there.”
“Recent visitors?”
“The FBI. And those investigators, Sean King and Michelle Maxwell. And of course Mr. Bergin.”
“And he never said anything to them?”
“Not a word.”
Bunting nodded, somewhat reassured. He’d pulled many strings to get Carla Dukes assigned as the director of Cutter’s Rock. Shewas loyal to him, and right now he needed her as his eyes up here. Who Edgar Roy really was had to be kept from everyone, including his lawyers and the FBI.
“Tell me about King and Maxwell.”
“They’re persistent, clever, and tough,” she said promptly.
“Former Secret Service,” said Avery. “So no surprise there.”
“I don’t like surprises,” said Bunting. He nodded at Dukes. “Take us to him, please.”
She escorted them back to the same room Sean and Michelle had been in with Edgar Roy. A minute later the man himself appeared. The guards escorted him in, set him down in the chair. He immediately extended his long legs and sat there, staring at nothing.
Bunting glanced at Dukes. “That’s all, thanks. And kill the surveillance.”
He waited until the video and audio equipment was shut down and then sat down in a chair near Roy, his knees almost touching the other man’s legs.
“Hello, Edgar.”
Nothing.
“I think you can understand me, Edgar.”
Not a blink from Roy. His gaze was positioned over Bunting’s shoulder.
Bunting turned to Avery. “Please tell me his brain is undamaged.”
“Nothing wrong with it that they can find.”
He lowered his voice. “Faking?”
Avery shrugged. “He’s like the smartest person in the world. Anything is possible.”
Bunting nodded and thought back to the first time Edgar Roy had gone toe-to-toe with the Wall. It had been one of the most exhilarating times of Bunting’s life. It had been right up there, in fact, with the birth of his children.
Inside the room, Roy, covered with the same electronic measuring equipment as the now-deceased Sohan Sharma wore, had studied the screen. Bunting noted that when the screen sometimes divided into two sets of images Roy looked at one set with his right eye andthe other with his left. That was unusual but not unheard of for people with Roy’s intellectual ability.
Bunting had glanced at Avery, who was working the information flow in front of a bank of computers. “Status?”
“Normal.”
“You mean normal but heightened.”
“No, there’s no change,” said Avery.
“On my command send the Wall to full power. We have to know if this guy can cut it sooner rather than later. We’re running out of time and options.”
“Got it.”
Bunting had spoken into the headset he wore. The first questions would just be warm-ups, nothing too taxing.
“Edgar, please provide me with the logistical data you just observed from the Pakistani border, beginning with US Special Forces movements and the reactionary tactics taken by the Taliban on the fourteenth of last month.”
Five seconds later over his headset Bunting heard an exact replication of this data.
He turned to Avery. “Status?”
“No bump at all. Smooth and level.”
Bunting had turned back to look through the one-way glass. “Edgar, you just observed the encryption code for the relay link for DOD’s satellite platform over the Indian Ocean. Please provide me with every other number of that code up to the first five hundred digits.”
The numbers came at him almost immediately in rapid succession.
Bunting’s gaze was locked on his tablet where the correct digits were set forth. When the last number had rolled off Roy’s tongue, Bunting drew a deep breath. A perfect match.
“Theta status?” he barked at Avery.
“No change.”
“Full power on the data flow.”
Avery cranked it and the Wall flow accelerated markedly.
Bunting had muttered, “Okay, Edgar, let’s see if you can play in the big leagues.”
He had asked four more questions of Roy, all memorizationtests, each quantitatively harder than the last one.
“Recent visitors?”
“The FBI. And those investigators, Sean King and Michelle Maxwell. And of course Mr. Bergin.”
“And he never said anything to them?”
“Not a word.”
Bunting nodded, somewhat reassured. He’d pulled many strings to get Carla Dukes assigned as the director of Cutter’s Rock. Shewas loyal to him, and right now he needed her as his eyes up here. Who Edgar Roy really was had to be kept from everyone, including his lawyers and the FBI.
“Tell me about King and Maxwell.”
“They’re persistent, clever, and tough,” she said promptly.
“Former Secret Service,” said Avery. “So no surprise there.”
“I don’t like surprises,” said Bunting. He nodded at Dukes. “Take us to him, please.”
She escorted them back to the same room Sean and Michelle had been in with Edgar Roy. A minute later the man himself appeared. The guards escorted him in, set him down in the chair. He immediately extended his long legs and sat there, staring at nothing.
Bunting glanced at Dukes. “That’s all, thanks. And kill the surveillance.”
He waited until the video and audio equipment was shut down and then sat down in a chair near Roy, his knees almost touching the other man’s legs.
“Hello, Edgar.”
Nothing.
“I think you can understand me, Edgar.”
Not a blink from Roy. His gaze was positioned over Bunting’s shoulder.
Bunting turned to Avery. “Please tell me his brain is undamaged.”
“Nothing wrong with it that they can find.”
He lowered his voice. “Faking?”
Avery shrugged. “He’s like the smartest person in the world. Anything is possible.”
Bunting nodded and thought back to the first time Edgar Roy had gone toe-to-toe with the Wall. It had been one of the most exhilarating times of Bunting’s life. It had been right up there, in fact, with the birth of his children.
Inside the room, Roy, covered with the same electronic measuring equipment as the now-deceased Sohan Sharma wore, had studied the screen. Bunting noted that when the screen sometimes divided into two sets of images Roy looked at one set with his right eye andthe other with his left. That was unusual but not unheard of for people with Roy’s intellectual ability.
Bunting had glanced at Avery, who was working the information flow in front of a bank of computers. “Status?”
“Normal.”
“You mean normal but heightened.”
“No, there’s no change,” said Avery.
“On my command send the Wall to full power. We have to know if this guy can cut it sooner rather than later. We’re running out of time and options.”
“Got it.”
Bunting had spoken into the headset he wore. The first questions would just be warm-ups, nothing too taxing.
“Edgar, please provide me with the logistical data you just observed from the Pakistani border, beginning with US Special Forces movements and the reactionary tactics taken by the Taliban on the fourteenth of last month.”
Five seconds later over his headset Bunting heard an exact replication of this data.
He turned to Avery. “Status?”
“No bump at all. Smooth and level.”
Bunting had turned back to look through the one-way glass. “Edgar, you just observed the encryption code for the relay link for DOD’s satellite platform over the Indian Ocean. Please provide me with every other number of that code up to the first five hundred digits.”
The numbers came at him almost immediately in rapid succession.
Bunting’s gaze was locked on his tablet where the correct digits were set forth. When the last number had rolled off Roy’s tongue, Bunting drew a deep breath. A perfect match.
“Theta status?” he barked at Avery.
“No change.”
“Full power on the data flow.”
Avery cranked it and the Wall flow accelerated markedly.
Bunting had muttered, “Okay, Edgar, let’s see if you can play in the big leagues.”
He had asked four more questions of Roy, all memorizationtests, each quantitatively harder than the last one.
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