John Krygelski - The Aegis Solution

Elias was having trouble clearing his mind enough to take the much-needed nap. Stone walked quietly to where Elias stood and cautioned him, “If you don’t catch at least some sleep, you’re gonna be worthless later.”

Elias, answering softly to not disturb Tillie or Wilson, replied, “I know. But there are a couple of things that don’t fit. They’re driving me crazy.”

“Only a couple? You’re doing better than I am, then.”

“I’m serious, Eric. Why did they, whoever they are, want me in here alive? Tillie’s right. Normally, I would just disappear. It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Insufficient data at this time.”

Elias spun his head and looked at Stone. “What?”

“I’m saying that we don’t know enough to answer that question. That’s part of what we need to sort out after we get some rest.”

Elias stared at him for a minute before he reached up and rubbed his eyes. “I guess you’re right. A little unconsciousness would be a good idea.”

“Yeah, it would.”

“Keep your eyes open.”

“Not to worry.”

Since Wilson was supine in the wing-back chair and Tillie had crashed on the bed, Elias moved to the sofa and lay down. He saw Stone position himself off to the side of the main area so that he could watch both entrances. Satisfied, Elias lowered his eyelids. Within five minutes Stone heard the steady, rhythmic pattern of snores coming from Elias.

He sat patiently and waited an additional five minutes before silently easing off the stool where he was perched, and carefully walking away. It took him the better part of twenty minutes to reach Elias’ cache. Wasting no time, he picked up the large backpack loaded with the firebombs and started to leave.

“Put them down, Eric.”

The voice came from the darkened passageway ahead, and Stone froze, recognizing Elias’ voice.

In slow motion, ensuring that both of his hands were visible throughout the procedure, Stone unslung the bulky pack from around his arms and shoulders, and eased it to the floor.

Elias stepped forward, and Stone could see that he was pointing the AK-47 directly at his chest.

“Talk.”

“How’d you figure it out, Elias?”

Elias shrugged, the barrel of the rifle did not waver. “When you and Tillie returned, I asked her to describe the procedure you used to test the Incendergel. Pretty clever, actually. A rookie wouldn’t know that the gel needs pressure, fuel, and ignition to go off. The fuel was present. You only introduced ignition.”

“You wouldn’t have asked her if you weren’t already suspicious.”

“You’re right. I was. To tell you the truth, old friend, I was a lot more than just suspicious.”

As he detected the tone in Elias’ voice, understanding dawned on Stone. “I see. They told me you were getting close. I assume you found out.”

Elias was staring at him dispassionately, and did not answer.

“So I guess you didn’t come in here to rescue me.”

“I came in here to kill you.”

Entering not his administrator password, but the password assigned to Dr. Bonillas, which one of the Accelerants had obtained for him, his hand quickly manipulated the track ball, moving the cursor around the modules on the interface where all of the department heads uploaded their summaries of notes and reports. It took less than a minute to find Bonillas’ designated subdirectory.

“She must have just filed it,” he muttered aloud, smiling. With a few more clicks he was done; his only delay was as he decided whether to copy the files or move them, opting for the latter.

“Got it!” he said to himself as he slipped the flash drive into his pocket. The lab was deserted at this time of night, for which he was grateful. Shutting down the computer, he crossed the large room to the exit, switching off the lights before he opened the door and stepped out into the hallway.

“Doctor Boehn! What are you doing here so late?”

Boehn whirled around to see Rudy Kreitzmann standing five feet from him, a quizzical look on his face.

“Manager Pierce?”

Mildred Pierce, who was sitting at her desk in near darkness, the only illumination coming from a candle flickering beside her elbow, turned to see that Will Rogan was standing at the door to her office.

“Come in, Will, please. Have a seat. Would you care for a glass of this dreadful wine?”

“We have wine? I thought the supply drops didn’t include any recently.”

“One of our people tried to make some.”

She took a sip and crinkled her nose in disgust. “It is vile.”

“No, thanks.”

As Rogan walked in, Pierce noticed an air of depression enveloping him like a cloud. Dropping into a chair near her, he sighed, “We’ve lost eight more.”

Pierce reacted to the news in much the same way that an overloaded mule might react to one more sack of goods being dropped onto its back. “That puts us down to less than forty.”

Rogan only nodded.

Her voice flat, she asked, “Not that it matters, but do you have any idea why?”

Rogan drew in a deep breath, letting it out slowly before he replied, “I guess it was because of the electricity going out.”

“The electricity? That’s all? We have candles, and it isn’t too hot or too cold right now. I don’t….”

“Manager Pierce, you know it doesn’t take much with our people. By the way, it’s almost ironic, but Johnson just got back from a little patrol, and I guess that Walden is about the only part of Aegis without power.”

Her eyes widened slightly. “How is that possible?”

“I don’t know. I’m not an electrician. But I assume that when the solar panels on the roof were destroyed, breakers would have tripped, protecting the batteries and circuits. It seems that our breakers didn’t trip quickly enough.”

“Ms. Stephenson?”

Erin tilted her head so that she could see around Liz, the makeup artist preparing her for the late broadcast. “What is it, Amber?”

“It’s Rusty, from the National Weather Service. He wants to talk to you.”

“I can’t right now. I go on the air in ten minutes.”

“I know. I told him that. But he said it was important.”

It only took Erin a moment to decide. “Bring a cordless to me.”

“Already did.” The intern stepped closer, squeezing between the makeup tray and the chair, handing the cordless phone to her boss.

Reaching up and brushing her blond hair behind her ear, eliciting a loud sigh from Liz, Erin lifted the phone and said, “Hello, Rusty.”

“Erin! Glad I caught you.”

“Is there something wrong?” she asked, as Liz continued to dab at the pancake makeup on her face.

“You could say that. I’m sure your news department is probably aware of this. If they aren’t, they will be soon.”

“Rusty, I’ve only got a minute or two….”

Speaking more quickly, he continued, “We lost a plane.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“I reported the anemometer readings to D.C., and they had the 53rd Weather Recon Squadron send a WC-130J to check out the situation. What they discovered was that the anomaly was centered on Aegis.”

“Aegis? The suicide tank?”

“One and the same. All of the winds are radiating outward from that point.”

“How…? I don’t understand, Rusty. How can winds blow outward in all directions from one point?”

“I don’t know, Erin. I wish I did. But it is definitely happening. And as they got close to the complex, the winds were approaching ninety miles an hour.”

Erin went blank. She had no idea what to ask next. Then she remembered his initial comment. “You said you lost a plane?”