Counting Up To Infinity Read online

  Hardesty asked, “You tried and couldn’t locate this Sea Lav?”

  “We have a minimum of three agents working on locating him, full time for the last eleven years. We don’t have any leads, except to say that this Sea Lav is 85% likely to have a bug in our computers and is likely to be an organization.”

  “Unbelievable, what are his demands? What does he want?”

  “He never asked for anything. When we first started to investigate him, he sent e-mails to various people chiding them. He’s stopped that in the last five years. He’s obviously doing us a tremendous service, so we reduced the number of Sea Lav searchers to three. This Sea Lav character obviously has a Batman complex.”

  “John this is interesting to say the least. Did your counter-Sea Lav people ever run a personality profile of this person?”

  “We think he may be thirty years old now, although his earlier work in ‘challenging’ us intimates he may be immature. We believe he’s a male. He or his organization is completely fluent in Russian, Slovak, Mandarin, Hungarian, and many other languages. We can’t even determine his nationality by his grammatical errors. Every language he uses, he uses perfectly. Other than that each analyst paints a different profile. His linguistic profile changes each time he sends a message.”

  “Linguistic profile?”

  Carroll smiled, “We’ve identified a 98% concordance to the dictionary and grammatical styles of Hemmingway, Shakespeare, King James bible, Chaucer, Stephen King, Fidel Castro, and others.”

  Hardesty asked, “Are you sure he’s a good guy?”

  Carroll put his hands up, “He’s stopped a number of domestic terrorist attacks. He linked a number of perpetrators with our cold case files, with a 70% conviction rate. If he were an agent, he’d be our number one super-star. In fact a few have suggested he is a rogue agent, operating outside our rules.”

  “What about the CIA?”

  “You’ll have to ask Director Goss about that one. However, I’d lay 10:1 odds that Sea Lav is helping them too. I once met the head of the KGB and asked if they knew of a rogue agent who assisted them anonymously. He blinked his eyes affirmatively, smiled then asked about the weather in Washington.”

  Judge Hardesty thought for a few moments then said, “John, I’d like a set of independent analysts to assist me in some research. Each of them with top secret/SCI clearance and not working with the others or have been working to identify Sea Lav. I’d prefer people geographically separated as well. Could you send Margaret such a list? I have a hunch.”

  The meeting was clearly over and John Carroll stood and left. Hardesty opened the box with an early contact with Sea Lav. He read that first e-mail, it read like a Dr. Seuss children’s story.

  “Now once in a jungle, or so the tale goes, there lived a strange bird that most everyone knows. His name, it was Tracy. He was mean as could be, and never seemed happy while crossing the sea. Sighed Tracy, this crazy Boyd hatching his plan …

  ***

  Hardesty hit the phones.

  “Agent, can you get me all professional records on Martin Klein, MD, including any publications. Plus any information on places he’s worked”

  “Could you get me all records for a David Klein and Elizabeth Klein?”

  “Agent Phillips, I hear you’re a computer wizard, I think that’s the term of it. What can you tell me about CompuHead?”

  “Send me all records and notes on your interview with Phyllis Klein. Also include any observations on their home and properties. The same for Corey Klein.”

  “Please send me information on notable research and academic publications by people at Birkhead College within 4 years, plus and minus, of the first Haines Gravity paper. I’m talking about breakthrough works.”

  “Subpoena the photographs of all students at Birkhead College at the time of the Charlie Haines’ Gravity paper. Also get me the registration for all students in Dr. Barnes’ classes.”

  “Tell me everything you can find out about Charlie Haines prior to his work with Barnes.”

  “I want to know all real estate properties and all their other assets owned by David, Martin, Corey or Phyllis Klein and Sidney and Janet Ryan. Also get me their IRS records for the last 20 years.”

  “Who are the principal scientists at Organic Biotechnology?”

  “Do David and Phyllis or Martin and Corey Klein or Sidney and Janet Ryan have any children? Send me all records and photographs of them, including recent surveillance photographs.”

  “Send me the sketches of the people who assisted the Ryan flight with their comatose son Joshua.”

  “What do we know about Joshua Ryan post-flight from the authorities?”

  “Did anyone from Ryan’s company publically or privately purchase carbon nanotubes?”

  “What is Panacea?”

  “Charles Ritchie, this is the Department of Homeland Security Director Judge Hardesty. Would you be free for us to meet?”

  “Judge, I was planning to call you.”

  Hardesty was mildly surprised, “You were?”

  “I think our interests coalesce on a certain project. I would rather we not be seen together. Could we meet for lunch today?”

  “I’ll clear my calendar, but yes of course. Gianelli’s Trattoria on K street at 11:00, before the luncheon crowd?”

  Ritchie agreed.

  ***

  The restaurant had a back room with no other patrons at this hour. The kitchen staff was still setting up for the noontime crunch. Hardesty immediately recognized the head of the FDA, Charles Ritchie, as he entered, and waved him to the little booth. Hardesty noticed Ritchie was carrying a small folder. The $50 tip to the headwaiter to guarantee their privacy might not have been necessary, with the Federal Agent standing in the back room’s doorway.

  Both men ordered water.

  Hardesty said, “I see you brought something.”

  “Yes, it’s about a drug called Panacea we approved and someone you arrested a few weeks ago, Doctor Martin Klein.”

  Ritchie opened up the meeting notes from his first meeting with the Doctors Ryan and Klein and showed the before and after pictures. Finally he said, “In case you were wondering. Yes, I am 100% convinced that Martin Klein aged 53 is the same young man you arrested. He wasn’t the only one. We have a number of people who appear to be 20 years of age, both younger and a few older people. This fountain of youth is a positive side effect of the true action of Panacea. To date it has cured all diseases we’ve tested.” In a quieter voice, “All diseases! It apparently allows people to live forever. To make it even more interesting to you, Charlie Haines, the financier of this project, is ready to administer it worldwide for free. He is just waiting for my approval.”

  Hardesty asked, “What do you know about Dr. Klein?”

  “Little, he’s an assistant medical director at the company. That’s an entry-level medical position in the industry. He claims to have been administered the drug by accident. A claim I personally doubt. He had a heart attack a few months prior to receiving Panacea, all signs of which are now gone. By the way, that’s par for the course with Panacea. We’ve been monitoring his health on a quarterly basis. He’s been very cooperative.”

  “Did you know that Klein was at one time CEO of C H Enterprises and is currently a major stockholder in the company? That would make him the world’s richest man, although he hides it so well my people couldn’t find any trace of it. And we looked.”

  Ritchie laughed, “No, I just took him at his title. I guess I prejudged him by his deceptive youth. Come to think of it, he didn’t have the demeanor of someone that important.” Ritchie turned somber. “I think you should think this through, the impact of this drug on the world. I included my notes on the biological safeguards. Organic Biotechnology clearly thought this through, dotting all the ‘i’s and crossing all the ‘t’s. But the societal changes will be monumental.” Ritchie paused then said, “I’ve been
testing and retesting everything I can. We’re planning for a large group of people to be tested in the next few months and more after that. However, the more people we test, the more likely that it will be leaked to the press. There is nowhere we can hide all these formerly old or dying people. Once the word leaks out, there will be riots, massive, world-wide riots.”

  Hardesty’s shoulders slumped. “I think I need to handle today’s crisis d’jour with the President first. Would you mind if I spoke to you about this further?”

  “No, we’ll probably have to work together from here on. This folder is yours.”

  Doctor Ritchie left. Hardesty read the folder, then re-read it. The main dining room was starting the lunch-time rush. Hardesty rubbed his fingers through his hair and came to a decision. He made a quick phone call. “Agent Ruillio, I want you and your partner to return to be debriefed by myself personally. Before you leave the interrogation center, I want you to assign someone else to bring Mr. Klein to the Four Seasons Hotel, get him a suite, and have him wait there for me. If necessary, clean his clothes by their laundry. Hell, get him a full spa treatment. They are to treat him like Saudi royalty. No, make that like the English Queen Mother or the Pope. Understood? Get me the number of his hotel room when you have it.”

  ***

  When Hardesty arrived at the Four Seasons Hotel, he was accompanied by a number of agents. The agents thoroughly checked the room for bugs and transmitters. No bugs were found. David stood there smiling with his mouth slightly agape and his wrists at a slight angle.

  When the agents left the room, Hardesty asked David if they could talk. David shrugged led to a small meeting room in the suite. Hardesty sat and David plopped on a chair with his legs spread out.

  After looking at David for a few moments, Hardesty said, “I’m glad we finally met. I’d like to personally apologize for our behavior.” He smiled as he added, “I hope you didn’t injure your hand with Frank Dunne’s nose.”

  David smiled, picked up his right hand clenching his fist, and then frowned, “I think I can heal, Mister.”

  Hardesty looked carefully at David and pursed his lips. “OK, no fencing, David. You remind me a lot of somebody, but the facts are the facts. Let me lay what I personally learned and guessed. I need to stress personally, as I haven’t shared a word of this with anyone. Nor do I intend to. OK? Your father was a researcher who found a way to use carbon nanotubes to interface brains and computers. He did an experiment on you. Your mother hated it and committed suicide. He went into hiding for a number of years, getting part time jobs, sometimes living by barter. You came of age and eventually started inventing things, like the CompuHead hard drive, decades ahead of its time. When you went to school at age 16, a large horizon of people and ideas drew you out. You invented the gravity reflector. This spun that off to a number of industries, including energy and cars. You couldn’t take the credit yourself so you invented a video persona, Charlie Haines, so lifelike everyone was convinced he is real. The C H Enterprises actually stands for Compu-Head, your first company. Sea Lav is short for lavatory. On a boat, a lavatory is called a ‘head’, C-Head or Compu-Head. Many of your pseudonyms have the initials C H. You helped that comatose little boy Joshua Ryan and invented Panacea to save him. You realized the socio-econometric implications of Panacea and have been moving very carefully. For the last eleven years, you’ve also helped this and other countries, by tracking down terrorists. For that you hacked into computers all over the world and perhaps world-wide cell phone towers. While you work alone, you have gotten some policy guidance by the world’s smartest people. Although we’ve had you in solitary confinement, you effectively circumvented that somehow. Am I close?”

  After listening to what the other Ins said, David tightened control of his face, dropping Personality 12B-2.

  Hardesty stared at the transformation, “Amazing, simply amazing. I could have sworn you were just like Sammy, my nephew who is retarded.”

  David smiled his twisted smile, “A variant of one of my various persona. Yes, I modified it based on pictures and videos of Sammy.”

  Hardesty shook his head again and said, “Amazing. I take it I was right about what I guessed.”

  David leaned back, “You got a few details right. What do you want? Guns? An invisibility cloak? A computer hacking tool? Money? The Castro brothers’ bank accounts?”

  “What? Oh no. Those things would be a bigger mess to resolve. I saw the video tape you initially gave to Dunne, if it’s real and given your skill I have to ask, it clearly implicates the Vice President and suggests the President was involved as well. However, many will say we doctored it, and more will say you created this fake evidence.”

  “It’s real.”

  “I believe you. But as the Head of the Homeland Security, I need to have better evidence. You’ve already demonstrated that you can make a life-like image of Haines, good enough to fool everyone.”

  “You have the statement by Mosley and General Mitchell, as well as a telephone log.”

  “They are good for a regular conviction, but not enough for the President of the United States.”

  David paused then said, “One second.” David started to smile and lifted his hand up in a gesture meaning halt. Fifteen seconds went by when he looked back at Hardesty. “Judge, do you remember me touching you at any point in time?”

  “No, we both kept our distance. I remember thinking about shaking your hand but decided against it. Why?”

  “Judge, could you look in your shirt pocket, you have a present.” David grinned.

  Hardesty put his hand over his heart and felt a bulge. He reached up, under his jacket, and pulled out a four inch ruler, it looked and felt like a rough piece of wood, cut against the grain.

  David said, “I was told to tell you to open it by stretching it out and pulling the legs apart. Don’t worry, you can’t break it.”

  Hardesty felt the solidness of the ‘wood’ but complied. He held it in the middle with both hands then applied light stretching pressure. It stretched to two feet long. Then it wouldn’t stretch any further. It now looked like a flat stick and he could feel that it was made up of a few leaves. Hardesty used his thumb and forefinger and applied a cross pressure and the leaves separated. He did this a few times and made what looked like a hollow square picture frame. The frame was two feet long on each of the four sides but the wood was only two inches wide and empty in the center.

  David said, “Flip it over.”

  Hardesty did so and noticed that the frame had a very thin edge, about 1/8 inches. Then he saw a number of dials sticking out of the frame.

  David said, “I’m told the first dial has four settings: off, Franklin Chamberlain’s interview with me, Cooper’s involvement, and a surprise. The second dial is the replay speed, it’s in a log scale and goes backwards and forwards. The third dial can tune in various spectra, it’s currently set for visible light. The fourth dial is on and off air permeability – you can use it to smell or hear. The last dial is log magnification.” Hardesty noticed a fine line on the dials and above them for centering. The first dial had four lines. David resumed, “Try turning the first dial to the second setting, Chamberlain.”

  Hardesty saw what initially looked like the now familiar video tape, but it was now looking at Chamberlain from in front of him, not from above. The image of Chamberlain clearly looked three-dimensional. He turned his body to face David when he noticed that the picture in the frame turned to the door then part of David. But it was the David at the Chamberlain meeting. He moved the frame and saw that David’s face had a slack jawed expression.

  David asked, “It blanked out?”

  Hardesty said, “No, I see you as you were at that meeting.” Hardesty turned the frame over and saw through the frame. He then turned it back again and again saw the scene.

  David said, “It’s a one-way image. Cute.”

  H
ardesty swung the frame around viewing the sides, and then he moved forward and back. At one point he moved the frame up to the Vice President and asked, “Will this hurt him?” David moved around so he could see what Hardesty was seeing.

  David said, “No. It’s a perfect copy of the scene, as HE would see it, if God saw only in visual light from one vantage point.”

  Hardesty slowly moved forward. The frame had been on the Vice President’s chest, he then moved it forward and a nub then full pen was visible. A pen was under the Vice President’s suit. Hardesty move closer and the screen showed skin, then blood flowing through veins and bones.

  David commented, “The diagnostic value of this is incredible.”

  Hardesty put the frame down, “You sound like you’re unfamiliar with this. Didn’t you invent it?”

  David shook his head, “No.”

  Hardesty lowered the frame and looked questioningly at David, but didn’t say anything.

  David finally half-grinned and said, “You wouldn’t believe me.”

  Wryly Hardesty said, “Try me.”

  David’s grin widened, “I got it from God. He got this toy from a grateful student.”

  “God? Toy? Student?”

  “Well student is a poor word, more like an enlightened being who constructed it for the less enlightened people of his world.”

  “World?”

  “You don’t believe God only represents creatures from Earth do you?”

  “You speak to God?”

  “I have, but I got this information second hand from his spokesman on Earth.”

  Hardesty paused for a long time then said, “That boy Joshua.”