Quantum (17 page)
Authors: Tom Grace
Dexter, Michigan
Martin and Audrey Kilkenny were seated on the porch of their farmhouse when Nolan’s SUV rode up the long gravel drive. He parked near Martin’s old Ford pickup, then walked around to the passenger side and opened the door. Tears welled up in Audrey’s eyes as a woman handed Nolan a cane, then reached for his offered arm and carefully stepped out of the vehicle.
Nolan towered over the thin wisp of a woman who stood beside him. A halo of snow-colored hair framed an oval face. At the sight of Audrey and Martin Kilkenny, her dark eyes grew moist with emotion.
‘Elli, it’s so good to see you again,’ Audrey said as she carefully stepped down from the porch.
Elli Vital nodded, unable to express her feelings. The memories of this place, of the long weekends she’d spent here with Johann Wolff, all came back.
The last time she had walked up this drive, the father of the young man whose arm she leaned upon was just a boy. It was December of 1948 and Johann had failed to meet her at the train station. Instead of a weekend spent in celebration of her engagement, Elli and Martin searched in vain for her missing fiancé. She returned to Chicago heartbroken, fearing that Johann’s disappearance was like that of everyone else she’d embraced as family – permanent.
So when Martin Kilkenny called her, the day that Elli had long dreaded finally came. Now she was here, reunited with old friends to honor the memory of her beloved Johann.
Elli released Nolan’s arm and walked the last few steps toward Martin and Audrey on her own. She trembled as more than fifty years of emotions resonated deeply within her.
‘You always said someday we would know the truth.’
Martin wrapped his arms around Elli in a display of love and support, as he had at the end of that terrible weekend when the man she loved was taken from her.
‘I had faith in Johann. I knew there was only one thing that could keep him from you.’
Elli pulled back and turned to embrace Audrey. They’d kept in touch over the years, exchanged letters and holiday cards, but the unknown always lingered like an un-welcome guest. Johann Wolff was the link that tied her to the Kilkennys, and his unresolved absence was a gulf that could never be completely bridged.
‘I’ve missed you so,’ Audrey said tearfully.
‘And I’ve missed you.’
‘That was a wonderful meal, Audrey,’ Elli declared.
Martin inched his chair away from the table. ‘That it was. And now that we’re fed, there’s some business we need to discuss. Kelsey, I have a wee bit of a favor to ask you. As you may have noticed, Elli here is getting around these days with the help of a walking stick. You see, she had her hip replaced a few months back and she’s still recovering from it.’
‘Martin, you don’t have to tell them my entire life story,’ Elli interrupted, a hint of her native German still present after half a century. ‘The point I hope Martin was eventually going to arrive at is that I need a place to stay. Because of my hip, I can’t climb stairs, so staying here is out of the question. Audrey mentioned that you have a nice one-story condo with a guest room. Would it be too much of an imposition?’
‘Not at all,’ Kelsey replied.
‘I told you she was a fine girl,’ Audrey said proudly. ‘We have high hopes for her and Nolan.’
Kelsey beamed as Nolan reddened.
‘The only advice I have to offer on that matter,’ Elli said with the confidence of age, but her voice a curious mix of regret and hope, ‘is that you must seize this time, for you never know what tomorrow will bring.’
Martin perked up. ‘Now that we have that problem solved, Nolan, do you happen to have a copy of that letter that was found with Johann?’
‘Not on me, but if you let me use your computer, I can probably print one out.’
‘You know where it is.’
Nolan exited the kitchen and walked into a small adjacent room. He switched on the computer and logged in to the MARC network and saw that he had new mail: a message with an attached file from [email protected]. The subject of the message was
SANDSTROM.
Nolan clicked on the message. It asked a single question:
Is this file the work of Ted Sandstrom?
He selected the attached file.
‘What the hell?’
The file contained several pages of technical information concerning an energy device that sounded suspiciously like Sandstrom’s.
‘If this
is
real, then it could have only come from the people who stole it. But why send me a piece of it?’
Nolan quickly decided he needed to verify the authenticity of the correspondence, so he forwarded copies of the message and the attached file to Sandstrom and to Grin, hoping MARC’s computer guru might be able to identify who sent the E-mail. He then forwarded it to Mosley, just to cover all his bases, and printed out a copy for himself.
‘Nolan, did you find the letter?’ Martin called from the kitchen.
‘Working on it,’ he replied automatically, his mind still occupied by the E-mail.
‘Here it is,’ Nolan announced when he returned to the kitchen.
‘Would you do the honor of reading the first page to Elli.’ Martin’s voice cracked with emotion.
Nolan sat down and began to read.
10 December 1948
Dear Raphaele
,
Yesterday, I summoned up the courage to abandon myself to my dreams. I moved beyond the comfort of my existence and made a leap of faith. My actions were not based on any rational, cognitive process, but on those elements of hope, wonder; and discovery that make life itself worth living.
I have discovered beauty and truth, and in the immortal words of Keats, that is all I need to know. Truly, it is all I want to know.
I have given myself fully to the woman I love, and she now holds the key to my heart, my mind, and my soul. Elli has accepted me and offered herself fully in return. The emptiness is now filled.
Dexter, Michigan
Nolan reached out from his bed and fumbled for the cordless phone. The digital clock on the nightstand read 6:30
A.M.
‘Yeah,’ he answered, still groggy.
‘Good morning, sweetie,’ Kelsey said in a singsong voice.
‘Oh, hi, Kelsey,’ he replied with a yawn. ‘You’re up early.’
‘I couldn’t sleep. I need to talk to you about something.’
‘Now that I’m awake, go ahead.’
‘Do you think your grandfather is up?’
‘Now? Yeah, probably.’
‘Could you put a three-way call together? I need to talk with you both.’
‘Let me see. Hang on.’
Nolan put her on hold, then dialed his grandfather’s number on his second line.
‘Is everybody there?’ Nolan asked when the connections were made.
‘Yes,’ Kelsey answered.
‘I’m here,’ Martin replied. ‘So, Kelsey, what’s so important that you had to interrupt my grandson’s beauty sleep? God knows he needs all he can get.’
‘Martin, when Nolan and I first started looking for Wolff, I seem to recall you telling us that you loaned him some money for an engagement ring.’
‘Aye, I remember. I sent him down to my friend Urban; he did a real nice job for him, too. His son’s running the place now. You two should stop by there when you’re ready.’
‘When we’re ready?’ Nolan asked. ‘You sound pretty sure of yourself, Grandpa.’
‘You’re halfway down the aisle right now. It’s only a matter of time. Is there anything else, Kelsey?’
‘Yes, do you know if Johann had the ring inscribed?’
‘I believe he did. In fact, I’m sure of it because I remember Urban telling me it was the strangest thing he’d ever etched into a piece of jewelry.’
‘What do you mean?’ Nolan asked.
‘I mean he put down whatever it was Johann asked him to, but he had no idea what it meant. He said it didn’t look very romantic, but he figured it must have been something between Johann and Elli. As long as his customer was happy, who was he to judge?’
‘Thanks, Martin. That’s all I needed.’
‘You’re entirely welcome, Kelsey. And don’t forget to bring Elli over by noon. We’re meeting with some folks from the university to discuss the memorial service.’
‘I’ll have her there. Nolan, could you stay on after your grandfather hangs up?’
‘You bet.’ Nolan paused until he heard the click of his grandfather’s line disconnecting. ‘What’s this all about?’
‘I was just reading Wolff’s last letter.’
‘I hope you had a box of tissues handy.’
‘So I’m a romantic, sue me. But the letter got me thinking. It says here that Elli “now holds the key to my heart, my mind, and my soul.” What if he meant that literally?’
‘How could he give her the key to his heart, mind, and soul?’
‘Nolan, Wolff was a physicist who loved his work. He lived at a time when physics had just turned the world upside down in a way that hadn’t happened since Galileo and Copernicus. Quantum physics was still a very young field, and he studied under the man who practically invented it. Physics wasn’t a job for Wolff, it was a passion. Everything he was – his heart, mind, and soul – was bound up in that. The most valuable possession he had to offer Elli, as a token of his love for her, wasn’t a ring but his lifework.’
‘You think Elli has the key to Wolff’s cipher?’ Nolan asked as Kelsey’s logic became crystal-clear. ‘The ring. My God, you’re brilliant.’
‘After what Martin said about the unusual inscription, I’m sure of it. Now I just have to wait until Elli gets up, so I can ask her about it.’
‘Well, I’m up now, so call me as soon as you know. Grin still has a good chunk of the first notebook on disk. If we get the key, I think we can decrypt it.’
‘I’ll let you know.’
A second after Kelsey hung up, Nolan heard another, distinct click on the line. He thought about the sound as the dial tone buzzed in his ear. Nolan rolled onto his side, reached over, and depressed the cradle switch; the dial tone disappeared. He then lifted his finger up – the line clicked, then clicked again. Nolan hit Kelsey’s number on his speed dial and got a steady busy signal.
‘Shit!’ Nolan cursed as he slammed the phone into its cradle and rolled out of bed.
He dressed hurriedly in a T-shirt and shorts, then unlocked the safe in his walk-in closet and retrieved a teak storage box that contained the pistol he’d used during his days as a Navy SEAL – a Heckler & Koch USP Mk 23. He strapped on a shoulder holster, then quickly checked over his weapon. Satisfied, he slipped a magazine containing ten.45-caliber ACP rounds into the USP, chambered a round, then safed and holstered the weapon. He then stowed three more clips in his pocket.
Three minutes after Kelsey’s call, Nolan fired the ignition of his SUV and put it in gear.
‘I hope I’m just being paranoid about this,’ Nolan muttered, a cloud of dust in his wake as he sped down the driveway.
Moscow, Russia
The speakerphone on Orlov’s desk buzzed quietly.
‘
Da
, Irena,’ he answered.
‘I have Dmitri Leskov on line one. He says that it’s urgent.’
‘Put him through.’
Orlov heard the line click.
‘Dmitri, what do you have to report?’
‘The two people working with Sandstrom, Kilkenny and Newton, may have identified where Wolff hid the key to his notebooks.’
‘Do they have it?’
‘Not yet. We intercepted a telephone conversation between Newton and Kilkenny. Newton believes that Wolff had the key to his cipher engraved on a ring that was given to his fiancée. This woman is currently staying at Newton’s home in Ann Arbor. Newton has not spoken with the woman about it yet – it’s still quite early in the morning here.’
Orlov glanced at his watch and subtracted the eight-hour time difference. ‘What do you think of Newton’s theory?’
‘It makes sense. No one creates a cipher without putting the key for it someplace safe. What is Zoshchenko’s opinion of the notebooks? Are they important to the project?’
‘She believes so. She has a very high opinion of this physicist Wolff.’
‘Then I think we have an opportunity here, if we act quickly.’
‘What are you proposing, Dmitri?’
‘From our current position, I can deploy my team at Newton’s residence in fifteen minutes. I’ve already had Newton’s phone line disrupted.’
‘Do you know if the ring is actually there?’
‘No. If Wolff’s fiancée is sentimental, I suspect she would have the ring with her. If not, she knows where it is. In either case, we’ll deal with it.’
‘Very well, Dmitri. Proceed.’