John Krygelski - The Aegis Solution

“Honestly, I’m confused about that myself. I was told, hell, I was shown a video with Kreitzmann entering three months ago. It wasn’t until I talked with Wilson that I found out he’s been here longer. And no one knew, or at least no one told me, that he basically has keys to the door. If you were at Wilson’s, you heard me say the same thing when I was talking to him.”

She paused for a moment, replaying the conversation upon which she had eavesdropped. “Okay, that might be true. But I still think you came here just to get your friend out.”

“I would have,” Elias told her honestly. “Your message was the clincher, though.”

She flopped back into the cushion behind her, blowing out a loud breath.

Sensing the tide was turning a bit in his favor, Elias pressed on. “I know that you don’t believe me, but I would have come here after I saw your sign, even if we hadn’t lost Eric in Aegis.”

Her eyes turned to look at his. He could almost feel them probing his thoughts, seeking the level of sincerity she wanted or needed. He could feel some of the tension drain from her as she apparently made up her mind. “You’re right. You’re here, whatever the original directive or motive might have been.”

Elias remained quiet, allowing her to make the rest of the journey on her own.

Standing suddenly, she suggested, “Let’s go look at that picture of your friend. Maybe I do know him.”

He stood and snatched up his pistol and rifle. As they headed toward the door, they passed an alcove, equipped with several decorative hooks on the walls, many of them holding jackets and colorful scarves, her shoes lined up carefully against the back wall. Even that area sported some small shelves, adorned with porcelain statuettes and feather roses. He looked at her quizzically, and she replied, as if he should know, “Every home needs a mudroom.” He chuckled at his quirky new acquaintance, and followed her out into the maze of concrete passageways.

They communicated in whispers, as the grilles installed in the floor of the walkways were open to the space below. After the ninth turn, she told him that there was no direct connection between her mechanical maze and his electrical raceways, so they would need to briefly descend to the public corridors until they reached an access point. Before taking one of the ladders down, she lay on the floor and shimmied to a return air grille until her head was hovering directly above it. Turning her head to the side, Tillie listened for the sounds of any residents below.

Quietly, she rose and whispered, “Sounds all clear. Let’s go.”

They proceeded to an access ladder and climbed down to a mechanical closet. Again, with great care, Tillie cracked the door open and peered out. Seeing no one, she opened the door the rest of the way and stepped into the corridor, immediately followed by Elias. The closest electrical room with access to the raceway was only fifty feet away, and they reached it without incident, quietly closing that door and swiftly climbing the ladder, a longer climb since the electrical raceways were positioned above the mechanical plenum. As Elias was following Tillie through the trip, he had an opportunity to admire her grace and fluidity as she moved, climbing and descending ladders as effortlessly as a gymnast.

Once within the raceway, Elias moved into the lead position, even though he was aware that she knew the location of his base. Within less than ten minutes they arrived, and he did a quick inventory and checked his discreet security measures. Everything appeared to be undisturbed.

Leaning over the laptop, he brought up the appropriate file and clicked on the jpeg of Stone. The face of his old friend filled the screen.

“There he is.”

Tillie leaned closer for a better look and almost instantly recognized him. “Yes. I did see him come in. It was about that time, too.”

“What happened?”

She turned to face Elias, her expression blank. “Not good.”

“What, Tillie?”

“The Zippers got him. Right off the bat. Not too far from where the Zooks accosted you.”

Elias felt an anger building inside and, with more of an accusatory tone in his voice than he intended, asked, “You didn’t help him?”

Tillie flinched back, hurt by his inflection. “I would have. Really. But I didn’t have any of the balloons with me. Normally, the only thing to worry about in that area would be the Zooks. Those guys I can handle without a problem.”

Her unhappiness at not assisting Elias’ friend was blatantly obvious, and he immediately felt like a bully for his comment. “It’s okay, Tillie. I didn’t mean it that way.”

His attempt to reassure her did not have much of an effect. “Do you know where they took him? Or…,” he paused, not wanting to know if the alternative was the case. “Did they take him alive?”

Relieved at the prospect of delivering a positive bit of news, she blurted, “He’s alive. At least he was when they took him away. They took him to the lab.”

“Do you have any idea where in Kreitzmann’s lab they are keeping him?”

“I haven’t seen him in there, but that doesn’t mean much. There are several areas of that lab where I haven’t gone, in the overhead area. What I have seen bothers me too much, so it’s a real approach–avoidance deal.”

With a hopeful tone in her voice, she added, “But I can start looking for him.”

“That would be great,” Elias said, smiling at her.

He closed the image file and began clicking through the video menu, checking first on his available views of Walden. Seeing nothing unusual, he switched to the Madison views.

“What are you looking for?”

“Nothing, specifically. I’ve been away from here for a little while, so I thought I would do a quick check to see if anything was happening.”

He finished checking the video feeds from Madison and clicked on ZooCity. The first two views were of empty rooms. As he was about to change to the next feed, Tillie pointed at the screen. “What’s that?”

“What?”

“I don’t know. I think it looks like a foot and leg.”

Elias blinked and stared harder at the screen in the spot where Tillie pointed, before remembering that he had the capacity to zoom in on a region of the view. Doing so, the vague blob at the corner of the screen resolved clearly into precisely what she had described.

“You’re right. That’s exactly what it is.”

“It doesn’t look like he’s moving. Do you think he’s asleep?”

Elias turned and looked at Tillie. “Do you?”

She did not answer.

Satisfied that there was nothing more to see in this view, Elias clicked on the next, and all of his questions were graphically answered.

“Oh, my God,” Tillie gasped. “Are they all dead?”

“I can’t tell for certain, but it surely looks like it,” Elias answered softly, his eyes taking in the apparent mayhem in the room he now viewed. Strewn about the floor, arms, legs, and torsos were twisted at all impossible angles; he could not imagine they were still alive. His finger moved on the touchpad, and he clicked on the stored-video menu, leaving the live mode and beginning a slow rewind. Other than the screen flicker, the fact that he was watching the past in reverse at 3X speed was not apparent, as nothing moved. With another click, Elias increased the speed to 16X, intensifying the flicker. As the clock counter in the corner of the monitor passed the previous hour, all of the inert bodies suddenly flew into motion, almost comically.

He quickly paused the reverse mode and clicked on play. There were at least nine men and women visible in the frame. They were eating a meal, talking, and laughing. Elias and Tillie stared at the video silently, waiting in dread for the outcome that they knew was coming at any moment. Within a minute, one of the men stopped in mid-stride as he was returning to the table with a glass in his hand. His right arm suddenly jerked upward, the glass flying across the room, and a moment later his head twisted violently. He fell limply to the floor. Before the others could even react, Elias saw that, one by one, each of them met a similar fate. The attack, in total, took less than a minute, according to the clock counter.