Virtual Destruction

CHAPTER 18

Loud ringing pierced a fuzzy-headed morning, shattering the vivid reds, yellows, and blues of an impossible dream. Rising through the depths of sleep, Craig Kreident knew he didn’t have to go to work. If he waited long enough, the ringing would stop.

But instead of melting away with the dream, the noise continued until it bore through the fog in his brain. So much for sleeping in.

Craig rolled to his right and slapped at the speakerphone. “Hello?” His mouth tasted dry, cottony. Sunlight streamed into a window, illuminating a bright yellow rectangle on the hardwood floor.

“Craig, this is June. June Atwood.” Her voice sounded loud and tinny from the speaker.

He lifted to an elbow and glanced at the clock, blinking 9:03 in red numbers. “Yes, ma’am. What’s going on?” His mind started to clear from the sleep. “If I’d known you were going to call this early, I wouldn’t have stayed up partying so late.”

“Sorry to get you up. But you did make me promise to call if something came up.”

Craig sat up and swung his legs to the side of the bed, wrapping the sheet around him. “I can be downtown in half an hour. Did the NanoWare—”

“This is something different, Craig. A field job.”

Craig’s hopes dropped upon hearing June’s matter of fact tone. What did she have in mind? Asking him to appear before a middle school assembly, speaking about his career as a G-man? “I’m listening.”

“You’re the most experienced agent I’ve got in high-tech investigations. This morning there was a suspicious death on Federal property — at the Lawrence Livermore National Lab. A bigwig scientist was found dead in a sealed area early this morning. The preliminary inspection from the Livermore medical department found high concentrations of some kind of acid on the body.”

“Acid? Like the Phantom of the Opera?” Craig asked.

“Not quite so gruesome, but this guy… didn’t have a pleasant time dying.”

“Sounds suspicious to me,” Craig said.

“It gets more complicated,” June continued. ““Some sort of high-level multinational team coming out to Livermore in a few weeks, by invitation of the President himself. Couldn’t be worse timing, so we’ve got to look good. Go in, talk to a few people, bless the scene so we can rule the death an accident.”

“Was it an accident?”

“You tell me.” Craig’s mind clicked into the problem at hand, focusing his full attention. June rattled off the details of how Gary Lesserec had found Michaelson’s body, and the subsequent uproar. “Death occurred in one of their Exclusion Areas, whatever that means. Top Secret place, I suppose. We’re getting a provisional security clearance sent over there for you within the hour. Naturally our FBI clearances don’t mean anything to the DOE folks, so you’ll have an escort at all times.” She laughed. “I’ll try to get you a cute tour guide, okay?”

Craig thought fast: he still had to shave, shower and hit the can. But he kept plenty of clean suits hanging in the closet. “I can be there by ten thirty.”

June’s voice sounded grim. “I sure hope you find out it’s a straightforward accidental death.”

“You know it never turns out to be as simple as that, June,” he said with a sigh. “I just hope these scientists don’t get confused about who’s on their side.”