“Even with all our efforts to stop them. I'll alert my friends on Mars.” Perhaps someone in Syzygy or on Gunner's Run might have information on that secret gate. If there was one. And I was sure there was. I planned to talk to Diamond about it.
“We haven't lost yet. We need to keep this small and lean. I don't need a lot of people involved. Meet with him tomorrow. His code name is Darkman. Meet with him, get to know what he knows. I'll send him the files from Project Blackguard. Study them, all you can. In fact, do nothing but study them this week. When you're done, let's get to it.”
“What about the others on U-net?”
“Robin has all the information she needs about my plans. I suspect you have your own sources. Anyone in the group that might be able to help in any aspect of this, contact them, find out if and how they can help. What we really need is information. If you can get any information in regards to this project, get what you can without spilling too much. Don't include them directly if you don't have to. And as for the android,” she said pausing.
“Yes?”
'”I hear the red wire in his brain isn't functioning. Bring him to me. I'll have my people examine him and see if we can get the thing to work for us.”
“And what of my family?”
“Don't worry, Robert. There will be around-the-clock security for them and for you.”
I sat, thinking. My life had just taken a definite turn to an unknown future, the one I feared where I wasn't sure of the outcome. I almost didn't hear her. It was almost as if she could read my mind. Which, in a way, I found comforting. In this whole time, I didn't feel guarded with her at all. She tapped a finger on the display console before her and several large holo-vid screens sprang up of Earth and Jupiter. Each of the planets had a tiny pulsing red light on its surface. Entry points.
“Your dreams serve you well, Robert.” Which told me that it was time to stop fearing them and time to examine what they were actually saying to me.
“Thank you, madam!”
“Ms. Vartan. Or Ellen in private company. And when you are in the office or in the lab, just Ellen.” I left the office, my mind racing. In my fear my mind was very clear. The clock was ticking and October 31, the ending of the world, was only weeks away.
The first thing I was going to do was ring Diamond Dog. I didn't have any pull with anyone on Gunner's Run. But he did. Maybe Diamond might be able to convince the right person there to act as an intelligence agent for me and figure out exactly what sort of alien activity was happening on Jupiter. And I had someone very specific in mind.
It was a long shot, but then, it seemed those were the only shots I was getting.
4
The pod that escaped during the battle of Europa was still on my mind when I got the call. A screen flew up from my sensor display at my computer that said: Unknown source.
Information that we had valiantly tried to capture and prevent them from having they managed to get anyway.
A gruff, slightly garbled male voice came online. It sounded like he was using some kind of voice modifier.
“Hello?” I asked.
“This is Darkman. Vartan told me she was working with you on the new mission.”
“Yeah.”
“Meet me at Burning Man's Field. We need to talk before you get started.” I wondered at this. Why meet there?
“Burning Man's Field, then,” I replied. He hung up before I could ask him anything else. I pinged the number code. I got an error beep. He must be using a temporary or disposable number to make untraceable calls. I needed to do that if I was going to keep doing stuff like this.
I gazed absently at the reports stacked up on my holo-vid screen. These seemed so insignificant compared to what I had to do now, yet they had their own importance. In front of me were the initial reports from the testing teams of the batches of materials that didn't pass the reconditioning and heat-proofing tests and had to be sent to Recycling. I marked each of these batches as defective and the reasons for their rejection, and for the materials to be sent back for re-purposing. Then I sent this information off to my QA team at the office. This took a few hours.
Now to the other work. I sent a message to Chip to present Will at Ellen Vartan's laboratory. If there was some way to get that red wire working for us, now was the time. Then I opened my list of U-net contacts, flipped through them and finally saw who I was looking for: Peter Crawford.
The last time I went on a blind fishing expedition I found what I was looking for, so I decided to try it again.
I left a message and a number to call me. My office room door opened and it was Mary, dragging that dreadful looking, stuffed alien toy I'd won for her at the park a couple of weeks ago. She stood at the doorway, watching me working at the computer for a few moments, seeming a little hesitant.
“What is it, Marybear?” Now that the door was open I could smell dinner cooking. Pam was making a family favorite: mac and cheese, pork roast with roasted carrots.
“Mom said you were busy.”
“I'm not too busy to see my Marybear. Come on in.” She then came in and jumped in my lap.
“What is it?”
“What are these? What are all those colored graphs for?”
“This is dad's work. These red graphs here tell me which housing module pieces have too many imperfections in them to stand up to very high pressures and on this screen, all of these in the blue tell me that these are good to use. They passed the tests.”
“What happens then?”
“Well, then they are loaded onto huge industrial transport frigates and transported to places like the moon, or the planet Venus. Sometimes they're taken to industrial space stations where they finish building them and take them to other space stations.”
“Why? Isn't Earth good enough?”
“Well, sure. But there are so many people on Earth that the population one day will be too great for Earth to contain. So we're expanding outward. We're building complexes and other structures for more future cities in space, on the moon and Venus and Mars soon. We need to make sure that the materials we use will hold up well to keep people safe. Venus is an impossible place to live without the right technology in place. The pressures there are immense.”
“Daddy, I heard that on Venus the surface turns inside out every century!” I laughed.
“Well, honey, I don't know about every century. I think that might have happened once or twice in its history. Did you learn that in astronomy class?”
“Yeah! And they said that one day we will be able to travel really far away from the solar system! Maybe even to another galaxy in the future.” My heart skipped but I didn't let her see my fear. That all depended on whether humankind had a future.
“Scientific progress can be a very wonderful thing. Did you like Kipling Park?”
“Yes!” As she talked about her day in school and about Kipling Park I wondered who was following my family and where they might have to be taken to as a place of refuge before things got ugly.
“Daddy?”
“Huh? Yes, sweetie?” I replied, coming out of my disquieting thoughts. Little Mary's eyes were narrow with suspicion.
“Are you listening?” Now that hurt my feelings!
“Of course honey! Daddy's listening. What else happened at school?”
“Well, I was saying that at school I told one of the kids at recess that my dad is gone for a long time because he's fighting alien bad guys and he told me I was lying. I said I wasn't and the teacher made me stay after school in detention for telling lies.” This was the first time I was hearing about this. I felt anger build up in me.
“The teacher put you in detention because of me? I might have to have a discussion with that teacher.”
“But you really do fight aliens don't you?”
“Yes, Mary. I do. And I'm not lying, no matter what anyone else says. And neither are you. They're out there. Good ones and bad ones.”
“I don't really care about the detention, dadd
y. I knew I was right!” Mary fairly preened with pride in her dad, beaming like a ray of sunshine. I didn't quite know what to say. My own daughter was getting in trouble at school over my actions and for her courage to simply tell the truth. I was distressed on finding out about her small trials in this way but I also felt proud.
“Mary, soon things might change and I want you to know that I will always love you and your brother and your mother. What I fight, the things out there, the enemies out there, they are real. I didn't make them up and I fight them so that you guys can be safe. So that everyone can be safe everywhere. One day people who don't believe will see and understand. Listen, you don't have to tell anyone else about it, if it's going to get you into trouble, okay?”
“But I want to!”
“I know you do Marybear, but right now most people aren't ready to hear about aliens. They don't understand.”
“When will they?” I shrugged.
“I'm not sure, but it will happen. Soon, people will have to know. The aliens won't stay hidden forever. Just promise me you won't get into any more arguments at school over it. Okay?” She nodded dutifully.
“Okay. Unless it's to my bear Reese. I can't promise he won't argue. After all, he's seen them! He's been with you out there!” I laughed, a deep belly laugh. My daughter was just like me and I got the feeling this was her way of saying she wasn't going to back down.
“Right!” I heard a shift by my office door. I was sure it was Jonah. My family needed to truly understand why I was gone so long at times. I hadn't explained the importance well enough and it was having a chilling effect on family life now. But if I didn't do this, one day there would be no family. There would be no Earth with humans left on it.
I didn't want to come to a time where I would be forced to say: 'We were the Astors.' I just wondered at what cost. I looked over and saw Jonah standing by the door. He turned, scowling at us both and quickly left. I sighed. It was going to be harder to draw him out. I knew that he hated me right now. I needed to let him know I hadn't abandoned him.
“Jonah!” Mary called out. Jonah stormed off down the hall without looking back. Mary scrunched her face into a deep frown.
“He's always mad!”
“Don't worry about him. I'll talk to him later. But you'd better get ready for dinner. Go wash your hands.” I kissed her and she slid off my lap and bounded out of the office.
I went to the kitchen to help get the table set. Pam was putting the finishing touches on a green salad. The macaroni and cheese, carrots and the roast were already on the table. I took out the glass pitcher to fill it with water and ice.
“Milk, eggs, celery and grape juice are low. The freezer is also out of ice,” reminded the Virtual Voice from the refrigerator.
“Oh! Well, maybe juice, then,” I said.
“Did you get some juice after work?” asked Pam without looking at me. Oh, damn!
“Oh, no, I forgot. Sorry.” Pam made an irritated sound as I set the pitcher aside and took a stack of dinner plates from the cupboard.
“But you've been home all day, Bob. I had to take the kids to school, run errands, do laundry, bring the kids home and cook.” Her cheeks were flagged with slight color.
“Yeah, but I haven't been sitting around watching Sports Stream Live!, you know. I've been working.”
“Really? So even when you're working from home you have no time to take care of even the smallest thing for the family, besides all this running around you've been doing?” Pam's voice rose in anger. I felt my own temper rise.
“I'm doing all this running around because I want to still have a family in the future!”
“What is that supposed to mean? I see no evidence of these aliens you keep talking about! What I do know is that you aren't here for weeks or months at a time-”
“Would you keep your voice down, please-”
“Don't you dare tell me to be quiet! You could be out there with some other woman for all I know!” I stared at her in shock.
“What on earth has gotten into you? Another woman?!?”
“Yes! Like, Robin! Or Genevieve, perhaps. Who is Genevieve, anyway? I mean, really? Who is she?”
“She's a sentinel. A guardian of freedom and safety for the human race!”
“So you say!”
“We've been through this before, Pam! Why do you all of a sudden doubt me?”
“I don't know if I believe you anymore! I mean, really, look at the facts. A man who is gone on business trips for extended periods of time often enough is usually keeping a mistress or two somewhere.”
“Where would you get a ridiculous idea like that? And what other silly fantasies are floating around in your head?” Her cheeks turned beet red.
“Oh, you think it's silly, do you?”
“Hell yeah!”
“Well take it up with William Ockham! And don't you curse at me, Robert Astor!” I just gaped at her, aghast at the accusation burning in my ears before I could find my voice to speak. We hadn't had an argument in years! She stood there glaring at me with her hands on her hips.
“That's what you think I'm doing out there?”
“That's what I think you're doing out there,” she said flatly. I could feel my own face turning red while her cheeks were flushed fully scarlet, her eyes glittering. I set the plates down on the counter carefully before I was tempted to slam and shatter them on the floor.
“What's gotten into you?”
“Cold hard logic.”
“I am not cheating on you,” I said evenly. “My absence has nothing to do with another woman.”
“I don't believe you,” she said, her hands trembling. And then she whirled around, picked up the bowl of salad and left the kitchen.
Just when I thought things might start to improve, I get kicked in the teeth again. Or my backside. Take your pick.
Dinner that evening was a tense affair, to say the least. Jonah knew we were angry which seemed to increase his moodiness. I didn't think that was possible. Mary seemed oblivious. She talked on about Kipling Park and how much she wanted to go back. Jonah shot daggers at Mary; she didn't seem to notice. Thank God for little Marybear who saved dinner from being one hundred percent hostile and unfriendly to just seventy-five percent hostile and unfriendly. I had truly become an interloper in my own house. My wife rarely spoke a word except to answer Mary's questions. I said nothing at all.
And it looked like I was going to be sleeping in the guest room for the foreseeable future.
. . .
After dinner I left without a word, for Burning Man's Field, feeling betrayed because of the accusation of betrayal.
Getting out of the air taxi I became wary, looking around for the mysterious man I was to meet and I had my pistol on me for good measure. It was night and the chill in the air matched the chill I felt in my life. The black of night was softened by light fog. I walked out onto the lonely field, scanning the field and keeping my hand near my blaster, concealed under my jacket. Keeping my ears peeled, alert for anyone's presence. I noticed that the street lights that normally brightened the field were one by one fading out toward me. A strange sight.
My senses were on alert. Far ahead I saw a figure that seemed to slide in and out of the shadows, and as it approached, I saw that it was a lone man, humanoid and tall. As the figure approached I felt a growing sense of unease. I was ready to shoot at any moment now. The figure approached slowly and deliberately and then stood about twenty feet away.
“No need to shoot, Astor. I'm here at Vartan's request,” said the man. His voice was indeed as rough and guttural as it sounded on the phone, as if stones were rubbing together. But his words were clear enough and forceful, not garbled by a modifier.
“What's your real name, Darkman?”
“If you weren't who you were, I wouldn't dignify that question with a response. It's Grenu. It means dark man.” I felt foolish for asking. But I was also growing very curious about the etymology of this name. However, we had more impo
rtant things to discuss.
“You're an alien.”
“I am.” He looked human from where I stood, except his eyes were yellow. Many aliens had yellow eyes as a natural eye color. They were intense and unrelenting in their gaze. He reminded me of that bastard, Furat. But as this guy was here to help me, such thoughts were not useful. I quickly squashed the thought.
“Why here?”
“You don't know why?” I shook my head slowly. He made an impatient sound. “Underneath Burning Man's Field is an old barrier of silence, put here many years ago by a small group of anti-UN revolutionaries. It's a device that distorts and dampens sounds, especially speech, while one is standing on the field. Once, there was a device that worked with it to distort sight and visibility as well but as far as I know, that device stopped working years ago. That's why.”
“I see.” I had no idea. I made a note to investigate that at a later time. “So you have information for me?”
“About the Blackguard Project. I was told you knew something about it already.”
“A little.” He looked around furtively.
“You expecting someone?”
“There are a lot of spies about these days. You never know who's on your tail. The enemy is on the move.” He produced something from a pocket. The gust of wind whipped up and several leaves whirled around us in small dervishes before moving on. I thought I'd detected a bit of ice in the wind. He handed me a small drive.
“This contains all of the information about Blackguard up until now, from the first plans for the solar gate from Futura Technologies and their work with Sunsee and more. The security vault systems are emptied out, all information is in here. Beware. People who work on or come across these files tend to end up dead. As for the vault systems, unless you can decipher our computer code, most of it will seem like gibberish to you. I'm told you have sources who can ferret out such things?”
“Yes. I know someone who would want to take a look at the alien code.”
“You can start with the loyalist spies hiding in plain sight as senior officers, corporate middle management employees, and government agents. There are names of some of them that I've listed in an attached file. Pay special attention to all files marked with red flags. Those are for your special consideration, according to Vartan.”
Mission: Blackguard Conspiracy Page 4
