But instead of moving to the left, the water tornado headed straight ahead and at the huge dam at the end of the reservoir.
The three men froze in their tracks. They were on a bank just off the Hub Dam on the right side. The waterspout was heading their way.
“Run,” screamed the scientist as he grabbed the Switch and began racing up a nearby hill. They headed up the bank and then took shelter in a small alcove like cave. Water, branches, sand and other debris slammed into the rock around the cave entrance at a hundred miles an hour. If they had stayed in the open, they would have been shredded or simply carried away.
The waterspout hit the dam right in the middle and broke away a two hundred foot wide chunk of cement at the top. Water immediately began to gush through the hole in the dam and it created a spectacular water fall. The river below immediately flooded its banks.
Dr. Raja realized the flooding would cause a gigantic amount of damage downstream as the Hub River ran right through the middle of Karachi. The damage to the dam would take at least a month to repair. How many people did I just kill?
The first test of the Switch device using an Iman created the desired natural phenomenon, but unfortunately it didn’t go where they wanted it to go. Dr. Raja finally understood that the banker was probably right. The Switch caused wanton destruction and most of the people who would die would be Muslims.
Dr. Raja and the other two men were on safe ground by the time the waterspout passed over the dam edge. They all stood in undisguised horror as they watched the destruction unfold and expand downstream. The waterspout turned into a tornado when it reached past the dam. It was now ripping apart houses and make-shift buildings in the city.
“You’re fired,” Dr. Raja screamed with anger. He had to blame someone for his error, it couldn’t be him. “Dax take care of him.”
Before the Iman could protest, Dax put a bullet through his brain. He and Dr. Raja tossed the body into the collapsing reservoir. He had failed the test.
***
A day later Dr. Raja and Dax were back in Karachi, the disaster at the Hub Dam was already forgotten although the destruction was all around them. “This is harder than I thought,” Dr. Raja eventually complained as they trudged through the back alleys and dirty streets of the huge city.
“Yeah,” Dax responded. “It’s not like there is a Society of Iman’s or a national registry or anything like that which we can use to check the qualifications of these guys.”
“We also need to be careful,” Dr. Raja added. “When natural disasters start happening, I don’t want anyone remembering that they talked to us about a machine that can cause them.”
“Maybe we should place an ad in the Express. It’s the most widely read newspaper in Pakistan,” Dax offered.
“I think that you’re right,” Dr. Raja agreed and clapped his hands. “We’ll set up interviews for two days from now.”
They immediately turned back towards the warehouse with new hope of finding a candidate who was qualified. They didn’t realize that running the ad would bring them even more trouble.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
By nine o’clock in the morning, the MAD team along with their TACP support group had reached the basecamp of the Effort meteorite hunters. As expected, there was no one there. Malcolm had announced that the camp was empty well before they spotted it. He recommended that the TACP members could enter the campsite at the same time. The general made the call and told them to catch up with the MAD team.
They found two vehicles filled with supplies and equipment, four tents and a small grill for cooking food. They also found several hand guns and two rifles. After a search on one vehicle, they found eight meteorites that had been collected. The general immediately moved them to the MAD Jeep.
“They must have more weapons with them,” the TACP captain reasoned. “I can’t imagine anyone going out in this desert without lethal protection.”
“We need to disable their vehicles in case they get back to camp before we find them.
“Let the air out of their tires,” General Stone ordered expansively. “And take anything that will stop them from leaving the desert until we are ready to let them leave.”
“We do it a little differently now, general,” the captain responded with a bit of an insult. “I’ve taken the liberty of removing the rotor caps from the engines. Their vehicles won’t start without them.”
“Very well,” the general agreed with a slight measure of embarrassment. “But we must find where they are located now. Anybody got any ideas?”
“I found a grid map inside one of the tents. I think that it’s the leader’s tent,” Sergeant Pepper announced as he spread out a piece of laminated plastic on the ground. Everyone leaned in to observe what he found. It showed a picture of the Eye of the Sahara taken from high in the air. Crisscrossing search grid lines had been drawn that covered the entire area. Most of the grid boxes had Xed out lines made with a red felt tip pen. Only a few grids in the eastern portion of the eye were still open.
“I believe I know where they went today,” the captain said with a little laugh.
“That’s where they went alright,” Lisa agreed. “But the scale on the map says that each of the six remaining grids is four square miles each. That’s a lot of ground to cover.”
“I wonder where they really went.” Malcolm asked out loud. None of the TACP team knew that he was asking his spirit researcher.
“Maybe we can shortcut our search area a little. Any thoughts?” General Stone offered to kill some time while Malcolm waited for an answer without alerting the TACP team.
“I don’t think they would head to the farthest point first,” Lisa argued. “According to the dates written on this map, they have always worked their way out to the edge. It would be illogical to do a search any other way.”
“Considering they are almost out of food,” I’m guessing that they went to the end and are working their way back,” the captain remarked. “That’s how I would have done it. Let’s start there.”
Malcolm looked to each person on the MAD team and then offered his information. “They’re in this middle quadrant,” he said and pointed.
“Why do you think that,” the captain asked incredulously.
Malcolm responded. “They want to fulfill their quota of meteorites as soon as possible and there is a higher chance of finding one in the interior.”
“That’s it then,” General Stone announced and slapped his knee. “Let’s go.”
“But what about my expert analysis?” the stunned captain asked.
“The team all agrees with Malcolm,” General Stone responded calmly. “Now keep two miles behind us until we call for you.”
They piled into their vehicles and sped off leaving the captain with his mouth open.
***
The MAD team was celebrating their victory of not making the TACP team too suspicious of their abilities as they headed down the road.
“Did you see the look on the captain’s face when you told him we were going to take Malcolm’s analysis,” Kaley gushed.
“I’m sure that he doesn’t often lose an argument about tactics,” Lisa said with a laugh.
“I think we’ll need to be…” the general started, but was interrupted when his satellite phone started ringing.
“Who could that be?” Lisa wondered.
The old man pulled out the satellite phone. “Simon, its Gillian Darby,” Simon Stone heard when he answered it. “I need to talk to you urgently.”
“Yes, I understand,” the old man replied. “What’s so important?”
“Have you heard the news?” she asked
“Dr. Darby, we are in the middle of the Sahara desert. What news are you referring to?”
“There has been a huge natural disaster in Pakistan.” She replied.
“Tell me about it?” a suddenly curious and worried General Stone asked.
“It started as a waterspout over the huge Hub Dam reservoir north of
the city of Karachi. It broke through the dam and then turned into a tornado which ran through the center of the city and all the way down to the ocean.”
“Wow, that’s bad,” the general commented as he put the call on speaker.
“The thing is there is no record of a waterspout ever forming over the reservoir before. While it’s natural it’s also suspect. Over two hundred thousand people have died so far.”
“Holy Crap,” Simon exclaimed. “And you think that it’s one of the Switches, right?”
“Well the alarms have been going off fairly regularly, but this one is the most powerful tornado ever recorded on Asian soil. What do you think?”
“I think it’s the jihadists testing their Switch,” the general offered. “Remember, they are in the Indus Vortice in Karachi. My guess is that they wanted to see if they could make it work properly. It also means that they are doing something differently. We just don’t know what. And it didn’t work.”
“Everyone here is freaking out. What if they try to test it again and have the same kind of results?”
“Hmm, you’re correct of course,” the general muttered. “Can you get satellite footage of the dam area from just before the waterspout started?”
“I can try, but why? I’m not sure that we cover all of Pakistan with satellites.”
“We do,” the general replied.
“Then I should be able to get it. But I don’t understand why you want the satellite footage.”
“If they were actually testing the device, then they would have wanted to be in close proximately to see the results. Maybe we can spot them on the feed.”
“That’s like looking for a needle in a haystack,” Dr. Darby noted skeptically.
“But it could work,” the general corrected her. “I know that it’s a bit of a risk because there are other avenues we need to explore, but this sounds right to me. We may be able to identify the jihadists.”
“It’s a big risk,” Dr. Darby said dubiously. “It’ll take many man hours to study the images.”
“But,” Simon Stone started. “That’s why they pay us the big bucks. We will take the risk.”
“I’ll let you know when I have something,” Dr. Darby said as she hung up the phone.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
The trip across the Eye of the Sahara was uneventful, even boring. From high above, pictures of the phenomenon appeared to be blue, glassy, and smooth— just like the human eye, but when driving across the surface, it was quite a different story. The surface was anything but smooth.
The ground was hard, of course, but the actual color of the dirt was brown with a very pale blue tint when seen up close. It was due to the concentration of the minerals in the soil. There were also a number of small hills and ridges with sharp drop-offs all around the eye.
Malcolm had to pay close attention and drive the Jeep slowly to prevent it from plummeting over the crest of a ridge high. Some were high enough to cause damage to their Jeep. When they found a high ridge, they had to stop, backup, and go around. There were also loose rocks on the ground everywhere making for a very uncomfortable ride. That coupled with the fact that there was no scenery what so ever, just dirt and sky, made it boring. The MAD team spent the time discussing their mission.
“Simon,” Lisa politely asked. “Which group scares you the most, the jihadists or the supremacists? I mean if we could only stop one Switch, which one would it be?”
“I’d have to say neither,” the old man clearly declared to the startled professor.
“What? I don’t understand,” Lisa responded and wrinkled her pretty forehead.
“I think the most dangerous holder of the Oracle of Philon and all its parts is our own government. They can’t be trusted with this much power. Sooner or later someone will decide to use it as a weapon again.”
“I actually agree with you Simon,” Malcolm shouted from the front seat.
“Which means that we need to find a way to prevent the government from keeping all the pieces and yet make them believe that they have everything,” Simon explained.
“But that means that we will have to destroy some of the parts,” Kaley voiced her concern.
“Or keep them for ourselves,” Lisa said cunningly. She understood where the general was going.
“Sounds right to me,” Malcolm agreed.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Simon Stone reminded everyone. “We’re not sure what kind of challenges we might face in order to stop the other groups first. We’ll deal with that problem later.”
“We’re coming up on the part of the grid where the Effort people are working,” Malcolm suddenly shouted.
***
Malcolm stopped the Jeep below an escarpment and the MAD team left the Jeep stretching and being thankful the trip was finally over. The TACP team pulled up and deployed, setting up a perimeter. The general reminded them to stay where they were until called.
“But, I don’t see anyone,” Sergeant Pepper reported. “How do you know where the guys you are looking for are hiding? I don’t see any tracks either.”
“They’re not hiding,” the general replied. “They’re just over that ridge.” He pointed to the escarpment. “They’re looking for meteorites which we can’t allow them to keep.”
“How do you know where they are?” Sergeant Pepper asked suspiciously.
“We have a tracker on one of the men we’re after,” General Stone lied with a straight face.
“Excuse me for saying it, but there’s something strange about your whole team, General,” Captain Kane uttered. “And the way you operate.”
“But you will follow my orders to the letter won’t you
Captain?” General Stone said with an implied threat. “Is that clear?”
“Yes sir.” The TACP leader replied and stiffened.
“We’ll answer all your questions when and if we succeed,” General Stone promised with another lie.
“Fair enough general,” the captain agreed and the two men saluted.
***
While General Stone was busy talking with the TACP team, Lisa began scaling the thirty-foot rock cliff. She was the team’s resident survivalist and rock climber. Her long legs and thin body made her a good mountaineer. She carried a rope, a hammer and some spikes. She would hammer the stakes into any solid footing that she could find and connect the rope to it. The rest of the team would follow her and climb to the top using the rope.
Once she secured the rope, Simon was next up the rope. The athletic Kaley positioned herself behind him to help the old man if he faltered. Malcolm went last. At one point on the way up both Simon and Kaley were stuck and needed a push. Malcolm had to place his hands on Kaley’s hard ass to push her up. He was delighted when she didn’t react negatively and punch him in the face.
As the team reached the top of the ridge, they crawled over to Lisa and huddled together on the sandy top of the ridge. She had field glasses out and was tracking the Effort men. They were a hundred yards away, spread out in a straight line that was perpendicular to the team’s position and heading towards where the team hid. They would pass right by the MAD team.
Lisa noted that the men were about twenty feet apart as they walked — making a straight line that was over a hundred and forty feet long. She could also see their Land Rover parked several hundred yards behind them.
The seven men had small black devices in their hands and were sweeping them back and forth over the ground. Six of the men were armed with visible guns. The seventh man was a smaller heavyset man who carried a mesh sack on his back. There were three meteorites stuffed inside.
“What are those?” Kaley asked as she pointed to the devices. “Are they a weapon?”
“No,” Lisa explained. “They are a tool used to measure magnetic radiation. It is harmless to us.”
“What did you find out?” General Stone then asked his telepathic expert.
“Well,” Lisa said as she continued to observe the men. “I’ve
pinged each of them and you should know that they only need one more meteorite to complete their mission.”
“I believe they will finish a little short,” Kaley joked while having a serious expression on her face.
“And the leader?” the general continued.
“The leader is the second man from the right,” she said and pointed. “He’s an Effort man out of Chicago named Kurt Hunt.”
“Okay, that’s the one we capture first,” the general suggested. “Is everybody ready?”
“Don’t forget your earpieces,” Kaley warned. “What’s the plan?”
“See the large bolder about thirty yards down the ridge?” Lisa pointed to the rock. “That’s the best place for the first ambush I think.”
“Okay, give us ten minutes to get in place. Make sure you wait until the line of men passes the boulder before you start pinging again,” the general ordered.
“Why shouldn’t I go with Kaley?” Malcolm suddenly spoke with concern.
“You may be younger than me, but I’m a trained fighter. What are your credentials?” the old man responded and threw out his chin. “Besides you need to head to the Range Rover and steal their only way out of this place. So get going.”
Malcolm reluctantly left to steal the vehicle. General Stone and Kaley slithered off to hide behind the boulder. Lisa’s job was to coordinate everything and lure the men to the ambush spot.
***
When everyone gave the ready sign, Lisa started the operation by sending a ping to the Effort leader. Suddenly he felt that he had to pee urgently and thought that the boulder off to his left would be as good a spot as any.
“I’ve got to go pee,” he unceremoniously announced and headed towards the boulder.
“Another Effort man said, “Wait up, I have to go too. Why don’t we all take a short break?”
“Uh-oh,” Kaley muttered. “I don’t think that I can take all of them at once,” she said from her hiding place.
The Oracle Philon Page 14