Tripple Chronicles 1: Eternity Rising (32 page)

“I will be
less than an hour. You may wait here in the lobby,” she said glancing
inadvertently at the cameras in the walls.

“Might I use
your ladies room?” Maeve asked.

“Yes,
certainly. It’s just down that small corridor, to your left,” she said, and
then exited the building.

As Maeve
walked across the lobby she took note of where each security camera was
pointed. The whole place looked to be under constant surveillance, but three
cameras were aimed at a single spot, a flat wall panel in an alcove, just
before the corridor that she was now walking through. Once inside the bathroom,
she cut the power to the lights, and went into a closed stall. In complete
darkness, she slipped out of her frumpy disguise and wig, leaving her in a
black body suit with her hair in a bun. She quietly rummaged through her bag
and found her night vision glasses and a multipurpose tool that she used to
loosen a panel in the ceiling above her. She grabbed a smaller black pouch out
of her bag, secured it around her waist and crawled in the space above the
bathroom, in the direction of the flat wall panel. As she expected, she came to
a wall built with square stones…an elevator shaft. Maeve pulled a laser cutter
out of her pouch, hoping the wall wasn’t too thick, and began to carve one of
the square stones from it’s place. She followed the natural grooves of the
construction and within minutes, had loosened the stone from its place. With a
flat lever and all of her strength, she pulled the small stone from the wall.
Maeve squeezed herself through the opening and climbed down the lift pulleys,
landing on top of the elevator compartment. She checked her watch. Fifteen
minutes had passed since Maeve went into the ladies room. She cut through one
of the ceiling tiles and slipped inside the compartment. Not sure of what she
would find on the outside of the elevator doors, she took off her night vision
glasses and pressed the ‘open’ button.

She looked
out into a very gray and sterile looking hallway. Sounds were coming from a
room to her left. Maeve crept down the hall and peeked inside to see four young
people in lab coats eating lunch in a small cafeteria. They had metallic panels
on the sleeves of their coats that Maeve assumed to be their access to the lab.
Then, she heard footsteps approaching from the other direction, so she quickly
searched for an unlocked door on the other side of the hall and ducked inside.
She found herself in a small closet and held her breath as the footsteps
passed. She used her night vision again and saw eight other lab coats hung in
here, each of them emblazoned with the same metallic badges she’d seen on the
four people in the room across the hall. She quickly put one on and slipped out
of her hiding place. Then, she set off down the hall in the direction from
which the footsteps came. At the end of the hall was a small door that seemed
to have no handle. On the wall beside the door was a scanner, shoulder height,
obviously to read the metallic badge on the lab coat.

Once
scanned, a small piece of the metal door slid away, revealing a lock and
handle. Maeve once again pulled a device out of her waist pouch and went to
work disabling the lock. She was an expert at locks and was through the door in
less than a minute. Before her was a small white room with a body scanner,
fingerprint pads, and a moving camera that swept back and forth across the
room. Maeve pulled a facemask out of her pouch, put it on, and flattened
herself against the steel door. Everything in the room was automated and no
doubt the door on the opposite side of the room would remain locked until each
security obstacle was passed. She thought this was quite excessive for a lab
and wondered what could possibly need so much protection. Maeve looked around
for weaknesses in the system. There was a small booth in the corner to her
right from which she assumed the system could be operated manually or even
overridden. She would have to time her movement exactly with the camera to not
be seen. After watching the camera sweep five times, she was ready. There were
six seconds for her to get inside the booth. Two more sweeps of the camera and
then Maeve went for it. She dashed to the booth and dived inside with a second
to spare and soon found the camera controls. Maeve entered Camden’s password
into the system and put five minutes of earlier footage on a loop, then, she
shut off the live feed. She left the booth, made her way around the scanners
and entered the access codes Camden had supplied Ganesh, on the keypad next to
the door on the other side of the room.

She stood,
successful, in the entrance of Tripple Laboratories, awed by the vastness of
the space. The lights were off and it appeared empty, but she heard voices
coming from somewhere in the back. Without making a sound, Maeve walked past an
office she assumed to be Lee Tripple’s. Before she reached the voices, she came
to another hall. To the left the hall led to a kitchen, and to the right,
several rooms with closed doors…except for one. Maeve headed straight for the
open door, away from the voices, and gazed in at a polished stone table in the
center of the room. A small piece of biomer sat in the middle of the table by a
notebook and several vials of a bluish solution. She snapped pictures of the
notebook, pocketed one of the vials and left the lab as stealthily as she had
arrived. Once out of the lab, she returned the camera to the live feed,
replaced the lab coat, and got into the elevator. She made the climb up the cables
and squeezed back through the opening in the wall, leaving the stone out of
place in case she needed to come back.

When the
lady at the desk returned, having only been gone for forty-two minutes, Maeve,
dressed once again as an old woman, sat in the lobby thumbing through a science
publication. The lady at the desk walked toward her and handed Maeve a satchel
filled with cash. Maeve thanked her for getting it, and left. After she
returned to her hotel room, she held the vial of light blue liquid up to the
light wondering what it was. Maeve studied the pictures she had taken of Lee’s
notes, which she’d blown up and projected on the wall. She had difficulty
understanding them but the underlying message was clear. This blue stuff could
disable bonded biomer. It seemed odd to her that something so small and weak
looking could combat the indestructible machines in the TRU building’s
basement.

Maeve
carefully considered her next move. She had only planned to look around the lab
today and here she had gone and stolen something extremely valuable. Maeve
thought about Naja and her mission to now help Tyrine. She opened a small
padded safe and tucked the delicate vial inside.
 
Then, she called Ganesh.

Later that
night, Bearden left the lab and headed home to his flat. On the way, he called
Major Magner to tell him of Lee Tripple’s breakthrough. As usual, Mace wanted
to meet face to face, and right away, but with his new nighttime commitment to
General Pike and Luke, he had to put it off until the next morning. This made
Mace even more impatient than usual with Luke, who had finally figured out that
he was a prisoner, even though he’d committed no crime. He’d had no contact
with the outside except for the short encoded messages that he and Charisa sent
each other everyday through their work. She promised she was doing everything
she could to get him out, but Luke could not imagine how she could possibly
help. His spirits were low and his nights were spent in constant fear for his
life. And tonight, he struggled to tune out the rude and abasing comments from
Major Magner. He was close to snapping, but managed to hold it together. If he
lost control of himself while handling one of the biomachines, the result could
be disastrous.

A few hours
later, another secret meeting was about to take place between Ganesh and Maeve
in Ganesh’s kitchen, as had become the norm. Ganesh once again left his
sleeping wife in bed and sneaked downstairs where Maeve was already waiting for
him.

“It looks
like the weapons program will be shut down,” Ganesh started.

“But how
many biomachines already exist?” Maeve asked.

“Too
many…hundreds. And that doesn’t include the small arsenal of manual weapons.”

“When will
they attack Tyrine?”

“There is
nothing official that I have seen, but I think it’s time you start trailing
Major Mace Magner. I don’t trust him, especially now that his work is
threatened. Get close to him if you have to.”

“Fine. It
should be no problem,” Maeve said.

“I also want
you to check out this programmer, see what you can dig up. I have a feeling she
is an ally.” Ganesh handed Maeve a piece of paper with the name “Charisa Jean
Lind” on it. Maeve glanced at the name and nodded to Ganesh.

“I was in
Tripple Laboratories today,” she said.

“Really? You
got in?”

“Yes, and I
have some information that you and Professor Riles might find useful. I don’t
fully understand it, but hopefully Camden will,” Maeve said and handed him a
folder with copies of Lee’s virus code notes. She considered giving him the
vial of the virus code, but kept it hidden in her jacket for another purpose.

“This is
huge!” Ganesh said looking through the notes. “I mean, if this is what I think
it is…I don’t speak
scientist
.”

“That’s what
I thought, too. It seems Lee Tripple has developed a way to disable the weapons.”

“It’s gonna
take a lot of this stuff to shut down the entire inventory, not to mention
figuring out a way to do it unnoticed,” Ganesh said.

“Well, you
figure out how much is needed, and when you do, I will go back to the lab and
approach Lee Tripple.”

“I can send
word that you will be coming to see him.”

“No, don’t.
Better to catch him off guard, so he won’t have time to censor his lab or the
information we need him to share. I will break in again. Besides, if I go
announced, the lady at the front desk will see me…and she is too much of a
target to have as a witness.”

“I wonder if
she’s already been approached,” Ganesh said.

“I know that
if I were conducting a government investigation and wanted information on an
untouchable facility, she would be the first person I would interrogate,” Maeve
said.

“Hmph. Makes
you wonder why she is still there and not locked up,” Ganesh replied.

“Yes, it
does. That’s why she can’t recognize me,” Maeve said. “I have to go now, and
I’ll be gone for a few days. But when I return, I’ll get right on that Major
situation.”

Ganesh
smiled sympathetically at her and grabbed her hand.

“Be
careful,” he said.

“Always,”
she replied and disappeared into the night. Maeve headed straight back to her
hotel and packed some supplies and a couple changes of clothes. She was on her
way to Tyrine with the vial tucked in her jacket before the sun came up.

At five in
the morning, Bearden awoke to pounding at his door. Knowing it was Mace
Magner,
he dressed quickly and let him in. The major had
dark circles under his eyes and he needed a shave. His face seemed locked in a
permanent scowl.

“Good
morning, sir,” Bearden suggested.

“Tell me
what you’ve got, Sergeant,” Mace snapped.

Bearden told
him about Lee’s breakthrough and the virus code that can destroy the bonded
biomer. Mace, trying very hard to keep his eyes open, acted threatened by the
breakthrough.

“I need that
virus code. And the rest destroyed,” he said.

Bearden
cringed at what he was most likely going to be ordered to do.

“
Sir,
does that mean you want me to…”

“No, not
you. You keep your hands clean in this. I need you to keep your place in that
lab.” Mace said and Bearden sighed with relief. “I’ll get someone to go in and
retrieve it.”

“I’m not
sure if that’s possible,” Bearden said. “That place is a fortress.”

“Surly
there’s a loophole in security… probably with Camden Riles. Find it. I need
that material before it can destroy my program. And remember, we have the good
professor, so fingerprints and retinal maps are easily obtained.”

“Yes, sir,”
Bearden said. He felt his heart drop to his stomach with extreme guilt.

“Let me know
the second you find a way in,” Mace ordered.

Bearden
nodded and the major stomped out. He went straight home to get an hour of sleep
before the workday started. Bearden undressed and took a shower, knowing he
would be unable to fall asleep again with this new weight on his mind.

Across town,
Andreas awoke in Charisa’s bed. He leaned over and smiled at his sleeping
sweetheart and kissed her on the forehead. Then he got up to make them both
breakfast. Twenty minutes later, the smell of toast and eggs enticed Charisa
from her bed. She put on a robe and went in her bathroom to get ready for the
day...and it was going to be an exciting one.

When the two
sat down for breakfast, they looked nervously at each other. Charisa and a
small team of programmers were going to begin installing her signal amplifiers
in the Phase One biomachines today. She had requested Andreas to oversee the
soldiers who would be on hand and that they were armed in case of an incident.
He would also provide a cover for her to test Luke’s first attempt at a
self-destruct program that he was secretly working on. She would try it out on
only a few of the biomachines, so it would look like a random event if it
actually worked and the biomachines shut themselves down.

It was a big
day for Camden Riles as well. He would begin working with some elite government
engineers on turning his theoretical space-bending machine into a practical
apparatus. After studying Rhys’s scribbles day after day, he’d made a few minor
adjustments to his original plan, but still didn’t believe a working prototype
was possible. When his usual entourage of Ganesh, Quinn, and Aldretti arrived at
his living quarters, he was ready to go, enduring a healthy sense of sarcasm
about their mission.

“The general
plans to check on your progress sometime this afternoon,” Ganesh said as the
four men walked through the space travel division of TRU.

“I can hardly
wait. It will no doubt be an eye opening visit for him,” Camden said. Quinn
snorted to stifle a laugh at Camden’s blasé attitude.

Twenty
minutes later, five engineers were sitting around a conference table, staring
at Camden with disbelief as he explained his space-bending theory and prototype
plan.

“Is this
some kind of a joke?” one of them asked.

“I almost
wish it was. But unfortunately, this is what General Pike wants and we are the
ones chosen to make it happen,” Camden replied, then thought,
and the sooner the better. So, I can get the
hell out of here.
He forced a smile that was meant to encourage his new
team.

“Well then,
ladies and gentlemen, let’s get started,” Ganesh chimed in with his own version
of an encouraging smile. Quinn was busy taking notes on the entire proceeding.
Slowly, smaller conversations broke out around the table as the engineers
looked hard at Camden’s drawings and started making their own notes. Camden
walked around the table answering questions about the physics of what the
machine needed to do, and taking their suggestions to improve his work. By
lunchtime, they were ready to move from paper to model building. Ganesh sent
Quinn and Aldretti to the cafeteria for sandwiches and soup for the team, and
then cornered Camden privately when they left.

“I have
something for you,” Ganesh said. “Maeve brought it to me from Tripple
Laboratories last night.”

“She’s been
inside? Does Lee know?” Camden looked shocked.

“No, he
doesn’t know. She snapped some pictures of his notes, that’s all,” Ganesh
replied.

Camden shook
his head with uneasiness. “I can’t believe she actually got in. Lee would have
a conniption fit if he knew.”

“Aside from
that, Cam, aren’t you the least bit curious about what she found?”

“Yes, of
course,” Camden said and scrunched his eyebrows together.

Ganesh
looked around quickly to see that no one was paying any attention to
them
, and then pulled a thick folded envelope out of his
jacket. Camden took it and quickly shoved it into his own suit jacket. Ganesh
raised his eyebrows and smiled. “I told you she was good,” he said.

“I think
I’ll visit the men’s room before lunch,” Camden said.

“I didn’t
think you’d be able to wait the rest of the day to read those,” Ganesh laughed.

Camden
rushed to the far corner of the room and went into the small bathroom and
locked the door.

Minutes
later, he was saying out loud to himself, “He’s done it, I can’t believe it.
He’s actually done it. And it’s tested with positive results.” Camden was
grinning from ear to ear, shuffling the five pages in his hands and reading
them over and over, when there was a knock at the door. Camden looked up from
the papers and realized that someone might have to legitimately use the
facility. He folded the papers again, tucked them inside his suit and exited
the room smiling at the three engineers who had formed a small line outside.
Camden walked back over to Ganesh and shook his hand. Quinn, who had returned
from the cafeteria, found the gesture rather odd and noted it. While the team
ate, Camden felt a new sense of confidence in his own project. “If Lee can do
the impossible, then why not me,” he thought.
        

Down in
sub-basement of the weaponry unit, Charisa was having a bad day. Her amplifiers
proved to only provide minimum improvement to the biomachines response system,
and the self-destruct program didn’t work at all. It was immediately recognized
as a threat to the overall system and overridden. Damn her foolproof
programming. Andreas could do nothing to help her except to intercept Major Magner
when he made his rounds. When Mace was finally able to catch up with her, she
reluctantly gave her progress report.

“I told you
it would be a damn waste of time!” Mace yelled at her. “Now get upstairs and do
your job of making the Phase Three biomachines better than these useless Phase
Ones. Charisa nodded, and swallowed hard to fight back tears of frustration.
Mace walked by her and smacked her on her backside. “Now go!” he yelled again.

Andreas saw
their interaction and came over in a rage and stood face to face with his
superior with his fists clenched at his side.

“Is there
something you want to say to me, Soldier?” Mace shouted, spewing drops of spit
at Andreas. Andreas just stood there red-faced, fighting hard to keep his
temper under control. Attacking a major was not a smart move, no matter what
the motive.

Mace smiled
his snake-like smile. “I didn’t think so. Now get back to work and stay the
hell out of my face!”

Andreas
stormed away and seriously considered setting two of the biomachines loose in
Mace’s office. Charisa slumped down in her office chair and stared at her
hands. She felt so helpless, like she was trapped in some sort of sick
nightmare.

An hour
later, Andreas went to her office to check on her and to also share some news.
Charisa wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his neck. He stroked
her hair and kissed her on her head.

“I could
kill that son of a bitch, Magner,” he said, just above a whisper.

“Yes, I wish
we could, but then we’d probably never find Luke,” Charisa replied. Andreas put
his hands on her shoulders and pushed her slightly away from him. He looked
deep into her eyes.

“Charisa, I
didn’t mean literally kill him, but I think you did.”

She turned
away from him and returned to her chair.

“Of course I
didn’t. I’m not capable of that,” she said, trying to convince herself as much
as Andreas, “It’s just that every time I see him, I feel this hardness in my
chest, you know? I think about it sometimes…what it would be like to see him
suffer. It’s a satisfying thought. Should I be ashamed?”

Andreas went
to her and held her hands in his.

“Sometimes I
forget how much worse the major is to you than to anyone else. And if you are
ever in a position to make him suffer, it will be well deserved.”

Charisa
nodded, somewhat comforted. Then she took a deep breath.

“Oh, what a
horrible day,” she said, “I failed with my amplifiers and I have to get a
message to Luke that his programming failed too.”

“We’ll find
Luke, he can’t be far, and the two of you will find a way to tame those
biomachines. Today was just a bad day. You haven’t failed; you just need more
time.”

“At least I
have you,” Charisa said and managed a smile for him. “When you came in, you
looked like you wanted to tell me something.”

“Yes, but it
may not be good news and I don’t want to make your day any worse.”

“I’m fine,
really. Tell me.”

“When I
walked away from Major Magner earlier, I was so angry that I went down to where
the first Phase One biomachines are chained in their cells. I wanted to see how
many there were that we could use, unnoticed for Luke’s next self-destruct
test.”

“How many?”
Charisa asked.

“Oh, there
are enough, for now, about two hundred actually. But I also found twelve empty
cells. We have been so tight on space for housing the biomachines, I don’t
think twelve cells would be empty that far back in the sub-basement by
accident,” Andreas said.

“What are
you saying? Do you think they were taken?”

“I don’t
know of any other explanation.”

“Do you
think they are already attacking Tyrine?” Charisa asked then shook her head.
“No, maybe they are just in a separate training area.”

“Wherever
they are, they are not where they should be. And whoever is responsible for
them knows that no one ever goes back there. The whole division is too
concerned with building the new housing facility outside, and training Phases
Two and Three.”

“Well, I can
guess who is behind it,” Charisa said.

“Magner,”
Andreas replied. “That makes the situation more dangerous than we thought.”

“Andreas,
try again to find that nurse. I’m going to write to Colonel Ganesh again,” she
said.

“I’ll try,
but I have a feeling we are searching for a ghost. I think you should be up
front with Colonel Ganesh. Just tell him what you know.”

“No, I’m
afraid to trust anyone in TRU. If I tell him, I might be the next person to end
up missing or dead.”

“Think about
it, Charisa. We are running out of options and we need his help. You need to
decide how much you are willing to risk to stop the biomachines from being set
loose…and to find Luke.”

“I’ll think
about it,” Charisa said softly.

“When you
are finished working, call me and I’ll take you home,” Andreas said and went
back to work training Phase Two biomachines.

General Pike
was upstairs making his visit to the space travel branch as promised. Ganesh
introduced him to the other engineers assigned to the project. Camden explained
the plans with a smug scientific sophistication, as he knew the general
wouldn’t possibly grasp the jargon & concepts. Pike seemed pleased with the
work that had been started, in spite of Camden’s attitude, and said so to
Ganesh, before he left. General Pike motioned for Sergeant Quinn to come with
him when he walked out. Once they were behind closed doors in the general’s
office, he asked,

“So, Agent
Quinn, what do you think of all this?”

“Believe it
or not, I think it could work. Rhys Krell’s contribution was vital. It was a
good call to bring him in. Camden wouldn’t have come to the adjustments on his
own,” Quinn replied.

“Good. What
about Ganesh?”

“I followed
him last night to his home. He had a visitor arrive at 3:27 and leave at 3:49.
I kept my distance in case she is of the same caliber as me. I snapped a
picture of her. It’s in my daily report along with the notes from Camden’s work
today.”

“Who do you
think this woman is?” Pike asked, thumbing through the notes Quinn had just
handed him, and thinking of the mysterious nurse that had appeared in the thick
of the biomachine chaos.

“Don’t know.
I ran her picture through the database and she has no Daxian identity. So, she
is either from Tyrine or…as I mentioned before, like me.”

“Good work,
Quinn.”

“Thanks.
Have you made a decision on when you plan to eliminate Ganesh?”

“I think
we’ll let this all play out a little longer. I need Camden Riles to build that
machine and he’s too close to falling off his rocker to lose Ganesh, too.”