John Krygelski - The Aegis Solution

“I’m locked up in this place waiting for my rescue and you took the train!”

Elias just grinned.

“Still, I should be grateful that you didn’t hitchhike across the country.”

Turning serious, Elias responded, “Eric, you’re assuming facts not entered into evidence.”

“What do you m…oh!” Stone stopped, his eyes boring into Elias’. “You’ve got to be kidding?”

“What is it? What am I missing?” Tillie asked, leaning closer.

Stone was staring at Elias for confirmation. The expression on his colleague’s face was enough.

“He wasn’t sent to rescue me.” His voice was flat.

Tillie’s head swung back and forth between the two men; she was clearly confused. “I don’t understand. You said you wanted to find him. You asked me.”

Elias nodded, still not speaking.

With a shake of his head, Stone explained, “Elias was never very good at following orders.”

Wilson decided to join in the discussion. “If you weren’t ordered to rescue Mr. Stone, am I to assume that I was correct in my assumption?”

Tillie froze, fear and anger clouding her face. “You are here to kill us all, aren’t you?”

“I was sent to carry out the mission that Eric failed to complete.”

“Oh, this is just great. I helped you find your friend, so now there are two of you. You can buddy up, divvy Aegis between the two of you, and wipe us out in half the time!”

“What are you still doing there?”

The voice on the phone was agitated and obviously furious.

“I was clearing up a few loose ends. The visit from Charon didn’t help,” the man said defensively.

“I told you to gather up everything that we needed and clear out! You should have been gone before that even happened.”

“Bonillas has made some real breakthroughs in her lab in the past few weeks. I was waiting for her monthly summary.”

This bit of news caused the voice to pause. When he resumed, he was more calm.

“Breakthroughs?”

“Yes. Even she is surprised at what some of her subjects are doing now. It’s almost as if the immersion group has reached this critical mass. Now that there are so many of them, so many who are developed in the skill and are interacting with the younger subjects, the abilities are amplifying exponentially. Did I tell you that it was one of her subjects who was responsible for identifying Charon?”

“No. You’re kidding?”

“I’m not. Right through the observation glass. Charon was meeting Bonillas, and the subject read his mind.”

The line was silent as the man at the other end mulled over this development. Finally, he asked, “Do you have her notes?”

“Not yet. At least not all of them. That’s why I was waiting for the monthly. When she puts that together, it should all be tied up in a neat package.”

“When can you get that?”

“Today, tomorrow… I’m not sure, but soon. She’s already late, so it should be anytime now.”

“All right. Wait for it. But if you can’t get it within twenty-four hours, take what you have and clear out.”

“I understand.”

They broke the connection, and the man unplugged the line from the jack, disconnecting from the special hard-wire line that had been run into his suite. He packed the phone away, slipped on his white lab coat, and left.

“As Eric mentioned, I’m not very good at following orders.”

Tillie stared at Elias, her expressive face displaying a blend of worry, anger, and something else…something resembling hope.

“Are you saying that you’re not going to blow us all away?”

He shrugged. “I guess that depends on the mood I’m in at the time.”

Tillie kicked him hard under the table.

“Oww!” Elias barked, reaching down and rubbing his shin.

“If we are to accept what you say at face value,” Wilson began, his voice calm and reasonable, “that still begs the questions…why are you here? And, now that we’ve assisted you in the release of Mr. Stone, isn’t he going to carry out his orders?”

Elias looked at Stone inquisitively. “Eric?”

Stone gave him a hard look. “Thanks. Nothing like putting me on the spot.”

“You’re the heartless mass murderer,” Elias chided with mock innocence. “You mean to tell me you can’t handle having some tea and sandwiches with your future victims?”

Before Stone could react, he continued, “I think I know Eric fairly well. I have a feeling that he has already decided to put his initial assignment on hold until he gets a few of his questions answered.”

“Questions?” Wilson leaned forward in his chair, interested.

“The same questions I have.”

“Are we going to keep playing ‘twenty questions’?” Tillie shouted. “Or should I grab a sketch pad and Sharpie so we can switch to a game of Pictionary?”

Elias could not resist laughing at Tillie’s impatience. “I’m sorry. You’re right. Before I set foot inside Aegis, I knew there was more going on than Faulk said. That’s one of the reasons I never intended to carry out the orders he gave me. I’d be surprised if Eric didn’t come up with the same concerns as he was cooling his heels in that room.”

Stone was still staring at Elias and, his voice low and intense, asked, “Elias, how well do you know these people?”

Focusing on his old friend, all traces of mirth gone from his voice, Elias replied, “Eric, Wilson is John Wilson Chapman, a Nobel laureate. He is the person who told me that Kreitzmann has been in here for years, not weeks as Faulk wanted us to believe. He is also the one who told me that Kreitzmann has his own private back door to the place. Tillie…she is the one who found you and led me to you.”

“I’m also the one who thought to bring the bolt cutters.”

“She’s also the one who thought to bring bolt cutters. She also saved my life. And she also has shown me her secret lair.”

Elias made the last part of the comment with his right eyebrow arched for dramatic effect. “So, have I done a background check on them? No. Have I had a chance to strap them down and interrogate them? No.”

“Go ahead and try, mister.”

Ignoring Tillie, he continued addressing Stone. “But my instincts are telling me that if there is a team that we should be joining in here, this is the one. If you are uncomfortable with my choice, you’re, of course, free to split off and go your own way.”

“Yeah,” Tillie again jumped in. “Now that we’ve saved your butt, you’re free to head off and complete your assignment…without even a ‘thank you.’”

Stone looked at Tillie as she made her last comment with all of the bravado she could muster. He saw that buried directly below the surface was a very real concern that he would do precisely that. His eyes moved to Wilson, who sat comfortably in his incongruous office chair, leaning back, sipping his tea, and analyzing Stone as an entomologist might observe some new bug he discovered under a rock.

Then Stone returned his gaze to Elias and reacted to the expression on his friend’s face. “You know, it would almost be worth it to stand up and walk out of here just to wipe that smug ‘I know what you’re going to decide’ look off your face.”

Tillie was perched on the front edge of her seat, waiting. Wilson was now casually gazing off into the greenery, chewing a bite from his sandwich. Elias watched and waited.

Stone, reaching up and brushing some of his long, dark brown hair off his forehead, finally broke the silence. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

“No, it doesn’t,” Elias agreed.

Tillie snarled testily, “What doesn’t?”

“As I was sitting in that room, cooling my heels, as Elias put it earlier, I couldn’t figure out why Faulk sent me for this job.”