The Immortal Harvest (27 page)

He threw the documents towards the nun and tucked the shotgun back into his trench coat. He then picked up the bag and walked out of the doorway. He exited with a parting comment.

“Make sure that you and your derelict deadbeats are gone when we get back. Next time we won’t be so friendly.”

“Who’s going to feed the homeless?” Sister Beatrice shrieked.

“Tell ’em to ask around. There’s a new place opening up real soon on Tenth Street,” Murdoch chuckled as he closed the door behind him and made his way to the van.

That’ll keep super bitch happy
, he thought as he patted his wad of cash and smiled.

Buck Lewiston was the first to spot the other two agents, Thompson and Cambridge sitting together at the other end of the diner. He pointed them out to Lisa as they weaved their way through the maze of tables and chairs to join them.

He was excited to be out in the field with Lisa. She of course took the lead in their partnership. She even insisted that she should do all of the driving, as given his age and inexperience, she didn’t trust his driving skills.

He was a little bit disappointed in this development as he had performed extremely well in the defensive driving phase of his training.

He had decided to shrug it off and just focus on the job at hand. He knew he would get plenty of opportunities to show off his talents to Lisa. He opened up the conversation with the other two agents.

“Have you two heard anything from Durning and Drew?” Lewiston asked excitedly as he sat down at the table and flicked a strand of hair away from his face.

“No. Why?” Alicia said as she sipped on her cup of coffee. She looked enquiringly at Thompson who just shrugged his shoulders and continued poring through the report which was on the table in front of him.

“When was the last time you heard from the boss?” Lisa asked as she motioned towards the waitress and asked her to bring over two more cups of coffee.

“We spoke to him a couple of days ago. Since then we have been following up on a few leads. We were going to report our findings as soon as we came up with something. Why? Is there a problem? Where is Durning? Is he still trying to push his alien abduction theories?” Alicia said.

Lewiston detected the slight hint of sarcasm in Alicia’s reply. He liked her; she was a lot like Lisa, smart and cute, that was quite a pleasant combination. He waited for the waitress to stop fussing at the table before replying.

“Oh! So you’ve read the email then? I must say it is certainly an entertaining read. I don’t think the boss would be very impressed. He’s not a big fan of sci-fi,” Lewiston said as he pointed towards the report that was on the table in front of Alicia.

“Do you mind if I take a look at that?”

“Sure, go ahead. I’m afraid it’s a fairly thin read. We have had no luck tracking down the Peter’s woman or her kid.

“Have Durning and Drew found out anything? What about yourselves? Any leads?” Alicia asked as she finished her coffee and gestured to the waitress for a refill.

“Well obviously you haven’t heard. The boss is missing. Durning and Drew are out trying to track him down now,” Lisa said matter-of-factly.

Lewiston could see the concerned look on the other two agents faces. Thompson, who was the more experienced of the two agents threw down his report.

“Missing, what do you mean missing? Have you notified the Deputy Director? I don’t understand. How long has he been missing? Where did you last see him?” Thompson asked as the volume of his voice increased with each question.

“Hold on Arnold, settle down, keep your voice down, we haven’t told anybody, especially not the Deputy Director. We have decided to keep this between ourselves for now.

“He has only been missing for a day; he’s probably deep undercover and hasn’t been able to contact us.” Lisa said, lowering her voice as she looked around the diner to ensure that they had not been overheard by the other patrons.

“Deep undercover? Why, what was he doing? Why was he in the field without back-up? This is unacceptable.” Thompson said as he looked at Alicia as if he was trying to drum up support from his partner.

“The only thing we know is that the boss went out into the field following a lead concerning the missing homeless people. We don’t know why he went out alone; maybe he thought we were all too busy.

“Anyway, Durning and Drew are on the case, the last time I spoke to them they found his car and got some Intel from an eyewitness who swears that he saw someone matching the boss’s description being loaded into a van. They got a description of the van and a partial on the plate. They are back at Quantico doing some database searches as we speak.” Lisa said.

Lewiston noticed that Thompson had settled down a bit and was absorbing the new information. He took the opportunity and decided to change the subject.

“What about Mundus Nova, any luck there?”

He watched as Agent Thompson raised his eyebrows at the question but then quickly dropped them. He could tell that Thompson knew it was futile to continue the discussion about the boss, especially with Lisa.

He watched as Thompson pushed his report across the table towards Lisa.

“The organisation works under some kind of ghost protocol. There is practically nothing to be found concerning their operation.

We have sent out feelers through The Secret Service, JSOC, CIA, Homeland security, NSA and even the DEA. No one has even heard of them. Anyway, from what we’ve been able to determine, the Senator had met them on the day of his murder.

We have no idea what the meeting was about or what relationship, if any, the Senator had with them.

“The only way we were able to gain any insight into what they were up to, was a small article in this week’s Business Review concerning the purchase of several properties within the Washington district.” Thompson said as he stirred his coffee and directed Drew’s and Lewiston’s attention to the article that he had just mentioned.

“These properties are all in the vicinity of where the Senator was killed. I think that alone is more than coincidental. Maybe we should go and have a bit of a look around, what do you think Lisa?” Lewiston asked as he sipped on his coffee.

He could tell that Agent Roberts was engrossed in the report. She had taken her tablet computer out of her handbag and was busy taking notes as she scanned from one document to another. He waited for her to finish.

“You look like you’ve found something. What is it?”

“You are right Bang-Bang, in fact, not only are these properties in the vicinity of the Senator’s murder, they are also in the vicinity of where Sylvan and Justen Peters were living.

It is also in the same area that most of the homeless were reported missing, which is why the boss had gone undercover.”

“Unfortunately, he seems to have suffered the same fate.” Alicia said grimly.

“Let’s hope we can find him and close this case before anyone else disappears. Unless of course Durning disappears, of course he would probably enjoy being probed by those aliens of his,” Lewiston said as he laughed nervously. He could tell that Thompson wasn’t so amused.

“Right, anyway, Alicia and I will accompany you. We have to go back to the Peter’s apartment anyway. We think someone is bound to show up there eventually.

“We are particularly interested in talking to a ‘Ms Crystal Meth’, apparently according to Washington General, she was the last person seen with Ms Peters. She was caught on surveillance pushing her out of the hospital on a stolen wheel chair.” Thompson said as he pushed his cup away and prepared to stand up.

“Why didn’t anyone stop her?” Lisa asked incredulously.

“Apparently, the guards are partial to Meth and we don’t mean the drug if you know what I mean.” Alicia said and winked at Lewiston who blushed profusely.

“Oh I see. What about the boy? Has anyone seen him?”

“I’m afraid not. We have had no luck tracking him down. We have contacted Washington PD and asked them to set up an Amber alert.

“The next twenty four to forty eight hours are crucial. It’s not looking good. The odds of finding him alive are diminishing quickly.” Thompson said as he tapped his index finger on the Peters’ file folio.

Lewiston nodded in agreement.

“Ok, it’s settled then. Let’s find Ms Meth, hopefully she will be able to help us find the boy. Who knows, she may even know where the boss went.”

“Well if we had been given proper funding we could have used quantum dots,” Thompson said as he picked up the file and started heading towards the door.

Lewiston could see the puzzled look on Lisa’s face.

“Quantum dots are being trialled in Washington. They have seeded HQ’s entire ventilation system with them. They are extremely small micro transmitters just like RFIDS, which adhere to the clothing of everyone who works in the building.

Using satellites they can track anyone who has been tagged by one. It has been deemed as a security measure – Oh, and by the way, just in case you are wondering RFIDs are…”

“Damn it Bang-Bang I’m not an idiot. I know what RFIDs are, Radio Frequency Identifiers,” Lisa said angrily as she stormed off after Thompson.

Lewiston felt embarrassed. It was the second time that he had upset Lisa. He was about to apologise when he realised that everyone had left the table leaving him to pay the bill.

He nervously pulled his wallet out of his pocket and threw some notes onto the table and then followed the other agents.

“Hey guys wait up,” he said as he thrust his wallet back into his pocket and swiped at the strand of hair which fell across his face.

As he left the diner he saw Lisa waiting for him in the passenger side of the van. He smiled sheepishly as he moved to the drivers’ side and jumped in.

He could see that Lisa was still upset and was pointing her finger at him. He had steeled himself for the lecture when he saw her look soften and she opened her hand. She dropped the keys into his lap.

“Come on Bang-Bang, let’s go find the boss.”

“This isn’t good enough,” Michael said as he paced around the container which held the minuscule amount of exotic matter.

The eerie glow illuminated the room and cast shadows off the various pieces of scientific equipment which filled the laboratory of the Right-To –Die movement. He glared at the two men as he spoke.

“Dr Oppenheimer, have you calibrated the LTC as I specified?”

The doctor nodded nervously and looked at Dr Becker in a futile attempt to gain support.

“I performed the adjustments and then ran a further three simulations, I’m sorry but there is no way we can increase the output. Besides, it is your fault that our reserves are low.”

Dr Oppenheimer nervously pulled a tissue from the pocket of his lab coat and dabbed at the beads of sweat which had erupted on his forehead.

The ageing doctor swayed slightly on his feet. Michael watched as the doctor pointed an accusatory finger at him.

“Your rather hasty inter-dimensional communication has depleted our reserves. Perhaps you need to be a little more careful.”

“That hasty communication, as you call it, was necessary to save my son. I make no apologies for that. I’m sure that Doctor Becker would have done the same thing.

“If we are to make any progress against Mundus Nova we need to step up our efforts to produce larger quantities of exotic matter,” Michael said angrily as he clenched and unclenched his fists in an attempt to quell his rising temper. He turned as he heard Doctor Becker cough as if to clear his throat.

“Michael is right Doctor Oppenheimer; you forget that without Michael our cause is lost before it begins.

I take full responsibility for the loss of exotic matter; I was the one who gave Michael permission to contact his son. In the interests of science I wished to see if such communication could be possible.”

“Never the less Doctor Becker, your scientific curiosity has cost us valuable time in the fight against the Immortal Harvest.

“Lives are being destroyed as we speak, now if you two gentlemen don’t mind I have some work to do,” the old Doctor said as he stormed out of the Laboratory.

Michael watched as the Doctor walked away and turned towards Doctor Becker and raised his eyebrows.

“Are we sure we can trust him?”

“Yes, yes, of course. Oppenheimer is one of the most pre-eminent particle physicists in the world. There are few people, you excluded of course, who would be able to match his intellect.”

“That may be so Doctor Becker but I have heard that he has had a dubious past.”

“Mmm if you are referring to his role in the Great War then I assure you that he has more than made up for any past transgressions.

He lost his entire family you know. That would definitely cause anyone to re-evaluate their life. I wouldn’t worry about Doctor Oppenheimer, I trust him.”

Michael still wasn’t convinced; he had a nagging feeling in the back of his mind. He shook it off and pointed at the container of exotic matter.

“I have been tossing around an idea. I believe there might be another way to create a working Traverser with less matter.”

Michael could see the confused look on Doctor Becker’s face.

“I don’t understand. I thought you were the one who was ranting and raving about stepping up production. Do we or don’t we need to create more exotic matter?”

“I didn’t want to mention it in Oppenheimer’s presence. I didn’t want to distract him from producing more exotic matter. The theory I have been working on is a bit of a long shot.”

“Ok you piqued my interest, let’s hear it.”

“What if we can boost the effectiveness of the matter?” Michael said as smiled and gently tapped the side of the containment chamber.

“How is that possible? Given the mass, the energy of the existing matter is finite. You cannot create energy from nothing.”

“So, Einstein suggested, but when I was communicating with Justen, I definitely felt a boost.

I believe that if I can harness the collective power of both my thoughts and Justen’s we could combine to stabilise the event horizon enough to allow protected matter to pass.”