Thirty-seven
The glass face of the Trevor Building in downtown
Boston was darkened at two in the morning. Richard Welk circled three
sides of the building in his BMW and turned into the underground
basement. A single guard let him through. He parked haphazardly near the
elevator and took the car up thirty floors to Sarah Trevor’s private
offices.
Two people waited for him in the larger of three
conference rooms, Sarah herself perched on the thirty foot table lined
with empty, black leather and chrome seats. Trevor’s head of security,
retired Colonel Seth Clymer, casually paced the length of the room.
Seth Clymer wore flat black fatigues, a color scheme
the man had chosen, so rumor went, because it contrasted so well with his
shock of pure white hair. Richard placed the man at sixty, and knew him
to have been retired from the military for two full decades. He
remembered hearing that the Colonel kept his hand to hand combat
skills honed to a razor-edge despite that fact that most of his
responsibilities fell in the realm of computer security and industrial
sabotage.
“You’re late, Richard,” Sarah admonished in her
mellow, well-modulated tone of voice.
“Richard was sleeping.” He tossed his briefcase to
the conference table. “Traffic’s not bad this time of day, though. I’m
not all that late.”
Sarah never took offense at his impertinence, at
least not for as long as she had been sleeping with him. “Seth is
displeased that your agency deemed itself justified in hacking its way
through the financial records of Trevor Industries,” she said. “Why
couldn’t you have just asked?”
Richard sat at Sarah’s side. “My hacker felt more
comfortable working the wrong side of the law.”
“You set off alarms at a bad time.”
“I needed information on Silver Ridge Die-Casting
that I could trust. You’re going to appreciate what I found.”
“I lost men today, Mr. Welk,” the Colonel said.
“As in misplaced?”
“As in dead.”
Richard eyed Sarah in dismay. “Billy warned you. I
advised you to heed that warning.”
“No, Richard. Corin warned me. And it sounded more
like a threat than a warning. It has never been my policy to bend to
threats.”
“I might suggest that you watch out for noble
sentiments that put someone else’s ass on the line,” Richard said as
compassionately as possible.
Sarah looked appropriately upset. “I don’t think we
anticipated it would come to this.”
Richard looked to the Colonel for an explanation.
“What happened?”
“I sent in a chopper with two by air and a van with
six and equipment to follow up,” Seth said. “The chopper was to have
reconnoitered and secured the area near the front gate of the Trevor
property in Silver Ridge. The van was to arrive twenty minutes later to
conduct a comprehensive analysis of the destruction of the property in
question. The chopper was on the ground and in radio contact with the van
when it was cut off. The van was in radio contact with a command post set
up twenty miles away. It, too, was cut off without warning. An air
search for both the helicopter and the van was conducted with entirely
negative results.
“What bothers me is that both vehicles were equipped
with locator transmitters. Neither transmitter functioned when an attempt
was made to activate them from the air. The transmitters were hidden in
the frame of both vehicles and not likely to have been found and
deactivated. They were somehow destroyed.”
“Has anything else unusual happened that may be
connected with activities in or around Silver Ridge?” Richard said.
The Colonel shook his head, his face twisted with
concern. “There’s a family living on the far side of the valley who say
there have been brilliant flashes of light coming from Silver Ridge, a big
one coinciding with the time of the fire and destruction of the property,
and several more recent ones that may or may not coincide with the loss of
the chopper and van. We’ve monitored the police bands. Aside from
several people reported missing in the area, nothing seems to be too
seriously amiss. The sheriff says things are quiet, except for the fire,
and he has his offices in Silver Ridge.”
“Tell him about Corin,” Sarah said gently.
“I know of Billy’s psychiatric disorder,” the Colonel
said impatiently. “I don’t see how it’s relevant to the difficulties
we’ve experienced.”
Richard couldn’t help a chuckle at the Colonel’s
expense, regardless of the tight feeling in his gut. “Billy’s alternate
personality is an entity who calls himself Corin. Corin claims to be
Billy’s future personality from the twenty-third century. That sounds
like a psychiatric disorder to all of us, but if you’ve been doing a
little snooping on your own, Colonel, perhaps you can tell us the amount
of money Billy has managed to funnel into Silver Ridge and what exactly
he’s spent it on.”
“The sum amounts to forty-eight million dollars,” the
Colonel said uneasily, “most of it channeled into research and
development, and the manufacture of automation devices farmed out to
several West German and Japanese firms. I hear the equipment is quite
sophisticated, but I’ve also heard that much of it is useless without
technological and programming developments that simply don’t as yet
exist.”
“How about technological and programming developments
that may well exist in the twenty-third century?” Richard suggested. “I
saw Billy’s toys operate first hand, Colonel. They work just fine.”
The Colonel frowned. After a time, he shrugged. “I
can accept that as a possibility, if I must.”
“What happened to the mansion?” Richard demanded.
The Colonel swallowed hard. “It burned down.”
Richard challenged the man with a patient stare.
“Sir, I haven’t seen the ruins for myself. . .”
“There are no ruins,” Sarah said curtly.
The Colonel paused until he managed to assimilate the
disclosure. “I see.”
“The three-story, late eighteenth century Victorian
structure is gone,” Richard said. “The hill and the town itself are
coated with gray ash. We’ve tracked down sixty-two reports of a
tremendous flash of light, mostly from across the valley where your own
report originated. It wasn’t intense enough to blind anyone looking in
that direction at the time. It was reddish in hue, and it wasn’t
accompanied by any sound, or concussion that carried any distance. Silver
Ridge looks completely undamaged.”
“All reports emanating from Silver Ridge are
anomalous,” the Colonel conceded.
Some of Richard tension evaporated with the
concession. “That they are.”
“So, what do we do now?” the Colonel wanted to know.
They both looked to Sarah. “I want Billy out of
there,” Sarah said. “I want him out now.”
“It’s your show from here on out,” Richard said to
the Colonel. “Do you have tailored fatigues for the mistress here?”
The Colonel eyed Sarah unhappily. “Radio
communications between Silver Ridge and Boston will be instantaneous. I’m
sure Sarah will be more comfortable either in her offices or at home where
she can follow our progress in complete safety.”
Sarah smiled primly. “Richard knows me better than
you, Colonel, except that he tends to employ little exaggerations for the
sake of sarcasm. Tailored fatigues will be unnecessary. Can we leave by
morning?”
The Colonel sighed defeat. “Perhaps by early
afternoon tomorrow.”
Sarah slipped off her perch on the table and started
out the door. She glanced back at Richard. “Be prepared to accompany me,
of course.”
Richard gave her a formal nod of acquiescence. “Of
course, my lady. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
