There Where the Power Lies (Monster of the Apocalypse Saga Book 2)

by C. Martens

  Twin doors opened, and right away Buru focused on the path Andy was making across the lobby. The changing of the guard was complete by the time he landed on the lower floor, so the fresh security team was receiving Andy’s attention. He was just passing by the last man and hesitated slightly. It was enough time for Buru to catch up.

  He interrupted without waiting, still trying to keep it casual, “Andy, I’ve got something that might need attention. Do you have some time?” He gripped the other man’s arm at the elbow, communicating by pressure that his need was critical.

  Andy got the message as his arm felt the vise-like grip. He remained nonchalant, glancing at Buru and nodding, and finished his sentence to his subordinate. “Yeah, I’m sure it was fun, but twenty years from now you might wake up to a Chinese kid you never knew you had.” He chuckled. “Take care. Let me know if anything comes down.”

  Turning to Buru, it was his turn to grip an elbow. “C’mon, friend, let’s get a drink and wind down. It was a long shift.”

  They did not go to a bar. Andy was the only one on the security team that knew of Buru’s secrets, so alcohol was out of the question. Instead, a light meal in a discreet corner booth seemed the better option. The hotel staff was used to the security boss needing a place away from eyes and ears, and the booth they used was swept for bugs regularly. The staff also seated clients at a distance as standard practice. Still, both Andy and Buru checked out everything as they approached. Andy had a built in bug detector as part of his artificial arm, and he used it now to scan the booth without Buru even knowing.

  Turning to the host that led them to their table, he ordered two coffees, extra strong just as Buru preferred, and knowing that the beans would be ground fresh just for them. The restaurant and the security staff took care of each other.

  They waited for their coffee silently and then ordered. One had a grilled cheese sandwich with a pickle on the side, and the other a bowl of the house soup with a chunk of garlic bread. Even though they were in China, the restaurant was international. If they had wanted baklava or grits, they would have been satisfied with what they got.

  After the waiter left, Buru leaned forward, intense. “I know what is going on.”

  By studying Buru’s normally sanguine face, Andy was already expecting something worth hearing. Comparing notes with Buru was a part of his job that he relished. There were always several dramas in the royal family at any one time, so he waited for clarity, anticipating something good.

  He inquired, “Okay, just what are we talking about?”

  The answer rocked his world.

  “They have released a plague, Andy. They mean to kill people. Large numbers of people. Maybe everybody. They mean to get rid of us…you, and me, and...everybody. The water was poisoned with something. It was carrying disease. Bilal called it a plague, and he said that maybe they shouldn’t inoculate us… us… security. He said we might turn on them.”

  Andy sat back, staring intently at Buru. He was not seeing Buru, though. He was running what he already knew through his head. He did not want to know, but combined with his own suspicions and the intel he had already gathered, he knew now what Buru was speaking of. Those things that had been running through his mind as disconnected pieces now fell into place. But he did not want to believe it. Now he needed to interrogate Buru fully and in more privacy than the restaurant afforded.

  The waiter, approaching with their order, was stopped midway with an abrupt, “We need that to go!” Andy barked the order, and the waiter nearly lost his tray as he stopped suddenly, startled. Soon they were walking around the corner to another hotel’s side entrance.

  Andy always kept a room or two in adjacent hotels. They were rarely used, but the Prince paid for them, and it was always nice to know there was a safe room close by and waiting. They entered by taking the elevator two floors higher than they needed to and came down the stairs, checking the hall and stairwell for activity. They threw their meals onto the table and occupied the chairs. Andy used his hidden equipment to debug the room. There was nothing. Still, he used another feature that broadcast a low but intense white noise to anything electronic. It would mask their conversation. Buru and he wolfed their food, already barely warm, without tasting it. Their conversation held their attention. Andy asked Buru to continue.

  “So, tell me again…and make it slow, accurate, and complete.”

  They went over the whole picture. The clandestine meetings that security was not invited to, the innuendo in strange comments, the hidden glances that they had assumed to be in-house family intrigue. And slowly, reluctantly, Andy began to be convinced. The straw that broke the camel’s back, for him, was the security issue of the night before last.

  Andy was off duty, and one of his men called to inform him that the Prince was insisting on leaving without any men to protect him. That was unheard of. While Andy’s man was informing him of the intended breach, the Prince simply left the room and never returned. Andy scrambled and managed to get a man on the Prince’s trail. Although he was not close enough to make contact, he implemented a tail of the cab that Bilal flagged down. It was strange, his man said, because the Prince opened his own door. The cab worked its way through traffic in downtown Shanghai until it turned into an industrial area. It pulled into a security gate that was opened, closing behind immediately. There was a van, the type used for transporting people, at a side door just visible from the gate. The cab pulled alongside, and the Prince emerged. He looked back along his path, as though evaluating who might have seen him, and then ducked into the building. The tail waited. By his watch, almost two and a half hours passed when the Prince emerged. Andy was standing alongside his confederate by this time and rode with him as they followed the Prince back to the hotel. There was no incident, so Andy never even mentioned it to the Prince later. If he wanted to be obtuse about security, Andy would provide it regardless. That was his business. Now Andy remembered the sign on the building. He could not read Chinese, but he knew it was a bottled water facility. The giant bottle on the sign had the same logo as the water distributed at the airport.

  §

  Soon Andy sat back in his chair and went silent. Buru knew him well enough to understand that he was weighing the possibilities. Although Andy was lightning fast at making decisions under severe circumstances, he was careful and methodical when he had the time to evaluate every contingency. One of the conclusions that came to Andy immediately was that they had little time. They had to verify this suspicion. They had to know.

  Buru was a good man. He had been valuable many times by interpreting clandestinely for Andy. He was highly unlikely to be mistaken, and Andy’s own suspicions coincided with everything he had said, except the conclusion. This was a conclusion that Andy avoided for some time as he cogitated quietly.

  One thing in Andy’s early training came back to him continually in his thoughts. One of his mentors, a man with a dark past and little to say, was highly respected for his ability to assess and anticipate situations and had explained his unusual aptitude to Andy one day. He told Andy that he visualized a risk matrix in his head as he moved through his day. Most of security work was standing around watching. In order to stay alert, many had strategies to keep mentally sharp as they surveyed activity that would put a normal person to sleep. A risk matrix was his mentor’s strategy. He would weigh everything in the room for the likelihood, the probability of danger, giving each a number value. As he did this, he also evaluated that same object for how dangerous, the degree of threat, it could be. As he practiced, the ability blossomed until it was second nature. He was able to assess fluid situations without consciously assigning numbers. It became a sixth sense.

  Using his memory of the risk matrix now, as he had on occasion in the past, Andy placed his own number values. It did not take long. The numbers added up to an impossible situation. The probability of what their suspicions told would have been incredibly low, except for the evidence they had. It was still possible that they w
ere mistaken, but the probability number was too high to ignore now. The level-of-danger side was always a high number in this kind of scenario. The level of threat was so high that even a lower number on the probability side might have convinced Andy. With nausea building in the pit of his stomach, Andy made a difficult decision.

  “We have to be absolutely sure of what we are talking about here, Buru. This is too important to fuck around with.”

  Not used to hearing expletives from his boss except in dire circumstances, the black man now understood that Andy was convinced. The Prince’s conversation overheard, and the tone of it, had already persuaded Buru. He nodded and waited for Andy to continue.

  “I’m sitting here trying to figure out a way to confirm without exposing ourselves, just in case we’re wrong. But no way I play it out is good for us, and we still get the information we need in the time we need it. There’s no time to finesse it, we have to know, and NOW. We’re going to lose our jobs over this, Buru. That, and we’re probably going to get killed.”

  With a sick look on his face, Andy continued, “God, I hope we’re right…,” and then he realized what he was saying. Both he and Buru thought, No…I hope we’re wrong.

  It never occurred to Andy that Buru would avoid the risk. His confidence in the African was that strong.

  Buru stood up. He could not sit easily now that his conclusions were corroborated by Andy. He folded his arms over his chest, and this brave man, used to danger, actually shivered in dread. Then he asked, “So now what do we do, boss?”

  “We have to be absolutely sure, friend.” Andy’s expression confirmed his resolve. “We have to interrogate Bilal. If need be, with extreme prejudice.”

  “Extreme prejudice” was a term used frequently in high risk ventures involving security, and they both knew it well. In extreme prejudice situations someone always got hurt. There would be blood, screams, and often death.

  §

  The penthouse was sound proofed from the lower floors of the hotel. Nevertheless, sound proofing was not the only concern.

  “We can’t interrogate Bilal in the hotel. The robot might get involved,” proposed Buru.

  It was an astute observation. Most people with house robot experience considered them dull creatures with little chance of being dangerous unless they spilled a drink on you as they served it. But Buru, recognizing that this robot was different and much more capable than others, offered his suspicion that it was a factor that deserved consideration.

  Buru continued, “I don’t know what it would do. It might make no effort at interfering, or it might be programmed to protect the Prince. We could try to distract it or even immobilize it somehow, but it could be dangerous.”

  “It could tear us apart,” agreed Andy. He had seen it do things a man would have problems with and do them without breaking the proverbial sweat. “I’ve told it to do things, but I’m not at all sure that it would take my orders over the Prince. If he got out a command, it could all go south in a hurry.”

  Hesitating, Andy considered his options one more time. He already had an idea, but he wanted to be sure it was the best one.

  “We tell the Prince there is a security breach.”

  Knowing what that meant, Buru understood. They would bring the Prince Bilal to a safe room, the very room they were in. Whenever an extra room was rented, Andy always made sure that the room was in an area of the hotel that would stay empty of other guests. Other than the unlikely possibility of a wandering maid, there was no reason to expect their activity would be heard. And there would be no mechanical device to interfere.

  §

  The Prince was getting ready for a sightseeing tour with a personal guide. Andy and Buru rushed in, informing the on-duty security team that there was a breach. Their natural urgency in what they were intending played well, and the on duty detail, confronted with men they knew and trusted, was convinced easily. Andy instructed the team to sit tight, as though they might have a chance to ambush the imaginary threat now that they were prepared. They were informed that the Prince would be taken by the nondescript car in the parking garage to the airport and that he would be flying home. There would be no reason for the team to suspect anything, even if they checked the car. It had been moved already. Once on the move, the Prince was told that the plan had changed. He was handed a hooded sweatshirt. As they descended the stairs to the ground floor, the Prince put on the sweatshirt, and his face was obscured. They exited through a side door usually used by employees and walked across the street and around the corner.

  Information flowed easily under the right kind of motivation. Bilal was a coward at heart, especially when strapped to a chair at all four points with his neck secured by thin piano wire. Everything that Andy and Buru suspected was confirmed, as well as the reason for the plague being released. The growing population of the earth had frightened some in the royal family for some time. They did not want to be wealthy in a world that had nothing but misery and filth. But they needed labor. They had to wait for technology to provide an answer, and now it had. Now they knew why the robot was part of the plan.

  Andy and Buru sat silently in the room. They had run out of questions, and now both men were enjoying the sounds of the Prince struggling for breath from a damaged larynx. Finally Andy stood up and lifted his mechanical arm to his lips.

  Speaking with a friend from past days, a man well situated in the FBI in Los Angeles, he did what he could to convey all of the information he had learned. The powers that be in the world could do as they wished with what he provided. His job here was done. He turned to Buru.

  “Well, friend, we part ways here and now. I’m going home to the states if they don’t catch me. I imagine you’ll get back to Zimbabwe if you can. It seems pointless that they would come after us since it’ll all be over soon anyway…but watch your back.”

  He picked up a small case he used in traveling and moved to the door.

  Looking down at the Prince, Buru considered. He wanted the Prince to remember his words as long as he was alive. He lifted Bilal’s head until they made eye contact. Then he brought his knife to the Prince’s throat.

  “Remember that little Chinese girl last night? You know, the little one that was so scared. She was so afraid when you punctured her. And when I carried her to the elevator, she managed to ask me if I was a monster, too. She said that if I wasn’t, that I could come with her so I would be safe. You will never visit yourself on another, Bilal. In her name, which I don’t even know, I now puncture you.”

  Prince Bilal’s eyes widened as he understood what was happening. He would have screamed if he had not been gagged. The sharp blade nicked his carotid artery and by the time the two security men reached the elevator there was a man’s life congealing on the floor.

  Chapter 4

  Jimmy Flynn had a perfect name for an FBI agent. He sat pondering the conversation he just had with an old and trusted friend. He was having a difficult time with it. There were few people he would have heard this story from and taken it seriously, but Andy was one of those exclusive few. This kind of information would be passed on as part of his job in any case, including a paper trail, but because of his special relationship with Andy, he was contemplating how far he should take it himself before moving the information beyond his grip. Jimmy was also imagining what would happen to his career if the story were bogus. On the other hand…wait, there was no other hand. If it were true, there would be no accolades. It could be the end of the world as he knew it.

  He made a few contacts with some people that would do speedy research to confirm some of the details and waited.

  Two days later Jimmy appeared in the open doorway of his immediate superior. The woman was a mess, one of the major reasons she had succeeded in the FBI. She blended into any situation. Besides that, her intellect was as sharp as any that he had worked with. But he had a difficult time working for her. She liked to exaggerate her power over the men under her command and expected them to put up with i
t. Most, including Jimmy, did. The others were out the door, one way or another. Secretly around the water cooler, both men and women agents thought of her as a feminist extremist from the prior century, and there was little reason for that kind of thing nowadays. Feminism had equalized the workplace years ago, and to a man, the men in her department welcomed it. Other than the natural urges that all animals had, there were no holdouts of discrimination to speak of. Of course, she, as well as the other dinosaurs of the movement, still had a fantasy that they were abused and that they could drive the primal urges from men if they joined forces and screamed loudly enough. In any case, he knocked politely and waited to be invited in.

  First he established his relationship and the credentials of his friend, Andy. He made it clear that Andy was someone that he trusted to a fault. As he described the dialogue with Andy in detail, his boss started to take her own notes. He elaborated on the quick investigative work done to corroborate the story, and then he ended with his assessment of the possibilities that it made sense. In this case, at the very least, he believed it to be concerning.

  Respecting that Jim felt this information merited a trip to her office, Ann Callagory considered his story as he spoke. She concluded, very quickly, that it was an outrageous fabrication. But she also understood all too well that the wrongly perceived fabrications of the past had been ignored and turned into tragedies. She had grown up in New York and remembered the aftermath of the Twin Towers, and Iraq’s WMD’s. The following years and the subsequent tragedies, some preventable, reinforced her attention. One thing she had to admit, Jim had done his due diligence. He was a good agent. His backup investigation had been as thorough as possible in the short time he had. The problem was that if an engineered plague had been released, it was probably already too late.