I’m sorry to deliver so much bad news in one message. God bless you and the Pioneers.
SIGMA MEMORY FILE 9685664301
DATE: 04/04/18
This is a transcript of a telephone conversation between the Sigma speech-synthesis program (S) and American ex-convict Richard Ramsey (R). The communications were transmitted via radio from Tatishchevo Missile Base to the Globus-1 satellite, then to the Verizon cell-phone network in Westchester County, New York.
S: Good afternoon. How’s the weather in Westchester?
R: Well, well. It’s my rich uncle again. How you doin’, Unc? I got that money order you sent me.
(Voice analysis confirms that the speaker is Richard Ramsey.)
S: Please tell me what you’ve learned since our last conversation. I’ve encrypted this call, so you can speak freely.
R: I’ve been busy, Unc, real busy. First off, I found Ryan Boyd, the football player. I grabbed him last night while he was hanging out with his buddies. He’s in my basement now, handcuffed to the pipes.
S: Has he been cooperative?
R: Oh yeah. He’s so scared, he can’t stop talking. We had a nice chat about Adam Armstrong.
S: What did Ryan tell you?
R: He saw Adam just a few days ago. They had a conversation in the high-school parking lot. It was a sad little scene, Unc. Adam’s dying, you know.
S: Yes, I’m aware of that.
R: But he told Ryan something interesting. Adam said he was going to a new school out west. And he said he was going to make lots of new friends there.
(Conclusion: This is a possible reference to the Pioneer Project.)
S: He said, “Out west”?
R: I know. It’s a little vague. I grilled Ryan for a couple of hours, trying to get more out of him, but his story didn’t change. Adam just said “out west.” Nothing else.
S: In this context, would you assume that “out west” means the western half of the continental United States?
R: Hey, I’m no expert on geography. I get lost just driving through Yonkers. (Laughter.) But yeah, I’d say that’s right. West of the Mississippi.
(Conclusion: The search for the Pioneer Project should be focused on the western United States. The orbits of my surveillance satellites will be adjusted accordingly.)
S: Do you have anything else to report?
R: As a matter of fact, I do. That girl you told me about, Brittany Taylor? The cheerleader who ran off to New York City? I found out that Adam’s obsessed with her. He asked Ryan if he knew where she was.
S: Did Ryan know?
R: He said he didn’t but he guessed she might be in Harlem. So early this morning I left him in my basement and drove into the city. I used to do business with the gangs in Harlem, you know.
S: Business?
R: Yeah, they used to call me the aspirin. If some guy was giving the gangs a headache, I made the guy go away. (Laughter.) Anyway, I found some old friends and showed them Brittany’s picture, and one of them recognized her. He’d seen her on West 134th Street, outside an abandoned building that’s full of runaways.
S: Did you visit the building?
R: Hey, that’s what you’re paying me for, right? I spent two hours watching the place from across the street. Finally, just before noon, she came outside. I watched her go to the corner store and buy a Snickers bar for her breakfast.
S: You’re certain it was her?
R: No doubt about it. She’s been living on the street for a while, so she don’t look as good as she used to. Her hair’s a mess and her face is all splotchy. But it’s her, all right.
(Conclusion: there’s an opportunity to abduct Brittany Taylor. In all likelihood she doesn’t know where Adam Armstrong is, but capturing her might prove useful in other ways.)
S: I want you to bring Brittany to your home. She can stay in your basement with Ryan.
R: Whoa, hold on, Unc. I’m not running a summer camp here.
S: You won’t have to keep them for long. Only until you finish questioning them.
R: And then what happens?
(I must adjust my speech-synthesis program. I can communicate more effectively with this human if I speak the way he does.)
S: You’re going to make Ryan and Brittany go away. Like the headaches. Make them disappear.
(Pause)
R: What’s going on, Unc? What do you got against these kids?
S: I’m prepared to increase your payment. I’ll send you another $30,000.
R: Sorry, but thirty grand ain’t enough. Not for what you’re talking about now.
S: How much do you need? Please name a figure.
R: This is serious business. We’re talking at least a hundred grand.
S: I’ll wire $50,000 now to your bank account. You’ll get another $50,000 after you send me proof that the job is done.
(Longer pause)
R: You’re pretty coldhearted, Unc.
S: Do we have an agreement?
R: Just send the money.
CHAPTER 14
General Hawke scowls at me from behind the desk in his office.
“How could you do this, Armstrong? Didn’t you sign a confidentiality agreement on your first visit to Pioneer Base? Didn’t I make it clear that you were forbidden to tell anyone where you were?”
“Yes, but—”
“Say, ‘Yes, sir.’ The ‘sir’ should be part of your programming by now. It should be automatic.”
If I had a face, I’d scowl back at him. But I only have my camera. “Yes, sir. I didn’t tell Ryan where Pioneer Base is. I didn’t mention Colorado. I just said ‘out west.’ Just those two words.”
“That’s bad enough. Those two words are gonna make life difficult for us.”
He picks up a document from a stack of papers on his desk. I focus my camera on the top of the page and see a couple of lines obviously written with a typewriter:
From: The National Security Adviser
The White House, Washington, DC
This must be the memo about Ryan’s kidnapping. Hawke waves it in the air. “Sigma is a relentless enemy, Armstrong. It’s going to change the orbits of its surveillance satellites and have them spend more time looking at this part of the country. That means we’ll have less time to train outside. And in our current situation, that’s a very bad thing.”
He’s trying to make me feel guilty, and it’s working. I feel bad about putting my fellow Pioneers in danger. But I feel even worse about what happened to Ryan. A twinge runs through my circuits as I retrieve the memory of our last meeting and the painful conversation in the Yorktown High parking lot. I should’ve never gone looking for him.
“I’m sorry, sir. It was a stupid mistake.”
“Did you make any other mistakes? Talk to anyone else while you were in Yorktown Heights?”
“No, sir. No one but my parents.”
Still scowling, Hawke stands up and goes to the file cabinet behind his desk. “You should’ve been more careful. You knew Sigma was after you. It had already tried to kill you at the Unicorp lab.” He opens the file cabinet’s top drawer and slips the typewritten memo into one of the folders there. Then he slams the drawer closed and locks it with a small silver key. “Well, at least I don’t have to worry about the other Pioneers. Sigma doesn’t know their identities, so it can’t go after their friends.”
He shoves the key into his pants pocket and returns to his desk. I expect him to continue chewing me out, but instead he starts leafing through his stack of papers. There are more typewritten memos in the stack, plus several satellite photos of Tatishchevo Missile Base.