Version Innocent

by Pete Molina

Chapter 11

  Agent Dawson was surprised when Damon Harding entered his office. Until now they had only met through VR telepresence. Damon seemed smaller now than he had, but he didn't look any less formidable.

  Dawson stood up. “Mr. Harding, it's a pleasure to have you here,” Dawson said, extending his hand. Damon took it and shook it briefly. Dawson noted the strong grip. This man wouldn't give up control of anything.

  “Agent Dawson, it's good to finally meet you in the flesh. I need to get out more to meet some of the people I work with, and I thought I would start with you and see how the investigation was going,” Damon said. Dawson indicated for Damon to sit in one of the chairs in his office. Damon sat, but as he did, he requested that Dawson close the door. “I have something to discuss with you which should not leave this office.”

  Dawson closed the door and then went back to his desk. “What is it you wanted to talk about?”

  “First, tell me how things are progressing,” Damon replied.

  Dawson shrugged, Damon would tell him when he was ready and not before. “I met with Terra Gates as you requested, and you were correct in your assumption that she would be innocent, having been backed up prior to any wrongdoing. However, she did know of Sam Storm 6.7. She had been meeting with him just before she was backed up. She said that he had promised her something and that she should look up his crèche sister the next time she was restored. I told Miss Gates about the virus attack and she was appalled. When I told her we suspected her other version of assisting Storm, or at least being involved with him, that upset her as well. I asked her if she would wear a wire when she went to meet with the crèche mate next week. She agreed, although hesitantly.”

  “Sounds about like I suspected . What about Sam 23.1? How is that restoration proceeding?”

  “As far as I know from speaking with Doctor Warran, everything is progressing normally and the restoration should be complete in a matter of days. He’s not pleased to be restoring the man that did all the damage, but I told him that this old version would help lead to 6.7 and that this version was far too old to be guilty of anything. He has agreed to keep the information about this version from all but the most trusted staff.”

  “Good,” Damon said. “Sounds like things are proceeding well. And what has Miss Gates been up to since you spoke with her?”

  “She stayed with a friend, a chef at the Culinary Expression the first night. Apparently they are old friends. The next day she went directly to the UMG embassy. The bug I planted on her stopped relaying when she entered their fog security field. I presume they have broken in to its memories, but I made sure to have the bug wipe everything should it be discovered, I don't think they'll get anything out of it. Still, I'm sure that Miss Gates is intelligent enough to know that I planted it on her,” Dawson admitted.

  “Anything else?”

  “Well, Jeff Hughes has been hiding out in Denver. He's left his apartment a few times and those were just to visit his crèche sister, the same one he will be meeting with along with Terra Gates next week. It seems he's become depressed about the whole thing. I guess that Storm’s betrayal is getting to him. I'll let you know if anything changes.”

  “Sounds good,” Damon said. It struck Dawson as odd that Harding was being so quiet, usually he was expounding on something or another. He seemed distracted.

  “Agent Dawson, I wanted to tell you something that I have had sources recently uncover for me, and it pertains to Sam Storm 6.7,” Harding said in a serious tone, which alerted Dawson to pay careful attention.

  “As I'm sure you know, Storm 6.7 worked as a nanotech engineer at the Lunar Nanotechnolgy Research Center,” Damon began.

  Dawson nodded, it was in Storm’s file.

  “While he was working there, he had access to the most secure parts of the facility. It appears that just before he left, he may have managed to do something that we didn't think possible...indeed we are still investigating. We believe that he may have removed one or more of the unlimited assemblers from its secure environment.”

  “Are you saying he has an unlimited assembler?” Dawson asked, shocked. There was no telling what a nanotech engineer could do with the thing, especially if he had evil intent as Storm appeared to possess in spades.

  “We aren't sure yet, but it may be that he does. Those assemblers are built with several fail safes in place to limit their use outside of a controlled environment,” Damon explained.

  Dawson nodded again, everyone knew this.

  “With access to the inside, Storm could have found out how to circumvent this security. It appears that he may have built a small portable device that could sustain several of these unlimited assemblers. If he did get away with them he could have established a lab anywhere to reproduce the necessary environment and then he could make anything. I have no doubt that he is doing something sinister with them, and that the virus attack on the system was only a precursor. But what I fear most of all, is that he may have used these assemblers to build a new unlimited assembler without the fail-safes. One that could survive in a natural environment,” Damon finished.

  It was the worst thing you could tell an agent, that the person he was investigating had something more powerful and potentially dangerous than any other weapon ever conceived.

  After a minute of letting him absorb this, Damon spoke up again. “Agent Dawson, I don't have to tell you how important it is that we stop Storm. I have spoken with the President and he suggested putting someone with more experience in charge, but I told him that I had great faith that you could find Storm. Even so, I want you to know that you now will have access to almost unlimited funds and means to track Storm down. You are going to be assigned military personnel, which you will command, to help end this as soon as possible.”

  “I understand. I'll do my best.”

  “Agent Dawson, you need to do better than that. Find Storm and stop him, no matter what you have to do to accomplish it. Do you understand?” Damon commanded.

  Dawson did. They wanted Storm dead.

  “There is one more thing. I have suspected for some time that Storm might have the assemblers and I put in to effect a contingency plan to be used only if it turned out to be supported by evidence, which I now have. You know that I own the NurTech corporation, that develops the neural implant companions and software,” Damon said.

  Dawson nodded.

  “I have had a modified companion installed in Storm 23.1 that will act as a bug that the companion software won't detect, and that Storm 23.1 will never suspect exists.”

  Dawson closed his eyes and shook his head. It wasn't supposed to be possible, and it was the most grievous violation of an individuals right to privacy imaginable. The companion could see everything one saw, hear everything one heard.

  “If you hadn't just told me about the assembler, sir, I would have to arrest you, but circumstances being as they are, I'll take any advantage in finding Storm 6.7 that I can,” Dawson said, disgusted at Harding and at himself.

  “I understand. It is as upsetting for me as for you. I have set up the bug to be accessible to your own companion. It will also dump encrypted messages back to us that we can analyze, so that should something happen to you we will know what's happened.”

  It would help, Dawson supposed, but when this was all over, there would be hell to pay. War had just been declared on Storm 6.7. Dawson almost wished him luck. Storm was going to need it.