Balance of Power Shifted

by Karl, Victor

  Working from manufacturer drawings, the Seals worked quickly to rewire the main power source to the main control panel in a manner not designed by the manufacturer. In theory, when the forward thrusters engaged, the power surge would be directed to the main bus of the motherboard resulting in melted circuitry and wiring. The submersible should be recoverable and if the occupants did not breathe in any toxic fumes, everyone should be all right.

  Finishing their work and making sure there was no sign of their visit, the Seals recovered their gear and slipped back into the water. Turning their sleds to new coordinates the Seals spent the next 15 minutes heading away from the research ship. Five minutes after arriving at their recovery point, the Seal’s watches started to emit barely audible beeps. Scuttling their sleds, the seals swam one at a time down 20 feet to the underside of a specially designed mini submarine. Each Seal entered the sub through a special chamber. Due to the small size of the chamber, they had to perform this task one at a taking 15 minutes to complete. Without saying a word and maintaining silence, the sub headed off to meet its own mother ship two hours away.

  Dawn arrived exactly as it had done for the last week and a half. With the sun rising out of the ocean in spectacular fashion, the boom operator hoisted each drone into the water and allowed the techs in the command center to perform operational checks. With successful self-tests completed, Professor Ling and Yen were verifying which sections of the grid were going to be covered today and once that was confirmed the drone drivers went to work. It took over 30 minutes for the first drone to get to 1200 feet, and when it did, the cameras and sensor data just died. Thinking it was a simple communications breakdown, the technical team started procedures to re-establish the communication link up. As they were working through their checklist, the second drone hit the 1200 feet mark and went dark like the first.

  The technical team started troubleshooting the ship-based controls thinking equipment common to both of the drones were at fault. Three hours later, the sound technician called over other techs and played them a sound bite from the second drone. The sound bite seemed to capture a small explosion and noise attributed to the drone imploding. At this point, the team after a discussion decided to launch the manned submersible to investigate the fate of the drones.

  It took a half hour to insert the sub into the water and allow the two drivers to climb on board and seal the hatches. The front diver gave a thumbs up signal to the crew on the boat then pushed forward on the lever to engage the thrusters before blowing ballast. No sooner had he pushed the lever forward then there was a loud popping sound and bright electrical flare from the panel in front of him. In seconds, the entire sub was full of choking smoke causing the divers to start gasping. Scrambling to open the main hatch, the rear diver frantically but systematically released the latches to get to fresh air. With a heave, he lifted up the clear dome and flopped out of the sub into the water. The front driver was a half second behind him.

  Thank you and great job admiral. Carl’s fist pumped the air in front of him on a plan well done. The mission had gone off flawlessly and the Chinese research ship had packed it up and was heading home. He would have to monitor closely the data they were collecting from the Chinese servers to see if there was any chatter about the incident, but for now, he assumed it was a successful operation.

  General Hu was livid at the incompetence of the research team and when they reached port, he planned to make an example of that idiot Fei Yen. More importantly, he was losing face with his bosses who he had given assurances to that he had this under control. It was incomprehensible that everything that happened aboard the ship and below it was a coincidence, but there was no way to prove it one way or another. Picking up his secure line, he contacted Mr. Lee. “Mr. Lee, this is General Hu. I have new orders for you and will not tolerate failure in achieving them. I want you to kidnap the American Michael Carter. I want you use every resource at your disposal to get this job done and I want him here in from of me in less than one week. Are we clear Mr. Lee?” “Chrystal clear General, I will not let you down.”

  Chapter 28: Desperate Actions

  To Mike, the week went very fast as had all the weeks prior. He now better understood the phrase ‘whirling dervish” as things came up and required immediate attention then quieted down for a short period until the next emergency came up. Fiona, Gwen, Iris, Sean and I were all boarding the Clavis jet at Teterboro airport to head out to the Biloxi-Gulfport airport. One of the Clavis guards escorted a professional photographer that Gwen had been using for the last few months. His job was to take some publicity photos for Gwen for use in a variety of purposes. Once we arrived, two SUV’s provided transportation to the site. This was a publicized event and a large contingent of the press where expected to be there as well as 4,000 local citizens who would partake in the barbecue and prize drawings. Since it was so public, Jeremy and Clavis were taking no chances and had gone ahead to be on the ground in Gulfport to secure the site. Miguel had volunteered to fly with us from Teterboro and ride with us to the newly rebuilt production site.

  Ten minutes into the flight, Fiona fell asleep on my shoulder. It felt good to be together even though she was sound asleep since these moments had become all too rare. I felt a little dampness and realized that she had drooled on my shoulder to the point my shirt had a widening area of moisture. Smiling to myself, I leaned in closer to her warmth and fell asleep remembering how she had done the drooling thing on our first date, on our way back home after hanging out at the Jersey Shore for the day. Fiona felt like she was climbing out of a tunnel as Mike gently shook her awake. In the background the pilot was informing the cabin that we would be landing in 20-minutes. Realizing that she had drooled all over Mike’s dress shirt, she whispered “sorry about that, but your sport coat should cover it until it dries.” Before we knew it, we landed and taxied off to the area assigned to small corporate jets. We had no baggage since this was a one-day trip, however the camera operator had a large hard case for his equipment with built in wheels. It just so happened that the women wanted to sit in the same vehicle together while John the photographer, Sean and me ended up in the other. Miguel took the driver’s seat and told the other Clavis guard that he would drive and to take the passenger seat.

  We pulled away from the airport just behind the other SUV and headed south to our production site. Sean gave me an update on a few items as we drove. Ever since Bill and I had figured out Electricus, we had kept samples of the original liquid in a controlled environment and had continually monitored the solution to see if there was any variation from our original readings. Sean was happy to report that there had been no variation in the sample readings. Sean also had a video that the Air Force had provided showing a half hour maiden flight of an Air Force plane with eight electric motors spread across the wings. The flight plan required a height not to exceed 10,000 feet. To summarize the video, Sean mentioned that it was a picture perfect landing. Mike finished the summary by adding, “Their hardest issue was testing the electric motors under a variety of conditions, but they believe they have a winner.” Mike responded with “make sure you bring up the video on the flight back tonight, I really want to see what it looks like.” “Sure will,” Sean said.

  The roads to the site were relatively flat and the SUVs were cruising at about 55 miles per hour. Mike caught Miguel’s eyes on him in the rear view mirror but did not think too much about it. Mike did notice that the 3-car gap between the vehicles that had been the same for the ride so far had opened up to about 50-yards. He was wondering about the larger gap as the first SUV crossed a short bridge. The bridge rose slightly to clear the water below and to allow small boat navigation beneath it. As he was watching, the rear brake lights of the vehicle in front of them came on and the car slewed to the left as it cleared the bridge in an effort to avoid a sanitation truck that came out of a side road that ran parallel to the waterway on the other side. In horror, Mike watched the sanitation truck broadside the SUV causing the
SUV to rollover and rollover again down the embankment.

  Mike was shouting as loud as he could and pointing down the road when his own vehicle screeched to a halt just short of the bridge. Mike heard a loud hiss, which seemed to be totally out of place, and noticed a second before he lost consciousness that Miguel appeared to be holding his breath as he exited the vehicle and shut and locked the doors. On a run, two Asian men approached the vehicle as well as the sanitation truck driver. At Miguel’s direction, they opened up the rear door where Mike was sitting after Miguel remotely released the door lock with the key fob. The men, not saying a word, carried Mike down to a powerful speedboat docked under the bridge, where a fourth kidnapper waited to whisk them away. The boat did not waste any time and when the package was in the boat it roared off, getting on plane in seconds and disappeared down the waterway and out to the main channel leading to the Gulf of Mexico leaving just the boat wake rolling against the bulkhead walls.

  Miguel had a pang of guilt about his actions for a moment, but remembered the two million dollars deposited in a Swiss bank account waiting for him and easily shrugged off the guilt. Anyway he thought, they were not going to kill or injure him, they just wanted to coerce the secret of Electricus from him and release him. He had his doubts about the last part, but deluded himself in an effort to make him feel better about his decision. Climbing back into the SUV, he restarted the vehicle, put a timer device on the canister that held the gas and activated it releasing the rest of the gas into the vehicle. He felt pride at his own ingeniousness just before succumbing to the gas.

  Fiona must have been unconscious just for a second, but came out of it to the sound of moaning. When the vehicle had stopped rolling, it rested with the driver’s side on the ground, which left her window exposed to the sky. Wedging her feet against the front seat of the SUV, she released her seat belt and with her feet using the seat as a step used it to leverage pushing open her door. The heavy door kept trying to fall back on her, but she was able to wiggle her body out while supporting the weight of the door. As her head had poked through she saw the other SUV on the other side of the bridge, but due to the rise of the road and the fact that they were in a ditch she could only see the upper portion of the vehicle. For just the briefest second she thought she saw Miguel duck his head back into the SUV.

  The sound of a diesel truck running caught her attention and she realized that truck that rammed them off the highway was still there blocking the road with no driver at the wheel. Jumping to the ground, Fiona went to the back of her vehicle and tried the rear door, which luckily opened and the lower half fell to the ground. Hearing people talking to each other, she wormed her way back in until she was right behind Gwen and Iris who were stuck in their seatbelts and tangled together. “Is everyone all right?” Fiona asked the women. Iris responded for both women “yes we are fine, just banged up a bit, but we cannot release these darn seat belts.” With Fiona assistance, she released Iris first, who was in the middle seat and hanging down towards Gwen. Gwen, not wanting Iris to drop on top of her, wedged her arms underneath Iris to stay her fall. With a loud click, Iris’s seatbelt released and Fiona was able to drag her into the rear compartment. Releasing Gwen was straightforward after that and Gwen scrambled outside herself once released from her constraints.

  The driver throughout the ordeal was communicating with them as well as using the radio to alert Clavis and the police of the situation. The front passenger who had taken the brunt of the impact on the front fender and front passenger door was unconscious. The injured guard was lucky the vehicle had side impact airbags otherwise; his injuries may have been more severe. As it was, he was breathing comfortably and most likely had a concussion to go along with his contusions.

  Realization that no one from the other vehicle had come over to help them caused a ripple of fear in Fiona. Walking up the embankment to the road, she quickly headed for the other vehicle. There was no activity around it and she could see the far side passenger door ajar. Fiona broke into a jog towards the idling vehicle while scanning the area. She could see someone in the front driver’s seat and passenger seat and it was obvious that they were not moving.

  Fiona headed right to the open door and looked inside with trepidation. She saw Sean and on the other side the photographer. She saw Miguel and the other Clavis guard in the front, but Mike was absent from the scene. Peeking into the rear compartment just to be sure, she confirmed Mike was nowhere to be found. Scooting into the seat next to Sean, she realized he was breathing and had no sign of injuries. In fact, this appeared to be the same case for everyone in the vehicle. Fiona literally ran back to the other vehicle and when she saw the others saying, “I think Mike has been kidnapped. Everyone else is unconscious, but Mike is nowhere to be seen.” She relayed this to the Clavis driver who was still in the vehicle tending to his partner who then immediately called it into the police. By this time, people were trickling around the garbage truck to see what was going on. It took the police another five minutes to get there due to a delivery truck being abandoned down the road from the direction they had come from about a mile away. The officers eventually impounded the delivery truck for evidence in what they had already classified as the ‘Michael Carter Kidnapping.’

  Within a half hour, the police had a copter in the air looking for abnormal activity and a bloodhound on the ground to track Mike’s scent. The dog caught his scent, and a minute later, they knew that a boat was most likely involved. By this time, interviews were complete on everyone in Fiona’s party. Fiona decided to send Gwen and Iris on to the barbecue event to represent Efficio, and needed to see if they were up for it first. Walking over to the women, who were obviously still shaken up, she softly said, “Iris, Gwen, I would like you both to continue on to the dedication barbecue if you are up to it and represent us there. Do you think you can do that?” Both women shook their heads yes and stepped in to hug Fiona telling her Mike was going to be fine and they would take care of the barbecue event.

  Fiona wandered over to where Miguel was, and listened in while he was speaking with the FBI. He was recanting the scenario with them when Fiona realized that there was something off with his statements. Based on his description, he had stopped the vehicle when the sanitation truck crashed into the lead vehicle and then the next thing he knew, he was coming out of a deep sleep. Fiona knew she had been in mild shock due to the accident, but she was damn sure she had seen Miguel outside of the vehicle.

  Keeping her thoughts to herself, she wandered over towards Mike’s vehicle where an FBI forensic team out of Biloxi was working. She saw a canister removed from under the front seat and asked what it was. The woman forensic expert hesitated and looked toward the lead FBI agent who nodded his head to go ahead and answer. “It is a pressurized canister of what most likely contained a gas to render the occupants unconscious. We will verify the contents when we get it back to the lab. This device screwed on to the top of the canister, is a timer device that opens the valve automatically based on the setting.” Walking down the road a little ways Fiona dialed Jeremy’s cell phone number.

  The Michael Carter kidnapping was the evening news. Every station had it as the main headline for the evening. Speculation on the motive was rampant as well as fears that it could affect the future of Electricus. Reporters descended on Gulfport like flies on a hot pile of dung in the middle of the summer. By morning, news crews circled the entire Efficio Gulfport production site where Gwen and Iris provided a conduit for information. Fiona and Sean, scheduled to fly out on the Clavis jet at noon, were already at the airport waiting with Miguel. Fiona had trouble hiding her distaste for Miguel, which luckily he took for being upset at Mike’s kidnapping. Jeremy had personally called Miguel and asked him to escort Fiona back to New Jersey.

  Arriving at Efficio’s headquarters building, Fiona said to Sean, “I will keep you informed,” as Sean headed off to take care of some business. Next, she turned to Miguel and asked, “Do you have a few minutes to run over aspec
ts of the kidnapping with me?” “Sure Ms. Paschel,” was his instant reply. They walked into the building and Fiona headed towards Mike’s temporary office with Miguel following. Fiona entered first, and strode behind Mike’s desk. As soon as Miguel entered the door, he noticed Jeremy and Ty were also in the room. Fiona sat down at the desk chair, while Ty walked to the door and closed it. “Miguel, please take that seat over there. We want to discuss a couple of things with you,” Jeremy ordered. As soon as Miguel sat down, Jeremy said, “Let me get right to the point Miguel. Yesterday, as Fiona crawled out of the wreck, she saw you standing outside of your vehicle, which is contrary to the statements you provided to the police and FBI. Can you explain this?” Miguel’s mind was racing and he hesitated for just a few seconds before saying, “In deference to Ms. Paschel, she had just been in a traumatic accident and maybe she saw one of the perpetrators.” “That is possible,” Jeremy conceded, however, I had some of my cyber experts breakdown your communications over the last couple of weeks as well as did a little unauthorized online banking, if you know what I mean, and guess what we found.”

  Miguel did not respond and he felt his heart sink waiting for Jeremy to continue. “Miguel we found a Swiss bank account, and I have to tell you it was not easy. The account in question recently had two million dollars deposited into it. We have not yet finished backtracking where the money originated from since they were very careful, but we will.” If you help us out, you know they will go easier on you and God forbid anything happens to Mike, because I sure won’t go easy.”

  Agent Morgan listened intently via a radio transmission from the next office, as Miguel cracked and gave up all the information he knew. It all fit together with the pattern the Chinese had shown, which was to steal the knowledge of Electricus. Combine that with the top-secret information that Carl had provided regarding that little event in the South Seas and you could see how the Chinese may be panicking. The FBI had already considered Chinese involvement and had speculated that the kidnapper’s boat most likely rendezvoused with a larger high-speed boat to Mexico and from there who knows. They could have easily taken a private plane and flown anywhere. Matt thought to himself, “If I was a betting man I would bet that Mike would be in a Chinese location by the end of the day.