Harbinger (The Janus Harbinger Book 1)

by Olan Thorensen

  Sinclair punched in a number series, and a red light on top of the keypad turned green. An audible click sounded, and Sinclair beckoned them to follow him down the hall.

  “You’ll be given the passcodes later today,” Sinclair said.

  At the second double door, he punched in another series and was rewarded with a deeper tone. He led them into a large room with cubicles similar to those found in administrative centers, except that each cubicle had complex IT setups—in some cases, multiple monitors. Sinclair led them over to the far side of the room to a large table surrounded by chairs. Seated at both ends and on one side were nine people, six men and three women. Huxler was one of the men.

  Sinclair motioned for the new people to sit in the unoccupied chairs along one side of the table.

  “Let me introduce you to the Level 3 staff. Just moving around the table, to my left is Dr. Wilbur Huxler, whom you’ve already met.

  Sinclair gestured to a sixtyish woman with gray-streaked brown hair, neatly dressed in a business suit and wearing a pleasant grin. “Next is Dr. Elizabeth Wilkins. She’s a biologist, specializing in physiological ecology and extreme adaptions, among other topics.”

  He continued clockwise to another woman, this one dressed casually and who gave an exaggerated sweep of her right arm in greeting. “Rachel Munoz, theory of languages, linguistics, and one of those annoying people who seems to be adept in a language after hearing it for an unbelievably short time.” Sinclair smiled, answered by general chuckles around the table. Munoz nodded at the newcomers.

  Sinclair then continued. “Frederick Hoyle, goes by Freddie. Mathematics.

  The slender, slap-dash dressed man looked unblinking at a wall and rocked slowly in his chair.

  Sinclair and Zach noticed that Jason Cain sat up straighter when he heard the name Frederick Hoyle.

  I wonder if he knows Hoyle, thought Zach. They’re both mathematicians. Maybe Hoyle is well known, even if he’s young.

  “Next is Chunhua Ciminoni,” said Sinclair. “Computer languages and game theory. Chunhua is also naturally adept at picking up languages. She has an interesting story to explain her combination Chinese and Italian name and is easily convinced to share it.”

  “Anytime,” said the Asian-appearing woman, her eyes crinkling.

  “Moving around to the other side of the table, Dr. Howard Mueller is the scientific head of Level 3. Dr. Mueller is a physicist specializing in nuclear structure and elementary particles.”

  Mueller gave a quick nod, his long hair bouncing before settling back along his neck, the locks on the right side longer than on the left.

  “Next to him are Klaus Christiansen, quantum physics, and Charles Adams, atomic structure.”

  The two men were contrasts: Christiansen blond with an open face, Adams with black hair and a sour expression.

  “The final member of the staff at this briefing is Jeff Rotham. He comes to us from the UK and works on linguistics and communications theory.”

  The middle-aged man with a full head of dark hair appeared out of casting for a British mystery show: tweed coat over a sweater, tapping an apparently empty pipe, head down, on the tabletop, and an expression conveying obvious amusement at lesser beings.

  “There are two other members of Level 3, Carolyn Graham and Zooty Wilson. Their expertise is a little harder to define, but call it computers, cybersecurity, and programming with a dash of ‘hacking.’ You’ll meet them later. They’re busy doing what I’m sure I don’t understand, but it’s related to the Virtual-Reality system just delivered to Site 23. And if you wonder about Wilson’s first name, you’ll have to ask him for the story.

  “Now for the new additions to Level 3. I’ll ask them to raise a hand as I introduce them. Major Andrew Jefferson will be my second in command of the site. This means that in addition to being my deputy, when I am off-site or incapacitated, Major Jefferson will have final say on all operations.

  “We have three people from California; they all come to us from the company Virtual-Reality Incorporated. They are largely responsible for the technical success in developing the VR system that we hope to make use of. Their presence and the system they developed are the reason for the vast upgrade in computer capacity that we brought with us.”

  “Ralph Markakis. The best description of his expertise is probably to say video games or, in this case, virtual reality systems that require extensive interaction.

  “Jason Cain, programmer, with a background in mathematics. He developed critical algorithms to make the VR system possible.

  “Harold Nieze specializes in synchronizing communications, audiovisual integration, and generally making bits and pieces work together.”

  Sinclair paused with the introductions. “I doubt it’s necessary, but I want to head off any potential academic status problems. Ralph, Jason, and Harold are joining the scientific team involved in this project, which gives us two potentially different classes of people based on formal education. The existing staff members are either PhDs or, in the case of our math prodigy sitting at the end of the table, Freddie Hoyle, no PhD is necessary. The three new people joining the team have no such extensive academic background. But don’t fool yourselves. Each in his own way is outstanding in his specialty. Ralph is generally acknowledged as perhaps the greatest video game designer in the world. He’s actually quite filthy rich.”

  Ralph shrugged and gave a “So what?” hand and arm gesture.

  “Jason has a mathematics degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where even as an undergraduate he made contributions in two areas of MIT’s mathematics department’s areas of concentration, combinatorics and theoretical computer science. According to notes from Major Jefferson, who worked with these three at Virtual-Reality, Jason made a contribution to the frontiers of studying RSA public-key cryptosystems, which are widely used for secure data transmission. This is where the encryption key is public, but the decryption is secret. My notes say this RSA is named for three mathematicians who first identified the issues, names of Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman, and the system is based on the difficulty of factorization of the product of two large prime numbers.”

  Sinclair looked up from his notes. “And no, I don’t have any idea what all that really means. I’m sure Jason or Freddie can explain it to you.

  “Harold has the least academic background for this project of anyone here. However, Harold has had a number of positions in the data transmission and recording industries and has a reputation for being expert at integrating systems. It seems to be some natural aptitude, and probably Harold doesn’t even completely understand it. He was hired at Virtual-Reality as a low-level technician, but he quickly rose to head the integration section.

  “The other three new members have somewhat different stories.” Sinclair paused, indicated Zach, Willie, and Jill, and then continued.

  “Jill Hardesty is going to serve as my assistant. With the increase in the site’s size and a potential for further increases, there’s a need for someone to be a general gopher for me, Major Jefferson, and Richard Lindskold. We think she’ll also contribute with several other duties. Now, is it really necessary to add a new person for that role and how does she qualify?”

  Jill had listened intently during the introductions. Now that all eyes turned to her, she reddened and rubbed her thighs with both hands.

  “Ms. Hardesty unfortunately came into possession of information about the project that was too high a security risk to let her remain at large. Since this happened, the highest levels determined the most secure path was to simply bring her into the project. We don’t expect her to be contributing directly but more to the general functioning and in assisting others.”

  Jill gave a wan smile. Elizabeth Wilkens reached across the table and patted her hand. “Welcome, dear. We’re all friendly and will help your adjustment as much as we can.”

  “The last two new members are Zach Marjek and Willie Larsen. Zach will serve as the site’s safety officer.
His real job is all aspects of site security, and Willie Larsen will be his assistant. Willie is formally assigned as part of the maintenance crew and will be the only person authorized for general maintenance work inside Level 3 without measures being taken to conceal from him what goes on here.”

  Sinclair perused the meeting participants, existing and newly arrived.

  “I’ll just say one thing about the project to the new people. No matter what you were doing in your previous life, no matter what plans you have for the future, no matter what your view of the world was, everything will be totally turned upside-down by the end of today.”

  At this pronouncement, the existing staff members either were unresponsive or smiled as if they had heard the claim before. The new staff felt a mixture of skepticism, puzzlement, and excitement. Sinclair noted that Zach’s reaction so far was somewhat different—more an intensification of focus.

  Sinclair motioned to Mueller. “I’ll now turn things over to Dr. Mueller, and let’s get you started on finding out exactly what’s going on here.”

  Mueller stood. “You’ll be getting a lot of information over the next few days, and there will be extensive briefings for the rest of the day, but there’s simply no way to prepare you, except for you to jump right in. If you all will accompany me.” He turned toward the opposite end of the room from where they’d first entered.

  One by one, the six new arrivals rose and followed, with Sinclair trailing. Mueller walked to the door at the end of the general-purpose room. For the third time, they passed through a door requiring an input code. This time, the tune was higher pitched, almost at the edge of hearing.

  They walked into something totally unexpected—a large cube-shaped room forty feet across. The room took up the entire structure at the far end of the building. Layers of metal mesh covered the walls and the ceiling, and several people recognized the smell of ozone.

  Harold Nieze was the first to understand what they were seeing. “Gracious,” he said, “this looks like a big Faraday cage.”

  “That’s exactly right,” said Mueller approvingly. “It may be the most extensive Faraday cage in the world and is composed of four mesh layers, each with different oscillating currents going through it.”

  Jill couldn’t stand feeling like an illiterate among grownups. “Okay, maybe everybody else knows what a Faraday cage is, but I don’t. So, what is it?” she said, exasperated.

  Willie barked a loud laugh. “You’re not the only one. For all I know, this is where they catch one of those musk ox.” Smiles and chuckles followed Willy’s comment.

  “Well, I generally know a Faraday cage blocks electromagnetic radiation from damaging sensitive electronic equipment,” offered Zach, “but I don’t know the details.”

  “Please, Miss Hardesty,” said Mueller, “never feel constrained from asking questions. Not only is it imperative that all of us here understand as much as possible about what’s going on, but no one really knows which question will lead to unexpected answers. So . . . what is a Faraday cage or what’s also known as a Faraday shield? It’s an enclosure formed by conducting material or mesh. This conducting mesh blocks out most static and non–static electric fields.

  “As an aside, the cage is named after the British scientist Michael Faraday who first conceived of the idea and worked it out somewhere in the 1830s. As Zach said, it’s used to protect electronic equipment from external electrostatic charges, which could result from lightning strikes, coronal ejections from the sun, or EMP pulses, such as from nuclear explosions. How the cage works is that the electric field will cause the electric charges within the cage to redistribute themselves and cancel any effects of an external field on the cage’s interior. However, magnetic fields are not affected.

  “The degree to which the interior is shielded depends on the meshes’ thickness and the electromagnetic radiation wavelengths. The effectiveness of the shield is enhanced by running oscillating currents through the meshwork. In this case, the four different layers are of different wire thickness and mesh openings, and a different oscillating current runs through each layer. We’re not so much worried about external electromagnetic waves entering the room. Its purpose is to block any transmissions from leaving the room. Unfortunately, as you will see in a short while, we’re not completely assured of the effectiveness of even a Faraday cage of this size and complexity.”

  No one asked further questions about the cage, either because they understood the explanation or were still lost but willing to accept that somebody knew what it was.

  Most of the group quit examining the Faraday cage and now surveyed the large, cubed-shaped room. Along the walls was a four-foot walkway and railing elevated two feet from the bare ground in the middle of the room. The ground appeared smoother than anywhere they’d seen outside. Resting there was a strange-looking, dark-blue oval object approximately fourteen feet long, five feet high, and with a smooth surface.

  At first, the surface appeared to have a solid tone, but when Zach stared at it for a few seconds, the surface seemed to shimmer as if something moved underneath. When he blinked, looked away, then returned to eye the object, once again the longer he stared, the more the object’s surface seemed to almost undulate. He looked around. Ralph, Jill, and Chunhua stared fixated on the object. The other people’s gazes moved over the object, only stopping momentarily.

  On the other side of the room, there was an opening in the railing with a ramp leading down to the bare ground and a large door presumably leading outside.

  If anything, the newcomers’ puzzlement only increased. People prepared to voice questions but were forestalled when Mueller continued.

  “There’s no easy way to explain all this to you, but bear with us,” said Mueller, handing Zach a wad of twine. “Please, you and someone else hold the two ends of this twine and walk around opposite sides of this walkway.”

  Zach shrugged and handed one end to Willie, and the two men walked in different directions, letting the twine unravel on the walkway flooring. When they were about fifteen feet apart, Mueller picked up the twine’s center and let it fall on the opposite side of the railing, settling to the bare ground surrounding the strange object.

  “Don’t pull the twine tight,” said Mueller. “Let it drag on the ground and pull it under the object you see in the room’s center.”

  Confusion, mystification, raised eyebrows, and glances flashed among the six newcomers. Zach and Willie both shrugged and continued walking, letting the slack twine drag along the ground up to the object and under its edge. When the twine disappeared under the object, Zach and Willie stopped to look at Mueller.

  “Keep going,” he said.

  Zach nodded to Willie, and they resumed walking, slower this time, and gripping the twine in expectation of coming to where the object rested on the ground. Only when the twine passed under the object’s center of gravity did the newcomers’ attention and postures stiffen.

  “What—” exclaimed Ralph.

  Jason leaned against the railing. Harold knelt, attempting to look under the object. Jill appeared confused. Willie and Zach continued walking, all the time keeping their eyes on the twine. When they reached three-quarters of the way to the opposite side of the walkway, the twine emerged uncontested from under the object.

  “No way!” said Jason.

  Jill looked back and forth at the others. “How did that happen? A trick?”

  “It’s no trick, Ms. Hardesty,” said Sinclair.

  “Willie,” Zach called out, “let’s take it back the other way.” They proceeded to pass the twine back under the object three more times with the same result.

  Jason scowled at Sinclair and Mueller. “Has to be a trick. Don’t try to tell us that whatever this thing is, it’s floating off the ground.”

  Mueller swallowed a laugh. “What I will tell you is that there is no support between the object and the ground and that when we originally measured the distance between the object and the ground, it came out to an av
erage of approximately one centimeter—given the slight differences in the ground’s surface. Later, more refined measurements adjusted our estimate to 1.097 centimeter.”

  “Now I know this is a joke or some kind of credulity test,” Jason said, frowning. “I know enough physics to recognize the Rydberg constant.”

  “Very good, Jason,” said Mueller, beaming at the skeptical newcomer, then addressing the others. “The Rydberg constant occurs in atomic spectroscopy. It was discovered when studying the inverse wavelengths of photons emitted from the hydrogen atom and later found by Niels Bohr to be useful in approximating to predict spectral series in other atoms. What that has to do with the distance the object rests above the ground, we have no clue.

  “And there’s something else. From our standing point of view, the right end is larger than the left. If you measure the three dimensions, it has length, height, and depth. The height and depth have the same ratio along the entire length. In other words, the object is symmetrical along its length. Then, here’s where it gets even more freaky. The height to width is about 1.618.”

  “Oh, shit!” exclaimed Jason. “The Golden Ratio?”

  Mueller smiled. “I was wondering if you’d pick up on that.”

  “The what?” asked Zach.

  Jason waved both hands excitedly. “The number has to do with the ratio of one number to another. It crops up in mathematics in many places. One of the easiest examples to consider is the case of a line made of two segments, A and B, where A is the longest segment. If A plus B divided by A is the same as A divided by B, that number is the Golden Ratio, which is about 1.618.

  “Now, I can see how someone would wonder why this is so cool. As it happens, it crops up in surprising places. Well . . . not only geometry, where the Golden Ratio occurs in many theorems and proofs, but it’s also found in studies of number sequences. For a while, it was thought to appear in nature with plant growth patterns, nautilus shells, and other places, but those are no longer believed accurate.

  “It’s been known since the ancient Greeks. However, sometime around the sixteenth or seventeenth century, I forget exactly when, architects and artists began using it in planning their works—probably believing it had some divine or secret significance. Anyway, you find the ratio in modern buildings and art. In fact, it also seems to be a ‘pleasing’ proportion. Given options for dimensions, people will tend to settle on preferences pretty much right on the Golden Ratio.”