Legacy of a Mad Scientist (29 page)

“Oh, watch this,” he said, raising a hand over head.
Fox closed his eyes and a flame burst to life, dancing in the air
above his hand.

Ana leaned back, her thermal sensors registering
light, but no heat.

Fox lowered the hand and extinguished the flame by
clapping his left over the burning right.

“What’s that about?”

“Well, it could come in handy. If you ever drop the
car keys, or…”

“Funny.” Ana sat, the cat’s front arms extended
vertically. “Well, anyhow, we have a plan for getting you out, now
that we know where you are. Except you’re already out.”

“Not really,” Fox said.

“Ross and Croswell have a plan.”

“I bet they do.”

“Every night these ass-clowns test their jamming
equipment.”

“And they want to drop in and bust me out during the
test?”

“How’d you guess?”

“That thing wakes me up every night. That’s why I
started coming out here. Actually, I kind of expected you guys to
show up a week ago, but nothing.”

“Hey, don’t get mad at me. Croswell sent me to
goddamn Jerusalem.”

“Oh, we were planning that. Sorry. Since the kids are
at camp and all, it seemed like a good time for you to get away and
see the old man.”

“Were you planning on being captured by Stanwood
too?”

“No,” Fox laughed. “Anyhow, there’s no way they can
get in here and get me out in sixty seconds. The approach is at
least ninety, maybe seventy but that’s cutting it close. They’d
have to find some way of extending the jammer, maybe bring their
own or just hack it…”

“That’s the thinking.”

“I suppose I could have tried to hack it, but it’s so
loud. Anyhow, those plans don’t work.”

“Why not?”

“Because there would still be a shoot out, and this
place is loaded with directional mics. The whole place is wired
with fiber optics, straight from the sensors to a server farm a
hundred miles away. That server farm is a situated directly over
thirteen missile silos. A sustained firefight consisting of three
or more gunshots, without an issued failsafe code, will result in
the launch of two or more warheads, wiping this place off the
map.”

“So?”

“So? So, really, what Stanwood did, was put a gun to
the heads of twenty guys I have never met before. If I try and get
out of here, if I do get out of here, they all die.”

“We can do it silently, and invisibly.”

“I kinda like these guys. I’ve gotten to know them.
Donovan just had a kid. I can’t do that to the guy. If the cell is
opened without the release code, same warhead scenario.”

“Well, I can’t see how it actually matters,
considering that you’re walking around out here…” the cat nodded to
Fox’s second body. “Putting you in prison doesn’t seem to have
slowed you down much.”

“To be honest, I’ve been enjoying the peace and
quiet. I can’t remember the last time I got a chance to just
relax.”

The cat laughed. “A prison cell turns out to be your
ideal vacation? Who knew?”

“It’s far from ideal, but then again, I hadn’t
exactly perfected Astral Projection in my spare time either,” Fox
smiled sheepishly.

“Is that what your doing? Is this just a projection?”
she asked.

“It’s not just anything. Look, you know how we use
the amplifiers…”

“Yes…”

“Just extend that understanding to every atom, every
sub atomic particle… Everything was once a Terillium Atom. Point of
fact, every atom is still a Terillium Atom. I can change the atomic
structure of anything into terillium, and then into whatever else I
want it to be.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Remember the first time we met?”

“Of course,” Ana answered.

Fox raised his left hand, and a dozen other Fox’s
rose from the sand. He even raised a copy of the cat.

“Nice trick. A little more complex than what I
pulled.”

Fox lowered his hand and the duplicates vanished.

“He’s going to kill you. Stanwood is going to kill
you, if you let him.”

Fox laughed. “He can’t kill me. He can’t hurt
me.”

“He can. He can hurt me, and he can hurt our
children.”

“Remember the ranch in Wyoming we talked about? We
can still do that. Now is the time,” Fox said.

“Okay, great,” Ana answered. “Let’s get you out of
here, and let’s do that. Wyoming sounds good.”

“We just have to let this play out.”

“I wish I could call Ross and Croswell right
now.”

“Why can’t you?”

“After Von Kalt took your amplifier we went radio
silent.”

“I’ve sealed it off. He can’t hear us.”

“Okay, hold on.” On the couch in Dr. Te’s lab, Ana
pulled the amplifier from her pocket.

Croswell picked up his amplifier, responding to the
alert ringing in his head. “I though we were radio silent?” he
asked.

Captain Snow spoke in Secretary Croswell’s mind. “You
were right about White Sands. I found him. The two of you should
get down here.”

“We’re on our way,” Croswell answered,
disconnecting.

“They’re on their way,” Ana the mountain lion told
the silica apparition that was not her husband.

“Let’s not waste any time,” Fox said, closing his
eyes.

Ross and Croswell appeared before them, wearing their
inactive anti-gravity harnesses and phase camouflage.

“Let’s get you guys fired up,” Fox said.

A moment later, the men were hovering over the ground
and visually undetectable. Ana and Fox, however, were both capable
of reading the non-visible spectrums and could see them
clearly.

“This is just outside their thermal range. Nice
little dip created by this hill, good call,” Ross said. “You could
hang out here all day and not get noticed.

Fox laughed.

“Enjoying yourself, Doctor?” Croswell smiled.

“I am actually. Guys, it’s good to see you,” Fox
said. “But before we start, I’ve got a couple of things to show
you.”

“The ride over was pretty incredible,” Ross said.

Fox raised his hands and then lowered them again.

The light that erupted from him could be seen from
space.

On Dr. Te’s couch, in Jerusalem, Ana jumped up and
stumbled off the couch onto the floor, ripping the glasses from her
head.

Lao looked over but said nothing.

Fox, Ross, Croswell and Ana stood at the epicenter of
the blast, Ana in the form of Sabor the cat, Ross and Croswell both
invisible and floating and Fox being himself but not himself.

“Do you see?” Fox asked. “All matter is Terillium and
Terillium can be switched into any other element. This is
behind-the-looking-glass. This is the great secret. This is
something only a human mind can do.”

“You sound reasonably pleased with yourself.”
Croswell smiled broadly.

“I am. After all, the first thing I did, was teach
you. Now we are all equal. Now we all have the same tools.”

“Not to rain on your parade, but I remember being
taught calculus in high school too, doesn’t mean I learned it,”
Ross said.

Fox heard Ana laugh, but the cat had gone
semi-catatonic after Fox’s optic blast. He knelt to check on
her.

In Jerusalem, Ana shook her head, she could still
hear Andrew and Ross and Croswell, out in the desert, but she was
also aware of her place in Lao’s robotic showroom.

She heard Fox call out to her, despite having set the
glasses on a side table. She reached out for the lenses and put
them on as she lay back.

“You with us?” Andrew asked the robotic cat.

Sabor woke and looked at Fox and the floating
operatives.

“What’s your take on all this?” Fox asked the
cyber-cat.

“My take?” Ana tilted her head. “I would clean house.
I wouldn’t feel guilty for killing these soldiers. I would walk you
out of here, or teleport you out of here, or whatever you want. But
I wouldn’t stay. I vote we go after Stanwood and remove him from
the equation.”

“What’s stopping you?” Fox asked.

“I don’t know respect, loyalty, curiosity. After all,
it’s your show.”

“That’s how I feel about it too,” Ross said. “It’s
your show, amigo.”

“I didn’t choose you guys because you’re the kind of
people who sit around and do nothing. I know this is frustrating; I
just want to run it out a while longer. I’m not in any imminent
danger, so there’s nothing to be worried about.”

“What’s this King was telling me about you insisting
that he let an aggressor fire one round before intervening?”
Croswell asked.

“That sounds like a death wish if I ever heard one,”
Ross replied.

“We could always try our luck at a couple of rounds
of Russian Roulette, if you’re feeling frisky,” Croswell
offered.

“That’s just crazy,” Fox said.

“About as crazy as letting an enemy take a shot,”
Croswell replied.

“I don’t believe in pre-emptive action anymore. It
just makes things worse,” Fox said.

“It was pre-emptive to act before he kidnapped you.
Now it would be self-defense,” Croswell said.

“Von Kalt has the Metachron,” Fox said. “He took it
from me at the café.”

“Yeah, we know. We saw the surveillance footage.
Fuck-tard thought he could slap a security seal on it and keep it
buried.”

“It’s not just any old amplifier. This is The
Metachron,” Fox said.

“What the hell is
The Metachron
?” Croswell
asked.

“After Epsilon, in the crater, there was an
amplifier. It was everything, the entire facility, and all the
subjects, compressed into one device. I had it. Now Von Kalt has
it.”

“So we’ll get it back from him.”

“He’ll be able to see through your phase-cam.”

“Is that so? What about all this other shit you can
do now? Can he do any of that?” Croswell asked.

“Maybe, yes,” Fox replied.

“Maybe what, exactly?” Croswell asked.

“I don’t know. It depends on how long he has it. The
longer he has it, the better he’ll get at using it.”

“Beautiful,” Ross said.

“And the first amplifier you lost, the one Pierce
took? They still haven’t recovered his body…” Croswell said.

“I had response teams standing by, they took care of
Pierce,” Fox explained.

“So, it was you?” Croswell asked. “And the
amplifier?”

“My daughter has it,” Fox answered.

Ross took a deep breath. “So, what? You’re staying
here then?”

“For the moment,” Fox replied.

“You know they’re trying to take Ana and the kids.
King is undercover on Von Kalt’s team, and they’ve staked out the
campground.”

“I don’t envy them. Would you want to go up against
her?” Fox smiled.

“Listen to me, this is not a joking matter. Stanwood
is sending guys after your family,” Croswell said. “Ana said that
in the last three days, the camp has grown about three dozen
running video streams. This is not a joke anymore. You are putting
all of us at risk.”

“I understand that, and for what it’s worth, I’m
sorry. Like I said, you know everything I know now, so whatever you
decide to do, I’m cool with it. If you want to fly in there and
drag me out of here, fine. I won’t resist you. Just realize; these
guys are going to be killed if you do that.

“If you want to go after Von Kalt, do it. Let King
have at him. If he goes after my kids, God help him, because well,
if you go after a kid, you deserve whatever you get.

“In the meantime, I promise, I’ll talk to Conway and
get all this straightened out.”

Friday Morning, July 24, 2308

Early on the morning of July the twenty-fourth,
President Conway entered the Oval Office, carrying a makeshift
breakfast of a banana, a cup of coffee and a blueberry muffin. The
President nibbled and sipped as he double-checked his schedule and
scanned his daily briefings.

Fox appeared in the chair opposite, and the President
looked up. He calmly wiped his mouth with a napkin and asked, “May
I help you?”

“I certainly hope so, sir. Do you know who I am?”

Fox was dressed in the white linen prison shirt,
pants and sandals, that he’d been issued, but this was not quite
enough to identify him as an escaped convict of any sort. Fox
smiled, realizing that if he’d been carrying a margarita, he’d
appear to be some sort of lost Caribbean tourist, regardless of the
hour.

“What’s the matter?” The President smiled, “You
forget your frigging name?”

“No.” Fox laughed. “But aren’t you the least bit
concerned about how I got in here?”

“Should I be?”

“I suppose not. I mean, I’m clearly not threatening
you.”

“Some of my advisors describe you as the number one
threat to the entire Republic.”

“And what are your thoughts on this matter?
Considering the fact that I was recently hailed as the Savior of
the Republic.”

“Well, take for instance, this circumstance we find
ourselves in at this very moment, Doctor Fox. Your perfection of
small-scale teleportation technology could be considered a threat.
Especially since it was used to undermine several South American
governments.”

“Any such operation would have been highly
classified, and even talking about it here could be construed as a
breach of security.”

“So you understand my frustration then?” Conway
asked.

“If you wanted to talk, you could have just called,”
Fox countered.

“That would have been quite impossible, considering
interested factions in our party and some recent political
developments, specifically the death of young Chairman Pierce.”

“Okay, well, as far as I know he’s still missing, not
dead.”

“Are you trying to be clever?”

“Yes.”

“I can see why my staff has such a difficult time
dealing with you.”