Exponential

by JM Addison

  Chapter 3

  The rest of that day was predictable. The benefits discussions went well, but no decision to stay with the current provider of medical benefits or switch to a new insurer had been made. Mara’s attention was directed in several different directions throughout the afternoon and before she knew it, most of the staff had left for the day. She wanted to finish up a few minor tasks before leaving and really hadn’t thought about her plans for the evening.

  She had been working more than usual, but this didn’t bother her. She was well liked by the team and was generally noticed with favor by her management. While Mara and her immediate superior often did not see eye to eye, for the most part, they stayed out of each other’s way.

  She thought about going for a workout. She joined a “body conditioning” club and there was a well-equipped workout center right here in the corporate headquarters building. She hadn’t been for a while and she felt a bit of buyer’s remorse to make more use of her membership since she had paid enough for it. She was often critical of her appearance and a good workout would relieve a little of her guilt over the occasional overindulgence in fast food.

  Most would consider Mara “cute” with brunette hair cut in a chin length straight bob, bright blue eyes and just a few well-placed freckles on her petite nose. She also had the unique ability to lift only one eyebrow. This allowed her to appear almost poetic with facial expressions of surprise or concern. She didn't do it consciously, it just happened naturally. Not to be misled by her small size, many were surprised by her direct and firm management style and ability to get others motivated to perform.

  As for the rest of the evening, she didn’t feel like cooking. Besides, cooking for one was just a ridiculous undertaking. She considered take-out but reflected how that would be another evening of junk food that she would have to work off in the end, so she decided to punish herself by planning to have a healthy salad, juice, tuna (straight) and some fruit. She wouldn’t need to stop by the store. Besides, this way she could postpone the workout and not feel too guilty about it.

  She checked her email inbox one more time before shutting off her desktop computer and remembered her message to Chris that morning about getting together for lunch. He hadn’t responded. Then she noted that the message status was marked “delivered” but not “opened” by the recipient. Typical. Probably so consumed with the latest elaborate math problem or trying to de-bug some rat’s nest of computer code that he didn’t even bother to check his messages. She would try again in the morning.

  She reflected for a moment on how well her and Chris were getting along now. While he was in college, he certainly had his irritating moments. His “know-it-all” attitude and lack of regard for just about anybody eventually eroded their relationship into something like an open sore. Don’t touch it and it won’t hurt. But, upon reflection, she could remember her college days not so long before his. What was it her mother used to say? “full of herself”. That’s how she described Mara. Here they were now, both working in the same town, in fact the same corporation.

  In May of the past year, Chris was seeking employment opportunities through the campus placement office. He had a few good prospects and even with the difficult job market, could afford to be a bit selective. He graduated from a prestigious educational institution with honors. His major was computer science with a strong background in mathematics. A very desirable choice indeed for many high-tech organizations. His most promising prospect was working for the National Security Agency, but Chris was pretty “laid back” and would probably be considered a rebel when compared to the stiff geek types often popular among such agencies.

  When Mara suggested he give Viiradium Corp. a good look because of their high-tech computer focus, he thought, “Why Not?” Viiradium was a highly regarded computer software application development company specializing in network security products. In fact, many of the network encryption methods that were developed at Viiradium have become world standards used heavily throughout the Internet. There was a continual effort to strengthen internet security because hackers the world over continue to improve their hacking skills and techniques. Keeping the internet secure was one of the foundation ambitions of Viiradium. These security techniques combine a bewildering array of computer software programming with complex mathematics – both of which were what a rebellious geek like Chris considered fun.

  Eventually, Viiradium made a generously attractive offer that drew Chris here. He was a little concerned that perhaps Mara might have had some influence with the company to extend the employment offer to him, but she assured him, she had not and such unethical behavior was not tolerated.

  Even though he chose a local institution for his higher education, they didn’t really see much of each other during his college years. It was the typical brother – sister relationship. She being a little older seemed always to be in charge and with good intentions, providing ample advice and opinion. He being the “little” brother, was nonchalant and disinterested in her “meddling”.

  But more recently, their relationship had improved and matured into a form of appreciation only blood ties can engender. They had both mellowed and were getting together for lunch at least a couple of times per month. There was no question that she loved him as her brother. She remembered how upset she was on many occasions while he got himself into a jam now and then because of what she considered his immaturity. The cause for her distress was simply that she cared for him and didn’t want him to find the sort of trouble that could bring an unintended episode of long term suffering.

  On the drive back to her apartment, she reflected on her breakup with Alan. A few weeks ago she thought that she might be in a long term, perhaps even permanent, relationship. But as the relationship matured, he began to give increasing attention to his work as an architect for a prominent downtown developer. Obviously they both had careers which were important to each, but she didn’t feel an occupation was worth more than the jewel of a meaningful lifelong relationship. She could understand working late and the need for out of town trips when they were required, but she began to feel secondary. When she tried to discuss her concerns, they usually ended up just fighting about it with no progress toward a meaningful resolution. Eventually their relationship deteriorated to the point where they mutually stopped seeing each other. Even though it was for the best and they parted relatively agreeable, it still left her depressed and Chris stepped in to offer support and boost her spirits during the breakup. It was nice having a “big” little brother to help out when you really needed someone. In fact, it surprised her how much she was able to confide in him and how much his support soothed her distress. “After all”, he would say, “it’s only romance, not like the end of the world or the loss of your brother or something!”

  She needed a little of that casual indifference in her life. He didn’t take things too seriously and he seemed genuinely happy. While having a few girlfriends during school, but now he was “between relationships”.

  By the time she arrived home, she entered her apartment with a carefree attitude and more relaxed about everything in general. She appreciated the prospect of a quiet evening. She even started reading a book the other day to which she was looking forward to becoming lost in while she took a hot bath. Yes, she thought, the key was being more lighthearted about things. That seemed to work. She would have to follow her brother’s example and adopt his sense of careless indifference toward life in general.

  At her desk the next day, the early routine was quite like the day before, most days in fact. After reviewing her “messages”, she reviewed her schedule for the day. She decided to leave Chris a voice-mail message now, so that when he came in, it would be waiting for him. “Chris, where have you been. How ‘bout returning my calls, you bum! It’s Mara – like you couldn’t tell – give me a call back. See ya.”

  This morning she had a meeting scheduled with an outside training provider. This company supplied training specifically
focused on improving the sales skills of the marketing staff. In her case, Viiradium had a marketing department and a few people that she supposed you could call “sales” reps, but the company was profitably in the middle of a very popular movement toward improving computer network security. It seems that companies were coming to them ready to buy product without having to send sales people out to those companies. But it would be good to have a better focus toward sales and product delivery. After all, other companies were recognizing the potential for success competing with establishments like Veridum. She would not be responsible for any change in direction of the marketing department, but she did want to know what training resources would be available to assist them to improve and refine their abilities and the overall sales process.

  She also had to review some of the research her team was doing on the medical benefits issues. Should they insist on a more agreeable benefits package from the current insurance administrator or should they select an alternative? It was a becoming big issue. It would mean changes for just about the everyone in the entire organization of fifteen thousand employees. Those changes would be brought about by the needs and desires of a relative few. However, would those changes bring more benefit to everyone at a lower premium cost to the company?

  By late afternoon, Chris still hadn’t returned her earlier call or even earlier e-mail from the previous day. She decided to try him again. She hated to bother him. Maybe he had met someone and suddenly his life was just too busy to return phone calls from his sister. Perhaps he was intently involved in an important project and simply didn’t get back to her, yet. After the fourth ring, his voice mail greeting began. On a whim she punched the “O” to transfer the call to the department administrative assistant. Mara couldn’t remember her name.

  “Chris Chandler’s office, this is Corrine, may I help you?”

  Mara didn’t know if Corrine had one of the executive secretary phone consoles that indicated the extension of the person calling. She decided to play it dumb. “Oh, Hi. I was looking for Chris, he hadn’t returned my call from earlier. Would he be available?”

  “Chris is not in today. In fact he sent a message indicating he has the flu and probably wouldn’t be in for a couple of days. May I take a message or direct your call to someone else to help you?”

  “That’s O.K. It’s not urgent. I left him a message so I’ll wait until he is able to call back. Thanks.” She hung up and a little crease of worry lined her forehead. She better check up on him.

  Obviously, since he has the flu, he must be home. She called his mobile number. His voicemail assaulted her with his ridiculous greeting message: “I’m sorry, we’re closed right now. Leave a message and we will be happy to assist you when someone is available…”

  At the tone she left a message: “Chris? Are you there…? Your office says you have the flu. If you need something, give me a call. Bye.” Again, a crease of worry lined her forehead as she frowned with a curious one-raised-eyebrow sort of way. She tried his home number. Again, no answer until the machine picked up. Could he be so sick he didn’t want to pick up the phone? She wondered what she would do if she were in bed with the flu. Probably let the caller leave a message. He probably went to bed and turned the ringer off, silenced his cell phone and tried to sleep. She would be sure to stop by and check up on him after work tomorrow.

  She finished up the rest of her activities for the day but was plagued with distraction as her mind drifted to Chris. She was surprised and felt a little guilty that she didn’t even know he was sick and that she had to find out through the people in his department. She signed off from her desktop computer, noticed that her voice mail light was not blinking, collected her purse and headed for the parking lot. She made up her mind that she wasn’t going to wait until tomorrow.

  Chris lived a little closer that she. He was able to land a pretty good deal on his apartment. It was one of those converted factory type buildings in the old section of Bedford. It was the classic Bachelor Pad with a heavy dose of computer nerd influence. He would tinker with various computer and software problems on the variety of computer equipment he had at home. However, he preferred to do most of his work at the office. The company had much more impressive computing gear and a good variety of high speed processing available. The stringent security policies of the product development group made working remotely almost impossible. In fact Chris often complained about the painfully restrictive policies guarding the collection of computer systems and networks at the office. It was just easier to be at the office.

  The thought suddenly struck her as odd that Corrine said “he sent a message” about his absence due to the flu. Did she mean he sent an email message? A text message? It seems more natural for people to call their office when they are sick. Why bother to connect and compose a message to send or even a text when a quick phone call from bed would do?

  As she drove up to a curb-side parking spot, she killed her headlights and could look up and see the windows of Chris’ third floor flat. They were dark. She locked her car and entered the building. As she admitted herself, she had an odd feeling of not being entirely alone. Was she being watched? Perhaps Chris peering through the window? The old converted freight elevator brought her slowly to the third floor. She got out in a small closed off section at the back of the building. The door in front of her led to Chris’ apartment. The door to her left went into a utility and maintenance area. To her right a short section of hallway which ended at a window.

  She approached the door and knocked. “Chris?” she said tentatively. No answer. She knocked louder but there was no response. She knew he kept a spare key tucked into the top of the window frame at the end of the hall so she retrieved it and turned open the lock. Upon entering, the place was dark. She could see the faint glow of the blinking light of his answering machine. She fumbled for the light switch but couldn’t find one. She could make out the silhouette of a lamp contrasted in the dim glow of the windows as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. She approached it and turned it on. Everything looked rather normal. Another call, quite loudly this time: “Chris?”

  Again no response. She walked past the kitchen area down the hall to his bedroom. She went in and turned on the light. His bed was not made, but he probably never made it. It could have been that way for days. She began to experience mixed feelings of fear and anger. “What could have happened to him?” she worried to herself. Then “Now where has he run off to?” she fumed.

  She made a cursory check of the bathroom but found it empty. Back out in the main room she noted his machine had two messages. She pressed the “play” button:

  “Hey Chris, it’s Marty! I thought we were going over the project plans for the new data cell algorithms. Where are you? I tried your cell, and your office!” The message indicated that it was recorded on 9:24 AM on Wednesday.

  The second message was simply someone hanging up on the machine. It was recorded on Thursday at 11:01 AM. She thought back to when she last called him. She thought it was Tuesday near the end of the day. That message wasn’t here, so he must have listened to it. But the next message recorded on Wednesday meant that Chris hadn’t been here since sometime before then. So all of Wednesday and today, Thursday, he was gone. But gone where?

  She looked around the main great room. The place looked typical for a bachelor not long out of school. Prominently featured adjacent to the phone and answering machine was two adjoining tables covered with various junk. Computer manuals, scattered mail, a couple of flat-screen monitors with related computer paraphernalia: mice, keyboards, some speakers and lots of wires and cable sort of configured in a spaghetti fashion. She wondered if any of it held any clues but had no idea where to begin looking.

  She approached the window and peered through the blinds down at the street below. Parked cars lined the side of the street in which parking was allowed. Although it was dark, the crumb of dim lighting from within the apartment created sufficient reflection so that it was difficult t
o see much. However, she thought she noticed slight movement by the corner of the block opposite. Perhaps as if someone ducked back into the shadows to avoid being seen. Could someone be watching his apartment? See her peer through the blinds?

  This was plain nuts. Here she was getting all paranoid when he probably just skipped off for a little overnight trip with the latest girlfriend. He was not seeing anyone that she knew of. But that would explain calling in sick and forgetting about work for a couple of days. It reminded her of some of his irresponsible dealings while in school. She thought that he had matured some now with a regular job and such. But why would he really be any different. She was disappointed that he at least didn’t let her know.

  It would be best to leave and just check up on him tomorrow. She decided to jot a brief note and leave it on the top of the mess next to his computer keyboards. That’s probably where he would most likely see it. If he returned, he would be sure to get either the note, the e-mail or the voice-mail message she left and respond. If not, she would find out where he went. He must have left word with someone.

  On the drive back she noticed that her car was near empty and she would need to stop and fill up. She pulled into a filling station and began the procedure buy fuel with her credit card and fill up the tank. As she stood waiting for the pump to signal the tank was full she noticed a deep red Ford Taurus pull along the curb on the opposite side of the road on the other side of the intersection. It seemed like a strange place to pull over since there was nothing over there worth parking in front of. Just as odd was the fact that no one got out. Perhaps pulling over to use a cell phone? Do people really do that?

  She completed her sale and resumed the trip back to her place. It was getting a little later and she was having good success making the lights as they were green. The next one turned yellow and she was too far to gun the engine and zip through, so she had to stop. It was a major intersection anyway, so other cars were waiting for their light to turn green. She waited as the adjacent lane left turn green went to yellow and prepared to step on the gas as her light would be turning green any second. However, a glance in the rear view mirror revealed the deep red Taurus she noted parking near the filling station. Was she being followed? This wasn’t a movie. There are lots of deep red Taurus sedans on the road.

  Here light turned and she accelerated away. But she deliberately missed the turn she needed to take to make her way back to her place and instead, went down to the next intersection and made a right on red. She drove about a block and a half and pulled into a parking area of a small suburban strip plaza. She positioned her car parallel to the road and watched the intersection a block away. It was well lit, and the unmistakable form of a deep red Taurus sedan made the same turn.

  Perhaps she was over reacting, but she felt her heart skip a beat and her pulse quicken. She slid down a bit as the car drove by on the street parallel to the plaza. She tried to get a peek at the driver, but couldn’t make out much in the dark. From her position she caught a brief glimpse of the Massachusetts tags and could make out the LZ2 beginnings of the number before it got out of visual range. The car continued on for a bit as she patiently waited for the view of its tail lights to move out of sight. However, she watched it make a left into a McDonalds about a block away.

  As the car drove around the opposite side of the restaurant, she quickly made a U-turn in the parking lot and exited heading back the way she came. At the light she made a right and sped away from the intersection. She didn’t want to head home just yet. Was the car at the McDonalds just stopping for a late snack or was she being followed and the pursuer was casually attempting not to be noticed.

  She was approaching the West View mall and decided to pull in. Most of the parking lots were vacant as the stores were either closing or already closed. She headed to the free four level parking ramp and drove in. On the second level she stopped the car in a spot where one of the overhead lights were out and got out of the car. She walked over to the edge and stood next to a support pillar looking out over the parking lots below. She could see the parking lot entrance from the street that she used as well as the next entrance farther on.

  Soon, her fears were confirmed. A Deep red Taurus Sedan cruised in the same lot entrance she used. She couldn’t make out the license tag number from her position, but it was too much to be coincidence. Now her pulse wasn’t just quick, it was racing! Why would someone follow her? Had it been from Chris’ place or had they been following before she even got there? She watched the car with apprehension. If it pulled into her same multi-level ramp, she would need to dash back to her car and make a run for it. It slowed a little and negotiated a couple of the parking isles. Finally it stopped a little further away. Then turned and headed for the exit back to the street. It went right and drove on. She silently watched as it drove out of sight to the right.

  She waited a long time. Finally she noticed that in spite of her fear, she felt quite cold. She jumped at the sound of a car door slamming and realized that someone parked at the far end of her level was getting into their car and going home for the evening. Hopefully the pursuers were led astray and not simply waiting for her to show herself so they could follow again. She got back into her car and started the engine. She sat there a while as the interior heated up. Finally, she started out for home.

  She took a circuitous route all the while paying close attention to who was behind her. Her mind started to play tricks. Was that black van the same as the one a few blocks back? Eventually she decided that she was being unreasonable and made her way to her apartment. She pulled in the tenant drive, killed the engine and sat and watched for a while. Convinced no one had followed, she cautiously got out and entered the building.

  The first thought as she locked herself into her place was to call Mom. She hadn’t realized how long she was out and noted with some alarm that it was approaching eleven. Still, she didn’t want to wait. Hopefully, her mother would still be up and would have heard where Chris may be. Mara needed to talk to someone about her ordeal. She called her place in New Hampshire.

  After the fourth ring, Mara figured the machine would probably get it. As she prepared to leave a message, her mom’s voice come on the line, “Hello?”

  “Mom! It’s Mara!”

  “Mara? Isn’t it a little late? I never hear from you guys and then, out of the blue you call at 11:00 at night! Is everything alright?”

  “Well, I wonder if you might have heard from Chris the past couple of days.

  “Chris? I hear from him less than I do from you. No I haven’t heard from Him for… I guess it’s been two or three weeks. Why is something wrong?”

  “Well, he’s sort of missing.”

  “What do you mean, ‘missing’.”

  “He called into work sick today, but I don’t think anyone’s even seen him since Tuesday. I went over to his place tonight to check up on him since I thought he was sick, but no one was there. I let myself in and looked around, but no sign of him. Then as I was driving back home, I was followed.”

  “When? Tonight? You were followed home?”

  “I was, but I discovered them and was able to lose them. But I’m sure they followed me.”

  “This sounds a like a little bit of imagination getting the best of you is you ask me. He’s probably just taken off on one of his little ‘outings’ again. Maybe he’s away for the weekend.”

  Mara explained how she was able to conceal herself in the parking ramp while observing her pursuers in their search for her.

  Her mother continued, “Well now your scaring me! Who would be following you? Someone else looking for Chris? What kind of trouble has he gotten into now? Have you said anything to the police?”

  “No, I didn’t want to make a big deal out of nothing.”

  “Well it seems for sure you were followed. And Chris does seem to be missing. It might be a good idea to get the police involved. I hate to think what might have happened, especially if someone else is looking for
him.”

  “I’ll stop back to the office in the morning. I’ll ask around a little and see when anyone’s last seen him. I guess I’ll decide then whether to call the police or not.”