Storm Killer

by Benjamin Blue

  The lieutenant stared at her and fought his emotions. “Officer Danby -- Kim, I can’t believe this is in the best interest of our personal safety. We’re pretty sure that Bolino has Hoch’s weapon. What makes you think he’ll not try to use it? He’s already killed once!”

  Kim in an emphatic voice replied, “Please, no argument. Just go and do as I ordered. I’m a trained law enforcement agent just as you are. I can apprehend this guy solo. Now just go get your assignment done, okay?”

  The lieutenant hesitated for a split second and then laid down the PPU he was still holding. He nodded his head saying, “Be careful and don’t take chances. Our goal is the recovery of the chip. The taking of Bolino is secondary. If need be, just shoot him and don’t try to take him prisoner. He’s far too dangerous!” He turned and getting in the cart headed for the security office to run down Dr. Rosen and Brad Bolino’s pasts.

  69

  White House Situation Room

  Dr. Rosen had left the President no more than a minute ago. The President’s Chief of Staff, Alan Hardy, had just arrived in the underground facility and had stumbled on Rose’s unconscious body sprawled in the hallway to the Situation Room. His yell had caught the President’s attention. He turned and saw Rose lying on the floor. Her face was turned toward him and he saw the tiny trickle of blood still issuing from her nose.

  The President jumped up and ran to the door, “Alan, what the hell is going on? Did you do this?”

  Hardy replied, “Hell no, I found her lying here. I wonder how long she has been here?”

  “Not too long, Dr. Rosen just left and would have seen her,” the President stated.

  “Oh yeah, I saw him getting off the elevator as I got on to come down. So, she couldn’t have been her for more than a few seconds,” Hardy suggested.

  The President nodded and stated, “I thought she had left already. I asked for her resignation, and Dr. Rosen brought it to me. He said she had gone.”

  Hardy yelled loudly for help and immediately a door opened and two Marines and two Secret Service agents ran out of a room adjacent to the Situation Room. Hardy ordered, “Get this woman some medical assistance. And stay with her until they get here.”

  Hardy, inspecting the hallway, considered his leader’s remarks and replied, “Something isn’t right here. Look at the blood drops down the hall. They come out of the advisors’ office. So Rose must have come out of there and made her way toward you. If this had happened in the hall, Rose could have yelled for help just like I did and these men would have responded just like they just did.”

  Hardy walked down the hall, turned on the overhead lights, and looked into the advisors’ office. The drops of blood from Rose’s nose led to a small pool of blood under the far desk. Hardy said, “It looks like she was attacked and stuffed under that desk. What the hell is going on?”

  The President looking through the door and inspecting the scene said, “I don’t know but I intended to find out!”

  He turned to the shorter of the Secret Service agents. “Rocky, find out what the hell happened here!”

  “Yes, sir, we’ll get to the bottom of it.”

  The President strode back to the Situation room with Hardy in tow.

  The lead agent looked at the room, the trail of blood and the unconscious woman so close to the Situation Room. He sighed and thought, Oh great! Why did this happen on my shift? Crap, crap, crap. Okay Rocky get a grip and deal with it. It’s just the President’s National Security Advisor lying on the floor looking like she was hit by a freight train. No big deal. Crap! No big deal! Who am I kidding? Let’s just hope the media doesn’t get wind of this.

  The Marines had returned with the President’s doctor. As he arrived, “Rocky”, the agent, grabbed his arm and requested, “Doc, if possible, wake her up so we can find out what happened here.”

  He dropped to his knees and began checking the woman’s vital signs, looked into her bleeding nose, and felt around her head. He seemed pleased with his findings, and reaching in his bag brought out an ammonia nitrate ampoule. As he broke it and stuck it under Rose’s nose, he said to the two agents, “She’s okay, somebody really walloped her in the back of the head. She probably has a minor concussion, and should go to the hospital for observation.

  Rose’s head snapped away from the pungent odor under her nose. Her eyes fluttered open and moved around until they focused on the doctor. He smiled at her and said, “It’s okay. You were hit very hard on the head and you must have staggered out here and fainted.”

  She shook her head, “No, I was trying to get to the Situation Room to tell the President that the evacuation order for Storm Killer had not been received. There are still people on the station and he’s got to abort the missile!”

  None of the people in attendance had a clue what she was talking about. When a crisis was underway and the Situation Room was in use, no external media coverage or personal communications could be received by anyone other than the President and his senior advisors. This was to ensure the junior staff did not panic or spread rumors about any situation taking place above ground.

  Rose glanced around at the men looking down at her. She recognized the two Secret Service agents. The shorter one was a man nicknamed “Rocky” because he had a vague resemblance to Sylvester Stallone.

  She pointed to him and said, “You’re the agent they call Rocky, right?”

  He nodded and replied. “Yes ma’am. And I believe you’re Rose Magruder, the President’s Security Advisor?”

  Rose decided it was best to not reply to that. Things were difficult enough without trying to explain about her resignation. She just nodded her head in reply.

  “Agent Rocky, I need to see the President at once! If he doesn’t stop something he started, his Presidency and the prestige of the United States may suffer badly. Can you help me walk into him?” Rose pleaded.

  “Just a moment, ma’am. I need to know what happened here. Who hit you? And why?” Rocky asked.

  “Look, we haven’t any time for questions right now, I must see the President. I promise, as soon as I finish talking with him, I’ll answer anything you want answered. Please, get me in there right now!” Rose all but sobbed, her lips quivering. She was bordering on hysteria.

  “Rocky” started to help her up and thought, Lady, you aren’t seeing anyone until I know what the hell happened here. And I’m sure not going to let a hysterical person anywhere near the President’s person.

  He nodded to his team member and they each took one of Rose’s arms. He looked to the Marines and said, “Guard the door to the Situation Room. No one gets in there unless I say so. Got it?”

  The Marines snapped to and stationed themselves at each side of the door with a click of their well-polished heels.

  “Ms. Magruder, please come with us,” Rocky ordered. Rose attempted to break away and Rocky added, “Don’t make me cuff you, ma’am.”

  Rose slumped and allowed them to walk her into the side room that the men had come out just a short time before. They closed the door behind them.

  70

  Just One More Hit

  As soon as Lt. James had left to follow-up on, Kim fired the PPU and launched herself toward the core. She was moving vertically at about three meters per second and horizontally at about half that rate. She was pointed right at the evacuation point at the hub.

  As she flew, her PCD signaled an incoming fax had arrived. She saw it was from Antonio De La Cruz. He had faxed the phone records as he had promised. She had no time to look at them. She manipulated the keys on her PCD and resent the fax to Lt. James. She then dialed his number and he answered, “James here.”

  “I just faxed you the phone records from our Mexican contact. Can you inspect them to see who Dr. Rosen may have called after his call from Mexico? Maybe he talked with his men up here.”

  “Got it. The fax just came through. Kim, ah – be careful. Remember you and I have a standing agreement to get you clean from the drugs. No matter h
ow long it takes. Okay?”

  Her heart skipped a beat, “Yes, sir, I’ll be careful. I love you, too.” She hung up and mentally kicked herself. I love you. What the hell was that about? Did I really say that? Oh, God. It just came out. Jesus, I probably scared the poor guy away. What the hell is wrong with me?

  She flew in silence for another few seconds and then thought. I know what’s wrong. I’m stressed out. I’ll just take a small hit of my wonder drug. Not too much, just enough to get by. Just enough to take the nerves away but leave me sharp.

  She reached in her pants pocket and found the small black leather bag. Since the PPU was on automatic, both her hands were free. She quickly loaded a syringe with about three quarters of a normal dose and did the injection into the vein inside her elbow.

  She felt the warm rush of the drug as it raced through her bloodstream. She waited for the wonderful feeling of euphoria she always got from a dose. And, yes -- there it was! That heady feeling she needed right now. It was glorious.

  71

  Tag – You’re It

  Lt. James felt giddy and mulled over what had just been said on his call from Kim. She had said she loved him. Did she mean it? Why would she say it now? He was elated; he had loved her at first sight. He ached for wanting to take her in his arms and just cover her in kisses. But enough of that, if I don’t find these guys, Kim and I won’t live another hour.

  He looked at the fax content. Immediately after Dr. Rosen had received his call from the Mexican plotters, he had made a call to Greg Ballard! So Ballard was in on this, too!

  He set aside the fax. So how were Greg Ballard and Dr. Rosen connected? He pulled up the NASA personnel file for Rosen in one window and Greg Ballard’s in another window. He compared specific details of each suspect’s background.

  Rosen was twelve years older than Ballard. So, they probably weren’t friends in their youth, the lieutenant opinioned to himself.

  Rosen was born in upstate New York while Ballard was born in Mississippi. Received his BA and MBA in Computer Science from SUNYIT. Ballard went to Mississippi State for his BA in chemistry. He held two other degrees from Mississippi State. He had a Masters in Engineering in Polymer and Fiber Science from Clemson. Both were members of their alumni associations.

  There was nothing in common there.

  Neither suspect had been in the military.

  Ballard had worked for an aerospace company at Area 51 following his MBA, and then came to work for CORDEX at Adam Sand’s request when the Storm Killer project was proposed and approved.

  Rosen had never worked in the private sector. He had chaired the physics department at Clemson.

  Clemson! Hadn’t Ballard done something at Clemson?

  The lieutenant’s heart was pounding faster as he read the rest of the two men’s academic history. Rosen had been the chair of the department at the time Ballard had attended. Ballard had served on four projects Clemson had performed for the military. Rosen had lead three of those projects. There’s the tie-in! They knew each other at Clemson!

  Rosen had provided consulting services on at least five projects Ballard had run at Area 51. These two were really tight.

  The lieutenant knew he was on the right track. He decided to run a system search of the Storm Killer senior staff’s personnel records for any academic entries about Clemson University. He started the search and was happy to see that only two other people had any ties to Clemson.

  Reviewing their personnel files, the lieutenant made the following notes:

  They were childhood friends,

  Brad Bolino and Layne Bartlett had attended college together,

  They got their doctorates at Clemson at the same time, and

  Dr. Rosen was the chair of the department when they attended there.

  He pulled up the PCD call records from the Storm Killer internal exchange computer.

  Running a search of calls made from Ballard’s phone immediately after Rosen’s call to Ballard, he found what he was looking for. A call from Ballard to Bolino only thirty seconds after the call with Rosen had ended. Gotcha! Ballard had obviously called Bolino to pass on instructions from Rosen. There was now enough evidence to arrest them both.

  The lieutenant went back to the call record supplied by Antonio De La Cruz. Maybe there were more calls by Rosen that should be looked into. Another call caught his eye. Exactly one minute after completing his call with Ballard, Dr. Rosen had called another very familiar number – Kim Danby’s number!

  What the hell is going on? Kim can’t possibly be a part of this plot, or could she?

  72

  The Chase

  Adam completed his call with Lt. James. He looked at his watch and calculated they had about nineteen minutes left. Until the chip was found there was nothing to be done. Adam felt useless. Maybe I could help them catch Bolino? I’m useless sitting here.

  He picked up his PPU and put it on. He walked out of the door and looked up at the core. He picked out the evacuation hub and fired his ascension jets. He liked manual control and loved the feeling of actually flying the PPU. He also turned off the limit controls and raised the speed of ascent to thirty meters a second. At this rate he would be at the hub in less than two minutes.

  He didn’t have a weapon; he would have to be very careful. He wasn’t even sure what good he could do, but he had to do something. Bolino holds the key to our survival – the chip. The chip had to be recovered at all costs.

  He pulled his communications device from his belt and punched Rose Magruder’s number. It rang several times and was answered by a male voice Adam did not recognize.

  “Hello?”

  Adam hesitated, “Ah, hello. Is Rose available?”

  “Not at the moment. Who’s calling?”

  “Adam Sand.”

  “Can I take a message?”

  “Ah, I need to talk to her about aborting the missile.”

  “What missile?”

  “The Russian missile!” Adam replied in an exacerbated voice. “Don’t you realize we only have minutes to live unless the President aborts the missile? Please, I must speak with Rose Magruder, she should have reached the President by now and let him know there are still crew aboard the station.”

  “What station?” the voice asked.

  “Storm Killer! Jesus Christ, doesn’t anyone down there know what is going on? Where’s Rose?” Adam yelled into his phone.

  “Ms. Magruder has been detained by the Secret Service. I am the lead agent on the investigation,” the voice declared.

  “Investigation? An investigation of what? Rose is a victim of Dr. Rosen’s betrayals! He hit her, and then lied to the President. Rose was supposed to get to the President and tell him all of this. Did something else happen to her?” Adam explained.

  “No, we found her unconscious just a few feet from the Situation Room. She had apparently been hit on the head and passed out before she could reach the President. She became hysterical when we detained her to figure out what happened,” the detached voice explained.

  She hadn’t seen the President! The missile was still live and about to deliver its deadly payload.

  Adam resisted yelling again, “Look, Rose is hysterical because lives hang in the balance. If she doesn’t tell the President about us still being on the station, when the missile arrives and blows us up, the President will have our blood on his hands. He thinks we have already evacuated the station! I can try to call the Situation Room myself, but it will not be as effective as her briefing the President. He is going to be super-pissed when he finds out we were lied to about evacuation by Dr. Rosen.”

  “I’ll take it under consideration,” the voice replied.

  “Consideration? Consider this! Dr. Rosen is the bad guy here. He attacked Rose, and he lied to the President and to us on the station. He is the one you should be interrogating!”

  “Is that all?” the voice questioned.

  “Yes. Please rush her to the President’s side so she can explain the
current situation. Please!”

  “We will be in touch. Goodbye,” the voice declared.

  Adam attempted to dial the Situation Room and was told the President was in conference. The switchboard only offered to take Adam’s name and his message was brief. The message was: Storm Killer not evacuated. Abort missile. See Rose Magruder in Secret Service detention for explanation.

  Occupied with flying the PPU and his phone calls, Adam didn’t look around to see where the other players were. If he had, he would have seen Kim in her PPU in a slower ascent about five hundred meters below him. He would also have seen Brad Bolino on the elevator about one hundred meters from the hub terminus. Adam was actually going to arrive at the hub before any of the other players in the upcoming drama.

  Adam was rapidly approaching the hub terminus. As he maneuvered for landing, he spotted Brad just twenty meters from below him. Brad had not yet seen him as his back was to Adam.

  Adam landed with a jarring thud from too much forward speed. He grabbed the ladder rungs leading to the slowly turning central shaft leading to the reception room to steady him in the zero-G environment. He shucked the PPU and let it drift away. He moved hand over hand to the static central tunnel used to access the hub airlocks. The evacuation point was fifteen meters behind him in the reception room adjacent to the airlock. He could see racks of EVA suits awaiting their owners who would never come to claim them. There were moving shadows playing over the suits. It must be the one of the evacuation team. Another dead body if we can’t stop Bolino! Adam thought.

  He stood with his back to the exit shaft leading to the reception room and looked both left and right. The floor gracefully curved upward and eventually met at the top. Each of the other quadrants’ elevators terminated at ninety-degree separations around this curved floor. Each of the other elevator terminuses had a similar ladder arrangement to the exit shaft. The three-rung ladder was spread over four meters of height, but with zero-G it was easy to navigate.