by Bob Blanton
Catie made it through dinner and to nine o’clock before she just couldn’t stand it anymore and went home. She had managed exactly three dances in the two hours after dinner.
Chapter 12
Science is Boring
The scientific symposium had gone on all week. Although of interest to the scientific community, it was turning out to be a bust. As Marc had predicted, the Paraxean scientists provided some new topics, but the discussion quickly topped out as the Paraxeans demonstrated that, although they were great technicians, they didn’t have an in-depth knowledge of the theory.
The one group everyone was interested in was the one that nobody could get any information from. Marc had invited religious scholars from around the world to meet with the Paraxean xenoanthropologist slash theologian. The group was holed up in the top floor of one of the condo buildings and wasn’t providing any updates on what they were discussing. The only observable activity from the group was the continual addition of other scholars; they had already added five more to the fifteen that had started the conference.
◆ ◆ ◆
A press conference was scheduled for the end of the symposium. The Paraxean scientists and the Earth scientists would answer questions on live TV. Marc and Samantha were in his office, where they planned to observe the show over a glass of wine.
“Marc,” Kal said as he entered the room. “We have a situation, and I need the two of you to decide how we go forward.”
“What kind of situation?” Marc said.
“A suicide bomber is planning to attend the press conference; he’s posing as one of the cameramen.”
Samantha sat upright so fast she spilled some of her wine. “What do you need our input for? You have to stop him!”
“We have replaced the explosives, so he won’t be doing any physical damage, but we don’t know everyone involved.”
“Start from the beginning,” Marc said.
“We detected him coming off of a fishing tour with a news camera filled with explosives,” Kal said. “The scan showed us enough to be confident that it wasn’t armed.
“He is staying at the new hotel where most the press is staying. We bugged his hotel room and added a couple of our new surveillance pucks.”
“New pucks?” Marc asked.
“Yes, remember how Catie used them on the Carl Vinson against Admiral Morris; well, we shrank them to a half-inch diameter and a quarter-inch depth. They can only carry two cameras, but they can walk about anywhere; we used them to get better details on the bomb. Anyway, we observed him for two days, figured out what he was doing to secure his room. Then when he was out to dinner, we went in and replaced the explosives and detonators with dummies. But the bomb has a cellphone trigger as well as a hand trigger. We want to catch whoever is on the other end of the cellphone.”
“Okay, that sounds like you need him to try and set off the bomb,” Marc said.
“You can’t be serious,” Samantha said.
“That’s why I’m here. We can alert the Paraxeans, but we can’t tell anyone else,” Kal said. “We don’t know who he’s working with.”
“How’s he going to get into the conference?” Marc asked.
“He struck up a friendship with one of the cameramen from one of the small networks. He let him know he was a cameraman himself, hoping to get footage outside the conference since he wasn’t on the invite list. Then his friend came down with a serious case of intestinal flu this morning after breakfast,” Kal explained. “Our guy was asked to step in since it was too late to bring in a replacement.”
“I assume they had breakfast together,” Marc said.
“Yep. So, we’d like to let him go through with it. When the bomb fails to go off, the accomplice will dial the phone to detonate it remotely. We’ll be able to zero in on their location and grab ‘em. Nobody should get hurt, except maybe the cameraman.”
“You’re crazy, someone might have a heart attack,” Samantha said.
“We have medical teams standing by at the conference already,” Kal said.
“And you waited until now to tell me,” Marc said.
“We didn’t know his target until this morning. I did tell you we had discovered a plot to disrupt the conference and that we had it under control.”
“This doesn’t sound like it’s under control!” Samantha said.
“Hey, the reporters are complaining about how boring the show’s going to be. No major scientific breakthroughs are going to be announced. The only real interest is to see the Paraxeans; a few geeks will be interested in some of the science questions, but they’re saying it’s going to be a bust,” Kal said.
“So, they get a breaking story, lots of attention, and then the lion-hearted can continue the press conference after we haul the guy out,” Marc said. “What’s to lose?”
“You are insane,” Samantha said. “Can we at least tell Leslie?”
“If she swears not to say anything to her cameraman,” Kal said.
“Camerawoman, but she’ll be willing to keep her in the dark. She’d leave her mother in the dark if it helped ratings.”
“We could use her,” Kal said. “She could interview the bomber, see if he tells us anything else.”
“Okay, I’ll go have a quick chat with her,” Samantha said.
◆ ◆ ◆
As the press conference was about to start, Catie, Blake, and Liz came into the Cabinet Chamber where Marc, Samantha, and Kal had set things up to watch the show.
“What are you doing here?” Marc asked.
“We came to see the show,” Blake said as he headed over to the cabinet to grab the bottle of scotch.
“I brought popcorn,” Catie said.
“You people are sick!” Samantha said.
“Hey, this is going to be the best reality TV show this year,” Catie said. “Liz and I have a bet on how many of the reporters faint or pee themselves.”
“How are you going to know who wins?” Blake asked.
“ADI says that with all the surveillance pucks, she can isolate the odor of urine or other bodily fluids to within eight inches of the source,” Catie said. “Unless they’re lying on top of each other, we’ll get a count.”
“You are sick!” Samantha said. “Who has the over?” She laughed as she turned her chair so she could watch the show on the big screen.
“I do,” Catie said.
“What happened to, you people are sick?” Marc asked.
“That was your minister of foreign affairs. Now, she’s taking a break,” Samantha said. “Pass the popcorn.”
“I thought you were going to warn Leslie,” Marc said.
“I texted her to expect fireworks, but that we had it covered,” Samantha said as she passed the bowl of popcorn back to Catie.
◆ ◆ ◆
The reporters were allowed into the room where the press conference was to be held. There were three tables in a shallow arc at the front of the room. A collection of chairs for the reporters was in front of the arc of tables, with about eight feet of open space between them. The camera crews took up position around the edge of the room so they could get shots of their reporter and the scientists.
As Leslie’s camerawoman started moving to the side, Leslie grabbed her arm, “No matter what happens, you keep rolling,” Leslie said.
“Do you know something?”
“I might,” Leslie said as she gave her camerawoman a push.
A moment later, the scientists filed in and were seated. The scientist who was leading the symposium sat at the center of the head table. Once all the scientists were seated, he stood up at the podium.
“Welcome,” he said. “We’ve had a productive week. Our brethren from Paraxea have been gracious with their knowledge. We all owe them a debt of gratitude, . . .”
“Liar! They are not our brethren; they are the spawn of the devil!” the cameraman with the bomb yelled as he ran to the center of the room.
The security guard immediately started to walk
toward the maniac.
“Stop, I have a bomb!” the man yelled.
As soon as he yelled ‘bomb,’ clear partitions erupted from the floor. They divided the room into six separate cells, splitting the table arc into thirds. The bomber was caught on the same side of the partition as most of the reporters. He ran into the partition like he thought he could knock it down.
“No! They’re evil, I’m supposed to destroy them!” he yelled as he pounded on the polyglass panel with his fist. He even banged his camera into it a few times.
“How do you know they are evil?” Leslie asked as she walked up to the bomber.
“They’re animals that dare to talk like men! God set men aside from the animals; we are to rule over them.” The man’s eyes looked wild as he searched the room.
“But these scientists haven’t done anything to harm us,” Leslie said. “They are here to help us learn, to help us reach the stars.”
“God doesn’t want us to reach the stars, he made Earth for us, we’re supposed to stay here until he comes for us!” the man cried. He was clutching the camera to his chest as he continued to look like a trapped animal.
“Who told you to come here?” Leslie asked.
“God did, he told me to come and destroy the devil’s spawn. To prevent them from corrupting the people of Earth.”
“When was this?”
“Last week, he gave me this camera and told me to blow up the aliens.” The man was frantically pressing a switch on the camera over and over.
“God must not have wanted you to kill anyone,” Leslie said, “otherwise, the bomb would have gone off before the partitions went up.”
“It was supposed to kill everyone,” the man said. He was crying as he slipped to the floor against the partition.
“Got him,” Kal said. “Seal the building!”
“Where is he?” Marc asked.
“In the building across the street. He was in a room on the third floor when he dialed the cellphone in the bomb,” Kal said.
“Will he get away?” Samantha asked.
“Security cameras on the floor don’t show anyone entering or leaving the room since the call was made. We back-traced the call within ten seconds and are now reviewing the footage to see who entered the room,” Kal said.
“Who won the bet?” Blake asked.
“ADI, what’s the count?” Catie asked.
“Cer Kal, you really should let the reporters and scientists out of the room,” ADI said. “Most of them need to find a place to change.”
“What did you win?” Blake asked.
“Liz has to clean up after dinner for a month,” Catie said. “And it doesn’t start until I get back from my undercover assignment.”
Chapter 13
Cabinet Meeting – Oct 5th
“Before we start the meeting, there are a few things I need to cover.
“First, the fireworks after the science symposium should remind all of us that we need to be on guard. There are crazies out there that just don’t like the idea of aliens, and they can be manipulated by others. We need to be vigilant.
“Second, the reason we’re meeting after four o’clock is that Catie has a temporary job, and I want her to be able to attend,” Marc said as Catie joined the meeting. Everyone, except Dr. Metra and Liz, was shocked as a young Hawaiian girl walked in instead of Catie. “As you can tell, she’s changed her looks so that she won’t be recognized. We’ll be back to a normal schedule next month.”
“Wow, you look totally different,” Samantha said.
“You like?” Catie asked as she twirled around to give everyone a good look.
“How did you manage that skin color?” Samantha asked.
“Dr. Metra used some nanites to adjust it. It’s natural, and so is my hair, so it’s easy to stay in disguise. ADI has programmed an avatar for me that looks perfect, so I can talk to people on my Comm, and they see the old me.”
“How long did it take?”
“Three weeks,” Catie said. “Then, three or four to get back to my old self once I’m done.”
“And the weight?”
“Nanites.”
“Okay, you guys can follow up with Catie and Dr. Metra after the meeting if you want to review what cosmetic nanites might do for you,” Marc said.
“The third thing I want to do is to set the ground rules for our new finance minister who will be joining us in a minute,” Marc said as he looked out at his cabinet. “As you know, we operate on a need-to-know basis. For now, Dr. Hausmann only has a need to know of our expansion plans, our financial status, and our long-term objectives. He does not need to know about the Sakira, ADI, or any new technology we are working on. Please avoid introducing those topics while he’s in the room. If you need to touch upon one of them to answer a question, then just state that you need to do follow up before you can answer.”
Everyone around the table nodded.
Marc signaled for his assistant to bring Dr. Hausmann into the meeting.
“Everyone, let me introduce Dr. James Hausmann, our new finance minister,” Marc said. “Dr. Hausmann, I'll let everyone introduce themselves after the meeting.”
“Thank you for having me,” Dr. Hausmann said. “I hope I am able to be of use.”
“Sam assures me that you’re just what we need,” Marc said. “I assume your needs have been taken care of, and you’ve had a chance to settled in.”
“Yes, I’m feeling very healthy, and I have my Comm and specs here,” Dr. Hausmann said. “I moved into my condo yesterday; it is very nice. Everybody has been so helpful.”
“Good, now down to business; Kal can you cover the results of your investigation into the bombing attempt?”
“Yes,” Kal said. “First, the actual bomber was, let me use a very technical psychological term, a complete nutjob. He was manipulated into his attempt by the person we captured in the hotel.”
“I don’t think nutjob is a fair representation,” Dr. Metra said. “He is schizophrenic and suffers from bi-polar disorder. He is in no way responsible for his actions.”
“Yes, like I said, a complete nutjob. But the real culprit was the guy behind the curtain. He is a hired fixer. He’s not talking, but ADI has traced his movements and they tie him to the oil industry, and possibly other major industries that we’ve been at odds with. He got our nutjob out of a psych ward and then conditioned him to hate the Paraxeans. He’s not talking, but we’ve been able to rebuild the events from ramblings of Dr. Metra’s patient.”
“So it all comes back to money,” Liz said.
“It always does,” Kal said.
“Thank you, Kal. Keep us apprised of what else you learn,” Marc said. “Now moving on to more traditional business, we are negotiating with Algeria for a polysteel concession and some reforestation. Sam, can you provide an update?”
“Margaret has started negotiations; she says she’s getting lots of attention. The Algerians are highly motivated. You saw the preliminary deal before the press conference. She indicates that she can have the final deal inked in another three weeks,” Samantha said. “Fred is already coordinating the installation of two fusion powerplants.”
“Dr. Hausmann, we will receive a per-gigawatt fee from one of the powerplants and will also be getting a license fee from the polysteel once they start manufacturing it,” Marc said.
“Excellent, I always love to see sources of income,” Dr. Hausmann said.
“Remember that MacKenzie Discoveries is getting the fees, Delphi just gets to tax it,” Marc said.
“Darn, less expenses too, I assume,” Dr. Hausmann said.
“No, straight fifteen percent of sales,” Marc said.
“That does make things easier,” Dr. Hausmann said.
“Speaking of income, Fred, can you update us on our various ventures?”
“Sure,” Fred said. “We currently have thirty-five percent of the global solar panel market, which means our sales have reached 1.25 billion dollars per month. We’re
growing that as fast as we can ramp up production. The market is growing at twenty percent per year, so we’ll reach about 1.3 billion per month within six months. Our polyglass business has taken over the smart glass market, and it has grown to one billion per month. We’re exploring how we can manufacture car windshields effectively; we think that will generate an additional five hundred million dollars per month. Our battery and car sales have continued to grow. Battery sales are topping five hundred million dollars this year, and our cars are now over twenty billion dollars, and we’re making a solid fifteen percent profit.
“Our sales from Vancouver Integrated have reached seven hundred fifty million per month and are growing at ten percent per month.”
“You mean ten percent per year?” Dr. Hausmann asked.
“No, it’s per month,” Fred said. “The new phones from Vancouver Integrated are rivaling Apple in sales right now, and still growing, our specs being the major advantage over the competition. We are also selling CPUs to various industries, and are taking over the high-performance server processor business. We plan to introduce a faster, more reliable, and cheaper solid-state hard drive that will have ten times the capacity of anything else available. It should put paid to the mechanical hard drive business within one year. We should make approximately six hundred million per month from that business within six months of introduction. We also make about twenty million per month from our Lynx passenger service.”
“That’s a very nice portfolio,” Dr. Hausmann said. “However, it does seem pretty narrow.”
“Yes, I want to talk about how to expand that,” Marc said. “I propose that we join the air passenger service industry in a big way. I’d like to build an airliner that will fly at Mach 3.5 and carry four hundred passengers in comfort.”
Catie was excited; she usually got to lead the design efforts related to aircraft. “You do realize that we haven’t figured out how to scale the shock wave suppressors,” Catie said. “We couldn’t make them work for the Oryxes. And how did you pick Mach 3.5?”