by JC Ryan
All of the family was gathered around with most touching Nicholas somewhere; all but Sarah, who took out little Nick as he finally realized something very bad was happening and began to cry. All heard his final words, “Don’t grieve for me, I had a full and happy life, God has blessed me richly with the best wife in the world and the best family and friends anyone could ever hope to have. I am ready to meet Him now. The God who has blessed and protected me for more than ninety years will also bless and protect each and every one of you in the same way.”
He lifted his hand a fraction of an inch and made a tiny gesture to wave goodbye to them. At last, he closed his eyes and with a smile of his face the old patriarch was gone. A man amongst men, he died like he’d lived – an honorable man.
Grandma's face crumpled, and Daniel put his arm around her.
"Ben, Daniel, I'm very tired. Would you take me home, please? There'll be arrangements to make."
They marveled at her strength. They were jelly, no strength in their limbs at all, and she, after almost seventy years of marriage, was already thinking of others and their expectations. No wonder Grandpa had been the tower of strength everyone always thought. He had a woman of steel propping him up.
***
The memorial service was a few days later. A small private affair attended by the family, the Foundation staff, Sarah and Rebecca’s family as well as ex-president Nigel Harper and his wife, Esther. Sam Lewis and also John Brideaux attended in support of the Rossler family. Although it was sad it was also a celebration of the life of a great man.
They all remembered his last words, “Don’t grieve for me” and so the family, Sinclair and some of the employees had them crying instead with laughter at times, as they recalled the antics of the old man.
When it was ready, the epitaph on his headstone would read: We only live once, but once is enough if we do it right. Live your life with class, dignity, and style so that an exclamation, rather than a question mark signifies it! Gary Ryan Blair
Chapter 39 - The end games
A day or so before the expedition left Salome and Rebecca were having a drink in the cafeteria and started talking about the article which told them in so much detail how the people were controlled by that “thing” in their hands – how bad must it have been to live in that society? Salome reminded Rebecca that our society today was not too far off, with the universal demand for constant connection. Coupled with all the information the government, and worse, private companies, were collecting, current times were not many steps behind the Eighth Cycle.
Rebecca shuddered. “At least we don’t have something that can kill us with no warning, constantly monitoring us.”
“Yet,” Salome answered, with dark prophecy.
”You know, Salome,” Rebecca began. “I’ve been wondering about something since JR and Robert returned from their first expedition. What happened to the remains of the humans in that place?”
“Wasn’t it just abandoned?” Salome asked.
“No, I don’t think so. According to that letter people have died in that place. The person who wrote the letter died there. But none of the expeditions so far have found any remains whatsoever.”
“Why is it bothering you?” Salome asked.
Rebecca remembered then that both Salome and her husband Roy were newcomers since the Antarctica expeditions. “I’m just remembering all too well what happened on the second expedition to Antarctica when we dug up the hospital site and unleashed that dreadful virus. You have to remember, that killed half of the population of the Middle East, and almost brought the world to an end then. And surely you remember it was revenge for it that caused the Sword of Cyrus crisis.
Salome felt a cold shiver running down her spine. Of course she remembered. She’d lived through it, even if she hadn’t been in the middle of it during the Ninth Cycle virus. “We’d better make sure the boys remember to be careful of opening another Pandora’s Box like that. Should they be wearing biohazard suits from now on while onsite?”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Salome replied. “I should have thought of it.”
***
On the day before he was to leave to meet the Rossler expedition in Flagstaff, Brideaux convened a special meeting of Eligo Rarus to give them an update and explain his mission.
“Daniel Rossler has given me a comprehensive report, and I’m satisfied that this is the time we’ll be able to seize the device they’re calling the beast, along with its full operating instructions.
In answer to a question from the group, he explained that he’d have men waiting on standby for his signal. He’d be going with the expedition to determine the ideal moment. “Are there any questions about what you are all to do while I’m gone?”
The discussion centered for a while on stepping up their efforts to obtain control of all the pathology labs. Those that were stubborn about selling must be "persuaded" by other means. The rule of the day was ‘just get it done’.
The next order of business was the upcoming G20 meeting in three weeks. Now that they had a hope of backing it up with real teeth in the form of the beast, it would be the ideal time to make their move. All the world would be watching and many world leaders would be there. General Whitehoff, an Eligo Rarus member, was tasked with planning and preparing for the takeover. If they had the beast in their hands by then, his plan would be executed.
“And if we don’t?” the general asked.
“Then we’ll call it off and wait for the next opportunity. Keep your plan flexible,” Brideaux snapped. If only all the members had superior intellect. Then he wouldn’t have to always make the important decisions on his own. After all, that’s why he’d formed the group. To get help with his ultimate plan.
***
Daniel kissed Sarah goodbye, then lifted Nick into his arms and gave him important instructions. “You’re the man of the house while I’m gone, buddy. You mind your mom, and take care of her, okay?”
Around them on the tarmac, similar scenes were occurring between JR and Rebecca, Raj and Sushma and Roy and Salome.
Raj comforted Sushma and the little one, who was also crying because mom was. “I’ll be all right. Daniel, JR and Robert will all protect me. We’ll be back before you know it. Do your best to help Sarah and the others.”
As the helicopter took off, chosen for its ability to carry their equipment rather than speed, the women smiled through their tears and waved. When it was out of sight, Sarah invited them all to her home for a meal and a planning session. They were in charge of the Foundation on their own until the others got back. She wanted to solicit the help of the others in concealing the fact that the heart of the Foundation was away on assignment.
In Flagstaff, Brideaux awaited the Rossler group, but sent his elite security force ahead to dig in and remain concealed until they were needed. Once the Rosslers landed, they’d continue on the last leg of the trip with Brideaux joining them in their helicopter. Among his equipment were a few items the Rossler group never suspected.
***
After attending Sarah’s luncheon and agreeing with her plan to act as if the Foundation were conducting business as usual, Salome joined Luke at headquarters to catch up with her research. It had to some extent taken a back seat to the more urgent events of the past few weeks - the translations, the security audit, Enigma, Nicholas’ death and the funeral.
“Luke,” she said, alarmed at what she immediately discovered, “have you seen this?”
At his own desk, which had been jammed into Salome’s office so they could interact without having to interrupt their thoughts by walking back and forth between separate offices, Luke looked up and asked, “What?”
“Look here. There have been major movements in the pathology lab sectors over the last few weeks.” What do you make of it?”
Both were on alert immediately. Why were those two big pharma companies buying up labs? There was no money in pathology labs.
Luke said, “I can’t see why, but we�
��d better find out. Something’s up, that’s for sure.”
Salome agreed. There was a snake in the grass somewhere, and if they didn’t locate it immediately, there could be hell to pay.
Chapter 40 - Looks just like a face
Day 1 – the Canyon
The Canyon site looked far different within a few hours of the group arriving there. In the huge room that JR and Robert had first encountered, they set up an impressive array of equipment, including Raj’s computer lab in one corner and Roy’s workshop in another. The room was more suited for the former than the latter, and Daniel knew they were in trouble when he saw Raj zooming up and down and back and forth in his Eighth Cycle floating chair. Raj would never be satisfied with an ordinary Earth-bound desk chair again.
Roy, though, fretted that his equipment was out in the open for anyone to see. In spite of the fact that it was only them and their benefactor in the place, he felt exposed and vulnerable. However, it couldn’t be helped.
Since the power source wasn’t obvious and in any case may not have been compatible, they had set up solar panel chargers outside the building to charge the batteries for all their equipment. Some of it made such a draw on the batteries that they would have to go out at least three times a day, every four hours or so, to get recharged batteries. However, it wasn’t a total waste of time, since they would also use that same time to make contact with their families back home.
Joseph was set up with a smaller array of equipment in a third corner, and desks for the explorers were located in the fourth. It left an enormous space in the center with nothing but the floating tables and chairs. Some of the group would have preferred to bivouac here, with others around for a feeling of security. But, no matter what they did to push the furnishings out of the way, they snapped back into place as soon as someone stopped pushing them. Defeated, they each chose a room in the dormitory wing and spread out their sleeping bags on the floating beds. As Raj remarked, no one wanted to sleep on linens that someone might have died on, despite the fact they hadn’t found any evidence of that yet.
Per Salome’s suggestion and Rebecca’s second of the motion, the explorers, Daniel, JR and Robert with John Brideaux tagging along, put on biohazard suits for their reconnaissance of the floor where the beast was supposed to be. It was an ordinary site floor, consisting of a hub where the elevators let them out, with five spokes leading off it. Each spoke had four doors leading from the hallway down its center into the walls on both sides, just as the rest of the floors other than the community floor had.
The community floor was their designation for the main area, where the large room, the kitchen and laundry facilities spokes and the three dormitory spokes were located.
Satisfied the only way to locate the beast after the quick recon, they had Roy set up their remote control robots to start scanning the walls of the rooms on that floor. None of the doors had any signs on them and certainly none of them had a warning sign on them saying ‘danger don’t enter’ with a skull and cross bones. Neither did any of them have a sign that said Room of Darkness or looked darker than any of the others. The latter was Roy’s observation, but no one saw his look of confusion when the others laughed, due to his biohazard suit obscuring his face.
Roy had brought equipment to scan the walls of the place before risking damage or worse by drilling into them. As the others stood around or paced, he carefully used every gadget in his arsenal to determine the composition of the strange, light-emitting metal. Nothing he had reported anything at all about the metal. As he remarked to Robert, he’d hoped it was related in some way to the lighting from Paradise Valley in the Antarctic, but that didn’t seem to be the case.
While he worked, Brideaux grew bored and left, asking Daniel to send for him if anything developed while he was gone. However, with the afternoon wearing long and no discoveries yet, everyone but Roy and Robert eventually abandoned the vigil as well. Roy worked on until he had scanned every wall in every way he could, with Robert loyally keeping him company.
When he was finished, Roy suggested they stop for the day and join the others. He had a suggestion, but didn’t want to make a unilateral decision. It should be discussed with the group.
Day 2 - the Canyon
Roy had outlined his plan while everyone enjoyed their evening meal, even John Brideaux to his surprise.
They needed to test all the walls, and it was going to involve some risk since Roy’s scans hadn’t penetrated the strange metal. They needed to find out if there were anything like electric cables or some other sort of energy conductors or electromagnetic fields. The light had to be coming from some kind of power, and before they burned peepholes for a mini robot to enter, it would be better not to fry the robot or the person controlling it by shorting out an essentially alien power source with it. As soon as Roy said ‘alien’, Raj’s eyes went round, but Roy settled him down. “I mean, not like ours. Not little green men.”
It was rather disappointing, since everyone had envisioned waltzing into each room, locating the beast and unplugging it. Clearly, that wasn’t going to happen. Roy suggested that since he was the only one who could operate his other equipment and he’d need only one assistant to record measurements, maybe it would be a good time for Daniel, JR and Brideaux to explore some of the other floors.
By early morning, Roy and Robert were set up, and if the others were exploring the other floors between visits to the fourth to learn of his progress, they didn’t talk much about what they were finding, if anything.
He had determined that there were indeed electromagnetic fields and some sort of electric conductors in the walls, but as far as he could tell, only around the doors. After carefully mapping it all, they would try to burn holes in the places where there was no electrical activity. But first, Roy, who was almost compulsive about being thorough, wanted to map all the doors and the walls in between before attempting to burn through any of them.
After breaking for lunch, they found one door that had more of what Roy was now thinking of as protection around it. He had also found a way to measure the approximate thickness of the doors, if his instruments were telling him what he thought they were. Compared to the other doors, this one was about four times thicker.
Roy paused in his work while Robert went to locate the others and report they might have found the room they were looking for. When Daniel and the others returned with Robert, they decided to take a chance and work on that room first. But, by now it was late and everyone was tired from the long day. Rather than risk a mistake, they reluctantly stopped for the night.
Day 3 - the Canyon
Everyone from Daniel to Joseph was on edge the next day. Joseph had been brooding ever since he’d first laid eyes on the doors in the canyon wall. Legends of his people had filled his thoughts with foreboding, and he regretted getting involved with these men who were meddling with something they knew little about.
The others were simply anxious to get started. They’d each come here for a purpose, and the first phase of that purpose was about to be fulfilled. Yet, no one had anything to do about it until Roy had done his part. It made for some tension-related strife among them until Daniel called their attention to what they were doing and the necessity for teamwork. Then apologies all around settled them down as Roy got to work.
With his nano-enhanced laser, he cut a small hole through the outside wall and sent in the mini robot. Everyone watched the monitor showing the room through the robot’s onboard camera, most of them holding their breath. A sigh of disappointment escaped several at the same time as the screen was pitch black. There was no light in the room, not even the light that emanated from every wall they’d seen so far. Had Roy damaged the light source when he cut the wall?
Before anyone had time to ask, the movement of the robot advancing was apparently caught by a motion sensor. In the midst of the gloom, three lights had come on. Before the camera adjusted to the light, everyone had the impression of the lights forming a jack-o-lantern fa
ce, with two eyes and a mouth. Then the rest of the room was bathed in reflected light.
Peering at the monitor, Robert was the first to react. “Crikey, that looks just like a face! It’s just like the letter said.”
“It’s computer screens,” Raj said, his voice firm with authority.
“I never saw an oval computer screen,” JR answered, referring to the two ‘eyes’ above the square light. It was the shape of them that most fed the impression of a face.
“That’s because you never saw an Eighth Cycle computer,” Daniel responded.
“Where are the controls, then?” JR challenged.
As they stared, no one could see any sign of anything looking like a controller for the device. No keyboard, no mouse, no joystick - nothing. But Raj had spotted something else. On a table in front of the face in the wall rested a small metal box. “There’s the user manual,” he said, again with high confidence he was right.
No one challenged him. There it was. Now, how were they going to safely bring it out?
Chapter 41 - The skywalkers
Day 3 to 4 - the Rossler Foundation
While Sarah and Rebecca worked together to handle ordinary Foundation business, Salome turned over all security matters to Luke while she continued her research to find out who are behind the two pharmaceutical companies that were inexplicably buying up pathology labs. She had a feeling it was more than just buying companies to generate losses for tax purposes.
As Salome tracked down the companies behind the two pharmaceuticals, she saw some names that were familiar to her. These same shell corporations had turned up before, but there were roadblocks now in updating their holdings. Drilling down to the last level to try to get the names of the people hiding behind the company masks was more difficult than ever. Had her previous searches alerted someone?
It was a tedious and slow process, made all the more so because Salome had come to rely on Raj’s genius with data queries, rather than her own skills. She could do it, of course. She was just rusty.