Contact Us by Al Macy

artifacts, as in the previous one but without the background of the normal x-ray image. “Instead of a chest x-ray with lines on it, what you see here is simply a dark field with lines on it.”
    “Whoa,”Sachar said. “So that means—”
    “The patient has an x-ray emitter in him. And in his case, he has twenty-seven emitters in his body.”
    “Twenty-seven? How do you figure that?” asked Harrington.
    Tong pointed to the screen. “Assuming that each set of parallel lines belongs to one emitter—”
    “Wait, why do you assume that?” asked Sachar.
    “Well, this is kooky, but I think each emitter is doing a scan around 360 degrees and then progressing downward, or upward, and doing another. Maybe in a spiral. Very fast. The parallel lines represent the different passes.”
    “That’s pretty wild, Tong.” Harrington stared at the screen.
    “You’re telling me. But anyway, in this patient I counted twenty-seven sets of parallel lines, suggesting there are that many different emitters in his body.”
    “These emitters would have to be sending out focused beams, like a laser beam.”
    “Right.” Tong nodded.
    Sachar turned from the screen to Tong. “That’s a cute idea, but you’ve got a big problem: if the patient has twenty-seven laser beam x-ray emitters in him, why don’t we see them?”
    “You’re not going to like the answer,” said Tong.
    “Try me.”
    “Each emitter is microscopic.”
    All the other doctors laughed. Marie did not. She was glad that her x-ray didn’t have any lines on it.

 
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER EIGHT
     
     
    June 8, 2018
    In the Mexico City headquarters of Corby Solutions, Jake arrived at his office following his daily five a.m. workout in the gym. It felt good to get back into shape. His year of not trying had taken a toll on his body, but he was making good progress at reviving his former self. At least that was a positive.
    The kidnapping case was going nowhere and Renata Perez was not holding up well. Jake had taken over her office, the same one he’d used when he had run the company.
    They’d had contact from a mole in the kidnapper’s organization, and Jake had told him they’d give him one million dollars and a new identity if he provided any information that helped free Sophia. But they’d heard nothing from him.
    The secretary came in. “Senor Corby, you are the big news today. On the front page.”
    He frowned. Me? He walked to his desk, and there was a copy of USA Now . His name was in the banner headline and an older photograph of him accompanied the story. He dropped into the chair and started reading.
    President Seeks Jake Corby, World’s Number One Problem-Solver
    USA Now has learned that President Hallstrom and his staff are seeking former government troubleshooter Jake Corby, who disappeared two years ago.
    Corby, if he is still alive, is forty-three years old. He joined the government as a clandestine operative and worked his way up the ranks. Mystery surrounds his career, but he seems to have been shared among our government’s most secret divisions.
    Ten years ago, he left to form a private company, Corby Solutions, but continued to work under contract to the federal government, a lucrative arrangement for Corby.
    A high-level source at the White House explained that Corby’s batting average when it came to solving unusual problems was ridiculously high. According to Charlotta Keller, President Hallstrom’s top adviser, “He always seemed to come up with a different way of looking at a problem. He could see through to the core of the difficulty.” Sources say Corby didn’t suffer fools gladly, causing friction, but that the president found him indispensable, and he was called in frequently.
    The article went on to describe his disappearance, and ask for the public’s help in locating him.
    World’s Number one problem-solver? Sheesh. Jake finished reading and tossed the paper into the trash . Well, if Hallstrom hadn’t already