He decided to use the next turnout and meet Krueger at his residence. This whole side trip, he had to admit, was a half-cocked plan. Not to mention a big risk. He was just looking to earn Krueger’s trust through investment options, then press him further.
Maybe his hunch was wrong this time. Look at where he was. There would be no way Leo and the man following him had gone this far.
Several more miles Stratus came upon a turnout where low and behold Krueger’s car was off to the side of the road. He did not want to tip him off; he wanted to remain unknown until he spoke with Leo at his residence. He had to admit his Porsche was probably the worst car possible for anonymity.
Stratus approached the turnout, turned around quickly, and noticed Krueger’s car was empty. A road leading into the woods peeked his curiosity. Why would Leo leave his car?
Stratus decided to sacrifice the possibility of revealing himself. Perhaps they would not notice and if they did, it would send a message to whomever was involved.
He hoped for no contact at all though as that would be best. He decided to move his car out of sight, down a farm path hidden behind a hay bale. This view allowed sight of Krueger’s Corvette. Stratus would wait to see if Leonard returned to his car. If he did not he would see where the dirt road would lead him.
I shouldn’t have ever second-guessed my instincts. Mr. Krueger is very interesting and the friends he keeps may be even more interesting.
Chapter 36
Leo expected fireworks and a catastrophic meltdown. He closed his eyes the second he pressed the enter key. Muscles tensed in anticipation, to his surprise nothing audible or distinguishable happened. He slowly released his eyelids to a tight squint and made out the screen, prompting him with an instruction.
The screen read, AUTHENTICATION REQUIRED, and a small panel opened. It had a black surface with the outline of a finger. He assumed the panel wanted some sort of verification via a fingerprint. Although he did not expect his print to work he figured he came this far he might as well give it a shot.
He pressed his finger on the pad and a green light ran side to side across the screen, he assumed running his print through a verification database. The computer sat for a moment processing the information.
Leo was worried he made a crucial mistake, but his curiosity had won him over. A needle rose up under Leo’s finger pricking it and taking a drop of his blood. Leo pulled his hand away quickly and let out an “Ouch!” A drop of blood remained on the shiny black surface. Damn! What in the world would it need my blood for?
The computer continued to process the information and the codes that littered the page that Leo had solved quickly flashed and then disappeared. The page reappeared unmarked and uncluttered by all the codes. Unsure of what to do now, he clicked on the mineral in the lower left-hand corner of the page.
It revealed the name, but the letters were gibberish, so he waited as it decoded by itself. After a moment the name in plain English read, Mimetite. The system then launched what seemed to be another small book, multiple pages flipped by quickly. It landed on a page that was a map with information on each location where Mimetite existed.
Leo did not know much about minerals, and never heard of this one. He wondered why it was so important to them, but until he learned more by himself, he would not know their reasoning. He still expected the mineral that he was decoding to be gold.
Leo realized he now held information they were previously able to see. According to Mrs. Sullivan, this was valuable information. Information that shouldn’t be in their hands. Leo tried to drag the book’s information on Mimetite onto his thumb drive unsuccessfully.
The screen simply read, Simulation Only. He wondered if he could try to copy it as a screen shot but did not want to alarm or tip the system or anyone else that the information regarding the mineral was unlocked.
Unsure of how much time Mrs. Sullivan would give him, he pulled out a pen and a wadded receipt from his pocket and jotted down the information on the minerals uses. It appeared there was one extremely large deposit of this mineral somewhere in the Mediterranean. He scribbled down the region’s coordinates to eliminate the need for a second peek. Just as he was about to click NEXT PAGE to gain more knowledge about the mineral, Mrs. Sullivan’s voice came over the speaker once again.
“Mr. Krueger your time is just about up. Mr. Sullivan does not wish to wait any longer. Do we have any progress on your antivirus?”
Leo exited the screen as a precaution, in case they had eyes on him.
“Yes, ma’am just about finished. Just give me a minute or two and I will have it completed for you.”
“Sure Leonard, by all means but remember, the clock is ticking.”
The room went silent and Leo thought he was alone again, at least he had the feeling he was. He knew he did not have time to scan through the pages and learn all the Sullivan’s uses for the material or why she needed the information so desperately.
If he just had time to flip the page, he would have seen a few schematics and CAD renderings that would have lit the way.
Leo wanted to cover his tracks. He did not want them to have access to what he had unlocked. He tacked on an extra line of code on the fix file. When the system rebooted Mrs. Sullivan would have no knowledge of what he had just done. It would reboot to the old sequence in which the page displayed with the codes unsolved.
With that in place, Leo launched his fix code for the system and before rebooting. He inserted the second code into a folder and directory only he would know. It would lay dormant until he needed the leverage it would provide him. If Leo were coerced into decoding a mineral for them again, a simple key sequence would off load the entire library’s contents to a ghost cloud drive. Leo knew he had a few minutes more until he found out if his plan had worked as far as uploading both the files together.
Nervous sweat dripped down his temples and off his forehead. He hoped all he did would not be noticed; they would not discover his new ace in the hole, and the system came on. His main goal was to get out of this vault. Leo exhaled loudly, relieved the system began to boot back up.
The light within the room brightened up, causing Leo to squint. Mrs. Sullivan’s voice came on loudly and clearly, sounding different than before, stronger, and full of life. Convinced she stood behind him now, he slowly swiveled in the chair, covering one hand over the thumb drive still in the input port. Mrs. Sullivan’s holographic image stood behind him as he had suspected.
“It’s finished. I see you’re back. Now where are my e-Frond files?” Leo said as he eased the thumb drive from the port.
The computer screen went black, completing the reboot sequence. As far as he could tell, Mrs. Sullivan had no knowledge of what he had done. He just hoped she had not appeared before the room had brightened. He worried she watched him place that second file in the system.
“Leonard, you lived up to your end of the bargain. Thank you. Now let’s get you out of here and back to the library so we can delete e-Frond together.”
The large vault door’s pins popped one by one and the smaller gear that fit smoothly in the middle of the opening swung out into the room, and then lay flat against the wall. The opening gaped wide and the generator wound down as the lift appeared.
“Have a safe ride up. My doorman will greet you at the top. He will make sure you don’t get lost on your way. Bring the shroud with you you’ll need it; this entry is only known to myself and my doorman.”
When Mrs. Sullivan’s image faded away, Leo let out a sigh of relief and wiped away the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. Confident that she had seen nothing and that he still had the upper hand no matter what, Leo watched the lift come abruptly to a stop. Leo quickly got in as if it might change its mind and leave him down there forever.
He reluctantly shrouded himself once again as he began to ascend, more quickly this time. Thirty seconds later the lift stopped with a jolt, feeling weightless for a moment. He noticed he still had the thumb
drive in his fist and shoved it in his waistband right before the door opened.
He heard the doors open and then the same man’s voice as before, commanded him. “Walk forward.” As he stepped out of the lift, the man grabbed his arm and proceeded to walk with him in tow.
Leo heard several doors open as the Brit led him to where Mrs. Sullivan waited for him in the library. Before they entered, the Butler stopped in the hall. Instead of telling Leo to take off the black cloth, he took it off forcefully.
The Butler looked into Leo’s eyes with intensity and said, “We’ll always be watching you.”
Then walked off, leaving Leo standing alone in the doorway. He shook off the Butler’s statements, and Mrs. Sullivan emerged in the corner of the library.
“Come in, Leo.”
She waved him over to the panel that had been previously blown out by Fox One’s bullet.
The screen had been replaced, this one shiny and new as the rest of them. Mrs. Sullivan already had the hierarchy of folders up and she wasted no time pointing out the folder that contained his e-Frond creations.
“This is it huh?” Leo asked. “You’re sure?”
Mrs. Sullivan confidently said back, “This is it! You should be thanking me for convincing Mr. Sullivan to find what was misplaced. He doesn’t like going out of his way to locate things.” She waved a hand dismissively. “Well none of that matters anyhow. Your information is right here for you to delete. You do the honors.”
Leo went up to the screen and long-pressed the file folders that stated e-Frond with the date that he had last worked on it. A menu popped up with the options, DELETE PERMANENTLY or SEND TO TRASH. Leo thought it strange that this folder was inside one that they had previously gone through. It could have simply been placed in there and he had no way of knowing if this is a copy or if they had another one somewhere else. He would never really know. It could be duplicated and stored anywhere. He had to assume or trust Mrs. Sullivan that it is the only copy they had.
He moved his finger down to DELETE PERMANENTLY and the item flashed, ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO DELETE PERMANENTLY? THIS ACTION CANNOT BE REVERSED. YES, OR NO? He pressed yes and watched the folder disappear. He felt slightly better, knowing he had a little bit of code in their system, just in case they decided to keep one copy for themselves.
“That wasn’t too bad. Thank you, Leonard.”
“Well thank you Mrs. Sullivan,” Leo said. “I won’t take up any more of your precious time. I’ll be on my way, now. I do appreciate you following through on your end of the bargain.”
“Oh, it is my pleasure. As I stated, you will be rewarded.”
He debated on whether to banter back and forth on what that meant, but he just wanted to get out of there.
“Leo,” Mrs. Sullivan said. “I’d love for you to come back and work on a few things with me. You seem to have a knack for things encrypted.”
She touched some sort of key code sequence that seemed to be a password. The entire panel that made up the bookcase section slid down into the floor, revealing a solid metal surface behind with another key pad inlaid in the center. She covered this key pad also and put in yet another code sequence.
As she did this, a half-inch piece of steel descended into the floor. A series of cubbies lay in the space now, each one a drawer with a name and a bored hole glowing green. She went toward one of the bins, in the middle, labeled Finite Resources.
Leo could not quite make out what she was doing but he thought he saw something protruding from her clenched fist as she pushed it toward the green hole. Only then did the drawer extend out slowly on some sort of mechanical platform.
He quickly recognized the book, although it did look quite different, the title read, Finite Resources. The crisscross pattern of lines that lay on each page as well as the cover now clearly visible.
Light illuminated the drawings on the page, each crisscross line a different color. The light traveled along its path on the book, moving back and forth creating a dance of light.
Cables trailed from the book, as if it were plugged in somewhere. Leo heard faint footsteps and turned around to see the Butler standing in the doorway. The Butler’s hands were down to his sides and his stance seemed very defensive to Leo.
“This is what I promised you Leo,” Mrs. Sullivan said. “This is the actual book. I’d love for you to look at the page you were looking at previously, just for a moment. I’d like to see if you’re able to crack it.”
Leo became nervous and probably showed a little bit of agitation. He did not know if they had some way of knowing about what he did in the vault. Although he reset the system, Mrs. Sullivan might need confirmation via the book. The actual book would be self-contained and locked here in the library, there would be no turning back the clock on it. Leo was not about to crack the code for them on the book.
He approached the volume and studied it, amazed each sheet appeared to be electronic paper. The crisscross lines across the page gave the page access points for places to input code. And, of course, these also allowed the locking of certain features of each page.
Mrs. Sullivan flipped through the pages each one illuminated, making every page pop out in three dimensions, positively cutting edge. It seemed unreal that something like this could exist with today’s technology, but he knew that breakthroughs such as this were kept out of the public’s eyes. He wanted to find things out for himself before he went and started unlocking their holy grail of minerals. He would start by researching Mimetite. He politely declined Mrs. Sullivan in a cordial tone.
“Mrs. Sullivan I wouldn’t know where to start with this code. And like I said, I’d like to go home now. We can always look at this another day.”
“Another day? Well we may not have another day, Leonard,” throwing up her hands in frustration, “Very well. Have it your way. I certainly look forward to seeing you very soon. Fox One has taken the liberty of returning your vehicle. It’s waiting at the front entrance.” Mrs. Sullivan ushered Leo to the door and into the arms of the Butler. “Don’t be a stranger now. I’ll call upon you if you don’t contact me first. And don’t worry about Fox One. I’ve instructed him to be a good boy.”
The Butler no longer blocked the doorway and Leo stepped to the door stopping just as he was about to exit the library, turning to Mrs. Sullivan he said, “I’ll be seeing you.”
His voice trailed off when he realized he spoke to an empty room. He eyed the room one last time, taking it all in. He wondered what else lay behind the bookcases and what is on the missing pages in the mineral book.
The Butler stood at the front door and opened it as Leo approached. However, before Leo could step on the porch, the man patted Leo down one last time. Finding nothing, he stepped aside and let Leo pass. The large door shut behind Leo, his Corvette in front of him, Fox One standing on the driver’s side.
“Mr. Krueger how do you do, sir,” Fox One said in a sarcastic tone.
Leo snapped, “Fox One, I’m really not in the mood. I’m outta here.”
“I understand completely Leo.”
Leo opened his door, sat down and shut it quickly, trying to avoid any more interaction with the guard. The Phantom tapped on the window and Leo hesitantly lowered it to see what he wanted now.
“Leo, I just wanted to tell you no hard feelings, you’ll be coming back I’m sure.”
“I doubt it.”
Fox One chuckled as he patted on Leo’s windowsill, “Oh yeah, you’ll be back. They never lose track of anyone.”
Fox One handed Leo his cell phone then turned and walked off, down the small road leading away from the house. Leo drove the windy road thinking about everything that had transpired in the last 24 hours.
As he turned onto the state route, the words Fox One had said yesterday played back in his mind. “I suggest you wait outside the gates before you too become entangled, these are powerful people and they’re not likely to forget a name that has crossed their paths, let alone their infrastructure. You s
ee Leo your coming here was unavoidable, my dislike is not enough to disobey the plans put in place for you.”
Leo settled into a new attitude. He knew he would see Mrs. Sullivan again. He would be involved with her and whomever else she was tied to somehow, almost predestined.
What Fox One said was true, and Leo’s curiosity prevented him from seeing the clues about what she was up to. Leo now knew they wanted a drastically different future for him. Detangling himself from them would be difficult. The technologies they may have and the opportunities they may create for him were too amazing to resist.
He felt this might be just what he was waiting for. This may be the legacy he knew would come along.
Chapter 38
Evelyn wasted no time calling Mr. Sullivan. She wanted to tell him she had the situation under control, but she knew he would already have ways of knowing the systems were online. The call was not about her reporting in promptly, she did not care about that, it was more to gloat and rub in her success. She loved a good opportunity for a jab, especially with Mr. Sullivan on the other end of the blow. The line rang, and Mr. Sullivan answered promptly.
“Hello, dear. I take it from the number you just dialed things have returned to normal?”
“Yes of course…You figured I’d fail? I’m hurt,” she said in an insincere tone.
“No, no of course not. As you stated, that dog doesn’t know how to fail. I knew he’d get the job done.”
“Oh, you did huh? Well thanks to me everything is back to normal now. Because of your little oversight, misappropriation of Krueger’s e-Frond had us at a standstill.”
“The fact that I knew where to locate Krueger’s files makes me competent and a leader. There’s a reason why I supersede all. Why Mr. Krueger is even involved or why he’s entering your facility would be very interesting to know. Perhaps Fox One’s report will shed light on this when he’s allowed to actually file it.”
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