Section II, “Two if by Sea….”
Nick looked around at the azure colored sky, then at the clear emerald water lapping quietly against the twenty footer’s hull. He finished connecting his equipment and checked his dive weights. Angellina was still pulling up the zipper on her rainbow colored Hobie dive suit, over a 'Choices' tee shirt and “sprayed-on tight” black spandex riding shorts. Nick found himself watching her complete the operation, then looked away. She hadn’t seemed to have noticed.
“Little slow this morning?” Nick asked, joking to cover his slight apprehension.
“Yeah, I guess,” she answered, seeming rather preoccupied and distant.
“Hey, stay frosty", Nick said, snapping his fingers loudly in front of her nose.
“Yea, okay. I, uhhhh……I was just thinking about Holly again…..”
“I know, but we may be able to figure out what went wrong, if it wasn’t an accident. We're doing this for her.”
She nodded somberly, then pulled on her clear plexi ‘fish-bowl’ helmet and rotated it 30 degrees until it locked onto the neck ring with an audible 'click'.
“Okay, comm check.” Angellina’s voice echoed slightly in Nick’s ears.
“Hoooo, too loud.” She tried again.
“Better, thanks.”
“You are gonna love this gadget. Heads-up display. Projects current heart rate, water temperature, and direction. Also tank status, constantly re-calculated to compensate for de-compression time and depth. Hit the ‘up’ button and it will tell you when to stop rising for decompression and how long to stay there. Major cool.”
“I can’t see anything.”
“It won’t work until you’re under.”
“Yea, got it.”
Nick slipped over the side and was immediately greeted by medium sized glowing orange ghost numerals floating in front of him. Wherever he looked, the numbers followed, too.
“This really is amazing. I love gadgets.”
“I figured you would,” she replied, close enough to him that he could see her through her fishbowl helmet, rolling her eyes while answering.
“You have the camera?” he asked.
“Ahkk, I knew I was going to forget something. Now let me see, blond hair, brain, flippers, oh yea, camera. Of course I got it.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Everybody’s a comedian,” Nick replied in a long-suffering tone.
Looking down, he saw station 12 rapidly approaching. The iodine floods were still on, so the whole grotto was actually brighter than the surface. The lights reflected unevenly off the artificial reefs and tiny caves, leaving mysterious half-shadowed openings. *They must have one whompin’ electric bill, * he though silently. Holly’s flexible tail was still lying on the sea floor, looking like some sort of huge, decapitated fish.
“Okay, get the camera out. I am going to remove the rear access plate.”
Angellina nodded, then removed the bulky black object from its bag, switched it on, and ran it through the set-up procedure. Nick began to remove the rear plate from the artificial rock, noticing as he did so how real it appeared. Looking over, he saw the red emergency button was still in the ‘up-active’ position. Silently twisting the stainless steel key in the corner locks, he marveled at how easily they turned. *No fighting rusty build-up here, eh? Curious, if these hadn’t been accessed in a while, why no corrosion at all? Seems unusual at the very least and mayb e something more, perhaps?*
Suddenly, Nick froze and looked around a full three hundred sixty degrees. Something struck him heavily that he hadn’t noticed before.
“Angellina, this water is almost ninety degrees. How come there aren’t any sharks here?”
“Yah, I wondered when you would get around to asking about that. There aren’t any poisonous or man-eating flora or fauna of any type here. At great expense, the owners of Coral Haven had them all dispatched.”
“You mean?……”
Angellina drew her index finger across her throat.
“Good Lord", Nick answered. “Didn’t the animal rights guys go bugging?”
“They didn’t find out until it was over. There is a protectionary grid around the entire area, and it is checked often for unidentified strays. Can’t have the employees or tourists getting eaten, can we?”
“Hmmmmph, yah.”
Nick returned to his task. He pulled the heavy stainless steel cover plate out and levered it over to the sand floor. Inside was a mass of wires, cables and components neatly bundled and packaged. He had no idea what any of it really did, but Nick was determined to get all the 3-D photos the memory card would hold. Finishing many minutes later, he levered the plate back into place and locked it down again. Angellina didn’t say a single word until they were safely back aboard the boat, had all their gear stowed and verified that all the comm’s were off. Nick’s suspicious nature hadn’t taken long in becoming infectious, and she was certainly no bleach-head blond despite first appearances.
“Do you think we got anything useful?” she finally asked.
“I couldn’t even hazard a guess,” Nick replied, scratching his head thoughtfully while piloting the boat back into the marina slip. Unknowingly, he had actually gotten a lot of value from his little trip, but that information would not unfold until later.
Nick decided to leave the Pantera home, so he wheeled his dark-blue Pontiac Grand Prix GTP sedan into the space marked ‘reserved, visiting scientists’. *Yea, real funny, he-he,* he thought as he pulled his laptop off the passenger’s seat and slung it over his right shoulder. Thumbing the ‘lock’ button on his keyless remote, Nick headed for the side entrance of the imposing four story brick and mirrored glass structure. *Funny how these places all look alike,* he mused as he headed for his long-time friend’s office. *Stainless steel, no-wax floors and formica.* Nick opened the door.
John Cassidy looked like he always did. Six foot one, hair wild, glasses tilted down, half-crazed eye expression. The typical mad scientist. Who also just happened to have graduated M.I.T. summa cum laude at age 15. Multiple doctorates by age 19. He stopped collecting paper when he figured more degrees would only hinder the start of his career.
John also happened to be one of the best 3D imaging specialists that Nick had ever met. Course, not that he usually hung around many imaging specialists, unless they happened to be young, female and available.
“John, what’s shakin?” Nick gave him his standard opening intro.
“Yo, just your jello, man", John always replied while giving him a playful shot in the midsection. This time, however; he was greeted by a solid ‘thump’.
“Hmmmm, somebody’s been doing sit-ups, eh? Anyhow, what do you have for me today?” he asked as Nick unfolded his laptop Compaq. A small part of Nick’s ego was silently pleased that somebody had recognized his hard work. Fighting the battle of the bulge at his age was getting more and more difficult.
“That’s what I need you to tell me.”
“Plug that bad boy in", John quipped as he handed Nick a dangling port cable, attached to one of the biggest desktop machines Nick had ever seen.
“Ehhh, hehhh, liquid nitrogen cooled. Great machine. Processor is so fast, if you didn’t keep it air-conditioned, it would melt in about 4 seconds flat.” John proceeded to dazzle and bore Nick by quoting its every specification. When he got to 1/2 nanosecond RAM hard drives running a terrabyte of free space, Nick waved him to silence.
“Can we check the files now, please?”
“Oh, sure. Sorry, Nick.” John went from little boy to full-on scientist mode in about 26 microseconds. Sometimes Nick found it slightly dizzying trying to comprehend how someone could trade personas that fast, but usually gave up trying to fathom the inscrutable thoughts of someone with nearly twice his I.Q.
“Coming through now. Okay, full stereo-optic deep infrared and visual scans. Looking good. What is this stuff?”
“Hoping you can tell me. Some type of air piping controller.”
“Pneumatic hook-up, eh? Why don’t we figure out what we can identify, and then we will go after the ‘X’ parts left over, right?”
“Sounds like a plan.”
John warmed up his 40 inch plasma monitor and the hunt was on. He started by changing everything on the screen to a medium green hue, then changed identifiable parts to a burgundy shade. Manipulating a light pen like a deranged Jedi, John colored away and rotated every part while adding labels. When they were through, about 90 minutes later, they had one circuit board and some hardware left, still in green.
“This appears to be a sonar antenna, and this is a pressure sensor, I think. Could this be a remote control supply valve controller? Remote shut-off? What would you want to turn off? Dual circuit here, too. A switch-over from flow through feed to dump………..”
John looked up at Nick, an expression of growing fear running across his forehead and into his eyes.
“Murder!”
“I don’t believe it. How did that part get in there? It wasn’t officially listed as a sub-system component.”
John pulled up the official parts and hoses schematic again.
“Somebody tampered with this station, and probably expected to be able to get back in to remove the stuff again later without it ever being seen. Look how this dump tube runs into the seafloor. The bubbles would vent in a random, haphazard pattern and appear to be just natural gas venting. Verrrryyy clever. And this whole section is built on quick-disconnects, even the pass-through piping. The whole piece just slips in and makes the assembly seven inches longer. No rerouting, no stretching hoses. Bet it even taps into the program ROM. This was designed by a pro.”
“John, you do realize what you are suggesting here? This venture has official ties to the Minisoft Corporation. That could be devastating to their next software release if they were indicted, or even suspected. Everybody that even knows this place exists right now just kind of laughs it off as an eccentric rich man’s play yard. That would change in a New York minute. This would probably shut them down forever, off-shore jurisdiction or not.”
“Yea, well Nick, you know I’m not exactly a prude, but would that be such a bad thing? You hear some really wild stories about that place from time to time…….”
“Yea, well when this breaks, the stories are bound to get wilder. Now, what about Jack Williamson’s plane? The XB171 uses fly-by-wire technology licensed from…”
“The Minisoft Corporation” John finished his sentence for him.
“Supposing you tampered with the flight control software?…..”
“Hooo boy, are we in deeeeep kimchee now,” was his only answer
Angellina’s phone rang, jarring in the late hour. She pushed back her long blond hair, that had annoyingly covered her face again, then groped for the phone. She only succeeded in knocking it to the floor, and almost ended up following it.
“Wow, did you just light off a nuke over there?” The far-too-cheery-for-three-A.M. voice at the other end asked.
“Ahhhhrgh, Nick? Sorry, I dropped the phone. Don't you ever sleep?”
“Apology accepted and yes, sometimes, but not right now. Listen, Angellina, this is worse than I thought. We need to meet very soon. No discussion by telephone. Too risky.”
“’Kay, gotcha. John had bad news, huh? See ya tomorrow, then. By the way, where?”
“Well, what you mean is actually today, and how about the marina down where we chartered the float plane.”
“Okay, g’night.”
“See you then. Bye.” Nick wondered why his pulse seemed to be running slightly faster now.
Nick waited apprehensively, his every nerve on edge. He kept his right fingers curled around the blued steel .44 automag in his pocket, and tried to check everywhere at once. His biggest fear, however, was basically unfightable, that someone might intercept Angellina on her way in, and kidnap her or worse. The weather was pleasantly warm and sunny, but a cold chill still knifed his spine until he saw Angellina’s rented Ford pull into the lot and park next to his Pontiac. He watched warily as she emerged, making sure no one suspicious (and what does a suspicious guy actually look like?) was around, then relaxed slightly when she hurried over to him.
“Nick, you look like you just saw a ghost? What’s wrong?” Angellina asked worriedly.
“It was murder. No doubt at all. We found physical evidence on that disk we shot.”
“Are you sure? Who checked it out for you?”
“An old friend, the guys a blinkin’ genius, he even scares me. Impeccable credentials, he’s just a little weird.”
“Yea, they usually are. Anyway, what did you actually find?” She seemed a little less worried now, and a little more interested. Nick scanned the area again carefully before continuing. He still had that ‘I’m being watched’ tickle in his gut, and his gut was usually right.
“We found some extra equipment connected to the air supply control module in the number 12 assembly. There is an extra set of control and mixing valves, and a dump valve, all remote sonar controlled. Someone could alter the oxygen balance or cut it off completely by using a small programming keypad.”
“Where would they do this from?”
“Well, from what John said, that would depend on the power that the transmitter could produce. Water is a pretty good conductor of sound, so the range would be far greater than in air. Without more information, we really can’t guess that.”
“I see,” she said, tugging at her chin thoughtfully. “What do we do now? There are only four people in the world who know about this right now.” Angellina stated flatly.
“Four,” Nick asked, “I count three.”
“You, John, myself,……and the killer.”
“Huh, yea, forgot about that.” Nick tried to sound composed. He didn’t want Angellina to worry more than necessary. He didn’t know how well he was succeeding. Nick scanned the parking lot again, then turned back. Angellina looked slightly more worried than she had when he commenced this operation.
“Do you think you were followed?” he asked.
“Nope. I grew up in Syracuse in the early days after the riots. You learned how to check your six,” she added proudly.
“Check your six, eh? So you heard that I did some Air Force time, did you?”
“I learned that just so I could spring that on you. Why didn’t you go Navy, instead? Didn’t you eat, sleep and dream ‘Top Gun’?”
“Ahhhh, well the idea of landing on something the size of somebody’s back yard, on a pitching black ocean in a storm didn't strike me as fun. More like suicide. Don’t misunderstand, though, I have the utmost respect for those boys. They may be a few bricks short of a full load, but they have brains and guts of pure steel. God bless ‘em.”
Nick appeared slightly embarrassed with his little speech, as he hadn’t planned on saying that much, but Angellina seemed to be giving him a look that was something a little more than respect now, so he didn’t feel quite so idiotic.
“Anyway, there, Maverick, try to keep yourself alive, eh?”
“You too. By the way, I’ll see you at work tomorrow.”
“What? Don’t you think I should quit? Maybe I’m next?”
“NO, No, no. If you haven’t attracted any attention yet, that would be the worst thing you could do. This may go all the way up the ladder to the Minisoft Corporation, and they have so much money and influence that we would be less than a nuisance. We just have to hope that we don’t bump too many of the web strands, or we may attract the attention of the spider. Got it?” he asked.
“Yes, I see your point. The spider, eh? How poetic.”
“Yes, anyhow, listen, you leave now, and I will wait five minutes, then head in the opposite direction. We need to be really careful from now on. You know about Jack’s XB171 going down in the mountains last month? We believe that may have been sabotage, too.”
“But they combed that plane top to bottom and found nothing in the debris. The FAA’s official announcement was pilot error. Why do you think differently?”
“That aircraft uses a fly-by-wire system. One of the first private civilian sport jets available with a fully digital fly-by-wire auto control system. Guess who the prime contractor for the flight control software is?”
Angellina felt a cold chill rocket up her spine.
“Oh, let me guess. Minisoft?”
“Nope. One of their wholly owned former defense sub-contractor subsidiaries.”
“So you think Jack and Holly?……Wouldn’t that attract waaaay too much attention? Hard to write that off as a coinkydink.”
“Huh? A what?”
“You know, a coinkydink.”
“And what language is that?” he asked playfully.
“Nieppturfargullou, I believe. Yea, they just discovered it, in the South Pacific. Its like 100 miles from New Guinea, and ummm the natives……”
“Oh, go on. Get out of here. I’ll see ya tomorrow at the office.”
“I’ll be there with bells on. Oh, and I took your advice about the car. I got a rental, that I'm gonna swap every day or two.” she answered.
Bells. From what Nick remembered about her descriptions of some of the costumes, he actually wondered if that would happen. He also noticed that he had been having so much fun with their verbal fencing match he had forgotten to be wary. He had no such problems, now, however, as he watched the taillights of Angellina’s green Ford flash briefly, then accelerate off into the distance. He fingered his .44 again and hoped he wouldn’t be cleaning powder residue out of the barrel anytime in the next couple of days.
Nick wondered why everyone at Coral Haven had been so responsive to his inquiries and requests. True, he had some firepower behind him, but a couple of discreet phone calls shouldn’t have engendered the overwhelming helpfulness he was getting. This made him doubly suspicious and wary, but he still had nothing to hang his hat on, besides the tampered equipment they had found. So far as he knew, no one else knew about what he had found, and he hadn’t volunteered any information, so he felt as if an uneasy stalemate currently existed. This bugged him too, because he knew that when he dug a little deeper, the queen might jump out and try to turn stalemate to checkmate. Unfortunately, Nick’s biggest problem was that he didn’t know what this particular board looked like, and how many pieces the opponent still held. *A dangerous chess game*, he thought, as the airlock door swung shut with a slight thud and bump. He waited until the ‘customer module’ had left the embarkation station and started moving slowly down the launch track before he began examining his surroundings. The module was about the size of a gasoline tanker trailer and looked a lot like one, too. The rounded side walls were made of thick plexi, forming the ceiling and sloping around to about two thirds the diameter of the cylinder. The lower one-third was solid, and contained tanks, piping, electrical modules, fuel cells and batteries. Both ends of the cylinder were solid also, one end containing an air lock, the other end a small bathroom and kitchen. The main compartment was covered everywhere in fine tan Connelly leather, and luxurious darker tan Wilton carpet covered the floor and consoles. A small control panel equipped with three large touch-sensitive computer screens sat in front of an overstuffed leather recliner. The entire control panel was rimmed in dark burled oak, polished to a high luster. Several equally over-stuffed couches were placed at random throughout the area. Nick thought the whole place looked like the inside of an immense English automobile, and remembered that he had been told that they had indeed been manufactured in Surrey, U.K y a contractor that had had some ties to Land Rover and Bentley. Quite bespoke indeed. A low hum emanated from the floor as the module moved forward by magnetic induction at about 3 knots. Nick sat down to examine the controls, hoping he remembered correctly how to operate it, but the software driven control screens provided help when necessary, so it was much like playing a giant computer game. *Ummmm, some game*, he mused. The cars cost 80 million a piece and rumor had it that Minisoft had dumped about 5 billion into total construction, including the casinos, hotels and ancillaries. Nick quickly scanned the life support screen for any red lights, but everything looked fine. He wasn’t sure what all the numbers meant, but had been assured that any anomalous readings would show up in red instead of blue or green, and would flash to attract attention.
Nick turned to the path controls. The module moved on a track, like a very slow train, and each station had a siding where the module could be stopped, and still allow other cars to pass. The sidings were constructed so that the module would move closer to whatever was being shown at that particular station, and could remain in place for up to 3 days utilizing the on-board power and life support equipment. The entire track was shown as a caterpillar-like looping blue line, winding among the caves and grottos that wound randomly among the natural reefs. His module appeared as a large, bright red dot on the screen. It moved slowly toward the first station, and he noticed that as it approached, the high-power iodine flood lights rendered the semi-murky depth into daylight. The first station came into view, and he switched off the interior lights so there wouldn’t be any background glare. The third screen in the console would read out information about each station, giving either the model’s name, or her character and fictitious background information, if selected. This would help maintain ‘the illusion’, he had been told, so he left the biography section of the screen switched off. The screen told him this was Station 1, ‘The Pearl of the Orient’.
Nick observed the area had been tunneled out of the base rock, and bedded with fine sand. A fiberglass seashell, the size of a small house, rested quietly on the sand. At irregular intervals, a few small bubbles would escape from the interlocking 'teeth' of the shell's face. Nick wondered what would happen next. He didn’t have to wait long. The shell opened, and inside was perched a huge artificial pearl, with a mermaid jealously guarding it. Nick watched her slowly unfold from around the immense pearl, give a jaunty little kick with her tail, then blow him a kiss. He wondered at how real this all appeared. *No wonder these bozo’s will pay such good money. The park in Orlando couldn’t top this.* All of the props that Angellina had described were completely invisible, with the exception of the large gold necklace that Nick knew was the outfit’s main control and support hub. Bubbles streamed at intervals from the model’s mouth, and she really did appear to be breathing water. Nick did a quick, unofficial timing on his watch, and counted eight sets of bubbles per minute, all within one second plus or minus. *Just like a machine, how weird. What clever engineers.* Nick located the sonar microphone, and clicked the transmit switch to ‘on’.
“Hi, how ya doing?” He asked, then immediately felt like a complete moron. *Wet, I guess, right?*
She waved back cheerily, and proceeded to make a complete slow circle around the pearl. She moved only in a horizontal direction, and Nick knew that her tether would keep her from moving any higher.
“You know, I’m the only customer today, so you will be getting off-shift early.”
She gave a mock high five, then a thumbs-up.
“Happy about that, eh? I know I would be. Have a nice day.”
Nick wondered about her answer. If the facility was closed, as he had been told, why didn't she know he would be the only customer? She had seemed genuinely surprised and happy about going home early. Strange. She waved again and smiled, then curled up around the pearl as the upper shell section began to close. The lights went out, and the module started moving again. He pressed one of the sub-menu 'spots' on the screen, and a complete list for today appeared.
1. Pearl of the Orient
2. Pirate Ship of the Caribbean.
3. Lost City of Atlantis I
4. The Smallest Mermaid
5. Lost City of Atlantis II
6. The Flying Dutchman
7. Dead Men Tell No Tales
8. Lost City of Atlantis III
9. The Caves of Wonder
10. The Lost Gold of Urubamba
Nick waited as the module stopped at each station, and he marveled at how cleverly the backgrounds and equipment had been integrated to provide an almost seamless presentation. Dead Men Tell No Tales was probably the most humourous, the unnamed model cavorting and pretending to tease and dance with the skeletons of her unfortunate sailor prey. She had also opted for only a tail and necklace as accoutrements, and her contours were quite eye-catchingly amazing. His module approached Station nine, and Nick pressed the ‘stop on siding’ 'spot' on the touch-screen. The module bumped slightly as it came to the switching section, then glided into the center of the siding and stopped. Nick knew that Angellina was on Station nine today. He couldn’t see anything at first, though, beyond a dim gleam and a dark cave directly ahead. A small section of tail came sliding out first, then the lights started steplessly increasing in brilliance, until the whole area was brightly lit. Angellina slid across the soft, white sand slowly, completely believable as a half human-half fish hybrid. She smiled shyly, then unfolded completely from the cave and turned around fully. Nick thought he had never seen anyone look so enticing. Her waist length hair floated untethered around her face like a golden halo. She waved and bobbed over as close to the module as her tether would allow. Angellina had added some small gold necklaces to the large Egyptian-style one, and had chosen a scoop-necked gold mesh fabric halter top, that followed her contours in heart stopping perfection. She tapped her left ear. Nick keyed the microphone.
“Is this a secure line?” he asked quietly.
She shook her head no.
‘Be careful,’ she mouthed to him.
Angellina made a searching gesture, hoping he would understand that she wanted to know if he had found anything else.
“No. not yet. I had hoped that running through the tour like this would give me some better insight, or perhaps suggest a new avenue of investigation. But I haven’t had any luck.”
She placed her index finger against her lips, then shook her head, and pointed up, indicating that he should say nothing more, because someone else might be listening, too. He pressed up close to the window and nodded that he understood. Angellina waved, then looked around warily. She had been rather apprehensive all morning. She turned back toward the cave, then turned toward Nick again. Playfully, she blew some bubble rings for him, then turned deadly serious. She pointed at her arm, mimicking checking a watch. She pointed three times, then held up four fingers.
*Four o’clock.* Nick nodded understanding, then watched as Angellina slipped back into the cave and the lights went down again. The module started moving again with a slight bump. As the module climbed out of the sea and sunshine flooded through the plexi, Nick noticed with distaste and a slight feeling of unease the small animated door logo of the Minisoft Corporation in the lower right corner of all the control screens.
He got another surprise when the module stopped moving and the door opened. In stepped none other than Roberto Silvero. Nick didn’t like him any more the second time around. Dressed impeccably in another hand-made Italian suit and four hundred-dollar pair of black leather shoes, his dark hair slicked straight back and his dark, flat, reptilian eyes skating to and fro, Roberto still squeaked of big money illegally used. Nick shook his hand quickly, then pulled back a step.
“Well, Pantera, when can we expect to be back in full operation again? This delay is costing us millions, as you already know.”
*Yea, sure, not to mention employees, but they’re much more easily replaced, eh?*
“Yes, well, I’m not sure that Mrs. Williamson’s tragic death was accidental.”
Silvero’s bushy eyebrows almost met in the middle.
“Accident, eh,” he echoed. “Well, do tell. Will this be a long investigation, then? You believe evidence of foul play has turned up?”
*Ahhhhhkkk, way to go, Nick. Shouldn’t have played that card just yet.*
“Not yet. But some things still don’t quite add up. I will get back to you and your esteemed colleagues on this matter soon. I would like to just say again that I appreciate your help in giving me free reign to conduct this investigation as I see fit.”
Silvero harrumphed. Nick chose not to mention his surprise at the fact that other employee's seemed to be unaware of certain key problems with operations. Little problems, like employees just turning up dead.
“Yes, well, seeing as our insurance company has taken the unprecedented step of joining forces with Mr. Williamson’s life insurance company, apparently the estate of the late Mr. Jack Williamson and I both have something in common.”
“And that would be?”
“We are both at your mercy, and I for one am not one hundred percent thrilled about that. They will not pay until you mark this case closed, and satisfied as accident