Hindsight (Daedalus Book 1)

by Josh Karnes

  Chapter 31

  Arlington, Virginia

  Carson Lee had been concerned with Larry Duncan's dragging schedule for years now. His concern for this project had been simmering for quite a long time, but he kept giving Larry more rope, more money, more personnel, more time. After the discovery of gravium by Larry and his big-brained team, the project took off like a rocket. A huge outpouring of money and resources, completion of the facility in Puerto Rico and putting everything in motion to defend against corporate espionage as well as the prying eyes of his own government had been shifted into high gear. If word of what they had discovered were to get out into the scientific community, it would be no time before scientists all over the world would be reproducing the same results as Thermion had, and then this would turn into a race amongst some very formidable competition. Daedalus was only as valuable as it was primarily because only the U.S. would have it. But if the Chinese were to develop something similar and then sell it to Iran or Russia, then not only would that be very bad for America's peacekeeping efforts around the world and defense of her homeland, but it would also likely spell the ruin of Thermion. They had doubled down time and again on this project. It had to pay off or they were going to lose it all.

  Not only did Thermion have to defend against technological thievery, but also other players within the U.S. Government were a serious threat to the project's success. In this business it's all about money, and keeping the money flowing is all about politics. From Carson Lee's viewpoint, half of the Congress were jealous of the money coming his way for this super-secret project and wanted to bring that bacon home to buy votes from their own constituents, and the other half were blindly suspicious of their work. They seemed to think, maybe it was a secret project that did nothing but waste American tax dollars, maybe it was a secret project to develop some evil technology that would do untold harm to America's citizens and her allies. The lunatic fringe would always be suspicious of any defense project, preferring to believe that money spent on the national defense was a down payment on violence and just fed some kind of “war machine.” To these people, Carson Lee suspected, we should instead spend that money only on education, welfare, jobs programs, government-funded health care, and any other veiled vote-buying scheme to prevent people from relying on themselves. Protecting American troops abroad did not buy many votes, and the truth was most of the troops' votes were not really for sale anyway. But a billion dollars would feed and clothe a whole lot of unemployed single moms' families and prop up plenty of economically-destitute American cities, and all of these affected people would be sure to show their appreciation at the ballot box.

  Carson Lee told himself this, and even made himself to believe it. But the fact remained that Uncle Sam was a seemingly infinite source of money and power, and Carson Lee controlled a big slice of that pie without having to get a single person to vote for him. Well, that was not entirely true. He had to get one person to vote for him, or at least to vote for him to keep getting the money. That person was Senator Todd Burlington. And that's why Carson Lee found himself on the phone with the good Senator at this very moment.

  “Thanks for getting back to me on quick notice, Todd. We might have a problem in Puerto Rico that you can help with,” Lee stated.

  “A problem. You mean, another problem. It is always a problem down there. When are you going to call me with some results? Never mind,” Senator Burlington said. “What's the problem?”

  “Well, we are right on the cusp of some breakthroughs on Daedalus, but key members of our team are being distracted by an investigation by the FBI. It seems some teenager from Texas has gone missing near our island and we had a visit this morning from the Assistant Special Agent in Charge from the San Juan office.”

  “FBI, huh? What did this agent do during his visit?”

  “He just had a sit-down with Larry Duncan. Larry told him we were doing GPS research but he thinks the agent didn't buy it. They want to search the island, and he asked some uncomfortable questions that got Larry squirming.”

  “What did Larry tell him?”

  “Nothing. He stuck to the party line. We're doing GPS research, you want to know more you had better get a court order, that kind of thing. The FBI guy backed down but they are almost certainly going to come back and make another run at a search. They might be able to get a district judge to sign a warrant, and if they do then they definitely are going to want to look under the covers at what we are doing there. But even if they don't, we can't afford to have to babysit the Feds or put our work on hold while they sort this out.”

  “Why haven't I heard about this lost kid until now?”

  “Seems pretty fresh. I guess it hasn't hit the news cycle yet. Plus this isn't L.A. or Miami. It's going to take something special to get the media spun up in Puerto Rico.”

  “Alright, well, we need to keep that from happening. This problem may be bigger than you think,” Burlington said. The fact, as he knew, was that a missing American teenager vacationing in Puerto Rico would be national news, and as soon as any reporter got a whiff that there was an investigation going on, then they would lose control of the situation quickly. A public outcry to investigate Isla Roca and Thermion would be difficult to suppress. The last thing they needed were news helicopters and reporters making reports from the dock right outside Daedalus' headquarters on national TV. “We have to make this investigation stop right now. The best way to do that is to find the kid. I know you are worried about the schedule but the reality is that we can afford the delay much easier than we can afford the media circus of a lost teenager on an island paradise. Remember Natalie Holloway? That was on the twenty-four-hour news cycle on all of the major networks for months,” Burlington explained, referring to an American teenager who had gone missing in Aruba about a decade before.

  “No, Todd. I need you to shut down the FBI. We can't have them poking around there. Who knows what technical experts they will bring in? Who knows who they will leak this to? We can't contain this down there.”

  “Look, Carson, if I try to shut this down from my end then it's just going to raise the stakes and invite all of the conspiracy nuts to start digging. Right now it's just a lost kid that happens to be near your island, right? We need to keep the attention on the lost kid and not your island. The best way to do that is to help the FBI find the kid, and help them to not find your lab. The media will follow the FBI's scent. We can control them by controlling the FBI investigation. And I don't need the FBI fighting back.”

  “So what do you want me to do?” Carson Lee asked the Senator.

  “Full court press. As soon as this news gets to me through normal channels, I will press for us to provide extra help from Washington. We'll throw more FBI agents, Marshal's service, Coast Guard, whatever it takes at this to find the kid. We'll stack the deck. Until that happens, you need to get your guys down in Puerto Rico to do the same. Put the project on hold and make it your mission to help find this kid. Once we find him, then the circus ends and we can get back to business.”

  Carson Lee marveled that this was exactly what Duncan had already done, instinctively. Maybe that guy wasn't just a single-purpose geek after all. “We already started that, and I'll tell Larry to double down. We have a lot of resources we can bring to bear down there. But you have to keep the FBI from entering the facility. Whatever you can do, do it.”

  “I will. Just keep calm and help with the investigation. Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. We don't need to do damage control until there is damage. Got it?”

  “Alright.”

  “Keep me in the loop, Carson. My neck is on the line just like yours.”

  “You have got that right,” Carson said, unintentionally threatening, echoing an uncomfortable truth. In response, Senator Burlington hung up.