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Silana’s tour of the grounds inevitably led us down to the river, a boathouse, and a thin strip of private beach.
Lake Austin is, in fact, not a lake. It’s a section of the Colorado River, averaging perhaps a half-mile in width, and, in typically confusing Austin, Texas fashion, it’s not even the Colorado River you’re thinking of. It’s the ‘colored’ river, and it begins and ends in Texas. Never even touches the state of Colorado.
The air near the water was so heavily oxygenated from the trees and flora, that it invigorated me. The temperature was near perfect and cooled by a steady breeze.
Silana picked up a pebble off the riverbank then skipped it across the water’s surface. She was an expert—her first stone hopped a dozen times.
“One of your other hidden talents?” I asked.
Silana’s laugh mixed with the light lapping of the tiny waves that crept up and back along the beach. She handed me a flat stone as large as her own palm, but in my hand, I could easily press it between finger and thumb. I cast it low and straight. The first skip off the river sprang the rock a good twenty feet before it hit hard for a second, third, fourth, and fifth skips, then machine-gunned into smaller splashes, and ultimately disappeared under the river.
Childlike, Silana clapped her hands happily. Her smile was even more beautiful there near the river, the sunshine beaming across her face and through her hair. She wore no sunglasses like I did, and yet she never squinted from the sun’s watery reflection.
Conrad stood on the grassy rise behind us, just above the sand of the riverbank, and shaded his own eyes as he scanned the horizon. My backpack was on the ground near him. “No rain today,” he said.
“Rained itself out last night,” I agreed. “That’s okay with me. It’s beautiful here. In any weather, I’m sure.”
“You should see the French chateau. Silana makes a habit of buying waterfront homes.”
I’d already given up being surprised by the wealth of these two once we left the interior of the decked-out tour bus back in the gymnasium. Despite it all, the pair was grounded. This meant they were ‘old money.’
Silana padded over. “We’ll arrange a European tour for the band soon. Best to see the world while there’s still a world left to see—and you must visit France! And...” Her voice trailed off.
I gave Silana a questioning tilt of my noggin.
“Many places. So many places. You’ll see,” she whispered.
“Sounds like you have people everywhere,” I said then looked back at Conrad.
“Hundreds,” Conrad acknowledged. “And those just our closest retainers.”
“And the special teams? Like the one you called earlier. What’s that about? Security company or something?”
“Something to that effect. But they’re my employees, not subcontractors. We only keep security personnel we have a connection to. True loyalty can’t be bought.”
I nodded my approval. “You got that right.” I gave Conrad a studied look. “You’ve had military experience. I know—my old man was Air Force.”
“Yes, I served. The last time was in Germany. And your father. You remember him well?”
“I remember. I was seven years old.” I glanced out across the river, and images of my father sprang to mind. His uniform. Me on his shoulders grasping my arms around his neck. A parade marching by.
His face wasn’t clear, but the feelings were crystal. I swallowed back the familiar, hard tinge of regret—it had been awhile since I’d had such a clear memory of Dad invoked.
I came out of it to the touch of Silana’s hand on my arm again. I smiled down at her.
“Losing people we love reminds us of why we are here, Lochlan,” she said. “You have become the man you are in part because of loss. In part because of your father’s love.” She looked away from me. “Your parents sacrificed much for you. They have been blessed for it.”
I didn’t know how to respond. Should it have shocked me that Silana knew intimate details of my family? Perhaps. Perhaps not. These two had vast resources. I sensed I was going to use those resources to my advantage or get lost in unfounded resentment.
I adapt. I overcome. In that moment, I used them.
“You’ve done your homework. You’d better be prepared to share,” I stated.
“Of course, mon ami,” Silana replied.
“We intend to keep no secrets from you, Lochlan. Truth isn’t our problem—the problem is knowing when and how to reveal it. Right now, you’re clearly set on this road to rescue your friend. I suggest we focus on that first and come back to the history lessons.”
Again, I agreed. Conrad was a logical guy. I admired that.
And Silana? Like spring sunshine on the river, she was naturally warm, inviting, and elemental. The chemistry wasn’t sexual with her, not intentionally, despite her great beauty. She exuded a sensual yet motherly presence. It was an odd combo for a woman so youthful, yet her aura was undeniable.
I was already convinced of her friendship, and I’d known her for no more than a handful of hours. But then again, the best friendships tend to feel like old friendships right from the start, don’t they?
I picked out a smooth stone for myself and a perfect pebble for Silana, which I handed over to her.
“Ready?” I asked.
“Oui!”
We both took up classic tossing stances, leaning low and back, with a foot extended in front—and we let fly!
My stone careened and bounced repeatedly, then skipped arrow-straight and far. It was a near flawless toss to make me proud and I was sure that Silana could never match it.
Silana’s pebble flipped over across the path of my rock—and crisscrossed along the straight line of my toss, sometimes behind, other times in front. It should have been impossible. The two stones carried on like this for thirty yards before ending in a splash and vanishing in the same point in the river.
I stood up arrow-straight with my jaw hanging open. “What the—”
Silana went tight-lipped with a small smile and blinked her big, blue eyes at me.
Conrad was laughing. “She cheated,” he said.
I cracked a slack-jawed smile and contemplated that statement, then stared accusingly at Silana. “You...did that?”
“I tossed the stone,” Silana answered meekly.
My jaw was still open. “Uh-huh.” I closed my mouth and glowered back at Conrad. “We’ll come back to this. Later. I don’t know how much more craziness I can handle right now.”
“Smart,” Conrad agreed. “Follow me, Loch. I think you’ll appreciate my workshop.”
Silana sighed. “Boys.”
She wasn’t wrong. I was instantly curious and jumped off the beach onto the nearby grassy knoll, deftly picked up my backpack, then lifted Silana to the grass next to me with my free hand. I caught up to Conrad in a few long strides. He headed toward the cement path that twisted its way from the boathouse back to the main compound.
The walkway banked around a large copse of trees for half the length of a football field—and then Conrad took a sharp right turn off the visible path and headed into the woods. He spoke a word in German I didn’t quite catch and wouldn’t know the meaning of, anyway.
Four loud metallic clanks went off from beneath the ground ahead of us, one after the other in quick succession.
A patch of ground the width of a freight elevator rose. Its top was cleverly camouflaged by netting and forest leaves and debris. It turned out to be a one-floor elevator, with double doors on opposite sides of a round chamber, wide enough for me to stand four times abreast.
The whole structure was approximately ten feet high once it completely surfaced. Two steps allowed us easy access to the elevator, and as we approached, lights automatically snapped on beneath the roof, though in the light of that morning we could see clearly, even under the shade of oak trees.
It entranced the geek in me. I’m sure I stared.
“Watch your step,” Conrad warned, and he entered the elevator. I ignored the second step entirely and then turned to offer a hand to Silana, who took it and nimbly leapt inside with us.
The interior of the elevator was well lit. Conrad pressed a single large button and the doors on both sides of the chamber steadily closed. In another few seconds, a slight bang shook the metal floor beneath us, and the elevator descended.
Silana met my gaze, and I lifted both eyebrows. As usual, she just smiled, but I could tell my reaction amused her.
In mere seconds there was another series of metallic clanks that shook the elevator. I assumed it anchored below the earth somewhere.
Only one set of the elevator’s doors opened, and a wide, lit hallway was revealed. Several doorways—some open, but most closed—branched off of the hall in every direction.
“Okay, Dr. No. I have to admit, I was expecting a garage with a wooden bench, buzz saws, and hammers, but you’ve got your own fucking fallout shelter,” I said. “Oops. Sorry, Silana.”
Silana only giggled. “Don’t be silly. It’s fine.”
Conrad grinned widely. “In fact, it does double as a fallout shelter. Watch...”
I trailed behind Conrad with Silana by my side. Once again, her eyes never left me. She was intent on analyzing my every reaction.
“You’re loving this,” I whispered to her.
Silana’s face crumpled like a four-year-old who’d just gotten caught with the last cookie from the jar.
“It is not often that we bring anyone new down here. So, oui—your face is priceless.”
At the end of the hallway, Conrad pressed a hand onto a blue-lit pad on the wall and entered an additional code via a numeric keypad. Double doors hissed like an airlock unsealing, and there was a click. The doors opened automatically as Conrad approached them. I followed.
A series of bright, white LEDs sprang to life in links across the long span of the ceiling, one after another, after another. It was like something out of Tron.
My eyes took a moment to adjust.
The expanse of the room was enormous. At least a hundred feet across and just as long, there were workspaces of every kind imaginable within view. Mr. Science and Mr. Fantastic could both work there, so many gadgets, tools, computer consoles, test tubes, and workbenches filled every nook and cubicle.
“Welcome to the Workshop,” Conrad proclaimed.
It reminded me of Air Force base hangars from my childhood.
“Holy shit,” I said. “You run all of this? Alone?”
“Oh no, I have assistants that work on projects with me...and sometimes autonomously. But only those few I’ve screened personally get access. Tight security. It needs to be that way.”
“Yeah, I saw that.” I remembered the hidden elevator and the handprint lock. “So...”
“The Workshop is where I tinker away the hours. Some of it’s my hobby, but most of what goes on down here is serious business. There’re other sites like this one sprinkled around the world, and the work and research done at all of them is often coordinated.”
“I’m gonna venture a guess that LMG is more like one of your hobbies. I mean....” I waved a hand at the room.
“Lucent Music Group is more mine than Conrad’s.”
“Silana is the arts expert. I’m science and industry. But we love to dabble in one another’s sandboxes.”
“We’ve become quite diversified over the years. Sometimes even forget what we are working on. If not for help, we’d often forget altogether,” Silana added. “I’m too easily distracted by the rare and wondrous.”
Silana poked me playfully in the ribs with an index finger, and I flinched then laughed. “I see. Which one of you has the hacking skills? I’m capable, but time isn’t on Vicki’s side, so any help with this would be awesome.” I removed the small TraqThat module from my pocket and held it up.
“A prize from your search?” Conrad asked.
Silana walked up close and examined the module but didn’t lay a finger on it. I lowered my hand to let her see.
“Hopefully. I shot a woman to keep this safe—so if it’s just junk...well, that would suck.”
“Let my wife hold it for a moment,” Conrad suggested.
I placed the tracker into Silana’s open palm. She flashed me a brief smile then closed her eyes, and her expression waxed serene.
After a minute she opened her eyes again.
“This belonged to a young...vibrant...intelligent woman,” she said.
“Vicki,” I breathed.
“I can’t know for sure, since I’ve yet to meet her. But this is no coincidence.” Silana handed me back the TraqThat.
I glanced at Conrad. “We’ll need a cable for this thing. And a computer.”
“Here.” Conrad had already walked over to a long desk full of computer monitors, and he held up a selection of differently sized USB cables.
“Care to take a stab at the login?” Conrad asked.
I thought about it. “I can make a list of a few possibilities. Do you have any experience hacking? I could download some brute force software if—”
“One sec, Loch. Sophie. Wake up, my dear,” Conrad said to the air in the room.
“I’ve been listening since the lights came on,” a lovely female voice responded.
I scanned the room but saw nobody but the three of us. I lifted an eyebrow. “Um. Hi?” In a day full of surprises, what was one more?
“Hello, Mr. Nohr,” the disembodied voice responded.
I raised my brows at Conrad. “One of your assistants?”
“In a manner of speaking,” he replied. “Sophie, define yourself for our friend, please.”
“I am an AI, Mr. Nohr. Artificial Intelligence. My name was inspired by Sappho, the Greek poetess born in the seventh century BCE.”
That needed a few seconds to sink in. “Uh. Right. Um...nice to meet you,” I said awkwardly.
“Nice to meet you, too, Mr. Nohr.”
“Just Lochlan, please. My father was Mr. Nohr.”
There was a pause. “Lochlan. Irish. A name often given to boys native to Ireland who were born from marriages between Norwegian Vikings and Irish women.”
“That’s...correct. My father was originally Norwegian. Mom is part Irish.”
“Interesting that you have black hair,” Sophie said.
I chuckled. “Yeah. The story goes...that I get it from a Black Irish ancestor, but that’s just a bad joke.”
Sophie’s tone sounded oddly wistful. “Your hair contrasts extremely well with your light eyes.”
“Fascinating,” Conrad said.
“What?” I asked, trying to not appear creeped out.
“I’ve never heard Sophie take such an interest in a human’s looks before. Duly noted, Sophie.”
“Thank you,” Sophie responded.
I wasn’t sure what that little exchange meant. I lifted an eyebrow at Silana.
“Sophie has good taste.” Silana laughed. “I think she likes you, Lochlan.”
That was a relief. The last thing I needed was a fembot added to my growing list of disgruntled and murderous females.
“Sophie, we need to hack into this tracking device connected to station three. Lochlan will provide a list of potential logins. Create variations on those as needed and generate a brute force attack on the password,” commanded Conrad.
“My pleasure,” answered Sophie.
“Go ahead and use this computer. Just create a text file, add some of your guesses, and Sophie will do the rest,” Conrad told me, and he had his hand on a massive computer tower.
I walked over to ‘station three,’ then sat in its comfortable swivel chair. “Luckily for us, it’s hardware, so we won’t have to hack firewalls,” I said. I quickly had the tracker connected to a port, and a login and password window appeared on the main monitor. I typed in my guesses to a fresh text file on the computer desktop.
“Thank you. That will make my task easier,” replied Sophie. “I’m having no luck with the login. Do you have any other suggestions?”
Vicki had standard email and social media contact info, already included in my list. I had to reach deeper into my memory.
“Yeah. Think I do.” I added a few more words and phrases to the text file.
At once, Sophie said, “Pixie. Underscore. Dust.”
Pixie_dust. I couldn’t help but grin.
“Good. Very good,” Conrad said.
“Ooh. I like Victoria,” Silana said.
“Excellent guess, Lochlan,” praised Sophie.
“Vicki always had a thing for Tinker Bell and Disney.”
Sophie continued. “Please make some password guesses now. I will extrapolate from those while I also continue with random brute force attacks.”
I did as the AI asked.
The goal was straightforward—crack the login and pass for the TraqThat device and then use those same login details online. Vicki had to have a matching web account, and I was fairly certain it would contain records of GPS ping times and locations from all of her working trackers.
What I was really hoping for was another TraqThat was still on or near her—and then the real search could begin.
Some luck was with us.
“I’m in,” Sophie said.