Glass Shore

by Stefan Jackson

  I look over at Geek as he places the flash drive into a different reader.

  “Okay, enough about Space’s problems. Educate me on the Jump One file. Why is it important to you?”

  She looks me in the eyes. She’s ready to tell me. Being here, in Geek’s mobile home, she probably feels like she can trust me. She looks at my chest. She gently runs her fingers over my smooth, scar-less skin. “You’re an absolute freak. I watched him crack your chest open just a few minutes ago.”

  She sighs, shakes her head in resignation and says, “My real name is Alima Āl-i Buyeh. My father was Burhan al-Jamil.”

  “The pilot accused of firing the nuke from Jump One at the base in Puget Sound.” I say as it starts to come together. Burhan al-Jamil is also known as Lieutenant Colonel Adam Rose. His backstory regarding the Event is that had changed his name so he could join NASA.

  Nikki says, “Look, my father was a level-headed, boring man. He was a damn good pilot, that’s why he was selected for the Jump program. I’ve been on this path for years but I’ve never learned why he was accused of this insane crime. Now at least I can prove my father is not a terrorist. The flight log and the video prove he was following orders from US ground control.”

  I look at her, as if looking at her for the first time. I smile. She smiles back.

  I ask, “Does your dad have a dirty past? Why was he made the bad guy?”

  “I don’t have a clue. He had an amazing record as a pilot. Before NASA, he was with the Royal Air Force and was the Queen’s pilot of choice.”

  “We’re in,” Geek says with a hint of amazement.

  Nikki and I look at the monitor above Geek and see Space chasing Fury onto the bed. The point-of-view is from the closet.

  “Is that where the drive begins?” I ask Geek.

  “Yeah. This is the start,” he replies.

  “So Bobby was in the closet. Good call, bodyguard,” says Nikki. Her eyes never leave the monitor.

  “You think you can cheat on me!” Space screams into Fury’s face as he wrestles with her on the bed.

  “You think I don’t know you’re screwing that pretty boy model! You think I don’t know? Dumb bitch! I know everything!”

  He turns to Lynch, who is just entering the bedroom, and screams, “Hold this whore!” Space’s face is bent with pain, his small black eyes pop and burn and spittle flies from his razor thin lips as he yells at Lynch.

  Lynch rushes over to the bed and grabs Fury’s frantic arms. Lynch holds both of Fury’s wrists with his left hand and clamps her mouth with his right.

  “Good man!” cheers Space.

  “Jealousy,” says Nikki.

  “Geek, you got a secure phone?” I ask. I don’t want to use my phone. I don’t trust it.

  Geek nods. He stops the program and the monitor above his head goes black. No need to watch that again.

  Geek tosses me a small black unit. It’s heavy and looks like one of those archaic cell-phones from the turn of the century.

  I hold Geek’s phone and consider the options before I place the call. Of course, Liz is priority one. After that, the world is my oyster, via Space’s money.

  “What did you mean when you said I have a profile?” Nikki asks me.

  It comes out of left field and it takes me a moment to recover, after all, according to the monitor displaying my streaming live input into the memory pool, I’m currently nude sun bathing on a white sands beach. And who can say I’m not. The Bible states there are more things in heaven and Earth than man has dreamt. And if I channel the Aristotelian binary school of thought, then I can realize the dualistic relationship between the sublunary and superlunary realms. Placing me here and now as well as anywhere at anytime.

  Sitting on a sandy beach, it’s nice to know there’s a side of me that just wants to chill. I haven’t had a vacation in … forever. I always work. I’m on call, in motion, in action all the time. Sleep mode is my holiday. Life is all about the next time I can go to sleep. But that involuntary thing that happened earlier, the nap, that is scary. That’s like blanking out; like being offline. Not a good thing.

  I break from my sad existential wonderings to answer Nikki.

  “PAUL told me. It’s one of the global citizenry databases used by law enforcement. I have access to those resources because my primary protocol entails domestic peacekeeping situations. Anyway, there’s a big Do Not Disturb sign on your file. That’s why I didn’t kill you when I grabbed the file and your laptop.”

  “Wonderful,” she says low and hot. Then, not looking at me. “Who wants me protected?”

  “I don’t know, but your ass is secure by law.”

  She huffs and storms away from me.

  I look back to the phone in my hand. “Geek, get ready to send a sample of that file to an email address I’m about to receive.”

  “No problem,” Geek says. “Nikki, I can hack PAUL. Give me a moment. For the record, I never believed that whole terrorist scenario.”

  “Thank you Geek,” she says. She eases over to him.

  I call Space.

  “Yes, who is this?”

  “It’s Apollo.”

  “Where’s my drive?”

  “What’s your email address?”

  “What?”

  “I want your secured email address. I want to send you something.”

  Silence.

  “And does this something regard my drive?”

  “Yes.”

  Heavy sigh. “Very well. Malcolmonlyatnightdotein.”

  “Malcolmonlyatnightdotein.” I repeat to Geek. He nods.

  A moment later. “File sent,” Geek says.

  “Check your email.” I tell Space.

  “I am.”

  Silence.

  Then I hear Space swear; a vile, curt clip.

  “You still with me?” I ask Space.

  “Yes.”

  “Good. Now, you’re going to let Liz go home. After that, you and I will make arrangements. Put Liz on the phone so I can tell her the good news.”

  Silence.

  “Apollo?”

  “You’re going home.” I say. “Just give the phone back to Space and walk out. I’ll call you again soon.”

  “Okay. Thanks boss.”

  “Sorry for putting you in the middle of this mess. We’re going out to dinner as soon as I lock down this affair. Now get going.”

  “I’m out.”

  Silence.

  “How many people have seen this drive?” Space asks.

  “Three to my knowledge,” I reply. “Took some time and experience to hack it. They tell me it was like pulling teeth from a rabid bear.

  “Speaking of which, you looked very rabid as you killed Fury. One of my colleagues is very disappointed that jealousy is the motive. Thought you’d be bigger than that.”

  “To hell with you and your colleague. What concerns you is money. How much do you want?”

  “This can’t be quantified with a lump sum. We’re dealing in terms of years. Many, many, many, many years. Consider me an invisible life mate. So another thing I want you to do for me is to not kill Bobby. I’m sure he’ll try to squeeze you for money. Just remind him that the people that made Tommy piss have the flash drive. He’ll understand and that will keep him quiet. I’ll call you again when I need to.” I hang up.

  24

  Geek has hacked PAUL.

  I look over and see the face of Nikki’s alias, Karen, on the big monitor.

  Nikki looks over at me. “Liz okay?”

  I nod.

  “Good,” Nikki and Geek say in unison.

  I set Geek’s phone on the clear countertop.

  “Keep it.” Geek says. “It can’t be traced, and you’ll never pay for a call.”

  “Nice. I love free stuff. Thanks Geek.” I put the phone in my pocket.

  “And I thought I was being clever with the aliases. They completely know who I am. Every little thing I do.” Nikki lights a cigarette and takes a quick hit; she
blows smoke at the large display of her life, as PAUL knows it.

  I’m not saying a damn thing. I’m not apologizing or anything. But that’s only because I don’t have to. My comments are not dated or signed, just part of a larger pool. I wrote what I wrote and that’s it.

  “It’s all about national security. All of your activity is fed into one registry, then, summarized into this profile. The right panel of the page is personal entries from undercover contacts you’ve met over the years. Damn, you have been a bad girl.” Geek says to Nikki with a smile.

  “You try to get the truth out of the government and let’s see how angelic your ass remains.” She walks in a tight circle with slow and measured breaths. She wants to explode but she’s keeping it together.

  “Who put the don’t touch tag on me?” she asks Geek.

  Geek taps a few keys on the keyboard. Pages in tech-script flow over the large display.

  “Looks like an executive order,” Geek states.

  “The President?” I say, and I’m surprised by the shock in my voice.

  “Doesn’t get more executive than that.” Geek replies. He opens page after page of tech-script.

  The perk in Geek’s voice betrays his surprise “You know what? Glidden placed the do not disturb sign on you Nikki. And look, former President Cresthaven created a secret division called Ambre. It appears that Ambre’s top mission is to secure the file titled Project Blue Book appendix sixty-three A.”

  “Ambre? Oy, again with Ambre.” I say.

  “Is this going to be a bad story?” Geek asks me, with a cocked eyebrow.

  “Yes,” Nikki answers. “We met two Ambre agents and really messed them up.”

  Geek nods and continues to finger-tap the flat keypad. Then he pauses to light a cigarette.

  “Nikki’s disappearance is listed priority one with WEB as of today at seventeen forty-eight hours. You’re hot priority all over the world.” Geek says as he smiles at Nikki.

  “What’s WEB?” Nikki asks.

  “World Enforcement Bureau,” I reply. “The last people you want to dance with.”

  “Great.” Nikki shakes her head in amazement. “So the President wants me alive – or just wants the Jump One file?”

  “I gotta say he wants the file in his hands and you dead. Now that WEB is involved this whole affair has escalated from cool quiet to blood riot. They’re about a dozen of my pod brothers looking for you. And probably me as well.”

  “So the WEB is made up of individuals like you?”

  “Yep.” Geek and I answer in unison.

  “WEB captured Lynch.” Geek states as Nikki and I read along.

  “He offered no resistance,” Nikki says with a touch of disbelief.

  “What was the point? All that would have happened is a lot of things would’ve been destroyed and in the end he would’ve been secured,” I say.

  “Secured?” Nikki asks.

  “Rendered either temporarily or permanently immobile. Incapacitated.” Geek informs Nikki.

  She nods. “But not dead?” she asks.

  “No.” Geek replies.

  “Lynch, Apollo, these WEB things can’t be killed?”

  Geek replies, “They can be killed, you watched me do it. But what’s the point? Just put ’em to sleep. They can lay in stasis until duty calls. None the worse for wear. These guys are expensive. Killing them is just pissing away good money.”

  Nikki nods her approval.

  I feel good about Geek’s response. Too bad Griffin doesn’t share Geek’s point of view.

  Nikki looks straight at me, yet her gaze is somewhat vacant. Her eyes are steady yet she’s not there. I’ve seen that gaze before but always in more unkind situations. It’s the look someone has as they sum up their life. A shit or get off the pot moment.

  Nikki walks over and retrieves her laptop.

  “How long are we safe here, Geek?” she asks after a long exhale.

  “Indefinitely. I’m mobile and off the grid.” Geek replies.

  “Good, but I’m still going to create a new look.” Nikki states as she opens her laptop. She ejects a thin silver wand from a hidden panel on its side. She finger taps the side of the wand and tiny tines jut out. She runs the wand/comb through her thick, curly black hair and her hair immediately turns early autumn red.

  Geek and I look at one another with amusement.

  “That’s a neat toy.” Geek says. “Where’d you get it?”

  “From Japan. It’s called Body Flourish. I’m a show model. It goes on sale next spring. The thing is, in order to effect pigmentation, you have to get tiny implants under your scalp, and eyes, lips, nails and skin.”

  She spins the lower end of the cylinder. She removes her shirt. She then makes a broad swipe with the wand over her face, neck, arms, the front and whatever should could reach on the back of her torso. This takes the August California tan out of her flesh, becoming a winter New England pale.

  She puts on her shirt.

  She pulls out a compact mirror and studies her face. She’s very pleased to see no swelling or bruising. She pulls tweezers from her bag. She plucks her eyebrows with mirror in one hand and the small silver tool in the other.

  Satisfied with her brows, she drops the tweezers and picks up the wand. She studies the tool, makes and adjustment. She holds the wand up, arms length before her face and stares at its tip. She taps the wand with her forefinger. Her brown eyes turn Nordic blue.

  She makes another adjustment on the wand. Now she swipes the wand over her lips, reducing the volume out of her pout.

  She inserts the wand back into her laptop. She opens the color pallet and selects a soft pink. She ejects the wand and swipes the tool over her lips, painting them soft pink.

  In far less time than it takes me to heal from open-heart surgery, Nikki becomes a different woman.

  She smokes her cigarette, yet, she does it differently, demure and elegant. She looks at me with a smile.

  Amazing. She is not the same woman.

  I think I’m in love – again. And like an idiot I ask, “Is there a new name for the new woman?”

  She shakes her head, no, and says, “Nikki’s fine.” She takes a short hit from her smoke. “Okay, now what do we do?”

  “Well, your plan is to expose the President and to clear your father’s name. To that end, let’s get the dogs called off. Give Geek the disc.”

  I turn from Nikki and face Geek.

  “Can you get the President’s personal phone number? I want to play the same deal with him as I did on Space. Just send him a snippet of the evidence.”

  Geek nods as he receives the clear disc from Nikki.

  “Damn, I haven’t seen a clear disc in decades. What’s on it?” he asks.

  “It’s not as graphic as Space’s but you’ll find it interesting,” Nikki says. “Do you believe in UFOs?”

  Geek smiles. He looks about his workstation for the proper reader for the disc.

  The room is quiet. Each of us locked into his or her mind. I feel a noise and pressure in my brain. I guess the Mjac plug is bothering me more than usual.

  The new Nikki sits cross-legged atop Geek’s workstation, smoking, and watching Geek work his magic.

  I pace the room, trying to quiet the white noise that is my thoughts. My mind being so unfocused is not normal. Even stoned I don’t suffer this … deranged static. It’s like someone is trying to contact me but the signal is being blocked. It’s annoying as all hell. Must roll with it.

  Nikki wants to punish the President. That’s a losing battle. They will claim the disc and file are forgeries. Nikki’s past will be exposed and she will be presented as the maniacal daughter of a villainous air force pilot.

  Geek is enjoying the situation. His defiance is legendary. So he’s in this little escapade for the long haul regardless of the no-win outcome.

  And Griffin will cancel Geek’s breathing privileges, unless Geek decides to come back to work for The Administration. Geek’s brain is more
renowned than his insubordination.

  As for my fate, I’m looking at termination. Griffin will put an end to my lifetime contract unless I disappear completely. And with my newly acquired wealth, and Geek’s aid, I may be able to do that.

  25

  “What’s our status?”

  “Well, Mr. President, I’d like to begin by stating that protocol for this type of event was followed to the letter.”

  I turn to see the Security Council conference in progress on the far monitor above Geek’s workstation.

  I hear a ping. One of my phones needs attention. I pull them both out. A green button on the new phone blinks. I check the phone. It’s a message from Geek. It’s the President’s personal phone number.

  “Thanks Geek,” I say.

  He acknowledges me with a nod but his attention is dedicated to the Security Council conference.

  I call the President.

  “Yeah.” It’s a statement, not an inquiry. Gliddin answers the phone like I do. I suppress the urge to laugh.

  “I got something you want, and you got something I need,” I say.

  “Who is this?” Gliddin asks in a none-too-happy tone.

  “Not important. What’s your private email so I can send you details?”

  “Who is this?”

  “Damn – I didn’t realize you’re such a bitch. What’s your email address?”

  “You’re talking to the President of the United States. How’d you get this number?”

  “I asked someone for it.”

  Silence.

  “What’s this about?” Gliddin says at length, calm, as if he is lovingly placing bullets into the chamber of a gun before an execution.

  “I have Nikki and the Jump One files. Gimme your email address and I’ll prove it.”

  Silence. I can’t even hear him breathe.

  “Is this Apollo?”

  Well, at least he’s well-informed. “Yep.”

  “Okay …” The line goes blank. Dead silence: like a stone tomb on Pluto. I look at my cell phone.

  “What’s wrong?” Geek asks.

  I put the phone back to my ear. “Not sure.”

  “Apollo. Send it to zelayamd@pre.org.”

  “Spell that.” I request and he obliges. Then I hang up.