The Entity Pt. 02

Pushing the door open he looked over his shoulder before stepping into the dark, cool room.

It didn't matter how many times he saw it, he still marveled at the two huge glass tubes filled with a liquid soup that maintained the forms inside.

Dimensions were distorted somewhat by the curvature of the glass but he could tell the man was tall. More than six foot he was sure. The head was capped with an isolation hood so it was really hard to tell. No facial features to look at but long black hair grew from under the edge of the hood.

The frame was strong looking but suspended a covering of muscle tissue that looked under developed. The doctor had explained that was due to no exercise or use. Through a series of electrodes taped to the body, they managed to provoke some muscle contraction and movement. Kevin called it the 'puppet show'. Gerald thought it looked more like frog legs in some high school biology experiment.

The female was beautiful. Well, at least the part he could see. The head was covered, also by an isolation hood; the skin was pale, almost white, with freckles from neck to toe. Long fire red hair floated from under the isolation hood.

Gerald could see the fingers were long and delicate. Her breasts floated, capped by small pale nipples. Pubic hair was non-existent on the female. Hormones had been closely controlled to keep her from menstruating. Something that would have complicated the growth soup process, the doctor had said.

He still found it hard to believe this was her. Such beautiful skin and delicate bones. It was hard to believe he was looking at a clone of the old Hag.

The doctor put the males age at thirty. It had taken ten years to develop him using special growth hormones and other scientific magic. He said the female was around twenty. Developed in seven years using the same techniques.

The door clicked and Kevin walked in.

"I thought you'd be in here."

"Yeah, I just love to look at her. I can't wait to see the face," his voice carried a strange undertone, Kevin thought.

Kevin walked over to the male. "Do you really believe that's her father?" he asked.

"I guess so. She says it is. Kinda kinky isn't it?"

They both turned when the door clicked again and the doctor walked in. It was odd that no one had ever mentioned his name. He was just the Doctor. Gerald was sure he was something leftover from Hitler's régime. He looked almost as old as the Hag but in much better shape. No accent to speak of, which was odd in itself. Not even an American one. Kevin thought he was an alien.

"We're doing the male today. If all goes well, then tomorrow we'll do Miss Miller.

With that he was gone and both Gerald and Kevin knew they were required.

Kevin walked to another door, opposite the door they'd entered through. Neither he nor Gerald had a code for this door. They both wondered what was on the other side.

*****

Robert Nunn and the Spalding's had been easy to discover. Moving things around and sending a few e-mails had been child's play for the Entity.

Even a few digital photographs had been taken from one of the Spalding's home computers and planted on Scanner Bob's office machine. The Entity wanted to insure he was taken out of the equation to help send Tammy in the right direction.

*****

Tammy sat in her cubicle in the nerd cave at work. Scanner Bob had come and gone without incident. No mention of the terminal was made and Tammy wasn't going near it. Let someone else figure that one out, she thought.

She managed to busy herself with paperwork all morning leaving her desktop computer cold and dark. However she knew she had to turn it on at some point and check her mail.

Finally she could procrastinate no more and Tammy entered her password and waited. Her fingers clicked nervously beside the keyboard.

Once everything was loaded, she continued to wait. Mail appeared and she still waited.

Then it happened. She knew it would. Glancing at her watch she counted six minutes from on switch to first message. Since chat programs were rare in corporate America, her word processor had opened again with a single line. She had spent all morning preparing to be more persistent.

'I gave you a gift today. You might call it a bribe. I need you to trust me. Just go with it and see where it takes you.'

She read it a third time and finally typed a response.

'Roses? How nice. It would be much easier to trust you if I knew who you were.'

After five minutes of drumming her fingers she started to wonder if it was all a joke. Being one of eighteen training and service technicians in the building, she stood and walked around to look at the screen of her fellow nerds. Only two were at their desks. One paid no attention at all and the other just whistled as she walked by.

"Watch out dork. I can get you on sexual harassment for that."

"C'mon, Tam, you know you love me."

"Okay, George, I love you. By the way, have you seen anything on the highway about some strange, untraceable, Trojan or worm?"

He chuckled. "That's why they call them Trojan's, Tam, because you don't know where they come from."

"Cute, Georgie. Real cute."

Returning to her desk she saw no answer had been posted in the word processor and clicked it shut.

Scanning her inbox she noticed something from HR along with a string of in-house service requests. Clicking the HR mail open she nearly jumped out of her seat as she checked her watch.

"Damn, George, why didn't anyone tell me there was a meeting with Mr. Thompson in HR at noon?"

She was long past George, headed for the elevator, when he yelled, "What meeting?"

*****

She could see Scanner Bob just taking a seat in the glass enclosed meeting room. Stepping in, Mr. Thompson greeted her and indicated a chair to his right.

"Well, Bob, as you know, Tammy has been chosen as your replacement. I hope you brought all the important documents with you. We'd like to make this as, well, painless as possible. Besides, we need to get Tammy on a plane this afternoon."

Tammy just sat stunned and more than a little bewildered, as Bob slid a thin folder across the table to her. He'd always looked, well, and smelt bad, but today he looked like death warmed over.

"This is a summary of a small crisis taking place in the communications world. It was sent to all banking and financial institutions by the ICB. You can read through it when you get back to your desk. Bob will be leaving us," a brusque clearing of his throat and Mr. Thompson continued, "We'll just say for personal reasons, and going through your file we decided you were the best candidate. Unfortunately, Bob's, company computers have been, ah, confiscated by the FBI, but I'm sure we'll have you installed and in your new office by the time you get back."

Tammy crossed her legs for the umpteenth time and swallowed, hoping it would help bring her voice back.

"Ah, I'm sorry Sir, but where am I going?"

Mr. Thompson realized his mistake and backtracked. "We have an e-mail here from a Miss Linda Woo, section director at the ICB. She's personally requested your presence to give input concerning one of our terminals you troubleshot and fixed, ah, yesterday."

Tammy just stared at Bob. Saved by a knock at the meeting room door she looked up in time to see a suited gentleman flip open his credentials and flash them through the glass. FBI was all she needed to see before looking back at Bob.

"I believe that would be your escort, Bob. Is there anything else Miss Spalding needs to know?"

Tammy almost smiled. She had no idea what was going on but she was sure if a needle were put to Bob's temple, his head would just explode like a big red balloon.

Coming out of his chair, hands reached across the table as he yelled at her. "You bitch!"

Tammy shrunk back as the FBI agent barged in and grabbed Bob in a choke hold from behind.

"Sorry about that Ma'am." With that he literally dragged Bob, kicking and screaming, from the meeting room and down the hall.

Mr. Thompson's eyes looked as large as golf balls as he finally turned back to Tammy. "Here's the e-mail from Miss Woo. It includes the office address. This is from travel. We booked you at the Hilton. Here's your e-ticket. We're unable to issue a corporate credit card on such short notice so I would ask that you use your own and we'll reimburse you when you return." Pulling a handkerchief from his inside suit pocket, Mr. Thompson quickly patted his forehead.

Tammy sat stunned, the ICB paperwork on the table in front of her, when Mr. Thompson paused at the door.

"Almost forgot. Miss Woo is supposed to pick you up at the airport."

With that he was gone. Glancing at her watch, Tammy jumped up again, papers in hand and headed for her cubicle.

Shutting off her computer she ran past George yelling at him to get to work. His face just raised up, a perplexed expression behind horn-rimmed glasses as she breezed by.

Now maybe I'll get some answers Tammy thought.

*****

Linda stared at her cell phone.Tammy Spalding? Akron Bank? Arrives American flight 103 at 10:15 PM?

Following current procedure, she'd left her office, exited the building, and entered the main ICB building on the other side of the street for a face to face. Now standing in front of the Captain's desk, she waited for an answer.

"No idea, Woo. But then you know we can't trust any electronic communications devices. Have you called your carrier to see if the call can be traced?"

"Did that, Captain. No point of origin. Sender unknown."

"Well, forget it then. Better yet, show, Tom. This just might be some hanky panky from, ah, what are you calling it?"

"The Entity."

"Right. The Entity."

Shifting around to watch a telephone technician install a hard line, one that bypassed all their electronics, he turned back to Woo and stared.

"Right, Captain. I'll get back at it," and Linda was gone.

*****

Tom looked at the message for more than a minute. "You might have something here,Slick. If the Entity did send this. Then why?"

"That's what I was afraid you'd say, Tom."

"Think about it. It arrives on your phone. You just happen to be a director in the agency that's fighting it. It wants you to pick up someone from a bank. One of the most endangered industries in the world right now." Not talking to anyone in particular he asked "What does it want?"

"Duh! It wants me to go somewhere so it can do something to me. That's what."

Tom started rocking in his chair, one of his better known thought process habits. Linda could see the strain around his eyes. The ebony skin across his brow shined from beads of sweat. The air conditioning was working fine. She knew exactly what the problem was.

"How do you beat something you can neither touch, nor contain? Something that has a reach much greater than yours, and at the same time, knows every time you touch technology?" Tom asked.

Linda just stared, a perplexed expression on her face.

"I think you should go, Woo."

Linda just stared some more.

"Look, Woo, this, as far as we know, is the first time it's made direct contact with us. With the ICB. I think we should follow through and see where it leads."

She could see the logic. That didn't mean she liked it.

*****

The Doctor stood to one side as the huge glass case drained quickly. At the half way point he directed Gerald to start tipping the heavy glass cylinder. Kevin watched from the side as electric motors ground and the male figure fell against the front of the tube.

"Quickly now. We have to clear his lungs and get him breathing before anything is damaged," the Doctor directed.

The motors speeded up and they all watched as the body, isolation hood and all, slid out on a stainless steal table like today's catch at the fish market.

They turned the man over quickly and the doctor found a rubber tip that was capped, sticking out of the isolation hood. Pulling the cap off, the doctor attached a clear plastic tube that ran to a pump on the floor. A switch was flicked and a yellow liquid filled the glass jar sitting beside the pump.

Almost a minute later the body started to jerk, a coughing noise coming from below the hood. It was strange when he was finally breathing normally. Stranger still that a grown man didn't ask what the hell was going on.

Kevin helped the doctor wrap the body in a special thermal blanket while Gerald finished draining the tank before returning it to an upright position.

Everyone finally stood around the cold, stainless steel table and stared.

A living, breathing human being from a bottle. Gerald wondered whatJim Crochetwould have thought of all this.

*****

Tammy sat in first class, somewhere over the Rockies, still trying to put it all together.

She couldn't imagine what in her file would have prompted HR to think that she was the best candidate for Scanner Bob's position. She had just jumped two levels without even waving on her way up, not to mention the new salary.

She was also confused by the upgrade to first class at the check-in counter. The apathetic check-in lady had finally asked if she wanted it or not, pointing out she was welcome to ride back by the restrooms in the tail of the plane if she wanted.

Then there was the man that stood off to the side complaining about his seat. He'd shown his ticket to a young man several times, pulled his frequent flyer card, and even threatened judicial action. All to no avail. They had absolutely no record of his first class ticket ever being sold. They also assured him they might need to call the omnipresent, seldom defined 'authorities' if he kept making a scene.

She'd had no time to go home and pack. Mr. Thompson's secretary assured her that wasn't a problem. 'I'm sure you'll have a chance to go shopping.' A wink and a smile carried the unspoken message, 'It's a shopping spree on the company. Have at it girl!'

She really had nothing but her purse and a folder full of papers. Well, that and a nice glass of bubbly to wash the cheese down with.

*****

"Okay, Kevin, start the write."

Gerald checked cable connections as an array of characters scrolled across his screen so fast he was unable to read them.

The doctor had rolled the man into the transfer room and overseen the removal of his isolation hood and lung drainage tube. The matted hair had been quickly washed and a transfer halo placed over his head.

Kevin was charged with pulling up the right download and preparing it for transfer.

Gerald plugged in the cables and watched the terminal designated 'Transfer Gate'. If anything went awry, it would show up there first.

The doctor continued watching pulse and BP while an electronic saline drip applied a mild sedative.

"How long do you think," Gerald said.

"I give it eight hours easy. It's a lot of information," answered Kevin.

They all settled in for a long night.

*****

The Entity found Tammy at the luggage pick-up carrousel through one of the airport security cameras. He'd followed Linda in from the parking garage using other cameras.

He understood Linda's concern as he watched her speaking with a couple of airport security officers.

While he had no way to actually smile, the thought of smiling somehow made him feel good as he watched his orchestrated drama unfold.

*****

Tammy had no idea what Miss Woo looked like. Standing by the luggage pick-up carrousel, what she thought was the most logical place to wait, she scanned the crowd.

Linda had notified airport security and after flashing her credentials, was accompanied by two armed officers, to the same carrousel Tammy was waiting at.

One of the flight attendants had been found, brought down and quickly identified the pretty girl with long red hair standing alone, as Tammy Spalding.

Instead of exposing herself to possible, un-necessary danger, Linda asked one of her escorts to approach Miss Spalding and ask her to follow him.

Taking Tammy to an immigration interrogation room, she was left to her own thoughts as Linda watched from the other side of a two way mirror.

"Could you see if she has identification please?"

"Sure," the officer replied, "Of course, the way things are today, she couldn't have gotten on the flight without proper identification."

"Just bring it to me so I can check it first."

She watched as the officer appeared in Tammy's holding cell. She felt slightly distracted by the nagging thought that this was a beautiful woman. There was a look of confusion and a billfold came out of her purse. The officer asked her to, 'please remove the card and hand it over.' Tammy complied.

Linda was even more confused as she looked at the identification. A training and service technician for a bank?

"I'll take it from here. Thanks."

Sticking her head in the door she gestured to Tammy to follow.

"Are you Linda Woo?" Tammy smiled and started to say more.

"Let's get out of here first. Come on. My car is in the parking garage."

With that, Tammy fell in behind Linda as they worked their way through the airport hustle and bustle to the parking lot.

She tried to yell above the buffeting air as the small shiny sports car snaked its way out onto the highway.

"I'm staying at the Hyatt tonight. Maybe we can talk in the bar."

Linda didn't turn as she answered, "Not tonight, you're not."

Tammy wondered idly if she had done something wrong or if all Golden Coast residents were this rude.

They trudged up the old wooden stairs to Linda's apartment in silence. Once inside, Tammy decided enough was enough.

"What the hell is going on?" refusing to enter the open door until she got some answers.

Linda sighed and waved her in, managing a small smile in the process.

Once inside she offered Tammy something to drink which was declined and waved her to the couch in the living room.

Linda decided Tammy was harmless and spent half an hour explaining events, including all they knew, and didn't know, about the Entity.

Tammy sat, dumbfounded for a beat before she told her side of the story.

"Here, this is a printout of the e-mail you sent to our company. You can see right there where you requested I fly out," Tammy's finger shook as she pointed at the mail.

"You say someone, or something, has been communicating with you on your computers at work and at home?"

"Right, I don't ..."

Another scan of the e-mail Tammy had handed her and Linda jumped up. "Come on. We need to get something."

Back to the shinny sports car and Tammy sat mutely as they crossed town to a Walmart Super Center.

"Only in America can you buy the latest in computer technology 24 hours a day, seven days a week," Linda quipped.

Tammy just followed her inside and watched as Linda purchased the most powerful laptop they had in stock.

Back at her apartment she watched Linda as the slim computer came out of its box, manuals were discarded, registration cards landed on the floor and, after fifteen minutes, the operating screen started to load. First screen being automatic registration through the internet.

Linda checked the wireless connection icon and turned the machine around on the coffee table.

"I want you to register it in your name. All your information; address, phone number, the works. Just like it were your own."

Sitting cross legged on the rug, Tammy scooted closer to the coffee table and started typing. After about ten minutes, all fields had been filled, boxes checked off and updates applied.

Linda walked around the table and was kneeling beside Tammy when it happened.

'Hi Tammy. I see you made it.'

They both stared at the chat box saying nothing.

'Why the new computer?'

Tammy looked at Linda, who just nodded.

'Yes. I did make it. Did you put me in first class?'