“Good idea.” She spoke softly after touching the small device behind her ear.
“Hi,” John replied. I thought you two were still space bound.”
“We came back early, or rather, we were brought back early.
“Why?”
“We found a Torus…um, maybe the Torus.”
“What!”
“Yeah, as soon as we found it, they brought us back. We are at Kennedy Space. They want us to keep working on it here on Earth. I imagine they are going to bring it back anytime soon.”
“How is Lyle?”
“Fine.” Her mood then quickly changed. “John, we are worried about the authentication devices you gave us.”
“I can imagine. They would have sent authentication signals prior to your official records being marked as injected.”
“Yes. What can we do?”
“I’m not sure. We are going to have to wait and see. I think we were a bit over cautious.”
“Yeah, we thought that too. And now, they are keeping us here to work on this discovery. That means as soon as they discover our blip, they are going to come after us.”
“That poses a problem. Can you get away?”
“Unsure. They have assigned duties for us but have given no indication of our liberties…if we can travel.”
“They’ll want secrecy.”
“Hmm…if they get us, they’ll take us in and...”
“Interrogate you and ask about us.”
“Precisely. We are very worried about that.”
“We are too and a lot more than you know.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s Raynie and Jake. Some agent arrested them. We don’t know where they are.”
“Oh my!”
“How can we get around this…um, situation?”
“We are working on that in San Francisco.” John then told her about the chase from the cabin in the mountains and details they heard when Raynie and Jake were arrested. “I contacted Ryan, he is still in Carson City and he is trying to help us. We are building an algorithm to upgrade these devices.”
“In what way?”
“Well, until now, the synaptic audio conversion has been incoming only. We have just about finished making that a two-way thing. I’ll remotely send it to your devices when we have finished. Then, you will only need to think what to say and it will work.”
“What about the others?”
“I told them to get rid of theirs before they were interrogated. They are on their own for the moment and have likely been chipped already.”
“So they will have real ID chips?”
“Yeah. But if we find them, we can get them out. Tobias and I had our service chips removed when we left Alaska. I just need to get hold of The Fixture again…hopefully.”
“Any ideas on where they are?”
“San Francisco somewhere. We are looking for them now.”
“How are the others? Are you all together?”
“Yes, and they are fine if not for the shock of hearing about Raynie and Jake.”
“What next then?”
“Sit tight and do your work, but look for any opportunities or ways to escape – you want to avoid them finding out about your authentication devices. Have they searched or scanned you?”
“Not physically, but I am sure they will have scanned us when we arrived back.”
“Don’t worry too much yet then. There is no way they can find the frequency the devices operate at. Ryan’s insider friend has given us all the schematics for this security deployment. They are not even close…yet.”
“OK, we’ll talk again soon. Give our best to the others.”
“Will do, and same back to you. Will look forward to seeing you again.”
“Us too, bye.”
“Bye.”
**********
Raynie and Jake had been wandering around aimlessly for most of the day since they had been dropped off somewhere near Oakland. They had no idea where to go aside from just wandering about. Their minds were still reeling from their arrest and having identification chips inserted into their arms. They had both desperately scratched at the injection point in an effort to remove the chip, but it was useless – the authorities had ensured nobody could remove the chips. The injection had been deep passing through the layers of skin, into tissue and each contained an anti-removal mechanism.
Around noon, they decided to go to the wharf area in the city to lighten their mood, after having caught public transport back over the Bay Bridge. The authorities had given them all of their possessions back upon release, which thankfully included their money, and it was enough to see them by for at least a few days. They had even returned their holographic phones after analyzing all the data they held. Fortunately as they had been using the devices from John, and they upon his instruction after advising he was able to hack into central systems, they had deleted all recent data. Whilst the authorities may find a total lack of data as odd, John had made some fake untraceable entries to avoid suspicion. This also meant there was no record of any communications with their friends for an Agent of the authorities to see as a lead.
By the time they reached pier forty-one, they were exhausted again feeling very hungry and decided to have a meal whilst discussing their next move. As they sat I full view of Alcatraz, they felt a little somber, thinking they had now become prisoners of the authorities, despite their release from the ‘facility’.
“Cheer up,” Jake said to Raynie as he took her hand across the table “You know me…full of determination. I’ll get us some help.” They had no way to contact the others, thinking using their holographic phones would be too risky, and they had no knowledge of Jenna and Lyle returning early from their Moon mission.
A sea gull suddenly appeared on the railing next to their table, its’ familiar call distracting them from their somberness. It was persistent, waiting for any scraps they might leave behind and so it kept them company until they had finished their meal. As soon as they walked away, it flew down to ground level looking for bits and pieces, and calling out as they do. Jake turned back to see the gull now fighting with others over the very few remains of their meal and laughed - the first light-hearted moment since arrest in Reno. “Scavenging for scraps eh? Go for it.” He had seized on the vision as a way to try and joke about something to help lift their mood further, but it reminded them of the impending crack down by the authorities and so it fell flat.
“Yes they do struggle against each other for survival, like people.”
The two of them turned to see Chan standing there but not looking at them. “Come with me,” he said. “I have an apartment in China Town. We must go there, now. Don’t do anything or talk to me, just walk along as though you do not know me. When we get to St Mary’s Square, watch me, and then wait for at least half an hour before you go inside. I will be in apartment nine.”
Apartment nine was sparsely finished with only a bed, a couch and a table with two chairs, and no sign of any technology at all. Raynie and Jake felt much happier at having met Chan, and to also be away from technology. After the high tech of the ‘facility’ and after dealing with the holographic handcuffs, they felt this sense of ease. They had begun to get very sick and tired of technology over the past week, both of them longing for the remote non-technical locations they had visited along the old Silk Road route through Asia.
“Chan. We were arrested. They gave us ID chips,” Jake said. “They can track our movements now.”
“Hmm…it is bad. We cannot stay here, no. We must move today. I will return in a minute.” Chan left the apartment and returned a minute or so later. “I have made a quick enquiry, as there are people I know here in China Town. We can go now to another place…”
“But they will track us there too,” Raynie interrupted him. Despite meeting Chan, she was nervous. Jake had temporarily forgotten this and immediately began to feel similar.
“We need to find your friends John and the others.
”
“Yes, they can help, but until then…”
Chan went over to the only window in the small apartment and looked out to the street below. “We must go now!” He had seen a suspicious looking six-wheeled vehicle parked on the other side of the square.
Without delay, they ran out of the door and took the fire escape stairs at the rear of the building. They continued running until they were all exhausted. By this time they had entered The Tenderloin, a city district just to the south of the main center.
“My friend, he has a vehicle. We must keep going one more block.” They ran again, all of them short on breath and their legs getting heavier.
Without word, Chan led them into an old warehouse that for most part looked disused. “Kim San! Kim San, where are you?”
“Here,” Kim San emerged from a small alcove at the rear.
“Kim San, we need your vehicle. We need it now!”
“Yes Chan, it is ready…over there,” Kim San pointed to a vehicle covered by a tarpaulin. “Take it, drive fast!”
“Thank you Kim San, we are in your debt.” Chan said as he tore away the tarpaulin cover.
“No debt. For you, anything Chan. Be safe, now drive away fast.” The vehicle was brand new, shining brilliantly despite the low interior light. Kim San then opened a large door for them as they entered the vehicle. It was appointed with the latest technology and for a brief instant they were at a loss on how to control it.
Chan, unable to decide, just spoke in desperation, “Fremont!” Immediately the vehicle came to life and drove outside on full automatics. It took the main link out of the city, across the bay Bridge on then turned southward towards Fremont at full speed.
“What is at Fremont?” Jake asked as they sped along the eastern side of the bay past Oakland.
“Another friend. He can help you…a little. Your chips will give us away wherever we go, but he has something that can buy us time.”
Agent Eight was not far behind, smug in knowing he could find them wherever they went. Their vehicle took the off ramp from the elevated roadway and headed towards the address in Fremont Chan had instructed. Agent Eight followed and was closing, just two miles behind. “You cannot beat me,” he said aloud to himself.
As soon as the three of them arrived, they rushed inside the building. Chan’s friend was waiting and immediately seized Raynie and Jake by the arms – for an instant they were horrified.
Seeing their look Chan assured them, “He has something to scatter the authentication signal for your devices. It will stop the authorities being able to pin point your precise location, but they will still have knowledge of your general position.”
They both relaxed a little as Chan’s friend wrapped some material around their arms. “This will generate a static scattering signal to confuse their tracking software,” he said. “But you must keep moving as they can still track you to within a few hundred yards. This is new technology I have built to counteract the ID chips. There are others out here who don’t like them as well.”
“How do they work?” Jake asked after he had finished.
“Static field generator that scatters and creates multiple signals, something I have been working on with a friend of mine, John.”
“John?”
“Yeah, John Matheson.”
Raynie was beginning to think another coincidence was at play. Their meeting with Chan had initiated these intuitions for her. “We have a friend called John, but we don’t know his surname.”
“Well there are a lot of Johns in the world. Likely not to be the same guy.”
“But it could,” Chan said. “Tell John if you are in contact that Raynie and Jake are with me. We are going to Chico in the north…at this address.” He gave him a small piece of paper. “We must at least attempt to set up these connections,” he said turning to Raynie and Jake.
“Thank you,” Raynie and Jake said together.
“No problem. Anyone who is against the chips is welcome here.”
The three of them left and immediately headed northeast, deciding to take a more inland route. Agent Eight was closing, his targets just five hundred yards away. He knew they had met up with someone and he was about to get more satisfaction. He prepared his weapon as his vehicle continued tracking and driving on automatics.
“What the hell! What the hell is wrong with you?” he was shouting at his vehicle. The tracking readouts suddenly showed a number of identical targets including the one that was programmed to zero in on the dissidents. “Stop!” he barked and the vehicle came to a halt. He feverously entered a sequence in an attempt to fine-tune the scanner – it failed. The readout continued to show multiple targets. “Shit!’ It was all he could say for a minute. Then some reasoning came back to him as he noticed all of the targets seemed to be moving in the same general direction. He decided to follow, his anger not subsiding.
Chapter 31
“Finally!” Steve said after receiving notice of a data package detailing his first real assignment since being taken from HAARP. He brought his holographic station to life to view the details. “What the…?” was his reaction when he discovered his next assignment would take him to the mining outpost in the Asteroid Belt. “They bloody well want me a long way away. You could not get any further away in fact.” The mining operations in the asteroids were the furthest human occupied regions away from Earth.
As he read through the holographic data, he learned he was to supervise all military operations stationed in the Asteroid Belt. He thought this was strange, ‘why do that? No-one else is out there.’ Various maps and diagrams also appeared detailing the type of mining operations, their locations and the type of vessel he would be in charge of.
“So that’s what they meant,” he said to himself, thinking of the conversation after he had been removed from command at HAARP. A part of him was excited, as he would finally realize his dreams of space travel he had as a younger man. The other part was suspicious and a bit angry. The journey there would take around three months with a brief stopover at the Mars colony. “Three bloody months of sitting in a tin can, and then only to sit in more tin cans. He knew what they were doing to him – it was virtually a death sentence, or it might as well have been. The assignment was to last four and a half years, which meant he would be away at least nearly five years and he had no choice, other than to resign from the service.
He considered this for a while but decided he would take the assignment. Otherwise they would simply put him in jail. It was obvious he knew too much about HAARP, even though it was hardly anything. He had considered this over time since his departure from Alaska, and it being the only reason why he had been removed. Liftoff to space was scheduled for two days - they were sending him off immediately.
**********
Central military command was abuzz. Officers were everywhere and their superiors were holding meeting after meeting, working on strategies and logistics. The identification systems were now online and shortly the operations at HAARP would take effect. Firstly though, they had decided to carry out another nuclear detonation in order to further enforce the public’s concern. They had chosen Reno.
Advice was passed on to all concerned including the leaders of the Chinese Union, and to the British and Russian Federations. They had set the stage for the final deception before all nations, most of whom fell under the umbrella of control from the super powers. This was phase two of the overall plan for worldwide domination and the suppression of humanity.
Nine years prior they had commenced a plan to destroy the independence of many nations through economic forces and market driven politics. Then, they had provided some light for the rapidly declining quality of life for many citizens - though most of them were unaware their lives had taken a downturn. The word on streets across the globe was it was just another cycle, just another hiccup on the way to a better world. People would talk of how there must be some sacrifice to iron out the wrinkles of poor policy, so progression could be made a
nd lifestyle maintained. They had all been wrong.
The truth was with the elite, who sought to marginalize the populace, and who were affecting this grand deception for the want of ultimate control and ultimate say on the future evolution of humanity. Technology was power, in the markets, at people’s work, and with the military, and so they espoused the trans-human life where people could be happy and healthy whilst safe and secure - it was all a big lie. Gone would be the days of insurgence or insurrection. Gone would be the days of uncertainty and unhappiness. The authorities would provide all people needed to move forward together, they were told. And so as time went on, people became used to this false aphorism, surmised through the endless propaganda displayed on holographic projectors around the world. Their lives would be bound to the authorities, to the elite, and to control.
In the early morning light on the fringes of the Nevada desert, the controlled delimited nuclear mushroom cloud grew steadily upward and outward. It destroyed the entire city in one great wave vaporizing buildings and all life. It made people scream for a mere second before they turned to ash. Dogs barked their last frantic breath, bird life simply disappeared, and horses bolted to nowhere. Life in Carson City was mostly obliterated, with many suffering burns and the after affect of radiation if they escaped the initial blast wave. Lake Tahoe was changed into an ashen landscape of mud, its’ aqua blue waters and beautiful surrounding forests now ruined.
Ryan and his friend were dead. There was a smell of burning flesh, of burning wood, and the stench of decay filled the air for miles around. They killed it all, them all, and they killed people’s hearts far wider than the effects the radiation could reach. Hysteria rained in on San Francisco and Los Angeles, and even behind the facades in Las Vegas. For when it comes to such destruction, the mire of humanity became reality. It became their mire of anguish, of pain, and their mire of hopelessness.
Agent Eight watched it all on holographic projectors, his pleasure apparent. He saw the reports of destruction. He saw the reports of pain. He saw the reports of suffering. And he saw the reports of devastation, and of the deployment of military HyperJets and the stationing of officers across the globe. The world was in a panic and he knew why.
First Light: Book one of the Torus Saga Page 35
