Scott returned to his dorm after class, lost in his thoughts. His test had been easy despite skipping most of the lectures. It was still hard to believe he had struggled so much his first year. A man in a dark blue suit and a red tie appeared in front of him.
“Hello, Scott Henderson?” the man said. It was more of a statement than a question.
“Yes…” Scott replied confused.
A suit? Only devils, lawyers and government officials wore suits in Texas. Probably they could handle the temperature due to their familiarity with hellish conditions. Scott realized he hadn’t really been paying attention to the man waving some kind of badge at him.
“Um sorry, can you repeat that?” Scott asked politely. The man’s eyes narrowed.
“I am agent Keller with the FBI. We would like to ask you a few questions.” We? Did this guy not realize he was alone?
“Sure, I guess so. Am I under arrest for something?” Scott asked nervously.
“Not yet. My car is over there. We have an office a few minutes off campus.” Agent Keller said, pointing to a black SUV. Yeah, they were totally going to whisk him away to some illegal detention center.
“Um, I’m not resisting or anything, but can I call someone, so they know where I am?” Scott asked.
Agent Keller briefly considered denying the request. This little twerp was going to cause him problems. Keller always followed the rules, so he allowed Scott to make a call. “Make it quick.”
“Hey Melinda, “Scott said. Sometimes it was really nice to have a boss that could handle 5 calls at once before she had to put you on hold.
“Hello Scott, can I help you with something?” Melinda asked.
“Yeah, so I’m about to go answer some questions for an FBI agent named Keller. Would you mind checking that he’s really with the FBI and call the police if I don’t come back in a few hours?”
Agent Keller grabbed the phone, giving him a dirty look. He gave Melinda his full name and id number. She quickly confirmed he was a real agent. This didn’t really do much to relieve Scott’s nervousness, but at least Melinda could send in a squad of mercenaries to break him out if things went poorly.
Scott got in the car, and they drove a short distance to a small office in a strip mall. They walked into a small conference room. Scott did his best to pay attention to Agent Keller.
“Mr. Henderson, you were flagged by our artificial intelligence as having links to several persons of interest. Please tell me anything you know about the current whereabouts of Mr. Solomon Rhodes.”
Aw crap! “Um, I talked to him a couple months ago. As far as I know he is in Big Spring prison for another year or so. I asked him to help me with a computer project.” Scott explained.
“You know that lying to the FBI is a federal offense?” Agent Keller asked ominously.
“I heard that it is what the government uses to bully political opponents or cover up for their own criminal activity.” Scott blurted. Stupid memory tricks! His cursed training pulled up memories when associations were triggered, but his stupid mouth just blabbed it out. He pulled that little tidbit up from his memory of the conversation with Solomon.
Agent Keller was angry. “Your disrespectful attitude is not doing you any favors!”
“Um sorry, I was just repeating what Solomon Rhodes told me. I’m trying to tell you everything like you asked!” Scott mumbled. For some reason he started imagining a dolphin popping up from behind Agent Keller and…
“You’re not paying attention!” Keller said.
“Sorry, please repeat your question.” Scott said. He was terrible at this high-pressure stuff!
Keller sighed. “Look, we have records indicating you employed Solomon Rhodes as an IT security consultant. Your company has continued to pay him. It is hard to believe you know nothing.”
“Well, I was thinking of calling him. He set up some security stuff for a human resources application I built. We needed to add him as an employee so he could have computer access, but I haven’t talked to him since. Um, do I need a lawyer?” Scott mumbled, realizing he probably should have asked for this before he started blabbing.
“You have the right to get legal counsel.” Keller admitted, “Although lawyering up seems very suspicious.”
“Right, but you are already suspicious, so I think I’ll get a lawyer.” Scott said. “Can I call my boss again to arrange it?”
Keller sighed but agreed. This kid was hiding something, but at this point he was still fishing for clues about the disappearance of Solomon Rhodes.
Melinda indicated she had already sent a lawyer to the office. Keller decided to try a few more questions before the lawyer showed up.
“So, I’d like to hear about what you discussed with a man named Sergio Guerra while you were in Mexico over winter break.” Keller continued.
“Um, I was introduced to him as the head of our security at the Mexico location, “Scott recalled. “And…” Oh crap! The only other time I talked to him was when we were laughing about all the fish they killed when they were testing Matt’s rail gun. Nope, not going to talk about that with the FBI! “Yeah, I’m going to wait on my lawyer.” Scott finished lamely.
Keller looked at him with interest.
“Is Solomon Rhodes hiding at your Mexico location?” Keller asked.
“Wait what? He’s not in prison?” Scott asked. When did that happen?
Keller was good at reading people. Scott seemed to be genuinely surprised. He was definitely hiding something. Everyone was nervous talking to the FBI, but this kid seemed particularly worried about something in Mexico. The FBI didn’t have any jurisdiction there, but Scott didn’t seem to be aware of that.
“Hello, I’m Myrna Emerson,” a woman announced. She was a dark skinned, older woman wearing casual clothes - definitely not a big firm lawyer, Keller thought. He was pleased that this kid had pulled some inexpensive joke of a lawyer.
“Nice to meet you Ms. Emerson, “Keller said. “Scott here is not a suspect in any crime, but as you know obstructing the FBI is a serious matter, so it is important he answers as many questions as possible. If an answer would incriminate him he is allowed to remain silent.” Yeah, let’s see if he could bully them into answering. He implied that if they refused to talk it was an indication of guilt.
“I am not up to speed on what you are investigating, but I am allowed to advise my client not to answer if you are just fishing for a crime to pin on him.” Emerson replied with a smile. Apparently, she was not intimidated.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“Fine, we are trying to find the location of Solomon Rhodes who recently escaped from the Big Spring correctional facility. A couple members of the staff were assaulted during the escape.”
“Is Warden Davis OK?” Scott asked. Oops, he wasn’t supposed to talk.
“Yes, you seem well informed about the staff of the facility.” Keller replied.
“You don’t have to respond to that.” Emerson interrupted.
“Ah, that’s all right. Warden Davis was a really nice guy. I just hope he wasn’t hurt. I didn’t know anything about this escape until Keller just told me.” Scott said.
“Right, so I’m willing to believe you had nothing to do with the escape.” Keller admitted. “I am quite interested in your activities in Mexico.”
“Nope.” Emerson stated firmly. “That’s not your jurisdiction. Anything Scott saw or did in Mexico is for the Policia Federal Ministerial. If you have anything to ask about activity in the US, I will request that you ask it before we leave.”
Keller knew he wasn’t going to get anything useful out of this.
“OK, well if you hear anything about Mr. Rhodes, I would like you to call me and let me know. Failure to notify me would be considered aiding and abetting a fugitive.” Keller said.
Scott and his new lawyer left.
Myrna offered to give him a ride back to his dorm.
“Thanks for your help. That guy really did not like me.”
“Yeah, so I’m not actually a lawyer. Notice I never introduced myself as one there. I’m actually a court reporter, although I am taking night classes to get my law degree. I have no idea how your boss found me, but she gave me $2k and asked me to go to that office and speak up for her employee.”
“Well, you were great in there, “Scott laughed. For that money surely, she could have hired a real lawyer, but it must have been a Glitch_HR recommendation.
“Yeah, so your boss also asked me if I was interested in some part time work writing contracts for her company. I guess we are co-workers now.” Myrna said.
“Oh, well welcome to Genysis then,” Scott said. “I would recommend you check out the training section on our HR program. I don’t mean that as an insult - you are obviously really smart, but I’m kind of proud of it.”
“Melinda said something about the HR training system too. I guess I’ll check it out when I’m on the clock.” Myrna agreed.
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A distinguished man in a white button-down shirt and khaki pants was waiting at the door of the house on the Avenida Felipe Carrillo in Yucatan. He had been nervous walking past the heavily armed older man sitting by the gate. The weapon that guy was openly carrying was not legal indicating the owner of this home had connections with either the police or local cartels.
Melinda was alerted to his approach and pressed a button on an automation app on her phone.
Inside the nearby shed, a metal plate slid over the stairs that led down to most of their operations. She would apologize to Phillip and Rafael later. They were enjoying their work so much they might not even notice she had trapped them underground.
The man looked uncomfortable standing in the heat in his clothing - he was probably a government official. At least he wasn’t wearing a tie, which indicated he probably still had a shred of decency in his soul.
“Hello, how can I help you?” Sergio asked. Melinda looked on but kept quiet. She wasn’t about to start babbling.
“Greetings. I am Lorenzo Ceron with the ministry of commerce and trade. I was recently contacted by the Navy about the ship that is now floating near your property. Is this woman Melinda White?”
“Yes. She has a disability that makes it difficult for her to speak. If you don’t mind, we can record any questions you have, and she will respond by email.” Sergio politely requested.
“Well, that is unusual but acceptable. My supervisor had some concerns about irregularities related to the origin of this ship.” Señor Ceron replied.
They proceeded to the metal building. Lorenzo Ceron expressed amazement at the robotics and machinery on display.
“This is a very advanced facility you have hidden here.”
“Yes, we are quite proud of our company's technical capabilities.” Sergo replied. “You understand of course that we cannot share all the details of our intellectual property.”
“I’ll try to be brief and list our concerns. First, the construction of a vessel of this size likely requires dozens of skilled laborers. We are concerned about their living conditions and the lack of documentation about how they are paid and taxed.” Lorenzo began.
“Well, I can probably help with that, “Sergio replied. “We have five people on the security team. We bunk in the main house and have been paying our taxes. Melinda is the CEO, and there are two engineers staying here who are also Americans. They have all filed the papers and taxes to work here. That’s it.”
“But who built that ship?” Lorenzo demanded.
“Right, so we used this equipment to assemble robots. The robots built the ship. We had some college kids here over their winter break who helped design the ship and program the robots. Anyway, that’s it.” Sergio answered with a grin.
This is not what I expected. Lorenzo thought. My boss wanted me to find some kind of work camp with slavery conditions and assess a huge fine or give him a reason to seize that boat.
Sergio received a text on his phone. “Uh, my boss said she had some extra forms filled out for your boss.” He handed Lorenzo a rather hefty envelope. Peeking inside he saw a bundle of money.
This should keep me out of trouble this time. Lorenzo thought. It won’t be long before his boss would come up with an excuse to seize this property and all that high tech machinery. He hoped they sent someone else next time - hopefully with a lot of armed men.
Lorenzo had a feeling that these people would not hand over their property without a fight.
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Tony Zimmerman approached Matthew Stanton.
“Hey Matt, remember me? We all hung out at that party last year.” Tony said, pretending he had just run into Matt by accident.
“Oh hey! Tony, right?” Matt said. “Yeah, that party was really fun. Thanks for inviting those girls for me.”
“No problem. Hey, a friend of mine is having a party this weekend. It would be really great if you could go! I think there will be a lot of girls there, so feel free to invite your friends. Scott and Barry right?” Tony asked, pretending he didn’t have extensive files on Scott Henderson and Barry Yong.
“OK. Hey, can I invite the girls too? It will be like last time, although I’ll try to get my friends to talk to some other people too!” Matt said.
“Yeah, that would be great. Here’s the information.” Tony said, closing the deal.
Tony was aware that Matt and his friends had traveled to Mexico with Adriana Foster and Elsa Pittman shortly before the Dark Siren incident. They were marked as people of extreme interest to his organization, but this party would allow his people to infiltrate the group and get more information about what they were up to. The other girl, Marta Lopez was flagged as a lower interest level, but recent activity indicated she might also be involved.
There was some debate in his organization about whether they should infiltrate vs. extraction for these kids. It was likely these people would easily break under torture, but the organization they worked for would have an aggressive response if they disappeared.
They had scrutinized his report of the first party after the incidents in Mexico. They had made the connection that Scott mentioned going to meet with Solomon Rhodes. They had recently grabbed Solomon Rhodes. He had burned all traces of his activity before they could acquire him. He talked quite a bit after they worked on him for a couple hours. He indicated that Scott Henderson had come to him about a school project that had “accidentally” hacked into their operation. He had helped Scott extract the data and set up some protections, but the passcodes were burned when he disabled his computers. He claimed no knowledge that Scott was working for any government agency but admitted that it was likely in between screaming in pain. Tony personally thought people getting tortured would just try to answer what the torturer wanted to hear, but he did not bring up his doubts to his boss.
The fusion research Barry had talked about had been flagged as high priority. This new ship appeared to be nuclear powered and if the American military had fusion power, this could upset the entire balance of power in the world. One of their spies in Mexico had also caught a reference in a report by the ministry of commerce about advanced robotics. Tony was instructed to make sure Barry Yong got drunk to see if they could get him to brag about more details of secret projects.
The last item was the coded references to helping Melinda the “homeless lady”. Melinda White had been flagged as a key person and they constantly referenced her as their boss. She had apparently assumed the idea of a homeless woman who had disappeared recently from a local shelter. The manager, Ed Gill had claimed he had no idea what happened to her. Around the same time, a smartly dressed mystery woman appeared using the same name. By all accounts she was a whirlwind of activity setting up shell corporations and dealing with a wide network of seemingly unrelated people. Her true identity was a mystery, but she was currently active in their tightly guarded Mexican compound and seemed to be a central figure.
Vasek Golovko, who currently used the name Tony Zimmerman, knew this mission was coming to an end. He started planning for the party.