Dawn of Tomorrow

by Kevin Douglas

  In agreement, she would remain outside, and his visit would be a short one. He logged in at a computer and pulled up the systems with the semi-helpful demeanor of Cronos. He was not in the mood for questions and Cronos was like a nagging mother at this early morning hour.

  Something had clicked for Leo on the quiet ride, that all the elements that had come to light over the past two weeks were related: New Wave and the secretive protective business with military grade security, high end technology and a strange cooperativeness with Leo, a supposed outsider and stranger, a fake scholarship, a Mr. Sullivan with an endless set of identities, and a smug, cold, calculated deviousness, essentially a thief.

  He had a theory, but it seemed ludicrous and he hoped the Butler’s memory would shed some light on the whole thing. He asked Cronos to isolate the workstation to prevent possible corruption and for privacy. He hooked up the memory board from the Butler and opened the file’s creation information.

  The information on screen confused him. “What the…?”

  The file creation, dated 2175, listed the corporation as Leighland Enterprises. The most perplexing element was the author: Evelyn Sullivan.

  Leo needed answers; his Dad’s involvement did not fit in with any of these people. Leo took out his crumbled receipt that had Mimetite’s GPS coordinates and typed them into the computer, revealing a location somewhere in Croatia.

  He searched the terrain and nearby cities, before he booked travel for two. Leo decided his next stop would be to figure out why Mrs. Sullivan was so interested in the mineral Mimetite.

  When he learned of the mineral’s possible applications he would exploit them on his own with New Wave, and force Mrs. Sullivan to give him answers about his father. Only he had Mimetite’s concentrated location, something she must desperately want.

  Not wanting to anger Cronos, he shut down the system and asked that it remain isolated. He troubled Cronos for a company tablet and quickly uploaded the Butler’s memory card and left the lab.

  As he reached the front entrance Cronos said, “Leonard, Bartholemeau is requesting a meeting with you as soon as possible. When can I tell him you will attend?”

  “I’m not sure. Why the sudden request?”

  “You will have to discuss that with him, sir. Bartholemeau will be in contact. Please let us know if you have any problems we can help with.”

  “Problems?”

  Cronos had already gone into sleep mode, but the metallic voice played in Leo’s mind. The rain abated during their drive but as Leo stood with door halfway open, rain began to pound down on him, splattering into the building. How would New Wave know of my plight. It seemed for a minute Cronos was hesitant to let me leave. And why was Bartholemeau so anxious to meet with me suddenly.

  Leo exited the building into the hard rain. He hoped Croatia gave him answers. He did not know if the Sullivan’s would track him halfway round the world, but he was not about to let them destroy his future.

  His father would not give up, and neither would he.

  * * *

  Deep below Sullivan house, the data center remained calm, waiting for its time to be purposeful. Mrs. Sullivan walked the rows of storage inspecting them after she had dragged the Butler’s body down one of the cellar doors in the woods. She threw his metal body into the incinerator and watched as pockets of flesh popped and wires snapped and curled in the heat. Things were far from over for her, they were just beginning. She would win Leo over with his desire to learn the truth about his father.

  She recalled the dreadful day Patrick halted their perfect plans, escaping from Halaby into the maze. Mrs. Sullivan had fired the shots at the metal capsule, nearly killing Patrick before he escaped. Leo’s father had set back their plans, but it did not matter now for she had her sights on Leo and with it leverage to wage her war. Mr. Sullivan had created a slew of deadly metal creatures; she too would have an army. With the data center under her control, her army of BOTs would rise again.

  Mrs. Sullivan received an incoming call, the voice on the other line barely audible over the hum of the machines.

  “Yes, do you have something for me? Uh, huh…really? Excellent. Give me the information as soon as he leaves. Good. Let me know if anything changes. And let me know when Mr. Krueger returns. Thanks, so much Cronos. I knew I could count on you.”

  Acknowledgement

  I’d like to thank the following people for making this book the best it could be.

  Carolyn, for being enthusiastic, and there every step of the way from the beginning.

  Tarissa, for lending an ear when I needed an opinion, even if it wasn’t the one I wanted to hear.

  Cherry, excellent detailed feedback, excited praises, and honest critiques.

  Deborah, for cleaning up my original and working through the kinks.

  Carol for taking on this project and helping me get it released.

  Excerpt from Regeneration: The 2nd Rising

  Bright orange, blood red light filled Leo’s eyes as he stared into another world. He turned his head to view its opposite, a sea calming deep blue, purple and black clouds, dotted by millions of stars.

  Leo slid his window shade closed blocking out the intense light and pulled up the blanket to cover the sleeping Sarafina. She had already fallen prey to the tiny airline pillow, reclined seat, cool air blowing on her face, and the strangely soothing whirr of the jet flying thirty thousand feet above the Atlantic. He tried to relax but the last twenty-four hours had been jarring. The thought of his missing father, thought long dead, invaded his mind; the reasons that drove him to book the flight they were on now.

  Leo’s narrow escape from Halaby made him forget about the memory card he had taken from his father’s camera. He pulled it out of his pocket, grabbed his company tablet, and inserted the card. Leo waited for the files to download onto the tablet and took a sip of his Mountain Dew.

  As he munched on some airline peanuts the download completed, and a grid of thumbnails appeared. The first photos that pulled up were the oldest shots of Leo and his father that held the most meaning. All of these were of a happy euphoric time that he recalled with a smile on his face.

  His mind finished replaying old memories and he scrolled down to view another set of photos. This set was more recent, memories that were still painful.

  These photos were of the last days he had with his father, ten years ago at the Museum of Natural History in New York City.

  He recalled his father saying, “A window into the past always teaches the future to be humble.”

  Leo’s hope was that other than family memories, it may contain photos taken after his father’s disappearance. These photos would have clues and undoubtedly, knowing his father, hints that lead him somewhere.

  Leo reached the last of the photos, all of them unfamiliar to him. He selected one, sending into full screen mode, and flipped through them one by one, paying close attention to the subject of the photos and every little detail.

  Many he assumed were proprietary as they appeared to be a secret server vault. Looking for a clue that was helpful, Leo scanned the last few photos, scouring them for any details. One was clearly of his father’s secret hidden room within Halaby. The dates on the photos of the vault and the room were identical. Leo was surprised that such a robust system was on site at Halaby and wondered where the vault was located. All his adventures pointed to a possible trove of data at Sullivan house, but this seemed to suggest there was one at Halaby as well.

  The last three were the strangest and because of that he knew they were the most significant. One was of a small black room with a domed roof and a single chair in the center. It was a large throne-like chair, the front legs swooped downward to the floor and terminated near a pedestal standing in front of it. On the pedestal was a large metallic ball and Leo zoomed in to get a closer look.

  Leo’s eyes widened with shock and confusion, it was nearly identical to the hands on the tablet from his dream, a large dandelion like structure, apparen
t when he zoomed in to one hundred seventy five percent.

  Scanning the photo to his right he saw another surprise. Two forms appeared to the right of the pedestal, in the shadows, but were indiscernible. He increased brightness to reveal Mr. Sullivan with a woman to his right.

  He presumed the woman’s identity to be that of Mrs. Sullivan and was surprised to see the two conspiring together and in person. Anger rose when Leo saw Mr. Sullivan’s face but slowly faded when he concentrated on the details of the next few photos.

  It was a close up of a round hole glowing blue similar to the one on Halaby’s front door and the maze sculpture. The lighted opening had strange faint symbols around it.

  Leo vaguely remembered them but could not place them until the last photo loaded. It was of the strange piston sculpture he saw in the maze. This was the last photo taken by his father. To Leo that meant two things: One, these were the most relevant snapshots as they were the last clues his father recorded, and two, it being the last photo, indicated he was on to something and that lead to his disappearance.

  Leo paused in thought glancing over the planes occupants. All were asleep. It was like a flying hotel, a hall of snores. One thought kept crossing his mind. He could not see his father knowingly abandoning him, yet Leo’s theory of his father being captive did not quite fit either.

  Yes, the room his father apparently stayed in was secretive, but it was also coded for his father’s entry, requiring a retinal or a facial structure scan to enter.

  This meant his father was not held prisoner in that room and the picture clues, he had to admit, left him even more lost and confused.

  Leo exited the grid of photos and thought for a moment, running his hands through his goatee. An idea struck him. He pulled up the list of files from the memory card, sorted them by file type, and looked for irregularities.

  All the files seemed to be .jpg but he scanned with hope. Something caught his eye when he reached the bottom of the list. Its icon was a blank sheet of paper that was titled ‘Read Me’ and was created just hours before the last photo was taken.

  Leo tapped the icon while he took another swig of his Mountain Dew, freezing mid sip, then slowly set the drink down. The discovery of the letter surprised him, and he read the letter with excited anticipation.

  Dear Leo, if you’re reading this it means you’re either involved or entangled. You probably have a hundred questions but once you hear what I have to say I hope you’ll understand.

  Since those involved aren’t going to tell you a thing, I’ll start from the beginning. One year prior to my abduction I was involved in a military contract with a private entity. The goal of the U.S. government was to make a diversified, sophisticated, and lean military that was impervious.

  Unlike most government only projects I had overseen, this one involved the Leighland Corporation, a private company. They weren’t just supplying a product, they were supplying vital military systems and handling classified data.

  Something many protested but, in the end, Leighland won the trust of the U.S. military. Leighland had won back their long-lost business partner, one they hadn’t worked with in fifty plus years.

  Many wondered where they’d been, how they came up with a cutting-edge idea after being absent so long.

  While generals were skeptical, thinking Leighland had friends in very high offices, they weren’t all together opposed to this revolutionary idea. They salivated at the opportunity this would bring them.

  In a short amount of time I was brought in on the project, they were ready to upload and test data. Leighland seemed rushed to get online, I found it odd, since we didn’t have military applications ready to use this technology.

  Despite my call for them to put on the breaks the military told me to press forward without hesitation. Adding to my sense of uneasiness, the project was primarily remote with video conferencing for proof of infrastructure. I was told that limited on-site interaction was requested to keep the sites where abouts unknown to everyone. This was for “security purposes” they said initially, but I had yet to set foot on site when our data started to flow into Leighland’s servers. I was told high-up military officials had visited the facility, but all I saw was a tall dark-haired man via video chat for all our dealings.

  Shortly after our ‘go live’ with our small data sample, inexplicably an enormous amount of data poured in with no signature trail. This was neither Leighland, nor government data, it had me panicked.

  If unknown data could enter onto the server, what prevented our data from being extracted? I pulled the plug on any further testing until we could find out where the data had come from, when suddenly the information mysteriously disappeared.

  Leighland was mad at the breech but seemed unconcerned they lost the contract. That was till they learned I had extracted a file from the mystery data.

  They pressed for a copy of the data to help in its analysis, but I denied them. When I finally cracked the files encryption everything turned into a zoo. I wanted answers, but the military wanted secrecy and ownership of the file if I cracked its additional security measures. I convinced them it had a further set of encryptions and the contents were irrelevant anyhow. When I finally decoded the file, I kept that secret to myself.

  A man named Cromwell supposedly received commands from a superior for me to encrypt this book till further notice, which I had already secretly done. I knew I was sitting on something huge, I didn’t fully grasp its enormity.

  The files I had decoded were dated 2175 and that spooked a lot of people, but nothing prepared me for what was to come.

  Leighland had been quiet for nearly a year now and all ties had been severed. Despite that I received an email from them asking strange questions about the book’s contents. This was shortly followed by Cromwell asking me to give him the files along with the codes to unlock them. He said they were going to file it away and keep it hidden. The ‘they’ he was referring to was himself and a high ranking official. The see-saw of decision making and strange insight from Leighland to a file they shouldn’t have had knowledge of, pushed me to my final day.

  I had proactively encrypted the information initially because of its value. It contained locations of natural resources, locations we weren’t aware of, gold in the everglades, oil deposits in Phoenix, large diamond deposits in France, and the list went on.

  This was no doubt a treasure trove of information that was a gold mine literally for some. The U.S. Government would no doubt seek to use it to assure world dominance. The book’s existence would create wars over its content and put an expiration date on a swelling worldwide population.

  Leighland’s knowledge of it still had me scratching my head. That’s when I re-opened the file and read every page. When I reached its end the page count suddenly changed, and there were 50 new pages. I read over them wide eyed in disbelief, I’m not a geology major but I had never seen these minerals, at least not till now.

  I setup a trap to see who had skin in the game. There was no way this information, however it appeared, was done in error. I blasted all private channels of media I had available and before I could formulate a coherent theory, someone had taken the bait.

  I was abducted, shrouded, and when it was finally lifted a holographic Mr. Halaby introduced himself. Naturally I was confused, but the man was no stranger to me. The cloud project was his and I had seen him dozens of times via video conference.

  Halaby and his wife questioned me in their own style, with seemingly different motives. His wife left and that’s when things changed… you don’t want to be involved with Halaby. Seeing as how that’s moot since you’re reading this I’ll simply prepare you for what’s to come.

  Halaby no doubt has a vision for our world and it is drastically different. While we might use the book for personal gain or country solvency, they will use it in a much different fashion. Their second phase is in testing now and you, no doubt, have encountered some of his pets. When they use the full force of the data center
it will be hard to stop them. Finite Resources will then be in their hands for ransom. They will hold the world at bay and let men grovel at their feet.

  Halaby was very interested in a particular mineral. It’s the mineral Kyanite and it may be something you can leverage against him. His second interest was you son. Above all else he talked of you.

  You are to play an important role and are key for him to move forward. It is for this reason I will enter the garden sculpture. I need answers that only it can provide, this will be the first time I truly leave you forever. I hope my mind shall live on to guide you, remember to choose wisely and remember home is where the heart is. ;-)

  Lastly Leo, Halaby has experienced failure and been dominated to near extinction, that’s why he is here, regeneration is a chance to right things. Let’s hope his failure is repeated, we have a second chance to get it right again.

  Love always, your father

  Patrick A. Krueger.