John Krygelski - The Aegis Solution

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.”

Elias waited patiently, accustomed to his companion’s delivery.

“Naturally, he bragged about the quality of the lab, the superlative staff at his disposal, all of the other resources. But during his final visit, he told me that if I joined his team, I would be allowed to share a very special privilege…access to the outside world.”

“What?”

Recognizing the outburst as rhetorical, Wilson sat back and said nothing.

This new packet of information affected Elias more strongly than the description of the disappearing stranger, for it instantly blazed new paths, new possibilities, new explanations. And what was most disturbing was that all of them led Elias to some very unpleasant conclusions.

He had no idea how long he had sat silently in front of his host. But, finally speaking, Elias quietly said, “I…I am not sure what to think.”

Sympathetically, Wilson reached forward and placed his hand on Elias’ arm. “It is a bit of a game-changer, isn’t it? It seems that whoever built Aegis has given this monster a spare key to the door!”

Charon’s mind whirled with possibilities as he pondered the information given to him by Wilson. The statements could only be regarded as revelations — facts, if they were indeed factual — that changed the very underpinnings of his reality insofar as Aegis and Faulk’s agency were concerned.

The corridor was empty as he walked, having left Wilson to his lush atrium, with the promise of a prompt return. If what he had been told was true, Elias could not imagine an explanation that did not indicate a complicity between Faulk and Kreitzmann, if not in the present, then surely in the recent past. The ramifications of an association between Kreitzmann and the government were unspeakable. If Faulk and Kreitzmann were connected, why did Faulk send him in here with the assignment he was given?

Mentally shifting gears, Elias thought back over the final questions he had asked Wilson. The scientist had no knowledge of Eric Stone’s presence or whereabouts within Aegis. He did, however, provide Elias with directions to Kreitzmann’s area within the complex, a route he would soon cautiously follow, right after he completed his detour.

Wilson sat patiently on his porch until he heard the clanging of the cowbell as Elias exited his atrium. For good measure, he waited several more minutes, keenly listening for the telltale sounds of a person moving among the foliage. As a final precaution, he quickly toured the grounds. Seeing no one and hearing nothing but the wind and its effect on the branches and leaves around him, Wilson returned to the interior of the shack, walking across the small main room to a door on the far side. His knuckles rapped twice on the door before he opened it, seeing his friend waiting, holding a pistol aimed at his chest.