Brooke rolled in the first SIG truck on the scene. The engineer who rigged the tank truck was first out with a handheld monitor and declared the leak at five hundred parts per million, which was the trip wire for mass evacuations. The police and fire companies went to work, and by 11: 45 a.m. a three-block square area surrounding Raffey’s house was a ghost town; even pets were brought to the temporary shelters set up at two local high schools. SIG released a statement saying the residents should only be inconvenienced for three to four hours.
Only the gas company engineer and Brooke knew this was a false alarm. All the other gas, police, and fire personnel took it as seriously as they had been trained to do, which included insuring that the citizens didn’t lock their doors, so that the gas crew could have acces to find the leak. One added plus was that the procedure for gas leaks mandated that the power to the affected blocks be cut. This was done to protect against accidental ignition by electrical spark from timers, heaters, and other automatic electric appliances that could trigger a gas cloud into an explosive force.
Still, for appearances, and any battery powered cameras or monitoring devices, Brooke first went into the house next to Raffey’s, as over fifty crewmembers went into every other house on the street. She dallied for a few minutes and then went to Raffey’s. The door was locked, and she had to fumble a little working the lock pick and tension bar through hazmat gloves.
Once inside, she removed her hazmat helmet and took a big flashlight out of her tool bag. She opened the hall closet and saw the M-16 and the box of ammo on the shelf. She rifled through the clothes hanging in the hall closet. She found women’s and little girl’s coats, hats, and gloves. She went into the kitchen. This morning Raffey had had breakfast for one, left dishes in the sink and should have taken out the garbage. She went into the den, reached in her bag, and placed a small disk device under his keyboard. She also rested a similar device over his cable modem. Brooke found the power strip to the computer, unplugged it from the wall, and plugged it into the ten-pound uninterruptable power supply in the canvas sack she had lugged in. The UPS had a lead-acid battery that could power a computer for up to twenty minutes if the wall power went out. She would only need ten. She put a five-terabyte hard drive into the fire wire port, turned it on, and hoped there wasn’t a password on his home computer. The pre-programmed hard drive dug right in and started cloning Raffey’s entire computer and drives. She went down into the basement looking for Bill’s gory freezer stuffed-with-dismembered-family-members, but all she found was a mouse in a humane trap. She released the little creature and then went upstairs to the second floor and found Kirsi’s room. The drawers were full, her closet full, and her hamper smelled like it hadn’t been cleared in weeks. She found Leena’s room to be the same. The bathroom cabinet showed no prescription medicines for any of them. She noticed Raffey used a hair dryer this morning. Leena’s heated curlers, which were the kind you could take with you, were on the shelf with the cord wrapped around them. In fact, Leena’s makeup case was untouched and could have easily been grabbed if she had left on a planned trip.
She took out her camera and went back to take a picture of Raffey’s desk and his papers as she rifled through his notes and doodlings. She checked the drive, it had two more minutes to go. She looked around and then had an idea. She ran upstairs, took the teddy bear pillow pet from Kirsi’s bed and shoved it in her kit. In the kitchen, she opened the cabinet below the counter and attached a magnetic box to the underside of the sink.
When the drive finished its copying routine, she wrapped it up and placed it back in her kit. She shut down Raffey’s computer and re-plugged it into the wall. She tried to replace the notes and other items on his desk exactly as they were, using as a guide the first picture she took on her digital camera before she moved everything. One last look and she left. Again, for appearance’s sake, she entered to the house across the street.
By two thirty, the all clear was given and the gas company released a statement that the source of the leak was a separated main trunk line that led to the house three down from Raffey’s. They thanked the residents and the emergency services personnel for a quick, orderly, efficient evacuation, which ensured minimal disruption to everyone’s lifestyle.
“Most disturbing.” The Engineer took a drag from his skinny cigarette and blew out the smoke with an exasperated sigh. He turned to the Architect, “Do you believe in coincidences?”
“According to the gas company, the leak was on the same street. I would have been more suspicious if it had happened when Juth was home. As it is, if they did plan this, they were inept in not securing him in one of the shelters. I’d say whether actual or induced, the gas leak has not damaged us.”
“Yes, but they shut down the power; our cameras were blind. And Klaus and his team were moved out with the other evacuees. We have no way of knowing if they went into the house or even near it.” Maya pointed this out as she shut off the TV news, which only had a shot taken from a camera at the police line five blocks away.
“Well, Architect, how do you wish to proceed?” The Engineer said.
After a long moment’s contemplation, he looked at Maya. “Maya, did Kraus report smelling any gas?”
“Yes, he said the odor was quite strong.”
“That would seem to support the coincidence theory, but just as a precaution, do you think we need to reinforce our position with Juth?”
“It couldn’t hurt. Just in case the authorities did try something, he’ll know that we know, and that should make him resist any thought of going along with them.” Maya said.
“What would you suggest?” The Engineer was agreeing.
“Let’s send him a body part,” Maya suggested as if she were sending flowers.
“I would not suggest any physical connection right now. We don’t know if the police have wired the block. Any attempt to reach him with anything physical may expose us with only one day remaining before the Landau experiment,” the Architect countered.
Maya actually was deflated. But she understood the risk.
In the end, they decided on a phone call.
In a small town newsroom in Maryland, cub reporter Juan Gonzales was pitching a story to his editor. “So what I am saying is this Landau guy dies in a copter accident, he’s got some kind of connection with the government in some forward looking initiative for science, and in Europe they are about to run something, my source tells me, is called the Landau protocol. It’s the reason people are gathering and planning to protest.
“Conspiracy theories don’t win Pulitzers, there is no second source on this. There’s nothing on the web anywhere.”
“Maybe they erased it from the web?”
“You can’t do that. There’s always a trace and besides no one in the government is that smart, only in the movies. Until you get a second source, your story is spiked.”
“Dis is friggin’ easy,” Kronos said as he dove into the contents of the hard drive that Brooke had downloaded from Raffey’s computer. He was a little punchy after flying all through the night, but seven cups of coffee later his digital skill was as sharp as ever.
“Kronos, look closely for any communication that could tell us where the kidnappers are holding the family,” Bill stressed as he reviewed the photo prints of Raffey’s notes that were part of the treasure trove that Brooke’s fake gas emergency diversion had provided.
“What was he doing, thinking about gambling?” Brooke asked as she studied one picture of a page from his yellow pad that showed a doodle of a roulette wheel.
“Let me see.” Joey took the photo and looked closely. “What’s this next to it — university?”