by JC Ryan
***
Daniel worked on Saturday, and Sunday, too. The longer this discovery was drawn out, the more likely a leak would occur.
With the discovery there were more levels to the Eighth Cycle facility that JR and Robert hadn't noticed in their rush to get back to the Foundation with the box, Daniel's attention turned to getting another expedition into the entrance canyon, this time fully equipped to explore the facility more thoroughly. The first challenge was to assure JR and Robert they'd done the right thing. Considering what they didn't know then, which was whether it really was an Eighth Cycle site or a top-secret government site with the potential for the two to be shot as trespassers or spies, it was the only thing they could have done.
Added to that, the new exploratory team would be able to do their jobs without destructive methods. The data on the foil with the schematic showing the different levels explained the methods for gaining entry to the doors JR and Robert hadn't been able to get through before. It also showed the location of several more elevators like the main access one, but designed to carry occupants from floor to floor within the building.
Daniel's preference would have been to send in an entire team of archaeologists, but the small canyon wouldn't support the number of people he'd prefer, and the method of getting them there had to be more covert. He couldn't see sending in any number of people to make the trek JR and Robert had, but a bevy of choppers seen flying over the Grand Canyon wouldn't do, either. Park Service would never stand for anything that drew attention to the activity. If other people saw it, there would be awkward questions at best, and demands for similar access at worst. Bottom line a smaller team, going in via a smaller helicopter. There would be plenty of time for a bigger operation if what they found justified it.
Daniel’s solution was to pick up the phone and call John Brideaux.
“John! Daniel Rossler, I have a proposition for you.”
“I’m all ears.”
“Would you still be willing to fund an expedition? And if not, at least use your influence with the Park Service again?”
“Possibly. Is this about what Stephen Matthews found? The reference to the Eighth Cycle?”
“It is. The advance team I sent in has found something of potentially as much value as the Tenth Cycle library, or even more. But John, even if you fund the expedition, the knowledge we gain has to remain part of the Foundation’s assets. Will that be a problem?”
“No, Daniel, not that I can see. As long as you give me access to it, as you have the Tenth Cycle material.”
“That won’t be a problem.”
“Then, I’m happy to fund the expedition and do whatever I can to facilitate it. I’ll even provide the satellite communications for you, if you need that.”
“It’s a deal,” Daniel said, sealing it. He was relieved. Now there’d be no need to involve the board, since it would essentially be Brideaux’s expedition. Anxious to get started, he called JR in right away.
Much to Robert's disappointment, he wouldn't be needed for this trip, though Daniel hinted he had something else in mind for Robert to do once this expedition was mounted. JR would go, of course, as lead field investigator. He'd take a couple of engineers, perhaps Rebecca in case of illness or injury, an architect trained in the use of the surveying tool and one of the translators who knew the language. JR requested a metallurgist as well. The architect would draw a schematic of the facility as it now existed, aided by the engineers to analyze the uses of any machinery or other unfamiliar items they found. Daniel assumed the facility was intact, his evidence being that the elevator was still operative. Nevertheless, it was the responsible thing to do, before sending in even more people, to determine the stability of the rest of it.
Robert had noted cooking facilities for a crowd, but hadn't tested the stove. Accordingly, food for the first week would be only slightly better than Robert and JR had taken with them. The chopper couldn't carry six people and much in the way of water and other supplies. The temperature had been stable in the portion of the facility JR and Robert explored, a pleasant seventy degrees or so, and sleeping accommodations were available. It violated Nicholas's sense of propriety for an ancient site, but they'd make use of those rather than carry in bulky tents and sleeping gear.
It was a peculiar assortment of equipment they would take, then. Flashlights, thousands of feet of the light climbing filament, a small generator to recharge their electronics, MREs that could be heated to eat or eaten cold represented the type of equipment they'd take on a camping expedition. Small, sophisticated electronic measuring and mapping devices, tablet computers, and more clothing suitable for an indoor environment than outdoors betrayed the fact of an urban-type site. JB’s private jet took them to Flagstaff, where a rented helicopter – supplied by John Brideaux - would take them the rest of the way to their destination and then return to drop more food and water in a week. The entire expedition was expected to take no more than two weeks, based on the schematic in the foils. However, there were contingency plans for a longer stay if they found anything unusual, such as parts of the facility collapsed, or other levels that hadn't been cleared of most artifacts as the first level they'd found had been.
Before they set out, Daniel called one more meeting in the conference room they'd been using. The expedition team would be there, along with the people who would interpret whatever they brought back. Daniel called the meeting to order rather formally, since the larger crowd required more order to get through the meeting with any sense of organization.
After summarizing the objective, naming the team and explaining logistics, Daniel asked if there were any questions.
Nicholas was the first to ask. "We're certain we have no Orion Societies or Sword of Cyrus terrorists hanging about this time, eh?"
Daniel laughed. "I don't know how we'd ever be certain, but to the best of my knowledge, no one's out to get us this time. It wasn’t the time or place to discuss Salome’s findings, or project Enigma, even as he prevaricated.
No one else had questions, so Daniel adjourned the meeting. The group would leave the following morning.
***
Discovering the schematic for the Grand Canyon facility had sidetracked the Eighth Cycle translators while they found and translated everything around that subject. Once the expedition launched, they went back to translating the history and science of the cycle. Like the Tenth Cycle linguists, they had to have some better than basic knowledge of science to work those sections, and it was the focus of the Foundation, so more were working on that than on history and social sciences sections.
The history translators were naturally working from early to 'modern', that is, the last century or so before the Eighth Cycle cataclysm would be translated in sequence, after the ancient. Like the Tenth Cycle, the Eighth had discovered their own ancient history, beginning with a stone age, and progressing more or less in the same sequence as the current cycle's had. From the researcher's understanding of the Tenth Cycle description of the rise and fall of each cycle's civilization, it was a typical pattern. Even fewer researchers were reassigned to reading the Eighth Cycle translations than the handful who'd been redirected to the science.
No one thought to question whether the Foundation should be looking for the cause of the Eighth Cycle cataclysm. They already knew that war had collapsed the Tenth Cycle, from the warning written in the greeting. If they'd had the manpower to put more people on it, later events may have played out differently. As it was, however, the first hints the civilization they were just beginning to discover had collapsed not on war, but on a terrible secret, weren't discovered until it was much too late.
Meanwhile, by the end of the week after the expedition left, the science translators were discovering that what they had wasn't scientific research, but the history of Eighth Cycle science. When the team lead took his theory to Sinclair, the big question arose. If there were scientific advances, where were the records of that?
Chapter 28 - He'd miss the old coot
When the price of oil dropped steeply, she tracked the reason to several OPEC countries suddenly opening their reserves at the same time, though she only had a theory about why they'd do that. However, when it went up again, just as steeply and then some, she noted with interest that some of her persons of interest had purchased investments in shale oil, while at the same time, marketing campaigns about the safety of fracking were launched. She took it as a confirmation of her theory; that OPEC had decided to flood the market with oil to drive the price down until shale oil was no longer economically viable. That their plan had failed because someone put serious money into the industry was of extreme interest.
Other economic news, coupled with these items and all tied together in that sophisticated computer program she'd had Raj build for her, sent her mental alarms jangling again. In the interface Raj had built, she could see a visual image of how movement in any of her areas of interest affected other areas she'd connected to them. The image was of a field of green grass, flat and lush when everything was calm, but tossing like an ocean under a storm when shakeups in her indices were occurring. The field had been relatively flat for the past couple of weeks, so Salome had relaxed and helped with the security preparations for the Grand Canyon expedition.
This morning she was looking at the latest breakthrough news on the medical front. A small Silicon Valley company who IPO’d last year, GENT, had discovered a way to conduct a full human genetic test. Based on an individual’s specific genetic shortcomings, a specific medicine, diet and supplements regimen could be worked out. Even more exciting, medicine specific to that individual could also be worked out. This would be true preventative medicine, the ideal medical scientists had been talking and dreaming about for decades. Although it had been possible to do it for a long time, it was cost-prohibitive, not to mention the time the tests took. Those tests were currently only available for the wealthy, high-ranking politicians, key government officials and top military personnel. The new technique would make it so cheap and quick it had now been placed within reach of any man on the street.
What concerned Salome was they’d just been bought by the biggest pharmaceuticals company in the world. They said they intended to bring this technology to everyone. Salome was torn. On the one hand, this could benefit mankind in significant ways, eradicating indigenous disease and relieving human suffering. On the other hand, a retrospective look at the company’s stocks showed some big trading movement for two or three days a couple of weeks ago, and then nothing until the announcement. It looked very much like insider trading, or the work of her elusive prey.
This could be another company to put on the list for close tracking, and also to find out who really owned the company since the flurry of trading two weeks ago.
In doing her deep digging, one other thing Salome stumbled across is that the acquiring firm had become heavily involved in the manufacture and distribution of immunization medication and programs in third world countries over the past few months. It wasn’t so much strange that they were involved in humanitarian work – after all, many big companies were and that is their way of giving back. But what was noteworthy was they had never done it in their thirty prior years of existence. Now all of a sudden, they are doing it and making a big splash about it in the press. Just as they were making a big splash about this acquisition and its importance to humankind.
***
Daniel had other issues to deal with; heavy on his mind was the obvious failing health of his Grandpa. He wanted to talk to Sinclair about it. Sinclair and Grandpa were as tight as they could be without living in each other's pockets and their almost daily Irish ritual at about 5 o’clock behind the closed doors of one of their offices was a well-known secret to Daniel and the others. Daniel wondered if that ritual were responsible for the lapses in Grandpa’s memory lately. He'd also want to talk to Grandma, too, but not until he had a handle on it. He didn't want her to worry. Rather than call Sinclair to him, Daniel took a walk down the hall to the translation department.
The place was like being in a beehive since the Eighth Cycle team arrived. Since the spoken word was much easier to work with, and the program had been written to read it off, there was a low buzz of sound coming from a dozen headsets along with the translators themselves unconsciously reading along, some under their breath, some out loud. It was a wonder none of the old team had complained. There'd never been that much noise before, and Daniel wondered if it was a problem despite the lack of complaint.
That was his first question to Sinclair, when he'd been invited into the office and seated.
"No, I don't think so. It's at such a low volume that it's like white noise. No one has said anything," Sinclair answered.
"Even the Tenth Cycle crew?"
'Even them. Don't worry about it. I'll take care of it if an issue arises. Was that what you came for?"
"No, actually, it's about Grandpa." Daniel noticed the shift in Sinclair's body language immediately. The other man tilted his head to the left, chin raised, and narrowed his eyes.
"What about him?" he asked.
Sinclair was hiding something, no doubt about it. Daniel paused, wondering what he could say that would break through Sinclair's reserve. He decided on a frontal assault.
Daniel laid his cards on the table. "He's getting more forgetful, and I guess that's normal for his age. What I need to know is whether coming in for work is helping or making it worse. I can't have him heading here and getting lost, or worse, getting into an accident and hurting himself or someone else. Sinclair, you have to tell me if you've noticed him having mental lapses."
Sinclair's eyes softened and the Irish brogue that often accompanied his most heartfelt utterances came out. "You can't put him out to pasture, lad. That would kill him, it would."
"So you have noticed..."
"Aye. Occasionally. It seems to come and go."
"Do you think he could be having mini-strokes?"
Sinclair considered the question. It hadn't occurred to him that something like that could be the reason Nicholas was lucid and as sharp as ever one minute and the next would forget he'd even asked a question. If it were true, his old friend needed to see a doctor. The next one might not be so mini.
"I suppose it's possible. What are you going to do about it?"
"Now that I know I'm not just imagining things, I'm going to talk to Grandma. Thank you for admitting it, Sinclair. I know you meant to be loyal to Grandpa, but you did the right thing. This could be serious. Let's deal with it before it gets worse."
Sinclair nodded, already wondering how Nicholas would take it if his old friend ever realized he'd been part of a conspiracy that ended up with him ousted from the work he loved. Sinclair sighed. He'd miss the old coot, if he weren't here to have a nip in the afternoons. But if it meant Nicholas had a few more years left, he'd gladly make the sacrifice. Maybe Martha wouldn't mind if he went by the elder Rosslers' house for a nip before coming home each day.
Chapter 29 - Down the rabbit hole
Daniel had agreed with Luke and Salome it was time to let JR, Rebecca, Robert and Raj in on Enigma. While the others understood their roles immediately, Robert focused instead on the big picture, scaring the living daylights out of him and making him wonder if he shouldn’t rather pull a Crocodile Dundee and disappear into the Australian outback with some of his Aborigine friends. However, his good nature set him straight after a minute and he asked what Daniel wanted of him.
He almost hit himself in the forehead when Daniel answered. It
was so obvious! Not only a geologist, but an avid spelunker, he was to thoroughly explore the cave system, mapping it, surveying potential geothermal wells, everything. When Salome explained the full extent of the plan, Robert, never having even heard the word prepper before, became as avid a prepper as he was a spelunker. What could be more fun than hiding from the bad guys in a super tricked-out cave? Except possibly doing the same thing in the Aussie Outback. But then, his friends would be here and he’d never see them again. He returned his attention to the meeting, which had moved on without him, to learn that Raj would be going with him.
Raj already knew half of what was going on, through working with Salome on the software. In addition, he’d been a prepper since before he met Daniel. It was a natural outgrowth of his paranoia, and it had proved very handy when the group had been running from the Orion Society all those years ago. Prepping to go and survive doomsday in the wilderness was not exactly how Raj had envisioned it, but once he had all the information he was fully on board, and eager to get started.
So, it was settled. Robert and Raj would go, with the usual admonition against phones and contact. Raj was allowed to tell Sushma as much as he needed to, but they would not even be allowed to switch the cell phones on. Though there was no reason to believe they were under observation yet, they would behave as though they were. They were to go, do the job and get back without anyone knowing where they were going or what they were doing. Not even that they were together. And more important than anything else, under no circumstances could anyone see them there at the Rabbit Hole.
Salome gave them all the details she and Roy had collected before - coordinates, maps, photos and all. With a twinkle in her eye, she warned them about the “herds” of bears and the mountain lions, freaking Raj out. Robert wasn’t really an expert on the fauna of the region, but he obviously knew better than to believe in herds of bears. Seeing Raj’s reaction set off his big, hearty Aussie laugh.