Veil (28 page)

Of course, the two would predictably protest
Hunter’s brilliant idea, but he went in prepared. To address what
he knew would be their main, underlying reason
,
he stated bluntly at the outset that, yes, the two
of them despised each other. Let them simply call a spade a spade,
talk about the elephant in the room, all that good stuff he knew
the two of them desperately wanted to avoid.

During the Veil process, they would
experience the contents of each other’s respective heads, which
would include their mutual dislike of each other. That mutual
dislike was of no secret to either of them, so to experience it
through Veil shouldn’t come as shock. Besides, he pointed out,
neither of them had the right to hold it against the other because
the feelings were mutual. Plus, he added, the two of them would
remain separated for the duration of each Veil so, unless they went
out of their way to think about each other, the exposure to those
particular thoughts and feelings would be rather limited.

But why would they want to Veil each other in
the first place, they wanted to know. Hunter of course predicted
they would want to know that and was prepared with his answer. The
answer was simple, he told them. They already conducted one
test
-
run each, using the original Veil, so
not only did they know what to expect, they had something against
which they could compare; they could judge the effectiveness of
their design against the original. And, to really answer their
question, he added, who better to test it on than someone who knew
what Veil was and how it functioned, so they could get an
understanding of how a mind worked when it knew it was being
Veiled.

He reminded them how the original test
subject had no idea he was being Veiled, so on their first run the
two of them got glimpses into a completely uninhibited mind. By
Veiling each other, they would get a better grasp on the nuances of
the mind, which in turn would give them more accurate findings to
provide the General. He could’ve ended any closing argument with
the phrase ‘to provide the General’ and the two men would’ve
tripped over themselves to do whatever it was Hunter
recommended—which was exactly what they did.

“So you’re going to hand Jin’s research over
to them? Just like that?” Suren confronted Ken after that final
call with Brock.

“Well, it’s not giving it to them; it’s
giving it to … you know, the not-thems.”

“Hear me out, ok?”

“Of course.”

“One, we can’t be entirely sure they are who
they say they are. Maybe this was their goal the whole time. To
find out what we know. Two, you only
think
we’re dealing
with this Hunter Kennerly guy, and only because you know the calls
came from this Brock Elsbeth person. All signs point to him being
Hunter Kennerly’s patient and childhood friend. Signs from the
internet
, mind you.”

“Yeah, but that part all makes sense. That
fits together. Especially considering this Hunter guy’s
specialty.”

“I get that. What I’m saying is: why trust
it? Why trust any of it? It isn’t like you. Mistrust, especially of
these people, is why you left Jin in the first place.”

“I didn’t leave him.”

“Ok—ok poor choice. I’m sorry. You get my
drift. I’m trying to make sure we’re thinking clearly and
rationally here. This isn’t only risky, and it’s risky enough as it
is, this is also dangerous. It could undermine everything we’ve
been trying to accomplish since the moment you arrived here, Ken.
And …
and …
it could get us killed. It’s that last one that
really stands out, you know?” Ironically, Suren found herself
channeling Ken when she presented her points to him.

Although he immediately came up with ten
different arguments, Ken instead forced himself to capitulate.

“I understand. I get it
,
and I hear you. I really do. And as far as I’m
concerned this is all yours. Veil is all yours, and control of it
is yours.”

“Ok, good. And I thank you. But it’s ours.
Jin’s first and now ours.”

“Ok, but still … considering what you’ve
pointed out, what would you like? What do you suggest?”

“We need a safety net, Ken. One big,
invisible honker of a safety net.”

After a moment of contemplation, he grinned
and asked, “How about a kill switch instead?”

With her head titled
,
Suren stared back blankly and blinked at him.

“What was that douche baggery all about?”
Hunter cracked.

“What?” Brock asked. He was a bit stung by
Hunter’s tone.

“That whole ‘I’m gunna talk like a 60s movie
spy’ act. All serious and cryptic and ‘I’m gunna use as few words
as possible because someone might be listening in
.
’ Like you’re fucking Bourne or some shit. You do
realize if someone were listening in they’d still know exactly what
you were talking about despite the fact that you decided to talk
like—like
that
. Whatever that was. Is that how it went every
time you’ve called them?”

“Yeah, it kinda came out like that at first
and, I dunno, I went with it. It felt cool.”

“I don’t what’s sadder, that you talked to
him like that, or that he tried to respond in the same stupid
way.”

“You know, for someone who is such a big joke
all the time
,
you really do suck all the
fun out of life, asshole.”

“I’m sorry—I suck all the what?”

“God
,
your mind is
one big, gay gutter.”

“Speaking of … I bet I could get Matt Damon
to suck my dick.”

Gross, dude.

It was an odd pre-encounter for the first ten
minutes or so. Both already knew how the other looked but neither
wanted to clue the other in on that fact. So, they pretended not to
recognize each other and pretended to be wondering which of the
people touring the monument was the person they were supposed to be
meeting. Although they immediately recognized each other, they both
went in the opposite direction to pretend to look for each other
until so much time passed that they both figured they pretended for
long enough.

“Are you—” Ken started to ask.

“Dr. Wise?” the computerized voice beat him
to the punch.

“Yes.”

After a brief pause, “I believe you have
something for me?”

Ken took the drive out of his left front
jacket pocket and held it up.

Another brief pause and then, “I’m going to
disable the automation controls for my chair. Come around behind
me
,
and start pushing me around the
monument. While you’re doing that, use your right hand to remove
the end cap on the handle of my chair, place the drive inside the
hollow end and then replace the end cap. Make sure it’s really
tight.”

“Ok,” Ken responded and positioned himself
behind the gentleman’s wheelchair as instructed.

As Ken pushed Brock around the monument and
followed the directions he was given, Brock resumed. “There will be
two days of studying and then two days of development. Starting
tomorrow. So on the fifth day our contact will leave the military
facility first thing in the morning, and we will meet you and Dr.
Tsay’s wife at your lab. After we’ve made a complete circle around
the monument, I need you to come around to the right side of my
chair where you’ll notice a keyboard in the pocket on the side. Use
that to type the address of your lab onto the screen, so we’re sure
we have it correct. There won’t be any further communication
between us until we meet at your lab Monday morning. Do you
understand all that?”

“Yes,” Ken replied and pushed the end cap
back into the handle. He made sure it was inserted tightly. He
continued to push the chair around the inner-ring of the monument
and asked, “Do you know an approximate time we will be meeting at
the lab?”

“We aren’t able to give an exact time. We
don’t know when will be an opportune time for the contact to safely
depart from the military facility. We don’t want to risk exposure
and won’t know until the time is right.”

“I understand.”

“Do you have the blank drive I asked you to
bring?”

“Right here
.
” Ken
lifted the drive out of his pocket and held it up. He quickly
realized Brock couldn’t see it because he was standing behind
him.

“Ok, stop pushing my chair for a second and
bend down. Underneath my seat, you’ll see the face of the computer
I’m using. Place the drive into the open slot and then start
pushing me again. I will copy over the specs of the prototype.”

“Done.”

“Good. Our contact isn’t sure whether he will
be able to leave with the actual prototype, so he’d like you to
spend the next four days acquiring the materials needed to assemble
another one, in case he can’t escape with it. To save time,
everything needs to be in place and ready to go. Everything
required to build and program the device is included in those
specs. Our contact needs you to, at the very least, obtain all the
necessary materials. It’s up to you if you want to, and think you
can, correctly assemble and program it. Then, all that would need
to be added is the additional program code our contact will develop
based on the documents you gave me. It’s ready now, you can take
the drive back out.”

“Done. I should be able to assemble and
program one myself, depending on how quickly I can obtain all the
raw materials.”

Ken used the keyboard attached to Brock’s
computer to type in the address of his lab.

After a bit of silence, and sounding rather
peculiar to Ken coming from such a monotone voice, Brock said, “You
know, this place is actually quite beautiful.”

Ken had never been to the World War II
monument. He made it to D.C. a few times, mostly to visit Jin and
Suren when Jin first took on the contract, but he hadn’t been back
for several years, and the monument was constructed since his last
visit. Ken noticed that Brock was right
,
and he took a moment to soak in the sights of the monument. It was
beautiful. It resembled a structure he imagined the Greeks or
Romans would’ve built if they and their aesthetics survived the
ages.

“It looks like something you’d find on
Vulcan,” Brock opined.

“You know, I can see that,” Ken chuckled and
pushed the gentleman’s chair. They circled the monument four times
in silence. Twice around the innermost ring and twice around the
edge.