by Steve Hertig
Chapter 12
Prime: 17 Aug 2068
Jenny got to morning mess early to be sure she caught Carl before he left for the Martinique transit site in Plus. She sat at an empty table, placing a well-traveled wooden box next to her coffee.
"And I always thought the military had lousy coffee," Mikael said leaning on his crutch from behind her and then smiling above the steam of the cup in his free hand, sat next to her.
Jenny tried to force a smile to replace the unsettled look on her face.
"Don't worry, they're right behind me." Mikael said. "And Higgs has tested thoroughly the modified monopole TRs Carl's using to get to the eruption from Plus. It seems the modification allows them to start a cycle from another fractime."
"I know. Incredible," she said and then sighed looking at her coffee. "How's the ankle?"
"Should be back to normal in a couple more days, but this new cast is weird," he said.
She looked at the synthetic-life cast that was supposed to heal his ankle in a quarter of the normal recovery time. It was weird.
"Mind if we join you?" Carl said setting down a plate full of pancakes next to her; Dutch was right behind him with his breakfast.
"Of course," Jenny said. "We were hoping to catch you before you left. And I wanted to ask you about the last ten years."
"I can't say much," Carl said as he nervously added more syrup to his pancakes.
"Tristan won't talk either." Jenny said guessing it had to be some kind of secret operation.
"Any word from Doc?" Carl asked, quickly changing the subject.
John had finished his NGA briefings and was still attending what Jenny called 'officer boot' in Georgia for a few more days.
"He's fine, but complaining about sore muscles and the early mornings," Jenny replied letting Carl off the hook for now.
"His marksman scores have been exceptional," Dutch added.
Jenny gave Dutch a light-hearted smirk for keeping tabs on the captain.
Carl looked around the mess. "Where's Kate Webber?" he asked. "Doc wanted me to meet her before I left. Didn't she design some of the monitoring equipment for the Piquet mission?"
"She's been on leave so Higgs ended up pulling it all together," Jenny replied. "Have you determined the exact time of your return transit in relation to the eruption?" she asked Carl.
"Historical accounts have constrained the timing fairly well," he said, "and we made a few post-eruption transits to check firsthand accounts from neighboring islands as well as survivors' accounts in Martinique. Having no satellite cover makes it difficult, so I'll have to transit at least a few days before the eruption to be safe. I'll need the time to firm up my cover, find the SecDef and try to discover who the man with the gun was."
"We've got the area secured on Mount Piquet for the return transit," Dutch said.
"I don't understand," Jenny looked at Carl, "that site was destroyed in the quake."
"They've rigged an inflatable platform, so it should be an entertaining return transit," Carl said, "if, like the SecDef, I return to Prime."
"Unfortunately, the Plus site couldn't be completely secured," Mikael added soberly. "But there is good news. Major Timberin reports a recon of the Plus site shows there's no sign of the landslide associated with the '56 quake."
Jenny just looked at her cold toast. She lost several friends and colleagues during early transit research missions.
"Carl, I want you to take this." She handed him the box. "Go ahead, open it," she said.
He carefully opened the box revealing a knife, not an ordinary blade, a KA-BAR. It was a Marine's blade and Carl was speechless.
"It was my mother's," Jenny said solemnly. "Sorry, there's no sheath."
"I'm honored Ms. Scott," Carl said as he handed it to Dutch.
The gunnery sergeant tested the razor-sharp edge. He hefted it for balance and weight and then nodded to Carl and respectfully handed it back to him, grip first.
"I'll be back before you know it," Carl said placing he knife back in the box and obviously straining to be positive. He gave her a quick salute and then left after making an excuse about needing to pack. He had not touched his pancakes.
"Don't worry about the lieutenant," Dutch said spearing the Carl's pancakes with his fork. "He'll get the job done."
Jenny knew the master gunnery sergeant did not hand out compliments to officers often. She hoped he was right.
Jenny could sense the enthusiasm in her staff as she entered the STS lab. They and the Plus team were tearing apart the Prophesy in detail, noting any citations that presented any potential tactical advantage.
"We have refined our interpretation of the Prophesy's distinct strategic phases," Tye reported seeing Jenny arrive. "Also, we should finish decrypting Henrys' drive soon. Given it was ten years old, we knew the encryption algorithms, but the activation keys still have to be hacked."
"You all still believe we are in the second stage?" Jenny asked the team.
Mikael, leaning a crutch against a nearby workstation, pulled the holographic display activator over to him and brought up the latest analyses of the Prophesy's strategic encyclopedia. "Clearly in Prime, we've experienced stage one upline activity for a long time. Worldwide economic failures, attacks on fledgling democracies and strained relationships between our allies are all clear early objectives of the Prophesy to weaken the strongest governments."
"Stage two," Tye said switching holographic views, "still appears to be direct intervention rather than influence and indirect manipulation. The famous attacks of the late twentieth century in the United States as well as the nuclear incidents in Asia in the 40s are all stage-two candidates. Ms. Scott, as you've said before, it will probably take decades to prove these conclusively. I believe these events are certainly, in part, responsible for the digression from Minus' similarity starting as far as back as the 1930s."
"I agree," Jenny added thoughtfully.
Tye continued, "The attack on the mountain still puts us in late stage two, and the UD has identified the remains of the Mountain's attackers as being from Plus."
"They had no choice," Jenny mused, "the consequences of Chronos developing significantly modified TRs were too great to delay the attack. It was little short of a miracle their plan to destroy the lab backfired."
The interrogation of the contractor held in connection with the lab explosion had cleared him, and as he didn't suicide, his innocence made sense to Jenny.
"Have we got the UD in production yet?" Jenny asked. She was anxious to get more of the devices into service, despising the idea of upline infiltrators.
"The working concept is similar to the detection device we've been working on," Mikael said, "but Higgs' group hasn't had much luck in reverse engineering the Plus device. All STS personnel have been checked, and we're clear."
"Except for the threat of Prime traitors," Jenny said gravely.
"Homeland and the Secret Service," Mikael said, "currently have the UD and are still working on Congress, the Executive branch is next."
"And stage three?" Jenny asked.
Tye displayed the last set of diagrams and charts and then said, "It's defined by large-scale infrastructure disruptions and direct attacks on world governments. Recent citations in the Prophesy are clear on their most effective tactics. We've assembled a list of possible infrastructure targets."
"Let's see them," Jenny said.
"Like Plus," Tye said, "global nuclear disarmament in the early '50's narrows down the choices. A sweeping bio- or nano-weapon attack is the most likely." She displayed a globe, dense with symbols for the targets.
Jenny, deep in thought, changed the subject. "Any idea's as to how the enemy actually uses the Prophesy?"
"There are repeated citations," Mikael replied, "indicating key command cells control individual citations closely and are responsible for updating or adding citations. The part of the Prophesy we have appears to be just a large data dump. Major Timberin thinks the Prophesy is actually an
advanced AI unit safely situated upline, but who knows how far."
"We also have no idea how Plus came to gain this intel," Jenny said. "Did the major answer our request for more information about how exactly they came to have these parts of the Prophesy?" she asked.
"We received his answer last night," Mikael said. "It's not good though, it seems it was secretly given directly to the Plus President."
"Well let's just ask her," Jenny said.
"Unfortunately, it was Plus' late President."
"Damn," Jenny muttered. "Okay, let's get back to the potential infrastructure targets," she said getting up to stretch her legs and look at the holographic globe.
"The bio-strategy would entail a global disbursement of lethal bio-agents in key countries," Tye said. "The nano-strategy, assuming a similar deployment as in Plus, would entail introducing such weapons to destroy infrastructure associated mainly with electronics. There're also reports in Plus of metallurgic failures and even human deaths resulting from nano-contamination."
Jenny could see the worry in Tye's bright blue eyes.
"Both would be very effective, but we can make a good guess as to which one we are up against," Mikael said.
"What are you thinking?" Jenny asked them.
Mikael looked to Tye.
"Citations indicate Prime," Tye said, "like Plus, will be cleansed and not made suitable for occupation. Apparently only one in every four or five universes is reserved for pervasive occupation," Tye said.
Mikael added, "This gives their forces a buffer of the decimated universes both upline and downline against counterattack. Like Plus, I'd bet we'll be up against a nano-strategy as the enemy tends to repeat their successful tactics, and it makes sense from a practical point of view as well. The nano weapons would create mass-extinctions of much of the planet's flora and fauna, and eventually most of humanity. It would then be a simple process to mine Prime even after a nuclear cleansing of any survivors."
"It is impossible to guess exactly how the nano weapon would be programmed or what the nature of the released agent will be," Tye said.
"Good work," Jenny said. "I begin prep for the contact mission to Minus this afternoon. Mikael, you'll have to prepare the general's status reports for the next few days. Then looking to her analyst, she said, "And let me know as soon as the decryption is finished on that drive."
"No problem," Tye said confidently.
It was late afternoon as Aashif dodged kids riding their bikes back and forth in front of his commander's house. As he approached its front porch, he saw Johnston in an over-sized wicker rocker. It protested, creaking with her weight, as she rose to greet him.
"Come on in," she said pulling herself out of the old rocker and nearly spilled her glass of wine.
"Kind of early to be drinking," Aashif commented dryly as she held the front door open for him. He objected strongly to her consumption of alcohol.
"All part of the cover, brother," she replied sarcastically.
He guessed she was pretending to be drunker than she really was just to annoy him. He followed her into the kitchen to check the surveillance monitors were clear and then reported, "The contaminate preparation is near completion. The chemists had to adjust the ratios for each site as the equations had changed."
"That's to be expected," she said flatly. "The physics change from one universe to another."
Aashif knew the Leadership was impressed with her results. They expected an early victory in the western hemisphere. But he worried the farther they got ahead of schedule, the more he had to rely on Johnston's own initiative.
"I am planning the last dispersal site missions now," she said. "We still have our martyrs?" she asked.
He told her what he knew she wanted to hear, "More than enough, thanks to your decision to manipulate the net here. The TIA theories were so fruitful that record recruitment has been achieved to date."
"So it has." She smiled glibly.
Aashif knew the TIA net theories lead to the enemy's early development of quantum transfer technology. Johnston had dismissed the intelligence. She ignored the possibility, considering the Leadership's decision to embark on a mission downline to the next fractime to find the TIA and preempt transfer tech as ridiculous and a waste of resources. He knew she felt the TIA was unique here.
"We are years ahead of schedule, commander," he said still flattering her. "The Prophesy will praise us."
Gloating, she replied, "The Prophesy doesn't have all the answers as much as you'd like to think it does."
"You're lack of confidence in the Prophesy concerns me commander."
She opened her refrigerator and took out a Coke. "Don't start that shit with me."
"I meant no offense," he said straining to sound humble.
"What's the status of transit orders for our brothers?" she demanded popping the top on the can.
"The Leadership has decided to transfer the first wave of North American operatives through the main hub."
"Idiots," she said through clenched teeth.
"They are eager and those are our orders," he said. "We have to make preparations for their arrival." He knew she had made countless recommendations to develop more hubs, but the Leadership had ignored her pleas as being this far ahead of schedule could mean huge bonuses for them all.
"Don't lecture me Aashif." She wiggled her large frame past him and into the living room and then literally fell into a double-sized recliner, finishing her Coke in quick gulps.
"I don't suppose you have the breakdown on assignments and targets from command yet?" She wiped off most of the drink left on her chin.
"They've promised it before we leave." He took a seat opposite her in a small chair and looked at her in the grimy recliner. She continued to grow more disgusting, and he loathed her lack of self-discipline.
"What, no rush?" she said mockingly.
"We have an update on the programming of the keys," he said ignoring her.
"That's something. Out with it."
He knew she wanted those keys badly. "Their completion draws near," he said. "Their evolution will be at maximum settings and will expire after one year. The keys have been tested and will be delivered in the next few days."
Johnston smiled.
Aashif knew she relished her supremacy to activate personally the weapon across the western hemisphere.
General West understood the contact-mission dignitaries to Minus were essential, but having them all under the Mountain at once was stressful. He hoped that at least some of the Prime team might work with their Minus twins. It would help the first-contact discussions go smoothly, but the Minus dissimilarity was too large and many Minus twins were impossible to find.
"Mr. Secretary," West said making his way across the mission op center. "I understand a second-year congressman from the House had been identified from Plus."
"Yes, General," Tristan confirmed. "It was not entirely unexpected and I am afraid there's sure to be more."
West knew the Senate and Executive branch tests were ongoing and there would be more as well. "Are you satisfied on the pre-mission focus?" he asked the SecDef knowing the President and Vice President did not want to get into much detail on the first mission, especially regarding their Optimum party politics. Relationships and trust building were to be the main goals this time around.
"Given what we appear to be facing," Tristan said, "I don't understand why the Vice President was so adamantly against any substantial strategic discussions."
"Speaking of the Vice President," West said. "I hear he really pressed to be on the mission."
"Posturing for the coming election?"
"Good guess."
"Not too hard, when it comes to Frank Hudson" Tristan replied.
West knew the SecDef had little respect for the Vice President. He saw Jenny enter the op center and waved her over to join them.
"Mr. Secretary. General," she said.
West observed the subtle wink at her hu
sband.
"How's the decryption progressing?" West asked.
"I'm expecting word anytime that the key run has finished," she said just as Mikael appeared in the doorway; he motioned her to come over.
"This could be good timing. Excuse me," she told them.
"Good news?" Jenny asked, joining Mikael in the corridor outside the mission op center.
"Yes and no," he said. "We've recovered files from the drive; all were intact. One appears to be a collection of profiles."
"Profiles? That's kind of sloppy don't you think."
"Definitely a breach of protocol for them, I'm sure. I left facial recon running on the pics. It should be finished by now."
"Misinformation?" she asked wondering just how important the drive's contents could really be.
"I don't think so," Mikael said as he hobbled into the op center. "One of the files is correspondence from an operative named Zaman to a Bill Lutzger. I think they were trying to do a deal of some sort."
"Lutzger! That bastard. Hold on, let's ask if the SecDef and General West want a look at it now." She paused, touching his arm. "So what's the bad news?"
"You'll just have to see for yourself," Mikael said joining the SecDef and General West.
"Results?" Tristan asked hopefully.
"We may have a break," Mikael said. "The drive contained several dossiers and even personal correspondence."
"I suggest we take a quick look at it before the analysts get their hands on it," Jenny said. "It could take days to get a viable analytical report."
"Count us in," Tristan said.
Mikael tapped the visualization wall in a vacant office next to the op center and then entered his pass code as a touch pad appeared.
"There were four profiles recovered, each with an associated two-dimensional image," Mikael said as the wall's screen split into four segments to display one image in each.
"Oh shit," Jenny gasped. The first picture was that of Vice President Hudson and she instantly realized this was the bad news.
The general, taking a good look at the Vice President's image, said, "I guess, this could explain why he was so fanatical to be on the contact mission."
"This may not mean anything," Tristan cautioned. "It could be bait for us and would have caused a huge disruption in government a few years ago."
"Who are the others?" Jenny asked.
Mikael brushed the virtual pad, overlying the facial recon results. The program had classified the second and third image as 'unknown', and it confirmed the first as the Vice President. The last image of a woman was identifies as Victoria Johnston. Jenny noted she had ties to the USGS and briefly worked for the Pentagon.
"The Geological Survey," Jenny said, "that's kind of interesting."
West whispered something to the SecDef and then West excused himself from the group.
"Serious, huh?" Jenny said to Tristan.
"Yup," he replied solemnly.
Mikael pulled up the correspondence file.
"This reads like a blackmail plot," Tristan said scanning the image.
"But who's blackmailing whom?" Jenny asked. "We think Henrys was taking this data to Lutzger."
"There's no telling," Mikael said. "Do you think Zaman and Lutzger were working on a deal for a piece of the post-apocalyptic pie?"
"We've not seen Lutzger since around that time," Jenny said, "and knowing the drive was in our hands, it makes sense he would have gone underground. And if this Zaman was going to use this information against the enemy, it must have some importance. I'd guess this is the US or maybe even the western hemisphere's command cell." She stared at Hudson's image and recalled Clare Jackson's reaction to high-level traitors.
Mikael added, "And if the Leadership didn't know anything about the contents of this drive, we could still have an advantage after all this time. We'll expand our record search to try to identify the remaining two unknowns."
"What about the VP?" Jenny looked at Tristan.
"We need to scan him with the UD as soon as possible. West is informing the President," he said.
Jenny looked back at Johnston's picture and said, "We'll work on her. Mikael, search for recent addresses and drivers license info on Johnston."
Mikael brushed the floating pad. An image of her current driver's license appeared. "Kinda letting herself go," he commented at the now grossly obese image.
"Cedar Rapids." Jenny read aloud part of the license address.
Mikael said, "I'll liaise with Homeland to get surveillance underway immediately."
"Be extremely cautious, no electronics, passive surveillance only," Tristan cautioned. "We can't take any chances."