Lemuria, Burt Clinchandhill [adventure books to read .TXT] 📗

devices, electricity or heating, for that matter. Oil lamps hung on the walls, and the woodstove looked extensively used.

“Mulder came to me for advice on introducing some new business,” De Cremonese stated. “After that, Amie contacted me to say that she was worried about him and that she wanted to talk to me. We scheduled a meeting, but she never showed. That’s all we know.”

“And Jennifer is a colleague of mine who has also disappeared, and we’re not sure how, but her disappearance is somehow connected to Mulder and the work he did or does with isolated tribes around the world. Somehow, that work relates to human evolution.”

Lancaster shook his head slowly and sighed. “Figures,” he mumbled. “All right, let me explain. Almost twenty years ago, Eldin Mulder and I started our first small business called Techbro’s. The two of us worked from our garage and created software for online payment systems. As our software became popular, we sold it for a huge profit. Mulder wanted to start a new company specializing in AI systems and practical applications. I agreed, on one condition. I was to be the man in the back. I didn’t want anything to do with publicity, press or being a public figure of any other kind. Now, that seemed like a match made in heaven at the time because Eldin seemed to thrive on all of that. Anyway, with our capital, we founded a new company called Logynous. I was co-owner and lead developer and stayed out of the limelight. Up until ten years ago, that is. Eldin and I disagreed as to where the company was heading. He became obsessed with things like space travel and improving humanity on a genetic level. All things I didn’t want anything to do with.” Lancaster fell silent for a long moment.

“So, you left the company,” Bishop said, breaking the silence.

“I did. But I also didn’t want to go back to what many would call a normal life. At that time, I was heavily overworked and fed up with everything that was going on in the world, so I had this cabin built and moved out here. Without any distractions, I started fishing, began collecting books, and started reading. Everything without the so-called aid of electronic devices.”

De Cremonese cocked his head. “Now I know where I came across the name Lancaster. Your name was on the theater in the Logynous headquarters, The Lancaster Theater. He named that theater after you.”

Lancaster smiled. “I never saw it in real life but heard of it and saw pictures.”

“And Amie?” Bishop asked.

“Well, Amie had been with us from the start of Techbro’s. She was our neighbor’s daughter, and ran errands for us. We always stayed close. Ever since I moved here, she’d been my liaison to the outside world, and she visited me at least once a week.”

“And these last few weeks?” Bishop asked.

Lancaster took a deep breath. “For the past few weeks, Eldin took over Amie’s visits. He claimed she’d gone to visit her mother, who was apparently very ill. I believed him, though I did wonder why she never mentioned her sick mother to me.”

“He didn’t tell you about her kidnapping?” De Cremonese asked.

“No, he didn’t. But that could have been only to protect me.”

“Has he always been that protective of you?” Bishop asked.

Lancaster grinned. “Eldin isn’t a real warm-hearted soul, though I’d find it hard to believe he would intentionally hurt someone.”

“Was that what you meant when earlier on you said, ‘he did it’?”

“No. I meant to say was that he finally did it—piss off the wrong people. You know that is quite a habit of his, pissing off the wrong people. And now it has come back to haunt him. So, what about your friend? How is she involved?”

“Jennifer,” Bishop replied. “She’s a linguistic anthropologist whom Mulder asked to assist him. We don’t know with what exactly, but she hasn’t been heard from since she started working with him. We found some clues that she was in Asia and South America, probably with Mulder, but any attempt to get in contact with her has failed.”

“What do you know about rockets, spacecraft?” De Cremonese sipped his tea.

“Another one of Eldin’s special projects. I never really worked with him on that one. He’s obsessed with the idea of life on other planets.”

“Even if he had to put it there himself?” De Cremonese asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Could he be working on terraforming another planet?”

“Mars.” Lancaster laughed. “If he could, he would. He often theorized about the idea.”

“Do you know the status of his space-faring capabilities?”

“I know what Amie told me, and I guess it is public knowledge. Logynous has rockets that commercially put satellites in orbit around Earth. But that’s about it. I do know Eldin’s been working on a new space-faring system that should bring people back to the moon, but I never heard Amie talk about anything ready for use, or even testing.”

“Indulge me and let’s say he was a lot further in his space-faring endeavors. How would he go about it?” De Cremonese asked.

Lancaster thought for a moment. “Well, I guess the same way as we did many times before in the early days. First of all, you need to be able to keep your development a secret. Second, you need people. People you trust—a lot of people you trust. Then you need third parties. I guess if you have enough of them manufacturing and delivering semi-finished products, they wouldn’t have to know what they were really working on. Then you need a location. You can’t use a location known to people. Too much risk. Then—” Lancaster suddenly silenced.

“What is it?” Bishop asked.

Lancaster took a deep breath. “Well, about a week ago, Eldin visited me. Come to think of it, that was the first time Amie was supposedly visiting her mother. He brought some papers for me to sign.”

“You still do business together?” Bishop asked.

“Not really. We finished up everything we did in business together ten years ago. This