“What’s the difference between a regular computer and a quantum computer anyway?”
Jimmy looked at him like he was an idiot. “The lack of knowledge among the common man is astounding. The biggest difference is a quantum computer uses the power of atoms or molecules to perform calculations whereas computers use binary digits of zero or one.”
“And this means?”
“A Quantum computer uses qubits which can be in a superposition of states. The superposition of states gives a quantum computer its inherit parallelism which allows a quantum computer to work on a million computations at once while an old computer can work on only one.”
“I don’t know what the hell you just said but I assume that means it is a lot faster than a regular computer?”
“By a magnitude of about infinity. The government has been mining data for decades and its biggest problem is that it does not have the computing power to translate the data into real-time usage. But for me the real beauty of this thing is that it is like being invisible. I can hack into any computer system in the world and no one can trace it back to me. On top of that because of its computing power I can break through just about any computer system’s encryption safeguards. In the old days a 128-bit cipher encoded message would be almost impossible to crack even using the most powerful supercomputers. Now, with a quantum computer it can be done almost instantaneously. You have no idea the computing power this little sucker has.”
“And DC is going to use this to further enslave us, I suppose?”
“Damn straight. You don’t think they would be using it for the betterment of civilization, do ya?” Jimmy began punching on the device. After a few minutes he swore, “Damn, this Firth guy is locked up tight.”
“I think he’s been scrubbed from AmeriNet,” West responded with disappointment because if Jimmy couldn’t get him the information no one could.
West slid out of the booth. “See what you can do. I’ll get us another round of beers.”
West went over to the bar and ordered two beers. He brought them back to the table and handed one to Jimmy, who looked frustrated.
“Well, Mr. Firth is as encrypted as it gets. I can’t break into his financial records at Homeland and I can’t find any references to him in any of DC’s databases. It’s like the guy doesn’t even exist. I even tried hacking into some Dracun sites.”
The hair on the back of West’s neck rose. “Dracun?”
“Yeah, you know, the Evil Empire guys.”
West looked around then almost in a whisper said, “Until a couple of days ago I had never really heard of the Dracun and now I keep hearing their name being referenced on a daily basis.”
Jimmy glanced up from his computer with a questioning look on his face. “Are you serious? And you write for a conspiracy tabloid? Jeez, what hole have you been living in?”
“So you think the Dracun actually exist?”
“I sure as hell do. They’re the descendants of Atlantis. The true bloodline. They were close to discovering the secret of immortality and that is why their utopia was destroyed. You can read about in the Hall of Records. It contains all their historical records.”
West couldn’t tell if Jimmy was joking or not. “And where would I find this Hall of Records?”
“Underneath the Sphinx in Egypt,” Jimmy laughed and then said jokingly, “I’m just messing with you. The Hall of Records is a plane of existence in the Akashic Field.”
“C’mon, be serious.”
“Who said I wasn’t. Look I know the Dracun exists. I’ve hacked into places that confirm it but I believe they are really just a club of sorts. The most powerful, most exclusive club in the history of the world.”
West raised his hand. “Okay, let’s focus here. Maybe Firth is not in the system because he is part of the Dracun and if this group is that powerful they probably would want to keep a low profile, right?”
“Maybe, but I do know this, if I can’t find anything about him with this computer then he truly is a ghost. Hold on, wait a second, here we go.” Jimmy punched a few more keys.
“Whatcha got?” West asked.
“I got a number and address for you.”
“At least that’s a start. You think it’s correct?”
“I don’t know, but based on how limited the information is on this guy it could have been planted.”
Jimmy wrote the information on a cocktail napkin and slid it across the table to West, who put the cocktail napkin in his pocket.
“Hold on,” Jimmy mumbled. “I’m getting a strange coding sequence I’ve never seen here before. All right mama, let’s see where this takes us.”
He watched as Jimmy entered data into the quantum computer.
“Holy shit!”
“What? What is it?”
“I don’t know where or how I got to where I’m at, but according to this Firth has a Code Zero clearance.”
“Code Zero. What the hell does that mean?”
“I don’t know exactly. I mean, I’ve heard of it. We always knew that certain high-level individuals within the government had secret clearance codes. The highest level that I know of is Code Black and that is reserved for the President, top levels of Homeland Security, the head of NSA and a few upper echelon criminals. It basically gives them blanket immunity.”
“What do you think this Code Zero means?”
“It’s kind of an urban myth among the hacker crowd. The story goes that the reason the world seems hell bent on committing mass suicide is because we’re being set up to be taken over by…get this, aliens.”
“You mean illegal aliens from Africa and South America?”
“No. I mean fucking little green men from outer space.”
“Get the fuck out of here,” West interrupted. “That’s insane.”
“Listen. I’m not saying I believe it.”
“Alright, so what exactly does Code Zero mean and why does Firth have it?”
“They call it Zero Theory. Supposedly, a few individuals in the world have a Code Zero clearance and they are in cahoots with the aliens. Here’s the story: In the early 1750’s, right before the Industrial Revolution, some alien scout ship discovered our planet. They also discovered Earth has certain natural resources they needed for their cosmic travels. So this scout ship left a few of their kind behind to direct the course of human development in a way that when they returned we would be technologically advanced enough to help them extract the resources they need, but not technologically capable enough to cause them any problems via rebellion or warfare.”
“So you’re saying these aliens are responsible for all of our technological advancements over the last 300 years?”
“I’m not saying anything. I’m just telling you there are people who believe our civilization was pushed in a certain way. The industrial and technological advancements were given to us in a limited manner to ensure we developed the infrastructure needed so that when the alien mother ship arrived everything would be in place so they can extract the resources they need.”
“Well, the first flaw in this asinine theory is if these aliens are so advanced why would it take them so long to get back? Or for that matter why don’t they just kill us off and mine the shit themselves?”
“A hacker buddy of mine who swears on his life Zero Theory is true told me Einstein’s theory of relativity is right, at least in our universe. These aliens are far more advanced than us but they still live under the laws of physics so they can only travel at 99.99% of the speed of light. In conjunction with Darwin’s Theory of Evolution these aliens would have enormous life spans or they might be conscious robots.”
“Conscious robots. What does that mean?
“Just what I said. They are basically robots with artificial intelligence. They would be practically immortal and their spaceships are basically traveling planets.”
“Okay but why couldn’t they just mine whatever they needed themselves? What do they need us for?”
“That ans
wer is the basis of the original theory. It takes thousands, even millions of earth years to travel distances in the universe, even if you can travel at 99.99% the speed of light. That extra 0.01% makes all the difference in the world and if there are no such things as wormholes then it would make sense they would cultivate a civilization in a certain manner to prep things and ultimately use them to help extract whatever resources they need.”
“Well, I’d say they better hurry up and get back because we’ve pretty much used up all the natural resources on this planet.”
“No, no you’re not listening. You’re talking about what we use for our energy demands, fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas, and oil. You can’t use those resources to travel through the vast distances of the universe. They gave us the technology to develop those energy sources for our energy needs, not theirs because they can’t use it. I mean if you think about it, we can split an atom, build quantum computers, send spaceships through the solar system but we can’t develop a car or airplane that doesn’t need fossil fuels in order to operate? I mean it’s ludicrous if you really believe that.”
“I guess I can’t disagree with you on that point. I’ve always thought we had the capability to manufacture a high-tech, low-cost battery that could power a car efficiently while doing it with little or no pollution.”
“Shit man, DC’s been promising an energy policy for 60 years now. Hell, I know we’ve got the technology. But think about it, who would be the big losers with that kind of technology?”
“Obviously, the big oil and car companies,” West answered.
“Right, but far and away the biggest loser would be DC. Those companies are nothing more than nationalized government entities run by government unions anyway. There is absolutely no reason for them to allow this technology to be used because it would mean a tremendous loss of money but more importantly power.”
“And I guess the theory goes that the aliens wouldn’t want us to develop these technologies because we would use up their resources and could even become a threat to them.”
“There you go, Mr. Investigative Reporter.”
“Ok so let’s back up here. What are the resources these aliens are after?” West asked, thinking this conversation was eerily beginning to remind him of the last few times he met with Sloan.
“You ever hear of rare earth elements?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I’m not talking about the rare earth elements that we use in electronics. I’m talking about elements that technically we have not discovered yet.”
“What do you mean technically? Either we have discovered them or we haven’t.”
“Just hear me out. If you believe the Zeroists, there are elements that exist that are not on our Periodic Table of Elements. You’ve heard of dark matter?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, physicists have been trying to discover the missing elements of the universe for well over a century. The missing elements are typically called dark matter. You’ve heard of the Hadron Collider in Switzerland?”
“The one that was blown up by anti-EU terrorists decades ago?”
“Correct. The Zeroists believe the collider had discovered miniscule amounts of dark matter elements and they also discovered that material could be found at the core of the Earth. But the reason we can’t use it is that we do not have the technical ability to extract the elements. And even if we did, because of the immense pressure at the center of the Earth, once we did extract the elements they would lose their properties when introduced into a much lower pressure environment.”
“Kind of like Schrödinger’s Cat, right?”
“Yep. Quantum physics says by simply observing something, the observation causes the basic nature to change. These rare earth elements are the resources the aliens want from our planet and they have the technology to detect, find and collect them without observing or changing the quantum structure.”
“So let me sum this up,” West said. “Basically the Zeroists believe these aliens are galactic nomads. They have enormous lifespans and their ships are their homes. They build galactic superhighways but despite their technological advances they still need fuel to power their ships. The story goes that when they discovered earth, they left behind scouts who recruited a handful of human families and through these families they have directed and, when necessary, altered the course of human development to be able to mine the elements when the species return. So our planet is nothing more than a galactic rest stop for some little green men?”
“Yep. That pretty much sums it up,” Jimmy answered.
“But wouldn’t someone have seen one of these aliens after all these hundreds of years?”
“You know how I’m going to answer that don’t you?”
“So they’re invisible?” West said sarcastically.
“Not exactly. Black holes are invisible to our eyes but we know they exist. Perhaps the “little green men” as you call them live in a frequency or spectrum not visible to humans. Kind of like a radio station. When you change the radio station the music hasn’t really stopped playing. We just don’t hear it because we’ve switched to a different frequency. Our basic senses, especially vision, can only see in a specific type of frequency or spectrum and its possible these aliens live in a spectrum that we can’t detect.”
“Then who are these human families who are supposedly in cahoots with the aliens?”
“Think about it. What family dynasties have survived centuries with each subsequent generation becoming more wealthy and powerful than the previous despite wars, despite countries and currencies breaking apart? I mean if you really think about it, this crazy alien conspiracy doesn’t sound so crazy because it is almost impossible for a family to sustain wealth longer than two or three generations. It’s almost against the basic law of nature. But yet there are a handful of family dynasties that have survived and amassed enormous amounts of wealth and power over the decades.”
“So let me guess,” West interrupted. “You’re talking about the Rothschild’s.”
“Pretty much. My friend swears the aliens cut a deal with the Rothschild ancestors. They promised them unlimited wealth and power and in exchange these families would wield their power to direct and cultivate human development so that when the aliens return they can embark upon their plan.”
West shook his head then whistled. “I’ve heard all kinds of crazy ass conspiracies as to why those in power seem hell bent to destroy the world but this one takes the cake. You sound like you actually believe this crap?”
Jimmy didn’t answer. He was staring over his shoulder with a concerned expression.
“What is it?” West asked.
“Don’t turn around, but there is a man at the far corner of the bar. I think he is an agent?”
“Homeland Security?”
“I wish. An X-Agent.”
“C’mon, an X-Agent,” West replied.
“I’m serious,” Jimmy whispered.
X-Agents were another urban myth that people only whispered about. The rumors were that they were assassination squads that operated under the cover of Homeland Security. They were granted full immunity from the laws of the United States. Basically, if the government wanted to get rid of someone they saw as a problem they sent an X-Agent.
“Why do you think he is an X-Agent?” West asked as a cold shiver went through him because Jimmy looked whiter than a ghost.
“A friend of mine hacked into a top secret embedded file in Homeland Security and he inadvertently discovered a file that contained the names, operating alias and pictures of all the X-Agents. I swear that guy at the bar was in the file.”
“What the hell should we do?” West asked.
“Shut up and listen. I’m going to laugh like we’re joking around and when I do that, laugh too and then get up and head to the bathroom in the back. There’s a storage room across from the bathroom. It’s my escape route. There is an unlocked window in the back that leads out to an alley.”
“Not if you don’t want to get arrested or worse,” Jimmy said.
West hesitated. “What about you?”
“I have to think of something but I’m not leaving this computer here and if I took it to the bathroom that guy would be all over me. I’ll think of something. Hopefully, I’m wrong and he just looks like that X-Agent. Better safe than sorry.”
West wasn’t sure what to think but with everything that had happened over the last couple of days he wasn’t going to take any chances.
“All right. I’ll call you later tonight,” West said in a hushed tone while sliding out of the booth.
“No, whatever you do, don’t call me or they’ll know for sure who you are and I don’t want them finding you since you know about this computer. I’ll contact you in a week or so. Go!”
West forced himself to laugh. He slid out of the booth then headed toward the back of the bar and walked down the hall. He glanced over his shoulder to make sure no one could see him and he opened the storage room door.
The room was cluttered with liquor and cigarette boxes. He found the window, climbed onto a box and managed to push his body through the opening. He fell down into a grimy alley. Pain exploded through his elbow as it took the brunt of the fall. He jumped up and jogged down the alley and ended up about three blocks from the bar.
West took a couple of deep breaths and then peered around the corner. Outside the bar three homeland security military vans with at least a two dozen agents surrounded the entrance.
Seconds later they stormed into the bar. West wasn’t going to wait around to see what happened to Jimmy so he high-tailed it down the street in the opposite direction.
Us do opposite of all Earthly things! Us hate beauty! Us love ugliness! Is big crime to make anything perfect on Bizarro World!
– Bizarro
Chapter 10
West walked quickly down the sidewalk with his hands tucked inside his pockets. He was rattled, first the Sloan business and now this. He hoped Jimmy was all right but he knew at the very least he would be caught with the stolen quantum computer. There was no question Jimmy was in deep shit, and that meant West was also in big trouble.
The Unraveling Page 9