Milwaukee Deep

Alexander Koushov stood on the platform at the Chambers Street subway station waiting for the one-ten to take him home. He had finished a short, otherwise normal day at the office. Happy to be heading home early, instead of leaving the office at seven, as he normally did, he waited to board the train for home. He needed to get home as soon as he could – he was to pick up his wife and be at his daughter’s school by three o’clock. This afternoon was her grade school recital and there was nothing that would stop him from seeing his eight year old daughter on stage.

As the train pulled into the station, Koushov made his way over to the end of the platform. The doors opened and Koushov was confronted by David Fanning. Fanning rushed straight out of the train directly towards him - crashing hard into Koushov’s shoulder, almost sending the Russian born immigrant crashing to the ground.

“Hey!” he yelled as Fanning hurried past, moving at a quick pace, not at all concerned with the man he had almost knocked over.

Annoyed, Koushov composed himself and entered the train - quickly finding a seat and sitting down.

Koushov reached into his coat and pulled out his cell phone. He began typing a text message to his wife, letting her know he was on his way home. Focused on his message, Koushov kept his head down, not noticing a red LED light flashing underneath the seat opposite to where he sat.

If he had taken his eye of the phone and glanced to his left, he would have seen the light was in fact a warning lamp, informing anyone close by that the aluminium briefcase it was attached to was now armed.

Inside the briefcase the timer began its countdown.

It read…29:58:03

“No. The answer is no - N.O,” said Dr Stevens.

“No? What do you mean no?” demanded Perks, “we need Dr Durham to get as close to Michael as possible. Don’t you see, we need to find out the truth about what happened to him?”

“I have my orders, Agent Perks. Harding specifically told me not to let anyone into the chamber, no matter what.”

“But surely finding out the answer of how he got out is pretty damn important. If what I just told you is true then there are some pretty significant ramifications, wouldn’t you say?”

“If what you’re suggesting is true, then yes there would be, but that doesn’t change the fact that there is an enormous risk letting Dr Durham into that chamber – a risk I’m certainly not going to take,” replied Dr Stevens.

Perks turned around in frustration and looked over to Sam.

“What if the doctor doesn’t go inside? Is there another way of getting close enough to administer the session?” asked Sam.

Stevens took a moment to answer.

“We could rig it so she could talk to him via the main computer terminal. That’s the same communication link between us and robotics in the chamber. If we do that, then the sound will be a whole lot clearer than it is now, that’s the best I can do.”

“But does that mean that we’ll continue to hear him as we do now?” asked Perks.

“No, the increases in quality will work both ways.”

“So why is that – why have such a sub standard system to communicate between us and the chamber?”

“To put it simply, we don’t use a hard line. Remember, Agent Perks, nothing goes in and out of that chamber. We currently use a radio signal and since the walls are so thick the signal strength is weak.”

“So why will this change anything?”

“The computer link that drives the robotics has a more powerful signal.”

“Good, it’s settled,” said Sam, “You organise what you have to and I’ll go and pick up Dr Durham. I’ll be back within the hour.”

“Fine, get to it, Sam,” replied Perks, “We’ll be waiting.”