Mason had said, “Contact our man in Lead. It is a go. Your freedom is only hours away.”
Dominick had called a number in Lead, South Dakota. Voice recognition software failed to identify the recipient.
Dominick had said, “It’s a go.”
The recipient had answered, “All set on this end. Our team is in place to act this morning.”
Less than an hour later, Dr. Angel Sanchez had been kidnapped.
Benson leaned his chair back carefully as to not disturb his surgical wound. He glanced over to where Elliott was busily typing on the keyboard, his eyes intently scanning the monitor. He was talking on a headset to Dr. Chris Larson. Elliott’s stress was evident in his facial expression and body language. Given the seriousness of all of their jobs, it was probably a miracle more of them didn’t go mad.
Benson was convinced that the bombing at the Geneva train station had been a diversionary tactic. None of the expected terrorist groups were taking responsibility for the attack. NSA reported that there was no communication chatter before or after. Early reports back from his investigators in Geneva indicated that it had been hastily planned. Surveillance film caught a lone man with a duffle bag in the immediate area just moments before the explosion. The man had dropped the bag and ran. He was not a suicide bomber.
Mason’s group was sophisticated and understood the impact that an act of terrorism in Geneva would cause the CIA. He was sure Mason’s purpose was to keep the CIA busy on issues other than the underground lab. Benson’s gut told him Mason was worried the lab would be found. They were close.
Benson’s cell rang with a call from Agent Dalton Grant. Benson recalled that Dalton was waiting for a decision about J.T. Barrimore. Dalton expressed new concerns about the secret nature of Chris’ work being exposed to the people around them.
Dalton asked, “Is the name ‘Mason’ of any importance?”
Benson nearly chocked with the question. “Yes! Does this J.T. have something to do with Mason?”
Dalton explained that J.T. Barrimore owned Global Security and Mason was his primary client. J.T had flown to Chicago from New York last evening presumably on Mason’s orders. Dalton stated that he and Nick Stryker had detained J.T. until they could get further orders.
Benson needed to consult with the Director. “Wait for instructions. I’m giving this the highest priority, Agent Grant. Keep Mr. Barrimore securely in your control.”
Benson exhaled heavily with relief. Finally, they had a lucky break. J.T. Barrimore knew Mason. Certainly Mason held the answers they needed. Now he needed a plan and fast.
Questions swarmed in Benson’s mind. What did his people know about Nick Stryker and J.T. Barrimore? What was the immediate risk to Chris and the DIANA project operating in this setting? If J.T. Barrimore was a link to Mason, how could he best be used? He ordered Darren to locate all intelligence available on Nick, J.T., and Dalton.
The Control Room manager, Dan, walked over to Benson’s seat in the amphitheater. “Interpol has arrested Dr. Stramoud in Geneva, sir. We have an interrogation team in the city already. They have requested a briefing from you in order to clarify our objectives.”
Benson glanced across the room at Elliott, who was consumed with whatever was displayed on his monitor. Benson’s eyes passed briefly over the wall of monitors and then he focused again on Elliott. Benson walked over to Elliott and waited for his attention.
Elliott glanced up and Benson asked, “I need you to conduct the interrogation of one of Kyser’s team members.”
Elliott was stunned. “Pardon me? I’m a scientist. I don’t interrogate people.”
Benson sat next to Elliott. “I am an interrogator, but I don’t understand the science like you do. I wouldn’t know what to ask.”
Elliott realized he had to ask the questions if he wanted the answers.
Elliott asked, “How much time do I have to prepare?”
Benson answered, “We’ll arrange a video conference within the hour.” Benson smiled, “Thank you, Dr. Nobel.”
Elliott said, “You might as well call me Elliott. I have a feeling we’re going to be spending a lot of time together.”
Benson walked back to his office to prepare his report for the Director. He reviewed the NSA files that Darren had handed him on Dalton, J.T. Barrimore, and Nick Stryker. Stryker had a history with both Dr. Nobel and with Agent Grant going back six years to Afghanistan. J.T. had been on the CIA’s radar, but they had never been able to pin anything on him. He was smart, trained, and knew all of the wrong people. Including, apparently, Mason.
There was nothing in Dalton’s files to suggest he was anything but a highly decorated agent, formerly a Special Ops officer. Stryker had a similar flawless and decorated record as a Navy SEAL. Benson sighed with relief. Just maybe he was catching a break having these two involved.
Chapter Seventeen
Nick watched as Chris asked the CIA agents to install the monitor across Nick’s long living room wall. Nick didn’t see anything in the room that looked like a monitor. One of the CIA techs walked over to him. “We have to put a couple of holes in your walls. We’ll fix them when we’re through.”
Nick watched as the techs secured six foot long metal bars on both his north and south walls. Once the bars were secured, the tech pulled a long tab and stretched what looked like a sheet of cellophane across his room to attached to the other long bar.
The tech looked at Chris. “You should be able to activate this now.”
Chris entered some keystrokes and the monitor came to life. There were numerous squares that each projected a different display and a long column of icons on either side of the screen. Nick glanced at J.T. and Dalton, who were watching from the kitchen doorway. The technology was stunning and it was hard not to be impressed. J.T. couldn’t help but wonder what possible interest Mason had in all of this.
Nick asked Dalton, “Should we be here?”
Dalton shrugged. “Nowhere to go.”
Chris had been wearing a headset, yanked it off and clicked on his audio button. “Elliott, I have to put you on speaker. I can’t stand that thing on my head.”
Everyone heard Elliott respond. “That’s fine, Chris. Pull up Monitor 140.”
Chris clicked on an icon that filled the center of the screen. The image was of a line of satellites stacked above colorful arcs staggered above the Earth. It was clearly an image being generated from a satellite with exceptional capabilities. The arcs had been superimposed on the image and marked the various levels of the atmosphere. Nick was satisfied that he understood what he was looking at, so far.
Chris zoomed in on the lowest satellite. “I see boosters.”
Elliott responded, “Yes.”
Chris clicked and dragged an icon to rest next to the satellite image. He opened the icon to a duplicate satellite image, but this one was time stamped with a graph overlaying the satellite image. The time stamp was 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time, when the communication blackout started. Nick noticed a blue beam from the lowest satellite that turned into a net covering the western part of the globe. Chris activated a time lapse feature that showed the net growing, holding still and then vanishing at precisely 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time.
Nick realized they had just witnessed the visual explanation for the communication block.
Chris asked Elliott, “Have you reviewed all of the anomaly code?”
Elliott answered, “Yes. It’s not there. At least I didn’t see it.”
Chris sat up straighter and pulled up a screen of code and positioned it under the monitor display with the blue net. “Which lines were you thinking was the knot?”
Elliott answered, “The last of the subscript appears repetitive. I don’t see a resolution stop, but this is more your expertise than mine.”
Chris had been scrolling down the monitor displaying the code. He zoomed in and the jumbled symbols filled the screen. Nick felt his heart pounding as he watched Chris’ cursor slowly follow the code across his wall
. He had no idea what he was watching, but he could tell from Chris’ facial expression that it wasn’t going well.
Chris raised his voice. “They did it wrong! They made a loop, not a knot! Can we view past these satellites?”
Elliott could be heard calling for someone named Dan. Elliott yelled, “I need to see further out on Monitor 140. Much further out!”
Elliott said to Chris, “They are imaging now…so far, so good… wait…wait… Oh, my God…. Wait...” Elliott yelled to someone, “Put heat and wave detectors on that! Zoom further! Hurry! Chris, I’m sending this to you in real time.”
No one in Nick’s living room was visibly breathing. All eyes were glued to the image on the screen. Suddenly a new image refreshed and filled the screen. A large yellow beam was positioned some distance above the four stationary satellites. As the camera zoomed out for a larger view, they saw it. The beam seemed to shoot into space, stop and begin forming an egg shaped mass. A growing, moving mass.
Chris rubbed his palms over his face.
Nick glanced at J.T. and Dalton. They were mesmerized.
Chris said, “Elliott, what can we do?”
Elliott answered, “I don’t know. Have Angel run a simulator to estimate plasma speed after the shield creation. The shield diversion had to reduce the emission beam intensity. Help her run the test at the diminished intensity and calibrate the results.”
Chris sputtered, “That test would take weeks to do correctly. We have hours.”
Elliott’s voice sounded very sober. “If that. Chris, this is best guess time. Just do it.”
*****
Nick’s cell phone rang, the caller ID said it was his renter, Norman. Nick assumed Norman wanted to know what was going on at the house.
Nick knew that Norman usually slept days and was awake all night. “Hey, Norman, I imagine all of my company woke you up; I’m sorry.”
Norman answered, “I know trash collection isn’t part of my lease, but I’ve got a piece of crap here that was spying on your house from the alley. Figured you’d want to meet him.”
Nick glanced at Dalton as he answered Norman. “You’ve got him secure?”
Norman chuckled, “He ain’t going anywhere.”
Nick said, “I’m sending a couple of guys to come get him. Good job.”
“No problem.”
Nick ended his call with Norman and spoke to Dalton. “My renter just caught a guy outside. I don’t want to leave Chris or J.T. alone. Could your guys bring him up to the door? I’d like to see who he is before you take him away.”
Dalton nodded and pointed to two men in the living room. “Go get this guy and bring him where we can see him. Run a facial and fingerprint.”
J.T. watched as the two CIA men left through the back door.
Nick turned to J.T. and said, “Maybe your men came here to save you?”
J.T. smiled, “I told you I don’t have any men. I’m a businessman that apparently the government has decided to illegally detain.”
Nick, Dalton, and J.T. watched as the two CIA men led a handcuffed man from behind the garage up to the back door of the house. Through the back window the man’s face was clearly visible.
J.T. subconsciously let out a quiet grunt.
Nick asked him, “Not yours?”
“No.”
Nick thought a moment. “Your competition?”
J.T.’s eyes darted from Nick to the handcuffed man.
J.T. looked at Dalton. “He works for Mason. Take his phone.”
*****
Elliott saw Benson walking down the amphitheater steps slowly studying the monitor that displayed the ‘egg’. Benson turned and looked at Elliott. Elliott motioned him over.
Benson sat next to Elliott without speaking.
Elliott said, “The DIANA project took a government defense patent for an electromagnetic shield and expanded the basic theory to create an escape for CO2 from our atmosphere. The code for the shield was blocked, but preserved within DIANA in case it was deemed useful in subsequent applications.”
Benson nodded. “Mason’s group stole the DIANA code to have access to the shield. They activated the shield portion of the DIANA code and programmed it to block communication waves.”
Elliott tilted his head and furrowed his brows. “I believe the presence of boosters in the satellites indicates that it is more likely they intend to concentrate future beams as weapon attacks. The communication shield acts as a protection device. They also can piggyback the shield’s ability to section off isolated regions for weapon purposes.”
Benson studied Elliott’s face. “I have a feeling there’s more.”
“Yes, there’s quite a bit more. The primary code in DIANA instructs the electromagnet ions to create a plasma reaction that is self-generating in speed and intensity. The anomalies in code we discovered allowed the use of the beam to create a preprogrammed shield, but it failed to diffuse the residual plasma.”
Benson asked, “English, please.”
Elliott pointed to the monitor with the growing mass above the satellites. “The electromagnetic charged plasma in the beam’s exhaust is magnetically drawn back into alignment with itself. Once realigned with similarly excited plasma, it will accelerate and intensify on its own energy.” Benson still looked confused. Elliott said, “They failed to shut the back door.”
“They initiated DIANA?”
“Worse, they initiated a flawed DIANA.” Elliott pointed to the monitor on the wall. “That is the fatal flaw we discovered in the Lead lab. It is the reason I called a meeting with Kyser’s group. That mass will continue to heat until the plasma becomes reflective and begins to turn. It will then follow a path back to its origin.”
Benson slowly exhaled. “Are you saying that, at some point, that mass will shoot its own beam back to Earth?”
“Yes. Only this time it will be a radioactive electromagnetic beam of excited plasma. The heat of our own atmosphere will actually fuel its intensity.”
“Can we just shoot those satellites out?”
Elliott rubbed his temples. “We might need those satellites. We don’t know. They can’t do much more harm unless they try to produce another shield.”
Benson felt foolish for not understanding more of what Elliott was trying to explain to him. “Are you saying we don’t know how to stop that mass?”
Elliott felt defensive and frustrated. “After six years of working on this project, we only discovered this flaw a few days ago. This has all been research, remember? People aren’t supposed to initiate this crap. Of course I don’t know how to stop it!” Elliott immediately regretted his tone and choice of words. Obviously Benson needed to understand the situation so he could convey it to others.
Elliott softened his voice. “Dr. Kyser’s team has made a catastrophic mistake. I will do my best to find out if Dr. Stramoud has done any testing regarding this. We must locate that lab in Geneva.”
Benson stood, “I need to notify the Director of this new development. Elliott, how much time do we have?”
Elliott referred to a scrap of paper covered with scribbled calculations. “I’m estimating between 70 and 72 hours from initiation. We’ve already lost the time from when the satellites began to realign; that was the initiation point.”
Benson looked at his watch. “So, we’ve lost nearly 20 hours?”
“Yes.”
Chapter Eighteen
Travis Cummings’ cab had finally made its way across town and to the 107th Precinct. The power outage evidently had been fixed, because the traffic lights once again untangled the mass of cars. He was a little confused as to why FBI Agent Phillips had asked to meet him at the precinct. Travis had asked for the FBI’s help to get out of the country yesterday; maybe they had a plan for him now. If they would have helped him when he asked, yesterday’s nightmare would not have happened.
Travis exited the elevator and glanced around the Homicide unit. He was hoping that Nick was there. He saw Nick’s partner, Jen Tay
lor, talking to the detective everyone called ‘Oink’ over by a big whiteboard. Jen turned around and motioned for Travis to take a seat at Nick’s desk.
She walked over and asked, “What’s going on now? Agent Phillips said to expect you. We also picked up your friend.”
Travis was dumbfounded. “What friend?”
Jen glanced at a clipboard on Nick’s desk. “Lenny Corsone. He’s down the hall in an interrogation room.”
Shit! Travis felt a wave of panic wash over him. What in the hell did Lenny do now?
Travis started to get up, “Lenny is not my friend. Just tell Agent Phillips I came by but I couldn’t hang around. I’ve got to put some miles between myself and Chicago.”
Jen put her hand on Travis’ shoulder and pushed him back to his seat. “Tell him yourself; he just walked in.”
Agent Phillips stood over Travis and shook his head. “I have some questions for you.”
Travis swallowed, Phillips wasn’t smiling.
Phillips glanced at Jen and said, “I suppose you’d better sit in on this, too.”
Jen walked over to her desk and grabbed a pad of paper. When she was back near Phillips she said, “Room one is occupied with Mr. Corsone; we can use room two.”
Phillips motioned for Travis to walk and as they passed room one, Travis saw Lenny sitting at a table with his head in his hands.
Travis was grateful that he could give his side of the story first.
Suddenly Phillips said, “Wait. Let’s just do this together.” He stepped back, opened the door to interrogation room one and motioned for Travis to enter.
Travis stepped inside and Lenny looked up.
Lenny sputtered, “I ain’t told them nothin’, Travis! I swear!”
Travis moaned and glanced at Phillips. Phillips motioned for everyone to take a seat. He looked at Travis and said, “Do you want the good news or the bad news first?”
Travis didn’t hesitate. “The good news.”
“Dominick is dead. There is no longer a bounty on your head.”
Zero Margin: Nick Stryker, Book Three The Shallow End Gals (Nick Stryker Series 3) Page 15