The Phoenix Agenda: A Thriller (A Rossler Foundation Mystery Book 6)

by JC Ryan

  I’ll tell you the full story as soon as we finish this meeting. For now, take my word for it – we haven’t gone round the bend.”

  Daniel couldn’t help but add one extra bit. “But, please remind me if I forget to tell you what effect that discovery had on Sinclair and my grandfather when they learned about it.”

  That brought on another fit of laughter from those who remembered how drunk Sinclair and Nicholas got that day. Their singing and dancing up and down the hallways of the Foundation offices with a bottle of whiskey in their hands was so unlike them, but at the same time, hilarious.

  Mark and Doug exchanged another puzzled look but didn’t say a word.

  Daniel returned to Roy to hear if he had anything else to say. “Is that it?”

  “I was about to finish. We shouldn’t forget the other toys I brought along. There's a large number of spyflies, hummingbird mini drones and a box or two full of other gadgets that might come in handy for us along the way. I'll be happy to give you all a demo and train you how to use all of it at some stage. We'll never know when we might need some of those gadgets, and come to think of it, I can already imagine how we can use the spyflies and hummingbirds. I'm obviously also more than happy to help with anything else we might need that I can build in my lab, including as many nanonukes as you might think we’ll need."

  Again, Mark and Doug passed that questioning look between them and also at Daniel when Roy talked about building nanonukes. They'd heard Roy mentioned nanonukes in the chopper that night on the way to Nucla, but they thought he was joking. Daniel explained briefly again that it was no joke. Roy actually built and tested a few of them before, devastating a warehouse in the process. He would give them more details later when he explained the time travel discovery to them.

  “Salome you’re up next,” Daniel continued. “Raj’s mention earlier of the satellites, drones, and communications had me wondering if you and Luke had any ideas about that.”

  Salome replied, “Yes, in fact we already had a few short discussions with Raj and Roy about those topics. So let me start with the satellites and drones.”

  Daniel nodded for her to proceed.

  “As you know, we’ve already deployed some of the hummingbirds outside the caves to warn us about drones in the air and people on the ground. That has been working very well, but our movements are limited to about five hundred yards around the main entrance. We need to consider how we can expand our coverage so we can have more space available to move around undetected.”

  Raj and Roy explained they were already working on some ideas to achieve that and hoped to start testing in the next few days and deploy their extended surveillance system within a week or so.

  Salome continued, “As for the technical aspects of satellite tracking; that’s a little bit out of my league. Nevertheless, I can tell you that Luke and I know satellites are used for finding and tracking people by the use of body heat imaging and facial recognition. I guess Mark and Doug will have had firsthand experience of that during the Afghanistan and Iraqi wars, where satellites were used with great effect to track down the enemy.”

  Doug added, “Yes I saw how they work, and I know how accurate they can be. Those things can read the headlines of a newspaper from space. But what I think could be in our favor is the fact that there aren’t that many of those satellites available. Up until now, they were used almost exclusively in the trouble zones of the world, not for domestic purposes. They certainly aren’t covering the entire globe with them. Those satellites are usually only deployed when a particular area of interest has been identified, such as a war zone. The thing is, of course, you have to know where to look before you could find what you’re looking for. It's not likely that there are any of those satellites deployed over the USA at the present moment and even less chance they would be looking around here.”

  “That’s a bit of a relief,” JR replied, “But I guess there’s also no guarantee satellites could not be moved to another location. Of course, new ones could be launched to start tracking large parts of the USA too, couldn’t they?”

  “Yes, that’s true. We can’t assume that if they aren’t over the USA now they won’t be there in the future,” Salome said. “Luke and I don’t have enough technical knowledge about this subject. However, we had a very interesting discussion with Raj, and maybe it’s best if he explains what he knows about that side of it.”

  “Raj?” Salome looked at Raj.

  Raj smiled. Although he did not regard himself an expert on satellites, he always liked to learn more and talk about anything related to technology.

  “I am not an expert in satellite technology and the tracking, but I will tell you what I have learned through one of my friends. Apparently, since the Russians launched the first satellite called Sputnik in the late fifties, another seven thousand or so have been placed into orbit. From memory, about four thousand of them are still in orbit, but only about a thousand or so are still operational. The rest have become part of space junk.”

  “Hmm, I always thought there were tens of thousands of them out there. So it isn’t as crowded up there as I believed,” Sarah quipped. “It would be useful if there was a way for us to know where they are, what each one’s purpose is, and who are in control of them. I take it that most of them are there for purposes of communications, navigation, weather research, agriculture, space exploration and such, rather than spying?”

  Raj continued, “Yes, that is also my understanding. There are not that many in use for spying purposes. What is good news for us is that apparently the United States Space Surveillance Networks are tracking every object in orbit over four inches in diameter, and they know exactly which country each piece out there belongs to.”

  “So, how does that help us?” Mark wanted to know.

  Raj replied. “Well, there are many amateur and professional satellite watchers out there. With the information made available by organizations such as the SSN, many programs and mobile apps have been developed to enable people to know exactly where a satellite is at any given moment. But, as I said, those apps are all based on the information that the SSN was prepared to make available to the public. They would obviously not put any information about spy satellites in the public domain.”

  “That won’t help us much, if we can’t track the spy satellites,” JR interrupted.

  Raj smiled, “Yes that would be correct. But the point I was about to make was that in my network there are quite a few satellite enthusiasts. They have access to all the data of the SSN and a few other organizations, not just what they decide to put in the public domain.”

  Daniel immediately grasped what Raj was saying, “Aha, I got it. One problem almost solved. We just need to figure out how we’re going to get hold of that software.”

  “Just one question, Raj,” Luke said. “Do I understand you correctly? Those programs don’t require an Internet connection to operate properly?”

  “Yes, that’s true. All they require is your current location and time zone and which satellites you want to track. They then follow the satellite’s path according to your position and display it on the screen. Most are extremely accurate and reliable. There are a few more features I could tell you about, but in essence, that’s what it does. So we have no worries about requiring an Internet connection.”

  “That’s great news. I’m sure we’re going to put that software to good use in the future.” Daniel ended the satellite discussions.

  “The next important topic I would like to introduce is our communications strategy with the outside world. Luke, Salome, Raj and anyone else, let’s have it.”

  Luke was first, “That’s another topic Salome and I've been thinking aboutl. The problem with me is I’m too old - the methods that I am familiar with are outdated. Computers can crack an encoded message in a shorter time than I can write it. But we think that with Raj and Stuart’s help we could try and modernize those old techniques. Having said that, I have to explain the two rules of secure
communications, which are very simple. Rule number one is there is no such thing as secure communications, and rule number two is if you are ever in doubt, refer to rule number one.”

  Luke continued to explain that there were four categories of safeguarding communications.

  First; hide the fact that a conversation took place. For instance, a bunch of flowers on a person’s desk could mean, “Meet me at the usual place tomorrow.” No one other than the people involved would know that a message has passed.

  Second; hide the identities of the parties who were communicating. For example, use unregistered cell phones, Internet cafes, Internet proxies and other methods to disguise the origin and destination of messages.

  Third; protect the message content through coding and encryption.

  Fourth; use a technique known as steganography, which means that a message is hidden within another message, such as reading every second letter of the words in a sentence to spell out a message.

  “Stega-what?” JR asked.

  “Steganography,” Luke replied, “Comes from Greek and means ‘covered writing.' Apparently they wrote messages on wood or clay tablets and then covered it with wax and wrote something entirely different in the wax. So unless you knew to remove the wax, you wouldn’t get to the hidden message.”

  Sinclair said, “Well, just to set the record books straight. The Greeks might have named the technique, but they certainly did not develop it first. As far as I can see, the 10th Cyclers have beaten them by at least five thousand years, if not more.”

  “I agree with that,” Luke replied.

  Salome and Raj explained that as far as encryption was concerned, everyone should be aware that the government agencies had the best decryption systems imaginable and nothing they tried to encrypt would be secret for much more than an hour or two after it landed in the hands of those agencies.

  The advantage of steganography over encryption was that the real message was hidden in plain sight. In other words, unless the reader was aware of the fact that the text he or she was reading contained a hidden message and knew what to look for, it wasn't easy to discover. It wouldn't draw attention as would happen with an encrypted message.

  Salome described in great detail how terrorists had for years been using steganography on the Internet. They could communicate with their followers so easily it was frightening. Tracking the messages down and then following them was impossible, even for governments, because it was an impossible task trying to monitor the entire Internet and scan every bit of text, images, and audio for potential messages.

  Everyone was interested in how computers could be used with steganography, so Raj gave them a few examples.

  In a picture, the color of every fiftieth pixel could be slightly changed and each of those changed pixels in the image would correspond to a letter or number that in turn spelled out a message, which could also be coded.

  A human eye would not see those adjusted pixels, but a computer program could pick them up quickly. The same principle could be used in a sound file. In a text file, a comma or full stop and other punctuation marks could easily contain a hundred or more words.

  Messages could also be hidden in radio signals, such as those received on FM and shortwave radios. That was a very creative method used during the cold war and for quite a few years after, until the Internet started to dominate communications. Messages were not only hidden in the words you could hear but also in those hissing and crackling noises, especially on shortwave.

  Daniel stopped the meeting at about four o'clock that afternoon. “We’ve covered quite a bit today, and we still have a lot more to cover in the days ahead. I think if we take a break now and continue tomorrow, it will give us all a chance to digest what we’ve discussed and start thinking about how we can implement some of our strategies. I think you will all agree that we have our work cut out for us?”

  “No doubt about that,” Raj replied with a smile.

  “Well, I’m excited. Finally, we’re on the way to go and kick that S.O.B.’s ass,” JR added.

  Before they left, Daniel asked everyone to think about ways Luke might get in touch with Sam Lewis and how a message could be sent out to family members outside without compromising anyone.

  The Lewises

  It was also a big shock for Sam when he saw the news about his friends at the Rossler Foundation, but he immediately understood that something was amiss in the media version of what allegedly happened. By the third day, he picked up the phone and called his friend Luke Clarke. When he got no answer, he made a few calls to other former colleagues. All he could get out of them that he didn’t already know from the media reports was that seemingly, the Rossler Foundation had been shut down. All the servers were gone, and a great number of the former employees with their families, including Luke and Sally Clarke had vanished.

  A week later, when the constant speculation and elaboration in the media became utterly ridiculous, he made a few phone calls again, but this time he couldn’t get anyone to talk to him. Phones went dead as soon as the call connected, or his calls were simply not answered or returned. Now he was sure something was really wrong, and he fully expected contact from his old friend Luke.

  He wondered if this had anything to do with the conversation he and Luke had when they met in a restaurant in Boulder a short time ago. Luke told him a bit about the discovery of the facility of the 8th Cycle in the Grand Canyon.

  The alarm bells rang a few decibels louder when two FBI agents turned up to question him about his relationship with Luke Clarke and other members of the Rossler Foundation. He was quite disturbed to discover how much highly classified information, intended to be known only to those who were involved, these agents had.

  He had no information that could help them and told them so. He knew how to play the game and therefore made sure he gave them the truth. When he last saw Luke, where they were, what they were doing, all of it. His honesty obviously pacified the agents and he believed he’d never hear from them again. Sam and Susan’s newfound peaceful, happy lives were crushed four days later. While they were staying at their favorite fishing place at Henry’s Fork, three black SUVs with tinted windows stopped outside their cabin. Six men got out, and one of them approached and introduced himself as special agent Anderson.

  “Mr. Lewis, I have orders to place you and Mrs. Lewis under immediate house arrest,” Anderson said.

  “Anderson, come on, I wasn’t hatched under a turkey. Who is the joker? Is it Luke Clarke? Tell him he can come out; I know he’s around here somewhere.” Sam smiled while he looked around, expecting Luke to make his appearance.

  “Mr. Lewis this is no joke. You have to pack your stuff now and come with us back to your home, where you will be placed under our care until further notice.” Anderson said in an abrupt tone.

  Sam looked at him and started to wonder if this was in fact not a joke. Those agents looked sincere - they all had their hands on their guns.

  “Would you care to tell me what this about?” Sam requested, half smiling.

  “You don’t know what happened at the G20 summit in New Delhi earlier today? You didn’t see the news?” Anderson was surprised that Sam had obviously no clue of what was going on in the world at that moment.

  “What the hell do you mean? What’s with New Delhi? What’s the G20 got to do with this? And why am I being placed under arrest?” Sam was getting irritated - the joke was getting a bit old now.

  “Mr. Lewis, I have my orders and I intend to follow them. All I can tell you is that there is a new government, a world government. The United Sates government does not exist anymore, and neither does any other administration in the world,” Anderson tried to explain, but only succeeded in causing more confusion in Sam’s mind. He was now beginning to believe again that this was definitely a joke.

  “Son, are you sure you haven’t been out in the sun for too long lately? Now get it over with, tell Luke Clarke to come out now, so I can kick his ass for him.” Sam laughe
d.

  Anderson saw that he was not being taken seriously. He took out his gun and pointed it at Sam while the rest of his men followed suit and now had both Sam and Susan at gunpoint.

  Sam realized something was wrong, terribly wrong. Crazy as it might sound to him these guys, whose weapons he and Susan were staring at, were serious. This was not a joke.

  From years of experience, he knew that now was the time to play nicely. Any form of anger or resistance was going to trigger a lot of trouble. He looked at Susan who was standing right next to him and told her to do exactly what these men instructed. He could feel how her body was shaking when he put his arm around her.

  “Very well then, Mr. Anderson. You and your men are holding the guns. What are we to do now?”

  “My men will accompany you and Mrs. Lewis to help you pack your belongings, and you will be traveling in the SUVs with us. One of my boys will follow us in your vehicle. We’ll take you back to your house in Boise, where I will explain all the rules to you. Please don’t try to escape or resist. I have orders to keep both of you alive, but if that is not possible I am also authorized to kill you.” Anderson said with bravado.

  The translation program

  After the Steering Committee meeting, Sinclair wasted no time to setup the translation center. He started with the automation process to translate the rest of the 10th Cycle Library, with help from Raj’s team.

  Sarah, who was the human resource manager and in charge of the day-to-day administration of the Rabbit Hole, found she had a bit of spare time on her hands once everyone got busy with their designated projects. She decided to pay Sinclair and his team a visit. Sinclair looked up from his computer screen when he saw Sarah entering and smiled. He loved this young woman as he would have loved his own daughter if he had one. Ever since he met her, he always thought that if he’d had a daughter, he hoped she would have been like Sarah.