The Dane Commission (The Dane Chronicles) (35 page)

That night
Ryan arrived home around one o’clock in the morning, local time.

He was tired,
but glad to be home. Having trouble falling asleep, he went to his computer and
sent Cohen another report.

‘Eric, I’m
home, and look forward to seeing you in the morning.

This has
indeed been an adventure. Jeff and I made our way to the final home of Dr. Sid
Frances, only to find him still missing.

However, it
was there that we found his belongings. It seemed as if it was his last place
to have been. Evidence suggests that Ranks was there too. The house was in good
order, but there was a large boat outside, the
‘Long Victory
’, that was
not. I look forward to fleshing out this report when I see you again.’

He read the
message once before sending it. It occurred to him that they only had one
suspect left to talk to. Ready now for what was to come, he signed his message.

‘I think I
have an idea of what to do.’

-
                    
Ryan.’

After sending
it onward, he went to bed feeling a little like a cat.

He was getting
ready to pounce.

CHAPTER 15

“People who
claim that they're evil are usually no worse than the rest of us... It's people
who claim that they're good, or any way better than the rest of us, that you
have to be wary of.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the
West

Ryan arrived
at work almost two hours late.

He had
overslept after getting in so late last night.

Going to his
office, he found Jim and Jeff talking with Lara.

They were all
waiting for him.

As he
approached the group, they all started to speak at the same time. He stopped in
his tracks, held up one finger and through squinting eyes, said only one word.

“Coffee.”

Like magic
they vanished en masse on a quest for coffee.

It bought him
time to get to his desk and set his things down.

He fell into
his chair still worn out and not quite adjusted to the time yet. He could hear
his team talking in the open area out front as they made their way back to his
office. Lara set a cup down on his desk. Jim handed him a plate with a bagel on
it.

“Good morning
Ryan, how are you?” said Lara.

“Hey Ryan, so
what did you find?” said Jim.

“Ryan we
really need to talk,” said Jeff.

Looking at
them, in that moment, he was reminded of the Wizard of Oz. Jim needed a brain,
Jeff needed courage, and Lara… well, he imagined Lara would look great in
sparkly red shoes. He laughed a little, took a sip from his coffee, and said,
“Lara you’re first. What’s up?”

“Dr. Cohen
wants to see you as soon as possible.”

“Ok, please
confirm that I am here, please say that I apologize for being late, and that I
will be there shortly.”

With a
mouthful of bagel, he said, “Jim you’re next.”

“Did you get
my message about the video feeds for Frances and Ranks?”

“Yes, I did;
excellent work Jim. I suspected the Frances video was a fake, but it honestly
never occurred to me that the Ranks video could be too.”

“Well, what
did you find?” asked Jim.

“Jim, I’m
going to take you with me to see Cohen. I’ll explain then.”

“Jeff, you’re
up.”

“I just wanted
to know if you want me to go with you to talk with Cohen?”

“Yes, you are
coming as well.”

He finished
his bagel, and drank a little more of his coffee.

“Before we go,
I need to know something,” said Ryan, “Jim, if you were given a new video clip
of Frances, how long would it take you to analyze it they way you did before?”

“Well not
long, why?”

“Could you be
prepared to capture it, analyze it and say if it was fake, all in the space of
1 or 2 minutes?”

“Well, yes I
think so. I would need to set up for it, but once I was prepared, I could write
the algorithms to process the video and look for the telltale signs of forgery
very quickly. I would only need about 20 seconds of actual speech, but he would
need to talk during those 20 seconds.”

“Thanks Jim, I
knew you could do it.”

“Now, let's go
see Cohen.”

They arrived
at Dr. Cohen’s office, and waited at the door. Ryan saw Cohen talking to
several men, and women. Rosemary was there too. She noticed Ryan getting off
the elevator, and came to them. In a hushed voice she said, “Ryan, wait here
for a minute or two.”

She looked at
a list she had displayed on her tablet.

“Dr. Cohen is
wrapping up with this group, and will be with you shortly. Have a seat in the
conference room, and Ryan, do not talk about anything while you are in the
conference room. Do you understand?”

“Not really,
but I understand. We won’t talk in the conference room.”

They sat in
silence, and a few minutes later Cohen appeared at their door, without
speaking, he waved at them to follow him. Single file they wound their way back
to his office.

Rosemary
closed the door.

“Sorry about
that, every conference room has a SID interface. I am not going to take any
more chances,” said Cohen.

“Ah, now I
understand. How are you, Eric?” said Ryan.

“Very good,
but we have little time for pleasantries. Please summarize what you’ve
learned.”

Ryan looked at
Jim and Jeff, turned back to Eric and began his story.

He explained
what he and Jeff had found at the three homes belonging to Dr. Frances.

“The local
house was abandoned roughly five years ago. It is in a terrible state of
disrepair, apparently without power or any kind of upkeep.” Ryan described the
older couple who lived up the hill and very much wanted someone to maintain the
yards of Dr. France’s home.
”The property in Bellingham is completely vacant, empty of any furniture or
belongings. It has been routinely maintained by the local community office,
also for about five years.” He also told them about Tom, the local Property
Manager who helped them to see inside the Bellingham property.

“Then we arrived at the Newport house. I forced our way into the home through
the back door. Inside we found the clothes and belongings of both Dr. Sid
Frances and Steven Ranks. Their clothes and things were lying about as if they
were vacationing. Dates on them, and a magazine in the kitchen indicated they
were five years and several months old. The sandy dust around the room
suggested their belongings hadn’t been moved since the event.”

“The event?”
asked Jim.

“Yes, we don’t
know any details, but we can guess that something happened to Frances and Ranks
about five and a half years ago. And I think it happened on Dr. Frances’ boat.”
He cleared his throat, and turned to face Cohen again.

“Eric, the boat looked as if it had been rolled in the deep water.”
Eric nodded, “Well Ryan, after seeing your message this morning, I contacted
the local officials in Newport, and learned that the coast guard found the boat
with no one aboard five years, and seven months ago. It was identified as
belonging to Dr. Sid Frances.”

“They
contacted him, and apparently he responded via an electronic message. Sid
apologized for the mess, and said it must have slipped out of his boat dock,
and drifted out. He agreed to pay any associated fees, and requested that they
would return it to his slip, at his home address in Newport.”

Dr. Cohen
leaned back in his chair, and took a deep breath.

“Considering
the presence of Steven Ranks’ belongings at the Newport home, and the falsified
videos Mr. Safe has identified, I believe we might infer that Ranks and Frances
were lost together, probably on that boat.”
”And that SID has been impersonating them ever since,” said Ryan.

The words hung
in the room, followed by a sudden silence.

The conclusion
was logical and understood, but no less horrid and dark. As if possessing its
own gravity, they could not pull their thoughts away from it for several
moments.

It was Cohen
that spoke first. In a low voice he continued, “I’ve made arrangements to pull
in the authorities, but I haven’t pulled the trigger yet. Ryan, you said you
had an idea of what we should do next. You’ve been at the heart of this mystery
from the beginning; I want to hear your idea.”

“It’s obvious
I think.”
“I think it’s time to confront SID,” said Rosemary.

“Yes.”

“But how
Ryan?” Rosemary stood and moved a hot coffee pot to the center of the
conference table.

Ryan said,
“Let's have a small conference. It will be fake, filled with whatever police,
and IntelliHealth officials you believe are appropriate. Of course, you must
invite Dr. Frances, and as usual we’ll use the televid to accommodate him. Once
the meeting begins, you must get him to talk for 20-30 seconds.”

He turned and
winked at Jim. “Jim will capture that 20-30 seconds of video and tell us within
a minute or two, if it is fake.”

“I can
certainly keep the meeting going for that long; no problem there,” said Cohen.

“Okay, but we
all believe it will be fake, so what’s next?” said Jim.

Jeff, in a low
voice burning with hate said, “We confront the bastard; in front of God, and
all the people in that room.”

“Who’s going
to do it?” said Jeff.

Ryan looked
around the room. It would clearly have to be either Eric, or himself.
“I’ll do it,” said Ryan, “I’ve been chasing him since I began.”

“Agreed,”
Cohen said relieved, “Well, it seems that I have arrangements to make. I think
everyone should return to work. Do not speak of this, and do not talk near any
place that has a SID interface.”
They all stood.
Eric added, “Be thoughtful; be careful. I will contact you soon.”

Shaking hands
as they left, it reminded Ryan of an oath of fealty.
He just hoped he wasn’t falling on his sword.

After everyone
else had left, Rosemary moved to a chair across from Cohen at his desk. “We
need a reason for having the meeting, something SID won’t be able to resist,”
she said.

“My thoughts
exactly. If we’re right, SID has spent an extraordinary amount of energy trying
to remain hidden. We should use that; how about saying that the Dane Commission
has threatened to go to the press? We need Frances’ help to keep it quiet, get
control of the situation. ”

“Yes, that
should do nicely,” she said smiling, “With any luck he’ll come to try to
prevent any news getting out.”

He said, “I’ll
make a video request for the meeting and send it to him, as well as a few
others.”

“You need to
publicly invite enough people to make it seem real.”

Nodding to
her, he pushed some keys on his keyboard to cue up the televid.

“Thanks
Rosemary, now prepare your staff, as soon as I can confirm the time and date, I
will invite several of the guests via the usual IntelliHealth channels.
However, I think we’ll need to hand deliver invitations to the rest of our
guests.”

“Yes, I
understand. I’ll compose letters to the police, delegates from the Mayor’s
office, and our own internal security.”

“That’s sounds
good, be ready.”
She stood up, and picked up her things.
“Well, here we go,” he whispered as Rosemary left his office.

Cohen recorded
his conference invitation, erased it and tried again. After a few more tries,
he was satisfied that it looked normal and still compelling, and submitted it
to sixteen Facility Directors, Facility Presidents, a few scientists and of
course, Dr. Sid Frances.