Inception - Ascension Paradox, Book 1
Copyright© 2023 by L.R. Thornton
Chapter 36
The instant Dino stood in the doorway of the lab, Daniel jumped off the stool in front of the computer and ran over to him. The others followed. Except from a few scrapes, the robot looked none the worse. Behind him was the bumper he’d torn away from the van. Mark came up from behind and reached out to take the bumper from Dino when Daniel gave a sharp bark of protest. “No! Don’t touch it. We’ll have to scan for finger prints.”
“How can we do that?”
“Clear the table and we’ll go from there,” Daniel told Mark. With a nod to Jackson and Ray, they moved the debris that had been strewn over it and then Dino place it lightly on the surface.
Daniel sprayed a fluorescent solution he had used in previous projects over the entire bumper. A black light emitted from Dino’s eyes. It moved slowly over the length of the bumper. Daniel watched one, then two, and finally three prints showed up, embossed and raised in a greenish color.
Ray came forward. “Tell me you have some way to get into the federal database.”
Daniel shook his head in slight amusement. “You don’t think a man such as myself would actually hack into a federal database, would you?”
“I guess you wouldn’t, Professor.” Ray said with a twist of his mouth.
“No, I have my students do that. Karlo?”
Karlo gave a cheeky grin and then went over to the computer. In fifteen minutes, he’d hacked the federal database which held all the information of criminal data. “We have to be quick though,” he warned. “We don’t want the Feds picking up on this.”
After a quick search, two names came up. One of a man named Chris Smith found with medical records and worked at a local car wash. Two others from same person named Thomas Sveka with a prior of felony charges of assault.
Ray came up next to Karlo. “Pull up the record on Thomas Sveka.”
She did and he glanced through the file. “Sveka doesn’t have residence in his name. Looks like he was employed as a body guard of a chain of adult entertainment establishments. He may still be there.”
“A strip club?” Amy’s mouth fell open. “You don’t think—”
“Why not?” Ray responded, his voice dispassionate but his face grim. “A place like that is often a front for illegal activities. If you wanted to take a girl there, it would be easy to conceal her.”
Jackson fell down into a chair, his eyes bleak. “Jillian’s never gone to a place like that before. Neither have I for that matter.”
Daniel almost said, “Me too,” but kept it to himself.
“Even if we know she was taken to a strip club, how do we know which one?” Mark strolled forward. “She could be at any of them. How do we narrow it down?”
“C. A. D. I.!”
Jackson leapt up from the chair. His eyes wide with a kind of euphoric delirium. “We’ll get C. A. D. I. to do it!”