Harrison's mind raced furiously. Lucas' boss had him on the radar all the time as was to be expected but why pass the query to Jose? Had a search been conducted? He looked around the apartment for items out of place that would indicate a search but saw none immediately.
“Harry?”
Jose's voice in his ear brought him back to the conversation.
“Uh, yes, I know where he is. Sort of.”
“Sort of?”
“Well, I left him in Las Vegas. He told me he met a young woman he wanted to pursue so I left him to it.”
“Where?”
Harrison told him the name of the hotel and then asked, “Jose, how come you're asking me these questions and not Lucas' office?”
“I really don't know, Harry. I got the call two days ago and...” there was an embarrassed silence, “we had to go into your apartment to see if he was there. Harrison, I give you my word, I went myself with just the head of maintenance. We looked through the apartment without touching anything, saw he wasn't there, left and reported. I think it was the desire for a physical search that had them route it through me.”
Harrison held the phone quietly and said, “Well, at least that explains it. I didn't think Lucas had an important enough job to warrant this kind of security. Did they say why they wanted to get in contact with him?”
“No, they never tell us anything. Just give orders.” Jose's voice held a mixture of dislike and contempt for the powers that be.
“Maybe Lucas will tell me when I speak to him,” said Harrison, but he's really tight-lipped about his work. The most he says is that he works in an office.”
“Yeah, you can't get anything out of that bunch. Which makes me sure they're into all sorts of clandestine stuff. I just hate when they bring it here to my turf. Well, Harry, thanks for calling back. I'll buy you a drink the next time I see you.”
“Sure, Jose. Thank you.”
Harrison looked around the room and thought about what Jose had said. He felt sure that all his movements were now being visually monitored and that microphones were distributed throughout his rooms. He resolved to carry on no communications from his apartment and to have any meetings outside. He also resolved to go back to the mountains as soon as possible.
He went to bed thinking, “I now live in a fish bowl. Don't forget it. Make no compromising move.”
He went to sleep feeling intensely and rightfully paranoid.
Chapter Nine
Lucas felt more tired than he'd ever felt. His walk back to the house from the pool had taken twice as long as the walk down to it and he was grateful for the enforced sitting of dinner. Since he was under Maeve's glances all throughout the meal he did his best to sit up straight and appear as insouciant as possible. When the meal was over she came around to his side of the table and sat next to him. “I want to show you something tonight. Are you willing?”
Lucas flushed and stammered, “I am.”
“Good. I'll come by for you around eight. Dress warmly but loosely.”
“Okay.”
With a mischievous grin she disappeared from the dining room with her friends. Lucas waited until the room had emptied to lever himself up from the chair and walk slowly to his room. He was sure it was the altitude getting to him but wondered whether he might be coming down with a cold. Virus infections were rare in the controlled atmosphere of the cubes but he thought that out here in the wild, sort of, they might be flourishing.
In his room he sat before the all purpose screen on his desk and said, “Check DNA compatibility.”
The screen flashed, “Names?”
“Lucas Rogers and Maeve, uh, Moms grand.”
Apparently that was enough information as the computer flashed back, “LUCAS ROGERS, MAEVE GENEROSO – NO INCOMPATABILITY ISSUES.”
Lucas pondered that for several minutes, grinning. The computer was saying that despite their apparently close relationship their children were likely to be healthy. And Maeve had already done this exercise or she wouldn't have suggested it to him so she'd been thinking, and feeling, the same heat he was. His grin grew larger.
With less than an hour to go before she came to get him he rummaged through the drawers of the bureau in his room and found lightweight sweaters and sweat pants, thermal socks, a knit cap and a lightweight jacket with a thermal barrier that would warm him with his own body heat. He set the clothing out and went back to the computer.
At first he wanted to check on his work station in D.C. but found he could not use his password to get in. By habit he had routed his entry through an unidentifiable third party and he was grateful for his habits when he was denied entry.
They're looking for me already, he thought, but they won't be able to trace it back here.
He spent several fruitless minutes pondering the implications of his situation but he found he couldn't think very clearly while waiting for Maeve. “Well, if I have to be in hiding, holing up with her can't be bad.”
When her knock came he was up and dressed and ready. He opened the door to find her dressed much the way he was with two thermal sleeping rolls tucked under her arms. Thrusting one into his hands she smiled and said, “Come on.”
She led him out the door and around to the rear of the building. Lucas had not been to this side of the house before and was surprised to see that the roof came down at a slant to meet the earth and was covered with soil and grass and shrubs. From the rear the house blended perfectly into the landscape. Maeve led him up the gentle slope to a cleared space where she tossed the sleeping roll down and unrolled it and oriented it so that on their backs they would be looking at the rising moon. Lucas followed suit and then lay down by her side.
“What now?” he asked.
“Now we lie here quietly and absorb the night sky. When it gets a little chillier we'll get into the thermal rolls.”
“If I just lie here and look at the sky I'll soon fall asleep.”
“So will I.”
“What will that prove?”
“We can discuss it later. For now just contemplate the heavens.”
Lucas lay back and stared at the sky. The moon glow in the east washed out a lot of stars but the rest of the sky was a delightful surprise. With no light pollution and a mile and a half up the field of stars was fuller and brighter and more intense than Lucas could remember ever seeing.
“My goodness it's beautiful,” he said and felt Maeve's hand take his.
“It is, isn't it?,” she said. “I often come up here to sleep just so I can experience it again. It never seems to get old.”
They lay there, side by side, until the altitude-induced weariness put him to sleep. She let him gently snore for a while and then shook him awake.
“Get in the bag, temperature's dropping.”
Sleepily he struggled into the thermal wrap and was soon snoring again. Maeve followed his actions with her own and wondered if the night sky's beauty would seep into his consciousness while he slept. She breathed a sort of prayer to Gaia and fell asleep herself.
Hours later in the time past midnight, Lucas woke. For a moment he didn't know where he was but the sound of Maeve sleeping beside him quickly oriented his world. He stared at the sky. The moon had set and the field of stars spanned the entire inverted bowl of the heavens.
“It is beautiful,” he thought. “Very spiritual.”
For a while he lay relaxed and happy, listening to her breathing accompanying the slow, subtle movements in the sky and letting the whole scene soak into his brain.
“I could have chosen worse hideouts than this one,” he thought complacently.
Chapter Ten
The feeling of paranoia stayed with Harrison through the night, disturbing his sleep with inchoate dream images. In the morning he followed his usual ritual and went to his office in the usual way. All along the corridors and in the elevator he was intensely conscious of being watched.
His office looked untouched but he knew he couldn't be sure of that and continue
d to act as though in a fishbowl. His calendar reminded him of a late morning appointment with an assistant instructor to go over her planned thesis. When she arrived, dressed demurely, serious of purpose, anxious for his approbation, he found himself totally detached.
His usual interactions with students and assistants was warm, friendly and engaged. This time he was none of those things but instead was coldly efficient. He read through the outline quickly, made two stylistic suggestions and a technical point, approved it and sent the assistant on her way. She was grateful for the quick release and he was surprised at the depth of the feelings he was experiencing.
Alone in the office he felt he still had to maintain his mask and thought he might not be able to do so for long. Instead he rose and headed for the restaurant floor in his section. He knew there were some areas that were not covered by cameras and wanted to sit where his face could not be read.
With a tray of food in hand he made his way to a corner table where he sat with his back to the room. While he ate he tried to think through the situation and at the same time keep his paranoia in check.
It was obvious that a missing Lucas was a big problem for someone. Was it because Lucas was gone or did they also know what he had taken with him and that was producing their anxiety? Would they just watch him hoping he'd lead them to Lucas or would he soon be brought in for questioning?
Harrison was sure that he himself had never aroused suspicions but being tied to Lucas might be enough to brand him as a sort of outlaw. Even so, what actions might be taken against him were still unknown. He judged himself a bad risk to keep his cool under all circumstances and resolved to take a couple of CalmDown pills when he returned to his office. They would wrap his nerves in cotton wool, so to speak, and keep him from letting his nerves overwhelm him. They would also dampen his mental reactions but he had already decided to wait it out a little longer before choosing flight to the hinterlands and so felt he could afford a little slowdown in acuity.
“Very inconvenient to have an attack of nerves right now,” he thought and wished for some of Moms' imperturbability. “Of course hers is self induced through belief in her version of a higher power, but chemical help will be just as welcome.
“Harrison, hi. Mind if I join you?”
Startled, he looked up to see a colleague, Morris Finch, standing over him with tray in hand.
“Not at all, Moe. Have a seat.”
Finch worked in the History Department and was a noted expert on the 21st century. His lectures were always well attended because he punctuated them with the hit songs of the era he was covering. The undergrads loved his approach and generally thought he was a great professor.
While he sat Harrison studied his face intently wondering if he was an agent sent to spy on him. Finch looked all right, at his usual ease and without any apparent ulterior motives showing but Harrison's feelings of paranoia persisted. “I'll have to take those CalmDowns as soon as I can,” he thought. “I can't be jumping every time a colleague approaches.”
Finch tucked into his meal and asked Harrison's opinion about an upcoming department meeting. They discussed that for a while to no effect and then Finch asked, “Heard from Lucas lately?”
Harrison's nape hairs stood out and a flush of adrenaline filled his body making him hyper-wary and uncomfortable.
“What brings Lucas up?,” he asked, trying hard to control his voice.
It was Finch's turn to look startled. “I don't know. After the department we don't have much in common and Lucas is the only relative you ever talk about. So I asked just to make conversation.”
Harrison didn't exactly relax but told Finch essentially the same story he had told Jose. The exchange left both men feeling uneasy and as quickly as he could Harrison took his leave. Back in his office he downed the two pills and waited for them to take effect.
“Some agent I am,” he thought. “So nervous I start at shadows.”
“Still,” he thought, “I can't ever remember Finch joining me for a meal or asking about Lucas. I'll not dismiss it from memory.”
In about ten minutes he could feel the pills taking hold and relaxing both his mind and his body, but he wasn't comfortable in his office, a place he usually used for refuge in the off-hours, and left it at a slow pace. He had no destination in mind other than to get away from where his paranoia was high and head for where it wasn't.
Wandering the corridors didn't do it as the robo-trams approached him regularly asking him to ride to his destination. He avoided using their service and rode the elevator to a shopping mall floor to seek anonymity in the crowds. He idly walked along among the bustling shoppers, window shopping and glancing around as surreptitiously as possible looking for people or cameras paying attention to him.
“I'm useless here if I need CalmDown to function,” he thought. “I might as well pack it in and head for the hills.”
Even as he had that thought he realized how impractical it was. He was in the best position to monitor government action about Lucas right where he was. If that action included questioning him, or detaining him, it would provide information. As far as he could see as long as he professed ignorance and could avoid a brain scan he should be all right. If he ran, he thought, he might inadvertently lead the authorities to both Lucas and to Moms' underground monitoring station. Better to stay put and take pills and try to hold his water.
His wanderings had brought him to the edge of one of the medical services corridors which was festooned with signs urging the implantation of the chips for “Your health, your security and your peace of mind.”
In his mind it read “Our health, our security and our peace of mind.”
He stood there contemplating the posters and thinking he was making the right choices when a young woman's voice interrupted his reverie asking, “Have you had your chip implanted yet?”
“Uh, yes I have,” he said and she gave him a big smile in return.
“Oh that's so good. You don't know how many older folks like you resist having it done. Good for you.”
He thanked her for believing his lie and moved on. Good to know that old folks like me are resistant, he thought wryly. The young, sure of everything, move forward blindly. The old, made wary by life, hang back.
He stopped at a cafe for a coffee and bun and to think while sitting still. With most of his paranoia held in check by the medication he tried to reason his way to what to expect in the near future and concluded that in the next twenty four hours he would either be picked up or questioned on the spot by federal agents about Lucas. He decided that sticking to the simple lie was best and keeping the medications in his system would help.
“I'll write a statement about it,” he thought. “That will firm it in my mind and help it become so.”
With his coffee cooling he wrote a simple statement on his tablet covering everything that could be ascertained by the authorities, Lucas at his apartment in the cube, Lucas with him on the trip to Las Vegas, his own fictitious stay at the hotel and Lucas' departure for a woman unknown. His hotel stay would be corroborated by the hacked-into records and the one big lie, Lucas' tryst with an unknown woman, would give him the cover of ignorance.
Back at his apartment he wasn't surprised to find two well dressed young federal agents waiting at his door. He surprised them apparently examining the key pad controlling the lock. He acted as though he had no suspicion they were attempting to break in.
“May I help you?” he asked.
The two agents looked like fraternal twins, one male, one female, both with serious looks, athletic builds and matching dark suits.
“Harrison Barnes?” asked the woman.
“Yes.”
“Open the door.”
“Why? Who are you?”
“You know who we are,” said the male. “Open the door.”
“I may think I know who you are but that's not the same as seeing your ID and knowing what you want.” Harrison let an edge creep into his voice. No sense be
ing bullied, he thought.
The woman smiled at him and showed her ID case. “Quite right,” she said. “We're federal agents, as you can see. Please,” she emphasized the word, “let us in.”
“Sure. What do you want?”
“We'll tell you when we're inside,” said the male, still using a rough edge and bullying manner.
Harrison weighed how much to resist and when to let it go. He looked at the female who gave him a rueful “boys will be boys” look, and he decided there was nothing to be gained by further resistance.
“Okay,” he said and opened the door. Before he could step in the male shouldered past him and began a survey of the small space. When he had checked all the rooms and closets he said dramatically, “Clear.”
Harrison repressed a laugh and sat in his easy chair, “Okay, clear. Now what is this about?”
“It's your grandson Lucas. He's missing and we need your help locating him.”
“Are you sure he's missing and not just holed up in Las Vegas with a woman? That's what he told me he was doing.”
“When?” demanded the male. “When did he tell you that?”
In answer Harrison' handed him the tablet with his statement. The male read it and passed it to his colleague. She, faster on the uptake asked, “Why do you have a statement prepared? Did you know we were coming?”
“Well, I didn't know it would be you but I was sure someone was coming and I wanted to be prepared.”
“What made you sure someone was coming?”
“Let's see, first I got a call from the Head of Security here in this cube asking about Lucas and saying the request came from the feds. Then a colleague who never socializes with me joined me for a meal and asked about Lucas. I don't really know what Lucas' job is but I was sure that whoever sicced Jose on me would send someone else. So it was important. And Lucas is important to me. So if something other than a lover's tryst is going on I want to help find him. I thought preparing a statement while the memories were fresh would be helpful.”
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