Kevak stretched out his hand, and J’Vor clasped it. “I’m here, Father.”
The others watched outside through the observation port. Within minutes, Kevak was in semi-stasis. J’Vor closed the visor on Kevak’s helmet and quietly left the room.
“What now?” Emanui asked him.
“Watch and wait,” he said.
BLOWN
Oval Office, Washington, D.C.
April 1, 2049 AD
“Is this an April Fool’s joke, Director Kerkorian?” asked Sebastian.
“How so, Mr. President?” asked Kerkorian.
Jirza took the report from Romano and pushed it across the table to Kerkorian. “It’s redacted, just like the report you submitted on the assassination attempt. This is unacceptable. You will turn over the original documents immediately.”
“As I explained before,” began Kerkorian, “names of covert agents are always redacted to protect their identities.”
“This is not simply an omission of names,” said Sebastian. “I will see the unredacted files pertaining to the attempt on my life and the death of Minister Arkani right now, Director!”
Kerkorian got up to leave but was prevented from doing so by Tolum, who pressed his hand into her shoulder, forcing her to fall back in her chair. She looked at Romano to protest what had just been done to her, but his face remained passive.
Jirza and Tolum sensed fear quickly enveloping her, but she did a good job of pretending to be unfazed by what had just happened.
“Tell me what happened to Minister Arkani,” said Sebastian.
“I’ll provide the answers to my best ability, Mr. President,” said Kerkorian in a calm voice, although her pulse was racing.
“You claim she died in a block of flats that was destroyed by a fire,” said Jirza. “There is no coroner’s report. What was the official cause of death?”
“There were not enough remains to make that assessment,” said Kerkorian.
“How did you know she was in Rome?” asked Romano.
“Minister Arkani was spotted on surveillance footage at the Leonardo da Vinci airport, where she hailed a taxi that took her to the Prati suburb,” said Kerkorian.
“What caused the fire?” asked Jirza.
“The laneways along the Tiber are overflowing with homeless migrants,” Kerkorian explained. “They cook their meals in cast-iron pots over open fires. It was a disaster waiting to happen.”
“So an overturned pot of grease in a homeless encampment managed to wipe out an entire community living on the banks of a river and also destroyed an adjacent block of flats where you claim Minister Arkani was visiting without any surveillance evidence for that particular time and place,” said Romano.
Kerkorian remained silent.
“You had one of your own agents in that apartment as well, didn’t you?” asked Jirza.
Kerkorian still refused to answer.
Sebastian pressed a silent alarm beneath his desk and then nodded to Jirza, who began to input data at a frantic rate into her desktop computer.
Kerkorian’s phone buzzed an alarm. “You’ve hacked into my government security account!” she exclaimed after reading the warning. She immediately tried to log into her account from her phone but found she had been locked out.
“The assassin’s associate was attempting to glean information from a woman in the homeless camp,” said Jirza, reading Kerkorian’s personal report. “An NSA operative took him into custody and transported him to the block of flats for interrogation, which was interrupted by Minister Arkani. A struggle ensued and our operative was killed. A contagion of unknown origin was released, resulting in the immediate deaths of the captive and Minister Arkani.”
There was a discreet knock on the door, and Tolum opened it. Two burly security agents stood with faces devoid of expression.
“This woman is to be expelled from the grounds immediately,” ordered Sebastian, pointing to Kerkorian. “Seize all government property from her.”
*******
Kerkorian briskly walked through the parking garage, carefully using an umbrella to turn the surveillance cameras to the wall before passing under each one. As soon as she was inside her car, she felt underneath the front seat for the burner phone. The party on the other end picked up after two rings and correctly stated the coded greeting.
“Sunset One,” she said before abruptly ending the call.
When she drove over the Potomac River, she tossed the phone into the murky water.
Kerkorian, along with the other two members of the secret society, had each taken precautions for this eventuality. She drove on back roads for several hours before arriving in Pittsburgh, where she entered a parking garage and switched spots with a bug-out vehicle equipped with cash, GPS, bottled water, protein bars, a suitcase full of clothes, rechargeable batteries, a flashlight, and several containers full of gasoline so she would not have to stay overnight in a hotel.
For two more days she drove, intermittently stopping for a few hours rest, until she reached the vast solar power fields of South Dakota. One of the fields was on a parcel of land that was in her grandmother’s name. The perpetual agreement stated that the government had a 499-year lease with which to construct and maintain a solar power field. In return, a yearly stipend was deposited into an online account. When she arrived at the precise latitude and longitude readings, she got out of the car and walked to the third panel in the row closest to the road. Feeling behind it, her fingers located the input buttons, and she correctly entered the security code. A patch of ground vibrated before retracting like a garage door. She got back into her car and drove down the steep incline. Once her car came to a halt, she watched stoically as the cover above her slowly clicked back into place.
Grabbing the flashlight, she got out of the car and squeezed into the thin space between the wall and her vehicle until exiting at the front end. The flashlight illuminated a heavy metal door. She pushed on the central handle bar, and the door groaned as it opened.
Once she had walked through, she was able to bar the door shut. She felt for and found a light switch, and after she pressed it, the fluorescent lighting flickered on. All she could see was a winding, descending staircase.
She followed the steps down for several minutes before finally catching a glimpse of the bottom. Once she had reached it, there was another heavy metal door that opened into her new home.
The living quarters were austere, but that didn’t matter to her. She was safe, but more importantly, she had not compromised the secret society of the three. While her work with the NSA had provided essential intelligence, she never once made a reference to it on any of her government devices.
She walked to the back and inspected the supply of water and nonperishable food. She certainly would not starve. The solar fields above her would supply power indefinitely, and the ventilation and plumbing systems were in working order.
All would be well in time. She just had to lay low until Romano was out of office. Although she could never return to her former life, she reassured herself that she still had a role to play above ground someday.
Exhausted, she found her bedroom and was overjoyed to see a prie-dieu next to the bed. She knelt on it, crossed herself, and began to fervently pray for the safety of the world in the time of the Antichrist. She had managed to save Justice Stein from being replaced with one of his acolytes, thanks to the healing power of the holy blood of Christ, and she would have to content herself with that. She was a warrior in a holy war. The conflict between good and evil would rage on in the world above without her, but someday she would resume her place on the battlefield.
MOURNING
Lifeboat, Arctic Circle
April 10, 2049 AD
“I’ve gotten multiple confirmations from our operatives inside the NSA,” said Tariq. “Merk is dead, along with one of Romano’s ministers.”
“Which one?” asked J’Vor.
“Arkani,” said Tariq.
For Kevak
’s sake, J’Vor offered up a silent prayer of thanks that it was not Kwetz.
“Merk was right about his friend Amos, wasn’t he?” asked Devonna. “He found some kind of proof that Amos had been manipulated, and he was killed for it!”
“It looks like it, Devonna,” said Tariq. “There was a NSA detail assigned to tail Merk. He was followed to Rome, where he was observed showing street artists copies of sketches and asking if they knew who drew them.”
“The frescos of Emperor Titus that drove his friend Amos mad?” asked Devonna.
“The very ones,” said Tariq. “Merk spoke with some homeless people who had set up camp on a walkway next to the Tiber. That night, the entire camp along with a block of flats went up in flames. The remains of both Merk and Arkani were found in one of the apartments, along with an NSA agent.”
“How were they identified?” asked Jasper. “If they’ve got Arkani’s body, then they’ll know she’s an alien.”
“There hasn’t been any mention of autopsies being performed,” said Tariq. “Our network was able to detect a reference to contagion in an online report, but it was later removed.”
“Contagion?” asked Emanui. “The Vambir nanobots would have protected Arkani, surely.”
“How did Arkani come to be involved in all this?” asked Nadia.
“Director Kerkorian deliberately withheld information from Romano,” said Tariq. “It began with the assassination attempt when he was president-elect. He assumed things would change once he was sworn in, but she continued to thwart him by only providing him with redacted documents. We believe Arkani was sent on a secret mission to get to the bottom of things.”
“She got to the bottom of something that got her killed,” said J’Vor.
“There’s something else,” said Tariq, “Director Kerkorian is missing.”
“What do you mean ‘missing’?” asked Emanui. “She’s the head of the NSA!”
“She met with Romano in the Oval Office to brief him on the death of Arkani,” said Tariq. “As usual, she was evasive about the details. Romano ordered security officers to confiscate her government-issued electronic devices and remove her from the building. We know this because one of the officers is ours. Surveillance cameras show Kerkorian entering an underground parking lot, but the trail goes cold after that.”
“Weren’t there cameras inside the parking lot?” asked Devonna.
“Yes,” said Tariq, “and one by one, they were all turned away. She did it just before she would have come into view. It could have easily been done with a walking cane, since the ceilings are so low.”
“She’s gone into hiding,” said Emanui.
“None of this makes any sense,” said Jasper. “No matter how much she loathed Romano, he has a right to see any and all top secret material. She had a reputation for being professional. It’s completely out of character for her to have allowed her disgust for him affect her job.”
Tariq’s palmcom buzzed. “There was a website claiming Romano was the Antichrist, and it was full of blogs calling for his assassination,” he said as he read the information.
“There’d be a million of those,” said J’Vor.
“Amos was on it exclusively in the weeks leading up to the attack on Romano,” said Tariq.
“That’s hardly surprising,” said Emanui.
“It was a fake site run by the NSA,” said Tariq, “and Kerkorian covered it up by masking the operatives who communicated with Amos.”
“Kerkorian was behind the assassination attempt?” asked Devonna.
“And once Romano seized her government devices, he was sure to find out,” said Jasper. “I’d go into hiding too, if I were her.”
*******
Devonna tearfully opened Merk’s locker and took an inventory of his personal effects.
I was the one who convinced Jasper that we needed him. If I had left him alone, he would still be alive.
“He would have lived out the rest of his days in Speaker’s Corner being laughed at as a madman.”
Startled, Devonna looked behind her and saw that it was J’Vor.
“Are you a mind reader as well?” she asked him.
“You don’t have to be a mind reader to know that you blame yourself for what happened,” he said. “You brought him back to reality, and his work with the nanobots contributed greatly to our understanding of them. He made a difference, and that wouldn’t have happened without you.”
“He died because of me,” she cried.
“He died because he tried to get justice for an old friend,” said J’Vor.
“Not much to show for a life,” said Devonna, pouring out the contents of Merk’s bag onto a table. In the middle of the clothes and books was a shiny gold disk. Her name had been written on it with a black magic marker.
“What is that?” asked J’Vor.
“His music,” she said, struggling to keep her voice steady. “The last thing he told me was that I could have it if anything happened to him.”
J’Vor picked up the disk and inserted it into the nearest terminal. Instead of the sound of music, schematic diagrams appeared on the screen.
“Oh, no!” whispered Devonna. “Merk weaponized the nanobots!”
INTERIM
Planet Vambiri
Earth Date April 20, 2049 AD
Ikato rubbed his eyes as he struggled to stay awake. The instrumentation panel had been inactive since Kevak departed for Earth. By Ikato’s reckoning, Kevak would have begun his transmutation if all had gone well.
If all has gone well…
There were many things that could have gone wrong, but Ikato willed himself not to think about it and kept himself busy by estimating how many Earth days Kevak had been away. The sound of the lab doors suddenly swishing open startled him. It was D’Hal.
“Get some rest, Ikato,” she said. “I’ll send for you if a single dial on the panel so much as flickers.”
“I like to keep close, Primus,” he said, indicating a cot in the corner. “Even when I’m asleep.”
“You take on too much,” said D’Hal.
“With respect, Primus,” he said, “I’m the only one qualified to deal with anything that materializes from Earth.”
“We can’t afford to put all our eggs in one basket.” said D’Hal. “Delegate your authority. That’s not a request.”
Ikato thought for a moment. “Betana, Nahzir, Yulit, and Voyanu.”
“I’ll have them brought here immediately,” she said.
“Best to have Enforcers stationed here as well,” said Ikato, “in case anything unpleasant materializes through the wormhole.”
INFILTRATION
Oval Office, Washington, D.C.
April 20, 2049 AD
“You seem to be at a loss for words, Administrator Nyak,” said Sebastian.
Dominik Nyak quickly replayed in his mind the conversation that had just taken place. The president of the United States had just informed him that his faith healers would be taking over the Oak Ridge Electron Linear Accelerator in Tennessee for an unspecified amount of time.
“Mr. President,” began Nyak, “ORELA is currently occupied by university staff for a government research project.”
“This is more important, Dom,” said Sebastian. “On two separate occasions, aliens have managed to create a bridge between their world and Earth. The first time was at the Native Reservation in Wyoming, and the most recent contact was in the Arctic. The bridge originates from planet Kepler-186f in the Cygnus constellation.”
Nyak was taken aback. That had not been released to the public, and Romano had not requested any reports from NASA regarding the matter. “Where have you obtained that information, Mr. President?”
“I know it’s hard to believe, but my ministers are well versed in cosmology and astrophysics,” said Sebastian, “and they claim a communication bridge with Kepler-186f can be established using the facilities at ORELA. We need to know what these aliens want from us. They obviously are
more technologically advanced than we are, and that gives them a distinct advantage. We can’t just sit back and wait for them to send an invasion force.”
Nyak sighed, realizing that he could not thwart Romano’s wishes. “The staff at ORELA would be happy to assist you in any way, Mr. President.”
I don’t care what he says, thought Nyak. His ministers don’t have a clue how to generate a wormhole. This is some crackpot religious fantasy of theirs. With any luck, they’ll soon become bored with the facilities at ORELA.
*******
Lifeboat, Arctic Circle
April 25, 2049 AD
“How much longer until Kevak’s transmutation is complete?” asked Emanui.
“He told me he would regain consciousness when the time comes,” said J’Vor. “If we administer a stimulant to bring him out of semi-stasis before the process has finished, it could be fatal.”
“We need his counsel now more than ever,” said Emanui.
“We need him alive now more than ever,” replied J’Vor.
“How many operatives do we have at ORELA?” asked Tariq.
“Four assigned to general staff,” said Jasper.
“Human or hybrid?” asked Tariq.
“Human,” said Jasper. “Hybrids like us can’t risk exposure to daylight. Jirza knows this and will operate on a daytime schedule.”
“One of us should replace the workers, in spite of the risk,” said Emanui.
“No,” insisted J’Vor. “They know what we look like. We have to stick with the original humans assigned there.”
“We need real-time information,” said Emanui. “You can be sure they’ll be searched for any communication devices before and after their work shifts.”
“What about surgically implanting something like the communication device Kwetz used with Pocatello?” asked Tariq. “Our operatives could at least tell us what they see.”
“One of them has an ocular prosthesis from being on the losing end of a knife attack decades ago,” said Jasper.
The Nosferatu Chronicles: Return to Vambiri Page 19
