The Deception

by Janet Shore

  After dinner, Pedro sat down at his desk, opened up his laptop, and started searching on Derek Taylor. Surely there must be a social media profile for this person. After about a half an hour of looking at about a hundred different Derek Taylor profiles, none of which matched the Derek Taylor he knew, Pedro switched his search strategy. If Derek Taylor were a pseudonym, then he would have a hard time finding a trace of him online. A geographic localization to the Washington D.C. area would narrow the search. Reluctantly, Pedro used his credit card to put up some money for all the information on any Derek Taylor living in the D.C. area. Still no matches turned up. The paid results were random people living their various lives after their different manners.

  Pedro picked up the phone to dial security at the white house. He arranged a next day meeting at 10AM with a Mr. Park Lee who was in charge of the video security recordings at the white house. Reviewing the tapes was a longshot but was worth a try. Pedro arrived promptly at 10AM, screened through security without a problem, and went to Mr. Lee’s office. They shook hands,

  “Mr. Lee, thank you very much for taking time out of your busy schedule to see me on this security matter. I am currently working on a top secret project with General Arnold and Major Sanders at the pentagon. Prior to our meeting yesterday, Derek Taylor handed me an object that we have since learned was a surveillance device. We believe that the security protocols of our meeting may have been breached by that device. I have known Derek for years, but I have never met with him outside of the white house. Yet, according to the information I received yesterday, no Derek Taylor exists at the white house. I was hoping that we could do a facial recognition review of your security recordings of the last few days to determine under what badge he used to gain entry to the white house. I suspect that if he used one name for entry and another inside, locating him with your information might be materially relevant and helpful in solving this mystery.”

  “I would be most happy to help you.”

  For the next five hours, Park Lee and Pedro Sanchez poured over every face that entered or exited any part of the white house or the nearby executive buildings for the past week. Pedro saw himself enter and exit several times, along with others he recognized. At the end of the tedious review, there was no face that matched Derek Taylor. Pedro’s cellphone rang.

  “Hello.”

  “Pedro, General Arnold here. The meeting was supposed to start fifteen minutes ago. What is the hold up?”

  “I am still at the white house reviewing the security recordings to find a visual match for Derek Taylor.”

  “Can you postpone your investigation? We have new classified information here to review.”

  “Yes, General, I’ll be over in about forty five minutes depending on traffic.”

  Forty minutes later, Pedro walked into the meeting room at the pentagon. Major Sanders was pouring himself a cup of coffee, and carefully selecting a cream-filled donut with chocolate frosting. General Arnold looked up,

  “Mr. Sanchez, did you locate Derek Taylor?”

  “No, General, the security review at the white house was negative.”

  “Well, that will have to wait. Dr. Jenner at the Exoplanet Institute provided us with confirmation that the aliens on Mars do have an enemy. They claim that they rescued humans that were abducted by that enemy.”

  “Are they going to return them?”

  “No, they only confirmed their safety. But, this tale of data preservation sounds phony to me. Obviously, we will get dragged into their war long before any supernova, not to mention the threat to our sovereignty.”

  Major Sanders washed down the last of his donut,

  “General, if there is a chance to get the abductees back…”

  General Arnold interrupted the Major,

  “There probably are no abductees. Whatever happened that long ago is done. Those poor souls have no doubt met their fate. Out of an overabundance of caution, I suggest we begin by not trusting either side.”

  Pedro exclaimed,

  “Then how are we to evaluate any of the data before us?”

  Major Sanders answered,

  “The general is probably right. If they think we want the abductees, then they have the leverage. It is natural to want to resolve that cold case, but it may be telling them too much to seem overly eager about the matter. On the other hand, we cannot miss an opportunity to rescue a remnant of anyone they did recover.”

  General Arnold flatly claimed,

  “Or no one.”

  Pedro paced back and forth,

  “This all comes back to Derek Taylor. We would not have any inkling about a hidden agenda, or two alien forces at war with each other, if it weren’t for him.”

  General Arnold continued,

  “Derek cannot be trusted either. The device he gave you could both listen and speak. We didn’t know it was listening. That is part of a general danger with all automation. You cannot tell sometimes if it is listening. Silent listening, intelligence gathering, translates into a strength advantage for them, and a disadvantage for us.”

  Major Sanders placed some of the latest satellite photographs on the table,

  “These four photographs show activity or other indications in a very remote area of the world which may indicate that the Jazene, or perhaps their enemies, are already active here.”

  General Arnold and Pedro scooted their chairs closer to examine the new data. The General questioned Major Sanders’ interpretation,

  “Those indications look like foreign military maneuvers.”

  “Yes, general, those are foreign military maneuvers, but look at what they are maneuvering toward.”

  They looked more closely. An unidentified ground phenomenon appeared to be the focus of the troop movements.

  “Where is this? What are we looking at?”

  “The photographs are a mountain range in Uzbekistan, east of the Caspian Sea. Notice the coloring. We have enhanced the colors so that the ground energy surge is more visible. The trucks and equipment appear to be beginning to form a containment perimeter.”

  “What do the intelligence services say about the chatter?”

  “There is nothing unusual reported by intelligence. Either they missed the chatter, or it is completely guarded information. Even the townspeople have not taken to the Internet with any cell phone pictures or other data.”

  Pedro offered, “It could just be a drill.”

  General Arnold looked at him with a penetrating stare,

  “This is not a drill. I believe that the foreign government has cut off all outside communication.”

  On another floor, the guard outside the door which held Pedro’s briefcase heard an odd sound that appeared to emanate from inside the room. He reported to his superior that he was opening the door and requested backup. Once inside, he saw the source of the sound. Pedro’s briefcase was gently rattling in place. The vibration of the rattling was strong enough that the case began to shift its position on the table. Two more armed guards arrived.

  The first guard exclaimed,

  “I think it’s going to walk off the table. Don’t let it hit the floor.”

  Hurriedly, the three men surrounded the table. The rattling would come in spurts, some violent, and others mild. The more violent ones had the greatest effect on the motion of the case. Occasionally, a guard would reach out and push the briefcase more toward the center of the table. All of a sudden, the latches flew open, and whatever papers were left inside starting flying and floating around the room. The device itself was completely blue, almost blinding in intensity. Now freed from its container it began to float erratically in a mostly vertical direction. All three guards drew their weapons aiming at the object. They were very concerned that since they were facing one another that they may take collateral hits if someone fired. One guard backed up to the intercom and connected with General Arnold’s conference room.

  “General, we have a situation with the briefcase.”

  Pedro and Major Sande
rs stared at each other in disbelief. General Arnold asked,

  “What’s going on?”

  “General, the object inside the briefcase has freed itself and is levitating.”

  “I’ll be right there.”

  Pedro was ahead of the other two as the three men ran down the hallway and the stairwell. They ran into the room to see the blinding blue glow of the wobbling old artifact.

  “Lower your weapons.”

  The General had seen the danger of the guards firing their weapons unintentionally at each other. The situation called for careful observation. Pedro locked the door behind him from the inside. The six men and the object were confined together. Suddenly, without warning, a shrieking sound was emitted from the device. The loudness caused all six men to cover their ears wincing at the sound. They could see that the device seemed to be fading in and out. As it became less visual the sound softened. Pedro walked up to the table, reached out his hand to grab the device. His hand passed through the handle of one end. He shouted,

  “It’s dematerializing!”

  Then, in an instant it was gone. The room was dark. Within fifteen seconds, the emergency lights came on filling the room with red light.

  General Arnold walked over to Pedro, put his arm on his shoulder to spin him around, and ordered,

  “Is Derek Taylor still in your cell phone as a contact?”

  Pedro fumbled in his pocket for the cellphone and brought up his contact list.

  “No, but I do have a received call from him from last month.”

  “Call him!”

  Chapter IV

  Derek Taylor walked along a street that ran close to the banks of the Nile River in Egypt. He could see the farm land in the distance. The rich green acres of crops contrasted sharply with the desert beyond. The Nile flowed powerfully with its narrow strip of vibrant life around it. Sailboats busied themselves on its waters. Absently gazing on the unending miles of the desert, he was struck with wonder on the similarity of the Nile’s Goldilocks zone to the Earth’s. He was startled when his cellphone rang. Derek fished the phone out of his pocket, and looked at the caller ID. He recognized it as a call from Pedro Sanchez. With a roundabout throw worthy of a Super Bowl quarterback, he tossed his ringing cellphone into the Nile. Now, there was no way to locate him through the cell. He wandered up the street stopping into a local market. On the rack was a set of blister packed pay as you go cell phones. He purchased the phone and went through the activation procedure using an alias. He had to have a phone for survival purposes to call for help if need be. With this bit of safety gear tucked in his pocket, he knew he would not be bothered by incoming calls. No one had the number.

  Dusk came quickly. Derek watched the sunset on a small hill near the bank of the river. Most of the boats had made their way to the docks. In the distance, he noticed a large disturbance of the water near the center of the river. The cresting surface waves frothed violently. He thought that perhaps a submarine was surfacing. The disturbance continued for the next ten minutes. Nothing surfaced. A helicopter flew over the spot shining its spotlight across the water. Derek’s friend, Ahmed joined him. Both men spoke fluent Egyptian Arabic,

  “Ahmed, where have you been?”

  “I have been nowhere and everywhere, my friend.”

  “Ahmed, did you see that?”

  Derek pointed at the disturbance.

  Ahmed laughed, “You mean the sea monster?”

  Derek also laughed,

  “Yes, like Loch Ness.”

  Ahmed spread his hands wide apart,

  “It is much bigger than Loch Ness. All the fish and crocodiles in the Nile are bigger than the rest of the world. This dragon stretches very far. Look down there.”

  The disturbance could be seen as far as the eye could see. Derek suggested,

  “It must be a giant school of fish to stretch that far.”

  Just then, a large fin partially protruded from the water right in front of them. Both men stood up and shouted. The helicopter veered sharply to the left to avoid the shifting winds caused by the movement directly below it. Then the fin disappeared into the river. Ahmed shook his head,

  “That was no school of fish.”

  There were strange lights in the sky. Ahmed said,

  “Let’s go to the cave.”

  Ahmed and Derek piled into an old Rambler and headed for a hill that contained an ossuary. It had long been looted, empty of remains, just a quiet place with a lot of carved out stone holes. The Rambler followed the sharply curved approach road stopping next to the entrance. The two men got out and made their way inside the cave. Derek looked back at the blue and green lights moving erratically over the Nile. Ahmed called back to him,

  “Let’s see it then.”

  Out of his shoulder bag, Derek produced a brown cloth wrapping a metallic object. Using a flat rock as a makeshift table, he carefully revealed the object. The device looked very similar to the device he had handed Pedro Sanchez at the white house. It started to glow. Derek commented,

  “That is probably due to the activity of the lights we are seeing. It is quite safe. There is no way to know how long it will stay before it will be recalled. Usually, it speaks messages.”

  Ahmed said, “Here is your price.”

  He handed Derek a bag of gold coins of considerable value. They waited to see if any messages were imminent since the strange lights had been very active.

  Half a world away, the Exoplanet Institute was buzzing with activity. Dr. Jenner, Chuck, and the rover #99 team studied the oblong shaped object that had settled over a new area on Mars. The communication protocols and channels had been established. The now familiar chorus of voices was clear,

  “Beware. Our enemy, the Danali, have directed an asteroid toward Earth. We apologize for this trouble.”

  Chuck replied,

  “Where is it? We need the coordinates and speed.”

  The object conveyed the detailed information. The size of the asteroid was tantamount to a planet buster. A direct hit would wipe out the Earth. Dr. Jenner looked at the figures, did some quick calculations, and looked up in shock,

  “There is nothing we have that can intercept something of that size and speed. Even the whole power of the nuclear arsenal of all nations impacting this asteroid with bulls-eye precision would not even slow it down. “

  Chuck spoke to the Jazene,

  “Can you help us? Can you intercept the asteroid? Can you break it up? This threat obsoletes your plan to help us with data preservation. As we feared, your conflict, your enemy, has poisoned the well.”

  “Yes. We can take care of it. Our plans will not be interrupted. We will destroy the asteroid before we arrive at Earth.”

  Soon, the asteroid was visible to the amateur astronomer, then to anyone with a pair of binoculars, and finally could be seen with the naked eye. It appeared as a smaller moon growing larger on the approach. With a blast that could be heard on Earth, the asteroid shattered. Dozens of astronomers all over the world started looking at the fragmentation. Even the Jesuit brother Leo in charge of the VORG started identifying the trajectories. Brother Leo met with his staff for a report,

  “Well, what have we found out?”

  Brother Johann stood up holding a print out,

  “This is a good news bad news situation. The good news is that most of the larger fragments will miss Earth entirely. The smaller fragments will burn up entirely in the atmosphere. There may be a few small craters from the medium fragments, but nothing that would cause any significant damage unless it was a direct hit on a building or a car. The bad news is that there are two fairly good size fragments which after accounting for reentry, shrinkage, and drift threaten to do some significant destruction somewhere in the Middle East. There are no plans to intercept these two fragments according to the international news agencies. They are projecting that they will harmlessly land either in the Sahara or the Mediterranean. Our calculations gave a different result.”

  Brother
Leo asked, “Have we alerted the other agencies with our data?”

  Brother Johann replied, “Yes, the difference of opinion is fairly technical, but they disagreed with our findings. I think part of the problem is that we are an arm of the Vatican, and are not taken seriously enough.”

  Brother Leo sighed, “If we notified the Cardinal Secretary of State, then I believe we would get the same reaction.”

  Brother Johann responded, “We have notified the Cardinal Secretary. We did get the same reaction. The consensus opinion is that intercepting and breaking up fragments of that size will do more harm than good. The breakup would risk damage over wider populated areas, and would be less reliably predictable. They think the best strategy is to the let the larger object hit with full force on an unpopulated area or the sea.”

  Brother Leo scratched his head, “The risk comes down to the difference in our calculations. Where do they differ?”

  Brother Johann answered, “I can show you both of the calculations in detail later. In sum, it comes down to the final temperature of the object after reentry. The parameter controlling that estimate has a wide variance. The quantity is fixed mostly from a theoretical point of view. That leads to the conflicting results.”

  Brother Leo responded, “I pray that we are wrong.”

  At the pentagon more information was available. Pedro walked around the conference room passing a handout to General Arnold and Major Sanders.

  “If you will look on page three, then you will see that there is no data supporting the view that the destruction of the asteroid was due to it being hit by an intercepting beam or projectile. All of the data that we have indicates that somehow it broke up as if it were exploded from its center. Unless the technology used goes beyond what we normally call physics, the Jazene claim to have destroyed it is in doubt. Also, why didn’t they take care of the two large fragments now headed this way?”