by Andy Straka
“One is a medical corpsman. The other is a squad leader. Both special forces.”
“Great. Now they can add jumping and seizing women to their resumes.”
“Again, I apologize. But I hope you’ll come to see it was worth it.”
“Right,” she snickered. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”
She swung her legs off the cot and placed her feet on the floor.
“You can walk okay? ...I mean with the prosthetic.”
“That’s the general idea. Titanium, carbon fiber, and biomechanical electronic feedback–state of the art. Though it’s not exactly the same as Mother Nature.”
She pushed off the cot and rose into a standing position. The room seemed to swirl for a moment.
He was there by her side, taking hold of her arm.
“Don’t get any ideas,” she said.
Again he offered her the smile, this time with a slight guffaw. “Don’t worry. You can make it okay?”
She nodded, waving him off, and he let her go.
“Which way to the Emerald City?” she said.
He looked at her quizzically for a moment. “Funny you should say that.”
10
There was a loud click as the door in the corner of the room angled open. She followed him through it into a brilliantly lit hallway. After the dimness of the room, the light was almost blinding.
“Give your eyes a moment to adjust.” He paused, waiting for her to catch up.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see. Stomach still okay?”
“Okay enough.” She felt like crap but wasn’t about to give her jailer, if that’s what he was, the satisfaction of knowing it.
He laughed. “Spoken like an Air Cavalryman.”
“Woman, you mean.”
“Of course.”
Raina noticed right away that, unlike the room with her cot, the walls here were made of a more high tech substance, a kind of steel she’d never seen before, polished like glass, with a faint greenish tinge. The walls and the ceiling contributed to the corridor’s brightness. At the far end of the hallway, maybe fifty yards away, stood a soldier with an M16 in full combat gear. What was all this?
Upon reaching the soldier, they were confronted by another, far more substantial entrance. The soldier continued to stare straight ahead, paying them little to no attention, except to nod slightly at Murnell as they approached the large door. On the wall was a small display panel with the screen at eye level. Murnell turned to look directly into it.
“Dr. Lance H. Murnell, P-Q-1-2-7-5-B-4-4.”
Facial and voice recognition no doubt–Murnell continued to stare into the screen. But Raina also got the distinct impression it might be more than just a computer looking back at him, perhaps even, at the two of them.
“What have you got going here, Murnell?” she asked.
The large door began to slide silently upward along its track and the Homeland Security scientist turned back to her with a sardonic grin. “Welcome, Ms. Sanchez” he said with a sweep of his hand and a slight bow. “to the Yellow Brick Road.”
The door opened wider to reveal a gymnasium-sized space with huge, reinforced rafters overhead and darkened walls of the same type of material as the hallway they’d just traversed. But it was what stood at the center of the space that immediately drew attention. It was a sphere, maybe ten feet in diameter, anchored to the floor with large struts and what she guessed might be hardened power and communications conduits. The surface of the sphere glowed green but also looked to be at least partially transparent.
“What is it?”
“Come and see,” he said.
They stepped through into the cavernous room, the large door silently closing behind them. Raina pulled her gaze from the sphere to look around. There seemed to be no one else but them in the entire space. Murnell was like a kid in candy store, egging her on, apparently eager to share with her what no doubt was probably in part his creation.
Drawing closer, she made out what appeared to be a small door in the side of the sphere and a pilot’s seat inside.
“Is it some kind of a ship?”
“More like a cockpit.”
“Where’s the rest of the craft?”
They circled around to the door in the side.
“Hold on. You’ll see.”
There was a metal ramp leading up to the door. Murnell climbed it and pulled the hatch open. Raina held back for a moment.
“You coming?”
“Yeah.” She clambered carefully up beside him.
“Go ahead.” He was holding the door open for her.
“You first,” she said.
He shrugged and climbed through the hatch into the sphere.
She grabbed the door from him as he went through, feeling its polished, hyaline surface. It was room temperature, neither cool nor warm. “What material is this thing made of?”
“Sorry,” he said from inside the bubble. “That’s beyond classified. I’m not even sure I understand all of its structure myself. But what it can do…come on inside and I’ll show you.”
She’d come this far. Why not?
She stepped through the hatch into the sphere with him.
“Reminds me a little of the old bubble canopy helicopters,” she said.
“It does, doesn’t it?”
The curvature of the floor made her feel slightly unsteady. There seemed to be no access ramp or step to the single seat.
“This is still a prototype, not yet fully operational, and we’ve yet to add a few of the finer points. But why don’t you go ahead and sit down in the chair, and I’ll show you what she can do.”
She looked at him for a second or two. Was this guy crazy? Putting her in the command seat of who knows what?
“Are you a pilot, Dr. Murnell?”
“Me? No. And it’s Lance, by the way. Just call me Lance.”
“You’re not going to brief me on your ship before putting me behind the controls?” Not that she could see any instrumentation. None appeared to be present–only the empty seat, apparently of major league aerospace manufacture, looking like it had been transplanted from the space shuttle.
“Trust me. It’s better just to show you.” He pulled what appeared to be a small remote control device from the pocket of his sport coat. He pushed a button and the chair came to life, turning part way toward them. “Don’t worry. It won’t bite. Go ahead and have a seat.”
She did as he instructed and edged to the chair, turning awkwardly to sit down.
Murnell stepped up to stand beside her. “Now hold on for a second. This can be disorienting at first.”
He ran his fingers across a small touchpad built into the arm of the chair.
The world went dark for a moment. Where the transparent sphere had been and the cavernous room beyond, she could see nothing but darkness. In the next instant, however, they seemed to be transported through time and space to another world. An arid landscape, punctuated by sage bush and cactus with brown mountains in the distance, spread out before her. She could still see her own body and the shadow of Murnell’s standing next to her but the image seemed to swallow everything else.
“What is this?”
“The Mojave Desert.”
“In California?”
“Nevada actually. Just across the border.”
“This is from a UAV or a MAV?”
“Yes. A small cluster of them to be more precise. More advanced, but not all that different from the ones you’ve been playing with for the past few weeks.”
“Oh. You know about that, do you?”
“Some. We might know a lot more than you think we know.”
Wonderful. It was the first acknowledgement that, whoever Murnell was, he and whomever he worked for somehow knew about her activities with Tye and Major Williamson. Were they really Homeland Security? The thought unnerved her. How much did they know? Unless he pressed her about her activities, which he obviously hadn’t done, she decided she bett
er remain mum for now.
Murnell went on. “You know we’ve had something of a debate going within the research community about the future of UAVs and MAVs, or drones, as the public likes to refer to them. Besides the obvious ethical issues regarding weaponization, territorial sovereignty, privacy rights, etc., the more fascinating technical debate revolves around artificial intelligence and the merits and drawbacks of the deployment of so-called autonomous drones versus maximizing the information available to the remote operator. I and my colleagues fall into the latter camp.”
“You mean you always want a pilot.”
“Exactly. Our position is that artificial intelligence–at least for the time being–is best suited to gather information to be provided to human decision makers.”
She couldn’t help focusing on the ‘for the time being’ part, but decided she just needed to listen.
“How much information are we talking about?” she asked.
“That’s rather obvious, isn’t it? Look around you.”
She swiveled her and turned to look around her all in all directions. The images all melted into one to form a completely immersive experience. It was as if she were actually standing in the middle of the desert at that very moment. Flying her single hover angels or dragonflies was like controlling a joystick while looking through a straw by comparison. What Murnell was showing her was almost a leap into science fiction.
“It’s an advanced outgrowth of full dome immersive technology,” he said. “If we’re going to take you into somebody’s neighborhood or down the stovepipe into the kitchen where they’re assembling the latest generation of improvised explosive devices, you better be able to have a good look around. Wouldn’t you agree?”
She nodded. How could she not?
“But that’s only the beginning.”
He made another gesture on the touchpad, which, she noted, seemed to wrap around the entire arm of the chair. Instantly, the desert scene was replaced by a large collection of separated images showing different settings, from street scenes to countryside, even, from high overhead, an entire city. The screens seemed to hang suspended around here in a floating constellation of pictures. In one moving image over what appeared to be Afghanistan a battle was even taking place. As if by magic, the shadow of Murnell’s hand reached up and pulled one image away, replacing it with another and then another.
“How are you doing all this?”
Murnell said nothing.
“All of this technology has to be classified.”
He chuckled. “Of course.”
Instinctively, her hand started to move toward the control pad on the arm of her chair, but she held it back.
“Think of all the possibilities,” he said.
“I can see that.”
“What if we could drop you almost anywhere in the world you wanted to be? In real time, so you could have a good, close-up look at the place and what was happening there. All while seated right here in this chair.”
“I’d say it would be very cool.” It also sounded a lot like Big Brother, but she figured she better play along.
“Almost as good as sex,” he said.
She could feel his eyes on her in the darkness. Okay, now she was getting creeped out.
Thankfully, he moved on: “We believe this technology has tremendous possibilities–and, in the right hands, tremendous potential to protect people and to do good.”
“Okay. So why kidnap me to show it to me? Are you trying to recruit me or something?”
“Maybe.” He hesitated for a moment. “But I prefer to think of it more as an evaluation.”
“Your evaluation of me? Or my evaluation of you?”
“Ha!” He laughed out loud. “I like that about you, CWO Sanchez. You don’t pull any punches.”
The darkness went away and the images all disappeared. In a whisper, she was back in the transparent bubble again with Murnell standing next to her and the empty, cavernous space all around.
“Wow,” she said softly.
“So here’s my deal.” He turned back to look at her, put his hand on the back of the chair, and leaned so close she caught an unmistakable hint of his cologne. His voice took on a conspiratorial tone. “In exchange for your silence about what you’ve just seen, I’m willing to give you unfettered access to this technology for the next couple of days, and as much training as you think you can absorb.”
“You’re kidding…why?”
“That should be obvious, shouldn’t it? Because I’m hoping to seduce you into joining us. The missing link for much of our efforts is qualified pilots. And with your background flying not just helicopters but now MAVs…need I say more?”
She looked into Murnell’s clear blue eyes. Was he for real? What about the mission with Williamson and Tye? She couldn’t abandon them in midstream.
“So if I accept this deal of yours, I take it I’m stuck here for a while.”
“Not at all.” Murnell reached in the pocket of his coat and pulled out a mobile phone. “You’re free to come and go as you please. I’m calling a car to take you home right now, in fact.
“We’ll have to take some precautions, naturally. You won’t be drugged again, but you’ll need to be hooded and seated behind blacked out windows for any trips going and coming to this facility. It’s less than a half hour ride back to your apartment, so it shouldn’t be too unpleasant.”
“Are you for real?” She almost started to laugh. She couldn’t help herself.
“I think you’ll come to see that we’re not about some deep, dark conspiracy. We’re only trying to do what’s right for our country, not to mention the rest of the people on this little globe of ours.”
It sounded a lot like what she and Tye were shooting for, only their mission with Kurn was a lot more specific. She was almost at a loss for words.
“So what, I’d be working for Homeland?”
“Yes, you would. At least, in a manner of speaking.”
“What do you mean in a manner of speaking?”
“That just means I’m not free at the moment to give you any more details than what I’ve already offered. I think you’ll agree, under the circumstances, it’s a pretty generous offer.”
Again she wondered just how much he and the other people working in this facility knew about her activities with Kurn and the MAVs. Part of her wanted to lay her cards on the table, but another bigger part told her to hold back.
“Okay,” she said. “Can I have some time to think it over?”
“Sure.” He reached in another pocket, pulled out a different mobile device, and handed it to her; it was a small flip phone. “This phone only dials one number and it’s mine. “Go home and get something to eat and drink, take a nap, do whatever. Call me later this afternoon with your decision. But I need to know something today. We’re on a very tight schedule and are trying to get all of the pieces in place.”
For what? she wondered. “And if I decide to say no?”
“Then we have to kill you, of course.” He stared at her with a straight face for a moment. Then he broke into a grin. “No, I’m just kidding you…don’t take yourself so seriously…If you decide what you’ve seen isn’t for you…well, let’s just say we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, okay? I really don’t think you’re going to say no anyway. Again, I’m very sorry for the unpleasantness earlier with our Special Forces friends. It was necessary for the sake of expediency.”
“Expediency, huh?” She looked at him for a moment.
He nodded.
“All right. I’ll think it over.” Anything to get out of this place. As interesting and attractive as this all seemed–not to mention Murnell himself–she felt an urgent desire to leave.
“Very good,” he said, raising his phone to his ear. “I’m calling your car.”
11
“You can’t just bail out on me like that!” Tye glared at her with what looked like a mixture of anger and concern.
They were seated across t
he small kitchen table from one another in her apartment.
Raina said nothing. She hated lying to him, but what choice did she have? She didn’t full trust Murnell–something about him made her uneasy–but a lot of what he said made sense. Maybe she and Tye and even Major Williamson were in over their heads. She’d never seen or heard of anything like what Murnell had shown her. Maybe it was time she stepped up to the big leagues.
“Where were you?”
“I told you. I just needed to get out for a little while. I needed to clear my head.”
“Clear your head? You were gone for over three hours, and you left your cell phone and your keys. I had no way to get in touch with you. I’ve been sitting here waiting around on you all morning. I was just about to call up Williamson to talk about aborting.”
“What are you now, my babysitter?”
He pursed his lips and shook his head. They stared at one another for a few moments.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
“Let me see your arms,” he said.
“What?”
“Roll up your sleeves. I want to see your arms.”
“Why?”
“Just do it.”
She shrugged and did as he asked. Lucky thing for her the Spec Ops guys had stuck her in the hip. Her arms were free of any marks. But why was Tye asking to see her arms? Did he know more than he was telling her? Maybe she wasn’t the only one keeping secrets.
“Okay.” He sighed with what almost seemed to be relief.
“What are you talking about? What are you looking for?”
“Nothing. Just wanted to make sure you weren’t addicted to something, wigging out on me and shooting up.”
“Are you kidding me? We’ve been working together every day for a couple of weeks and you knew me before that. Have you ever seen anything to suggest I’d even think about doing dope?”
“No,” he admitted, looking sheepish.
“Look. I appreciate your concern for me, and all. But I’m a big girl and I can take care of myself. And sometimes I just need some space for myself.”
“Right. I get it. But not when we’re on point and on mission. We’re into some high stakes mojo here. I could end up with a one-way ticket to Leavenworth, or worse. And who knows what they’d do or where they’d send you. You understand what I’m saying?”