Equilibrium (9 page)

“What about the peripheral staff? Could anyone else have known about the project?” Rupert asked.

“The two who have been working on the data crunching the longest are Erica Sen and Grayson Weeks,” replied Olivia thoughtfully. “And Glenda joined us recently. I’ve known them for years. They were never told about the October Project directly, but probably figured it out.”

“Why didn’t you tell them, if you trusted them?” Rupert wondered.

“I guess we wanted to avoid any inadvertent slips. However, they probably figured it out anyway. I know Glenda has in the short time she’s been here,” Olivia mused.

“Okay, let’s go through them individually,” Larry suggested. “Let’s start with Grayson. He keeps to himself, I believe he lost his wife years ago and has been bringing up his son on his own.”

“That’s right,” said Olivia. “His son’s name is Justin, a troubled teen, from what I hear. He was involved in Simla’s assault on Arizona, I’m sure,” Olivia added.

 “Simla, that’s Erica’s daughter, right?” Rupert asked.

Olivia nodded. “Erica Sen works closely with Grayson. They share a laboratory and office at Ames. They’ve worked very well together and are extremely productive as a team. I’ve never had any issues with either of them. Erica’s daughter, Simla, seems to have taken a dislike to Arizona–I’ve no idea why. Coincidentally, I recall Arizona mentioning that she had a good friend in Princeton called Simla as well. I’m rambling though–nothing to do with this I’m sure. So, back to Erica. She is married to a psychiatrist, Raj. He’s a royal pain.”

“A pain, how?” Rupert asked.

“Well, he definitely has a chip on his shoulder
and showed a total disregard for doctor patient confidentiality when he treated the Moreaus. He’s just generally unpleasant.”

“Would he know about the portal?” Rupert asked.

“I assume so,” Olivia sighed. “If Erica knows anything, I’m sure she shared it with her husband, it’s only natural. I can’t imagine that he would have any interest in it, though.”

“We need to come back to him, but let’s go through the list first. Anyone else?” Rupert asked.

“The Moreau family,” Olivia added. “I brought Glenda over recently, to crunch specific aspects of the data. It was beyond my own expertise, I needed her. I have known her since I was a student, but don’t know her personally at all. She has one daughter, Ariele. Her husband, Pierre, is a French teacher. I offered her the job at Ames without disclosing exactly what it entailed, but she accepted with great enthusiasm. She lives for this kind of research. We regretfully had to bring the family over without fully explaining to them what we were doing. I hoped that they would be okay with it once I explained which I haven’t had a chance to do yet. They are still trying to figure out what happened to them, though Glenda worked out the October project and portal very quickly. She doesn’t
seem
upset about it, nor has she asked to be transported back, which I would do if she wanted me to. We do need to look into them further as well.”

“Anyone else?” Rupert asked hurriedly, as the car drove up to the emergency bay at the hospital.

Larry shrugged, “I guess the only other person I can think of is Morgana over at SETI, though I can vouch for her one hundred percent. She is unmarried with no children, totally devoted to her work. She lives by herself near the lake. No family, just a pet–a dog. I discuss my work with her all the time. She does know about the portal.”

Rupert nodded in agreement. He had known Morgana for a very long time as well.

Olivia looked puzzled and started to say something, but stopped as the car came to a halt and they rushed into the hospital following the two detectives who seemed to know where they were going. They took the elevator up to the private wing and were led to a room manned by three FBI agents.

“Can we go inside?” Larry asked.

“Dr. Fox? Yes, please do. May I ask that the others wait outside for now?”

“No,” Larry said firmly. “Dr. and Mr. Darley are coming in as well.”

The FBI agent started to resist, but another agent spoke up. “Go ahead, the doctor is inside.”

“Kellan,” Larry sighed, as he saw his son lying down but clearly awake.”

“Dad,” Kellan whispered weakly.

“Are you his dad?” asked the doctor.

“Yes, how is he doing?”

“There’s no major physical trauma. He’s been drugged. It’s starting to wear off, but he is still a bit groggy and disoriented. However, he is fully aware of his surroundings and I have cleared him to speak to the agents. Take it easy with him. I know that you and the agents have a lot of necessary questions to ask. Ask them together, so that he doesn’t have to repeat himself. The agents are waiting, rather impatiently. I’ll go and get the one in charge. I know you still have three missing children, I’m sorry,” she said looking over at Olivia and Rupert.”

“Thank you,” Olivia nodded, as the doctor went to find the agent.

Larry was standing looking over his son, a tear running down his cheek. He took Kellan’s hand and squeezed it. “Love you, Son.”

“Hello, I’m Agent Adams. I just got here. The local FBI has updated me, briefly. I head the task force assigned to find your missing children. I know this is very hard for you, but I need to ask Kellan some questions.”

Larry looked around at the four-foot-ten, blond- haired agent and nodded. “Certainly, go right ahead, we need some answers, too. Just, please, take into consideration his state of health.”

Claire Adams nodded and walked over to the boy lying in the bed. He looked wiped out, but she had to ask her questions. After all, every moment counted, they had no time to waste. Three children were still missing. She looked at him gently. “Kellan, my name is Claire. I need to ask you some questions. You can shake and nod your answers when it’s easier, okay?”

Kellan nodded gratefully.

Agent Adams continued, “Kellan, I’m sorry to be so abrupt, but I urgently need to know if you know where Arizona, Harry and Ella are?”

A look of fear came over Kellan and his eyes overflowed with tears as he shook his head. Then he grabbed his dad’s hand and whispered, “I didn’t know that Harry and Ella are missing.”

“Did you know that Arizona went missing?” Claire asked as gently as she could.

“We were taken together,” Kellan replied hoarsely, struggling to sit up. He needed to concentrate. That Harry and Ella were missing as well was unbelievable.

Olivia rushed to get some more pillows, propped him up and gave him a drink of water.

“When did Ella and Harry go missing? Did you find Arizona?”

“Kellan, I’m going to answer your questions in a minute, but first I need you to answer mine,” Claire said firmly.

Kellan nodded and looked to Claire for the next question.

‘So, you and Arizona were taken together?” Claire continued.

Kellan nodded.

“Have you seen Ella or Harry at all since you were taken?”

Kellan shook his head and Olivia’s felt nauseous.

“Do you know who took you?”

Kellan shook his head.

“Where were you taken from?”

“The lake,” Kellan replied.

Claire looked at Larry for clarification.

“I’m assuming he means Shiver Lake. That right, Kell?”

Kellan nodded and Larry continued. “That’s a lake the kids visit a lot. It’s about an hour away from here. We call it Shiver Lake, though that’s not the real name.”

“Can you show me on the map?” Claire asked, and pulled out her local map. She watched as he circled the lake on the map. It was nowhere near where Kellan had been picked up, but she didn’t voice this to the others in the room.

“How were you taken?” Claire asked Kellan.

“We were lying down watching the stars when I blacked out. I guess I was hit on the back of my head and blanked.” Kellan tried to remember, although the details were so hazy.

“When you say
we
, you mean Arizona and you?”

Kellan nodded.

“When was this?”

“It was after we left Ames, Monday evening.”

“You drove straight from Ames to the lake?”

Kellan shook his head. “We rode to the ice rink first. Arizona felt the need to vent, so she skated and slammed pucks for a while. Then we rode over to the lake on my bike.”

“Were you aware of anyone following you?”

Kellan shook his head, “No, but then we were both preoccupied thinking about other things.”

“What other things?”

“This and that. Nothing relevant.”

“Perhaps you could let me decide that. Everything helps. The more I know, the more efficiently I can help,” Claire insisted.

“We had a rather unpleasant meeting with our parents at Ames, I’ll let them update you about that. We were pretty upset, so we drove out to the lake for some peace, to talk.”

Claire nodded. She knew all about issues with parents, her own had been a challenge. “So you drove to the lake, lay down to watch the stars, and then blacked out?” The doctor had confirmed that he had hit on the back of his head.

Kellan nodded.

“How long were you at the lake before you blacked out?”

“I’m not sure, not that long. Maybe half an hour or so,” Kellan guessed.

“And you didn’t hear anything.”

“No,” Kellan replied shaking his head.

“What do you remember next?”

Kellan took himself back to the black darkness he and Arizona had woken up in. “I woke up in complete darkness, unable to move.”

“Unable to move?” Claire repeated. “Were you tied up?”

“No, my arms and legs were limp. I couldn’t feel them for the longest time. I shouted for Arizona, but there was no reply, so I assumed I was on my own. Then my arms and legs started hurting, sharp stabbing pains, but I was relieved that I could feel them again. I tried moving them and I could, but it hurt a lot.”

Kellan’s voice broke and Olivia offered him some water again. He drank it gratefully and continued.

“Then I heard a shuffling sound. I couldn’t see a thing, it was pitch black. Arizona cried out for me and I shuffled over to her, though it hurt like hell.”

Olivia whispered, “Arizona was there?”

Kellan nodded. “Yes, she couldn’t feel her legs or arms either and she was terrified. Like me, she eventually regained feeling, with a lot of pain, and we waited it out. Then when we could, we stood up and tried to feel our way around. It was so dark, we couldn’t see anything. It could have been a basement. We did find what felt like a hockey stick. Justin’s.”

“Justin?” Claire asked, as she started speaking into her phone, which she had ready in her hand to relay any useful information to the agents waiting outside.

 “Justin Weeks,” Larry confirmed. “Here’s the address,” he said, handing over a slip of paper to Agent Adams.

She took it and relayed the information down the phone to her agents. “A team is headed down there to check it out. Go on, Kellan. Any information you can give us may help.”

“We tried some knobs, but we couldn’t open anything. Then we heard a noise and suddenly a light shone on us. I grabbed onto Arizona just as someone started pulling at her. Then I lost consciousness.”

Claire probed some more. “Kellan, did you see who or what grabbed Arizona? A hand, anything?”

Kellan closed his eyes, straining to recall, but it was a blank. “No, nothing,” he replied unhappily.

“What do you remember next?” Claire asked.

“Waking up here,” he replied wearily.

“Kellan, thank you. Get some rest. I may be back with further questions later.”

Kellan nodded and pleaded, “Find the others, please.”

Claire nodded and beckoned to Rupert and Olivia to follow her out, Larry stayed by Kellan’s side. She waited until they were all outside and said, “We’ve sent a team to the Weeks house to check it out. Is there anything else you can tell me?”

Olivia glanced at Rupert and then said, “I think you should check out the Sen and Moreau homes as well, here are the addresses.”

Claire called her agents and gave them the addresses and then turned back to Olivia. “Why
these
addresses?”

“Just a feeling,” Olivia said vaguely.

Claire looked at her skeptically, “Withholding information won’t help. Anything you can tell us may be important and crucial to finding your kids.”

“There really isn’t anything specific, just a feeling,” Olivia insisted.

Claire sighed, there was definitely more to this. However, she was needed in the field now. She needed to head over to the Weeks’ house. “Any reason Justin Weeks would do your children harm? What can you tell me about him?”

“He had an altercation with Arizona, Harry and Kellan at school,” Rupert replied.

“He’s a teacher?”

“No, he’s a student.”

“A student? Claire asked surprised. It was very unlikely that this was the work of a student. Though, he may be involved in some way. “Can you give me some quick background before I head over?”

“Justin Weeks, son of Grayson Weeks, mother deceased. He is seventeen, plays hockey. Dates a girl called Simla Sen, which is why I felt that perhaps her house should be checked as well.”

“Okay, I have to head on down there, I’ll be back for more information,” she said, as she turned to head off.

Olivia was exhausted and fell into Rupert’s arms, unaware that they had company.

“Olivia.”

Olivia turned around to the vaguely familiar voice. “Inez?”