Seventh Chapter

Penny Lopez-Tifesys

            Penny felt her heart speed up and the butterflies of anxiety as she stood at attention before Agent Ness.  She was in full dress uniform, while Agent Ness was in a rumpled white shirt with the top button undone; a loose red tie hung halfway down his chest.  There was a suit jacket hanging over his chair to complete the look of complete indifference.  Penny felt anxious because she had received orders to come to this office, after turning in her letter of resignation.  However now that she was here, all Agent Ness had done was stare at her.  Truth be told she didn’t even know if he really was Agent Ness, he had never introduced himself; she had made that assumption after reading it off a plaque on the desk.

            Finally he sat back and signing waved his hand, “be at ease Officer Lopez.”

            “Sir.” She relaxed but remained standing.

            “I have seen your record, the work you did before.  But for three years, in the prime of your career, you have put up with a desk job.  For three years you have endured the boredom and tedium of nothing but writing other officers reports.  You were a very talented cop, you know that; your investigations were comprehensive, you showed initiative.  Most importantly your cases stayed closed.  There was just the one laps of judgment with your brother-in-law.  But I’m sure that you have learned an important lesion from that episode.

              “Every supervisor you’ve had has talked about your tenacity and curiosity.  They all speak very highly of you.  When you are on a case, you will follow every lead and you don’t get caught up in your own theories.  You’ve been awarded high marks on every performance review.  You are also an expert in weapons, both guns and hand-to-hand; particularly the nightsticks, is that right?”

            “Yes sir, the tonfa.” This was not the conversation that Penny had expected.

            “Right, now after all this training, while waiting behind a desk, you have decided to throw it all away.   Why, why now after the three long years of waiting; you’re quitting?”

            Ah, this was more like it. “Sir, for the last three years; when I go home, my job stays at the office, I get to spend time with my family.  I was willing to give up that rush of working a case, the hunt, if you will. That family time was more important then anything.  It was a good job, a little boring, but it paid and I got time with my little girl and my husband.  We live in a big house with three other parental couples.  Though there are eight kids, Marley, is my only biological child. It was ideal. 

“Three weeks ago my husband disappeared while visiting the Below.  He went to check on his brother, the same bastard who got me stuck behind a desk.  Phil was concerned, as he hadn’t heard from his brother for sometime.   Apparently his concern had merit, I haven’t seen or heard from him since then.  I asked my captain, no I begged my captain, to let me investigate these disappearances.   He sent some other detectives to look into it.  These detectives of course found nothing and after about a week, the captain gave me a report that stated my husband had run off, probably with his brother who had also disappeared.  Case closed.

“My husband would not leave me, he would not run out on his family like that.”

Penny found that during the telling she started to get emotional.  At first she tried to stop her voice from cracking, but she was quitting so what did it really matter.  By the end of the story she had tears running down her cheeks.  Agent Ness, or the man at Agent Ness’ desk, gave her a few minutes to pull herself together.  He looked the other way like she wasn’t in the room.

“So you figured you would become a private eye and go and track down your husband.”  He spoke without looking at her.

“No sir,” Penny said making eye contact, “I will become a private eye and track down the people who kidnapped my husband.”

“What gives you the idea that someone kidnapped your husband?  It’s not just because you think that he wouldn’t run off.” The mysterious agent said with some scorn.  “Your captain’s report indicated there was no sign foul play.  You say your Phil would never run, but I have heard that before.  Hell, I have seen some damn devoted spouses take a powder.”

“I went down to the Below.” Penny cut in, “I talked to the people there.  Have you ever gone Below?  It is a whole different society.  The first time I went was five years ago, on a case for vice.  The place was buzzing, full of people hustling to and fro.  There were hundreds of stores, and there must have been thousands shopping. They didn’t trust the ‘Uppers’ and they sold information dear.  This time there were just a handful of shops open, and no shoppers.  The eco was intense.  This is not just my husband, this is an epidemic. The people of the Below are being prayed upon and nobody knows about it. 

“You’re right, I do sound crazy, but I saw it with my own eyes.  The shopkeeps, those that were left, said this had been going on for a long time.  They were all terrified.  If the police wont do anything, I have to try.  This time I didn’t have to pay for info they were dying to talk.  Just no one is listening.”

The man across the desk was quite for sometime, Penny could almost see the cogs turning, but could not imagine what could elicit such deep thought.  Then he spoke.

“Follow me.” 

He got up from his chair, taking his jacket, and left the room.  Penny followed him out the door, down the hall and into an elevator.  When the door to the elevator closed the man felt in his pockets, then reached into his jacket, and produced a keycard.  Touching the card to a screen in the elevator he pressed a series of the floor selectors, like typing in a code.  The panel above the buttons slid open revealing sixteen more floor buttons.  Penny’s jaw dropped, she had no idea that the building went any lower then the parking on the basement level twelve.  That there were sixteen secret floors in a building that she had worked in for at least ten years really shocked Penny.  Her mind was literally spinning by the time the elevator came to a stop.

The door opened onto sub-basement five.  The walls and floor were white.  Two gray strips ran the through the middle of the rug.   She followed the agent down the hallway; suddenly she noticed that there were many halls intersecting with the one they were in.  With everything white it was impossible to see how many hallways there were, or even when you were going enter an intersection.  The only thing breaking the whiteness, giving the space any depth and contrast, was the gray bars on the floor. Penny experienced, what was almost vertigo, trying to follow the agent.  Twisting left and right, sometime she felt that they had turned in the same direction more then four times.  Could they really just be going in circles?

Finally the agent opened a door and ushered Penny into an office.  In contrast to the hallway, this room had color.  In fact this office had flat out style and flair.  A rich rug covered the floor, art enhanced the walls and a desk of highly polished wood like Penny had never seen.  The wood was a deep redish-brown, with darker waves and lines giving it texture.   She wanted nothing more then to rub her hands over that desk.  The agent walked around it, hung his jacket on the chair behind it and sat down.  He gestured to a chair across from him.  Penny surprised herself by meekly sitting down; she was a little overwhelmed with all she had just experienced.

“Never seen real wood before?”

“No sir.”

“You should feel it, there really is nothing like it.”  He waited while she touched the desk, a slight smile played on his face while he watched her wonder.  “The texture is called the grain, they say that every line represents a year the tree lived.  This dark one here would be a year it survived a fire, this thin one a drought.  They say these trees could live for thousands of years, but now they only live in parks and protected plazas.”

 Penny pulled her hand back from the desk with an effort. “I know that you didn’t bring me up here to show me a wooden desk.”

“You’re right.  I’m Agent Ness and this is the FIA, or the Forbidden Information Agency.  A relatively small governmental organization, created way back in the mid twentieth century, during World War 1.5.  Our mission is to contain information that could be dangerous to the public.  We have to keep this information from everyone, not only the people but also the administrators; the government must also be protected.  Protected from information that could cause the way they see the world to be radically altered, changing their fundamental beliefs.”

“What information and who decides that?” She interrupted.

“We do.” Agent Ness replied.  “We are black, fully and completely under the radar. But with fingers involved in everything.  I saw this classic movie that had this line.  Something like ‘the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.’  Understand I could be lying, you would never, never, be able to find a trace of evidence of what I just said.”

“The FIA started as small departments of ‘National Intelligence Agencies’ but it soon became clear that we needed a global entity to be effective.  Using the intelligence agencies we had once been part of to cover our tracks we removed ourselves from all record or rumor.  I tell you all this because you are not the only person that sees what is happening in the Below.  We have been investigating the disappearances for some time now.”

“So what have you found, do you know where my husband is?”  Penny didn’t care about any agency; she just wanted her husband back.

“No, and I don’t want to get your hopes up.  I can tell you that we are pretty sure that your husband did not run off, we found signs of a struggle and talked to someone who claimed to have seen an Upper get taken.  I don’t know if that is really any sort of consolation. 

“What I’m about to tell you is top secret, no joke.  For me to tell you, you’re going to have to accept a job, working for the FIA.  You will act as if you really resigned, but in actuality you will have started working directly and exclusively for me.  I can’t tell you exactly what you will be doing yet.  Also, if you accept you will be sworn to secrecy.  If you slip that that FIA exist or discuss the case with anyone beside myself the punishment is very dire.  Like you are wiped from the public memory dire.  Believe me they will find out, you cannot hide from these people. But these are the conditions that must be met for me to tell you more about the abductions.”

“You’re offering me a job? And you wont tell me about my husband until I accept the job, plus I can never speak about it or I’ll be killed.”  Suddenly Penny’s frustration boiled over.  In that moment of clarity and rage, she understood.  “This whole thing has been a recruiting stunt, an interview. You can’t even tell me what my job will be, will I be working on finding my husband?”

But his downcast eyes told the whole story.  “No you can’t even tell me that,” she said with a sign, sitting back in her chair in resignation.

“I told you this is a very secretive origination, it has many departments and strict rules for keeping them separate.  Its like many Hands, none knowing what the any other is doing, but they all have to trust in the Head…even if they don’t know who the Head is.” Agent Ness said with a slight grin or maybe it was a grimace.  “I can tell you it would be a significant raise, fifteen percent.  How about that, and you would be working from home so that means more time with the family.”  His voice trailed off. “Well more time with your daughter.”  Pause. “You’re right I can’t tell you that you will be directly investigating your husband’s disappearance, you wont be.  But I personally believe that there is a connection.  It will be an adventure, that is for sure.”

“Ok. You’ve sold me, I mean, can I say no?”

“Not really. So you’ll take the job?  Understand when you say yes your answer will be recorded.  You will not be able to quit till your job is done.  That means that you accept the terms; you will not share anything that is said in this room or in regards to this job.  You will not share it on pain of death.”

            “Yes, I accept your ludicrous job offer.”

            “Great, lets get started.”  He pressed a button on his desk and two of the paintings on the wall turned into screens. One screen displayed a blue print with many, many, red marks.  The other had a convoluted chart with the names connected by lines forming a complex web.  “To be frank we really know about as much as you.” Agent Ness began, he took a folder out of his desk and pushed it across to her. “We just have more data.  This is your copy of all the documents that you see on the screens.   The blue print is one of one hundred and sixty showing all parts of the Below.   On these we have documented every disappearance that we can document.” He pointed to a red dot on the screen, it stood out as it was slightly separated from the main cluster. 

            “This, we believe, is where your husband was taken.  Not only is it away from the other abductions it was also the only one that showed a sign of struggle.  What I think happened was that your husband was going or coming and he bumped into the kidnappers.  It was just poor dumb luck.”

            “It should also give you an idea for which direction they came from.” Penny pointed out, “If you map the paths into the Below you may be lucky get some surveillance footage.”

            “Right,” Agent Ness raised an eyebrow.  “This is a freeze frame of a van pulling out of a long-term parking lot about four hours after your husband left for the Below.  The van is also suspect as it had only arrived two hours prior. This lot has one of three possible service entrance allowing access to the area your husband was taken.”

            “It all sounds good,” she said. “But there are a lot of, if-thens in your theory.  Let me guess the van was rented.  The IDs used were fake, the name on the paperwork was an alias.”

            “No, the van was registered to a company titled NPC.”

            Penny had not expected that, “is that an acronym?”

            “Not on its papers of declaration, it is only NPC.  Your guess is as good as anyone else’s.”

            “Ok, so who were the signers on the papers?  What about a CEO, or a President?”

            “Nothing. But this is where we get to the true Pandora’s box.  Look at the mess on the other screen.”

As he spoke he drew her attention to the screen with the web of lines.  On closer inspection it looked like a brain-storming diagram.  Little circles with lines connecting them to other circles.  It was so complex, with no pattern that she could see.  The circles, of which she estimated there were about 120, came in three colors. Most were yellow, a hand full were orange, the rarest were colored green. The  lines also came in three colors, red, blue and black.

He then zoomed into the lower left corner of the mess.  Penny was shocked to see how much depth there was to this chart.  After what seemed like excessive amount of zooming Agent Ness had isolated one circle.  He then zoomed out to show the circle was connected to seven others.  Three of the lines were red, two were blue the rest were black.

“Here is NPC, LLC; this small little company here.  It at one time it had two assets, a van and a parking lot. Before you ask, it is the parking lot that we have video of the van leaving.  Not twenty-four hours later the van and the parking lot had been sold. The blue lines indicate the money to purchase the assets originated, the red lines show the path that the money left NPC.  This is all pretty interesting, but the black lines are where it gets really crazy.  See they show the legal connection, in this case the two Trusts that own NPC.  They have both been liquidated.”

He then zoomed all the way out.

“This is what we found when we started to follow the money and documents. The last time I checked we were up to 124 companies, and 1623 transactions, and we’re not done, not by a long shot.   Is it really so hard to connect what starts as a van and parking lot and turns into all this to your husbands kidnapping?”           

Penny opened the file and pulled out her copy of the info-graph depicting the companies.  Up close she could see the lines were labeled explaining the transaction between companies.  Assets, stocks, money all moved between the companies in a seemingly meaningless mess.  There seemed to be no rhyme or reason.  Some assets moved from one company to another to another eventually coming back to the original.  After a few minutes a few patterns began to emerge.  There were three companies; E, Z, and D.   These three companies seemed to control the most money and held a vast ownership of the assets, just moving them from one holding company to another.

            “These three companies are the key.  Who owns them and what do they do?” Penny asked.

            “We got nothing.  No humans at all, only articles of incorporation.  They are listed in the index as tech companies. On paper they have infinite wealth, but there are no bank accounts, no money, just credit.  The money is so thoroughly laundered that we can’t tell if it’s going or coming.  This is no small feat either.  This organization,” he gestured indicating the office and hallways of the FIA, “has been hiding and laundering money for hundreds, for all I know thousands, of years.  We have used untraceable funds to launch wars and topple governments.  If we are good at hiding our financial movements and assets we are even better at tracking down other people’s money.  But these three companies are good, so good that it has been suggested that maybe they are a secret extension of the FIA.”

            “So you know nothing, not even whether your own origination is behind this or not.  What if it is the FIA performing these abductions?”

            “What if your husband really just ran off?”

            “Fair enough…so what’s the next step?”

            “I have a theory, my theories have always paned out in the past, mostly. So the Powers That Be have let me run with it.”  Agent Ness said with a hint of satisfaction in his voice.  “I was giving the power to choose and hire an assistant.  I chose you.  I need you to help me prove that somehow Zed Inc is behind the abductions.  I know it is a leap but I know there is a connection between that game and your husbands abduction.”

            “The game?”

“Nutrua. It is developed and administered by Zed Inc.”

Penny thought for a few, “the letters match, but what’s the motive. If the letter thing is all you’re going on, that’s more then a leap that’s just grasping at straws. At nothing.”

            “To be honest its not much more then that.  I have hunches, and it has always paid off to follow them in the past, mostly.” He paused for a moment gauging her reaction.  “Following this hunch I started doing some research on Zed Inc. I found out very quickly that Zed Inc has some very powerful friends.  After making just a few inquiries I was quickly made to understand that it was in my best interest to stop.   However brief it was my research led me to believe that Zed Inc’s finances are very similar to the three companies Z, E, and D.  There is no human involvement, no CEO, no Board, President or owner, just an entity named Doctor Zed.  Who by the way, I can’t even prove is a human!”

            “But someone wants you to stop.”  Penny said.

            “Right!” Agent Ness replied enthusiastically.  “That means I’m on to something.  But the threat was serious enough that I can’t investigate by any of the conventional methods.  Lucky for you, I have thought of an unconventional way to investigate Zed Inc.  Undercover like never before.”  He nodded and raised his eyebrows. 

            Penny got it.  “Oh I don’t know, I have never been much into video games.  So if that’s what you’re thinking, I don’t think that I will be any help.  I have seen the commercials, and I watched the OC interview.  I’ll be honest that whole integration of the human mind and computers really creeps me out.”

            “That’s valid, but if it leads to you finding your husband wont that make it worth it?”

            “Do you know how it works?”

            “Not really.  I haven’t been able to find much more then you would be able to pick up from the interview.  It is an implant in the back of your neck.  This implant seeds a whole slew of nanites into your central nervous system. This allows the implant to interact directly with your brain, adding and overriding signals from all five senses.  The implant can also broadcast, and receive, information from anyone else with the implant.  

All this you probably got from the interview.  The one thing that I know about that was not in the interview has to do with how the game, Nutrua, is maintained.  My earlier research into Zed Inc’s assets turned up the program that is being used to run the game is supposed to be true AI, it will oversee everything that goes on within the game.  If Zed Inc has really created AI that could have a huge impact on our world as we know it.  This is what the FIA is interested in, they are after the AI.

The implant just came out this morning so I really know very little else.  When we’re done here, I’m going to get it.  Now that you’ve accepted this job, you will too.”     

            “Let me get this straight,” Penny felt like she had been through a brain blender.  “You want me to get this implant to play a video game.  A video game that is really an AI controlled corporate conspiracy rabbit hole that my husband has disappeared down.  While in all reality the people that have taken him may actually be working for the same company that is sending us on this ridiculous wild goose chase.”

            “That’s pretty much it.  But if you have a better thought, speak it.”  He waited a beat.  “Go home, like you really quit.  Take some time, and then as if you were bored, get the implant.  Try out the game, you and I will meet once a week.  Just take it from there, just be yourself and keep your mind open.  Plus now that you made the choice, you don’t really have a choice.” 

            He then dismissed her, telling her to follow the green strip on the carpet.  The white hallway beckoned though the door, but now one of the two gray strips was green.  By keeping her head down and following it she was quickly able to find the elevator.  She selected the lobby level then closed her eyes till the door dinged and slid open.

As Penny she had to pause to let her eyes adjust.  The light, refracted off the glass skyscrapers was much dimmer then the garish florescent it had been inside, the false twilight taking the details out of the world.  Around her on the streets were alive with the shadow commuters hustled their way home.  As her eye adjusted she merged with the flow, the shadows, one step at time down to the subway.