to stay out of there.
Aaron went into a bedroom. The sheets and blankets were tangled in a wad on the bare mattress. One of the pillows was torn open, exposing the foam inside. A dresser had been knocked over. It was clearly a place where a very angry person slept.
"It's lying," Wesley said.
Aaron rejoined him in the main room. "What is?"
"The TV."
"It's a fictional show."
"That's not what I mean, sir." Wesley looked under and behind the television with a puzzled expression.
"Then what do you mean?" Aaron said.
"I don't know, but this is very important."
Aaron looked long and hard at the television. It had switched to a toy commercial, which he found just as annoying as the regular show. He couldn't figure out what Wesley was talking about.
However, the Voice of Truth never lied. Aaron used his phone to summon the other two squads. A few minutes later, the whole team was gathered in the apartment and staring at the television.
"I detest this program," Smythe said.
Aaron looked at the faces in the room. Everybody seemed perturbed, even the twins, and they rarely showed any emotion. Interesting, he thought.
Kamal had a complex device for detecting electromagnetic waves. The long antenna on top had a triangular shape. Several lines of text showed on the LCD display.
He waved the detector around the television and studied the results. "No odd readings. Just the usual high frequency noise you'd expect."
Bethany checked the wiring. "It's a standard coax connection. I don't see anything strange."
An old-fashioned VCR was underneath the television. Aaron pushed in a tape and pressed the "record" button.
"You think it's the show, sir?" Smythe said.
"I can see the effect on all of you," Aaron said. "Wesley is definitely onto something. Television is a way to reach a lot of victims at one time."
"But it's just light and sound. It can't hurt people."
"Our eyeballs are hardwired to our brains."
Wesley flipped to the next channel which was showing a local news program. "It's the same effect."
"Try all the channels," Aaron said.
Wesley made a systematic survey. He identified thirteen channels where the phenomenon was present, and the rest seemed normal to him.
Aaron popped the tape out of the VCR. "Now let's try another apartment."
Everybody went next door. Wesley went through the channels again and found the same ones were affected.
"The source has to be in the cable system," Bethany said. "Some kind of subliminal video signal? A high frequency sound? A physiological resonance?"
Aaron nodded. "Finally, we have a good lead! Leanna, analyze this." He gave the tape to Leanna. "Bethany, start doing research on the local cable company. Get lists of workers. Search for patterns of covert activity. You know what to do."
"Yes, sir," Bethany said.
"Let's go home. We're done here."
The team left the apartment building and headed towards the vehicles. Aaron split off to quickly meet Lt. Neruda.
"We found the leak," he told her. "You can let everybody go back inside."
"Thank God," she said. "It was starting to get ugly out here."
Aaron noticed a man standing on top of the building across the street. He realized it was Carlos. Atalanta sat near him with her legs dangling over the edge even though she was three stories up. How are they following us? Aaron wondered. It was a question that needed an answer.
He walked off to rejoin his team.
Chapter Ten
Tawni and Odelia stood at opposite ends of a blue mat in headquarters. Both women had put on sweat suits. They were facing Aaron who wore formal gray robes. He had told Tawni they were the official robes of a commander, and they certainly made him look important. She wanted her own nice robes.
"Tawni," he said, "this is your first real lesson in fighting, so it will be very basic. I'm not talking down to you. I'm just making sure you have a solid foundation."
"Yes, sir," Tawni said.
"First off, women have weak arms. It's not your fault. You're just built that way."
She felt insulted and opened her mouth to shoot back a nasty reply. With great difficulty, she stopped herself. Aaron waited. She thought of another response and realized it was just as offensive. He watched her patiently.
After taking a deep breath, she said, "You're testing me again, sir."
"Indeed." He nodded. "But it's true. Your arms are weak, so you'll use them
for defense most of the time. Keep them close to your body. Odelia, demonstrate, please."
Odelia dropped into a fighting stance. She held her arms almost against her chest, and her hands were tightly balled into fists.
"A female legionnaire attacks with her legs primarily. That's where her strength lies. Odelia, kick me in the head, nice and hard."
Her back leg whipped around at phenomenal speed. Her foot flew up in an arc aimed at his temple. He caught her ankle in the air just before impact. Even though he was much bigger than her, the momentum of her attack made his whole body rock.
"Odelia has very strong legs," he said. "She's also very flexible."
He lifted her ankle until her leg was pointed straight up. She didn't seem to mind. He put his free hand against her belly and gave her a hard shove. She hopped backwards on one foot a few times without falling over.
"And she has tremendous balance," he added. "Try to become like her."
Do I have to become a white Barbie doll, too? Tawni thought. She fought a strong urge to speak the words out loud.
"We'll start with the most important element for a woman: balance. Lift your right knee and hold it up, both of you."
Tawni and Odelia lifted their knees. Tawni needed to use her arms to stay balanced.
"Look at Odelia," Aaron said. "Do see how quiet her body is? How still? She's relaxed but ready to fight."
He abruptly swept Odelia's supporting leg with a hook kick. She flipped backwards onto her hands and stayed upside down. She was just as steady in that position as before. Tawni couldn't help but be impressed.
Odelia pushed off with her hands and hopped back to her feet.
"Work on balance for a while," Aaron said. "Practice standing on one leg. Try to go a half-hour without getting tired or falling over. When you can do the exercise on both sides, we'll move on."
"Yes, sir," Tawni said.
The exercise sounded very boring and grueling, but she understood its importance.
Tawni heard a woman scream hysterically. It had come from the computer room. Aaron took off running, and Odelia and Tawni followed close behind.
When Tawni entered the room, she discovered one of the twins was huddled against the wall with her arms over her face. The other was savagely kicking the shit out of her sister. Odelia ran towards them.
Aaron was frozen in the middle of the room and staring at one of the computer monitors. Tawni couldn't see the front of the screen, but she heard the television show with the penguins. His eyes were bugging out like a crazy man. His fists were tightly clenched, and he was breathing rapidly. A vein pulsed in his forehead.
The workstations were plugged into a big power box. She ran over and yanked the main switch. Many of the fans in the room went silent.
"Aaron," she said, "are you OK?"
Aaron turned to her. His face was twisted with rage, and she could hear him grinding his teeth. His whole body was shaking. He walked towards her menacingly with his hands out front, ready to grab her. As she backed up, she realized she didn't have a gun. It looked like he intended to tear her apart, and with his great strength, he probably could.
Wesley ran into the room and glanced left and right. He dashed over to Tawni. He bravely placed himself between her and Aaron.
"Aaron!" he yelled. "Look at my eyes! Look! See the light!"
Aaron turned his attention to the boy.
"The anger isn't real," Wesley said urgently. "It was put in your head. This isn't you. Let the light wash away the bad feelings."
Aaron stopped walking. He twitched and his face went through contortions, as if he were having a seizure. Tawni wondered if she had looked the same way last night on the roof.
Aaron's normal calm expression slowly returned. He blinked a few times, and his fists unclenched.
Wesley ran to the twins. Odelia was sitting on the angry sister and holding her in a brutal arm lock. The girl was thrashing desperately in an attempt to escape. The other twin was still cowering and crying.
"Leanna!" Wesley said. "Look at me. I can help you. You just need to focus on my eyes."
Snarling, Leanna looked at him. Her anger gradually dissipated, and her body relaxed. Odelia got off of her.
Norbert and Smythe came in. Norbert hurried over to help with the twins, and Smythe went to his commander.
"What happened, sir?" Smythe said.
Aaron answered in an unsteady voice, "I almost killed Tawni, and Wesley saved her again. This is becoming a regular thing."
"Why?"
"The television program." Aaron glanced towards the dark computer monitors. "I saw it on the screen and anger overwhelmed me. It hit me so fast I had no opportunity to resist."
"The penguins?"
Aaron nodded. "All I wanted to do was kill. It didn't matter who I killed. Tawni just happened to be the first person I saw." He took a deep breath. "I understand this weapon now. It's extremely nasty, and Wesley might be the only cure."
"That's not convenient," Smythe said. "There is only one of him to go around."
They went over to the twins. Norbert had Leanna in his arms, and she was crying silently. Odelia's hands were glowing as she treated Bethany's injuries.
"I need an explanation," Aaron said.
Leanna sniffled. "I discovered an anomalous carrier wave buried in the video. I was using different filters to try to isolate it."
"Apparently, you succeeded."
"Yes, sir. I purified and amplified the signal."
"While you were watching the video at the same time?" he said. "That seems a little reckless, doesn't it?"
"I had to see what I was doing to the image." She wiped her nose. "I didn't think about it. I'm sorry."
"Let's be more careful next time. At least we confirmed the nature of the threat. Now we just have to find the source quickly. Bethany, do you have anything to report?"
Bethany stood up. Her legs were shaky as she walked over to her workstation. "Who turned off my computers? I had a lot of stuff running!"
"Don't be mad at Tawni. She made a reasonable choice under pressure, and she didn't hesitate." Aaron looked at Tawni. "Nice job."
She had a warm feeling inside. She wondered when she had started wanting compliments from this man.
"I'll try to remember what I can," Bethany said. "The cable company for that apartment building is Clear Path Cable and Internet. They provide service to most of Chicago and some other parts of Illinois. They were the provider in Lemonseed."
"Who owns the company?" Aaron said.
"It's part of a telecommunications conglomerate controlled by billionaire Roger Gains. I was trying to analyze the financials when Leanna lost her mind."
She started turning on her many computers. To Tawni, it looked like a complicated procedure.
"I'll build a special signal detector, sir," Leanna said. "We can use it to trace the cable lines until we find the source of the carrier wave."
"Are these lines on poles?" Aaron said.
She shook her head. "Most of them are in tunnels under the streets. The detector will have to be close to the wire to pick up the signal. No more than a few feet away."
"In other words, somebody will get to tour the city from the perspective of a mole rat."
"I'll do it, sir." She stood up straight. "I deserve to suffer after my bad mistake."
"No. I'd never send one of the lovely Satin sisters into dark, dirty, and dangerous tunnels. You could get trapped down there. This is clearly a job for a legionnaire." Aaron looked around the room.
Not me, Tawni thought, please.
"Tawni and Odelia," he said. "I'm sorry ladies, but space will be tight. I need people who are slim enough to squeeze through narrow openings. The men would just get stuck."
"Yes, sir," Odelia said with a lack of enthusiasm.
Tawni kept her mouth shut. She was afraid of what she might say if she opened it.
"Smythe and Norbert will be in a support van," Aaron said. "They'll try to stay close to you.
Smythe, bring some excavation equipment in case you need to dig them out."
"Yes, sir," Smythe said.
"What about me?" Wesley said. "I want to go."
Aaron made a sour face. "Ride in the van. There is no way I'm sending you through the tunnels."
"But, sir, I'm small, and it sounds like an adventure. I'm a legionnaire, too."
"Did you hear me? No way!"
Wesley looked down.
"We have a plan," Aaron said. "I want this to happen tonight. Tawni, try to get a little more sleep while everybody else prepares. It could be another long night."
* * *
The tunnels under the streets of Chicago were even worse than Tawni had feared. She had to walk with her head down to avoid banging it against the ceiling, and despite being careful, she had banged it plenty of times. It was a good thing she was wearing a hard hat.
A layer of muck on the floor made each step an adventure. Her heavy boots were coated almost up to the top. She didn't want to think about what was in that muck, but it smelled like moldy bread. She had definitely seen some dead rats along the way, and a few live ones.
The only illumination came from powerful flashlights that she and Odelia carried. The beams of light cut through the darkness ahead, but that left the darkness behind. Tawni kept glancing over her shoulder. She wasn't claustrophobic or afraid of the dark, but the combination was unnerving. She had seen horror movies with scenes like this.
Both women wore blue coveralls and long sleeve shirts. Work gloves covered their hands. The baggy outfits weren't attractive, but Tawni was glad for the protection. She didn't want her skin to touch anything in this environment.
Odelia also carried a device that looked like a miniature metal detector, and she was waving it across the cable conduits in the tunnel. Tawni wasn't sure why two women were needed for this job. As far as she could tell, Tawni's purpose was just to be Odelia's companion.
"You're a good fighter," Tawni said grudgingly.
"Thank you," Odelia said, "but you've never really seen me fight."
"You beat the shit out of me."
"I was holding back. I didn't want to kill you."