Hunter

Jeff got off the bus. His clothes was still stained with blood from the earlier combat. At the next opportunity, he would retrieve a new shirt from the Transport.

  The sun was setting along the calm beach. But that wasn't his destination at that time. Instead, police had surrounded a lone truck near an empty beach house.

  Detective Lewis saw him coming up, noting the bloodied shirt and pants. "Dang, what happened to you?"

  "Ran into trouble. Don't worry, they're just scratches; looks worse than it really is."

  Lewis shrugged. It was unusual but not far out of place. He lead Jeff to the truck. All of its contents had long since been emptied.

  Moving to business, "We finally got an inventory of from the testing range. Several experimental guns and some more advanced smoke grenades. They were probably laid on the truck bed. As you can see, they're not here."

  "So is there anything worthwhile here?"

  He pointed into the truck, "There's a GPS, though it was reset to factory. The tech guys are going have a look at it tonight."

  Jeff decided to step forward. "Actually, I might be able to help with that. Where's the GPS now?"

  "Still in the front seat of the car."

  Jeff walked to the open front seat where the GPS lay. Picking it up, he looked for an external port. It was small but easy to find. He summoned a laptop from the backpack and placed it on the seat.

  That still surprised Lewis. "What the hell was that?"

  Not elaborating too much, Jeff answered, "Experimental backpack for storage, among the things I picked up in my travels."

  "Where in the heck did you get that?"

  "Long story on that. I'll tell you later."

  Jeff summoned the multi-ended cord and connected the two devices together. The computer booted up and he started his own program. "I keep this around for just these things. Copies what's on there as backup, while it searches for deleted portions. It may take a while."

  He let the laptop do its work while he wandered off away from the scene.

  An hour later, Jeff sat along the beach. It was far away from where the investigators were starting to leave. His thoughts turned sober, forcing him to turn introverted.

  Detective Lewis slid down the rather steep hill to the beach. Approaching Jeff, he saw that sadness in his face. "Something's wrong."

  "It has been for six months now. That's when Kara died."

  Lewis presumed, "Kara was your wife."

  "Yeah."

  Jeff didn't need to know how he knew, but Lewis explained anyway. "Saw the ring on your finger. Not too many reasons someone would travel alone for so long. Fewer that would chase another man. I take it he killed her."

  "Trying to kill me," he said to the detective, "It's something I'm rather tired of saying. Then again, I'm tired of a lot nowadays. I've helped plenty of people, but there'll always be something missing."

  Lewis knew, "Kara."

  Jeff showed that was the right answered.

  The detective put a hand onto his shoulder. "Your laptop said it was done." Without directly saying it, Lewis was saying that Jeff needed to get up out of that sadness and do something.

  Jeff agreed. He got up and followed Lewis up the steep hill.

  They arrive back at the truck. The laptop was showing that it's work was complete. Rather than use the computer, Jeff picked up the GPS. He began to press buttons on the screen, showing the various destinations that were put in.

  Then Jeff began to think. "Karns usually isn't this dumb. He knew how to hack into military computers, among a few other things. I doubt he would let something like this leak."

  Lewis asked, "Think this is a trap or something?"

  "It wouldn't be beyond him."

  Lewis nodded, "Alright, we'll check out the coordinates ourselves. We have a few ways of doing that without getting in harms way."

  The unmarked car that Lewis drove stopped across the street. The street-lights were rather dim, though one could see anyone under them. Jeff was the first to get out, then Lewis. Both met at the back of the car.

  "If I didn't see that backpack, I'd swear you were legally insane."

  "That's why I try not to advertise it," Jeff replied, "So what's your plan?"

  Lewis opened the trunk. From it, he took out what looked like cheap remote control car. The only difference was it had a round ball taped to it. "Not as nice as the ones the bomb squad guys get, but serviceable in times like these."

  Setting that one on the ground, he went back to remove a second one. He then handed Jeff a small tablet computer. "Controls on the left side of the screen. Not much to them." Switching the computer on, it showed the RC car's very low perspective. Jeff moved the first car around the street, getting used to the controls. "I'll go up and open the main door. We'll have the cars go in from there."

  Jeff nodded in confirmation. Lewis ran up to the door and found it locked. He evaluated the lock, deciding it was a simple solution. The detective took out his wallet, then a card from that. He wedged the card above the bolt. Using that technique to open the door was a quick process. With the door cracked open, he ran back next to Jeff.

  From the trunk he grabbed his own tablet PC and activated his RC car. The two cars went into the door. Inside was a large dark room. It looked like an abandoned factory, with some bits of machinery still lying around. Jeff swerved to the left, aiming around a large piece of machinery that was near a set of stairs. Once past the large machine, he turned to find a table with some large case underneath. The more curious thing was the grenades were lying around.

  Jeff said to the detective, "Found something. Looks like some of the weapons that were stolen."

  Lewis looked over to Jeff's screen. "I might get a better view."

  Lewis maneuvered his RC around to a different angle of the table. Moving closer, he saw something peculiar. Moving to where he almost touched the table, he saw wires running up.

  Jeff had looked over his shoulder. "It's wired, just as I suspected."

  The detective shook his head while pointing his finger upward. "I've seen this type of wiring before. Had to dismantle a few lamps in my time. These are exactly the same type, I can tell from here."

  "And that means what?"

  "They sense touch," the detective proclaimed, "If we use gloves, nothing's triggered."

  "I doubt the box below is the bomb, so I suggest we look around to see if there's anything else."

  "Even if it was, I was going to suggest that."

  Jeff and Lewis walked into the room they just saw from a much lower angle. At first glance they would have missed the box if they came in first instead. However, Jeff was more cautious than that, especially when it involved Karns.

  The first thing Jeff did was look around for the bomb. It was well hidden and Jeff doubted that there was another trigger they had yet to find.

  Lewis pointed out, "There's a second floor up there, though I'm not sure if the elevators work."

  "I wouldn't trust them anyway," Jeff said, knowing Karns' inclination to use traps, "The stairs are equally suspect."

  He hovered near the stairs. They too were wired with small boxes as well. All of them were spider-ed into other legitimate wiring in the building.

  Lewis picked up one of the rifles. He inspected it, trying to identify what it was. "These are decoys. I checked the specs to all the experiments. A few of these have the shells, but nothing else."

  Lewis looked over to Jeff, who was inspecting the catwalk. He said to the traveler, "You think you can find the bomb? Maybe we should call the squad."

  Jeff answered, "No, I can find and disarm it. After my last encounter with Karns, I've studied up on explosives.

  "Most likely it's on the roof or ceiling."

  "Well, if you can't take the stairs or elevator, then how are you..."

  Jeff shot the grappling beam up onto the ceiling, lifting him off to the second floor catwalk. The detective mumbled to himself, "Never mind. With this guy, I'll just sit here and doddle around."


  He leaned down, taking one of the fallen grenades up. After the quick inspection, he had a curious revelation. "Hunter! This is the real deal."

  Jeff was up on the catwalk, staring up at the ceiling. The darkness forced him to use his scan-glasses. "What's the real deal?"

  "The smoke grenades. I'm guessing this was more than a trap for us. This was a drop-off location."

  Jeff shrugged, "Makes sense. Best way to set a trap is put a little nugget of truth."

  "Just as likely double up with the trap: take out some opposition as well as erase some evidence. Then again, I wouldn't be surprised that the people on the receiving end of the deal rejected these."

  Jeff stopped. His glasses found a box stuck up on the ceiling. It was much too high for him to reach with his hands. He zoomed in, checking out his options. They weren't good. "I can't get this. Requires two hands at least. I guess we'll have to get the bomb squad."

  The detective set down the grenade back on the ground. He walked over to just below where Jeff was standing. "Think it's going to go off?"

  Jeff evaluated the explosive, "No. There's no timer. Just as long as we avoid the table, stairs and elevator - maybe a few other things up here - we'll be fine."

  Jeff shot the grappling beam up, using that to lower himself back down to the ground floor. As he landed, he was about to say something when the glasses alerted him to something. He looked back at the entrance. He summoned both stun-pistols just in time for the main doors to be barged open.

  The three men on the other side didn't expect a fight but had guns in hands. In the lead, was Terence.

  Jeff yelled, "Hold it right there!"

  One man tried to raise his gun, Jeff shot at him with both pistols. He collapsed while the other two dove behind the large machinery. Jeff and Lewis had to do the same.

  The detective looked over to his partner in combat, "Well, I guess this trap might not have been meant for us."

  Jeff's mood stayed more strategic, telling Lewis, "There's two. Make sure neither one gets to the stairs."

  Though it was dark, Jeff doubted he could sneak around on them. Then he thought of something. He looked back toward the table. "You said those are smoke grenades?"

  "Yeah. They're technically evidence, but times like these..."

  Jeff dove back, making sure neither of the enemies were in line of sight. Snagging one of the grenades from the ground, he ran back to cover. He pulled the pin then tossed it to the side of the enemies' cover.

  The two men couldn't react fast enough. It exploded into a huge cloud of black smoke. They coughed, inhaling the thick darkness.

  Jeff nodded in approval, seeing just how quickly the smoke had spread. He ran straight into the center of that smoke. Using his glasses to locate his opponent, he fired just twice with more careful shots.

  The smoke dissipated just as quickly as it expanded. The only one standing was Jeff. He banished his pistols then suggest to Lewis, "Let's get these guys outside, just in case."

  This time it was Lewis that stood over Terence as he woke up. Jeff was leaning against the car during the wait. The other two were being held in the unmarked vehicle, still asleep.

  Jeff jumped up, ready to interrogate Terence. Lewis signaled him to stop. It was almost defensive, as though Lewis couldn't let Jeff take over his job. "Terence Sanders. Why were you here?"

  Lewis had put it in a way that showed he also encountered Terence before.

  The answer simply was, "You know why."

  The detective responded, "Then feel lucky. Very little in there wasn't wired to explode."

  "Yet, I feel very welcomed."

  "Snarky as always. But I think you would like to be rid of your tipster. He's either too incompetent to work for you or an outright traitor."

  Terence kept his composure, "Either way, we'd rather do that ourselves."

  Lewis looked at his opponent carefully, trying to read him. It was a complete guess but he had to throw it out as though it was actual knowledge. "It wasn't a spy within the Prots. No, you followed Karns."

  Terence remained silent, the best indicator that Lewis was right.

  "Mr. Hunter here told me everything he found out from his encounter with you. As such, we know that Karns gave you first offer. You didn't take it but apparently didn't leave it at that."

  Terence remained silent. He wasn't going to cooperate anytime soon. So Lewis had to make a move to force him to say something. He removed a phone from his pocket - Terence's phone. It was a card he held just for this moment.

  "Should I do this the hard way, go through every number, get them into an interrogation room to see who your spy. That's not going to be fun for you in lock-up."

  Terence begrudgingly spoke up, "Fine. It's under "Howard." I'm sure you'll figure out the rest, then mess it up."

  "By "mess it up" you mean "arrest," that's not our plan. But for now, you can rest easy behind bars."

  Lewis walked away from him and stopped next to Jeff. He spoke softly, as so Terence couldn't hear. "Once I get this phone trace done, I need you to go down and see what you can get out of him."

  "Why me? Wouldn't you have other, more legal, options? Not to mention the need to admissible evidence?"

  "If this Karns person is stealing and selling experimental weapons, we got more than enough evidence for that. Especially if we cut a deal with this guy. It's more important that we catch him than build a case."

  "And that can't happen if you're the one to talk to him."

  "Exactly. We'll still work from our end, but hopefully you can get him more quickly than we can."

  Jeff nodded, showing that he knew the plan to be a good one. Lewis went around the car, going inside to retrieve the information needed. Jeff looked over to Terence, thinking he maybe become more of a hindrance in the future.

  Within the park, there was several abandoned cars there. It was a purposeful set-piece. "Howard" had to make sure he wasn't visible while watching anyone passing by. He was in one of those cars. It didn't run, but that made it all the more powerful of a disguise.

  But it wasn't good enough when he heard a knock on the passenger side door. He looked over, seeing Jeff holding his stun-gun (a feint in-itself, since it couldn't penetrate the window). Jeff gave a signal to open the window. Leaning over, Howard just unlocked the door, since it was faster and less conspicuous than having Jeff stand outside.

  Jeff took the offer. He got into the car and closing the door.

  "Sorry for the gun, but I knew you wouldn't respond any other way."

  Keeping his eyes outward, he said, "You want to talk, then talk. I don't have time for shit."

  "I know you've been watching Karns."

  Howard gave a quick look at Jeff then back to his duty. "That guy! What do you want with him? He already gave out all that loot."

  "I know. And I know he'll be planning more heists. But that's not the only reason why I'm looking for him. He killed a lot of people, my wife included."

  Howard presumed, "It's revenge you want."

  Jeff thought about this. As much as he denied it, that still held a nugget of truth. "If that's what you want to call it, then yes. He is too self-centered to the point where killing anyone holds no meaning for him. For each death in his wake, there's someone like me to truly bare the pain he's caused."

  "You sound like some politician, the same ones that make caricatures of us."

  "Is that how you defend killing."

  "Yes. We stride on the shadows of life. Death is an everyday fact." He put a pair of binoculars to his eyes, staring at a passing figure in the night.

  "So you're just another Karns."

  "As you describe. But if you want that argument, go see Karns yourself."

  Jeff responded, "That's what I'm trying to do."

  Howard pointed out, "It's easier than it looks. He's at the Reverence Hotel."

  Jeff found it almost too easy. He had to find where this guy's allegiance went to. "If you understand Karns so much, then
why you refused his offer?"

  Howard saw the shadow wait for a little bit. Then another came. The two talked, then walked away - an incomplete deal. This wasn't what Howard hoped for, giving a sigh towards the failure. With his work done, he looked over to Jeff, "Maybe we have more in common with you than Karns."

  Jeff calmly walked down the hallway of the hotel. It was very high up, judging from the open doors. Finding the one closed door was simple. Jeff had to be very cautious. He had to use his scan-glasses to first check for any traps, then to see if there was someone in there. There was: a person walking towards the back. There was also other items. Jeff could identify that they were there, but couldn't tell exactly what they were.

  He gave a minor shrug, thinking he had to spring it first to see what it was. He hoped it would affect Karns as well.

  Taking a firm stance, Jeff took hold of the door. He summoned a stun-pistol into his other hand. Twisting the handle slowly, he found it unlocked. Once fully turned, he moved fast. He slammed it open and dashed in with the gun ready.

  He saw the man's back turned. Aiming his gun, he yelled, "Hands up!"

  The man cooperated. Without a command, he turned, confirming it was Karns. "Good evening, Mr. Hunter."

  Jeff kept his sight aimed at Karns.

  Karns kept calm, knowing that he'll succeed, "I knew you would come. I take it the Cokeland spy had told you where I was."

  Jeff asked rhetorically, "You knew you were being followed?"

  "That's why I armed my weapons drop. It's a good warning, one they should have found out themselves by now."

  Jeff smiled, "Actually, they didn't. I found your stash and disarmed it."

  Karns was a little miffed but it wasn't a very important thing to him. "Then I'll have to do something else. Can't have them in my way, just like you are now."

  "That's how you view everyone."

  Karns pointed out, "As does everyone else. They either give or take."

  "And only give if you expect something in return."

  "Exactly. Happens in business, even so call friendships."

  Jeff defied his opponent. "There's just one thing you don't realize. There's great gifts in giving without such expectations."

  "Like your wife. And where is that gift now?"

  That hit Jeff, and Karns could see it. But Jeff gave the most honest answer, "That gift is making what I had that much more real."

  Karns gave a very snarky response, "Good to know. I should also say that I wasn't up waiting for you."

  Jeff knew what that meant. He turned his head, seeing three life signs coming up. Thinking quickly, he would have been trapped between Karns and the newcomers. So he shot Karns to take him out of the equation.

  He then ran to the open door, peaking out to see the three men. They all carried guns; all rifles. And they saw him as well. "Hey! That isn't him!"

  Even though Jeff didn't reveal his weapon, they presumed he was armed. The lead lifted up the rifle and fired a stream of bullets. Jeff ducked behind before the gunfire started. It was consistent. Each gang member made sure to keep up the assault. With them getting closer, Jeff had no chance to return fire. They were just too coordinated.

  He looked at Karns, knowing this was another lost chance.

  Running to the back, right over Karn's unconscious body, Jeff opened the patio door. He looked back and fired a few warning shots into the hallway. That quick glance caught something. There was a folder placed on the bed. Jeff quickly dashed the few feet to snag it. Returning to the glass door, he fired another volley of warning shots.

  He went onto the small deck. Jeff was many floors above the ground, but had no choice. The Prot gang members turned the corner. Climbing onto the railing, he jumped. Jeff fell quickly. He watched as each floor whizzed by. He launched the grappling beam, not aiming for anything in particular. It hit one of the ledges, pulling Jeff toward the wall.

  He slammed into the wall hard then relaxed to just over another deck. Looking down, he was still way too far off the ground to jump. Looking up, he couldn't see anything. But he heard yelling from the gang members.

  Lowering himself, he tried to work as swiftly as his aching body would allow. He landed onto the deck and shut the beam down. Pulling the door, he found it was unlocked and open. Luckily there was no one in the room.

  Jeff ran through the room. Opening the door, he looked both ways to make sure no one was around. He ran towards the elevators and stairs. Still holding the stun-pistol in hand, he took out his cell phone. Pressing a few buttons, he put the phone to his ear.

  "This is Lewis."

  Police cars were parked in the main driveway of the hotel. There was only one ambulance. That was where Jeff was sitting down. He was tired, both from his minor - but plentiful - injuries as well as the long day.

  Lewis, showing his own fatigue, walked out of the hotel and towards Jeff. "Considering, it was a good thing you called us in. Got a look at the security footage. These were among the elite of the Protectors, a few trained in the military."

  "Why would someone in the military become a gang member?"

  Lewis shrugged not knowing the full answer, "The only thing I can say is that all were dishonorably discharged. More than a few high-ranking Prots have the same background."

  Jeff held his side, reducing the pain emanated from it.

  Lewis noticed it. "You were darned lucky. Not a single broken bone."

  "But a lot of bruises. I think there maybe a few small fractures, but nothing that should slow me down that much."

  "How do you know..." Lewis answered himself, knowing Jeff had plenty of gadgets. "Well, still sounds like you need to rest. I do too. The night techs are going through the room right now."

  Jeff slowly, and painfully, slid off the ambulance and onto his feet. "You're right. I'll get back to work in the morning."

  Lewis grew concerned, "Isn't that a bit soon? Wait until you aren't..."

  Jeff cut him off, showing insistence. "No, I can't. You've seen what I'm capable of. Karns is much worse. If I miss this chance to catch him, at best it'll be weeks before I can get another chance."

  The detective suggested, "Just don't do anything stupid."

  "I'm not that kind of person."

  Jeff opened the door to the dark hotel room. He didn't bother to turn the light on. Walking in, he removed the backpack onto the extra bed. Then he tossed the folder he had snagged onto the nearby desk.

  From there, he sat on the bed. Jeff sat there for a few moments, then removed his wallet. The open wallet showed a picture of Kara. He stared at it, missing Kara.

  Flopping onto the bed, his arm reached out to the other side. He stared across to (the picture of) Kara. Fatigue took him and forced his eyes closed. He lay there on one side of the bed with Kara's picture on the other. It was as though he was too used to living with Kara next to him...and she was gone.

  Morning light shown through the window. It was rather late in the morning, which got Jeff to work that much more swiftly.

  Getting out of the humid bathroom, he walked over and sat at the desk. His first job was to look at Karns' folder. Inside there was specs, various parts that would fit into a whole. There was one particular part that caught Jeff's eye. It was almost the same as the backpack: the very one that caused the Tower's fall two weeks before.

  "This is the Dimensional Folding Machine! Every spec, everything he has gotten." He went through the various papers, finding each had a different art style, different names connected to him.

  "He must have bribed dozens of scientists, each for a piece of the puzzle."

  Spreading out the pages, Jeff organized it all. He tried to see what has been done. More importantly h needed to know what has yet to be done. There was one master plan, a page that showed the entire device in its ideal whole. All the pieces wouldn't fit into such ideal specs, but Jeff knew it would still work: because it already had.

  With all the papers in some organized state, Jeff flipped through the staple
d master plan. There was some notes made. One particular phrase caught him: "The notes given by Nathaniel were incomplete and theoretical..."

  It had confirmed Jeff's suspicions; Karns had taken his own research and transformed it to this monster.

  Jeff had to shrug it off and not waste any more time. He looked between the large pile and the master plan. The pages went back and forth before finding what he needed to know.

  He breathed a sigh of relief. "He has three pieces missing. One is a large generator. The other two...Maybe that's why he's joined up with that gang."

  Jeff walked through the busy office within the police station. He was being led by an officer, someone who had more recent experience at a desk than the streets. Going the main hallway, they turned to a isolated hall that held a dead end. The first right-hand door was their destination.

  The open door revealed Detective Lewis working at his computer. The officer knocked, alerting Lewis to Jeff's presence.

  "Mr. Hunter. I see you're better."

  Jeff flexed his fingers, "Only a little. I needed to check with you on something."

  The detective got up from his seat, meeting Jeff at the door. That was when the desk officer nodded at his coworker and left to do other duties.

  "Well, if it's about Karns: we haven't gotten anything. All we have is confirmation of the three Prots identities. All three already had warrants."

  "Good to know, but that's not what I needed. What I really needed was list of what was stolen."

  Lewis went back to his desk and pulled a paper from a stack. Returning to Jeff, he held it for the scientist's eyes. "This is what's missing; everything else was expunged."

  Jeff looked through the list, line by line. Lewis had to know what Jeff was thinking, "What's this about, Hunter?"

  Jeff finished reading, finding nothing. But the explanation would be a bit of an open wound. Walking inside, Jeff closed the door. "Karns is building something...something that would get him back home."

  The detective didn't know what that meant, "Home? Couldn't your machines do that already?"

  "No, not without an anchor," Jeff answered, "There has to be something to track across an unknown amount of possible universes. Without one, it would be like flying in the middle of the ocean without a compass - times a million."

  "I take it this "anchor" is on both of your machines."

  Jeff nodded in confirmation.

  "So what then is Karns building?"

  "It was an indirect part of my research. Rather than have a portal, a tunnel between worlds, it would fold space. It would fold the designated space of two worlds into one. That way when you unfold them, one would simply choose between them. I believe Karns is taking that idea, but instead of just two worlds, it would be as many as possible.

  "The problem is the effects outside that field. It causes particles to more freely travel between worlds, fusing and fissioning groups of atoms. The result, explosions large enough to topple a tower."

  It was a shocking thing for Lewis to comprehend, "He would do that, just to get home?"

  Jeff grimly answered, "He already did. I said "topple a tower" because that's exactly what happened. I still don't know how many people died that day, and that's just in that world..."

  Lewis was taken-aback with this implication. Although much of his work had been very serious, he had never faced a threat of this scale. "I can see why you're so anxious to get this guy...to say the least."

  "Yeah. He's missing three pieces. One is relatively easy to obtain, a large power generator. The other two are missing. I was hoping that neither one was on that list."

  "Can you describe what they are?"

  Jeff shook his head, "Not really. Both would be rather experimental and probably under energy research."

  The detective went into action, "I'll start calling around and seeing if anyone else had anything missing or stolen."

  Lewis sat down and begun typing at this computer. A knock at the door didn't interrupt him. It opened with another officer poking his head in, "Jen wants to see you."

  Lewis didn't even look away from the screen. "Have Mr. Hunter go in my stead."

  Jeff pointed out, "Isn't this police business? I thought..."

  The detective turned in his swivel chair and looked at him. "Considering, I think it's fine for you to hear what she says. Plus I have this, which will take me the better part of the day to do. Just keep me in the loop."

  Jeff nodded. With that done, Lewis went back to work.

  The officer stood outside the door. Once Jeff was out into the hallway, the officer led him through the maze of desks.

  The officer opened the door. Jeff entered the viewing room where Officer Redford waited. She looked at him, curious why he was here instead of Lewis. Then she realized exactly why. "Lewis says he's too busy?"

  "That's what he said to me."

  She smiled while nodding, giving a look that she knew something like that would happen. "Happens all the time. Doesn't help that we dated."

  Jeff guessed, "Awkward breakup?"

  She shrugged, "Not really. Out of uniform we're good friends. In, on the other hand..."

  Jeff nodded, "I see. So what do you have for me?"

  Redford directed the conversation toward Terence. The prisoner was sitting on the other side of the glass in the interrogation room. "You already know who he is...in part because I gave you his information. Anyway, he had very little to talk about the Cokelands. On the other hand, he has a lot about the Prots he wouldn't mind spilling. I already got that they've been working with Karns for the past three days."

  Jeff replied, "That isn't good."

  "Why's that?"

  "Karns always shifts away before the 48 hour mark. Three days means he's up to something."

  Redford moved forward, "Well, he may have an idea of where he is. I was giving him a break, but I guess you can have a go at him."

  "Alright."

  Jeff left the room, only to return to view in the interrogation room. "Hello, Terence."

  Terence got up, his stance very defensive. "Hey, you aren't going to zap me with that...thing again!"

  Jeff stayed calm, "I won't unless you give me a reason to. Now sit back down."

  Terence slowly got back into his seat. "Sorry. That thing gave me the worst case of insomnia."

  "I'll keep that in mind. You had something to say about the Prots?"

  "Yeah. Something I doubt my cohort in espionage mentioned it, but we tagged the some of the weapons as well."

  "So you know where their hideouts are?"

  "If that's where they went. Apparently some of the weapons can take videos. So we put a virus in them. My computer would be able to track it, but I need to..."

  Jeff held his hand up, "No, that's fine. You can stay here."

  "But you can't access the thing..."

  Jeff insisted, "We can."

  Terence was a bit speechless. He wanted to say something, but felt that it would be countered immediately.

  Jeff presumed, "You thought you could get a deal out of that?"

  Terence silently nodded.

  "We'll think about it. Depends how well this thing goes through."

  Jeff left it at that, turning around and leaving the room.

  This was an old, run down apartment building. The police vehicle stood out in this neighborhood. It couldn't be helped. Redford sat in the driver's seat, the location marked on the computer's GPS function. Jeff looked inside with his glasses. "Got plenty of people inside. More than a few probably seen us already."

  Redford informed, "The back-trace is still showing the weapon inside. It's on the east side, towards the front."

  "I guess I'll have to go in the hard way." Jeff opened the door and got out of the car.

  He still had one leg inside when Redford pulled on his wrist. "We have to wait for backup on this."

  "Then they'll be too fortified. Better now when I alone can get in."

  Redford knew she couldn't stop Jeff fr
om going in. So she went into the glove box and grabbed a small headset. "Take this. At least we'll communicate. I'll still call in backup, so you have about five minutes to do whatever you need to."

  Jeff took the earpiece and put it in. "Got it."

  Jeff turned around and calmly headed into the building.

  Once inside, Jeff summoned his stun-pistol. He kept his eyes on the environment and every life-sign the glasses revealed. His feet moved as silently and swiftly as he could. Jeff couldn't move particularly slow just due to the deadline Redford gave.

  As he approached a corner, he saw a life-sign. As he turned, he saw it was an armed, shirt-less man. "Who in the hell..."

  Jeff didn't give him time to finish his warning. He shot him with the stun-pistol. The opponent slumped down along the wall. Jeff moved forward.

  The next two rooms had people going into the hallway; they probably saw what happened. Jeff dove behind another open door to dodge several bullets. Turning back, Jeff returned fire at the more exposed opponent on the right. Several shots missed, but one hit the target.

  Jeff had to dive back for another volley. He rotated back around for another volley before returning to cover. This guy was much more skilled than his counterpart, knowing when to take cover. Jeff had to take a chance.

  He took his turn at sending a volley of bolts. Then he just walked straight out in the open. The guard turned into the hallway, but paused for a critical split-second. He didn't expect Jeff to change position and adjusted his aim. They shot at the same time.

  Jeff was grazed, his arm bleeding. The guard fell.

  Although he was bleeding fairly badly from the small wound, but he had to continue. Several more guards was coming down an adjacent hallway. Jeff summoned the second pistol before diving across the hallway. He fired at the three guards. None of them expected the swift assault.

  He was near his target, the room where the weapon was located. But then he saw something poke out of the room: a small square barrel. Dodging into another doorway, Jeff heard the gunfire come from where he needed to go.

  Once it stopped, Jeff poked his head out. More gunfire erupted, so he had to quickly go back into cover. He checked his scan-glasses to see where his opponent was. His opponent was right in the doorway with a large weapon in hand.

  He had to see if that was the experimental weapon. Holding the headset, Jeff hailed, "Redford, did you say that the guns all were under a wireless connection?"

  She came over the radio, "Yeah. I still have it connected."

  "Can you send any commands to it?"

  She guessed, "Not much of one, just a power down command."

  That would work, "Good. I want you to do that on my count."

  "Just give me a second....Ready."

  "One....Two....Three!"

  Jeff dove out, pistols ready. He ran right for the gunman, who held the weapon up as though it was broken. That made taking down the gunman much easier.

  He spoke into the radio, "I'm in. I'll check around for anything. How much time do I have?"

  She said, "Might as well stay there, you have one minute exactly."

  Jeff kicked the loose weapon back into the unoccupied room. Within view was a computer. Moving towards it, Jeff saw something very important. There was an e-mail right on the screen. He was unfamiliar with the sender, but it was the message that concerned him.

  It said, "Everything's ready for tonight's hit. Bring the gun, it'll be useful. This will bring more than enough cash for us and give this Karns fella the thing that he needs."

  Jeff didn't bother reading the rest. He knew what that meant. "Karns is going to steal another piece..."

  Jeff waited in the police station office, with plenty of officers passing around him. His arm was patched up with a simple bandage. Despite the initial bleeding, it turned out to be a minor wound. He took a sip from his cup. The coffee tasted good. Probably because he went without it for well over two weeks.

  Lewis came out his office and turned the corner to find Jeff. He was about to go somewhere else, but decided to might as well inform Jeff. "Just finished the search. There's a few that looks like possibilities, though it's hard to tell which is being planned to be hit."

  Jeff growled, "I wouldn't expect less at this point."

  Redford came up to Jeff's spot. The two officers showed a bit of discomfort. She turned her direct attention to Jeff, ignoring Lewis. "Didn't get anything from the computers. Actually, only one had anything on it. All the others went through a scrubbing program. Can't even figure out any of their e-mails."

  Jeff remarked, "They're smarter than most."

  She informed, "Unfortunately, this isn't that uncommon."

  "So, our best option is go down your..." Jeff directed towards Lewis, "list one by one."

  Lewis said, "Yeah. It would help if you could give a description of what he's looking for."

  "Can't really do that. I don't have exact specs for it; just a general idea. The things he needs can be modified from quite a few devices."

  Frustrated, Lewis responded, "Then I'll take you around. It'll be a long shot but sometimes that's all we can work with."

  Lewis, in an almost shy manner, pass by Redford. Jeff followed, ignoring the two's discomfort and sticking to business.

  Jeff sat looking outside Lewis' car. Towers defined the view from the highway. The detective kept his eyes on the road though the fair amount of traffic. It would take a while before they arrived at their destination.

  The detective had to break the silence, "You haven't seen anything yet? I mean something that Karns would take."

  Jeff looked forward at the traffic rather than Lewis. "I'm pretty sure. All four facilities didn't have anything I could identify."

  "Just making sure, since this one is more than a few miles away."

  Jeff replied, "I wouldn't waste time at this point."

  The conversation grew silent again. Jeff looked back at the passing cityscape. He grew deep in thought, having nothing else to do.

  Lewis looked over and saw exactly what Jeff was thinking. "Thinking about your wife?"

  Jeff kept his view on the outside world, "Yeah."

  The two let that set for a second. Then Jeff asked a question, "How long were you two together?"

  "I presume you mean Jen and I. We dated three years - even moved in together. In truth, I'm still not sure what happened."

  "So how did it feel when she left, when she wasn't around all the time?"

  Lewis found this question curious, "You never had a girlfriend before your wife?"

  "Not one as long. It could have been that I was more shy or that I was more interested in my work. I only had three in my whole life before Kara, none lasted all that long."

  The detective commented, "Kara must have been special."

  Jeff almost whispered, "To say the least."

  Lewis put honesty into his voice, "To answer your question, I missed her. I had something there to return to everyday...and then suddenly it wasn't there. Took me a while to realize that I couldn't just sit around and be depressed. I'm just glad you got through that rather quickly."

  "Yeah."

  The car grew silent once again. It would remain so for the rest of the trip.

  Director Vander led Lewis and Jeff through several laboratories. Most were empty but a few had people working on different devices and formulas. He said to the two investigators, "We do a lot here, so if you can get down to at least a general category it would be very helpful."

  Jeff looked at each lab to see if anything interesting was in it. "Mostly we're looking for anything that would do with power regulation or multi-dimensional research."

  The director looked at him very strangely, especially after hearing the latter request. "Well, I don't even know what you mean by "multi-dimensional research." And we do plenty of research in both power generation and regulation. Actually, I'd say it was better not to ask."

  Hearing that, Lewis now got exactly why Jeff was being so coy.


  They arrived in a records room. There was one central computer alongside several other terminals that were available. The director informed, "I can bring up a short description of everything we have. I'll just warn you that we don't have everything in this facility. Actually, less than half of it is here."

  The detective asked, "Where's the rest?"

  "We keep everything that isn't immediately being worked on in a bank downtown."

  This caught both Lewis and Jeff's attention. It was the police detective that said, "That sounds rather far to go to store something, especially something important for your company."

  The director felt more defensive about this, mostly because he was the one who made the decision to do that. "Actually, it isn't out of our way. My wife generally stops by and take anything non-vital down there since it's on the way to our apartment. Heck, we're owned by the same parent company. The cost to store it is less and just as secure than if we rent out a separate facility."

  Jeff came forward on why they needed to know about the bank. "It looks like we found what we're looking for. We got a tip that mentioned money alongside a theft of an unknown device."

  The director presumed, "And you think that the bank will be hit?"

  Detective Lewis nodded.

  This put the director into action, "I'll see if my wife is there. She was going to drop something off."

  The director took out his cell phone and put it to his ear. He waited while it dialed. "Honey, where are you. OK, I need you to go to security and....what's happening."

  Detective Lewis silently cursed. He knew exactly what that meant.

  The director yelled into the phone, "Jill! Talk to me!"

  Lewis ordered, "Switch to speaker."

  The director lowered his phone, pressing the button for speaker-phone. A woman was heard, "Please, my daught..."

  A man yelled over her, "I don't care, lady! Get out before I shoot!"

  "I need to find her!"

  There was sounds of shoving and pushing. Jill screamed as she was being pulled outside. Lewis waited until she had calmed down a little bit before speaking.

  Lewis tried to speak to the hysterical woman, "Ms. Vander, I need to know what's happening."

  She talked, trying to stay calm, "Men, all with guns, came in...they just threw us out."

  Now Director Vander had to interject, "You said something about Claire?"

  Jill, still very panicked, answered, "I don't know where she is! The last I knew she was in the vault, putting everything away. It was just for a moment..."

  The detective stayed calm and tried to reassure the mother, "Has anyone called the police?"

  "I don't know....wait," Her voice grew more quiet, as she was listening to someone. When she came back, she grew more worried. "The alarm..."

  The phone was set down onto the table. Director Vander turned and walked to the nearest chair. He sat down, hands in his face. He explained, "The vault automatically closes when the alarm is triggered."

  That meant their daughter was still in the vault. The first thing Lewis had to do was make sure Jill was all right. "Mam, I'll personally be on my way. We'll get your daughter out. I want you to call 911 and listen to the operator. Explain to her that Detective Lewis said to put this at maximum priority."

  She could barely respond by saying, "OK, just please come quick!"

  Detective Lewis reassured, "The police will be there in less than three minutes. Everything will be fine."

  With the phone shut off, Lewis turned to Vander, "Do you know how much air is in the vault?"

  Vander said, "It has it's own circulation system. Anyone stuck there would sit in there for the night."

  There was something at least, "Good. When the Prots do something, they're very insistent on finishing it."

  Jeff raised a question, "Why didn't they take everyone as hostages?"

  "Simple: fewer complications. Come on, let's get over there."

  The scene outside the bank was already hectic. Police vehicles were lit, making their presence very obvious. There was only one dark vehicle. From it came Jeff, Detective Lewis and Director Vander. The latter looked around to find his wife waiting towards the front of the scene. "Jill!"

  She turned around, and immediately ran to her husband. She embraced him and whispered, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

  The director comforted his love, "It's not your fault. Don't ever think that."

  Jeff watched as Lewis retrieved the lead officer. It was a large man, part of the SWAT team. Lewis introduced him to Jeff, "This is Sargent Fosters. He's been overseeing the operation up to this point."

  The SWAT team leader simply nodded, "Good to meet you, Mr. Hunter. I've heard more than a few things about you."

  Jeff said, "Thanks. What's going on right now?"

  The Sargent moved to another car and took out a crude map of the tower. He laid it out on the hood, pointing towards the top of the building. But before he could say anything, a phone rang. It was Lewis'. The officer took it out and walked away from the two.

  Though he indicated for them to continue, they listened anyway. "This is Lewis. Wait, what? Dang it! No, have Redford go by, I'm at the bank stand-off. Thank you."

  He hung up the phone then noticed that both Fosters and Jeff had overheard him. Lewis decided to explain, "They just heard that another facility was broken into. Confirmed that Karns was involved."

  Jeff sighed, "So this was a decoy."

  Lewis responded, "Or a secondary crime; won't know until after we investigate both scenes."

  He turned to Fosters, "Anyway, you were saying."

  Sargent Fosters restarted his assessment, "We found several armed men had taken hold of the top floors. Most are still downstairs where the main banking area is located."

  Jeff said, "Without a doubt they're trying to get into the vault."

  "That'll be difficult unless you know what you're doing. Right now, it looks like they're trying to work through the computers to get it open."

  Lewis raised, "Since there's a young child in there, do we have a way of getting in."

  Fosters removed a small detonator from his pocket, "Small directional explosives can open the door. Just have to know exactly where. Worse problem is getting in. They're heavily armed with limited routes inside the building."

  "Can't go in the fire escapes?"

  The tactician shook his head negative, "If they got into the security office, not really."

  Jeff looked at the map. He put his hand on his chin, formulating a plan.

  Lewis noticed this, "What are you thinking, Hunter?"

  "What about the smoke grenades that we got in evidence?"

  Lewis shook his head negative, "Those were designed so than no one can see through it, not night vision or infrared."

  Foster furthered, "Plus every entrance is funneled. They'll know where to shoot even if it's pitch black."

  Jeff remained firm in his plan. Nothing they said changed anything. "I can still do it. The smoke doesn't effect my glasses and.."

  Fosters cut him off, "Glasses? What are you..."

  Lewis held a hand up, letting the Sargent know to let him hear Jeff out.

  "I can go in on the roof and go down through the elevators. As long as they don't get any warning, I should get into a position that I'll have the advantage."

  Fosters countered, "Going in via helicopter won't be the most silent method of infiltration, especially with those guys on the top floor."

  Jeff, with a bit of swagger in his voice, replied, "Who said I need a helicopter?"