“Holy crap, Inspector!” One of the drivers of that effort chuckled as he looked at the battered squad car. “You did a real number on your car here.”
“Don’t remind me, Don,” Gwen sighed, gesturing to Anselm. “Look, Anselm, why don’t you catch a ride with the chopper. It’ll take Somer back to the Project. They have a good hospital there.I’m sure that his wife would appreciate having a fellow Interpol Officer around.”
“What about you” Anselm asked, nodding in agreement.
“I’ll stay here,” she sighed, jerking a thumb at her car. “I need to arrange a tow for the Eliica, anyway.”
Anselm shot her a wry smile. “Good luck with that.”
She flashed him what may have been a rude gesture as Anselm hooked a hand into the side of the chopper and climbed aboard. One of the paramedics tossed him a helmet, which he put on.
“Get us out of here!” He told them.
“On our way.” The pilot returned over the helmet communications system, powering up the engine and easing up the collective.
The roar of the chopper flooded out all sound as the big Black Hawk lifted off, leaning into the turn, and accelerated away toward the distant tower.
Inspector Adrienne Somer was waiting when the chopper landed, but Anselm intercepted her and held her back as the paramedics rushed him off the chopper and into the medical facilities.
“Let me go!” She yelled, and Anselm could see where her eyes were still red from crying earlier.
She wasn’t crying now, though, she was focused on getting past him.
“Adrienne.Let them do their job.Adrienne.Inspector!”
That last cracked out like an order and froze her for a moment as the medics completed their jobs and vanished from sight. She looked after them, face stricken and shaking.
“There’s nothing you can do just now. Let the doctors do their best for him.” Anselm told her, hooking an arm around her shoulders and turning to follow the paramedics into the hospital facility.
“I don’t.this can’t.” Adrienne was shaking now, a reaction that Anselm was used to. She was dropping off the adrenaline surge that had hit her body when she was worried about her husband, now that she knew what had happened and didn’t need to be on alert anymore. The result was the shakes, and he figured that she’d be like that for a while.
“Come on, let’s get a cup of tea while we wait, alright” He suggested as they walked the neutral two-tone corridors of the hospital facility.
She nodded dully and Anselm caught the eye of a nurse and made a gesture toward his mouth like he was drinking. She pointed around a corner, her eyes watching Mrs. Somer with concern. The by-play went unnoticed by Adrienne Somer, as Anselm guided her around the corner and toward the vending machines that sat against the far wall.
He sighed, figuring that it was too much to hope for, to get real tea, but decided that this would do. There was something automatically healing about cupping a warm mug in your hand while you worried about something else. He paid the machine for the drinks, noting that the plastic cups they had here were both large and sported a nice strong handle, and brought them over to where Adrienne was sitting in one of the waiting room chairs.
“I don’t understand.” She whispered, “Ron was always doing this sort of thing.He knew to be careful, he was careful. How could this happen”
“I don’t know, Adrienne.” Anselm confessed, wrapping her hands around the first mug while he sat next to her and gripped his own.
“How is he” She asked, sounding like she was afraid of the answer.
Anselm didn’t blame her.
“Alive.” He said, “I can’t say more than that. We’ll have to wait.”
She nodded dully, slowly sipping at the tea in her hands.
Anselm noted the silence that fell only a few minutes after both of them had stopped speaking, but didn’t break it, when he did notice. As the silence deepened, he saw that Adrienne was lost entirely in her own world right now and sighed softly in response. He was no good at this, there should be family members or friends or something here to do the sitting thing.
He shifted his weight, trying to get comfortable in the padded seat, and was abruptly made aware of the weight in his pocket. He fished it out, remembering that he’d pocketed Ron’s altimeter when he’d taken from the man’s hands. Mostly, he’d done so simply to avoid losing any evidence, as whatever strap had once been used to secure it to Somer’s harness must have snapped in the fall. But since he now had it he might as well check it out.
The OLED display still wasn’t lighting up, which was odd. OLED technology was a lot tougher than the LCD displays it had replaced, and it didn’t crack the way it used to happen with LCD screens. Anselm pulled out his portable and flipped it open with a casual twist of his wrist, then tapped in the serial number on the back of the altimeter and did a search.
Ah.
That’s what he wanted to know. The Altimeter had a wireless option for programming, as most of the tiny electronics did of late. If it still had power, then he could probably mirror the display on his portable. He checked the battery, flipped open his portable and linked into the system remotely.
Anselm frowned.
That couldn’t be right.
The mirror display on his portable read out as over two kilometers below sea level. Ron Somer was an experienced para-sailor, he’d never have missed something that blatant.
Maybe it was damaged in the fall, Anselm thought, tapping a command into his portable. A moment later the Altimeter’s self-diagnostic went by and returned a clean bill of health. Well hell.
At this point Anselm was stymied. He was a counter terrorist specialist, not a computer tech, and there was something wrong here.
“What’s that”
The dull voice startled Anselm for a moment, and he found himself looking over at Adrienne as she pulled herself out of her quiet little world and looked at him.
He thought about lying, thought about just saying nothing, but finally decided to treat he like a professional colleague.
“It’s Ron’s altimeter isn’t it” She asked before he could speak.
Anselm had to resist the urge to speak. Of course, she could always beat him to it and force him to treat her like a professional colleague.
He nodded.
“What’s wrong with it” She asked.
“I don’t know.” He told her honestly, not bringing up the details. “Probably damaged in the fall.”
She nodded, “Oh.”
“I’m going to mirror its software and shoot it over to a guy I know, though.” Anselm said, calling up his buddy list and opening a connection through the portable. “Just to be sure.”
Adrienne nodded as the semi-circular screen lit up and a face peered out of it. “Selm Izzat you Do you have any idea what time it is!”
“Can it, Richie.” Anselm replied with an almost good-natured tone, “I’ve got some software from a Korningsworth Altimeter I want you to check out.”
“Huh What”
“Software. Mirrored from an altimeter. Check it out.” Anselm said slowly, more slowly than he needed to in fact, and the man on the other side bristled in response.
“Christ, Selm, don’t you go getting uppity with me! It’s three AM here, for God’s sake!”
“Just check the software and let me know what you find, ok”
The man nodded, “Fine. Look, what am I looking for”
“Just compare it to the Vee One point Oh version and see what changes have been made, if any.” Anselm told the man, “Then get back to me, ‘k”
“‘K.” The man sighed, blinking away his sleep and reaching for a contact lens case. “On it, Selm.”
“Thanks.” Anselm said, shutting down the connection.