by G. Adler
That does it. Dad grabs me by my collar and pulls me nose to nose with him. “Throbby” pulses out so far that I think the vein might actually smack me in the face. A weird sort of grin comes over his mouth and in a twisted, maniacal sort of rant he whispers, “You really think so? Then I hope you are still recording. Your fans are going to LOVE this next part!”
He then sticks his middle fingers into the corners of his mouth and whistles so loud that every person in the auditorium stops what they are doing to listen. Dad walks back up to the stage and takes the mic. Everyone sits back down to listen. He opens his mouth to speak but motions first to the MPs. “Bring him up here!” he tells them.
The two MPs gruffly push me up on stage and hold me to a spot right behind the General. Dad clears his throat and says, “Take out your phones and record this. None of you are going to want to miss it. I then recommend that you upload what I am about to say to a site called ‘thestupidtruth.net’ because you are about to hear the real stupid truth! I hope you all enjoyed that. I hope you all had a good laugh at someone else’s expense. My son, Hayden Matthews, was the ringleader of this little prank that will probably cost a man his livelihood if not his self-respect. You may not love your principal, but no human being deserves to be treated like that, no matter how deplorable you may find them.”
There are a few anxious murmurs among the crowd and more than a few guilty expressions, but all of the phones continue to record my public shaming.
“Well, let me tell you all about Hayden here. All of the kids in the crowd may revere him and his high jinks, but let me tell you that you wouldn’t enjoy it so much if you were on the receiving end. This was just as much a scare tactic to the rest of his peers as it was an attack on his principal and me. Hayden pulls this crap to cover up every insecurity that he has ever had. He is nothing more than a scared little boy who is trying to claw his way out from under Daddy’s umbrella of success. All he wants to do is make a name for himself. He has never put in an honest day’s work to accomplish anything other than destruction and devastation. Take a good look at him kids. Your hero is going to spend the next few days in solitary confinement in a military prison. This time, when he has nightmares about his poor, departed mommy and cries in his sleep like he does most nights, nobody is going to come rushing in to give him anything! He can cry himself to sleep like the sniveling little coward that he has always been! Idolize THAT if you want.”
He then places the microphone back in the stand and starts to walk off the stage. Before he leaves, he glares at me one more time and says, “Like I said. It’s over.”
Chapter 19 - General Matthews
I step out the front doors of the school to find Marine One already there. Its rotors are still spinning as the door slides open.
A young woman wearing a business suit climbs out. Like all aides, she is carrying a clipboard that goes flying in the maelstrom. I rush over and help her grab the pages before they scatter into the air.
“Thank you, General. The President is already on board. He will brief you as to what is going on once we are in the air.”
I swallow hard and rush towards the chopper.
The camouflage door slides open to reveal the plush leather and wood interior. I climb in and hear a voice from the boardroom.
“General Matthews, get in here. We have a lot to talk about!”
The adrenalin begins to surge through my veins, causing my hands to shake ever so slightly.
I walk into the boardroom to find the President already pacing back and forth. He runs his hand through his salt and pepper hair multiple times. I also notice a crystal decanter with a brownish liquid inside and an empty glass nearby. It looks like it was used recently.
“Hello General, I hope my dramatic entrance didn’t scare you too much, but we have a bit of a crisis on our hands.” His voice is low and strained. It seems to be missing the power of his presidential speeches.
“No, Sir,” I reply. “A life in the military has gotten me used to expecting the unexpected.”
“Be that as it may, I appreciate you taking the time, General,” he says worriedly. “Your anxiety levels must be at DEFCON Three by now.”
“Yes, Sir,” I admit.
“Can I get you a drink, General? Help settle the nerves a bit? The sixty-year-old scotch only comes out when the shit really hits the fan!”
“Then what do you use to celebrate when you get past it?”
“The hundred-year-old stuff of course!”
He then laughs so heartily for a moment that a tear falls from his eye. I watch the color return to his face and when he speaks, some of his old authority is back.
“Thanks for that, General. Given the tension around here, I needed a good laugh.”
He then pours some of the amber liquid into the glass and says, “Have a taste. That’s an order!”
I raise the cup to my mouth and drain the contents. The smooth liquor slides down my throat and warms my belly. I feel some of the tension drain from my shoulders.
“Much better, General. Here is what we know. A computer breach has been detected. The extent of the breach is still unclear, but we have learned that it is global. Someone began targeting the computers of every country in N.A.T.O., one-by-one, every six hours, in alphabetical order no less, if you can believe it.”
My mouth drops.
He looks at me and snickers. “That’s how I looked when I first found out. We learned that it began with Albania, followed twenty hours later by Belgium and then Bulgaria twenty hours after that. At this rate, the breach will reach us in the next thirty-six hours. We contacted the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, only to discover that no top-secret information was even approached. The data stream was massive, billions of terabytes, but public-access level information only: Facebook profiles, Snapchat images, Instagram feeds, Twitter tweets, Pinterest Pins, hell they even got phone directories, satellite road maps, G.P.S., and online file sharing sites. They found the black market sites just as easily as they swallowed up eBay and Amazon. They didn’t even care what they grabbed. It’s as if they simply swept the entire banquet, tablecloth, table, chairs, guests and all into a massive sack and carried it all away. Who could ever sort through that much data to make sense of it all?”
I swallow hard and consider his question. “No one, Sir. It would take decades if not centuries to comb through all of it to find anything useful. It would be like taking pieces of shredded paper as thin as dental floss and trying to piece it all back together.”
“I was hoping that, given your area of expertise, you might be able to shed some light on the situation.”
I tap my finger on the table as my right foot starts to shake up and down. “What about the guys that hit Sony?”
“Not this time. North Korea is quiet. Apparently if you aren’t making fun of their illustrious leader, they leave you alone. Did you see the movie, General?”
“Sir?”
“No, I suppose not. You should check out ‘The Interview,’ General. Your sense of humor will thank you.”
I stare down at my feet, then out the window, basically anywhere but right at him. I catch the President watching me for a moment and he begins to giggle once more.
“Is there something funny, Sir?”
“You, General. You’re looking at me like I’m a Texas Rattler! I’m just like you, General. I’m a family man with shoulder boards. You take care of your family along with your base. My family just happens to include about three hundred fifty million. Let me tell you, Thanksgiving can be quite the affair!”
My laugh comes out in a massive snort. That’s when the real giggles arrive. The tears come down my face for a full twenty seconds before my belly finally releases and I can get a breath in.
He smiles at me kindly and says, “I’ve never been able to solve a problem if I was stressed about where I was. I need you at your
best, General. Don’t make me order the rest of this decanter down your gullet to get you there!”
All I can do is grin from ear to ear and stare at him like an idiot.
“Penny for your thoughts, General.”
“This is why I voted for you, Sir.” I say unconsciously. I feel the heat rising in my cheeks and he chuckles embarrassedly. He claps me on the back and says, “Compliment taken. Now let’s get back to the computer breach.”
“What about the crews that hit Anthem and Primera?”
“The FBI and CIA are looking into it, but would they be able to do this?”
“Not likely, Sir. Not without help.”
“Dammit, General then who?”
“Or what…”
I make the statement before it registers in my brain.
“What have you got, General. I see the light bulbs going on.”
I shake my head to dismiss my thought and steer the conversation back to reality.
“Mr. President, has there been any unusual activity in the usual hotspots? There has to be a rational explanation for all this.”
“That’s what has got us so spooked, General. Reports are sketchy, and possibly not to be trusted, but it appears that Al-Qaida, Taliban, ISIS and the I.R.A are all reporting getting hit. Iran and North Korea are under close scrutiny by the International Atomic Energy Agency and all three were infiltrated. Informants tell us that the entire Triad Organized Crime Syndicate was tapped within twenty minutes! Even the Anonymous consortium is complaining. These people absorbed everything in their path, from ‘saints to sinners’ and just kept on going.”
For a moment, the bile in my stomach rises to my throat and I have to suppress my gag reflex. The world begins to fade in a series of twinkling lights and I can feel that I’m about to pass out. I try to inhale deep breaths, slow and steady.
“What is it, General? Just throw it out there, no matter how ridiculous. Some of the best ideas come when you shoot from the hip!”
“I’m wondering if all of the terrorist groups have come together and are looking for my prototype.”
“Could that be?”
“I wouldn’t have thought it possible. Only top-level clearance people have knowledge of what I was trying to do. From my understanding, they are all closely monitored — myself included. No one else could have possibly known. I have played this as ‘close to the chest’ as possible. I have erased every shred of a shred of a shred of evidence.”
“There have been no leaks whatsoever? Not even rumor or innuendo from lab staff?”
“No, Sir. None of them have ever seen the prototype. That was the point when I started this project about forty thousand hours ago. With only me in the lab with the device, it gives a veil of secrecy that will never falter. The prototype is carefully hidden and has remained offline as ordered.”
A bead of sweat forms across my brow and my eyes dart every which way. I curse myself for not being a better liar. How do I tell the man that I violated a direct order and used DANE to save Abby? It was only hours later that I remembered to put it back in nanohibernation. Who knows what DANE could have done with its window of opportunity.
The President looks at me and raises an eyebrow. “You’re certain of that, General? You look nervous all of a sudden, is there something you want to tell me, off the record even?”
I swallow hard and shake my head. “No, Sir.”
“Very well then, General. You best get on your phone and make whatever arrangements you require. You are going to be gone for some time and you have a family to care for. I’ll give you a few minutes of privacy to do what you need to do. We should be in Washington shortly.
He then gets up from his chair and I see the familiar grimaces and winces. He must see everything, because he looks at me and says, “Getting old stinks, eh General?”
“I wouldn’t know, Sir.” I reply with a wink.
He pats me on the back and laughs as he leaves the room and closes the door behind him.
I send a quick text message to my secretary back at the base to arrange for someone to take care of Abby while I am gone. With that figured out, I decide to check on the lab, just to be sure that everything is as it should be. I push a button on the side of my phone and the multi-layered screens I designed for it unfold and unstack. Within moments the individual clear plates slide together to reveal a full-sized tablet. Twelve different screens load and I scan each one quickly. Everything looks normal.
I touch one of the monitors and a three-dimensional image of my security protocols appears in the form of a fifty-sided puzzle cube. I twist it this way and that until all sides align. With the correct sequence completed, the cube opens up to reveal my internal systems. I tap a button and my security panels pop up and float in front of me. I initiate a diagnostic and wait for the auditory reply. Within seconds the security system’s voice sounds through my phone.
“All security systems functioning within normal parameters. No intruders detected.”
I sigh with relief. The entrance seems to be secure as well. I swipe my hand through the holo-image and it returns to the tablet.
I tap another screen and all of the environmental controls appear in the form of multiple, three-dimensional bar codes. Again I initiate a diagnostic and once again, the security protocol replies, “All fifty air filtration panels are online. Environmental conditions are twenty degrees Celsius and holding. Particulate levels at zero parts per billion. Pressure at one hundred and one point three kilopascals and holding.”
Two for two.
I return the environmental controls and call up structural integrity. A solid brick wall materializes in the air. I initiate a level twelve analysis and hold my breath.
“Lower wall section maintaining a reinforced concrete/polymer depth of eighteen inches. No external erosion detected. Plexiglas shield integrity continuous. Electrostatic repulsion system functioning within normal parameters. Current generated within the core is below five microvolts. Liquid insulator oil is at one hundred percent purity and holding. Sample analysis shows no anomalies. Shockwave absorption mechanisms maintaining at a ten megaton ratio.”
I remove a handkerchief from my pocket and wipe the sweat off my face. So far, so good.
I tap DANE’s central core network and the image of an embryo appears before me. I initiate the final scan and hold my breath as I wait for the reply.
“Core development is still at its infancy. Connection to the outside world is at zero percent capacity. Hibernation status maintained.”
I drop into one of the chairs and breathe a sigh of relief. I hear a subtle knock on the door and the President comes into the room. His face looks anxious and concerned. “I heard you flop into your seat, General and I wasn’t sure what I was hearing. I went through my mental rolodex and couldn’t come up with the sound. Is everything okay?”
Mental Rolodex…
The President’s words hit me like a slap in the face. My heart rate increases dramatically and my cheeks must be flushed, because my face feels like it is on fire.
“What is it, General?”
“Don’t ask me how or why I know this, Sir, but after careful consideration of the facts, I can be certain of only one thing. I have no idea why, but someone is compiling a list.”
His hands begin to shake and I watch the color drain from his face.
“A list of what, General?”
“People, Sir.”
“Which people? Who are they looking for? You? Me? Maybe someone is hiding within our borders?”
“Based on the scope of the data, Mr. President, I would have to say that they are searching for everyone.”
The helicopter banks sharply and I feel the temperature drop noticeably. I look out the window to see that we are headed towards an aircraft carrier at sea. We must be flying up the East Coast, on our way to the Pentagon.
> Once we land on the deck, I attempt to get out to stretch my legs and maybe even get some rest, but the crewmen keep me where I am. Our chopper’s refuel is given top priority and we depart just as quickly. The staff on board with us look nervous, as if they have been reminded extensively that this is not some war game. I watch soldiers with steady hands drop even the simplest of objects. I can only wonder how much they have been told versus how much they suspect.
Chapter 20 - Hayden
The five of us are thrown into two different cars and driven back to Dad’s base. We ride in absolute silence. A few minutes later we arrive and are led to the stockade. Once inside, the MPs take us down two dank and musty sets of stairs until we reach the bowels of the prison. There are about a dozen individual cells, each roughly the size of two toilet stalls in a public bathroom. Each of us is then uncuffed and shoved inside our own private prison before a loud buzzer sounds and all five doors swing tightly shut with an audible clank.
I sit on the cot and desperately try to think a way out of this mess. That’s when I hear movement coming from one of the other four cells that are currently occupied.
Joo-Eun must have noticed it too. “Tank, is that you I hear pacing back and forth? You know that you won’t be able to get your heart rate up to an appropriate level and the confined space will severely limit your movements.”
Tyrese’s deep voice replies immediately. “I feel so closed in, like I don’t have any room to stretch. But it isn’t me you are hearing. I’m just sitting here.”
Maya adds her two cents worth a moment later. “Well, it’s not me! I am standing in the middle of this…this…CLOSET and I am NOT sitting down until they do a proper clean in here. You definitely need to have a discussion with your father, Ghost. They keep this place like a…”
I sigh and respond. “Prison? Yeah Byte, I’m pretty sure he’s aware of that.”
“Well this is totally unacceptable! Has he ever even heard of the Geneva Convention? You can’t treat prisoners like this!”