Quantum

by Tom Grace

  The more she read, the more the name Nolan Kilkenny kept cropping up. As a project director for the Michigan Applied Research Consortium, Kilkenny was noted as being involved with the commercial application of Sandstrom’s work – an effort she’d been hired by Orlov to pursue.

  Avvakum continued to investigate and found herself at the MARC home page. She navigated through the site until she found a staff listing for Nolan Kilkenny, complete with his E-mail address. She clicked on the address and began typing her message.

  Is this file the work of Ted Sandstrom?

  Avvakum then browsed through a directory of files and selected one that dealt specifically with the quantum energy device and attached it to her message.

  She looked at the one-line message she’d written. If her suspicions were wrong, then she was about to violate the trust of her employer – a man who’d saved her from a life of scientific exile in Siberia. But what if her suspicions were right? If Orlov truly was responsible for the attack on Sandstrom, then by developing this research, she became Orlov’s accomplice.

  Avvakum carefully weighed the options before her, balancing her need to know the truth against the fearful hope that ignorance could somehow protect her.

  She sighed, then clicked the SEND button.

  40

  JULY 28

  Langley, Virginia

  Mosley’s knuckles rapped against the partially open door of Cooper’s seventh-floor office.

  ‘Bart, do you have a minute? There’s something I’d like to discuss with you.’

  ‘Ah, sure, Cal,’ Cooper replied, surprised by the visit. ‘C’mon in.’

  Mosley sat in one of the upholstered chairs opposite Cooper’s desk. ‘I’m working on an industrial-espionage case, something involving a radical new technology.’

  Cooper leaned back in his chair, getting comfortable. ‘Tell me about it.’

  Mosley quickly ran through the information Kilkenny had provided regarding the quantum power cell, the attack in South Bend, and his lines of inquiry.

  ‘So what you’re telling me is that you’ve got squat as far as any solid leads.’

  ‘The trail was getting pretty cold, until a couple of days ago. Two of the same men who hit South Bend led another team to Ann Arbor, where they struck a rare-books lab.’

  ‘How does that fit in with your technology case?’

  ‘They were after a set of notebooks, and it’s these notebooks, or rather their author, that led me to you. The man who wrote them was a German physicist named Johann Wolff. When I called down to Research for some information about this guy, they told me you’d recently made a similar request. That led me to wonder what your interest is and if there’s any overlap with what I’m working on.’

  ‘There might be,’ Cooper replied. ‘Have you gotten the report from Research?’

  ‘No, I spoke with them just before I came here. So far, these attacks have left eight people dead and one hospitalized with severe burns. I’d appreciate any help you can give me on this.’

  Cooper leaned his head back and composed his thoughts.

  ‘As you probably know, I’ve been with the Agency for a long time. In fact, I’ve been in the intelligence business since the Second World War, when I worked for Bill Donovan in the OSS.’ Cooper pointed to a black-and-white photo of him with the legendary spymaster on the wall. ‘When the war in Europe began to wind down, the OSS launched an active campaign to capture as many German scientists as we could find – especially the ones working on rocketry, jets, and atomic research. Wolff was part of the group that was working on the German bomb project. I interviewed him and cleared him for entry into the U.S. When his body was found, the computer system matched his name with the keywords on his old OSS file and, since I’m still here, notified me.’

  ‘If it’s just an ancient case, why’d you request a full background check?’

  ‘Professional curiosity. When I checked out Wolff, I didn’t find anything that tied him to the nastier stuff the Third Reich was into. He looked like a bright young guy who spent the war doing math – exactly the kind of highly educated professional that the government wanted us to import. After his body was found, it made me wonder if I’d missed something. I requested a full check because there’s a lot more information available now than back in ’forty-six.’

  ‘Did you find any skeletons?’

  ‘Just a rumor that turned out to be false. I did learn one new thing about Wolff; he was a lot smarter than he let on.’

  ‘How so?’

  ‘Did you ever hear the story about how Einstein and a group of top physicists wrote a letter to Roosevelt explaining why the U.S. needed to build the bomb?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Well, in Germany, Wolff’s boss, a guy named Werner Heisenberg, did the opposite with Hitler. Heisenberg and his team ran the numbers and determined that even if it were possible, it would cost too much and take too long to build an atomic bomb.’

  Cooper then explained how the Soviets and their captured scientists reconstructed the German nuclear research and discovered that Wolff had sabotaged the calculations, thus preventing the Nazis from pursuing development of atomic weapons.

  ‘So you’re telling me that Wolff kept the Nazis from building an A-bomb?’

  ‘That’s what his colleagues thought after they put all the pieces together. He was the best mathematician on Heisenberg’s staff, and they trusted his skills implicitly. If he said two plus two equaled five, they believed him. That’s pretty much it as far as background for Wolff. Now, you said that the teams that hit the two labs were apparently Russian?’

  ‘Yeah, that was the impression they left. Why?’

  ‘When our people asked the FSB in Moscow to check their archives for information about Wolff, we learned that I wasn’t the only one asking about him. I called a guy I know over there and asked him to see if he could find out who put in the other request.’

  ‘Did you get an answer?’

  ‘Yeah. The other interested party is a woman named Oksanna Zoshchenko. She’s a high-level apparatchik in the Russian Academy of Sciences. My contact is digging up some information on her. Whatever I get, I’ll pass along.’

  ‘Thanks.’ Mosley scribbled a few more notes on a legal pad. ‘So, just days after Wolff’s body is discovered, both you and this Zoshchenko put in a request for information about him.’

  ‘The timing’s a bit much for mere coincidence, wouldn’t you say?’

  ‘That and the guys hitting these labs have the look of Russian Special Forces.’

  ‘Odd thing, though. If the Russian government is behind this, then why let us peek into their archives about Wolff and why tell us about Zoshchenko? That part doesn’t fit.’

  ‘No, but none of this has played out like a typical government-run intelligence operation. Somebody doesn’t just want to acquire this technology, they want to own it completely.’

  41

  JULY 28

  Dexter, Michigan

  Martin and Audrey Kilkenny were seated on the porch of their farmhouse when Nolan’s SUV rode up the long gravel drive. He parked near Martin’s old Ford pickup, then walked around to the passenger side and opened the door. Tears welled up in Audrey’s eyes as a woman handed Nolan a cane, then reached for his offered arm and carefully stepped out of the vehicle.

  Nolan towered over the thin wisp of a woman who stood beside him. A halo of snow-colored hair framed an oval face. At the sight of Audrey and Martin Kilkenny, her dark eyes grew moist with emotion.

  ‘Elli, it’s so good to see you again,’ Audrey said as she carefully stepped down from the porch.

  Elli Vital nodded, unable to express her feelings. The memories of this place, of the long weekends she’d spent here with Johann Wolff, all came back.

  The last time she had walked up this drive, the father of the young man whose arm she leaned upon was just a boy. It was December of 1948 and Johann had failed to meet her at the train station. Instead of a weekend spent i
n celebration of her engagement, Elli and Martin searched in vain for her missing fiancé. She returned to Chicago heartbroken, fearing that Johann’s disappearance was like that of everyone else she’d embraced as family – permanent.

  So when Martin Kilkenny called her, the day that Elli had long dreaded finally came. Now she was here, reunited with old friends to honor the memory of her beloved Johann.

  Elli released Nolan’s arm and walked the last few steps toward Martin and Audrey on her own. She trembled as more than fifty years of emotions resonated deeply within her.

  ‘You always said someday we would know the truth.’

  Martin wrapped his arms around Elli in a display of love and support, as he had at the end of that terrible weekend when the man she loved was taken from her.

  ‘I had faith in Johann. I knew there was only one thing that could keep him from you.’

  Elli pulled back and turned to embrace Audrey. They’d kept in touch over the years, exchanged letters and holiday cards, but the unknown always lingered like an un-welcome guest. Johann Wolff was the link that tied her to the Kilkennys, and his unresolved absence was a gulf that could never be completely bridged.

  ‘I’ve missed you so,’ Audrey said tearfully.

  ‘And I’ve missed you.’

  ‘That was a wonderful meal, Audrey,’ Elli declared.

  Martin inched his chair away from the table. ‘That it was. And now that we’re fed, there’s some business we need to discuss. Kelsey, I have a wee bit of a favor to ask you. As you may have noticed, Elli here is getting around these days with the help of a walking stick. You see, she had her hip replaced a few months back and she’s still recovering from it.’

  ‘Martin, you don’t have to tell them my entire life story,’ Elli interrupted, a hint of her native German still present after half a century. ‘The point I hope Martin was eventually going to arrive at is that I need a place to stay. Because of my hip, I can’t climb stairs, so staying here is out of the question. Audrey mentioned that you have a nice one-story condo with a guest room. Would it be too much of an imposition?’

  ‘Not at all,’ Kelsey replied.

  ‘I told you she was a fine girl,’ Audrey said proudly. ‘We have high hopes for her and Nolan.’

  Kelsey beamed as Nolan reddened.

  ‘The only advice I have to offer on that matter,’ Elli said with the confidence of age, but her voice a curious mix of regret and hope, ‘is that you must seize this time, for you never know what tomorrow will bring.’

  Martin perked up. ‘Now that we have that problem solved, Nolan, do you happen to have a copy of that letter that was found with Johann?’

  ‘Not on me, but if you let me use your computer, I can probably print one out.’

  ‘You know where it is.’

  Nolan exited the kitchen and walked into a small adjacent room. He switched on the computer and logged in to the MARC network and saw that he had new mail: a message with an attached file from avv@vio.com.ru. The subject of the message was SANDSTROM.

  Nolan clicked on the message. It asked a single question: Is this file the work of Ted Sandstrom?

  He selected the attached file.

  ‘What the hell?’

  The file contained several pages of technical information concerning an energy device that sounded suspiciously like Sandstrom’s.

  ‘If this is real, then it could have only come from the people who stole it. But why send me a piece of it?’

  Nolan quickly decided he needed to verify the authenticity of the correspondence, so he forwarded copies of the message and the attached file to Sandstrom and to Grin, hoping MARC’s computer guru might be able to identify who sent the E-mail. He then forwarded it to Mosley, just to cover all his bases, and printed out a copy for himself.

  ‘Nolan, did you find the letter?’ Martin called from the kitchen.

  ‘Working on it,’ he replied automatically, his mind still occupied by the E-mail.

  ‘Here it is,’ Nolan announced when he returned to the kitchen.

  ‘Would you do the honor of reading the first page to Elli.’ Martin’s voice cracked with emotion.

  Nolan sat down and began to read.

  10 December 1948

  Dear Raphaele,

  Yesterday, I summoned up the courage to abandon myself to my dreams. I moved beyond the comfort of my existence and made a leap of faith. My actions were not based on any rational, cognitive process, but on those elements of hope, wonder; and discovery that make life itself worth living.

  I have discovered beauty and truth, and in the immortal words of Keats, that is all I need to know. Truly, it is all I want to know.

  I have given myself fully to the woman I love, and she now holds the key to my heart, my mind, and my soul. Elli has accepted me and offered herself fully in return. The emptiness is now filled.

  42

  JULY 29

  Dexter, Michigan

  Nolan reached out from his bed and fumbled for the cordless phone. The digital clock on the nightstand read 6:30 A.M.

  ‘Yeah,’ he answered, still groggy.

  ‘Good morning, sweetie,’ Kelsey said in a singsong voice.

  ‘Oh, hi, Kelsey,’ he replied with a yawn. ‘You’re up early.’

  ‘I couldn’t sleep. I need to talk to you about something.’

  ‘Now that I’m awake, go ahead.’

  ‘Do you think your grandfather is up?’

  ‘Now? Yeah, probably.’

  ‘Could you put a three-way call together? I need to talk with you both.’

  ‘Let me see. Hang on.’

  Nolan put her on hold, then dialed his grandfather’s number on his second line.

  ‘Is everybody there?’ Nolan asked when the connections were made.

  ‘Yes,’ Kelsey answered.

  ‘I’m here,’ Martin replied. ‘So, Kelsey, what’s so important that you had to interrupt my grandson’s beauty sleep? God knows he needs all he can get.’

  ‘Martin, when Nolan and I first started looking for Wolff, I seem to recall you telling us that you loaned him some money for an engagement ring.’

  ‘Aye, I remember. I sent him down to my friend Urban; he did a real nice job for him, too. His son’s running the place now. You two should stop by there when you’re ready.’

  ‘When we’re ready?’ Nolan asked. ‘You sound pretty sure of yourself, Grandpa.’

  ‘You’re halfway down the aisle right now. It’s only a matter of time. Is there anything else, Kelsey?’

  ‘Yes, do you know if Johann had the ring inscribed?’

  ‘I believe he did. In fact, I’m sure of it because I remember Urban telling me it was the strangest thing he’d ever etched into a piece of jewelry.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Nolan asked.

  ‘I mean he put down whatever it was Johann asked him to, but he had no idea what it meant. He said it didn’t look very romantic, but he figured it must have been something between Johann and Elli. As long as his customer was happy, who was he to judge?’

  ‘Thanks, Martin. That’s all I needed.’

  ‘You’re entirely welcome, Kelsey. And don’t forget to bring Elli over by noon. We’re meeting with some folks from the university to discuss the memorial service.’

  ‘I’ll have her there. Nolan, could you stay on after your grandfather hangs up?’

  ‘You bet.’ Nolan paused until he heard the click of his grandfather’s line disconnecting. ‘What’s this all about?’

  ‘I was just reading Wolff’s last letter.’

  ‘I hope you had a box of tissues handy.’

  ‘So I’m a romantic, sue me. But the letter got me thinking. It says here that Elli “now holds the key to my heart, my mind, and my soul.” What if he meant that literally?’

  ‘How could he give her the key to his heart, mind, and soul?’

  ‘Nolan, Wolff was a physicist who loved his work. He lived at a time when physics had just turned the world upside down in a way that
hadn’t happened since Galileo and Copernicus. Quantum physics was still a very young field, and he studied under the man who practically invented it. Physics wasn’t a job for Wolff, it was a passion. Everything he was – his heart, mind, and soul – was bound up in that. The most valuable possession he had to offer Elli, as a token of his love for her, wasn’t a ring but his lifework.’

  ‘You think Elli has the key to Wolff’s cipher?’ Nolan asked as Kelsey’s logic became crystal-clear. ‘The ring. My God, you’re brilliant.’

  ‘After what Martin said about the unusual inscription, I’m sure of it. Now I just have to wait until Elli gets up, so I can ask her about it.’

  ‘Well, I’m up now, so call me as soon as you know. Grin still has a good chunk of the first notebook on disk. If we get the key, I think we can decrypt it.’

  ‘I’ll let you know.’

  A second after Kelsey hung up, Nolan heard another, distinct click on the line. He thought about the sound as the dial tone buzzed in his ear. Nolan rolled onto his side, reached over, and depressed the cradle switch; the dial tone disappeared. He then lifted his finger up – the line clicked, then clicked again. Nolan hit Kelsey’s number on his speed dial and got a steady busy signal.

  ‘Shit!’ Nolan cursed as he slammed the phone into its cradle and rolled out of bed.

  He dressed hurriedly in a T-shirt and shorts, then unlocked the safe in his walk-in closet and retrieved a teak storage box that contained the pistol he’d used during his days as a Navy SEAL – a Heckler & Koch USP Mk 23. He strapped on a shoulder holster, then quickly checked over his weapon. Satisfied, he slipped a magazine containing ten.45-caliber ACP rounds into the USP, chambered a round, then safed and holstered the weapon. He then stowed three more clips in his pocket.