Chapter 6: Blast Off
Space Horizons. Friday, September 21, 2007.
The news that Rolf, along with several other major investors, could be currently meeting with Prestini supercharged the musketeers. Neal was as excited as the others. "Our first challenge is to discover if Rolf's really here," he told the group. "He used two names to invest funds—E.R. Bowen and Amos Tuttle."
"Prestini's receptionist will be the best resource," Mozzie said. "Her name is Paola. She's a delightful conversationalist." His words trailed off for a moment. "You'll need to sneak into Prestini's office. The lock won't present any difficulties, but accessing his computer will."
"Trying to deduce his password would take too long," Travis cautioned. "The simplest solution is to remove his hard drive and access the data from there. I doubt strongly it's encrypted." He shrugged. "If it is, the likelihood of Prestini working hand in glove with Rolf is a much stronger possibility."
Sara frowned. "I don't like breaking in, but we don't have any other good options. Crashing a meeting with his investors to arrest someone who may not be there would not only damage our reputations but Prestini's as well."
Neal was glad Sara brought up the legal aspects. The amateurs in their group needed to know that what they were contemplating could land them in jail if it wasn't handled correctly. Fortunately, they had the experience of the amber music box con to build on. That time they participated in a Phoebe Cates scam. For today, a Wally Burns was more appropriate. He, Travis, and Aidan would sneak into Prestini's office while Sara and Mozzie guided the others.
They arrived as a group at Prestini's office and built on Mozzie's cultivated friendship with Paola. Their ostensible purpose was to see if Prestini had any time on his schedule to meet with them. While Sara and Mozzie distracted Paola by leading a lively discussion of Red Sands and how it might be adapted for television, Neal picked the lock to his office and snuck Travis and Aidan inside. Travis claimed to always carry an emergency set of tools around, noting they were his equivalent of Neal's lock picks. The comparison was apt for the electronic breaking and entering he excelled at it. While Neal monitored the reception area through the glass panel of the door, Travis and Aidan worked as a team, attaching the hard drive to a reader and hooking it up to Aidan's laptop for processing.
Within a few minutes, they'd acquired a copy of the day's schedule and the list of donors. Tuttle wasn't on the list but E.R. Bowen was. They regrouped in Mozzie's room to plot their next move.
"Prestini is currently meeting with seven investors in a conference room," Sara said. "No chance of spying on them there."
"What's their next event?" Keiko asked.
Aidan scanned a page on his laptop. "They'll go directly to an instrument testing lab."
"I'm familiar with it," Mozzie said, his eyes glinting behind his glasses. "It's a clean room. They'll need to wear sterile suits."
"I'm sure Rolf brought a laptop with him," Travis said. "Others may have them as well. Are there lockers to store personal items?"
Mozzie nodded, a smile forming. "And they're marked with names rather than numbers. I heard the change was made after several absent-minded scientists forgot which number belonged to them. The locks are electronic, but I'm sure we'll have no problem breaking in."
"Do you have something in mind?" Neal asked.
"The Dalek Maneuver should serve us well."
Keiko's brow furrowed. "Dalek?"
Richard grinned. "They're an extraterrestrial race of cyborgs in Doctor Who. They look a bit like salt shakers turned into tanks. Their motto is 'Exterminate!' I gather we'll get to play them?"
"Distract and obfuscate will be our motto," Mozzie declared. "We'll arrive as a group in our sterile suits. Our objective is to shield Neal as he breaks into the locker. If we're recorded, no one will be able to identify us. Rolf's laptop will be our trophy."
"Then, armed with the evidence of who he is, we can have him arrested," Sara declared.
Neal began to feel more hopeful. Up to now, the evidence wasn't strong enough to arrest Bowen. No one even knew what he looked like. They were convinced he was Rolf, but hard evidence was needed to persuade Prestini.
Mozzie led them to a storeroom he'd discovered that contained extra supplies of clean suits. Neal suspected Mozzie had already taken advantage of the disguise to sneak into off-limit areas. Once the group was suitably clad, they entered the prep room to the lab. To anyone monitoring them, they would simply appear as a group of scientists. To emphasize the point, Travis gave an impromptu lecture about a landing module. Through a glass window, they could observe the large testing facility. Eight people were clustered around a sterile-suited figure pointing out features on what appeared to be a drone of some sort. Neal felt the rush of adrenaline. Was Henry stashed somewhere in the lab? Never had he been so glad that Peter dissuaded him from flying back to New York.
The musketeers clustered in front of the lockers, effectively concealing his actions as he overrode the electronics for Bowen's locker. The only item inside was a case containing his laptop. Neal disguised it with sterile wrap since it was impossible to slip it inside his suit. Richard and Aidan stood in front of the lab window, making it difficult for anyone to observe them.
As soon as he closed the locker, he along with Travis, Mozzie, and Aidan exited the prep room. Sara, Richard, and Keiko remained behind to monitor the group in the lab. Sara was prepared to invent an excuse to keep them in the prep room. As a last resort, Keiko said she'd start speaking in Japanese as a delaying tactic.
They raced back to Mozzie's quarters, hoping to have something by the time the investor group left the lab. As soon as they found anything incriminating, they'd call security.
Neal watched anxiously while Travis and Aidan worked their magic. Travis's fingers flew as he unscrewed the case and extracted the hard drive. Both he and Aidan downloaded the contents onto their laptops to begin the difficult work of decryption. They were already certain Bowen was Rolf. No typical investor used esoteric programming languages on their files, but it would take something much more concrete to convince Prestini. And thirty minutes later, they found it. A video of an unconscious man in an enclosure. He was bound and gagged, but Neal recognized Henry at once.
Aidan looked up from his laptop. Neal had never seen him look so grim. "I found a draft email with that video as an attachment. It's addressed to you with one line of text: 'Henry's counting on you.'"
"I bet he's planning to send it to you after the countdown starts," Travis said. "That reference to counting has a double meaning."
Neal's phone buzzed. "It's Sara," he said, putting her on speaker.
"Bad news," she said. "The group came out of the lab, but they're short one person. Rolf must have slipped out another exit."
"Stay there and try to pull Prestini aside," Neal said, stripping off his sterile suit as he talked. "We found a smoking gun."
#
"E.R. Bowen and Amos Tuttle are the same person?" Prestini asked incredulously.
Neal nodded. "And both names are aliases for a cybercriminal named Rolf Mansfeld." As he feared, Bowen was confirmed to be the man missing. He'd already signed out at the front gate by the time Neal returned to the lab prep room.
Neal and Sara were the only ones with investigator credentials. After notifying Prestini, they went with him to his office to present their case—the same room Neal had broken into earlier in the day.
"Mansfeld is believed to be responsible for kidnapping Neal's brother Henry a few days ago," Sara said. "He's still missing."
"And you think Henry could be somewhere at the spaceport?" Prestini asked.
Neal nodded. "The odds are high since Mansfeld is here." He was interrupted by a commotion in the reception area.
A minute later, the door was flung open and Mozzie burst into the room. "I know where Henry is!" He turned to Prestini. "You showed me a module containing symbolic items of your first launch."
Prestini nodded. "It's weighted to represent the capsule that will eventually take astronauts to their vessel."
"It also currently contains an unwilling stowaway—Henry," Mozzie declared. "Has it been moved to the rocket?"
"Not yet. It's still in the holding bay."
Neal had stood up before Prestini finished speaking and was already heading for the door. He raced with Mozzie and Sara through the corridors along with Prestini who was barking orders through his cell phone.
Events were moving too quickly for Prestini to ask how Mozzie knew where Henry was.
"Richard used his graphics program to lighten the photo," Mozzie muttered breathlessly to Neal. "I'd studied the interior at length for inspiration on how to bring back diamonds from Neptune."
The module, a six-foot-high rounded cube, was on the floor of the holding bay. Prestini explained that it would be one of the last pieces to be moved to the rocket.
"Another TARDIS," Sara murmured as they watched anxiously while engineers opened the hatch.
"Excellent point," Mozzie said. "Rolf placed Peter in a mock-up of the TARDIS. This has become his signature move."
At the exclamation of "There's a man inside!" Neal rushed forward. They'd found Henry! He was unconscious but his pulse was strong. Prestini was already on the phone, calling for medics.
#
"You're telling me I was almost sent into orbit?" Henry demanded incredulously.
"That's right and you don't need to act so smug about it," Neal joked.
Sara smiled, knowing that was Neal's way to ease the stress over Henry's close escape. They'd accompanied him to the hospital. Henry had been given the same sedative that was used on Klaus.
Prestini asked for the incident to not be made public, and they saw no reason to argue against it. Rolf's actions shouldn't be allowed to besmirch the space agency's reputation.
Henry's expression turned serious. "How sure are you that Rolf was killed in the car crash?"
Neal shook his head. "Not very. The guard at the front gate identified Rolf in his E.R. Bowen disguise of grey hair and a beard as the man driving the same car he'd used to enter the spaceport. But a switch could have been made after he exited the facility."
As medics were loading Henry onto a gurney, Prestini received news of the accident. The driver took a turn too fast and crashed into a rocky outcrop. The vehicle burst into flames, causing the driver's body to be charred beyond recognition. DNA evidence would be difficult to obtain. Mozzie was convinced that Rolf had faked his death in a manner reminiscent of what he'd done seven years ago.
E.R Bowen had left no trail. They didn't even know which hotel he'd stayed at. Sara hated the thought that Rolf was most likely still at large. But at least for now, he was relatively toothless. Peter was already working with Interpol to secure the financial accounts for Rolf's two shell companies. They'd seized his safe house. Marta would be in prison for decades.
#
"Can I disrupt your morning?" Neal asked, sticking his head through the doorway of Peter's office.
"I thought you would be at Columbia, or I would have planted myself in your office," Peter said. Neal and Sara returned to New York the previous evening. Henry had flown home earlier in the day.
Neal dropped into his side chair. "I'll be there this afternoon, but I wanted to make a first pass at the accumulated paperwork this morning. Henry's coming in tomorrow."
"He's feeling fine, I hope?"
"Yes, but he was due for a physical anyway, and Eric insisted on him going in. Henry got to watch the rocket launch from the VIP section at the spaceport along with the rest of us." Neal's expression grew unusually thoughtful.
Peter felt for him. Rolf's habit of intruding on their lives had nearly caused multiple disasters this month. "El and I watched the launch on the computer," he told Neal. "We also went to a gaming site to view the Red Sands trailer. El has already asked for a video game console for Christmas."
"For herself or Danny?"
"For all of us."
Neal laughed. "Stocking stuffers will be easy this year. The English version of Yellowface's video game will be ready in time for Christmas. By the time you master the exploits of the yellow-faced bee, Red Sands could be ready as well." He picked up the magnetic ball fidget toy on Peter's desk and began sculpting a ...
"What are you making?" Peter asked.
"A rocket ship, what else? Sara and I are holding a celebration party this Saturday. We hope you, El, and Danny can come. Henry and Eric will also attend."
"We'd love to, thanks. This will be Danny's first party."
"June's offered her study as a quiet place for Danny to nap," he said. "This will just be family. We have a lot to celebrate—Henry's safe return, Rolf finally being out of our lives."
Peter didn't want to rain on his cheerfulness, but that car crash sounded like a setup. The DNA evidence was unusable.
"I see that look," Neal said. "You don't believe me."
"Do you honestly think Rolf was killed?"
"I do now. You haven't heard the latest news. We were preparing to leave after the successful launch when Prestini asked for Sara, Henry, and me to meet him in his office. His security team had finished a review of the camera feeds from the past twenty-four hours."
"Did they find something else?"
Neal nodded. "Rolf was in the holding bay at eleven o'clock the preceding evening. He wasn't wearing his Bowen disguise. Prestini didn't know who he was."
"So you have proof that Rolf is alive!"
"Not exactly," Neal hedged. "Rolf went over to the same module where Henry had been imprisoned and entered it. The security team checked the feed up to the time the module was placed in the rocket. Rolf never left."
Peter felt his mouth drop. "You're telling me he was blasted into space?"
"Yep," Neal said, giving him a moment to let the thought sink in. "Mozzie has a theory. Doc Jacob reported how delusional Rolf had become. Mozzie thinks he was trying to access a wormhole to join the Ymar."
"But that would be madness!"
"Jacob said the line between a rational psychopath and one who loses his grip on reality is easily crossed. I don't know how else to explain it. I wouldn't say Rolf was suicidal."
"Nor would I," Peter admitted. "I had him pegged for the type who would always refuse to admit defeat."
"I'm convinced he believed he would beat us by escaping into another world." Neal shrugged. "And maybe he did."
#
Mozzie handed Janet a glass of wine. A surprising number of stars were visible in the sky over the mansion.
The party was a fitting celebration of Henry's safe return and the triumph of Red Sands. Reviews for the trailer were gratifyingly enthusiastic. The success he'd predicted was looking more certain by the moment.
Neal and Eric had planned the feast of Indian and Thai delicacies with plenty of vegan options for Mozzie and Janet. They held the dinner downstairs and then took their after-dinner drinks to the terrace.
Peter was availing himself of Mozzie's mini-observatory as he pointed out star clusters to Henry and Eric. The others were planning their costumes for the Renaissance festival which would be held the following weekend.
"Does anyone else know about Rolf?" Janet asked.
"No, although I intend to mention it to Diana." Mozzie had only revealed his membership in the League of the Graviton Continuum to Janet, but Diana was well aware of the issues caused by chaos contamination after the incident last May. Her unique status as creator of Arkham Files granted her certain privileges and one of them was to be told what was most likely Rolf's fate.
"When did you initially suspect that Rolf wasn't simply delusional?" Janet asked.
"When I saw the signet ring on his finger in the footage provided by Prestini. It contains Lovecraft's symbol of the glowing branch and appears identical to the ring that caused an upsurge in contamination in Arkham. I believe Rolf truly believed he would access a wormhole by being launched in that module."
Janet nodded slowly. "And no one can prove he didn't."
"Exactly. At this very moment, he could be in the Nameless Mist with Yog-Sothoth."
"Have you warned your associates in Arkham?"
"I contacted Dante before I left Spain. Rolf may cause problems for them in their world." He clasped her hand. "But you don't need to worry. Rolf is nothing compared to the entities they already confront."
Mozzie turned to survey the happy revelers. The physical threat was over for them. The chance of Rolf ever returning to Earth in their timeline was exceedingly remote. For over a decade, Rolf had been out of phase in this world. He was finally where he belonged.
Notes: Details of the League of the Graviton Continuum and Mozzie's role in the group are in my Arkham Files story, Chaos Conundrum. I tend to agree with Mozzie that Rolf won't darken Neal's world anymore.
Are you reading Across the Street by Penna Nomen? In this delightful White Collar prequel fic for the Flufftober collection, Neal grew up across the street from the Burke family. Penna's writing a fluffy chapter for each year in Neal's life starting at age 3 until he's 18. There will be a final, post-college chapter.
In December, I'll post a Tales from the Library story and a Six-Crossed Knot story. I'll return with an Arkham Files story in January. News about our 2024 lineup will be in the year-end post on our blog.
Wishing everyone who celebrates a Happy Thanksgiving! If you'd like to revisit a Caffrey Conversation Thanksgiving, the relevant stories are in our blog post, Holidays with the Caffrey Conversation Crew.