෴Adele Owens෴

෴෴෴෴෴෴

Bad News

෴෴෴෴෴෴

Mrs. Owens had often thought of who she herself was, in relation to others. She’d been the wife of Doctor Owens, the respected researcher, and beloved professor. She’d found happiness and a sense of stability in those roles, and a sense of fulfillment when she added mother to the list. Mrs. Owens had done little traveling outside of the occasional road trip.

Widow Adele Owens was quite the veteran traveler. In that and many other ways, she lived in a much bigger and more complex world than Mrs. Owens ever had. Today she was walking out the doors of the El Prat international airport in Barcelona with a personal assistant carrying her small travel bag minutes after her flight landed. She’d switched her phone over to a local provider as the plane touched down and was checking her messages before she got into the chauffeured car waiting for her.

Her assistant Tony placed her bag in the trunk and joined her in the passenger compartment. He took a seat across from her behind the driver. He looked at some unusual instruments built into the console beside him before turning nodding over his shoulder to the driver.

A soft “oh no” from his charge drew Tony’s attention. He looked over at Adele and saw her clutching the phone, her entire aspect having changed from that of a somewhat jaded jet setter to a frightened mother in an instant. “No, no, no.” She exited from her voice mails and speed-dialed a number. “Pick up, pick up,” she whispered.

Tony craned his head back and whispered something to the driver. The driver nodded and the car picked up speed, rushing to get them out of the airport.

When Tony glanced back at Adele, she’d paled under her minimal makeup. “Ms. Owens, what can I do?”

She shook her head sharply at him and redialed the number with trembling hands. After a tense minute, she disconnected the call attempt and slammed her phone down on the seat next to her.

“Tony, I will need your phone.” Her face composed, she spoke with the self-assured manner of someone used to and expecting compliance. He hastened to reach into his suit pocket and pulled out a small mobile device. She cocked her head to the side and looked him in the eye. “The other phone, Tony,” she said in a dry tone.

Tony’s eyes widened. “But Ma’am, we’re not out of the-”

“That was not a request.” Her cool tone laced with authority.

He nodded and opened a small compartment to his left, pulled out a bulky, less polished looking device that resembled an older phone with a large integral antenna. “We’ll be out of the high-risk area in just a moment.”

She powered it on and waited with jaw clenched. A few minutes later the driver signaled Tony, who nodded to her. She dialed a number from memory.

“No, it’s me,” she said into the phone.

“I recall what you said, and this is absolutely an emergency.” She locked eyes with Tony and pointed at a compartment to his left. Tony opened it and pulled out a tablet-style device and turned it on.

“No, I’m fine. I just landed in El Prat a few minutes ago. Tony and Javier are with me now.” She paused. “No, I’m fine. It’s my Raz. I think he’s in trouble.”

Tony and Javier both acted like they weren’t eavesdropping. Tony scanned behind the vehicle for threats while Javier did the same for the frontal arc of the car.

“Stop and listen!” She spoke in an urgent tone. “He left me a message. He went to get tested! The voicemail he left sounded like something happened on the road. Now I can’t reach him, so don’t tell me what’s appropriate to worry about!”

“He did it now!? It's way too soon! Put me on speaker.” The tinny reply was audible in the quiet car even to the driver.

Adele touched a button on the blocky phone. The voice on the other end of the call became much louder. “Tony, Javier, proceed with a camouflage visit, I’ll be checking in at least once a day.” A soft high pitched whistling sound became audible from the other end of the call. “And above all, don’t worry. Relax and remember you’re a wealthy widow seeing the world. If you happen to find a little time to work on yourself, so much the better.”

Adele’s expression relaxed a touch. “Ok dear, I’ll be here.” She took a deep breath. “I’ll keep up the facade and try to stay calm. You need to hear the voicemail though. I don’t think it's nothing.”

“He told you specifically that he had already gone to get tested, right? Did he say anything else?”

She frowned, “Yes, he said it was bad news, and something happened at the testing facility that seemed off, and he’d tell me about it when I got back. That was right before someone hit his car. He got out to talk to the other driver and didn’t come back to the car. The voicemail timed out.”

Several muffled thump-crack sounds came over the call. “Dammit. I was hoping to avoid this. If he got tested, and it was any of the facilities previously considered, they report unusual results. That attack will not be just a coincidence. It strikes me that right now is a good time to go see how your son is doing.”

She smiled, “It sounds like you’re already on your way. I hope you have someone watching your back.”

“Halfway there now. Will let you know as soon as I learn anything. Tony, Javier, spread the word and make sure you’re ready for a party if we have a good reason to throw one.” Another muffled sharp crack came over the line. “Oh, speaking of someone watching my back, dearest, that is a good idea. Tony, activate the Norns in opsec and have them contact me once I’m closer to the destination. I’d prefer someone with projective technopathy for initial contact. Also, put them on tracking his phone now. If they were pros, there might not be anything but historical data by now. ”

“Y-yes sir, we’ll be ready.” Tony stammered.

The call disconnected. Adele handed the device back to Tony and looked out the window, her gaze searching the sky.

෴Raz෴

෴෴෴෴෴෴

Accomodations

෴෴෴෴෴෴

Raz‘s nose smacked into something solid. He turned his head to avoid another bump on the nose and realized the solid surface was someone’s back. The bag had been removed from his head, but he was still being carried over someone’s shoulder. Before he could get his bearings he was dropped onto a bed.

The door shut with a soft click as he rolled over and sat up. Raz craned his head to catch a glimpse of the man who had dropped him on the bed, dark hair and a broad muscular upper body was all he managed to see.

Raz hurried to the door. It was a heavy steel door with hidden hinges. The door frame made it clear that it only opened outward. He gave it a push and then shoved harder. It wouldn’t budge even when he threw his whole body at it. The electronic locking mechanism on the side of the door was identifiable by the thin anti-shim plate and matching magnetic pad on the door frame.

Are these fail safe, or fail secure people? I’ll find out.

He examined the room critically. Except for the metal plates covering the places where outlets would have been, it was similar to any of dozens of hotel rooms he’d stayed in over the years.

Ok, defeat the door and get out. Simple?

The room had a normal eight-foot ceiling, and four recessed lights in each corner. On the right-hand wall, a TV was recessed into the wall behind a plastic sheet. The screen displayed a sunlit meadow in the mountains.

Next to the TV was a smoked plastic door on saloon hinges. Raz assumed it led to a bathroom. The bed was a full-size bed and box spring on a steel bed frame. The bedframe was bolted to the wall at the head of the bed.

A wooden nightstand was also firmly attached to the wall next to the bed on the side farther from the bathroom door. Raz checked the drawer on the nightstand. The room was so reminiscent of a hotel room that he half expected to find a bible inside. Instead, there he found a remote control that worked on the TV.

Raz turned off the TV and examined the plastic sheet in front of it. He pressed his finger to the surface and looked at the reflected image. He made an experimental scratch on the surface with his thumbnail.

Damn. Inch thick glass-reinforced polycarbonate? They aren’t messing around. Not exactly hotel standard.

Inside the bathroom something was missing. There the illusion of a hotel room took another hit. The painted concrete room contained a shower stall, toilet, industrial style bathroom vanity with an attached steel mirror. Raz considered it a serviceable setup, noting with disappointment the deeply recessed light overhead.

Right! That's what’s missing. No light switches - that’s going to make things more dangerous.

Back in the back room, he searched for cameras and other sensors.

No cameras I can spot, but it doesn’t mean there aren’t any. Not seeing anything in the locations for obvious camera placement is a good sign.

He looked at the overhead lights and then the door to the hallway.

Let’s see, it looks like around six feet from the closest lights to the door.

He shielded his eyes from the bright light and inspected the recessed housing.

Gonna need a screwdriver. One more reason to hate torx screws.

The outlet cover plates were smooth stainless steel covers mounted flush with the wall. It was held in place by a single flathead screw. Raz tried to turn the screw with his fingernail, but they were too tight. He unlaced one of his shoes, and carefully threaded the flat shoelace over one bottom corner of the wall plate. With that in place, he slid the lace over so it was positioned under the short bottom edge of the rectangular metal plate, then wrapped the cord around both hands and braced himself for a hard pull.

With a satisfying—snap—of breaking plastic, the wall plate popped off, taking the plastic mounting surface it had been screwed into with it.

The rounded corners of the plate were no good, it needed to be flattened out.

Stepping on the cover plate, and then stamping on it hard, accomplished nothing but a slightly sore foot. Raz looked around the room for ideas until his gaze fell on the bed.

He placed the cover plate next to one of the legs at the foot of the bed. With a grunt, Raz lifted the end of the heavy bed up, and nudged the cover plate under the leg of the frame. Letting go, the bed slammed down hard with a loud clang of metal on concrete. Raz picked up the smashed cover plate and slipped it into his pocket before rushing to the door and pressing his ear to the small opening. After counting to sixty and hearing nothing, he felt his pulse slow and he took a steadying breath.

He went to the bathroom and started the shower. Once the water was running, he examined the small metal plate. One end was still rounded, the other smashed flat.

The shower provided cover noise. Using the edge of the concrete curb around the shower stall, he began grinding the flattened corners of the cover plate into a pair of thin square protrusions. Balancing speed, force, and noise, every second ticked by raising his anxiety. The sound of metal scraping on concrete echoed loudly in the small bathroom. His hands and arms were covered in sweat by the time he finished shaping the metal. He didn't dare open the door to listen, trusting in the noise of the shower and the two doors to muffle the sound. In shaping the two corners, he ended up with a reasonably sharp edge on the top side of the small piece of metal.

His hands and arms were covered in sweat by the time he finished shaping the metal. In his hands, he held the improvised tool with a small sense of satisfaction. Back in the bedroom, he reached up, and grinned when the smaller of the two fit into the torx screw perfectly. He turned the cover plate gingerly with both hands, trying to minimize the chance the improvised screwdriver would simply bend or fail. Using a trick he’d learned from his dad as a kid, he alternated gently twisting and tapping on the screw.

He breathed a sigh of relief when the screw broke loose and began to turn. He repeated the process on the other side of the light and opened the light canister. The bulb was quickly unscrewed and placed in the nightstand drawer. Raz was more interested in the wiring. The wiring was easily yanked out of the light fixture.

The electrical wires were black, white, and bare copper. The black wire he twisted into a loose ball with the exposed copper end at the center. Raz pulled several feet of wire out of the electrical box before no more would come out. The wire still wouldn’t reach. He yanked several times with increasing force to try to free up more wiring. On the third yank, the wires came loose. At that moment, one of the lights at the head of the bed went dark.

“Well crap,” he muttered.

That was way more than six feet. So much for visual estimates.

Raz placed the canister back into the socket and loosely replaced the screws. He then set out to remove the screws from the other canister light at the foot of the bed. This one had stubborn screws. Raz had nearly given up after twisting and tapping for several minutes when the first of the screws came loose. The other was just as bad, but it too eventually surrendered to his improvised tool.

This time, Raz was more careful with the wiring, only pulling gently until he had about the same length of wire as the first light had allowed out. After some careful fiddling with the live wire and his lengths of detached wire, he finally had two long strands of wire from the live light socket. He bundled the pieces of bare wire around his hand and then put the wire and cover plate turned screwdriver in his pockets for later.

Ok, I think I’m supposed to say something like—

“Here goes nothing.” He pressed the white wire to the locking mechanism and then touched the black wire to the metal door frame.

Nothing happened.

That should have worked. Oh right, the paint!

He used the cover plate to scratch out a spot of bare metal on both the door frame and the lock. A tiny spark appeared when he pressed the black wire to the door frame, and an almost inaudible click could be heard. He lightly kicked the door and had to suppress a cry of victory when it smoothly swung open.

That's what I’m talking about! Fail secure it is.

He set the live wire down and dropped the other wire. Without hesitation, he stepped through the door and looked around.

The grey concrete hall went off to the left and right. The left-hand corner was closer. He crept over to it, listened for voices or footsteps, and then peeked around the corner.

The halls were lined with locked doors. Some doors had windows, most didn’t. The turns baffled him. The layout of what was clearly a very large building made no sense.

Who builds a place like this on purpose? This place is a maze!

He came to a large door that reminded him of a bank vault.

Sure hope that's not the way out.

A slight chemical smell lingered around the door and he hurried onward. He passed a glass-doored room that looked like some kind of lab. There was a man in a lab coat inside facing away from the door toward the wall. Raz moved as quickly as he could while staying silent. A few turns later he let out a sigh of relief when he saw the most beautiful thing in the world.

A standard green exit sign over a large metal door. Raz took a few more steps toward it only to hear someone cry out behind him.

“Hey! There he is!”

The sound galvanized him, Raz sprinted for the door. Two men stepped out into the hall between him and the door. They both wore the same uniform. One of them had a shaved head and a holstered weapon of some kind. The other carried a baton. The baton let out a menacing crackle of electricity.

Raz glanced over his shoulder. A third guard was approaching from behind. Out of options, Raz sprinted toward the two guards ahead of him. They spread out to block his path. The bald one fumbled at his holster in an effort to pull the weapon free.

Raz charged the other guard. At the last second, he changed course as though planning to slip past the baton wielder on the wall side. When the guard fell for it, Raz pushed off the wall and changed his angle toward the guard working on pulling the weapon.

His target stopped going for the weapon and tried to brace for impact. Raz threw his shoulder into the hit and knocked him down hard. Two steps later he felt someone grab his ankle. The grip was unreasonably strong. Raz tried to jerk away, and then twisted his body to try and escape the grip. Just as he thought he might get out of the iron grasp the jolt of the stun baton took him in the neck. Raz tensed up and tried to fight it, but quickly fell to the ground twitching.

Before he’d regained movement all three guards were there around him. The bald one seemed apathetic, while the other two were clearly furious. A fourth guard walked up. He looked at the other three as though not quite sure how to react.

“Carl, I know you’re new around here, you gotta know what’s coulda happened because of this right?” the guard with the baton said to the guard that had just arrived.

Carl shook his head.

The second angry guard kicked Raz in the leg. “This piece of shit could have gotten us all killed!”

The baton-wielding guard kicked his shoulder. Raz curled up and protected his head.

The kicking seemed to go on for a long time. It was almost a relief when the cool misty spray rendered him unconscious.

෴෴෴ ෴෴෴ ෴෴෴

The first unfortunate discovery Raz made upon waking was that of a painfully dry mouth filled with the unpleasant taste of metals and chemicals. The second was an itch that seemed to encompass his entire body, centered on his nose. When he tried to scratch his nose, he made the third. Raz looked down to see his arms were restrained and encased in a heavy-duty metal mechanism that had his hands and legs secured and immobilized.

He wasn’t in any real discomfort. The device holding his arms and legs only allowed him to move slightly. He could twitch, but the effort required to move ramped up so much that he felt sure that all his strength would only shift his arm or leg an inch or two, and then only for a moment before the effort became too great to sustain. He tried it anyway and within seconds his arm was forced back into position. Looking down showed him that his clothing had been taken and replaced with a paper-based hospital gown.

“That’s the overlapping kinetic absorption and inertial draining fields you’re feeling. Even in low power mode like now, they’re rated to hold someone with rank 2 strength enhancements.” The soft voice speaking from over his shoulder startled Raz, causing the voice to let out a small laugh, “You should be happy that you woke up on your own. You were less than a minute from me getting to wake you with my favorite button. We gave you a fast-acting, fast-metabolizing incapacitation agent. I knew within a two minute period how long you’d be out. Don’t speak.”

Raz opened his eyes and blinked against the bright light of the room. “What are you-”

Electricity surged through his body. Raz writhed under the onslaught of voltage for what felt like minutes but was only a few seconds. When it finally ended he collapsed, limp within the restraints.

Raz struggled to raise his head as a man walked into his view. He wore a pair of tan slacks and a beige polo shirt with a white lab coat. The close-cropped salt and pepper hair, spectacles combined with his outfit created the image of a typical scientist or lab tech. The look was spoiled by the shiny red eyes staring at him the way he imagined a tiger looked at its prey.

He held up a small box with a few buttons on it. “No need to talk. No need for you to ask questions. I’ll tell you what I want you to know. I’ll tell you what I want you to do. If I ask you a question, you give me an honest and concise answer, and you won’t need to ride too much of the lightning. If you’re lucky enough to be released from those restraints, I’ll add one more item to that list. If I tell you to do something, you do it, or I’ll show you a brief, shockingly painful, rest of your life. Got it?”

Still dazed from the shock, Raz tried to speak, “Whah?”

The man shook his head in mock disappointment while smiling. “Oh goody, a dumb one. This will be so much fun.” He pressed the button again and watched still smiling as Raz convulsed under the electrical surges.

After the shock turned off, he smiled thinly at Raz and continued as though nothing had happened. “If I ask you a question, you answer honestly and keep it short. If I tell you to do something, you do it. You don’t speak unless spoken to, and you don’t ask questions. If you follow those simple rules, and I’m in a good mood, you don’t get shocked. Got it?”

Raz said nothing but managed to nod his head.

“It can learn! Very good. Who knows, you might live through this with that kind of quick thinking. I suppose that right now technically you could be forgiven for allowing your mouth to run away with you.” He stopped short. “But I’m not the forgiving sort, so I suppose you’ll either control that tendency or spend a lot of time writhing in agony.” He said this without the faintest hint of humor or condescension, merely as a statement of simple fact.

“If at some point I decide to allow you to speak, you may address me as Mr. Braithwaite. So far, I don’t expect that to be information you’ll need.” Braithwaite set the remote down on a nearby table and picked up a clipboard. He hummed to himself and looked it over.

Still reeling from the shocks, Raz took the opportunity to look around the room. The furniture consisted of several steel topped tables, some lab and computer equipment. On the other side of the room was a free-standing device he didn’t recognize. Looking at the windows out into a hall, he caught enough of his reflection to realize the piece of unidentified equipment was the second set of full-body restraints like the one he was trapped in.

Braithwaite reached the bottom of the page and looked up at Raz. "Oh my, we are going to learn so much from you. You should feel honored to be a part of such an important piece of research."

Raz looked at him and felt compelled to say something. With a significant effort he managed to keep his mouth shut.

Braithwaite watched the struggle and smiled unpleasantly, "So you really can be taught. That will make your time here somewhat less fun for me, and far less painful for you. But for now, I think it's time for you to take a nap." With that, he picked up the remote and pressed a button.

Raz was wracked with pain as the concealed electrodes sent voltage surging through him. After a few seconds Braithwaite released the button and enjoyed the sight and sound of Raz groaning as he hung limply in the restraints.

"Whoops, how clumsy of me. That wasn't the button I meant to press at all."

He held the remote up to Raz's face. Although the remote appeared custom made and all the buttons were unmarked, it was obvious that one button was far more worn than the others.

Braithwaite snatched it back and let out an ominous chuckle, "Well, let's see if I can hit the right button this time. I'd hate to fry you before we get to the fun stuff."

The terrible ideas of whatever this mad scientist would consider 'fun stuff' were just beginning to run through his mind when Braithwaite pressed a button and Raz's consciousness was forcibly switched off.

෴෴෴෴෴෴

Traceroute

෴෴෴෴෴෴

Elsewhere, in a well-appointed bedroom that sat in a high rise that boasted far more security features and active defense systems than even careful scrutiny would reveal, a phone chimed. The occupant rolled over in bed and picked it up, ignoring the murmured protests from the other side of the bed. “What is it?”

He listened for a moment and then sat up. “Hold on.” he said into the phone and then walked into the next room, shutting the heavy door behind him on silent hinges and a nearly silent latch. He sat down at the large jet black desk and pressed a button. Screens around the room came on, with maps of El Prat airport already up. He pressed a button and signal telemetry displayed on other screens. The most pertinent data appeared on the desk before him.

He set the phone into a dock and put a small earpiece on. “Ok, I’m at my desk and I see the screens you’ve sent. Now start over.”

A somewhat nervous voice replied, “Yes sir, uh, Dr. Martine sir, I said that we had another ping, this one just outside the Barcelona International airport. Your instructions said to call you immediately. So I did, uh, call you immediately, I mean.”

“That's good. I’m assuming you already verified the signal and encryption methods match the ones I ordered the watches for?” He said while looking at the lines drawn on the map.

“Yes sir. The encryption has continued to cycle, but it uses the same core mechanisms you have us looking for. I uh, I don’t think we’ll be able to break it. I’m sorry, it’s just a technical limi-.”

Dr. Martine cut him off. “No, I wouldn’t expect so. At this point, the content doesn't matter. What we’re looking for is to see what we can learn about whoever is making and receiving these calls.”

“Yes sir, I just called because that's what the instructions say to do. I saved all the connected data and uploaded it to your server as soon as all the data was in and collated.”

He leaned forward onto the black desk and looked at the signal telemetry. “Am I correct in seeing that this call started while still inside the edge of the El Prat elevated security zone?”

The voice sounded a touch more assured, “Yes sir, I thought that might interest you. I included all the high-density RF information in the data upload.”

The man smiled, “You’ve done well. I’ll be sure to send a token of my appreciation if this information checks out.”

The voice on the other end of the phone suddenly sounded much more nervous. “Uh, sir, that's unnecessary. I’m happy in this job and very loyal to the-”

Dr. Martine burst out laughing. “No no, you misunderstand. I’m genuinely happy to get this information. If this data pans out, you can expect a substantial bonus. I need more people willing to follow my explicit orders even when they’re worried about doing so. For now, keep that area under a heightened level of surveillance, and call again if anything matching the watch criteria pops up.”

The small sigh of relief was audible over the phone, “Of course, sir, I’ll do that.”

The man ended the call and sat at the desk in silence for a long time, looking at the data and thinking.