Short Story Fiction Contest May 2014 | Page 217

Artemis chimed back as Lux returned to the street outside Seven Corners. Morris McDonald was a doctor and a businessman, a former executive at NeuroSys, which Artemis described as a “prominent brain science firm.” His was a common enough name, but Artemis had added parameters for location, and then for criminal record.

Though McDonald had never been convicted of any crime, he had been charged twice: first in the circumstances that had led to dismissal from NeuroSys, and then more recently. Both times for the same crime: kidnapping. Both times, logged into the admission records of a local police bureau, and both times the file closed and sealed without further note. How Artemis had located the files, Lux didn’t inquire.

The search had also turned up three addresses associated with Dr. McDonald: his residence, a standalone home in the posh Edina enclave; an adjunct professor’s office at the University hospital not five miles away; and an unofficial rental space in Corbeur Tower, another building in Seven Corners.

It would not be a long walk to Corbeur Tower. The sun had set and a light snow was falling. Street traffic was still heavy, but the cold wind had driven pedestrians and bicyclists inside. The skyways that crossed between the skyscrapers were aglow in the snow flurry, silhouettes of pedestrians contrasted against the black sky overhead. Lux hurried across the corner of an intersection through the press of cars. One honked, though whether at him he didn’t know.

The decryption program had completed by the time Lux entered the high, old-fashioned marble foyer of Corbeur Tower. The program had delivered several hundred of Moreno’s files for analysis.