Counting Up To Infinity Page 21

  What about the rumors that President wants to invoke the Terrorist Protection Act? He was going to ask for a special prosecutor for this investigation.

  There were no foreign terrorists. Wright, Crockett, and Warez admitted it was a scam to throw the scent off them. It was just a botched attempt by one company to use strong arms, in this case a bunker buster missile, to get rid of their competition. However, by the time he names the prosecutor, I think it will be yesterday’s news.

  Thank you, Nina Tottenberg, NPR News.

  “Cut and a wrap. By the way you’ve done a fantastic job uncovering this story. Congratulations. I see a Pulitzers in it for you.”

  “Thanks Nina. By the way, I’ve always been a big fan of yours.”

  “Thank you. I have a small question, not about the attack or anything, but where did you get your Bluetooth phone receiver? It looks so much lighter and more aerodynamic than mine.”

  “It is as light as a feather. I think it uses those new Hydrogen-Bromide Ion batteries.”

  “Where did you get it?”

  “Actually it was an anonymous present. I think it was from Haines himself.”

  “No joke? You ever meet him?”

  “Hehe. I never met anyone who admits to ever meeting him. You know, when this is all over, and I get a few weeks off I’d love to take a vacation to just lounge. I’d lounge in my car in front of C H Electricity in Atlanta and see if he ever walks in. I talked to one of the FBI investigators who went there. Well, he interrogated the security guard in that building, the security guard said he never saw Charlie enter or exit. The FBI guy said that there was no way for anyone to get in or out without the guard noticing something. They had cameras all over the place. Like I said, I’d be taking a really quiet vacation, just to lounge.”

  Year 24.0 Visit from the FBI

  David: I don’t want to alarm anybody, but we’re going to be invaded by the FBI.

  Corey: Are you sure?

  David: Yeah. They’re at the gate of the complex now. The guard is reviewing their paperwork.

  Sidney: Josh, whatever you’re doing, get Dee and come here now.

  Dee: We’re busy.

  Martin: Dee, you come here now. Or I’ll unplug you for the next week. Listen to my voice and see if I’m serious.

  Corey: Dee! I’ll bar Josh from visiting you or talking to you as well. Now!

  Sidney: Josh, you’re in charge, bring Dee here NOW! RUN.

  Martin looked out of his office window and saw two dozen cars and trucks driving to the front of the building. A number of the men were carrying assault weapons. They swarmed the lobby of the building. A few were fanning around the perimeter as well. He waited patiently in his office looking out the window as he saw his daughter, Joshua, and the beagle, Corky, run to the lobby entrance. Dee was carrying a familiar blue-green plant that was as tall as she was.

  Martin: Dionne Klein, under no circumstances are you to injure anyone. Do you understand? Tell Chee’our’i that too. I want you to say little more than your name, and that you’re our daughter. Josh, the same applies to you too. You’re in charge.

  Joshua: OK, Uncle Martin.

  Janet: Corky, these people are all officers of the law. Under no circumstance are you to attack any of them.

  Martin turned his view to Dee’s necklace. He produced a second virtual window from Joshua’s vantage point, and a 360 panoramic third from Corky’s view. Dee was leading the three, past the clear Plexiglas guard area into the arboretum, by the elevator that lead up to the offices. Martin saw that Dee wore a pair of jeans, a light blue pull-over and a scarf which was carefully laid around her shoulders. Her long tresses hung down her shoulders. Joshua’s image showed a man in a suit coming toward them. Below the image was ‘John Maxwell: FBI Special Agent GS-13’

  “Elaine, we have some children here.”

  A light complexioned woman at the elevator turned to look at Maxwell, “Jesus H,” she paused, “Do I look like a day care worker?” Below Joshua’s image was ‘Elaine Gomez: FBI Special Agent GS-11’

  A third man, who had been talking on his phone said, “Ms. Gomez, handle them.”

  The woman, started to walk to the three. Her initial scowl immediately changed to a partial smile. The smile did not look genuine to Martin. “Hi guys. I’m sorry, but we’re going to have to stop anyone from entering here. Shouldn’t you be in school?”

  Martin: Say you’re home schooled.

  Joshua said, “We’re home schooled.”

  Ms. Gomez said, “How about I bring you guys home to your mommy?”

  Dee said, “She’s upstairs. Both of our mothers are upstairs. That’s where we were headed.”

  The woman exhaled, “What about your housekeeper or day care person?”

  Stridently Dee said, “We don’t need them. Let us through NOW.” She paused then added, “Please.” Martin groaned inwardly.

  The FBI Agent looked to her boss, who was still on the phone directing the small army, and then she turned back to the children. “I’m sorry, but I can’t let you go upstairs right now. Why don’t you come over here and sit by the chair, like good children. Perhaps, later we can visit your mommy and daddy.” She lowered her hands to guide Dee and Joshua to a pair of chairs.

  Dee said, “No” and resumed walking to the elevator. Elaine reached down and grabbed Dee’s upper arm. Dee shifted her hands to move Chee’our’i to one hand as she squeezed Elaine’s wrist. Martin heard a now familiar crack, as the Agent screamed in pain. Automatically the other two FBI Agents reached for their guns. All three vanished in a cloud of smoke. Dee continued walking to the elevator.

  Martin’s jaw dropped. The elevator door opened. Slowly Martin said, “Oh my god!”

  Martin: Chee’our’i. You will talk to me now!

  Chee’our’i: Yes.

  Martin: Can you stop time or do something so we can talk.

  Chee’our’i: I can’t do that, but I can …

  Martin: Just do it.

  Martin felt the air take on a rigid property. He wasn’t able to breathe, but he noticed that he didn’t need to. He tried to form words.

  Martin: Chee’our’i

  Chee’our’i: Yes.

  Martin: How long do we have to talk?

  Chee’our’i: As long as you need.

  Martin: You just exterminated three humans who were doing their jobs.

  Chee’our’i: Yes.

  Martin: Dee are you able to talk?

  In a contrite voice, Dee said, “Yes, dad all the Ins are here.”

  Martin: I thought I told you that you were not to hurt anyone.

  Dee: But she was going to force me to wait on the chair, and she didn’t feel any pain.

  Martin: Dee, you’ve gone too far. That woman you just made disappear is a daughter of someone. Perhaps a sister. Maybe she has kids too. The same goes for the other two. Whatever they could have done in the future is gone. Stopped. No more. What you did is wrong, wrong, wrong. I don’t care if you’re going to be Sentient or not, you’re no longer a human. I’m going to turn the computer off. Perhaps you can grow up to be a normal human, without the computer. You just murdered three people.

  Dee: You can’t. I won’t let you.

  Martin: Is that what you want? To stop me? To eliminate all non-important people? Then you’re going to have to kill me too.

  Corey: And me.

  Sidney: And us too. Joshua, you’ve been working to save humanity. Is this how you want it to end? Do you want to destroy all of humanity, so there’s just you and Dee left?

  Joshua: N-no dad.

  Martin: Dee, this was wrong. The only thing I can say is that I failed you as a father.

  Corey: And me as a mother. This is horrid.

  Corey began to cry.

  Martin: We aren’t plants that you pinch off a branch or lop off a limb.

  Chee’our’i: Y
ou are incorrect. Those humans were not on the operational path of your species’ evolutionary spiral.

  Corey: Shove it. If you want Human Sentients, you need to have ‘Human’ in the equation.

  Martin: Chee’our’i did you want another Sentient who is a plant or a Human?

  Chee’our’i: Human.

  Martin: Then you’re going to have to let Dee and Joshua become human. Joshua is partially there, only because he lived and thought like Humans. You’ve never let Dee grow up. She’s become spoiled, arrogant, and completely self-centered. This is your fault, Chee’our’i.

  Joshua: Uncle Martin, can I offer a suggestion? How about where Chee’our’i gets to talk to Dee and me for just an hour or two a day, with the rest of our time with Humans?

  Corey: Uh, Martin, that sounds like a good idea, and fair. Dee can learn some humanity and especially some humility. We can join a church. I can find a place where we can volunteer.

  Martin: Corey, Sid and Janet, this is crazy. I think we need to talk about this. But at another time. Dee just murdered three people.

  David: Chee’our’i can you bring those people back from the dead.

  Chee’our’i: I can change the past so they will not die.

  Martin: You can do that. Uh, yeah, you can do that. Can you do it so only the Ins know about it?

  Chee’our’i: Yes.

  David: Dee, I want you to think. What other course of action can you take, besides hurting the FBI Agents?

  Dee: I have a good idea.

  Corey: OK, if it turns out bad, we can always have Chee’our’i change time again.

  Martin: OK, Chee’our’i reverse your extermination of the Agents.

  ***

  The FBI Agent looked to her boss, who was still on the phone directing the small army, and then she turned back to the children. “I’m sorry, but I can’t let you go upstairs right now. Why don’t you come over here and sit by the chair, like good children. Perhaps, later we can visit your mommy and daddy.” She lowered her hands to guide Dee and Joshua to a pair of chairs.

  Dee said, “No”. Elaine reached down and to grab Dee’s upper arm. In a split second, Dee slipped from the Agent’s hand, bent down, picked up Corky with her free hand and all three quickly rose in the air. A hole appeared in the ceiling, through which they flew. The FBI Special Agent stood there dumbstruck as the hole disappeared leaving the intact ceiling, complete with its drop light. Elaine looked to her boss and the second Agent, who were facing different directions. She looked back at the ceiling, at both Agents, and then made a decision that her job was more important than chasing after two irrelevant kids. She kept her eyes on the front door, stairs and elevator. Nah, it couldn’t have happened like that.

  ***

  Frank Dunne, was flanked by six Special Agents, as he exited the elevator. There was no receptionist’s table and no one was in the hallway to greet him. He finally started to walk into the closest office when a man approached him. The man was wearing a running suit, an omni-vision glasses, and phone off his right ear.

  Dunne said showing his identification, “I’m Assistant Deputy Director Frank Dunne of the FBI. I want to speak to someone in charge.”

  “I think that might be me. I’m Don Gardner, the CEO of C H Electricity, unless you want to speak to the head of our pharmaceutical company. Sorry, I didn’t have a chance to change. I went running after lunch. Would you like to come with me?”

  They entered Gardner’s office, which was a corner office with a view of a stand of trees.

  Gardner asked, “Do you have a search warrant?”

  Dunne smiled and produced a two-page warrant. “Everything is in order.”

  Gardner asked, “Is it acceptable for me to copy it? For our records.”

  Dunne nodded and handed the warrant to Gardner. Gardner looked at both pages, making the phone’s camera scan each page, then immediately returned it to Dunne. “OK. Done. And you are identified as Assistant Deputy Director Frank Dunne of the FBI. GS-16. A representative of the United States Government. Identification number 02714998?”

  Dunne looked confused, but said, “Yes.”

  Dunne said to one of his men in a green shirt and hiking boots, “Agent Woods please go to the computers and make a complete backup of the drives.” Turning to Gardner, “Could we have someone take Woods and his people to your fileservers?”

  Gardner looked up for a second, when David entered his office. Grinning David silently gestured for Woods to follow. Woods was accompanied by three other men, all had large cases.

  Gardner asked, “Could you summarize what the warrant allows you to do?”

  Dunne steepled his fingers and had a small smile, “It’s quite open-ended. We are here to gather any and all information on secret and terrorist activities involved by C H Enterprises directed against the United States of America.”

  A printer in the corner stopped printing. Gardner picked up the pages. “Are you familiar with Baku, Azerbaijan?” He handed the pages to Dunne.

  “I know the location.”

  “A few years ago, an attempt was made to steal our formula. According to our standard contract, which I printed the relevant pages for you, our contract to provide electricity and transportation is nullified if an attempt is made to steal our proprietary anti-gravity formula. We pulled all power-generation equipment from Azerbaijan. As they did not have any cars, we did not have to ground their fleet. As you are representative of the United States Government, I will obey the letter of U.S. law. You are given access to our computers containing the formula for anti-gravity. As such, we will tell you our secrets, but, of course, we will have to kill you…r power. All US electrical and transportation power will be turned off.”

  Gardner sat down and leaned back. He looked at his watch.

  Dunne quickly spoke into his transmitter. “Everyone stop what you are doing and return to the cars. This is Dunne. Immediately return to the cars.” To the two men besides him, he said, “Go. Run. Stop them.”

  After they left, Dunne faced Gardner again. “You got balls. I have to admire you. You got balls. Off the record, would you have pulled the plug?”

  Gardner pointed to his phone at his ear, “On the record, you were two minutes and thirty seven seconds from having it pulled. The entire board of directors of the company voted unanimously to pull it. They said all power and vehicles would be cut for residential and commercial use in exactly five days from then. In another ten days, all emergency power for hospitals and emergency vehicles, like police, fire, and ambulances, would have followed. However, off the record, the CompuHead drives were all encrypted. Your best crypto-analysts could not break the code. Furthermore, if you had requested the actual formula, after we cut the power, we would have provided it. On the other hand, the equations were derived using previously unknown branches of mathematics and a radically extended matrix algebra to a special case of eighteen dimensional, non-linear, non-parametric, matrices. Only three people alive, all our people, could have understood the equations. Now one for you, off the record, is there anything in your files that would indicate we aren’t completely model citizens?”

  “No. The orders came from above me.”

  Don said, “For your own information, our sources say that the attempted destruction of the C H Electricity was planned and orchestrated by the Vice President under the direct orders of the President. If it had succeeded, do you know what that would have done to the U.S.? The economic and business turmoil? All U.S. power and vehicles would have stopped – dead, in the middle of the road or in the sky. Can you imagine the rioting which would follow? Do you know how long it would take to fire up all those old coal power plants? While you’re here, I’d like you to watch a video tape. It was made when one of our employees was asked to meet secretly with the Vice President. Yes, I know that the hidden taping is illegal. But in comparison to mass murder and the destruction of the p
ower and transportation infrastructure of the entire United States, which many would consider treason, I think it could be justified.”

  Don pulled up a monitor and turned it around to face Dunne. It showed David in a room with Vice President Chamberlain. The vantage point was from above and the side of both.

  In a very friendly voice the Vice-President said, “David, David, how very nice you could make it. It’s good to see you again.”

  David dully looked at Mr. Chamberlain.

  The Vice-President looked at some FAXes, “I see you never went to school.”

  …

  After listening for ten minutes, Dunne thought for a few minutes. Finally, he said, “You are correct, illegally eavesdropping on the office of the Vice President is a federal offense.”

  “I only heard about it today, but Charlie Haines thought it essential to save the lives of the hundreds employees in C H Electricity and Organic Biotechnology and the ten or hundreds of thousands of Americans who would have died in the air, not to mention those in the cars and the hospitals. He authorized it.”

  Dunne pulled out his phone again and issued orders. “I think we need to discuss this further. Is it against our contract to bring you in for questioning?”

  Don said, “No.”

  “Then I’d like to invite you to discuss this further in our offices. Can you come with me? I would appreciate if you could identify the members of the board of directors, your direct reports and their direct reports. Also make sure that Dr. Haines and the boy, David, are included. Plus, I want a copy of that video.”

  “I can do everything but get Dr. Haines.”

  Dunne said, “When is the last time you saw him?”

  “Saw Dr. Haines? I’m looking at him now.” Don pointed to his omni-eye glasses. “Met Dr. Haines? In person, never. As far as I know, only Martin Klein has ever met him.”

  ***

  Don was seated in an empty room. His phone and glasses were removed, as were the contents of his pockets. An agent was assigned to watch him, but did not say anything. Don and his guard sat there for 45 minutes until Dunne and another man entered. They sat opposite him. The guard left the room.