"Aegis is an abomination. There is no doubt about that. It probably is an offense against the Almighty, but I don't believe that you are an angel sent down from the heavens to right this particular wrong.
"Aegis was created by our government, and I believe that it serves its purposes as it is; therefore, I think I can tentatively drop country from the list, as well. That leaves a loved one."
Wilson's eyes bored into Elias as he spoke. "Be it a rapist, a killer, or some other vile and wretched subhuman specimen, I can easily see that you would follow that person through the ‘gates of hell' for your revenge."
Elias struggled to appear as if he were painfully coming to the decision he had reached earlier. "Your fame is well deserved. You're right. I am after someone."
"I knew it!" Wilson exclaimed, slapping the top of his knee. "Who is it and why?" He took a deep breath to stifle his reaction and, in a more calm voice, added, "Not that it is any of my concern, of course."
"Wilson, I think that if I tell you the who, the why might be evident."
"Very well, who might it be?"
"No doubt you have heard the name Rudy Kreitzmann."
Elias expected a strong reaction, receiving none.
"Of course I have, but that is old news."
"You know he's here?"
"Certainly. We've spoken."
"You've…?"
"Elias, are you telling me that it is Kreitzmann you're after?"
Elias nodded.
"For what purpose? Oh! You've come to kill him, haven't you?"
Hesitating, unsure of Wilson's feelings about his fellow scientist, Elias said, "No."
"You hesitated. Of course, you must be wondering if he and I are friends. Let's just say, if any value deserves to be removed from the equation, it is Rudy."
Shaking his head, Elias grinned. "I surely cannot figure you out, Wilson. I guess that I don't share your Holmesian abilities."
"Who does?" Wilson remarked immodestly.
Laughing, Elias pressed, "You said you've spoken with him. What about?"
"Before I answer, would you care for more tea? I made a full pot."
"No, thanks. I've still got half a cup."
Wilson stood and returned to the interior of the shack, coming out in less than a minute with his mug again full.
"He thought I would be a good addition to his team."
"Team? Kreitzmann recruited you?"
"Attempted to. I declined. He was persistent, though."
"I thought you were living in Aegis incognito. How did he find you?"
Wilson shrugged. "I don't know. As to my past on the outside, you are only the second person I've told. But he did find me. Walked straight in the door, as did you, and invited me to his lab. That was where he first asked me to join him. I turned him down that day, and he continued to arrive here unannounced, not taking no for an answer. He finally gave up weeks ago."
Confusion clouded Elias' thoughts. "I'm afraid I don't understand. He has a lab. He tried to bring you into his fold several times. He gave up weeks ago. It just doesn't add up."
"What doesn't add up?"
"That's a lot for someone to accomplish in three months."
"Three months? What is the significance of that period of time?"
Elias stared at Wilson for a moment before telling him, "That's when Kreitzmann came to Aegis."
"No, it's not! You're mistaken. Rudy has been here for at least five years."
Elias was speechless. This piece of news was the last thing he expected to hear. The moment he did, his stomach began to churn. The implications of what Wilson told him created an entirely new set of potential scenarios, none of which were pleasant, and not the least of those was that Faulk had misled him for some reason.
He saw that Wilson was watching him closely, no doubt continuing to gather clues in his probably unbreakable habit of obtaining and analyzing data. Elias found that his paranoia was percolating at a higher level than normal, certain that this strange man could almost read his mind. Deciding to review the available facts at a later time, when the privacy of his own mind might be more sacrosanct, Elias resumed the conversation. "You said he has a lab. What is he doing there?"
"His usual offenses against God and nature."
"Human experiments?"
"Of course! And since he is operating within the cloistered environs of Aegis, he is unfettered in his experiments."
A distinct chill shivered Elias' spine.
Wilson continued, "And operating within Aegis provides him with a solution to a problem he has struggled with for most of his purulent career."
Listening to the words, the pieces fell into place for Elias, and the picture created was monstrous. "Supply," he said simply, his voice flat.
"Precisely. As he developed his field of expertise, nation after nation, at the very minimum, ejected him from their borders and, at the most extreme, attempted to prosecute Rudy for his work. But now that he operates within a setting which is essentially lawless, he is no longer hounded. And, more important, there is an ever-increasing flow of new subjects walking through that revolving door – people who, from the moment they enter, are cut off from everyone and everything. It is almost as though Aegis was created for the sole reason of suiting his insidious purposes."
"No one will miss them," Elias said. "No one on the outside will know that they've become his lab rats."
"And no one on the inside will even be aware that they've arrived and been nabbed, to use the vernacular."
"When I got here, I was jumped almost immediately by a group of ZooCity goons."
Wilson nodded. "That has been a fairly recent development at Aegis."
"Are they working for Kreitzmann?"
"No. At least to the best of my knowledge. They've begun grabbing the new arrivals, stripping them of anything they might consider to be valuable in Aegis, and then using them for, well, rather sordid purposes."
Elias did not share what he had learned from his surveillance. "So they've been interrupting the supply chain to Kreitzmann."
Nodding, Wilson replied, "I guess you could say they have. I hadn't really thought about that. How did you get past them?"
"I had some help."
Wilson's eyebrow arched questioningly.
"They had the drop on me. I'm not sure what I expected as I came inside Aegis; I guess I wasn't expecting an organized attack. But at the point where the punks had me down, some thing intervened. All I saw was a sudden blur of motion; I don't know how else to describe it."
As he said this, Elias was paying close attention to his host's face. There was no change of expression.
"I don't know what it was or where it came from. But one moment I was lying helplessly on the floor about to be killed, and the next moment my attackers were either dead or running away."
"However, you were left untouched?"
"Yes."
"Most odd."
"Do you have any idea what that thing was?"
"I suppose that I might," Wilson answered, pausing to sip from his tea.
"Well?"
"During the incessant entreaties to join him, Rudy felt a need to impress me with his work. His arrogance only allows him to believe that awe, rather than revulsion, would be the reaction from a fellow scientist."
The distaste displayed on Wilson's face contorted his features.
"I despise the fact that my training and expertise places me into the same general cohort as that man! In one of his visits to my little paradise here, Kreitzmann brought a companion, a youngish man, perhaps barely twenty years old. I thought it odd, because Rudy didn't even introduce the gentleman and, in fact, didn't even acknowledge his presence until it served his purpose. And doubly odd was the demeanor of the companion."
"How so?"
"He seemed to be…well…restrained I suppose would be the best word, as if he had been exerting every ounce of his mental energy to keep himself from moving. I remember thinking at the time that it was not dissimilar to a person dope
d up on amphetamines, who was being forced to stand in the corner. His pent-up energy was palpable."
Elias' mind flashed back to that day in Faulk's office when he was shown the video of Kreitzmann's supposed arrival at Aegis. He remembered the men who, in his opinion, accompanied the scientist. Wilson's description came close to describing the odd nature of their movements, which Elias could not define at the time.
"Do you think it was the result of a drug? Is that what Kreitzmann is doing in here? Drug experiments?"
Wilson's face broke into a rueful smile as he said, "If it is, it's a drug I've never read about. While we spoke, and Kreitzmann reached the point in the dialogue when he felt it appropriate to display the fruits of his talents" – his face involuntarily puckered, as though he had bitten into a lemon thinking it was a sweet orange – "Rudy gave a subtle sign to the companion, as he would to a trained animal, and the man simply disappeared."
"Disappeared? Do you mean he left?"
"Oh, he most certainly left, but not in any way discernible to the naked eye."
Elias stared at Wilson, trying to read his eyes for any sign of deceit or insanity. He saw neither. "I don't understand."
"Neither did I. One moment the young man was standing before me, and the next he was gone. We were on this very porch, and the companion was no more than three feet from me. It was bright daylight. There was no trickery, at least that I could detect."
"Where did he go?"
"That is what I asked Kreitzmann. Instead of answering me, he just grinned and looked past my shoulder. As I followed his gaze, I saw the young man standing right over there by the railing, about ten feet behind me."
Elias had no idea what to ask next.
Wilson continued, "You mentioned a blur being visible during your altercation with the gang members. In my countless mental replayings of this event, I believe that I did perceive something like that, but I haven't been certain whether I actually had or whether my mind was manufacturing it to help me digest what I had seen."
"Did Kreitzmann explain what had happened?"
"No! That is a symptom of the contempt he holds for others. Instead of sharing the details of an experiment which could produce such a phenomenon, he merely smirked and told me that if I wished to know how it was done, I would have to join his team! He thought that making me curious would do the trick, as if I were some juvenile.
"From what you've described, it would seem that my visitor on the porch and your intervener would be one and the same."
His mind churning to make sense of this anecdote, Elias asked, "What do you think happened?"
Wilson shrugged. "I have no idea. Are we talking about physical translocation? I am not a theoretical physicist, but my meager knowledge of the field causes me to dismiss that possibility. I don't believe that Scotty aboard the Enterprise beamed the man from one part of my porch to another. All that I know about Kreitzmann leads me to the conclusion that he has found a way to alter, modify, enhance…I'm not certain what the correct term would be…humans to the point where they have a new ability. And, I might add, a rather frightening one."
Unable to process this piece of information any further at this time, Elias thought back over the whole of the conversation with Wilson. There was one other point he wanted to clarify.
He leaned forward in his chair, moving closer to his host. "Wilson, at the risk of offending you, are you certain of the timetable?"
The corners of Wilson's eyes crinkled as he smiled at Elias. "You are, no doubt, asking me that question because Kreitzmann has been seen in the outside world during the past five years. And, although I have presented you with a conundrum, you have unwittingly provided me with confirmation of a claim I have pondered for quite some time."
"What is that?"
Gently sighing, a sound barely audible in the tumult of the wind, Wilson explained, "During the aggressive courtship, when Rudy made his repetitive visits to me, he made many offers to entice me. One of them, quite frankly, was a stunner."
Elias waited patiently, accustomed to his companion's delivery.
"Naturally, he bragged about the quality of the lab, the superlative staff at his disposal, all of the other resources. But during his final visit, he told me that if I joined his team, I would be allowed to share a very special privilege…access to the outside world."
"What?"
Recognizing the outburst as rhetorical, Wilson sat back and said nothing.
This new packet of information affected Elias more strongly than the description of the disappearing stranger, for it instantly blazed new paths, new possibilities, new explanations. And what was most disturbing was that all of them led Elias to some very unpleasant conclusions.
He had no idea how long he had sat silently in front of his host. But, finally speaking, Elias quietly said, "I…I am not sure what to think."
Sympathetically, Wilson reached forward and placed his hand on Elias' arm. "It is a bit of a game-changer, isn't it? It seems that whoever built Aegis has given this monster a spare key to the door!"
CHAPTER SEVEN
Charon's mind whirled with possibilities as he pondered the information given to him by Wilson. The statements could only be regarded as revelations – facts, if they were indeed factual – that changed the very underpinnings of his reality insofar as Aegis and Faulk's agency were concerned.
The corridor was empty as he walked, having left Wilson to his lush atrium, with the promise of a prompt return. If what he had been told was true, Elias could not imagine an explanation that did not indicate a complicity between Faulk and Kreitzmann, if not in the present, then surely in the recent past. The ramifications of an association between Kreitzmann and the government were unspeakable. If Faulk and Kreitzmann were connected, why did Faulk send him in here with the assignment he was given?
Mentally shifting gears, Elias thought back over the final questions he had asked Wilson. The scientist had no knowledge of Eric Stone's presence or whereabouts within Aegis. He did, however, provide Elias with directions to Kreitzmann's area within the complex, a route he would soon cautiously follow, right after he completed his detour.
Wilson sat patiently on his porch until he heard the clanging of the cowbell as Elias exited his atrium. For good measure, he waited several more minutes, keenly listening for the telltale sounds of a person moving among the foliage. As a final precaution, he quickly toured the grounds. Seeing no one and hearing nothing but the wind and its effect on the branches and leaves around him, Wilson returned to the interior of the shack, walking across the small main room to a door on the far side. His knuckles rapped twice on the door before he opened it, seeing his friend waiting, holding a pistol aimed at his chest.
"He's gone."
His base camp appeared to be untouched since his departure. Elias checked the laptop to make certain it was still recording the various audio and video feeds, before he grabbed the item he had returned for, the AK-47. He was not at all convinced that this weapon would be effective against the ghosts – as he was beginning to think of them – which he might encounter, but it made him feel better to have it. Shoving the spare magazines provided by Sweezea into his pockets, he struck out for Kreitzmann's lab.
Frank D was crouched near the first intersection after the turnstiles, at his usual post. He still simmered over the turn of events, angry that he was working for the Man again.
"This ain't right," he grumbled aloud to no one. The other two members of the ambush party were hiding across the intersection, too far away to hear his muttered comment.
His angry reverie was interrupted by the scuffling of footsteps coming from the entrance. Feeling the jolt of adrenaline that always came as they were about to jump a newbie, he leaned forward and peered around the corner, keeping his head low and close to the edge. There, tentatively walking forward through the graffitied corridor, was a girl who did not look much older than seventeen. She was slender a
nd blond, and he thought to himself that she was just his type. The thought of turning her over to the Man, untouched, reignited his furor.
He had to admit that their artwork on the walls had a powerful impact on nearly everyone who entered. From the moment the newbies emerged from the last turnstile, they knew they were in a foreign land, a zone owned lock, stock, and barrel by the ZooCity locals. The newbies realized that they were interlopers. He knew that the effect was intimidation, and the desired result – fear. By the time the newbies arrived at the first intersection, they were already broken, ready to submit. Their minds had conjured the worst during the short walk, and when he and his two men stepped out, the newbies were ripe and ready.
Right on cue, as she entered the center of the intersection, his two partners stepped out from their hiding place. The young girl let out a strange combination of a gasp and a muffled shriek. Frank D came up behind her as she stood frozen in place, like a deer in the headlights. He grabbed her roughly, his hands traveling to parts of her anatomy now forbidden by their new alliance.
"Please, don't hurt me…let me go," the girl begged weakly.
"Hey, Frank! Stop that. You know the rules," one of the others cautioned, a sudden expression of worry on his face.
"Screw the rules," Frank D snarled, talking to his accomplices as if the girl were not struggling in his arms. "I want this one for me."
"We can't," the other insisted, hoping that he did not see the telltale blur, his eyes darting around the corridors.
As the two men hassled, the young girl thrashed feebly, wrapped inside Frank D's powerful arms, a pathetic whimper coming from her lips. Her movements were less than ineffectual. "They ain't gonna miss one little girl. They'll never even know."
The other stared at their captive, and a glimmer of lust appeared in his eyes. "You don't think so?"
"Hell, no. Who's gonna tell 'em? You?"
The other looked over at their companion, a gang member not known for utilizing, or even possessing, any mental abilities. The silent one shrugged, and the second man turned back to Frank D. "I guess you're right."
A wide smile spread across Frank D's face as he effortlessly lifted the girl and walked her into the nearest room, followed by the two others.
The Aegis Solution Page 13