Veil (22 page)

Brock was forced to take the more difficult
route. He started with lists of Asian surnames that sounded like
“Gensay.” He obtained lists of surnames from as many places as he
could find and compiled them all as broadly as he could. He tried
not to leave out any possibilities. He then went back to search the
field of neuroscience again, but that time searched for any
surnames that matched those variant spellings.

The closest result came
from a given name rather than a surname, although by that point
Brock took whatever he could get. It was a one “Jinsy Andrews,” a
Doctor of Neuromuscular Medicine. For some reason, that person
didn’t feel right to Brock; they didn’t feel like the person he was
looking for
,
so
he made note of the doctor and kept going. By the time he found the
name “Jinsy Andrews,” seven hours had passed since he received
Hunter’s message.

His next and more frustrating option was to
phonetically approach ‘Gensay’ and try to imagine it as a full
name, first and last, and look for any combinations that, when said
together, sounded like “Gensay.” The majority of his results,
combined with the outcome of his first two approaches, made him
realize the “G” was most likely a “J,” which was at least something
he could go off. After assembling nearly every possible variation
of “Jensay” as two names, a given name and a surname, Brock was
ready to tackle neuroscience again.

That approach ended up being the most
successful. Right away, it provided him with a Dr. Huey-Jen Tsay
from the Institute of Neuroscience in Taiwan and a Dr. Jin Tsay,
who published several research papers in neuroscience as a graduate
student from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Jin Tsay
was heavily referenced in several journals but beyond grad school
seemed to have no further published works. Although doubtful the
situation involved some doctor in Taiwan, Brock decided to start
with Huey-Jen Tsay, because he at least appeared more relevant in
the field of neuroscience. Jin Tsay was, after grad school,
noticeably more obscure if not completely absent.

Dr. Huey, as Brock decided
to refer to him and in the process couldn’t stop singing random
Huey Lewis and the News songs in his head, seemed like he could be
the guy. Research and papers in movement disorders, neuromuscular
changes, neuroinflammation, neuroreceptors. Some pretty powerful
stuff …
that’s the power of love
… Papers about things Brock couldn’t understand
but that seemed to contain the right words and appeared to be about
precisely the right things; things Hunter would’ve been interested
in and working on. Papers Hunter himself could’ve written. Brock
was pretty sure he’d found his guy. He was pretty sure that was it.
Damnit …
if this is it
-
please let me know
… All right, that was enough.

No more Huey Lewis, damnit.

To be thorough, Brock looked into Dr. Jin
Tsay as well. Studies in neuroelectricity specifically. Lots of
studies. Research about exactly how neuroelectric signals organized
information and how science could work to access it during that
process. One journal included a paper by Dr. Jin Tsay that
described how, from what Brock could ascertain, he discovered that
somehow neuroelectricity retained information. Brock knew he
must’ve read it wrong because, despite all the stuff he didn’t
know, he did know that electricity didn’t contain information.
Electricity was electricity, neuroelectricity or not.

Still, it sounded intriguing enough. He
thought he heard something specifically about neuroelectricity when
Hunter called to tell him how the Department of Defense contacted
him out of the blue. Brock didn’t pay much attention at the time
because it didn’t seem pertinent. Brock didn’t always pay attention
when Hunter spoke. A lot of times Hunter talked to talk; the man
could’ve probably jacked-off to the sound of his own voice. Brock
was pretty sure Hunter said something about neuroelectricity,
though.

Something caught Brock’s attention. In one
of the journal articles that referenced Dr. Jin Tsay’s most recent
research about neuroelectricity, the author stated in his
explanatory endnotes that the doctor could not be reached for
comment on a specific critique. Dr. Jin Tsay’s partner, who
remained unnamed so Brock had to go back to the original article to
find it, responded to the author that Dr. Jin Tsay was the lead
scientist on that study but had since entered a government contract
and was unavailable for comment at that time. Piecing everything
together, Brock decided to focus his investigation on Dr. Jin Tsay
instead.

After Brock stared at the
monitor for over forty minutes
,
the Terminal application opened and the cursor
blinked.

Jeez, finally.

“GA
,
” Brock typed.

“Successful?” Hunter asked, that time not
using code or TTY.

“Y
,
” Brock replied.

“Info?”

“Dr. Jin Tsay, loc DC, reported missing over
4 mths ago, wife Suren Tsay. Partner prior to govt contract is Dr.
Ken Wise, emp at BrainServe, they reported Wise on personal leave.
Have info for Suren Tsay. Have not made contact. SK.”

“You really think so?”
Suren asked. Her head was flopped to one side and was supported by
her fist. From the weight of her head
,
her elbow was digging into the arm
of the sofa
,
and
her feet were up on the ottoman in front of her.

“I mean, I’ve never used it, so I don’t
know. But yeah, from how I understand it, I really think it could,”
Ken replied. He was lounged in a large chair across the room from
her, and his feet were also on the ottoman. He reached down and
slowly lifted a glass of wine off the hardwood floor.

Suren took an unconscious cue and
straightened her head slightly so she could use the arm that was
supporting it to grab a glass of wine from the side table next to
her. She placed the glass in her hand that was rested on her lap,
returned her arm to its original position, and lowered her head
back down onto her fist. Both took a drink of wine at the same time
and sat in silence. They held their wine, stared off at nothing,
and thought about how Veil could possibly change the world.

Ken decided his mind wasn’t going to stop
swarming with an entire universe of possibilities.

“Hell, lady,” he cut the silence, “it could
become some craze. Like the internet mixed with video games mixed
with virtual reality. Like sci-fi movie stuff we’re talking here.
That’s the kind of potential Veil has.”

“I guess. I mean, I have thought about it.
I’ve just been so focused on what we’re trying to do. I haven’t
really thought much about what it’s going to turn into once it
leaves our hands.”

“You can never prepare for that, anyway,” he
assured her.

“True,” she agreed. “Have you thought about
who you’re going to test it on? You know, when it’s ready?” The lab
still wasn’t complete and she knew it was probably months away from
being ready, but she had thought about that. She was damn sure it
wasn’t going to be her. Ken for sure as hell wasn’t going to test
Veil on her.

“What do you mean?” He appeared genuinely
confused.

“What do you mean what do I mean?” she
laughed. “Who are you going to test Veil on, so you can see if it
works, and so you can experience it for yourself?”

“Oh,” Ken replied and seemed to change from
confused to embarrassed. “Well … I mean, I’ll never use it,” he
admitted. “I never will.”

She straightened up, placed her glass of
wine down and stared at it for a second. She picked it back up,
took a big drink and placed it back down again. Suren crossed her
arms, leaned forward and looked directly at Ken.

“What do you mean you’ll never use it?”

“I don’t believe in it,” Ken declared.

“You don’t believe in it?”

“No,” he shook his head. “I don’t. I guess
we should’ve had this conversation already. I just assumed … I
don’t know really, I assumed you knew me and that you’d know. I
don’t believe in it. I don’t think it’s right.”

“Because of the military? Like when you
decided to leave, because you didn’t agree?”

“No, no,” he shook his head
again and waved. “Nothing like that. I mean, yeah, I didn’t agree
with the whole getting in bed with the government
thing
,
but that’s
nothing compared to this. I think this is wrong. Veil is wrong. I
think it’s going too far. It opens too many doors that should never
be opened. Like that old adage of how just because you
can
do something doesn’t
necessarily mean you
should
. It doesn’t sit well with me,
Suren, the whole thing doesn’t. It could ruin humanity.”

Suren stood, grabbed her
glass of wine
,
and walked to where Ken was seated. She nudged his legs over
a little, sat down on the ottoman
,
and turned to face him.

“Then why did you ever agree to do this? If
I knew … If I knew, I would've never—” she started to protest.

“Oh no, no,” he interrupted. “No, don’t
think like that. No, I wanted to do this. For so many reasons. And
one of them being because as a theory, I think it’s beautiful.”

“But you think it’s wrong?”

“Yes, definitely, I think it’s wrong. I
think even if it is possible, we shouldn’t do it. We should never
do it,” he spoke with certainty.

“Then why, Ken, would you make it? … Oh my
God … why?”

“I’m practical, lady. If nothing else, I’m
practical. One, I know without a doubt the military already has
their hands on it. So it’s out there. It’s happening. Whether we
like it or not. And it’s happening through the very people who
killed Jin to get their hands on it and keep it for themselves. I
don’t think we need to wonder if they’ve got nice, warm, fuzzy
intentions.”

“No,” she chuckled and took a drink of Ken’s
wine after she downed hers. “That we don’t have to wonder.”

“Right. And two, I’ve always—always believed
in multiple discovery. That is, once someone makes a discovery,
probability is very high that someone somewhere else will make an
identical discovery, and usually pretty soon afterward, if not at
the same time.”

“So all you’re saying is that Veil was
inevitable,” she clarified.

“By any other name,” he joked.

“Then why not let it happen, some other way;
some other person; some other time?” she asked before she took yet
another drink of Ken’s wine.

“Because you asked me to do it. And because
even if I don’t believe in Veil, I’ve always believed in Jin.”

All the wine coupled with
the dramatics created by what Ken said quickly sank into them and
they laughed. Suren stood, lost her balance
,
and used her free hand to catch
herself. They were still laughing when the home telephone rang and
startled them. Suren let out a little yelp and covered her mouth.
She giggled. The home phone never rang. Ever. The only reason they
had one was because Jin insisted on it. Jin thought a home phone
was something people should have.

Suren laughed at herself for being startled.
She walked to the phone, which was on its third ring. She removed
the phone from its base and turned it on.

“Hello?”

Suren didn’t hear anything from the other
end and, after a few seconds of silence, assumed it was simply a
fluke. She took the phone from her ear and was about to hang up
when a strange voice came from the receiver.

“Suren Tsay.”

She put the phone back up to her ear
and—from a robotic, monotone voice—heard the rest of the
sentence.

“I have a message for you.”