Disruption: A River Of Secrets And Betrayal

by J. B. Jamison

  Closer...closer...

  "Poplar Street go."

  "Eads go."

  "King go."

  It had to work. But what if...

  "Musial go."

  McKinley go."

  One more. Only one more.

  "Merchants go."

  Emily stared at her shoes.

  "All stations, this is command. We go in three..."

  Emily sucked in air.

  "Two..."

  She closed her eyes.

  "One..."

  She...

  "Go!"

  Silence.

  Silence.

  "All stations, this is command. All stations report."

  "Crescent pulse confirmed."

  She listened as the entire list was repeated, with each reporting a confirmed pulse from the electromagnetic units in the water.

  "Ladies and gentlemen," Chambers said, "now we wait."

  "Ok people," Dasilva said. "let’s push those perimeters. The National Guard is working with local authorities to help you out. We'll meet again at six-thirty a.m."

  Emily sat in her motel room and stared at the phone. She knew the EMP's weren't the end of it, but she had honestly expected to feel a little better after they were used. She was still in St. Louis, or just north of there, in a little motel that was probably safely outside the initial perimeter if she measured it. But at this point, she didn’t have the energy to do that. She really wanted a drink, but that meant getting up and leaving the room. That was the same problem with being hungry. She set the alarm on her phone and lay back on her pillow. The vibration stopped her.

  "Graham." She offered.

  "Emily, its Steve."

  Silence.

  "Agent Graham? Are you there?"

  Silence.

  "Agent Graham? Emily?"

  She looked at the phone, pressed the button, set the phone on the table, and sat on the beach. She looked at the waves lapping the sand and could see a dozen or so bridges floating out in the water. A photographer was standing next to her chair, popping flashbulbs in her face, and Bear was standing there with that damn look on his face. Jimmy Buffett didn't show up.

  Chapter 104

  "I'm afraid I can't stay long Ronnie," the older man said as he sat down "things are unfolding quickly this morning."

  The grandfather looked older today.

  "Things are not going well?" Ronnie asked.

  "Oh no, things are where we anticipated they would be. Everyone has performed their roles extremely well."

  "Then what?"

  "Well Ronnie, you'll have to excuse me if I sound a bit philosophical this morning. We do what we can do to get the results we seek, but we always come to that place where we simply have to sit back and trust that we have done enough. We're at that point this morning."

  "With the boat?"

  "Yes. I'm confident it will come out as we hope, but I have to admit that these are the times that even those of us who have been doing this for a long time have our moments. It’s a good thing, actually. These are the times I am reminded that I am human and that we are just people entrusted with something much bigger than ourselves. I think that's why we have been able to survive for so long; we all understand what would happen if any of us did anything that would cause us to cease existing."

  Silence.

  "Plus, it is a reminder that we are able to miss things; important things like this Dr. Shallenger. He should have never become a channel, but we made a mistake. Those mistakes are rare, fortunately, but when they occur, they haunt us forever."

  "I'm sorry the plan did not work."

  "Oh no, don't misunderstand. Things did not go the way we intended them to go, and the risk and loss were far greater than we intended. But as people learn of what has happened, I believe we will see the kind of response that we were looking for. The opportunity to bring about the changes we need is still here. It is up to us to continue working the channels to make sure they do take place. This is simply one more moment of time that we have invested in our work; we have much more that must be done."

  "I must go now. Give my grandchildren a hug when you get home."

  "I will grandpa. I will."

  Chapter 105

  Emily was rinsing her face as her alarm sounded. She had been up for an hour. She had the line open for the call as she heard the others connect.

  "Good morning everyone," Dasilva said. "we know why we are here."

  A few mumbles on the line.

  "Colonel Chambers, are you on yet?"

  "I'm here." Chambers said.

  "Anything new from you or your team?"

  "No."

  "Do we have connections from all of the locations?" Dasilva asked.

  Each bridge location said they are online.

  "Does anyone have anything new for the group this morning?"

  Silence.

  "Then I guess we wait. Colonel Chambers, Commander Reyes, can you tell us what we should expect?"

  "Nothing," Chamber said. "If everything goes well, we should expect nothing at all."

  "If no one has anything else we need to deal with," Dasilva said, "I'll let Colonel Chambers take over."

  "One thing to let you know." Chambers began. "For those on computers, we've set up a link with split screens showing live video from each of the locations. If you care to make use of that, you will find the link in the message you should have just received."

  Emily hesitated, then clicked the link. Her screen displayed twenty small windows, each with a dark video image.

  "Because of the hour," Chambers said, "there isn't enough light for a good view, but it should be enough to see if there is...if..."

  A pause.

  "And you'll see that a couple of streams cover more than one bridge; there in St. Louis and New Orleans, for example."

  Silence.

  "Thank you for doing this Colonel," Emily said.

  "We thought it might be helpful." Chambers said.

  Silence.

  "Ok," Chambers said, "we don't know the exact moment the timers were triggered, but we are working with a window of three or four minutes. We are confident the timers will go off during that span; I mean if they weren't stopped by the EMP's."

  "We've had no indication of any change whatsoever in any of the devices Colonel?" Reyes asked.

  "No, sir. There has been no noticeable change."

  Silence.

  "Ok, we will enter the window in just a few moments...ready in three...two...one. We are in-window."

  Silence.

  Silence.

  Emily stared at the twenty small screens, watching for a flash, or some indication that something is going on.

  Silence.

  "We are halfway through the window." Chambers said.

  Silence.

  There is a bright flash in one of the video windows. Emily heard gasps on the line.

  "It’s OK everyone, it’s OK," Goodwin said, "someone in Memphis apparently took a flash photo. I'm not sure who is stupid enough to be that close, or how they got there, though."

  "We'll find out," Agent Rodriguez said, "I hope."

  Silence.

  "We are coming out of the window in a few moments. Again, we have high confidence that if any timers are still active, they will trigger during this period."

  Silence.

  "The window closes shortly; in three...two...one."

  Silence.

  "Ladies and gentlemen," Chambers said, "the sound you just heard, was the fat lady singing."

  Noise; cheers; laughter; breathing on the line.

  "Agent Dasilva," Chambers said, "it’s your meeting."

  "Thank you Colonel Chambers, and please pass our thanks along to your people, and to yours Commander Reyes. I know we all have things we need to do, so we will schedule a follow-up later today to review clean-up procedures."

  Several comments and conversations as the meeting dissolved.

  "Agent Graham," Dasilva said, "I would like to
speak with you a for a moment before you go if you don't mind."

  Silence.

  "Agent Graham? Emily?"

  Emily was not there.

  The surf was calm. The breeze was warm. In her hand was a tall glass with a cute little umbrella sticking out of it. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and Jimmy Buffett was sitting on the sand next to her, singing "Cheeseburgers in Paradise."

  Chapter 106

  Three months later:

  Special Agent in Charge Emily Graham sat at the table in the conference room next to her new office in New Orleans. It was the first time the group had been in the same room since the Chain of Rocks Lock, so they had spent time catching up. The newspaper lying next to her displayed a small article on the bottom of the front page entitled: Dead Ends Abound: The Search Continues.

  They had come together to celebrate Emily's promotion to the lead position in the New Orleans office, and Arturo Dasilva had spent time still trying to convince her to let him take her name up higher to people he knows. He had gotten a nice promotion as well, into a role that kept him visible in lots of places; just the kind of thing he liked.

  Commander Reyes was still with the ARG, but in some new office he couldn’t talk about, but that he said he enjoyed.

  Colonel Goodwin was still with the NRC and was leading the expanded teams still at work on the massive collection of radiation signatures still being analyzed from the devices.

  Colonel Chambers had retired from the military and was on contract as part of the ongoing investigation out of his office down the hall from Emily’s.

  Agents Rodriguez and Erikson weren't at the table but were enjoying their promotions. Erikson was still in Louisville, while Agent Rodriguez had accepted a role in Chicago. He had entered the agency because of his fascination with the stories of Al Capone and Dillinger, and he now spent his free time exploring the sites those guys used to call home.

  The other person at the table was Charlie Graff, now retired from the river and working with Gil Arbel in the home office. He grumbled about being a desk jockey but enjoyed being home for dinner and the grandkids' birthday parties.

  "OK folks," Emily said, "we'll talk more at dinner, but we'd probably better get some work done here. Let's go around and see what we need to deal with. But before we do, I have a couple of things here you may not have heard about yet. You remember Susan, the grad student with Shallenger; I understand that she is in the hospital with complications from the health issues from her military work; I guess she's not expected to last more than a week."

  "That's too bad," Chambers said, "she really didn't know what was going on, did she?"

  "No," Emily said, "she didn't."

  "I'll also let you know," Charlie said, "that Alma Hendricks just learned that her illness has progressed as well; the same cancer her husband died from; she's still at home, but hospice will start meeting with her soon."

  "What did we ever find out about Frank," Reyes asked, "the guy working with you Charlie? Did we ever find out why he was helping them?"

  "Yeah," Charlie said, "Frank really caught me by surprise. Emily and Dasilva may know more than me, but I guess it was mostly because of his sister; health issues just like with the rest of the group."

  "Yes," Dasilva said, "a younger sister he had helped raise. She apparently had the same kind of insurance problems that kept her from getting treatments that might have saved her life. When all of this started, Lennie was looking for the boat they would use and found Frank. That's how they ended up on the Francis B. in the first place; because that's where Frank was."

  "Amazing," Goodwin said.

  "Yeah," Emily said. "Colonel Goodwin, what do you have to add this morning?"

  "Thanks, Emily, I mean Special Agent in Charge Graham."

  Everyone chuckled.

  "Unfortunately, I'm not sure I have much for us to sink our teeth into. The signatures we've been able to trace so far come from so many different directions, from every corner of the country and the globe, it’s not been possible to identify any patterns or connections between them yet. We've tracked several to instances where a piece of equipment was stolen, but as we chase it, the trails go dark. We find out where they start, and where they end up, but what happens in between is still empty."

  "We've seen the same thing Colonel," Reyes said. "We've been through everything we can find about these guys; their communications, their movements, and like you, no patterns or lines that point to anything meaningful. We know they have to be there somewhere, but, as much as I hate to admit it, we can't find them."

  "Don't feel bad Reyes," Colonel Chambers said. "It’s the same here, as Emily can tell you. I've chased a lot of enemies across a lot of ground, but I've sure as hell never seen anything like this."

  The group was quiet for a moment.

  "And the media is sure enjoying it too. Did you see the piece on the front page this morning?" Emily said as she lifted up the paper.

  "Can't really blame them I guess," Reyes said. "But it’s still no fun being made to look like we don't know what we're doing."

  "Well," Charlie Graff said, "let me throw one piece of good news in here if I might."

  "Please do," Emily said.

  "Things are back to normal at Arbel's, and this thing got enough attention that steps are being taken to improve security out there. Gil raised enough hell himself to get them to look at the risk of those unattended barges out there."

  "You raised a bit of hell yourself if I recall." Chambers said.

  "Yeah," Charlie smiled, "just a bit."

  "I think we can also be happy to see that things didn't fall completely apart the way Shallenger and his people wanted them too. There's still a lot of fighting and blaming going on, but not the big split he was going for."

  "Yeah," Chamber said, "but I still wish..."

  "Emily," a young woman poked her head in the door "there's a call for you."

  "Tell them I'm in a meeting Deb, get a number."

  "He says it’s important, and that he wants to talk with you, and with Colonels Chambers and Goodwin; he’s asking for all of you."

  Emily looked around the table.

  "Put him through Deb, to the conference phone.”

  “This is Agent Graham,” Emily said to the speaker on the table.

  "Hello, is this Special Agent in Charge Emily Graham? It’s Steve. Is everyone there?"

  Emily hesitated briefly.

  "Yes, we're all here; we're in a meeting."

  "Yes, I know. That's why I'm calling. I thought I might be able to help shed some light on a few things for you."

  "That would be appreciated Steve," Emily said. "As you probably know, we're having no luck on our own."

  "It’s not about luck, Emily."

  "By the way Steve," Emily interrupted, "before you go on, I want to apologize for that last time we talked, or I guess didn't talk. You called that morning and I..."

  "No apology necessary Emily, truly. Those were difficult days, and I must say that you all handled them extremely well, but we were confident that you would."

  "OK," Emily said. "Stop right there; saying that you knew we would handle it. You've said that kind of thing before. Are you going to tell us what that's all about?"

  "Emily, as I was saying, this situation was not about luck, or about something just unfolding randomly and everyone sitting back and waiting to see how it turned out. Everyone believes that's how most things happen; but honestly, that is rarely the case. It’s just too risky."

  "So you're saying that this entire thing was planned by someone?" Chambers said. "That means it would have to be people up high; who had access to..."

  "Colonel Chambers," Steve said, "you are a military man, and you understand that there are times in which some things must remain untold; things that need to be left to that place where the conspiracy theory people love to play. Things that may or may not have happened, or that may or may not exist."

  “Yes,” Chambers said, “I do.”
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  "I don't understand," Emily said. "This whole thing was very real; trust me on that."

  "Of course it was Agent Graham,” Steve said. “Unfortunately, it was very real. But the event that took place was not the event that was intended; the one that was first put into place. Unfortunately, one of the people involved, Dr. Shallenger, took it upon himself to alter the plan he was asked to participate in, which meant that instead of seeing it through, they had to take the necessary steps to stop it."

  "There's that 'they' again." Dasilva said, "Who are they?"

  "I'm afraid that must remain one of those unknowns Agent Dasilva. There may or may not be a they. But the project that was originally set in motion was not destructive and would have led to no one being harmed at all. It was the sickness of one individual that changed things. When it was discovered he had changed things, steps were taken to carefully guide things to see that the new action was doomed to fail. That required finding people with the unique abilities to do what needed to be done, and who were in the places to do that. You, those of you around the table, were those people."

  "Ok, now just stop there," Emily said. "You are telling us there is a group..."

  "No..." Steve began.

  "Yeah, that there may or may not be a group, and this group has the ability to..."

  "Emily," Steve said, "each of you, all that you really need to understand is that you were called upon to do something extremely important, something that changed the course of history for your country, and you have done that."

  "This has to be some kind inter-agency thing," Chambers said. "You're a part of some government thing that involves..."

  "Not government; no. Not inter-agency. And I'm not a part of it at all. I have simply been a connection between you and someone else. Even I don’t know who, and it doesn't matter. We all did what needed to be done. That is enough."

  "This is insane." Chambers said. "It makes no sense at all. We're going to get to the end of this one way or the other."

  "It is confusing, yes.” Steve said, “And that is the way it must be. And as for getting to the end, well, you are certainly welcome to try. However, I will let you know that tomorrow morning, you are each going to receive calls with new orders to end your work on this project and focus your energies on more important things."