Scene 8
"There's Andy's car." Fargo pointed out the obvious as he and Carter pulled up to Kwon's house.
"So why isn't he answering his phone?" Carter wondered, pulling his phone out of his pocket and hitting Andy's number again as he and Fargo stepped out of the car and headed around to the back of the house.
"Wow, creepy barn." Fargo hadn't seen it before, and the barn was just as ramshackle and run-down in the daylight. A paint job would have done wonders, but most people would also have wanted to fix the hayloft doors, which were hanging at off-kilter angles.
"Yeah, you should try it at night," Carter said absently, listening to the ringing of the phone. The double-ringing of the phone—he could hear it both in his ear, in his phone, and in front of them, in the barn. "Oh, this is not good." He shook his head.
Fargo looked back at him, curiously. "I can hear the phone," he offered, fearlessly walking toward the open door of the barn.
"Wait," snapped Carter.
Fargo stopped, surprised.
Carter pulled his gun. "Let's go for better safe than sorry, okay?"
"Ooooo-kay…" Fargo dragged out the word. "Is the infrasonic sound getting to you? They're just bats! It's just sound!"
"Uh-huh. Tell that to Kwon." Carter put a finger to his lips, and Fargo obediently shut up, although only after a long-suffering sigh. Carter put his back to the wall of the barn, next to the open door, and called out in his most casual voice, "Hey, Andy? You in there?" He waited. No response. With a sigh, he shook his head, and then, with a quick grimace, stepped into the doorway and did a proper police sweep of the area he could see.*
Nothing. He stepped forward slowly, glancing around the barn with quick movements, not letting his eyes rest too long on any one thing. Nothing. No Andy, and no bats.
He walked forward to the area where they'd found Kwon's body and there, at last, was Andy. Fortunately, he wasn't a charred corpse, but he was lying still and silent on the ground. Carter immediately crouched beside him and almost automatically reached to check his pulse—then pulled back. "Fargo!" he called.
"Oh, you mean I'm allowed to come in now?" asked Fargo dryly, entering the barn. "Oh, oops." He joined Carter next to Andy, and immediately started examining the robot deputy. "Hmm, this is odd," he said. He scratched his head, and frowned. "We're going to have to bring him back to GD. There's nothing obviously wrong but…"
"What kind of sound could have done this?" Carter asked urgently.
"Sound?" Fargo looked perplexed.
"Yes," Carter insisted. "What kind of sound could kill a robot? And what would it do to a human being?"
"Ah…God, Carter, you have a bleak imagination. Nothing," said Fargo impatiently. "Well, no. Okay." He stopped and seemed to think for a minute. Slowly, he said, "Cavitation is when bubbles are formed by sound waves or acoustic fields. It can destroy mechanical equipment. It's not like burning or electric shock or the really obvious things that could shut Andy down, but if he was exposed to enough high-frequency sound to cause vibration internally…and the vibrations were strong enough, yeah, okay, sound could have done this."
"And what would equivalent sound do to us?"
"Uh…" Fargo looked blank.
"Fargo, think," said Carter urgently. "There are an unknown number of bats flying around Eureka right now. If they can cause thermonuclear explosions and kill a robot—not to mention scare Jo and Zane, which I would have thought completely impossible—what else can they do?"
"I…" Fargo shook his head. "I don't know. I mean it's sound. Sure, a loud enough sound could damage our hearing. But causing explosions? Damaging machinery? Scaring people? That's all…" he stopped, putting a finger up as if to call for a pause while he considered an idea, and then beginning to nod. "That's all non-lethal weaponry. Well, not the explosion part. But mostly, that's non-lethal weapons. We need to find out who Kwon has been talking to, and what they know."
"There we go," said Carter with relief. "A clear plan. So we just need to find Kwon's phone, or check his phone records."
"Carter?" came the call from the door.
"Hey, Jo," Carter called back. "Come on in. Andy's…out cold. We need to get him back to GD and let Fargo open him up and find out what happened."
"Lovely," drawled Jo sarcastically. "I guess that means we don't get to find out what chemicals are in the barn."
"Not at the moment," said Carter. "Is Zane with you?"
"No," Jo glanced over her shoulder. "He's on his bike, so he should be here soon."
"We think Kwon might have been working with someone in the Non-Lethal Weapons Lab," Carter explained. "I thought Zane might know something."
Jo paused. "You think Zane might have known what was going on all along?" she asked, her voice dangerous.
"No," said Carter hastily. "No, no. No. I just thought he might know if Kwon was friendly with anyone in the null-weps lab."
Jo nodded acknowledgment. She looked down at Andy, and then started looking around the barn.
Fargo looked at Carter, eyebrows raised. Carter grimaced, trying to signal him to say nothing.
"Ah, so, everything going okay with Zane?" Fargo asked tentatively.
Carter gave him a dirty look.
"Absolutely peachy," said Jo, bitterly. "Why do you ask?"
"Ah, no reason," said Fargo weakly. Carter rolled his eyes.
"Hey," said Jo, abruptly. "Did you want Kwon's phone?"
"Yes, if we can find it," Carter eagerly jumped on the change of subject.
"I've got one here," Jo said, bending down and picking up a charred device from the ground. She glanced back to the spot where they'd found Kwon's body. "It couldn't have been on him at the time of the explosion," she said, thoughtfully. "Not and wound up here. But maybe he'd left it on a table or something nearby. Should I be worried about fingerprints?" she glanced at Carter.
He shook his head. "I doubt it. This isn't looking like an outside crime scene to me. More like death by stupid experiment. And at the moment, I care a lot more about who Kwon was calling and what they might know then I do about who exactly is responsible for his death. If we've got killer bats flying around, we need to know that right now."
Jo flipped the phone open, and pressed the caller ID button. "Well, funny thing, that. Guess who's been calling Dr. Kwon?"
Fargo glanced at Carter. This felt like a dangerous question, and he was glad he didn't have to answer it.
"Oh, let me think," said Carter. "Parrish?"
"Bingo!" Jo pointed a finger at Carter.
Fargo heaved an invisible sigh of relief. At least the right answer hadn't been Zane. When Zane had finally figured out that the group of them had experienced an alternate history, Fargo had been almost relieved: at least Jo would stop being so unhappy. Oh, he hadn't exactly been excited about watching the two of them fall in love all over again—bad enough the first time—but an in love Jo was definitely better than a miserable Jo. That said, a miserable Jo just might be better than a furious Jo.
* I am a damn good Googler, as must be obvious once I tell you that I really know nothing about science whatsoever. But I cannot find the name for that police thing that they do at doorways. If anyone knows it, could you let me know, please?
