Memoria (14 page)

A large picture of Russel
l
Claney
filled the scree
n behind his back. The anchor began to recount the Congressman's life story.
At this
moment Frank finally realized what had been
bothering
him. The bullying cabman in the airport, the one Frank had refused to go with,
had the same kind of bald head as those at the post office. Just like
Claney
was on t
he TV screen now. The cab driver
had
tried to
insist
that
Frank t
ake
his cab.

Hurriedly, Frank shared his ideas with his coach. What if they'd wanted to kidnap him
to begin with
?
Apparently, their plan had been to set him up for the murder. But they couldn't have possibly known he wouldn't take the cab because of his leather allergy.

"Did you remember the plates?"
Max
removed his
glasses and rose.

"I did, yeah."

"Write it down together with the
car make and
its
description. I'll go wake
Barney
up." He shut the laptop
.

"What for?"

"I want him to
run a make on the car
." He walked out of the kitchen.

Frank
started writing when he heard the anchorman say, "Memoria". He jerked his head up and
stared at the TV screen. Aha. So this Russe
l
l
Claney
was
Honorary Chairman of Memoria's board of directors.

"
Max
!" he c
alled. "Mind coming here for a moment
?"

He reached for the remote and put
the
volume
up. Behind his back,
Barney
grumbled
.
Max
appeared over Frank's shoulder telling
Barney
to shut up. The anchor
went on
say
ing that
Claney
and John Baker used to be
friends and
had
started the company together. Apparently,
the Congressman had
been the first volunteer to have a
painful memory erased
and had lost his hair in one of Baker's experiments.
Soon after
ward
, the late scientist had
found a
solution for th
is
unpleasant side effect.

"And now back to our story," the anchor nodded to
his
audience
. The President and the Congressman reappeared on the screen.

"Was it so necessary to wake me up?"
Barney
grumbled.

"No. Wait,"
Max
sat at the table and put his glasses back on.

On the screen, the Congressman was announcing the start of the Vaccination. This program, he said, was
a
one-of-a-kind solution to
the nation's numerous ills such as unemployment, the ultimate tool to humanity's happy future.

"Yeah, right,"
Barney
mumbled.

"To my dismay,"
Claney
sighed for the camera, "We have lost our main
designer, the soul of the project. Kathleen Baker was murdered yesterday, the heiress of her father's genius and a beautiful young woman all around."

He paused and lowered his head
in mourning. The President
supported him by the elbow, motioning
him
to go on.

"I don't think that Memoria's complex
relationship with the migrants is
a secret to anyone," the Congressman spoke again. "T
he day before yesterday, more
talks have been cancelled when
the
Bronx leader
Gautier
demanded full transparency regarding
the Vaccination program.
The board of directors, including myself, have decided to
grant their
request and," the Congressm
an turned to the President who nodded,
"we've decided to present the Vaccination to the world during our unscheduled press conference
at Memoria
's
HQ tomorrow. Our chief
executive
Joe Binelli
will make a complete report to
the media. At the same time, we plan to have a new round of our
talks with
the
migrant
s'
representatives. The President will be our guest of honor."
Claney
paused
,
showing his excitement to the audience.

"I would also like to add," He
shook his index finger in the air while keeping his other hand behind his back.
"This is something I want everyone to know. The late Kathleen Baker was like my own daughter to me.
Her life...
and her work
...
were
term
inated in a most cruel way by the
outcast
Frank Shelby: a terrorist acting on his own
. The President and I have already discussed it. The
administration
will do
everything possible to bring the murderer to justice.
The talks with the migrants will take place
as planned
. The President has confirmed his participation.
The police have
dismissed
all accusations
regarding the
unsubstantiated
participation of
the
Bronx migrant population in the murder. They had nothing to do with it. Let me assure you that the murderer was a terrorist acting on his own
. Cod
e
O
range has been lifted accordingly."

Frank expected to hear something along those lines. No sleep lost.

The lawn
resounded
with applause and a few cheers.
Claney
raised his hands,
appealing for silence.

"
Now that we've laid
all the groundwork, all we need to do is to conduct
the much desired talks with all the parties concerned. Understanding and agreement are our objectives. We will offer the migrant population an opportunity to be the first
to take part in the Vaccination. Together, we can change the world. We can bring joy and prosperity to everyone!"

Behind Frank's back,
Barney
chuckled.

The President nodded. "Thank you, Russel
l
. I can't agree more with you. I am amazed
at
how far Memoria
has
gone in its research.
It is such a terrible shame that Ms
.
Baker is no longer with us, slain by an outcast. But
her memory will al
ways live
on
in our hearts.
What a loss
.
The whole family seems to be
hostages to ill fortune
. Her father, as
far as
I remember,
also died
under suspicious circumstances."

Just like
Claney
before him, the President pressed his right hand to his heart and lowered his head in
an
expression of his sorrow.
Then he smiled and patted the Congressman's shoulder.
"But life must go on,"
he said. "Russe
l
l
Claney
may be my Presidential
adversary
, but that's because not many people know we're big friends outside of politics. I admire his
business sense and
tenacity
and w
ould like to wish
him luck in
all his undertakings. See you all in New York."

They shook hands, and the footage ended, replace
d by the figure of the news anchor
. He reminded
his audience
that the full report of the Vaccination project would be presented to the public t
he next day at
Memoria
's
HQ in the presence of the President. Then he moved to other stories.

Frank turned
the sound down
and
walked
away from the screen.

"Tomorrow," the coach said staring in front of him. "It will all happen tomorrow.
Then we could-" He stared at
Barney
in the doorway.
"We need to get inside the HQ before the press conference starts and get hold of the data."

"Still no reason to wake me up," reminded
Barney
.

"Oh yeah,"
Max
removed his glasses and wiped his red eyes. "I need some
information on one of your taxi drivers. I've got the plate number."

"Piece of cake,"
Barney
said. "Give me the number."

Frank grabbed the piece of paper, jotted
down the car's make and color, and passed it over to h
im. The coach opened his laptop. His fingers flitted over the keyboard.

Barney
in the next room bellowed in
to
the phone,
"
T
hat son of a bitch cut me off on the Fifty-Ninth the other day.
Exactly. Are you sure? All right, then."

He popped his head into the room to tell them the news. Not only
did
the plates
not
match, but his company had only eight Fords which were
all
currently firmly stuck in
major overhaul.

"Can I go to bed now?" he yawned.

"Please do,"
Max
turned to Frank. "
Get some paper out. We need to mull over these facts for a bit. Let's see where they take us."

"And how about the news?"

"We've
already
heard
whatever they had to say. First, they're plugging this Vaccination thing in a bit of a hurry. Second
ly
, you're the scape goat."

Fra
nk reached for the remote and was
ab
out to press the off button.

"Don't," said
Max
. "Put the sound down
so it doesn't distract us. Let's do it."

Fifteen minutes later, they had their first model. Someone
had
intended to intercept Frank on his way from the airport. They
had
sent a bogus taxi
out
for him.
H
is allergy had saved his butt.
They had killed Kathleen while he was
being
driv
en
home, staging their date
and
removing her purse. Possibly, they had let the killer know
that
Frank was on his way and g
iven the killer
an order to
smoke
him, as well. But it
hadn't worked
because of the media
crowded in the hall, and Kathleen had been the one who'd called them. She must have intended to break some news
to them. She'd also backed up whatever information she
'd
had
onto the
hard disk
.
Suspecting that
they mi
ght be after her,
she'd mailed
the disk to
Frank.
The killers hadn't learned about it
early
enough. Could Kathleen
have tried
to negotiate with
them? What if she'd tried to black
mai
l them by threatening to go public
with the information on the
hard
disk?
Before leaving, the killer had removed her electronic bracelet and either destroyed it or placed it into an insulated container, preventing the po
lice from detecting its signal.

It was also possible that the bracelet chip was
hooked up to
some access codes. It
could have been
Kathleen's
workstation
, or it equally could
have been
some secret bank accounts.
After all, the Bakers weren't exactly poor. One of the world's richest families, to be precise. Most importantly, the killer
knew how to remove the electronic bracelet. Someone had to have trained him to do it.
The removal technology was classified so all
the
technicians capable of
doing
it could easily be checked.
But to check it, you had to contact Memoria's research center
whose
staff were
directly
interested in
doctoring the data.