“Five days,” Myers explained. “Which is why we immediately secured the area and dispatched a group of engineers to set up an arctic habitat and drill down through the ice. It’s called Northern Star Arctic Research Station. Of course, Greenland isn’t U.S. soil and so the Danish government was eager to supply scientists and military personnel to assist in the excavation.”
“The engineers are nearly done,” the president said. “Which is the final reason we brought you here. We’d like you to join them. You folks are the only ones with any first-hand experience and experience is the one thing that’s in short supply.”
The vice-president crossed his arms and leaned forward. “Admiral Stark will be overseeing the mission.”
“Admiral,” Jack said, surprised. “I thought he was a rear admiral?”
“Not anymore,” Myers replied.
The aide reappeared, ready to lead Jack and Mia back to the limo.
The president shook their hands once again. “Remember, everything discussed here today is top-secret. Head back to your people and get yourselves ready. You leave for Greenland in twenty-four hours.”
Chapter 3
Mia spent the majority of the trip back to Joint Base Andrews staring out the rain-spattered window. Flashing blue and red specks of light cast off from the government SUVs escorting them bounced around the limo’s interior. They seemed to be struggling for her attention, like so much else at the moment. She glanced over at Jack, who had balled up his nice suit jacket and tucked it behind his head as a makeshift pillow. His chest rose and fell in a steady, serene rhythm. A part of her hated him for taking it all in stride.
Looking back, the meeting with the president had been a nerve-racking experience. Neither she nor Jack had expected to be put on the spot like that, expected to know with certainty whether the Ateans—she still had trouble accepting they’d been given a name—were friend or foe. It had made Mia feel naked and stupid for not having a better answer. And yet the longer she considered the president’s question, the more she realized how ludicrous a thing it was to ask of them. Whatever these ancient beings had had in mind when they gave the planet a black eye all those millions of years ago could never be known, not with any degree of certainty at least. Besides, human beings, in any recognizable form, would not emerge for another sixty-three million years. Thus, attempting to categorize this alien race as either friend or foe of humanity was, for the time being, pointless.
Distant as they might seem, Mia felt a growing certainty the answers they sought were locked within the Salzburg chromatid. She recoiled, her hot breath fogging the car window. The mere thought of the disorder brought on fresh waves of guilt. Here she was, heading to Greenland in twenty-three hours, and yet there was still so much to be done to help reverse the crippling illness that had befallen the human race. In Greenland lay perhaps nothing but a wild and useless chase across a frozen landscape.
Jack would be there. That was good. She watched as he shifted, pushing himself deeper into the corner between the seat and the door. And what if the answers she sought lay locked somewhere beneath all that ice, just waiting to be discovered while she was off on a quixotic quest halfway around the world?
A hand touched her arm.
“Hey, go easy on yourself,” Jack said, peering out at her from one tired eye. “I see threads of smoke coming out of your ears.”
Mia grinned. “A woman’s work is never done.”
“Yeah, well, you won’t be much good to the team if you’re burned out.” He raked a hand through his messy hair and fixed her with a quizzical stare. “Knowing you, you’ve been replaying our conversation with the president and his cabinet, wondering how we did, whether we managed to convince him it was better to hold off on those nukes until we got a better handle on what was going on.”
She ignored his taunt. “I don’t think the president is dumb enough to think sending nukes into space will accomplish much more than irradiating the solar system. He struck me as a thoughtful and intelligent man.”
Jack sneered. “Those are the ones you gotta worry about.”
“His advisors, on the other hand, struck me as a little nuke-happy.”
“Most of them,” Jack replied. “Though I can’t say I totally blame them. I mean, we saw first-hand what happened the last time one of those things paid us a visit. For all we know, they’ve come to finish what they started.”
“Or to correct their mistake.”
Jack’s eyebrows rose. “That could be. Humans are pretty messed up. Hard to imagine anyone drawing up a list of our accomplishments and seeing any reason to keep us around.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Mia replied, marveling at Jack’s cynicism. “Maybe they’ve come back to fix our genetic flaw.”
His features dropped. “Which one? You mean the warrior gene?”
She nodded, hopeful.
“They don’t exactly strike me as the tinkering type. Not after they annihilated seventy-five percent of life on Earth for the sole purpose of repopulating in their own image. Besides, what took them so long? That’s a serious case of galactic procrastination.”
Mia grinned. “But what if you’re right?” she said, feeling the words plop out of her mouth like heavy lead ingots. “What if all we have left is two weeks and nothing we do will change that?”
Jack shook his head and crinkled his brow. “You heard the president say he intended to move the government and key personnel underground. The human race is resilient. With a lot of luck, we might just be able to weather the impact and save enough of us to carry on.”
“That’s not what I meant. Not really, at least. Isn’t there anyone you’d prefer to spend that time with—friends, family?”
She saw she was losing him. “I haven’t got family, not anymore.”
“Your parents are dead?”
Jack seemed to think this over for a moment before nodding. “The only people I really care about are in this limo and back at Andrews.”
Mia felt his sadness touch her heart and squeezed his hand. She hadn’t been expecting him to say that, certainly hadn’t been fishing for it either. Back on the USS Grapple, she had heard Gabby mention Jack’s biological father once in passing and the emotional chasm that lay between them. She was struck that even with an approaching Armageddon, Jack still wasn’t interested in healing old wounds.
“What do you think we’ll find in Greenland?” she asked.
Jack pulled his hand away and began rubbing circles with his thumb and index finger. His voice dropped into a low baritone. “Salvation.”
•••
Joint Base Andrews was the love child of Andrews Air Force Base and the Naval Air Facility Washington. After passing through several checkpoints, the convoy arrived before hangar five. The incessant rain had finally let up and Jack and Mia made their way toward the long vertical slit between the massive doors. Inside sat Air Force One and her twin sister, arranged side by side. Few knew that more than a single plane was responsible for ferrying the president around the world. The duplicate often acted as a decoy and would fly out ahead of the commander-in-chief in order to ensure the skies were indeed as friendly as they seemed.
To the left of the president’s gleaming airplanes was a two-story structure that ran the length of the hangar. A long row of lit windows disappeared into infinity. Groups of Air Force mechanics and other personnel moved throughout the space. They entered the mechanic’s shop to find Anna standing before a mirror.
Jack felt his jaw grow slack. As promised, those geniuses from Boston Dynamics along with scientists from DARPA had given her a tremendous gift. Gone were the variable-drive wheels, left behind as they had abandoned ship. In their place was a sleek pair of metallic, multi-jointed legs. Anna’s torso was also new, silver chrome plating with the added bonus of a distinctly feminine shape. The narrow waist was a nice touch, Jack thought, along with the arms and hands which had been covered with a shiny grey aluminum alloy. The only part that remained unchanged w
as Anna’s head and the distinctly human features projected against the back of her glass faceplate.
Jack heard the muted sound of clicking as Anna blinked. “Oh, tell me you’re not taking selfies,” he said, stifling a burst of laughter.
Anna rotated at the waist, her legs following suit. Suddenly a beaming smile filled her face. She lifted one of her shimmering arms in greeting. “Dr. Greer, Dr. Ward, welcome back. I trust your visit with President Taylor was productive.” She walked toward them without a hint of awkwardness.
“It’s like you’ve had legs your entire life,” Mia said, impressed.
“I have been practicing,” Anna confided. “Dr. Greer, do you also find stairs challenging?”
Jack frowned. “Do I look that out of shape?”
“On the contrary,” she replied. “I meant for a man of your age.”
Anna still couldn’t tell when she was inserting one of her new metallic feet into her digital mouth.
“You get ’em, Anna,” Mia said, punching Jack in the shoulder.
Anna’s features fell. “I apologize if I caused you distress, Dr. Greer. I was merely inquiring. You see, the coding Dr. Viswanathan provided for climbing stairs did not account for the presence of a railing, or unevenly placed steps, so I was forced to make several modifications. There are still a few imperfections present, but I am confident I will get the hang of it soon enough.”
“We all learn to walk and climb in our own time,” Jack assured her. “I’m certain Rajesh’s program, imperfect as it was, was only intended to get you started.”
Anna’s reply was drowned out by Dag entering the workshop holding a BLT on wholewheat bread.
“Jack! I see the president fought the urge to throw you two in jail,” he said, wiping a glob of mayo from the side of his mouth.
“Aren’t you a vegan?” Jack asked, eyeing the dangling strip of bacon with envy.
Dag glanced down at his sandwich and chuckled. “Vegetarian, and this ain’t real bacon. It’s called vacon and it’s not bad at all. Head into the canteen and they’ll make you one.”
The side of Jack’s mouth crinkled. “Sorry, but you lost me after fake bacon.” He grew serious. “Grab the others, will you? There’s something important they need to hear and there isn’t a lot of time.”
Dag motioned over his shoulder. “They were right behind me a second ago.”
A moment later, Gabby, Rajesh, and Eugene appeared. The two men were in a heated debate about Han Solo’s Kessel Run and whether George Lucas really knew a parsec was a measurement of space and not time.
“I have the utmost confidence the man knew what he was saying,” Rajesh bellowed, animating his point with exasperated hand movements. Depending on your point of view, the Indian computer engineer was either plump or cuddly.
Facing off against him was Eugene Jarecki. The fortysomething theoretical physicist was better known as the director and sole member of the OOSA (Office for Outer Space Affairs). In spite of his thinning hair and slight stature, the guy had the unlikely combination of Steve Buscemi’s looks and Brad Pitt’s confidence.
“Lucas didn’t know what the hell he was talking about,” Eugene said, his voice marked with a nasal pinch. “He got caught fair and square and tried to cover with some lame story about the Millennium Falcon’s navigation system being so sophisticated it was able to calculate a straighter path through hyperspace.”
Gabby raised her arms in a painful-looking shrug. “Don’t we have better things to worry about than some cheesy, irrelevant sci-fi movie?” Her round, caring face was framed by shoulder-length silver hair. But what the troubled expression on her face really said was, If I have to listen to one more second of this, someone’s going to get hurt.
Eugene and Rajesh spun in unison.
“Cheesy?” Eugene exclaimed, his features squished up with shock and horror.
Rajesh’s eyes narrowed. “Irrelevant?”
Dag rushed over and gripped Rajesh by the shoulders, as though wrangling a potentially dangerous animal. “Easy, big fella.”
“Dr. Greer,” Anna said. “There is something I…”
Mia raised a hand. “All of you need to just quiet down and hear what we have to say.”
“But, Dr. Greer,” Anna continued.
“Not now,” Jack said, focused. “Mia’s got the floor.” He nodded, encouraging her to go on.
Mia began by recounting their meeting with the president and his cabinet.
“Nukes?” Dag said, shaking his head in disbelief. “I get that everything’s on the table, but is that even feasible?”
“Hard to say,” Jack admitted. “Luckily, the president wasn’t a fan of the idea either.”
Gabby grabbed the corners of her elbows. “With only two weeks before impact, I can only imagine what the country’s going to think when they find out. Every major city will see rioting and lawlessness rise to unprecedented levels.”
Nodding, Mia said: “Especially when word gets out that the government plans on hiding out in bunkers while the rest of us are left to fry or suffocate from falling ash.”
“And this new signal in Greenland,” Rajesh wondered. “Do you think it could be another ship?”
“They weren’t certain,” Mia replied. “A military team is already in place prepping the site for our arrival.” Her voice fell ever so slightly.
“My mother,” Gabby said, biting her cheek. “I need to warn her.”
Jack’s lips drew into a thin line. “I’m afraid word of the approaching ship must never get out. Gabby’s right. It would cause a panic and make an already terrible situation that much worse. Look, I’m not here to force any of you to come with me. I know some may wish to spend what time remains with loved ones. You’ll get no second-guessing or judgment from me on the matter. I simply want you to consider one thing. If the Ateans have indeed returned for an encore performance, if, like the dinosaurs before us, this is our turn to get wiped off the planet, I for one won’t go down without a fight. And let’s not fool ourselves. We all know missiles and bombs likely won’t stand much of a chance of stopping this thing. As far as I can see, our only hope lies with whatever’s hiding beneath Greenland’s ice sheet.”
Mia crossed her arms and turned to Anna. “Or perhaps the answer is hidden in our DNA.”
“Dr. Greer,” Anna said, stepping forward just as a new figure appeared in the doorway.
Jack and the others turned to see Grant. His face was still unusually sunburnt, but he was standing on his own two feet, without a crutch in sight.
The room exploded with shouts of joy and shock. Dag ran over and pulled him into a hug and then stepped back to inspect the fifty-nine-year-old biologist. “Your hip? Shouldn’t you be in the hospital?”
If anything, Grant looked healthier and perhaps even fuller than usual.
“The heck were those nurses feeding you?” Eugene asked, a touch of jealousy in his voice.
Grant shook his head, his long fingers interlaced over his abdomen. “Quite honestly, ladies and gentlemen, I couldn’t tell you. The initial X-rays showed my hip was fractured in three places. And then two days later I’d gained ten pounds and was back on my feet.”
Mia eyed Grant with curiosity and no small amount of incredulity. “Were you prescribed any medication?”
Grant’s gaze fixed on an invisible spot on the ceiling. “Some painkillers. The doctors were just as surprised as I was. They didn’t even have a chance to get me into surgery.”
“Did they do any blood tests?” Mia asked.
Grant nodded. “A bunch and they all came back clean.”
“I’d like to take another sample, if that’s all right.”
“Be my guest.”
Jack felt a gentle tug on his arm. Anna had been desperate to get his attention. “Yes, Anna? What is it you wanted to tell me?”
“When Admiral Stark first arrived on the platform in the Gulf of Mexico,” she began, “he informed you that NASA had detected a binary code hidden withi
n the gamma-ray burst.”
“Yes, I remember, but they had no clue what it meant.” The cloudy expression on Jack’s face slowly faded as he began to see where this was heading. “You cracked it, didn’t you?” he asked excitedly.
Dag, seated on an office chair, crossed the six-foot distance between them in less than a second. “It’s probably some sort of secret message,” the young paleontologist said in awe. “Like those decoder rings they used to put in cereal boxes.”
“Maybe it’s an earful about what a piss-poor job we’re doing caring for the planet,” Gabby said with no small amount of irony.
Anna looked from one to another. The onslaught of real and sarcastic hypotheses was threatening to overwhelm her sensors. “An image, it is said, is worth a thousand words. In this case, I suspect it may count for a whole lot more.”
Chapter 4
Striding along on her brand-new legs, Anna led them to an adjacent room where Rajesh had set up the computer equipment they’d been using on the rig. Adam and Leah sat before laptops, poring over Anna’s data logs and studying her progress. They nodded briefly before burying their heads back into reams of computer code.
“She’s becoming more and more efficient every day,” Rajesh said, eyeing Anna’s slick new figure. “These last few days we’ve been working to perfect her most recent form of locomotion. First came flat ground and stairs.”
The sparkle in Rajesh’s eyes as he spoke about Anna made it perfectly clear that to him, she was more than a piece of high-tech machinery. She was his child.
“Next we will tackle uneven terrain and ladders,” the computer engineer said, his full lips puckered into a soft smile.
“You better throw in some ice cleats while you’re at it,” Jack said, grinning.
Rajesh grew quiet for a moment. “Do you really think it’s wise to bring her to Greenland?” he asked.
Extinction Series (The Complete Collection) Page 28