The Aegis Solution

by John David Krygelski

  Tillie, who was watching the exchange from over Elias' shoulder, assured him, "No worries. I brought something."

  Elias pulled his head back from the opening and looked at her as she opened the duffel bag that she had lugged with them through the mechanical chases. Within moments, she extracted a pair of bolt cutters, held them up for Elias to see, grinned, and said, "Lower me down to him. I'll get that sucker off."

  Shaking his head in amazement, he told her, "Tie the rope around your waist."

  She did and, clutching the long-handled cutters under her left arm, grabbed the rope with her right hand and eased herself through the opening as Elias slowly payed out the rope. Within moments she was on the floor.

  "Who are you?" Stone asked.

  "My friends call me Wonder Woman." She immediately bent over and applied the cutting teeth to the curved steel rod which surrounded his ankle, careful to not pinch any skin in its grip. With a smooth motion, Tillie closed the hinged handles, and the teeth cut through with a soft snick. There was enough play in the attachment points to allow the bracelet to fall away. Both watched the blinking green light, hoping they did not see it change to red.

  When it was obvious that it was not going to change, and they heard no alarm sounding, Tillie tucked the bolt cutters back under her armpit, telling Elias, "Hoist me up so I can help you pull."

  Elias obeyed, and in less than a minute she was, again, beside him. Wasting no time, she untied the rope from her waist and dropped it down to Stone, who was waiting quietly.

  Before tying himself, Stone glanced up and mouthed a quick "One sec." He grabbed the ankle bracelet and tucked it under the mattress before returning to the rope. With both of them pulling, it took less than a minute before he was in the mechanical chase with Elias and Tillie and the grille was back in place.

  To Elias, Stone softly said, "What took you so long?"

  "I had to wait for a UPS delivery from Amazon, a boxed set of Jethro Tull."

  Stone nodded. "That makes sense." He tilted his head toward Tillie. "New partner?"

  Elias grinned. "I'll explain later. Let's go."

  They began silently moving away from the room that had been Stone's cell. No more conversation occurred between them as they stealthily made their escape.

  

  The four were seated around the porch table. Wilson had made a pot of tea and some sandwiches. Introductions completed, they ate as Elias filled Stone in on his call from Faulk, their meeting, his trip to Aegis, and what he had encountered upon his arrival, including the fate of the ZooCity populace.

  "I'm locked up in this place waiting for my rescue and you took the train!"

  Elias just grinned.

  "Still, I should be grateful that you didn't hitchhike across the country."

  Turning serious, Elias responded, "Eric, you're assuming facts not entered into evidence."

  "What do you m…oh!" Stone stopped, his eyes boring into Elias'. "You've got to be kidding?"

  "What is it? What am I missing?" Tillie asked, leaning closer.

  Stone was staring at Elias for confirmation. The expression on his colleague's face was enough.

  "He wasn't sent to rescue me." His voice was flat.

  Tillie's head swung back and forth between the two men; she was clearly confused. "I don't understand. You said you wanted to find him. You asked me."

  Elias nodded, still not speaking.

  With a shake of his head, Stone explained, "Elias was never very good at following orders."

  Wilson decided to join in the discussion. "If you weren't ordered to rescue Mr. Stone, am I to assume that I was correct in my assumption?"

  Tillie froze, fear and anger clouding her face. "You are here to kill us all, aren't you?"

  "I was sent to carry out the mission that Eric failed to complete."

  "Oh, this is just great. I helped you find your friend, so now there are two of you. You can buddy up, divvy Aegis between the two of you, and wipe us out in half the time!"

  

  "What are you still doing there?"

  The voice on the phone was agitated and obviously furious.

  "I was clearing up a few loose ends. The visit from Charon didn't help," the man said defensively.

  "I told you to gather up everything that we needed and clear out! You should have been gone before that even happened."

  "Bonillas has made some real breakthroughs in her lab in the past few weeks. I was waiting for her monthly summary."

  This bit of news caused the voice to pause. When he resumed, he was more calm.

  "Breakthroughs?"

  "Yes. Even she is surprised at what some of her subjects are doing now. It's almost as if the immersion group has reached this critical mass. Now that there are so many of them, so many who are developed in the skill and are interacting with the younger subjects, the abilities are amplifying exponentially. Did I tell you that it was one of her subjects who was responsible for identifying Charon?"

  "No. You're kidding?"

  "I'm not. Right through the observation glass. Charon was meeting Bonillas, and the subject read his mind."

  The line was silent as the man at the other end mulled over this development. Finally, he asked, "Do you have her notes?"

  "Not yet. At least not all of them. That's why I was waiting for the monthly. When she puts that together, it should all be tied up in a neat package."

  "When can you get that?"

  "Today, tomorrow...I'm not sure, but soon. She's already late, so it should be anytime now."

  "All right. Wait for it. But if you can't get it within twenty-four hours, take what you have and clear out."

  "I understand."

  They broke the connection, and the man unplugged the line from the jack, disconnecting from the special hard-wire line that had been run into his suite. He packed the phone away, slipped on his white lab coat, and left.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  "As Eric mentioned, I'm not very good at following orders."

  Tillie stared at Elias, her expressive face displaying a blend of worry, anger, and something else…something resembling hope.

  "Are you saying that you're not going to blow us all away?"

  He shrugged. "I guess that depends on the mood I'm in at the time."

  Tillie kicked him hard under the table.

  "Oww!" Elias barked, reaching down and rubbing his shin.

  "If we are to accept what you say at face value," Wilson began, his voice calm and reasonable, "that still begs the questions…why are you here? And, now that we've assisted you in the release of Mr. Stone, isn't he going to carry out his orders?"

  Elias looked at Stone inquisitively. "Eric?"

  Stone gave him a hard look. "Thanks. Nothing like putting me on the spot."

  "You're the heartless mass murderer," Elias chided with mock innocence. "You mean to tell me you can't handle having some tea and sandwiches with your future victims?"

  Before Stone could react, he continued, "I think I know Eric fairly well. I have a feeling that he has already decided to put his initial assignment on hold until he gets a few of his questions answered."

  "Questions?" Wilson leaned forward in his chair, interested.

  "The same questions I have."

  "Are we going to keep playing ‘twenty questions'?" Tillie shouted. "Or should I grab a sketch pad and Sharpie so we can switch to a game of Pictionary?"

  Elias could not resist laughing at Tillie's impatience. "I'm sorry. You're right. Before I set foot inside Aegis, I knew there was more going on than Faulk said. That's one of the reasons I never intended to carry out the orders he gave me. I'd be surprised if Eric didn't come up with the same concerns as he was cooling his heels in that room."

  Stone was still staring at Elias and, his voice low and intense, asked, "Elias, how well do you know these people?"

  Focusing on his old friend, all traces of mirth gone from his voice, Elias replied, "Eric, Wilson is John Wilson Chapman, a Nobel laureate. H
e is the person who told me that Kreitzmann has been in here for years, not weeks as Faulk wanted us to believe. He is also the one who told me that Kreitzmann has his own private back door to the place. Tillie…she is the one who found you and led me to you."

  "I'm also the one who thought to bring the bolt cutters."

  "She's also the one who thought to bring bolt cutters. She also saved my life. And she also has shown me her secret lair."

  Elias made the last part of the comment with his right eyebrow arched for dramatic effect. "So, have I done a background check on them? No. Have I had a chance to strap them down and interrogate them? No."

  "Go ahead and try, mister."

  Ignoring Tillie, he continued addressing Stone. "But my instincts are telling me that if there is a team that we should be joining in here, this is the one. If you are uncomfortable with my choice, you're, of course, free to split off and go your own way."

  "Yeah," Tillie again jumped in. "Now that we've saved your butt, you're free to head off and complete your assignment…without even a ‘thank you.'"

  Stone looked at Tillie as she made her last comment with all of the bravado she could muster. He saw that buried directly below the surface was a very real concern that he would do precisely that. His eyes moved to Wilson, who sat comfortably in his incongruous office chair, leaning back, sipping his tea, and analyzing Stone as an entomologist might observe some new bug he discovered under a rock.

  Then Stone returned his gaze to Elias and reacted to the expression on his friend's face. "You know, it would almost be worth it to stand up and walk out of here just to wipe that smug ‘I know what you're going to decide' look off your face."

  Tillie was perched on the front edge of her seat, waiting. Wilson was now casually gazing off into the greenery, chewing a bite from his sandwich. Elias watched and waited.

  Stone, reaching up and brushing some of his long, dark brown hair off his forehead, finally broke the silence. "It doesn't make any sense."

  "No, it doesn't," Elias agreed.

  Tillie snarled testily, "What doesn't?"

  "As I was sitting in that room, cooling my heels, as Elias put it earlier, I couldn't figure out why Faulk sent me for this job."

  "You're not exactly a killing machine," Elias offered.

  "You're right. I'm not. Over the years I've done my share. But it's always been single targets, enemy garrisons, terrorist cells, not a huge gathering of American citizens."

  He paused and looked pointedly at Elias. "And if I wasn't curious before, I sure as hell would be now."

  "Why?" Tillie asked.

  Stone turned to look at her. "Because he sent Elias in with the same assignment."

  "I don't understand."

  "Eric's trying to say that I couldn't kill a fly."

  Stone laughed. "Right! You're the next Gandhi."

  "Come on! Would someone please explain?"

  "Faulk knows Elias and I have a history, a long one. He knows we're friends. He also knows how Elias feels about him. Keeping all of that in mind, do you think Faulk would send Elias in here with the same assignment I had, tell him that I was in here, but not to rescue me? That he was to only carry out the mission?"

  "I do believe that Mister Faulk has other plans for the two of you."

  All eyes turned toward Wilson, who had turned back to face them as he spoke.

  "Plans?" Tillie repeated.

  As if he were engaged in an abstract discussion at some old-fashioned gentleman's club, Wilson casually took another sip from his tea mug, his hand shielding the top from the incessant wind in an effort keep out airborne detritus. "It would appear that your Mister Faulk wants to be rid of both of you."

  "I was wondering if you would come to the same conclusion," Elias commented sourly.

  "Wilson, why would that man want to get rid of Elias and Eric? They work for him."

  "Correction…I never worked for him."

  "Until now," Wilson corrected.

  "Right, until now," Elias admitted.

  "Now that we have that cleared up," Tillie retorted sarcastically, "why would he want to get rid of them?"

  "Tillie, you were absent at the time Elias and I had a chat about his past. It seems that there was an operation which had gone horribly wrong, resulting in the death of Elias' wife. Eric was involved in that operation, and Faulk was in command."

  Her voice abruptly shifting to one of sympathy, Tillie remembered, "I heard you and Kreitzmann talking before you punched him. He mentioned that you had lost your wife."

  Elias nodded and repeated the story he had told Wilson. When he was finished, Tillie said quietly, "Oh, my God. I am so sorry."

  Before Elias could say anything else, Stone spoke. "There's one thing that doesn't add up."

  "Just one?"

  "Well, quite a bit, Elias. But why was I captured by the speed demons almost the minute I arrived, but you weren't? If this is all a setup orchestrated by Faulk, it makes sense that they would know I was coming, but they would have known about you, too."

  "That's true, Eric. In fact, I was jumped by the ZooCity Zooks right after I got here. It was one of Kreitzmann's Zippers who got me out of it."

  "That's very strange. Kreitzmann's freaks stopped them but left you alone?"

  "Yes."

  "It's quite simple, actually," Wilson stated in the condescending voice of a college professor talking to a freshman.

  "At least he didn't say ‘elementary, my dear boy,' huh?" Tillie muttered to Elias.

  Ignoring her aside and Elias' snicker, Wilson continued, "Elias was effectively captured the moment he walked through the turnstile. Eric, you were merely the bait. You had to be held in abeyance. Otherwise, Faulk couldn't be certain that Elias would accept the assignment."

  "Makes sense," Stone stated flatly.

  "Once Elias was inside Aegis, it didn't matter to Faulk if he was nabbed by Kreitzmann or not. He was inside and that was the point."

  Several of the pieces fell into place in Elias' mind. "There was obviously never going to be an extraction, for Eric or for me."

  "It would appear not."

  As Elias mulled over the implications of Wilson's hypothesis, the mathematician continued, "I am curious about one thing."

  "What's that?"

  "How were you to dispose of all of us in Aegis? By what mechanism?"

  "Thermal explosions," Elias answered, wondering what path the old man's mind was following now.

  "Makes perfect sense. To the outside world it could be explained as an unfortunate, accidental fire, a tragic accident. After all, who knows what those people inside Aegis have been doing? And fire would have the added benefit of obliterating so much physical evidence, as well as the DNA of the victims. All in all, it would be an excellent way to clean up after an operation. You obviously didn't carry that ordnance in with you when you arrived."

  "No, I received a drop last night. It came with that."

  "I doubt it."

  "Of course it did. I unpacked it myself."

  "Oh, they may have sent something resembling the devices, but I suspect that what they sent to you is quite harmless."

  "If that is true," Stone posited as he joined the conversation, "that would clinch it. There couldn't be any doubt that Faulk is behind all of this."

  "True," Elias agreed.

  "I'll go check it out," Stone ventured. "All I need to do is open up one of them and I'll be able to tell."

  "I'll go with you," Tillie added quickly.

  "No, you should stay here."

  "Huh-uh. I know the way to his stash."

  "So do I. I assume that you used the same spot I was supposed to use?" he asked Elias.

  "As far as I know." Elias went on to describe the location.

  "Yep, that was going to be my drop location."

  "It doesn't matter!" Tillie maintained, raising her voice insistently. "I'm going, too."

  "Look…," Stone started to argue, but was cut off by Elias.

  "She i
sn't quite sure about all of this, Eric. And in her shoes, I wouldn't be, either."

  "What do you mean?"

  "Okay, hotshot," snapped Tillie. "I'll spell it out for you. You were sent here to kill all of us. You were captured the minute you arrived, so you never got your supply of firebombs or whatever they are. Elias tells you that they arrived last night, and all of a sudden you are eagerly offering to go check them out. You haven't even asked us if you could use the bathroom yet! I don't think so, pal. Not without me."

  Stone grinned at Elias and commented, "She's quite a piece of work!"

  Elias nodded his agreement. "You don't know the half of it."

  

  With Stone and Tillie gone, Elias settled into the comfortable silence which seemed to surround Wilson. The two men listened to the whipping wind and watched the trees and plants in their frenzied dance.

  After some time, Elias finally spoke. "I never knew it was normal for the wind to have such intensity in this part of the desert."

  "It isn't. Or, at least, it wasn't always."

  "You lost me."

  Wilson tilted his head back and looked up at the sky, partially revealed above. "When I first arrived here, it was gusty, to be sure. And it seemed to be constant. I'm not a native of this land, but when I met Tillie, she informed me that at the time she came to Aegis...on its opening day, mind you...it was still. According to Tillie, whom I trust implicitly – not only her integrity but her observational skills, as well – the wind has gathered steadily since that day."

  "How can that be?"

  "Alas, I am no meteorologist. However, my meager knowledge of the field tells me that there is no viable explanation. What I do know of desert winds is that the rule is a general calmness during the late night through mid-morning, followed, as the day heats, with an escalating wind. What you have, perhaps, not noticed in your short time here is that this wind is unceasing…unabating twenty-four hours a day. Of course, there is always Tillie's explanation."

  "Which is?"

  "That God is mad at Aegis."

  This was not the answer Elias expected from Wilson. "Is she serious?"