Chapter 13:
They had a pile of strange to work with. Dozens of machines with sophisticated CNC programs on them. Hundreds of men and women who had been held as virtual slaves for weeks and sometimes months. Piles of strange objects. Crates of high-grade drugs labeled as if they had come from high-tech pharmaceutical companies. It was quite a puzzle. Fortunately Mike had a number of resources at his disposal.
The Incursean Empire had moved into a palatial office tower off Wall Street, tearing down the existing structure and putting up a replacement in just six months. Their Empress had been tireless in getting everything set up. Mike and Lucy had both been to dinner with Ben and Attea, and Mike had gotten to know the young woman quite well. Upon hearing of the investigation, Attea had immediately offered her help to the Plumbers to shut Vanos' little scheme down. Now Mike reached out to that lifeline to get a little more information.
Following Mike, carrying a box full of the strange artifacts they'd discovered in the underground factory, Nick Luchini opined, "I don't understand why we came here... What's a diplomat going to tell us?" The ambassador himself answered that question. He was waiting on them in the conference room. "As with your US Marines, every Incursean is a fighting man, Mr...," said the elderly frog. "Luchini," Nick replied, "Nick Luchini." Smiling his froggy smile, the Incursean explained, "we are all taught to understand weapons from an early age." He'd done twenty years before going into politics.
Mike shook the Ambassador's hand, introducing himself as, "Michael Stack, Plumber's Liaison office." "Your reputation proceeds you, Enforcer. I'm Lasson. How may we aid you?" Mike motioned for Nick to show him the goods. Nick emptied the box on the table. The ambassador spent a while examining the objects they had brought. "This is a plasma lense for a Model 20 Plasma Rifle," said he. Putting the object aside, he said, "all these objects are components of the Model 20..." Frowning, Mike asked, "all of these are weapon parts?" The Incursean confirmed that with a nod. "Any of it made of Neodymium," asked Nick? "Neodymium is a component of nearly all of those devices. There is also Beryllium, Ytterbium, and depleted Uranium..." "Is this stuff hot," asked Mike? "Depleted," said Nick. "Means they took the radioactive part out."
The ambassador asked, "where did you get this?" "Found them in an illegal factory here in the city," replied Mike. "We believe Vanos is behind it..." Nodding, Lasson rumbled, "that's dangerous..." "Why here," asked Nick? "I mean we don't know anythin' about laser-guns..." Lasson gave them a froggy smile and answered, "on the contrary, Enforcer Luchini. Humans are regarded as a very industrious race. Your species is renowned for its facility with machines, and, while you may not understand the physics, your machinists are some of the best in the galaxy." Which Mike took to mean that they were doing low-grade labor on Vanos's project like some third-world country manufacturing screens for iPhones. Except in this case, we're looking at being invaded or bombed, thought Mike. They needed to get this shut down.
"Thank-you for your time, Ambassador," said Mike. "Please inform the Empress that we will be dismantling all the illegal factories..." "Her Majesty thinks quite highly of you, Enforcer," replied the Incursean. "She thanks you for your efforts." Shaking the alien's hand, the two cops got on their way. "Now we know why they need the metals," muttered Nick. Mike nodded. They had had no legal reason to shut down their adversary's trade in precious metal before this. Now they did. He had a phone call to make.
Across town, Lucy walked into a small streetside cafe with Reese in tow. Val was already waiting on her at one of the tables. The two cops walked over and sat down opposite the young scientist. Val opened with, "didn't think I'd see you. You and Mike sure have been busy." Lucy quipped, "shortest vacation in history." Val laughed. More seriously, Lucy introduced her companion, "Val? This is Reese..." Val answered that with, "oh, I met Reese back when she and my brother were dating..." It was only after she said it that she realized she'd stepped in it. Lucy's face froze, and Reese's face went red-hot. Fortunately the waiter arrived to take their orders preventing an ugly scene.
There was a short little dance while the waiter ran down the day's specials. By the time he'd gone to put in their orders, Val had recovered her wits. "So," asked Val, "uh, why'd you two want to see me." Lucy put the bill of lading Nick and Helen found on the table and asked, "ever hear of this company?" Val replied, "I interviewed with them a year ago." Lucy asked, "what do they specialize in? Anything unusual or advanced?" "Tailored delivery," replied Val. "It's the latest breakthrough! You sneak the drug past a cancer cell's defenses. That let's you use less of the drug..." Lucy interrupted her as she gushed about the science, "could it be used to deliver something else?" "I suppose," Val replied. Reese asked, "how many companies are working on this now? In New York...?" "Two or three," answered Val. "I'm working on a project with my boss right now..." Frowning, Lucy said, "let me know if you see or hear anything suspicious..." Clearly a little concerned now, Val asked, "is something wrong...?" Lucy gave her a reassuring smile and said, "nah... Just saw something strange is all."
The waiter brought lunch, and for a few moments the three women ate and talked. Lucy got to hear a little more about what her sister-in-law did. Val asked her what it was like being on TV. Lucy shrugged. After they quit acting like she would suck their brains out for the grins, it was alright. "Ma was thrilled," gushed Val! "She recorded it to show Aunt Edith and Aunt Fran!" Lucy flushed. She didn't really need or want publicity in her line of work! Val opined, "maybe you could get your own TV show..."
"So you're a little green woman," announced a sardonic voice. Lucy glanced over to see an older woman who's teeth and scent said 'chain-smoker'. Lucy replied, "little green cop actually... You are?" "No need to get your panties in a wad," said the old woman. "We don't see celebrities at Max's. I should probably get your autograph..." Indeed several people were watching Lucy now. Lucy had never felt more uncomfortable in her life. All her life, she'd basically gone wherever she wanted and fit right in. She'd always been an anonymous face in the crowd. Now she felt fear for the first time in her life. As if attracted by her fear, a hostile voice growled, "why don't you go back where you came?! We don't need you here!" Incensed, Lucy retorted, "where I came from is Wyoming, so if you don't like my face, you can take a flying fuck at a rolling donut!"
The man stood up and he loomed over Lucy. Reese announced, "you want to go up the river to Sing Sing?" The big man hesitated a moment. Flashing her badge, Reese announced, "you want a case for assaulting a cop? Take one more step." The hostile diner thought about that a moment. While he was thinking, the owner came out and told him to leave.
When the big man had gone, the owner apologized profusely, offering to give them lunch for free. Lucy turned him down. "You didn't threaten me," she replied. "I just want to eat like everyone else, pay my tab, and go." The owner wasn't doing so well that he could afford to give food away, so he thanked her for being so gracious and went back inside. The three women spent the next half-hour trying to find peace again, but peace proved elusive as all three kept looking around in fear, wondering if the angry man would come back. In the end, all three were delighted to get the check.
Lucy paid for lunch, then headed back to the car with Reese in tow. As they walked, Lucy thanked the older woman for backing her up. "Thin blue line, Luce," replied the New York cop. "We need to take care of each other. Alien or not, you and Helen are part of our world." Feeling better, Lucy smiled. When they reached the car, Lucy got behind the wheel and popped the lock. As Reese buckled herself in, she said, "before you jump Mike's ass, we never really dated. He invited me to have dinner with his family. That's all." Lucy glanced over at the other woman and found her looking back with a deadly serious expression. "I sometimes think he'd be better off with somebody without all the baggage," Lucy admitted. Reese laughed, "have you seen the way he looks at you, girl? Totally pussy-whipped..." As the two women howled laughter, Lucy pulled into traffic.
Later that day, Val got back to work after running a few errands of her own. Sitting down in the lab, the young woman eagerly checked the results of the experiment she'd been helping her boss with. The lab assistant–an impressionable younger fellow who was currently a junior at ESU–had just emailed her the report, and Val skimmed the pages, looking for her hoped-for data.
The biochemist frowned at the test report on the screen in front of her. The data she was looking at made no sense. What should have been a tube full of mouse tumor cells instead appeared to be human brain cells. More on point, she'd expected to see the toxic brew that hospitals used in chemo. What she saw was entirely different. The chemical signature wasn't one of the drugs they worked with. Val wasn't sure what it was. One thing was certain.
Mr. Valley's gonna' kill me, thought Val. After weeks of work, the experiment was ruined!
She'd missed coming back the day Lucy got jumped by the cops. Between that and graduation, she hadn't gotten back all weekend. The equipment had been working that Monday when she arrived, so she'd assumed she got away with it. Now she was certain something had gone terribly wrong. She was going to be fired. She was sure of it. As Val pondered the possibility of lieing or talking her boss out of canning her, Mr. Valley himself burst into the office with the assistant, Trevor Holt.
The kid seemed to have screwed something up himself as he kept on apologizing and swearing it wouldn't happen again. "Ah, Ms. Stack," said Mr. Valley. "I was hoping I'd catch you before you opened that email..." Val gave him her patented ditzy teenager look. "I tried to call the email back," said Trevor, "but you already opened it..." Val barely stopped herself from rolling her eyes. Outlook's recall function never worked. Only the clueless didn't know that.
Calmly, Mr. Valley explained, "he mailed you the wrong results... That test was for a confidential customer. Please delete the message now, and please tell no-one about the data. It's for a very important client..." "Sure," said Val. As he watched over her shoulder, she dropped the email in the delete folder. "Thank-you, Ms. Stack," said Mr. Valley as he shook her hand. "Your data's on the common drive in the Results folder." He and their intern walked away, leaving Val alone with her confusion.