by Daco
“Like what kind of weird?” Ben looked at Jordan, then waved her over to listen in on the call. “I just spoke with Kara the other day — everything seemed fine.”
“Well, after you spoke with her some guy from the CIA — Knox is his name — showed up at NASA and started interrogating Kara about you and Jordan. He had some notion Jordan was up to something. Then the next thing we know, he’s calling Kara back, making some big apology. Said he had the wrong people and that he was sorry to have involved her. And when I had coffee with Kate, her boss just happened to show up and started asking me about you. I guess it had something to do with Kate getting you that visa.”
“That is weird,” he said, meeting Jordan’s eyes.
“Yeah, weird,” Jane agreed. “So listen, Ben, don’t take this the wrong way, but I’d like to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth; you’re not in any kind of trouble or into anything weird, are you?”
“Me? No way.”
“Sure?”
“Me, the world’s biggest pacifist?”
“I just want to be sure. It’s not every day the CIA comes knocking on the door.”
“Please. Jordan and me involved with national secrets? Espionage? Not.”
Jane laughed lightly. “Yeah, I see your point.”
“So Kara changed her number because of all of this?”
“Yeah, she was pretty freaked out about the whole thing.”
“I feel bad I caused her all that trouble. So this guy Knox, he’s gone now?”
“Yeah, no one’s heard from him since. So,” her voice peaked with interest as she changed the subject, “how’s the trip going with the dry cleaner girl?” Ben pulled the phone away from Jordan. “Are you engaged?” his sister asked.
Ben forced out a chuckle. “How about I catch you up to speed when I get home?”
“But everything’s fine, right?”
“Oh, yeah, fine is exactly right.”
“So was it worth it, finding the girl and sweeping her off her feet?”
“Jane.”
“Well, it’s not like you. You’re usually the one running for the hills.”
“I promise, I’ll tell you all the details when I get home. Okay?”
“Okay, okay.”
“You got Kara’s number there?”
“Right, I almost forgot about it there for a minute. Are you ready?”
When he concluded the call with his sister, he dialed Kara’s new number. The phone rang several times before she answered. “Hello,” she said in a rough whisper.
“Kara, it’s Ben. I’m sorry to disturb you. Jane gave me your new number,” he told her. “I didn’t realize you were changing numbers.”
“No, that’s all right. I would have given you my number, but I only got it today,” she explained.
“What’s going on with this Knox character?”
“Oh, that was weird. Some big mistake. I’ll tell you all about it when you get home. But my gosh, if the CIA wants to know something about you, they go all out to get it.”
“Tell me about it.”
“So what’s going on?” she asked. “It’s kind of late over here.”
“I need your help,” he explained.
“Can’t it wait until the morning?”
“No. It can’t.”
“But the experiment is already moved. You’re good.” She paused. “Do you have any idea what time it is here?”
“Kara, there’s a problem.”
“I promise, first thing in the morning, I’ll call you from the office and we’ll get right on it.”
He persisted. “It can’t wait.”
“Okay, all right,” Kara grouched as she sat up in bed. “What’s the deal?”
“You know how the experiment has to perform a simulation test run?”
“Yeah. We built in time for all that.”
“Right, but I just realized I’m missing a piece of the reboot language in my program.”
“You’re kidding?”
“No, I’m sorry, I just realized it.”
“Isn’t there anywhere you can go to log on to NASA to fix the problem?”
“That’s just it. I tried logging in using Jordan’s laptop, but my access was denied. I think it has something to do with where I am and the mainframe not recognizing my location as safe. If I were home, I’d be logged on nothing flat.”
“Right, right.” Kara yawned loudly. “It looks like you’re some joker hacking into NASA.”
“Precisely. I need your help to uplink the correction before the morning.”
Ben heard a man’s voice on the other end of the line asking, “What’s going on, babe?”
Ben immediately recognized Jason Powers’s voice.
“Hang on, Ben.” Kara covered the phone and spoke to Jason. “I’ll be right back. Go back to sleep.”
Ben listened as she got out of the bed, walked across the room, and shut the bedroom door behind her. He knew exactly where she was heading as her feet padded along the length of the wood-planked floors of the Georgetown house she grew up in and now owned. The French door to the study creaked when she opened and closed it.
“Okay, so I’m booting up my computer. Can you forward the application to me now so I can log on and take care of this? It’s been kind of a long night.”
“I’m sending it to you as we speak,” he told her. “It’ll be in an attachment. When you get it, all you need to do is log on to NASA. I typed my passcode in the body of the email, just cut and paste it in. When you get to the menu, scroll down until you get to the SpaceX, Missions tab. Open it and you’ll find my name. Open the file and all you have to do is insert the application after the tenth line. Just count down ten lines and insert it before line eleven. It shouldn’t take a minute.”
“You’re sure?” Kara asked. “Just copy the contents of the attachment and insert the application at line eleven.”
“Positive. Then save the file and transfer it to Payload Operations Control Center” — POCC — “so they can uplink the program to the Space Station Control Center. It ought to beam right on up without any trouble, Scottie.”
“Okay, Kirk, the email is here.”
“Can you open the attachment?”
“Give me a second.” A moment later, she said, “It opens. It’s all here.”
“Great.”
“Okay … ” Kara hummed as her fingers clicked across the keyboard. “Give me a minute to navigate over to NASA.” Once there, she asked, “Now what’s that passcode, Kirk?”
“Look inside the body of the email,” he reminded her. “Cut and paste it so you get it right.”
“Right, you said that.” After performing the task, she announced, “All right, Captain Kirk, password entered.” She hummed again as they waited. Then said with a start, “It’s not letting me in. That’s strange. Are you sure you gave me the correct passcode?”
“Positive.”
Kara read the code aloud to him and he agreed that it was correct. “I don’t know what I can do now. I’d like to help you but — ”
“Can you try entering the site through your own passcode?” Ben rubbed his face, then his forehead.
“Yeah, but I don’t know how I’ll be able to access your experiment. Those programs are highly restricted. The second I try accessing Missions from my passcode, a thousand red flags are going to soar and I’ll have twenty feds breaking down my door.”
“There’s got to be a way to gain access.”
“I wonder what’s stopping me?” she thought aloud.
“I’m guessing it has something to do with me trying to access remotely. I must have screwed everything up and locked myself out.”
“Listen, Ben, if you’re locked out, it’s going t
o take nothing less than David Dunn or some top cheese to reactivate you at this point in the game. I can’t possibly call him until the morning.”
“I should have called you to begin with. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Hey, babe, is everything all right?” Jason asked Kara.
“Hang on, Ben, Jason just walked in.”
Kara spoke to Jason. “It’s Ben. He tried accessing NASA from out of the country and he’s locked out.”
“And how’s that a problem?” Jason asked her.
“He says he needs access to his experiment’s computer program.”
“What for?” Jason asked.
“If he doesn’t make some adjustments, his experiment’s not going to work,” she explained.
“Work or fail while working?” Jason’s voice revealed concern.
“I’m not really sure,” she said. “Let me ask him.”
She returned to the phone. “I don’t know if you heard all that, but are you saying the experiment won’t work at all or that it’ll fail while it’s working?”
“Honestly, Kara, it could go either way,” Ben lied.
She turned to Jason. “He doesn’t know.”
“That’s a problem,” Jason said. “If that laser gets out of the box and aims at the Space Station by mistake, a lot of folks are toast.”
“My God!” Kara exclaimed. “You’re right.”
“It’s a good thing we delayed the experiment when we did.”
“No kidding,” she agreed.
“Let me talk to Ben.”
Kara spoke to Ben. “Listen, Jason wants to talk with you.” Then she handed Jason the phone.
“Ben, look, man, are you telling us that if you don’t get your experiment reprogrammed we could have a major malfunction?” Jason asked pointblank.
“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Ben lied to him, too. “Look, I’m sorry, it only just occurred to me. But with the experiment delayed, it gives us enough time to make the correction.”
“Or abort,” Jason said adamantly.
“Why take a chance?” Ben pushed. “We could abort, but what if the box opens by mistake? It makes more sense to fix the problem now while we still have time.”
“I see your point,” Jason conceded, “but it makes more sense to abort.”
“I hear you, Jason, really I do, but that’s not my worry. Dumb accidents happen all the time, it’s human error. Of all agencies, NASA knows this reality far too well, and frankly, I just don’t see us leaving this to chance. Not when I can fix it.”
“And you’re sure you can do it?”
“It’s tight. I’ve already run the simulations,” Ben lied again.
“And Kara has your application?”
“It ought to be sitting right there in front of you. It’s easy. All you have to do is open my Missions file and insert the application after the tenth line of the program, then save and uplink it through POCC.”
“And you would already have done this, except you’re overseas and got locked out of the system?”
“That’s exactly right.”
“Otherwise we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
“Man, I’m sorry to bother you guys with all this,” Ben said sincerely, “but I realized I couldn’t leave this hanging a minute longer.”
“I understand. You did the right thing by calling.” Jason thought a moment. “Okay, Johnson, I’ll do this for you. God only knows I don’t want spilled blood on my hands.”
“You’re a lifesaver, Jason. I owe you big, man.”
“We’re going downtown. Give us about an hour. Is there a number we can reach you at?”
“Hang on.” Ben covered the phone and looked to Jordan. “He needs this number.”
“Tell him you’ll call him back,” Jordan said.
Ben shook his head no; he wasn’t buying into that routine again. And this time, Jordan didn’t argue.
After disconnecting the call, Ben sat back in his chair, folded his arms across his chest, and said, “Looks like we have some time to kill.”
Chapter 30
“Are you hungry?”
“Not really,” Ben replied, then added, “but thanks anyway.”
“How long has it been since you’ve eaten?” Jordan asked him.
“Couple hours, I don’t know exactly,” he said. “I’ve lost track of time.”
She reached over to touch his leg — it was hard not to touch him when he was so close — but before she actually made contact, she diverted her hand to the tabletop. “You really ought to eat something. I’m worried about you.”
He closed his eyes.
Jordan sat back in her folding chair. “From experience,” she said, “you need to eat when you have a chance … before you get too hungry and — ”
She stopped. She didn’t want to say when food wasn’t available or if something far worse happened.
He opened his eyes and looked at her. “Okay,” he said in his charming demeanor, “I’ll have a porterhouse steak, baked potato with butter and sour cream, don’t forget the chives, oh, and for good measure, throw in a house salad.” Then he rubbed his sides and unfolded his arms.
She wanted to say give me a week and I’ll make you anything under the sun. But all she could say was, “I’ll see what we’ve got in the kitchen.” Then she rose from her chair and walked toward a box of supplies on the makeshift shelf. “Ah, you’re in luck; it’s vichyssoise with toasted wheat crunchies.”
“Sounds like a feast.” He crossed his arms and hugged his abdomen again.
She saw that he was in pain. “Let me get you some pain medication first.”
“You know, that’d work for me. It’s in that box Sonya left behind.”
Not waiting, she headed toward the car. But when she heard him make a small chuckle — the kind he made when he was amused — she snuck a look back to see what was so funny.
When he caught her eye, he quickly explained, “I’ve been reduced to traveling with the clothes on my back and a cardboard box.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t want any of this for you,” she replied.
“I’m good,” he said. “I’ve got a new pillow, a hand-woven blanket — which is a great souvenir by the way — and a box full of medications enough to open up my own drugstore. What else could I need?”
Jordan opened the car door and grabbed the box. She was glad her back was turned to him. That what else could I need remark hit her like a sledgehammer. Another place, another time, she would have rained with emotions. She would have admitted he was the greatest thing she had going for her. Instead, she swallowed her pride and told herself to let it go.
Until she was slammed with a jolt of guilt: prison, his splenectomy, his heartbreak. They were all her fault because she selfishly crossed the line. She allowed herself to become too involved. He was only supposed to be a blind asset, not the man of her dreams.
She didn’t have to jump into his bed. She didn’t have to cling to his every word. Or cherish the adoration he lavished on every inch of her, but she did. And now, her heart was telling her she didn’t just want him, she needed him.
She could have accomplished this mission by simply befriending the guy or just being another chick on the stick that ordered a drink from the safe distance of a barstool. She wasn’t supposed to fall for the guy. It wasn’t supposed to go this far, but she was weak and for once in her miserable life, she allowed her heart to get the better of her.
Chou was right; she got too close.
Jordan grabbed a bottle of water and swallowed half the contents, hoping the burn in her throat would disappear along with the heartache she felt, too.
There was nothing she could do; Ben was as
good as gone. Despite the fact that he was joking with her as though nothing in the world had changed, she also knew that no amount of begging, crying, or pleading would convince him of how she really felt about him, not after all the lies.
She returned with his pain medication and a fresh bottle of water. “Eat a few crackers after you swallow those pills,” she told him. “It’ll keep you from getting a sick stomach.”
“Good idea.”
She opened a can of soup. “Looks like this one is a beef barley. If you throw in a few crackers, it’ll add more flavor.”
“Sounds gourmet,” he said. And when he reached for the can, his unruly dark curls fell across his face.
Jordan noticed his curls. How many times had she swirled her fingers through those locks?
“You don’t look so sure about this soup,” he said to her, after studying her face.
“No, I’m sorry, I was just thinking about something else. It’s not too bad.”
“I have a thing for beef barley.”
She knew that. He didn’t seriously think she’d forgotten their first night together. She thought back. It took a few weeks of chatting him up at the bar before he asked her over to his place for dinner. He made beef barley soup with carrots and potatoes. It was great, other than he mistakenly dumped too much black pepper in the pot. She loved spice, enjoyed a little heat, but midway through the soup and a bottle and a half of Chianti later, they were tight, wired, and slaphappy drunk. And after he gave her that one look, was it any wonder they found themselves ripping their clothes off — it was the hottest passion she’d ever known.
That was the night she lost herself, that was the night she became one mind, body, and soul with Ben Johnson. And that night would be etched in her mind forever. Yes, she knew he had a thing for beef barley soup. She did, too.
She slid the package of crackers to him. “Here.”
Just as he started to say, “It’s just like old — ”
Her phone rang, interrupting him from saying more.
“It’s them,” she said. She put the call on speaker so she could listen in.
“Ben, Jason. Look man, I did everything you asked, I opened the file, inserted your attachment, but when I tried to send the file to POCC, the computer wouldn’t accept it.”
