Dopplegänger

II

In another life the boy who now called himself Tojo had been the proud son of a well know scientist and engineer. He had dreamed of becoming a famous inventor of robots, and a scientist. All that had ended because of marital difficulties between his parents, and a near fatal accident that left his father locked up in a mental hospital, and the boy with a troubled mind. Leaving home to live in another country with his mother had been difficult, and starting over in a new school with unfriendly fellow students had only made things worse. He started going by another name, and hung out with an Asian tong that existed among the worst of the schools student population. But the boy was still a genius in his own right, and he hadn't lost his creative talents in technology. He had however turned to the dark side.

Tojo had been working on several inventions, and he was nearly finished with two of them, which he hoped to make good use of as early as the next day. His bedroom in the high rise apartment building in Manhattan's more expensive neighborhoods over had a clear view of the Hudson river and the Palisades over in New Jersey. From his bedroom window, he could see the lights of the George Washington bridge in the distance. He knew that his mother had raked his old man over the coals with the new divorce settlement just before they left Japan and moved to New York City. He also knew his old man had little say in the matter, the courts had been in control of his finances after he'd been committed to the loony bin. That's why she had the money to rent the fancy flat. Not bad for two people who had seemed to come back from the dead.

Tojo unlocked the bottom drawer of his desk and removed the nearly completed circuit board. He connected it to the power supply on his work bench and started probing around the circuity with the digital oscilloscope he'd gotten for his last birthday. He connected a programming cable to the board and plugged the other end into a USB socket on his computer. Tojo opened the diagnostic program he'd written and began to adjust the parameters in the non-volatile memory storage of the device. The display on the oscilloscope slowly stabilized and an LED indicator on the circuit board lit solidly to indicate a lock condition. There, he thought, I've finished it. Tojo disconnected the board from the test setup and proceeded to mount it inside the metal box that he'd already drilled to fit it. He installed the rechargeable batteries and plugged a charger into the completed device. Perfect!

The boy spent the rest of the evening working on his second project. This contraction looked like a cross between a plumber's helper and an electric drill. Tojo put on a pair of thick rubber gloves and then opened the bottom drawer again, this time removing a thick plastic jar with a strong stopper. He placed the jar on top of a thick piece of plastic sitting on the work bench. Now he reached under his bed and pulled out a heavy apron and a pair of thick black chemical resistant gloves, which he then donned. He also put on a face shield. It resembled the kind that welders use to protect their eyes, but without the dark glass. Tojo removed the stopper from the jar and poured a measured amount of the liquid it contained into the tank inside of his second invention. As he poured the liquid, a thin cloud of vapor hovered above his work, and then drifted out the open window of the bedroom. He put a cap on the filler opening of the device, and then re-stoppered the jar. After putting the container back into the drawer and locking it, Tojo removed his protective gear and replaced them back under his bed.

The boy opened his camera bag and removed the expensive Nikon digital SLR to access the hidden compartment beneath where the camera had sat, and put both of the devices into it. He replaced the camera in the bag and then put that back in the closet. Tomorrow he'd put the fruits of his labor to work. He wouldn't need any help from the teenage tong gang, and this crime wouldn't be any small potatoes. This would be the big time.

Astro wasn't as excited as the professor was about the museum.

"Why is this museum so famous, Hakase?" Astro asked.

"The American Museum of Natural History is one of the oldest museum of its kind in the world, Astro." Ochanomizu explained. "They have one of the largest collection of dinosaur fossils in existence, a wonderful collection of rare gems, and a truly amazing anthropology department. You can learn quite a bit of the history of this planet from the exhibits in this place. Visiting this museum was one of the reasons I was looking forward to this trip."

They got off the 8th Avenue subway at the 81 Street station, and took advantage of the exit that led directly into the lower level of the museum. The professor paid for their admissions and stopped to look at the map to get his directions.

"I think our first stop will be the Morgan Memorial hall of gems." he professor said. "I've always had a fascination for how gemstones are formed over millions of years. This collection is amazing, I hope you will enjoy it as well. After that we'll go to see the dinosaur fossils, I'm sure you'll enjoy that, Astro."

Tojo had his camera bag with the secret compartment with him. The upper part of the bag contained his Nikon D5 camera, which the museum guard admired briefly before letting him pass. He'd ducked out of school after he'd been seen in his first class, and with any luck he'd be able to sneak back into the school without being noticed as missing. The museum wasn't crowded, he had picked the right time of day for his caper.

The boy entered the Morgan Memorial hall and blended in with the crowd. The exhibit hall was dimly lit to allow one's eyes to get accustomed to the dark, the better to see the fine contrast in the exhibits which were perfectly lit by well placed and well chosen lighting. The part of the exhibit that he was interested in was located in a particularly dark part of the hallway. The valuable gemstones were placed behind thick glass walls, and ultrasonic alarm motion detectors protected the exhibits. Tojo reached into the camera bag and felt under the camera compartment for the switch to his jamming device. The computer controlled sonic disrupter locked onto the alarm frequencies and emitted an equally large, out of phase signal which would cancel out any detection of tampering with the exhibits.

Tojo waited for the few people standing in front of his target to move on, and then when he saw that he was alone and in the shadow, he removed the other device from his bag. He placed the suction cup like end of the tool against the glass, and pulled the trigger on the gun like handle. Silently the device quickly dissolved the glass wall of the display case using the highly concentrated acid he'd filled it with. Tojo put his gloved hand into the display case and removed a handful of the largest gems and slipped them into his pockets. He then put the tool against the hole in the display case and pulled the trigger a second time. The disk of glass that had been removed was re-welded into position by a second application of the acid mixed with a bonding agent. If one looked very carefully the outline of the disk of glass that had been removed and replaced could be seen, but in the darkened exhibit hall the discovery would probably not be made until Tojo was long gone. At least that is what he was hoping for.

Jay Rafferty had worked in the museum as a security guard for several years. The security systems installed in most of the more valuable exhibits were quite well known, and few could remember the last time a theft had been attempted in the museum. Jay walked through the Morgan Hall keeping an eye on the patrons of the museum, looking for anything out of the ordinary. The well dressed Asian boy who walked past him with an expensive Nikon camera slung over his neck briefly registered, it was the boy's hair with its two distinctive cowlicks that made an impression in his mind. Rafferty watched the boy walk toward the end of the hall and forgot about him, until the boy brushed past him again exiting the exhibit. He hadn't stayed very long, Rafferty figured he was simply bored and wanted to get over to the dinosaurs, or the planetarium.

Professor Ochanomizu and Astro entered the Morgan Hall exhibit and slowly made their way through it. They stood in front of one of the exhibits, the professor taking his time to look at the collection of rubies. Astro stood next to him, trying to look interested.

Tojo retraced his way through the Morgan Hall toward the exit. He noticed the old man and the kid standing next to him. From the back, the boy looked a bit like himself with two similar star shaped cowlicks standing at the back of his head. Tojo suddenly got an idea, he reached into his own pocket and extracted one of the smaller gems he'd just removed from the exhibit case. Using his considerable skills as a pick pocket, Tojo dropped the gem into the boy's jacket pocket without him noticing the act. Tojo then left the exhibit and headed for the museum exit.

Rafferty reached the back of the exhibit hall and was about to turn around and head back to the front when he noticed a strange glint in the light shining on the large exhibit case in the back. He got closer and stared at the contents. After months of working in the Morgan Hall, Jay had become familiar with each of the collections and this one was one of his favorites. He quickly noticed that several of the larger gems were missing from the display. At first he figured that the museum curator must have removed them for study, for no alarm had gone off. He then noticed the barely visible outline of a neat round hole in the glass. Rafferty used his cell phone to call the hot line number that activated a silent alarm. In minutes the police would arrive, along with other members of the museum security. He remembered the boy who had brushed along side of him, the lad had been one of the few people in that part of the exhibit. Rafferty spoke to the security desk, verbally giving them the boys description.

Astro and the professor were now heading for the dinosaur fossils. Several museum security guards ran past them heading toward the Morgan Hall where they had just left.
"I wonder what's going on Hakase?" Astro asked.

"I don't know, Atom." Ochanomizu replied. "They seem to be heading for the Morgan Hall, but we didn't see anything unusual happening there."

The police and the museum security force put the museum on lock down, sealing all of the exits. They were just a few minutes late with that order as Tojo had already left the museum through the subway exit on the lower level. By the time the theft had been noticed, the boy was already heading uptown on the "C" train.

Astro and the professor were stopped as they neared the museum exit. "I'm sorry," the museum security guard told Ochanomizu, "But there has been a theft and we've locked down the museum. No one can leave until the police give the all clear." Jay Rafferty entered area and looked around at the growing crowd of people near the museum exit. He spotted Astro from behind and noticed how his hair resembled the kid who had quickly exited the exhibit. Rafferty spoke with the guards at the exit and pointed Astro out to them. Two of the then approached the professor. "Sir, would you please come with us?"

Astro and the professor were led to a small room and were told to sit down. Two armed guards sat, one on either side of them.
"What's going on, Hakase" Astro asked.

"I really don't know, Atom." Ochanomizu said. "It seems they suspect us in the theft. We were in the exhibit that was broken into after all."

Inspector John McClane answered the call to the theft at the museum. He hadn't yet been briefed on what was going on, and was quite surprised when the guards explained that their suspect was a ten year old boy. The head of museum security played back video from a security camera for McClane. The camera had caught the same view of the suspect that that Rafferty had seen leaving the hall of Gems. McClane was then led to the room where Ochanomizu and Astro were being held and was taken back to see them sitting there.

"You again?" McClane said, turning to the professor.

"I'm afraid so." Ochanomizu said. "We see to have this knack at being in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Have they been searched?" McClane asked the guards.

"No, we were waiting for the police to show up." the head of museum security told him.

"Very well." McClane said. "OK you two, turn out your pockets and dump the contents on the bench where you are sitting."

The professor sighed, and got up off of the bench. He emptied his pants pockets of his wallet, loose coins, keys, and his cell phone. He then turned out his jacket pockets removing the museum map, packet of chewing gum, and a pack of cough drops.

"OK, now you kid" McClane said.

Astro had nothing in his pants pockets, he turned them inside out to reveal just some lint. He then stuck his hands into his jacket pockets. The left one was also empty, but a large star sapphire fell from the right pocket.

"That's one of the missing items from the display case!" the head of security cried.

"Please put your hands up both of you, and stand still!" McClane demanded. He carefully patted down the professor, and then repeated the exercise on Astro, but he discovered nothing else.

"Well it seems we might have ourselves two accomplices in the crime at least." the inspector said. He removed two pairs of handcuffs from his jacket pocket, and slapped the first pair on the professor, and the second he used to cuff Astro. "I'm taking you two down to the police station. We'll talk some more there."

"Can we remove the lock down now?" the Museum head of security asked.

"Might as well." McClane said. " I have a feeling that the rest of the missing gems are already on the street. What we just found was probably only a diversion."