Chapter Forty: The "Other" Project

“Do you realize what this is?!”

Steve slammed the coffee-stained stack of papers on Harold’s desk and stared at him while leaning forward with both hands on the desk. From the unconcerned stare on Harold's face it was obvious that he did not know what Steve was referring to.

“It’s just something an old associate gave me.” Harold responded, obviously not grasping the gravity of the situation.

“This is us! It took me all night looking at this and it suddenly hit me. The impossible fusion and the unexplained disappearance and reappearance of the limb. Someone around here is involved with this – I'd be willing to bet on it,” Steve continued without any signs of backing down.

As Steve talked, several things began to worry Harold. One thing was that he realized that Steve could be right. Someone in his company was running experiments without his knowledge. Worse yet, the experiments were affecting civilians, perhaps even being performed directly on the civilians. Involving civilians was something Harold would never do. It was far too likely that civilian involvement would expose the company's secret experiments; however, he had become so wrapped up with Serenity and Billy that he had lost control – something that he had tried so hard for so long not to do. Another thing that worried him was that he had no idea to what extent the project had reached outside the company.

“It's extremely unlikely that this is tied to us – what makes you so sure?” Harold said as dismissively as possible.

“Once I realized what I was looking at I took the 'tissue' sample and tested it for traces of ectoplasm. It came back positive. It was barely detectable, which I guess is practical proof-of-concept,” Steve explained somewhat enthusiastically. He had been involved with this project early on, but at that time it was purely conceptual. Although he fully grasped the potentially horrific implications of the problem at hand, he was still excited to see the materialization of those ideas. “There are so many people looking at this that I don't know how long it will be before someone catches on. It could be even worse than that. You know that this 'arm' thing isn't an isolated incident - there's more that we don't even know about. Given the kind of power we're talking about, what if someone ends up dead?” This comment made Harold freeze momentarily. A story he read in the paper hit his mind with paralyzing force: “Two Dead – Murder Suspected, Cause Unknown”.

“If what you're saying is correct, then they'll just keep chasing their tails. Besides, even if they suspect something, there's no way they can link it to us,” Harold said, struggling to keep his fear private.

Annoyed that Harold refused to deal with the problem, Steve finally snapped. “You know what the real problem is? You've been so obsessed with your 'pet' project that you didn't even notice. This is a big problem that is quickly going to be a massive problem if your behavior continues, Harold. Having so many people looking at this is bad for us. You better find out who's responsible and take care of it or we're finished.”

Harold tried to appear patient, but finally found himself unable to hold his tongue. “I'd like to say that I appreciate your concern, but let's not forget who runs the show, okay?”

Frustrated, Steve left Harold's office. Harold sat with both hands pressed firmly against his forehead until they began to tremble. If his company was involved with the deaths of the two college students it would jeopardize everything. He wanted to believe that it couldn't be traced back to Mind-Tech, as he had told Steve, but there was too much at risk to just assume. How could he deal with it, though? It would be a daunting task to track down those involved on the outside. On the other hand, the problem before him now proved that whoever was in charge was obviously not inclined to let Harold know what was happening.

Steve was right about one thing. Having focused his attention solely on “Project: Prodigy” he had essentially turned control of the rest of the company over to whoever would take it.

Chapter Thirty-Nine: Convergence

Date: August 19, 2004
Time: 2:17 p.m.

Upon his discharge, David quickly got dressed and made ready to leave. He quickly realized that he didn't have any keys or wallet, not to mention any mode of transportation. Once outside, he grabbed a cab and headed out of the unforgiving city and into the welcoming suburbia he called home. He could only hope that once he got home, someone would be there to let him into the house and to pay the cab fare. If there wasn't, however, he supposed he would have to dish out a little of the street smarts he had learned and ditch the cab driver down the street and hide until he gave up and left. Luckily, the cleaning maid was there, and he ran up to his room and grabbed the $130 he owed the cab driver. He was going to have to kill his buddies - even after completing the dare, he STILL ended up losing on the deal - no car, the coma, $130 (minus $50), and no wallet, no credit cards, no identification. Imagine all the hassles of getting new cards. The DMV alone was gonna be a nightmare. He should've paid more attention to all those stupid identity theft commercials on TV...

After a rousing bout of '20 questions', the maid was satisfied that he was okay but incorrectly predicted that when his parents got home they would have a million questions for him. Incorrect because David didn't plan on being there when they returned.

He snuck out back through the kitchen door when he heard the vacuum cleaning commence upstairs. With no ID, he was going to be hard pressed to get to Reno, but he had to. He didn't know why, but he just did.

*****
Date: August 20, 2004
Time: 11:07 a.m.

Will and Tony hopped back on the freeway, and continued north. Will noticed a large black statue of a Galapagos Island head out the passenger side window, which to his mind, seemed to follow their progress with it's eyes. He dismissed the idea as just being tired from the drive. As they passed the Hilton, switched freeways in the 'spaghetti bowl', and took I-80 west approaching the downtown area, Tony wasn't quite sure where they were actually headed. Where would T-Bone be? In a casino - probably. Although if he were really in trouble, though, he probably wouldn't be in a public place.

Tony knew the idea was ludicrous, but he just figured that they'd drive around and try to spot the car T-Bone had borrowed. Reno was a little city, after all, and maybe they'd just get lucky.

After about a half-an-hour driving around empty-handed in the immediate downtown area, they widened their search pattern. Tony and Will found themselves driving some of the lesser-known alleys and backstreets behind the casinos, and then the side streets further away. With all the construction on the roads and the political debate on the radio (Presidential candidate Senator John Kerry had just offended all Nevadans by mispronouncing Nevada as "NAY-vah-duh" instead of the proper "nuh-VAD-uh"), it seemed to take them a lot longer than necessary to navigate their way across a few square miles of pavement.

About an hour later, Tony parked in front of a trendy coffee shop, Java Jungle, and put in four quarters to buy them two hours of parking time. Tony went in for some coffee while Will decided to take a stroll in the nearby cement courtyard. Tony emerged about 15 minutes later looking rather revived, and found Will leaning against the railing overlooking the Truckee River, just watching the water tranquilly caress the rocks over which it flowed.

A live band was playing across the bridge in the nearby amphitheater, while several dozens of people sat in metal folding chairs in the grassy area under the shade of a large pine tree, tapping their feet and enjoying the occasional gusts of fresh river air as it cooled them from the hot August sunlight. Will and Tony strolled over toward the music and sat listening to it for a few minutes on a white picnic table away from the crowd. Since they didn't know what to do or where to go next, they sat and relaxed for awhile, letting the warmth and the pleasant sounds wash over them.

Twenty minutes elapsed, and a suspicious character caught Will's eye. He was about 5'9", had dark brown slicked-back hair, was wearing corduroy pants with a shirt that didn't quite match, and was carrying around some folded sheets of paper which he would periodically consult, then glance at some sort of small electronic device and then slightly change his chosen trajectory. It was like he was looking for something, but didn't know exactly where to look. Will jabbed Tony in the ribs with his elbow and nodded in the guy's direction. The two of them just sat back and watched him as he tried to look nonchalant in his bizarre meanderings. As the guy walked over and leaned against the tree, pretending to be interested in the music, he still didn't quite fit in, and Tony decided that they might as well follow him and see what this was all about.

They didn't have to tail him very far before the guy stopped near the outside wall of the amphitheater on the sidewalk, consulting his paper and device yet again. He stuffed the objects into his pockets and then sat down upon a large boulder and pretended to tie his shoe. The guy looked around, and then when he must've felt that no one was watching, he reached down and retreived something from the ground. Neither Will nor Tony could make out what it was from this distance, but it appeared to be just a white piece of paper or something similar. The guy produced a pen, wrote something on the item, then placed the item back behind the boulder. After he did so, he pretended to tie his shoe again (which wasn't untied, Will had already noticed), then looked around again and started slowly walking off. Tony looked at Will, then back at the guy, and they walked up to him.

"You got the time, fella?" asked Tony. "Yeah," the guy replied, "it's about 1:15," without even looking at a watch. The fact of the matter was that the guy wasn't even wearing a watch. "You from around here?" Tony asked, suspecting something strange as the guy fidgeted with a button on his shirt. "Yeah. You?" This odd little conversation continued, seemingly unnerving the guy as they walked, but Tony wasn't done just yet - not until his curiosity was satiated.

"Look," said the guy, obviously shaken by now, "I was just geocaching, alright?" Tony and Will both looked him, then looked at each other quizically, then back at the guy. "G. O. What?"