Maxwell Huxley's Demon (17 page)

Connor and Sarah exchange a look but say nothing.

“. . .
Connor or Sarah , tell me how you’
re going to find Max ?
”

“Well, for one thing we will continue to monitor b ank machines for audit failures. T
hat will help get us roughly near him ,” Sarah starts. “
Beyon d that, I’m adding stricter OS
level monitoring o n our systems and ally systems.
If Max is breaking in , th en he has to leave a footprint.
When I find that footprint it wi ll lead back to a source. So I’
m coun ter hacking. I have a snippet of code f rom Dr. Concilian’s cell phone.
I’m hoping that will give me a leg up on finding Max’s electronic footprint s .”

“Thank you . . . Connor?” Pirelli looks at him.

“I know where Max is going already. H
e talked about it all the time.
I mean he never said he was going to escape or anything.
But he always talked about his mother.
He’s going to find her.” Connor shifts in his s eat , uncomfortable with the look he is getting from Pirelli , but continues . “We know who his mother is; the problem is we don’t know where she is. Her name is Emma Huxley.”

Hastings stares at Connor. “Why a re you only telling us this now ?
T
here is nothing in the file about it.” He tosses a paper file across the table at Connor.

“You weren’t clear ed to know, ”
Connor says.

Hasting leans way back in his chair, puts his feet on the table, smiles , folds his hands over his belly , and looks at Pirelli .
“This is gonna be good.”

“
He wasn’t cleared to know , ” Pirelli says.
“
. . . something that you know , he wasn’t allowed to know . . .
I also didn’t know this . . . So I wasn’t cleared to know either . . .
who reports to who here?”

Connor speaks quietly . “We all report to Frank individually. You guys are field operatives.
I’m sure you guys are good , in the field , but you can’t help here.”

Silence. Pirelli stands up , looking back and forth between Sarah and Connor.
“We can’t h elp here . . .” The words trail off , and he stares at Hastings.

Hastings removes his little finger from his ear, inspects the newly found wax, smiles, and stands .
“Well, sounds good to me, come on , Pirelli, first round is on you.”
He pulls Pirelli out of the room .

Connor and Sarah spend an uncomfortable moment together, then Sarah a sks , “Are you sure that was wise?”

“
I have no idea, but it was true , and I’m not going to let him treat me like I work for him just because I’
m a kid.
” Not wanting to think about it anymore, Connor changes the subject.
“
How is Naomi ?
”

“She ’s furious. T
hey still have her in the south wing.” Sarah recalls her meeting with Naomi.
Naomi screamed and spat at her.
It’s hard to see my sister in a cage.

“I’m sorry, ” Connor says, knowing that being in the south wing means being in solitary confinement.
“
Max has a way of getting people to follow him without even trying. Let’s find his mother then, OK
?”

Sarah nods.

---

Yesterday, Sarah walked into the south wing. A guard checked her visitor authorization, then scanned her in and escorted her to a meeting room. She sat at a stainless steel table and waited.
I remember how hard it was turning ten.

The guards brought Naomi in. She jerked out of their arms and sat down, glaring at Sarah .

Sarah reached across the table and placed a hand on the table palm up and open. The universal sign for hold my hand please.

“What?” Naomi said.

“I’m sorry,” Sarah said simply.

“Sorry?
” Naomi said. “You knew!
”

“You have to believe me that I did not know. I knew you were being tested , but I didn’t know what was planned.” Sarah reach ed farther over the table with both hands. “Please take my hands.”
Sarah ‘saw’ Naomi’s usually green aura turn dark red .

Naomi didn’t move .

“I know what you must be feeling ,” Sarah said.

“YOU HAVE NO IDEA ABOUT ANYTHING I FEEL; YOU CAN’
T PLAY MY OWN TRICK
S
ON ME.” Naomi stood up and spat at Sarah .
“Take me out of here,” she said to the guards.

“I’ll be here when you need me,” Sarah said.

The guards took Naomi away.

---

Connor takes a mental inventory.
So on this team we have a drunk, a demoted field agent, and the sister of one of the es caped. I don’t think any of them are really motivated to find Max. That means there is another reason for putting this team together.
Connor work s on this problem in the back of his mind while he and Sarah get started.

Chapter 17
–B
utton Factory

Max sits on a conveyor belt in a massive room within an abandoned factory .
Grimy windows cover the walls , many of them broken or cracked.
Disused industrial sewing equipment covers t he old assembly line floor .
Max stares out a window at the smog rolling over Mexico City’s skyline.

Max ’s leg bones are knitted together well enough for slow walking , but he has a pronounced limp and leans heavily on his cane as he shuffles between the rows of abandoned equipment . His black eye is gone, however the cut on his c heek left an ugly scar from chin to ear.

Max hits record on his tablet and says.
“
Most things have an upside.
The upside of injury is pain. Pain distracts my mind, draws me back into my body, keeps my feet on the ground .
These days , I occasionally feel the familiar lurches , like my other mind is testing the waters, seeing how stable I am, and then backing off.
The whispering is quiet right now. I’m grateful for that.
”

Now that we have the platform injected into more than half of the worldwide processing spaces and good e xamples of invisible intrusion, W
alk er has been hugely productive.
He adds hacked sites and I work on language processing.
Walker also takes care of the shopping, a lmost every day he come s back with more electronics and chemical supplies.

Max sits in ‘
t he o ffice’
, which is merely a small room off of the factory floor with a couple desks and a few chairs in it. Max fires up his tablet and surveys wh at his trolls have brought in.
Max has ‘trolls ’
monitoring various nanotechnology labs .
The trolls alert Max if certain types of activity are detected, mainly alerting him of successful nanotechnology results. Max is hacked into nanotechnology labs and is altering experiments by updating test run s and documentation.
His troll s let him know when something works.
They can take the credit, I just want the bots.
Sometimes he finds out experiment re sults before the host lab does.

Max has made progress . H
e has some rudimentary bots running in the lab.
Right now , he ’
s trying to direct the stupid labs to stop trying to solve specific problems with specific bots. He updates research abstracts and experiments so more work i s on generic nanotechnology.
We need nanoBot s that build s nanoBots .

“Walker, what kind of nanoBot would you make first?”

“Cherry—
Flavoured -
Pez -Bot, why?”

“How about a Ro-Bot?”

“Is that like an Egyptian Bot?
”

“
No, I think that’s a Ra-Bot, ” Max says.
“
I want a bot that flies, has a little lift and can alter its colour to any colour of the visible spectrum.”

“
OK
fly boy, you fly . . .
I want armour. I’m off to get food, see you in a bit.”

Max sets more trolls running.
He now has thirty-four fully staffed labs around the world working for him.
Leaning back in his chair , he picks up his reader and waits for their best work to come to him.
W
hat’s going to happen when I need Virginia again?
Max logs onto the platform and assigns a few trolls to work on image pr ocessing and image recognition.

Walker returns with food.

“Hey Walker, how many times have you gone to the bank machine since we’
ve been here?
”

“Twice, why?”

“We need to keep bank machine activity to a minimum.
I had a thought and pulled some machine code from the old bank machines we were at. I found MGA hooks in the code. They’re trying to track us using the cash withdrawals.
For now , just be careful what machines you use.
Write yourself an algorithm that will lead them away from this p art of town . . .
Did you ever get the credit cards?”

“
I’ll get them tomorrow,” Walker says as he looks at the code Max is writing. “Image processing? What for?”

“I just think we’ll need it soon enough,” Max lies.

Walker knows that Max never does anything without a good reason but lets it drop.

Liar!
Max turn s from Walker and digs his finger nails into a palm.
I picture her face and hair.

---

With t
heir flight to Mexico City scheduled to land soon , Keith plays with a pack of nuts.
Beside him, Sarah stares out the window of the private jet looking for all the world like she wishes she were anywhere but here. Hasting is asleep across from them , sno ring loudly, with his mouth open.
Connor and Pirelli are having dinner further back in the plane .

Keith tosses nuts one at a time at Hastings, trying to land one in his mouth.
They let me out. T
hey didn’t release me. I’m just as trapped here as I was back at school .
I’m like a dog at the park with a shock collar on .
Keith feels a pang of jealousy toward Max.
Even if he’s not that good, at least he’s doing what he wants right now.
If they had given me what he had , I’d be the one who is free right now. Max is weak. Afraid. Too squ eamish to do what needs doing .

Keith lands a nut in Hasting s mouth; Hastings sputters, wakes, and spits the nut into Sarah’s lap. Keith smiles, closes his eyes , and plans revenge.

Chapter 18
–Mexican Show-off

A boy
leans heavily on a cane and walks down a sidewalk in Mexico City near Tres Mosqueteros . T
his is not just a random sidewalk on a random street . Max researched this address soon after breaking out of the school.
Do I hid e plans from people because I need to or because that’s who I am?

People jostle Max on the busy sidewalk. Max doesn’t care; the longer he can be on this sidewalk in front of this particular building the better. Max looks up and spots three surveillance cameras, not attached to the building he is interested in , but they cover this whole section of street.
Max limps to the corner , watching a constant stream of airplanes , on final approach , silently descend ing over the city .
You’re an idiot, Max.
He grab s the though t and flick s it away like a bug.
You’re still an idiot . . .
and you’re a liar .
He dodge s the thoughts , but it’s too lat e , and he feel s his balance weaken.

Max stands still for a minute, thankful that he has his cane for stability .
His cell phone chimes, letting him know that it made contact. Contact with a Bluetooth enabled phone. It chimes again , letting him know that his co de was injected into the phone.
Max continues to make his way along the sidewalk past the CIA field office . His phone chimes a few more times.
But Max waits for a different chime.

The correct chime arrives as he reaches the corner o f the block, well past the non descript door tha t provide s entry into the field office . This chime let s Max know that his c ode is now inside the building.
One of the infected Bluetooth phones must have been on an agent , and that agent has now connected their phone to computer systems inside the office.

Max turn s and walks back to the secure door. As he approaches he takes out his cell phone and taps a code in. The door buzzes open , and he enters, wa lks down a hall , and pass es a man. The man glances at him but keeps walking. Max notes the security cameras at either end of the hallway.

He turns a corner and walks another hallway , a few more people pass by him.
A room to one side is buzzing with people and activity , many flat screen monitors, electronic white boards, and analysts working.