Chapter 33

When Smith finally, although reluctantly, submitted to Brandt’s request, Jean had been given access to the global internet. Brandt didn’t know what to expect from this course of action, but he felt like it should have been more eventful. It was as lackluster as the first time he had done so when Jean had less power at her digital fingertips. She had been connected for less than twenty-four hours, and the answers that he sought were yet to be revealed.

“What’s taking so long?” Brandt asked Smith.

“Did you expect everything to be instantaneous? She has to learn how to use her new abilities, just like us. It takes time.”

“Surely something would have popped up by now, at least.”

“There’s also something called bandwidth.”

“Yes, I know what bandwidth is.”

“Good. Then you understand that she can’t have eyes everywhere at once. You would need hundreds of her focusing on certain things to have a chance at finding your needle in a haystack. Even quantum technology doesn’t allow that kind of processing power. Her results are quick, but there is a threshold to the number of problems she takes in.”

“Well, maybe we can increase the bandwidth in some way. What type of connection is she on?”

“We have benchmarked the speed to be around one hundred gigabits per second. There’s not much more we can do because the data flow is also subject to the speeds on the other end of the connections. Short of wavelength-division multiplexing, which, don’t even ask if it’s possible for us to do, we just need to wait it out.”

Brandt had learned when to stop pressing the STB for results. With Jean currently in a data collection cycle for her quantum analysis, Brandt felt like the least productive person on the premises.

Smith and Beckett had begun taking shifts of looking after Jean’s systems. Smith took the day shifts from four in the morning until four in the afternoon, and Beckett had been left with the remainder of hours due to his lack of seniority. They spent most of their time monitoring temperatures and integrity while also being the technician to replace anything that may become faulty. Jean had made it clear that if she found something relevant, she would send it directly to Brandt’s phone. Although just to be on the safe side, he had asked the two STB guys to do the same if they had observed anything useful.

With Beckett in his hotel room doing who knows what, Brandt felt more comfortable being in the presence of Smith anyways. He had grown accustomed to the straightforwardness and reliability that was provided.

“What do you think Beckett is doing? Getting caught up on much needed rest?” Brandt didn’t actually care, but the small talk helped pass the time.

“Rest? I don’t know if he’s even capable of sleep. If he’s not working on one of his personal software projects, he’s probably playing a video game.”

“Video games, eh? Andrew and I used to have these weekly battles in Counter-Strike. It helped me with some of my boredom, and I’m sure it helped him take his mind off of some of the things he had been working on. It’s terrible when I think he was killed right after the match he had finally won. He never had the chance to properly celebrate.”

Smith thought that Brandt really knew how to sober a room. The excitement to finally have Jean running felt short-lived due to Brandt’s obsession with finding those responsible for his friend’s death. He did his best to be respectful, but had no personal experiences to relate to.

“I won’t pretend like I know what you are going through. But you should that you are doing everything you can in honor of your friend.” Smith attempted to console a clearly saddened Brandt.

“I feel like I’m not doing enough sometimes.”

“You are one man on a mission to find something that doesn’t want to be found. Your friend had bestowed a great power onto you through Jean. Sometimes you need to step back and observe rather than rely on pure instinct. Staring long enough does not change the words on the page. You need to accept what happened and evolve from there.”

“Are you implying that I’m stuck in the past?”

“I think that you are still in Andrew’s office. Rewatching a scene play out, expecting a different result. By consistently doing this, you are letting a rage ripen within you. Sooner or later, you will something that you may regret, and they’ll never let you back in the Bureau.”

“I don’t want to go back to the Bureau. But I do see your point.”

“Patience, my friend. The people that you seek are not going anywhere. You will find them.”

Brandt had wished that he could have simply accepted Smith’s wisdom and move on, but the fire had been burning fierce for so long, the thought of snuffing it out agitated him. He wondered if his rage was new due to his friend’s death, or had always been there smoldering, waiting for the right time to show itself. If this was truly who he was, how could he possibly hope to have a normal quiet life after all this was over. The constant reviewing of information in his head was enough to make it spin. He considered Nyx and if he was becoming more like him by the moment. Sure, he could not see himself as the mysterious gun for hire, but hadn’t he already been that throughout his life anyways? A payment was always applied when he chose to be an armed police officer and later a federal agent. Brandt shook his head, hoping to clear it of abstract thoughts. I protect people, I don’t seek out trouble.

“Are you alright, Brandt?” Smith noticed the awkwardness in Brandt’s mannerisms.

“I’m fine. I could use a bite to eat. Would you like me to pick up anything for you while I’m out?” Brandt needed to get out of there. He was due for fresh air and a hot meal.

“Depends. Where are you going?”

“I don’t know. Probably Whataburger; it’s the closest.”

“I’ll pass. My shift is over in a couple hours, and there’s a vending machine in the hall anyways.”

“Really? You are all the way out here in Texas, and you don’t want to have one of the most praised restaurants in the region?”

“I’m a vegetarian.”

Brandt’s eyes lit up. He couldn’t remember if he had ever met anyone that claimed to be a vegetarian. Frankly, he couldn’t understand how anyone could survive without the primal instinct of obeying the natural order of life. “Maybe they have one of those impossible things?”

“Cooked in the same grease as the rest of the food. No, I’ll pass. But I thank you for asking.”

Brandt knew that if he pushed back he would get a lecture about how eating meat is wrong, the cows are creating methane and destroying the ozone, animals have feelings too, yadda, yadda, yadda. Instead, he just acknowledged the new information as if it were a common occurrence. “Alright. I’ll be back soon, then.”

Brandt sat at the booth next to the window facing the front entrance while he waited for his order to arrive. It was a common tactic among intelligence operatives as well as the paranoid. While the likelihood of seeing a familiar face such as Nyx was nearly zero, he did not want to leave anything to chance. To assume that Avery or his physical foe wasn’t actively searching for him after the revival of Jean would have been ignorance. as they went by, he scanned the cars and pedestrians, when a server placed the patty melt with bacon directly on the table in front of him.

He took in the pleasant aroma as deeply as he could. It was a guilty pleasure, one that he rarely was capable of experiencing when he and Joyce were making dinner plans. Besides, Brandt figured that it’s important to live a little when you visit the south. He took a sizeable bite and savored the flavors until his phone’s familiar tone and vibration interrupted his bliss. Really? Of all times? He hoped it wasn’t some silly change of appetite from Smith requesting some wheatgrass and whatever else from some local tofu house.

After wiping off the warm, delectable sauce that ran down his fingertips, he removed the phone from his pocket and noticed a surprising message on the home screen. The number had made no sense, but it was nearly identical to the message that was previously sent to Joyce.

Alto, Texas. Nyx. Address to follow. -Jean

The message had sent him into a frenzy and suppressed the remainder of his appetite. Jetting up from his seat, he left the barely touched meal on the table and sprinted out of the front door.

“I have found him. The one referred to as Nyx is also known as Jeffrey Sorren. Sending files to your screen now.” Jean’s sudden break of silence had caused Smith to fall from his chair and crash to the ground.

“Great. Where is he?” Smith groaned while trying to recover himself.

A look of shock came over Smith as the door to the server room opened, and a familiar face dressed in dark clothing stepped into view.