division and make her an associate inspector in mine effective immediately.” He paused for a moment, listening, and then said, “Larry, I don’t give a jolly good damn about your manpower requirements or any other problems you might have with this decision. If you’ll read the directives in the morning you’ll see that they’re being made on the basis of safety of the state power that I have. Now just so we’re clear, if you get in the way of this transfer in any way I’ll have you in front of a board of security so fast that you won’t have time to realize how you lost your job. Is that clear?” Esa listened for a moment and then said, “Larry, you don’t need to apologize. I know I’m being heavy- handed and I don’t like doing it and I can’t explain why. This young woman’s talents are being wasted and unused in her current position and we can use them. You’re going to have to trust that I’m making the right decision for the right reasons. Thank you for taking my call so late; you’ll receive the paperwork first thing in the morning.” Esa pressed the button on his communicator and Danielle heard him say, “Julie, did you copy all that? Good. Yes, that’s exactly what I want. By the way, what pay grade is a medical technician? A three!” he said as he looked at Danielle. He said into his communicator, “Then she probably won’t mind being raised to an eight.”
Danielle couldn’t believe her ears. Could this really be happening?
“Miss Ash,” Esa said, “you are no longer a medical technician. You will report directly to John Sinclair after our meeting, who will swear you in. You will continue to work with us on this case until we get it solved. You will work on weapons training during your spare time. This is not, however, a temporary transfer. I am not easily impressed, Miss Ash, but you have exhibited traits and insights that are rare and valuable in my line of work. You have shown initiative and the willingness to make a decision, along with saying what needs to be said regardless of consequences. I think you’re dead on in your analysis about the invisibility. Have you had any other insights?”
Danielle could not believe her good luck. Her mind was in a whirl. This was the sort of job that she had prayed for, where she could use her talents. She had to pull herself together. Then she had a thought.
“Inspector Connor, thank you so much for the promotion. You can count on me to work hard to be worthy of your trust, and I hope what I’m about to say doesn’t diminish your opinion of me.”
“Go ahead, Miss Ash.”
“I was mentally celebrating my transfer just a moment ago in my mind, and I pictured my name and title, Danielle Ash, Associate Inspector, with searchlights and fireworks going off. Then I had a thought.” She turned to Major Daniels and said, “Major Daniels, what if someone could see the view of your camera like the beam of a searchlight? What I mean is, if someone were turning a searchlight towards me I could see it coming, then I would look for something that I can hide behind when it got to where I was, or it may be as simple as lying down while it passed overhead. What I’m trying to say is, if I can see what your cameras see, then wouldn’t it be possible to avoid being seen?”
Major Daniels was quiet for a moment and then said, “Just like the attack scene tonight, we didn’t catch the entire event because the camera swung away. All of the cameras in our system are constantly moving, and it is possible that there are places in the overlap of the camera’s field of view where there are areas not seen. The point is, we never really looked to see if there are enough areas not being recorded so that someone could move through them and not be seen.”
Esa said, “Major, will you do an analysis to see if what she says has any merit?”
Major Daniels raised his communicator, spoke for a few minutes, and came back and said, “I’m having my second in command run an analysis of the area from that building south of us to the end of the park north of us. What the computer will do is lay down an overlay to track the patterns of non-coverage as they occur. I should have it; here is now.”
“That was quick,” Esa said.
“Inspector Connor, you know how good our computers are, and my assistant knows how to use them.” He lifted his communicator again and said, “Please download it to my display.” The display came on immediately and Major Daniels said, “Thanks, Arney.”
The six of them gathered around the display and watched the patterns. Major Daniels said, “I’m not sure where to start.”
“Start where the five men started moving in this direction,” Danielle said.
Major Daniels turned to Esa and said, “Be thankful you’ve got this young lady now, otherwise she would be working for me by morning. You’re right, Miss Ash, and since we know they were following our Superman, all we have to do is look at the patterns along the wall as they moved northward to see if there were any patterns that would allow someone to move unseen.”
Major Daniels began the video, and they could see that there were shadows moving along the sidewalk and parks that someone could walk in and not be seen. “This is shocking,” said Major Daniels. “I had no idea there was this much that we wouldn’t see.”
“Not really,” said Sergeant Garcia. “Someone would have to be able to see these areas and stay in them. Which begs the question: how could anyone see the areas that aren’t covered when the cameras aren’t sending out a beam but just receiving light? These cameras are not like searchlights. They don’t emit anything that someone can see.”
“That may be true,” said Colonel Ortiz, “but this hypothesis just feels right and explains partially how our Superman avoids detection.”
“What do you mean partially?” John Sinclair asked.
“I haven’t heard anyone explain how our Superman walked with Mr. Graham into his classroom without being seen.”
Esa thought for a minute and said, “You make a good point, Colonel, but I think that we all agree that what happened at the school and what happened here are probably connected, right?” Everyone nodded. “Okay, then the logical place to get our answers is at the school, so I’ll see all of you at 7 a.m. at Bill Clinton. John, get in touch with Julie and make sure we have enough people and equipment to do interrogations.”
“Inspector Connor,” Colonel Ortiz said, “please keep in mind just how dangerous this person is. If you uncover this person’s identity and attempt to prevent him from escaping, you just might have what he did to this team of well-trained criminals. I will order a platoon of armed naval marines to surround the school.”
“Thank you, Colonel. I hope we don’t need your help, but I feel better knowing that it’s available.”
John Sinclair looked at Esa and asked, “Are you going to notify Director Nicole about what we’ve discovered?”
Esa said, “Absolutely, the director should know that we have someone that possibly has a high level of psychic skills. I am also going to notify the Special Forces Team about what we’ve found.”
Colonel Ortiz asked, “Do you think they can help us find him?”
“I don’t know, Colonel, but those psychics should know more about finding him than anyone else. I suspect we can use the SFT’s help.”
They were about to leave when Major Daniels and Esa Connor noticed Miss Ash staring at Major Daniels’s display screen. She turned and said, “Sergeant Garcia, will you come over here for just a moment?” All six men stopped, turned, and immediately went back to look at the display screen. “Sergeant Garcia, what color is the cover of the test booklet that was taken from the school?”
“Red,” he said.
“Major Daniels, will you move the view closer to the crystal glass directly behind the man sitting against the wall?” The picture started moving in, and they could see that because he was leaning forward to hide his face it caused his shirt to ride up to the small of his back, which exposed his back pocket in a reflection on the crystal glass of the building. The video continued to move in and then they all saw it in the reflection. A folded booklet was sticking up out of his back pocket with a bright red cover.
“Yes, you better be thankful, Esa,” Major Daniels said, shaking his head. “She would have been mine by morning.”
Chapter 10
T he team of investigators split up and went to their floaters. Danielle Ash went to collect her medical materials so that she could turn her floater in to her former agency. Inspector Connor said, “Miss Ash, may I speak with you for just a moment?”
