Chapter VI
Looking at Dorn's translations and a pile of documents printed out from the Database's resources, James Crow could at least say now, that he solved a part of the puzzle. Martin Stein betrayed and escaped from Libria. Hadn't he done that, he would be found very quickly – anonymous reports remained one of the most effective ways of capturing offenders.
11.05.2040 – It's not just Stein I am looking for. It's the classified knowledge the Vice-Council is about. Knowledge that – if not us – would serve the Resistance. Knowledge which must be extremely sensitive, if it lead the creator of Prozium to treason.
The phone rang, interrupting Crow.
"Investigator Crow, you are to report to the Vice-Council on the double," was the order.
"Yes Sir" Crow answered, knowing that sooner or later the Vice-Council will request him to report on his investigation. He took the translations and headed out.
"Investigator Crow," the Vice-Council started, as James entered the office, "You know why did I call you, don't you?"
"Yes"
"So," DuPont looked at the investigator curiously, "what have you found so far?"
"Martin Stein is not on our side anymore. Besides, the gathered information allows me to assume, that he is now somewhere in the Nethers. More, the Tetragrammaton was being infiltrated."
DuPont raised his eyebrows.
"Continue," he said.
"As for the treason," James started " it became clear to me, when I read some of Stein's notes. One of the scientists, Michael Dorn, translated them for me."
Crow handed the notes to the Vice-Council.
As DuPont read them, he felt anger – at Martin and at himself, for letting Stein out of control. Still maintaining a perfectly calm face, he asked Crow:
"What about your other conclusions?"
"About Stein's whereabouts." The investigator continued "Well, Stein possesses some sensitive information. If he…" Crow hesitated " ceased his support for Libria – and these notes prove it in an explicit way – he would probably like to hand this data over to the terrorists. I'm absolutely sure he is in the Nethers, in the Eastern sectors."
"Yes, quite logical," DuPont agreed, "But I assume you have more to say, don't you, Investigator?"
"I have a theory, Sir" Crow answered.
"Go on." DuPont nodded.
"The escape was prepared. I have reasons to assume that Martin Stein managed to escape disguised as a Sweeper with one of the earliest patrols."
"Interesting. What proof do you have?" DuPont said.
"Here it is," Crow handed the Vice-Council the e-mails he received. DuPont looked at them for a while and said to his secretary:
"Contact me with the II Department, with Investigator Watts."
"Right away, Sir"
The Vice-Council picked up the phone and talked for a while. Apparently, he reached Watts and asked him about the details of his investigation. After about two minutes he finished the conversation and looked curiously at the investigator.
"How do you think he could slip into a police van, completely unnoticed, using an ID of a Sweeper killed just hours earlier and getting the armament from the storeroom?"
"Well, the death occurred between 5 and 6 AM. Simons should be heading for work, so he already wore his uniform. He could be killed on the way. Sweeper uniform is a perfect disguise. Stein's face could be easily concealed by the crash helmet. Besides, no slightest trace of victim's ID was found, so I'm sure Stein used it. Still, he couldn't prepare the escape alone."
"What do you mean?"
"We have some terrorist undercovers within the Tetragrammaton."
"Proof, Crow. Proof." DuPont slightly knocked the desk with his fingers.
"Someone knew the patrol schedule. Someone knew where the Sweeper lives and where he was heading to work. Someone knew which Sweeper to pick as a target. After all, the uniform size had to fit Stein."
"Quite logical." DuPont had to admit. "Still, you suggest that there are more than one undercover."
"Maybe. The one I have on my mind is was Frank Revan, a computer technician. He killed himself by swallowing some cyanide."
"Cyanide is restricted," the Vice-Council pointed.
"Exactly" Crow agreed "The only place where he could get it from, are the labs. I guess Stein somehow smuggled the dose".
"Interesting. Very interesting." The Vice-Council said. "And plausible," he added after a while. "There is only one way we can find out, whether your theory is accurate. Our best Clerics will assist you in your search."
Two First Class Clerics were summoned. James Crow, ordered to wait until their arrival wondered, what factor caused Stein to become a sense offender. He figured Martin was a man of logic – "A perfect human being, free from the flaws of emotions," according to Father's teachings. But if logic and emotions were deemed contradictory, then why the analysis of "Father's Word" didn't prevent Stein from treason?
The answer eluded him.
In the meantime the Two Clerics came.
"Cleric Andrew Ross and Cleric Gabriel Stein," DuPont started "You are assist James Crow in a search for Martin Stein, who defected to the terrorists with some extremely sensitive information. It is critical that you find him."
"Yes Sir," both Clerics answered.
"Sir," Crow asked, pointing with his head in the direction of Cleric Stein "Is it this Stein?"
"Yes," the Vice-Council answered "Why do you ask, Investigator?"
"I don't think it's a good idea…"
"Investigator," DuPont interrupted icily "He's one of the very best and he will take part in this search. Are you questioning my orders?"
"No, Sir." Crow answered.
"Let it stay that way. You may leave, Investigator."
James turned around on his heel and, when he was about to leave the office, Cleric Stein said:
"Never question my loyalty, Investigator. Traitor is a traitor, no matter the surname he bears."
"I won't," he answered and left, with a dampened, but still present feeling of uneasiness.
"Clerics," DuPont said, when the doors were closed, "Keep an eye on Crow. Don't let him, under any circumstances, question Stein. Understood?"
"Yes, Sir," both Clerics answered.
The expedition was almost ready. As the Sweepers were taking their places in the police vans, a Sweeper Commander approached Crow:
"Investigator, our most recent reports indicate the terrorists' activity in Sector 5E."
"Good. We'll start from there, Commander."
"Yes, Sir."
Crow and the two Clerics got in the police van as well and, after a moment, the whole expedition pulled out.
Sector 5E, one of the least devastated places in the Nethers, was apparently a former residential district. Lines of houses, more or less damaged, looked still fairly good, compared to the Nethers' standards. Located pretty far from Libria, the sector bore code E, meaning that it was the last area within the Nethers, which was in patrols' range. Letter F meant wastelands, where no buildings were present – just burned, mostly barren soil, where only the most resilient life forms could survive.
"They are moving back," Cleric Gabriel Stein started. "Soon they will have no place to hide and we'll get them all, eventually."
"How do you know there won't be new sense offenders to pursue?" James Crow asked.
"There won't be anyone left to misguide them," the Cleric replied in a monotone voice.
"If yes, it won't happen fast," Crow thought. "But," suddenly a new thought appeared in his mind "let's assume the Cleric is right and there is no-one left to oppose. What will be the purpose of the Tetragrammaton – sweepers, clerics, investigators. If there will be no offence to trace - will that be human thoughts, that we will have to trace? There are invisible, thus impossible to track down. A visible enemy is needed."
"Who could misguide Martin Stein, the creator of Prozium?" the Investigator asked.
"I don't know," Cleric Stein asked. "But does it matter? You are asking too many questions, Investigator."
"That's my job, Cleric," Crow rebutted.
"Your job is to seek for every sign of treason, Investigator. Our job is to destroy it."
Crow decided that further discussion would be too risky. The young Stein was well taught. Maybe even too well.
Eventually, the patrol stopped. It didn't take long before everyone got out, including the Clerics.
"This is the area, mentioned in the reports," the Sweeper Commander informed, "We don't know whether they changed their location."
"Let's proceed," Crow replied and the team began the search.
"Stay out of the first line, Investigator. You're not trained in the offensive procedures," Cleric Stein said, without looking at Crow.
"I'm not trained in killing everyone in sight, indeed," Crow thought, checking his pistol.
The search began and house by house was scoured for any human presence. Crow and the Clerics conducted the search from the bottom to the top – in vain.
"Nothing there," Cleric Ross stated.
Something felt different. This wasn't Crow's first search in the Nethers – but it was a first time he came up against a place that seemed completely deserted. No trace of human, no trace of EC-10 – just empty buildings, part of them partially ruined, were to be found. Only the sounds made by the search team disturbed the dead silence. James scanned the surroundings once again, to make sure he didn't miss anything.
"This place is dead. Let's move on. We've got still a lot to do. Keep your eyes peeled," he ordered.
"Jack, they're getting closer," a man, who, even for an untrained eye, looked like a sense offender, said to his companion. "If they'll keep going in this direction, they are going to have our ass."
"Damn," the other sentry sworn. "Adam, I told Jackson that after the last incident we should move out of this sector, not just one hundred meters away!"
"Where?" Adam asked "Given the fact that it is the last habitable sector in the Nethers and the other ones are crawling with the police, we don't have much choice, do we? This is the only place where we can risk hiding."
"Yeah, yeah," Jack muttered. "Let's see what have we got here. Hm. Two Sweeper teams, two Clerics First Class and a strange guy in a gray uniform. He doesn't look like a Cleric to me."
"Let me take a look," Adam took Jack's binoculars. After a while he stated "Fuck, now we're toast. This guy in gray is an Investigator. Unlike Clerics, Investigators are possible to be killed, but in searching skills they exceed Clerics. They're after that old man, no doubt about it. Wait!" The sentry continued to look through the binoculars. "They probably are about to turn left. We might be lucky this time! Yes, they are getting in the vans!" Adam's voice was getting excited.
"Hey, let me see it! That would be too good to be true!" Jack looked through the binoculars for a longer while.
"What?" His companion was getting impatient.
"I'm gonna kill this red bastard as soon as I get my hands on him! It seems like he's trying to stop them. Yes, they're getting out again! And they are heading in OUR direction! We're in deep shit. Better move out and inform the others on the double!"
Adam didn't have to hear the order twice. Now being genuinely nervous, he took a last look back and ran towards the Resistance hideout, located just three blocks from the makeshift sentry post.
"We've got a search team heading our way," he reported, as he bursted into the hideout.
"How large is it?" A man in his mid forties, apparently in charge of the group, asked.
"Two Sweeper teams, two Grammaton Clerics First Class, and one Investigator."
"Investigator, you say. That means they are after our guest. Besides, two Sweeper teams and two First Class Clerics mean trouble."
"We can't defend ourselves here." Adam stated. "Not with two Grammaton Clerics being hot on our heels."
"Agreed. But I've got a better idea…"
"Like what? Surrendering? Then we are toast, Jackson. Literally."
"You don't understand," the man smiled nastily, "You forgot about the B Compound".
A spark of understanding appeared in Adam's eyes and even a more nasty smile appeared on his face.
"The passage?" he asked.
"Yes. There are quite a few surprises awaiting for uninvited guests. Gather everyone and order them to move to the B Compound. And make sure the Clerics and the Investigator will take that passage."
"Oh, yes" Adam answered and ran to carry out the plan.
"Now, this looks like a good place to hide." Cleric Ross stated, after spotting an unusually big detached house, located almost at the end of the sector. "It's almost intact and large enough to stock stockpiles of EC-10 in. Yes, we should check this one."
Crow agreed with Ross' assessment.
"All right, let's move in," he ordered. "Four Sweepers are coming with us".
Four volunteers along with the Clerics and Crow entered the house, while the rest of the Sweepers surrounded it and got their weapons ready to shoot every sense offender that would dare to come out.
"Hm. EC-10 material." Cleric Stein stated as he saw pictures hanging on the walls along with some drawings, probably made by the sense offenders themselves. "They must be here somewhere."
The search team looked into every room, finding no-one. Upstairs, aside from more EC-10 material, such as books and paintings, they found nobody as well.
"Anybody got a flamethrower?" Cleric Stein asked.
"Our primary objective is to find Martin Stein, Cleric." Crow answered.
Stein looked at Crow. A bugging feeling of impatience which, though always dampened by Prozium, never fully abandoned him, now started to surface, which was an imminent sign that the dose started to wear off. He couldn't wait for the day to come when the last sense offender will be killed, the last piece of EC-10 will be burned – and he, Gabriel Stein, will be the one, who pulls the trigger.
Gabriel's watch beeped, reminding him to take the next dose of Prozium. His hand wandered to the pocket of his coat, searching for the PIU. Stein grabbed it firmly, as if it wanted to run away and, after injecting the next dose, he felt that nothing distracted him this time. Reaching again a Cleric state of mind, he stated:
"There's still the cellar left. Let's move."
The team moved back to the hall, where the entrance to the cellar was located. As one of the sweepers opened the door, he had to light his flashlight in order to see something. A dark corridor lead downstairs. Carefully, the team descended downstairs.
"They must have hidden here somewhere," the Sweeper, who entered as first, said. "Look what I've found."
Crow looked at the item. It was a fairly worn book. The Investigator had some, difficulties to make out the letters on the cover.
"Ray Bradbury. Fahrenheit 451," he read. „We're going to burn it later, along with other EC-10. Be careful." He said, while putting the book in his pocket.
They eventually reached the cellar. Unlike the previously searched rooms, this one seemed completely empty.
"Are they invisible or what?" one of the Sweepers asked.
"There is a more rational explanation" Cleric Ross answered. "Over there," he pointed with a flashlight. "A trap door".
One of the Sweepers approached cautiously the trap door, examined it and opened. He didn't know that by doing this he pulled out a safety pin. A grenade that was installed beneath, exploded, killing the Sweeper instantly. Fortunately for the rest of the team, they were far enough to avoid any damage.
"They were expecting us" Ross said "Proceed with caution, one by one."
The Sweepers obeyed and descended one by one, with their flashlights on, keeping a safe distance. They scanned the passage very carefully, looking for every possible trap.
"Nothing there. Let's move on."
A brief moment of inattention sufficed. The leading Sweeper stepped on one of the planks, that were lying around. It broke under his weight and caused him to fall into a pit. The fall proved fatal, because he fell on several sharp stakes, fixed there.
"They thought about everything, didn't they?" one of the remaining Sweepers stated rather than asked.
"What a mess." The other Sweeper said, when he saw some more planks leaning against a wall and a pile of junk, which made the corridor much harder to pass. "How did they get through this?"
"I'm not touching it"
"Wait! There's some kind of door" Indeed, right beside the pile, there was a wooden door.
"Don't touch them! Hell knows what's behind them!"
"Am I supposed to go through this junk? Now there they could hide some nasty things."
"But don't you think that going through the door would be too easy?"
"Do you think that the whole group of Sense Offenders would go through this pile of junk?"
"I don't know. You go first!"
The Sweeper, who didn't want to go through the junk, pressed the handle, which turned out to be a fatal mistake. Electric shock was another surprise prepared by the Resistance members for the intruders. The Sweeper didn't have any chance of surviving.
The last remaining Sweeper aimed his machine gun and started shooting at the pile.
"Stop it!" Cleric Ross ordered. "The last thing we need is that the whole Resistance knows are exact location, Sweeper!"
"How am I supposed to know, what's in there?" the Sweeper answered.
Fear. Cleric Ross sensed it instantly. In some cases the fear was so strong, that it overrid the effect of Prozium. This never happened to the Clerics – their training effectively prevented that. But the Sweepers – especially the young and with relatively little experience, such as this one – they could fall a victim to it.
"Take another dose, Sweeper," Ross said.
The Sweeper obeyed, but didn't manage to inject the dose. A single gunshot ended his life. It was Cleric Stein, who drew the gun and shot the Sweeper.
Both Ross and Crow stared at him in a brief moment of disbelief.
"What do you think you're doing, Cleric?" the Investigator eventually managed to ask. "Killing one of our men, while our resources are wearing thin? Is that what they taught you in the Monastery?"
"Such sudden manifestations of emotion as this act of panic cannot be tolerated." Cleric Stein answered."
"True, but radical solutions aren't always the best. An extra dose would work just fine in this case." Cleric Rose said. He preferred to keep other remarks, that he was tempted to voice, to himself. "Let's move."
Ross lead the way. Concluding that the pile poses no threat, he pushed the planks so they fell on the floor. Next, he squeezed himself through and so did the others.
"Their inventiveness is impressive," Crow said. "I don't think it was the last of the traps they set here."
"Neither do I." Ross agreed.
Both were right. The Clerics noticed on the way three suspiciously looking threads and an oddly placed metal plate. They managed to get through without triggering the traps and eventually they reached another trap door. Cleric Ross carefully examined it.
He didn't notice anything suspicious in the door itself, but his clerical instinct told him that he should expect something right upstairs. He drew one of his guns and with the other hand he lifted gently the trap door. The place was rather dark, so the Cleric waited, until his eyes adopt to the darkness.
After a while Ross could distinguish the shapes and outlines. From what he could tell, it was a small room, seemingly abandoned. Still, the silence was suspicious. Ross, now alerted, got out and while upstairs, drew his second gun. Relying now on his acute hearing rather than his sight, he searched for any sign of threat. Cleric Stein and Investigator Crow waited downstairs.
Ross assessed, that the room was empty. The only thing he noticed was a door. He came closer in order to see them better. Still remembering, how one of the Sweepers died, he fired a few shots into the lock and kicked the door.
Behind there was another corridor, which made Ross even more alert. He had to admit, that this Resistance group was exceptionally smart. He could forget about the Gun Kata in a narrow corridor.
In the meantime, Gabriel Stein and James Crow came upstairs, drawing their guns as well, and, after their eyes adopted to the darkness, they followed Ross, keeping the safe distance.
Andrew Ross proceeded carefully, expecting some more booby traps. This corridor was narrower that the underground passage, so he would have a hard time avoiding possible traps.
The Resistance fighters made use of this advantage mercilessly. Ross heard a barely audible sound and instinctively jumped back, falling on the ground. It turned out that his hearing and years of training saved his life. A second later an explosion shook the place, knocking out Cleric Ross.
"Damn, a proximity grenade! Stay back, Investigator!" Cleric Stein ordered.
Crow obeyed. He had a nagging feeling that someone wanted them to take this route. Feeling like a complete fool he also was aware of the fact that there's no turning back now. All he could do now is to remember that now Gun Kata action it its glory and effectiveness didn't suffice and share this knowledge – if he'll manage to get out of this alive, of course.
Cleric Stein didn't like the fact, that there was no other way than the corridor. He wouldn't be surprised if another proximity grenade was placed.
There was. Unfortunately, Stein's hearing was less acute, therefore he didn't hear the sound. The explosion threw him back and knocked him out as well. But the worst thing were the shrapnels that wounded him.
Crow froze. Now he was alone. He held his gun wondering how to get through. He wasn't a Cleric. The only thing he shared with them was the instinct. And this very instinct told him what to do. Crow held his gun tighter and ran through the corridor like mad. One grenade exploded right behind him. Fortunately, Crow was fast enough and managed to reach another door.
This time he risked pushing the handle. Nothing happened. James opened the door and bursted in with his gun ready to fire. This room, unlike the previous one, was dimly lit, so James could see that he was expected here.
"Put your gun down, Investigator." One of the three Resistance fighters who were standing there and aiming their pistols at James, said.
It was the very first moment in his life when Crow wished that he was a Cleric.