by CG Blade
Chapter18
IDENTIFICATION
“Bring it in a little more—that’s it. Now hold this here, Bar.” Tinker had a pair of black micro glasses on his face that made his eyeballs and red eyebrows seem two inches round as he examined Dreama’s microchips with Bar. They were standing in one of the facility’s stainless steel highly equipped electronic labs filled with every piece of known manmade testing gadget and device. Cables, wiring leads and screens hung on all four walls of the twenty-by-forty-foot air-cooled and purified room. Dreama’s remaining electronic circuit boards and exposed wiring were all laid out on a cold stainless steel table in front of them.
“There it is—see it!” Tinker said. Bar and him were now sans jackets long white shirtsleeves rolled up to their elbows. Bar’s bushy black eyebrows were moist with anticipation.
“Oh yeah—I see it. I see it—” Bar held the piece up behind a micron viewer. The image was projected onto a large four foot wide Vidscreen hanging on the wall in front of them.
Jackie and Emily stood nearby suspended by every word they spoke.
“What is it?” Emily asked Tinker curiously.
“Okay, Okay—you see that small bus circuit that runs through that microchip?” Tinker was now pointing at the screen six feet in front of their table with a laser pointer. “That circuit you see right there is tied to this cylindrical tube or the fragments of the tube we found and there are millions of these out there in brown liquid filled tubes powering everything we have that propels or has action. You know our Cruisers, Carriers, robotic assistants, worker bots and of course, things like drones. But these—” Tinker was now quite animated “—these are different. The whole casing is made of something we’ve never seen before. The circuitry and all the red liquid is all new stuff!” Tinker became overly excited as if he had found the Holy Grail of electronics.
Jackie and Emily had taken the specimens of the red liquid to the Micro lab to be tested immediately after they attended to Doctor Sanders who was now suspended in one of the Cobalt tanks in the Preservation Room. The results revealed that the substance was not naturally found on earth and therefore surmised it must have come back on one of the missions from one of the other planets or had been synthesized here on earth by someone. Either way there was no name for it. Some of the employees and techs who had helped to test it labeled the unknown material “Crimson” or “Red Death”. Every acidic covered fragment of Dreama they found had to be scrubbed and cleaned before they could handle and inspect it. Both of the dead assistants who were part of the tragedy were cremated after autopsy and their families were notified.
“Here is what I think is the network microchip. Yep that’s it. Let’s take a closer look.” Tinker now held up a red microchip to the viewer. “You see that small integrated circuit there? Well that my friend is a clone module.”
“What’s a clone module?” Emily asked now staring at the screen that was magnifying the module Tinker was holding in his hands.
“Okay—so all of our communications are tied to different wavelengths—different frequencies, right? Like a Vidscreen module in a Cruiser or a Carrier has a different frequency than let’s say, your personal Vidset, right? This way nothing interferes with the other. So this little baby here can actually scan and clone different networks at once. It’s like a mobile listening device or a giant microphone to the world. It can send and receive huge amounts of information continually.”
They all froze at once.
“What—did I say...huh?” Tinker asked now looking over the top of his micro glasses at the three of them. They were silent. Silent like statues suspended in time.
“Oh no,” Jackie said softly. The blood drained from her face.
All of their fears were realized in one split second.
Dreama was the worst kind of spy. She was a spy that didn’t have to leave the complex. She could do it all constantly over great periods of time and report everything without anyone’s knowledge. She didn’t need a Vidset or a computer; she was the perfect scout.
Jackie quickly stepped out of the room and into the hallway and brought up Cooper’s info on her Vidset. “Pick up Jim—pick up.” Jackie was starting to have a panic attack at this point and she was halfway welling up “Damn it Jim! Pick it up!”
The four of them suddenly realized the stakes now. This was more than a conspiracy theory. They had actual proof. This replacement—or robot—had stolen three people from them and was working on a fourth lying in a Cobalt tank. Were there more Dreama’s out there? They had to continue their imaging and removal of the microchips from the lab employee’s heads. Lives now depended on it down here and they were frantically searching for a plan between themselves. There were going to be results now.
“I’m going to call security,” Jackie was stepping into heightened command mode. She was in charge now, being third in line and running on adrenaline. She turned to look at the three of her peers standing in the electronics lab staring at her. “Let’s get everyone back into the lecture hall. Lock the doors and no one—I mean no one—gets out of there. Have security escort them back and forth to the facilities and the restrooms…food, etcetera. We don’t even know how long that thing was down here or when this happened to Dreama or when she was taken. We’ll check the security guards we didn’t get to yesterday first and scan them in the Tesla. If all the guards check out ok, we’ll have them do a room by room thermal and physical inspection. Every square inch of this place will be checked. The ducts and tanks and closets all need to be inspected.”
Bar, Emily and Tinker now watched her in action. Her plan was good and it was thought through carefully.
“Bar can you set up our equipment in the Lecture Hall? Can we do remote imaging to the Tesla?”
“I don’t see a problem with that. I’m just going to need some help moving lab equipment around.”
“Absolutely,” Tinker added. “We’ll start right now.” Bar and Tinker left the room and disappeared quickly down the hallway.
“Emily I know I’m asking a lot and I’m sorry you three got thrown into this mess. None of us wanted any of this to happen but can you stay and help me out? I could really use some help and a friend right now. I’m afraid if we don’t get a hold of Jim he’s walking down a path he won’t be able to come back from.”
“I’ll stay as long as you need me to Jackie. Thanks for asking me and maybe I’ve found a home at last. I know this has been rough. I just have one question.”
“What’s that?”
“Where’s that blue girl Cobalt? Should we tell her what is going on here? Petra—is that her name?”
“Good idea. I’ll try to get a hold of Jim again. If we can’t reach him I might have to have one of my techs or Tinker jack into her private comset and contact her. Let’s hope it doesn’t come down to that.”
Chapter 19
INDIGNATION
“Is that the only device you have on you?” Long asked Cooper angrily. He was now standing at attention in front of her. His medals were dangling off his protruding green dress uniform. She snatched the Vidset from his hand and turned around walking back towards her desk while Sheehan and Keller had guns trained on him from the back behind the white sofa. Long had told Cooper earlier in the day to come in for an important meeting talking through his secretary Nancy. He hadn’t figured this was the kind of meeting she had in mind.
“Yes it is. Are we really going to do this?” Cooper asked. Little beads of sweat were forming on his brows as he faced Long who was now sitting behind the Presidents’ desk.
“Yes Jim. In addition, you are going on a little trip since you will not tell me what Cobalt is or where that thing was made! Where in the hell is this secret lab?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. You’re insane.” Cooper was now playing as dumb as he possibly could without sounding stupid.
“Okay so we’re going to have to do this as they say ‘the hard way’?” Long asked looking up at him with her eyes
her head starting to turn away disgusted with him. She pulled out her personal Vidset and voice activated a video to start. It was a video of a conversation between Cooper and Dreama concerning raising Petra out of her cobalt tank. Long pushed the video screen into Cooper’s face as he watched it play from Dreama’s POV.
“Yes General. I think they’ve got a good handle on her vitals. Do you want me to tell Jackie to pull her out now?”
“Yes Dreama. Let’s start tomorrow after my meeting. We don’t want any complications to arise in her bloodstream due to the Cobalt solution and the difference in atmosphere. Have Jackie start the depressurization phase in the morning.”
“Yes General.”
“Thanks Dreama”
“Really Jim you’re going to play that card with me? I’ve got two hours of these videos.” Long held the screen up to his face over the top of the desk as her face turned red again.
“So what? It’s a code name. Cobalt doesn’t mean anything. We do it all the time for all types of missions and projects.”
“Then what the hell is this supposed to be?” President Long filed through more videos holding up the scene from the mansion in front of Cooper. Petra and Kirk were destroying Nelson’s walls with their blows.
“Why is there a woman on here with armor and guns? Why in the fuck is she talking to herself? What the hell is that all about? Is that like some kind of defect? Did you make something that has OCD?” Long now was spitting in his face as she spoke; she was so furious.
“I have no idea who that is or what that’s all about. I’m just as much in the dark as you are.” Cooper was chuckling to himself.
“You’re pathetic Cooper. You’re all about honor, patriotism, and that flag—that goddamned flag you’re so proud of. Oh, I’m changing that thing next chance I get. How about a nice fist or a hammer and sickle hanging off the White House roof? Would you like that? Would you?” Long now walked around and sat down against the front of the desk. It creaked with the tremendous force of her backside against it.
Cooper stood there knowing Petra was out there. He felt her. The sweet memories of all his life’s accomplishments flashed before his eyes. A wave of warm serene came over him. He was proud of it all of it.
“The only conspiracy here is you four. Your feeble attempt to outwit the American people and all they stand for is nothing more than a moneymaking machine. You’re nothing more than petty thieves. You three and your partner in crime Ray Nelson are just another bunch of ignorant kleptomaniacs with your hands in everyone’s pocket. If I had my way, you’d be a distant memory in this nation’s history. You would be a footnote in our nation’s documents that read ‘Four hijackers that were later burnt at the stake’. You’d be wiped clean from existence. Oh and why don’t you shove a few more doughnuts in your pie hole while you’re at it?” Cooper was now smiling coyly at the rolls of flesh pushing out of the seams of her pantsuit.
“You don’t know a damn thing Jim.” Long stood up again. Her tone was more subdued “Look around you. This is the New World Order. It’s everything you hate. Its money, oppression, subjugation, and something I like to call ‘Borders without Rules’. There are no countries anymore and there are no leaders. There are just businesses who run these countries and workers who will do it for a little cash in their pocket and sex with a whore. Your idea of history and all it stands for is gone. We are now one united business. You think so small. You could have been a part of this and had a condo with a hot babe and maybe your own state named after you.” Long took her chubby stumps of painted fingernails and ripped the rows of medals off the right side of Cooper’s chest. The force of the pull tore a hole in his uniform. His white dress shirt underneath was exposed and torn. “The stench coming off you sickens me,”
Cooper didn’t care what she did or said. He wasn’t going to let her mindfuck him to death. He was done with her.
“Take him out the back way!” Long barked at Keller and Sheehan forcefully waving her arms in the air. “Take him away from me!”
Cooper was led out through the rose garden at gunpoint and he took in its entire aromatic beautifully colored splendor before being shoved into a black Helo-Carrier maybe for the last time. Keller and Sheehan stayed behind watching as the soldiers put electronic cuffs on him and magnetized him to a four-foot iron post attached to the floor in the back seat of the carrier. The Carrier went straight up and took off due east towards the Atlantic.
***
While Cooper was taking in the sights over the Atlantic Ocean Petra was hovering along with the salty wind in her hair wearing a shiny Cobalt leather outfit and black sunglasses on a black Hover-Futuro that she borrowed from the yacht. She was heading north on I-95 back to New York when she spotted a Fructose Mart and pulled into the dimly lit lot. She had left the crew of the yacht still alive but many of them were worn from her long and stern talking to about good and bad, right and wrong, and how she was very disappointed in them as members of the human race. They promised not to do anything stupid again and she left them at the dock in Miami without incident.
“Petra—Petra—can you hear me?” the voice was coming in through her private comset garbled and a little low
“Yes who’s this?”
“Hold on a second. Petra can you hear me now?” Petra was fumbling around trying to find the right size box of Twinkies on a shelf that was disorganized and in disarray. Products were strewn about the store and it looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in weeks.
“Yes—Jackie?” Petra was amazed it was her. Petra was after all supposed to communicate only with Cooper.
“Hey Petra we’ve got a little problem here so I had Tinker and the team tap into your comset. Jim is—missing. He won’t or can’t answer his Vidset but we have his vital module up and running so we can track him.”
Petra was at the counter of the store with a box of six Twinkies in her hand. Her heartbeat was increasing ever so—slowly. “Hold on a second Jackie. “ Petra swiped her palm through a thin red laser that rode between two microchips on the countertop in front of the clerk. It voice registered the amount of the transaction. “This is highway robbery twenty-nine credits for this? I can get twelve for this price—I ought to—” Petra barked at the red and orange dressed stunned clerk in a paper hat who took a step back, his hands raised in the air. The Fructose Mart chains were the only convenience stores left in the nation and this store smelled of sweetness and cholesterol. She snatched the box from the counter and walked out through the cracked glass door of the store towards her Futuro.
“Yes Jackie I thought that something like this was going to happen. I hacked into our President’s Vidset. Long and her buddy Nelson are up to something big. She’s a real piece of work. Jim told me about Dreama but she doesn’t show up anywhere in any conversation they’ve had in the last two weeks. It’s very strange. Where is Jim now?”
“He’s over the Atlantic Petra moving quickly due east. His last known GPS coordinate was heading towards Morocco…”
“Okay Jackie send me the GPS information on his vital module. I’ll head to—”
“—Jacksonville,” Ter told her feeding her GPS coordinates.
“NAS Jacksonville. I’m going need a Jet Transport-Carrier. You would think with all this technology I could at least have jet boots or something?” she asked Jackie while she put her sunglasses back over her ears and nose.
“Who do you think you are Ultraman?” Jackie responded. “I think Jim’s in trouble Petra. This is not like him. I’m worried. We have a major crisis over here with the real Dreama missing and now since we found out her replacement was funneling information out of here to someone or something we are running scared. We also have the facility on lockdown trying to finish the scanning and removal of the microchips. Do you need anything else from me?”
“No I think I’m all set. Your sunglasses did the trick. I can see now. Thanks for your help.”
“Oh and Petra, we think we’ve cracked the collider number puzzle. We’ll
talk when you get back.”
Petra switched off the comset and proceeded down I-95 towards Jacksonville with Twinkies in tow.
Chapter 20
RECLAMATION
First Lieutenant Dace boarded a Jet Transport-Carrier at NAS Jacksonville dressed in her military uniform and spent most of the twenty-hour flight to the seaport of Gwadar talking to Ter in secrecy in the restroom or discussing known military conquests and current events with the soldiers and sailors and WASP personnel on board. She didn’t want to spook them or delve too deeply into their lives because of the information she knew. She thought she wouldn’t attract attention if she kept the conversations short and sweet. They discussed stories about their families and loves and she actually shared her Twinkies with some of the military personnel hitching a ride. Ter asked her if she was getting “soft on the inside” and commended her on her etiquette. The plane landed at 1900 hours and it was just becoming dusk. ‘Perfect’ she thought as she stepped off the back of the carrier down the ramp and onto the concrete tarmac. The soldiers around the area saluted her proudly as they hurried to their destinations. She discussed the return trip with the two pilots who were doing a post carrier inspection and walked towards the north away from the Gwadar Jet-Port and into the darkening city.
In the clear warm moonlight, Petra reflected stealthily wearing dark black armor she had programmed at the facility with Ter’s help and ever growing amounts of more blue streaks of hair on her full blonde head. She walked methodically like a woman on a mission towards the factory district with GPS and HUD up. The large steel buildings and streets were laid out in front of her in a square city block configuration and she asked Ter to turn off her navigational attitude telling Ter that it was annoying and served no purpose. So instead, there was a simple green arrow showing her the way. A monstrous rusty iron building up ahead in her HUD showed up as ‘Rayson Industries UMES Division’.