Chapter 12


“I told you it wouldn’t work,” Jake bitched.

Norm just looked at the door that was now shut a little too secure for his liking. Norm had gone out and found the thickest stone from the grounds and put it right where the door would have be in order to lock. He had wedged the stone pretty good against the door jam and, on top of that, the thing must have weighed a ton! He nearly gave himself a hernia lugging it up to the door.

The worse part about it was that Jake never so much as lifted a finger to help. Oh Jake called it, “covering him,” even if Norm just called it, “lazy.”

All that was rather moot now. The door slammed into the stone and what little of it didn’t get smashed into so many pebbles got swept right back out into the yard. Now Jake was giving Norm his version of the old ‘I told you so.’ Norm had been waiting for that possibility and replied, “as I recall. Your exact words were,” and Norm exaggerated the voice of a whining little girl, “oh gee Norm, maybe it’s worth a try.”

“I don’t remember it that way,” Jake replied as he slid his weapon back in it’s holster and started taking in what he could only describe as a very gothic looking foyer that would have been worthy of Hollywood’s golden age of movie sets. It was also about what Jake had expected to find. He was afraid this was all turning out to be more and more what he had suspected, ever since he saw this place. He put his gun away.

“Just what the hell do you think you’re doing,” Norm replied as he walked up to Jake. Norm still had his weapon firmly in his hand even if he was walking normal, more or less, for Norm.

Jake told him, “I don’t think it’s going to be of much use in here.” When Jake noted the look he was getting he raised his hands in a shrug, “well do you see any big fat juicy targets to shoot at in here?”
The wailing moans and evil laughter began first. Then Norm saw the pale white figure floating down the left stair case. It began to raise it’s arms outward and it’s body spun to face the two visitors, even as it kept moving forward. Norm raised his gun and aimed at it. He nearly pissed in his pants when he felt the hand grab his arm and push the weapon down.

Jake wondered if that was a yelp he had just heard coming from Norm. Jake accused the man of just that and Norm angrily protested, “that was not a yelp!”

Jake returned the comment with his own sentiment as to it’s validity. He gave Norm a long healthy, “thppttt!” Then Jake pointed up the stairs and he made an imaginary line with his finger that Norm traced right back to the very spot he was standing on. That was when Norm noticed the little holes in the floor. He asked, “what the hell are those?”
Jake walked up to the figure and stood in it’s path. It went right through him and kept on it’s merry way. Jake actually fluttered a little and commented on the experience, “I feel like I just got goosed.” He then looked back to Norm and told him, “it’s a hologram.”

Norm looked over his shoulder and watched the thing vanish right into the wall. He was not very convinced when he looked back to Jake and said, “I ain’t never seen no hologram look that real Jake.”

Jake waved off the notion and sounded pretty easy as he walked back and stood next to Norm. He studied the interior of the building and said, “that was nothing. They got some that are a way lots better on Broadway back home. I guess this can work out here cause very few of you guys ever make it back to Earth.”
Norm took offense and showed it, “oh I get it now. You’re calling me a local, yahoo, bumpkin, red neck, from the country. Is that about it?”

That drew another shrug from Jake, “I never said red neck.”

A squeaking sound came next and Jake commented, “I was wondering when that was going to show up.” He looked behind him and saw the lighted room that the squeaking door revealed as it opened. He wandered over to it and, as he peeked in, he almost jumped back, “whoa!”

Norm took a look and got confused, “ghosts don’t bother you but you get all squeamish at the sight of a body?”

“It’s not the sight that was revolting,” Jake replied as he pulled his jacket up to cover his nose and take a second peek. “Well this guy has seen better days.” The body looked like someone had put it through a meat grinder.

Norm, spotted something and pointed, “I see a phone.” He took a step to go in and retrieve it but Jake grabbed him and held him back. Norm pushed the man’s hands off of him and said, “what’s your problem?”

Jake pointed to the ceiling, “see those holes?”

Now Norm looked up and realized he had been just a bit too careless. He deflated and actually thanked Jake before asking, “more holograms?”

Jake pointed to the body, “I bet this guy wishes.” When it was clear Norm did not understand Jake told him, “booby trap. Those holes out there on the floor and stairs. They’re not just lights. You can’t just shine a light to a specific a spot and tell it to stop.”

“Jake,” Norm told him with no small amount of agitation, “would you stop with the bullshit and just tell me what the fuck you are talking about, just for once.”

“What?” Jake replied, “you never took science in high school? Remember the door Norm? It’s a pneumatic system. Those little holes pump out a chemical mist that reflects the lights that are shining on it from multiple directions. That way you get a three dimensional object.”

“Whatever,” Norm just waved it off and then pointed to the big holes, “and those?”

“Um,” Jake took a second good look, without actually entering the room. Then he said, “I don’t know, spikes maybe? Judging from the scratch marks on the wall I’m guessing they extend down as ceiling drops, plus, well,” Jake shrugged, “it’s a round room and he looks like next weeks Foo King special so I’m guessing it spins as it drops.”

Norm just shook his head in disbelief as he walked off and came back with a tall candle holder. He slid it in the room and used the three holders to pull the phone back out. When he got it in hand he looked to Jake with some amount of sarcasm on his face and asked, “does that meet with your approval or do I have to be a chorus line show girl on Broadway too?”

“Who’s damn phone is it Norm?”

Fortunately the password was not activated and, the app used to make the last call was even still on the screen. Jake called up the info on it and showed it Jake, “I guess we know why Emergency Services couldn’t get a call back on Mister Dorsey Pendleton.”

Jake took one more look down at the remains and was not really sure why something seemed wrong about it. It was undeniable that it was though. What Jake also realized was that they were not going to get any more answers here. He walked over to the set of double doors and after a few minutes of trying to pry them open he looked to Norm and asked, “are you just going to stand there or are you going help?”

“I don’t know Jake,” Norm replied, “I thought about going to find a rock.” Jake ignored the rebuke and went back to work. Norm then grunted and joined in trying to push the doors open. In between grunts he asked, “why do you want to go in here?”

Also between grunts, Jake replied, “do you see any other double doors?”

“No.”

“That’s why,” Jake said as he felt the door give way just enough. He squeezed himself past and found what looked like an old haunted study. Jake even stopped and took a long gaze at the painting of the creepy old man over the fire place. Jake side stepped to the right, and then the left. He laughed and slapped Norm on the arm and told him, “you see how the eyes follow you? That’s cool.”

Norm was not smiling or laughing, “is that all you came in here to see?”

“Look for something out of place,” Jake told him just as he saw exactly what he was looking for.

Norm only shrugged and said, “this whole damn place looks out of place.” He did stop in front of the couch and kneel down on the floor. Norm told Jake as he examined the shattered remains of a tea pot and the wet floor, “well somebody sent some good China to the afterlife. I’m guessing but, I’d be willing to bet it was Barbara.”

Jake had already sat down behind the desk and was busy studying a very archaic looking object that was, from the looks of it, bolted right down to the wood. Jake stopped for a minute and gave Norm the strangest look, “how the can you tell that?”

“Well,” Norm stood back up and pointed to the floor, “the bullet hole looks like a forty caliber. The angle and trajectory are pretty consistent with Barbara’s…”

“Oh bullshit,” Jake told him. “How do you know it was her?”

Norm just grumbled in return, “I don’t know anybody else who would shoot a tea pot.”

“Well maybe we can find out,” Jake said as the machine on the desk made a strange noise that drew Norm’s attention. Then Norm saw a pale light illuminate Jake’s face. The light was coming from some clunky looking plastic box. Norm walked over behind the desk and was surprised to see that the thing was some kind of computer screen.

What Norm did not know was why Jake was working his hand back and forth over some little plastic thing on a pull out shelf. Norm took a step back, cleared his throat, and asked, “Jake, you aren’t playing with yourself are you?”

“What?” Jake looked up and thought about it. When he realized he held the little gizmo up and showed the guy, “it’s called a mouse, Norman. It’s a computer input device.”

Norm was not completely convinced, “if you say so.” Then he pointed to what had to be some kind of antique computer, “so why is this thing so important?”

“Look on the back of it,” Jake suggested. Then he thought about Norm’s computer skills and just said, “never mind. The fact is this computer isn’t hooked in to anything and it has it’s own dedicated power source. It’s built right into the desk. It’s also about two centuries out of date which means if anything wants to copy off of it then you got to be either a museum curator or a hard drive archeologist. Neither of which you’re likely to find in the Arch.”

Norm did know enough about computers to know that the screen was the oddest looking set up that he had ever seen. He was kind of amazed that Jake knew how to even work this stuff. When he asked Jake, the guy replied, “I took a computer history class in college. I figured it was an easy B.”

“What are you doing now,” Norm asked as he watched Jake begin typing a long line of characters into a little window on the screen. When Norm saw all of the stuff that popped up he realized something, “don’t tell me you learned this in college.”

“Sort of,” Jake replied, “only this was in War College at Carlisle.”

“You lost me again, Jake,” Norm told him.

“It’s a code,” Jake told him pointing to the screen. “I ran a parameter search looking for several key lines of a certain computer code that shouldn’t be on this computer. This thing is way out of date and can’t run that kind of programming.”

“So,” Norm asked now that Jake did have his attention, “why is it on there?”

“Cause whoever set this up,” Jake told him, “knew that. That’s why he isolated this computer and used such an antiquated platform. It’s a computer virus, Norm. He’s got a copy of the original form of it, on here, probably as a reference point.”
Norm just shook his head, “so where’s the real virus? For that matter, Jake, what the hell does that have to do with any of this?”

“Everything Norm,” Jake replied just before he saw the video monitor, just behind the desk, flip on. 

There was a guys face on it. Jake did not know the guy but, Norm sure did. He said to Jake, “it’s Roger Bateman.”

Jake laughed, “oh hey Roj! I’m willing to bet you can’t see what’s on this screen, can you?”

Norm’s face wrinkled and he looked back down at Jake. The guy was starting to sound even more bonkers than Roger. He was now talking to a video monitor. Then the monitor talked back, “give it up Jake. It’s not going to help you. You’re both now completely within…”

The screen burst when Jake’s bullet flew right through it. There was no sparkling electricity or little flames from the hole. A slow viscous liquid came out of the bottom and a gas quickly evaporated as it leaked out of the top. Jake thought it was neat. He never knew a bullet hole would do that to a video monitor. He laughed and told Norm, “I always wanted to do that.”

“Glad you’re having fun,” Norm said with a very shrill and unenthusiastic edge.

When Jake looked back on the old computer screen he was surprised to see a host of new windows had appeared. He was a bit more serious when he mumbled, “I’ll be damned.” All he could figure was that the communications with the video monitor must have somehow triggered a back door on the old machine. How this guy did it was beyond Jake but, he could see why. Jake mumbled again, “insurance policy.”

Norm heard the last part and understood what Jake was referring too. What he didn’t understand was, “yeah but insurance policy against what?”

“Look at these files here,” Jake said as he pointed to a new tree of information on the screen. “Each folder has a person’s name.”

Norm read a few of them, “Cathy Ellington, Cindy Jones, Celia Thompson…”

Jake pointed to a file lower down, “and a star by this one. Caroline ‘Bouncing Babies’ Crawford.” Jake started pulling up a few files randomly. He wanted to see what kind of information that this Roger guy was keeping on these people and why. Jake was amazed but, not really surprised, by all of the details in the folders. Roger had psychological profiles, vital statistics, video folders for lab notes and, medical charts on each and every one. The last part also included a lot of data that the guy could have not gotten anywhere except from the kinds of machines that they used to monitor vital signs in hospitals. He had a tape of those vitals that lasted for hours. Everyone of them did practically the same thing over and over. Towards the end of the tape, all the charts went off the roof and then, at the very end, they flat lined every single time.

What the charts meant was very obvious to Norm, “this guy flipped a lot worse than I ever would have guessed. He’s been murdering these people. How many files is in there?”

“Over thirty,” Jake mumbled but, unfortunately he knew Norm was wrong about one thing. “No, you don’t get it. He didn’t twink out on us. He didn’t even retire, Norm. He just went into business as an independent contractor.”

When Jake looked up he could see Norm still was having trouble following it. Jake supposed he could not blame the guy. Jake really did not want to get this either. Jake decided to cage it in terms of an earlier conversation they had, “you were the one saying there are different kinds of labs.”

“Yeah, so what?” Norm replied with a bit of hostility in his voice. It was not so much Jake this time. Norm was pissed off that he never shot Roger when he had the chance. Of course, there was the little problem of the fact that Norm did not actually have a reason back then but, still, he should have anyway.

“This isn’t a house Norm,” Jake replied. “This is a lab.”

“A lab?” Norm definitely did not believe that, “ok that proves this guy is nuts. Who makes a lab that looks like this place?”

“A guy doing weapons research,” Jake told him.

Norm got very accusing now, “you better start explaining yourself Jake. Why is it I get the feeling there is a whole lot you’re not telling me.”

Why was it that Jake was starting to get the feeling that Norm was right. The screams that came from out in the foyer, or past it, stopped the conversation cold. Norm pulled his gun and said, “that’s Barbara.”

Jake was glum when he replied, “I’m not so sure.”