by Simon Rose
“That’s right,” said Veronica. “I forgot that you’ve probably been in here before when you came to visit with your dad.”
She grabbed Alex’s upper arm while Lewis took hold of Stephanie. They all walked over to the elevator doors situated on the nearby wall. Alex assumed that they’d be going up to the main level of the complex although he had no clue regarding what lay in store for him and Stephanie.
However, once the elevator door closed, Veronica took out a plastic card and swiped it on the security panel. The elevator went down instead of up to the main floor of the Castlewood Dynamics building. As far as Alex knew, the parking garage didn’t have a lower level.
The elevator quickly descended with no indication of how deep it was heading. It eventually stopped and the doors slid open. Alex found himself in a private section of the Castlewood Dynamics complex that he’d never knew existed. The walls were made of bare steel and reflected the bright overhead lights installed at intervals on the ceiling.
“What is this place?” he asked, as they all stepped out of the elevator.
“I’m not surprised you’ve never been down here,” Veronica explained, as she led him along the gleaming corridor. “Your dad worked in this area sometimes but it was all very confidential, and only a few of our employees know this place even exists. Only a handful of them have the appropriate security clearance. This is where we do all our really secret work. Nothing too sinister, of course, at least not yet.”
She smiled.
“My uncle wanted Castlewood Dynamics to have a secure area where we could work on projects and prototypes that would be well hidden from our competitors. You might not be aware of this, Alex, but there’s almost as much espionage in the corporate world as there is between countries. It gets pretty crazy at times. This was all my uncle’s idea. However, I quickly realized the potential of this area for other purposes as soon as I started working here.”
They turned a corner into another identical steel corridor.
“Your dad’s contacts with Hartfield Tech were a potential problem regarding the security of our new projects, but I hadn’t decided what to do about it yet. My uncle wasn’t even vaguely aware of your dad’s actions. I would have told him eventually though, if it looked likely that your dad’s leaving would cause untold damage to Castlewood.”
“And you say that Robert knew about this place?” said Alex.
“Of course, but not what had been happening here recently. He was seriously contemplating retirement as you know and didn’t pay much attention to everyday operations anymore. He’d already starting leaving things up to me, which was very convenient. If he ever got curious, it didn’t matter since I planned to remove him anyway, sooner or later.
“So you killed him.”
“Killed is such a harsh word, isn’t it?” said Veronica. “Let’s just say I relieved him of his stressful responsibilities, shall we? Ah, here we are.”
THEY’D ARRIVED AT a heavy steel door equipped with a security pad on the adjacent wall. Veronica took out a card and swiped it across the pad. The door opened and she and Alex stepped inside, followed by Lewis and Stephanie. The room looked much the same as many of the other Castlewood Dynamics research labs. There were a number of monitors situated around the room’s perimeter and several heavy-duty robotic arms attached to the ceiling. Some of the steel tables were covered in various tools and a range of both large and small electronic components. On one table Alex noticed what appeared to be parts of humanoid robots in varying states of repair. At a workstation to his left, it looked as if someone had been working on a drone similar to the ones in Alexander’s scenes from the future.
In the shadows in the far corner, a man with thick brown hair sat slumped in a wheelchair. His arms were bound behind him and his face was streaked with dried blood.
“Dad!” Alex exclaimed.
“Oh, my God!” said Stephanie. “What have you done to him?”
They both rushed over to Andrew.
“Relax, he’s fine,” said Veronica. “Lewis just got a little over enthusiastic with his questioning techniques.”
Lewis grinned.
“Dad!” said Alex. “Are you okay? What’s happened to you?”
Andrew raised his head at the sound of Alex’s voice. Yet Andrew could barely open his eyes before his chin slumped to his chest.
“He’s been here since we grabbed him after the car accident,” said Veronica. “I have plenty of friends in the police department. They’ve made sure that your dad’s disappearance isn’t being pursued too vigorously. We questioned him about the missing data. We tried to determine if he’s hidden anything anywhere or even already sent something to Hartfield for safekeeping. When he wouldn’t talk, or at least when I didn’t believe him, we used what I guess you’d call more persuasive methods.”
Andrew’s black eyes and the bruises on his face left Alex in no doubt that his dad had been severely beaten.
“Dad, can you hear me?” Alex asked.
The lab door opened and a tall slim man with short black hair entered. He was carrying a small briefcase and was wearing a dark suit, similar to Lewis. He walked over to where the others were standing in the corner of the lab.
“This is Palmer,” said Veronica. “He’s something of a genius with drugs that are designed to extract information from people. Once physical beatings didn’t work, we tried some truth serums while we had your dad safely hidden away here.”
“And Robert knew about this place?” said Alex.
“Well, not about your dad being held here, of course,” Veronica replied, smiling. “Like I said, my uncle rarely visited. It was an ideal place to keep your dad, for now at least. I’ve been able to continue a lot of my earlier work for the company down here.”
“But you’ve only just started working for Castlewood,” said Stephanie
“Yes, at this location, since my uncle was looking to take a step back prior to retirement. I’ve been working for Castlewood for five years in a variety of places, mostly on clandestine projects. Nothing illegal you understand, mostly related to drones and their potential in the civilian arena. However, my uncle didn’t want people to know about it in case it ruined the company’s image. He was only interested in making money from any research. He was also acutely aware that some employees, including your dad, Alex, as well as some shareholders, weren’t entirely in favour of us working on drones after all the negative publicity about their use by the military in different parts of the world. Your dad’s work is crucial to the success of so many projects, Alex. We haven’t been able to get him to talk, but your arrival at the mansion presented us with an unexpected bonus.”
“What do you mean?” said Alex.
Veronica grinned.
“We can torture you instead while he watches. That should get him to tell us what we need to know. Palmer, give him a shot to wake him up.”
“That’s probably not wise,” said Palmer. “We’ve given him so much already it might be dangerous.”
“What’s the problem?”
“He’s still suffering from all the drugs we gave him earlier. He probably doesn’t even recognize his own kid. Torturing the boy or his friend won’t do a whole lot of good.”
Veronica thought for a moment.
“Very well,” she said. “Let’s take him to the mine.”
“The mine?” said Stephanie.
“Another of my uncle’s little secrets,” said Veronica. “It’s out in the hills, deep in the woods and very discreet. He’d owned the abandoned gold mine for years but never considered doing anything with it until recently. It’s only a small facility but it’s been an excellent location for me to conduct all my work in private. Most of the projects will probably be done there once my plans get moving. And of course we can use the mind probe there.”
“Mind probe?” said Alex.
“Yes,” Veronica replied. “An interesting little development that we didn’t expect. It was part of our medical research
that I’d been supervising and had military applications as well. Drones can be hooked up to people’s minds and they can control the machines remotely. We’d only been experimenting with small vehicles with some success but the results were promising. Using the systems for large planes is certainly a possibility. The military in dozens of countries would pay big money for something like that.”
“You’d sell out to our enemies?” Alex asked, incredulous.
“It’s all about making money, Alex,” said Veronica, with a dismissive sweep of her hand. “Even your dad knew that. Despite his noble attitude in public, he knew that Castlewood Dynamics needed to be commercially successful. You can’t have any scruples in business these days. If you’re standing in the road, eventually you get run over.”
“So what’s a mind probe?” asked Alex.
“It’s something we’ve been holding back for now,” Veronica explained, “but your dad’s refused to tell us anything, despite all the drugs we’ve administered. Your arrival at the mansion opened up the possibility of torturing you in front of him to get him to cave in, but clearly that’s not going to work. The mind probe’s still experimental but it should get us what we need. Your dad won’t survive, of course, but my people in the police department will make sure that his death is never fully investigated and the body’s never found. And of course I’ll have the crucial data, so that’s just fine with me. Your dad simply won’t be needed any more.”
“You can’t do this!” Alex shouted.
“I assure you I can,” said Veronica, smiling.
She turned to Lewis and Palmer.
“Okay, let’s get moving.”
She took Stephanie’s arm and began leading her out of the lab. Alex struggled as Lewis grabbed his arm. He was then shocked when Lewis gripped him firmly by the throat. Alex could hardly breathe.
“Don’t even think about it,” Lewis snarled. “We don’t need either of you at all if we’re going to use the mind probe. We’ll just kill you both once we get to the mine and no one will ever know what happened to you. Understand?”
Alex gulped and nodded as Lewis relaxed his grip. He grabbed Alex’s arm and pulled him out into the corridor. Palmer followed, pushing Andrew in the wheelchair.
Once they were in the elevator, Veronica handed Alex’s phone to Palmer.
“Have a look at this once we get to the mine,” she said. “There’s a weird looking app on the screen. This kid’s a tech expert so I’d like to make sure he’s not been sending signals or anything, even though the phone’s turned off.”
“Sure, I’ll take a look,” Palmer replied, slipping the phone into his outer jacket pocket.
THE ELEVATOR ARRIVED at the parking garage. Palmer exited first, pushing the wheelchair. Veronica and Lewis kept hold of Alex and Stephanie as they all walked over to the white van.
“Give me a hand to get him inside,” said Palmer.
Lewis took Alex over to where Stephanie was standing with Veronica beside her Mercedes. Veronica’s phone rang, and she answered it as Lewis released Alex’s arm before walking over to the van. Palmer and Lewis lifted Andrew out of the wheelchair and into the back of the van. Alex could see the top of his phone poking out of Palmer’s jacket pocket. Lewis climbed into the van to ease Andrew further inside. Veronica was still talking on her phone as the steel door slowly slid open at the far end of the garage. Alex knew that this was their only chance. He glanced over at Stephanie, who looked terrified. Alex signalled with his eyes toward the garage door. Stephanie swallowed hard but responded with a brief nod to show that she understood. When the garage door was fully open, Alex lunged at Palmer and grabbed the phone.
“Now!” Alex yelled.
Veronica was startled and dropped her own phone onto the concrete floor. Alex and Stephanie raced toward the open garage door. Palmer gave chase, until Veronica called for him to stop.
“Forget it, we don’t need them now. I’ll have the cops pick them up anyway soon enough. Come on, we need to get him to the mine.”
ALEX AND STEPHANIE didn’t stop running until they were well away from the underground garage entrance. They hid behind some thick bushes that bordered the lawn of one of the nearby corporate buildings.
“Alex, what—” Stephanie began.
“Quiet!” Alex hissed.
The white van emerged from the parking garage, followed by Veronica’s Mercedes. Alex and Stephanie remained still and quiet as the garage door slid closed and the two vehicles drove off in the direction of the main highway.
Chapter Fourteen
Foregone Conclusions
ALEX AND STEPHANIE stepped out from their hiding place. Since it was the weekend, the area surrounding the Castlewood Dynamics headquarters and the other company offices was largely deserted. There was also very little traffic. Alex took out his phone and turned it on.
“So what are we going to do now?” said Stephanie.
“We have to follow them,” replied Alex
“But we have no idea where they’ve gone,” Stephanie pointed out. “Even if we did find the place, it could be dangerous. You heard what Veronica said. If your dad dies, she doesn’t care about that at all. We could even get killed too.”
“But I can’t be killed,” Alex reminded her. “If Alexander’s really my future self and he’s sending us messages, I must be alive in the future.”
“I don’t think we can count on that, Alex,” said Stephanie. “No matter what he’s been telling us and whether or not he thinks it’s correct, the timeline seems to be fluctuating so much now. I don’t think we can take anything for granted anymore.”
Alex’s stomach rumbled.
“Did you eat today?” Stephanie asked.
“No, I was going over to see you and it was getting close to lunchtime by then. How about you?”
“I had only just got up when they grabbed me at the house.”
“Let’s get something to eat and try to come up with a plan.”
THEY WALKED A few blocks from the Castlewood Dynamics building and found a corner coffee shop. They went inside and the place was pretty quiet. A young man was working on his laptop at a table by one of the windows. Three women were just taking their seats at another table beside the counter. A TV on the wall behind the counter was showing one of the local news shows. Alex and Stephanie ordered a couple of cold drinks, along with some cookies and muffins.
The cashier handed Alex his drink and he took a sip. While Stephanie was waiting for her order, a group of people entered the coffee shop. The latest customers were standing at the counter as Stephanie was handed her drink, along with the cookies and muffins. She and Alex immediately noticed the news story on the TV.
In business news, local technology Castlewood Dynamics took another step forward today with the signing of their most lucrative contract yet with the federal government. The contract was signed by Castlewood’s representatives in Washington, DC. Company CEO Veronica Castlewood was unable to attend due to the recent tragic loss of her uncle and company founder Robert Castlewood. The company’s success has already spawned many imitators and could perhaps be tempting competitors to take desperate measures. Reports have been coming in of an attempted break-in at the Castlewood Dynamics corporate offices earlier today. Two local children are currently being sought by police.
“Let’s get out of here,” whispered Alex. “Right now.”
Stephanie nodded. They quickly slipped out the door of the coffee shop just in case their names and photographs appeared on the TV screen. They hurried along the sidewalk until they were able to take temporary shelter behind a dumpster in an alley beside a restaurant.
“HOW COULD THAT story be on the news so quickly?” asked Stephanie.
“Veronica has contacts everywhere,” Alex replied. “Probably in the police department but certainly in the media. The break-in’s a great story, especially since Castlewood’s in the news right now because of Robert’s death and this government contract.”
“So Veroni
ca sent them the information about us?”
“Probably, as soon as they were on the road for the other facility. She told Palmer not to chase us. She’s probably hoping that the police will pick us up.”
“Here,” said Stephanie, handing Alex a muffin and a cookie. “We should eat something.”
They sat down on the ground with their backs against the dumpster.
“So do you really think there’s nothing more we can do?” Alex asked, in between bites of his muffin. “To save my dad, I mean.”
Stephanie took another bite of her cookie.
“I don’t know, Alex. I really don’t.”
“But if we can somehow find out where this mine is,” said Alex, “we can get there in a cab. We might just be able to save him.”
“And maybe that’s what we’re supposed to do.”
“Yeah,” Alex sighed, “you’re right. Everything we’re doing might just be part of what Veronica needs to set her plans in motion. Maybe even us staying at home asleep would somehow have been part of how things were supposed to go. I have no idea what we should do. Even doing nothing might be supposed to happen.”
“What was it you said?” said Stephanie. “That us using the credit card to get around was what got us caught? That we only learned to do that from Alexander telling us to go to Castlewood Dynamics?”
“Yeah,” said Alex “but . . .”
“But then you decided to go to the mansion to try and rescue me. Alexander never put that thought in your head.”
“What are you getting at?”
“I mean,” said Stephanie, “because you decided that on your own, it seems like nothing we can do can change things. Maybe we were always destined to get taken to Castlewood Dynamics and then escape from the garage, I don’t know. But Alexander said your dad had died and now it looks like he’s going to die at that mine instead of at the Castlewood Dynamics lab. It’s just a different location, that’s all. I don’t think we’re going to be able to change anything.”