The Sam Reilly Collection Volume 2

by Christopher Cartwright

  A slight pang of guilt tugged at her as she realized that his description of Elise as the most intelligent nerd he’d ever met was replaced by the image of a young and stunningly attractive woman.

  The woman was breathing fast like she’d been running hard. She then smiled at Sam. Alexis thought it was coy and teasing. “You’re going to want to see what the CCTV shows.”

  “You had some luck with the security tapes?” Sam asked.

  “Sure did!” She grinned. “You’re not going to like it, though.”

  Sam looked at Alexis. “Elise, meet Alexis – she’s been stranded here on her own after she woke up to find instead of missing the boat, she was the only one who managed to catch it.”

  Elise ignored the poor play on words and looked at Alexis. “Pleased to meet you. I bet you’ve had a pretty shitty week.”

  Alexis smiled politely. “You have no idea.”

  “What did you find on the tapes?” Sam asked.

  “You know that stupid song you made me listen to?” Elise said.

  “The Hungarian Suicide Song?”

  Elise lifted her sunglasses as though she wanted to better see his face in response to the news. “That’s the one.”

  “Let me guess, the Antarctic Solace was playing the song over its loud speakers?” Sam asked.

  “That’s right.” Elise smiled condescendingly; her bright purple eyes glowed like the Devil. “And then, immediately after it played, everyone casually jumped overboard.”

  “That’s impossible,” Sam said.

  Elise smiled like someone who’d just checkmated the grandmaster. “I know that, but you watch the tapes and tell me it didn’t happen.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Sam walked into the security room with Alexis and Elise. Tom was by himself sitting at the desk reviewing earlier footage from the cruise.

  “Hey Tom,” Sam said. “Where’s Veyron?”

  “He’s gone up to the bridge to run a check to see if the engines are still functioning,” Tom said, without looking up. “The Weddell Sea could turn into ice any day now and we thought it might be prudent to get a little further away from the coast before that happens.”

  “When did he leave?” Sam asked.

  “About ten minutes ago, why?”

  “We’ve just come from the bridge. I would have thought we would have run into each other, that’s all.” Sam sat down and looked at the main computer monitor. “All right, Elise. Let’s see this recording.”

  Elise pressed play and the digital security recording started. Sam watched as the tape showed what appeared to be a normal day aboard the Antarctic Solace. The recording was taken from inside the main entertainment deck, which included a number of closed boutique shops and a view of the port outside deck. The passengers and crew were progressing through their day the way one would expect, with the former looking like they were on vacation while the latter worked constantly.

  “How long does this go on for?” he asked.

  “About an hour,” Elise replied.

  “Okay, fast-forward until a few minutes before the evacuation.”

  Elise stopped fast-forwarding and the recording played at its normal speed. Sam listened to the now familiar melody of the Hungarian suicide song. He then watched as the passengers lined up two in a file and slowly walked towards the ship’s balustrade. When the music stopped, each person took a step forward. They slowly continued until each person went up and over the deck.

  The recording lasted another minute after the last person disappeared and then stopped as though someone had intentionally paused the recording.

  “That’s it?” Sam asked.

  “Yes.” Elise replied. “Do you still think no one jumped after hearing that stupid song?”

  “I know what I saw, but videos can lie. How much do you trust this video?”

  “What you saw happened. That much hasn’t been tampered with, but I can tell you now that we’re not seeing the whole picture.”

  “Someone’s done some clever editing,” Alexis suggested.

  “It would appear so,” Elise agreed.

  Sam stared at the final image. “So you’re saying none of those people climbed overboard?”

  “No, that much happened.” Elise tapped on the keyboard. “Everyone in this recording is real and the event that you just watched, including them climbing overboard happened. Everything before and afterwards has been intentionally deleted and made to look as though the digital log simply broke at that point.”

  “But you believe someone adjusted it?”

  “I’m certain of it. Whoever is responsible has gone to great lengths to build a picture that appears unadulterated and leads us down a very different path than the truth.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  “Is there another view? One that looks down at the water where they landed?” Alexis asked. “Maybe they survived.”

  “The Weddell Sea is only just above freezing,” Tom said. “Anyone who entered the water would be dead within minutes from hypothermia.”

  “If they entered the water, at all that is.” Alexis shuffled forwards in her chair. “Can I see the earlier part of the recording?”

  “Sure,” Elise replied. “But there’s not much to show. Just hours of normal cruise ship life.”

  “All the same, I’d like to see it.”

  Elise slid the time stamp back two hours and pressed play. Everything looked completely normal inside the cruise ship. The boutique shops were open and people wondered in and out, people spoke to the on shore excursion concierge about sea kayaking near the Ross Ice Shelf, others gambled while in the background a young man played 50s classics on the ebony grand piano.

  They watched for about ten minutes.

  “It all looks normal to me,” Sam said.

  “All right,” Alexis said. “Fast-forward another twenty minutes.”

  Elise did so and the video continued to play. This time a young man with a red baseball cap stood outside a shop that offered an assortment of books and memorabilia from the Antarctic continent. He scribbled a message on a yellow piece of paper and placed it on the door handle. The words were just legible from that distance – back in five minutes.

  They watched the familiar scene of passengers coming and going across the main promenade. Each one was wearing clothing befitting an expedition to the South Pole. They were a mixed group of young adventurers and older scientists.

  Another shop closed for the afternoon, followed by a small café. A different person wrote another message on a yellow piece of paper and left it on the front door. They watched as the crew numbers dwindled on the promenade.

  “Is it just me or do the staff keep disappearing?” Alexis asked.

  “That would be normal for the afternoon on board a cruise ship like this. The promenade would settle down while passengers ate dinner and then the shops would reopen.”

  “But they’re not closing down for dinner,” Alexis said. “They’re removing the trained staff!”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Check the time stamp. It’s three o’clock – the place shouldn’t be closing down for the afternoon.” Alexis looked at the yellow card. “Can you see what the last one said?”

  Elise paused and then increased the size of the image. It read, back in five minutes.

  “I knew there was something wrong with those fucking yellow cards when I first saw them days ago!”

  “You don’t like people taking a toilet break?” Sam asked.

  Alexis ignored the comment. “Okay Elise, can you please rewind to five minutes earlier than the earliest screen.”

  “Okay, sure.”

  The promenade was full again. Everyone looked happy. There was a general enthusiastic vibe to the entire place. Most people on board would have paid a fortune for the opportunity to visit Antarctica and were making the most of every minute. A man with a red baseball cap walked towards one of the boutiques. It offered to sell books and memorabilia on Antarctica. He stopped
for a moment outside and started to write on a yellow piece of paper.

  Elise stopped the video. “You’ve seen this section before.”

  “Okay, I think I know what’s going on here,” Alexis said. “And I think we’re all in danger.”

  “What is it?” Sam asked.

  “That man never walked into the shop. All he did was write on a yellow card that he’d be back in five minutes and then locked the front door.”

  “Maybe he’s the security guy who does the locking up?” Tom pointed out. “I mean, if you can convince the rest of the passengers to jump ship, why go to the trouble of locking the crew and entertainers up?”

  “Maybe whatever they’ve done to convince the passengers to jump ship wouldn’t be possible if the crew were there to instruct them not to?” Alexis said.

  “That’s a possibility,” Sam agreed.

  Elise stopped the recording completely. The face of the man in the baseball cap remained on the computer screen for a moment and then disappeared. “It’s all just a theory until I can break the code to these security recordings and see exactly what happened.”

  “Hang on,” Alexis said. “Can you get that exact image back?”

  Elise rolled her eyes. “Sure, but my time would be better used if I returned to hacking the older security records until I find the deleted parts of this time period.”

  “This won’t take long,” Alexis said. “I was certain there was something familiar about that man – and I just worked out what it was.”

  Elise brought the image back.

  “There it is!” Alexis said.

  “What?” everyone said in unison.

  “He’s wearing a Harvard Medallion on his right hand – it denotes the highest achievement in science. There’s been fewer than fifteen of those given out in Harvard’s history!”

  “So, what does that prove?”

  “Don’t you see? There’s no way someone who scored the highest marks in decades at Harvard is going to find themselves working as a sales assistant on a cruise ship. It’s the same guy, I’m sure it is. He’s been going around locking all the doors, and removing the staff.”

  “Maybe he had a good job and he lost it?” Tom suggested.

  “No way!” Alexis said. “A guy like that doesn’t lose a good job. Do you realize that more people have become the President of the U.S.A than receive a Harvard Medallion in science?”

  “Anyway, how could you tell he was the same as the other guys? Their faces were obscured and each time the person wore completely different clothes?” Elise asked.

  “Because I saw the ring on his left finger, each time.”

  “How could you be certain it’s a Harvard Medallion?” Sam asked.

  Alexis held out her right hand. On her fourth digit a plain ring with a golden medallion over the Harvard crest glowed orange. “Because I have one of those rings.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Sam shuffled in his chair. “Okay, so whatever happened here wasn’t an accident. Someone orchestrated it. Elise, can your facial recognition software get a good enough image of his face to identify him?” Sam asked.

  “Shouldn’t be a problem.”

  Elise slowed the security recording until she could flick frame by frame. She stopped on an image of the man’s face.

  She then typed: Harvard Medallion Recipients.

  “Hey, there’s only ever been eleven people in the history of Harvard who met the criteria for its Medallion.” She scrolled down; her eyes scanning the list of names. “Whoa! Alexis, you’re not lying. You were a recipient.”

  “Why, Elise –” Alexis paused as she withheld a small smile. “Did you doubt my word?”

  “Not for a minute.”

  Harvard Medallion recipient? She’s smart. Sam made a note to find out what she does now for work once he had more time.

  “Good,” Sam said. “That leaves just ten names to identify. I don’t suppose you know any of the other recipients?”

  “No luck. I was the first in about ten years.”

  “Okay, it’s back to you, Elise.”

  “Just a second.”

  A series of names flashed up on her laptop. Next to each name was a likelihood of a match, represented as a percentage. There were a total of forty names left taking into account a possible change of hairstyle, color, facial hair and aging. Elise added the additional Boolean operator to the search query: AND – Attended Harvard University. Five names were left. She then added one more Boolean operator: Not – Deceased. Results: zero.

  “Hmm. That’s no good.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “It says everyone who matches this image and attended Harvard is deceased.”

  “Could he have stolen the Harvard Medallion ring?”

  “Yes, but it seems strange to steal one and wear it when you’re committing a crime. More likely to think he’d always worn it and simply didn’t think to remove it,” Alexis said.

  “Or that he was so confident he wouldn’t get caught that he didn’t bother removing it,” Tom suggested.

  “All right,” Sam said. “Maybe you’re over thinking this. Can’t you just check a match with his facial recognition and winner of the Harvard Medallion?”

  “Sure,” Elise said. “But we already know anyone who looks like him and went to Harvard is now deceased.”

  “No we don’t. We just know anyone the computer thinks looks like him and went to Harvard is dead. I know your software is good. Now I want to see the images with my own eyes.”

  Elise nodded. Then typed the elements of the search fields into her laptop and pressed enter. A moment later only one name came out.

  Sam leaned over her shoulder and read the single name that came up – Randy Olsen. He stared at the picture. “That’s our guy. A little younger back then, but definitely the same person.”

  Elise clicked on Current Status. A new page of information opened up. “There’s just one problem.”

  “Now what?” Sam asked.

  “It says here Randy Olsen died in a boating accident ten years ago. His body was never found. In his obituary, it’s noted he was pitched to be the leading mind in quantum physics in the future.”

  “Oh great,” Alexis said. “Just when you think things can’t get any stranger, we find out our main suspect is a guy who’s been dead for the last ten years.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  “All right Elise, back to the priorities.” Sam said. “How are you going to find and retrieve the lost section of tapes so we can see where the passengers were taken?”

  Elise sighed. “I have a program working on it now. It might take a while. Whoever deleted the original sections went to great lengths to make it appear normal.”

  “If they were deleted, how can you retrieve them?” Alexis asked.

  “It has to do with how a hard drive is built. You never really get to completely delete anything. When you click delete, all you’re really doing is removing the link to access the data,” Elise explained. “The trick is whoever’s responsible for this has placed about a million fake data locations for my program to search as well. It will take time, but I will get it eventually.”

  “Good,” Sam said. “That’s one thing; now on to the next. How can we access the crew and entertainer’s levels?”

  “It’s going to take too long to break the code to the elevator to the lower levels. The elevator system is managed on a separate system.”

  “Meaning?”

  “I can’t hack the elevator from in here.”

  “Is there another way down?”

  “No. Per the schematics, the crew and entertainment’s level is below the waterline and accessible by three single elevators. One at each end of the ship and one at the middle.”

  Sam picked up the security phone sitting on the desk. “Can you find me the number for the bridge?”

  Elise typed the name into her laptop, which was synchronized with the security computer. A moment later a number was displayed on the
screen. “Dial 99.”

  Sam dialed the number and the phone started to ring.

  “Hello,” Veyron answered. His voice sounded irritated, like a typical engineer he didn’t appreciate being rushed or interrupted.

  “Veyron. How are we looking?” Sam asked.

  “Everything looks to be in functioning order. I’ll need access to the lower decks to get the screws turning again.”

  Sam sighed. “Why?”

  “They’ve been locked. It’s a normal procedure for a ship at anchor or at port. The system suggests nothing’s wrong with the propellers – just that someone’s locked them.”

  “Let me guess. The locking section is inside the engine bay which is only accessible through the crew and entertainer’s level?”

  “Now you’re getting it.” Veyron sounded like he was cheering up. “How did Elise go? Has she got the code for the elevators yet?”

  “No luck. She says it might take some time. The system is stored separately to the main security room.” Sam gritted his teeth. “Veyron, any chance you can break into it the old fashioned way?”

  “With brute force?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Sure I can, but it will take me a few days without any heavy machinery. I’ve looked at the elevators, they’re built to be watertight.”

  “All right. You’d better make a start on it until we come up with a better plan. We’re going to need those screws turning if we’re to move the Antarctic Solace out of the Weddell Sea before it gets frozen in permanently.”

  “Okay, will do.”

  Sam hung up the phone.

  Elise stared at him, feigning a hurt expression. “I didn’t say I can’t hack into it.”

  “You didn’t?”

  “No. I said I can’t do it from here. There must be a separate storage section for the security cards. It’s not attached to the security center, but I’ll find it.”

  “Can you see inside down there?”