Pop Travel (10 page)

Embassy Suites, Atlanta
8:30 a.m., Thursday, July 25

Cooper opened his eyes and stared at a stain on the ceiling. Reaching his hands to his face, he tried to rub the scowl off it. His head ached like a hangover, though he had had nothing to drink the night before. The images of Audrey had regurgitated in his dreams, along with the newscast of Jonathan Phisner’s car crash, which left him thrashing around all night. Two people dead because of him. He scratched the back of his head. How would he get out of this? The situation was lose-lose. Whether he did anything or not, there were sure to be more “accidents.” And having information someone desperately wanted put him at the top of the list. Hopefully they didn’t know he had anything.

Sitting up, Cooper squinted at the tiny stick drive next to his QV on the dresser under the massive, first generation compucenter screen. Thinking about what might be on the little buggers made him groan. It couldn’t be good, and apparently, it was worth killing for. He’d have to decide what to do with them soon, before he went missing. He brainstormed possibilities.

Scenario One, he could toss them. Or better yet, destroy them. But that might help the people watching him. In his lawyer days, he had always represented the little guy. Phisner had re-sparked that protective instinct. He couldn’t let Audrey’s and Phisner’s deaths be in vain. He had to do something.

So he went to Scenario Two. He could turn the drives in to the authorities. But if the people watching him had power over them, the watchers could easily confiscate the drives. He couldn’t take that chance. It would defeat the purpose of Audrey sacrificing her life to hide them in the first place. She knew something. Something worth risking her life for.

Scenario Three, he would have to check out the drives. He ran out of other possible scenarios because what he did next depended on what he saw on them that Audrey had been protecting. As his grandfather used to say, “If you want something done right, don’t screw up.”

He needed all the facts.

His shoulders dropped. Anxious about what secrets the drives held, he needed a secure way to view them. He couldn’t risk looking at them on the compucenter in his room. Hotels were highly connected. All these problems kept tossing him from one patch of turbulence into another.

Putting his feet on the floor, he leaned over and clasped his hands on the back of his head to keep it from exploding. A way to view them. Not on his QV, not on any CC or public imager. While he wracked his brain, questions invaded his thoughts.
Why did
Audrey keep the backups? And why did she and Jonathan have to die? What was so important? And who was behind it?
He also had a bad feeling that all this connected with what happened to the missing people over the past two years. Just like Phisner said.

Along with most Joe Citizens, Cooper ignored the news reports, since they didn’t affect him personally. Now he was forced to acknowledge them. And he kept ending up in the same place. The people weren’t missing; they were gone.
It has to be a cover-up. But who would let such a thing go on? Who is responsible? If a government intelligence agency is involved, why are they involved?
The deeper he dug, the more his stomach twisted and his head pounded.

Cooper should never have met with Phisner in the first place. Then he would be happily ignorant, like the rest of the world.

Shaking his head, he got up to shower.

He closed his eyes and let the water pelt him.
What is on those drives?
The steam relaxed his brain enough to think of a way to view them. He would have to get his hands on a basic, unlinked imager. Even then, he would have to be careful where he chose to view them, with the damn web cameras everywhere. If he kept going into restrooms, he would arouse suspicion just for that.

Cooper threw on the same clothes as the day before. Not a first, but at least he had gotten to shower, this time. Stashing the loose drive in a pocket of his jeans, he felt better having the other hidden in his QV; in case someone caught and searched him; the culprit might find the easy one and stop there, missing the hidden one. Being paranoid made a guy more careful. He removed his jacket from the web cam on the compucenter and left.

After checking out, he took a microcab to E-Needs. Stepping out of the store with his purchase, he looked around at the oblivious pedestrians and took a deep breath of fresh air as if it might be his last. He wanted to remember the calm before the storm. These people had no idea everything was about to change.

To view the contents of drives, he chose the open fields of Piedmont Park, close by and hopefully clear of prying cameras.

The pleasant, summer day made the short trip to the park an easy walk. But the sparkling sun and cloudless sky meant a satellite could easily focus on him. Glancing over his shoulder once in a while on the short trek, he kept an eye out for suspicious characters. He didn’t sense anyone following him, he just couldn’t help being overly cautious and again empathized with Phisner.

When Cooper reached the park, he turned down a tree-covered path. A jogger or two would pass every so often and smile awkwardly at him. Out of place in his disheveled work clothes and unshaven face, he must have looked like a homeless guy.
Whatever.

As he walked, he noticed the cameras mounted intermittently in the trees along the path, to discourage muggings and other ill behavior. Some cameras were good.

Seeking complete privacy, he left the path and waded into the freshly cut grass of the large clearing. There were more people enjoying the park this morning than he expected. Dogs fetching Frisbees, mothers pushing strollers, and what looked like a small fair setting up. He let out a heavy sigh and stopped. Time to see what all the insanity was about. Grabbing the drive from his pocket, he put it in the viewer and played it.

After getting some rest, while a night shift tech watched Cooper sleep, Nate checked back in early. No movement. According to Cooper’s QV blip and the hotel cameras, he never left his room. He had covered the computer’s eye so the rookie just watched a black frame all night.

Cooper was a smart guy. And he was becoming a big pain in the ass. If he didn’t have his high relations, he’d probably be dead already.

By the time Cooper removed his coat from the webcam, Nate had refreshed the tracking map, the satellite link frame, and the video feeds from the areas surrounding the hotel. He was ready for action.

“Good morning, Cooper. Where are we going today?” Nate wondered out loud. He followed along as Cooper went into E-Needs. Nate leaned in, taking interest in the purchase.

“A no-link imager, eh? What is that for? Did you actually find something at the travelport?”

As Cooper sauntered over to the park, a pair of lovely ladies jogged by the trail cams. Nate whistled.
Nice.

When Cooper paused, Nate commented aloud.

“Please, don’t go in the field.” He cursed as Cooper cut into the clearing. “Damn it!”

Nate had to zoom in with the satellite. As he focused, Cooper brought out the imager. Nate cursed again. Whether Cooper cowered over the viewer to block the glare of the sun or to block Nate’s eye in the sky purposely didn’t matter; Nate couldn’t see a damn thing.

Hunched over the imager, Cooper made sure what he watched was visible to his eyes only.

He noted the date stamp as two years ago. The scene opened on a first class platform. The steel cylinder dock was closed and a technician stood at his station, casually chatting with the receiving nurse across the platform.

The signal buzzed, notifying the tech his incoming traveler had been transmitted. He pushed his buttons and watched the reconstruction on his imager.
Ding!
The traveler was ready. The nurse opened the door. She clamped her hand over her mouth and staggered back. Inside the dock, a man gasped, squeezing his head. His legs writhed in the chair and his body convulsed. Then,
Poof
! He exploded into glitter. Some of it got on the nurse, whose eyes slid to the back of her head and down she went. The technician watched her reaction and pushed a black button behind him on the wall. The imager went blank.

Cooper stared straight ahead, stunned. His hand still had a firm grasp on the imager and it dropped like an anchor to his side, causing him to stagger a step. A million thoughts crashed together in his already reeling brain.
Was that real? How? What the—?
His first impulse was to call his brother and tell him never to pop again. But, no. He suppressed the urge. He couldn’t get Dawson involved. Not after what happened to Audrey and Phisner.

Refocusing on the park, he consumed his surroundings, confirming reality and his existence and denying the possibility he could be dreaming. He closed his eyes, feeling the warmth of the sun, and listened to the dogs barking and a baby crying. A sudden breeze gave him a chill and his eyes popped open to see people across the park smiling and playing and laughing. Then he looked down at the imager still clutched tightly in his hand. This wasn’t a dream. This was happening.

He glared up at the sky.

Nate jumped in his seat and spilled a few drops of NutriCoke on his shirt. It was like the guy stared right at him. He took a chance and called Ed.

A few minutes later, Ed ambled into the dungeon, stopping at Nate’s station with a skeptical expression on his face. As he sipped from his alien mug, he appraised the large, multi-framed imager.

“I’m telling you, this guy saw something. Even if he doesn’t do anything, we need to get whatever he has,” Nate said.

“Slow down, Nate. Let’s see what he does. Evidence like that should be turned in to the authorities, right? Maybe he will do the right thing and hand it over. No sense sending in a SWAT team.”

Nate didn’t appreciate the condescending tone, but found his patience. Following Ed’s gaze back to the feeds, Nate sneered, wondering if Ed could balance his coffee cup on his stout beer gut.

ith heavy shoulders, Cooper dragged his feet over to a shaded bench, in a poor attempt to mask his
Holy shit!
reaction. If someone watched him from above, they knew he’d found something and viewed it. But they didn’t know what he saw, so he had to try to keep it together and act like what he’d seen wasn’t so unbelievably traumatizing.