Jezebel's Ladder (35 page)

Fortune shook his head. “That’s
your mother, Brenda, at twenty-three. Because of her suicide, her brother
destroyed all photos of her, all mention of her name. Before I even heard the
news, it was her archetype that I blocked from the program. I wanted to honor
her, thank her, but it was too late. I pursued Claudette because I wanted…to
fix my mistakes, to prove myself worthy. Unfortunately, I just went on to make
new errors.”

Trina came over and squeezed
Daniel’s shoulder as he stared at the photo in shock. “Can he keep this?”

“Yes. I have others.”

The clone decided to press her
luck. “Do you love Claudette or is she just a replacement?”

The question hurt Fortune, and he
glanced away. “Since then, I dated over a hundred Brenda analogues. None of the
others were mature enough or had the fire. Claudette’s my match. I just never
felt I was good enough for her.”

Trina whispered in Daniel’s ear.
“Someone kept Swami Rama from getting on the plane.”

“There are other eyes,” said
Fortune, hoping for more time with his son.

“Jez needs us,” Daniel said,
removing all possibility of debate. “I know how hard this must have been for
you. Thank you for the effort and telling us about my mother.” He shook his
father’s hand and went back to his apartment to grab their travel gear.

Four hours later, the technicians
had to stop to put more memory boards in the computer-aided-design machine.
This gave them an opportunity to eat an early supper and for Elias to tell
Claudette the truth. She gazed straight ahead at the model the whole time. Many
hours later, she put the last piece in place. After she took off the
sweat-soaked gloves and goggles, she told him, “Take me home.”

Fortune was stunned. “You forgive
me?”

“We’ll talk. No sex, but you can
share my bed. If half of what I overheard today is right, I don’t want to be
alone. In spite of yourself, you’ve turned out to be a good man, Elias.”

PJ took thirty minutes in the main computer room to find the
first gremlin. All the people tromping around behind the machines had loosened
a cable. So now, every time someone closed the door or walked by, they lost
packets of data. PJ tightened the cable and a whole subnet magically started
working again. Alvarez solved the next mystery for them. Just after PJ spotted
an octopus outlet about ten feet from the crime scene, he noticed that it had
exactly one plug missing from the center. “Did the killer use this outlet?”

“Oh, no, we were using that for the
vacuum,” the agent said, casually.

“I don’t want to explain how many
things were wrong with that statement,” PJ said, locating the nearest plug
without a home. A console nearby rattled to life, displaying a plethora of
critical warning messages. Tracking down these errors and double-checking all
the connections in the room took hours of tedious labor.

****

Benny had cramps the whole flight.
They got worse as he came in for a landing in Miami. “What’s wrong?” asked agent
Normandy when the actor ducked in the bathroom to splash his face with cold
water and take a handful of aspirin.

“Either the Ethics page is killing
me, or I’m feeling what Jez is,” Benny reasoned.

He checked his text-messages first.
He read them to Normandy while they walked to the car-rental area. “No one by
her name has been admitted, but there was a blonde Jane Doe checked into one of
the ERs last night.” Benny looked up from the phone screen and smiled briefly
before the next line made it vanish. “But corporate security couldn’t find her.
Something happened with her paperwork.” He scanned over attached documents that
had been illegally obtained from the hospital computers. She was unconscious
and only had a minor gunshot wound to the right hand. In passing, he noted the
‘date of last period’ in the exam—today. After a moment to recover, he went on
to an e-mail that contained more bad news. “The secretary says the only set of
eyes we have on this coast has a priority assignment from Tom, a senior envoy who
works for us.”

Finally noticing the voicemail,
Benny said, “I don’t know anybody named Tyrone.” However, he listened to it
anyway and turned ashen. Normandy grabbed the phone and hit replay.

The agent made a call of his own. “Normandy, Vegas office. I’m inbound with the husband of an apparent kidnapping victim. Is
there anything unusual happening at Cape Kennedy tonight?”

To Benny, he said, “There are news
crews everywhere. Something big is going down there, but no one is talking. The
International Space Station was shot down. Missiles are flying. They even had a
hostage crisis. Your wife sure knows where the action’s at.”

Benny phoned Tom, “I need to borrow
your eyes. Five minutes to find Jez.”

Tom was surrounded by engine noise
and the buzz of people. “I can’t do that. There’s been a new Quarterback
designated. Midas confirmed the play, and tied me in with the security folks
here. My job is to protect this PJ Smith. It’s not easy.”

“Active?”

“Weakest I’ve ever seen. And he’s
blundering around like Mr. Magoo. I think he’s just so sleep deprived he’s
almost killed himself a few times. We can’t leave this situation,” Tom
insisted.

“You don’t understand. I think
she’s been kidnapped again.”

Tom paused before saying, “I
sympathize, but Jez herself called it. The whole project, the whole world,
hinges on what these people do tonight. I can’t afford to take my eyes off them
for even a minute. She took this hit for the team.”

“She told me the same thing. Damn
it!” The pressure to confess was building in him again. He also needed a quick,
mundane way to locate someone, but Jez had asked him to help this understaffed
defensive line. “What do you need?”

“Some story to take the heat off
them for a few hours and distract the news crews. NASA can’t even get cars in
and out without everyone inside making world news. The thing we’re tracking
bends radio waves, so they need an alternate way to contact it.”

“Kind of like the Eye in the Sky.
We could call this the Evil Eye.”

“I like that. The broadcasting
equipment we procured is on huge trucks. We’ll transmit almost line of sight
when Quan gets near the Evil Eye, using NASA’s scramblers to encode the signal.
However, we can’t let the media see it or someone could figure it out.”

Benny realized how he could hit
several birds with one stone. “I’ll give you a news conference like you’ve
never seen!” After hanging up, he asked his companion, “Agent, can you get me
there before the eleven o’clock news is over?”

Normandy smiled. “I’d have to go a
hundred. Forget your rental, we need a police car. Then, maybe.”

“Point me to a cop who has what you
need, and I’ll talk him into it.”

****

Alvarez got a call on his radio as
they were wrapping up in the computer room. “The media is finally getting their
press conference. They’re all heading down to the theater for some kind of
announcement.” PJ looked at his watch: 11:20. Ten more minutes left on
tonight’s news report.

He continued, “I’m supposed to
sneak you out to the helipad. There’s a load of VIPs from the graveyard. Bell wants you to keep them happy and out of her hair.”

“Graveyard?” PJ asked.

“Spooks.”

PJ had forgotten his role as
liaison. Once inside the helicopter, the programmer got a shock. Three of the
spooks were white, male nerds younger than him. The head nerd was overweight
and had what appeared to be barbeque sauce on his tie. The quarters were a
little cramped, but the helicopter was the only place they could be sure wasn’t
bugged or microphoned. Their head technician, code-named Elroy, turned on a
device about the size and shape of a hockey puck before they could speak. PJ
had seen a similar paperweight at Paulson’s house in Potomac.

The spokes-nerd shook PJ’s hand and
said, “Pleased to meet you, Mr. Smith; you can call me Mr. Spacely while we’re
here. This is George, Elroy, and Astro. Astro has worked with NASA before.”
Like so many others, he subtly stressed PJ’s last name to let him know that he
knew it was an alias. Alvarez had to be having a hard time holding that
straight face. “I suppose you know why we’re here?”

PJ shrugged. “We’re planning on
blowing up your satellite in five hours, and you wanted a front row seat?”

Elroy replied, “We already tried
that before we came. We’re here because somebody here changed the codes.”

“We know there’s a mole.” Alvarez
explained that the two espionage suspects remaining, Myers and Kemp, had been
taken to the local jail for detention. They were welcome to interview the
suspects if they liked. Mr. Spacely handed Alvarez an official-looking document
and said, “Myers is to be released; she’s working for us.”

“No offense, gentlemen, but so was
Paulson.”

Astro volunteered information. “Her
job was keeping a lid on Cassavettis during the launch. She wouldn’t have had
the time or inclination to change the destruct codes.”

“You know where to find her,” said
Alvarez, departing.

“We’ll have a talk with Kemp while
we’re there. Maybe he’ll feel a sudden urge to confess,” Mr. Spacely said
ominously. PJ jumped out of the copter before they decided to take him along on
the ride.

****

The police car pulled up to the
theater with five minutes to spare. Benny had memorized Tom’s script on the way
there. When the tech asked him what he wanted for an introduction, Benny handed
him his phone. “I think Ship of Fools would be appropriate; you can get the
instrumental version off this.”

Journalists snapped photos as he
walked to the podium, and TV reporters murmured amongst themselves. “Surprise,”
he said, winning them over with his best smile. “I’m here to tell you about
Project Phoenix, the future of space. My wife, Jezebel, heads the collaboration
effort. Our project was designed to be an international effort to put Cold War
technology to a new and more constructive use. Our goal is to stop the
militarization of space and take the next leap forward. Instead of Star Wars,
with the new Reuters-Cassavettis drive, we can have practical travel to other
worlds.”

He paused to tighten the hook and
emphasized every word. “We’re not talking about some day, billions of dollars
from now. I’m promising you results today, a demonstration here by sunrise that
will change the face of this planet.”

He droned on with the script,
making it sound natural. “There are always a few travails in any birth. Not
everyone wants change and freedom. Decades of research…” He was losing them, so
he switched gears. “I would have been here sooner but our head of corporate
security was just blown up by a suicide bomber, and the wife of our CEO was
kidnapped. We got Claudette back, but now Jez is gone.”

Agents and PR people were switching
from the teleprompter to Benny, panic-stricken. Tom gave him a thumbs-up.
Trucks with people and equipment were rolling in. Benny placed an 8x10 wedding
photo on the front of the podium. He began by listing her height and weight.
“She’s missing the little toe on her right foot, has a bullet wound in her
right hand, and may be disoriented or unconscious.” He choked a little at this.
“Please, someone out there must have seen her. If you have, please call the Miami branch of the FBI.” He recited the number he had memorized. “Thank you.”

****

Lydia, the nurse, had been watching
from home while eating her ice cream. She dropped the bowl in shock. She called
the FBI offices immediately after cleaning up the mess.

****

Pandemonium broke loose. Everyone
was shouting questions. Tom was making stretch motions for him to prolong the
conference. Someone shouted, “Is it true Jezebel is several months pregnant?”

Benny took a step back. “God, I
wish. She’ll make a fantastic mother. Unfortunately, she has a rare disorder
that makes conception almost impossible. We’re already looking into
surrogates.”

“Why did she refuse champagne at
the wedding?”

“The same reason I did. We’re
alcoholics, but I didn’t need champagne to make that the happiest day of my
life.”

“Why was the conference so delayed?”

Benny shot from the hip. “People
here are afraid. No one is telling them what to say. I’m here because my wife’s
last request was to support this announcement.”

“Why haven’t we been told about
this propulsion device before now?”

“I can’t speak for other people,
but I was being blackmailed into silence. That leverage ends tonight, because
I’m telling you all.” And he did.

After Benny confessed to the
killing in detail, he collapsed into one of the chairs on stage. He was
drained, but the animal of guilt that had been digging at his stomach for years
was gone. Despite the sweat and white spots dancing across his vision, he could
breathe freely again.

Then, Normandy stepped up. “I’m
with the FBI. I’ve read the incident report and spoken to witnesses. The events
of that night have been ruled accidental, aggravated by extreme weather and
other conditions beyond his control. Mr. Hollis did everything humanly possible
to assist the victim and to make sure it was never repeated. So much so, he
received a letter of commendation for sustained humanitarian services to the
people of Thailand from the king’s sister, Princess Galyani. He also attends AA
and church regularly.”

While Normandy defended him, Tom
came up to whisper in Benny’s ear. “One of the trucks tried to go around a
cluster of illegally parked news vans and got stuck in the sand. We need more
time.”

“How many rabbits do you think I
have in this hat?” Benny whined.

Tom apologized. “I will personally
nominate you for sainthood, but we need you to stall a little longer.”

“How long do you need?”

“Plan for thirty minutes.”

“That’s not a stall, that’s a
filibuster.” Benny felt in his pocket and knew how he would do it. “Fine.
Hurry.”

The actor stepped back on stage and
announced, “While we’re waiting for the demonstration, let me tell you a few
things that aren’t in the press packet. Can someone dim the lights?”

He pulled out the star globe and
showed them the location of the latest discovery—an ideal planet with many
earth-sized moons, the first proposed target of their interstellar efforts. He
padded the lecture with some of the script from his documentary.

When the lights came up, there was
no sign of Tom or Normandy. Then, he ad-libbed. “This is only the tip of the
iceberg from our think tank. We will share information for free, but only to
those countries and corporations that sign our charter.” He outlined Jez’s
colony rules remembered from hours of dinner conversation.

Reporters were swimming under the
fire hose of information. The only question they asked about the charter was,
“What’s a transparency officer?”

“One of the devices we’ve
discovered is like a permanent polygraph. We’re still working out the kinks,
but volunteers at key locations in a company, about 1 percent of the
population, would be unable to lie. It would be their job to report abuses of
the moral code.”

That woke them up. “Who would ever
volunteer?”

Benny grinned. “I did.
It’s…liberating.”

Tom appeared shaking the pinky and
thumb sign for phone, coincidentally the sign language letter J—Jez. They’d
found her!

“Last question,” Benny said, eyes
on the exit.

“What are you going to do next?”
asked the Times.

Belatedly remembering his promise,
the actor replied, “After Phoenix and my honeymoon, some people in California have asked me to run for Senate. We’ll see if anyone wants an old drunk who
can’t keep his mouth shut.”

This generated almost as much buzz
as the previous announcements. At his elbow, Normandy asked, “So you agree to
live by this code?”