Chapter 24

Stanley Lewis was not going to wait for an answer from Roy Summa much longer. If he had to, he’d go to Stone. He hoped it didn’t come to that. Summa seemed sympathetic to his plight but he felt that Stone wouldn’t make him go to the police like Summa was. If the invention proved that Davids killed Toni Chapin, then Lewis could mete out his own brand of justice before the police got involved. Sharon Chapin had to be kept in the dark; she wanted legal justice, not vigilantism.

Lewis lied to Summa by telling him that he had talked to the police and given them the information he had on Davids and that they in turn agreed that the information was credible and they promised a vigorous investigation.

“I did what you said I had to do. I know you made no promises, but I need your invention to prove Davids is guilty. I need it right away. Will you help me?” Lewis asked.

Summa accepted Lewis’ story of going to the police at face value. He already believed that the invention would help prove Davids’ guilt.

“I have to convince my friend that letting you use the invention does us no harm and, in fact, helps us,” Summa responded.

“That should be easy. When will you speak with her? Within the next hour? I don’t have much time.”

Summa admired the guy’s persistence.

“You don’t take no for an answer, do you Mr. Lewis? I’ll call her now and call you back with an answer. Still no promises.”

“I know you can convince Ms. Murphy to let me use it. Talk to you soon.”

“How do you know her name?”

“I know a lot about the two of you, Mr. Summa.”

Summa disconnected wondering what Lewis meant by that.

Murphy was still skeptical about giving Lewis what he wanted. But being able to show a prospective buyer how well the invention worked was breaking down her resistance. Like everyone else involved, she never got to use the invention. She thought that it was something she could do without much effort, however, and decided to take possession of it now for McGowan’s demonstration. En route to the office to do that, she decided to let Lewis use the invention as well.

Half an hour later Murphy and Summa were in her office. Having no reason to think that anyone else was in the building, they were unaware that Stone was lying on the sofa in his dark office.

“Let’s get what we came for. You copy the neural impulse software and I’ll do the same for the eyeglasses. More than ever I want to see how well this invention works. Letting Lewis use it is a good idea,” Summa said.

“I’m glad I thought of it,” answered a smiling Murphy.

“You’re funny. Where are the eyeglasses?” Summa asked.

Standing up to open her hidden vault, Murphy answered,

“I took this prototype pair of glasses from the company vault.”

Heading out the door with everything they came for, Summa said,

“We are flying blind here, Becky. McGowan won’t like product failure.”

“Then we’d better not fail.”

In spite of a full bladder, thanks to dining with McGowan, Stone stayed motionless in his office during that conversation and heard it all. Ever since the incident with reporter Julie Miller, Stone stored the working versions of the different software on a secret, separate server in his office. He made the software available during the day on a different server then moved it to his when the day’s work was done. He then put an old, flawed version of the software on the work server in case people came in during the night with thoughts of copying them. Stone heard Murphy and Summa opening and closing drawers and slipping storage devices into their computers. The software they had copied was worthless, which made the eyeglasses they took useless. That was all the more reason to get to McGowan first—he wanted no harm to come to Murphy and Summa. He had no idea who Lewis was and while curious to know how he fit in with the two of them, he had no time now to find out. He texted Danders telling him that they needed to move up the meeting with McGowan a couple of hours. He wanted to get it over with before someone got hurt.

When his office building was being built, Stone had two “safe” rooms constructed, one in the basement, and one adjacent to his office. They weren’t large as offices go, but they had eighteen-inch concrete walls, separate fresh air feeds, HVAC, separate connections to electricity and the Internet, refrigerators, microwaves, showers, and beds.

Stone sent Danders another text saying that he had moved to the safe room next to his office. Although refusing to admit it, he was getting paranoid. He headed instead to the safe room in the basement.

“Stanley, this is Roy Summa. I have you on speaker. Becky and I have decided to let you use the invention. We’re on the road. Where can we meet?”

“Wonderful news, Mr. Summa. Do you know where Lee, Massachusetts is? I’m in a small town not far from there. Let me text you the address and you can use your GPS to find it.”

“Geez, you should have told me you were that far away. We don’t have enough time to get to you to use the invention and for us to get back here for a meeting we must attend. We’re not going to be able to help you today after all.”

“Trust me, Mr. Summa. I think it’s much safer meeting with me rather than McGowan.”

He tried to continue, but Summa cut him off, yelling,

“That’s enough! Who the hell are you and how do you know so much about our business?”

“I sent you the address. I’ll see you in an hour and twenty-seven minutes.”

Lewis disconnected.

“What a mess,” Murphy lamented. “There’s the unpredictable McGowan, the unknown Lewis and the duplicitous Stone. Which one can hurt us more?”

“Look at it the other way. Who can give us more? McGowan can. I have an idea. Since Lewis is so far away, let’s test the invention on each other.”

“I was thinking the same thing. That way we will both know how to work it.”

“And I will be more help if something goes wrong when we show McGowan.”

Murphy smiled. “That’s one of the reasons I like you. For a programmer, you are hopelessly romantic. If something goes wrong, we’re going to face the dark side of McGowan, and the only thing that will save us will be your gun.”

“Head to your apartment. We need privacy to test this,” Summa said, pointing to the bag holding the eyeglasses lying on Murphy’s lap.

Mark Straight was not taking any chances. He, not any of his helpers, was following Murphy’s car and listening to her conversations. Glad that he didn’t have to follow them to Massachusetts, he lit a cigar and let his car fall further back in traffic. Checking the revolver kept in his glove box, he called McGowan and gave him an update.

Summa pulled into Murphy’s driveway, feeling optimistic and horny. Murphy was feeling a tingling excitement in anticipation of trying out the invention. The last thing on her mind was sex, especially with Summa, who drooled in appreciation as she got out of the car, her tight pants accentuating her fine backside and great legs.

“Don’t even think about it,” Murphy said.

“All I’m thinking about is…”

She cut him off. “Getting me in bed. Not going to happen. Not now, not ever,” she answered with a smile. “All we have time for is testing.”

“How do you know what I was thinking?”

“I was using the invention. How else would I know?”

Summa said nothing.

“You are the horniest man I’ve ever known. What else do you think of when you’re with women?”

“Their IQ.”

“Let’s change the subject.”

Murphy got the eyeglasses out of her bag and turned on the power.

“I can’t believe that we’re going to use the invention!” she said excitedly. “After all the hard work by the team, the moment has finally arrived. Sit down next to me, no, sit in the chair over by the window so I can try it from a distance.”

Summa dutifully complied.

“Think of something besides sex. Ready?”

Summa thought only of sex. “Ready.”

Murphy turned on the power switch to the eyeglasses and put them on. She stared at Summa.

“I thought I told you to think of something besides sex.”

Summa’s response was excited, in a non-sexual way.

“All right! Those damn things work after all!”

“No, they don’t, at least not yet. I’m getting no information whatsoever. I said that because I knew you were going to be thinking about sex.”

“What the hell, nothing?” Summa answered. “Then let’s start at the beginning. We’ll test the software that receives the neural impulses. We’ve both worked on that.”

“No, you and I worked on the neural software and we know it is good. We should concentrate on the eyeglass software. Plus, we don’t have a lot of time to figure out what’s wrong; let’s spend it on the unknown.”

They spent the next hour studying the impulse receiving software and came up with nothing. Neither needed to have a machine interpreting their neural firings to know that frustration and fear were now each other’s thoughts. There would be no testing of their own, no chance for Lewis to use it, and no demonstration for McGowan. Unfortunately for them, they chose the wrong software to spend time troubleshooting. Murphy looked at Summa with a concerned expression on her face.

“What are we going to do?” she asked.

The unflappable Summa answered,

“Find Stone and force him to explain how this could happen and make him fix it. Then take him with us to meet with McGowan.”

“What they have is not working,” Straight reported to McGowan.

“It was worth a shot. At least I know that these two are of no value to me, and it confirms what I’ve thought for a long time. Stone is the only person who matters. Go pick him up. Sedate him if you have to. I don’t want any public scenes.”

“We’re not the only ones after him,” Straight said. “Murphy and Summa are looking for him as well.”

“Since they are worthless, I was going to leave them alone. But if they get in your way, move them out of your way, permanently.”

Not only did Stone have two “safe” rooms added to his office building, he had a hidden exit incorporated into the one in the basement. It blended in with the vinyl siding on the back of the building and unless someone came out that way, and no one ever had, no one would ever know it was there. The back of the property abutted a wooded area that led to a farm, whose owner was a friend of Stone’s. She let him keep a vehicle outside a barn, and allowed him to put up two cameras attached to the barn. Those cameras complemented the six he put up on various trees in the wooded area between their buildings.

Stone watched the camera feeds displayed on his computer screen. The back area was clear; the cameras in the front of the building showed two vehicles at the main entrance and another coming down the road, pulling into the driveway.

He recognized all three vehicles. The two in front belonged to McGowan’s security team, and the car entering the grounds was Murphy’s. Four men got out of McGowan’s vehicles; two approached the building’s entrance while the other two headed towards Murphy. He knew that all four men were armed; McGowan’s security detail always was. Arriving at the same time, he wondered if all six were working together. No, they weren’t. Murphy abruptly stopped her car, shifted it into reverse, and was quickly back on the street. No shots were fired, and the two men rejoined their companions.

The building had its own security consisting of an unarmed guard and twenty-four cameras. The guard saw the events unfolding on his bank of cameras. Following the training he had gotten, he hit the button to the silent alarm, which went to the police and buzzed in every room, elevator, hallway, and stairwell in the building. Then he remotely locked the building’s doors, and headed hastily to the back exit. Although he had no knowledge of the cameras in the woods, he’d be able to find his way through the trees and get everyone to safety if they moved fast.

Stone powered up the eyeglasses and put them on, as he anxiously watched the employees head to the stairs leading to the back exits, knowing they would not have much time before McGowan’s men would circle around the building. Mark Straight tried to open the front door, without success. Stone hit the intercom and asked who they were and what business they had.

Straight answered to Stone’s unrecognizable voice that Mr. McGowan wanted to meet with Jon Stone right away, and would appreciate access to the building. Stone told him that Mr. Stone was out of the office but that he would get the message to him. Straight knew Stone was in the building; he signaled two of his men to go around to the back.

Stone checked the rear cameras and saw that a dozen people had not yet made it out. To Straight’s surprise, the front door was then buzzed open; he instructed all of his men to enter the lobby. Seeing the guard’s station unattended, they fanned out, Straight going towards the guard’s station, the others to the elevators and stairwells. Stone cut the camera feeds to the guard’s station, remotely locked the front door and stairwell doors, and cut the power to the elevators. Checking the cameras again, he saw that three people remained in the stairwell in the back. He needed only a few more minutes.

Stone hit the intercom. He told Straight two things: that police were on their way, and that he had spoken with Stone, and, yes, Stone was in the building, getting cleaned up before seeing McGowan. Straight was, for the moment, unconcerned about the police. His job was to get Stone and now he knew for certain Stone was here. The conflicting information, first a denial that Stone was in the building, and now an acknowledgement that he was, caused Straight to order the same two men to get to the back of the building. They tried the stairwell door closest to them and found it locked. Running to the front doors, they found that they were locked as well. Pulling out his gun, Straight fired five shots into the glass, shattering it enough that his men were able to force their way to the outside.

Hustling over to the elevators, Straight became incensed when he found them inoperable. He yelled to whoever was listening that no one was going to leave the building until Stone came with him, peacefully or otherwise.

When Stone saw his guard hit the silent alarm, he immediately called the police to tell them that the alarm was sent by mistake; everything was fine and no police were needed. The officer who took the call thanked Stone for the call but explained that an officer was going to respond because it was their protocol. Stone’s concern was that Straight might do something dumb and people would get hurt. Although he could stay secure indefinitely inside the safe room, once the police arrived, he’d have to leave it to explain what happened. If he showed himself, Straight was not going to let him go free, even with a police officer present. If he didn’t come out of the room, Straight might be crazy enough to engage the officer.

Stone spoke over the intercom again reminding Straight that the police would be there here in less than a minute. Straight ordered two of his men to go to the back of the building and check for anyone who might have left, then followed them out the front door and waited for the cops. Cueball remained in the building, trying to gain access to a stairwell.

Stone checked the cameras in back; all the staff was out and were nearly at the farm. Straight’s men would not get them.

Seconds later a police cruiser pulled in between Straight’s vehicles, lights flashing, no sirens. Two officers stepped out of the car. Noticing the shattered door, one went to the trunk and removed a rifle and a shotgun while the driver, a sergeant, called for backup. As the sergeant was about to get a megaphone, Straight came to the door, hands raised, yelling not to shoot.

He was instructed to move slowly and keep his hands raised. Taking the shotgun from his partner, the sergeant told Straight to stop, place his weapon on the ground, and assume the position. Once he retrieved Straight’s weapon, he put him in handcuffs.

Stone was not able to hear the conversation; after talking for several minutes the sergeant reached into Straight’s pocket and removed what appeared to be a wallet. He then put Straight in the back seat of the cruiser.

Meanwhile the other officer worked his way around to the back of the building, seeing no one but hearing a thrashing in the woods. He checked with his partner who told him that the backup unit had arrived, and to wait for help before going into the woods.

Stone watched as a second police cruiser pulled up and two officers jumped out. The sergeant met with them and gestured to the back of the building. One of the new arrivals began running in that direction while the second remained with the sergeant.

Looking at the contents of Straight’s wallet, the sergeant removed what looked to Stone like a business card. After reading the card, he opened the cruiser door and helped Straight out. After a short discussion, and then a phone call by the officer to a number on the card, the handcuffs were removed.

The two policemen in back began searching in the woods when the sergeant radioed his partner to give it up and return to the front. Why they then began to smile escaped Stone. As he looked at the cameras in the front, he saw that the police and Straight were smiling as well. Cueball came out and got a handshake from the sergeant. Soon all eight men were together exchanging handshakes and business cards and apparently shooting the breeze.

None of this pleased Stone; he wondered why the police were not arresting Straight and his men. When the police got in their cruisers a couple of minutes later and drove away, his displeasure increased, as did his concern.

Straight took out his phone and called someone. Stone watched as he and his men reentered the building. He decided to leave the building before they would head outside again for another look.

Stone packed up everything he needed, took one last look at the cameras, and exited the building. Except for a few birds squawking overhead, it was quiet in the back. He made a beeline for the woods and soon was unseen.

As he approached the barn, he heard the voices of the employees who fled from the building, atwitter with speculation about what had happened, certain that Stone’s company was involved in something bad and waiting for word that it was okay to reenter the building. Stone heard the guard who had shepherded them to safety tell them that he was sure that Stone would be along soon with an explanation. Stone made a mental note to reward the guard for his handling of this first-of-its kind incident.

As Stone rounded the corner into the clearing near the barn, people ran up to him, peppering him with questions; he had to hold up his hands to get them to quiet down. He had hired all of them and felt chagrined that he had put them through this.

“I’m sorry about this. None of you are working on our special project, which I’m told is rumored to be a cure for indifference, or getting energy from hydrogen, or seeding clouds with hops and yeast so that when it rains you will need a mug rather than an umbrella. It’s none of those. We’ve been working on capturing and interpreting neural impulses, that is, reading people’s thoughts. We have succeeded. Some bad people found out about our work and want to take possession of our invention. Those were the people here a few minutes ago.”

Concern, fear, confusion, and disbelief gripped the group.

“Those people are looking for me, not any of you. They will not find me. Please, go home, and return to work tomorrow. You are safe. I am safe. This will all be over with by tomorrow night. The police were here, they know what happened, and I am working with them to put an end to this.”

Stone smiled reassuringly. The employees thanked him and after a few moments of additional questions and expressions of concern for his safety, they went home.

He got in his truck and headed to a residence no one knew about, not the least concerned with Straight being able to find him.

Straight expected to have better luck finding Stone this time, now that the police were gone. McGowan’s sphere of influence continued to surprise him. Once the police knew who Straight worked for, they left.

He and his men, however, had no better luck gaining access to the other floors this time, so he forced the elevator doors open and got a boost from Cueball to the top of the elevator car. After pulling Cueball up with him, they assessed the situation, and determining it was worth the risk to climb the tracks to get to the next floor, they began their ascent. It was harder than it looks in the movies, but they eventually got to the second-floor door and forced it open. Climbing through the opening, they explored the area and found the situation to be the same: all doors were locked. Their options were to force doors open or leave the building.

Straight chose the latter, but not before calling McGowan and informing him of their predicament. Displeased, he told Straight to leave two men behind, one in front, the other in back, in case Stone showed his face. He ordered Straight and Cueball to return to the office.

Making matters worse, Cueball lost his grip climbing down the elevator shaft and fell on his leg, breaking it. After a devilish time getting him down through the elevator’s access door and out to the car, they headed to the hospital, without letting McGowan know that that had happened.

Stone watched the events unfold on a camera display on his Navigator’s dashboard, and intercepted Straight’s thoughts. Knowing that two men were being left behind to watch for him, he started up the Navigator, headed for the hospital, and called Danders.

Straight and Stone arrived at the hospital simultaneously. Stone had an advantage: Straight had no knowledge that someone was behind him, and wasn’t looking for anyone. He parked two rows away from Straight, grabbed a filthy baseball cap and ratty jacket he kept in the back seat and had worn to the mall to test the invention, and followed them inside to the crowded emergency room. If he could neutralize them for twelve hours, and their partners at his building as well, he might have an easier time dealing with McGowan.

A triage doctor met with Cueball upon his arrival and determined that the break was a displaced fracture, meaning bone fragments around the break did not align, and he was going to need surgery. The doctor wanted more information and ordered an MRI. She gave him some ibuprofen; he wanted something stronger. She told him that he looked like he was a tough guy and to suck it up.

Straight got a call from McGowan wondering where the hell he was. Straight explained what happened. McGowan told him that if he screwed up once more, he would feed him to the fish. Stone knew this because he was picking up Straight’s neural impulses through the flimsy curtain partially hiding Cueball. Straight decided that he was in no hurry to return and face McGowan, even if he was not afraid of him.

“Cueball,” he told him, “we’re here until you feel real good.”

Cueball grunted. Straight headed to the bathroom.

The emergency room was not too busy for the staff to notice Stone standing outside Cueball’s cubicle, and who from the waist up, looked like he needed medical attention as well. A sharp-eyed nurse accosted Stone, who stared at the floor while quietly moving to the exit. Removing his jacket and cap and exiting, he called Danders and told him to bring some things he needed. The nurse alerted security but Stone got to his Navigator and drove it out of sight before they could catch him.

Danders met Stone outside the emergency room with the stuff he wanted, and explained that he needed to keep Straight and Cueball ‘unavailable’ for a day. He intended to lure Straight out of Cueball’s cubicle, and out of the hospital, by making himself a target. Danders would then present himself as Cueball’s friend and explain to the medical staff that he wanted to bring Cueball to another hospital for treatment.

Reentering the hospital through the front door, Stone hid a plastic gun in his waistband. He waited for someone to open the door to the emergency room and followed the first person in. No longer wearing his scruffy clothes, he didn’t bring the same kind of attention to himself as before. He got to Cueball’s cubicle and stuck his head into the room. Straight had returned.

“Sorry. I thought my brother was in here.”

Straight jumped out of his chair.

“Son of a bitch. Where you been, boy? Cueball, I’ll be right back. Don’t be jumping on any of the pretty nurses out there.”

As Straight was about to grab him, Stone deftly moved the wheeled table near the bed in between them, and the curtain around them. Pulling the real-looking toy gun out of his waistband, he shoved it into Straight’s ribs.

“I won’t hesitate to shoot. Come with me,” he ordered.

Straight didn’t see the gun, but it felt real. He stiffened.

Stone was watching the display on his eyeglasses as he slipped his muscular arm around Straight’s muscular neck.

“We’re buddies. Walk slowly in front of me, answer when I speak. Go out the door over there and head to the main exit. Don’t do anything stupid.”

Stone’s a lot stronger than I thought. As soon…

Stone gave Straight a crisp right to his kidneys. Straight buckled.

“Move.”

Son of a bitch knows where to punch. I’m going to enjoy punching his pretty…

Stone punched him again.

“Not going to say it again,” he said, pushing Straight forward.

The pain was bad but letting pretty-boy get the better of him thus far hurt Straight’s pride worse. He reluctantly began walking, Stone’s one hand firmly around his neck and his other pressing the toy gun into his kidney.

Stone glanced around the room, looking for people paying attention to them. The nurse who spotted him earlier looked up. Stone read her thoughts.

I’ve seen the handsome one before…where? That other man, he was with the man with the broken leg...they look like they’re friends.

Someone asked her a question. She stopped looking in their direction.

Straight hobbled towards the emergency room exit.

“Walk like a man,” Stone told him.

“Remove the gun from my back and we’ll see who’s a man.”

In the corridor leading to the main exit, Stone smiled at the cameras positioned on top of the walls every thirty feet. For all he knew, McGowan had access to them; the smile was a ‘what are you going to do now?’ smile, in case he did.

Straight gave Stone no further trouble and they were soon out of the building.

In the meantime, Danders slipped into the emergency room with a family of eight, seven of who were yelling at the top of their lungs for a doctor to come and help the eighth, a woman who was bleeding from the stomach. Danders peeled off from them and found Cueball’s cubicle easily in spite of the noise and confusion. Cueball opened his eyes in time to see Danders plunge a needle full of sedatives into his buttocks. He was out like a light.

The confusion and noise worked in Danders’ favor. Grabbing a wheelchair he spotted in the corridor, he closed the curtain and lowered Cueball from the gurney into the chair with no consideration for his broken leg. Then he brazenly wheeled a slumped-over Cueball out of the emergency room, down the corridor, and out the front door.

With Straight’s hands behind his back Stone fastened a zip-tie around his wrists and shoved him in the back seat of the Navigator. Danders showed up moments later and he and Stone lifted the comatose Cueball out of the wheelchair and dumped him in with Straight. Stone kept his eyes on Straight through the rear-view mirror while he drove.

McGowan had ways of finding things out that no one else could, but he knew nothing about the safe rooms in Stone’s building, or Stone’s truck parked in a friend’s field—or Stone would be the one pumped full of sedatives, riding in the back of Straight’s SUV, on the way to see McGowan. This knowledge gave Stone confidence that McGowan also knew nothing about where he was taking his passengers. He didn’t want to put a blindfold on Straight where people driving to and from the hospital might see them; he pulled off the road when the traffic thinned a few miles down the road and had Danders put one on. There they destroyed Straight’s and Cueball’s phones to stop the GPS tracking software from telling McGowan where they were. Taking no chances, they checked their clothing and shoes but found no other tracking devices. Stone sped away.