The CEO was quite pleased with the way the class action law suit was handled. The company he hired did a great job getting everything turned around. Not only had all the leaked medical data results been modified to now look faked but the company would also bring a lawsuit against the hospitals that released the real data to the plaintiffs. The dirty tricks guy he hired was well worth the price tag he charged. The man, Mr. Carvelli that he made the arrangements with was well recommended by associates for his discretion in handling these types of maters. The CEO gave a brief thought to the children who had developed liver problems from his company’s medicine but reasoned that before it became fatal someone was bound to come up with a cure for them. Besides, the CEO reasoned a full set of testing on the product would have cost him his executive bonus. The CEO’s thought then turned to his new yacht and the trip down to Bimini he had planned for the weekend.
At that moment Jane Corbet his executive secretary rushed into the office and hurried to the entertainment cabinet to turn on the TV. “What are you doing barging in Ms. Corbet yelled the CEO, can’t you see I’m working. Ms Corbet breathlessly announced “there is a special news report on the company; I’m already getting press calls asking for a response”. At that moment the screen came on and a news announcer was showing a video of the computer break-in that was done to change the data. An audio recording of his secret meeting with Mr. Carvelli was also playing. His voice was describing the drug’s side-effects and what was needed to be done to cover it up. The announcer identifying him by name as the voice in the recording as well as his confirming the company paid for the cover up by billing it as research cost.
* * * * *
My eyes were blurry and my fingers were getting numb. Tracing all these missing children to find where they were now was going pretty quick with Hawk’s help but finding ways to notify authorities anonymously was not. Initially I tried to report each location randomly to local police or a tip line in a way that it can’t be traced back or tied to the other children located. Trying to stay anonymous while doing that was what was slowing it all down. After a few days of seeing the condition of some of them I decided I couldn’t delay the notifications and I needed to go faster. So now I was making a list of each one I found identifying their name, location missing from, location currently at and names of the ones responsible. Each night the new entries are sent by email to the police for each location the children are currently in as well as the area they were from. So far going back over what I sent and checking it looks like most of the kids were found. I’ll have to to more checking to find out why the other kids weren’t. Doing it this way I knew it was just a matter of time before the federal authorities got involved trying to track the source of the information.
Of few of the kids required more involvement like the current missing child I was tracing. He was a four year old boy named Billy now being called Freddie. He was grabbed from a park last year by a couple using a puppy and then quickly taken out of state. I didn’t bother to check on why they did it and just focused on Billy. The happy smiling 3 year old was now a silent, grim child locked in a closet at their house. He was being badly abused and hadn’t seen the sun in a year. I decided I couldn’t wait on this one for the authorities to respond to a tip. Going by the others I found it takes 2 to 3 days for them to show up and sometimes longer or not at all. Checking the neighborhood outside the house it seems like the typical suburban home. That actually makes it easy since the suburbs are full of people watching each others houses. Using a portal from a factory chimney and one of their windows soon it had black smoke appearing. A concerned neighbor called the fire department which quickly showed up. When they got to the door I had additional smoke appearing from multiple spots. Over the protest of the two the firemen rushed in. Billy wasn’t making a sound; a year of punishment taught him that. But portals can also pass sound and a fireman soon heard the sound of a child crying from behind a locked door. Billy became even more scared when the axe hit the door but soon the fireman broke in to see a skinny Billy in filthy pajamas.
Leaving a few burning oily rags in the house to explain the smoke I turned off the display and stretched. Later I’ll check and see how Billy was doing and what happened to the two who did that to him. Looking over my shoulder at the beautiful beach sunset I realized it was getting close to lunch time. It was so easy to get stressed and upset with these children making a small cabin in the woods a depressing place. Having a bright natural beach to look at was a great way to brighten up the cabin. Looking over at Samurai Beach it was looking especially nice eight years ago. Before crowds discovered it and thinks like a crappy surf shack was added. Currently the scene was a beautiful day in the middle May of that year with a pod of dolphins playing off shore. At that time the beach was only accessible by 3 wheel drive or a kilometer long walk down a trail making it very secluded. There were no hotels or any real buildings to mar the view. Just the ocean waters, white sand, dolphins and a occasional nudist working on their tan. Looking at my watch I realized Sammy would be here soon so I asked Hawk to shut it down. The wooden wall now appeared behind me where the beach use to be.
Fall was now here and the days were getting colder. I tried the fireplace in the cabin but it was small and the chimney hadn’t been clean in a while. My try at a fire resulted in a lot of smoke and barely any warmth. I went ahead and brought an old space heater which helped a bit. I thought about how to get the fireplace clean while I watching a show on the shrinking of the polar ice caps. Kicking myself I realized that there was a better solution available. To test it I had Hawk open a one foot wide portal to Alaska. A cold breeze had me quickly shivering in the middle of the cabin. Even with global warming it was still pretty cold up in Denali park. I had Hawk move the other end down to the pacific near the equator. I made sure the portal was high above the water. A one foot portal was to easy to see if people were around but putting a hundred feet above the water avoided that. Five minutes later as I started to feel warm as the chill dissipated.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
I was enjoying the comfortable warmth when after a bit I noticed the room was starting to fill with a damp mist. The warm ocean air mixing with the cold air in the cabin was turning into a clammy fog. It looks like my idea for climate controlled still needed some more work. I tried again by moving the portal this time to a desert. It cleared the air but the cabin still smelled a bit damp and moldy. It looked like it would take a while for the cabin to dry out and get rid of the smell. A few hours later the cabin smelled fine and was now a comfortably temperature but the air was starting to feel too dry. I spent the next hour going back and forth with the portals but I finally got the cabin perfect. It ended up taking two different size portals one to the Sahara and one to the Brazilian rain forest. The cabin was now warm, no fog and with a faint earthy jungle sent. There was no thermostat involved but hopefully Hawk will understand how I want the temperature and he’ll adjust the portal sides to maintain it.
The next day Sammy came by at her usual time right after school. I enjoyed seeing her every day but I was getting a bit worried. Grandma was probably blaming me now for Sammy coming here first every day instead of going straight home. Staying on Grandma’s good side was important if I wanted to keep seeing Sammy.
I had the space heater ready expecting Sammy. I quickly turned it on to explain the warmth. When she walked in she seemed a little surprised by how warm it was but then kept sniffing around for what she smelled. I decided I needed to get a couple of different cans of air freshener and maybe a few scented candles to leave around the cabin. When she sees them it would provide an excuse for any scents that come through the portals.
“It smells nice and warm here” Sammy said, “Over at our cabin it just smells like smoke now”
“Oh, don’t you have a heater?”
With an embarrassed look she said “We do but we don’t run it much”
Remembering her money situation I didn’t ask anything more about it and switched subjects.
“I heard the cinema in town just got a new movie in, would you maybe like to see it Friday? If its ok with your Grandma that is.”
Without asking what movie was showing she got an excited look on her face and shouted “Yes I would love to go, I’ll go ask Grandma”.
After saying that she gave me a quick hug and headed out the door. I knew she would be back with Grandma’s permission even if she had to pester her all day to get it.
The movie was a Hawaiian surfer movie. It was kind of a rehash of all the beach movies that were so popular in the 60’s. Not the most romantic move to take a date to but Sammy really liked it. I doubt if she got to go to movies very much and seemed surprised when I brought popcorn and drinks. Seeing her with that big tub of popcorn on her lap eating it while looking excitedly at the movie was both funny and sweet. The embarrassed look on her face when she realized she had finished all the popcorn herself was even funnier
Afterward we went to the café for a bite. Lucky for me Clair wasn’t working tonight. The pie and ice cream I had was probably good but I honestly don’t remember what it tasted like. We spent the time talking about the movie and laughing. The evening finished off on the porch outside her cabin. Huddled in our jackets with my arm around her on the porch swing we had our first kiss. She didn’t seem to have much experience at it but then neither did I so we kept practicing. I think we would have sat there all night but the curtains twitched and then Grandma started to pretend to cough loudly inside. I said goodnight to her as she walked inside then headed home. That night I dreamed about kissing her again on the beach of Hawaii. When I woke up I realized I could actually take her there using the portal but those words of Grandma made me hesitate. Telling Sammy would bring her into my plans and the thought of putting her in danger was something I never want to do. Not being with her though was something I also didn’t want to think about.
It took me a few hours of staring at the cabin walls the next morning before I could get my mind back on my work. Looking around the cabin I decide a change of scenery would help me focus. I had earlier realized that Hawk could just put large portals against the walls and make the cabin look like it was any place and any time. I decided it was time to try a few places. I initially went with nature scenes a favorite of mine and it did brighten the cabin a bit. Later I decided an occasional person or two in the scenery would help me avoid going stir crazy so I switched to places with a few people around. Unlike pinhole portals a wall size one was too big to hide from people but shifting the end to a time in the past made it one way. It also let me pick the best season and time of day for the different locations. I generally just switched between beaches and mountains with an occasional desert or jungle thrown in but for the last few days it’s been all beaches. I think the cold weather was starting to get to me. The fact that the beaches selected were all clothing optional was just a coincidence. Secluded hard to get to beaches usually are clothing optional, at least that’s my excuse and I’m sticking with it. After a while having portal scenes on all the walls got distracting. It made me feel like I was at a beach cabana instead of a cabin. Eventually I just put one on the wall behind me so when I needed a break I could spin the chair around and enjoy the view.
As I worked on the missing kids I realized I had been at it for over two weeks so far. I had found several hundred kids that I reported to the different agencies and recorded what happened to over a thousand more. I wasn’t sure about telling anyone about them. I just couldn’t decide if hope and not knowing was better or worse than knowing. As I thought about it I rubbed the back of my neck. A quick thought went through my head “huh, sunburn”. I guess I should start wearing a hat when I’m outside. Looking at my spreadsheet on found kids the numbers for the last two weeks wasn’t looking to good. The number I had found and saved didn’t equal the number of new kids lost. Thinking about that last kid Billy and how many more like him were still out there I knew I needed to take it up a notch. Those kids needed to found quickly before anything more could happen to them. It’s time for a secret organization to make its appearance. The question was how many layers of misdirection I can put into it.