“We already determined that was synthetic. You can probably take that today, along with the bracelet. It’s not going to give us anything of value.”
“What else is in the box?” Lexil asked.
“There was a worktablet, but it wouldn’t activate without biometrics. We’re not even sure it’s your dad’s. Might be Morgan’s. We’ve got people working on that back at the station.”
Lexil was peering in the box, moving items aside with one finger to see beneath them. “I wouldn’t recommend trying to read chronetic energies off the tablet until you’ve unlocked it and learned what you can. The observation boxes can make a mess of electronic information. Looks like everything else in the box is just clothing and toiletries.”
“Right. And everything made out of synthetic materials. My young intern over here has already checked them out for me.” He gestured toward the observation box, where the intern was sitting.
No, Dani corrected herself. The intern was actually slumped over the controls and snoring softly. “Uh, I think he’s asleep.” Her mouth twitched up at the corner. “Should we wake him?”
“I’ll nudge him in a minute. I was pretty much done with him anyway. Good thing we didn’t need your expertise with those quick scans, Dani. I don’t think my young man here would have held up.” He smiled.
“You sure must have been working him hard before we got here, Detective.” Lexil winked.
“Yeah, that’s it. That’s what I did. Well, you two, I guess I’m done with you for now. I’ve talked to your mom, Dani, but remind her not to leave town until we get this solved.”
“Are you going to try to rescue Morgan when you deliver the ransom money tomorrow?”
The detective started to answer, and then he stopped. “I think the less you know about our plans, the less we can suspect you of if something doesn’t work out the way we want it to.”
“I was really hoping to go along, if I could?”
The detective shook his head. “No, that’s out of the question. I’ll be going, and Althea, and her bodyguard—the one you met, Doyle—and a deputy or two. You need to stay here.”
“You just got out of the hospital,” Lexil reminded her. “They might have to move fast. You couldn’t do that.”
She nodded. “I guess we should go back to Kat and Jored, then. She said she’d give me a ride home.” She turned toward the door. Then she spun back. “Except—Jored said that island had a security field of some kind. How are you going to get through it?”
“Althea assures me she has that handled. We’ll be fine. It’s not your worry. Go home and heal.”
DANI’S APARTMENT, First Hill, Seattle, WA. 0740, Tuesday, September 19, 2215.
Dani woke to a flashing message on her eyescreen. It was Detective Rayes. She activated the audio. “Hello?”
“How fast can you get ready?”
She’d had a restless night. Her eyescreen told her she had only slept two fitful hours. “Ready? For what?”
The detective cleared his throat. “Althea is insisting you come along to the island.”
“What? Why? Did you tell her my dad might be involved?”
“Yes. That’s when she said she wanted you to come along. And I have to admit, she has a point. If your father is there, and he’s got Morgan hostage, having you available might work in our favor.”
“Fifteen minutes. Where do you want me to go?”
“I’ll have an officer pick you up.”
“I’ll be ready.” She thought about wearing one of the new outfits Althea had bought her, but decided against it. With everyone assuming her father was the kidnapper—and she had to admit, it was looking more and more likely that he was—it just seemed rude to wear something Drummond Morgan had paid for, even indirectly.
The irisscan announced a visitor: “Officer Brendi Littleton.” Dani hadn’t met her before, but she looked vaguely familiar. The helicar was hovering right outside. She got in the helicar with her and tried to make small talk, but the officer responded in monosyllables. She must know my dad is a suspect, Dani thought. So she stopped trying and rode to the pier in silence. She was surprised to see the others already aboard a small convertible boat, equipped to work either on the surface of the water or in the air. The propeller rotors were tucked away inside the gunwales, but Dani could still see them. The boat bobbed gently in the waves.
“We’re not flying in?” she asked.
“No, ma’am.” Doyle answered, helping her in. “You wouldn’t want to try to get through the security field from the air. We’ll be approaching it at sea level.”
“Is this your vehicle?” she asked, once she got aboard.
He snorted. “On my pay? No, it belongs to the agency. It’s more comfortable than it looks. You’ll need to wear this.” He handed her a life jacket.
“You can sit over there, Dani. We’re just waiting on you,” Althea said, over her shoulder. “I want to get this over with.”
Dani fastened her life jacket and sat. She noticed one other uniformed officer on board, but nobody offered an introduction. “How are we getting through the security field, Althea? Detective Rayes said you had a way.”
Althea turned to face her. “The only way you can get through the field is if you own property on the island. And the only way you can own property is to be a member of the Emerald City Yacht Club first. Dad joined when Wade first said he wanted to compete, so he’d be assured a spot in the lineup.”
“Expensive entry.” Dani tried to keep her tone low-key. She could tell Althea was edgy.
“You think that’s expensive? Wait’ll you hear the rest. It wasn’t just Seattle; he bought yacht club memberships in every city where there were regular meets, whether Wade had expressed interest in competing there or not. We only lived a couple of hours from here, but we didn’t have waterfront, so he bought property on the island and built a vacation home. He didn’t want Wade to have to worry about hotels while he trained.” She frowned and her eyes took on a distant look, as if she were focusing on a memory. “Nothing was too good for my brother.”
Dani heard bitterness mixed with the obvious nostalgia in her voice. She wondered what it would be like to have a sibling and have to compete for her parents’ attention all the time. “And you can go there too?”
Althea blinked to refocus on Dani. “We all got these implants.” She pointed to her arm below her left wrist. “I don’t know exactly how they work. Doyle does.”
Doyle nodded. “As I understand it, security was a complicated issue because the owners asked for two shields. The first one hampers wireless electronic communication. It’s on all the time. The second one is a series of EMP guns—that’s a simplification—that are triggered by motion sensors. When a vehicle comes within 400 meters from shore, whether it is in the air or on the water, it faces a pulse that quickly knocks out the engines. If you’re in the air, you fall. If you’re on the water, you have to paddle out or wait for someone unaffected to give you a tow. The Shore Patrol can help, but you have no way of calling them to ask for aid. A few inadvertent interlopers who spent the night on the water got a lot of publicity and that was enough to deter everyone else.”
Dani was glad for something to focus on. It helped keep her mind off of what they’d face on the island. “If the first shield blocks communication, how do the implants keep the EMP guns from firing?”
“That was the challenge. They hired an expert to work out the details. Some of his methods are closely guarded secrets, but I’ve learned the gist of the process. First, we have to approach from the north, where the water is much more shallow near the island. People who come from any other direction never get through, but here on this side there’s a submerged sensor twelve meters down at a certain point exactly 812 meters from shore. That’s a big part of how we find it—just watch the depth meter as we get close.” He gestured toward a gauge on the control panel.
Dani leaned to get a better look. It read 52.6 meters.
“Yeah, we h
ave a bit to go still. Pretty deep out here. When we get within 30 meters of the right spot, measuring diagonally to the seabed, Althea’s implant will emit a signal. The tethered sensor will detach from its anchor and float to the surface.”
“So anyone who doesn’t have an implant never sees the sensor at all.”
“Right. When it surfaces, we’ll see it and take her over to let it scan her wrist. The sensor is wired, so it can send a signal past the communications shield to the island. That gives us 20 minutes to get beyond the range of the motion sensors so we can continue on to shore.”
“How do people see the sensor in the dark?”
“It blinks and beeps. Pretty obnoxious. Can’t miss it.”
Althea yawned and rolled her eyes. “All I know is, I call it and it answers. Are we getting close, Doyle?”
“A few more minutes.”
Dani had one more question. “What would happen if someone were in a sailboat and happened to cross the line?”
“Ah, you spotted the weakness. True, sailboats—and canoes and kayaks—can come right up to the docks. The EMP guns fire, but they don’t have any effect on paddle power or wind power. But they won’t be able to get any farther than the dock. The motion sensors also alert the Shore Patrol, and they’ll be watched and met with, shall we say, extreme discouragement if they even look as if they want to come on shore. From what I’ve heard, the few that venture that close leave in a hurry when they see what awaits them.”
“Not a much of a weakness after all.”
“Nope. And here we are. Hear the beeping?”
Althea waited until the floating sensor was so close that she barely had to reach to let it scan her wrist. It completed the scan and beeped three times. Then the tether tightened and the sensor was sucked back under the surface to await the next entry-seeker.
I’ll have to tell Jored we went to the Mystery Island, Dani thought. If I make it back in one piece.
Thinking about Jored made her remember that Kat was going to call her. What time had she said? 0930? By that time, they’d be within the communications shield and any attempt to use a connexion would be futile.
She called. If Kat didn’t answer, at least she could leave a message.
But Kat did answer. “You’re up! We’re having breakfast. Be done quick, though. Do you want to leave early?”
“Uh, no.” Dani turned on the vid transmission so Kat could see where she was. “I’ve already left. Tell Jored we’re on our way to his Mystery Island, and we found a way through.”
“He’ll be thrilled. Hang on, I’ll transfer you to the viewwall so he can see too.”
“Hey, Jored.”
“Hi, Dani!”
“Look what we have ahead of us.” She focused her eyes on the island, not nearly as far away now, and blinked to send the image over the connexion.
“Mystery Island!”
“Yep, we’re going there today. Want me to bring you back a rock or something?”
“Yeah!”
“Okay, I’ll do that. I’m going to have to go soon, though. It blocks the signal out here.”
“I ‘member that.”
“I know you do. See you later, okay?”
“Okay. And when you get stuck, don’t worry. We’ll come get you.”
“Jored! She’s not going to get stuck. Don’t listen to him, Dani. Call when you get back out of there.”
The signal was breaking up. Dani shot off a quick, “Okay, soon,” and closed the connexion.
“You won’t be able to use that again until we’re on our way back.”
“Can’t we get this over with?” Althea was rocking back and forth. Not quite rocking. More like twitching. She’d probably pace, if she could. “Just take this thing up in the air.”
“That’s not a good idea,” Doyle said. “We could fly up out of the sensor range and then be detected again when we came back down. That would make for a quick descent. It’s my job to protect you, so I’m going to say no.”
“Can we go faster, then?”
Doyle shrugged, and opened the throttle wide.
Dani could feel the wind in her face. Soon she would see her father again, if only briefly, before they took him away to prison. Her longing would be satisfied at his expense.
They got two hundred meters closer to the island before the motor quit.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Sentimentality
WALLACE HOME, Lower Queen Anne, Seattle, WA. 0940, Tuesday, September 19, 2215.
“Why did you tell her she was going to get stuck?” Kat asked. “That wasn’t very nice.”
Jored shrugged. Then he darted down the hall for some mysterious reason.
Honestly, as much as she loved him, some days she didn’t know what was going on in that brain of his.
The irisscan announced, “Marak is home.” Seconds later, the door whooshed open.
Kat couldn’t remember the last time he’d come home so early in the morning. “Did you forget something?”
“No, I came to get you.”
“For what?”
“Do you have plans? Cancel them, if so. We need to pick up your uncle. His release documents came through at 0600, and he’s already en route from the offshore prison we’re not supposed to know the location of. We need to go now, or we might not get there in time, and they won’t release him to anyone else. We both have to sign for him.”
“I’m all packed. And I’ve already gone to the bathroom.” Jored stood by the door, with an activity bag stuffed full of whatever he’d decided he needed to entertain himself. She saw a pair of headphones hanging out of the top of the bag, but she had no idea what else was in there. Kind of like his brain.
“Well, okay then. Let me just grab one thing before we go.”
“Let’s go, Son. Your mom will join us.”
“I know.”
While Marak took Jored out to the helicar, Kat dragged out the oilskin bag. They’d be in the air for a good thirty minutes on the way back from picking her uncle up. It would be the first time he could talk outside of the constant monitoring. By this afternoon, she planned to leave the recordings with Detective Rayes and let him worry about what to do with them. But first, she had promised Royce the chance to separate out the ones that he said were lies.
She couldn’t wait to be rid of them.
The transfer went smoothly. Uncle Royce had very few personal belongings. “Mostly my meds,” he said, “and a few items of personal hygiene. I’ll be tossing those and getting decent ones as soon as I can.” He climbed in the helicar in the back, with Jored. “Ouch. I’m not as spry as I used to be. Didn’t get much exercise in that place.”
Marak shifted in his seat to turn and look at him. “What kinds of meds? Do we need to know all that, as your sponsors?”
“I’ll tell you about them later, but you don’t need to worry. They can monitor my physical readings remotely, and adjust the meds that make me less, uh—” He glanced at Jored. Jored smiled back. “—less anti-social, I guess you could say. Locate me within a few meters, too.”
“No wonder they were willing to turn you loose,” Marak said. “I’m surprised there were so many hurdles to jump.”
“They had to be sure the meds and the implant weren’t working against each other. But things are good, and they said I could go. Thank you for all your work on that, Marak.”
Kat was impressed. She’d seen several signs already that her uncle was more empathetic, more able to look at things from another’s perspective.
“Is Uncle Royce going to be living with us, Dad?”
“No, Son. He’s going to live at his house, like he always has.”
“Except when he wasn’t. That’s not his house we just picked him up from.”
Kat exchanged glances with Marak. She shook her head. Just let it go. He doesn’t need to know. “We didn’t come from there, but that’s where we’re going, silly goose. Why would we need to take him home if he was already home?”
; Jored giggled, and then he pulled out his headphones and a 3D dinosaur playset that he could program to enact simulated battle scenes. Soon he was engrossed in them, and Kat saw the opportunity she’d been waiting for.
“Uncle Royce?”
He tore his eyes away from the view outside the helicar window. “I’m sorry, did you say something? It’s been so long since I’ve seen the sky.”
She felt almost guilty, asking him to turn his attention to the bag beneath his feet. It wouldn’t take him long, though. “I brought the bag. It’s under your seat.”
“You brought it here? You had it when you picked me up? That could have gone badly, if they had chosen to search the car.”
“I didn’t think of that.”
“You’re usually quite a clear thinker. This must be weighing on you pretty heavily.”
“It is. I hate to take you away from the view out your window, but would you mind pulling out the ones you’re concerned about, so we can get rid of the rest of them?”
“No, I don’t mind at all. Won’t take me but a minute.”
He retrieved the pages that cataloged the collection, flipped to a particular list, and began sorting through the memory rods, reading each numbered label.
“They are rather jumbled in here,” he apologized, with his head down and his eyes locked on the contents of the bag. “I can see why you needed me for this. It’s taking a little longer than I thought, but I’ll have them in another minute or two.”
“I didn’t even want to try. I don’t like looking at them, or even thinking about them. I’ll be glad when they’re gone.”
He looked up. She was surprised to see tears glistening at the corners of his eyes. “I’m sorry I put you through this. Is it hard for you to be around me as well?”
Her heart softened. She reached back to put her hand over his. “We’re here, aren’t we? You’re family, and we’re going to see you through this.”
He nodded and went back to digging through the memory rods.
A Chronetic Perspective (The Chronography Records Book 2) Page 22