As the boot completed, my laptop pinged a new email. I hadn’t received many emails of late, but I didn’t much care. Tonight I was divesting myself of Gemma Keyes. As soon as I was finished here, she would be gone.
I almost ignored the ping. Shrugging, I opened my email for the last time. My inbox showed one new email. I didn’t recognize the sender but the subject line staggered me. Ice-water chills poured over me in waves, scrambling my skin.
Sorry about the spam.
I couldn’t move.
“No, no, no, no, no. Not possible! Not!” The mites stirred, uneasy with my dismay.
I clicked into my spam folder and sorted through the junk mail. Nothing of note.
Frantic, I started at the top and checked again. Nothing.
My hands were wet with perspiration but I was freezing. I scrubbed my hands on my jeans and then hugged myself. I stared again at the new email: Sorry about the spam.
It’s how he contacted me the first time, I told myself. Who else could have sent it?
“But it’s not how we communicated after that,” I whispered. We’d used a message in my draft folder with the subject line Position Description to communicate.
But I purged that file not long after I realized Cushing would, sooner or later, be looking at me, snooping in my life!
Hands shaking, I clicked on the draft folder. There, in the folder I had emptied, was a lone draft message with subject line Position Description.
The date stamp read today.
I clicked on the email and scanned the hasty, garbled message.
G,
Yes, alive. Top S. mil installation don’t no where.
1 guard @night; 3 rotate nights. Taught all Samba.
I was dizzy, light-headed. “But why in the world would he teach them—?”
Guard lax. Left smart phone on card table; went to answer phone at desk. Enuf time 4me to get to anon email account.
He put more care into the next lines, signaling their importance.
Told you I uploaded research to secure place in cloud. As you said: No such place. “Cloud” still real server. Vulnerable. Uploaded all—every part of life’s work—to only place could never be hacked. You know. Safe
The message ended there.
He ran out of time to write more. My finger traced the words on the screen, re-reading and reading between the lines. His last words had been enough to trigger a memory.
. . . as I said, Gemma, five tribes. Alpha Tribe holds the nanocloud’s collective memories and learning. Think of them as being the library—the historians—of the nanocloud.
Right then, I knew. I knew why the nanocloud clung to me and refused all my commands to leave. I understood what I carried, and the great—the awesome—responsibility thrust upon me.
I put my face in my hands and bowed over my laptop, pondering, for the second time, news of Dr. Bickel’s return from death to life.
He’s alive? My sweet, brilliant, mad scientist is still alive?
I read his message once more, then purged the folder and the trash—even though my efforts wouldn’t keep Cushing’s IT people from finding and reading Dr. Bickel’s message on Google’s servers.
Too late, Cushing, too late, I gloated. I know he’s still alive and you can’t undo that.
For a while I let my thoughts roam over happier days spent in the lab under the mountain—Dr. Bickel’s childlike pride in the nanomites, his struggle to hold his cards right, his ego and mercurial temper (always followed by mortification), his shy pleasure when he brought out one of his fantastical desserts.
“Oh, Nano,” I whispered. “We need to find him. We need to find Dr. Bickel and get him out. Somehow! We need—”
I covered my eyes with my hands, overwhelmed by the futility of such a task.
The room behind my closed eyes brightened. I lowered my hands and gaped at the laptop’s screen. On a bright silver background, in bold, flowing blue words, I read,
W E C O N C U R G E M M A K E Y E S.
S T A N D B Y.
S E A R C H I N G M E S S A G E O R I G I N A T I O N.
The End
Continue the Adventure in
Book 2: Stealth Power
and Book 3: Stealth Retribution
Additional Reading
The Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT) fact sheet. Retrieved February 1, 2015, from LANL.gov.
Che, X., Salaymeh, A, & Reynolds, R. (2014). Monitoring the vital signs in a complex social system: An example using cultural algorithms. International Journal of Swarm Intelligence Research, 5(1), 55-107.
Cheng, S., Shi, Y., & Qin, Q. (2013). A study of normalized population diversity in particle swarm optimization. International Journal of Swarm Intelligence Research, 4(1), 1-34.
Cramer, G. (2012). Quantum stealth: The invisible military becomes a reality. Retrieved December 24, 2014, from Hyperstealth.com.
Estimating a timeline for molecular manufacturing. Retrieved January 06, 2015, from Center for Responsible Nanotechnology.
The future of stealth camouflage in special operations. February 5, 2014. Retrieved April 9, 2015 from Business Insider.
Kadkol, A. & Yen, G. (2012). A culture-based particle swarm optimization framework for dynamic, constrained multi-objective optimization. International Journal of Swarm Intelligence Research, 3(1), 1-29.
Kirtland AFB—Nuclear Weapon Storage. Retrieved March 9, 2015, from VirtualGlobetrotting.com.
Manzano Base. Retrieved March 12, 2015, from Wikimapia.org.
Microsystems & Engineering Sciences Applications (MESA) fact sheet. Retrieved December 12, 2014, from Sandia.gov.
Nanoscale 3D printing. Retrieved January 5, 2015, from Wikipedia.org.
Research Advance in Swarm Robotics. Volume 9, Issue 1, March 2013, Pages 18–39. Retrieved January 20, 2015, from ScienceDirect.com.
Sandia recognizes five green-certified buildings. News Release: September 08, 2009. Retrieved December 17, 2014, from Sandia.gov.
Shi, Y. (2014). Developmental swarm intelligence: Developmental learning perspective of swarm intelligence algorithms. International Journal of Swarm Intelligence Research, 5(1), 36-54.
Swarm intelligence. Retrieved December 4, 2014, from Wikipedia.org.
Weapons of Mass Destruction: Manzano. Retrieved December 17, 2014, from GlobalSecurity.com.
What is Nanotechnology? Retrieved January 06, 2015, from Center for Responsible Nanotechnology.
Yen, G. & Leong, W. (2011). A multiobjective particle swarm optimizer for constrained optimization. International Journal of Swarm Intelligence Research, 2(1), 1-23.
Other Books by Vikki Kestell
A Prairie Heritage
One family . . . steeped in the love and grace of God, indomitable in their faith, tried and tested in the fires of life, passing forward a legacy to change their world. The compelling saga of family, faith, and great courage.
Book 1: A Rose Blooms Twice
(A free eBook available from most online book retailers.)
Book 2: Wild Heart on the Prairie
Book 3: Joy on This Mountain
Book 4: The Captive Within
Book 5: Stolen
Book 6: Lost Are Found
Book 7: All God’s Promises
Book 8: The Heart of Joy—A Short Story (eBook only)
Also, A Prairie Heritage: The Early Years: Immerse yourself in the world of the American prairie of the 1800s and witness this family as they demonstrate the courage and overcoming spirit born of faith in God. This collection contains Books 1-3, A Rose Blooms Twice, Wild Heart on the Prairie, and Joy on This Mountain.
A Prairie Heritage: The Early Years is a lovely gift, the perfect way to introduce your friends to this series!
Girls from the Mountain
Tabitha, Book 1
If you loved my series, A Prairie Heritage, then you will love the full stories of a select group of women whom you met first at the lodge in the little mountain village of Corinth (hence the series ti
tle, “Girls from the Mountain”) and later at Palmer House in Denver.
Tabitha is one such story—the testimony of a fallen woman redeemed by God’s amazing grace, led out of darkness herself to become a light on the battlefields of The Great War.
~~Vikki Kestell, Author of Faith-Filled Fiction™
From the author of the groundbreaking series, A Prairie Heritage, comes the compelling story of fiery-haired, fiery-tempered Tabitha Hale. Rescued from a life of depravity, Tabitha gives her heart to God and her life to nursing.
As this tenacious, redeemed woman perseveres toward her vocation, her temper and stubborn independence threaten to derail her aspirations. Will Tabitha pass the trial by fire that is necessary for God to truly use her?
And what is Tabitha to do with her feelings for Mason Carpenter, the man who simply refuses to give up on her? Is it even possible for God to ordain a shared future for two such different people, both with fervent callings upon their hearts?
When the Great War erupts in Europe, Carpenter leaves for England to train British pilots to fly reconnaissance missions over Belgium and France. Soon after, Tabitha hears God asking her to nurse the war wounded. However, because America has not joined in the fight, Tabitha has few options. Will the elite British Nursing Service make a place for her? Will they accept the services of an American volunteer?
And will Tabitha and Mason overcome the differences that stand between them?
Revisit Palmer House—a most extraordinary refuge for young women rescued from prostitution. Renew your acquaintance with Rose Thoresen, Joy Michaels, and the others who live at Palmer House. Glimpse the years between Stolen and Lost Are Found.
Girls from the Mountain
Book 1: Tabitha
Book 2: Tory, November 2017
Tory, Book 2
About the Author
Vikki Kestell’s passion for people and their stories is evident in her readers’ affection for her characters and unusual plotlines. Two often-repeated sentiments are, “I feel like I know these people,” and “I am right there, in the book, experiencing what her characters experience.”
Vikki holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Learning and Instructional Technologies. She left a career of twenty-plus years in government, academia, and corporate life to pursue writing full time. “Writing is the best job ever,” she admits, “and the most demanding.”
Also an accomplished speaker and teacher, Vikki and her husband Conrad Smith make their home in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
To keep abreast of new book releases, sign up for Vikki’s newsletter on her website or connect with her on Facebook.
Stealthy Steps Page 36
