Resolution

by Douglas E Roff

  The Alfred Nobel side of the equation was that the same tech could easily be employed to devise new weaponry and delivery systems. Whoever got there first would master the planet. In a gathering late one night in Barrows Bay, Edward, Adam, Maria, and Agustin decided that their tech was too dangerous to give to the Americans who were paying for its development. No government would ever be allowed to own it, nor would it ever be revealed to industry or the public. Reverse engineering it might be possible, so countermeasures against its use would be developed at the same time. There could only be one protection against misuse and that would be Adam and his family.

  The Americans security services didn’t believe Maria when she said the research went nowhere. They wanted the research and all data collected in the development of the materials, the engineering, and the software. Rumor had circulated that a prototype had been used, several times, once successfully on a spy mission. And, someone had leaked that new and powerful weapons had been created far beyond modern tech. Bella and Helena thought the leak must have come from the Black Shirts or the Collective; they were wrong. It came from Cardinal Bellinelli in his incarnation as Dr. Federico Musso. He knew of the conflicts between the Collective and the Black Shirts. He just didn’t know what the mystery weaponry was other than it was brand new advanced tech.

  The spies, now all dead, all had parts of some larger puzzle but they rarely were together enough to try to bring the larger picture into focus. And many of the dead had nothing to do with the weaponry; they did however know some things about them. Other information they agreed to hold back and sell later. Like the existence of the Gens.

  The DOD wanted this tech and the US Congress wanted everything they had paid for.

  Maria gave them something, corrupted and useless data showing the concept was good; there just wasn’t the right combination of ingredients to make it work right now. Maybe later.

  By the time the governments, and their militaries confirmed this discovery, the family and the teams were already in the UK at the Manor. The Americans and the Brits now had irrefutable proof of the existence and viability of the tech and its utility. Both governments agreed to cooperate to secure the tech, the easy way or the hard way. Didn’t matter to them.

  When confronted, Adam and Edward took the heat. They admitted they had the tech and they were never going to give it up.

  When Adam and Edward tried to explain to the authorities that they wouldn’t give up the tech, they also explained why and that, between the tech, the DL Main and Alana McCarthy, there was little any of them could do to force them to do anything against their will. Precautions had been taken; the destructive power they could unleash just with DNA projectiles alone would be sufficient to kill millions, billions.

  Naturally, they weren’t believed, so the two governments plus elements of other constituent EU governments, including NATO, decided to ignore the warnings and proceed to lock down the Manor. Misti was back in the States when the news of that decision was made, which hastened her decision to return to the Manor. She had heard a rumor that action was in the works, so she contacted Alana, and gave her guidance on where to look for the source of the rumors.

  It didn’t take long, though the reaction by project leaders, family and close associates to the identities of those responsible for the betrayal was simple incredulity. There was discussion about what to do with them. Misti simply stated that the penalty for treason was death, that they already knew too much, and, if allowed to live, would be debriefed in detail which could lead in time to replication of the nanotech. No one knew what the others knew, or what they had hidden. Everything, including the Detwilers’ estate, would be turned to ash. Little of the Manor would be left to be picked through by the experts who would swoop in after the gang departed.

  The DL Main had been replicated and the original tech destroyed by Alana and Adam. Adam’s failsafe virus was activated, and, in any event, the Feds were locked out of the key components of the management of the platform. The DL Main that Adam and Alana had was everything, including access to any new data dumped anywhere in the world. Their monster would grow and grow. The Feds could keep what Adam left them and took away the ability to replicate his more advanced work.

  ***

  Adam and Kendra had been silent for several hours as Adam regained his strength and Alana kept driving.

  Kendra asked, “You OK?”

  “Yeah, I’ll be fine. Massive headache.”

  “Trying to get out of having sex with me now that I have you all to myself.”

  “Yes. I’m sure that’s what it is. Or maybe I just have a massive headache. But you can tend to me if you want. Your choice of therapies.”

  “Maybe. But if I find some cute and willing little downstairs maid where we’re going, you’re on you own.”

  “Fair enough.”

  They wen silent for a while.

  Then, Adam said, “They weren’t completely wrong you know. Maybe I should share more.”

  Kendra, always the Adam cheerleader, said, “We had spies, trusted friends we saw as family. Now the US government knows what they knew, or at least most of it. Nabataea never would have happened. The DOD and the CIA would have nixed that as an internal sovereign matter.”

  “They would have been right. It is an internal sovereign matter.”

  “That’s why you keep all the secrets including all the stuff you don’t share with anyone. Not even with me.”

  “You want to know?”

  “When we’re having sex next? Yes. The other stuff? No. You’ll tell me what I need to know when I need to know it. I assume what we all actually now know is tiny compared to what you now know.”

  “Correct.”

  “Scary shit?”

  “Until six months ago when things started to come to me out of the blue, and I started putting things together, some stuff from Hannah and some from Helena and Bella, I never worried about anything or was ever anxious. Now I’m both. The bigger picture is so massive, so huge and our chances of success so small that some days I despair.”

  “Is that when you go for your walks alone?”

  “You noticed.”

  “It’s my job. The sex is just fun. But it’s in the contract. So, no welching on the deal.”

  “Never.”

  Kendra looked over at Adam. “You know you always have me by your side. You don’t have to tell me anything, you know, about the things that burden you. But whatever I can do for you, I will. Anything. Understand?”

  “I think so.”

  “A-n-y-t-h-i-n-g. You don’t have to ask or explain. Just take what you need when you need it.”

  “I’m ornery. And hard to get along with.”

  “Hadn’t noticed.”

  ***

  As Adam and Kendra headed for the German border, the jet carrying the former residents of both Barrows Bay and the Manor touched down in a yawning grassland just above the Serengeti Plains along the Great Rift Valley. Not far away, yet unknown to them, were the Nabataeans, still mourning the sad, but heroic death of their Queen.

  At the confluence of two dry rivers, built into the towering cliffs rising hundreds of feet above the valley floor, was the new home of the travelers recently resident in the UK. The new nanotechnology had been used to create the living space, bore connecting tunnels and reinforce dodgy seams of rock. New but different tech was also used to cordon off one hundred square miles of land on the plains above the valley floor for cultivation of food items too large for even large indoor hydroponic gardens. The city had its own version of the Doomsday Seedbank, though admittedly much smaller. No GMO was included, but ancient varieties were.

  With a computer in each living space allotted to each family or individual, changes could be made to the environment and arrangement of walls and other space designs whenever the occupant felt the need. Each space was as unique and distinctive as the individual. Meals could be prepared in the living space or taken in cafeterias distributed throughout the city syste
m. Transportation was electric, mag lev and in some parts, traveling through a vacuum. Loners could live in outlying areas, while city dwellers could live in the more densely populated city core.

  For now, with fewer than five hundred people, not counting the Nabataeans, everyone lived in close proximity to work and each other at the principal Tech Centre and other office buildings.

  Octavio hadn’t spoken to Bella since they arrived, both independently having elected to continue on to their new home, if Misti so permitted. Adam had been adamant that he didn’t want them or Helena anywhere near their new home. They had been willing to destroy everything just to get their way and seemed to no longer understand what was at stake.

  Misti contacted Adam and told him she had decided otherwise, and he could scold her when he came home. For now, they would remain, though living apart.

  The same held true for Helena and Normie. Helena’s accusation of cowardice had cut Normie to the core. A line crossed that he was not sure he could ever forgive. Normie was many things, in reality, a gentle giant, but a coward he was not. He couldn’t bear the thought of living with a woman who could say such a thing, much less believe it.

  Normie sent a note to Helena that she was free to do whatever ceremony with which she felt most comfortable, but he didn’t see how they could reconcile. He insisted upon having a central role in the life of their unborn child, but at a distance from her. Her children, who she reminded him were not his, were always welcome in his life, and hoped to continue a relationship with them. As for her, she should seek a new mate, one she could respect.

  Even Misti, when she heard of this note, was very sad. Such a terrible end to an intemperate moment of anger and one that was surely not meant in earnest. But pride, pride was at work here, just as it was throughout the rest of humanity, even the transformed Gens.

  A few days later the four received a note from Alana and Noki asking each, unknown to the others, to meet in Noki’s spacious quarters to ask about one piece of nonsense or another. The children were asked to attend too.

  They arrived in different adjoining rooms, minutes apart and then were ushered into Noki’s great room all at once. Surprise was the least of their emotions, but confusion reigned supreme.

  Octavio spoke first. “What do you want? Why are we here? I don’t like deception nor being forced into situations not of my choosing. Who’s behind this?”

  “I am.” Misti stepped into the great room. “I have an offer for all of you, if you wish to take it. If not, we leave and go our separate ways.”

  Silence.

  “The offer is this. If you all agree, Noki, Alana and I will erase your memories of that day in Switzerland, but to do so, you must be honest with yourselves and each other about what you truly feel inside. I can force it out of you but why go to all that trouble when you already know what you truly feel inside. There’s no need to chat or vent; that does no good. You’ve all been thinking and crying about this every day, each in your own way. Your children are suffering because of your foolish actions and even more foolish pride.”

  Misti stopped.

  “Now, enough said, and no discussion. A simple yes or no will do. Do you wish to remain together and excise that one day from your mind forever?

  “Helena?”

  She turned to Normie. “Yes. Yes, yes, yes.”

  “Normie?” Yes, of course, yes.”

  “Bella?”

  “I was wrong, so yes, if Octavio will have me back.”

  “Octavio?”

  “I never stopped loving you, Bella. And I never will. So, yes.”

  Misti smiled. “Well so much for following instructions, yes or no. But get in line. I am assuming your kids want to go back to the way things were?”

  They all huddled around their mums and dads, happy that the thing that had been taken from them, family, would be restored. Happiness was on the menu once again.

  It was over quickly, and the families wondered what they were doing in Noki’s great room. The rest of the City never brought up the incident again; neither did Kendra or Adam when they heard about the resolution of the matter.

  Adam sent a note to Misti the next day asking her to stay.

  She had already left but promised she would be back. Back for as long as she was given to be with her family.

  Chapter 34

  A month after Misti left Paraiso, the name chosen for the newly independent autonomous nation within Kenya, she was sitting on the edge of the bed of a fancy Georgetown hotel called Lisbet, waiting for her limo to take her to the Capitol. She was to appear before a Congressional subcommittee with oversight over the “St. James threat”.

  Her name de jour was now Stephanie Parma, the stolen identity of an FBI expert in counterterrorism and an amazing tracker of human beings in the modern age. The record of the real Stephanie Parma was without peer, her methods counter-intuitive and her character beyond reproach. She was respected on both sides of the aisle and, to anyone’s knowledge, was completely apolitical. Due to the nature of her work, few knew what she actually looked like; however, some subcommittee members assembling for the hearing today had met and spoken with her on various occasions in the past.

  The Panel consisted of nine Republicans and seven Democrats, plus staff, including staff attorneys.

  Faux Stephanie was dressed in a smart business suit, having been cleared with authentically made but completely phony credentials. Members of the Committee thought she was Ms. Parma’s aide, arrived early to set up and sitting in the wrong seat – the name card in front of Misti reading “Ms. Stephanie Parma”.

  The Chairman of the Committee, Jeffrey Beauregard Lee, arrived late and took his seat in the center of the curved committee table. He looked for Ms. Parma, whom he had met, and casually asked where she was.

  Misti spoke up. “I’m afraid Ms. Parma is unavailable today. I believe she’s on vacation in the Maldives with her new boyfriend. Not to blow anyone’s mind, but I think her ‘boyfriend’ is actually her girlfriend, but then you know how rotten politics and gender are in this town. Tough enough being a woman, even in the United States Senate, but a woman and gay? Well, that’s just more fucking rotten. Wouldn’t you agree, Jeff?”

  “I don’t know who you are, miss, but you are about to be removed from this Chamber and placed under arrest. The charges will be multiple, and you will be wearing prison garb for at least a year. Guards!”

  “Oh Beauregard, you’re always so serious, and so … fucked up in the head. I’m going nowhere, and neither are you.”

  The doors to the Committee Chambers suddenly shut, the locks frozen and bars appeared across the doors. The guards too were suddenly frozen in place, unable to move, their weapons melted to dust in their holsters. Ankle manacles appeared to lock down each Committee Member in place, as the windows were barred then sealed.

  A small machine appeared on the table next to Misti. “The air and power are now in my control and nobody leaves this room without my consent.”

  The next to speak was Joaquin Rivera, representative from San Antonio, Texas. “It’s a fair question asked by the Chairman. Who are you, and what do you want?”

  “Alright Congressman, my name is Misti Alarcon St. James and I’m here to put a stop to your work tracking down my family, stealing our IP, arresting us, trying to use ‘enhanced interrogation’ techniques to discover our secrets, and then rendition, and incarcerate us, somewhere far away from America without trial. Promise to stop and we’re done here.”

  Rivera, a Democrat, warily eyed Misti, who he knew by reputation. In Spanish, he asked if she was sure of her facts. Might she be mistaken?

  “In English, Goddammit, “said the Chairman.

  “I can speak to you in every dialect of every language on the planet, so if it’s Standard American English you desire, Standard American English it will be.”

  Rivera asked, “Texas Pocho?”

  “Simon, cabron. No offense meant, of course.”

  “None taken. S
o, you believe you have evidence that this activity by the American government is already being planned. By us.”

  “No, not planned. Already underway. Don’t need evidence. You guys just tried to kill me and mine in the UK along with the Brits and the Israeli’s. Fortunately for you, we got away. Ask your Brit friends why they let us go. There was a small demo; the next demo will be most unpleasant. And I will kill every one of you here today who took part in planning and executing that failed mission. So please, show of hands, who voted for the green light.”

  Nobody moved.

  “I will start removing fingers then toes of all you Committee Members present today until one of you speaks up. Now, who voted the mission a ‘go’?”

  Still, nobody moved. The Chairman’s left hand suddenly jerked up. His pinky was then severed and floated in front of the Committee, as blood spurted from the Chairman’s hand.

  All but two of the hands on the Republican side of the Chairman shot up, as well as one on the side of the Democrats.

  “Salina?” The question came from Rivera, the ranking Democrat.

  “They needed the vote and I need to get re-elected. My District is deep red these days. They promised money, support and weak opposition. I had to give them what they wanted. This is a matter of National Security and what they want is reasonable. And the American taxpayer footed the bill. They have a point.”

  Rivera continued, “The rest of us weren’t informed. We thought this was a typical hair brain scheme that no one took seriously. The breaches of federal law were, so egregious, that House Counsel, Senate Counsel and White House Counsel all gave the thumbs down. This must’ve been Jeff and the CIA. And if not them, someone like them.”