Pop Travel (34 page)

As Geri stepped away, Dr. Rastogi took her place to secure him.

“Make sure you get my good side,” Cooper mentioned to Geri who waved his QV to acknowledge him.

“Okay, Uncle. Administer the first shot,” Hasan said.

Dr. Rastogi gave Cooper the tranquilizer.

“Count backward from one hundred, please, Cooper,” Dr. Rastogi said.

He counted. It would all be over in no time. Dr. Rastogi closed the hatch. Cooper was out before he got to ninety-seven.

When he woke up, the door slid open. Dr. Rastogi smiled in at Cooper. He had just closed his eyes.
Incredible.
Cooper slowly sat up and gave Geri a weak nod over the Doc’s shoulder.

“Namaste, Cooper. Welcome back,” Dr. Rastogi said.

“Unh,” Cooper answered and rose from the chair.

The Doc helped him over to the medical station and checked his vitals. Geri met them there.

“Uncle, come look at this,” Hasan said, staring at the 3D images on his frames.

While Dr. Rastogi walked over to the tech station, Geri stayed with Cooper.

Joining the men at the imager, Mr. Dhruba stood up on his tiptoes to peek between their shoulders.

Cooper half listened to their conversation.

“Here is a sample of the initial scan before the pop.” Hasan pointed to the first imager. “And here is the same section after we received the laser transmission.”

“I don’t see any difference,” Mr. Dhruba said.

“It’s not apparent at a glance, but watch this.” Hasan dragged the images to overlay one another.

“Look at that,” Dr. Rastogi said in a hushed voice and covered his mouth.

“Amazing,” Mr. Dhruba added, staring with his mouth open and eyebrows raised. Their reactions drew Geri and Cooper over.

“What is it?” Geri asked.

“Cooper’s brain,” Hasan said.

“Items may be larger than they appear,” Cooper said, rubbing his head.

They ignored his attempt at humor.

He shrugged and sighed. He had no interest in seeing what was left of his abused brain.

“The initial scan and the post-transmission scan don’t line up exactly,” Dr. Rastogi said.

“What does that mean?” Cooper asked. “Do I have some screws loose? Or did I lose some more brain cells? Does it look like I’ve fallen off the wagon?”

No reaction from any of them. Another swing and a miss at lightening their dour expressions.

“You never noticed this before?” Geri asked.

Hasan immediately went on the defensive, waving his arms around.

“Hey! I told you they didn’t let me do all the testing that should have been done. It worked and the doctors examined everyone and said they were fine. The bigwigs and politicians pushed it through by meeting the minimum requirements. For the most part, it’s just a bump on the head. Or as Cooper referenced, a stiff drink. As long as you don’t keep slamming your head against the wall, it heals with no permanent damage.” Hasan moped.

“Look, I’m fine.” Cooper knocked on his noggin. “No one is blaming you.”

Cooper actually felt better this time than the first two pops. He had more energy, like waking up from a thirty-minute power nap. Not a wonder people liked to do it. But he had to get this group moving on to phase two, planning how to expose the problem with minimal chaos. “What do we do now?”

Hasan gave a sigh and nodded.

“Now we wait. I’d like to give you longer than an hour, especially after seeing the results, but we don’t have time and you have minimal pops under your belt, so you will heal with no problem. I do wish I could bounce my ideas off some colleagues, but I don’t have any.” He threw his hands in the air and sulked again.

“Aren’t there labs at the corporate offices?” Geri asked.

“Of course. They are perfecting the security and attendant androids we use, and the platforms and tech stations and all. But they know only about the section they work on. They couldn’t put it all together. They know nothing about pop travel’s intricate bio-technology. Ray Saffioti convinced me from the start we needed to keep it a big secret. Like a treasured family recipe. I was such a sucker!” He shook his fist in the air.

“Once we get this information out there, things will change. We will make sure you are in charge to conduct your experiments as you see fit. And you will have all the help you need.” Cooper patted him on the back.
Damn those soulless vampires for sucking the life out of this naïve kid and basically stealing his mega-million-dollar invention.
Cooper couldn’t wait to stick it to them.

“I believe we should use this time to transfer the recording to the original stick drive and discuss the steps necessary to inform the public,” the Doc reminded them.

“Sure. We have an hour to kill,” Cooper said.

They all smiled at him, finally.

Juhu Beach, Mumbai, India.
12:40 p.m., Saturday, July 27 (3:10 a.m., Atlanta, GA)

whisper in Geri’s earpiece startled her.

“Harper,” Blake said in his deep, raspy voice.

Geri got a chill and sat up straighter, but with only the slightest motion. Since entering India, she knew she was out of contact range for the Atlanta base. Blake must be nearby.

“We need to talk,” he said.

She raised a finger in front of her brooch.

“Would you all excuse me for a moment? I need to powder my nose,” she said to the group.

“Of course,” Mr. Dhruba answered. “Inside to the left, second door on the right.”

“Thank ya, kindly.” She tilted her head. When she found the bathroom, she locked the door.

“Blake?” she asked the mirror.

“Ed wanted me to tell you, ‘Good work’,” Blake said.

“Good work? Are you serious? Did you guys know about all this?” She leaned in, yelling at her reflection as if arguing with a split personality.

“Of course.”

“But no one thought I needed to know?”

“No. Now you do. Is there a problem?”

Lessening the tension in her facial muscles, she eased her anger and backed away from the counter.

“No.”

“Good. Ed wants to know if you have the evidence.”

“Not yet.”

“It’s time. He said you have two hours to get any and all drives, bring in Hasan, and take care of Cooper.”

“Take care of Cooper? Why? Once I get the evidence, he’ll be harmless.”

“We underestimated him at the beginning. We won’t do it again.”

She nodded for him as she tried to think of a way to hold them off.

“Well, I will need more time. They have to finish the experiment on him.”

There was a pause.

“Fine. How long do you need?”

“At least four more hours.”

“You have three. We’ll be waiting.”

Geri stared into the mirror. They hadn’t contacted her in so long she had forgotten she wasn’t alone. As she primped her hair, she realized she had already made her choice. She didn’t even have to consider this new directive. Geri couldn’t betray Cooper, much less harm him. Even if it meant losing her job. Or worse. She smiled for the viewing audience and left.

As she rejoined the group, Dr. Rastogi stood off to the side, intently talking to someone on his QV. Geri said as little as possible. She would have to tread lightly, careful not to give away information. Now she risked as much as the rest of them, but they had no clue how close danger lay.

“Ah, Miss Harper. We believe we have come up with the answer,” Mr. Dhruba said.

“Oh? What is it?”

“Hasan wants to broadcast a Look@Me video on the Qnet himself,” Cooper answered with an eye roll.

She gave him an understanding nod. That didn’t sound like a great idea.

“You can use my computer,” Mr. Dhruba offered.

“Wouldn’t that take too long to spread the word? And the message would be shut down and explained as a hoax before anyone saw it,” Geri said, but they ignored her. Even if the webcast could go guerilla, able to send this hot information to all Qnet ports at once, it would never get past the FBI monitors primed and waiting for it.

Cooper gave her a wan smile.

At least her ploy kept her act believable both ways.

“What we need is a good hacker. But I’ve lost touch with my old roommate.” Hasan looked to the sky, then shook his head. “We can decide which outlet will be best when the experiment is complete. I need positive results. I want to have something to offer the people who have trusted me all these years. They will need hope after they see what’s been going on,” Hasan said.

Dr. Rastogi rushed over with his hands held up to stop the conversation.

“Excuse me, please. It is imperative we finish the test. My wife Jagruti has just informed me two men in black suits visited her asking about Hasan. I called the hospital where I work and they have also been there.”

“Oh no! They’ve found me!” Hasan yelled and put his hands to his cheeks.

“Not yet, they haven’t,” Cooper said.

“But they are getting closer,” Geri said.
Surely, they couldn’t get access to Dr. Rastogi’s patient records.
But they couldn’t count on that. “How far is the hospital?”

“It is only twenty-five minutes from here.” Dr. Rastogi paced with one hand on his chin and the other on his hip.

“Then let’s finish this and get out of here. I’m ready.” Cooper stood up.

Geri respected these men and what they were doing, risking their lives by harboring Hasan and exposing the terrible truth. She wanted to tell them everything she knew without letting her overseers discover her new intentions. Being a part of the atrocious deception made her feel slimy and disgusting. She had to come clean, right now. Especially to Cooper.

When they reached the transport room, she found a plate lying on a table. She had to tell Cooper before he popped again. Even if it meant being tossed out a window and left for Blake to deal with. She couldn’t deceive Cooper anymore.

Leaning back on the table with one hand behind her, she pecked out a message on the plate. Keeping her brooch camera focused on the tech station, she stole glances at the plate to check that her typing made sense.

“Cooper, could I talk to you for a moment before you go?” Her accent waned.

As he approached, he gave her a puzzled look.

She wrapped her arms around his waist, hugging him tightly to cover the brooch.

“Just wanted to wish you luck.” With one arm, she made a big pointing gesture to the plate behind her back.

“Thank you?” He sounded confused and scrunched his eyes at her, like she was nuts. With a shrug, he looked over her shoulder and read her message:
I m fbi. they see and hear all I do and want you dead in 3 hrs. I wont do it! I m w/u!

He pushed away from her embrace, but she held him close, so he wouldn’t uncover the brooch. She pointed at it from above.

His face paled, and his eyes registered a new understanding, then darkened with disappointment.

Grabbing her arms, he pressed them to her sides and held her firmly while studying her face.

“You’re welcome,” she whispered.

They communicated with their eyes. His scolding, while hers moistened, pleading with him to believe her. She shook her head and mouthed, “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

His expression softened. He even put on a smile. A sarcastic, playful smile, and sniffed at her. As he released her and stepped away, Geri smiled back with hesitant relief.