by CG Blade
“I’ve gathered the best minds I could find on this planet and are prepping them now at Barclay’s Hospital to see if we can nip this collider news in the butt,” Cooper said with a trained look on his face knowing they would never find his team in route to Meredith. Keller and Sheehan knew that if Cooper was serious about something “it was being done right the first time”. No ifs ands or buts about it. No one questioned him. That is how good he was. When the country’s radicals were ‘modifying’ most of our historical documents for the corporations and zealots he took orders with a straight face from these three and burned the midnight oil at Meredith. Cooper thus forth had two-faces for years and used both of them well. “This is my aide, Marissa. She will be taking notes for me today,” Cooper told them all as Petra nodded to everyone in attendance pretending to scribble on her pad as they talked.
“Give us your synopsis about the victims at the colliders?” Keller asked as he sat and turned to look up at Cooper. He slowly shook a glass in circles filled with bourbon and ice in his right hand. His left arm dangled over the end of the white sofa six feet in front of the now hijacked President’s desk belonging to Helen Long.
“I believe we may have two separate incidents here which is still of course an opinion of mine at this point,” Cooper stated. “One, we have a random set of events which occurred when we used the colliders to provide power replacing the nuclear reactors. At that moment, this pushed some weird frequency over the edge and influenced these people. Why? We do not know at this point. As we speak we are gathering a team to research this and I will need additional funding to accomplish it all.” Cooper did not need the funding. He was bluffing again handing them a bullshit story. “Secondly, we think maybe since the number they are screaming at these sites are so similar that they may be a launch code or a binary set of sequential numbers to destroy something or someone. He was giving them something…These things may or may not have always been there in their heads. They probably had been placed there on purpose by a person or persons unknown.”
Keller’s drink hit the crimson-carpeted floor and rolled around spilling liquor while Sheehan had a little drool at the bottom of his mouth that was wide open. He had now moved slowly and was standing next to Cooper who turned and stared at Long.
“Now these are just theories as you see and we need to get our asses in gear as quickly as possible to prevent a collider failure or some other catastrophic event from happening. I think we’ve just been lucky so far.” Cooper was staying cool and retained “I have called for internal policing at all collider sites. If someone goes haywire and activates a trigger inside a collider, we will be cleaning up the bodies for years to come. But none of this will do any good until we find out who is or isn’t infected.”
“Are you kidding me? Are you serious?” Long snapped loudly. “That is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life. You’re expecting us to believe this crap?” The five people that were not ‘her Majesty’ in the room froze in place.
“Believe it or not Helen,” Cooper's voice got a little sterner with every word. “Do you think I would walk in here and actually tell you this if I didn’t believe it could be true? I am the last person in the world who wants to believe this could be happening to possibly my own brain, your brain—Keller’s brain!” Scanning the room Cooper pointed at Keller. “It scares the hell out of me. Do you just want us to go back to our desks at NIB and shuffle papers around until something happens then put out a Press Release saying: 'Half of Florida won’t have power for twenty-five years because someone sabotaged a collider for no apparent reason due to a brain malfunction'? The press knows this very minute that something is not right! I work with facts and I am a medical doctor and a military man. It’s what I do. What if those numbers they are yelling are some kind of a code? Right now I don’t know enough to tell you all the facts.” Petra’s eyes and ears were now wide open soaking up every sight and sound transmitted around her “Maybe these horrible plans are already set in motion by someone. This planet has always had enough problems and now someone has to go to the press and tell them what we do not know yet. If you don’t believe in me get a second opinion in here!” Calling her bluff, he thought she did not have the cohunes or the knowledge to do it herself and she had a lot of stock and thousands of WASCs tied up in collider power and Rayson Industries. Sheehan and Keller were just her press puppets so they really did not have a say in the matter. Although the whole idea behind the Three Presidents was so that there was no chance of corruption between the three of them, the whole thing was a bad joke gone wrong. “I’m all ears for you three and I work for you so if there is some other direction you’d like me to go speak up now as I’ve already stated before we have a contingency plan in place,” Cooper finished not knowing what the outcome would be to his tirade.
“This is absolutely the most ridiculous nonsense of garbage I have ever heard from you!” Long was now pointing her finger at Cooper and he hated that probably more than anything on this planet. “Sheehan what do you think?” Long shouting now was staring at him with anger.
Sheehan was not using his eyes like a human; more like a dog looking down getting scolded “Well, we could at least get a second look into it. What would it hurt?”
“Are you kidding me?” Long asked “And I suppose you don’t have a clue either Keller?” Long was now staring at him intently.
“All this brain scrambling mumbo jumbo crap scares the hell out of me. I don’t like it coming from a General instead of a team of real doctors. We need some hard data before we make a decision.”
“Fine, it’s settled then—No!” Long yelled angrily as she pounded her fist on the desk. Everything on top of it rattled and shook. “We have too much funding in Rayson to start funding research for a part of the human anatomy we all know we already have. We really don’t need anyone to figure out why some people are nuts and some others are not.” Now she is just being obnoxious Cooper thought. “We’ve got a couple of enigmas yelling numbers at collider gates and now the whole damn world is in peril? You know we are getting back on the campaign trail so I have to convince WAS and their counterparts for more security and that costs more money. Now if you don’t mind I’d like you to get back to NIB and liaison something,” Long said coarsely never stopping to take a breath. “Oh,” she added, “if you ever raise your voice to me again Cooper you’ll be a copy boy for your replacement's replacement. The only thing I care about is how much of the public believes these nuts. I was going to have you do the press release but I will get it done myself. Thanks for coming,” she said sarcastically. “I will call if I need you again.”
Petra’s eyes were wide open now as she shut her virtual clipboard off and stuck her stylus in the top of it.
Cooper raised his hand and saluted the Three Presidents. He straightened out his uniform, putting his cap back on and walked towards the door of the Oval office to exit. Petra followed him, hanging on his tail as he left. This was a huge mistake, Cooper thought. To his surprise, Sheehan followed them out of the door smartly and smoothly seconds later.
“I’ll do what I can from here Jim,” he said, “she is in one of those moods and we're all paying for it since they had to take care of these people on these collider sites.”
“If I were you Mark I would get a leash for your dog. She’s gonna need a short one if the shit hits the fan.” Cooper and Petra started walking firmly back to the Cruiser. Cooper spouted off sideways as he went.
“Someone needs to clean her clock,” Petra told Cooper sitting across from him again with legs crossed in the back of the Cruiser as it silently streamed down Pennsylvania Avenue.
“That’s why you’re here Petra. I need you to keep an eye on those three for me and anyone else you think is in their sick game.”
Petra nodded as her irises flashed a Cobalt glimmer of agreement.
Back inside the Oval office President Long instinctively barked her Vidset to speed dial number two. Most of the digital crystal Vidsets
color touchscreens were about two by three inches with voice instruction programming and had optional holographic video capability. Crystal Vidscreens were Vidsets big brothers and could come in any size ranging from six inches wide to 600 feet long. The name “Vidset” and “Vidscreen” had also become the brand name over time and were a self-contained computing processor with satellite networking capability. Some Americans refused to use these and other devices in their homes for fear ‘Big Brother’ was monitoring them. Immediately she heard: “You’ve reached the office of Ray Nelson. Your message is very—” She yelled at the Vidset to turn off. “Get me Ray Nelson ASAP Roger. I need him here face to face.”
“Yes Ms. Long.” He left the room quickly now getting tired of standing at attention by her side.
She looked worried and it was not totally about money anymore. She hated James Cooper because she knew he would pursue this. Passion comes in all colors.
Chapter 7
PRESUMPTION
That afternoon a black Aeolus Cruiser in Meredith, New York pulled up to a hidden entrance at the back of an old general store between Route 28 and Hayes Rd. at Falls Creek. Cooper’s medals shined in the cool spring sun as he and his secretary Miss Petra Kayden Dace moved briskly towards the scan door. If answers to anything were going be found, this would be the day and place to start. His left eye faced an opening hidden in a dusty wooden doorjamb. As he walked up to it, a retinal scanner perked up saying “Greetings General Cooper,” in a monotone almost sexy woman’s voice. The door opened with a vacuum whoosh sound to a set of steel elevators leading down to the Meredith Med Lab facility.
Meredith New York was not by any means the hot spot of the country. There was farmland for miles and good people running those farms. The NIB that replaced the FBI, CIA, NSA, and the US Med Agency thought it was a perfect location for a ‘black’ site. Most of the people in the Washington D.C. bureau of the NIB, New York State, and the surrounding counties never saw the plus twenty years of construction started at the underground facility in 2040 that ended in 2064. Three years before the NIB broke ground, the citizens in the cities around Meredith received cash for the construction of wind-powered generators and assumed they were safe and would replace the upcoming particle collider Albany would be using. Meredith had numerous town meetings as well as East Meredith and Delhi. In the end, cash was king and the residents voted to allow the government to erect the generators. Each household received a onetime lump sum of four thousand dollars. There were fifty-nine wind turbines erected throughout the area. Many of the residents in the surrounding Meredith area complained of headaches, confusion, and ‘fuzzy’ thoughts after the generators were erected and operational.
Cooper’s War Room in the Meredith facility was a plethora of vivid pictures of battles and ships with glorious men and women of the armed forces. The occasional ceremony of the past presidents adorned these walls, commending this country’s war heroes. Here in this forty-by-forty-foot room, solid oak and electronics were everywhere and the setting was specifically for hashing out details no one on the outside knew about. Always kept immaculate this assembly room smelled of wood polish and honorable memories. Cooper loved this room and typically, he was the main leader of all that existed here. There were around twenty doctors and Med Lab techs with their aides piled into the room, all bearing cases, and various electronic binders and tablets. Large crystal Vidscreens hung from the rafters and walls, normally being the center of attention.
One Vidscreen was showing the collider attacks in detail as the reporter on the screen began talking: “Another collider incident has been reported in Fairbanks, Alaska. Two are dead and right now and there are no details. We will be back right after this message...”
Cooper instructed the Vidscreen above them to shut off and threw his leather case onto the large oval table with a thud. He grabbed a Vidset lying on the desk and swiped it a couple of times with his finger. A holographic large world map appeared silently over the length of the long rectangular oak table and everyone sitting around the table and against the walls began murmuring over its contents. It specifically showed all eleven collider sites around the world. Petra sat quietly in a corner of the room out of the way of the main event that was going to unfold before her. Cooper began the meeting quickly.
“I’ve asked you all here today due to the growing concern over the incidents at Tallahassee, Bangor, and just now Fairbanks, Alaska. I know you are all busy and I appreciate you taking time out of your schedules to come here so fast. Considering the situations, I think that right now we should put our heads together and see if we can resolve this as quickly as possible. No material may leave this room at any time and no one may speak of it with the exception of us. Is that understood?” Everyone nodded with assurance. “It may be very or extremely serious. No one knows. I’ve asked the foremost leader in particle colliders Doctor Rie Al-Tabar to join us along with his colleagues.”
Doctor Rie Al-Tabar stood up quickly. His six-foot-two-inch lanky suit jacketed frame hovered above the table. “Hello everyone my friends’ call me Bar,” he said in a low and light Arabic accent. “This is my assistant Doctor Timothy Ringler also known as Tinker from the CERN laboratory. He was my engineering assistant at most of the particle collider installations and dry-runs.” Bar finished pointing at Tinker and sat down nodding at everyone in attendance. Redheaded Tinker smirked like a small child taking his hands out of his leisure jacket to wave to everyone.
“Also in our midst,” Cooper continued, “is a well-known PhD from the University of Omaha, Doctor Emily Judson.”
“Hello all,” she said smiling in a throat-clearing tone. She stood up and waved to everyone in the room. Emily kept her make-up and jet-black hairstyles light and short so she could always be ready to move wherever needed at a moment’s notice.
“I believe everyone else will get to know each other here over time,” Cooper said, “So let’s get on with what we know so far...”
Bar stood up and began. “Doctor Judson’s team and I have been in contact with each other over the past couple of hours as well as the morgues and their field teams regarding the autopsies of the two deceased subjects outside of the particle colliders. I believe Doctor Judson may have a little more to offer in the biology department due to her Bio-Cryogenics work on the wounded soldiers of the UMES wars. Doctor Ringler and I will work on the causes of maladies of the other eight colliders around the world as it pertains to the brain and the signals or wave frequencies surrounding them. The Medium Particle Collider’s or MPC’s have posed no frequency threat to humans or animals. They have safely replaced the world’s Nuclear Reactors after the explosion at the Perry Nuclear Power Plant in Ohio. They have been and always will work the exact same way as the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva. They have very extensive and instantaneous atom smashing and electricity comes out the other end. It is that simple. We power the world cleanly and efficiently. The only difference is that these sites are half the size of the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva. Our data shows no waves or frequencies of any kind around or near the facilities that could interfere or be interfered with pertaining to brain functions of 'normal people'.” Cooper rubbed his chin with his right hand soaking all of this information Bar was providing as quickly as his brain would let him. “The sub-atomic particles such as the Higgs-Boson are filtered out to provide clean energy from the atom smashing. If someone or something gets into the second layer of these facilities and wreaks havoc, they could be responsible for severe catastrophic damage and loss of life. It would take years to repair these facilities from an underground earthquake or tubular misalignment. It would be quite essentially the same as a nuclear meltdown but underground.”
“Thanks, Bar,” Cooper told him.
Bar nodded again in appreciation of the intense listening and Emily stood up and changed the world map to one of a brain. It circled around slowly in the middle of the table before she stopped it at the frontal lobe area of the brain.
“What
we see here ladies and gentleman is the frontal lobe of Suzanne Hobbs the victim at the Bangor collider. We all have a frontal lobe similar to the one you see before you. Magnify please Noozy.” Emily’s aide Noozy quickly changed the image to another set of pictures. The holographic image quickly went to an internal shot of the frontal lobe at a high rate of speed. “This display is the frontal lobe I just showed you magnified with a high powered Tesla MRI. With a Tesla, we can investigate the structure on a surface of an object at 10,000,000 times our normal eye power. It is so powerful we can track a single cell through the human body. As you can see in this image, there is a computer microchip packet at magnification attached to the brain itself. Why? We do not know yet. We found this by doing a routine autopsy scan and found that the image machine malfunctioned in this area and needed resetting. This microchip and surrounding leads that run down the spinal cord in this image is in the beginning stages in trials and not even dreamed about in paraplegic or quadriplegic testing. I have sent this info and all its magnification data to the best Biochemists and Cryogenists I know. Does anyone else have this imbedded in their lobe? I am not sure and I cannot speculate at this point what it is even doing there or how it got there. Who is to say that a collider employee could not have a meltdown as Bar mentioned and sabotage a facility or something more devastating if this is in someone’s brain and work around or near an MPC. However, we need to scan more brains to find out. We performed imaging on the victim at the Florida collider site and he has the microchip packet in his brain. I believe scanning should begin immediately on all of us here in this room before we attempt any other further studies to rule us out obviously. Thank you all for listening,” Emily finished, sitting down staring confidently at her colleagues staring wide-eyed and with mouths open back at her. Everyone in the room seemed to be in a state of “shock” now talking amongst each other. Everyone in attendance gulped down coffee and soft drinks at alarming rates as they tried to swallow this disheartening news.