“Isn’t that enough?”
“Normally, yes. The word of the Archbishop would have been enough for these cases, and had the claims of the past been everything, we would have granted her a miracle status. But when we brought the full body of claims to the Vatican, including the claims about the US, it was decided that we should wait and see if the new prophecies came true. We began sending money to the Archbishop to house and protect the woman.”
“And when the FPA passed?”
“When her prophecy about the FPA came true, we made a decision that her life may be put in jeopardy if we published the miracle. Everyone associated with the information was asked to take a vow of silence, which I am asking you to take as well. We began sending more money there to protect her. We waited for more prophecies.”
“And?”
“She hasn’t made another since our visit twenty years ago.”
“Well, I mean, that’s crazy. It’s an amazing story. I’m not sure what it has to do with my situation, but it’s really out there.”
“Lidia is in charge of the budget for Haiti. If you were to need to send more funds to Cuba, then perhaps we could send them to Haiti first. Lidia has offered to help in this. She believes in your intentions and she knows that you might lose your funding to Cuba.”
“So, what should I tell her when I go to see her?”
“Let me come with you. I’ll do everything I can to help you.”
“I don’t wanna drag you into this mess, Vicki.”
“I’m already knee-deep in it.”
“Allright, man.”
They both smiled and then walked toward Lidia’s office.
PART FIVE
ILLEGALS
48
TITO WAS HAVING lunch on the top floor of the tallest building in Haiti, looking out at the Port-au-Prince bay. To his right was the owner of the cigar company where Tito worked, Senor Jose Castro, a successful businessman who was ironically a distant relation to Fidel Castro. To Tito’s left was the richest man in Haiti, Jean-Daniel Henri, who owned a portfolio of companies that made automotive and aerospace components. Jose had invited Tito to attend the lunch, and the two had flown here from Havana in the morning.
“Bonjour, Jean-Daniel,” Jose said in French. “This is the man I was telling you about.”
Jean-Daniel replied back in Spanish. “It is nice to meet you, Tito. Jose speaks very highly of you.”
“Thank you,” Tito replied.
A smartly-dressed waiter came to the table to take their order. It was one of the finest restaurants in Haiti, offering all of the luxuries. Each table had its own private room, with fine white linen tablecloths, sterling silver cutlery, and actual human waiters. There wasn’t a robot or computer in sight.
The waiter left, and Jose spoke up. “Jean-Daniel is a friend of the cause, Tito. He has a technology which can be incredibly useful for Julia.”
Jean-Daniel took his cue, “How much do you know about carbon nanotubes, Tito?”
“Not much. Same as everybody, I guess. They are stronger than steel, very light; used on airplanes and cars and buildings.”
“Correct. My companies research, design and manufacture components made with CNTs. We sell them as body frames for automobiles and parts on airplanes. Our highest quality items are 200 times stronger than steel and 10 times lighter. The reason that this will interest you, my friend, is that my head of research made an important discovery this year. To critical to publish. We’ll keep it as a trade secret for the company until we find a market for it.”
Jean-Daniel stopped to drink his coffee. Tito was intrigued.
“I’m not sure that I follow sir. What is the discovery?” Tito asked.
“Sorry. My mouth was a little dry. The discovery is a composite made of plastic with CNTs which we can form into a one meter diameter pipe. The pipe is flexible and can stretch in different directions. We can manufacture them quickly and in long distances and screw them together like a pipe in your home. We can do this quietly over the next six months and produce a 90-mile-long pipe.”
Jean-Daniel smiled and let the idea sink in. The distance from Key West, Florida to Havana Cuba was 90 miles. The ocean vessels were watched 24/7 by satellite surveillance to prevent illegal immigration in either direction.
“Are you suggesting that we put this pipe under water and use it to go between Havana and Florida?” Tito asked.
“I’m not suggesting it, sir. I’m telling you that we have the technology to do it. We can have it ready in the ocean in six months. And no one knows about the technology, so the NSA has no surveillance that would detect it.”
“Hasn’t this been tried before?” Jose asked.
“The difficulty is the weight and the flexibility. With steel, once you place it, you can’t move it. If the authorities discover it, the game is over, and the considerable expense is wasted. But with this new composite, it is light enough that we can move it with a ship on both sides. It is flexible enough too that we can twist it upward and downward. It can stay on the ocean floor in parts but stay higher in deeper areas. The mouth at both ends can come up next to a large ship. If we put two large fishing ships on each side, it is virtually undetectable. The ships can even move around.”
“So, what would we need to transport people through it?” Jose asked.
“We can easily construct some vehicles that move through the tube. A person would lay down and the vehicle would move through at a speed of twenty miles an hour. The hard part would be dealing with the pressure changes. I’ve got one of my best engineers working on an atmospheric diving suit that could be worn down about 300 meters, which is the deepest we would want the pipe to go. That is deep enough to allow boat traffic flowing above it but not so deep to be dangerous to humans that are properly equipped. The suit would have maybe ten hours worth of fluids and oxygen, so there would be significant risks if something happened to the vehicle.”
“If the person tried to crawl out, they would never make it,” Tito said.
“Yes, it is a risk. Hopefully, it is a considerably lower risk that trying to get through the Mexican or Canadian border. We can use existing vehicle builds that are known to be robust under pressure.”
“Could we try this with a shorter distance?” Jose asked.
“I thought about that. A fishing boat that is five miles off either coast will go unnoticed. So we could easily do an 80 mile pipe. We could push it more, but the risks go up.”
“How will you get the pipe from one side to the other, given the surveillance?” Tito asked.
“We can assemble the pipe under water here in the Port-au-Prince bay. The materials are flexible enough that we can curve them in a semi-circle and keep them at depth. I can have a small team do the assembly under water. Once complete, I can use one of the shipping barges from my transportation company. We’ll schedule some shipment to Miami and get everything approved by the governments. The barge can leave with one end of the pipe and we can send a fishing boat with the other end. The fishing boat will stop outside of Havana. The barge will go on to Florida and meet another shipping boat outside of Key West for the hand-off.”
“Hand off?”
“I can use a small team to handle the transition between the barge and the Key West boat. They’ll move it and weld it in place. They’ll monitor the pipe integrity. If it breaks apart, we’ll abandon the mission. If it holds, though... Well, then we’re in business.”
“Pretty amazing, sir. What about water getting in the pipe?” Tito said.
“That is basic stuff. No worries there. We’ll assemble the piping in hundred-meter segments. Each segment will be sealed at both ends and pumped free of water. When a new segment is attached, the seal between them will be removed. So, when we have the pipe in the bay, it should be free of water. When we begin transporting it, both ends will be sealed and it should stay free of water.”
“And if a seal is breached?” Jose asked.
“It would be a big setback an
d we may lose a month given our manpower, but we could fix it.”
“You’ve convinced me,” Jose said.
“What about using a submarine instead of the pipes?” Tito asked. “If we’re going through all the trouble, why not build some submarines and have people use the same diving suits? The subs could have autonomous software to take any path at any depth.”
Jose liked it, “That is a great idea too.”
Jean-Daniel replied, “Well, it may work, but I don’t have submarine engineers on my payroll. Plus, the coast guard and satellite surveillance systems know how to look for submarines. They emit a lot of heat and energy and noise. If one is caught in the waters, then surveillance will be amplified and all will be caught. The composites we’re using won’t be detectable with the same systems. The vehicles and people in the pipes will look like little blips on the NSA scanners and be assumed to be large fish. Most importantly, this is technology that my engineers know how to produce and assemble. My barges and fishing boats can move it. A sophisticated submarine may work, but CNT pipes is what we have.”
“I understand,” Tito said.
“Well, it’s decided,” Jose said. “When could we be ready for Julia?”
“Give me six months. We’ll build a 75-mile pipe and test it between Haiti and Cuba. Make sure everything works in a safer area.”
Tito nodded. Inside, he was afraid. The plan was well conceived but the dangers to Julia were intense. If anything failed, she would die in the ocean.
“Can I do a test of the pipe when the first mile is finished?” Tito asked.
“Certainly. We’ll test it at various stages. Maybe one mile, ten miles, thirty miles and full length.”
“What is your confidence of this working?” Tito asked.
“80% confident in the six month timeframe. 99% confident if we have more time.”
Tito breathed deeply. “I guess it is what it is. It is much better than our other alternatives. Thank you.”
The men finished their lunch and parted ways. Tito had a lot of planning to do, and the idea of being separated from Julia for six months was troubling. The pipe would be a great tool to transport hundreds or even thousands of men.
He didn’t want Julia to be the guinea pig for the first trip. He vowed to himself to learn to scuba dive and get a better understanding of the pipe and vehicle technology. He would be the guinea pig. He would do everything possible to eliminate the risks for Julia.
49
WHEN DEBBIE ARRIVED at the house, Thomas was ready to go. He hadn’t slept much. He couldn’t wait to see Julia. Debbie walked in the door and shut it behind her.
“All right, boys. Here is the plan,” she said, looking at Alexander. “Get on your wig, old man, you’re coming with us. Do you good to get out of the house.”
“Can’t argue with that,” Alex said.
“Thomas, I spoke with Julia. She has been taking lots of security precautions and didn’t want to try and speak with you over her connection. She’s been traveling on old back roads the whole way down here and had to pull over several times for long charges. The car she has is old and the chargers take forever, so the drive is longer than she had hoped. Good news is: she’ll be here in three or four hours.”
“Thanks,” Thomas smiled from ear to ear.
“Well, let’s skidaddle over to my place. Thomas, when you ride in the car, try to look toward the floor in the middle. No scanners in town that I know of, but you can never be too careful.”
WHILE THOMAS WAS riding over to Debbie’s and meeting his new housemates, Julia rose from the floor of the car. She had been lying there most of the trip, based on Linda’s advice. It had been a long ride with ample time to sleep, although Julia’s nerves didn’t let her relax. Her multiple half-hour naps added up to maybe three hours of sleep. She was exhausted, but the excitement of seeing Thomas kept her spirits high.
She spent part of her time reading through the training manuals on the two weapons. In the end, Linda had given her the weapons in exchange for some future favors. Tito wouldn’t like it, so she didn’t bother telling him about the guns.
He’s not here risking his life.
The training manuals made them seem pretty easy to use, but she’d like to get a second opinion. The weapons had very few rounds, so firing practice was out of the question. She would have to learn in the heat of the moment, if it came to that.
Let’s think about Thomas, instead of all the bad hypotheticals.
Looking at the navigation system, it would be another three hours of driving and perhaps an hour of charging the car’s battery. The system Joey installed knew all of the best places to stop. Older charging stations, off the main roads, isolated. She hoped that the navigation software would be just as informative all the way to Key West.
Julia pulled out her phone and looked again at the encrypted message from Tito. He had sent it last night. It said, “We have a great plan to get you home, but you may need to be there for six months. Be safe.”
She didn’t know what it meant and she didn’t want to send too many messages over the air. She would have to wait until she got to Jasper and could make a more secure call. Six months was an eternity. Six days was more her expectation. But she knew that Tito was trying to keep her safe and was probably planning something extremely conservative. She would remind him that staying in an UR for six months has plenty of its own dangers.
WHEN DEBBIE TOOK Thomas and Alex down to her hidden basement, Thomas was amazed at its size. The house was fairly large on the outside: one story, perhaps 1500 square feet. But the basement was easily three times the area. Since Debbie lived on a farm with multiple acres of land, there were no neighbors to complain about how far she had expanded her underground basement.
“Wow,” he said. “How did you build this?”
She laughed. “Everybody always says the same thing. But I’ve seen UR’s that are even nicer. It’s amazing what you can do with half the American workforce motivated to build. Every man who comes here helps work construction on the site.”
“Makes sense,” he replied.
“The digging and building is easy. The hard thing for me is getting construction materials without arising suspicions. We have to send all of the girls on multiple missions to home improvement stores. Spread out the buys over time and over different people, going to several stores around the state. While the women are out, the men in here are logged into the grid using the women’s accounts. We need that income to help pay for the operation. I understand that you have skills in agriculture?”
Thomas shrugged, “I wouldn’t call them skills.”
“I will though. And it’s good. We have a woman here who is a farm automation engineer and can make good money doing the work. She claims that 90% of the assignments could be done by anyone with agricultural experience. So, my new friend Thomas, you will be starting tomorrow as a farm automation engineer named Jenny. You can use that grid setup over there.”
Debbie pointed at a cube in the distance. “The real Jenny will come in the morning and train you. When you run into something above your skill level, you’ll let me know and I’ll bring Jenny in. But, if she’s right, then you’ll have lots of work to do, and you can help us keep this big ship afloat.”
“Happy to,” Thomas said. “I’m just not sure if I’m up for the challenge.”
“You said you wanted to help, right? Here’s your chance. I have confidence you’ll do great.”
“What about me doing the kinds of tasks I’ve done before?”
“Thomas, get real. The jobs they give men are the menial, lowest-paying jobs in society. The jobs Jenny will train you in pay 10 times more per hour than anything you were doing in a grid camp. Now, can I count on you to learn the stuff?”
“You can count on me.”
“Great. You know what? Let me introduce you to Roy. He was just like you when he got here.”
Debbie began walking them over to a cube with a man sitting on the grid. Alex
and Thomas followed behind her. Debbie tapped the man on the shoulder.
“Roy, can you take your goggles off a second?”
“Huh?” the man said, pulling off his gear. He seemed a little dazed while his eyes adjusted to the interior room. “Debbie, hey!”
“Roy, are you in the middle of something critical?”
“No ma’am. It can wait.”
“This is Thomas. He’s new here. I was just telling him about the job situation. He worked in some low-end job on a grid camp but now he needs to step up his game. He’s scared, Roy. I can see it in his eyes,” she winked at Thomas.
“I wouldn’t say scared,” Thomas replied.
Debbie continued, “I said it. Roy here has the highest paying job in camp. But he was scared at first, weren’t you?”
Roy looked at Thomas and smiled. “You said it. I was terrified at first. I was a chemical engineer by training but had been at a grid camp for five years. I arrived here and Debbie had me tunneling underground to expand the basement and logging in as a woman and wearing a wig. It was crazy.”
“Yeah, but tell him about your job now. The one that really scared you,” Debbie said.
Roy cleared his throat. “Well, Debbie came to me and said, ‘Roy, you’re going to start working on Mars.’ And I said, ‘What are you talking about now?’ And she said, ‘We just got an opportunity to start doing tasks for NASA and they pay great, and Cynthia won the job and she’ll train you.’ “
Debbie chimed in, “His face was like a deer in headlights.”
“Well, it was crazy, right?” Roy replied.
“What do you do on Mars,” Alex asked.
“They have this one botanical colony with different kinds of plants to see what grows and what evolves and how the plant evolution compares to Earth’s. So, I control a bunch of robots and decide what to plant and what to cross breed and when to run analysis. And then I give the reports to Cynthia and she logs in and presents them to her boss at NASA.”
Escape The Grid: Volume 1 Page 22
