The Aegis Solution (18 page)

The man's statement required no comment, and Elias did not give one.

"And so, since point number one is that you would not have any trouble whatsoever doing the
deed, so to speak, and point number two, as it also became clear to me during our discussion, is that you
have a great deal of contempt for Aegis, you would not have made the value decision to come here as
a viable alternative to death."

Elias still did not respond, waiting to learn exactly how insightful Wilson was.

"That only leaves one possible explanation. You have come here with a purpose. You have not, yet,
told me what that might be. But, whatever it is, it is worthy of banishing yourself to this place for the
balance of your life so that you may accomplish it. And, frankly, there are very few things in life people
find worthy of that kind of sacrifice – God, country, and a loved one.

"Aegis is an abomination. There is no doubt about that. It probably is an offense against the
Almighty, but I don't believe that you are an angel sent down from the heavens to right this particular
wrong.

"Aegis was created by our government, and I believe that it serves its purposes as it is; therefore,
I think I can tentatively drop country from the list, as well. That leaves a loved one."

Wilson's eyes bored into Elias as he spoke. "Be it a rapist, a killer, or some other vile and wretched
subhuman specimen, I can easily see that you would follow that person through the ‘gates of hell' for
your revenge."

Elias struggled to appear as if he were painfully coming to the decision he had reached earlier.
"Your fame is well deserved. You're right. I am after someone."

"I knew it!" Wilson exclaimed, slapping the top of his knee. "Who is it and why?" He took a deep
breath to stifle his reaction and, in a more calm voice, added, "Not that it is any of my concern, of
course."

"Wilson, I think that if I tell you the who, the why might be evident."

"Very well, who might it be?"

"No doubt you have heard the name Rudy Kreitzmann."

Elias expected a strong reaction, receiving none.

"Of course I have, but that is old news."

"You know he's here?"

"Certainly. We've spoken."

"You've…?"

"Elias, are you telling me that it is Kreitzmann you're after?"

Elias nodded.

"For what purpose? Oh! You've come to kill him, haven't you?"

Hesitating, unsure of Wilson's feelings about his fellow scientist, Elias said, "No."

"You hesitated. Of course, you must be wondering if he and I are friends. Let's just say, if any value
deserves to be removed from the equation, it is Rudy."

Shaking his head, Elias grinned. "I surely cannot figure you out, Wilson. I guess that I don't share
your Holmesian abilities."

"Who does?" Wilson remarked immodestly.

Laughing, Elias pressed, "You said you've spoken with him. What about?"

"Before I answer, would you care for more tea? I made a full pot."

"No, thanks. I've still got half a cup."

Wilson stood and returned to the interior of the shack, coming out in less than a minute with his
mug again full.

"He thought I would be a good addition to his team."

"Team? Kreitzmann recruited you?"

"Attempted to. I declined. He was persistent, though."

"I thought you were living in Aegis incognito. How did he find you?"

Wilson shrugged. "I don't know. As to my past on the outside, you are only the second person I've
told. But he did find me. Walked straight in the door, as did you, and invited me to his lab. That was
where he first asked me to join him. I turned him down that day, and he continued to arrive here
unannounced, not taking no for an answer. He finally gave up weeks ago."

Confusion clouded Elias' thoughts. "I'm afraid I don't understand. He has a lab. He tried to bring
you into his fold several times. He gave up weeks ago. It just doesn't add up."

"What doesn't add up?"

"That's a lot for someone to accomplish in three months."

"Three months? What is the significance of that period of time?"

Elias stared at Wilson for a moment before telling him, "That's when Kreitzmann came to Aegis."

"No, it's not! You're mistaken. Rudy has been here for at least five years."

Elias was speechless. This piece of news was the last thing he expected to hear. The moment he
did, his stomach began to churn. The implications of what Wilson told him created an entirely new set
of potential scenarios, none of which were pleasant, and not the least of those was that Faulk had misled
him for some reason.

He saw that Wilson was watching him closely, no doubt continuing to gather clues in his probably
unbreakable habit of obtaining and analyzing data. Elias found that his paranoia was percolating at a
higher level than normal, certain that this strange man could almost read his mind. Deciding to review
the available facts at a later time, when the privacy of his own mind might be more sacrosanct, Elias
resumed the conversation. "You said he has a lab. What is he doing there?"

"His usual offenses against God and nature."

"Human experiments?"

"Of course! And since he is operating within the cloistered environs of Aegis, he is unfettered in
his experiments."

A distinct chill shivered Elias' spine.

Wilson continued, "And operating within Aegis provides him with a solution to a problem he has
struggled with for most of his purulent career."

Listening to the words, the pieces fell into place for Elias, and the picture created was monstrous.
"Supply," he said simply, his voice flat.

"Precisely. As he developed his field of expertise, nation after nation, at the very minimum, ejected
him from their borders and, at the most extreme, attempted to prosecute Rudy for his work. But now
that he operates within a setting which is essentially lawless, he is no longer hounded. And, more
important, there is an ever-increasing flow of new subjects walking through that revolving door – people
who, from the moment they enter, are cut off from everyone and everything. It is almost as though
Aegis was created for the sole reason of suiting his insidious purposes."

"No one will miss them," Elias said. "No one on the outside will know that they've become his lab
rats."

"And no one on the inside will even be aware that they've arrived and been nabbed, to use the
vernacular."

"When I got here, I was jumped almost immediately by a group of ZooCity goons."

Wilson nodded. "That has been a fairly recent development at Aegis."

"Are they working for Kreitzmann?"

"No. At least to the best of my knowledge. They've begun grabbing the new arrivals, stripping them
of anything they might consider to be valuable in Aegis, and then using them for, well, rather sordid
purposes."

Elias did not share what he had learned from his surveillance. "So they've been interrupting the
supply chain to Kreitzmann."

Nodding, Wilson replied, "I guess you could say they have. I hadn't really thought about that. How
did you get past them?"

"I had some help."

Wilson's eyebrow arched questioningly.

"They had the drop on me. I'm not sure what I expected as I came inside Aegis; I guess I wasn't
expecting an organized attack. But at the point where the punks had me down, some thing intervened.
All I saw was a sudden blur of motion; I don't know how else to describe it."

As he said this, Elias was paying close attention to his host's face. There was no change of
expression.

"I don't know what it was or where it came from. But one moment I was lying helplessly on the
floor about to be killed, and the next moment my attackers were either dead or running away."

"However, you were left untouched?"

"Yes."

"Most odd."

"Do you have any idea what that thing was?"

"I suppose that I might," Wilson answered, pausing to sip from his tea.

"Well?"

"During the incessant entreaties to join him, Rudy felt a need to impress me with his work. His
arrogance only allows him to believe that awe, rather than revulsion, would be the reaction from a fellow
scientist."

The distaste displayed on Wilson's face contorted his features.

"I despise the fact that my training and expertise places me into the same general cohort as that
man! In one of his visits to my little paradise here, Kreitzmann brought a companion, a youngish man,
perhaps barely twenty years old. I thought it odd, because Rudy didn't even introduce the gentleman
and, in fact, didn't even acknowledge his presence until it served his purpose. And doubly odd was the
demeanor of the companion."

"How so?"

"He seemed to be…well…restrained I suppose would be the best word, as if he had been exerting
every ounce of his mental energy to keep himself from moving. I remember thinking at the time that
it was not dissimilar to a person doped up on amphetamines, who was being forced to stand in the
corner. His pent-up energy was palpable."

Elias' mind flashed back to that day in Faulk's office when he was shown the video of Kreitzmann's
supposed arrival at Aegis. He remembered the men who, in his opinion, accompanied the scientist.
Wilson's description came close to describing the odd nature of their movements, which Elias could not
define at the time.

"Do you think it was the result of a drug? Is that what Kreitzmann is doing in here? Drug
experiments?"

Wilson's face broke into a rueful smile as he said, "If it is, it's a drug I've never read about. While
we spoke, and Kreitzmann reached the point in the dialogue when he felt it appropriate to display the
fruits of his talents" – his face involuntarily puckered, as though he had bitten into a lemon thinking it
was a sweet orange – "Rudy gave a subtle sign to the companion, as he would to a trained animal, and
the man simply disappeared."

"Disappeared? Do you mean he left?"

"Oh, he most certainly left, but not in any way discernible to the naked eye."

Elias stared at Wilson, trying to read his eyes for any sign of deceit or insanity. He saw neither. "I
don't understand."

"Neither did I. One moment the young man was standing before me, and the next he was gone.
We were on this very porch, and the companion was no more than three feet from me. It was bright
daylight. There was no trickery, at least that I could detect."

"Where did he go?"

"That is what I asked Kreitzmann. Instead of answering me, he just grinned and looked past my
shoulder. As I followed his gaze, I saw the young man standing right over there by the railing, about ten
feet behind me."

Elias had no idea what to ask next.

Wilson continued, "You mentioned a blur being visible during your altercation with the gang
members. In my countless mental replayings of this event, I believe that I did perceive something like
that, but I haven't been certain whether I actually had or whether my mind was manufacturing it to help
me digest what I had seen."

"Did Kreitzmann explain what had happened?"

"No! That is a symptom of the contempt he holds for others. Instead of sharing the details of an
experiment which could produce such a phenomenon, he merely smirked and told me that if I wished
to know how it was done, I would have to join his team! He thought that making me curious would do
the trick, as if I were some juvenile.

"From what you've described, it would seem that my visitor on the porch and your intervener
would be one and the same."

His mind churning to make sense of this anecdote, Elias asked, "What do you think happened?"

Wilson shrugged. "I have no idea. Are we talking about physical translocation? I am not a
theoretical physicist, but my meager knowledge of the field causes me to dismiss that possibility. I don't
believe that Scotty aboard the Enterprise beamed the man from one part of my porch to another. All
that I know about Kreitzmann leads me to the conclusion that he has found a way to alter, modify,
enhance…I'm not certain what the correct term would be…humans to the point where they have a new
ability. And, I might add, a rather frightening one."

Unable to process this piece of information any further at this time, Elias thought back over the
whole of the conversation with Wilson. There was one other point he wanted to clarify.

He leaned forward in his chair, moving closer to his host. "Wilson, at the risk of offending you, are
you certain of the timetable?"

The corners of Wilson's eyes crinkled as he smiled at Elias. "You are, no doubt, asking me that
question because Kreitzmann has been seen in the outside world during the past five years. And,
although I have presented you with a conundrum, you have unwittingly provided me with confirmation
of a claim I have pondered for quite some time."

"What is that?"

Gently sighing, a sound barely audible in the tumult of the wind, Wilson explained, "During the
aggressive courtship, when Rudy made his repetitive visits to me, he made many offers to entice me.
One of them, quite frankly, was a stunner."