by Chuck Black
Drew cleared the weapon and handed it back to Mick. “Thanks.”
After lunch Drew sat in a chair in Jake’s office and looked at his mentor across the desk. Jake’s hands were folded and his index fingers were resting against his lips.
“So what do you think?” Jake asked. “Do you want to work for Fortress Security?”
“What you’ve created here is incredible, Jake. I had no idea. Of course, I want to work for you.”
Jake leaned back in his chair. “But…”
Drew had to give Jake something, otherwise his time at Fortress would be rife with lies and deception. He couldn’t do that to Jake. Drew took a deep breath. “But you need to know that I may have extended periods of unexplained absences.”
Jake’s eyes narrowed. “I wondered. How often?”
“I have no idea.”
“Well, at least your mother bought it.”
Drew wanted to tell him everything, but Ross wouldn’t allow it.
“And the psych eval…That was just a ruse to oust you from the agency?”
Drew wasn’t sure how to answer. “Not exactly. Jake, you’ve always been able to read me like a book. You also know that there are things I can’t tell you. I’m just asking for your help and your discretion. I’m serving our country—not the way I’d hoped, but I’ve been given a gift…and a curse for some reason.” He looked down at his open hands. “It’s complicated, and I’m asking you to trust me.”
Jake leaned forward and looked at Drew the way he remembered his dad doing when he was just a boy. “Okay, but no matter how skilled you are—and by the way, I know you were holding back out there—a bullet still kills. You be careful. And if you need anything from me—anything—say the word.”
Drew loved Jake. He was always a pillar, the lighthouse that told him where the solid ground was.
“I’m…I’m very grateful, Jake.”
Jake nodded. “Mick will be the only one I’ll have a challenge keeping this from, but I’ll think of a way. If you can give me any warning, I can send him to check up on our other facilities.”
Drew’s eyes widened. “Other facilities?”
Jake smiled.
17
FINDING BEN AGAIN
Drew was a natural fit for Fortress Security, and Jake was grateful to have him. Drew learned that Jake had launched Fortress Security East Division just south of York, Pennsylvania, in an effort to be more conveniently located to gain government contracts. Before long they found it necessary to expand to a third facility located north of Los Angeles, which became their West Division. Rivercrest then became Fortress Central.
Jake’s reputation among the Special Forces veterans afforded him the opportunity to build a security company that was both extremely skilled and efficient as well as reputable throughout the country. Six months after Drew joined Fortress, they began receiving international requests. It afforded Drew both the excuse and the opportunity to complete NOC missions for Ross with only minor diversions. Drew suspected that some of their international clients had been fed to them by Ross, for more than once did a NOC mission coincide with either a Fortress mission or a marketing and public relations call to a potential client.
Throughout his time with the CIA, Drew had been ever restless over the agonizing reality that Ben was still out there someplace. Now that he was settled in at Fortress, he decided it was time to put finding Ben at the top of his priority list.
They had come full circle. Ben was missing and probably paranoid again. Drew had been under the microscope while at the CIA and hadn’t dared access his Chicago Mercantile trading account for fear of the CIA discovering Ben’s whereabouts. In spite of being free from the prison of believing the alien invaders were real, Drew hadn’t ruled out the possibility that the industrial espionage theory might still be a plausible one. If indeed the LASOK technology could be developed into telecommunication products or even weaponized, its worth would be incalculable. It was just that, if and when he found Ben, he wasn’t sure how to tell his friend the truth. He decided he would deal with that when the time came.
The problem with searching for Ben was that this time his friend had left absolutely no clues as to where he might go. That pretty much left the entire United States to search. It seemed impossible, and thus far any leads Drew followed came up dead ends, including his attempt to access their Mercantile Exchange account. To Drew’s dismay, he discovered that the account had been closed over a year and a half ago.
After days of thinking back over the months he had spent with Ben before their separation, Drew remembered that the last piece of equipment Ben needed to buy was an electron microscope. If he could find a reseller who had sold one not long after their separation, maybe he could trace the sale to Ben. And although it was three years ago and seemed like a long shot, at least it was something.
Drew sat down at his computer and opened a browser. He entered “electron microscope suppliers and resellers” into a search engine and waited. The wait icon spun and seemed to take longer than usual to respond. The screen filled with a long list of companies on the first page. Drew glanced at the number of results and felt his heart sink. About 8,260,000. He hung his head. Even if only one percent of the hits were valid, it still meant a search of over 82,000 links.
“Well, another dead end,” Drew said. He moved the mouse to the red X in the corner of the screen just as a pop-up showing an ad for electron microscopes appeared.
Drew tried to exit the pop-up but it wouldn’t go away. Then the ad disappeared and words appeared.
What took you so long?
Drew froze as he stared at the words. The cursor was on the line below, and it was blinking…waiting. Could it be? Goosebumps covered his body. He hit the W key on the keyboard, and the pop-up displayed the letter.
“Impossible,” he whispered.
Who is this? he typed.
The cursor blinked and Drew waited.
I’m Alice. I was designed to find you.
The hairs on the back of Drew’s neck stood straight. He should have realized that searching for electron microscopes from a Rivercrest IP address would raise flags.
Another message appeared: Have you taken the blue pill?
Drew typed: Yes.
What color is the night?
Drew typed: Gray.
What did you receive for graduation?
“Ben, you sly dog!” Drew smiled with excitement and typed: A spoon.
The cursor blinked. Then another message. Please scan and verify security. Are we secure?
Drew scanned for invaders and then realized that he didn’t believe this stuff anymore. He fought the urge to get sucked into Ben’s fantasy world again.
Yes.
Drew waited, hoping. He grabbed a pencil to write down any message Ben would send him, but it would not be needed.
Admiral David Glasgow Farragut, 9 p.m. Good-bye. The message displayed for a couple of seconds, and then the pop-up disappeared.
Drew sat back. All along Ben had been waiting for him. Drew searched for “Admiral David Glasgow Farragut,” but the results were too broad. He added “monument” and found the result he was looking for.
“Madison Square Park? Seriously, Ben?”
For a man hiding from what he believed to be an alien invasion, it sure didn’t seem like the center of New York City would be the place. Maybe Ben had gone off the deep end after all.
Drew immediately booked a flight to New York. He could leave early the next morning and be there by six o’clock in the evening, plenty of time for the 9:00 p.m. rendezvous.
By eight thirty the next evening, Drew was in Madison Square Park in New York, New York, the most densely populated city in the United States—precisely the place that Benjamin Berg shouldn’t be. Drew began second-guessing himself. Was this a trap set by the industrial espionage group? Terrorists who had somehow discovered his connection to Ben?
Drew decided that even though his light invader friend wasn’t real, t
here was no denying the fact that his subconscious had abilities his conscious didn’t. This figment had helped him in the past, and perhaps he’d better at least pay attention to its warning signs. Validus and two of his companions seemed on the alert but not anticipating any serious threat. It eased Drew’s nerves a little, but he still decided to play it safe.
Admiral David Glasgow Farragut’s statue was on the north end of the park, so Drew found a park bench far enough away that he could see whomever might observe it. He watched every person far and near, waiting for his friend. Nine o’clock came and went, but there was no Ben. He waited until ten and then decided that Ben would have probably given him a day to get there. He would try again tomorrow night.
Drew stood up and left the park. At the curb, a cab waited. Drew opened the door to get in, but a man was already sitting on the far side of the seat. He was looking out the street-side window.
“Sorry,” Drew said and stepped back.
Ben turned and looked up at him. “Do I have to stuff you in here like you did me?”
Drew smiled from ear to ear. He jumped into the cab and shut the door. “Ben!”
Ben smiled back. They locked hands and hugged. Drew sat back and looked at his friend. Ben looked good…almost too good.
Ben tapped the seat, and the driver took off. “I see you got Alice’s message.”
“Yeah, I—”
Ben leaned out of sight of the driver’s rearview mirror and held his finger up to his lips.
“—did,” Drew finished. “Thanks. Where are we going?”
Ben pulled a smartphone out of his pocket that showed a map and their location with a GPS pointer. Below the map, Drew saw a message flashing: “Observing.”
“You’ll see in a minute. How are you, Drew?”
“I’m good, Ben. Man, you look good. How’s…life?” Drew wasn’t sure how much Ben wanted him to say in the cab. Ben kept checking his phone and Drew sensed that he wanted to keep things surface-level.
“You hungry?” Ben asked as he swiped his screen and updated something.
“Yes, actually. I came directly over once I got the message. Haven’t eaten anything since lunch,” Drew replied, dying to get someplace to ask questions. He glanced down at Ben’s phone again, and this time the flashing message read: “Clear.”
“Alice says we’re clear.” Ben leaned forward. “This will do,” he called out to the cab driver.
“You sure?” the cabby asked.
“Yep.” Ben handed him a twenty.
Drew looked out the window to see that they were back at Madison Square Park. What was going on?
Drew and Ben exited the cab and stood on the sidewalk. The cool night air held the sounds of New York life—cars, people, music.
Drew turned to Ben. “So—”
Ben grabbed Drew and gave him another hug. “It’s so good to see you, Drew. Man, I missed you!”
“I missed you too, Ben. I’m sorry it took me so long.” Drew sighed. “You wouldn’t believe what’s happened in the last three years.”
“I can only imagine,” Ben said. “Let’s walk and you can fill me in.”
Drew looked at Ben in awe as he led them down the street. At first Drew could hardly concentrate to tell him his story, because Ben seemed so solid, so together. It wasn’t at all what he expected, nothing like the last time. Drew quietly considered two possibilities to explain Ben’s state. Either Ben had given up on the whole notion of an alien invasion and was actually a normal, functioning person, or he had so lost it that his paranoia was being temporarily masked and would probably manifest itself before long. Either way, Drew was a little nervous about discovering what had really happened to Ben during the last three years.
They walked for five or six city blocks, passing up the delightful smells of Italian, Mexican, and Chinese restaurants along the way. Drew gave Ben the summarized version of his life, and his friend seemed to take it all in, asking questions to clarify some of the details. When he was done, Drew stopped and looked around, realizing they were nowhere near any restaurants. These blocks were exclusively office buildings, conference centers, and high-class hotels. It was now almost eleven, and the restaurants would all be closing.
“So…what about you, Ben? What’s been going on with you?” This was where he would discover the true mental state of his friend.
Ben stuffed his hands in his coat pocket and motioned for them to keep walking…away from any food. “Well, my decoys to help me escape from Chicago must have worked, since I’m still alive,” he said with a quirky laugh.
Of course you’re alive, Drew thought. There were never any real invaders to harm you in the first place.
“You had some great ideas, by the way, using multiple vans and tunnels. But then I got to thinking about how I was going to carry on our work, not knowing if you would ever be back. So I decided to find a job first and disappear again as a nobody. And that led me here.”
Ben stopped walking. Drew turned to face him. Ben shrugged.
“New York City?” Drew asked.
“Yes, but no…I mean here,” Ben said, opening his hands and looking around them.
Drew looked all around, trying to figure out what his quirky friend was getting at. Ben finally pointed up. Drew followed and saw a big, blue high-tech sign that read NexTech.
“Here? NexTech? You found a job working here?”
Ben nodded. His grin was a little too big.
“Wow…that’s great,” Drew said, choosing to believe him for now. “How did you land this job without being discovered?”
“Not just any job. I’m the senior tech for the firm.”
“Senior tech? Seriously? That’s awesome. NexTech looks like an amazing company.”
Ben laughed. “Yeah…NexTech is pretty amazing, huh?”
Drew looked up at the sign again and read the company slogan—Next Generation Technology Today. The glass doors and windows gave just a hint of what their capabilities were.
“What we could do with these resources and technology…” Drew whistled, contemplating how much faster they would be able to replicate Dr. Waseem’s work. “If only we had something like this.”
“We have something like this, my friend.”
Drew didn’t like his tease. “An abandoned warehouse and spare parts bought off the Internet are a far cry from the capabilities of NexTech.”
Ben nodded. “Which is why I never used our money to rebuild the lab as we had planned.”
Drew’s heart sank. In spite of being convinced that the invaders actually didn’t exist, there was a part of him that secretly wanted Ben to prove the world—and Dr. Whitton—wrong. By now he had expected Ben to be nearly done. Granted, the money would probably have run out, but there should have been enough to get them close.
“What are you saying, Ben? You never rebuilt the lab?” Anger laced his words.
“I didn’t say that…exactly. The equipment we bought was junk. I realized it would never work, so instead I built NexTech.”
Drew smirked. “You’re an employee of NexTech, my friend. Have the invaders messed with your brain again?” he quipped, but deep down he wondered if perhaps there was truth to it. He had seen Ben nearly drop out of reality before.
“It’s a front, Drew. I realized the best way to hide from the FBI, the invaders, everyone, was to hide in plain view, right under their noses. I needed a cover, and we needed better technology, so I took our money and designed a fake tech company with a fake board of directors and a fake CEO.”
Drew shook his head. “I don’t believe you. No one could pull that off.”
Ben was as giddy as Drew had ever seen him. “Yeah, I know, right? Plus, who’s going to take a computer geek like me seriously? So I hired an actor to play the corporate investor representing a board of directors, set up interviews, and brought in a real highflying tech manager to run the business. Hired myself, and voila…NexTech was born.”
Drew was stunned. Did he dare believe him?
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br /> “The only problem was—” Ben stopped short, preoccupied with some secret problem.
“What problem, Ben? The money’s all gone and there’s still no lab? Is that it?” Drew pressed, trying to control himself.
“No. This fake company actually worked. It started making money. I had to hire real programmers, managers, accountants—all of it. It’s really slowed down Dr. Waseem’s work.”
Drew looked sadly at Ben. The money was gone, Ben was clearly unstable again, Drew was schizophrenic, and there was no hope of ever turning Dr. Waseem’s research into something profitable. It’s just as well, Drew thought. His secret and foolish hope of Ben being able to throw him a lifeline to reality was finally over.
Drew put an arm around Ben. “It’s okay, buddy. I’m here to help you out now.”
“Yeah, and it’s about time. It hasn’t been easy on my own.”
“I’m sure. I’m sorry it took me so long to get to you.”
Ben waved him off and smiled. “It’s all right.” He looked up at the NexTech building and glowing blue logo. “I’ve been plenty busy.”
“Why don’t we go get something to eat, and then you can show me where you’re staying,” Drew said, leading him back to where they might still be able to order a pizza at a pub.
“What? Don’t you want to see it?” Ben asked.
“See what?” Drew asked.
“The LASOK, or at least how far I am.” Ben started walking toward the darkened entrance of the NexTech building.
“Not now, Ben. I’m hungry.” Drew was hoping this wouldn’t get embarrassing and draw attention. “Come on.”
Ben stopped and looked at Drew. “Your stomach is going to have to wait. I haven’t worked my butt off so you can go eat a piece of pizza.”
He turned and walked straight to the access pad. Drew ran to catch up to him.
“Ben…Ben, wait. Let’s not—”
But before Drew could finish, Ben pulled out a white security card, swiped it near the pad, and then entered a ten-digit code. The red LED flashed green, and the solenoid lock on the door clicked open. Drew froze, but Ben opened the door and stepped halfway through it.