by Jaxon Reed
A car landed nearby and Chief Jones exited it. He walked up to their group, stopping beside Bryce. He shaded his eyes with one hand and looked across at the abandoned apartment building. Then he turned to look at Bryce.
Jones said, “‘The poor will always be with you.’ You know who said that, Detective?”
Bryce nodded. “Jesus.”
“That’s right. Looks like our suspect found a perfect place to hide out. I’ve just come back from a meeting with precinct captains. Our drones found four more of those cylinders with the floating wafer chips on rooftops around the city. Each one had a high-powered rifle hidden nearby. Frankly, we should have looked for them right after Caron was shot. It’s just, things got a little hairy there for a while and we got distracted by other developments. Anyway, all the cylinders have been disabled and the weapons confiscated.”
The Chief returned his attention to the building across the street. He said, “What are the sensors showing us?”
“Food and water. Portable power units. Neural internet transmitters. Difficult to trace, but not impossible.”
The Chief grinned. “Not impossible, especially when you know what to look for. Thanks to our Army friends.”
Bryce nodded again. “The links they found when the tankbots were hacked traced back to this neighborhood. The only neural transmitters for several blocks are in that building, on the fourth floor.”
“We don’t think they’re a relay of some kind?”
“The FBI says there’s a heat signature indicating one person in there. Looks like that person is linked up to a neural transmitter right now.”
Jones grunted. “Hope it’s not just some kid playing a game.”
Bryce shrugged. “Either way, the FBI is going in.”
“Breach bots?”
“Correct. The plan is to send the bots in first, then a human team after everything is cleared.”
“Smart. Okay, when do the fireworks start?”
“The first bots were blown up by a bomb in the hallway. Some more should be going in any minute.”
Bryce looked at one of the agents nearby who held two fingers under his ear as he listened in on a neural conversation.
The agent nodded and said, “Second team is going in now.”
-+-
Three bots made their way down the hallway on the fourth floor of the abandoned building. Six feet tall, painted black, with powerful upper bodies complete with battering ram arms, each one had the initials “FBI” in bright yellow on their fronts and backs.
The bots walked carefully around their fallen comrades, their articulated metal legs avoiding the debris. The first team had been taken out by defensive measures in the hallway their sensors failed to identify. A combination electromagnetic pulse and plastic explosives detonated at their sensor level, or about the typical height of a man’s head, rendering them all useless.
Had flesh and blood officers been present, the carnage would have been profound. As it was, the booby trap took out the first wave of six breach bots in the hallway, killing taxpayer funds instead of agents.
The first bot in the new group paused at the door, waiting for the others to assemble on either side. Sensors indicated the door was heavily armored with plate metal, and possibly another booby trap.
One of the human agents monitoring their progress had an idea. He sent a signal, and the bot stepped to one side. It scanned the surface in the hallway next to the door with wall-penetrating sensors. Slowly, its heavy battering ram arms pulled back, then slammed against the wall. Old plaster and sheetrock flew out, followed quickly by wood and other debris. Within less than a minute the breach bot hammered out a large enough hole to enter the room, bypassing the door.
-+-
Friedman had spent nearly 1,000 credits to rig up a device to warn him someone was entering his room while he spent time in cyberspace. Black market neural links were hard to find. He had picked this one up in Tel Aviv and carefully smuggled it out of Israel. Here he had linked it to a simple motion sensor in the room before wiring it into his neural implant.
The sensor worked as intended. He woke up and unhooked the cord under his ear in time to see three bots entering the room. His mind registered “FBI” in yellow letters.
In a split second, he realized his mistakes. He should not have stayed in Texas. He should have left as soon as the job was done. Never mind he had tarried many times in the past. This time, it was a mistake. Almost certainly it was because he had hacked into the military’s system. They traced him somehow and figured out his location.
Also, the hole to the side of the door provided proof of another mistake. How many times had he rigged a door in the past? He had grown over-confident, not rigging the walls to either side with booby traps as well. It had been decades since he made a mistake like this.
Thoof!
The lead bot shot out a huge glob of thick, white glue-like substance. Simon had never seen it before, but he knew what it had to be: anti-movement gel that would harden upon contact with the air.
Involuntarily he moved to get up, and found the gel already hampering his motions. It hardened by the millisecond. He lost balance and fell to the floor, the glue gel adhering to the carpet before solidifying completely. He felt completely immobile. He could no longer move his arms or legs.
Thankfully, he thought, he had one more neural switch left . . .
KABLOOM!
The plastic explosives he had planted around the apartment detonated, knocking out the bots, destroying all his equipment, and instantly sending Friedman into darkness.
-+-
Bryce and Melody sat at a table for six at Solarium, a trendy new restaurant. Shafts of bright light illuminated the place, and everything seemed to glow with the warmth of sunshine.
“They call it ‘recorded sunlight,’” Bryce said. “It’s supposed to be all natural, or pretty close. That’s why it looks like daylight in here, even at night.”
Across the table, Dan and his girlfriend Lexi sipped their drinks.
Dan smiled and said, “Everyplace has to have a gimmick, I guess. Something to help stand out from the competition.”
Dan looked much the same as when Bryce first met him years ago. Perhaps he had grown a little more bald. He kept his hair shaved very close, so it was hard to tell. He maintained his goatee over the years, and he stayed in shape. Maybe weight training was necessary to catch and keep up with his 20-something girlfriend, Bryce thought.
Lexi looked like she worked out regularly, too. And of course, she had not yet had a baby. She had paid for highlights in her long dark hair recently. It caught the piped-in sunshine and reflected it back. So did her healthy, glowing skin. She wore a full complement of makeup including eyelashes, eye shadow, lipstick and matching barn-red nails.
Bryce felt relief that the table hid her legs. Her tight black bandage dress was so short, he was certain it exposed far too much when she sat down.
She’s a looker, Bryce thought. I can see how he got snared by her.
Self-doubt flooded him, and for a moment he entertained second thoughts about the evening. Then Melody caught his eye as she took a sip from her wine glass. She smiled, her warmth and confidence flooding into him.
Okay, Bryce thought. We can do this. She dreamed about it, after all.
The maitre d’ brought Parker and her son into the dining area. Dan noticed Emily first, and Bryce felt a tiny spark in his heart when he saw her with Aiden. While Dan raised his hand to attract their attention, Bryce raised an eyebrow at Melody as if to convey to her that her dream might be on the spot after all. She smiled back with a “Told so you so” look in her eyes.
Emily moved to sit down on their side, and Bryce stood to pull her chair out. Aiden sat down opposite her, on his father’s side.
Parker looks good, too, Bryce thought. Even 20 years older than Lexi.
She still worked out and had long ago recovered her figure after having Aiden. Tonight she wore a simple red dress that was
neither short nor overly revealing, but it complimented her figure and let everyone know she stayed in shape.
There’s nothing wrong with the way she looks, Bryce thought. And even if there was, she’s still the same woman he married back in the day. That should count for something.
The conversation shifted to include Emily and Aiden. Dan asked Aiden how his summer was going.
Aiden was in that awkward period between boyhood and manhood. His hair was blond, like his mother’s, but his face bore a striking resemblance to his father’s. Already he was taller than Emily, and with another growth spurt he’d easily surpass everyone at the table.
But he was still young and uncoordinated. On most trips out to eat, Bryce reflected, Aiden tumped his glass of water at least once. Recently he knocked it over twice, and dropped a plate full of food on the floor as well.
Everyone scrolled through virtual menus floating in the air.
Aiden looked up at Bryce and smiled a hello. His youthful enthusiasm for life felt contagious, Bryce thought.
“Hey, Uncle Jerry. What is ‘Jammin’ Eye-beer-icko?’”
“Jamón ibérico,” Bryce said, pronouncing it correctly. “That’s a type of ham produced in Spain and Portugal. Jamón is Spanish for ham, and ibérico refers to the Iberian Peninsula. It’s the tastiest, most delicious ham in the world. Only specific breeds are used, and they’re fed a special diet. Some say acorns from that area that the pigs eat lend the ham its distinctive flavor. Try it, I bet you like it.”
Later, as the waiter cleared the plates, Bryce said, “Well? What did you think of it?”
Aiden nodded slowly while wiping his lips and said, “It did taste different from the ham in Mom’s sandwiches. I guess it was good.”
Dan chuckled and said, “It cost about ten times the ham we use in your sandwiches. It better taste good.”
Bryce caught a whiff of irritation from Lexi at Dan’s use of “we.”
He smiled and said, “We’ll make an epicurean out of you yet, Aiden.”
“More likely you’ll make him a foodie.”
Everybody stopped and stared at Lexi, who had gone back to chewing a final bite after making the offhand remark. She looked up and swallowed.
“What?”
Dan cleared his throat and changed the subject. He said, “So, Emily. I heard on the news they caught the guy suspected of hacking the National Guard’s tankbots. Did you two have anything to do with that?”
“Well, yes and no. The FBI took down the suspect, but then he blew the place up, taking out all his equipment. But, we were able to piece together enough evidence to tie the guy to a recent murder case where this strange type of man-drone killed somebody right in front of Jerry. Actually, he killed two people in front of Jerry that way, on two separate occasions.”
Bryce felt resentment growing in Lexi as Emily talked, along with a solid nugget of jealousy. He reached out, tentatively at first, then carefully tweaked her emotions, concentrating on the negative ones.
Emily was the woman Dan had spent years with, who had given him a son. She was smart, attractive, and confident. Bryce fed all the negative feelings Lexi had for her back in on a loop. He exacerbated her jealousy, then he tweaked the feelings of insecurity Emily generated in her.
Bryce switched to Dan as Emily continued talking. He looked deep inside the man and found the spark of love Dan had for her. He amplified it, making it stronger, lifting it up through the recent layers in which Dan had buried it.
Bryce rooted around some more, feeling a bit clumsy since he rarely delved this deep into someone’s psyche. He found Dan’s feelings of lust and affirmation revolving around Lexi, along with surprisingly little affection for her. The relationship centered on physical attraction and the deep needs Dan had to prove to himself (and, if he were honest, to Emily too) that he could land a younger girl if he wanted to.
Bryce tamped down those feelings as best he could. They were tightly embedded in Dan’s personality. Finally, he gave up. The feelings would take a lifetime to work through, or at least years to fully resolve. Bryce opted to simply suppress them as best he could. That would have to do, for now. Maybe Dan could grow out of them.
Lastly, he turned his attention on maximizing the irritations Dan felt toward Lexi. Her hand moved to Dan’s thigh while Emily talked, as if trying to maintain a physical hold on him. Dan gently but firmly moved her hand away.
Emily shifted to recounting the events surrounding Jacques’s death. Dan listened intently, fascinated by her firsthand account. Lexi grew increasingly jealous. Bryce smiled. Things were proceeding as planned.
Emily said, “And then Jerry ordered the car to leave. He shut the door and I was taken out of the situation. I had to observe the rest of it from his vehicle, half a mile away.”
She glared mock dagger eyes at Bryce and said, “Next time, we’re taking my car.”
“That is fascinating,” Dan said, thoroughly impressed with the tale. “You and Jerry were right there in the middle of the biggest news story of the decade!”
“Sounds like you were just his sidekick, though.”
Everybody stopped again and looked at Lexi.
She looked at Dan and said, “Well, she was. I mean, Jerry did all the work. She didn’t do anything.”
Bryce smiled gently and said, “Maybe not this time, but Emily has saved my life several times in the past. Literally.”
Bryce felt anger bubbling up in Dan and he strengthened it. That, Bryce thought, is an easy emotion to manipulate.
Dan said, “Come on, Lexi! That was uncalled for!”
Bryce stirred up indignation and jealousy in her, too. Lexi said, “What? I’m just telling the truth, Dan! She’s a glory hound, and you’re falling for it!”
Lexi stood up, throwing her cloth napkin down on the table with one hand and smoothing out her short skirt with the other.
“You know what? I’m through here. I’m done. We’re done! Good night, Dan! And don’t bother coming home!”
Lexi picked up a dainty sequined handbag and stomped out of the room, the reflected sunlight sending shiny sparkles bouncing off the purse.
When she was gone, Bryce soothed Dan’s anger, then accelerated his spark of love and affection for Emily. Bryce switched over to Emily and broke through all the pain and resentment she had for Dan, pulling up her deep-seated love for him.
Emily said, “If you need somewhere to stay, Dan . . . you know, for the night or whatever . . . you’re welcome back home.”
Dan looked up at her and hope sparkled in his eyes. Bryce magnified their positive emotions for one another as much as he could, encouraging love, affection, generosity, and an outpouring of positive hormones.
Dan said, “Thanks. Uh, thanks. I’d like that.”
Aiden said, “Yeah!”
Pure happiness radiated from the boy, and for a moment Bryce lost his hold on the couple as he basked in the simple joy a son had for the return of his father. The emotions streaming into him felt as strong as the room’s sunlight.
Aiden looked over at Bryce and said, “Why were your eyes flashing blue just then, Uncle?”
“Hm? Blue? Oh . . . it must be the lighting in this place. This ‘recorded sunshine’ casts weird reflections everywhere.”
Before Aiden could ask more questions, Melody said, “Jerry, honey, we should go.”
He smiled at Dan and Emily and Aiden. He said, “I’ll pick up the tab this time. Y’all go on.”
Everybody said their goodbyes and the family walked out while Bryce paid for the meal.
When they were gone, he said, “Think they’ll make it?”
Melody nodded and said, “My dream was pretty specific. You were to bring them back together at this meal, and they work it out from here on.”
“It still feels wrong to manipulate people’s emotions like that. I’m not used to using my mother’s gift.”
“In this case, I’m glad you made an exception. Now for my other premonitions of the night to
come true.”
“What’s that?”
“First, we’re going to visit Metro-X and your friend Isaac will direct us to a competitor’s casino so we can put it out of business by winning every game we play.”
“That sounds fun. Then what happens?”
“Then we’ll explore the city some more. Maybe find out what it feels like to be 20 again, and in perfect shape.”
“I think I like what your premonition is suggesting, Mrs. Bryce.”
“That’s right. It is Mrs. Bryce. I never changed it back. I’m still married to you in my heart, even if not by law.”
“I know. Me too.”
They walked out of the restaurant arm in arm.
-+-
The following morning at precinct headquarters, Bryce went down to the evidence locker to retrieve the stone signet Caron gave him. A few minutes later, the clerk returned with a chagrined look on his face. The signet was missing. Nobody could figure out how it disappeared, although Witherspoon suspected it must have occurred when the building suffered a cyber-attack overnight.
All systems were shut down for about twenty minutes starting about 4:30 that morning, he said. Witherspoon theorized somebody must have come in and swiped the signet during that window of time, when all the doors were unlocked and security systems were offline. He instituted a full review of everything else in the evidence locker and all server data, but the signet was the only thing missing.
Then somebody alerted Bryce to a strange surveillance video from the city morgue. Later in the day, he sent a copy over to Director Nguyen at the FBI, who forwarded a copy to Colonel Clark at the Pentagon.
Parker came in late, oversleeping after staying up most of the night with Dan. Bryce played the video for her when she sat down at the desk.
It opened by showing the corpse retention room, with a wall of stainless steel refrigerated drawers to the right, metal examining tables in the middle, and a door to the left. At 1:08 am, one of the drawers pushed open a crack. At 1:09, fingers from inside the drawer appeared, pressing against the outside, and the drawer slid open a couple feet.