Sparks of Chaos (21 page)

Even worse it appeared that they were putting pressure on the German officials to get him to back off on his investigation. He had already received inquiries from both the city leaders and federal security services very subtly at first suggesting he not push so hard. The Federal officials suggested they allow them to work with the American government to secure the information he wanted. Franz knew they were more interested in avoiding an international incident with a close ally than assisting him in solving this crime. All of this taken together told him that his gut instincts were correct and that he was on the right path. He would not be deterred.

Mattius knocked on his door and asked to come in, he had called earlier asking to speak with him privately. He sat in the rather plain standard office chair facing Franz at his desk and looked rather grim. “I asked to speak with you privately for a reason and what I say must stay only between the two of us.”

“Yes of course,” he answered.

“I need to give you some advice and to warn you. It is no secret that someday I wish to succeed you when you choose to retire. However, I have never worked or plotted against you to receive the promotion earlier.” Seeing no reaction from Franz he continued. “That was why I was concerned when I was unofficially contacted by our superiors asking about my willingness to take your position if it became necessary. They would not be specific but it appears to have something to do with your making waves on the Birgit Freund missing person investigation.”

“Go on, what did they say?”

“The bottom line is that they know about your drinking problem and they are prepared to use it against you if you don’t go along with their wishes.”

“I don’t…,” seeing the look of disbelief on his face, he continued, “how did they know?”

“We all know, we’ve known for some time now. We respect you too much to bring it up and you seem to handle it okay but they must have gotten someone to talk.”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“Let it go, if you don’t they will force you to retire or even worse embarrass you and make you leave. Whatever this case involves it is too big for us to fight it.

“How do I just let it go, there is a young girl’s life at stake here or her killer will go unpunished. How do I live with that?”

“You were the one who taught me that we can’t catch them all; we do our very best and move on. You can’t accomplish anything if you’re not here. I want your job but not like this, if I replace you, they won’t allow me to do any more either. I suggest we continue, but quietly, they don’t need to know everything we’re doing.”

Franz sat with his emotions in turmoil, shame; fury and regret were waging a cage match inside his weary skull. “Maybe you are right; a little subtlety is in order now.” How exactly was he going to pull that off, he did not know, subtlety was not his strongest suit.

Chapter 36

Every girl’s dream that was the only way to adequately describe it as she twirled around in yet another new dress. Sure it was an old fashioned sexist stereotype about girls being obsessed with clothes but she didn’t care, she loved them. It wasn’t like she was some shallow airhead who cared only about her looks or fashion; she just liked to look nice. It wasn’t the only part of her but it was part of her so why deny it, why not enjoy it.

Like Chase, she had explored her new home and discovered her favorite room. It was a large closet, the word closet didn’t do it justice and it was more like a warehouse. It was filled with every type, color and style of clothing imaginable. Cheswick told her it was an intelligent closet that organized and stored all the clothing to make her selections easy. It learned from her tastes and made suggestions. She never needed to worry about having different sizes as she would eternally remain the same size she was now. No more worrying about having fat and skinny sections of her closet.

Due to the ability to shrink the clothes, the large room could hold even far more than it appeared. Shoes, jewelry, purses, everything she needed and wanted were right at her fingertips. Huge diamonds, tons of gold and jewels were available, anything she wished. There was even a section where she could look into a special mirror and design any clothing or accessory and have it made instantly and ready to wear.

Rex would be here soon and she wanted to look her best. She didn’t even mind that Cheswick was with her while she dressed, she knew he had no interest in her that way. After Chase’s comments, they explained to her about their non-human nature and it didn’t bother her in the least. He had been very helpful to her in many ways. Cheswick provided her with advice on how to best get along with Rex and many other matters including a good sense of fashion.

It somewhat surprised her just how much she liked Rex, it certainly didn’t hurt that he was the super genius who was responsible for every wonderful thing here. He was effectively the ruler of this island whether he held an official title or not. Whenever this island became populated it would not be so terrible for her to be that close to Rex, at his side. This could end up very well for her, if she played her cards right. As Cheswick had instructed her, she could impact the development of Surga.

After her lunch with Chase, she did feel badly for treating him that way. She couldn’t help herself, he had really hurt her. She had enjoyed the week in Germany they spent together. It had not been that long ago but it seemed like it was ages since then, So much had changed, so much had happened to her since then. Why did he have to betray her? She would forgive him eventually but not just yet. For the time being there were only the three of them here on the island, so it made no sense to hate him.

“Rex has arrived and is awaiting you on the rooftop garden. Remember what we discussed, try to keep to those points,” Cheswick told her.

She decided on the black and white short dress with black shoes, checked herself over one last time in the mirror and went up to see him. She went and sat next to him at the poolside. “Hi Rex” she said with a sunny smile.

“You look beautiful as always, are you enjoying your new home?”

“Thank you, it’s wonderful, I absolutely love it. I am so glad you’ve come out to see me.”

“I came here because I enjoy being with you and I have been thinking about something you said. The other day you told me that I was trying to solve the wrong problem and I am starting to believe you were right.”

“That’s funny; I’ve been thinking about that some more myself, specifically the problem of their advanced age. I think I have a solution for you.”

“Really, you have found a way to solve the brain regeneration issue?”

“Of course not silly, I am not one of your science nerd friends. We were going about it all wrong. I did some research and many scientific discoveries are made by researchers in their younger years.”

“Go on, that may not be completely true but there is some merit in what you are saying.”

“What if instead of trying to fix something that’s already past its prime creativity, we focus on being able to identify high potential young candidates instead.”

Rubbing his chin he thought a moment and said, “That’s an approach that never occurred to me.” He called a Tasker to bring them a cool drink and continued, “How would we go about doing that, I…”

T“I think we should search for the brightest and most compatible young people we can find. Then not only will you have the population you want, you can train them to suit your needs.”

“Well, well, well, you really have been thinking about all of this. We are still left with the problem of identifying them and the difficulties in bringing them here.”

“Actually that is the best part of all; this was where I had a stroke of genius of my own. I have thought this through in great detail and I hope you like it.”

“I like your passion already and I can’t wait to hear it.”

“First we focus on young people only, eighteen or nineteen years old. We recruit them from all over the world, no restrictions. We get the brightest, most capable, creative and adaptable minds regardless of what it is they are good at. We don’t just focus on scientists exclusively. Let’s get the best of it all, thinkers, actors, designers, chefs, business people, everything. The interaction will bring out the greatness in everyone. Then we train them all your way with your system and your objectives and rules. The results should be incredible and it will make for an exciting place to live.”

“It’s a bold and audacious plan. We need to think through the details but I like it. Two difficulties spring to mind. How do we identify whom to select and how do we get them here without raising a lot of unwanted attention.” Rex was amazed how easily he had slipped into thinking of Birgit as an equal. Her thinking was fresh, very cogent and clearly something she put some time and effort into. He was very impressed with her.

“I knew you would say that, that’s why I was prepared with this. Let’s start with the second part. I suggest that we start our own School and run a worldwide competition to attract the students we want, offering not only free tuition with all expenses paid and a large cash bonus for completing the five year program. Not only that but we make an offer of guaranteed high paying employment with the Institute we start that will be part of our school. This will attract the very best and it is the perfect cover to isolate and recruit them to Surga. It will be very expensive though.”

“There is no need to worry about the expense; you seem to forget that in my so called real life as Wayne Stubbard, I am one of the richest men in the world. I can announce that I am dedicating a portion of my fortune to starting the world’s premier school for geniuses. I will fund it all personally even with building the facilities and hiring famous instructors it will be only a tiny portion of my fortune, something I could easily replace. The more I think of it, this is such a good idea that it would probably not only pay for itself, it would probably return a profit. The only question is where do we put it to isolate it for our purposes?”

“I hope that you won’t be angry with me but I took the liberty of discussing this already with Cheswick and Armstrong. I think that we came up with an incredible solution to that problem,”

“No, not at all, that was a smart idea, what did you come up with?”

“There is an island nearby called Prettybone that is both isolated and close enough to Surga that would make it the perfect location. We have already put together some detailed plans and Armstrong has acquired it in hopes that we could use it for this or some other purpose. I have to admit that on the other issue of how we go about identifying the right traits and finding them in the candidates, I think that is an area where you will have to use your science skills.”

“You have done a superb job on all of this, astounding in fact. We will have plenty of time to work through all of the details but the most important thing is we finally have a workable plan to take us forward again. I need some time to absorb and process it all but I am excited and you are as smart as you are beautiful.”

“Thank you Rex, I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to work on this with you.” She beamed at his praise and was happy that he was so pleased with her. It hadn’t been a mistake to listen to Cheswick and Armstrong, they had helped her with these plans and it worked to impress Rex. She thought they were great plans and was looking forward to working on them.

Chapter 37

Everything was coming up Armstrong, it had gone exactly as he had predicted. Advanced statistical modeling had proven to be unstoppable yet again. Given the right algorithms, he could rule the world. That was something he wasn’t interested in; he only wanted to bring order, no not order but direction to his little slice of the world. It had yet to fail him, like a hazy crystal ball or a deck of tarot cards they couldn’t always provide the specifics but in his practiced hands they could foretell the future.

While he had not actually foreseen the arrival of either Chase or Birgit into their cloistered island world, he knew that based upon all the existing data, the probabilities were high that something was going to cause a disruption. Then you ran the options to see which way to give events a little nudge. His statistical process wasn’t perfect yet but it did work. If things happened perchance to go off course, sometimes it required a severe jolt and the willingness to administer that jolt, regardless of who got stung.

It was how he had come to the sad conclusion that Rex’s plan was unworkable no matter how hard he tried to find a way to make a success of it. Once Chase arrived all of the necessary pieces had fallen into place. Rex was even happier with his new plan. The Three Principles would be upheld and he would have protected Rex. Luckily he was quite content to allow Rex and Birgit to believe it had all been their idea. Some of it had been their idea, as always he merely pointed the way. He was on his way to meet Rex and begin planning what they were calling their new ‘Grand Design’.

Rex greeted him warmly and gestured for him to sit on the couch next to him. Rex’s study was surprisingly normal and traditional compared to the uniqueness of the rest of the island. It looked like a room in a gentlemen’s club with overstuffed brown leather chairs and dark wood paneling. He had built it to be comfortable, not to show off. “As we start planning, there is something we need to discuss before Birgit joins us. My brother Edward has informed me that we have a problem in Germany. Our young friend Chase has caused quite a ruckus; the police are looking for him and are now pressing the Americans for access to him.”

“Surely they don’t know his true identity do they?”

“No of course not, they’re looking for Michael Wagner but if they dig deep enough the trail leads back to Stubbard Industries and I would rather that connection never be made.”

“What do you require of us to do?”

“Nothing at this point, I have given instructions to my brother to deal with it on his end. He understands that extreme measures might need to be taken. The real question is what do we do with Chase?”

“We can no longer allow him to travel to the outside world but our new plans no longer require him to recruit anymore.”