The Fusion Cage (Warner & Lopez Book 2)

by Dean Crawford

  Hans peered at Stanley for a long moment and then looked at Ethan.

  ‘It’s true,’ Ethan said, ‘as far as we can make out. Their only mistake was to disconnect from the National Grid and draw attention to what they had achieved. A few days later, the entire town was paid off to disappear and remain silent about what had happened. Stanley here fled, along with his wife, and Amber witnessed the whole thing.’

  Hans looked at Amber in surprise, and she nodded.

  ‘They made the town look as though nobody had lived there for decades,’ she said. ‘They’re covering it up, Hans. They don’t want this out because they know what it will mean for projects like this, for the amount of control that governments have over their people.’

  Hans looked across at the massive construction site to his right and then back at Stanley once more.

  ‘Why are you here, Stanley?’

  ‘We need your help,’ Ethan replied for Stanley. ‘There’s no way that this is going to get out without somebody on the inside. Every scientist, every builder, everybody working on this project would be likely opposed to anything like Stanley’s device getting out. The fusion cage is the greatest threat to all energy producing corporations in the world, not to mention every oil–producing nation and countries like Russia with vast gas reserves. Every single ounce of those fossil fuels will be worth nothing, less than bare rock, if Stanley’s fusion cage goes public.’

  Lopez stepped forward. ‘We want you to help make that happen,’ she said.

  Hans took an involuntary pace back from them and his pale skin turned even whiter than his eyes as they wobbled in their sockets.

  ‘You don’t know what you’re doing,’ he uttered in disbelief. ‘Even if Stanley had managed to do what you say he has done, it would require months or even years of testing to validate, to ensure that there was no mistake. Such a delay could call into question this entire project and many others like it. The public would jump upon the chance to have free energy, and there would be a massive outcry and political pressure to stop investing in major projects that are so essential to our survival. If Stanley turned out to be wrong, or even just mistaken, or if the reactions could not be sustained for long enough, or if the devices are found to blow up due to the heat and pressure over time, and proved themselves unsafe and incapable of commercialisation, then ITER would have lost years of research data, perhaps even the chance to develop a new form of energy before oil, coal and gas run out or a runaway reaction occurs in our atmosphere and environment. It’s just too damned risky.’

  ‘No risk without gain,’ Ethan observed quietly.

  ‘That statement that makes no attempt to measure the sheer magnitude of the consequences of failure,’ Hans shot back. ‘Many Western countries are already facing blackouts during periods of high demand due to the fact that we simply cannot maintain an energy supply across such a vast population addicted to electrical devices and in need of heat and light. ITER is not some immense monstrosity designed to keep the populace under the thumb of their politicians: it’s a potential lifesaver for the entire planet and it operates on the basis of physics that is well understood. Nuclear fusion does work, whereas Stanley’s supposed fusion cage is based on a science that has long ago since been invalidated by peer review.’

  ‘There was no peer review!’ Stanley almost shouted. ‘There was a whitewash!’

  ‘There always is, when a scientist begins to believe instead of needing to know,’ Hans replied quietly. ‘You say that it’s a conspiracy against you, but the whole cold fusion science debacle has continued ever since the Fleischmann and Pons experiments of the 1980s. They give it a different name now, low–energy nuclear reaction research or something, but it’s the same thing.’

  ‘Doesn’t that validate what Stanley’s saying?’ Lopez argued. ‘That’s it’s real science after all, worth investigating?’

  ‘No, it reveals only that we’re desperate as a society for an alternative to fossil fuels! It’s not about the environment, some noble crusade by governments to clean up our planet no matter how they might choose to dress it up. It’s business. Governments make money from fuel, and they’ll be powerless if the lights go out worldwide. Fossil fuels are running out, and they’re terrified of the consequences of that happening.’

  ‘Everybody is,’ Stanley replied, ‘all the more reason to help me.’

  ‘All the more reason to ignore you and work here at ITER!’ Hans retorted. ‘This is the future Stanley, real science, a chance at real change! Independent laboratories continue to research cold fusion and attempt to replicate the results because it’s just too valuable to ignore if there’s any truth in it. There’s not a government in the world that wouldn’t want to get its hands on a free energy device such as the one you’re describing, one that could be assembled on a desktop, to power the world, but they wouldn’t hide it. Hell, they be the first to package and then sell it, to slap a label on the box and ship it out to billions of people. You’re living in the past, Stanley, in a dream world of conspiracies that simply don’t exist. If your device was so amazing, why the hell did you waste your time powering some backwater in Missouri? Why not build a couple of hundred of the damned things and ship them out to friends across the country and get the ball rolling? Why didn’t you send one to me to test out for you?’

  ‘I didn’t have time,’ Stanley lamented. ‘We shouldn’t have disconnected from the National Grid, I know that now. I fully intended to build more of them, to create a wave of the devices that would not be stopped by any government, but they were on to me before I was able to do so.’

  ‘Isn’t that always the way?’ Hans lamented. ‘Somebody supposedly invents something amazing, and then they do something stupid and it mysteriously disappears into thin air.’

  ‘The big corporations are intent on shutting me down!’ Stanley yelled. ‘They’d be insane not to!’

  ‘That’s crap!’ Hans snapped back. ‘They’re as interested as anybody in developing alternatives. The electric car maker Tesla in America is about to commercialize batteries that store solar energy as back–ups for consumers during blackouts. They’re rechargeable lithium–ion units, designed to be paired up with solar panel energy supplies. General Electric and LG Cherm in South Korea are also now in on the emerging energy–storage market. Even the environmentalist groups have started singing the praises of these companies for what they’re doing. The whole thing is a move away from fossil fuels and away from government controlled energy supplies. You really think that would be happening if there was some shadowy corporation hell–bent on keeping us slaved to their whims?’

  ‘Battery storage isn’t quite the same as free energy,’ Stanley snapped. ‘You’re talking about products that will take years to filter into use, that require major investments! I’m talking about a device that people can install for themselves, overnight, and never need buy a battery again!’

  ‘Pah!’ Hans scoffed. ‘You’re living in a dreamworld.’

  ‘They’ve shot at us,’ Amber defended her father. ‘We’ve been chased across the Middle East by people who want this to remain silent. There is a conspiracy, not perhaps by the government but certainly by people who don’t want to see their livelihoods and their earnings threatened by something like the fusion cage.’

  ‘Help us,’ Stanley begged his friend. ‘This could be the beginning of a revolution that will make your ITER facility look like a farce. What we have to do is be stronger than those who seek to protect their money rather than our planet, and give it away, to everybody, for nothing.’

  Hans stared at Stanley in disbelief for a long moment. ‘You’re going to give it away?’

  ‘To everybody,’ Stanley acknowledged. ‘To every man, woman and child on the planet, to every single person who needs it the most, and deny the profits to anybody who puts greed before altruism. This is the future, Hans. Be a part of it, go public and support me.’

  Hans stared at them for a long moment and then he shook his head
.

  ‘I have a family,’ he uttered. ‘I have a career, a life, a future. Do you really think I’m going to jeopardise that for your pipedream? My career would be over the moment I announced any such thing. I may as well go out there and say that climate change is a fallacy, that we never landed on the moon and that the Earth is actually flat after all.’

  Stanley’s hands clapped against his forehead in exasperation.

  ‘You’re walking away from the future of mankind,’ he gasped. ‘You’ve lost your humanity.’

  Hance backed away further from the group and shook his head as he turned to leave.

  ‘No, Stanley. You’ve lost your mind. Now get out of here, before I’m forced to call security and have you removed from the premises.’

  Hans turned his back on them and hurried away as though afraid to be seen anywhere near them.

  Lopez turned to Ethan. ‘We need to get out of here and back to America. If he fears for his career as much as he appears to, he may be the first person to pick up the phone to somebody we don’t want to meet.’

  Ethan nodded and looked at Stanley.

  ‘Is there anywhere we can go? Do you know of anybody who might be willing to let us hold out for a while and figure out a new play?’

  Stanley nodded slowly, his shoulders sagging in despair as he watched his friend walking hurriedly away. ‘There’s only one person I can think of who might listen to us, but it’s a long shot.’

  ‘Where are they?’ Lopez asked.

  ‘Virginia.’

  ***

  XXVI

  DIAC Building,

  Washington DC

  Doug Jarvis drove back into the parking lot at the DIAC just over an hour after he’d left the Pentagon, his mind still buzzing with paranoia and fear over what had transpired since he had left the center of the United States military command structure.

  A source in Dubai had informed him that at dawn, local time, a small unit of unidentified agents had stormed the maritime vessel Huron at its dock in Abu Dhabi. In the wake of their presence, the ship’s captain had become the victim of a tragic accident, crushed beyond recognition beneath a seventeen ton shipping container. The local DIA agent, a man named Willis with whom Jarvis had spoken only the previous day, had been relieved of his post after suffering what was believed to be a nervous breakdown and was already being repatriated to the US for debrief and counselling. All that Jarvis had been able to glean was that whatever had happened, Willis had witnessed it first–hand and wasn’t talking to anybody about it.

  Jarvis parked his car and hurried into the building, then took an elevator up to the fourth floor, hoping against hope that his team had managed to provide Ethan and Nicola with an exit out of Abu Dhabi. He walked into his office and was met with a toothy grin.

  ‘We did it,’ Hellerman said.

  Hellerman was a short, slightly built man with a thick beard and a youthful expression. Barely out of his teens, he had served the DIA for six years and been on Jarvis’s team under General Mitchell before transferring to the DIAC.

  Jarvis felt a wave of relief flush through his body. ‘Tell me, everything.’

  ‘Your guy Warner knows how to smell a rat, just like you,’ Hellerman said with what sounded almost like a fatherly pride. ‘He must have booked a commercial flight out of Abu Dhabi before leaving Damman. They were airborne even before the raid on Huron.’

  ‘Where did they go?’ Jarvis asked.

  ‘Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris, France,’ Hellerman replied. ‘I managed to track their fake documents but the trail goes cold there. My only guess as to why they’re in France is to do with Stanley Meyer. France is home to ITER, a nuclear fusion project – he may have allies there.’

  ‘Makes sense,’ Jarvis agreed. ‘There’s no other reason to go there unless Ethan wanted to be off that plane in case MJ–12 tracked him just like you have.’

  ‘It’s only a matter of time,’ Hellerman pointed out. ‘There are only so many flights out of Abu Dhabi each day, and those documents they were supplied with will only hold up so long. Once they’re identified as having travelled to Paris, MJ–12 will be able to pick up the trail right there and then, and they’ll likely be able to draw in assets on the ground that we cannot.’ ‘Can we get anybody to them from here?’ Jarvis asked.

  ‘You mean like friends of mine who live in Lyon?’ Hellerman replied with a grin. ‘Who I called, and who might have been able to find them and pass word from us?’

  Jarvis’s jaw dropped open. ‘You’ve found them?’

  ‘They’re on a private jet out of Lyon–Saint–Exupery airport,’ Hellerman chortled in delight. ‘The flight plan’s filed and they’ll land in Virginia about three o’clock local time.’

  ‘Was the flight chartered?’

  ‘Private,’ Hellerman reported proudly, ‘using a payment chain that will take the feds days to follow up. If they’re looking for a digital trail, they won’t find it. All they can do is figure that Ethan and his companions will arrive in the USA on a flight from somewhere in France, and that’s a lot of flights to check through.’

  ‘Don’t think that they won’t do it,’ Jarvis cautioned. ‘They’ll put agents at all civilian fields on the east coast within range of that aircraft. We need to be there to spirit them away from any FBI intercept. What about Huck Seavers?’

  ‘Heading back from Saudi Arabia,’ Hellerman replied. ‘His crew filed a flight plan direct to Cincinnati. They’ll land somewhere behind our privately hired jet.’

  ‘What about the Saudis?’

  The technician’s jubilant expression faltered slightly.

  ‘We’ve been monitoring the channels and it’s not looking good. The story of a militant attack on Saudi helicopters appears to have been accepted at face value by the media, but behind the scenes the Saudis are screaming for blood. All they care about is that their Apache was downed by a couple of American fugitives and they’re piling pressure on the administration to hand over those responsible.’

  Jarvis winced. The events in the Kingdom had played directly into the Bureau’s hands, giving them every reason they needed to hunt Ethan down.

  ‘We need to figure out a way for them to disappear once they land in Virginia,’ Jarvis said.

  ‘Not much we can do for them,’ Hellerman said. ‘The jet’s flight plan is for Charlottesville. I guess we could change it at the last minute, but that might in itself raise a flag if the feds are watching incoming air traffic from Europe.’

  Jarvis’s mind began racing. ‘Where’s the nearest air–intercept unit based?’

  ‘Langley Field,’ Hellerman replied. ‘F22 Raptors.’

  Jarvis thought long and hard. ‘They won’t shoot them down if they identify the jet, but they might be able to escort it forcefully to Langley Field and search the plane. Charlottesville is a customs airport – as soon as they land they’ll be picked up.’

  Hellerman said nothing as Jarvis thought long and hard about what he knew. His reveal to the Joint Chiefs of Staff of Ethan’s plans to escape Saudi Arabia had resulted in a storming of that very same vessel within a few hours. That the leak could only have come from the JCOS meeting was obvious, and that it resulted in the raid by unknown agents suggested assets of MJ–12. Jarvis could only assume that FBI Director LeMay was behind the leak, but he could be wrong.

  Intelligence was a game of chance, and only those willing to bet the farm made big gains. He knew that he would be for the chop as soon as LeMay figured out what Jarvis had in mind, but Jarvis reminded himself that he wasn’t the one leaking intelligence to private organisations presumably in return for professional or financial favours.

  ‘I’ve got an idea,’ Jarvis said finally and pulled out his cell phone. ‘I need you to remain here and if Ethan calls, you give him whatever support he needs, okay?’

  ‘Where are you going?’ Hellerman asked.

  Jarvis did not answer as he left the office.

  *

  Charlottesville, Vi
rginia

  ‘Our target is a Caucasian male, late thirties, six feet tall and in the company of a Latino woman, another Caucasian male and a teenage girl. The target is considered dangerous and should not be approached without the presence of back–up.’

  Special Agent in Charge Valery Jenkins was a formidable woman, almost six feet tall and with dark hair tied in a severe bun behind her head, streaked with fine lines of silver that only seemed to make her look more stern. Special Agent Hannah Ford watched as Jenkins gave her brief in an abandoned lot to the south of the airport, the entire operation one of the swiftest Hannah had ever witnessed.

  Photographs of the fugitives were handed out to each of the twelve agents present, all of them wearing their distinctive FBI jackets and bullet–proof vests. Hannah looked down at the image of Ethan Warner and his accomplices and briefly scanned the biographies attached to them.

  ‘Who’s the kid?’ somebody asked.

  ‘Amber Ryan, seventeen,’ Jenkins replied. ‘According to reports, she has been abducted by Warner and Lopez.’

  Hannah frowned. The brief said that Ryan had vanished from somewhere in Missouri but now the fugitives, having fled to the Middle East, were apparently on their way back to the USA.

  ‘What’s the evidence that this is an abduction case?’ she asked.

  Jenkins directed a cold glare in her direction.

  ‘What, you mean apart from two adults scurrying around the world with a missing teenager?’

  A ripple of chuckles floated across the gathered agents and Hannah felt color rising in her cheeks. She swallowed her embarrassment down, hoping that her voice wasn’t trembling. ‘They abduct her, flee to Saudi Arabia, then they come back again? Doesn’t make sense if they want to remain undetected – they were already clear and away. And how did we catch this case when nobody has reported the girl missing?’

  Jenkins smiled without warmth.

  ‘If you pay attention to catching them instead of asking questions that nobody can answer yet, then I’ll guess we’ll find out.’ Jenkins looked at the rest of the team. ‘We don’t know what these folks are up to, but orders are they’re fugitives from the law and it’s our task to apprehend them and bring them to justice. We have agents at fifteen civilian fields on the east coast, that’s how important this case is, and Charlottesville is considered their most likely point of entry. Focus on finding them, understood?’