Chrysalis

28

The smoke grew thicker, and then the image froze in place. A shocked silence fell over the office. Everyone stood still, agape as the monitor reflected its image of death across the conference room.

Logan felt the same shock. For the first time, he’d actually seen their opponent, the puppeteer behind this sadistic conspiracy, pull his strings… and kill someone in real time.

His eyes fell from the image to the others in the room. Now they were all staring back at him.

They don’t know what to do, he thought. This drama had been orchestrated to perfection. With each move more control had been leeched away. And now, these people had no agency left. They were like deer in the headlights.

Suddenly, Logan’s shock turned to anger. Anger at the days they’d wasted — floating one theory after another, arguing over threat credibility. Anger at the perpetrators of this cruel, needless demonstration of violence. Anger at the specialists and power brokers running this palace of technology, now looking to him for the way out of this nightmare. And anger at himself — for having no answer to give them.

Now was the time to let that anger do some of the work.

Stepping between Peyton and Kramer, moving behind the desk, he jabbed the monitor’s power button with such force it fell backward against the wall. Then he glanced at his watch.

“We’ve got sixty-six hours left,” he said. “Somebody take notes.”

Asperton reached into her desk, pulled out a pad. Kramer raised a hand to his Sentinel.

“Put the campus on lockdown. Nobody in, nobody out. You must have scenarios for that — choose one that’s credible so nobody panics.”

Nods all around — except for Wrigley. This had all been secondhand, corporate gossip-mongering for him… until now. But here, he’d witnessed the violence with his own eyes, and he seemed to be stunned.

“Wrigley,” Logan said to him. No response.

“Wrigley. Hey!”

Now the VR visionary looked over.

“We can’t stop Monday’s rollout. But we can slow-walk ongoing development and fabrication — everything related to the project. Can you see to it?”

“Yes,” Wrigley said after a moment, in a quiet voice.

Logan turned to Peyton. “That cyber-forensic team I asked you to pull together. Any hits so far?”

“No joy.”

“Well, now we’ve got more meat to throw at them. Have you put the screws on Mossby yet?”

Peyton shook his head.

“Then start turning them now, please. We need to know whether to rule him out or put a gun to his head.” He glanced at Kramer. “I suppose that’s your department.”

Without waiting for a response Logan continued. “Our opponents have made it pretty clear where we need to focus. Wrigley’s VR empire.” He looked around the room. “Anyone disagree?”

Silence — Wrigley included.

“Let’s not stop our vetting at Omega’s coders and developers. We have to check the whole logistical chain these new devices took to get from the blackboard to assembly to end users. Wrigley, I’m counting on you to help Peyton fast-track his investigation.”

“Don’t worry about my ‘empire’ — just make sure all this wasn’t for nothing.”

Logan turned to Asperton. “Claire, I know I already asked for some preliminary searches of the public and private sides of the board members. But now we need to get a whole server farm chugging away on what else those three had in common. Maybe it was a mistake to stop looking once we got the ransom note.” He paused. “And what about those special blood assays?”

“As I told you, it would take—”

“At least ten days. Well, assign somebody on your staff to call for updates. Once an hour. If we’re uncomfortable, let’s make somebody else uncomfortable, too.”

He stopped to take a breath. He was surprised by how fast his heart was beating. He looked from one person to the next, calming himself, letting some but not all of the anger drain away. “How many assignments did I just dole out — six?”

“Seven,” Kramer and Wrigley said in chorus.

“Can I leave you to sort them out among yourselves?”

Both men nodded.

“Good.” Logan turned to leave.

“Where are you going?” asked Asperton.

“I’m late for a date with a neurologist.” Then he opened the door, heading for the skyway that would lead him back to BioCertain Medical.