Rogue Wave

by Christopher Cartwright

  He started to talk and then stopped short. “No, they took out a couple of cargo ships before I could stop them. At first I thought they were working off their simple programing, then when they took out the third cargo ship, I realized they were picking their targets, growing their numbers, and literally waging a war on all other lives in the ocean.”

  “But you still had enough control to lead them to target the oil tanker?”

  “Yes, but that was good luck more than any actual control. At that stage I still duped myself into believing that I was in control. By surrounding the ship with smaller vessels the nanobots assumed it to be their greatest threat.”

  “So where are they now?”

  “The hive’s moved again. I thought I’d lost them after the oil tanker. We returned to the Bimini Road and discovered no trace of their unique bioluminescence. For a few days I thought they’d naturally died out. It was always a high possibility. By the time a week had gone by and we hadn’t heard of any more accidents I hoped they were dead – but now you are telling me they came after your ship.”

  “Yes. My ship! Why the hell would they have come after my ship? It was smaller than most other vessels in the ocean, what made it come after us?”

  “There’s a chance… a very small one… I’m sorry, you’re not going to like it very much.”

  She paced in her office. “What?”

  “There’s a chance that they came after you specifically.”

  “Me, how the hell did they know I was aboard? And more importantly, why the fuck would they have come after me?”

  “When I originally programed them I included wireless connectivity to their programing, so that they could work as a collective, and so that we could direct them toward a specific ship via wireless transmissions.”

  “So? I thought you said that the system hasn’t been working since we used them to kill Luke?”

  “It hasn’t. Actually, that’s not technically correct. It appears they’ve been receiving our messages, but instead of acting upon them, they’ve been ignoring them.”

  “Ignoring them? I thought you said these were exceeding simple machines.”

  “Yeah, well my simple machines appear to have matched up with the collective minds of the other simple plankton in ways that we never could have predicted.”

  “Okay, so what does it matter if they are still wireless?”

  “It means that they are getting our emails. They’re on the same secret channel that you and I use.”

  “Are you telling me they know that I sent you the order to destroy them after the oil tanker fiasco, so that Sam Reilly could save the day?”

  “Yes, and it also knew that you were aboard the Coast Guard Vessel – Florida II.”

  “Your creatures tried to assassinate me!” She looked furious. “I don’t care how you do it, but I want them shut down, before this becomes one natural disaster for which I can’t deliver a solution to the American people. Christ, do you realize what would happen if all the shipping lanes were closed to American ports?”

  I’m about to take Office at the brink of the worst disaster in history.

  “I’m sorry Vanessa. I’m so sorry. I never meant for anyone to get hurt.”

  She heard his sobs in the background and hung up.

  Timothy Locke was no longer useful to her.

  Chapter One Hundred

  Sam picked Luke up in front of the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. He’d hired an inconspicuous car. A Toyota Prius. There were a hundreds of them in the Capitol. Everyone trying to look like they’re doing the right thing, while no one actually gave a shit what it cost the environment. Compared with the other cars he like to drive, they were boring. But imitation of the masses is the best form of camouflage.

  He opened the door and Luke got in. Sam put his foot down and the car silently drove off. “Tell me you’ve got some hard evidence about your buyer.”

  Luke grinned. “I’ve got it. Irrefutable evidence.”

  “Good, because yesterday I found out that you were being funded by the Department of Defense.”

  Luke went silent. Swallowed hard. “We were never specifically working on fuel sources. We were working on a contract to build a weapon for the U.S. Department of Defense that would keep us ahead of the game for the next century of wars.”

  “You were building a rogue wave?”

  “Yes, but we thought we were a long way off – apparently not as far as we thought.” He obviously didn’t miss the irony.

  “What about Elixir Eight? I thought this was all because you pissed off the oil industry?”

  “Elixir Eight was a secondary discovery. One that would prove much more valuable than anything we could produce for the military. I told the truth when I said the nanobots created them and lined the surface of their nest with them. I never could work out why. Then when I tested one and discovered it was a complex thorium-based battery cell capable of providing trillions of AMP hours, I knew we’d hit the jackpot. In terms of research, we’d just won Powerball. Twice.”

  “So who made the offer?”

  “I thought you knew?”

  “Humor me”

  “Senator Vanessa Croft.”

  Sam sighed. “You mean the President Elect!”

  Chapter One Hundred and One

  Sam pulled over on the side of Pennsylvania Avenue. The White House stood proud in the distance. He put the hazard lights on and placed the car in park. “Show me exactly what you’ve got.”

  Luke reached into his carry bag. A leather shoulder bag seen around college campuses. Inside he pulled a series of documents. “It’s got everything inside.”

  Sam quickly riffled through the photographs, financial records, and names of people involved. Some powerful people were involved in the Offer. All funding traced back to one person’s election campaign – Vanessa Croft.

  “This was never about saving the planet. Vanessa Croft wanted the ticket. She used this entire thing to fund her campaign. She’s in bed with the Oil Industry. No wonder she beat the Republicans in a landslide win. THEY had bought both sides of the game.”

  Luke had tears in his eyes. “No, I believe she wanted to help the world. In fact this entire thing was molded out of revenge. When she realized she couldn’t simply change it by providing evidence of a better way of doing things Vanessa discovered the only way to truly have an effect on the world, would be through politics. And if she really wanted to make a substantial difference, she would need to get to the top.”

  “So she sold her soul to the devil in the hope that she could make amends once she reached the top.”

  “Yes. Only now she has a long list of companies she ‘owes favors to.’”

  Sam flicked through the rest of the papers. “How did you get all this?”

  “Timothy and I were best friends. This was our brainchild. We had worked on it for years before we brought Benjamin White in on it. And then he betrayed me for the oldest motivator in history – money. He recently found out that his creation was at war with us – all of us, America and the rest of the globe. He was already intoxicated by the time I reached him.”

  “Go on,” Sam said.

  “When I showed up, he was so surprised to see me alive he nearly shat himself. We talked. He spoke about a number of things he’d promised himself that he’d tell me if I was still alive. In the end, he handed me all the documents. You see, he’d kept them in a safety deposit box, just in case the group had come for him.”

  Luke sighed. “And then, right there in front of me, he hanged himself.”

  Sam said, “What would you like me to do about all this?”

  Luke unbuckled his seatbelt and then opened the car door. “I want you to fix it. So that I don’t have to hang myself.”

  With that, Luke got out of the car and walked away into the night.

  Chapter One Hundred and Two

  Sam met the Secretary of Defense twenty minutes later in Washington. She looked more concerned about th
e interruption than about the discovery that President Elect Croft was responsible for everything.

  “Show me what you have on her,” she demanded.

  Sam Reilly gave her an envelope with all the information she needed. He’d read it all. It connected all the dots. There was no denying her involvement. Or the other names in the list. She read each of them out loud. “There are some powerful men in this list. A Saudi Prince, a CEO of one of the largest oil companies. There was quite a concerted effort to maintain the status quo of global reliance on fossil fuels. A loathsome thing to do.” She virtually spat the words out. “And President Elect Croft is at the foul center of the lot of it.”

  “What do you think we should do about this?” he asked.

  A military aide walked into the room. “I’m sorry to interrupt, Madam Secretary.”

  “Go ahead Frank. It’s the night for interruptions.”

  “Madam Secretary. We’ve just had reports of another three ships that have been sunk near the Bahamas. Two cargo ships and one barge.”

  “They’re attacking all of our ships now!” Sam said. “Do we know what they were carrying?”

  The military Aide looked at his notepad. “I don’t have the manifest for the two cargo ships, but the barge ran ashore right on to the beach in Miami. According to bystanders, it was carrying a massive rectangular stone, at least forty feet wide by twenty high.”

  “The key stone!” Sam looked at the Secretary of Defense. “It’s hunting THEM. It went for Senator Croft, now it’s attacked someone who was working for her.”

  She looked at the Aide. “Thank you Mr. Renwick. You may leave now.”

  Frank Renwick turned and left her office. “Good night Madam Secretary.”

  She waited until he’d left the room and closed the door. “So first she becomes responsible for blocking the development of a new energy source to free mankind from fossil fuels and now she’s purchased a weapon that’s threatening to shut down our own shipping lanes!”

  “If it makes you feel better. She’s no longer in control of the weapon.”

  “No it does not make me feel any better.”

  Sam stood up. “Okay then. My team’s currently hunting the collective hive down. We have a large EMP designed to incapacitate the nanobots. It’s only a matter of time before we destroy it. What do you want me to do?”

  “We can’t go public. It would be a political nightmare. They’d be fighting about her involvement and if she’d broken any real laws for so long that she’d probably end up completing two terms in Office before anything was done.”

  Sam smiled. It wasn’t every day that the Secretary of Defense surprised him. “So you want her to disappear?”

  “Of course we need to get rid of her, but how? She’s President Elect – we can’t just have her assassinated!”

  “Why not?” Sam laughed.

  “You know damn well why not! We don’t go around killing our Presidents and we certainly don’t assassinate our President Elects!”

  Chapter One Hundred and Three

  Sam’s cell phone rang at exactly 11:30 a.m. the next day.

  Sam picked it up and smiled. “President Elect Croft. I hear congratulations are in order. To what do I owe the pleasure of this call?”

  “We need to talk.” She spoke in short, fast words.

  “Sure. Do you want me to come to you?”

  “No. Not in public.” The cell went silent for a moment. “I need to know what you have found. I need to know that we’re getting somewhere with this outbreak from the hive. I’ve just been informed that another eight ships have been attacked along the east coast. Some as far north as Carolina.”

  “It’s trying to break out of its current environment!”

  “Exactly. The nanobots are allowing the plankton to leave the warmer equatorial waters.”

  Sam looked at his watch. It would be lunch soon. “Where would you like me to meet you?”

  “There’s a private security room. It’s below the White House. If you go to the White House I’ll have someone escort you there.”

  “When do you want to see me?”

  “Now, of course.”

  Chapter One Hundred and Four

  Sam was met at the front gate of the White House by someone who clearly didn’t need to see his credentials to let him through the gate. The man wore a full military dress uniform. It was covered in an array of medals.

  He was guided through the series of corridors and stairs that resided below the White House. The man then used his swipe card to unlock an elevator door. Sam stepped inside. The man leaned inside and pressed the lowest number – Five, and then stepped out, leaving Sam alone.

  The elevator began its long descent into the secure rooms located deep below the Whitehouse. Unlike a normal elevator that counted levels, this one appeared to count in hundreds of feet. He felt his ears pop as they equalized to the newer pressure as he descended.

  The door opened and the President Elect stood alone on the other side. “Hello President Elect Croft.”

  “Hello Mr. Reilly. Tell me you have some good news?”

  Sam looked around the room. There were several computers lined up along the back wall and a large rectangular desk in the middle, but the room appeared empty of people – with the exception of himself and President Elect Croft.

  “Are you certain this room is secure from listening devices?” he asked.

  “Absolutely certain. No one even knows we’re here. I told the Officer who escorted you in to make you wait at the fifth level. I’ve been in a briefing meeting on the fourth. He thinks that I’m going to let you wait on your own for an hour before I go to see you. Of course, we’ll be done long before then, and no one will ever know that you and I had this meeting. Why else do you think I ordered you down here? Now, tell me some good news.”

  Sam smiled and handed her copies of the files Luke had given him. “I’m afraid not all the news is good for you.”

  She picked up the manila envelope. The first image made her gasp. “Jesus Christ! Where did you get these?” She smiled beautifully in an attempt to cover up her concern.

  “Luke gave them to me.”

  She smiled like she was on show, but the tiniest of sweat on her forehead betrayed her anxiety. “I thought you said you hadn’t seen Luke since school?”

  Sam smiled. He was enjoying this. “I hadn’t. He gave me this when I saw him yesterday.”

  He watched her face turn red. “He’s still alive?”

  “Yes. Isn’t that good news. He said that Timothy Locke kindly gave them to him just before he hanged himself.”

  She swore. Then collected herself. “What are you doing here Mr. Reilly?”

  “I came because you asked for my help to catch the bad guy. Only, none of us realized that the bad guy was really a girl all along.”

  “Okay. What do you want?” she mistook Sam for someone who could be bought, or at least reasoned with.

  “You tried to steal the future of the human race, free from fossil fuels. Then you purchased a terrible weapon. Since then, you’ve lost control of it, and the damn thing’s seems intent on hunting you down.”

  “I’m a very busy woman, Mr. Reilly. We both know what I’ve done. Now tell me what you want to do about it?”

  Sam gritted his teeth in a rage of hatred. “I’d like you to go hang yourself so that I don’t have to kill you.”

  The pupils in her eyes widened with fear. “You wouldn’t dare!”

  “Why not? You said yourself that no one knows that you’re down here with me.”

  “But you’re beneath the White House. You’d never get away with it.”

  Sam smiled viciously. “My father’s put three of the last five Presidents in this Office. I’ve been granted access through this maze since I was a boy. I’m a familiar face as the Secretary of Defense’s poster child. She made me who I am, and there’s no way she would let anyone take me away from the task that she has set for me. I’m willing to take a bet tha
t I could get away with it.”

  “She sanctioned this, didn’t she!” True horror now radiated in her dilated pupils.

  “No. I’m afraid even she was reluctant to assassinate a sitting President. Or even a President Elect. This I’ve decided to do on my own. ”

  “You’re Sam Reilly! I’ve seen your file – recruited while on your first tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2003, based on your profile, you were specifically targeted for scientific espionage. Since then, you’ve made several remarkable discoveries; proven the existence of the Master Builders, saved the world from a deadly virus. As recently as last year, you saved Manhattan and most of the east coast from certain destruction when you stopped Atlantis from erupting! No, you’re an all-rounded American hero! For someone like you, duty and integrity are paramount with life – without either you would cease to exist. Your word is like a binding contract, and you swore to serve your country.”

  Sam grinned. “Well Madam President Elect – you were right about one thing. I did swear to serve my country, but for the rest of it… I either had help, or just damn well made it up. My word’s not a binding contract – I do what’s right. Hell, your people have had me live so many lies, I often find it easier to tell another than to explain the truth. I serve my country by fixing things that can’t be fixed. Sometimes that means calling in experts to help rebuild something from a different angle, other times, I just get rid of something that plain old doesn’t work. And you, Madam President Elect, with your greedy desires, just don’t work for me.”

  “You wouldn’t dare! You can’t kill me!”

  “That’s exactly what the Secretary of Defense told me – I don’t see why not, you live and breathe like the rest of us, you may as well die too?”

  Sam pulled out a ceramic knife. It was small but it would kill her just as quick.

  “I’ll make you a deal, Mr. Reilly.”