One thing the colonel was looking forward to were the hundreds of movies that were stored on the spacecraft’s network. He loved American action films but rarely had the time to watch them. At one time he briefly considered purchasing a library of his favorite DVDs, but then he discovered the online Internet sites that streamed those same movies. As with the Jove mission, the Svoboda crew had access to the Internet through their network at Star City.
* * *
Chuck knocked on Christopher’s office door.
“What up, Chuck?” Christopher greeted, smiling.
“Didn’t know if Genesis informed you or not, but the NASA mission is underway,” said Chuck.
“Really? I guess it’s too early for any problems to have cropped up.”
“Nothing so far. But they did do a double slingshot, first with the moon, then around the Earth for the final leg. They even flew over the outpost and shot a bucket full of video. Genesis intercepted the files and dropped them on the network,” explained Chuck.
“Cool. They any closer to getting the soldiers back home?”
“No. Genesis said that they were still a year or so away from completing their new lunar lander. They should have used the one from Apollo 13 we left behind!” Chuck said laughing.
“No doubt. Did Genesis mention when the second mission is going to launch?” asked Christopher.
“About two weeks from now. But according to the tech specs, it’s going to arrive at about the same time or earlier than the NASA mission. Those nuclear engines are going to be pushing their ship a hell of a lot faster. Plus they only have five crew members; the NASA mission has nearly a full football team on theirs. Hey, I’ve gotta run. I just wanted to let you know. The latest mission profile is on the network if you want to check it out, okay?” said Chuck.
“Good enough. Catch you later,” Christopher said, already back at it with his datapad.
Chuck made his way to Lucius and Sydney’s office to see if Sydney was in. He could have called but he felt like stretching his legs after sitting around all morning doing reports and working simulations on the next Jupiter mission.
When he arrived he was happy to see that they both were in the suite, but working separately. He greeted both and asked if Sydney had a minute.
“No problem. Coffee?” she asked.
“I’m good.”
“So what’s up? Nothing serious I hope,” she asked.
“No, not exactly. But the NASA mission is underway. I was wondering if you had ever met Dr. Roscoe, the mission commander?”
“Maybe once. I’m not sure. I think we attended the same job fair, but I can’t remember anything about her except for what I read a few weeks ago. Why?” she asked.
“Just doing some groundwork on the crew, kind of trying to figure out ahead of time what to expect when they get here,” Chuck explained.
Sydney laughed, then said, “To be honest, I haven’t been thinking much about any of them other than John. I’m really not sure what to expect when they get here. Has the council decided what to do yet? Are we even going to talk to them?”
“They won’t be making any decision until the last minute, you know that. I think they’re just as curious about the mission as you are about Joy’s father. The whole colony is kind of psyched that they’re on their way, probably looking at some sort of confrontation taking place. There’s a good deal of resentment over the nerve of Earth sending any mission to mess with us, but two’s more than an insult, it’s trespassing,” he explained.
Sydney looked worried as she said, “You don’t think anything’s going to happen, do you?”
Chuck laughed broadly and said, “I think were going to be just fine. Between Peanut’s shields and our ability to leave if we get the notion, nothing untoward is going to occur.”
“I’m hoping not. You know Joy’s been hearing that some of the other kids’ parents are itching for a fight. A few weeks back she came home from school pretty upset.”
“What did you say?” Chuck asked.
“I told her that it was nonsense, and that she shouldn’t let rumors bother her. Eventually she was all right, but obviously there’s discussion going on.”
“Can’t kill gossip. Have you said anything to her about her father coming?” asked a curious Chuck.
“No. And I probably won’t unless there’s reason to do so. Obviously someone put him on the mission for a purpose that has something to do with me. But until I know more, I’m just going to wait,” she said. “May I ask you a personal question, Chuck?”
“Sure, anything.”
“What do you think about Joy’s father being white?” she asked, the question she was really wanting to ask unspoken.
Chuck knew exactly what she was getting at, and gave her the courtesy of thinking about his answer.
“I look at it like this. In most cases we don’t really have much control over who we fall in love with. This detective sounds like a pretty sharp fella, no one would expect anything less. And if he treated you well, and was truly in love with you, then you got lucky. It’s hard enough to find someone you click with, especially for a lifetime. So to answer your real question, it doesn’t bother me at all. And when you see how sharp and pretty Joy is, you obviously chose well. To be frank, I’m kind of curious to meet the guy, although I have no idea how that could be accomplished. And there’s no way he’s going to be able to come here, sorry to say.”
“I know that. I don’t expect anyone to even attempt to make that happen. I’m realistic enough to know that we can’t have him here. I knew that when I left Earth. I just wonder what would happen if Joy finds out he’s on the mission,” she said.
“Then we better make damn sure she doesn’t find out.”
Just then, Lucius knocked on the doorframe.
“I’m sorry, I couldn’t help overhearing. But I’m wondering if there’s not some way a white man could be tolerated here?” he asked.
“Lucius, if you can figure out a way for that to happen, you’re light years ahead of me,” Chuck commented. “It goes against everything this colony stands for. How are you going to get the council and the rest to even consider it? And what makes you think this guy would even want to?” He turned to Sydney and asked, “Does anything you know hint at he may be on his way here to beg to join us?”
“Absolutely not. And you know what, I just don’t see how that would be anything but a disaster for Joy, let alone me.”
“It’s too bad. But unfortunately I think you’re right, both of you. I’ve been thinking about this ever since you told us about Joy’s father being on the mission. He’s got no idea he has a child here, so it’s impossible that’s the reason he was put on the mission. And why put him on under an assumed name? They can’t know about the capabilities of Genesis, so there’s no way they know we know,” said Lucius. “So they must be concealing him from everyone on Earth too.”
“That’s a puzzler,” Chuck agreed.
“Whatever way you want to handle the whole thing is how I’ll push the council to go,” promised Lucius.
“I’ll be fine. But I am curious,” she said, then changed the subject. “How are you two doing on the shopping trip planning?”
Lucius laughed. “The hardest part about planning the mission so far is keeping Chris from going.”
“No kidding. Every time the trip is mentioned he just gets mad all over again. He’s got a dozen reasons why his being along is essential, that is until Lucius or I knock down each justification one by one. I’m convinced he’s worried that something is going to happen to Lucius,” explained Chuck.
“He’s better than when he, Chuck and the others started out, but it’s only just a little bit better. The council is pushing him to stick around when the Earth missions arrive as the indispensable representative of the colony,” Lucius said.
“It’s one of the
reasons I recommended scheduling the shopping trip for when the missions arrive. He’ll need the distraction,” explained Chuck.
“And you two are his friends?” Sydney said, grinning despite herself.
“The best,” answered Chuck, winking.
“Chris has had a burning rage in him since he was ten years old,” explained Lucius.
“Yeah, and everyone thinks I’m the bloodthirsty one!‘ said Chuck. “That’s not really fair. I love him like a brother. I’d kill a rock for him, but sometimes he lets something that he shouldn’t give a second thought throw him for a loop. He’s better now, though, I think having a wife and son is making a big difference. But it’s because he’s got a family that he really shouldn’t be going on missions with any chance of risk, especially this one. Lucius is going because he’s the only one here whose name wasn’t included in the message back to Earth.”
“Moreover, I still have some great contacts there and a couple of flush investment accounts that Genesis has been handling for just such an occasion,” explained Lucius.
“But they’re going to see you all coming, right? How are you going to get down to the surface without getting spotted or caught?” Sydney asked.
“That’s what we’re working on, off and on; we’ve still got weeks to come up with the perfect razzle-dazzle,” Chuck replied.
“My project isn’t going so well,” Sydney complained.
“How so?” Lucius asked.
“Because of the communications lag, there’s no real way to converse with any potential candidates for new blood up here in real time. The comm gap would give away where the call originated, and makes getting in contact with anyone Earthside far too risky. You know, you and I had the best setup where we were right in the thick of it on the ground,” she said.
Lucius shook his head and laughed. “When I think about just how well we pulled it off, and didn’t get caught in the process, I realize we were lucky as all get out.”
“That wasn’t luck. You were extremely careful, as was Abigail before me. We were all careful right up until the end. You know what, there is one thing I’d like to talk to John about if given the opportunity. I want to know how the whole investigation into Jaylynn Williams ended up, especially the part about them discovering me. But I didn’t leave things very good with him when I left, I just couldn’t,” she said, tearing up.
Chuck got to his feet, casting an uncomfortable look between Sydney and Lucius and said, “Um, I have to run meet Peanut. We’ll talk later.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to chase you off … ” Sydney began.
“No big deal. I do have to run. We can compare notes on Dr. Roscoe later. Lucius, ma’am” he said, tipping an imaginary hat as he backed out of the office.
“I always seem to be scaring men away,” Sydney said jokingly.
“It’s a gift, that’s for sure,” Lucius said, smiling.
“Did you ever meet Susan Roscoe? That’s what Chuck stopped by to ask me,” Sydney inquired.
“Twice,” he replied.
“Twice? Does Chuck know? Where’d you meet her? How well did you get to know her?” she asked in a rush.
“I recruited several in our community from M.I.T., including TJ. But that was before she was a department head. In fact, she was probably in grammar school when I recruited TJ. But years later I spoke to her at the school both times. She didn’t know me as anything other than an attorney doing retained search for exclusive clientele. I was shocked at her being selected to lead the mission; she’s an academic, not military. Hell, she’s not even corporate. Someone sharp picked her, I’d be interested to know who. She’s not someone who would ever be on the president’s or NASA’s radar. Add her to your friend John’s presence on the mission and you have a whole lot going on behind the scenes that we really should get a handle on; something’s in play that Genesis hasn’t been able to uncover yet.”
“Any clue? Any idea at all? I’m fresh out,” confessed Sydney.
“Not a one. And I hate not knowing. As Shakespeare said, the game is afoot. But I love a great mystery, we’ll know soon enough what’s really going on,” he promised.
“Like the curse says, may you live in interesting times … ” she replied as Lucius got up and returned to his office.
Chapter 19
DAYTRIPPER
Tom Weston missed working with John, but life moved on. The investigation into the bugging of Patrick Jensen’s computer continued with round-the-clock surveillance on Addison Rankin, the man Francine Jacobs had met in that San Francisco restaurant. So far he appeared to be nothing more than a technology consultant, and a player in the world of technology investments. It was the perfect cover for an industrial spy, someone who traded in stolen technology around the world as he had with some of GST’s proprietary technology.
Weston also had Jacobs, the former Melody Parker, under surveillance as well, but she had done nothing more than return to what he figured was her former life. She had a very healthy investment portfolio, obviously built up over the years doing who knew what. Her seduction of Jensen was probably just the latest in a long string of assignments that resulted in quite the tidy little revenue stream.
So far, after her lunch date with Rankin, Jacobs hadn’t met with or communicated with the industrial spy in any way GST or the FBI could discover. At Weston’s suggestion, the FBI left her to her own devices in the service of trying to locate any other contacts or business associates besides Rankin. To Weston’s eye, they were not dealing with some sophisticated underground organization bent on spying out the nation’s secrets. No, Patrick Jensen was singled out for his position on Project Jove. This led Weston to believe they were looking at someone from the joint Russian/EU project; a Russian, if he didn’t miss a bet.
There were certainly enough players in the game, the British, France, Spain, Greece even, as broke as they were. The other nations in the Project Svoboda collective all had their security and spy services, but the Russians were the best at this game. Many of the old guard from the KGB, now in Russia’s Federal Security Service, the FSB, still practiced the tradecraft that made the KGB the most effective intelligence gathering organization in the world.
This kind of work was what Weston lived for, not the tiresome concerns of ensuring leased copiers had their internal hard disks wiped before they were returned or running self-checks on the company’s network to ensure no internal hackers were pipelining data to competitors. It was the almost Sherlock Holmesian detective skills a good investigation called for. His skill was why the GST board and top-tier management put up with Weston’s refusal to ride a desk at corporate headquarters.
Weston was looking forward to a long Labor Day weekend off when his phone beeped to let him know that a priority message had come in: Rankin had suddenly booked a flight to Paris without any external reason for the trip.
They had Rankin so blanketed that not an email, text message or phone call was made to or from Rankin that wasn’t recorded. This trip to Paris was completely out of the blue, and unless it was something that had been planned before he came under scrutiny, it might indicate that Rankin had lines of communication available to him the surveillance team had yet to discover.
Sighing over the loss of a few days off, Weston called and arranged for a company jet to fly him to Paris from Houston, allowing him to arrive several hours before Rankin. He also made arrangements for a team to cover Rankin as soon as he arrived, leaving him free to check in with several of his contacts, and maybe even visit a couple of his favorite restaurants.
He packed an overnight bag, called the office and left word for Seneca informing her where he was going. When he was done, Weston called for a car to take him to the airport, grabbed his passport and went down to the lobby to wait for the GST limousine to arrive.
When he arrived in Paris, after having slept for nearly the entire flight, he checked in
with the local GST security office and found that he had beat Rankin by three hours. Weston then stopped at a hotel where GST kept several suites on call, dropped off his bag and cleaned up a bit. He decided to let the local team track Rankin from Charles de Gaulle airport to wherever he was going, hoping that whatever brought him to Paris would bear fruit in the investigation.
Weston was startled awake by his phone, surprised that he had dropped off reading the newspaper. Answering the call, he was brought up-to-date on where Rankin had gone once he arrived.
He dashed downstairs and grabbed a cab, giving the driver the address of the restaurant where Rankin had gone. On the way there, the surveillance team informed him that Rankin was meeting with someone, and that they had uploaded the image of the second party for identification.
At the restaurant Weston went inside, waved off the maitre d, explaining that he was meeting someone. When he peeked into the dining room, Weston almost laughed out loud. He walked up to the table where the two men were sitting and said, “Well, Sergei Islander, imagine bumping into you here in Paris.”
Both men were shocked at Weston’s bold entré. Islander recovered first, saying to Rankin, “Would you excuse us, Addison. I haven’t seen this gentleman for many years.”
Rankin looked at both men, clearly confused and somewhat worried about what he may have walked into, but he excused himself and left without a backward glance as Weston took the vacated seat.
“Laos, wasn’t it? Thomas Weston, correct?” Islander asked.
“Good memory!”
“You’re looking very well. The years have been kind.”
“You’ve done well yourself, Sergei. I must say though that I’m surprised, using someone as careless as Rankin,” said Weston.
“He has his moments, Thomas. I suppose you’re here about the girl?”
“Yes, that’s what brought me here, but to find you here in Paris instead of in your office at the Kremlin or Star City is a surprise. By the way, did you get what you wanted from the girl?”
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