After several hours, her session is over. Her instructor, a skinny, twentyish guy with big eyes and blond hair, named Dustin, says, “You’re learning very fast. You’ll be a great pilot.”
“Thank you. You’re an awesome teacher.” She gives him her best smile and says, “I’m hungry? Would you like to go get a pizza with me?”
He grins. “That’d be great.”
As they eat, Judy asks him a lot of questions about himself. Then says, “I feel kind of sorry for the hackers. That can’t be anywhere near as much fun as flying drones. What do they do, anyway?”
He shrugs. “They kinda do the same thing we do but instead of using drones to track suspects, they use existing infrastructure.”
Judy gives him an innocent questioning look.
He continues, “Cameras and microphones are embedded everywhere in our world today, from phones to TVs to traffic cameras. They can tap into all that.”
“Wow.” She pauses. “So, after we master the simulator, what’s next?”
“In a few days, we’ll let you fly a real nano-drone around the campus for practice.” He smiles. “It’ll be a piece of cake for you.”
She points at his red bracelet. “I know yellow bracelets are for us students and that we’ll get green ones when we’re qualified, but I’m a little confused by the other colors, the blue, red and black ones. Is red the highest level?”
“You can think of them as security or access levels. Red is the second to the highest. Black is the highest but it’s reserved for the facility director and his staff. You know, the old folks. The security guards have orange bracelets. As a student, your yellow bracelet only allows you into training areas. The green one will give you access to where you’ll work, flying and monitoring basic subjects. Once you’ve demonstrated proficiency in a real world environment and can be trusted to monitor higher level subjects, you’ll get a blue one.”
She touches his bracelet, but leaves her hand resting on his arm. “So is the red one only for instructors?”
“Yes, all instructors have red ones, but,” he leans forward, “it’s more than that.”
Still touching his arm, she raises her eyebrows.
He leans closer. “When you’ve proven your proficiency and loyalty, you get to fly the new tactical drones.” His eyes light up. “I mean these things are as big as a car and carry lasers and missiles.” He shrugs. “You also get to monitor special subjects.” Glancing around, he adds quietly, “I’m not supposed to tell you this yet, but we’re allowed to monitor some very high-level Americans that are part of the terrorist conspiracy.”
She gives him her best look of awe. Then, with a shy smile, says, “I would so love to be able to do that and work with you. I know we’re not supposed to start flying real drones for a couple days, but you said I was pretty good. Is there any chance we could accelerate the curriculum?”
Smiling benevolently, he says, “I don’t see why not. You really are a natural and I’d be glad to give you some coaching.”
“Could we start tomorrow?”
Frowning, he says, “Uh….”
With an inviting smile, she gently squeezes his arm.
“Yeah, ok. I gotta switch some shifts with someone. I’ll text you.”
“Text me?”
“Oh, I keep forgetting that you’re new. Abadon lets us keep our phones, but there’s no cell signal and the Wi-Fi is completely controlled. So, after finishing training, pretty much everyone under 30 here uses an underground network one of us created. We call it BadChat.” He shrugs with a smile. “Our hackers are better at creating apps than naming them. One of the hackers figured out how to tap into our phone’s walkie-talkie feature to allow all of us to send text and pictures around campus. Give me your phone.”
She hands it to him.
He pulls out a charging rock and plugs it into her phone. “This will load the app.” He changes a couple settings and hands it back. “It looks like an asteroid game — actually it really is one — but you’ll be able to figure out how to operate the texting function inside it.”
She frowns. “Do those in charge know about this?”
“Probably, but I think they realize there’s no way hundreds of twenty-year-olds can survive without digital communication. We’d lose our minds.” He laughs. “Or, maybe they figured that with hundreds of gamers and hackers, there’s no way they could stop us from communicating. We know a lot more tech tricks than they do. Besides, it’s not a security risk. The phone’s signal isn’t strong enough to travel past the compound.”
“Cool. You’re quite the maverick.”
With a little swagger, he says, “Yeah, sometimes you just have to say, uh, WTF.”
Trying not to laugh at the irony of his using the acronym, she asks, “So, what’s your user name on BadChat?”
He smiles sheepishly. “Uh … actually it … is Maverick.”
As soon as she gets back to her apartment, she takes her sports drone out to fly. It’s not uncommon for the kids to fly them at night, complete with crazy flashing lights. Abadon actively jams cellular and most other radio frequencies, but leaves the drone control frequencies open. Working with Jen, they modified her drone controller to transmit a short text piggybacked on the sport drone’s control signals. She hopes Jen is able to tap into a SIGNIT satellite. It’s cumbersome using the controller’s joystick to compose a text message, but it works.
44
ISLAND
Flying on a fake passport, with his chip shielded, Josh catches a flight to Marsh Island Airport in the Abaco Islands.
From the small airport, Josh goes to a nearby dock to meet a chartered seaplane Christoff arranged. He sees Jessica and Greg already waiting there.
After a quick greeting, they board and take off. The island is a 30-minute flight from Abaco, truly off the beaten path.
As they make their approach, he gets a good look at Christoff’s island, Bobber Cay. Shaped like a giant comma, it’s two miles long. The top, or thick part of the comma, has a 200-foot tall peak with a sheer cliff dropping to a rocky shore. The steep shoreline wraps around the outside curve of the comma. On the inside curve is a natural harbor with a beautiful white sand beach. The beach merges into heavy tropical vegetation, which rises gradually toward the island’s peak.
Sitting directly under the peak, right on the beach is a large, turquoise Mediterranean-style house. The back of the house disappears into the tropical vegetation. Extending from the front is a long dock with a small yacht tied to it.
As the plane circles to land, they fly right past the top of the 200-foot peak and catch a reflection. Greg points. “Look! Right near the top! That almost looks like there’s a window embedded in the cliff.” Grinning he says, “Finally! A secret hideout in an extinct volcano!”
Jessica shakes her head and with a frown, says, “Hmm, I don’t think it ever was a volcano and I’m not sure—”
“Shhh. Don’t ruin it.”
The seaplane lands and taxies to the dock. They hop out with minimal bags and head down the dock toward the house.
Christoff meets them halfway. Barefoot, wearing a Hawaiian shirt and shorts, he has a drink in his hand. After giving each of them a traditional Russian bear hug, he motions to a very cute blonde woman following him with a tray of drinks. “Help yourself to anything you want … as long as it’s Jack and Coke.” He laughs, adding, “And this is Alina.”
Jessica grabs one of the drinks and downs it. “Love the Caribbean. Hate little planes.” To Alina, she says, “Thank you.”
Alina just nods and smiles.
Christoff says, “She’s my niece and only speaks Russian.”
Jessica gives him an obviously raised eyebrow.
Christoff shakes his head with a smile. “Seriously, Jessica, she really is my niece.”
As Josh picks up a drink, he smiles at Alina and says, “Zdravstvuyte,” and taking a sip, adds, “Spasibo.”
She gives him a shy smile and says, “Pozhaluysta.”
Greg, trying to imitate Josh, casually picks up a drink and nodding at her with his best debonair smile, says, “Spastico.”
Josh and Christoff laugh and Jessica almost spits out her second drink.
Grabbing Greg’s shirt, Jessica pulls him along. “Come on, Spastico. You don’t even like Jack.”
The house looks even more impressive from the ground. The dock ends in a travertine patio that extends right into the house. They follow Christoff inside.
“Inside” is a relative term. The side of the house facing the beach has a set of large glass-panels folded accordion-style into the walls, opening the house to the ocean and a gentle tropical breeze.
Jessica does a 360. “Wow! This place is absolutely amazing.”
Inside, Tim, Sheri and Carl are in beach garb sitting on plush furniture.
After a quick greeting, with a little back pounding between Josh and Carl, Christoff says, “Alina will show you to your rooms. I have a couple of things I need to check on. Just relax, grab something to drink and we will reconvene.”
They change into beachwear and join Tim, Sheri, Carl and Christoff.
Tim asks, “Is this place secure?”
Christoff holds up a finger to his lips and says, “Follow me.”
They walk toward the back of the beach house. He opens a large but conventional looking door to a hallway. As they walk through, Josh notes the door is thick and made of solid metal. The hallway is a good 50 feet long and must be cut deep into the island’s rocky interior. At the end of the hall are two doors. Christoff presses a button and an elevator door opens. He points at the other door. “Or you can get some exercise and take the spiral staircase to the island’s peak.”
Everyone follows him into the elevator.
At the top, the door opens and they find themselves in a large, beautiful, contemporary living room. The walls and carpet are dark tones of gray with muted lighting. The reason becomes clear as they look across the room. On the far side, a bank of large windows and a sliding-glass door opens onto a shallow balcony cut into the rock.
They walk toward the windows, which provide a breathtaking view of the ocean below.
Greg turns to Jessica and says, “Told you so.”
Jessica ignores him and says, “This is incredible. How on earth did you build this place inside the rock?”
Josh says, “Christoff Bobinski is one of the world’s leading experts in extreme construction.”
Christoff shrugs. “In addition to natural shielding of rock, even windows have metal film, making them impervious to EMP and … eavesdropping. We can also lower a door over the windows and balcony. From outside it looks like rock.”
Jessica says, “So you can make this place invisible. Any defensive measures?”
Christoff smiles. “Above us I installed a Phalanx CIWS, camouflaged of course.”
Jessica’s eyes get big. “You got a flippin’ radar-guided 20 mm Gatling gun on the roof?!”
“Not as fancy as new laser systems … but I’m old fashioned, and it was easier to, uh, procure.”
With a big smile, Jessica says, “Nothing says private island like a stream of depleted uranium bullets coming at you at 75 rounds per second. That’s effin’ awesome.”
Greg looks at her. “You know, sometimes you scare me.”
Christoff adds, “We are secure up here and we also have a fully stocked kitchen and bar.”
Alina brings out heavy hors d’oeuvres and positions herself behind the bar. As they eat, sip and catch up with each other, they see the seaplane returning to land.
In Russian, Christoff tells Alina to go down and check.
They gather around a set of very plush leather sofas and chairs. Christoff goes to a small console and pushes several buttons. The large garage-door-like shutters lower over the window and balcony. At the same time, a movie screen deploys from the ceiling and covers the now shuttered windows. On the screen, a high-resolution video image of the outside appears as if the window is still uncovered. Two more screens on the other side of the room display similar images.
Christoff nods toward the screens. “They’re displaying live images from outside so we can see 360 degrees, and we’re now completely secure and can talk freely.”
Josh says to Christoff, “I’d like to invite our AI friend, Jen, to participate. She’s been instrumental in uncovering the plot and supporting our investigation. She’s a powerful resource and ally.”
Sheri adds, “We told Carl about her.”
Christoff nods, “There’s no reception in here. I will connect your phone to an external antenna.” As soon as they established the connection, Josh introduces Jen to everyone.
The elevator dings and they hear two women speaking in Russian. Alina comes out followed by … Wendy Crow.
45
AFFAIR
Elizabeth wraps up the video conference with her team. Smiling, she says, “You guys have done an outstanding job, and it looks as if this fix will take care of the bandwidth problem once and for all. I’ll fly to Houston tonight so I can be there for the test tomorrow. If all goes well, we’ll just need a quick demo and sign off with Admiral Meadows and the ISLO Commander.”
Her project manager in Houston nods his head. “Yes, I’m positive it will work this time.” He frowns. “However, we were just informed that Colonel Crow won’t be available.” One of his eyebrows go up. “Apparently, she’s taking a short vacation in the Bahamas and we’ll have to wait until she returns to get the final sign off.”
Elizabeth is pissed. Crow’s happy to jerk them around but when they’ve finally got a solution, she’s nowhere to be seen. She’s careful not to show any emotion, and simply says, “No problem. We’ll be ready for her when she returns.”
When Elizabeth gets back to her office, she finds a nice surprise. On her desk is a big beautiful bouquet of exotic flowers and a huge basket of chocolate-covered fruit. With ripe dark-chocolate covered strawberries, bananas and pineapples, it must weigh 10 pounds. She’s starving and immediately stuffs a juicy strawberry into her mouth, then opens the card.
It says, “Heard you pulled it off. You’ve been putting in crazy hours and working beyond the call of duty. You’re doing a great job moving the TELEMED program forward and I believe in you! Keep up the great work. With admiration, Doruk.”
She smiles. How someone with the security of the world resting on his shoulders has time to do random acts of kindness is beyond her.
She goes to Turan’s office. His executive assistant just nods when she arrives. Turan told her that as long as his door is open, she could come in anytime.
Elizabeth knocks softly on his doorframe.
He looks up from behind one of the three monitors on his desk and smiles. “Come in.”
She shakes her head. “You really shouldn’t have gotten me those flowers and that incredible fruit basket. I don’t know how you knew but those are my favorites, and they’re absolutely delicious. Thank you!”
“Pleasure’s all mine. You’re doing an outstanding job and I’m very proud of you.”
“You’re an amazing boss.” She smiles. “Just wanted to thank you. Well, I better get moving. I’m flying to Houston tonight to oversee the final bandwidth fix.”
“Excellent. I’m sure it will go well.” Turan comes around his desk and sitting on the edge, says, “With Josh accepting the position, this has turned out to be an exceptional day.”
Elizabeth frowns and with a slight headshake asks, “Position?”
“Deputy Director of Global Security.”
She’s speechless. Finally, she asks the obvious, “My Josh?”
He frowns. “Yes, yes of course.”
Shocked, she’s not sure how she feels, but says, “That’s, uh … great.”
Seeing her face, he says, “I’m sorry, Elizabeth, I thought you knew. I should have let him tell you.”
Without thinking, she says, “That’d never happen.” She sighs. “I’m sorry … things are sti
ll a little tense after the ball and we haven’t been talking … much.” She hadn’t heard from him in over two weeks.
“I see. Is there anything I can do to help?”
She shakes her head. “No. You’ve been nothing but awesome.” She takes a deep breath. “You know what. This is just silly. Josh and I just need to talk this out. Do you know if he’s still here?”
Turan shakes his head. “I told him it would be a few days before we could set up staff briefings to bring him up to speed. He said he was going to spend a couple days in the Bahamas.”
Inhaling sharply, she feels like she’s been punched in the gut. She manages a, “Oh. Ok…. I … I better go.”
Turan gently puts his hand on her shoulder. “Are you ok?”
She nods her head but tears roll down her cheek.
He gently pulls her in and hugs her.
Josh gets the “I told you so” look from Sheri. He stands up to introduce Wendy. “This is—”
With a grin, Greg interrupts, “Colonel Wendy Crow, the new commander of the International Space-based Laser and Observatory!” He jumps up to shake her hand. “It’s been all over the news.”
She shakes everyone else’s hand and then sits down next to Josh.
Josh says, “Ok. Tim, you want to kick it off?”
Tim nods and looks at Sheri and Carl. “We should probably get the bad news out of the way first.” Glancing briefly at Josh, he says, “Sheri checked Kelly and Caitlin, Carl’s wife and three-year-old daughter. They’ve also been implanted with the neurotoxin capsules.”
Carl takes a deep breath. “If you’re going to try and force someone to do what you want them to do, there’s always the possibility they’ll refuse, even if it means their life.” He shakes his head. “It’s very different if they can kill your family.” He pauses with a frown. “But I honestly don’t understand why I and my family were targeted. It’s not like I hold a top decision-making position in the agency, and so far, no one’s threatened me or told me to do anything.” He shakes his head again. “All I can think of is that it has to do with Davidson. Somehow he discovered he’d been implanted and figured out he was being watched. He sent a text to me, and others, warning us the Wraith program was being used against us and we were under surveillance. He was killed shortly after. Later, I thought I saw a nano-drone in my house and brought it down with bug spray.”
Impossible (Fuzed Trilogy Book 3) Page 22
