Veil

by Aaron Overfield

  “Somehow…” Brock echoed on the screen with an uneasy look. The thought of ever losing Hunter never occurred to him.

  “I know, I know. Don’t think I haven’t thought about it. It’s all I think about. There are so many risks and that’s why I’ve done everything exactly how I’ve done, and why I’m putting other safeties into place,” Hunter assured him. Brock started to type but Hunter already knew what his friend was going to say, so he interrupted. “And don’t worry about what those safeties are. The less you, know the better. I will have to move quickly and once I make my move, that has to be it. Once I start this in motion, we have to go from point A and not stop until we reach Tsay’s wife and partner at point B with Veil in our hands.”

  “When?” Brock asked.

  “Tomorrow—and that’s why I needed you here. I can’t do it without using you.”

  Hunter placed his hand on Brock’s thigh.

  “So why?” Brock typed but then erased it and retyped his question, “So how?”

  The third call came precisely twenty-four hours after the second, precisely when the person said it would.

  “Hello?”

  Based on his last conversation with Hunter over the Terminal, after that second call with Suren and Ken, Brock prepared a script for the third call.

  “Does the additional research you possess change the basic function of the technology in any way, or is it only additional programming?”

  “I’d say additional programming.”

  There was a slight pause and then, “In that case, the prototype will be designed before we attempt to obtain the research from you. When the design is complete, we will have to obtain that research to incorporate the additional programming. The person would like to do as much work as possible while still on the inside, in order to use the military’s resources and to decrease delay in distributing it once they make their move. Any delay would increase the risk of the military tracking down this person, you, and the technology before there is a chance to distribute it. Do you understand?”

  “Yes.”

  “This person believes the development of a prototype on their end is about two weeks from basic functionality. You will be contacted again within two weeks. Contact will always be at this precise time of the day. If the device is not ready by then, you will still be contacted exactly two weeks from today to reschedule. What you need to do within those two weeks is prepare a lab that can support the immediate development of the device based on the prototype schematics we will provide when the time comes, in case the device can’t be safely removed from the military lab. Can you do that?”

  “Ummm … um, yes, I believe so. My lab is almost complete anyway.”

  “Ok. You will be hearing from me or from this person directly within the next two weeks to coordinate a way to obtain the research from you and provide you schematics.”

  Before Ken could respond, the person on the other end terminated the call. Suren and Ken stared at each other. Neither of them spoke and Ken shrugged his shoulders.

  “Wanna hear it again?” he asked with a childish giggle and pressed the ‘replay’ button on the base of the new Tsay home phone.

  “You know I do!” she smiled.

  They’d spent part of the day shopping for a new phone. It was one with a speakerphone and recording capabilities. Suren also called the phone company and requested caller identification service be added to her line.

  “Right—take it away Brock Elsbeth,” Ken grinned before the playback started.

  The abrupt, matter-of-fact tone of the calls was something he added for flair. He wasn’t sure why. It wasn’t as if Hunter indicated how Brock should conduct himself during the calls with Suren and Ken. It all had such an air of mystery and intrigue that it felt right to conduct the calls in that manner. Hell, Hunter didn’t even instruct Brock not to reveal their identities or anything like that.

  Considering the risks Hunter was taking, Brock knew it could mean life or death. On top of that, they were dealing with an already paranoid and resourceful military, so Brock felt he should move forward with a basic-information and need-to-know attitude. So, he did. He figured the fact it was so fun to talk like that was simply a little bonus.

  Luckily, during their conversations through the Terminal, Hunter always told him exactly what needed to be communicated. Hunter provided Brock the information and instructed him to create a script for each call with Suren and Ken. Hunter said he was happy to be dealing with that Tsay guy’s old partner. Brock looked up more information about Ken after that second call and indicated to Hunter that the guy checked out.

  “Good, well here’s what I need you to say. You don’t even need him to say anything in return. You’re not having a discussion. You’re providing information and all he needs to do is acknowledge it,” Hunter told him during their last communication.

  For that third call with Suren and Ken, Brock prepared two different scripts, both typed into his computer: one in case the additional research changed the basic functions of the device and one for if it didn’t. From what Hunter told him, and it made sense despite not knowing what the hell the device was, things would be much easier and smoother if the additions didn’t change the functionality. Ken wasn’t able to tell, of course, but Brock held his breath and sighed with relief when Ken’s reply was that the additions were merely an issue of programming. Brock was a little uneasy from the uncertainty of Ken’s reply but he didn’t want to go off-script. He gave Ken the benefit of the doubt.

  Twenty minutes after he hung up with Suren and Ken following their third call, the Terminal program on Brock’s monitor opened and the cursor blinked.

  “GA,” Brock typed.

  “No, you GA!” was the response.

  “LOL. He thinks the additions are programming. He already has a lab pretty much ready to go.”

  “He thinks? Pretty much?”

  “Whatever. Do you want me to call him back?”

  “LOL. So everything went as planned, no hiccups? Did you tell him two weeks?”

  “Yes, sir. Two weeks. Yes, sir.”

  “I might get used to you calling me sir.”

  “Sicko. What now?”

  “So now I work with these two knuckle-draggers and get this thing finished, that’s what.”

  “I mean what do I do?”

  “You wait, Elizabeth.”

  Hunter closed the Terminal connection before Brock could respond to the juvenile nickname.

  Motherfucker.

  Hunter Kennerly gave himself two weeks to design and build a Veil prototype. Two weeks before he’d have Brock travel to the District, in order to help him with the next phase of his scheme. Brock didn’t know about that phase of the scheme yet but Hunter knew when the time came Brock would be ready, willing, and able. First, came the hard part: designing the actual Veil device.

  The hardest part of the hard part was picturing how the final Veil device would look. In that aspect, Hunter was in a bind. Once the military accepted the fact that Veil would never be—could never be—remotely deployed the way they initially wanted, they stopped caring so much about its design in terms of portability. Sure, they didn’t want it to take up the size of an entire room, and they preferred if all its functionality were confined to a single device rather than external computers, but they weren’t too concerned with its overall convenience.

  Knowing what was in store for Veil, or at least what he hoped and envisioned to be in store for Veil, size and portability were things Hunter had to consider. Rather than simply being used for spying and interrogation by the military, Veil was going to be mass distributed; therefore, design was a huge factor. Veil would never catch on quickly and spread like wildfire if it were some large piece of ugly, foreign technology. No, it had to inject seamlessly into the culture, like the introduction of a new video game system. A new video game system was exactly how Hunter began to think of it.

  Hunter needed to find a way to direct the military’s thinking back to size
and portability. He had to talk about it in their terms. He needed to get them thinking long-term and from the front lines. If Schaffer and Pollock wouldn’t budge, Hunter knew he still had the attention of the most important ear in the room.

  “Sure, we could make something quickly, within a few days, hook it up to a mainframe and get you up and running. Now that I know what we’re dealing with, sure, no problem,” he smoothly lectured the General. “However, that doesn’t really do you any good. Hell, you could’ve kept the original lab in that case. Or simply replicated it.”

  The General nodded and pulled down the corners of his mouth. He couldn’t see where Hunter was going but still trusted Hunter’s vision more than that of the other two combined.

  Hunter took the cue from General Coffman and continued.

  “You’ve got a unit out in the field. Recon or what have you. They come across a group of insurgents. There’s a conflict. The unit assumes control of the situation. Now they have an insurgent in their possession. An insurgent, right there in front of them, and he has the exact information the commander needs to know to keep pushing his unit forward without losing time or breaking formation. Do you want the commander to have to wait while the insurgent is transported to a location where Veil is set up and can be utilized? Or do you want the commander to be able to whistle at a grunt and signal him to bring over a pack containing a Veil device that’s ready to be used right then, right there, to extract the information they need? Because that’s what it comes down to, General: immediacy. And immediacy in this case requires Veil be as compact, portable, and accessible as possible. It will be a weapon of war. As dramatic as it sounds, it could mean life or death. Veil will become an essential part of every single combat inventory across the board and, rather than waiting to redesign it for that purpose sometime down the road, we can deliver that to them right here, right now—from the very beginning.”

  Hunter surprised himself; he was always pretty persuasive and charismatic but that took it to a whole other level. He knew what he needed to get across but he pretty much made up the entire spiel on the spot. He channeled his dad and some Battlestar Galactica rhetoric to give it that dramatic and authentic touch. Wordy, maybe, but it got the point across. And as an added bonus, he could tell it pissed off Schaffer and Pollock. Not because they disagreed but because they weren’t the ones in the General’s face saying it. Everyone in the room knew that was what mattered, because that was what the General respected.

  “So why are we having this conversation?” was the General’s response. He got up from his chair and walked toward the door where Schaffer and Pollock stood, both with their arms crossed.

  As he walked out of the conference room, the General paused long enough to thumb over his shoulder toward Hunter and bark at the two military scientists. “Do what he says. He makes you two look like a pair of fucking idiots.”

  The General left the lab and before the doors sealed behind him, Schaffer and Pollock were already headed to lock themselves away in their separate offices. They left Hunter alone in his makeshift cubbyhole in the conference room. Although Hunter wanted the two to be cooperative and on his side as much as possible, he couldn’t help but crack a grin at their mutual passive-aggressive hissy fits.

  However, he still wasn’t any closer to a design. All he did was ensure the design lived up to his specific requirements without drawing any suspicion or resistance from the two other scientists. In terms of how the end product would look, he drew a complete blank. Aesthetic design was never one of his strong suits and at no point did that bother him.

  Developing the various technologies throughout his career was achievement enough for him, and not once did he put any thought at the outset into how each device would look or feel. The only reason he ever revisited a design was because Brock looked so ridiculous in the skullcap with wires coming out of it that Hunter himself would’ve refused to be seen with him in public. Best friend on wheels or not.

  Hunter knew overall how the device needed to function. He knew what components, circuitry, programming, and power would be required. And, as long as Tsay’s partner was correct, the only immediate changes when they met up would be ones of programming. Hunter decided the best thing to do was use his lack of expertise in the design realm as a way to engage the other two scientists enough to keep them appeased and distracted. With only a little coaxing and ego stroking, he’d get the two to forget all about the fact that, once again, he essentially made fools of them. And in front of the General, no less.

  Heh, stroking.

  “What?”

  “That didn’t really go like I planned,” he tried to assuage Schaffer as he barged into his office unannounced.

  “None of this has gone as planned. Not since you arrived. You shouldn’t even be here anymore. You should have been off this project weeks ago,” Schaffer snapped. He didn’t bother to look up from the papers that Hunter knew he was only pretending to read.

  Hunter nearly laughed out loud as he thought, Maybe starting with the one I slept with and never called again was a bad idea after all.

  “Look Carl,” he began, “you know I never wanted any of this. I was ready to leave that day when I thought I designed what you guys asked of me,” he lied. “So, it’s not like I was coming in here trying to steal Veil from you. Hell, I didn’t know what the fuck Veil was. I still don’t completely. I’ve never done it. I don’t have the insight you and Pollock have.”

  After the last part, Schaffer rolled his eyes and looked up at Hunter without raising his head. Hunter knew right then he shouldn’t have mentioned Pollock’s name, so he backtracked. “Ok, the insight you have. Pollock has the insight of a frat boy.”

  Schaffer got up and walked around his desk while he produced an exaggerated groan. He leaned on the edge of his desk and folded his arms across his chest. He didn’t look at Hunter until he positioned himself precisely where and how he wanted. Hunter couldn’t tell if Schaffer fell for the hot air he tried to blow up his ass.

  Finally, Schaffer said, “All that’s important to me is Veil. I don’t give a fuck about you, Hunter, and I definitely don’t give a fuck about Luke. If Coffman is so hell-bent on you being his butt-boy, then so be it. We both know how he’d feel if he knew you got his men drunk so you could take advantage of them and trick them into sucking your dick.”

  It sounded like Schaffer was actually hurt by Hunter’s treatment of their encounter as a one-night-stand.

  What a fag, Hunter thought when he realized Schaffer had been hurt. The thought was followed quickly by, God, there is really something wrong with me.

  Hunter refocused, feigned offense, and started to argue. “If you think for a minute that—”

  Schaffer put his hand up and continued. “It doesn’t even matter. I’m sure Pollock is next on your list.”

  At least he’s got a decent body, Hunter wanted to shoot back but instead practiced untypical restraint. Given the situation, he felt he had no choice but to refrain.

  Schaffer kept talking. “So—what Hunter? What do you want?”

  “What do you mean what do I want?”

  “Exactly what I said. What do you want? Why did you come in here?”

  That provided Hunter the opportunity to manipulate the two men, which was the goal that led him to Schaffer’s office in the first place. Door opened, walked through.

  “Dude, I’ve done everything I can now. I don’t know what to do next. If that in there just now was the General’s way of putting me in command or something, then all I can say is … well, I’m ordering you to help me. Just because I know how Veil works doesn’t mean I have any idea what I’m doing. I have no idea what the fuck to do next.”

  Schaffer looked dumbfounded. He stared at Hunter for a moment and then looked down at his feet, which he fumbled with. He obviously didn’t expect that and instead was mentally prepared for some kind of battle of the wits. After he gathered himself, Schaffer looked up at Hunter.

  “Then I guess I ne
ed to start coming up with something. I mean, I guess we need to start. And I suppose we can’t leave Pollock out.”

  Score! Hunter laughed to himself and thought, What a faggot. That was swiftly followed-up with the very distinct thought, Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with me?

  With Schaffer and Pollock unwittingly at work for Hunter, the design materialized rather quickly. Hunter already knew one of the primary functions Tsay’s mainframe performed was mapping out the neuroelectrical pattern of The Witness, so it could be uploaded and downloaded but still retain the same pattern in the end. Hunter knew they couldn’t simply take an electrical pattern and force it through a bunch of wires and expect it to come out the other end in the same pattern.

  The pattern of The Witness, created by the neuroelectrical currents and their vibrations, was crucial to Veil and was what Hunter’s initial design failed to capture. So, Hunter already knew the end design was going to have to be something that covered a person’s entire head; Veil was going to have to be something that could take a snapshot of the neuroelectrical pattern right before it was transferred so it could be rearranged in the exact same way after being transferred.

  Pollock required further explanation.

  Of course he does, Schaffer rolled his eyes.

  Hunter explained, “You can’t take the hairnet off someone, wad it up, push it through a tube and then take that wadded-up, balled-up hairnet and set it on top of someone else’s head on the other end. You have to unwad the hairnet and it has to be unwadded precisely in the same exact shape.”

  “Unwad and unwadded aren’t words,” Schaffer growled.

  “Shut—up—Scha—ffer,” Hunter growled back before he continued. “So we need a device that covers a subject’s entire head, so it can instantly map out the pattern of The Witness and then download it. Then it has to be able to transfer The Witness over to the target’s Veil. The target’s Veil will receive the subject’s Witness and then upload that Witness onto the target’s brain in the same exact mapped-out pattern. Understand now?”