Disconnected

Marcus was picked up at Dulles Airport in Washington DC by a car from the GSA, which drove him to the National Academy of Sciences building where he was dropped off. He thanked the driver and entered the building. He walked through the building until he reached the administration offices. He entered and followed the corridors until he came to another door. This one had a key pad on it and a card reader. He took his card out of his inside pocket, slid it through the reader and then entered the code on the keypad. There was a click and he pushed the door open. He entered into a small cubicle that had a door and a desk behind bullet proof glass where an armed security guard sat. Upon entering the room he pulled out and showed his ID to the armed security guard who, after checking it, pushed a button under his desk which buzzed. The door unlocked and Marcus nodded to the guard as he opened the door. He followed the short corridor to an elevator. The elevator door opened and he took the elevator down. When the door opened there was, once again, another armed guard behind a bullet proof glass. He showed his ID and was buzzed through. He waved to the guard and he entered the GRA complex.

As he made his way to Archer’s office, he glanced into the labs that he passed. Some of the rooms were larger with several researchers in them. Some looked like offices where one researcher sat facing a computer screen while another man sat with electrodes attached to his head and his eyes closed as he answered the man’s questions. When Marcus reached Archer’s office he went in and Archer’s secretary greeted him.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Kelly. Mr. Archer will see in a few minutes, he is on an important call. Would you like something?"

"Thanks Beverly, yes, a coffee would be good right now, black please."

"Right away," Beverly got up and went into a nearby room. She returned a few moments later with a mug of coffee that she set down on the table next to Marcus. He thanked her and she returned to her desk. A few minutes later, Beverly’s phone rang. She listened and nodded absently.

"Yes, Mr. Archer, right away." She looked at Marcus, "You can go in now Mr. Kelly."

Marcus put the cup down and stood up. He picked up his briefcase and smiled at her as he went through the door into Archer’s office. He shut the door behind him as Hank came out from behind his desk to shake hands.

"Glad to see you Marcus. How was the flight down?"

"Good, Mr. Archer."

Hank walked back to his chair waving for Marcus to take a seat in front of the desk. "So Marcus, what do you have for me?"

"Sir, a couple of days ago, Dr. Hunt met with Dr. MacLeod in his office, they had an interesting conversation."

Marcus handed Hank a CD. Hank had a curious look as he took it. He put it into the CD drive and closed the drive. He found the file and started it. They were silent as they listened. By the end of the file, Hank had a little smile on his face. "So the boy wonder has found something. Do you have any further information about what he has done?"

Marcus handed him another CD.

"Dr. Merrick was able to get some information off of Dr. MacLeod’s computer while he was meeting with Dr. Hunt."

Hank opened the drive again and switched CD’s. He waited until the CD booted up. There was only one file on it. He opened it and started to read. It was a short description of Brett’s research. It explained a little of what his expectations of the results of the research would be. Hank could see that it explained a little more about the experiment, but didn’t add too much more to what they had just heard. It just confirmed most of what had been discussed by the two doctors. When he finished reading he looked at Marcus, "This is everything so far?"

Marcus nodded.

"Okay. I think it’s time that we try to keep a little closer watch on our dear Dr. MacLeod. Do what you can to find out what results he has had so far Marcus, use Dr. Merrick to help you, also Dr. Hunt. Use the monitor program to get into his computer and copy those files down. Once you have them, bring them here. I would like to have some of our people look at the data and see what they think about it."

"Yes, sir, I’ll get on it as soon as I get back."

They both stood up and shook hands.

"Good work Marcus. Keep me up to date."

Marcus left the office saying good bye to Beverly as he left the office. He waved at the two security guards, each of whom nodded to him as they buzzed him back through. Back on the street he called a taxi to take him to a hotel for the night. The next day Marcus was once again on his way back to Long Island and Hunt Labs.

Brett continued with his work. At this point he was pretty confident that all of the boys would be born healthy. So he went back to his computer snooping. One new thing was that Dr. Merrick seemed to be around his lab from time to time, whereas before he had never been there before. One time when he had left for lunch, he saw Dr. Merrick leaving Brett’s lab just as he returned from one of the other labs. Merrick did not see him. Luckily he had locked his computer down and it appeared that no one had gotten into it. Because of that, he decided that tonight when he was at home that he would try to get access to the computer in Dr. Merrick’s office.

At home that evening, after dinner, Brett went into his office to start working on getting into Merrick’s computer. By this time he had a backdoor into the computer system. His computer skills had increased greatly since his snooping into the lab computer systems and the breaking into the security programs for the computers that he had broken into so far. He had made some contacts in the hacking community and had gotten many ideas from them on how to break into computer security systems. He had made up a persona that he used in the hacker community. He called himself "mindwiz" online.

His backdoor program let him into the system. He traced the pathways of the GUI that he had built. It looked like a schematic representation of the lab complex. He followed the pathways until he reached the older lab building. This was the first time that he had tried to get into any of the computers in that building so he had to work for access. He decided on using a Trojan Horse to put in a backdoor into the system. It took a couple of hours of attempts before he got one that worked. Once inside the building’s security he started moving around through the building pathways to identify all computers in the building. Another hours work and he had everything mapped. Now that he knew where everything was, he decided to shut down for the night. He backed out after making sure his backdoor access was secure.

Two nights later he got back to work on the computer system. This time he started testing the systems to see which had strong security. After an hour he found out the information that he needed. There were three executive offices, Hunt’s, Kelly’s and Merrick’s. There was another at the security desk. There was one in the maintenance supervisor’s office and a larger server based computer in the security office.

The maintenance supervisor’s computer had minimal security, so he got in quickly. There was little of importance to what he wanted to know. He took a quick look around before he left the system. The rest of the computers had more security. He found that the strongest were in the security office which he expected, and Marcus Kelly’s office. Dr. Hunt’s was about as strong as the front desk and Merrick’s was a little stronger than the maintenance supervisor’s. Brett started on Merrick’s computer. He was able to get in fairly quickly because the Trojan horse that he had written to get through the building security worked equally well to break through Alastair’s security system. Soon he was wandering through Alastair’s system and looked at several files, but none told him much. He then started working on getting into his email.

There were several emails to friends and family. Several others were to colleagues. There was of course some junk mail. He was getting ready to pull out and shut down, when he saw an email file that was labeled "Kelly". He opened it and started reading. He quickly found that it was communication between Alastair and Marcus. It dated back to just after Marcus joined the staff. The early ones were between him and Marcus and alluded to some conversations offline. He skipped through the emails as he moved closer to more recent ones. He finally found one that got his interest. It was dated a week ago.

Alastair,

Thanks for the info you got for us. Mr. Archer was appreciative. Now we need you to do some more work for us. I would like you to see what else you can get off of Dr. MacLeod’s computer on his present research. What you got for us was helpful in that it confirmed some information that had come into our hands. Let me know when you have something more.

Marcus

Brett started looking backwards through the emails preceding that one. He found one that Alastair had sent to Marcus that was linked to this one.

Mr. Kelly,

I have some information on Dr. MacLeod’s research that I believe you would be interested in.

Alastair

Brett checked a few more emails and found more evidence that Alastair seemed to be keeping Marcus informed of what was going on at the lab. Now Brett was interested to see what Dr. Hunt’s computer would tell him. He started working on breaking into Richard’s computer. This was a little harder than Dr. Merrick’s but again he was able to break in and set up a backdoor on the computer. Instead of looking through files, he went right to the emails and started reading through them. After an hour of reading, the only emails between Richard and either Marcus or Hank Archer, we’re pretty basic. Updates on the progress of the research the lab was doing. Occasionally there were emails asking about how Brett was doing, but nothing like what Dr. Merrick had in his email.

Brett pulled out and sat back. He knew what he really needed to do was get into Marcus’ computer. He decided to stop for now and check it another day, because it was late and he needed to take a break.

Over the next few days he kept trying to hack in and was having no luck. He finally decided he needed to call on some other resources to help so he contacted his best hacker friend, Argonaut.

The next evening, Brett logged in and contacted Argonaut. With a few commands he was soon sharing his computer with Argonaut. This was an extra computer that he had. It was separate from the computer that held his research files. You never knew what some hackers might do, so he was careful about what access he allowed Argonaut to have. He logged into the lab complex and using his backdoor he got into the old lab building. Argonaut followed along until Brett brought him to the security front desk computer. Argonaut took over the computer and started probing at it. After several minutes he sent a quick IM

Brett showed him the security office and Marcus’ office. Argonaut took over once again and started probing against the security office system. Brett just sat and watched as Argonaut attacked the system. He was careful not to do anything that would leave a trace of what he was doing. After several minutes he pulled out and had Brett lead him to the next spot. That was Marcus Kelly’s office. Once again Brett was a spectator as Argonaut went to work. Again he was careful not to leave a trace. When he pulled out, he sent another IM

Brett sent him the information he wanted and the two of them said goodbye until later. While he waited for Argonaut to work his magic, Brett continued his work, interviewing the moms to be. Everything seemed to be going ahead as planned for the babies. He was more careful about his computer at the lab. Anytime he left his lab, he made sure that his computer was logged off. He used his camouflage program when he worked on his research and downloaded his results, conclusions, and expectations to his home computer. On his work computer he fabricated results but with just enough real information to make it look good. The real stuff was on his home computer.

Several days later at home while he was working on his computer an IM came up on the screen.

Brett got the information from him on how to send the money. It was a Paypal account that Argonaut had set up. They parted and within an hour, Brett sent him the money and Argonaut sent him the backdoor password.

Brett decided to look in the security office computer first. There were a lot of standard memos out to the security members, duty rosters, etc. After a little bit of hunting he found the link to the security cameras and started checking each of them out. He was surprised to see how many there were. There was one in each office and lab. Hallways were covered as well. It seemed like the only places without a camera were the bathrooms. At least they didn’t stoop that low to spy on people in bathrooms. There were a lot outside as well, different angles from or looking toward the building. There were several perimeter cameras as well, at the guard house, and along the fence lines. The whole complex was pretty well covered.

Now it was time for the big one, Marcus’ computer. It did not take long to get in and he went to email right away. He started scanning through them. He focused in on emails to Hank Archer at the GRA. There were several that asked about Brett’s research. There was one that really caught his eye from a couple of day before.

Marcus,

I was thinking that you should try to make use of your chief of security, Martin. I know his gift is not consistent, but he might be able to pick something up. Have him try to be around Dr. MacLeod as much as possible without causing any suspicion. Maybe he’ll pick something up. Keep me in the loop. Has Dr. Merrick had any further luck?

Archer

Brett wondered what he meant by Martin’s gifts. Could it be that Martin had some kind of ESP? He might have to watch out for him. He remembered Marty Swift introducing himself and telling them to call him Marty. He had seemed very friendly, but I guess you never knew with these government types. They put on a good show. He got out of the emails and started searching the computer files. He found one that was named "Audio Files". They were listed by location date and time. All of them seemed to be the offices in the old building. He saw some from Dr. Hunt’s office and he noticed one that was from the date and time that he met with him. He pulled it up and started it. He listened to the tape. It was when he and Dr. Hunt had talked about his research. This is how Marcus knew what was going on. Now he was curious and wanted to learn more about the GRA. What kind of agency was this? He thought it would be a good idea to see what he could find out. After he downloaded several files from the computer, he put out an email to Argonaut asking him to get in touch with him for more business.

At work he kept his guard up especially around Alastair and Marty. Marcus rarely came to the labs. In fact, he was gone from the complex two to three days a week. Where Brett didn’t know, but he hoped that Argo would get back to him soon and maybe help him get some answers. That evening his wish was granted, there was an email from Argonaut asking what he could do for him. He sent one back immediately.

Argo,

Got a favor to ask, yeah I know, it isn’t free. I want to see what you can find out or help me find out about a government entity called the Genetic Research Agency. Thanks

Mindwiz

He got an email the next night.

Mindwiz,

I can do that. I’ll let you know what it will cost after I see what I find out. They involved with this lab you asked me to help you with? You don’t have to answer that. I’ll get back to you.

Argo

Brett was satisfied and put his focus back on his research. He continued keeping his distance from Alastair and Marty. Especially Marty, if that email was telling the truth about his "gift". Every evening he checked for an email, nothing yet. The women were at thirty weeks now and just a few short weeks from giving birth.

The days went by and there was no word from Argo. He was a little worried because not only was the birth of the babies getting closer but he didn’t want anything to happen to Argo. So he checked his email and hoped his friend stayed safe. It was a week and a half before he finally heard from him, but it was an unusual one, at least as far as hackers operated.

Mindwiz,

This may sound strange and I get it if you say no, but I think we need a face to face for this. It’s not something I propose lightly, but in this case I think it’s warranted. Of course, I don’t know where you are. Can you get to New York City? Send me an IM at 8pm, I’ll be waiting.

Argo

Brett was concerned about the email. Why would any hacker want to meet? They liked their anonymity. Staying in the shadows was their way of life. When they get to be known, part of their power goes away. He waited a little anxiously until eight came around.

It was only a moment later and he was answered.

That was it, Argo was gone.

The next day, Brett called Dr. Hunt to tell him that he had some business to take care of and he’d be back the next day. He headed into the city at noon. He decided to take the train rather than drive. He didn’t want to hassle with driving and then trying to find parking. When he got to Central Park he started making his way towards Fort Clinton. He bought a paper and grabbed a hot dog and soda from a cart as he walked through the park. He arrived at Fort Clinton at ten minutes to two. He wandered around and took in the view from the fort. He looked around surreptitiously. There weren’t too many people in the area, but he couldn’t pick anyone out as possibly being Argonaut. He sat down on a bench, opened his paper and waited. Two o’ clock came and went. He looked up from the paper and looked around. Again he was starting to be concerned that something happened to Argo. He went back to his paper.

"Mindwiz?"

Brett was startled by the voice from his left. He let the paper drop and looked over at the owner of the voice. He saw a young guy who looked like he was either a senior in high school or a freshman in college, he guessed college, because he was wearing a Columbia University sweatshirt. He had short spiked brown hair with bleached tips. The guy had a smiling, friendly face.

"Argo?"

"Yep, that’s me."

Argo held out his hand and they shook.

"I’m Terry Jenkins."

"Brett MacLeod."

"Ah, so you are part of that lab."

"How did you know?"

"Saw your name on some of the emails in the computers at the lab."

Brett looked around to make sure no one else was nearby before he said anything more, "So why the face to face?"

"Let’s go for a walk."

The two of them got up from the bench and left the Fort Clinton area. Terry was silent until they had walked for a few minutes and Brett had to wait.

"This Genetic Research Agency that you were asking about; I don’t know who they are, but until a year or so ago they didn’t exist, at least not that I could find out. They are somewhere in DC. Not sure where, as I couldn’t find an address. The mail goes to a government post office box."

"Well I knew they were in DC. They said that they were a government research agency."

"Yeah, but their computer security is high level government stuff, like the military. I didn’t want to push too hard on it and set off any alarms. I’ve been able to get to their computer network, but couldn’t get in. We need some other people on this. You need a hacker that is better than me if you really want to get into their servers and find out more."

Brett thought for a few moments before saying anything more, "How do I find such a person?"

"Let me see what I can find out. If I can find someone, I’ll get the two of you connected. Can I ask why you want to get this information?"

"There is a GRA representative, Marcus Kelly, at the lab. He works for the head of the GRA or whoever they are, Hank Archer. Archer is having Marcus spy on my research and I want to know why he is so interested in it."

"What is your research about?"

"I can’t tell you right now. But if we can get more information on Kelly, Archer and the GRA, that might help me. If they are some sort of secret agency, then I’m a little worried about what they want, so I prefer to keep that to myself for now. Maybe another time, after I know more."

"Fair enough, but when you can, I really want to know what has them so interested. For now, I gotta go. I’ll be in touch, when I know more. Oh, and I’ll see what I can find out about this Marcus Kelly and Hank Archer, maybe that will give us a hint as well."

They shook hands and Terry left. Brett continued on and headed toward the nearest subway station. By late afternoon he had retrieved his car at the Stony Brook train station and went home. He kept the things he had been learning from everyone because he didn’t want to cause anyone any concern. It was a nice early summer afternoon and as he sat on his back patio when an idea came to him. He went inside to grab a pad of paper and he started writing things down that he thought he would need. When Kathy came home a little later, he had a couple of pages of information. After dinner and a nice relaxing evening with Kathy, he went into his study to put the information into his computer and started working on a plan. It was just preliminary ideas now and much would depend on what could be found out from Terry and whoever he found that might help him. Once he was done typing it up, he headed to bed.

For the next two weeks Brett continued his research. He was surprised by Alastair when he came to visit him in the lab. He had previously been kind of gruff and didn’t say much to Brett, mostly working on his own research. He explained his visit as wanting to see how Brett was doing and since he was Dr. Hunt’s number two man, he felt it was important for him to check with the other researchers and see if they had everything they needed.

Brett didn’t buy it, since he knew Alastair’s real intentions were not that. He explained a little in some vague terms. Mostly he kept inferring that he wasn’t sure whether his research was going anywhere yet. Alastair finally said his goodbyes and encouraged Brett to come to him if he needed anything. At this point there was only another four or five weeks before the babies were born. As that due date approached he started to get a little more worried about what Archer intended.

It was a couple of days later when he finally received an email from Terry.

Brett,

I think I’ve found someone who can help us out. He wants to meet this weekend at the Montauk Lighthouse Saturday afternoon.

Terry

Brett immediately sent an answer.

Terry,

I’ll be there.

Brett

Brett was anxious as he waited for Saturday to come around. Early on Saturday morning while he and Kathy were finishing breakfast he told her he was going for a drive.

"Kathy, I feel like taking a drive, do you want to come along?"

"Where are you going?"

"Out towards Montauk. I just want to clear my head a little?"

"Clear your head? Is there anything wrong?"

"No, just worried about you and the others. You know with the babies and all. Just want to drive, maybe just take in some sights, you know ordinary things."

"Well, actually that sounds nice. I’d like to go."

"Great, then let’s get this all cleaned up and get going. We can spend the afternoon there and grab some a nice dinner in Montauk and then head back home."

"That sounds nice. Let me clean up and we’ll head out."

Both of them changed into some nice casual clothes and within half an hour they were on their way to the tip of Long Island. They decided to head toward Brookhaven and then drive along the shore through the Hamptons before cutting back inland around Shinnecock Bay and from there toward the tip of the island. They had taken their time and by the time they got to the lighthouse it was early afternoon. They parked and walked out toward the lighthouse. It was a little slow going for Kathy since she was just a few weeks from giving birth. But they both enjoyed it and walked around the area, looking at the views and the museum.

They were standing looking toward the water when someone called to Brett. They turned around and there was Terry, standing with someone who looked to be about Brett’s age. The other man was red headed and wore his hair long. He was of average height and a little stocky. Brett waved as Terry headed towards them.

"Hi Terry, this is my wife Kathy. Kathy, this is Terry Jenkins. He’s a student at Columbia. I met him the last time I was in the city."

"It’s nice to meet you Terry."

"You too, Kathy, this is Mac, a friend of mine."

"Pleased to meet you both."

They could hear a slight accent in his voice.

"Kathy, would you mind if we borrow Brett for a few moments?"

She nodded. Brett gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"Be right back."

She nodded and he walked off with Terry and Mac. When they had distanced themselves from everyone, Terry stopped.

"Brett, Mac says that he can help you, but he wanted to meet you first before he went forward."

Brett nodded and looked at Mac as he waited for him to start. Mac gazed at him silently before he said anything.

"Dr. MacLeod."

Brett got a shocked look on his face which caused Mac to chuckle a little. When he spoke again the accent was a bit more pronounced and Brett identified it as Irish.

"I make it my business to know who I’m dealing with. I did a little research on you and that’s why I wanted to meet with you. I wanted to see what kind of man you might be in person. I’ve a knack for separating the good people from the bad people. I know you got your two masters and your doctorate at a fairly young age. You were hired by Hunt Laboratories to assist in their research about neurological disorders. What you do at the lab I don’t know at the moment, but I’m guessing it’s something along those lines."

"So what type am I?"

"Oh, I think you’re one of the good ones. That’s why I decided to meet you."

"So Mac, can you help me?

"Well, I’d like to know a bit about why you want this information."

"The GRA has given us a grant for our research. Their liaison at the lab, Marcus Kelly is doing what he can to find out about my research for his boss, Hank Archer, who I think is the head of the GRA. I have recently started a line of research that they have become very interested in to the point of spying on me and I want to know why."

"If they are funding your research shouldn’t they need to know what they are paying for?"

"Yes, but, it’s the way they are doing this that bothers me. It’s seems to be sneaky, cloak and dagger stuff and something seems off about them in general. It’s like they are working behind some sort of façade and are trying to keep their real agenda hidden."

Mac nodded.

"That’s what I thought. Tell you what. There is a package under the driver’s seat in your car."

"How…."

"I know how to do a lot of things. Read it when you can, and within it there is a contact number. If you want to proceed, contact me and we’ll start. I’ve also put in the package how much it will cost for my services. Until then, I will take my leave of you. Enjoy the rest of your day."

Before Brett could say anything else, Mac turned and left. He looked at Terry and Terry just shrugged. They shook hands and Terry headed after Mac. Brett made his way back to Kathy. He told her that Terry and Mac had to get going. The two of them stayed for a little while longer before heading back toward the town of Montauk for dinner. When Brett got in the car and leaned down a little and felt a thick envelope under the seat. In Montauk, they found a nice seafood restaurant and had a very enjoyable dinner. With both of their busy schedules they realized that it had been some time since they had such a nice day and they resolved to make room for more such days. Brett was silent as they drove home, his mind whirling with curiosity about what was in the package. Kathy broke into his thoughts.

"Honey, did you hear me?"

"Huh, what?"

"You were so quiet, I offered a penny for your thoughts."

"Oh, uh, nothing really."

"Are you sure?"

"Really it’s nothing, just, uh, thinking about work."

"If you need to talk, you know I’m right here."

"Yeah, I know. It’s nothing. I guess, I’m just worried about the baby, well all the babies. I just want everything to end up all right."

"I know it will be. All the tests say that everything is fine. Soon there are going to be eight new healthy baby boys."

"Yeah, you’re right, but I do still worry."

"I know. You can always vent your worries to me. Maybe they won’t be so bad if you voice them."

He smiled at her and she leaned over to kiss his cheek. A few minutes later they pulled into their driveway. He helped Kathy out of the car and walked with her into the house. After he helped her get comfortable in the den, he excused himself, saying he had forgotten something in the car. He quickly retrieved the package from under the seat. It was a thick manila envelope. He brought it into his study. He wanted to open it, but he didn’t want to be rushed and he felt it was more important to spend time with Kathy right now. Instead he locked it in his desk and went to join her. They watched TV for a little while before the busy day caught up with both of them and they soon went to bed.

It wasn’t until the next evening that he was able to take a look at the contents of the package. Kathy was tired and went to bed early, so he took the package out and started reading what was in there. First there was some information on Hank Archer and Marcus Kelly. Both had started working in government right out of university. Marcus worked in the State Department. Hank worked in the CIA for a short time before moving to NSA, where the information about him dried up for a time. There was some information about him heading an organization called Parapsychology Research Institute which seemed like a strange thing for someone who had worked at NSA to do. There was a print out of a web site that was one of those underground expose web sites. It mentioned that the PRI was an agency that looked to find people who had certain mental gifts. The idea was to use these people if they could demonstrate their gifts, to spy against enemies of the government, both foreign and domestic. It listed Hank Archer as the head and Marcus Kelly as his deputy. There was also a copy of a newspaper clipping that mentioned the death in a car accident of a Roland North. Brett was confused as to why that was included until he noticed that the author of the web page was named Roland North. There was a written note at the bottom of the clipping.

There were a few other clippings and printouts from the web that talked about street kids disappearing. Some of the kids were found weeks later, dead. They became another bunch of street kid statistics. The information on the PRI seemed to dry up at this point. There was one last hand written note.

After going through the entire package Brett sat back with a stunned expression. Who were these people? He knew they were a government agency, but this stuff sounded out there and kind of scary. The thought of the email that told Marcus to have Martin use his gifts, made Brett wonder if he was one of those street kids that had disappeared. He had a dilemma now. He was thinking that he might want to share this information with his friends, but he wanted more information first before he shared it. He really wanted to hear what else Mac might come up with, so he wrote a check out and another two thousand. He also added a note, asking Mac to work fast if at all possible.