Useless

1869, Brussels,

The wet cobblestone in front of the Romanesque Congress building reflected the orange lamplight as pedestrians clasping their mantels paced through the autumn rain. Inside the marbled halls, however, the attending guests had forgotten about the dreary weather. Sitting in neat rows, the eyes of the city’s upper crust were fixated on a projection of a speculative future. Entranced by the presentation, the audience sat in silence while the speaker was showing a projected concept drawing. The attractive gentleman, dressed in streamlined breeches and a tailored vest, oozed the spirit of progress as he elaborated on the design of a flat-topped pyramid built with adjacent towers and auxiliary buildings.

Engrossed in his own presentation, Fernand Lambik elaborated on a multi-gunned weapon array projected on the screen. “As you can see on this diagram, the Aegis arcology will be an impenetrable vault where families can hold out for several generations amidst the apocalypse. The exterior will be secured by an intricate system of fully automated turrets that screen everything within a kilometer radius of the complex. The surrounding plains ensure they can hide nowhere from our defensive systems.” He paused when a gentleman in the audience, whom Lambik could not ignore, raised his hand. “Do you have a question, mein Herr van Adelbach?”

“Excuse me, but these systems will be controlled by integrated circuits, I assume.”

Lambik nodded. “That is correct.”

“And you have the means to produce these circuits yourselves?”

Lambik harrumphed. “We are negotiating with various parties who can.”

“Does that include Ütter-Krapp?”

His palms began to sweat. “That, I can’t disclose at this time. Next question. You there, madame.”

The lady got up from her chair. “Thank you. With anomalies appearing in the most remote places, do you have any means to prevent rifts from emerging in the arcology itself?”

Lambik struggled to maintain his smile. “Don’t worry, miss. We have the means to determine if locations are susceptible to such anomalies appearing. Out of 38 locations surveyed, these are the least—” Lambik stopped when, past the corner of his eye, he noticed his secretary Veldhuys beside the stage, gesturing him to cut his presentation short. “Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen. It appears my attention is urgently needed. My assistant will proceed with the presentation.”

As the presentation continued behind him, Veldhuys led him to the back entrance. “Pardon the intrusion, meneer. But there is an emergency at the compound that demands your immediate attention.” Outside, Veldhuys opened the door of his autocarraige. “Please, get in.” 

“My presence? Is everybody so useless they can’t do anything without me being there?” 

When Lambik was about to step inside, a realization dawned on him. “Wait, is the vault secure?”

“Yes, meneer. But that’s just it. We can’t enter.”

“Why? Where is Zornbacker?”

“We have not been able to reach him for the last two days. The central office is growing concerned.”

Balling his fists in frustration, sat down on the bench. “Dear Lord. Gone for less than a week and everything is falling apart.”

“You could alleviate this problem by providing more people with the vault combination.”

“You serious? I’m surrounded by incompetence! Our useless security can’t even keep track of an old man with a limp. If I could, I would have replaced Zornbacker long ago. Because of his delays, we can’t give our sponsors any guarantees. I told them starting the promotional campaign this early was a mistake. But, no-oh! Even our leadership is useless.”

“No worries. Our Cayenne connection will come through.”

“You sure these are the same people that provided Ütter-Krapp with the technology?”

“It's complicated,” Veldhuys responded evasively. “Let’s keep it at, yes.”

Lambik took a deep breath. “Very well then. So, what is the emergency?”

“Because there is suspicion of a security breach, the main office demands that you report the incident as soon as possible. Including an inventory of Zornbacker’s archives.”

The car stopped in front of the remote estate.

“Should we report him missing to the gendarmery?”

“No. We have our own people for that, but first, I need to change the combination.”

As they entered the reception area, the head of security greeted him. “Welcome, meneer Lambik. Good to see you.”

“I will not reciprocate your gesture, sir. How did a crippled Bavarian give you the slip?”

“He’d gone home with his driver,” the guard answered nervously.

Lambik rubbed his eyes. “We have people to track him down. First, take me to the vault.”

After taking the stairs to the building's second floor, they approached the massive brass door securing the laboratory behind it.

Lambik sighed. “I’ll start by changing the combination. In the meantime, Meneer Veldhuys, get me the contact information of the Vidocq agency.”

“But, meneer, our superiors—”

“They could wait on Zornbacker for two days! Surely they can-”

Suddenly, a deafening explosion shook the building, toppling vases and shifting the furniture as they quaked beneath their feet. Then the light went dead. Within the blink of an eye, the pristine corridor was filled with dust and smoke as cries from downstairs echoed through the building.

As Lambik’s ears rang, the security officer was screaming at him. “It came from the—*ah-ug*—from downstairs, meneer. ”

Lambit produced his handkerchief from his vest. “See what happened?”

A guard ignited his electric torch. “There is a fire, sir. Should we call the marshals?”

“Uhm, only if you can’t handle it. Just go!”

Veldhuys lay a hand on his shoulder. “Is that wise?”

“And risk exposing the reverse engineering going on? Doesn’t anyone think about these things?”

“Then, now what, sir?”

“Secure the vault. They probably attempted to get in from below.” Lambik ordered the remaining guards to join him by the door to illuminate the dials. 

As he was turning the dials of the combination lock, a guard lay his ear on the door. “Something’s in there!” he said.

“Impossible,” muttered Lambik as attempted to concentrate on the numbers by the lamplight. “Only I and Zornbacker have the combination. It can’t even be locked from the inside!”

“Then the explosion must have breached the floor.”

“Impossible,” Lambik dismissed him.

But as they opened the foot-thick door, a shrill ringing resounded on the loop through the darkness of the vault. 

With his gun drawn, one guard went ahead into the electro-laboratory, scanning the environment with his lamp.

“Guard the door,” Lambik told the other guard as walked inside.

Dust and smoke drifted down an open vent as he looked for the source of the buzzing that was drowned out by the ringing of a cat bell of some kind.

The guard called out to him. “Sir!”

 Squinting his eyes, Lambik followed the guard’s light beam that was following a little toy cherub, suspended from a propeller. Undaunted by being discovered, it buzzed around the glass closet containing the vault prize: a black, triangular semiconductor they used to test their systems.

Speechless, they followed the drone circumventing the room, ringing its bell uninterrupted.

“Is that a windup toy?” Lambik asked, flabbergasted.

“It entered through that vent, meneer.”

“I can see that! But why?”

Before the guard could reply, there was a scream by the vault door. 

When both men swung around, the security officer by the entrance was reaching for his neck before he collapsed to the ground.

The remaining guard pointed his gun at the entrance. “Who’s there? Make yourself known!”

Instead, a round object was thrown through the doorway. Before either of the men could respond, a bright flash stung his retina, making him contort in agony. Even when he opened his eyelids again, the world was darker than the dark. 

By the time his sight returned, the man beside him was struck by another dart. 

As the last guard slumped to the ground, Lambik faced the entrance. 

A masked stranger, whose small frame contrasted strongly against the light, injected another dart into the back of her gun. 

Raising his hands, he tried to keep his distance as the stranger approached, her goggles emitted a dull red light, as they reflected his fear-stricken gaze back at him. “What in the blazes do you want?”

Holding him at gunpoint, the stranger walked in a wide arc around him. “You have something we want.”

“Take it,” he hissed in a threatening tone, “and my associates will hunt you to the end of the world.”

The stranger cackled maliciously. “Your proclamation amuses me.”

He covered his face when the stranger pulled out a hammer and cowered in anticipation of the impact. 

Instead, the sharp cracking of breaking glass sent a jolt through his spine, making him huddle together in fear. Lowering his hands, he saw the stranger reach inside the closet.

Holding the black object by her goggles, she inspected all of its sides. “I have to say, it’s well-made. But this circuit is a forgery. Where did you get it?”

“I don’t know. We are just using it for test trials for our systems.”

She directed her dart gun at him. “Then you are useless to me, aren’t you?”