Part 48 (1/2)
”Yeah, that's his name. She was apologetic to me, but Visgrath had to see her right then. He looked angry. They disappeared into her office, and I didn't eavesdrop, but there was no missing that they were yelling.”
”About what?”
Casey shrugged again. ”Dunno. I heard 'circuit boards' and 'transfer device.' I figured it was a pinball issue and none of my business.”
”If only.”
”And then Henry shows up, and he goes right in. They're in there for a while, so I wander around. For five minutes or so, and then I see them leaving, only Visgrath is dragging Grace and another guy is dragging Henry. They don't look happy. I run across the factory floor, but by the time I get there, they're in a black minivan. I yell, 'Hey! Wait! I'm calling the cops!' or something like that. It was clear Grace and Henry didn't want to go. Then I get hit, and, man, did that hurt. I woke up in the hospital.”
”Who shot you?”
”I don't know. n.o.body in the first minivan. The doors and windows were closed.”
”The first?”
”There were two, but I didn't look at the second.”
John shook his head. Visgrath had found out about the circuit boards that Grace had charged on her corporate card; that was apparent. He'd confronted her and she'd let out or he'd deduced that they were building a transfer device. He'd taken Grace and Henry, thinking perhaps they were travelers too, thinking they had knowledge of building a device.
”Do you believe me now?” John asked.
”About what?”
”My paranoid delusions!”
”I guess even paranoids can be right about someone out to get them,” Casey said, with a slight grin.
”Thanks for your support.” John paused, then said, ”Casey, I may be gone for a while, or something might happen to me.”
”John! What are you going to do? Just go to the police!”
”We can't. They'll kill Grace and Henry. I've got to do this in a different way.”
”What way?”
”I can't say, in case they get to you.”
”John!”
”I'll do everything I can to win this, Casey. I promise.”
”Oh, John. You're a big paranoid idiot.”
”I can't argue with that.” He bent over and kissed her dry lips. ”See ya.”
John slept through the morning in the barn, his dreams filled with circuits like mazes that he ran down. The capacitors were huge balloons that slowly grew until they exploded. The resistors were thin sewer lines that he had to crawl through. He reached the end of the maze, only to discover that the last door opened onto a huge white fiber labyrinth even larger than the one before. He awoke covered in sweat.
His back stiff, John stood again before the array of circuits and wires. He didn't know where to begin. A wave of panic crept through him. Things that seemed clear the night before were vague in his mind in the light of day. It was a Rube Goldberg contraption; he was a fool to think he could understand the device's logic.
He wrung his hands, and then turned his attention to a single circuit. Break the problem down, he thought. Start with a simple thing. Then go to the next thing. Don't hold the whole problem in your head at once. Just the part you need to look at first. Then it would be easier to add to the whole later.
As he was staring at the diagram, a piece of it suddenly clicked. He started placing pieces together, soldering, wiring. He didn't have to understand it to duplicate it. Understanding would come later. Maybe ten years later, when his friends' lives weren't in jeopardy.
John looked up from the circuit board. His stomach rumbled. His breath tasted stale in his mouth.
”How long...?” he muttered.
The circuitry before him was a mess. He couldn't remember anything he had done an hour ago; he was blindly connecting things, leaving taped notes to himself to help him remember what would connect where. He had no faith in it, however. What chance was there that he had pieced it all together correctly on the first try?
None at all, he thought to himself. It was useless. It would never work.
His mind turned toward Casey, then toward Henry and Grace. He felt sick to his stomach. Maybe he should just hand the device over to Visgrath. Maybe he should just do whatever it took to get his friends back instead of trying to be tricky.
John, anxious and frustrated, picked up the old rotary phone Bill had installed in the barn and dialed Visgrath's office number in Columbus. Visgrath picked up on one ring.
”I need to know they're okay,” John said as soon as Visgrath answered.
”You think you're in control here?” Visgrath asked sharply. ”You think you can call the shots? Think again. We have no compunctions. You clearly do.”
”You want the device, I need to know they're fine.”
”Come here now, or we kill one of them,” Visgrath said.
John swallowed against a dry throat. ”So? They're not even singletons,” he said.
Visgrath laughed. ”If you truly believed that, you wouldn't care about them.”
”I've growth accustomed to them,” John said, trying to sound haughty.
”Do not pretend to be what you are not. It won't work a second time,” Visgrath said.
”I talk with them before we make any deal,” John said.
Visgrath was quiet for a moment. Then he said, ”Call this number in ten minutes.” John wrote it down, then hung up.
John paced the barn floor as he waited. If Visgrath answered the phone, John knew where Henry and Grace were. They'd have to be in the fenced compound behind the Columbus site. They weren't in Pittsburgh; John had dialed Visgrath's office directly. The only secure place for him within ten minutes was the fenced area.
John dialed the number Visgrath had given him.
”h.e.l.lo?” The voice was heavily accented and not Visgrath's.
”Give me Visgrath,” John said, his voice breaking.
”He's not here.”