Chapter II
On his way to Sector 10, one of the newest sectors in Libria, James was thinking about questions he should ask to gather the largest amount of information as possible. As for searching – James knew that all flats in this sector are the same. After all he lived there, in one of those grey, massive blocks. After doing his job in Stein's flat, he planned to go back home and analyze obtained pieces of information there. It would take him ten minutes by foot. The only thing he had to do was to inform Miller.
"Sir, we're there." Harris, who drove the car, announced.
"Good. We may proceed." – replied the investigator.
The searching team parked and headed towards Stein's flat. After a moment they knocked at the door. A thin, middle-aged and dark-haired woman opened and seeing Crow's uniform, stepped back.
"James Crow, Tetragrammaton. I need to ask a few question regarding your husband's disappearance. In the meantime you'll be blood-tested." – said Crow crisply.
Reynolds took out his Electronic Portable Prozium Tester (EPPT) – a small device used to detect presence of Prozium in blood of the examined person and performed a quick test.
"It's positive." he announced.
"Thank you, Reynolds," said the investigator, "Now, let's get down to the questions, shall we?"
"I'll tell you what I know, Mr Crow." said Stein's wife.
James nodded, took out his notebook and asked:
"What's your name?"
"Elena Stein."
James noted the name and asked:
"Your husband didn't appear at work today. We haven't received any message from him regarding his absence. Perhaps you know something about his disappearance?"
"No," said Elena looking at the young, red-haired man who was questioning her, "He left this morning as usual."
"So he didn't give you any clue?"
"No. He said that he's going to work and will stay until late."
"Haven't you noticed anything unusual?"
"Hm. Let me think." After a moment the woman, suddenly recalling something, said, "Yes."
James had his pencil and notebook at the ready.
"What was it?"
"At evenings he had always gone to the the cellar and stayed there until late."
"What is in the cellar?" Another question was asked.
"His private lab."
"Show it to us."
Elena nodded.
"Follow me," she said.
The investigator and the searching team followed Stein's wife who was leading them to the cellars.
As the search team reached Stein's cellar they saw a well-equipped lab. Numbers of test tubes, flasks, chemical agents, couple of burners, fridge and some other equipment.
"Harris, Reynolds," James instructed the sweepers, "Search for all documents and any other data you can find."
"Yes, sir."
The team started the search. Scouring the cabinets and wall cupboards for any available clue they came up mainly against chemical formulas, scientific books and chemical agents. Mainly...
"Sir!" Reynolds' voice was heard, "I found something!"
"Give it to me." Crow ordered.
Reynolds passed Crow a folder and a CD. It was the hand-written inscription on the folder that attracted sweeper's attention. It read: "The ultimate solution".
The investigator opened the folder and saw couple of chemical reactions with descriptions and a couple of long passages, without any related formulas. There was one problem though - the descriptions weren't written in English.
"This must be one of those numerous pre-war languages," thought James "Which are said to be extinct."
The paper wasn't yellowish yet, so it seemed that the notes were quite recent. They looked like a report from some kind of research. But not a single word was even remotely known to the investigator.
"If this was a standard report, why someone would want to code it?" This question struck James like a hammer.
"When someone wants to hide something." The answer came instantly.
But then another question came. James took a look at the CD cover and saw another incomprehensible description. He didn't see any computer though.
Elena Stein observed the searching team, especially the red-haired man in the Cleric-like grey uniform who was reading some documents – or at least tried to work out their meaning.
"Mrs. Stein – the man raised his head and looked at the woman standing by the door – Could you tell me what language is this?"
Elena approached the man and took a look at the notes, which were in the folder. After a while she said:
"It's German."
"Can you speak this language?"
"No," the woman answered
"Then we'll have to find someone who speaks it," said Crow, "But before we leave, we'll also search your husband's room."
Elena nodded and the whole four headed upstairs towards the scientist's room.
Stein's room didn't differ from Librian standard. A bed, a wardrobe, small desk, a chair and a single bookshelf – that were the entire furnishings.
Martin's desk was the first place where Crow started his search. Looking into every drawer he browsed Stein's notes. Majority of them concerned some of his former researches. Crow took those, which referred to Prozium.
As James finished searching Stein's desk, his eyes wandered towards the bookshelf. Among scientific books and articles there was one book, which every Librian had in his possession: "Father's Word".
Crow wondered whether Stein's scrutinizing approach applied to Father's teaching as well. In order to find the answer he reached out for the book, took it and started browsing it.
He found what he was instinctively looking for: notes. In fact those notes were also written in this strange, incomprehensible language, which was called German.
"I think we've found everything we wanted. Thank you for your help. Should the need arise, we will call you."
"I'll be to your disposal," answered Stein's wife.
The search team left the building and Crow started to consider his next step. He had a CD, bunch of notes and "Father's Word". He was sure about one thing: he had to get somehow these notes translated. He also planned to browse the CD at home, on his private laptop and read the Prozium research notes. A grain of suspicion was sown and more questions came along with the main one: if Stein headed for work as usual and never reached it – then where is his car?
"We're done for now. You can drive back to the headquarters while I'll analyze the data at home. It's not far, I can go by foot." said Crow
"Yes sir!" the sweepers answered.
As Harris and Reynolds drove away, James headed towards his home, which was located two blocks from Stein's flat.
Crow's flat wasn't big. One room, kitchen and a bathroom provided enough room for him. As a man without family he didn't need anything more.
The decor met the ascetic Librian standards. Bed, desk, a cabinet and a wardrobe. The only unusual thing was Crow's private laptop, which was standing on the desk, right by the telephone.
James put his findings aside on the desk, picked up the phone, dialed the II Department's number and Miller's extension.
"John Miller, II Department. Who is calling?"
"James Crow. I found some data which I'd like to analyze at home so I won't come back to work until tomorrow."
"Good," John answered, "In fact, you've made a wise choice."
"What do you mean?" James asked
"The Central Database is down."
Only the dose of Prozium, which James has taken, stopped him from swearing. Now he was cut off from the data, which might be vital for his investigation.
"What did exactly happen and when?"
"Two hours ago." answered Miller
"Right after my departure." thought James
"According to the technicians," Miller continued, "A virus was planted into the system. It corrupted the system files, great majority of Class C and some of the Class B data. The system has been scanned, but the virus couldn't be removed. They decided to format."
"And restore the database from backups?"
"Yes."
"It'll take two days at least." said James and suddenly something struck him, "Is Revan still at large? If he's arrested I must question him."
"I'm afraid it's not possible," Crow's superior answered "The security came for him short after the crash. They found him dead."
"Suicide?" asked Crow
"Possibly. The Medical Section is performing the post-mortem examinations. The result should be known in two or three hours."
"Right. Keep me informed," said the investigator.
"Will do" Miller answered and hung up.
Sabotage – that was James' first thought. He wondered whether it was a blind attack or was it somehow connected with his investigation. He didn't know and he badly needed as much evidence in Stein's case as possible.
He glanced at the stuff from Stein's flat and decided that he'll browse the CD first. He turned on the laptop and inserted the CD into CD-ROM.
As it turned out, the CD contained one single document, merely one page long. It was written entirely in German as well. But as Crow noticed, the document didn't contain a single chemical formula. In fact, it didn't look like a research report. It didn't look like a note at all.
"Why someone would use a CD-ROM for one single document? What's in it? And why it is written in that language?" Questions were appearing one after another.
Without any clue what to do next, the young investigator opened Stein's copy of "Father's Word", searching for notes. Soon he found a passage, where the biggest amount of German notes could be found:
"The source of our power lies in logic. We had chosen not to rely on the Irrational, which almost lead to our end – but to embrace logic, which will tell us how to live. We won't have to be afraid of ourselves anymore. The harmony, which we now experience, shall not be gone. Sooner or later no-one will be willing to reject what our great society has achieved."
James stopped for a moment, for some aspect of Stein's life made him think. This scientist belonged to those Librians, who remembered the pre-war era. Crow realized, that he was investigating a case of a man, who has gone through more things then he, who had never experienced life without Prozium. The man, who had great influence on the shape of Libria – almost as great as Father, is now gone. And all what Crow had were the notes written in German, probably Stein's native language.
James continued browsing the book, paying great attention to the concentration of notes. He could at least figure out, which fragments of the book attracted Stein's attention especially strongly.
Still browsing the pages, he eventually came to an end, where Stein has written only one sentence, which apparently served as a summary: Gibt es Vorzüglichkeit - dann gibt es keinen Menschen .
James knew what to do. He had to find an translator. He had to find a key to Stein's mind. But at this very moment he felt overwhelming exhaustion and headache. Putting away his personal gun, which he always carried with him in case of self-defense and deciding to find an translator tomorrow, he fell on his bed.