Dangerous Brains

by Erik Hamre

  Frank Morris looked up at Kraut with a genuinely confused expression on his face. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “You don’t have to understand, Frank. You just have to know that you will be responsible for all those deaths, you fucking coward!” Kraut yelled. But by then Vladimir had realised that Frank Morris truly had no idea of what Kraut was talking about.

  Frank Morris thought he was being interrogated for a very different reason than the real one.

  “Ask him about Kevin,” Vladimir said into his microphone. It was connected to an earpiece Kraut was wearing. “Ask him why he killed Kevin.”

  Kraut turned towards the mirror. For a moment he hesitated. Then he understood Vladimir’s reasoning. Vladimir wanted to provoke a reaction. If Frank Morris had been willing to let the world burn in order to avenge Kevin’s death, then any accusations implying he had harmed his son would spark a strong reaction.

  “Why did you murder Kevin?” Kraut asked.

  On the other side of the mirror Sarah couldn’t help herself. She started sobbing.

  “I don’t know what you are talking about,” Frank Morris replied. But Kraut knew it was only a matter of time before Frank Morris would break and reveal what he and Kevorkian had done. The accusation had hit a sore point. Frank Morris’ voice was starting to break up.

  “We know you did it, so you might as well tell us. Why did you kill him?” Kraut pressed.

  Frank Morris crossed his arms. At that point he decided to stop talking.

  On the other side of the mirror Kraut’s phone started ringing. Vladimir walked to the chair it was lying on and glanced quickly at the screen. It was Amanda. He decided Kraut would probably prefer that he answered rather than having to call up later.”

  “Any updates?” Vladimir asked, answering the phone.

  “Where is Kraut?”

  “He is interrogating Frank Morris,” Vladimir replied.

  “I’ve got some important information for him.”

  “Tell me, and I’ll tell him when he comes out.”

  Amanda hesitated. She still didn’t trust Vladimir. She wasn’t sure if she would ever trust him. But this was too important to wait. Kraut needed the information right now.

  “I’ve checked Frank Morris’ background. He’s a registered sex offender,”

  “What?”

  “We haven’t got access to the full file yet. But Frank Morris was charged for indecent behaviour with a child when he was sixteen.”

  “He’s a paedophile?”

  When Sarah heard the word paedophile her entire world came crashing down. When she had first realised that Kevin’s biological father might have been involved in creating Cronus she hadn’t known what to believe. It had hurt so much to think that her ex-husband had chosen to involve Frank Morris instead of her when acting out his revenge for Kevin’s death. What did that say about how he had thought of her as a mother? What did that say about what he had thought of her as a person?

  When Vladimir said the word paedophile, all those thoughts were washed away. She acted on instinct, on autopilot.

  Before Vladimir or any of the Navy guards were able to react she had burst through the door and was out in the hallway. Astonished, Vladimir watched her appear on the other side of the mirror, barging past Kraut, before landing three punches straight in Frank Morris’ surprised face.

  “What have you done to Kevin!” she screamed, kicking and punching Frank Morris as he ducked on his chair.

  Kraut didn’t comprehend what was happening until two guards came barging into the room and dragged Sarah off Frank Morris.

  Frank Morris, a stripe of blood running from his left temple, raised his head and looked at Sarah.

  “I’m sorry,” he said.

  “You pig,” Sarah spat back. “What did you do to Kevin?”

  Frank Morris closed his eyes and lowered his head, before raising his gaze to her stare again. “I saved him,” he said.

  At that moment Kraut finally realised why Vladimir had asked him to pose the question. Vladimir hadn’t wanted to provoke Frank Miller into admitting working with Kevorkian. He had simply reverted back to his old theory – the theory that Cronus had led them to the San Diego Naval Base for a very simple reason – to find Kevin’s killer.

  “Where is he? Where is Kevin?” Kraut asked, as a hysterical Sarah was escorted out of the interrogation room.

  “Fuck you!” was Frank Morris’ simple reply.

  “I’ve got Amanda on the line,” Vladimir said, handing Kraut the phone. “He’s got a record. He’s a registered sex offender.”

  “Give the teams the go ahead, Amanda. Raid the property now,” Kraut instructed, as Sarah collapsed in the doorway. She had tried to be strong, tried to be brave, but that last comment released ten years of closed-up emotions.

  She had concluded all hope was out several years ago. In her heart she had known for almost a decade that she would never see Kevin again.

  Yet the realisation that he had been murdered, that he had been murdered by a paedophile, who most likely also was his real dad, was too hard to bear.

  She knew why Kraut had told them to raid the property. She knew they would be looking for a body.

  “Where is he?” Kraut pressed.

  “You won’t find him,” Frank Morris answered with a smug smile.

  “Tell us where his body is. Allow Sarah some closure.”

  Frank Morris just smiled. “How did you find me?” he asked.

  “Cronus found you,” Kraut replied.

  “Who is Cronus?”

  Kraut looked over at Vladimir, who was staring at Frank Morris. At this point in time there was no point in keeping secrets. The only thing left to do was to bring closure for Sarah - to find Kevin’s body.

  “Kevorkian created a very smart computer, and this computer was able to put all the pieces together so that we could find you.”

  Frank Morris shook his head. “That fuck. He finally did it.”

  “Did what?”

  “I read about it on the internet. This bullshit about Kevorkian wanting to cure death. I knew it was all bullshit. I knew what he was trying to do. That’s why I had to take Kevin.”

  “What do you mean?” Kraut asked.

  “You don’t know what he did to Kevin, do you?”

  Kraut and Vladimir looked at each other, then at Sarah. She had stopped crying.

  Frank Morris looked over at Sarah. Blood was still dripping from his left temple. “You have to believe me, Sarah. I never wanted to hurt you. But you gave me no choice.”

  “No choice? What did I ever do to you?” she cried.

  “You never told me about Kevin. That’s what you did to me.”

  “I didn’t even know your name. I had no idea Kevin was yours.”

  “Really? Because I knew the instant I saw him. I was on vacation and decided to head down to the Valley, to check out this dotcom thing that everyone at work was talking about. I happened to pick up a copy of the local paper, SV News I think it was called, and what do I see on the front page? The woman I had sex with seven years earlier, holding hands with a kid who was the spitting image of me. And in the other hand she is clutching onto the soon to become most powerful man in Silicon Valley. A fucking billionaire.”

  Sarah stared at Frank Morris with pure hatred in her eyes as he continued.

  “Why did you never attempt to track me down? Why did you never even try?” Frank Morris asked.

  Sarah didn’t answer.

  “Was it because you would lose all your money? Because you would lose your lifestyle if your husband found out you had been cheating on him? That the happy family on the front cover wasn’t really his family after all? That you had tricked him?” Frank Morris almost spat the words out. He seemed filled with contempt for Sarah.

  “I never knew for sure,” Sarah cried.

  “But you suspected. I drove up to Kevin’s school the next morning. I hadn’t planned to do anything. But then I saw him. I saw
him get out of a chauffeured car. His family too busy to even give him a lift to school, and I wondered if that was the life I wanted for my son. A life without love.”

  “Kevin had love. I loved him dearly!” Sarah screamed.

  “Did you? Then why did you allow your husband to use him as a guinea pig?”

  Sarah stared back at Frank Morris. She had no idea what he was talking about.

  “Don’t pretend you didn’t know.”

  “Know about what?”

  “About the chip.”

  Sarah’s eyes opened wide open when Morris mentioned the chip. “It was just a tracker. Andrew wanted to know where Kevin was.”

  “It wasn’t a just a fucking tracker. It was a microchip. He had put a microchip in his own son’s head, and it almost killed him.”

  “Almost?” Kraut said. “Is Kevin still alive?”

  Frank Morris just stared at the woman who had given birth to his son. Vladimir was certain that if looks could kill, she would be dead by now.

  “Imagine the shock. I find out I have a son. And then I find out these sick people are trying to kill him.”

  “Cut the crap, Frank. We know your story. You’re a registered sex offender. You’re the one who killed Kevin. Why did you do it?” Kraut asked.

  Frank Morris smiled. “That’s the problem isn’t it? Your past never goes away. I slept with a girl when I was sixteen. She was fifteen. She would have been sixteen two weeks later. And then it goes on my record. Follows me for life. I knew I would never be allowed to have a relationship with Kevin. Hell, I’ve got divorced colleagues who hardly get to see their kids. The system is biased towards mothers.” Frank Morris pulled his hand through the short hair. “I would be up against the picture perfect mom, and a billionaire with unlimited resources.” He looked at Sarah. “What chances did I have? I would have been bankrupted, destroyed.”

  “So you kidnapped Kevin? You stole him from me because you selfishly wanted to be a part of his life? You sick fuck!” Sarah screamed. Tears were flowing down her cheeks.

  “I saved him from your husband. That’s what I did. I saved him.”

  “Sarah, I need you to leave the room,” Kraut said, before giving a nod to the guards. They promptly dragged her outside, before closing the door. Vladimir could hear her screams through the door.

  “Tell us your version. Explain your reasons,” Kraut said.

  Frank Morris looked away. “You idiots. I’m not giving up Kevin. I will never let Kevorkian touch him again.”

  “Kevorkian is dead,” Kraut said.

  Frank Morris looked back at him. “I don’t believe you.”

  Vladimir nodded. “It’s true. He’s dead. We’re not lying.”

  “I want evidence,” Frank Morris said.

  Frank Morris cuddled the coffee cup in front of him. He had just been shown the coroner’s report that had been prepared on Kevorkian. He was satisfied Kraut hadn’t been lying. “I never intended to kidnap Kevin. I only wanted to spend some time with him. Get to know him. All those reports about a man luring him away were bullshit. Kevin took one look at me, and he instantly knew we were connected. He followed me over to the park. He was on the swing when it happened. He just collapsed. What was I supposed to do?”

  Kraut looked at him like he was an idiot. “What were you supposed to do? You could have called an ambulance. You could have called for help.”

  “With my background? I’m a fucking sex offender because of what I did when I was sixteen.”

  “Don’t make excuses, Frank. You always have a choice. Why didn’t you take him to a hospital?”

  Frank Morris looked away. “I took him to a friend’s place. That’s where I figured out what that sick fuck had done.”

  “The microchip?” Kraut asked.

  Frank Morris nodded. “It was never this tracking device the papers wrote about. It was a microchip. The chip had been implanted in Kevin’s head, to fuse into his brain. It was killing him.”

  “You talk as if Kevin is still alive. Where is he?” Vladimir asked. “Tell us where Kevin is and all this might be resolved.”

  “It’s not that simple.”

  “It is. It is very simple. If you tell us where Kevin is then we know you’re for real. Right now we believe you are full of shit. Right now we believe you’re a registered sex offender who killed your own son. Let’s clear all this up.”

  Frank Morris stared at the mirror. “Is she still there?” he asked.

  Kraut nodded.

  “Get her back in. I’ll tell her.”

  Kraut gave a wave towards the mirror, to instruct the Navy guards to bring Sarah back in.

  “Why did you do it?” she asked, sitting down in front of the abductor of her son.

  “You know why. You and your husband were never real parents.”

  Sarah stared blankly at the person in front of her. She knew he wasn’t wrong. The reality was that she had hardly spent much time with Kevin when he grew up. Not like normal mums. She and Kevorkian had always been busy. Kevorkian with work. Sarah with her charities and social commitments. In a good week she would put Kevin to bed maybe one night. Kevorkian had never even done that. Even on the weekends he was always working. One eye on his son, but the real attention on answering emails, talking on the phone or simply planning his next venture.

  Kevin had never had Kevorkian’s full attention.

  And he had never had Sarah’s either. She had just never connected with him. Even when she had entered his room in the night time, and looked at him sleeping so silently, like a little angel, she had never felt he was hers. He had always felt alien.

  “I loved Kevin,” she snapped back. “I gave him everything he ever wanted.”

  “He wanted you. And you never gave him you,” Frank Morris replied.

  And she knew he was right. Kevin had never lacked anything growing up. His various nannies had loved him. Sometimes even too much. Sarah had had to fire two of them. Kevin had started to call them mom.

  “I loved him,” she sobbed. But she knew it wasn’t true. It wasn’t until Kevin disappeared that she had started loving him. Her grief had been very real. Kevorkian’s too.

  It was first when Kevin was gone that Sarah and her husband had realised what they had been missing out on, what should have been important in their lives.

  For Kevorkian finding out what had happened to his son became his single purpose in life, his new all-consuming project. And unlike every other previous project he had worked on, this was the first truly meaningful one.

  To Sarah, losing Kevin had meant getting a new perspective on life. She had wanted to become a mother.

  It was a strange fact that Kevin seemed to have impacted his parents’ lives more after he disappeared, than when he was around.

  “Tell me where he is. Tell me what you did to him,” she pleaded.

  “You need to promise me you will be a better mom,” he replied.

  “I will. I promise,” she muttered.

  “You will find him at my mom’s property in Arizona,” Frank Morris said. “He’s fine.”

  Sarah didn’t reply. She didn’t thank him. She just got up and left the room.

  “Get a team to check out the property, and bring her out there if it checks out, “Kraut said to the Navy guard escorting Sarah out of the room. He nodded before closing the door behind him.

  When Sarah had left, Vladimir leant in closer to Frank Morris. “Tell me about this microchip,” he said. How did you get it out?”

  Frank Morris smiled. “You still don’t believe me, do you?”

  “Convince us. Tell us something we don’t know.”

  “I’ll tell you something you don’t know. It was the microchip that made Kevin collapse that day. I took him to a friend. He was barely breathing at that stage. My friend saved him.”

  “Who was this friend?”

  “Doesn’t matter. He knew what he was doing. He took one look at Kevin, and he knew what it was. The microchip had infected his b
lood.”

  “He had a blood infection?”

  Frank Morris nodded.

  “Kevin almost died that day. But I got that chip out. And Kevin lived. He was sick for weeks. But he lived.”

  “And now he is living with your mom?” Kraut asked sarcastically.

  Frank Morris nodded. “When Kevin finally woke up he couldn’t remember anything. It was as if his mind had been wiped. And it had been wiped. It was wiped the moment I removed the chip. That fucker Kevorkian had tried to fuse Kevin’s mind with a computer chip, and in the process he almost killed his own son.”

  “Why should we believe any of this?” Kraut asked.

  Vladimir only stood there. Frozen. His jaw dropping towards the floor. Suddenly he understood what Kevorkian had done. “I thought…I thought we scrapped the project,” he stuttered.

  “Scrapped what? Did you actually work on something like this?” Kraut asked.

  “It was a theoretical experiment at TrakTek X, our special projects division. The board made Kevorkian shut it down before the IPO though.”

  Frank Morris shook his head. “It obviously didn’t get shut down.”

  “What was it?” Kraut asked.

  “Kevorkian wanted to fuse the human brain with technology. He said that it was the only way to safely create artificial intelligence, the only way to keep control over it. We created a prototype for a chip, but we never actually tested it. It was deemed too dangerous.”

  “Too dangerous for what?”

  “Too dangerous for TrakTek. Too dangerous for the IPO. If it malfunctioned it could potentially ruin the company’s reputation.”

  “But not too dangerous for Kevorkian. Not too dangerous for his own son’s brain.”

  “Fuck. What an asshole.”

  “I bet he wasn’t even looking for his son. He was probably just looking for his invention. I bet he created Cronus to track down his invention,” Frank Morris said.

  Kraut’s phone rang. It was the FBI agent in charge of raiding the property belonging to Frank Morris.

  “So you have him?” Kraut asked.