Alan stood next to the doorway of the coffee room, Larry at his elbow, and watched sadly as his youngest son worked non-stop at a computer. Trying to decipher the data stream the kidnapper had sent was driving Charlie into a frenzy. Alan couldn't remember ever seeing Charlie this obsessed.
"Perhaps Charles should be encouraged to take a break," Larry suggested. Nodding, Alan replied, "He could use one." Then he shrugged. "But I don't have the heart to tell him to stop looking for his brother. I want him to find Don, too."
"That may very well be," the physicist conceded. "But without some kind of respite, Charles is going to miss something obvious that may very well prove to be Don's undoing."
Alan considered this for a moment. "Yeah," he headed for where Charlie was seated. "Charlie, Larry and I were talking."
"Dad, with all due respect," Charlie didn't even glance up. "I need to work on this right now."
"Charles," Larry began. Charlie interrupted. "Larry, please. You of all people should be able to understand what I'm talking about."
"We both do, Charlie." A note of steel crept into Alan's voice. "But if you're ever going to find what you're looking for, you have to take a break."
Charlie sighed. He recognized the tone, and knew that an argument was both pointless and petty. "Alright. But only for fifteen minutes – that's it." He pushed away from the desk and stood. "Fifteen minutes."
Mildly surprised, Larry said, "I'm glad to see you're being reasonable about this, Charles."
"Nothing reasonable about it," Alan commented. "He knows better than to argue with me."
Charlie squared his shoulders. "I am fully capable of taking a break in order to gain fresh perspective on my work. Besides," he added, heading for the elevator. "I could use some fresh air, as well."
Alan said to Larry in a conspiratorial whisper. "And he knows he's never too old to be put over my knee."
-x-x-x-x-x-
The three men deliberately walked through the park at a sedate pace. Charlie was determined to get back to the computer, but knew a moment of calm would go a long way later. Larry and Alan chatted about nothing in particular. The sky was a clear, hypnotic blue and there was only the faintest stirring of a breeze. Taking a deep breath, Charlie closed his eyes and lifted his face toward the sunlight, savoring the sweet smell of freshly mown grass.
Half a second later he was almost thrown to his knees as someone barrelled into him. He was only saved from that fate by his father's strong grip on his arms. Looking up, he saw three teenagers whizzing by on skateboards.
"Thanks," he gasped. Alan shook his head. "Crazy kids. What were they thinking?"
"I'm afraid," Larry said, "They were probably not thinking of much beyond what they were listening to."
"What are you talking about, Larry?" Alan asked.
Larry made a vague gesture at the teens. "They were wearing those… headphone things. They had those itty-bitty little music things."
"Oh yeah," Alan replied. "Those… what do you call them?"
"MP3 players," Charlie supplied.
"Right," Alan said. "I knew it was something like that. It's amazing, isn't it? The things they can do with technology these days."
"Taking sound that could fill an ampitheater and compressing it into tiny fragments of data to be stored by the millions in a device not much bigger than a traditional cigarette lighter." Larry scratched his head thoughtfully. "Yes, technology is a strange and wondrous thing."
Charlie stared at the two men in astonishment. Alan became alarmed. "What is it, Charlie?" he asked. "What's the matter?"
"You two are brilliant!" Charlie began to run back toward the FBI building. "I'll catch you up later!" he called.
Alan and Larry exchanged puzzled looks. "What did we do?" Alan asked.
-x-x-x-x-x-
Charlie burst into the office at a dead run. Heading straight for the tech station, he pulled out the chair and barely gave it time to stop rolling before he sat and began typing.
"What is it Charlie?" Megan asked as she hurried over. "What have you got?" David and Colby joined her at Charlie's side.
He barely acknowledged their presence. Colby said, "I thought the techs couldn't decipher that."
"That's because," Charlie began, still furiously typing, "If I'm correct, it isn't a code."
David asked, "What is it then?"
Charlie hit one final key and sat back. Numbers began scrolling across the screen. "It's not a code exactly," he said. "It's music."
"What?" Megan asked.
Charlie turned in his chair. "Music. Digital music, to be precise."
Colby snickered. "The guy sent you a message in music?"
Charlie nodded. "It's actually a coded message, but each letter corresponds to a musical note. Using three octaves," He highlighted a portion of the code on the screen. "Each note, from low C up, corresponds to a letter of the alphabet."
David replied, "But there's eight notes in an octave, Charlie. That makes twenty-four, not twenty-six."
"Well, we can take it for granted the kidnapper started at the beginning of the alphabet, because Y and Z aren't as commonly used as A and B." Charlie resumed typing. "It looks like there are several layers superimposed on one another in this message."
"And that's what made it sound like a fax?" Colby asked. Charlie nodded. The three FBI agents stood in silence and waited for the program Charlie was working on to finish.
Alan and Larry came in. "What's going on?" Alan asked.
David replied, "I think Charlie just figured out the code." They joined the agents in watching the monitor.
Several seconds passed before the numbers on the screen began changing into letters.
"It still doesn't make sense, Charlie," Megan said. "What kind of message is that?"
Charlie shook his head. "It's several layers of message. I need to input an algorithm to sort the letters into their respective layers before it can be read."
David nodded at his colleagues. "We'll let you go to it, okay, Charlie?"
The small group began to disperse, but Charlie didn't even notice.
-x-x-x-x-x-
"Agent Eppes, how are you feeling?"
His head was pounding, and he would have cheerfully shot his captor for a drink of water. "Fine."
"Such stoicism," the voice mocked. "Such a fine example of federal law enforcement. Tell me, Agent Eppes – do you enjoy your job?"
Don tried to concentrate his thoughts through the jackhammers going off in his temporal lobe. "What?" He was going to have to get out of here or die trying. He couldn't take much more.
"What's wrong, Agent Eppes? I thought you said you were well."
Slowly, Don pulled himself upright and sat on the edge of the cot. "I need…" Don didn't want to bargain with this animal, but he knew he was dehydrated. "I need water."
The man laughed. "What kind of results would I get if I gave you water, Agent Eppes? The whole point of this experiment is to see how long you last!"
Don stood, staggering slightly. "You sick… twisted…" he stopped, trying to calm his labored breathing.
"Now, now Agent Eppes," there was laughter in his voice. "I wouldn't want to have to adjust my procedures again for you. Just lie down and try not to use up your air." Don remained where he was, swaying slightly. "I won't give you any more, Agent Eppes!" he threatened. "You've thrown off my calculations once already!"
"Good," whispered Don, before he blacked out.
-x-x-x-x-x-
Charlie walked into the conference room, a piece of paper in his hand. The first thing Alan noticed was how pale his younger son was. "Charlie?" he said tentatively. Walking over to him, he asked, "What is it? What did you find?"
Charlie turned his dark gaze to his father's face. In his wide brown eyes, it was clear to Alan that the young genius was terrified. "Charlie! What is it?" he asked again. Charlie handed him the paper.
Alan tried to still the trembling in his fingers as he read the message. Megan had approached the pair, and he wordlessly passed the paper to her. She scanned it quickly. "David, we have to move on this. Now."
David and Colby joined her. Larry asked, "Would someone please let me know what's going on here?" Megan looked at Alan briefly, who nodded. She began to read aloud. " 'Professor Eppes. I have Agent Eppes. He is in an airtight room. He has fifteen hours of air.'" She paused, "When did we get this?"
Charlie said softly, "Almost twelve hours ago."
"Oh my God!" Alan exclaimed. Colby added, "He's got three hours left." If anything, Charlie grew paler. Megan said, "Wait, there's more." She took a steadying breath and continued, " 'Agent Eppes thinks he will be rescued. He believes his brother is smart. If Professor Eppes is smart enough to figure this out, he can find his brother at the old Diamond Mart warehouse.'" David hurried off to get the information on the warehouse. Alan steered Charlie to a nearby chair and made him sit down. Larry put a hand on his friend's shoulder.
"You did an excellent job, Charles," he said softly. "Even the FBI's computer couldn't figure that out."
"I just hope…" Charlie cleared his throat. "I hope this guy's telling the truth about how much air Don has."
Megan suddenly said, "He's using Don as an experiment?" She had scanned the rest of the page while they waited for David to return.
"What kind of experiment?" Colby asked.
"He wants to see how long a human being can survive while being deprived of food, water, light and fresh air," Charlie answered.