by Bob Blink
Conroy put his hand on Jack's shoulder and guided him toward the door.
"Let's get started Jack. It's a bit of a drive."
The group watched as the Ford backed out and pulled away, bouncing on the uneven road. It had gone about two hundred yards when it stopped, and the bodyguard climbed out, walking back to the trunk. He stared a moment into the back of the car, probably surprised by the body in the blanket. After a moment, he pulled out the plastic bag that held his stuff, pulled out his handgun and checked to see if it was loaded. He shoved the weapon into his holster, pocketed the other two items, glared back at the cabin, and stomped to the front of the car before climbing back in and driving away.
"The Senator's got a job to bring him around," Mark said.
"Do you think we can trust the Senator's word to look into this?" Steph asked.
"His word doesn't matter," Ed said. "We'll know soon enough if he keeps this all quiet. If he plans to bust us, it'll be on the news before noon. Ultimately, it'll be his actions that decide for us."
"Janet and Burrows will know before that," Jessie said, watching the van pull out onto the same road that the Ford had driven away on a few minutes before. "They'll be following a couple of miles back. We planted a couple of listening devices in the vehicle we gave the Senator, and we'll hear everything they talk about on the way back to town."
"Meanwhile, we need to start clearing out," Mark said. "We've spent all the time here that is prudent."
They had located another summer camp about two hours drive from the cabin. This one had been closed and for sale for more than two years, suggesting buyers were unlikely and the odds of being bothered small. A quick check showed it was larger and more serviceable for their needs, although they'd need to take all the supplies from the cabin, and carefully augment them from small markets around the area.
They had settled into the advisor's cabin that included the main meeting hall and kitchens. More importantly, it had a large fireplace much like the summer camp they'd used to the south. There were more than twenty rooms that had been for the camp counselors, allowing them each to have a small space for themselves. Between the bedding they'd brought with them from the cabin and somewhat dusty supplies they'd found in stores here, they had enough to get by. Supplies had been stacked in the kitchen area, to be sorted and put away later.
The facility was connected to the power grid, but every breaker had been switched off. It was decided to leave them that way against the chance any power draw being noticed and investigated. The twin backup generators were supplied by a large fuel tank, which upon checking was only about a fifth full. A few calculations showed it would last them a couple of weeks, more if they used the power sparingly.
"I liked the other location better," Glen noted, "but this place has a bit more room. Hard to watch all the buildings though."
"If anyone finds us, I'm sure we'll know right off," Jessie replied. "There doesn't seem to be an aggressive manhunt looking for us, and unless the Senator rats us out, I don't expect that to change."
Janet, who'd just arrived with Burrows and was getting her first look at place, having selected a room for herself said, "If the conversation we overheard between the Senator and his bodyguard wasn't something for our benefit, I don't think he is leaning that way."
"They aren't that good of actors," Burrows said, agreeing. "If they suspected the car might be bugged, I think they would have simply held off on discussing plans. There was no time for them to script a fake discussion, and the exchange seemed real to me."
"Jack really wants to come after us," Janet said grinning.
"The Senator had to push hard to get him to go along with pretending nothing happened," Burrows explained. "He promised that if this turned out to be a scam, then he'd do everything he could to give Jack a shot at us. But if it turned out we were being truthful, then he expected the man to accept we had little choice in kidnapping them."
"So, you think we have an ally," Jessie said.
"I don't know how effective he'll be," Burrows said, "but I believe he leans toward believing us. The body and the strange weapon are key. He apparently has a college buddy who is a doctor he intends to take the remains to, and his brother has some kind of tech firm he plans to show the weapon to. It figures if either of those are a fake, the deal is blown."
"So we have to wait and see," Ed said, joining the conversation.
Mark shook his head.
"I don't see remaining idle as an option. We need to push on as if the deal with the Senator isn't going to work out, and he might stir up an intensified search for us. If he decides were we scamming him for some reason, he's going to be just as angry as Jack about the whole kidnapping thing. More importantly, we'll be no closer to finding those behind all this."
Jessie nodded her agreement.
"We need to start thinking about our second "kidnap" prospect, in case this doesn't work out," she added.
"Maybe there's more we can be doing," Steph said.
"What kind of things?" Tom Burrows asked.
"We need to start thinking how we might locate other clones, and the copies of ourselves that they appear to be creating. Probably much harder, but the aliens as well. They have to be somewhere, and until we know where they are, there is little chance of this ever ending."
"Agreed," Ed said, "but where do we even start?"
"I have two ideas, but don't know how implementable either is," Steph replied. "I have been doing a lot of thinking, and believe the phones are key in all this. That's how they controlled us, and since we ditched them, we've been more or less free. There are other clones, doing what this group wants, so there has to be control in place. If that's the case, somehow that control has got to be detectable, and therefore traceable."
"There was some kind of strange circuitry added according to what you said," Mark recalled. "But you don't think that's a separate network that we have no means of understanding?"
Steph shook her head.
"I think that would be too great a task. The infrastructure for the cell phones is immense. It would make more sense to piggyback off it somehow. We just need to figure out how, and we have a thread that might just take us somewhere."
"We aren't exactly set up with a lab and all manner of monitoring gear," Glen pointed out.
"I have friends back at the labs," Steph pointed out. "I'm certain some of them would still help me. It might be risky finding out who, but it's possible, I know."
"Risky is right," Janet warned.
"We also need to set up a better trap for the clones," Steph continued. "They appear to be able to find us if we are in the city. We need to set it up so we can lure them in, especially Johnson if possible, then not just escape, but have part of our team follow them. They aren't able to disappear back into a normal life given who they are supposed to be, so they have to have a base or something somewhere. We need to find that. It might lead us to the aliens. I've thought about capturing one of them, but I'm not sure what that would get us."
"I believe there might be another way as well," Mark said.
Jessie and the others turned to him.
"The messages in the phones. Fred said that every message had the same basic preamble that must be triggered before the unique audio file. If it were possible to monitor for an unusual pattern that is being broadcast through the network, we might be able to see who is receiving it, thereby finding more clones, and also where it originates."
"How would we even begin to do that?" Glen asked.
"We can't, but NSA is uniquely set up to monitor that kind of thing. They look for key words and phrases in millions of calls, and sort them out."
"You're not thinking . . ."
"Fred," Mark finished for her.
"But you think he turned you in," Ed protested.
"Might have, but I think I can get to Fred, even if he did. Once he believes aliens are involved, he'd be back on board. He's an alien conspiracy nut, and has both the skills and access to
set something like this up. I just need a way to link into his accounts in a way that won't be picked up. With software, there is always a way."
"I'd think any passwords you had to access NSA's computers would now be invalid," Jessie said.
"I know a few passwords that I shouldn't, and no one would suspect I am aware of. I can get in, don't worry about that aspect."
"Too risky," Janet said, stating her opinion.
"For us, just hanging out is too risky," Mark countered. "Anything that is going to have a chance of moving us forward is going to involve risk. We simply need to think about how to minimize those dangers."
"I want to have a hard look at the Director and Assistant Director," Burrows said. "One of them has to be corrupted, and that might give us a link back to the source of all this."
"You don't think he is like the rest of us, simply following commands without being aware of it?" Jessie asked.
"Might be, but it would be worth trying to find out. One of you suggested that some of these clones might be more aware of their actions and tasks than others. If that's the case, one of these two might be like that. One of the two clearly sent Geller and me into a situation where it was likely we wouldn't come back. Geller didn't. A good way to eliminate some of the insight we were gaining."
"We need more people," Mitch suggested.
Both Jessie and Ed shook their heads.
"More people just make the logistics and footprint of our little group that much more difficult," Ed warned. "We aren't interested in a force for a head-on confrontation. We want a covert group that gets the information that will cause the powers that be to bring out their big guns."
"But we do need to keep an eye on the Senator and see if he's going to work in a manner that helps us," Janet warned.
"That we do," Jessie agreed. "I wish we knew what he was doing right now."
Chapter 38
They discussed the matter well into the night. Any decisions made would affect the choices they made for the campground they were moving into. Steph's idea of getting someone she knew at her company to have a look at the design more closely was the first to be tabled. The risks were high for both Steph and any one she approached, and could very well end up alerting those seeking them that they were still around. Besides that, the internal modification had been looked at by one of the best engineers Steph knew, and he'd been unable to make sense of it, suggesting a much more sophisticated look would be required. There was also the very real possibility that their phones were no longer active on whatever network the aliens had been using to control them. After all, the aliens had to be very much aware they no longer were within range of the devices, and had deactivated them by removing their power source. Steph herself was the one to suggest this, which pretty well sank the idea. It might be something for later, if all other attempts failed. For the moment, Steph would focus her efforts on the Internet and seeking other information they needed, including anything that might tell them what decision the Senator had made.
Tasks that were agreed to included working on a better trap in hopes of grabbing one of the active clones, or finding a link back to the controlling aliens. Jessie and Ed would head that effort. Glen and Janet would start working on a plan to approach their second target, should it turn out the Senator wasn't working out as hoped. Glen had made a strong pitch for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, having served with the man, and using the argument that Jerry Marshal wouldn't have been necessary if one of the Joint Chiefs had been corrupted.
Mitch and Tom Burrows would be looking into how they might confirm that either the FBI's Director or Assistant Director were under alien control. Tom had some ideas how internal FBI communications and vacation records might be accessed. Burrows reasoned that if Jessie, Mark, and the others had periodic programming sessions with the aliens, whoever was being controlled in the Bureau must have had similar absences, and given the recent uptick in activity, perhaps fairly recently. Internal phone usage was a matter of formal record, and hoped they might be able to get records of any phone usage. Unfortunately, Steph's idea on how the phones were being accessed by the aliens might have helped in this matter.
The last and perhaps most controversial matter that was finally agreed to was Mark's desire to contact Fred and seek his help to tap into the NSA's systems to seek users who might be being addressed using the preamble code that Fred had found during his earlier search. The group was concerned that Fred might well have already betrayed Mark earlier, and that the frequent contact might give a means of tracking them, or deciding what other actions they were pursuing. It took Mark more than an hour of intense discussion to sway enough of the group to get permission to go ahead.
After the extended meeting, Mark hadn't slept well. His mind was too active trying to think of how he would be going about getting his messages to Fred once they had the internet access here up and running, a task that he and Steph would be working first thing in the morning. He'd gotten up just as the morning sun was sweeping away the darkness, and gone for a walk around the camp. He hoped to sweep away the cobwebs and allow his plan to fully materialize, as well as familiarize himself with their new home. He was coming back into the building where they had all settled in, spotting Glen sneaking quietly out of Steph's room. Mark watched as the partially dressed military man, carefully crept the three doors down the hall to his own room, and then silently disappeared inside. Well, that answered a couple of things Mark had noted the last week or so. He decided it was no one's business, especially not his, and elected to say nothing about the relationship that appeared to be forming between the pair.
It took a full day to get everything setup and ready. Mark had to resurrect a couple of hacking programs that would allow him to gain access undetected. Then he was finally ready to make the first approach. He realized this could end abruptly, but from what he knew of Fred, he didn't think that's how it would work out. He wished he knew if it had been Fred who had contacted the FBI after the nightclub meeting with Tammy, but didn't believe that mattered. The walk had given him the idea he needed to make his approach. He'd needed something that Fred would be certain to look at, but which anyone else would simply ignore. He'd settled on a payroll discrepancy issue. He was certain that Fred would be quick to follow up on anything that might threaten the timely arrival of his paycheck. It would be relatively easy to plant the email in Fred's personal email without the system knowing, by using one of the special login numbers he'd acquired some months before. The subject line contained the simple but worrisome warning, "Unable to Process Charge Number". Once Fred opened the email he would find a brief note saying the charges for the previous week required verification. There was a link that Fred could click on, but it would take him somewhere other than he expected.
NSA_Payroll/Internal/Charge_Numbers/Fred_Silverman
Mark entered the last of the note, and crossing his fingers, hit the send key on the small laptop. He wondered how long he'd have to wait. Fred was always in this early, but he often was off on one of his special ideas, so he might not notice the mail for some time. While he waited, Mark reread the text he'd just sent which Fred would find once he clicked the bogus payroll link.
Fred
This is your old co-worker, Mark. No one will be able to detect or view this page but you, so don't worry and feel you need to alert anyone that I've contacted you. Sorry about any trouble I've caused you in the past few weeks, but as you can probably guess, my life has been a bit complicated of late.
I could really use your help. I think I know the source of the files you retrieved for me. You won't believe it!
Think very hard about your reply. You've seen the trouble this situation can bring you. But I have to tell you that you weren't wrong when you suggested off-world influences in this whole series of events.
I know I've ridiculed your beliefs in this area before, but I now have real proof that not only do aliens exist, but they are behind the situation in which I find myself. They have killed a number
of people, including one FBI agent for certain, and I believe a second one. The woman you have seen me shoot on television was actually a clone of the person I knew. A clone controlled by the messages you found in the phone software.
I can tell you more, but you'll have to decide how you wish to proceed. There are two links below. Hit the Delete and all of this will be cleared with no record you received any of it. I'll get a message that you have elected to stay out. Hit the Reply, and you can send me a message and we can proceed.
Later -- Mark
Mark couldn't guess what Fred's response would be. He kept watching the screen, for some reason expecting Fred to come back almost immediately. He was certain Fred would be at his computer, but the harder he stared at the screen, the more determined it seemed to be to remain blank. After ten minutes he got up and headed to the common area.
It wasn't until the next day, early before most would be at work at the NSA, that Mark received a response. For a moment he wasn't sure he believed it, and then he wasn't certain he wanted to open it. It could still be a rejection reply. Fred wasn't the type to simply use the Delete option Mark had offered. He'd want to get his two cents in first. Slowly, Mark slid the cursor over and clicked on the message.
Really surprised by your message. Clever of you getting in that way. I'm not certain I'd know how to do that, but I always said you had skills you weren't advertising. I figured you'd be smart and out of the country by now, but then maybe you are. You could reach in from almost anywhere I guess.
What'd you do to Tammy the other day. Boy was she pissed off. She missed a day of work because she'd been arrested or something. Wouldn't tell me the story, simply said you were a real bastard and it was your fault. Forget anything I ever said about making a move on her. You've blown that opportunity big time. By the note you sent, I'm wondering if you have some of the same in store for me.