Episode 8
Fall
Gregory was looking at his computer. He was finishing up the last series of notes. Looking up at the clock, it was past 11 at night. The rest of the offices were dark. So were the laboratories that were across the hall. Removing his glasses, he set them next to the keyboard. "Can't exactly do much now anyway. Time to call it a night."
He pressed the log-off button on the keyboard and subsequently turned off the monitor. He took the nearby open bag, zipped it closed and hoisted it onto his shoulder. Getting up, he stretched from his long term at sitting. Small pops could be heard, especially when he intertwined his fingers and bent them backwards.
Walking down the hallway, he saw something happening in the lab across the hall. Lights flashed across the windows. Gregory leaned over, trying to see through the open door what was happening. He made it halfway across the large, blinded glass when he felt metal upon his head.
"Hold it right there."
The shadowy figure held a very serious tone to his voice, suggesting violence as he held the gun to Gregory's head. The scientist held his hands up in surrender. The minion held his hand onto his captive's shoulder, guiding him into the room that was being robbed.
Inside the unlit room kept all the other faces shrouded in shadow. The minion led Gregory further into the room, until they arrived on the other side. Gregory saw what he was facing: a custom safe designed to keep a specific experiment within. "Open it."
Clearly showing his fear, he had to explain, "I...don't have the clearance."
That didn't please the robber, "What?" He pressed the gun hard onto Gregory's head.
"We can't open it! Only a few security officers can!"
Without remorse, the robber said, "Then that's some bad luck you have." The minion gave the impression that he was going to fire - a partial bluff.
From nearby, another man stepped forward. He remained in shadow and let his voice carry the weight of control. "Do not harm someone who could be useful."
The minion loosened his grip on the gun. He looked at Karns, "What use can he be if he can't get in?"
Karns remained calm, in control. He looked at the scientist, "Do you have access to the computers?"
Still very nervous, Gregory nodded.
"Good. We want a certain file." Karns turned his attention to the minion he hired, "Keep an eye on him, and make sure he gets that file."
The minion nodded. He pulled Gregory away from the safe. Poking the captive with the gun, he silently ordering the man to lead him to the computers.
Before they could exit the doorway, Karns sternly ordered the minion, "And don't kill him. He may be of further use to us."
Once they were gone, another minion approached Karns. "Why the file? What's a stupid document going to do for us?"
Without looking at him, he responded, "Simple, information is much more valuable than the product itself. With all the specs of the device, we can make even more, sell it to some rival company... or use it for ourselves."
The man insisted, "What use would you have of documents and not the thing itself?"
"I have a few ideas, all requiring that man to stay alive. Remember, by dear friend: people are a resource just like anything else. Don't get rid of something that will be useful."
Not quite satisfied, the minion walked back across the room to continue the search for anything valuable. Karns simply stood within the shadows and watched over them.
Jeff walked down the busy street. He held intent towards his movement, though not exactly knowing a direction. At a crosswalk, he looked around. Surrounding him was tall buildings and various shops. Just around the corner was a coffee shop with newspapers predominately displayed.
Shrugging his shoulders, he walked into the coffee shop. Once inside he snagged one of the newspapers. Holding up the paper, he asked the cashier, "How much?"
The cashier waved his hand in denial. "It's free."
Jeff nodded and kindly said, "Thanks."
Taking a nearby empty seat, Jeff looked at the front page. He scanned the headlines. Flipping to the bottom half, he found something, "Lab break in, scientist missing"
With the city limits well within his search grid, Jeff knew this was a decent lead. "If Karns is up to something, that would be it."
Reading the article, he found the location of the mentioned lab. Flipping it back, he placed the newspaper on the table for the next person to read.
It was much brighter in the laboratory now that natural light leaked through the blinds. Police were still interviewing several people. A few were security guards, dressed more casually since they often worked with the scientists.
Jeff walked up to the police tape. The lead officer noticed him and approached. "Sir, this lab is closed due to an investigation."
Jeff almost smiled, since he was recognized as a scientist than investigator. He took the short time to read the name on the present badge as "Detective Carson Yelm."
"I don't work here, Detective," Jeff said to him, "Actually, I'm here to investigate a lead for myself." Jeff took out a picture. It was the surveillance picture that Jeff obtained from the first world he had traveled into. "Was this man involved, by any chance?"
Yelm looked at the photo. It did pique his interest. Looking back, he waved to another officer who was interviewing an security officer. "Parsons! Can you double-check this for me?"
The officer held up a hand, telling the security officer to pause the conversation. Walking up and next to the detective, he too looked carefully at the photo. "Can't say for certain, but it does look like our man."
The detective nodded, simultaneously approving and dismissing Parsons. Then he returned to Jeff. "How do you know this man?"
"He killed my wife."
Like most others before him, Carson gave a sympathetic, "I'm sorry." It went quiet for a second before the lead officer figured to go back to business. "What do you suspect he was up to here?"
"More than likely, he was trying to steal something for a malicious plot of his. What was this lab working on?"
The detective explained, "Well, I asked the supervisor, but he declined since it wasn't missing."
Jeff was curious. "Really?"
The detective held up the tape for Jeff to cross. "If what you say about your guy is true, I'll see if the supervisor changes his mind."
Jeff took the offer and ducked under the tape. Yelm led him into the room where the break-in was centered. Next to the safe, a formal man stood watching everything unfold. That was Yelm's target. As they walked to him, Yelm said, "This man believes that whatever you were working on was targeted."
The supervisor was a little annoyed that he had to repeat, "Well, they didn't get past the safe. Why do you need to know what it is?"
Jeff stepped forward. "It may give an idea of what Karns' activities are."
The supervisor sighed. Looking at the security officer that Parsons was interviewing, he yelled, "Gil, can you come over here."
The security officer walked over to the other side of the safe. The supervisor held up a card, indicating that the security officer should do the same. Getting out his own car, he mirrored the supervisor's motions as they swiped their cars onto the safe.
The distinctive tone of metal moving within told Jeff that it was now open. The supervisor opened it, then pulled out a long tray. On it was a metal backpack, straps bleeding out the bottom.
Then Jeff's glasses indicated something interesting. Holding them, he found out what it was. "This is using some type of multi-dimensional energy."
The supervisor looked up at Jeff, "While the term is curious, it is rather accurate. We figured out how to effectively use physics normally available at the sub-atomic level, where most phenomena that goes into 'multi-dimensional activity.'"
This went over the head of Yelm. "Layman, please."
Jeff decided to explain, "I mean alternate universe. Multi-dimensional particles more freely travel between different worlds. They're usual
ly not abundant, at best being one part per million."
The supervisor used that as a basis for his explanation, "Well, we are able to give a similar charge to normal particles for a specific purpose. By doing so, we can essentially squeeze things down and store them inside this device. Let me demonstrate."
The supervisor took a pen out of his pocket. Switching the backpack on, he held the pen to the backpack. In a blue flash, the pen disappeared.
The demonstration wasn't exactly clear but detective barely understood the premise. "So the pen is now in the backpack."
The supervisor showed affirmation. "And we can store much larger objects within as well. All without any additional encumbrance. It can't take anything that requires constant movement, so we locked out most organic materials."
With another motion and a flash, the pen returned to the supervisor's hand.
Jeff asked, "How is this controlled?"
"It reads both motion detection and brainwaves. That way it locks other people out while keeping a safety check."
Jeff looked closer at it. "This looks close to being finished."
The supervisor nodded. "We still need a field trial. You seem to understand the physics behind this."
Jeff nodded in return. "In another life I was a theoretical physicist."
That put an idea into the supervisor's head. "Then I'm glad I showed you this. I going to guess you wouldn't mind trying this out for a while."
Jeff turned enthusiastic. "Not at all."
The supervisor gestured for Jeff to place his hand on top the backpack. He placed his finger where it looked like a small reader was located. Jeff held it there for a second, then heard a beep. Releasing it, the supervisor held the device up for Jeff to possess.
Detective Yelm coughed, calling attention to himself. "Now that you two are done geeking out, can we go back to the case? Most importantly, was the victim on this project."
The supervisor kept a more analytical tone, hoping that the worst hasn't happened. "Yeah, Greg was vital in some of the breakthroughs we had."
Jeff strapped the backpack on, then asked, "Did he have access to this?"
"Not really. It requires both a researcher and a security card to open it."
Yelm took his turn to ask, "How about any research files?"
The supervisor looked over towards the offices, "He often stayed late to make sure all the notes and public files were right."
Both Jeff and Yelm knew what that meant. It was Yelm who asked, "Do you by chance keep track of your researcher's computer activities."
The supervisor got wind of things. "You can't mean..."
Jeff said, "It's very likely. If under duress, your guy probably gave Karns any files you have on this."
The supervisor sighed. "I checked this morning and found they were still there, but didn't think to see if they were accessed. I'll do that now."
The supervisor walked towards the offices where his desk was.
Detective Yelm turned to Jeff, continuing the discussion. "You think he stole those files to sell."
Jeff shook his head negative. "Not at all. His lackeys maybe. He may even say that it was all about money to their face. But for him, money doesn't matter."
"Then why would he steal plans vs. the actual thing?"
Jeff looked at the safe. "I wouldn't be surprised he couldn't get into it. Were there any cameras in here?"
That was the disappointing part of the investigation. "Nope. Only in the parking garage. Do you think he could make another one of those things?"
Jeff answered, "Hard to tell. Worse, he may have other ideas."
Yelm's phone began to ring. He got it out and answered, "This is Yelm. Got it, thanks. No! Have her wait there."
He hung up the phone, then looked back up to Jeff. "Looks like someone spotted the van. It was ditched at the New York Tower. Want to join in?"
Jeff nodded, and promptly followed Yelm out of the room.
The unmarked car stopped several spots away from the lone van. Yelm and Jeff got out and walked directly to the two people that were waiting. One was a large man, someone who could have moonlighted as a football player. The other was a formally dressed woman, remaining silent at the moment.
Yelm approached the man, who was one of the parking garage attendants. Before he could say anything, the man answered the unasked question, "Sorry, sir. The camera was shot out before they left the vehicle. Went through that tape for a half-hour; couldn't see a darned one of their faces."
Yelm sighed disappointingly. Jeff instead approached the woman. "How about you, miss? Did you see anything?"
"Mrs. actually. Or will be shortly, in just a month."
Jeff tried to give a warm smile, "Congratulations."
"Thanks." She saw that Jeff was more interested in business, "Anyway, I saw this van come up about an hour ago. They tried to disguise themselves as some road workers. But it was the fifth guy, he looked like the scientist that got kidnapped"
Yelm stepped up, done with his conversation with the parking officer. He joined in on the debriefing. "You keep up on the news."
The bright-eyed woman nodded. "One of the things you have to do in P.R. I work upstairs on the third floor. Had to come in early today. Only got a glimpse of them before they left."
"Did you see any of their faces?"
She shook her head negative. "Sorry. They all kept their head down and wore hats."
The detective pulled out a note pad from his pocket, and a pen from the spiraled metal. "Can I get your name and number, just in case we have any more questions?"
"Sure. Cheryl Sandler, and 555-9090."
Detective Yelm wrote down the information. Putting that away, he replaced it with a business card. He handed that over to Cheryl. "If you think of or see anything, go ahead and give me a call."
"Will do." She nodded, as though she was saying good bye. She gave an additional nod to Jeff, more casual and intimate that the one before.
As she left, Jeff and Yelm walked over to the open van. He said to the former scientist "I think she liked you."
Jeff visually showed that he disagreed. "She said she was getting married. Plus...I'm not ready for any of that."
They stood at the open sliding door of the van. Jeff was looking inside, trying to continue his work in spite the direction Yelm was going. "How long has it been?" the detective asked.
Jeff sighed, all the while using his glasses to scan the vehicle. "Five months now." He wasn't finding anything outside. Jeff released his glasses and leaned in. He began looking for any clues, as had Yelm.
He was on the flat-bed part of the van when he saw something. It was a smudge, as though someone was quickly wiping something and didn't bother to do a good job of it. Taking a more careful examination, there was hints of a fingerprint within it. "Looks like they wiped this thing down before they left."
Yelm was on his knees, exploring the front from between the two seats. He was looking at the dash, finding a similar smear himself. "Got something that looks like a wiped fingerprint?"
"Is that important?"
"Sure is. It's not common knowledge yet, but we can digitally reconstruct those. Only gives a partial; probably not even admissible. But if it's enough to get a decent match, that's more than enough to get our investigation going."
The examination room was in the back of the station, with windows high up and displaying the very tower that Jeff and Yelm had come from. They waited along the wall, as the technician stood in front of the computer.
"This should take only a minute," the technician informed, "Luckily we were among the first to get the upgrades D.C. mandated. One of the few times I applaud politicians."
Yelm whispered to Jeff, "Don't mention politics to this guy. I first interviewed him in a small town in Oregon, he railed against the city council."
The crime tech pointed backwards at Yelm. "I heard that! And they were a special kind of terrible that city councils generally avoid. Just take the lack of focus on the
roads and..."
Yelm responded, "And we need to get back back to work. Especially with the flashing light saying it's done."
The crime tech looked back at the screen and began typing. "I knew that. These fingerprints match two people...from two different backgrounds."
Yelm shrugged his shoulders, "Unusual, but not unheard of. Who are they?"
"I got a Samuel Parkston. Unemployed. Got caught stealing from a high-end pawn shop. Lives in Riverside.
"The next guy is Arlando Velston. Occupation: "White hat" security analyst, inside the 'Tower."
The term flew over Yelm's head. "What's a "White hat" security analyst?"
Jeff interjected, "They're hackers - tries to find various security holes in computer programs, servers and other services. "White hat" refers to being on the legitimate side of these things."
"Well, since you know those thing, go ahead and talk to this person. I'll have one of our officers meet you there if you need to arrest anyone. I'll go to the guy in Riverside."
Nodding in affirmation, Jeff left the room with Yelm behind. The crime tech moved to the next file on his desk and begun work on that.
Jeff was being followed by an officer, who held his long accustomed tall and defensive posture. The office looked like any normal office. The front desk proceeded a long stretch of desks. For each desk, there was a computer; most had a person behind that computer.
Next to the desk was a secretary - talking to Cheryl. As Jeff opened the glass door, Cheryl took notice of him. She abruptly stopped the conversation and approached him. While showing a hint of worry, she was glad it was him who had come. "Do you need anything more, Mr...Sorry, never asked your name. Happens too often."
"It's Jeffrey Hunter. I thought you said you didn't recognize anyone at the scene?"
"I didn't. Is there a problem?"
Jeff's expression showed that there was. "One of your employees, Arlando Velston, is a suspect..." The officer put a hand on Jeff's shoulder. He leaned forward and whispered a piece of advice into Jeff's ear. Turning back towards Cheryl, Jeff had to make the correction. "Alright, a person of interest in the case."
Cheryl said, "Don't know him. I'm just the P.R. rep." She gave an audible sigh, "If this guy was involved, that makes my job a lot tougher."
"Can you still show us where he is?"
She didn't resist, instead showing enthusiasm towards helping Jeff. "Sure." She moved behind the desk, looking at a map of the office. She easily found Arlando's desk on the reference table. "Follow me."
She led Jeff into the office. The desk was towards the back, so she decided to strike up a conversation. "Do you work for the police or something, Mr. Hunter?"
"Not really. I'm something of a traveling private investigator."
That sounded exotic to her, "You go around solving different crimes?"
"Yeah."
"Sounds very interesting."
Jeff whispered to himself, "It isn't."
They walked a few more rows until they arrived at the desk. A pasty man was working, looking at a DOS prompt. He looked up, seeing both Jeff and the officer. The latter gave the hint. He tried to act innocent. "Is there something I can help you with?"
Jeff stepped forward. He leaned onto the desk, glimpsing at the papers below. "Yeah, there was a break-in at a lab last night, which included a kidnapping."
"Yeah, I heard about that; was on the news." Then it hit him, "Wait, you don't suspect me on that?"
Jeff went to the point, "Where were you last night?"
"I was working, from home. My log would show that."
Jeff lifted his hand. He pointed to the paper that was underneath. It was technical in nature; casual eyes would miss it. But not Jeff. He had seen much of that type of stuff just like with the Dimensional Transport. "Then what is this?"
Arlando's mouth hung open for a second, "That's something I was working on later..."
"I can tell," Jeff said to the "person of interest" in this case. "This is specs for a card reader - one for security. Just like the one that you had to get past."
Arlando knew that he was caught. "Alright, I was the one who circumvented the security. I needed the money. As good as this job pays, it isn't enough. My mother lost her insurance. If she has another fall, or a stroke like she did two years ago, she'd go bankrupt."
Jeff kept his questioning on the case at hand, "When did he contact you?"
"I don't know how, but he got hold of my home phone - which was unlisted. He called two nights ago, saying he could help me. I hadn't got the money yet, but..."
Jeff interrupted, "That's enough. You can go about your business. If Karns, the man who called you, calls again or gives you any money, call the police station next door."
Arlando was understandably confused, "You're letting me go?"
Jeff turned his back, intending to leave. "For now." He walked away, with the officer following without question.
Cheryl was also confused, and ran up next to Jeff. "Wait, you're not letting him go for me in any way?"
Jeff continued his serious mood. "No. He's a small fry. I need Karns. Trouble is, in my experience he never stays anywhere for more than forty-eight hours. I need to see what he's up to."
Jeff stood back while another crime tech worked on a computer. He had waited for a few minutes. However, he was impatient to get to Karns, especially knowing that time was not on his side.
Detective Yelm walked in, exhausted from his expedition. Jeff couldn't help but notice this. "Had a tough time?"
"Yeah. Our perp wasn't exactly...prepared for us."
The detective described the problematic experience: He arrived at the apartment with a door partially open. They knocked, but there was no answer. Having the door open meant they could enter and look around. As he performed the casual search, he looked in the bathroom. That's when the problem started.
The man they were looking for had been sitting on the toilet, oblivious to everything outside. But when Yelm peeked his head in, the suspect went alert. He snagged a handgun from his loose pants. Then he aimed his gun at the detective.
Yelm responded in kind, pulling his own gun to their suspect. The two stood there, guns aimed at each other. He had wondered why the man wouldn't get up from the toilet.
Then he heard a drop into the toilet water. He couldn't move in part out due to the stand-off, but also because he wasn't done.
"And that's how it was for around an hour. He would not get off that toilet."
Jeff tried to be a little comforting. "Did you get something out of it at least?"
Yelm shook his head. "Nope. Only that your man, Karns, only took one man to help escort the vic."
The tech turned, showing he had found nothing as well. "Sorry. It only showed that he called from a pay phone in the Baltimore Mall."
Yelm explained, in part to himself, "Use a highly populated area to cover his tracks." He looked back over to Jeff, "I presume you were attempting to track him down."
"Yeah," Jeff responded, "He called all the lackeys through that phone. Around the same time."
"So another bust."
Jeff showed otherwise, that there was something else to look into. "Not really. He called four numbers."
The tech shrugged his shoulders, interjecting, "We're waiting on a new warrant for that phone, so it'll be at least an hour before we get the other two numbers."
Jeff pointed his finger upward, telling that there was more. "The thing is: he knew to call those four numbers - those four people. Each had a record; none would have been in a public listing. How did he find out those records?"
The detective could only respond by saying, "If they all had a record, those would be public."
The computer technician shot down that idea, "Only if you know the name in the first place. He got a list from somewhere."
Jeff elaborated further, "Most likely it would be some type of electronic access, maybe a laptop or phone."
The computer tech knew where Jeff was going
. "If we can get an IP Address, we possibly can trace where he was, and maybe where he is. I'll go ahead and see some possible places that carry those lists." The computer tech turned around and begun work on the computer.
But Yelm thought it wasn't the best route to go. "I'd rather wait on those numbers. If this Karns is smart enough to get in, he'd would be smart enough not to be so easily traced."
Jeff shrugged his shoulder at the notion, acknowledging his point. He still felt that this was the best chance. Yelm on the other hand left the room and headed for other business.
Jeff walked into another coffee shop. This one had the similar warm brown walls that he seen many times before. It was actually part of the same chain that he went to earlier that day, despite being only a few blocks away. Jeff always found that a bit curious.
Based from what he got from the techs, they figured that Karns probably stayed around this area. A rather large area at that. So this was the tenth coffee shop that Jeff had to explore, finding where Karns had Internet access.
Approaching the counter, Jeff took out the picture of Karns to show the barista. "Have you seen this man in the past couple of days?"
The woman shook her head negative, then reconsidered. "Actually, yeah. He was here a couple of days ago, just surfing on his laptop. I think that's all the wanted to do, but found out that it was only for paying customers."
"You have a password setup on your network?"
She showed affirmation to the question. "One too many hackers in Iowa meant that we had to protect customers. In the same store, that is. Don't ask me about computers - I just use them. Anyway, the policy is to make these things more secure. Don't ask me how, I'm just giving the company line."
Jeff nodded, internally guessing a few things the company could have done to secure it. "In that case, do you keep records of his access?"
"Yeah, we have a computer in back."
She walked down the counter and opened the employee flap for Jeff. He walked through, then followed the young woman into a roughly designed room. The space lacked wallpaper and the calm environment of the public area. A desk was set aside, a laptop computer set onto it.
Jeff walked ahead of the barista and set the chair aside. She watched as he went to work, though didn't understand a thing he did. Tapping the pad woke up the blank screen, immediately showing the router's interface. He quickly located the records. Clicking the mouse scrolled the page down to around two days ago. He easily found the name, "Nathaniel Karns."
"At least he made it easy for me."
But it wasn't so easy. Clicking down, he found multiple entries, each with a different IP Address. "That isn't good. He's cycling IP Addresses. Tracking him will be impossible."
Yelm walked into the large room, a hall that was used for a large party within the last hour. The last of the musicians was stacking the large black cases onto a cart. With the tables stacked aside with the chairs, three people were mopping the floor.
A formally dressed woman met Yelm, asking, "Can I help you?"
"I'm looking for Daniel Undercern."
With that heard, the far-off janitor dropped his mop and ran out of the hall. The detective gave a very audible sigh then gave chase. He ran the same path, through the doors to the back-ways of the hall. Once out, he saw the man turn the corner into a service hall. Quickly following he found plenty of obstacles. Yelm's reaction and dexterity was greater than his opponent. The man busted through an emergency exit. Yelm had halved the distance since the chase began.
The man turned around, having pulled a gun when Yelm exited the hall. He turned to fire, narrowly missing the detective. Now that violence was presented, Yelm removed his own weapon to the fleeing suspect. "Stop or I'll shoot."
The man ignored the warning. He turned back to fire. Yelm stood, carefully aiming before firing. The man fell. Blood pooled around the body.
Yelm ran to him, but found that the shot hit dead-center in his chest. "Damn!"
Jeff was sitting down, waiting in the commons when Yelm arrived. The detective was exhausted. He had to go through several interviews for the incident. Then he looked at Jeff, who was in a greater quandary than he was. "Bad lead for you as well?"
"Yeah. Karns changes his IP Address randomly every so often. So unless we find him accessing something within the minute he starts, it'll be impossible to trace."
Yelm sat next to him, disappointment welling out of the two. Though it was for a very different reasons. "I had to shoot our suspect."
This put things into perspective for Jeff. He tried to be empathetic when he said, "Sorry. I guess you couldn't get anything either."
Detective Yelm solemnly shook his head. "I'm not sure if I could. You'll find out that there are two types of people that commit violent crimes: people who are actual villains and are prone to violence beforehand, or people that are caught in the wrong place at the wrong time in some way. As long as the former holds...I can at least say to myself that it's justified."
Jeff asked, "And that makes it better?"
"I...don't know. But I have to find some way to make it worth it...in some way."
Jeff tried to use something he knew to help Yelm out. "You're still here, and can make a difference. That alone makes it worth it."
Yelm looked at Jeff, "Sounds like you have gone through some times yourself."
Jeff went though much of the same confessional that he has gone through time and again, but had avoided in this world. Right now was different. "The reason I'm after Karns is that he killed my wife, Kara."
Yelm nodded, now fully understanding Jeff's change in careers. "I see why you're so ready to get this guy."
"It didn't take long for me to realize, if I was the one Karns got, I couldn't do the things that I had done these past five months. I've shot - killed people myself. But I have also made people feel safe, and make sure that their memory will not be tarnished. That is what keeps me going."
Detective Yelm smiled, "I'm glad to have met you. Actually, let's get a different perspective on this problem of yours."
Jeff didn't ask what Yelm's idea was, just trusted him as they both got up and left the room.
Arlando was at his desk. He was just about ready to leave for the day. After shuffling a few papers, he looked up to see Jeff and Yelm approaching. "Mr. Hunter, how can I help you?" Arlando directed the question toward Jeff.
Yelm spoke up, "Actually, it was me who needs your help. We got some IP Addresses..." he turned back toward Jeff, "Is that what you called it?" Jeff nodded. Yelm continued speaking to Arlando, "As he told me, it's randomized, so we can't locate him immediately. "But is it possible to find where he has been?"
The hacker was curious by the request, "Don't you have your own unit for that?"
Jeff said, "We would, but they quoted several days before it could be complete. I was guessing that you could beat that."
Arlando nodded, knowing that he could. "A generalized search requires a lot resources, but I can figure a few ways around that." He sat back into his desk, preparing to work. "Do you have at least five of those IP Addresses."
Jeff tossed over a thumb-drive. "The text file has ten of them."
Arlando took the drive and plugged into a port. Opening the file, he copy and pasted the addresses into a program. He then let the program run its course.
Yelm asked, "How long will this take?"
Arlando turned to him, confidant that the computer will do its work. "Not too long. I assigned several other computers that I have at home to split the load. The more quickly this is done means that his routes gone through more centralized servers..."
That's when the computer beeped, notifying that it had found something. "Luckily, that's what it happened. I'll bring it up on a map."
Pressing a key, a map of the city showed all the points that had come up. Most were centralized towards one end of the city. They were about a mile away from the Tower in the downtown district.
The hacker informed, "I eliminated all the ser
vers and such. Most likely the ones outside here are false positives."
Yelm was pleased with the results. "At least that'll give us a very good idea where he is. I'll be in touch."
The detective left as Arlando let the program finish it's final analysis. Jeff followed, not fully knowing that the Detective didn't even care for a map. As he followed him back to the entrance, Jeff asked, "Have a good idea where he is?"
The detective showed confidence, "Yeah. There's only one hotel there..."
Three people walked down alongside the rather high-end hotel. The detective knew that in this part of the city, there was no other types of hotels. One had to go several miles before finding anything more reasonably priced.
The hotel manager led the two to the room, giving a key card to the detective. Yelm held his arm out, directing the manager away from the door. "If he's in there, this may be dangerous."
Jeff announced, "He isn't in there."
There was a tone of disappointment in Jeff's voice. Yelm looked at Jeff, who was holding his glasses. Unbeknownst to Yelm, Jeff had already scanned the room for the villain. Yelm swiped the card to open the door anyway.
Inside, the desk that was placed next to the television had various papers stacked. Some of it was newspapers. Others were various printouts of technical material.
Jeff commented, "This is different. He usually takes everything with him."
Yelm was looking through the papers, trying to see what they were. Jeff on the other hand looked around the room. "Maybe he left these because they're not important anymore."
Jeff visibly showed that he didn't agree. "I doubt that."
Scanning with his glasses, he looked at the bed. The x-ray mode revealed something under the bed. Quickly, he dove down and lifted the linens to see what was there.
"We have a bomb here!"
Jeff rushed to get up, running once he was on his feet. Yelm held the door open for Jeff. Once they were directly out of the room, he approached the manager.
"Is there anyone in the other roo...."
That's when the bomb went off. It rippled through the walls and floors, blowing the three onto the other side of the hall. Looking back, Jeff saw the entire room was gone, as well as parts of the rooms next door.
It didn't take long before emergency crews arrived. Since the bomb didn't cause any major fires, the work was done in equal time. Two firefighters calmly walked by Jeff. The former-scientist stood while staring at the wreckage. Next to him, a stretcher lay with a black bag - a body obviously filled it. The victim was an occupant of the neighboring room.
There was no sadness in Jeff, but much anger. It was directed all to himself. "Should have known that Karns would do this."
Yelm heard this. He walked back up to him. "No, you couldn't have."
"No, I should have. He specializes in explosives. Not being in there should have told me he was up to something. Now a man is dead because of that."
Yelm argued, "But it wasn't you that made it or set it off; it was Karns."
"I know." The tone showed that it didn't make anything better.
The detective decided to say, "Come on, let's get back to the station. It's getting late and the both of us need some rest. Especially after this."
Yelm was leading Jeff through the police station offices when another detective approached. It was an older man, nearing retirement but looked resistant to the idea. "Good evening, Yelm. Is this the guy who I.D.'ed our suspect?"
"Yup. Farnsworth, this is Jeff Hunter."
Jeff and Farnsworth shook hands in the greetings. The other detective greeted, "I'm the guy that's taking over for the night."
Jeff asked, "Is this standard procedure?"
"In a way. A combination of kidnapping and a lot of media makes this a high priority. Can't stop just because it's night."
Jeff wanted to change tact - continue working rather than take a nap. "So I guess you'll need my help on this...."
Yelm held his hand up, showing that he would object. "No, you're going to sleep. If Farnsworth has anything he'll wake you up. But it's almost nine right now, which means you've been working all day."
Yelm led Jeff further into the station, presumably to someplace that he could sleep. But as they neared, Farnsworth looked at his phone. The other detective had to rescind the order, "Never mind, I'll need Mr. Hunter."
Detective Yelm nodded a goodbye then left the two behind. Jeff approached Farnsworth, showing he wanted more information. The new detective gave it to him, "Just got a text from CSU. Dellard turned on his phone ten minutes ago. They're tracing the signal now, so let's get into the car."
The two left for the garage.
The car pulled up to a building that was being remodeled. It was framed with a metal platform and a large tube for demolition. There was even a large bin filled with the results of the internal demolition.
As they got out of the car, Farnsworth looked up. "He's in this building, they're guessing around the fifth to eighth floor."
Jeff also looked up. Through his glasses, he scanned up the floors. He quickly found a life-sign at the fifth floor. "Well, they're good at their job. He's on the fifth floor."
Not asking how Jeff knew that, Farnsworth moved very swiftly.
The interior floors and walls still rough from the demolition. All but one door was removed - the door they needed to go through.
"In here I'm guessing?" Farnsworth said to Jeff.
Jeff, still holding his glasses, nodded. Farnsworth was about to go in when Jeff held a hand up. "Wait. Let me check the door first." Using the x-ray function, Jeff quickly found wires coming out of the door. Turning directly to Farnsworth, Jeff informed, "It's wired."
While Jeff inspected the room through the glasses, Farnsworth looked through the door. He couldn't see anything. So he yelled, "Mr. Dellard, can you hear me?"
A voice came a distance from the door, "Finally! I....can't move. He said there's a bomb in here!"
"We know and are taking care of that right now. Just stay there and stay calm." Farnsworth turned back to Jeff, "What's the diagnosis?"
Jeff released his glasses. "The door's wired, but not much else is. I can get through the window on the other side, but will need your phone."
"Why?"
"Because I don't have one and don't have an idea how to disarm a bomb."
The detective removed his phone from his pocket, then handed it over to Jeff. "Alright. Bomb squad is listed, as with any other department you might need."
"Thanks." Jeff walked down the hall, then turned to go up the stairs.
He went to the seventh and top floor. He immediately turned to the hallway. He was acting swiftly, but not in any real need to hurry. Jeff had guessed that if Karns intended to kill Gregory, he already would have.
The hall looked identical to the floor below, demolished and very dirty. All the doors were removed, including to the room that was Jeff's destination. Walking into it, it was empty - everything cleared and ready for the remodeling. The only thing of note was the window left cracked open by mistake.
Jeff pushed it out further then poked his head out. Looking down, he saw that the exterior platforms were too far away to be of use. Looking up, he saw that much higher was some platforms. Reaching out with his left arm, he shot the grappling beam up and connecting to the platform.
More awkwardly, Jeff pulled his leg up onto the waist-high windowsill. The second leg came easier. Jumping out, he hung from the beam. Bending his wrist further, he slowly descended to the fifth level window.
He was now level and could see the captive. Jeff swung to kick the window. It only made a thump - no sign of damage whatsoever.
What it did do was got Gregory's attention. He was standing in the middle of the room. He turned to find Jeff hanging. Slowly, he approached the window and opened it. He was a bit confused (an emotion mostly encouraged by the dangerous situation).
"Are...you here to help?"
Jeff nodded while swinging to get his
foot onto the windowsill. "Yeah."
Latching onto the window, he pulled himself into the room. Jeff bypassed Gregory and went straight to the bomb. It was placed along the wall perpendicular to the door. It was painted red, screaming out from the otherwise bland walls.
Holding his hand behind his back, he summoned a small metal case. Opening it showed several tools intended for small spaces - for disarming the bomb.
Greg saw this. "Wait, how'd you..."
Jeff said to him, "Yes, I was loaned this. Not important at the moment, and I'll need silence if you can."
Jeff withdrew the phone from his pocket. Quickly scrolling through numbers, he found the bomb squad sorted along side several other departments. Pressing the green call button, he withdrew a small headset. Just as he put it onto his ear, a woman answered, "Bomb squad, this is Becca."
Jeff stayed calm despite the company that did the opposite. "This is Jeffrey Hunter. I have a small bomb that's wired to the door."
"O.K. Mr. Hunter, is there any kind of timer on it?"
He looked carefully at the clock. Using his glasses, he found that it was working independent from the bomb. Further inspection didn't reveal anything. "I don't see one, but considering who made it, we probably don't have much time."
"Since you haven't said otherwise, I presume it's in the case." Even though she was working blind, the bomb technician had done this several times before. "Find screws or the thing holding it together. Don't remove them, just pull it apart just enough to see if there's wires."
Jeff cheated by using his glasses. He easily found several screws on the corners. Only one had a wire going into it. "There's only one wired."
"Wow, that was fast! How did you..."
Jeff said, "Never mind that, I can work as fast as you can tell me what to do."
"If there's only one, can you open the case without touching it."
Jeff removed his hand from his glasses, assessing that idea. Then he took a small screwdriver and begun to unscrew one of the safe ones. "I think I can. Doing so now."
After the first, he went onto the other two. He did it with a certain level of proficiency, something Jeff learned from taking various electronics apart.
Once finished, he carefully twisted and bent the case so he could rotate around the live screw. With that done, he saw the exposed bomb - a twisting mess of wires surrounded by a brick that was the explosive material. "It's open."
The bomb tech asked, "Do you see the detonator?"
Jeff used his glasses, finding underneath the knot of wires a small device. Several wires came out from it. Going back to his normal view, he saw why there was so many wires: many were exposed and were very close to one another. If they touched, it would detonate the bomb.
"Found it, but can't get to it. Too many exposed wires above it."
"There goes the easy way." she whispered to herself, "Let's check the explosive material. Find anything that is going into it."
Jeff searched along one side, finding a single disk that set two rods into the material. This made thing look worse with the way the exposed wires were set. "Negative, same problem."
"But can you tell what type of igniter it is? It it electrical or flame based?"
"I'm guessing electrical. It's two rods going into it."
"Smell it."
Jeff drew closer, trying to get a whiff of whatever it was.
With no answer given, she asked, "Can you smell anything?"
Jeff found he couldn't. "My nose isn't that good, but I can't smell anything."
"Good. Most likely we're not dealing with a volatile material. What I'm about to say next will sound strange, but do you have a pistol?"
"Yeah..."
"Are you a good shot?"
Jeff thought it sounded almost insane, "Are you suggesting that I shoot the bomb?"
Gregory heard that, "Wait, what?"
Jeff ignored him as he heard from the bomb tech. "Exactly. We're hoping that the detonator will take a split second to register any movement in the wires. A bullet is the best chance you have - the smaller the caliber the better."
Jeff put his hand to the backpack, forming a pistol into his grip. Returning the weapon to his view, he pulled back on the barrel to load the bullet. Then he stood back and aimed it.
Gregory wasn't confidant in the plan, "You're not seriously going to..."
Jeff just said, "Stand back."
Gregory did so, hiding behind Jeff.
The scan-glasses were set to see the detonator. He carefully aimed. Taking a deep breath, he held it as he adjusted.
He fired.
He could hear it hit the bomb, but the lack of an explosion meant it worked. Releasing his breath, the bomb tech could tell the result. "Good work, Mr. Hunter."
"Credit goes to you, Becca."
"Just doing my job. I'll send a disposal team to finish up. Good night, Mr. Hunter."
Jeff said to her, "Good night."
He let the now freed man relax for a while. The next task was to open the door and let Farnsworth in. The detective informed him that the bomb squad was incoming as well as several other officers. It took only a few minutes before that came true.
Jeff walked back into the room and kneeled in front of the much relieved Gregory. The man sat, tired from his long ordeal.
In the back, the bomb was being handled by two techs that were carefully dismantling each component. One carried a small camera and took a picture each time something was moved.
Farnsworth hovered around them, holding a note-pad to take any observation made.
For Jeff, he had one thing on his mind. "What did he have you do?"
Gregory showed very much that he was tired, but still knew that he had to answer the questions. "He had me work one something. The physics were very similar to the backpack's, but designed to shift much larger things."
"Like what?"
"Something like a small house. I can't be sure. It was...just one component."
That was the curious thing for Jeff, "One?"
"Yeah. He said it he's been working on it for months."
Jeff didn't like it. Rising up, he asked one more question, "Anything else you can give us?"
Gregory shook his head, now getting more tired as he knew his night was just about over. "No. I didn't even power it. Just...put it together."
Jeff nodded to the victim, "Alright, that'll be it for now. If you go out in the hall there'll be an officer that can escort you home."
Without a word, Gregory slowly and with a bit of an ache, got up. He then wordlessly walked out into the hallway. Jeff approached Farnsworth from behind. The detective continued his observation of the bomb dismantling. He said to Jeff, "So, we still don't know where Karns is."
"No, we don't."
"Any idea what he's doing?"
"Not really. If it was just this, I say he would try pulling a Carmen Sandiego by stealing entire buildings at a time. But he's been working on this for months. I have to at least get one more piece of the puzzle before guessing what the whole is." Jeff wiped his brow, showing his own drowsiness.
Even though he didn't turn around, Farnsworth noticed this. "There's a blanket in the car. Use it. No excuses."
Jeff knew that it was a lost cause to argue. "Alright. Hopefully the nap will give me an epiphany. One of the better tricks through grad school."
Jeff woke up with a beep coming from a watch. This was an area of the police department designed for people to sleep in. There was little light that came from the hallway and no real way to tell the time. He got up feeling more refreshed despite the short duration of the nap.
Going out into the hall, there is a television that has the news on. Jeff paid little attention to it. Several police officers were paying direct attention to the news on small screen. One of them was Yelm, who had just came in. He turned back to see Jeff coming out. "Good to see you well rested."
Jeff replied, "Rested, maybe. Anything else since last night?"
"Still ha
ve that on your mind."
Jeff admitted, "Not sure if I can have much else. Why the television?"
The detective turned back, facing the television as he explained, "Morning news. While we tend to have a good information system, sometimes they air something that gives us a lead. Usually it's tangential, so one never knows when it happens."
Jeff looked up at it. The story wasn't anything that interesting for Jeff - a story about costs for another parade in the city. The reporter on the screen said, "The costs to the businesses here, even though they are several blocks away, can be staggering. Or they could be profitable, depending on their reaction. A report showed that shops and reservation-only restaurants can't get people in with excessive crowds..."
Jeff looked in saw something in the background - a figure that flashed by for a quick second. "Wait, do you have this on DVR?"
Yelm looked at him with a strange look, then realized it might have been something else. "Can you translate your geek talk?"
Realizing that he was in a different word, he rephrased the question, "Are you recording this?"
"Saw something?"
Jeff said, "Maybe."
The detective moved to his desk, snagging a few things before saying to Jeff, "Go ahead and get to the car. I'll call ahead."
The newscast was ending with the last word from the solo anchor, Red Perlman, "And as always, have a good morning."
He got up and noticed the formally dressed Detective Yelm. Removing the tiny microphone, he approached the two. "Do you need something?"
Yelm didn't even bother to stop walking, "Actually, we were visiting your editor."
Red pointed down across the large, dark room. "He's in the production room. It may be easier if I show you where."
The detective nodded in approval. Generally he and journalist went well together, often having mutual relationships. The only aspect he didn't like in reporters were the excessively intrusive questions.
And one just came along, "What do you guys need to know?"
The detective was about to refuse, when Jeff spoke up, "We're here to see about the whereabouts of a suspect."
Still walking, he turned his head around, "It wasn't a source for one of our stories? Might be difficult if that's the case."
Jeff replied, "No, mostly it was an incidental sighting."
"Ah, good. Unfortunately, I've had my fair share of problems involving sources."
Yelm couldn't help but mentally agree to that.
They arrived to a room labeled, "production room." Red simply opened the door while making sure not to make too much noise. He indicated to the investigators to stay back for a few moments.
Red walked inside and right to one of the men that sat down. He put a hand onto his shoulder and whispered into his year. The editor nodded, got up and followed Red to just outside the room. There, the editor said to Jeff and Yelm, "Red told me what you guy want. The production room's a bit busy at the moment, but the editing room will work better anyway."
Inside the editing room, Red hovered behind the investigators. The editor sat while scrolling through several newsreels. "Luckily we just started making digital copies a few months ago," the editor informed everyone, including Red. The reporter didn't do much in production. "Makes this process much easier."
He found the right segment. Without the sound, he let it play. The intro sequence played with the reporter walking on the street. Then the screen shifted to several b-roll shots before Jeff decided to speed the process. "It was toward the end, around the last ten seconds."
The editor sped it up until the spot that Jeff specified. Then he let it go through.
Jeff saw it, "Go back and play it slow."
"Going quarter speed." the editor announced.
The last ten seconds played slowly, until Karns was clearly in the shot. "Stop!"
There it was Karns, clear in the shot. He was being nonchalant in his motion.
The detective said, "That's Karns all right."
Jeff turned around and asked, "Do you know where and when this was taken?"
The question was directed at the editor, but Red was much quicker. "Actually, I do. That's 4th Street, just a block from the New York Tower. In fact, he's heading right for the tower."
The editor furthered, "This was turned in yesterday afternoon."
Jeff said to himself, "Not an exact time, but hopefully that'll do." Jeff almost raced out of the room with Yelm chasing after him.
Outside the television studio, Jeff had just got to the car when Yelm yelled at him. It was parked alongside the street, just out of the heavy traffic. "Hunter! Take the streets. It won't take ten minutes if you cut along Bell."
That implied that Yelm would take a different route. He asked, "Where are you going?"
Yelm had got out his keys and was opening the car door. "I'm going around to the east side and calling in more to make sure Karns doesn't escape, if he's there."
"Alright. By the way, can I borrow your phone?"
Yelm grabbed a phone out of his pocket and tossed it to Jeff. "Keep it. It's just the station's phone, I can get replaced."
Jeff nodded, then began walking down the street. Once the Tower was in view, the foot traffic turned heavy. He still had plenty of breathing room in the crowd; and room to maneuver. Jeff pass through several rows of people. He dialed the phone.
Arlando heard his phone. He was in the middle of a crowd. Pulling it out, he moved outside the crowd right before he answered, "Arlando here."
Without introductions, Jeff asked him, "Are you at your desk?"
"Not yet. I'm just a few blocks away"
He informed the hacker, "OK. When you get there, I want you to check the Tower's financial logs for the past few days. See if someone has rented a space in there."
"You think Karns is in there?"
He simply replied, "Yeah."
"Alright, I'll do just that. If he's in there, I'll find him long before you arrive."
"Good, 'cause I'm about eight minutes away."
Arlando set his phone back into his pocket. He made a swift turn into another building. Inside was a parking garage, a shortcut he had to get into the Tower.
Then the hacker noticed Cheryl approaching a stairway. She returned the glance, then directed her attention to him. "Arlando!"
The hacker put his hand up as a form of "hello," but continued to move along. She ran right up next to him. "I wanted to invite you to the wedding."
He commented, "I thought you didn't even talk to guys like us?"
"Like us? Someone who made a mistake and had the courage to fix it.
"Anyway, I decided to visit you guys. I guess if I find more people like you, that makes the entire business look..."
A loud noise echoed across the garage. It had come from the next-door elevator. Neither one could identify what it was. They held still to see if it happened again.
Jeff swiftly walked down the streets, passing by more people. Then a warning flashed on his glasses. He stopped right in his tracks. The reading showed as it as unidentified, but had indications of various effects he experienced between worlds. "What the..."
Then a poof of air shoved someone across the street. Then down the street was a larger one that knocked a woman to the ground. Then another one the forced a parked car to hop. Then another one above him. They were becoming more frequent. People rushed toward the walls, reacting as through it was an earthquake.
Higher up, a small explosion caused a loose piece of brick to fall down. Jeff quickly summoned his stun-pistol and pressed one button before aiming. Firing several shots, he hit the chunk of brick. The shot just nudged it out of the way of a couple who were below.
Then it got worse, as a bus was shoved all the way up and against a building. The people below barely had time to avoid the the large vehicle before it landed back onto the ground.
Within the Tower, several groups of people lined the hallways, unaware of what was happening outside. They walked as they had everyd
ay.
Then the largest of the "air explosions" happened in the middle of the crowd. It wrecked through everyone, everything. It knocked tables over and out of their respective rooms. Then a second explosion ripped out the walls and pillars.
Jeff saw the glass shatter all along the 30th floor and the other floors above and below. Then it begun. The tower began to collapse, with the top falling straight through. Each one creating a greater and greater cloud of smoke and dust.
Arlando heard the large rumble. An earthquake made less noise than this new one. Without a thought, he pulled Cheryl down underneath the stairway - the best chance he got. Then there was nothing; pure darkness enveloped as everything around them.
Jeff watched as the final tip of the tower disappear into the cloud of smoke. But the cloud kept expanding - right toward him.
Everyone had the same idea: run for the nearest doorway. Although plenty had made it into the businesses and restaurants, it was too late for Jeff. All he could do was raise his arms as protection against the huge wind.
It was only a few seconds. But those seemed like hours. The wind was taking him backward. Jeff had to fall forwards before being jerked backwards. He couldn't see anything, it was the thickest smog he had ever experienced. Screams were muffled as the last of the dust wave pass by.
Lowering his arms, it was as though he was transported into a different world; one he had never imagined. It was all grey. The dust and debris of the collapse covered everything. The people that couldn't take cover, including Jeff, had the same monochrome color as the roads, cars and buildings.
Coughing, there was still more than enough dust in the air to make it hard to breath. Jeff covered his mouth, then removed his useless glasses. The sight before him was the worst. The place he intended to go to, the place that Karns was at, was now gone. Instead was a huge mess of metal.
"Oh my god."
To be continued