The Intruder (29 page)

"I'm not sure, but I think this means that we can see the other intruders when someone is running this nasty illegal program," she said. "But the bigger issue is that we can track them now. Each of these points of light represents an intruder. Duncan and I suited up and did a spot check last night."

There was an awed silence for a few minutes as every eye gazed at the map. This was a major breakthrough, and they all knew it.

"What are those lights over there?" Duncan asked. He was pointing to a section of wall to the left of the bed-sheet screen that had a cluster of several points of light. Hanna turned the projector to the right so the lights would fall on the screen. She got to Hawaii, but that wasn't far enough. She adjusted a few settings on the projector and went further east. In a moment she was displaying 16 points of light scattered around China.

"What cities are they?" Hanna asked.

"They're not cities," Duncan said. "They're military bases."

*
             
*
             
*

Jeremy had become accustomed to riding in darkened hovercars, not knowing where he was going or when he was going to get there. But riding with Peter was difficult. He managed to make Jeremy feel uncomfortable, despite his uncharacteristic friendliness and his obvious concern about Lenzke. Jeremy tried to sit quietly and review the briefing Peter had provided an hour before.

Lenzke had always been worried about funding for the agency, he had said. He wanted to develop an independent source of income so the agency's work wouldn't be threatened by changes in funding. Peter had refused his recommendations again and again. "We serve the government. If they cut our funding, we have no mission and we get other jobs." Lenzke always protested that the work of the agency was too important to be subject to the whim of politicians.

Peter was concerned that Lenzke was trying to pull something off behind his back to "fix" this funding problem, but Jeremy suspected there was a lot more to it than that. He recalled his talk with Henry about tensions in the office. Henry didn't act as if this was just an argument over money, or a political thing. That wouldn't justify his description of Dr. Berry. Jeremy remembered the language from the Apocalypse: "The great whore with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication." "Kings of the earth" had an ominous sound to it. No, this was no intramural dispute about whose plan the agency was going to follow. This was much bigger.

The hovercar came to a stop. Peter gave Jeremy a serious nod before the doors opened. They stepped out of the car and into the night. Jeremy immediately recognized the place. They were walking up the steps to Dr. Jenkins' apartment.

"You must be Peter. Come in," Dr. Jenkins' cheerful, but somewhat sleep-deprived voice said after he opened the door. "Jeremy!" he continued, recognizing him. "Where have you been? And how are you feeling? Have you seen Dr. Berry recently?"

"No, I haven't, and in case you were thinking about it, please don't let her know that I'm here," Jeremy said quickly. "I don't know what she's told you, but I'm just fine, okay? I hope it'll all be clear to you before the night's over."

Dr. Jenkins gave him a concerned look, but he nodded and smiled. This made Jeremy feel even more guilty about his near-involvement in the man's murder.
I've got to see this crisis through,
he thought,
but no matter how it turns out, I'm quitting the agency. This work stinks.
 

Dr. Jenkins ushered them into the living room and closed the door. He made apologies for the mess and cleared off a place for them to sit on the couch. Medical books, journals and other assorted papers had been stacked on every available surface. He picked up a heap of papers from the couch and wandered around for a minute looking for a place to put them. The entire room, except the floor, was terribly cluttered, but not dirty. Dr. Jenkins seemed to have an aversion to putting anything on the floor, for, after finding nowhere to deposit his arm full of papers, he went into a back room.

Jeremy glanced around and thought for a moment about his wife. She had been a miserable house-cleaner, but, fortunately for Jeremy, they never owned enough for their house to get quite this disorganized. But then he noticed that something was different about the mess in Dr. Jenkins' house. Amy, his wife, always left cups and dishes around the room. Sometimes even clothes. It had always bugged Jeremy. There was nothing like that here. It was disorganized, but it was clean.

Dr. Jenkins returned with a carafe of coffee and three cups, which he set on top of a few large books on the coffee table. Jeremy realized how odd it was that Dr. Jenkins had any books or papers at all. Dr. Jenkins noticed his confusion.

"You wouldn't believe how much implant work a doctor has to do in the course of a day," he said. "You're always checking patients' records, looking up the literature on something, or checking the specs on a new drug. Back when I was on staff at St. Michael's, I just couldn't bear to look at my implant for another second after I got off work, so I developed the habit of reading real books." He thumped his hand on a few. "But you didn't come here for chit-chat and coffee," he said, looking at Peter. "What can I do for you?"

"Have you ever seen this man?" he asked, and handed him a pocket-sized
work pad
with a picture of Lenzke.

"Yes, I've seen him. I hope he's not your sister's husband."

"No. Let me remind you, this is official government business," Peter said, handing Dr. Jenkins a holographic identification card. "Do you know his name, and where have you seen him?"

"I suppose you know already," Dr. Jenkins said, losing even more of his good natured smile. "His name is Carl Lenzke, and he's been seeing my associate, Dr.
Berry
."

"Seeing her? Are they romantically involved, or are they business associates?" Peter asked.

Dr. Jenkins snorted a laugh. "You don't know Dr.
Berry
. I guess I'd have to say both."

"I want to remind you, as we discussed earlier, this conversation never happened," Peter said. Dr. Jenkins nodded. "Very well," he continued. "We have reason to suspect that Dr. Berry and Mr. Lenzke are involved in illegal hole traffic. Have you seen anything that would make you suspect that something like that was going on?"

Dr. Jenkins' face suddenly turned pale. He looked away, stared blankly at a wall to gather his thoughts, then turned back, his face composed.

"I was hoping I was wrong," he said. "I hoped I was misreading things, but yes," he looked up, "I've seen a few things that I've wondered about." Peter's look said, "such as?" so Dr. Jenkins continued.

"Dr.
Berry
and I do a lot of research on the implants, so we have some pretty impressive computers in the office. One day I was working late, and I don't think Dr.
Berry
knew I was there. I heard Carl's voice -- Mr. Lenzke, that is -- and I noticed they were both at one of the workstations. I overheard something they said. Something about 'our man in
Taipei
,' and something else -- I can't think of the words right now, but somehow it made me suspicious. Something came up, and they went into Dr.
Berry
's office. I slipped in and peeked at the workstation.

"What I saw on the screen looked like an automated search, at first -- just like the ones Dr.
Berry
and I do sometimes. But then I noticed the background. I could see the back of a hovercar seat
behind
the workstation desktop, and then I realized what I was seeing. The workstation was displaying the image of what someone with an implant would see through their left eye if they were working on a project, sitting in a hovercar. I was impressed with the graphics, but I thought it was just a computer model to simulate what a person
might
see. I didn't even suspect that anyone was
actually
seeing it until about a week later.

"I was in early that day, and Dr.
Berry
and Mr. Lenzke were at the same workstation. I overheard her say, 'And this is what he's seeing right now?'

"I'll tell you, it put me in a cold sweat. I've been trying to convince myself since then that it didn't mean anything, but now here you come asking me about it."

So is that how she knew what was going on with me?
Jeremy thought.
Was Lenzke feeding her information from the net spies that followed me in the park that night?

"Dr. Jenkins," Jeremy said, "do you remember the night Dr.
Berry
ordered me committed to the hospital?"

"Yes," he said.

"Was she with Lenzke that night?"

"I'm sorry, I can't be sure. I left the office early that day and didn't hear about the order until the next morning." 

Jeremy shook his head.
How am I ever supposed to sort all this out?

"So you think Dr.
Berry
and Mr. Lenzke are spying on what people can see with their implants?" Dr. Jenkins asked Peter.

"It's far worse than that," Peter said, "but I'm afraid I'm going to have to contradict what Mr. Mitchell said earlier. We can't explain it all to you right now. I hope we can later." Jeremy knew that was a lie. "But did either of them say anything else that might indicate what they're up to? Anything at all?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact," Jenkins said. "Just yesterday I heard them say something about 'making their move.' I have no idea what that meant, but that's what they said."

"Okay. Can you think of anything else?" Peter persisted. "Any detail, even if it seems trivial."

He thought for a minute and sipped at his coffee. "No, I'm sorry," he said, "but I can try to keep my eyes open for you, if you like."

"That's very tempting. We could use some inside information, but I can't ask you to do that," Peter said. "In fact, I'd like you to leave the country at once. Your life is in grave danger." Dr. Jenkins looked at him with a curious expression. "You may not know this," Peter continued, "but just yesterday an assassin tried to kill you. Mr. Mitchell was able to prevent him from getting to you."

Dr. Jenkins started to laugh, and then caught himself, realizing that Peter was serious. "You know," he said, "there was a strange man who tried to push into my room last night. He reached in and turned off the lights, and then just ran away. I thought he was some kind of nut." He looked at Jeremy and Peter seriously for a minute. "I'm not sure if I'm supposed to believe you," he said, "but thanks, Jeremy." Jeremy felt ashamed of himself, but he smiled.

Dr. Jenkins looked aside for a moment as he opened a hole message from Peter.

"
London
?" he asked. "You're sending me to
London
?"

"The flight is prepaid. It's not bad this time of year," Peter said. "And I think you ought to go. Now. I'll reimburse you for any out-of-pocket expenses. And in fact, we should be leaving as well, unless you can remember anything else from Dr.
Berry
or Mr. Lenzke."

"No," he said, still glancing at the message on his desktop, "I'm afraid not. If I come up with anything, where can I reach you?" Peter showed him his I.D. card again, and he copied the address into his mail utility. He took a last swallow of coffee, and then rose to leave. Jeremy and Dr. Jenkins followed. 

"Oh, there is one other thing," he said. "I'm not sure if it's relevant, but I heard Dr.
Berry
and Mr. Lenzke say something about selling short on Cheung Kong. I don't know what that means, but that's what they said."

"Thank you very much, Dr. Jenkins. If you think of anything else, please send me word. Right now, you've got a plane to catch."

As Peter and Jeremy walked back out of the apartment and down the brick walk, Jeremy asked Peter if he'd learned anything important.

"Absolutely," he said. "I don't have an agent in
Taipei
. It's sounding more and more as if Lenzke's running a rogue operation inside my agency. If he's been running the net spy program behind my back, there's no telling what assets he's got out there."

"And what's the significance of Cheung Kong?" Jeremy asked.

"It's a major Chinese stock. You sell short when you expect it to go down."

Chapter 19

Jeremy and Peter stood in silence on a street corner, waiting for the hovercar to come back. Jeremy was beginning to wonder whether the enemy was really the agency, or maybe just Lenzke. Peter was tough, but he wasn't convinced he was heartless or cruel, and he wasn't at all sure, now, that he was responsible for the things MacKenzie and Hanna had told him about. From a calculated, operational standpoint, he was wrong to give Dr. Jenkins those plane tickets -- it exposed the agency to more risk of detection by Lenzke and
Berry
. Furthermore, whatever risk there was to Jenkins' life was worth the additional information he might be able to feed to them.

After all,
he thought,
he just signed the guy's death warrant yesterday.

But that was yesterday. Something was fundamentally different today. Something had clicked in Peter's mind, it seemed to Jeremy. Yesterday, Lenzke was a trusted subordinate. Today, he's the loose cannon who's doing God
knows
what. If Lenzke had been running a secret operation, maybe it was Lenzke that
Duncan
was after, and not Peter at all. Maybe, in fact, Peter and Duncan were allies in this fight, or at least co-belligerents.