Chapter 16

                Elder Loomis exited the lift at Central Controls main floor.  He wasn’t fooled by the guileful Melman and his so accommodating escort.  After landing in his personal flyer and speaking with his newly hired employee via his private com, he saw the covert call being made by the waiting escort that Mr. Melman had sent for him.  This was an innocent act but enough to warn Loomis that his actions were not going unnoticed and that Melman was probably being informed of his every move.  Loomis still believed that Melman would be useful to his own goals and if he had to watch his own back, so be it.

                 Loomis walked quickly without hesitation, his escort in tow as he approached the conference room.  He hadn’t failed to notice that the Center’s Directorate Manager, Andrew Kenfer was just leaving a side office with Melman slinking behind.  If not a strategy meeting, then surely information for Kenfer’s ears only had been exchanged.  Loomis entered the rear conference door at the same time Kenfer entered at the front.  The doors shut simultaneously and shook the wall.

                “Elder Loomis,” Kenfer acknowledged with a professional tone. “I hope your trip was safe and uneventful.  I’ve been informed that you’ve been updated about our unusual predicament.  Is there anything you do not understand?”

                “Thank you Mr. Kenfer.” Loomis said with authority in his voice. “Your personal assistant is ever so efficient and has been kind enough to provide me with everything I have asked of him.  I would like to apologize to my fellow Elders, sometimes an old man must be allowed his eccentricities, and traveling in my own flyer is one of mine.  Because of your assistants due diligence I have been afforded all the information presented to my Honorable Colleges so far and have no questions, please proceed with your presentation.”

                Melman watched the discussion going on in the conference room between Kenfer and Loomis while on his com to tech support.  He knew a couple of the new subordinate technicians well enough to use one of them to make the call requested by Kenfer, allowing him to stall for time.  After explaining the situation quickly he ended his call and waited.  He saw Kenfer turn toward the podium at the front of the conference room as Elder Loomis was taking his seat at the other end of the table.  The conference room com could be heard through the wall as it sounded and the look of relief was evident on Kenfer’s face.  Kenfer keyed the call and started talking with genuine concern on his face.  Melman knew the call would be the fake update from communications allowing Kenfer to buy some time.  As Kenfer began talking, Melman was already turning to take the lift to talk with his friend Benson in communications.  He needed the results from Benson’s information search and he needed it fast.

                Benson saw Melman coming out of the lift and began smiling.  He stood and motioned Melman to follow him to an adjacent unoccupied office.  When Melman walked in he saw that Benson had a computer with viewing screen, set up and ready to show him what he’d found.

                “I think this is just what you’ve been looking for.” Benson said, watching Melman’s face. “My search program, the prototype I told you about, has come up with a couple of important clues that should lead us to the story behind the Probe shut down.  I’ll just need a couple more hours for a complex search of this kind but you can give what I’ve got to Mr. Kenfer now.  It might be enough to get open permission to continue using our research staff.  It would be faster with no more cloak and dagger stuff. ”

                “What sort of information?”  Melman said, as he sat in the chair next to Benson. “Make this quick.  Kenfer’s fake call will be ending any minute.”

                “I was able to pick up a program coding subtext just like I expected, behind the obvious message text in the last normal communication to your Probe #4.  By Last, I mean within the automated response that is sent from here at Central Control every time a Probe files a mission status report.  See here in the program breakdown, you can see that the standard leader that always precedes an OIA directive is clearly evident and now that I have the leader’s key coding, I can use it to find the directive’s content.  I just need the time to finish looking for the rest.”

                Melman opened a personal com line to check to see if Kenfer’s com was still active.  The line was open so he initiated a call immediately.

                “Conference room one,” Kenfer said, as if relieved to get the call.

                “Mr. Kenfer, this is Melman.  I’m in communications and the suspicion I was researching seems to have panned out.”

                “Please explain Mr. Melman.” Kenfer said loudly. “We seem to be at a stalemate in our discovery efforts and would welcome any light you can shed on our dilemma.”

                Melman knew Kenfer’s loud voice was for the benefit of his audience and could also detect his appreciation.  Melman was really racking up the favors.

                “We found a traceable code confirming the OIA message sent to Probe 4 just before it shut down and now that we have the identification leader that always precedes a message of this sort, we should have the answers we need in a couple of hours.”

                Unknown to Melman, Kenfer had placed the call on speaker as soon as he was sure good news was forthcoming.  Kenfer wanted the whole room to hear every word and was especially interested in how Elder Loomis would take the news.  Before Kenfer could say anything in answer to Melman’s statement, he noted Elder Loomis seem to visibly harden and then stand up from the table.  Without saying a word to anyone he almost ran to the rear exit door while keying his personal com.