Chapter 3
Mike insisted that Bill hold a debriefing of our mission in Florida, even though we hadn't been doing them for our other observer-only ones. I think he mostly wanted to get Bill's take on my actions, and he also wanted to see what had happened between me and Lily after we teleported out.
To my surprise, Bill agreed that I had acted the best I could under the circumstances. He and I don't always see eye to eye, and it isn't just because he's six inches or so taller than me. I find him stuffy and arrogant, and he thinks I'm an upstart young punk. Still, we're working on it, trying to find common interests and experiences that let people bridge those kinds of differences and still become friends. So far, we've come up with two: a shared affection for Shelley, and the fact that he's, well, almost as kickass a fighter as I am. Eh, it's a start.
"What I'd like to know," Bill said after the discussion had drifted away from my rash actions, "is what Lily meant when she told you 'no more magic words'."
I let out my breath. "Yeah, I've been thinking about that. You might remember that she said a similar thing during that mission in Iceland."
"You said something to her in Cantonese, right?" Trina asked.
I nodded. "Yeah. Both times, in fact. In Iceland, she said that the 'magic words' made her not want to fight me any more. My guess is that she reacts that way because it's Li Lin-fa's native tongue."
"Li Lin-fa is Lily's base personality, correct?" Nicolai said. "Her real self?"
"Uh huh. When we were holding her in the stronghouse, I tried speaking Cantonese to Lily a few times to try to bring the Li Lin-fa personality forward, and at the time it seemed to provoke a reaction. If my speaking Cantonese causes Li Lin-fa to struggle against Enclave's control of her, I could see how Lily would interpret that as my casting a spell."
"That sounds reasonable." Bill rubbed his chin in thought for a moment. Then he shrugged. "Anything else, anyone?"
"Not about the mission," Mike said, "but what was that comment you made to Shelley about the gum? 'Remember your gum'?"
Bill chuckled. "It's something she and I came up with. I think we all know she gets awfully bored sitting alone in that room all the time. One can practice kung fu by oneself only so many hours per day. And since our visits to her are secret, we obviously couldn't bring her books or anything like that that would be discovered. So I suggested that chewing gum might help to relieve the tedium.
"She agreed, but she worried that she might not always be able to dispose of the gum in time, or even if she did, that it still might be discovered. But then we thought, what if it were? What would they do? Why, try to find the source of the gum, of course."
Toby frowned. "And that would lead them to suspect that we're teleporting in to visit her on a regular basis and that we've taken control of their surveillance cam and microphone to prevent them from realizing it."
"It might," Bill agreed with a smile. "Or it might lead them to suspect that Shelley has a secret sympathizer in their ranks."
There was silence as we digested this. "Damn!" Mike said softly. "That's brilliant."
"Isn't it, though?" Yeah, see, it's remarks like that that make me want to slap a big ol' ARROGANT sticker on Bill's forehead. Still, I had to admit that it sounded like a pretty clever idea.
"You have brought Wizzit in on it as well, correct?" Nicolai said. "You can't just have the gum show up out of nowhere. You have to give their investigators something to work with, some surveillance videos showing Shelley receiving the gum, things like that."
"We've already taken care of that," Bill agreed. "Wizzit teleported me into the hallway outside her cell, and we took several vids, different angles and such, of her accepting sticks of gum as I slid them in through the tray slot. Wizzit will even try to digitally insert sticks of gum into the surveillance vids of her receiving her food tray."
"They think they have her completely locked down," Trina commented, her eyes sparkling. "This will drive them crazy!"
Bill said, "That's what we're hoping, anyway. And the beauty of it is that none of this should boomerang back onto Shelley. After all, how could she possibly know who is giving them to her? I'll leave some sticks of gum in the kitchen, and we'll have to remember to bring them out to her every day or so to be discovered whenever she gets brought in for interrogation."
Mike chuckled. "Good work, Bill. I hope it pans out."
"Me, too." Bill grinned at the rest of us. "Anything else, anyone?"
After a few seconds, Wizzit said, "I have an announcement."
I think he commanded everyone's attention instantly with that. Wizzit almost never makes announcements. "What is it?" Bill asked, looking up at the ceiling speakers.
"I have discovered the name of the person who has been masterminding the campaign against the Primes, the one behind Shelley's capture and everything," he said proudly. "And you'll never guess who it is!"
Wizzit paused, probably for dramatic effect, and Trina said impatiently, "Well, tell us who!"
"Emile Zwicky!"
For a moment, nobody said anything. I looked around at the others, feeling just a bit confused. Who was Emile Zwicky?
"Is that name supposed to mean anything to us?" Bill inquired.
"Of course it should! It's the name of the CIA agent who started the campaign against the Primes. Duh!"
"Aside from that, I mean," Bill said patiently. "Should we know that name from any other context?"
"Well, no, of course not. I told you you'd never guess, didn't I? What, did you think you would recognize it?"
Bill smiled in exasperation. "No, I suppose not." Yeah, every now and then we get a bit, fat ol' reminder that Wizzit really isn't human.
"What can you tell us about this 'Emile Zwicky' character?" Mike asked.
"For one thing, Mike, he is not involved with Enclave. As far as I have been able to tell from his personnel records, he is simply a twenty-year CIA man who one day had the bright idea to try to grab all the Primes' technology for his country. His bosses at Homeland Security gave him the green light and some lawyers to provide legal justification, and you know the result."
Trina asked, "Do you know what he looks like? Could you show us a picture?"
"I don't have one," Wizzit replied. "It's not in his personnel records. If it becomes important, I suppose I could scan through their surveillance footage and their videotapes of Shelley's interrogations to get a still for you."
"You can do all that?" Toby exclaimed, amazed.
"Of course. I have been making extensive use of that passthrough that Nicolai thoughtfully planted. It has given me nearly complete access to their computer network. I could give you the names and addresses of nearly everyone there, including Mr. Zwicky. I could get you the names of their spouses and children, their psychological profiles, their likes and dislikes, all kinds of stuff!"
"Thanks, Wizzit," Mike said, looking thoughtful. "That may become important."
"I should certainly hope so!"