The Thunder of Engines

by Laurence Dahners

  Meanwhile, Branzon carried on a breezy conversation with Arya. It wasn’t until they’d been talking for quite a while that she realized Branzon had efficiently obtained her life history and learned almost everything there was to know about how Staze came to be formed. He didn’t have the obvious, forceful charisma that radiated from Marks but something was compelling about his personality.

  Something… intensely formidable.

  Done with the police, Kaem came up and sat with them. As if he were just looking for interesting conversation, Branzon worked through Kaem’s history and dreams as well. Kaem was a willing participant in divulging his life story—but revealed nothing about stade.

  ~~~

  When they were about to land in Texas, Kaem’s and Arya’s phones began chiming. She was getting a text from Marks and had missed a call from Cary Lark. The text wanted to know where the hell she was.

  When she checked with Kaem, he confirmed that he had much the same text from Marks. He said, “You reply to the Marks’ texts, telling him we’re talking to Branzon. That should keep them on the edge of their seats.”

  “Do I tell them we’re in Texas or what we’re doing here?”

  “Hmm, be cryptic. Tell them we’re getting the stazer back from Martin Aerospace.”

  She frowned, “What if we don’t get it?”

  He shrugged, “Doesn’t matter. I want to build a better one anyway.”

  “Are you going to text him too?”

  “No. I’m not eager.”

  “You mean you don’t want to seem too eager.”

  “Well, of course. If I’m not eager, I shouldn’t seem eager. They’ll call and text some more. Ignore those.”

  Arya wondered whether he was a savvy negotiator, or was endangering their business by refusing to cooperate.

  They were met at the airport in south Texas by a pair of local detectives and a small group of uniformed police. After some brief get-to-know-you conversation and an examination of Kaem’s phone and tracking app, the police set out for Martin Aerospace, search warrant in hand.

  Branzon’s people rented a Chevy Suburban. It pulled up at the airport’s private facility just as the police pulled out on their way to serve their warrant. When Branzon got in, Kaem piled in behind him. No one invited Arya, but she got in as well. They’d driven about a mile when one of the police SUV’s pulled off the road and flagged them down.

  They pulled off behind it. Arya worried they were about to be told they couldn’t follow the police to Martin Aero—something she actually couldn’t believe was within policy. The man who trotted back to their SUV proved to be one of the Texas detectives. Opening the door, he said, “We got the warrant so you can start recording audio. There’s some concern that a lawman needs to be in attendance while the recording’s being made so I’m gonna ride with you guys, okay?”

  Branzon nodded and the detective got into the seat beside Branzon and Kaem. Arya was wedged into the seat behind the three men with two of Branzon’s guards, but close enough to be able to hear what was going on.

  Kaem had his phone out. He tapped the screen a couple of times and voices began issuing from it. He plugged a cord into a USB socket to make sure the phone’s battery didn’t run down.

  Not sure what was going on, Arya focused on the voices emanating from the phone:

  “…two and a half days on the supercomputer and there’s bupkis to show for it!”

  “Yeah. I heard Caron’s in a frenzy.”

  The first voice asked, “Do you know whether he’s pissed about how much the time on the supercomputer costs? Or is it about how long it’s taking to break the encryption?”

  “Both, probably,” the second voice answered, sounding distracted. Then he said, “Okay, trying it again.” A moment after that, he said, “Open it up.”

  The first voice said, “Nothing.”

  “Dammit!”

  “I mean, I guess there’s nothing,” the first guy said. “It’s supposed to have something shiny in it, right?”

  “Yeah,” the second man said, “Like the samples I showed you. All mirrored surfaces.”

  “You wanna look? This damn thing’s nothing but mirrors inside anyway. Maybe I’m missing it.”

  “No. You’re not missing it,” the second man said as if exasperated. “There’s nothing in there. Feel, it’s empty.”

  “It’s okay to put a finger in there?”

  “Yes! Dammit! Now, close it up and let’s try it again.”

  Arya thought the second man sounded glum.

  A few moments of silence followed, so Arya leaned close to Kaem and whispered, “You put a bug in the stazer too?”

  “What I put in is an old cellphone with an extra battery. It has a charger that runs when the rack’s plugged in,” Kaem said quietly. “I put it inside the shell of one of the components that has a plastic case. I installed an app that lets me control the phone. It auto-answers when I call but mutes the sound. No ring, no vibration, doesn’t light the screen. My phone records the audio it sends.”

  “Holy crap! The phone’s what’s sending you the location data too?”

  Kaem nodded.

  Cursing came from the phone. Evidently, the men had failed again. From what they’d said, Arya assumed they were trying to make stade with the second generation stazer but—not knowing how to wire it up or adjust the settings—weren’t having any luck.

  “What was that about a warrant?” Arya asked.

  Kaem leaned back to her and spoke quietly. “In Texas, without a warrant, you can’t legally record someone without their consent, so the police applied for one. It just got approved.”

  “So, we’re hoping the people with the stazer will say something incriminating?”

  Kaem shrugged, “Sure, but I think these guys are just underlings. I’m hoping someone important shows up and they say something incriminating.”

  The voices on the phone continued.

  The second man said, “Okay, open it up.”

  “Still empty,” the first guy said. “Hey, you know, it doesn’t seem to me you can make something outta nothin’. Maybe we gotta have something in the compartment to be changed into the silvery stuff.”

  “It’s not empty,” the second voice said, “It’s full of air.” Then there was a pause. “Still, that’s not the dumbest thing you’ve ever said. Put something in there and close it up again.”

  “What am I supposed to put in there? There isn’t room for anything bigger than a scrap of paper!”

  “A scrap of paper and a paper clip’ll be fine,” the second guy said, sounding annoyed. “There’re a bunch on the desk.”

  After a brief silence—while the man presumably went over to said desk—the first guy said, “Okay, go.” They heard a faint sound, then, “Nope, nothin’ happened to it.”

  For about ten minutes, they heard nothing but repeats of words to the effect of, “Check it,” and, “Nope, still empty.”

  Arya was starting to worry that they’d arrive at Martin Aerospace before anyone said anything definitively incriminating:

  Suddenly they heard the sound of a door banging open. An angry voice said, “For God’s sake Munger, tell me you’ve got something happening!”

  Branzon calmly said, “That’s Ricard Caron’s voice. He’s Martin Aerospace’s CEO. Elgin Munger’s Martin Aero’s CTO. Pretty surprising that the CTO’d be working on a device but Caron may be trying to limit the number of people involved.”

  The second voice from before—presumably Munger—said, “Nothing yet.” His melancholic tone implied he didn’t have much hope. “There are literally thousands of ways to make these settings. If only one of them works—"

  “SON OF A BITCH!” Caron shouted, sounding like someone who’d dropped a brick on his toe. “Wang! Dammit! You’re sure you didn’t change the settings on this thing when you got it?”

  “No. When I got, everyt’ing turn’ off. Dials all set on lowest setting. Switches all popped out or flipped down. I t’ink Se
ba know you might steal an’ he scramble settings.”

  Hearing his name, Kaem looked up meaningfully at Branzon.

  The CEO gave him a subtle nod in return. He turned to the detective in the seat ahead. “What we’ve heard is pretty incriminating. I assume you heard them mention Kaem Seba’s name?”

  The detective nodded.

  “We’re almost there. You might want to slow down and give them a few minutes to dig an even deeper hole.”

  The detective nodded and spoke to his phone. Soon all the vehicles were pulling off the side of the road:

  Sounding even more incensed, Caron said, “What about the wiring on the back? It’s like a freaking rat’s nest. You’re sure that’s the way it was when you got it?”

  No one responded. Arya got the impression the silence was quite uncomfortable.

  “Come on, Elgin,” Caron said pleadingly, “the damn wiring looks like someone snarled it on purpose. Isn’t there some obvious way these kinds of components should be wired together?”

  A chair scraped, presumably Munger moving to have a look at the wiring. After a moment, Munger’s voice said slowly, “Some of the components are wired… counterintuitively. But if I started undoing those things, I still wouldn’t know which one of the hundred ways such components might normally be wired together was the correct one.”

  “You’ve re-read the diagrams and descriptions from the files on Seba’s computer?” Caron asked.

  Kaem abruptly straightened, looking alarmed.

  Arya said, “I thought you said the encryption on your hard drive was unbreakable. That if they ever got into it, it’d take years.”

  Kaem didn’t answer, motioning for silence so he could hear Munger’s reply:

  With strained patience, Munger was saying, “…gone over that first set of diagrams and descriptions again. They still don’t make sense… personally, I think they’re just a smokescreen. I thought you got his whole computer now? Are there any better descriptions or diagrams on it?”

  To Arya’s surprise, Kaem seemed to relax on hearing this.

  Caron spoke, sounding as if he were making a threat, “You know we haven’t been able to break the encryption on Seba’s goddamned hard drive!”

  Munger asked, “You are using the quantum processor on the encryption, right?”

  “Yes! I’m not an idiot!” Caron’s tone became resigned, “Besides, even if I hadn’t thought of it, the IT wienies would’ve insisted on using the quantum processor just because they like playing with it. They say they have no idea how the encryption on that disc is holding up against quantum decryption methods. They think, if we can figure out how Seba’s system works, we should try to patent his encryption scheme too.”

  Branzon glanced at Kaem. Arya saw respect in the man’s eyes when he did so. The CEO turned to the detective. “That was pretty damning. We might want to move in. It’d be nice to catch Caron there with the device.”

  The detective nodded. He’d been talking to someone in one of the other vehicles as they drove, reporting on what was being heard over Kaem’s phone. Now he passed on Branzon’s suggestion. The SUVs pulled back onto the road. It was only another couple of minutes before they turned off and stopped at a security gate with signs saying “Martin Aerospace.”

  There was a bunch of headshaking and showing of warrants, then some shouting. When one of the guards in the shack made as if to call someone, one of the uniformed officers arrested him. The other guard stood down. Two of the uniforms stayed with the guards as the SUVs pulled onto the grounds.

  To Arya’s astonishment, Branzon’s rental SUV followed along behind the police. They did still have the detective in their vehicle, so she wondered if they considered Branzon’s car part of the police group because of the detective’s presence. Or, maybe Texas police are more liberal in the way they follow the rules. Or maybe I just have no idea what the rules are?

  The police apparently had the location of the specific building the stazer was in from Kaem’s app. The SUVs drove directly to a building on the Martin Aerospace campus and parked.

  As the detective got out of Branzon’s vehicle, he said, “Keep recording, but y’all need to stay in the vehicle.” He quickly moved to join the rest of the police. As most of the police gathered in front of the building, several of the uniforms trotted around the corner. Do they think someone’s going to try to escape out the back? she wondered.

  She saw one of the uniforms knock several times on what appeared to be the main door of the building. Finally, the door opened. After what looked like a brief argument with whoever opened the door, several of the policemen pushed their way inside. The detectives followed.

  They heard nothing on Kaem’s phone. Evidently, Munger and Caron weren’t in the room directly behind the entrance.

  About a minute later they heard some banging and a muffled:

  “Police! Open up!”

  Caron’s voice hissed, “Son of a bitch! Hold them while I go out the other door.”

  Arya heard the creak of a door hinge, then an unmuffled voice cheerfully said, “Well, hello! Ricard Caron, I believe? Where do you think you’re going?”

  In an ugly tone, Caron said, “What the hell do you think you’re doing here?! This’s private property!”

  “Ah, yes, you’re right. But, you see here? This’s a warrant to search this facility for property stolen from Staze Incorporated.”

  “Get that out of my face! I’ve never heard of Stade Incorporated and we certainly wouldn’t have any of their property here.”

  “That’s Staze Incorporated, sir. Now, let’s see… Yes, I think that rack of equipment on the table behind you looks very much like the quotes ‘stazer’ pictured on the supplemental pages of this here warrant.”

  There was a moment’s pause, then Caron said, “I’ve never seen that rack of equipment, but I’m sure it’s merely similar. All those electronic racks are pretty much the same size after all, and once you start loading off the shelf modules into them—”

  “Come, come now, Mr. Caron, I might not be a high-tech aerospace wizard like you, but I can still tell when someone’s lying. You might claim you’ve never heard of a company called ‘Staze’ but we’ve got a recording of you taking Mr. Seba’s name in vain several times this morning, so we’re sure you know where that rack of equipment came from.”

  “Recording?!” Caron spluttered. “Munger, you bastard! You’re gonna regret this!”

  The policeman sounded amused, “What’s he going to regret?”

  “Wearing a wire!” Caron exploded, “Like some kind of scum-sucking asshole!”

  “Now, now, Mr. Munger wasn’t wearing a wire. But, from the look on his face I’ll bet he wouldn’t mind turning state’s evidence, would you?”

  Loathing in his voice, Munger said, “No, I wouldn’t. In fact, I’d love to testify against this son of a bitch.”

  “Hmm,” Branzon said musingly, “you’ve gotta stay on the good side of people you’ve got doing dirty work.” He looked up at Kaem. “I’ve really enjoyed being here listening to Caron get what’s been coming to him, but I think I’ve heard enough. You guys ready to take off?”

  Kaem nodded.

  Arya said, “What about the stazer? Shouldn’t we wait to get it back?”

  Kaem shrugged, “I’m sure the police consider it evidence. You remember how that goes.”

  Arya thought back to the way the police demanded her jacket when Harris shot her. She said, “I suppose by the time we get it back, if they ever turn it loose, you’ll have built a better one anyway, right?”

  Kaem nodded.

  Branzon said, “Now that I’m convinced you’re the real inventor and Caron isn’t going to be able to cut you out of the patent, maybe we could do some negotiating on the plane ride back to Charlottesville?”

  “Sure,” Kaem said. He jerked a thumb over the back of his seat at Arya, “I gotta warn ya though, Arya drives a hard bargain.”

  ***

  Some discussion b
ut little actual negotiation got done on the flight back to Virginia. Branzon wanted to make a deal during the flight, but Arya repeatedly reminded him that they were legally compelled to give Space-Gen a chance to counteroffer.

  Even if she’d forgotten that fact, when she used the plane’s Wi-Fi to check her messages she found several reminders from Marks to that effect. Her thought that Marks might’ve been driven off by the theft of their stazer and the possibility that Martin owned the actual patent didn’t seem to be correct. It wasn’t clear why he hadn’t called until after noon, when they were already on their way to Texas, but it did seem Kaem’s lack of concern about his level of interest had put him on edge.

  She made an internet call to Marks, putting it on speaker. When she told him they’d been there for Caron’s arrest he sounded delighted. Just a little additional confirmation of all the evidence Caron was a jerk, Arya thought.

  “So, you’ve got the stazer back?” Marks asked.

  “No. The police are keeping it as evidence.”

  “When’ll you get it?”

  “Maybe never. They’ll want to keep it until any court cases are concluded. Kaem wants to build another one anyway.”

  “How long’ll that take?”

  Arya looked at Kaem. He said, “We’ll need money before we can do it. So we’ll need some up-front money from you or Branzon, whoever buys the rights.”

  Marks sounded incredulous. “What about that million dollars we gave you for the right of first offer?”

  Kaem said, “Arya doesn’t want to spend that until we’ve got a deal worked out.”

  “Speaking of a deal, where are you on any negotiations with Branzon?”

  “We’re on his plane. He flew us down to Texas.”

  Sounding startled, Marks said, “Is he there with you? Jerry, are you listening to this call?”