Chapter 19
I left the cockpit and made my way back through the spaceship the way I had come from. I walked down the ramp and out into the barn, where I could see the robots crawling around the side of the ship as they soldered part of an engine onto it. The insect-like workerbots were able to crawl all over the ship, which allowed them full access to any part of it, even if that meant they were hanging upside down. Bob usually remained on the ground and held parts up when I was otherwise occupied since Bob was the strongest and largest of all of them.
“Listen, you keep these guys working,” I said. “But just keep the noise down. I don’t want these FBI guys hearing any noises coming from this direction that would make them start asking questions.”
“Understood,” Francine said. “Although, you have still not explained how you know who is in the car.”
“Isn’t it obvious?” I asked as I stepped out of the barn. “I’m willing to bet good money on opening my front door and finding Agent Adeogun on my doorstep. I’m just surprised it took him this long to show up.”
I made sure the barn doors were locked before I started across the field to the house. As I walked, I kept an eye on the road for any telltale signs of the car’s arrival. I’d known this day was coming since Agents Miranda and Sweeney had been killed by the neo-Nazis, but after two weeks, I’d wondered if Agent Adeogun had simply turned his focus on the terrorists. But now that he was on his way, I was more concerned that the FBI might have found some sort of evidence that I’d been at the scene.
Once I was back in the house, I rinsed out my mug, washed my hands, and then debated if I should change my clothes. I’d tossed on the same ones I’d worn the day before, and they were covered in dust and even a few singed spots where a few sparks from the welding had landed. But before I could move out of the kitchen, I heard the sound of car tires crunching along my driveway.
“Here we go,” I muttered when there was a knock on the door a few moments later.
I opened the door and found Agent Adeogun on the other side. He was in his usual black suit and white shirt, and he’d added a jacket with FBI stenciled on it. Tight, black curls framed his face, and the bored look on his face turned to anger when he saw me.
This definitely wasn’t going to be a pleasant conversation.
There was someone else with him, though, who I didn’t recognize. Francine had been right about there being two people in the black car, which was parked on the driveway just behind the pair of agents.
Agent Adeogun’s new partner was a tall woman with a short, blonde bob and bright, green eyes. She had very narrow eyebrows that had been plucked into thin lines that resembled malnourished caterpillars, but it sort of fit in with her precise, controlled appearance. She wore a formfitting suit, a gray shirt, and an FBI jacket, and she looked just as formidable as Adeogun did. I assumed she had been assigned to the case after Miranda and Sweeney were taken out, and she looked just as ruthless as the other two had been, if not more so.
“I knew you weren’t with NASA,” I said to Adeogun.
“Hi, Will,” Adeogun said with a forced smile on his face. “I’m sure you remember me.”
“Agent Adeogun, of course,” I replied as we shook hands, and then I turned to his partner. “I don’t believe we’ve met, though.”
“This is Agent Applebaum,” Adeogun said.
“Nice to meet you,” Applebaum said, only she didn’t bother with the smile as we shook hands.
“Were Agents Miranda and Sweeney busy, or something?” I asked since I wasn’t supposed to know they were dead yet.
“Nice touch,” Francine said.
“You could say that,” Adeogun replied, and I could see a hint of sadness in his eyes.
“They’re both dead,” Agent Applebaum said bluntly.
Adeogun shot her a glare and then turned back to me.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” I replied and shook my head. “What happened? Were they involved in the shootout I kept hearing about on the news? The local reporter just said that Federal agents had been involved, but I don’t think I ever heard any names. It sounded terrible.”
“Thanks,” Adeogun grumbled and looked away for a moment. “They were just doing their job.”
“Well… I guess that was what they would have wanted,” I finally replied. “Going out in the line of duty.”
There was an awkward silence then as nobody spoke. I waited for them both to say something, but Adeogun just stared at me, while Applebaum looked expectantly at Adeogun, who I assumed was her superior, at least for the present matter.
“Okay…” I said to break up the quiet. “Soooo… is there a reason you’re here? I don’t want to be rude, but I’ve got some projects I’m working on…”
“I have some more questions,” Adeogun said.
“About the meteor?” I chuckled. “I can’t really help with that. I’ve already told you it just fell out of the sky--”
“No,” he replied. “I have questions about some of your other activities.”
“Other activities?” I said in surprise. “There haven’t been any other activities, except my visit to Las Vegas.”
“But that’s not true,” Adeogun said with a nasty smile. “You’ve been behaving very suspiciously, Mr. Ryder.”
“I have?” I asked. “I didn’t feel suspicious when I woke up this morning.”
Adeogun’s expression darkened, and he clenched his fists at his sides. I had no doubt that he just wanted to grab me and shake me until I admitted I’d been present when Miranda and Sweeney were shot, but Adeogun was too good of an agent to give into that desire. He needed me to admit it on my own, but that wasn’t going to happen.
“Do you mind if we ask you a few questions, Mr. Ryder?” Applebaum asked.
“Go ahead,” I replied and shrugged. “Though I’m still not sure what you want to talk about.”
“Of course, you aren’t,” she said with a smirk.
“Just call me Will,” I added. “Okay, so what questions do you have for me, then?”
“What have you been up to lately?” Adeogun asked.
“What have I been up to lately?” I replied. “What is this, a social call?”
“Just answer the question, Will,” Adeogun sighed.
“Fine,” I said as I took a moment to make something up, instead of telling him about the spaceship I’d been building in my barn. “I haven’t been up to much, really, other than my trip to Las Vegas. Just trying new things with the free time I appear to have these days. I’ve gotten into welding and robotics. Retirement is actually pretty fun. You should try it.”
Adeogun gave me a withering look, but Applebaum’s mouth dropped open.
“You’re retired?” she asked as she studied me.
“Yes, Applebaum,” Adeogun said. “He’s fifty-five.”
“You’re…” she said as she gawked at my face. “Sorry, it’s just… You hardly look thirty.”
“Thank you, that’s very kind,” I replied with a gracious smile.
She caught herself then and regained her composure. I couldn’t blame her for her shock, though. Sometimes I startled myself when I walked past the mirror because I looked so young these days. It was like a younger, fitter version of myself had broken into my house and was living there in my place.
“I see you bought a car,” Adeogun said to get us back on topic as he eyed the beautiful, gunmetal-gray Corvette in my driveway.
“Yeah,” I replied. “Pretty sweet, right? I always wanted one, and after the big win in Vegas, well, why the hell not? Am I right?”
“You won big at Nefarium,” Adeogun noted.
“Yes, beginner’s luck,” I replied.
“Winning just under three million dollars is ‘beginner’s luck’?” he asked.
“Combined with a midlife crisis, I suppose,” I chuckled. “And I was smart enough to walk away while I was up. No way I was gonna let the house get it back.”
“I see,” Applebaum said. “Well, congratulations on your win.”
“Thanks,” I replied.
“What else have you done with the money?” she asked and glanced over at the Corvette.
“Well, a few things,” I replied. “I bought the car, as you know. And I’ve been trying out some new hobbies. I mentioned welding and robot building. Back when I owned my trucking business, I always had a knack for maintaining the engines, so this is a bit of the same thing. I’m even expanding the barn so I’ll have more room for my new ventures.”
“We saw the building permit you applied for,” Applebaum said. “That isn’t a barn you’re building, it’s a bomb shelter.”
“You know, since a meteor crashed into my field and agents started turning up at my doorstep, it just made sense,” I said. “I’ll be okay if another piece of space junk crashes onto my property, or if a tornado touches down. Heck, if a category five hurricane blows through here, I’ll be fine.”
“Is that why you bought all of those industrial-strength materials?” Applebaum asked.
Aerospace-grade, I thought to myself.
“Yeah,” I replied. “It would be stupid if I knocked the barn down only to rebuild it with wood again. Like I said, the whole idea is that it’s gonna be indestructible.”
“So you said,” she replied.
“Have you started construction yet?” Adeogun asked as he peered toward the side gate to see if he could see the top of the structure over it.
“Not yet,” I said as I thought about the robots working on my spaceship. “I’m waiting for the builders to be free.”
“I see,” he replied. “And the robots?”
“Is it a crime for me to be interested in that stuff just because I’m closer to sixty?” I asked.
“No,” he replied. “But it’s not every day that someone orders a robot.”
“True,” I said. “I guess I’m just living my childhood dreams these days. Cool car, a robot…”
A spaceship.
“What’s the robot for?” Applebaum asked.
“I don’t know, fun?” I said. “You guys know what that is, right?”
“Let me ask a different question,” Adeogun said.
“Please do,” I sighed.
“What were you doing in Nebraska?” he asked.
“Spontaneous trip,” I replied.
“To Nebraska?” he said. “No one takes a spontaneous trip to Nebraska.”
“I’ve never been, and it’s practically on my doorstep,” I replied. “I grew up watching Cornhusker football. I don’t know, it just seemed like a nice way to break in the Vette.”
“What did you do there?” Applebaum asked.
“I stayed in a motel,” I replied, as they probably knew that already. “Enjoyed the countryside. Enjoyed all of the wildlife.”
“But you live in the countryside,” she countered.
“Driving in a new sports car on sleepy country roads is different when you don’t live there all the time,” I replied. “Sorry, are you guys here because you wanna know why I took a trip?”
“What do you know about neo-Nazis?” Adeogun demanded.
“What’s that got to do with anything?” I asked. “They’re racist, awful people, and I would never spend any time with them.”
“Were you aware that there was a neo-Nazi cell not far from the motel you stayed at?” he asked.
“No,” I replied firmly.
“Really?” he asked.
“Really,” I said. “How could I know that?”
“So, you just happened to show up in the same place in Nebraska where a large group of neo-Nazis had gathered?” he asked.
“Apparently so,” I replied. “And, I hate to admit it, but aren’t there neo-Nazis almost everywhere. Wait, is that what Agent Miranda was investigating?”
“Like you don’t know,” Applebaum snorted.
“I swear, I don’t,” I said.
“What’s really interesting is that the neo-Nazis were building a nuclear bomb,” Adeogun said. “We received an anonymous tip about their location about the time you arrived in the area.”
“Well, it sounds like you owe whoever sent you that anonymous tip a big thank you,” I replied with a smile and a steady gaze.
Adeogun and I held one another’s eye contact for a moment, and I could tell that we both knew that it was me that sent the tip, only I was denying it so well that there were some seeds of doubt being sown in Adeogun’s mind.
“We’d thank them if it wasn’t anonymous,” he eventually replied.
“Of course,” I said.
“We interviewed everyone we arrested, of course,” Applebaum said. “Some of them weren’t really talkers, but a few were happy to answer our questions.”
“Yeah,” Adeogun said. “And some of the answers they gave were very surprising.”
“Ummm, okay,” I said doubtfully. “I’m not sure how this relates to me.”
“Well, here’s the thing, Will,” Adeogun replied. “The neo-Nazis had plutonium rods that they were going to use in their bomb. Do you know what plutonium is?”
“I’m a trucker, so no,” I replied.
“Plutonium is used in nuclear technology,” he said. “In the wrong hands, it can be used to make a bomb.”
Or it can be used to power the engine of a spaceship, I thought to myself.
“I can see why you’d be worried about it,” I said. “Did you find the plutonium?”
“We did not,” Adeogun said. “Several people told us the same story, about how it was stolen by a single man who snuck into their camp and then escaped.”
“Wow,” I said.
“And you were in the same part of the state,” he continued. “Practically on their doorstep. And then, the plutonium disappears, and you start buying all sorts of weird supplies.”
“I don’t know anything about plutonium,” I replied. “And I definitely didn’t steal any from a bunch of terrorists in Nebraska. What, do you think I chucked it in the trunk of the Corvette and drove away with it?”
I laughed and shook my head, but neither Applebaum nor Adeogun laughed with me. They watched me until I finally gave up and shrugged instead.
“Miranda and Sweeney were sent to locate you, Will,” Applebaum said. “They were waiting for you at the Nebraska-Kansas border. Did you see them?”
“No,” I replied. “I never saw them.”
“Well, that’s interesting,” Adeogun said. “Because that’s where Agents Miranda and Sweeney died. Right there on the border in a shoot-out with some of the neo-Nazis. Seems the neo-Nazis were chasing the guy who stole the plutonium when they encountered our guys. Big shootout, everyone was killed, but there was still no sign of the plutonium.”
“Oh, wow,” I said.
“But that’s not all,” Adeogun continued. “Two of the nazis died in a cornfield just off the road. Our forensics guys said that there’s no way Miranda and Sweeney killed those two. They also said they don’t recognize the weapon that killed the two in the field.”
“What does that mean?” I asked as I tried to sound puzzled.
“They weren’t killed by a bullet,” Applebaum replied.
I stared at the two agents, but apparently, they weren’t going to provide any more details. Were they hoping I would just offer my own explanation?
“Are you sure you should be telling me all of this?” I asked instead. “Isn’t all this classified information or something?”
“You have to see how bad this looks,” Adeogun replied. “The plutonium goes missing in the same vicinity that you’re in, and then you start ordering all of these weird materials, including a robot that could, I don’t know, transport something that a human being might not want to risk carrying.”
I could see where he was going with this, and it wasn’t good. All of that stuff could come together to make a bomb, and I realized that was what he thought I was really up to.
“But that’s not the kicker,” he added with another evil grin. “Our satellites picked up a surge in radiation in this exact location about a month ago.”
“That must have been when I powered up the dark matter conversion engine with the plutonium,” Francine said.
“Do you know anything about that?” he asked.
“No,” I said.
“Really?” he scoffed.
“Yes, really,” I replied as I kept my face unreadable. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m just trying to enjoy my retirement, and you guys keep showing up and disturbing me. I don’t know what you’re insinuating about me, and frankly, I don’t want to know. I think you’re just looking for someone to pin your colleagues’ deaths on, and I get that, and I am truly sorry for your loss, but I’m telling you now that you’re barking up the wrong tree with me. I barely graduated high school, drove a truck for most of my life, and then owned a business managing guys who drove trucks.”
“But you’ve read a lot of books?” Adeogun raised an eyebrow.
“Uhhh… books?” I cleared my throat.
“Yeah. Books. You read a lot. We’ve looked up your various credit card charges and--”
“Did you have a warrant to do that?” I asked.
The agents stiffened.
“Don’t you need a warrant before you start digging into someone’s credit card and purchase history? Seems like I should talk to a lawyer or something…”
“You don’t need a lawyer yet,” he sneered. “You’re a good liar, I’ll give you that. You almost had me doubting myself for a while.”
“I’m not lying,” I lied.
“You are,” he hissed. “I can practically smell it on you. I knew there was something off about you from the first time I met you, and I was stupid enough to give you the benefit of the doubt all this time. But not anymore. I’m onto you, Ryder, and I’m not gonna rest until I get the truth out of you.”
“I don’t have anything to do with--” I began.
“I wasn’t born yesterday!” he shouted. “I was going to ask to search the premises again, but I’m guessing you’re gonna ask for a warrant?”
“You guessed correctly,” I replied as I rolled my eyes. “I’m surprised you didn’t show up with one. Since you seem to have it all figured out.”
“Well, then, I’ll be back soon with more than just a warrant to search your house,” he said, his eyes almost murderously cold. “And trust me when I tell you, it ain’t gonna be pretty.”
With that, he turned on his heels and marched back to the car, while Agent Applebaum shot me a glare and then hurried after him. Adeogun barely gave her time to get inside before he gunned the engine and swung around in a tight circle.
I watched the car speed back down my driveway and chewed my lip nervously. I waited until the car was out of sight and the sound of its engine had faded before I closed the door and leaned against it for a moment.
“Francine?” I said when I started to move down the hall.
“Yes, Will?” it replied.
“How quickly do you think you can build those engines?” I asked as I threw open the backdoor and darted toward the barn. “Because I don’t think we have much time.”