by Andrew Peed
“There is no way to be sure that what you saw was even the right thing to be looking for and on top of that, you don’t know if what you are looking for is in your memories to begin with.” Alice said inspiring great confidence.
“I guess it won’t hurt to try based on what I’ve seen.” I left the room.
Everything seemed newer then it had in the dreams.
I went to my father’s office to try and log into his computer.
Dark clouds had covered the sky so that when I entered the office it was pitch black. The light flickered on as I walked across the room to the desk at the back.
I sat down in front of the computer. I didn’t even know how to turn it on. I reached up and wiped the layer of dust off the monitor. A blue box appeared in the center of the screen. It read please speak password, with a line flashing at the end.
“Isabella Ward.” I said crossing my fingers.
Sorry incorrect… Try again
“Isabella Madison.” I tried.
Sorry incorrect… Try again… twenty-four hour lock out pending
“Isabella.” I reduced to gripping at straws.
Commencing orientation, please wait while holographic projectors are calibrated.
I breathed a sigh of relief and leaned back in the chair. I was exhausted, but I didn’t want to stop and go to bed just yet.
Chapter 30: Hope
When the holographic projectors were warm, they began to build line by line a perfect replica of my father before my eyes. I stood up from the desk and walked around to the front to look at the perfect recreation of my father.
“Grace.” He smiled clapping his hands together.
“You know who I am?” I asked.
“Of course I know who you are. My programming is based on recorded memory algorithms from your father. So in essence I am your father.” He said lacing his fingers and letting his hands fall very life like.
“Well…Um…” I said stammering.
“I guess I should speak first.” He chuckled.
“I just didn’t expect to see my father.” I said leaning back on the desk and rubbing my eyes.
“Your father worked for a long time to perfect my programming. He knew that you would come here, and deduce the password from those memories.” He said. His smile and movements were very life like.
“How did he know what memories I would see?” I asked.
“He put a trigger in your memory that would set off those memories if you went looking for them. Some were real, some belonged to other people. I’ll bet you are wondering why the password was Isabella?”
I nodded but didn’t say anything. I didn’t know what to say.
“Your father wanted you to find your sister. Just like if she were to have been the one who came here first. She was to look for you.
Now... Here are the ground rules, young lady. First: You are allowed to access the entire knowledge base left behind by your father, except for these fourteen files.” He held out his hand and light blue representations of the forbidden files hover just over his palm.
“Why are they off limits?”
“These are files of things that your father wishes that he had never been a part of, or contain information that is not relevant to our current situation. I wish you to be free of them unless for some reason you are forced to be involved. If you ask the right question they will be unlocked.” He explained, closing his fist making the files vanish.
“Fair enough, what other rules are there?”
“The only other thing is, your father would like you to continue his work, however, that is more of a request, not a rule.”
“Ok then, down to business. I need to know if there is any way with any of my father’s many inventions to track a kinetic user.” I said pacing around the room.
“Ah yes, the AdvaGen satellite system is equipped with a kinetic brain wave detection component that can do what you ask. That is, if you have a profile of the user you wish to find.” He said, showing me an image of dozens of satellites orbiting the planet.
I bit my thumb nail and paced around the room. I didn’t have a profile for Ryder or Vanish. I tried to call any of the numbers in my phone to contact the Last Line, but all of the numbers were busy.
“What about an exact time and place that an occurrence happened on a pretty large scale.” I asked, turning back to look at the hologram that was doing nothing but watching me as I processed the information.
“As long as the usage was in the tier two range or higher and it was within the last ten days.”
I pulled out my phone and got the GPS location and the time that I called Sam to ask him to send Vanish. “At eight o’clock PM three days ago, near these coordinates,” I showed him the phone, “A teleporter used her abilities. She was injured and she had another injured person with her. They didn’t reappear where they were supposed to.
“I will get you the most recent location that this ability was used. It will take roughly two hours. You should go and get some rest.” He patted my head and I could almost feel his hand but it was only wishful thinking.
I left the office and as soon as the door shut my stomach growled like a lion. I followed the hallway to the kitchen. I started to go through the fridge.
“Would you like me to cook you something?” Alrick asked entering the room from the deck out behind the house.
“I don’t want you to go to any trouble.” I said, but my stomach interrupted me.
“Grace you must get something straight. I am here to take care of you and your family. I take great pride in caring for the bunch of you. It is a difficult task at times but things like cooking are never any trouble.” He pushed me out from the fridge.
“How can you have pride in things?” I asked.
“I am a caretaker not an engineer. You should direct questions such as those to Chuck; he would know the answers before I would. Go and wait on the deck, it is a beautiful day and you need to relax for a while.” He pointed to the deck.
I held up my hands in mock surrender. Then I turned and left the kitchen.
I went out onto the deck and sat down in one of the chairs. I had a great view of the lake and the woods. To my left I could see the mountain and a glint at the top, the observatory.
I laid my head back and closed my eyes for a moment.
~//~
“Grace, Grace.” Someone said softly shaking my shoulder. I jumped slightly and opened my eyes.
“What is it?” I asked slowly remembering where I was sitting.
“Your dinner is served.” Alrick said pointing to the two plates of food sitting on the table in front of me.
“How long did I sleep?” I asked picking up a fork. I took a bite of the food and tried to contain myself as I chewed. It was the best steak that I had ever eaten.
“You slept for about an hour. I take it that the food is good.” He smiled with pride.
“It’s so good.” I was all but shoveling the food into my mouth.
~//~
I returned to my father’s office when I was finished with my meal. The room was empty but shortly after the door shut, he rematerialized in the center of the room.
“I hope that you got some rest like I suggested.” The hologram said with a stern look.
“I got a few moments of shut-eye. Did you find anything?” I asked becoming impatient.
“Sorry, yes I did find something.” A map appeared in the air between us. “With the coordinates and the time that you gave me, I was able to generate a rough profile on the Kinetic in question. When you told me that the person was a teleporter, I assumed that there would be another identical spike at the same time, but it didn’t.” he showed me the spike when she disappeared.
“So they just disappeared?”
“For almost three hours they were not in this plain of existence. Take that at its face value, I have no clue where they were. When they did reappear it was several hundred miles away in the dead center of a crowded intersection.” He mov
ed the map to the second spike.
“Are they alright?” I asked.
“Through some not so public channels I was able to secure a police report. A nearby police officer responded to two unconscious people, one with a gunshot wound. He took them to the hospital where they are undergoing treatment and under twenty four hour police watch. At least until they get more information.”
“I need an address.”
“I assumed you would. It’s in the printer.” He pointed to a freshly printed piece of paper.
Chapter 31: Flight
I grabbed the page out of the printer and left the office. I needed to find a way to get from Eastcroft to a small town south-east of Mankato, Minnesota where Ryder and Vanish had reappeared. I wasn’t exactly a legal driver and I wasn’t sure how a run in with the police would end.
I contemplated going back to see if Sam had some one that could drive me, but that whole place was still locked down from the last mission. Going there would only mean complications and wasted time.
I took out my phone and went to the map app. I entered the city of Mankato as my destination just to see how long the drive would be from my current location. It calculated for a few seconds and returned eighteen hours give or take.
I went down to see Chuck who I figured would be the best person to ask about travel plans. I returned to the garage where I assumed he would still be working on the vehicles. He had pulled Ryder’s car into the garage and started to disassemble the thing.
“Chuck!” I yelled walking into the open door.
“Under the car.”
I walked around to the front side of the car where his legs stuck out from underneath.
I knelt down beside him, “Hey, got a minute? I need your help.”
“What do you need?” He slid out from under the truck. He stood up and wiped grease from his hands with a rag he had hanging from his pocket.
“I have to go to Mankato, Minnesota. It’s an eighteen hour drive from here. I was wondering if there were any toys down here that could shorten that trip.” I followed him as he carried a part from Ryder’s car to his work bench.
“Land or air?” he looked up from a part that he was cleaning.
“Whatever is faster and can be used to transport at least two extra people back.”
“There is a small aircraft that your father was working on. It was supposed to be a “behind enemy lines drop craft” but he was never able to complete the stealth package. It’s fast, flies, and is very reliable.”
“I don’t think that we will need any stealth.”
He walked away from the workbench towards the back of the garage. I followed him past the many cars lined up along the walls. A small camera scanned his face. He then held up his hand. The camera then moved over to me. I did the same as he’d done.
Thin lines on the wall appeared made of bright white light. The section of the wall that was outlined then slowly slid into the ground.
Behind the wall sat a V shaped aircraft. It was a grey color, smooth finish with no lines what so ever. The cockpit was molded with the top and a passenger area tucked underneath. The engines were hidden in the wings, and there was a gun mounted to the front.
“Who can fly this thing?” I walked around it, taking it all in.
“Aside from your father, I am the only person that has been trained to fly this aircraft.”
“Will you pilot for me?” I emerged from under the wing.
“It will take an hour to prime the power cell and make sure that it is safe to fly. She has been sitting in this room alone for almost two years. I now regret not giving this vehicle more attention.” He said walking over to the wall next to the door. He pulled a lever that was hidden inside of an electrical box.
The ceiling opened like a huge steel iris. Sunlight poured in from the outside as the sun made its final decent behind the mountain.
~//~
After Chuck had determined that the aircraft was safe and the power cell was primed, he began to warm up the thrusters. He opened the back where there were four seats and enough room for three stretchers.
“What exactly was this thing being built for?” I climbed into one of the front seats and pulled the safety harness over my shoulders.
“Your father designed this craft to be used for med-evac extraction in times of warfare.” He climbed up into the cockpit. The door at the rear closed as the engines began to hum loudly, building power.
The small craft lurched slightly as it began to lift off from the ground and gain altitude through the port in the roof. Chuck angled the nose of the craft and accelerated towards our destination. The floor of the craft became transparent; I could see the trees whipped by underneath of us. The aircraft flew very similar to a helicopter.
I wondered if my father designed the aircraft because he thought something was coming or if he just had a good idea.
“How long is the trip going to take?” I hoped that Chuck could hear me.
“I am only going to fly at Mach one for safety so the trip will take almost two hours.” It sounded like he was sitting right next to me.
“Let me know when we get close.”
“Yes ma’am.”
I laid my head back and closed my eyes.
~//~
“I hate to disturb you but we are approaching the address that you gave me.” Chuck said pulling me out of a half sleep.
“Where would you like me to land?” he asked as we swept over the hospital.
“Get us a few miles away, somewhere secluded.” I tried to get a good look around.
Chapter 32: Hospital
Chuck set the aircraft down gently in a clearing south of the hospital. I could see the building from between the trees if I held my head just right. I climbed up into a tree at the edge of the clearing to get a better view.
“I am going to have to sneak in; I can see at least six police cruisers in the parking lot.” I said down to Chuck who was checking the aircraft over.
“Are you sure that you want to do this alone?” He looked up at me.
“I don’t want to waste the time. There is too much red tape dealing with them.” I lowered myself down from the tree. I jumped the last five feet stumbling just a bit with the landing.
“What would you like me to do?”
“Stay here. When I come up with a plan I’ll call,” I handed him my cell phone, “and I’ll tell you what to do.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He nodded.
“Please stop calling me ma’am! Keep the phone turned on, it’s already set on loud.”
He gave a nod.
The trees weren’t very thick at the bottom but the top blocked out the moon’s light. I moved in the same direction and refused to make any turns so I wouldn’t get lost. After about ten minutes I found the edge of the trees. The path opened into someone’s back yard.
Houses all built in the same style; with slight color variations lined both sides of the street. Most of the windows were dark; there was a light here and there. I kept low and cut through the front yards and crossed the street.
I stalked through a huge park that had a basketball court, baseball field, and a pool, and then I hopped a fence into an empty field. Then I entered the hospital parking lot ducking behind the cars. It was rather empty but there were enough to keep me out of view of the hospital windows. The cop cars were parked at the front of the parking lot; all of which were empty.
I found a side entrance that gave access to a smoking area. The break area was unoccupied. I looked into the window at the dark corridor. I tried to open the door but it was very securely locked.
I followed along the outside of the building and searched for the ER entrance. The parking lot in front of the ER was much fuller than the rest of the building. There were a dozen or so people sitting around the waiting room.
I went inside and approached the receptionist.
“Can I help you.” The large woman asked in a nasty tone.
“I think my arm might be br
oken.” I said holding it gingerly.
“Please take this form and fill it out. Bring it back to me when you are done and we will get you in as soon as we can.” She said handing me a clip board.
“Is there a phone that I can use? My phone seems to have disappeared.” I said looking as pitiful as I could. She pointed to a phone near the end of the counter without saying a word.
The phone had a sign on the wall above it that read Public 3 Minute Max.
I picked up the receiver and dialed my number and waited. Chuck answered the phone just before it went to voice mail.
“Hey Chuck could you get me from the hospital.” I said then dropped to a whisper, “I am going to try and sneak in, helipad in one hour.”
“Understood.” He said.
“Thanks.” I said loudly and hung up the phone.
I took the clip board to an empty seat near the door that lead out of the waiting room, and into the rest of the hospital. It was locked.
I watched pretending to fill out the form. A nurse came from the exam area and began to speak to some of the sick people that were scattered around the room. I could see her keycard dangling from her hip, help on by a small metal clip.
I got up suddenly and ran into the bathroom in a hurry like I was going to be sick bumping into the nurse as I went. I grabbed the card, melting the thin rope as I stepped back to apologize. I slipped the card into my pocket.
“I’m so sorry.” I said through my hand feigning the need to vomit as I turned to finish the sprint to the bathroom.
I burst into the bathroom making a show of things. I waited for a few seconds and then cracked the door a hair to watch the nurse. When she was finished with the patient she went back to the door and swore when she had realized that she had lost her card. She turned around and went to the receptionist.
“Could you buzz the door? The stupid thing broke I swear they get cheaper every year.” The nurse said with a tired smile.