by Erik Hamre
“So we have been doing all this for nothing? There was not even a point?”
Kraut looked at Vladimir inside the prison cell. He was sitting on the bed. “Vladimir had a theory. He thought that Cronus might be smart enough to stop Protocol Cronus if it really wanted to. But in order for us to convince it to do that, we would have to have something to offer.”
“So the identity of Kevin’s killer could have been our bargaining chip.”
“Correct.”
“And now, now we’ve got nothing.”
“Doesn’t really matter now. It never mattered. Cronus was never interested in tracking down Kevin’s killer. It was always about revenge. Always about destroying Wall Street. You were right from the beginning.”
“Fuck, we’ve been on a wild goose chase the entire time,” Amanda said.
“We have.”
“Well, I’m packing up then,” Amanda said. “There is no way I am spending my last hours alive in front of a computer. I’ve spent my whole life in front of a computer. I’m going out to get drunk. And laid. I think I’m going to get laid.”
Kraut laughed. “That’s OK, Amanda. You’ve done a great job. Go and have your fun.”
“You’re actually allowing me to go?”
“No, I’m not.”
Amanda laughed. “Thought so. What do you want me to do?”
“I don’t know yet. But I’ll come up with something. We can’t give up.”
“OK, I’ll stay. Call me when you come up with a new plan.”
“I will,” Kraut said ringing off.
“Do you think you’ll come up with a new plan?” Vladimir asked.
Kraut smiled. “No.”
“So why didn’t you let her go home?”
“Because we’re not giving up.”
“We? Does that mean I’m back in?” Vladimir asked.
Kraut laughed. “Guess so. Not much point in keeping you locked up if Cronus is gone.”
“So you believe me?”
Kraut shook his head. “I wouldn’t say that. But you’re not a bad person. I believe that.”
“Thanks.”
“Do you need any help?” Sarah Kevorkian shouted, just as Kraut and Vladimir were exiting the brig.
“Sarah, good to see you,” Kraut hollered back.
“You still believe she is involved too?” Vladimir whispered into Kraut’s ear.
Kraut shook his head. “No, you were right. She’s got nothing to do with it.” Kraut turned to face Sarah. “Sarah, you can go home to your kids. You’re officially dismissed.”
“I’ve brought them here with me. The pilot didn’t mind making the detour, and I figured a naval base wouldn’t be the worst place to be stuck if this thing really happens. Much safer than a luxury home in the hills. That’s for sure.”
Kraut smiled. At least she had finally shown some motherly instincts. Then his face turned sad. “I’m sorry, Sarah. I was just informed that Andrew has passed.”
“He’s dead?” she asked.
Vladimir and Kraut both nodded.
“And Cronus has disappeared. We think it may have shut down the moment Andrew passed.”
The news of Andrew Kevorkian’s passing shook Sarah. But she quickly recovered. Possibly because her view of Andrew Kevorkian had changed dramatically in the last forty-eight hours. It was the same for Vladimir. A week ago there hadn’t been any person Vladimir had appreciated and admired more than Kevorkian. He had been everything Vladimir had ever aspired to become. Now all Vladimir could feel was anger and hatred towards him.
“So there’s nothing we can do to stop the nukes from detonating?” Sarah asked, still visibly shaken by the news of her ex-husband’s passing.
Vladimir shook his head. “I’m afraid not, Sarah.”
When Kraut, Vladimir and Sarah crossed the tarmac of the San Diego Naval Base, something extraordinary happened, something that probably shouldn’t have happened if the world were ruled by randomness only. But I’ve experienced something similar myself.
The world has roughly seven billion people.
Seven billion.
It is an enormous number. Gigantic.
Naval Base San Diego only has a population of just over twenty-six thousand. Twenty thousand of those are military personnel, the rest civilians. Twenty-six thousand is only a fraction of the world’s population, but it is still a big number.
Those twenty-six thousand people are scattered around on an area covering more than 977 acres of land. Most likely one can walk around the base for months without bumping into everyone. And yet, on the 3rd of June 2015, Kraut, Vladimir and Sarah were walking leisurely across the tarmac. They didn’t have any particular purpose with their walk other than Kraut wanting to let the crew of USS Utah know they were free to leave the base.
As they got closer to the USS Utah, and the building housing all the interrogators and the crew, they passed a group of workers. Still now, several months later, Sarah can’t quite recollect what made her take a second look. Maybe it was fate? Maybe it was meant to be? Maybe she was living in a particular version of a universe where Earth’s destiny had already been decided?
Whatever it was, we should all be glad she took that second look. And I will never criticise my wife for perving at a guy ever again.
“You OK?” Vladimir asked. He was holding onto Sarah’s hand.
“Yes, I’m fine.”
“You’re sure? You’re shaking.”
“I’m fine. Something odd just happened.”
“What happened?” Kraut chimed in.
“Nothing. I just thought I recognised someone.”
“Who?”
Sarah turned around, but the group of workers had already disappeared around the corner and out of sight.
“I don’t know. It was nothing.”
Kraut stopped. “It was obviously something. What just happened?”
“I can’t explain it. It was like a déjà vu.”
“Like you’ve been here before?”
“No, not here. But like I’ve done this walk before.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. I’m just tired.”
“Let her be, Kraut. She’s exhausted.”
“OK,” Kraut said, backing off. “I’ll head down to the interrogators and give them the good news.”
Sarah lifted Sienna, her youngest twin, out of the pram and gave her a big kiss on the cheek. Vladimir couldn’t help smiling. He knew he had no reason to smile. The kids had picked the worst possible time in history to be born. What would the future hold for these two innocent kids? Would they make it till adulthood? Would they make it to adolescence?
People in the West were fond of complaining about how much tax they paid, and how the service at their hospitals wasn’t up to scratch. The reality was that they were spoilt. One only had to go back a few centuries before the survival rate of babies in the West had been worse than current day Africa.
In a few hours Africa would look like heaven. Africa had electricity, Africa had technology and medicines. In a few weeks the world would stop producing all those things we had learnt to take for granted.
In a few weeks Africa would seem like god damn heaven.
“She’s beautiful. She looks exactly like you.”
“Thank you,” Sarah said, her eyes beaming with love.
“She hasn’t got your eyes though,” Vladimir observed. They were a different colour, very blue. Almost shining.
“She’s got them from her dad,” Sarah replied. Then she got this odd look in her own eyes, like she had just realised something. Something terrible.
“Oh my God,” she whispered, it was almost inaudible, “Oh my God!”
“What is it?” Vladimir asked, putting the other twin back in the pram.
“I know who it was,” Sarah whispered, covering her mouth with her free hand.
“Who?”
“Oh my God,” she repeated, as she started to frantically rock her baby.
“What are you talking about, Sarah? You’re scaring me.” Vladimir stepped closer. He was starting to get seriously concerned she would drop the baby. She didn’t seem to realise she was holding her anymore.
“It was him! It was him!”
“Who? You are not making any sense, Sarah,” Vladimir said, offering to take the baby from her arms.
“Don’t touch my baby,” Sarah snapped.
Vladimir hadn’t expected the outburst. He took a step backwards.
What came next nobody had expected.
It was as if Sarah’s entire body was hit by an electric jolt. It started to shake uncontrollably. Vladimir just stood there. Watching. Frozen. Unable to move his body.
It was one of the Navy guards who stepped up and did what Vladimir should have done. He basically grabbed Sarah’s baby out of her arms, and stepped away. Sarah didn’t even try to resist. She probably knew something was wrong. She knew the baby would be a lot safer away from her.
And then her eyes just rolled back in her head, and she fell to the ground.
Vladimir was doing his best to console the screaming twins in the pram. They probably had no idea what had just happened. Nobody did. But at least the twins were too young to understand that their mother had just collapsed.
“I’ve got a pulse. She’s breathing fine,” the Navy guard said, rolling Sarah over on her side.
“What just happened?” Vladimir asked, his voice trembling.
“She’s fine. She just fainted. Do you know if she’s a diabetic?” the Navy guard asked.
Vladimir shook his head. “No, not that I know of.”
“I think she might have just had a panic attack. Any history of anxiety you know of?”
Vladimir knew all too well of Sarah’s anxiety issues. Kevorkian had occasionally complained about his wife having to pop a ton of pills just to be able to function throughout the day. She basically couldn’t handle big groups of people. Or small ones. Or people in general. But having a couple of mental disorders wasn’t that unusual in 2015. Vladimir didn’t cope well with water and closed spaces. If he’d had to work on a submarine every day, he would have been on medication too. Unfortunately Sarah had to live in a world where her anxiety-triggers were constantly around her.
“Yes, she takes medication for it.”
“She’s back,” the Navy guard said, stroking Sarah’s cheek as she slowly opened her eyes.
“My babies,” she whispered.
“They’re fine. I’ve got them here,” Vladimir replied, before kneeling to look straight at Sarah’s pale face.
He looked into her eyes. Those eyes that had been the last thing he had thought of before going to sleep for so many years. “It’s going to be fine.”
“What happened?” Sarah asked.
“You fainted.”
Sarah closed her eyes.
“You said something about him. Just before you passed out. Who were you talking about?” Vladimir asked, as he and one of the guards helped her stand up.
In an instant the wild look in her eyes was back. “I recognised him. I know it is him.”
“Who?” Vladimir pressed.
“Kevin’s dad!” Sarah said.
Four minutes later Kraut was standing next to Vladimir and the Navy guards as Sarah rested her back against one of the building walls. They had placed her in the shade and given her some water.
“Tell Kraut what you just told me,” Vladimir said.
Sarah swallowed. “It never occurred to me until now. But I slept with a man a long time ago.”
“And you think you just recognised that man?” Kraut asked.
Sarah nodded.
“And you think he might be Kevin’s father?”
Sarah nodded again. “I don’t know for sure. Andrew and I had problems back then. He kicked me out, and I…I had an affair. It was nothing. A one-night stand. And then Andrew and I got back together. And then I got pregnant. I just always assumed Kevin was Andrew’s. He just had the same personality. But it could be…it could be.”
“I want you to take a look at some pictures,” Kraut said. Seconds earlier he had placed the entire base under lockdown. No one was allowed in or out.
“I don’t know,” Sarah said, glancing at the pictures Kraut flashed before her face.
“You need to concentrate, Sarah. This is important.”
“I just want to hold my babies,” she whimpered.
“Give her the kids,” Kraut said.
Vladimir picked up Sienna from the pram, and one of the Navy guards picked up her twin-sister, then they handed them both over to Sarah. Sarah closed her eyes and hugged her babies, smelling their hair like they had been separated for months.
“This man might be the connection we have been looking for! This man might be important,” Kraut said, his voice getting loud. He was glad Sarah was finally showing some motherly instincts, but there were more important matters at stake.
Vladimir was standing two feet behind Kraut. He didn’t know what to believe anymore. They had already established that Cronus had led them to USS Utah because it needed it to be on the ocean surface in order for it to shoot down the GPS satellites. The theory Vladimir had initially come up with, the theory that Cronus was programmed to hunt down Kevin’s killer, had already been firmly established to be a decoy, an elaborate diversion created by Cronus’ enormous intellect. So what were the odds of Kevin’s biological father, a father they’d had no idea even existed ten minutes ago, having just crossed their path?
Vladimir scratched his head.
“Would you recognise him?” Kraut asked, looking back at Vladimir.
Vladimir shook his head. “No, I didn’t really notice. There was a group of five or six guys passing us. They all looked like maintenance guys.”
Kraut sighed. The message had already gone out to the Naval Base San Diego military police. Any maintenance personnel were to be rounded up for questioning. But it was a big base. There were a lot of places to hide.
“You’ve got that?” Kraut barked into his phone. He had just called Amanda, and instructed her to cross check every maintenance person currently present on the base against the very rough description Sarah had just provided. Everything to narrow down the search. Everything to save time.
“So we’re back at checking the revenge motive?” Amanda asked.
“I don’t know,” Kraut answered honestly. “But it can’t be a coincidence this guy is here.”
“I copy that.”
Vladimir wasn’t so sure Amanda’s team of analysts would be of any help. Hours earlier he had realised that he had been wrong in believing Cronus was attempting to track down Kevin’s abductor and killer. Now Sarah was claiming she had just recognised a man who theoretically could be Kevin’s real dad. Had Sarah’s anxiety-ridden mind just played a cruel trick on her? Was she so desperately seeking a reason for her ex-husband’s actions that her subconscious had provided her with an explanation? Or had she really recognised this man? Had they just crossed paths with Kevin’s real father?
Whatever had just happened it wasn’t even certain that the man she had seen worked at the base. If the last three days had taught Vladimir anything, it was that everything he believed had turned out to be wrong.
He was still fumbling in the dark. He still had no idea how Kevorkian’s mind worked, or what his motivation for creating Cronus had been.
The most likely scenario was that Sarah’s brain had just played a trick on her. It had been so desperate in trying to make sense of everything, that it had created its own reality.
If there was one thing Vladimir had learnt over the last twelve months, it was that the brain was capable of doing amazing things.
“I’ve narrowed it down to 137 people,” Amanda said.
“That’s not good enough,” Kraut said. It was an improvement from the more than six thousand people who had been the starting point. But it was far from good enough.
“I need more information if you want me to narro
w it down further,” Amanda said. She didn’t really see the point in pursuing the lead though. She had always suspected Vladimir was having ulterior motives, that he was deliberately derailing the investigation. And now the woman Vladimir had been sleeping with, Kevorkian’s ex-wife, was probably doing the same. They had been working together, Vladimir and Sarah. They had been working together the entire time. But why? What was the point? There was no point in derailing the investigation now, because there was no investigation left. Kraut and Amanda had run out of reasons for explaining Cronus’ ultimate goal a long time ago. Kevorkian was dead and Cronus was gone. And in just over an hour the nukes would go bang. Why continue the theatrics? Why keep stalling?
Amanda swore. She had advised Kraut to kick Vladimir off the team, but somehow he had manoeuvred himself back in charge. Calling the shots along with his former lover, Sarah.
“I’ll get back to you,” Kraut said.
Amanda knew he wouldn’t. Sarah wouldn’t provide her with a more detailed description. It was in her interest to keep it vague. Whatever Sarah’s plan was, whatever Vladimir and Sarah were planning, it didn’t involve letting Amanda or Kraut find out what was going on.
It was all a ploy to buy time.
All a ploy to ensure that the EMP strike occurred.
“This one?” Kraut asked, flashing another picture on the screen in front of Sarah. 137 faces. Two seconds per face. He would be through the entire list of suspects in less than five minutes. This could actually work.
“Go back,” Sarah said, looking at number 85 on the list.
Kraut swiped his finger across the screen to locate the previous picture. It was a headshot of a maintenance worker named Aaron Kevler. He was an expert on stealth technology. “Is this the guy?” Kraut asked.
“I don’t know,” Sarah answered. “It looks like him.”
“You’re not sure?”
“I don’t know. They all look the same.”
Kraut sighed. It was true though. The pictures he was flashing before Sarah’s eyes had been narrowed down from her initial description. They all had almost identical haircuts and facial features. How was she supposed to distinguish among them? Kraut realised that the similarity of the data could be distorting her ability to make distinctions. It was easier to pick out someone one knew from a group of radically different faces. It they all looked the same, the task got very difficult. He got Amanda back on the line.