The rest of Madison's day was packed with public appearances, so Dan decided to stick with the boy, Nikolos. For the next few hours, Dan watched him meditate with the discipline of a Zen master. It wasn't clear what the young man was trying to achieve; enlightenment, maybe. There were no outward signs of progress, but he finished sometime around the third hour.
The stillness ended as suddenly as it had begun. Nikolos unfolded himself, stood up, and stretched, all in the space of a second. He looked lighter, somehow, literally and figuratively. He seemed less burdened than before, less stressed, yet also moved with a new grace. Every step was like a gymnast's, and his casual jaunt across the room resembled a dancer picking his way across a floor of broken glass.
Beside him, Abby sat up straight in her seat. Her eyes narrowed, watching each easy step. Dan reminded himself that much of her job was literally teaching people how to walk again, after catastrophic changes to their bodies. She was an expert at picking apart unnatural movements. Now, her whole focus was on Nikolos, as he crossed from the couch to the kitchen in three long, languid strides.
"He looks buoyant," she said, as Dan changed portal locations to the kitchen. The old man was sitting at a small table in the kitchen. Both chair and table were as worn as the rest of the house, and the former audibly creaked as he shifted his weight. The bowl of soup sat empty in the sink. There was a small, flat television mounted on the wall across from the table. The news was playing clips of a speech Senator Madison had just given.
The old man's name was Peter Andeno, and he was one of the major minds behind the Geist upgrade. He'd resigned a few years after the Geist program had gone into effect, and found religion. He was a quietly devout member of the Church of Everlasting Evolution, alongside most of his extended family. His wife had passed away a decade ago, but he had a handful of relatives remaining, including his grandson, Nikolos. He was politically disinclined, though he did contribute a small amount of money to Meriwether Madison each year.
This had all been uncovered by Anastasia, and revealed in the text she'd sent. It answered some questions, but raised many others. The Geist that Dan had captured, the one who had been sent to kill Jeremy Rawls, had confessed under the Truth-Teller upgrade that he was performing a sanctioned assassination. Anastasia had even recognized the man, having seen him once at the Geist training facility called Shangri-La.
Peter Andeno had, by all appearances, completely cut ties to his old life. He had no contacts in the RED Building worth noting; less than a dozen people working there would even recognize the man's name, and only half of those had ever met him. And yet, he had two Geists treating his home as if it were Fort Knox. It was possible that Andeno had reproduced the Geist upgrade, perhaps gifting it to the Evo Church, but then, how did that explain the Geist who had targeted Rawls. Dan had the sudden urge to re-examine the Evo Church. Would he find hidden figures, posted up on every corner? Except, the evidence didn't support such a theory.
According to the captured Geist, the order had come from within the RED Building, specifically from the Domestic Terrorism Unit. This did not narrow things down much. Thousands of people worked in the RED Building, and hundreds fell under the umbrella of the DTU. Worse still, nothing more could be gained from the Geist. Their upgrade hardened them against interrogation, and they were trained to resist it besides. Dan wasn't sure what had happened to the wayward assassin, but he was pretty sure Rawls had quietly disappeared him after realizing the futility of further interrogation. Investigations were underway throughout the department, but the secrecy necessary limited their effectiveness.
Was it possible there was some other element involved, still left undiscovered? Could Peter Andeno, creator of the Geist upgrade, really have nothing to do with the assassination attempt on Rawls? No, Dan decided. It beggared belief. There had to be a connection between Peter Andeno, and the Geist that attacked Rawls. Dan simply would not believe otherwise. The trail of events seemed to lead straight to the man, but Dan was missing a step, somewhere. He tried to redraw events in his mind, then gave up and pulled a notebook and pen out of hammerspace. He laid it flat on the table, and began to list out the timeline.
Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
Everything started with Dunkirk. The slimy fed had been on Senator Madison's payroll for who knows how long, and it was the senator's influence that had him assigned to Austin, to take custody of one Andros Bartholomew. Madison's loyalties here became unclear, as Dunkirk's instructions were to genuinely interrogate the scientist, and pass along whatever the madman knew about breaking upgrades onwards to his patron. It seemed unlikely he would do that if he were working with the People, at the time.
So, the People attacked, Bartholomew was freed, Dunkirk was disgraced. Madison refused to sacrifice any favors to bail the man out of his predicament, fostering resentment in the spiteful fed. Simultaneously, the senator used Dunkirk's access to federal databases to mine information on various criminal activities throughout the nation. This next part was guesswork, but Dan was confident Madison then funneled that information to Galeforce, and any other vigilantes he happened to be sponsoring.
Dunkirk, his career in tatters and his patron no longer feeling particularly benevolent, decided to take matters into his own hands. He concocted a plan, well-meaning but ultimately flawed. He messaged Galeforce, without any knowledge of their shared master, and sicced him on the nearest criminal powerhouse he could find: a criminal informant for the VRU. Dunkirk knew that Senator Madison was politically opposed to Rawls, and thought weakening his enemy might put the man in a more favorable mood. He also planned to steal the confiscated Genius-tech, and present it to the senator in exchange for renewed patronage. Dunkirk's plans fell apart, mostly thanks to Dan, and he was arrested, and at this point it seemed Madison learned what had transpired.
It was probably the targeting of Galeforce that earned Dunkirk his patron's ire, along with the many, many attempts on his life. Maybe Madison thought the man knew more than he should, that the scheming fed had somehow learned about his sponsorship of the young vigilante, and would immediately spill the beans to save his own skin. Madison took measures to prevent this, but attempts at silencing the fed were prevented by a now hardened Austin PD. Ironically, these very attempts were what alerted Dunkirk to the fact that he knew anything at all worth knowing. He spun a tale to the Austin PD about office politics, that was really more guesswork than truth, and the APD decided to make him someone else's problem.
So, Madison couldn't reach Dunkirk in Austin. What next? He targeted Rawls, who had a vested interest in hearing Dunkirk out. Thus, the Geist. The order came from someone in authority. Killing a fellow federal agent was no easy thing. Neither was ordering around a Geist. The assassins were conditioned to obey without question, which meant their handlers' credentials needed to be above reproach. There weren't all that many people capable of giving a Geist an order, and Anastasia had already cleared most of them. The old matron's running theory was Echo had given the order, using his ability to perfectly copy any individual. She seemed to think Madison's break with the People must have occurred some time after the assassination attempt.
Dan didn't think so. Anastasia was quick to blame Echo for the slightest thing, and he was more sure than ever that the alliance formed between the People and Madison's faction had been fractious at best. He struggled to identify what Madison even got out of the arrangement. He'd clearly given resources to the People, probably funneling them money or even the means to make more Naturals. What had they given to him? What did he need from them, that he would dangle Nikolos out as bait? And how did he plan for the boy to make contact?
Dan thought back. Old Andeno had mentioned something about influence, before Madison warned him off. What would buy influence with the People? He scratched the question into his paper, puzzling over it.
Abby said, "Being a vigilante."
"What?" Dan looked up.
She was looking down at the paper, brow furrowed. She reached forward and tapped the word, influence. "The People value Naturals, and Champion believed in vigilantism. When you combine the two, you become an attractive recruit."
"Oh." Dan looked up at the screen, where young Nikolos was quietly watching television beside his aging grandfather. On the screen, Madison was speaking about civic responsibility, and the need for citizens to protect their communities. Though, his language was carefully couched in societally acceptable terms. Nobody watching would pick up on the fact that he was basically endorsing vigilantism. For the average citizen, it would seem like a stirring speech set to inspire the next generation.
But it was something to point to if, in the future say, a successful vigilante debuted in the city. Madison could say look, look at how I inspired this! Or even the vigilante himself, having earned enough credit and goodwill, could point to the famous senator as an inspiration. And if the debut fell flat, well, nobody would ever know. And, in the meantime, everyone would cease to care about the Memphis Debacle. Not when a new, powerful vigilante was running around the city.
"Oh," Dan said again.