“Like I’ve told you many times before, my job here is the perimeter. If you hadn’t been using Krueger as your mule to smuggle in unauthorized equipment, we wouldn’t be in this situation. If we’re throwing threats around, I might as well mention that Mr. Sullivan would not be too pleased. The cavalier attitude you have toward the rules put in place to keep your so-called, ‘backbone’ protected, would be most upsetting to him. They are in place to keep the system out of harm’s way and safe from the outside world and any contaminants.”
“You are an idiot Fox One! Do you see any contaminants? Nothing has happened. The building still stands, and nothing has shut down. So, what’s your problem? This project is my own. Not yours. Obviously, there were no contaminants within the tablet, there’s nothing to worry about.”
“Maybe,” Fox One said. “But that’s not the point. Having safety measures prevents any possibility of something entering unknown. I can only hope that by me shooting the device, it prevented your reckless regard of our protection here. The device couldn’t have finished downloading everything, but you don’t know, even as we speak, there wasn’t anything on there you would not want in your system.”
As Fox One finished the sentence, the row of faux bookcases powered down and went black, leaving the area where Mrs. Sullivan and the Butler stood in dim light. Mrs. Sullivan’s figure flickered and disappeared completely, leaving only Fox One and the Butler in the room. A perplexed look was on the Butlers face. Fox One walked closer to the bookcases, staring at the Butler as he approached them.
“What just happened here?’ Fox One asked the man. “Why did everything shut down?”
He could hear a faint hum from behind the bookcase, something he was unable to hear from the other side of the room, louder and then it began to whine like a system shutting down behind the cases. Fox One put his ear against the bookcase, his back to the Butler, who indeed had a weapon is his shoulder holster, underneath his suit.
He aimed directly at the Phantoms chest and said in his clipped British accent. “The systems have shut down. As for the reason, I am uncertain. Please step away from the cases immediately. This warning will not be spoken twice. In the event of system failure, I am in complete control. Deadly force is left to my discretion. The system will come back on shortly with limited functionality. Mrs. Sullivan will have only a few of her personal rudimentary systems available. Her systems reside in whatever remote location she is currently.”
Lights high above in the library popped on, glowing red, barely illuminating the space. Fox One could only assume that the back-up systems had already activated, some sort of generator he supposed.
A voice from over the speakers, but no hologram this time, only Mrs. Sullivan’s voice.
“What just happened?”
The Butler said, “Mrs. Sullivan I’ve taken temporary control. Are all your personal back-up systems back online?”
“Yes, they are for now. Don’t lower your guard. You can still be useful after all. You will track down Mr. Krueger and bring him back to me immediately.”
Fox One let out an amused laugh. “I wouldn’t even know where to start looking.”
“Leave that to me. I know we can count on you to do this and ask no questions, seeing as how you are responsible for everything that has transpired here today. You don’t want to have to explain yourself to Mr. Sullivan, do you?”
“No but “
“Great! We must have Krueger, and we must have him as soon as possible”
“Well why him, and why now? You were so reluctant to have Krueger stay. You let him escape just an hour ago.” said Fox One.
“I said no questions!” Mrs. Sullivan said. “Please show Fox One to the garage. We don’t want him using his personal vehicle. Give him something inconspicuous. Also, give him a way to communicate with me. A secure radio, as secure as possible, and a GPS tracker. We don’t want this dog going astray.” She turned to Fox One. “You’re not to speak with Mr. Sullivan. Not one word about your mission.”
“Look,” Fox One said. “I’ll do what you ask, but I’m not going to do it blindly. We can shoot it out right here and now, or you can cut the crap and tell me what’s going on. Your choice. I’m not moving until I get some answers. What is going on, and why is it so important to find Krueger?”
“You stubborn son-of-a-bitch, do you want me to draw a picture for you? You have your breech. We are in lock down. Mr. Krueger has guaranteed a return visit here, he has made assurances that we comply with his requests. I honestly didn’t see it coming from him. I must be careful to not underestimate him in the future. You destroyed the tablet, but you destroyed it a few seconds too late. He has put a virus into our system, not a destructive one albeit, but a disruptive one. It has brought us to a halt nonetheless and only he can remove it from our systems.”
Fox One taunted, “I fuckin’ told you so.”
Mrs. Sullivan rolled her eyes, annoyed. “Any information we may have had on the tablet was destroyed with your bullet. Go ahead and have your laugh, and your “I told you so’s,” but mark my words, if you don’t retrieve him quickly you won’t have me to be worried about. Mr. Sullivan will see to it that you are terminated, and me as well.”
Fox One nodded. “Ten-four.”
Fox One was guided by the Butler standing behind him, his handgun still drawn and pointed at his back. The quiet house was now drearily dark and eerily silent. The atmosphere sent shivers down his spine. It felt as if the house was dead. As dead as he would be if he wasn’t successful in the mission she had given him.
* * *
Sarafina and Leo tried to get a good nights’ sleep but Sarafina’s phone kept chiming away with texts, emails, and calls from someone desperately wanting to get hold of them.
They both tossed and turned trying to ignore the annoying noise. Leo woke for a moment, wanting to fall right back asleep, but a vibration kept him from slipping back into his dream.
He found Sarafina’s phone and silenced it, sleep won over his thoughts as he dozed off. Leo entered his REM cycle and with that, his mind let go.
He heard the noise again, louder now, coming from outside. Leo, now in his home, eased the front door open and stepped out onto the porch. He located the source of the ringing, a pine cone running across the ground. As it approached the picnic table, it changed form a pinecone into a squirrel scaling the table with ease and finally morphing into Sarafina’s phone.
Leo felt like he was losing his mind. He watched the phone, its tone increasing in volume and bouncing up and down. The device sprouted arms and legs and began to rip into their food.
Leo walked over and grabbed the phone deep in a bag of chips and looked at the screen and gasped at the words GET OUT! He heard a boom deep in the maze and he looked up to identify it. He saw nothing and looked back down to the phone.
It wasn’t a phone any longer, but a squirrel he now held by the tail, squirming to get free. Sarafina slammed open the front door.
“Leo what are you doing!” she said.
Wide eyed he turned to her, “It’s not your phone. It’s a damn squirrel!”
The boom became louder now, and Sarafina disintegrated square by square like a digital file. Sarafina pinching him on his arm awakened Leo, his hands full of her hair.
“Leo what in the hell? Leo! Wake up! Go see who is at the door. Someone’s pounding on it really hard.”
Leo blinked hard to clear his vision and drag himself fully awake. “Sorry. I was in another dream.”
“Well stop playing with my hair and see who it is?”
They were both curious who it could be, the early morning sun had just begun to shine. Leo hopped off the edge of her bed and felt the bruise on his thigh. His mouth hurt to move when he spoke, and his lips felt gigantic and swollen.
“Who would be bothering us at this hour?”
“Must be housekeeping, Leo.”
“At six a.m.? I highly doubt that.”
He used the peephole but saw noth
ing but white. Is the hole blocked by something? Forget it; I’m just going to open it and send whoever it is on their way. I want some more sleep.
He opened the door and stepped back, surprised, shocked, and angered.
Fox One spoke loud and clear.
“Rise and shine Krueger your presence is required, now!”
Chapter 32
Stratus instinctively placed an alert for himself on any activity on Mr. Krueger’s bank account. Happy he had done so, he headed out to Leonard’s listed home address when an alert of a charge at a B&B inn came in. The debit revealed that Leonard was in Pennsylvania. Stratus knew his superiors required him to report any activity out of the ordinary, but the banking information would be something only he would know about.
His phone would be something his boss kept track of. Stratus reached into his breast pocket and turned off the small black cell phone. Probably being overly cautious, nevertheless he also reached down to his pants pocket and powered down his personal cell phone as well.
He wanted no record of what he was planning to do next. He knew the importance of what he must do, and the importance of following certain rules, but he was good in the field and knew if he left it in management’s hands, nothing would get accomplished until years later. The way his superiors were acting lately told him time is of the essence. He made his decision.
With his devices both powered down, he knew his superiors would know he is up to something. His superiors always tracked his movements, especially in cases such as these, and especially with the interest they had shown in Leonard Krueger.
A few hours were certainly within reason. His devices could have lost their charge, he didn’t want to draw any suspicion, and he knew they had ways of tracking him other than the phones.
If he played their game and played it by the book, they would not question the few hours of time that would be unexplained. He only wanted to check on a few things and if possible, gain some leverage.
He did not fully know what he was getting into, but he had the feeling his instincts were correct. New Wave was more than just a highly successful company and Leo was more than just some hotshot college student they had hired. He wanted to be prepared for things either way.
He knew there was more than just his job with the agency at stake here, a lot more than salaries; this would affect him personally. It would change his children’s lives and their children too. He had to get this one right, had to think outside of the box.
The unknown perpetrators may lack creativity, but what they did not lack is vision. The market’s flurry of activity as of late, showed that under his management’s nose, they were now pressing forward.
This group had bestowed certain inconveniences upon the perpetrators. This did not stop them; their vision is something that he desperately needed to stop. This was not his only assignment, but one that always remained in the back of his mind.
This one trumped all the other cases that had come across his desk. He did not dream of becoming the big shot that solved this “big one” but he had to admit, if it’s in anybody’s hands, he preferred it to be his. And, if he were being honest, he would not turn down a little recognition for his effort on this one.
Stratus turned onto the toll expressway and waited in line, feet and hands eagerly anticipating the open road ahead. He was daydreaming of blazing down the expressway, blowing by cars as if they were standing still.
He tossed a handful of change into the payment bucket then quickly popped out the clutch and accelerated at a tremendous velocity, leaving the other merging vehicles in his rearview mirror. His silver Porsche Carrera quickly topped 90 mph as he sped down the toll-way hopefully without detection from his superiors.
Chapter 33
Mr. Sullivan awaited Fox One’s Sunday night’s report, which never arrived. It may have been out of the ordinary, but not out of the question. Mr. Sullivan simply dismissed this on the assumption that he knew he would see the reports perhaps at the end of Fox One’s shift in the morning. Could this have just been just an error made on Fox One’s behalf? Either way, he could not call and check on the status of the Phantoms reports with Mrs. Sullivan or find his whereabouts.
He had shut things down for the night and the next morning he rose early to start his day and noticed library access the night before. Fox One had not commandeered or relayed this information for him; this had been directly delivered to him from the Sullivan mansion’s vital security log. Mrs. Sullivan knew he had access to this report, but she did not know it contained quite the details he now read.
The library access tipped off a red flag as the breech was not to just any book, but a book both he and his other half knew well. Important to them both, but perhaps for different reasons. They were both in this struggle together, but maybe had a little bit different vision as far as what its uses would be and how they would implement them. That, combined with the missed report from Fox One, had him on an alerted state.
He had expected Fox One’s report in the morning and when it did not come, he became extremely uncomfortable. He feared something might have happened to Fox One, or worse, the library. Mrs. Sullivan as of late made him nervous.
He always knew she could be compulsive and reckless when trying to accomplish what she deemed right. The early morning log had many data access stamps attached to every file. He scanned down the report and looked at the last logged file, but it contained absolutely nothing. Not one byte as far as what was accessed or any kind of status of the storage system at the mansion. There was no excuse for this anomaly.
He tried Fox One on his private line but was unable to reach him. Without hesitation, he dialed Mrs. Sullivan to find out if he needed to stop in and possibly take over the data center. He was done with the niceties unless she gave him a perfectly reasonable excuse or total confirmation that the situation was under control. He planned on making his communication an abrupt one, contrary to his previous engagements with her. She needed to be reminded that he was in absolute control.
His attempt to reach her, at the Sullivan residence was unsuccessful. He knew this meant two things, one she is not currently present at that facility. Or two, that facility’s system is not operational, as Mrs. Sullivan’s phone-line was run partly within the data center. He hated to mobilize now as he wanted to get the full picture before he decided on taking action.
He did have one guaranteed way of contacting her and he switched over to her personal frequency, usually only reserved for the direst of circumstances, unfortunately completely unsecure and subject to a passerby tuned into the same frequency.
Mr. Sullivan waited while the line rang. He hoped she had the library’s safety all under control. On the other end, Mrs. Sullivan hesitated to answer, knowing only one person would call her on this line.
“Why hello, dear. Is everything in order? You never call me on this number.”
“Is everything in order? You have the nerve to ask me that? Stop trying to schmooze with me and please tell me everything’s under control.”
“My, my, not even a hello, or how are you dear. Yes, of course, I have it under control. I have my top dog tracking down our problem.”
“What happened, Evelyn? Your acting like nothing serious has happened.”
“Let me remind you this line is unsecure. I can’t describe in detail, but you caused this. If you’re going to blame anyone, you should blame yourself. You must tell me where the e-Frond file is in the system, so its creator and I can delete it together.”
“That is another matter entirely,” he said. “How in the world was he allowed in our library, and how in the hell was he allowed to bring us down?”
“Well that was…very unfortunate. Anything harmful allowed on the premises is unacceptable, of course. I just wish the software hadn’t slipped through undetected.”
“Yes. Unacceptable. I’ll deal with that later. What I want to know is how in the world he had access to an input terminal, and how that terminal had clearance into the da
tabase. None of that has to do with an external team oversight.”
Mrs. Sullivan sighed with impatience, unable to fool Mr. Sullivan. “I’d love to explain more but this whole conversation is unsecure. You’re just going to have to trust that I have all matters under control. That is unless you aren’t able to give up his files.”
“I uh…will take care of the file you will see it in Mr. Krueger’s folder shortly. Just locate our man quickly or I will become involved.”
“He’s as good as found. You know that dog doesn’t know how to fail. I am surprised you haven’t greeted Krueger in person yourself; you have more access than I. After all he is only a garden away.”
Mr. Sullivan felt irritated with her assumptions, and the insinuation that he handle Leonard Krueger was preposterous. Her lack of control allowed him access to their most important resource.
“I want an update in one hour,” he said. “Do your job or I will do it for you, dear. Goodbye.”
* * *
The line went dead and for minutes after Mrs. Sullivan sulked about the conversation. It was not the content, she could easily dismiss his sternness, she had thick skin. It was Mr. Sullivan’s abruptness, demanding performance of an equal, and washing his hands of any fault or responsibility. She remembered a time when they felt closer, more connected, their cause identical. Did he still think I owe him from events years ago? Oh well, she sighed. He will see soon enough how much I am needed and how much he may need me, this time.
Chapter 34
This is the last person Leo expected or wanted to see, especially this early in the morning. He slammed the door shut on Fox One’s face, then felt a bit ridiculous. He would not be able to avoid the Phantom no matter how much he wanted to. Short of hopping from the second story window, he would be forced to interact with the brute. The Phantom caused the interruption of Leo’s much needed slumber. It would have to wait. He opened the door to a pissed off Fox One.
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