Chapter 9
Open apology
"Hello. By my calculations, if you're watching this CD, then my greatest fear is realized. Mal-Tech, the industry I have helped for years, is on the move. And you're possibly FBI or CIA, looking for clues as to why it's happening. For starters, let me say I'm sorry. I'm sorry to you, because you have entered the gates of hell now. And if my daughter is watching this then I must say this. Aelita, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything you have faced, and will face. There are certain aspects of your past and future that will determine the future of the human race. And if she does watch this, my wife. Antea… baby, I'm sorry I can't be there in person to tell you this, but you have been a better part of my life. I have and always will love you. And I will see you again one day. I promise."
The three agents watched the screen as a short young man with gray hair continued to speak about how much he loved his family. They noticed how many times the man paused, before he continued on about how much his family meant to him. Clearly, a sign that he was getting choked up on what thought was racing through his mind.
"This man is obviously scared for his family. He feels like he may have signed their death warrant." George noticed as he drank from his coffee.
They watched as the scientist drank from his water and then began his discussion.
"Now, as for questions you obviously have. In my efforts to create a hero, Beelerophon, I found a monster, Chimera." Schaeffer said as he turned a light on in the background.
"When I graduated from MIT, I was offered a position in the United States military, research division. At the time, Mal-Tech was a branch of the division. And I was assigned to a project in the northern region of Alaska . Project: Vorseas. We were not informed of what it was, and we were threatened with death if we ever talked about it. Unfortunately I can not go into detail since the CD doesn't have enough memory for it. It was there I met my wife, Antea. A literal angel, after the project was finished. We were assigned to project Carthage, a runoff of Vorseas. It was disguised to the U.S. Government as a weapon to disrupt enemy communications. It was a weapon all right-- one using the results and finding at Alaska to furnish it with. I could not allow for this to happen, for I knew just what it would mean if they were allowed to. We would see our very world end in an epic catastrophe."
The CD suddenly paused as it loaded the next entry. The three agents looked at each other in disbelief. This man was either crazy, or was telling the truth.
"What do you think it was he helped find in Alaska ?" Travis asked.
"Well from what it sounds like, it was enough to scare him into trying to prevent it. It..."
George was suddenly cut off by his cell phone. It indicated he had just received a text message. He gazed at the number and realized that he didn't recognize the number at all.
"What is this?" George asked as he stood up.
"What is it?" Jessica asked as she paused the CD.
"It's a text message saying, "Get out. They're coming for the CD. Signed, a friend." What the hell does it mean?" George asked.
Suddenly there was the sound of car doors slamming. Travis walked over to the window and watched as three men walked their way. And there he saw it. One of them suddenly flashed a pistol with a silencer on it.
"Shoot, we got trouble." Travis said as he pulled out his pistol and pulled back the hammer. "Get the laptop, we gotta get out of here."
Jessica grabbed the laptop and closed the lid as George put his cell phone away and pulled out his revolver. Jessica backed over to the corner and realized that she was just a case worker. She didn't have a gun to defend herself with. She leaned back against the wall and waited for the fire fight to begin.
The three agents walked over to the hotel room. The two rookie agents had Barreta m9 pistols with silencers attached. Thompson pulled out a black desert eagle and attached a silencer to it as well. The thing looked like an expansion of the current barrel. He loaded an extra magazine and walked over to the side of the door. One of the other agents walked over to the other side of the door and crouched down. The final agent crouched behind the door and pulled out what looked like a small drill. He stuck the piece on the end and placed it in the key hole. He then began to drill away at it.
Inside, the three feds heard the noise and knew what was coming. Travis knew that two against one was not good odds. The he noticed it: the window in the bathroom. It was large enough for someone to get through.
Travis motioned the others to the bathroom. Jessica silently crept over and removed the screen. George then proceeded to lift her up until she pulled herself out of the window. She then turned around and helped George out. The noise was getting louder as the door knob began to wiggle violently. As soon as George was lifted up Travis walked over and tried to get out of the window as well. He was half way out when he felt a sudden tug on his paint leg. His belt loop was caught in the window. He attempted to untangle it when suddenly he heard the door knob hit the floor. He finally got it free when the door busted open and bullets flew into the wall where Travis had been caught up at.
The three agents ran around the corner. George stopped and crouched on the ground, aiming his gun at the window. One of the agents jumped out of the window as George fired at him. The bullet missed but caused the agent to drop his gun. George ran to the car as Travis covered him from the car. Thompson turned the corner and fired 3 shoots at Travis. One shoot shattered the rear window of the mustang while the others flew over his head.
Jessica started the car and threw the laptop in the back. George opened the car door and leaned out from the side, firing another shot at Thompson. The bullet hit Thompson, but for some reason, he didn't fall over or show any indication that he was shot. Instead he aimed for George and fired again.
The bullet grazed George's arm as he managed to climb into the car. Travis followed as he started the car and drove onto the interstate. Thompson and the two agents got in their Mercedes and followed the mustang.
The mustang weaved in and out of traffic. It ran some cars off the road while others accidentally ran into other motorists. In the back, George dialed 911 and got in touch with the local police department.
"This is agent Knight of the FBI. I am requesting back up on interstate..."George was cut off as the Mercedes Benz rammed the rear end of the car. Travis accelerated as the Mercedes continued to pursue them down the interstate.
"Travis. The police are on their way." George replied as the Mercedes attempted to drive up onto their left side. Travis cut the car to the left hard as the Mercedes hit the cement divider.
"Who the hell are these guys?" Jessica asked as she put the laptop in the floor board.
"I don't know but I'm not going to stop and ask." Travis exclaimed as he speed up a little more.
The Mercedes finally pulled up on the left and then rammed the Mustang again. This time Travis lost control and skidded into the side of a semi, tearing up the right side of the car. Travis tried to pull away until the Mercedes hit the Mustang again. This time it kept the Mustang in the side of the semi as the car slowly began to wear away.
George grabbed his pistol and shot out one of the tires. The Mercedes began to swivel and swerve left and right until the car flipped on its side and rolled over. The car landed on its roof as it slid to a halt. Two other cars accidentally hit it as they tried to avoid the car.
The mustang stopped and pulled over as the sound of police sirens filled the air. Travis got out and pulled out his pistol. He loaded a fresh magazine into it and slowly made his way to the flipped car. A police cruiser showed up as two officers leaped out and pointed their guns at the wrecked car. George flashed his badge and shouted to the officers to keep their guns on the car.
Travis slowly walked over and opened the driver side door. He had to force it a little as he popped it open. But to his surprise, the car was empty. There was no sign of anyone. He did however notice a weird device on the steering wheel. It looked like the remote to a toy car. It had an antenna and a dial on the bottom.
"Are they okay?" Jessica asked as she stepped out of the car.
"They're not here. There's a thing on the steering wheel but there's no one here."
Suddenly a beeping noise caught Travis's attention. He noticed the device had a light on it that was flashing faster and faster. That's when he realized what was going on.
"BOMB!!" Travis shouted as he ran from the car. Suddenly the car exploded in a loud fireball that engulfed the car. The hood and roof fired off the car and landed on the pavement. The explosion threw Travis several feet as he landed on his face. The fire slowly subsided as Travis stood up and stared at the car. A few seconds later several police officers ran to the car, trying to dowse the remaining flames. Travis felt George lift him up and help him over to the car. Travis felt a warm substance trickle down his forehead. He touched it and looked at his hands. Blood.
"You all right man?" George asked as he motioned for Jessica to walk over to them.
"Yeah. I just got the air knocked out of me." Travis murmured as he got to his feet and stared at the burning piece of machinery.
"Man, you hit the pavement real hard. Are you sure you're fine?"
"I told you I'm good." Travis reassured.
The fire department arrived and removed their hoses and fire extinguishers as they began to put out the fire. One of the fireman yelled that there was no one inside the car.
George and Travis walked back to the car. Jessica was holding the laptop close to her chest as she panned the area.
"Okay. So where did the Matrix wannabes go?" Travis asked
"What was on the steering wheel?" Jessica asked
"It looked like a big box with circuits and wires wrapped around the steering wheel. Kinda like the remote to an R.C. Car." Travis explained as he wiped more of the blood from his forehead.
"They weren't in the car." Jessica said. "That Box was driving the car all by itself."
Travis and George looked at Jessica who tightened her grasp on the laptop.
"They were after the CD. They didn't want us to see it." George spoke in a shaky voice.
"Maybe we should take it someplace safe to view it." Travis suggested. "Of course, after we deal with this thing here."
The police and fire department coned off the area. The police were informed of who they where looking for and to examine any black Mercedes Benzes with the matching description. Traffic was backed up almost a mile. And in the back was a black SUV. Thompson was standing outside staring down the road at their wrecked car. He knew that there would be other chances, but this would only slow down their plans. But what he couldn't understand was who tipped them off? There were only a few people who knew about it. It couldn't have been their A.I. Xervix, who was busy attempting to locate the 2nd Super computer, and the two subjects.
Thompson pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number. He spoke into it
"Extraction failed. Moving on to option 2"
Odd lazily hit the snooze button on his alarm clock. He slowly creaked on eye open and gazed at the time. 6:00 A.M. Another day ruined. He slowly rubbed his eyes and gazed over to see Kiwi lying at the foot of his bed. The dog was painting heavily and had his long tongue hanging out of his mouth.
Even with the air conditioner, it was a greenhouse in the room.
Odd rolled over to see Ulrich's vacant bed. Where is he? Odd wondered as he slowly got up out of bed, trying not to wake Kiwi. He walked over to the dresser and picked out his wardrobe for the day: the usual, a purple sweater and a dark blue pair of khakis. Hey, some people called it weird, but Odd saw it as a way of expressing himself.
Odd quickly dressed himself and stepped out side. The line for the showers was long. They lined all the way back to the stairwell. Any more kids in line and they would have to start going up stairs. Odd walked to the end with his tooth brush and tooth paste. He glanced in and out of the crowd, attempting to see if Ulrich was in line. He didn't spot him so he figured that he must have been either in Jeremy's room or waiting for Yumi to show up. Yumi, Yumi, Yumi, Odd thought. Ever since Ulrich and Yumi started dating it's been Yumi this, or Yumi that. Talk about being obsessed. Odd thought. Even Jeremy and Aelita aren't that obsessed.
Odd decide to check Jeremy's room and see if Ulrich was in there. If anything he could at least see if Jeremy was up. He stepped out of line and walked down the hall. He knocked on the door and heard a reply from the inside. He opened the door to see Jeremy just now putting his shirt on.
"Hey Jere." Odd spoke as he entered. "OHH look at that manly physique."
" Huh, amazing what typing on a keyboard can do." Jeremy joked in the background
"Now I see what Aelita sees in you." Odd joked back making Jeremy's face turn red. "Have you seen Ulrich?"
"No. Have you tried the showers?"
Odd shook his head in response. "I thought maybe he came and woke you up or something, seeing as how you've spent so much time playing that P.C. game you bought."
"Hey what can I say? It's a great game even for people like me who aren't into games that much. Besides I wasn't playing that game last night."
Odd stared at Jeremy for a minute and looked at the computer. On the desk was a pile of CDs marked with certain dates and titles written on it.
"End of Take, Wrong Exposure, The Key? What are these?" Odd asked
"Those are my journal entries. I created them in case I ever needed to look back at anything for some reason."
"Why were you looking through these?" Odd asked
"Well. It's Aelita's dreams. I'm just worried about her so I'm double checking just to be safe." Jeremy replied
"Are her dreams getting worse?" Odd asked as he looked through a number of CD titles.
"Well Tuesday night she dreamed that she saw her mother. She's been trying to piece these dreams together, and it's wearing her out. So I'm just trying to see if there's anything I missed in either my journal or Franz Hopper's."
"Have you found anything yet?" Odd asked as he put the stack neatly on the table.
"Well… I did find something weird in Hopper's diary. He made several references to " Carthage ". But he never really explains what it is. Or who was chasing him."
"Nothing about her mother?" Odd asked as he walked to the door.
"Only a few things like how he said that 'It's all my fault that it happened to her.' And one weird thing I saw was, 'If only they knew before they sent her.' I don't know what he meant. And then there's this..."
Jeremy held up William's iPhone and showed Odd what was on it.
"He managed to record the noise on his phone."
Odd glanced at it and flipped through it. "Wow. He's got a lot of songs on here. Wonder if he's got that Subsonic's song on here.
Jeremy snatched back the cell phone. He put it on the desk as he explained to Odd how if anything happened to it, William would probably die from shock.
"So did you figure out what the noise was?" Odd asked as he started to thumb through Jeremy's journal.
"Well, I have my computer dissecting certain sounds right now. It's analyzing it and breaking it down into a wave length pattern. Later this afternoon, I'll check it out and see if there's anything I can come up with."
Odd glanced at one CD titled "Code Earth." There was a photo in it. He opened it to see a photo of Jeremy and Aelita from a photograph both.
"Awww. Such a lovely couple."
Jeremy saw the photo and quickly snatched it away from Odd, giving him a dirty glance at the same time.
"So are you two a couple yet? I mean you follow her around constantly." Odd asked
"No I don't!" Jeremy fired back with his face starting to turn red.
"Oh really? Then what where you doing all night? Just glancing over old memories?"
"I—I was… I was trying to help Aelita."
Odd walked over and put his hand on Jeremy's shoulder, reassuring Jeremy that he wasn't joking.
"Just ask her out. She's mad for you too."
"Well, I have thought about it." Jeremy finally whispered.
"Just think. Two brainiacs together. What will the children be like?" Odd smirked.
Jeremy covered Odd's mouth as the door slowly turned. Jeremy feared it was Aelita walking in, possibly after hearing the entire conversation. The door revealed a tired looking Ulrich.
"Hey where have you been? Thinking about what and Yumi might do tonight?" Odd remarked jokingly.
Ulrich just walked in and sat down. He glanced at Jeremy and Odd in a silent, pale look.
"What's wrong Ulrich? You look like you've been dragged by a car...again." Jeremy asked.
Ulrich didn't answer. He stared at the floor.
"Aww come on! You can tell your best buds." Odd replied.
"...Not this time Odd. It's too personal."
Odd looked at Jeremy and glanced back at his best friend. "Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?"
"Sorry Odd. I just don't want to"
"Well if you ever want to, just let your favorite dude know, okay." Odd replied with a smile.
Ulrich managed to let a small smile creep out as he stood up.
Odd decided to go and get his shower for the mourning. After he walked out of the room Ulrich also started making his way to the door when Jeremy stopped him.
"Hey uhh Ulrich. Can I ask you for some advice?"
Ulrich stopped and turned to face his short brainy friend. Jeremy had his head bowed down a little as if he was nervous about something. Ulrich wasn't really in the mood to give any one advice. But he noticed by the look in Jeremy's face that it must've been important.
"Uhh yeah sure. What do you need?"
Jeremy took a few minutes to decide what he wanted to say. At first he told Ulrich to forget about it. But Ulrich insisted that Jeremy tell him.
"Okay. Umm. How did you and Yumi first go out?"
Ulrich suddenly looked at Jeremy with a confused look on his face. "What do you mean?"
"Well. As I'm sure you know, I've been helping Aelita out a lot. Like buying her stuff for her. And letting her stay at my house over the weekends or holidays. And I kinda would like to go a little further and make it official. I think she has some idea but how would I approach her?"
Ulrich stared at him in disbelief. "Just ask her. Aelita wouldn't hurt you or anything. And I think she kinda wants the same thing." Ulrich suggested.
"What do you mean?"
"What do you mean, what do I mean? She is always hanging out with you. The time at the concert she almost bailed out until you insisted she even decide to give it a try. And you have been there for her time and time again. Not to mention how many times you two have kissed each other. Its only natural she develop a crush on you. And it's obvious you have a crush on her." Ulrich insisted.
Jeremy looked at Ulrich. "Is it that obvious?"
"Since day one, Einstein. Anyone with eyes could see it."
Jeremy turned around to check the time and noticed that it was almost breakfast time. "We better get going. I think Odd will join us later and..."
Jeremy noticed Ulrich holding up William's phone. He looked at it at first and turned to face Jeremy.
"Why do you have William's iPhone?"
"William's phone got the same call as Odd's." Jeremy replied "He recorded it and now the computer's working on deciphering it."
Ulrich put the phone down and looked at Jeremy. Jeremy knew the past that William and Ulrich had. How William had given Ulrich such a hard time, how he was possessed by Xana. And how he almost took Yumi from him.
"Look I know about you and William's past, but he's changed a lot. He's really quite different."
"I still don't like him or trust him. And the fact that William got the phone call as well doesn't make this any better." Ulrich responded.
"You know, thanks to William, I didn't have to go and get staples in my arm. Or go to the hospital."
"I don't care if you or Odd or Aelita like him. But Yumi and I are still cautious. Sure he's okay. But I don't like him as much as to call him a friend."
Jeremy walked to the door and opened it as Jeremy and Ulrich both walked out into the hallway. "You know, maybe William's not the only one who needs to forget the past."