Lin’s algorithm works like a charm, and we’re done hours before I would have been if I had been left to my own devices. Unfortunately, we lost Jeff in Topeka. He definitely got off the freeway on the Monroe Street exit, because he was on the freeway before that, then he didn’t show up after that. He was just gone. I get Alan working on getting access to more camera feeds in the area, but that’ll take a while. On the off chance that he’s making Topeka his new base of operations, we start checking out missing persons reports starting the evening he arrived there. I don’t really expect anything here to be helpful, it’s probably too soon, but I need something to do while Alan works.
“It’s nice of them to put this all online for anyone to see,” Lin comments. “Is it normal for American local governments to do that?”
“Yeah,” I say. “Not uncommon, anyway. I guess once you're kidnapped, they don’t have any reason not to put your info out for everyone.”
“Are you sure that Jeff’s potential test subjects would need to go missing?” she asks. “Is there no chance that he would just hire someone as a test subject?”
“If he’s testing the implant, whoever he tests it on will be dead soon after the procedure. Whether the implant installation fails again, or it works and Jeff kills them afterwards is the only question. So there’s no way he’s going to give them a chance to tell anyone what he’s doing.”
She nods as we go through the missing person search results. There aren’t a whole lot, and none of them look like good candidates.
“Those two are children,” I say, thinking aloud, “which Jeff wouldn’t use because he’d want someone whose brain is mostly done developing. The rest are older, over sixty, so their neuroplasticity would be too reduced to make them good candidates for the implant. Louise told me that she was sure Jeff would be looking for someone between late teens and early twenties.”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“How would he get them though?” Lin asks. “Just grab someone off the street?”
I shake my head.
“From the videos, Jeff is stronger now than he had been when I knew him, but he still wasn’t all that strong. Trying to just abduct someone would be hard and risky, that’s not Jeff’s style.”
“Maybe he got a gun,” Lin suggests. “You Americans have lots of guns around, right?”
I laugh. “I guess we do, but he didn’t have one that I could see when he loaded the van. He could have bought one by now, I guess. We’ll check all the gun dealers.”
I put a note in my brain to add that to Alan’s list.
“How about luring someone in with a pretense of some sort? Perhaps one of those new dating apps I’ve read about? Or posting an advertisement offering to hire them for something? Then he could abscond with them. Perhaps by drugging them if needed.”
“Drugs!” I nearly shout. “Drugs!”
“No, thank you. You know I’d never go back to those. It was hard enough overcoming a morphine addiction once.”
“Not for us. For Jeff. You’re brilliant, Lin!” I rush over to my desk and start typing frantically. “He’ll need anesthetics, the ones that the autodosing equipment knows how to use. The lab that he broke into in the Research Center only had enough for a single operation when he robbed us. We should be watching for reports of thefts at pharmacies, hospitals and clinics. Let me get Alan on that.”
“I’m happy that I could help, but I think you actually thought of that,” she says. A smile sneaks onto her lips. “Maybe you’re not my sweet, stupid boy anymore. You’ve probably graduated to sweet and average. Good for you, you deserve a reward. Maybe I'll even show you some of the things I picked up shopping in Las Vegas.”
The way she says it makes me very curious about what kind of shopping she did.
“OK, but hold that thought. Let me finish researching this and go talk to Alan first.”