Luthecker (37 page)

Stern gathered his thoughts, and tried to figure out where to begin.

“You’re familiar with Coalition Properties, correct?”

“I haven’t been living in a cave.”

“Well then you know that they are the largest single corporation in the world, and that they have a hand in pretty much everything. Including owning and operating the largest private military contractor in the world, Coalition Assurance.”

“Whom you work for. I know this.”

“Yes. But what you don’t know, is that the guy who runs it all, Richard Brown, also ran rendition and torture squads during the Iraqi and Afghan wars. Think about that a minute. The man in charge of the most powerful private company in the world got there, literally off his ability to torture and kill people. Imagine what someone like that is capable of, not just overseas, but here on U.S. soil. I never thought about it before, but I see that so clearly now.” Stern told Castillo, verbalizing what he had come to realize over the course of the last three days.

“Three years ago, Alex Luthecker got into the head of his one of his best torture experts, and the next thing that happened, the guy offs himself in the parking lot, and Luthecker gets away.” Stern continued. “Brown never saw it coming, and he’s been obsessed with Luthecker ever since. Us contractors, we all thought it was bullshit, that Luthecker was a ghost. Brown’s White Whale. Hell, no one thought he even existed until I ran into him in the club, but we always did what we were told and kept looking because we all knew one thing for sure—you do not fuck with Richard Brown.”

“But he has Luthecker now. It’s over.” Castillo responded. “So why’d he send someone to kill her?” He asked, nodding at Nikki. “And why’d he send someone to kill you? One of his own?”

“Because he can.” Stern replied. “And he’s used to it. To him, it’s the simplest, cleanest solution. It’s how guys like him operate. I’ve seen it so many times during combat. Everything is threat assessment to Brown. It’s how he’s been trained. He’s terrified of Luthecker, and he thinks that because we’ve been “exposed” to him, we now see things a little bit differently, maybe even have a different worldview, and that can’t be allowed.”

He looked at Nikki for some sort of affirmation that what he was beginning to realize for himself was also true for her. She slowly nodded that it was, and he continued.

“And because we do see things differently, we’ve been deemed a threat. So my guess is he thinks that will happen with anyone who’s ever laid eyes on Luthecker. So in order to contain the threat he sees, it’s easiest to get rid of all of them. Make it like Luthecker never existed. It’s the only way a guy like Brown can be sure.”

“That’s insane.”

“There’s been a lot of insane shit happening in the world lately. Or haven’t you noticed?”

“Brown’s right.” Nikki cut in.

They both looked at her.

“We are a threat. Luthecker knows things about people, he shouldn’t. I don’t know how, but he looks right into your soul, and that changes everything.” She looked at Stern. “And I want to go further. I want to know more. Don’t you?”

Stern took a few seconds before answering.

“Yes. I do.” Stern finally admitted. “Because I’m sure there’s a lot more going on here than we know. Look, Brown may be a sociopath, but he’s no idiot. What this Luthecker guy can do must be huge, or he wouldn’t bother. And he’ll either destroy him, or use him to destroy others. That’s the other thing that guys like Brown always do.”

Castillo thought a moment, tried to make sense of all this information.

“So what do we do?” He finally asked.

“We go get him.” Nikki answered.

They both looked at her.

“Not exactly easy.” Stern responded. “But I agree. Because you’re right, I do want to know more. A whole lot more.”

“So you people want to break into the Coalition Properties West building downtown? Are you crazy? With the sophisticated security they have?”

“We don’t have any choice. They’re just going to keep coming at us if we don’t. And my instincts tell me the only way out of the problem is to get to the source of it. The answers lie with Luthecker. We need to get to him.” Stern replied. “Look, we can do this. Anyone can be gotten to. We just have to have plan.”

“I have to speak with my superiors first.”

“You’ll be arrested and handed over to Coalition. You’ve seen that happen already. And once you’re in their hands you’re gone forever. Do you really want to risk that?”

Castillo mulled it over. He feared Stern was right. He took a deep breath, and called it for himself.

“Okay. I’m in.”
“Good.” Stern replied. He started to pace, as he tried to put a plan together, thinking out loud.

“Now, I’ve been inside the building. The human security, it’s manageable, because

They’re not high-end soldiers. That’s because they don’t have to be. And they don’t have to be, because the electronic security systems are something else all together.”

“Let me work on that one.” Nikki added.

They both looked at her.

“I have a little program that can help us out. I just need a computer. A fast one. And a Mac, so I can access all my software and operating systems that I have encrypted on The Cloud.” She looked at Castillo. Can your confidential informant get one for me?” She asked.

“I can get you anything you want, as long as you don’t ask how.”

“Fine. I don’t need to know. What I do need is a Mac Pro 12-Core. Fully loaded with 64GB RAM and 2TB hard memory. And three monitors. I like to work with multiple screens.

Any Apple Store should be able to configure that on sight, if they have the hardware in stock.”

She looked at them both. She could see in their eyes that they neither understood what she said nor believed what she claimed she could do.

“I’ve designed one of the most elaborate futures-trading software programs in the world. She’s called Phoebe. She’s basically an extension of the minds’ ability to solve problems. With it there is no security system they have running that I can’t augment or break.”

Neither man reacted.

“Look; this is my thing. Whatever master system they have managing that building I can out think, I can outrun.” She said in defense of her statements.

The two men looked at one another.

“Don’t look at one another- look at me.” She commanded. This was her expertise, and the sexist reaction, no matter how subconscious it was on their part, was not going to fly.

They did as she asked, and both stared at her, unsure what to say.

“Anything else?” Stern finally asked.

“That should do for now. The sooner you can get me what I need, the sooner I can get started.”

END GAME

A
lex slowly opened his eyes.

It took him a moment to realize where he was-- lying in the bed of his Coalition Properties luxury cell.

He slowly sat upright, and tried to shake off the mental fog created by his unexpected collapse. He eyed an IV drip attached to his left arm. He followed the line up to the fluid bag, and squeezed it for a sense of the liquids’ viscosity. He watched the drip chamber for several seconds, studying the velocity and frequency of each drop. The most commonly used crystalloid fluid used for intravenous solutions is normal saline at .9 concentration, which is close to the concentration of blood, which is what he currently had flowing into his veins from the clear plastic bladder, he concluded. He felt reasonably alert and aware of his surroundings, all things considered, but felt neither stimulated nor sedated, which meant minimal to zero narcotics or depressants in the fluid mixture. He assessed that the IV was for hydration and nutritional purposes, containing a mixture of salts, glucose, amino acids, and various vitamins. They would want his mental process unobstructed and back to normal as soon as possible. He moved on to the next series of thoughts.

They had been kind enough to include a wall clock in the room, and it had been nearly twelve hours since he had had the “neurological incident”. He carefully reviewed the events that followed. His collapse had sent his captors into a panic. “Suspect Zero,” renamed the “Alpha Captor in Alex’s mind, was still in charge, and believed in the concept of complete and total control. That was easy enough to see. Anyone who claimed to be the “architect of history” clearly wanted control of all of it. The need for control was a derivative of fear, and as such the Alpha Captor feared much. He played out his fears on a worldwide-scale, as the need to show the video of the Chinese General exposed. The irony of this was that those who lived with fear were the easiest to control. This is where the man in the video, Zemin, and his rival differed. The Chinese General knew this toxic aspect of fear. His Alpha Captor lived in denial of it.

Alex’ brief collapse was a data point outside of his Alpha Captor’s tightly controlled environment, something unforeseen, a random and unplanned variable inserted into a meticulously managed equation. Like most “unknown unknowns,” this would prove to be revealing.

Alex did not see random events in the Universe as random at all, especially when it came to how an individual responded. Unplanned occurrences didn’t obscure the patterns of an individual they reinforced them. People rarely changed their thought process due to outside stimuli. Alex’ Alpha Captor had reacted to his seizure in a way that showed three things that Alex had already begun to suspect: one, Alex was an extremely valuable asset, worth saving even at high cost, which provided Alex some leverage. Two, his captor was willing to risk control by sending someone in his cell to save him, knowing it would risk exposure. And three, his Alpha Captor viewed individual life as something expendable without hesitation against his overall vision. At the last thought, Alex felt badly for the woman who had come in to save him.

He filed this information in the back of his head for use later, when he would potentially stand face to face with the Alpha Captor. The bigger question now was how to manage what little he could see of the patterns of the rest of his captors in order to make that happen as soon as possible.

He had three Beta captors, two male, and one female. “Alice” as he had humanized her, had been sent in to check on him after he lost consciousness. He wasn’t exactly sure what had happened to cause his neurological system to shut down, but speculated that the frequency of the video signal and his brainwaves had somehow crossed, causing his to temporarily phase shift, leading to the brief loss of consciousness. He would look into this in greater detail later. Right now, his sole focus was on getting out.

He had regained consciousness shortly after she had entered his cell, and although still dizzy and disoriented from blacking out, he saw her face, and had managed to get a sense for her life. He knew right away from circumstance alone that it wouldn’t last much longer.

The lines on her visage said thirty-six years of age, the sullen features and early stage frown lines that were beginning to overwhelm her considerable beauty were not just due to the passage of time, but also to the trace patterns of concern and anxiety that came from something beyond her own self interest. The number of wrinkles around the eyes and mouth, their angle, and pattern, were associated with being a single mother. Her eyes revealed that she was intelligent but insecure, a product of above average looks and a superficial society. This low self-esteem and mixed-source anxiety had led her to getting involved with one of her co-workers and regretting it, something he had sensed before in her voice, audible even through the electronic scrambler. The decision to get involved was denial-based, mistaking love for a deep need for security, and she was beginning to realize it. She feared the momentum of her choices, and where they would lead to, which was inevitably to here, in this place, right now. Like all mothers, her fear was mostly centered on her concern for the welfare of her child.

Her instincts told her that the Alpha Captor was extremely dangerous. Her instincts were right. But it no longer mattered, because it all led to her being at the intersection of Alex’s and the Alpha Captor’s crossed paths, unfortunate crosshairs for her, and now it was too late to change her fate. Alex wished he could save her, wished he could have changed her outlook on things, met her before all this mess, and regretted deeply that he would never have the chance. The hard reality of the matter was that there was nothing he could do or say that would allow for her to get out of the building alive.

“Hi Alex. How are you feeling?”
the mechanized voice abruptly asked over the cell intercom.

“Hi Alice.” Alex responded. “I’m doing fine. I never got the chance to thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

There was a pause. Alex closed his eyes in anticipation of what she would say next.

“I’m not supposed to speak to you anymore. I don’t know why. But I just wanted to say I’m sorry. I don’t agree with what they are doing to you. I don’t agree with any of this.”

“You don’t have to apologize. I do. And I’m sorry.”

“I don’t understand.”

Alex knew there wasn’t much time. He might as well just come out and say it. It was the only thing he could do for her.

“Don’t worry. He’s going to be okay.”

“Who’s going to be okay?”

“Your son. He’s going to grow up to be a fine man. I promise.”

Siobhan Parker sat in the observation booth, completely stunned. Her eyes began to unexpectedly well at the absolute sincerity in his out-of-left-field statement. How on Earth did he know she had a son?

The sound of the observation booth door carefully opening interrupted her thoughts.

“Ms. Parker?” A sheepish-looking man with thick glasses and cheap suit peaked his head in and asked.

“Yes?”

“Hi. My name is Mr. Isabella. Mr. Brown asked my partner and I to conduct a security audit of the building. Would you mind answering a few questions for us?”

• • •

“Look. On the rooftop.” The man in the passenger seat of the black Suburban said to the driver. Both men wore Coalition Assurance black combat fatigues, and each carried a matte black Glock 9mm for a sidearm. They both watched as several men began to appear on the building rooftops all around them.