Chapter 41 – Terminal Release
Friday Morning, July 24, 2308
Stanwood stood before the open cell door. Andrew had grown a bit of a beard. This particular morning he was seated against one of the back walls.
"It's been almost three weeks, do you realize that? I don’t know how you got to him, but I’m impressed. I told you that when we opened this gate, it wouldn't be with good news. Well, I was wrong.
“There's good news and bad news. The good news, yes, I got a phone call from my uncle, and you are free to go.
“The Attorney General was the one holding everything up. For weeks, he’s refused to sign the warrant on you. He says you're an exemplary citizen and that since this is the only case where you've strayed, without more evidence, he can't warrant stripping your citizenship.”
Stanwood continued, "However, this is the bad news, in order to reaffirm your continued allegiance to the republic, and to prove your loyalty, he did sign everything else. Everything you owned, all your projects and patents, are now property of the federal government.
“Moreover, although you have been allowed to keep your citizenship, you have been reduced to first gate status. You will be required to give your two years of public service again, and this time, since you’re broke, you’ll actually have to do the work.
“How about that?”
Fox made no reply.
"I would recommend not interfering with the agents that have been sent to collect your wife and children. The chairman was insistent that they be included as part of the agreement, he pinpointed specific expenditures that clearly rendered them government property.
“We all objected to it, but in the end, we were overruled.
“There's a transport here, waiting to take you wherever you want to go.” Stanwood smiled.
Fox tilted his head.
“Oh, don’t worry, Scotland Yard took Mr. MacPhail into custody yesterday. Interpol is processing him for extradition right now.”
Fox laughed. “You’re dumb as a bag of hammers, you know that Joe? He won’t have the keys with him. You’re just going to have to release him and then go visit him, like I told you. But since you’re releasing me, I guess you missed your chance. Now you’ll never know what’s behind the curtain.” Fox rose and walked past Stanwood without another word.
"If you hurry, maybe you can beat the acquisitions team to Calistan Way," Stanwood said.
It took all of Fox’s self control to keep from killing the man, but the doctor had bigger plans for his old rival.
Ashley’s Journal, Friday Morning, July 24, 2308
After three weeks at camp, Geoffrey and I packed up and walked down to our transport shuttles, with all the other cattle.
This trip home is taking forever.
I swear we must be the last stop on this guy’s list. We’ve been riding around Angel City for like two hours now.
Geoffrey is next to me, but he’s not talking. He gets quiet when he’s tired. He must be exhausted.
Once we got home, Geoff went straight for the kitchen. I’m sure he’s camped out downstairs in front of the game streams.
Mom’s not here.
I came up to my room.
I’m not too hungry.
I don’t want to do anything.
The Micronix is right where I left it.
I’m just going to lie on my bed for a minute.
Dr. Fox arrived home a little before three in the afternoon. As the taxi approached, he laughed. The street and his home looked quiet enough, but with the Micronix, he could see a few things the untrained eye might miss.
He slowed the moment down, giving himself time to examine the situation. Three delivery trucks, two emergency services vehicles, a few big black cruisers. No one was out moving around, but there was hardly a parking spot for two blocks.
Stanwood's men had been in place on the street for hours. They'd been ordered to keep a low profile and not to interrupt anyone coming or going from the structure. The Fox home was surrounded but only on paper.
The forest and canyon were unguarded. The urban-centric agents had not secured the trails in any way. They had not been told what they were doing there or what they were up against.
Von Kalt, King and the rest of the recon team occupied their residence. Fox counted seven active camera lenses trained on his home and three on the incoming taxi.
The Washington Security residence, that he had outfitted and staffed, was empty. The equipment was still present, and running, but the operators had all been removed.
Ahead of the cab, hanging in the afternoon sky, Fox saw the spectral shape of the Secretary of Defense, his oldest childhood friend, James Croswell, with the two men he trusted above all others, Major Kelly Ross and Chief Warrant Officer Eric Reid. They nodded to Dr. Fox as the vehicle cruised past.
Finally, his wife, the only woman who’d ever captured his heart and the mother of his children. Hiding under the pseudonym, Analynn Snow, and serving as an officer in the Marine Corps, Anastasia Zelena and Dr. Andrew Fox had not physically seen or spoken to each other in five years.
The woman Fox would embrace, the one who was waiting for him inside the house with their children, was Anastasia’s clone.
As they slept, their minds were synched by their amplifiers, and each one woke up as the same woman each morning, but everyone was well aware of the fact that they were not the same.
Anastasia kissed her fingertips and let them slide past the window of the taxi as it passed.
When the taxi arrived and docked on the rooftop access port, they observed… The soldiers parked on the nearby streets, Von Kalt and his reconnaissance slash assassination team, the cameras in the abandoned Washington Security residence. Everyone watched, but no one attempted to intercept Dr. Fox as he exited the vehicle and entered the house.
Fox went into his study and called up his open security applications. The home was secure.
He went down to the basement living room and smiled to see Ash and Geoff stretched out on one of the couches, watching a vid stream.
"Dad!" Geoff jumped up.
Fox knelt and gestured for Geoffrey to whisper. "Quiet, Geoff. We only have a couple of minutes.”
Ashley recognized her father's cautious manner and its implications at once. She sat up, hyper-alert.
"Ashley, do you still have that…" Fox hand out his hand in a shape that suggested the narrow rectangular switchblade in Ashley's dresser.
Ash nodded.
"I want you to go get it," he said.
Ashley rose to go upstairs.
"Geoff, go on upstairs with your sister." Dr. Fox said.
"What's going on?" Ana asked, stepping out of the laundry room.
Fox threw his arms around his wife. “Stanwood had me arrested.”
“Where have you been? Ross was here. He said you went off the grid. Are you okay?”
Fox whispered into her ear. "They're going to try and take us, but we're going to fool them. I love you.”
“Are we decanting somewhere already?” She whispered back.
Fox smiled.
"I love you too,” Ana said, returning the smile. “I'm double checking the doors.”
Fox followed his family as they headed upstairs.
Waiting in the hallway, Ash held the prototype in her hand. As her father approached she handed it to him.
Fox looked at it closely. He closed his eyes and time stopped.
Fox merged again with the device. It had been three weeks since he’d held it last. Everything he’d come to know, recorded and protected, reinforced by the density of the metal.
He compressed his current impression and blasted it to every server and terillium deposit in range. In just a few seconds, his image would be broadcast around the world, doubled and tripled.
Fox exhaled.
There was nothing Stanwood could do to him now
He had truly become immortal.
There was one more thing to do. Holding the Micronix,
Fox opened a channel to his team waiting outside. He closed his eyes and projected his thoughts to them as clearly as if they had been spoken…
“Whatever happens to me down here, just let it happen. Under no circumstances are you to open fire to protect me. President Conway and I have an understanding, and as he said, you can’t charge a man with murder if all he did was think about it.
“Ashley and Geoff are going out the back and down through the canyon. Stanwood’s goons aren’t in the forest yet, so as soon as they’re clear of the house, I want you guys to stay with them.
“Do not use lethal force to defend me, but if anyone so much as looks sideways at Ashley or Geoff, shoot them twice. I know what I’m about to say might sound difficult, but please try not to break the fifth wall with them. Let them work the Micronix out for themselves. Don’t tell them it can make them invisible or that it can stop time. And for God’s sake, please don’t tell them anything about the decanting tanks.
I trust you guys with my life, and I’m entrusting you with the lives of my children. I love you guys; don’t let me down. I guess that’s it. Thanks for everything, see you soon.”
Fox opened his eyes and returned the Micronix to his daughter. “It's yours now, Ash. Take care of it. You won't lose it, let it help you.”
Fox looked at his children, "Get your jackets, go on.”
Geoff looked puzzled.
“Now,” Dr. Fox insisted.
The children moved quickly to obey.
Moments later they returned in lightweight summer windbreakers.
Fox knelt in front of them. "Okay. This is it. The bad guys are coming, and they're the kind who shoot first and ask questions later." Fox's voice was warm and calm, at odds with the words he was saying.
"We're smarter, so we're going to out-Fox them, right?" he smiled.
The children were too scared to respond to the familiar pun.
“I programmed the car to take off in a couple of minutes, but that's just to distract them. Help is on the way. It's going to take a little while for them to get to you, so… Right now, I want you to go sit on the stairs next to that window." Fox pointed to the landing of the back stairwell its the large window.
“In a few minutes, you're going to hear the garage door open, and the car is going to take off. When that happens, I want you to go out that window, walk down the roof to that part where it's close to the ground and get into the forest.”
"Why don't we go in the car, Dad?" Geoff asked.
"Because they're going to stop the car," Fox answered.
"Get in the forest and then what?" Ashley asked.
"Then you run, and you run.”
"For how long?" Geoff asked.
"Never stop, you don't ever stop." Fox looked his son in the eyes. "Geoff, listen to your sister. Stay with her, do what she tells you.”
Fox turned to Ashley. "Ash, don't lose sight of him, not even for a minute. Help is on the way. Remember that your mother and I love you very much. Smile, be polite, help others as much as you can and be careful. That's all there is.”
Geoffrey threw his arms around his father. Fox hugged his son back and pulled them both close.
"Where are we supposed to go?" Ashley asked.
"I want you to go west till you hit the ocean, then turn left and go south, keep the water on your right hand side. You need to get to Mexico.”
"To Mexico?" Ashley asked.
"Yes. Go to Mexico. You will be safe there, safer than here. If Ross doesn't find you, the Christians are the safest people for you to be with.”
"Dad?" Tears filled Ashley's eyes, aware that these could be their last words.
"Be good, trust your instincts and take care of your brother," Fox said.
Ashley hugged her father.
The hangar bay doors on the garage opened, and the car lifted off.
Dr. Andrew Fox helped his children climb out the window and onto the low roof. He watched them as they ran to the edge, jumped down to the grass and slipped into the waiting forest.
Dunkirk reached the Fox house nearly undetected. He rose from an overgrown section of the property, took a couple of steps toward the kitchen door, swiped the key card and was inside. Only one of the observing agents saw him, but that was enough for the information to make it back to Stanwood.
King silently called his comrades over the Micronix. “I Love saying I Told You So, and I Told You So.”
“What are you talking about?” Croswell asked.
“Fox’s neighbor, Dr. Martin Dunkirk, just entered the residence.”
“What?” Ross exclaimed.
“You guys didn’t catch that? We’ve got the profile angle down here. He just swiped a key card and opened the kitchen door, southwest corner.”
“You knew about this?” Croswell asked Ross.
“We suspected there might be someone in the area.”
“This guy had been assigned to Bergstrom. There’s no way that was coincidence,” King said.
“Let’s see what he’s got. It’s not like Fox or Ana are going to be easy targets,” Croswell said.
Snow laughed.
“What?” Croswell asked.
“She might have my memories, but an hour of aerobics a day is not the same as living the life.”
“Yeah, well, this guy Dunkirk may not be at the top of his game either. Have a little faith in yourself.”
“I’m staying with the kids,” Snow said.
“Copy that,” Ross said, as the Captain drifted away.
“Ashley is carrying the Micronix,” Snow said. “I’m activating its phase-cam.”
After wiping his prints from it, Dunkirk set the keycard on a counter. The two hundred and fifty pounds of determined muscle that was Dunkirk peered into the nexus of the home. He saw no one.
Dunkirk withdrew to a corner of the kitchen and waited, listening. He watched the reflections in the windows and cabinets, waiting for what he knew must happen next. He relaxed his body and opened his mouth, allowing him to hear just a fraction better.
He heard movement upstairs, small footsteps, hurrying.
He heard sudden movement from downstairs.
In a window, Dunkirk caught the reflection of Mrs. Fox moving toward him, heading for the kitchen.