*
Robert turned off the water, dried his hands with the small towel, and then turned and leaned back against the counter. He heard the roar of the motorcycle and watched a cloud of dust rising into the air down the road. He only suspected Alex was responsible for the death of Ken and Doreen. It would not do any good to tell that to Derek right now. That would be up to Alex.
He walked across the kitchen, grabbed the keys for his truck, and continued out onto the porch and across the driveway to the garage. If what Derek had told him was possible, he needed to get some supplies in case they were stranded on the ranch for a while. The river had flooded three times over the past five years, but the ranch had always survived. Only the pastures ended up under water. His only worry was having enough food to last until the water level dropped and they could leave.
*
THE CABIN:
Alex lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. With so much at stake, the night had passed slowly and he was anxious to get started. He heard Wesley walk out of the bathroom, so he swung out of bed to start the day. After a quick shower, he poured a cup of coffee and joined Wesley at the kitchen table. “Good morning, Wesley.”
“Is it?”
Alex sat down and stared at him. “What’s going on?”
“I hope your friend, Donner, has some brilliant engineers. I was an engineer ten years ago, and I can’t imagine an easy way to retrieve that device at that depth. Especially through all that ice.”
“Donner and I have some mutual friends that can figure it out. At least it hasn’t activated since I was down there yesterday.”
Wesley took a sip of coffee and grinned. “I wasn’t going to say anything to jinx the situation.”
Alex felt his phone vibrate and stood to pull it out of his front pocket. He recognized Sonja’s ID, turned on the speaker, and then set the phone on the table. “I’m here, Sonja.”
“The Polar ice sheet had another expansion last night, Alex. It froze another one hundred kilometers of the Arctic Ocean. It is already causing an effect to the weather conditions in the arctic regions. Many of my colleagues are frustrated trying find out why this is happening, and I do not know what to tell them. We are all very worried, Alex. Only disastrous events will come from this sudden change in the ice sheet.”
Alex and Wesley exchanged puzzled expressions. None of their alarms had activated. “I don’t understand. why it would activate on its own, Sonja?”
“A few of us are going to create a computer model to start tracking each event.”
“If you can determine a location for me to start searching, it would be a big help.”
“I did notice a dark area in the ice. It could be that device you are looking for, but I am not positive.”
“Once I talk to a friend in Nevada, I might have some information that could help us with our search.”
“Thank you, Alex. Bye, love.”
Alex turned off the phone and stared out the window while he sipped his coffee. “I hope my friend in Nevada can give me a better idea what I’m dealing with.”
Wesley stood up from the table. “I’ll go check the equipment in the barn just to make sure.”
Alex looked at his watch. “I’ll see if Okana is up yet.”
Wesley closed the cabin door behind him, and Alex entered Okana’s number.
“Hey, Alex. Any new information?”
“Did anyone activate the ultrasound last night?”
“Not that I’m aware of.”
“There was another increase to the ice sheet. Are you sure nothing happened?”
“Positive. Lisa locked the system down after what happened to us. There’s no way that we could have caused it.”
“Damn. That means it activated on its own. Did you talk to Mike?”
“Yes. Whenever you’re ready. he’ll send the helicopter.”
“Great. I have to go to Nevada first. My phone may not work where I’m going, so I’ll give you a call when I’m back.”
“You’re never going to tell me what’s down there, are you?”
“I’ll tell you about it when I get back. There is one thing I can tell you. Once this is over, you’ll have a much better appreciation for our little blue planet. I’ll call you later.”
Wesley walked in and poured another cup of coffee. “Nothing happened around here. What did he say?”
“They didn’t do it, but at least I have a boat ride when I need it. Mike is an interesting man. He’s rich, but could not care less about it. He’s trying to solve our global warming problem and has the money to do whatever he wants. I’m sure when he heard about another device in the Arctic, he wanted to help.”
“What’s next on your list?”
“A call to a friend of mine at the college, and hopefully. a trip to Nevada.”
“Let’s eat breakfast. You cook, I’ll watch the news.”
Alex stood from the table. “Are you really that bad a cook?”
“Hell. no. I just like being pampered.”
When they had finished eating, Alex set the last of the dishes on the counter for Wesley to wash, then poured another cup of coffee and sat at the table. Just sitting around with so much going wrong was frustrating. He needed something to do, and then his phone rang. He looked at the number and it was Marcia Story, the Dean of his college in Montana. “Good morning. I was going to give it another hour before I called you.”
“David is with me. We’ve been watching the news and it sounds very bad. What have you found out?”
Alex explained what he knew. “I need a favor. Could you do a background check for me? The name is Eric Dieter. All I have on him is that he was a German U-boat captain near the end of World War II. He supposedly smuggled confiscated jewelry with the U-boat, and was never heard from again. He has a relative that might help with your search. A fifty-year-old male of Scandinavian descent named John Dieter. I want to know about him, too.”
“I’ll start on the background immediately and call you when I have something. George wanted me to thank you for recommending he be placed in a minimal security prison.”
“How’s he holding up?”
“He’s being treated for PTSD from his time as a prisoner in Vietnam, and it seems to be working. His nightmares are less frequent now.”
“He didn’t strike me as your type of man, Marcia.”
“People can change. He was just bent, not broken.”
“Hi, Alex, this is David. Maybe I can help your chemist, Lisa. She sounds like she knows what she’s doing.”
“I think you’d like her, David. I’ll tell her about you and give her your number.”
“So, what can we expect to happen next, Alex?” Marcia asked.
“I’m not sure. We’ve found the cause of the events out here and it shouldn’t happen again. My main concern now is the expansion of the Polar Ice Sheet. I’ll call you if anything changes.”
“Thanks, Alex.”
Alex turned off the phone and looked away from the window as Wesley sat down across from him. “Donner is usually an early riser and he’s probably busy getting things started. For now, it’s the end of my list until he calls me.”
Wesley’s phone rang and he answered. “Hi, Jamie. I thought you might be calling.” He covered the phone and looked over at Alex. “It’s a young woman who just started working in the park.” He removed his hand. “It was not a prelude and it’s over now. Yes, I’ll call if anything changes.
Wesley turned off the phone. “She’s one of the Parker kids from the valley and just transferred from eastern Washington. Nice young lady. She’s been training to be a Ranger in Wenatchee for about six years and was waiting for the opportunity to work closer to home.” He could tell Alex did not like sitting around. “Let’s go for a ride. I want to show you my mountain.”
“I’d like that.”
*
MOUNT BAKER STATE PARK, MARMOT CAMPGROUND:
Jamie Parker turned off her phone and felt intimidated by so many quest
ioning eyes. When she drove into the campground ten minutes ago, seven of the occupants approached her dark green Park Service SUV, expecting her to have all the answers about the earthquakes in the islands and the ground movement yesterday afternoon. She hadn’t realized how many people used this park. Her new supervisor said it’s always packed with people trying to get out of the higher temperatures on the flat lands below.
“We don’t know what happened to the islands, but it’s over now. Enjoy your time in the park.”
She felt relieved when most of them walked away, but one woman with a young girl and boy remained, and she saw the fear in the children’s eyes. She knelt down and smiled. “It’s all right. It’s all over now.”
The kids wrapped their arms around their mother’s legs, and Jamie stood. The woman’s smile was troubled as she turned away and held her children’s hands to lead them back to their campsite.
Jamie looked at her watch and realized that checking all the campgrounds this morning was going to take a while if this happened every time she stopped. “One down, twenty three to go.” She climbed into the SUV and drove out of Marmot Campground.
*
SPARROW VALLEY:
Robert Cave parked in front of the restaurant, climbed out of his truck, and noticed a piece of paper taped to the inside of the window. The District high school track and field championship games would take place this Friday, here in the valley. He was a student in Darrington High School thirty years ago and that was how he had met his wife, Shannon Parker. The rivalry between Darrington High School and Sparrow Valley High School had been going on for generations.
It was Sparrow Valley’s turn to host the games and over one hundred students, parents, and faculty would drive up to the valley to watch the competition. Last fall, during the football playoffs, over twenty motorhomes, trailers, and campers came up early and stayed in the school parking lot so they could drink and not have to drive home after the games.
After listening to Derek, he wondered if he should ask them to cancel the event. No, he thought. If I say anything and nothing happens, I’ll look like a fool.
He walked into the restaurant and a small silver bell above the door tinkled. All conversations suddenly stopped as he continued to the counter, aware that all eyes were on him as he sat down.
Molly Moran, the waitress and part owner, walked up with a pot of coffee and set a tan coffee mug on the counter. “I hear your son’s in town, Robert. Does it have to do with the destruction to the islands?”
Robert watched her fill the mug. “That’s right.”
“Carry Sorenson said he’s been staying with Wesley. Does it have something to do with that tremor yesterday?”
Robert turned his head and looked around the room, and everyone was listening intently to his conversation. He agreed with what Derek told him about starting a panic, so he turned back and took a sip of coffee. “We don’t talk much since the funeral.”
“Bob called from the grocery store and said you bought a bunch of supplies. Should we be worried?”
Robert heard the doorbell tinkle and didn’t answer the question.
“Hey, Cave?”
Robert knew it was Arnie Parker calling his name and he refused to turn and look at him. He and Arnie had been fighting since their high school years, when he started dating his sister. Arnie had called his sister a traitor for dating a Darrington student and he had knocked Arnie to the ground with one punch. They’ve been fighting ever since.
Arnie hooked his thumbs over his utility belt and holster and smirked at the other people in the restaurant. He was the sheriff and this was his town because no one ever runs against him in the elections. Cave was the only thorn in his side. He was the only person who refused to call him sheriff, and something about Cave always rubbed him the wrong way since they had first met.
Arnie walked up next to Cave and leaned back against the counter so he could look at the other people watching his every move. “I have thirty bucks says we’ll kick the snot out of Darrington on Friday.”
Robert set his cup on the counter, swiveled his stool around, and then stood and looked into Arnie’s eyes. “Make it one hundred and you’ve got a bet, Arnie.” He watched the grin as it slipped from Arnie’s face. “Is it a bet, Arnie? Or is that too much money for you?”
Arnie stood up straight and glanced around the room, then looked at Cave and forced a grin for everyone watching. “You’ve got a bet, Cave.” When Robert grinned and walked out of the restaurant, Arnie heard a few chuckles from the patrons. He stared out the window and watched Cave drive away. You’re a real son of a bitch, he thought.
* * *
Chapter 16
NEVADA:
Alex looked out the window of the private Gulfstream jet as it taxied to a small air terminal at AREA 51. He had enjoyed the drive around Wesley’s mountain, but Donner had called thirty minutes later, and a jet was waiting for him in Mount Vernon. He had enjoyed Wesley’s company immensely and promised to let him know what was happening.
The jet rolled to a gentle stop and the engines shut down, and, since he was the only passenger, he opened the door himself and walked down the steps. He recognized the small, gray-haired man smiling up at him. Doctor Henry Heinz had been working at AREA 51 since he had emigrated from Germany as a young man in 1958 and had helped him during the Dead Energy operation.
“Alex, my friend. It is so good to see you again,” he said with a slight accent.
Alex smiled and shook his hand. “You look like you’re having fun, Doc.”
“It has been so exciting since your discovery. Lewis is waiting for us inside. Come, come.”
Alex followed him into a small office. Lewis Norton’s expression was void of emotion as he stood from behind an oak desk and clasped his hands behind his back. He had forgotten about Lewis’s no nonsense behavior. Alex did notice one change in Lewis’s physical appearance. He had let his blond hair grow into a short ponytail, a sign that he was loosening up a little from his normally stoic demeanor. It was not that he was un-friendly, only that he had never shown any type of emotion to anyone. Lewis was now in charge of engineering a mechanical control system capable of harnessing the immense clean energy potential of the dollar size crystals created by his brother, Menno Simons, during the Dead Energy operation. He was also an expert on extraterrestrial technology.
“Hello, Professor Cave, I understand you have an issue that needs my attention.”
“I have a problem that you may be able to help me with. Your brother told me about some type of device that can clean our atmosphere. What does it look like?”
Norton stared into space. “Cylindrical. Gray. Perforated around the exterior. Twenty-feet in length. Thirty-inch circumference. Weight: four-thousand six-hundred and twenty-seven pounds.”
Alex had his confirmation. That was the estimated size from Joshua’s enhancement of the device in the Pacific. “Mind if I sit down?”
“Of course not.”
Alex and Henry sat in front of the desk. “We’ve discovered one of those devices in the Northern Pacific Ocean and there is probably another one somewhere in the Arctic.”
Alex explained everything that had happened. “The problem right now is the one in the Arctic. It appears to be activating on its own.”
“That is a problem. Once they are activated, they are programmed to sample the environment and act appropriately.”
“There is an operation underway to retrieve the device in the Pacific Ocean. If we managed to get it to the surface, what should we do with it?”
“The device will continue to activate on a predetermined schedule that depends on the chemical elements it sampled. Once you expose the device to a different environment, you will have approximately twenty-four hours before the next activation. They were designed to resonate in the atmosphere. If you manage to get the device out of the water, it will sample the new environment and determine which frequency will attract the specified elements from the atmosphere. Wh
en the device activates, the exterior surface will be minus two-hundred and seventy-three degrees Celsius, so do not touch it.”
“Can we open it up and disconnect something?”
“No. You need the original ship that deployed the device to turn it off.”
Henry leaned forward. “You did not mention this device before, Lewis.”
“It was not pertinent to our mission at the time.”
“How does it work?”
“Every atomic element resonates at a specific frequency. The device can be programed to attract a specific atomic structure from the environment by creating a complex combination of resonate frequencies that alter the atomic structure to create a physical mass in a solid state that can be recovered.”
“Okay, but why does it freeze?” Alex asked.
“The atmospheric pressure allows many elements to remain in a gaseous state, and when the molecular resonance stops, it becomes a solid and does not produce energy. It becomes ultra-cold.”
Alex leaned back and sighed in frustration. His only option was to somehow retrieve the devices and keep them out of the water. The task seemed insurmountable.
Lewis noticed the disappointment in Alex’s eyes. “However, if you manage to retrieve one of the devices, we could identify the control frequency and broadcast the deactivation code through the orbiting satellite system.”
With new sense of hope, Alex leaned forward. “That’s more like it. How soon can you arrange for my return to Washington State?”
Henry reached across the desk for the base’s private telephone system. Cellphone activity was prohibited at AREA 51, for security reasons. “I will find out, Alex.”
“Have you located the other two devices?” Norton asked.
Alex’s stared across the desk, his mouth slightly open. “There are four of them?”
“Apparently not. In order to perform efficiently, one device must be positioned in the atmosphere, above the northern axis of a planet, one at the southern axis, and two equilaterally, on opposite sides of the planet.”
“As far as I know, only the two devices were activated. The others must be out of range for that ultrasound they used to activate them.”
The Alex Cave Series. Books 1, 2, & 3.: Box set Page 39