Crow's Gambit, page 11
part #1 of Sylphan Revelations Series
Joe made an indistinct sound in his throat. “Dale was made for Human Resources.”
“Well, he did help me out. Twice. Once with the FBI and once with, something else.”
“The FBI? What did he do?” Bala leaned in, intrigued.
“Was there gun play? Please tell me he got shot at.” Joe rubbed his hands together.
“No, nothing like that. He just distracted these two FBI agents so I could get away. Showed up screaming and cursing at them in these sunglasses...”
At the word sunglasses, there was a crash from the other side of the benches. Wang’s head popped up over the wall as if he had just jumped up on top of his bench.
“He was wearing the sunglasses?” his voice was filled with excitement. “How’d they look on him? Tell me they looked cool!”
Cassie was shocked. This was the most Wang had said since she’d arrived.
“Um, okay, I guess. I was actually kind of busy at the time, so I didn’t pay close attention.”
Wang had now scurried around the benches. “I wish I could have seen him. I bet he looked cool in them.”
As if she was translating the words of a small child, Bala spoke up, “What he means to say is, he designed them. The sunglasses.”
“You design sunglasses?”
Wang looked offended.
“I design Anti-Reconnaissance and Surveillance Eyewear.” Wang replied with a serious expression.
Joe, who had been leaning his stool back on two legs lost his balance and crashed to the floor, laughing.
Wang scowled at him.
“Okay, it wasn’t the best acronym.” Wang admitted.
“What’s an Anti-whatchamacallit?”
Wang ran back to his bench and returned with a pair of sunglasses almost identical to the ones Dale had been wearing. He held them out to her.
“First you have to understand there are surveillance cameras everywhere these days. Those FBI agents would have been wearing hidden cameras recording everything they do for review later by analysts. Second, realize most camera circuits have some variation in how they capture different frequencies.”
It struck her Wang acted like a quiet shy teen until he started talking about his work. Then his demeanor was completely confident and professional.
“These glasses emit an electromagnetic noise. It’s nothing you can see with the visible eye, but camera circuits can. It’s designed to interfere with their encoding algorithms, so the stored image is too fuzzy for facial recognition later.”
“That’s pretty cool.”
He beamed back at her and returned quietly to his workbench with the sunglasses. “So, Dale spends some time around here?”
Joe was picking himself up from the floor. “Why, you got a crush on Dale because he helped you get away from the FBI?”
“No, I don’t have a crush on him.”
She did want to have a talk with him about his report on her though. The information Neil had about her tattoo had to come from Dale. The art in question was between and under her breasts. Thinking of how Dale might know about it made her alternatively squeamish and pissed. More importantly, how much did they know about the tattoo? Did they know what it depicted and how she had gotten it?
“Dale and Gloria work together. One of them usually shows up eventually,” Bala answered. “Although lately both of them have been around quite a bit.”
As if on que, Gloria walked into the room and up to the table. “Where’s Neil? Mr. Darrow needs to see him.”
“He’s in with Emmy.” Bala replied. “And we should get back to the simulator. That oxidizer control algorithm is still not matching during the transition to the upper atmosphere.”
“Sure, but do you think we could get some music in the simulator room? I work better with music.”
“I don’t see why not. What did you have in mind? Bach? Beethoven?”
“Not exactly.” Cassie smiled as she followed Bala out. “How do you feel about retro Celtic metal?”
They spent another three hours straight working, going through simulations. Sometimes the simulated flights went perfect. Sometimes she messed up and things went very wrong. Sometimes the simulator messed up and things went wacky. By the end of the day there were already less “very wrongs” and less “wackies”. The entire thing still felt like a waste of time to her though. All this amounted to nothing since the XS-9 would be zapped moments after take-off.
Gloria took her home after her last simulator run, or to what would be her home for the foreseeable future. Darrow Industries had several furnished townhouses nearby they kept for visitors on extended stays. There were already some basic supplies in the small kitchen. Several changes of clothes were already put away in the bedroom.
Before she left Gloria explained the security system. She had Cassie input her own passcode and linked the system to her IPU. The passcode would let her deactivate the system if it went off or activate a silent alarm. The system had a battery backup and wireless connection for redundancy. Besides notifying the alarm company and the local 9-1-1 system, a message would also be sent directly to Gloria.
Gloria, not Dale, had been assigned as her primary babysitter. Darrow Industries took security seriously, no matter where their employees were.
She checked for messages from Lizzy before going to sleep. She’d asked her to quietly check around to see if anyone continued to look for her back home. There hadn’t been any more appearances by the FBI, but Thomas had been asking around.
The word on the barnstorming boards was she was “persona non grata”. On the flip side a surprise message from Professor Sinclair had arrived, who had heard from a little birdie she might be returning to the university.
If she hadn’t settled on a practicum project yet, he might have some in mind. No one could claim Darrow didn’t pay his debts. A few more days, a couple of weeks at most, and she could go home to get her life back on track.
Chapter 17
THE SIMULATIONS BECAME routine over the next several days. Takeoff. Landing. Basic maneuvers. Emergency situations like bird strikes, which had a certain irony to them. On the third day, just when she thought she was going to go stir crazy if she sat in the simulator chair another minute, Bala ordered a stop.
They had worked through dinnertime and the Crow Works’ chef had brought food. When Bala, Wang, and Cassie emerged from the simulator room they found Joe munching on pizza and Neil drinking beer.
Neil had had a couch moved in two days previously and Cassie slumped down onto it face first. None of them had gotten much sleep lately and she was exhausted. She was also oddly happy.
It was a strange and eclectic group she was working with. A few days ago, they were complete strangers. Now she could recognize the pinched expression Bala got when she was annoyed at Joe’s antics.
She understood his banter was intended to lighten the mood and she it made her chuckle quietly. The uncertain expression Wang got was familiar to her now, as if he weren’t sure he could relax and play a little. They weren’t a family, but they were quickly growing into friends.
“My head hurts,” she mumbled through the couch cushion.
“I’m pretty sure there are child labor laws that say I should get a day off tomorrow,” Wang observed quietly.
“Laws shmlaws.” Neil replied with a slight slur. “Legally you should be in high school, so I wouldn’t push it.” Wang took a slice of pizza and returned to his normal silence.
“Give him a break. We’re all tired.” Bala sat down next to Wang, putting her arm around his shoulders.
Cassie turned her head and watched Neil silently. Not drunk, but this was obviously not his first beer of the evening. No one else noticed or they all pretended not to notice.
After a minute, Neil looked up from the spot on the floor he had been staring at. “I’m sorry, Wang. You’re right, you deserve a break.” He directed his attention to her. “Besides I think it’s time Cassie saw the real thing. Why don’t we have Gloria take you both to D.C. tomorrow? You can visit the Air and Space restoration center and meet Dr. Howard at the Smithsonian.”
She had been probing her new teammates to see if they knew more about Darrow’s plans than he had told her.
Andrew had stonewalled her completely and Harvey was still absent at some other location. The rest gave her the same story Darrow had. They were aiding the Smithsonian in restoring the aircraft, but everyone knew Darrow intended to try and fly it. The kind of arrangement he had made to get the XS-9 from the Smithsonian once finished no one knew. Joe theorized he was just going to steal it.
“Have you ever been to D.C., Cassie?” Bala asked.
“No. It’s actually my first time on the East Coast.”
“Well, you should take time to see some of the sights while you are there.”
Neil pointed at Wang. “Make sure to take him with you. You and Gloria should be able to keep an eye on him and maybe he’ll learn something.” Wang stuck his tongue out at Neil, but when he left for the restroom, he was humming a happy tune to himself.
“Hey boss, what about me? Do I get a weekend pass too?” Joe asked.
“Give me a break. You don’t work half the time you’re here. Besides, you have a performance evaluation scheduled tomorrow. Bala, feel free to sleep in, but be here by the afternoon. I need you to check in with the chemistry nerds in the orange sector and make sure they aren’t about to blow something up. And Cassie? Dr. Howard believes you are helping us with the restoration research. It would be best if you don’t mention anything about actually flying the XS-9.”
Evidently the Smithsonian wasn’t in on all of Darrow’s plans. Maybe Joe was right. Maybe Darrow was going to steal it.
IN THE MORNING, GLORIA waited outside for her. Wang was already in the back reading a comic book. Cassie considered getting in front with Gloria but felt bad leaving Wang alone in the back. She hopped in beside him instead.
“They still make those out of paper?”
“I’m a purest,” his eyes never left the page. Cassie pondered how at times he acted like a normal teenager. A teenager whose IQ was off the charts.
“What would you like to see in D.C. Wang?”
He looked at the floor and bit his lower lip in thought. “I have a book with stories about Abraham Lincoln. My parents gave it to me. Lincoln was the greatest American President.” His eyes shifted back to her. “I would like to see the Lincoln Memorial.”
In the front seat Gloria gave a shrug of indifference.
Cassie smiled at Wang. “The Lincoln Memorial it is then. So, where do you and your parents live Wang? Near here?”
His eyes caught hers for an instant before returning to the comic. “I live in one of Mr. Darrow’s private homes near here.”
There was something there she recognized but couldn’t pin down. Not so much in Wang’s expression but in his eyes.
“You live by yourself?”
“There are people who help look after me.” He closed the comic and laid it in his lap. Now his attention was completely focused on her and the teenage Wang was gone again. “I used to live with the Roberts. They were one of my foster families when I first came to the U.S. Mr. Roberts worked for Mr. Darrow. My parents are dead. They were killed when I was young.”
That was it. The look in his eyes, it was the same one she had seen so often in the mirror. The inside of the eyebrows just a little too high. The eyelids just a little too lose. Overall his face had a relaxed passivity. Calm. But Cassie recognized that was just a mask for what was underneath. Unresolved sadness and grief.
“So, how did you end up living with Darrow? What happened to the Roberts?”
Wang pondered the question for a time. “Some of my early schools and foster families didn’t work out. I caused problems. The Roberts took me in and for whatever reason didn’t give up on me. I don’t know if Mr. Darrow knew about me then or not. I do know they made me feel like a part of their family. I still talk to their two kids. We aren’t exactly like siblings. More like cousins.”
“I think I can understand. Why aren’t you still living with them?”
“One day Mr. Darrow came to see me. He said he had seen a paper I did for the local science fair and he was impressed. He provided math and physics tutors to work with me. Whatever book or piece of equipment I needed for my projects I got. Over the next year we spent a lot of time together and one day he asked if I would like to live with him permanently. Now he’s my legal guardian.”
“Wow. That must have been some science project. What was the topic?”
“Multidimensional optimization of edge detection in partial differential equations.”
“Uh, okay.”
“Stealth,” Wang simplified. “It was a paper on the mathematics of stealth technology.”
“Just how old are you Wang?”
“Seventeen.”
In the rearview mirror, Gloria’s eyes flicked back to them before she shook her head slightly.
So, not seventeen, then.
Why would Wang lie about his age? Maybe he thought his actual age wouldn’t allow others to take him seriously. How much younger could he be?
Wang picked up the comic and returned to reading it.
Cassie just sat there processing all this new information. She certainly knew what it was like to have a childhood that wasn’t normal. Of course, there was a wide latitude in the definition of how normal was defined these days. And Wang seemed happy with his arrangement, or at least content enough.
Chapter 18
THEY RODE IN SILENCE afterward. It wasn’t long before they pulled up to the Paul E. Garber restoration facility of the Smithsonian Institution.
Gloria stopped the car outside one of the many metal hangers and ushered them inside. When they entered, a restoration assistant came scurrying over to meet them, still putting on his white lab coat. They were led by him into a partitioned off section of the hanger. Several rows of high intensity lights hung overhead making the room brighter than outside. One of the walls was a combination mini-machine shop and electronics lab. On the other side there were several small tables. The tables were covered with an array of parts being worked on, each carefully tagged or labeled.
In the center of the room stood a large junk pile which might have once been an aircraft. A twisted twin to what Darrow had showed her electronically in New York. It was partitioned off by a rope barrier with the back half of it covered by a sheet. The plane was big, or at least larger than she had expected. Access panels were absent from the side of the nose. It looked like their current endeavor was working on the avionics.
The assistant led Cassie and Wang around the skeleton of a plan. He started into a clearly memorized overview of their restoration procedures and the progress they had made.
“How many people work here?” Cassie asked. “It seems deserted.”
“We only have a few technicians on the restoration staff. There aren’t many with the proper background. Most of the work is done by retired volunteers. They do provide a certain perspective, but the work has still been moving slowly.”
“Why’s that?”
The man walked stiffly ahead of them. “The XS-9 series was designed for the U.S. military, much of the data concerning it has never been public knowledge. There just isn’t that much information about it that has survived.” He turned to look at her. “But perhaps your Mr. Darrow will be able to overcome that.”
Cassie frowned. The man’s tone was hard to read.
“What’s that?” Wang asked. A large, box shaped device sat along one wall. Radiation warning signs were posted around it.
“A commercial grade X-ray scanner,” the man replied with a tired sigh. “The Restoration and Engineering Act requires us to record measurements and compositions of everything for the Smithsonian Digital Archives.”
They had come full circle around the large bay. Their tour seemed to be over, and they stood back before the XS-9. The assistant’s talk had been thorough, but it lacked detail and sounded rushed. Rather than ask if they had any other questions, he started ushering them toward the exit.
“I’d like to look over a few of the avionics boards before we go,” Wang looked from Cassie to the assistant.
“I’m sorry, but the restoration is very delicate. I’m sure I can explain any questions at a level you can understand.” The man’s tone held a harsh, arrogant edge.
Cassie turned her head fractionally toward the assistant. “I’m sorry, I don’t think he could ask his questions at a level you’d understand.”
The assistant’s only reply was a frosty stare.
She pulled the rope up and held it while Wang ducked under. “Why don’t you let us work for a little while? We’ll let you know if we need anything. I promise we’ll be extremely careful, but we were promised full access for our research.” Holding his gaze, she ducked under the rope and followed Wang, ignoring the assistant’s protests. She didn’t look back, but she could hear him making an animated call on his phone shortly afterwards. Well, she hadn’t lied. They should have full access, someone would explain that to him.
Once she got up close to the XS-9, she was overcome by a strange feeling of awe. This had been designed to not only fly but to go into space. She knew about the insides of drones, but this was a different thing altogether. Fuel and oxidizer lines. Data cables and power lines. Complex framing members and support struts. She tried to imagine what the assembly drawings would look like and couldn’t. Every part had a purpose and a place.
With most technologies, you could expect them to advance over a couple of decades. The old equipment should have an antiquated novelty about it. This was the exact opposite. The components were so far advanced over the drones she flew she wasn’t sure what half the parts were. Slowly and with reverence she placed on hand on the fuselage. It was cool, smooth to the touch.
Grandpa had worked on this.
Wang was busy looking over several circuit boards. He had pulled out a small flashlight and a set of probes connected to a tablet computer. He held the flashlight in his mouth while he methodically shifted the probes from one circuit to the next, all the time checking readings on the tablet.
