Nathan Returns

by Jason Zandri

  “It’s more than just the independent action,” Jane responded. “How did Computer Central gain access to those electrical systems? And the communication of cascading shielding being ineffective… we’re not even sure what that means.” Lisa stared at her blankly without responding and Jane continued. “An analysis was done at the power amplification on the grid; whatever Computer Central was trying to do, it was drawing power to the top of the PrimaSync Tower in the center of Phoenix. When it couldn’t complete its task it discharged the power across the grid for use.”

  Jane paused for a moment and looked over at the Senator. He nodded and she continued. “We attempted to gain access to the roof of that building from the building manager. The doors to the roof were sealed. We tried to observe from other floors without success. The materials used in the external glass are completely one way and we believe the interior may have been replaced with iron or lead as we cannot even push wavelength devices inside. We even went old school trying to penetrate from lower floors; all burrowing devices seize when trying to cut through the separator level. It’s like the hardest material on Earth is shielding the divisional space. When we asked the manager who rented the upper floors and the roof, he gave us a corporation that is an overseas shell company. The company has all bogus information and there is no point of contact. The account that was used to pay the lease has been closed, but the lease there has been prepaid for thirty six months. When we tried to bring agents onto the roof from a helicopter descent, the aircraft systems were hit with a directed electromagnetic pulse which disabled the aircraft. The pilot was barely able to regain control of the aircraft and maneuver it away to safety.”

  “Well,” Lisa said, “whoever is on those floors definitely likes their privacy.”

  “A directed electromagnetic pulse is an attack,” the Senator said to her.

  “On an inbound aircraft to private property, that sounds more like defense to me,” she said curtly. “Regardless, what does that have to do with Nathan?”

  “Hours after that particular event, he was seen landing safely on the roof and entering the upper floors. He clearly has access to the space and whatever equipment is up there.” Jane said to her.

  Lisa moved away from the table. “It sounds to me like you’re going to need to use a direct approach with Nathan and ask him what he’s doing there; as I mentioned prior, I haven’t spoken with him in some time and you have more direct access to him than I do.”

  “Plausible deniability?” Jane said to her.

  Lisa stopped short and turned around. “As I see it now? Genuine concern for my overall well-being. Seems to me if I actually had any information and simply refused to divulge it, I would have been retained… and it would have been extracted by some means.”

  “That we don’t do,” Jane defended.

  “Really?” Lisa said. “So what happened to your information technology specialist that outed you?”

  “I don’t know,” Jane said looking directly at her. “She quit, walked out of my office that day, and I’ve never heard from her again.”

  “Makes me wonder if anyone has,” Lisa said turning away to continue out the door.

  Mr. Black began to step to block the doorway but the Senator waived him off.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Rebecca sat in the open meadow, her legs crossed, and the westerly wind blowing at her back, moving her hair forward.

  She tipped her head back, opened her eyes and looked skyward into the deep blue, and steadied her breathing. She extended her arms outward on each side of her and let the warm sunshine radiate on her.

  She began to chant the verses she memorized and slowly closed and opened her eyes rhythmically.

  Her head filled with images and she continued to focus on the words she wanted to repeat.

  There were different and random scenes. Lightning, thunder and rain. Children playing in a schoolyard. Nathan flying toward her. An early morning sunrise. Lisa looking out of a passenger window of an airplane. Adia standing in the street with her gun drawn. The earth below her shrinking from view. An outstretched hand.

  Eventually the images overloaded her ability to recite the passages and her body slowly raised off the ground. As it did, she allowed her legs to unfold and drop. As her feet dangled below, her hands and arms remained outstretched on either side of her.

  Her lips quivered and her eyes turned completely white. The wind became brisker and the cirrocumulus clouds began to sheer in the sky.

  “Hestia,” Rebecca whispered, “why have you forsaken me? You promised me a child if I continued forward… I have done the best I can to obey. In all the images I am seeing, there is no child of my own. I once believed your words of a daughter. I have been loyal to you; I have been trying to stem the consumption of my being… the powers are consuming me. I will not survive much longer and the time to bear the child needs to…”

  Rebecca’s body began to stiffen and become rigid. Her back began to arch and bend backwards. The clouds began to transform to thickening nimbostratus and filled the entire sky.

  “Rebecca… can you read me?” Nathan asked over the earpiece. “A storm is forming in your area; it doesn’t seem to be naturally occurring.”

  Rebecca did not trigger the response mechanism and ignored Nathan’s call. Stronger and stronger winds formed behind her and blew forward. Rebecca arched further. Her eyes became black. Her face was stoic.

  “I must maintain this vessel,” Rebecca spoke aloud to the open field, her voice radiated in parallel with a deeper female voice. “Gaea’s connection has been broken; she cannot tame this creature any further and the woman will be unable to further resist. The vessel is weakening and will need to be replenished and fortified.”

  “Computer Central, can you confirm the signal is transmitting?” Nathan said over the communications channel.

  “Affirmative. Rebecca is receiving; she is either unwilling to respond or she is unable to respond.”

  Pain washed over Rebecca’s face and she began to struggle with her left hand to reach up to the device to respond. Tears began to drop from her blackened eyes.

  “The vessel continues to fight,” Rebecca spoke in a voice that echoed its continued duality.

  “Rebecca, we’ve got increased atmospheric degradation there,” Nathan squawked over the communications channel again. “The barometric pressure is dropping rapidly. Can you diffuse it? I can’t get there in time as Weather Master and it’s not even what I am wearing… Captain Delta is the only one that can reach your location fast enough but his powers won’t allow him to dissipate a storm.”

  “New telemetry,” Computer Central communicated over the channel. “Seismic activity now detected in the Ramapo Fault system.”

  “Location and strength?” Nathan asked.

  “Near the junctions of the Hopewell and Chalfont faults; initial reading, magnitude 5.5,” Computer Central responded.

  “I’m on my way,” Nathan said dropping the communication.

  ***

  Jane Parker raced into the command center. “Status!” She barked. “And get me Senator Kelly on the line.” She looked about the room as a flurry of activity was taking place.

  One of the controllers ran up alongside her. “We were monitoring Rebecca; she was in a mainly rural and unpopulated area near the Pennsylvania and New Jersey border. She had been still for a short period of time when all of the sudden storm clouds began to form.” He pointed to the right side, room sized display that showed the eastern seaboard and was zoomed in on the mid-Atlantic states. “We are now receiving reports of seismic activity there…”

  “On mainly dormant fault lines? At the same time atmospheric disturbances formed out of nothing? Way too coincidental for me.”

  Another tech ran up to Jane with a phone. “We have Senator Kelly for you.”

  “Senator?” she asked taking the phone. “Now would be a good time to use your hotline to Nathan to get us as much information as he’s willing to share,” sh
e said looking over at the red streak on the map on the left side, room sized display making its way across the continental United States.

  “Am I reading this telemetry correctly?” he asked over the phone. “There is a mesocyclone in that area with a supercell storm and we are also having a magnitude 5.5 earthquake?”

  “That information is all corroborated,” Jane responded, flipping the phone to load speaker mode. “Rebecca has been in that area since before the incidents began.”

  “I’ll place the call,” Senator Kelly responded. “Hopefully Nathan can explain what’s going on and take some corrective action.”

  “He’s en route and should be there inside of twenty minutes. We starting reading his Captain Delta signature over southern Colorado and he’s moving faster than Mach 10,” Jane responded.

  ***

  Senator Kelly dropped the call with Jane while walking over to grab the retrofitted smartphone that Nathan had given to him. He powered it on and set it up to reach Nathan’s encrypted communication frequency.

  “Nathan,” he said, walking back over to his desk.

  “Senator Kelly,” Nathan responded. “I presume the call is for the east coast emergency? I am on my way.”

  “Nathan, Rebecca is right there; why doesn’t she dissipate the storm? Does she have the ability to deaden the earthquake effects?” he asked.

  “I’ve tried to reach her; she isn’t responding,” Nathan responded somewhat frantic.

  “I don’t need to tell you exactly how bad this looks for the two of you.”

  “I understand Senator,” Nathan answered quickly. “My first concerns are for Rebecca and the people in harm’s way. I can deal with the court of public opinion at a later time after the emergency is resolved.”

  “Of course Nathan; I would want to work with the President and send you resources to assist if you need them,” the Senator responded.

  “I’m not even sure what we’re dealing with here Senator, so I have no way to even assess yet what I might need to even ask for the help. Regardless, thank you.” Nathan said, straining in an attempt to increase speed.

  “Of course Nathan. Let me drop off so you can focus.” The Senator said closing the communications channel and walking away from his desk to lock his office door. He opened the door a crack and flipped the deadbolt. The inner office staff looked over at the action. The Senator then flipped the deadbolt again and pulled the door closed and secured it.

  The Senator slipped the phone into his jacket pocket, and turned away from the door to return to his desk. He took a seat and opened the top left drawer of the desk. He reached inside into the back and released a lever that allowed him to remove the entire drawer. Senator Kelly then reached through to another small level that released the entire top and bottom cabinet mechanism, which allow it to part on the hinge like a book.

  The Senator then dropped off the chair to reach into a secret compartment and pull out a lock box. He up righted himself and placed it on his desk.

  On the top of the metal box was a number mechanism; he entered the six digits which allowed the top to slide open three inches and expose a fingerprint reader. He placed his thumb on it, which allowed the box to open. Inside the box was a small electronic device, which he removed.

  He walked away from the desk with it and over to his bookcase on the wall. He kneeled down, pressed in a four-digit pin on the pad of the small device, and then held down the green button next to the top left of the second shelf. A slight sliding noised sounded. He then entered a different digit pin and held down the green button next to the top right of the same shelf. Another sliding noise sounded. He repeated this twice more on the lower sides of the shelf.

  He moved over to the left side of the shelf and pulled it and like a door swinging open, a low crawl space was exposed. The Senator made his way inside and pulled the shelf door closed behind him.

  Once inside, his motions turned on the lights in the hidden six by six room. He stepped around the small desk in the room and sat in the chair.

  He lifted the top of the small laptop and then pulled the removable plastic head from the small pad device he used to unlock the bookcase shelves, exposing a USB-like plug with a unique eight pin head. He inserted it into the special jack on the laptop, which allowed it to power up and boot into a custom operating system.

  When the terminal was fully online, he verified that the secured connection was made and then typed a message with the keyboard.

  ‘Has Project Phases been initiated?’

  The senator sat for a long period of time simply staring at the blinking cursor before the system returned a response from the remote recipient. ‘Negative’ was the response received on the screen.

  ‘The current cycle is almost identical to what was discussed for Phases,’ the Senator typed.

  There was a much shorter pause for the follow up. ‘With the telemetry we reviewed from our satellites, both the sudden storm and now the seismic activity, we assumed the Americans had begun without us, despite the agreement to discuss before. We are happy this was in error. We are enjoying the cooperative efforts and we were concerned about the possible jeopardy of them.’

  The Senator leaned in and responded, ‘I assure you, we did not take a proactive action. The circumstances, as they are unfolding right now, are one hundred percent coincidental. Despite the scripted scenario and options, this is unfolding naturally.’

  Senator Kelly leaned back in his chair and awaited a response. ‘Nathan has helped both our countries a great deal. Our concern, unlike elements in your government, have never been with him. They are with the woman who seems unstable and partially unable to control her abilities.’

  Senator Kelly typed in his response. ‘Nathan is on his way now.’

  The terminal chirped back a response and the Senator reviewed it. ‘We are tracking him thanks to the signatures you shared. He has increased his speed even further and is approaching Mach 13. He should be in the vicinity in minutes.’

  The Senator had no immediate response. While he mulled one over, another message arrived. ‘Our analysts have hypothesized that the woman, either inadvertently or intentionally, is causing both events. You know Nathan personally; do you believe he will take all and any corrective actions?’

  The Senator considered his response and then leaned forward to enter it. ‘I would like to believe that Nathan would do whatever needs to be done, at whatever cost. That’s said, we have to have all contingencies covered.’

  The response that returned was, ‘We agree. Thus the need for this join effort.”

  The Senator was about to enter a response when another message was received. ‘Do you confirm, despite the coincidental nature of the present incident, that we are no longer ‘station keeping’ but now at Phase Four?’

  The Senator read the message and the screen flashed off and quickly returned. ‘Was that an interruption in the communications? Has the connection been compromised?’

  ‘Impossible; the connection is still live and fully secured. This is a dedicated line and a block cipher using large block size of 8192 bits. There is a 160-bit key, which is used to generate two large sets of subkeys using an array of 2048 32-bit numbers. The encryption algorithm makes four passes over the data, each time applying one of four transformations adapted from MD5. We change the key each day even when the terminals are otherwise dormant; there is nothing more secure on the planet.’

  The Senator read the passage a few times to take it all in until another message came in. ‘Are we at Phase Four? I believe we are, but we both need to agree to make the level.’

  The Senator responded simply ‘Yes’.

  ‘I must disconnect for now; we must convene to discuss the activity on your east coast. I hope we do not get to Phase One.’

  ‘God help us,’ the Senator responded.

  ‘I do not know if that would be enough,’ was the reply.

  The Senator pulled the device from the laptop and it immediately lost power. He
sat back in the chair and sighed.

  ***

  Nathan expended as much power and energy as he could. He hit the communicator to transmit.

  “Computer Central?”

  “Enabled,” the female voice of the computer responded.

  “Have you been able to reach Rebecca?” he asked wearily.

  “I have broadcast on all frequencies at fifteen second intervals. There has been no response.”

  “What is my ETA?” Nathan asked as he met the expanding storm head on and dropped lower in the atmosphere.

  “You will be at ground zero, her location, in fifteen seconds. Decrease speed.”

  “Affirmative,” Nathan replied.

  “There are now two F2 tornados forming adjacent to her location. I have registered a 4.3 magnitude aftershock.”

  “What’s her status?” Nathan asked.

  “Negative response.”

  Nathan expanded a forward shield of energy and sheered the first tornado’s rotation. He slowed and came about as it began to reform. He expanded his shielding further and went closer to the point where the funnel cloud formed and disrupted as much airflow as he could. He did what he could to counter the rising and falling air so that the funnel could not reform.

  “The cyclonic activity in that cell is neutralized,” Computer Central said.

  Nathan broke away and came about. He viewed the other tornado as non-threatening as it was in an open field. He began to approach Rebecca who was floating in the air less than fifty feet off the ground near a rural road.

  “How long has that news crew been there?” Nathan asked Computer Central, noticing a microwave broadcast van.

  “Unknown; their live broadcast has been active for three minutes, seventeen seconds.”

  “Wonderful,” Nathan said. He telekinetically flung debris at the van to take out the antenna, trying to make it appear to be random materials swept up and thrown about by the winds from the storm. “Did that do it?” Nathan asked.

  “The broadcast is no longer being received,” Computer Central responded.