Veil (32 page)

“So,” Hunter settled down, “what’s up?”

Ken stuttered, “Uhhh … uhhh, I don’t … ummm,
I mean—” but was interrupted by the voice from Brock’s chair.

“I know how it seems, but he really is a
genius or whatever.”

“Oh I’m a genius all right,” Hunter laughed.
“I’m Hunter fucking Kennerly, bitches!” He clapped once and hooted
a loud, “Wooooo!” As he shouted, Hunter threw up what Ken assumed
were some kind of gang signs or something.

“You’re manic is what you are,” was his
friend’s response.

“This is just not what I expected,” Ken said.
In comparison to Hunter he couldn’t have sounded more stoic and
lame. His own uptight demeanor suddenly embarrassed him, so he
consciously tried to relax and lighten up.

“I get it,” Hunter assured him. “I really do.
I’m a parody of myself anyway so I’m used to it. I’m too wired and
tired to put on any airs right now. I’m running on fumes at this
point to be honest.”

“I hear you there,” Ken agreed. “I actually
spent the night at the lab
,
so I’d be here
first thing. I didn’t know what time you all would be arriving.
Suren should be here shortly.”

“Good. Guess we should all get caught up. Get
on the same page and shit. I’ve bought us some time, with my
buddy’s help, so although the pressure is still on, it’s not on as
much.”

“Where do we start, then?” Ken asked.

“Well, let’s take a look at this ugly ass
neckband you made for us,” Hunter joked.

By noon, and with Suren’s arrival, they’d
gone over how each of them arrived at that point and reviewed the
details of Hunter’s game plan. It was a remarkably well thought-out
plan
,
and although Ken initially worried
how Suren would react to Hunter’s abrasive personality, she seemed
able to take it all in stride. After all, he was the guy who
essentially made what she and Ken were trying to accomplish not
only possible but able to happen quicker than they dreamed.

Without Hunter and Brock, Ken could’ve worked
for a year to develop a sensible device. And apparently there was
no way Ken possessed production and marketing connections
comparable to Hunter’s. Heck, he not only had them but could
utilize them all in fifteen minutes flat.

Hunter made two requests. First, he wanted to
test the device using himself and Brock. Hunter would be Brock’s
subject
,
which meant Brock would shadow
Hunter. That was news to Brock, so he was a bit shocked at first,
but he wasn’t at all against the idea. Brock was dying to try Veil
ever since Hunter first explained it. His initial thought when
Hunter said he wanted him to help test it was,
Hell yeah
motherfucker
! Unlike Hunter, he didn’t say stuff like that out
loud … in front of strangers.

Second, Hunter continued, after they got all
caught up, he wanted to take the rest of the day off. There were
some things he needed to take care of and the only way he could do
them was to cut himself loose for the day. He said it was too much
detail to go into and none of it really mattered much anyway. Some
personal things that needed attending to and some things that would
ease his mind as well. All he required was a ride to go pick up a
rental car
,
and Ken was more than happy to
oblige with that. In addition
,
Ken ended
up being willing, although not so happy, to let Hunter use his
credit card to get the rental.

After the commotion died down, when everyone
was mid-meal and in good spirits, Suren brought up something that
gnawed at her.

She raised her eyebrows at Brock and calmly
asked, “One of the things you said the first time you called was
that you knew what happened to my husband. You know what happened
to my Jin?”

Hunter shot a quick glance at Brock, who was
already looking at him, let out an “Errr…” and picked up his drink.
After a large gulp
,
he answered for Brock.
“I’m sorry if he gave you that impression,” he paused long enough
to kick Brock’s chair with the side of his foot. Brock shrugged his
shoulders as much as he could. “But I don’t know exactly what
happened to your husband. All I know is what I was told. That’s all
I know.”

“I’d like to know what all you were told. All
of it, please,” Suren quietly requested but didn’t look up from the
food she pretended to pick through
.

“Honestly, and I’m not one to spare anyone’s
feelings, so I’m not leaving anything out to spare yours, but
honestly, the only thing I was told came from the General. All he
said—pretty bluntly—was that he hoped he wasn’t forced to have me
killed like he did the guy who created Veil. Your husband.”

Suren still didn’t look up from her
food
.

Which Hunter found rather fucking creepy.

No wonder them Japanese make such twisted
movies. My ass is sittin’ across from The Grudge right now. Oh … I
wonder if the bitch is Japanese. Probably not a good time to ask.
Nah, prolly not right now.

She continued to interrogate him. “That’s
what he said, that he had Jin killed? The evil bastard ordered my
Jin’s execution?”

Nope, definitely not a good time to ask.

Hunter gulped and confirmed. “Yes, that’s
exactly what he said. That he had him killed
.
”

Suren put down her fork and, like in a scene
he’d expect from a mobster movie, slowly lifted her napkin from her
lap, wiped the corners of her mouth, refolded it and placed it back
on her lap. All without looking up. After she sat quiet and
perfectly still for nearly a minute, she finally raised her head to
look at him.

“And what was that person’s name?”

Hunter cleared his throat, “Coffman … General
Coffman … General Eugene Coffman. He’s got a bitch of a wife named
Lynn Coffman. I know where they live and everything.”

“No that’s fine,” Suren quietly declined,
barely above a whisper. She picked up her fork and, as she picked
at her food again
,
she added, “The two
doctors you mentioned that were working on Jin’s project. What were
their names?”

“Ummm … Carl Schaffer and Luke Pollock. But
I’m not sure how much they had to do with—”

She cut him off. “That’s fine
.
That’s enough. Thank you. I appreciate it.” She
stopped toying with her food and ate.

Hunter knew one thing for sure: Suren didn’t
need to write down any of those names. Her expression was that of a
woman who would remember those names for the rest of her life. Or
at least until she did something to them, fucking
Kill Bill
style. Samurai Suren would remember those names until she did
whatever she obviously intended to do. Anyway, Hunter concluded,
the crazy bitch did an impeccable O-Ren Ishii impersonation. That
was for goddamn sure.

Later in the afternoon Hunter took Brock
aside.

“Heyyy buddy,” he started but realized he
sounded patronizing—
buddy?
—so he changed his tone. “You know
I couldn’t have done any of this without you, but right now there’s
some shit I have to go take care of. Nothing major and nothing
risky, just some shit to line up. Make sure we can all get started
on the right foot, ya know?”

Brock nodded.

“So I’ll be gone for a while, probably until
later tonight. You can use some rest anyway, plus you can get to
know Ken and scary ol’ Lucy Liu over there. I want you to rest up
for tomorrow, when we get to take this fucking thing for a ride.
And you know we’re going to push that shit to the max. We’re gunna
make Veil our bitch, you hear me?”

After a moment Brock’s computer declared
rather loudly, “HELLS TO THE YES!”

Hunter laughed, “Ok. I’ll see you later
tonight and if you’re already asleep then first thing tomorrow
morning. We’ll get started first thing, bud.”

“I’ll be here,” Brock grinned.

Hunter kissed the top of Brock’s head and
left the lab.

For dinner that night Suren, Ken
,
and Brock sat around one of the long lab tables,
with Brock’s chair positioned at the end. He hated that; it was
like he was a baby in a high chair. He knew it was
unavoidable
,
though. The trio shared some
Thai food and Brock told them about his and Hunter’s history. Suren
and Ken enjoyed their time alone together
,
but the addition of someone new talking about something different
made them realize they lived nothing but Jin and Veil for so long
that it consumed their lives. Through Hunter and Brock
,
they found themselves thrust into another life with
other people and it was refreshing. It also helped them brace for
the upcoming transition they knew was in store.

Everything was moving so quickly. It all
started the minute the Tsay home phone rang that first time. It
escalated from that moment on and, once Hunter and Brock arrived at
the door of Ken’s lab, it seemed like everything was sent into
fast-forward. They knew for safety reasons alone it needed to be
like that. It wasn’t too much to imagine how, when the military
realized Hunter was gone, they would put the entire District on
lock down for a manhunt. The military was capable of
anything
,
so the four of them had to
assume the worst. To be safe, they had to assume the military would
hunt them down like ninjas with alien superpowers. And worse, they
had to assume the military would find them.

They developed a mantra: Test it, produce it,
release it. Test it, produce it, release it. Test it, produce it,
release it. They all spent the night at the lab. Tuesday would be
the beginning and turning back or slowing down would probably mean
death.

Hunter wanted to start first thing in the
morning. There was no reason to waste time. They knew a test run
had to be performed immediately. With the additional programming
added and everything up to full specifications, Ken’s ugly Veil
device was ready to perform. Suren decided to pass on being present
for the test run
,
since she suffered from
lingering
,
conflicted feelings about what
Jin did to her. She headed back to the Tsay home to cook.

Ken wasn’t about to question Hunter’s sudden,
additional requests regarding the Veil between him and Brock. Ken
knew Hunter had certain plans
,
and he gave
Ken no reason to doubt him. Quite the opposite, in fact. It was
obvious he and Brock shared a close friendship, and Brock trusted
Hunter. So, when Hunter requested that Brock be left totally
unconscious for the duration of the shadowing and placed on life
support, Ken consented.

Ken also didn’t object to Hunter’s second
request, which was for the upload of Brock’s neuroelectricity back
onto his brain, after he shadowed Hunter, to be conducted in
realtime. By default, the upload process would usually take only a
few moments, what Ken dubbed “Veiltime.” That Veiltime upload would
leave the shadower with a compressed—but complete and perfectly
clear—memory of the experience. However, through a realtime upload,
like the one Hunter requested for Brock, the shadower would
experience everything in exactly the same manner as their target
subject. Moment-by-moment, second-by-second.

Still, Ken wanted to clarify it with Hunter
and make sure he understood.

“In doing it that way, if Brock shadows you
for, say, eight hours, and we upload back onto him in realtime, the
upload will take eight hours to complete. You do realize you’ll
have to sit there for eight hours while Brock relives every second
of the shadowing?” Ken asked.

“I understand, yes,” Hunter acknowledged.
“That’s precisely how I want it done. I want him to experience
everything exactly as I did. I want it to be real for him, not
merely a memory or an impression. I’ll sit with him as long as it
takes. I don’t care.”