Lock In (Lock In, #1)(27)

“That’s probably terrorism right now,” Vann said. “They like to make an entrance.”

I motioned back at the image. “I got this from security the same time the Leesburg cops and the Loudoun sheriffs did but I don’t think they’ve looked at it yet.”

“All right,” Vann said. She wiped the images off her screen. “Where are you parked?”

“I’m not,” I said. “I caught a ride with Jim Buchold, the CEO. He’s over yelling at the Leesburg cops.”

“Good,” Vann said. She started her car.

“Where are we going?” I closed the door on my side.

“We’re going to visit Karl Baer,” Vann said. “Pull up his address, please.”

“Do we need a warrant?” I asked, as I did it.

“I want to talk to him, not arrest him,” Vann said. “But you might see if you can get a warrant for Kearney’s records. I want to know who he was integrating with. See if you can pull Nicholas Bell’s records too. Two Integrators possibly tied up with murder in a single day is a little much for me.”

* * *

Karl Baer’s apartment was in a little gray apartment complex in Leesburg, next to a supermarket and an International House of Pancakes. He was in a bottom corner apartment, tucked underneath a stairwell. There was no response when we knocked.

“He is a Haden,” I pointed out.

“If he’s living here he’s got a threep,” Vann said. “If he’s got a damn employee badge at Loudoun Pharma then he’s got a threep. He can answer the door.” She knocked again.

“I’ll go around back and see if I can see in a window,” I said, after a minute.

“Yeah, okay,” Vann said. “No, wait.” She tried the doorknob. It turned all the way.

“You really going to do this?” I asked, looking at the doorknob.

“The door was open,” Vann said.

“The door was closed,” I said. “Just unlocked.”

“Are you recording?”

“Right now? No.”

Vann pushed the door open. “Look, it’s open,” she said.

“You’re just a beacon of safe constitutional practices, Vann,” I said, echoing her from earlier in the day.

She grinned. “Come on,” she said.

We found Karl Baer in his bedroom, a knife shoved into his brain. A threep was standing beside his cradle, knife handle in hand, flush with Baer’s temple.

“Holy shit,” I said.

“Go open the window blinds,” Vann said. I did what she told me. “If anyone asks, you came around the back, looked in and saw this, and that’s when we entered the apartment.”

“I don’t have a good feeling about this,” I said.

“What’s to feel good about?” Vann asked. “Are you recording yet?”

“No,” I said.

“Start,” she said.

“I’m on.”

Vann went over to the light switch and flipped it on with her elbow. “Start mapping,” she said. She put on a pair of gloves as I did so. After I was done mapping, she went over and picked up a tablet on the side table next to Baer’s cradle and turned on the screen.

“Shane,” she said. She turned the tablet around so I could see the screen. Jay Kearney was on it.

“Is it a video?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Vann said, turning the screen back to her. I walked over to her and she pressed “play.”

On the screen Jay Kearney came to life. He was holding the tablet so that he and Karl Baer were both caught by the camera.

“This is Karl Baer,” Kearney said. “I am speaking for myself and for my good friend Jay Kearney, with whom I am now integrated. For the past eight years I have worked at Loudoun Pharma as a geneticist, as part of a team working to reverse the effects of Haden’s syndrome.

“When I joined Loudoun, I believed that what I was doing was right for Haden’s. None of us asked to be trapped within our bodies. I know I didn’t. I was a teenager when I got sick and all the things I loved to do were taken from me. Working to reverse the changes that Haden’s had brought into my life made sense to me. I looked forward to the chance to have that new life.

“But as I went on I began to realize that Haden’s wasn’t some life sentence. It was just another way to live. I began to see the beauty of the world we Hadens were creating, the millions of us, in our own spaces and in our own way. And I began listening to the words of Cassandra Bell, who said that people like me, people who were working to quote-unquote cure Haden’s, were in fact killing the first new nation of humanity to come along in centuries.

“She’s right. We are. I am. And it’s time to put a stop to it now.

“It’s not something I could have done by myself. Fortunately my friend Jay believes as I do and believes it enough to help me. Others, who will remain nameless, helped along the way to provide us with materials and planning. And now all that needs to be done is to set it all into motion. Jay and I will do it together. And when his part is over, then I will come back here in order to join him on the next part of our journey together. I guess if you’re seeing this you know how I did this.

“For my family and friends, I know that my actions—our actions—may not seem comprehensible. I know that there’s a chance that a few innocent people will be harmed or even killed. I regret this and apologize to those who will lose loved ones tonight. But I ask them to understand that if I don’t take these actions now, then what Loudoun Pharma is doing will lead to the extinction of an entire people. A genocide committed through quote-unquote kindness.