by Jeff Yee
With a slight nod, Sean indicated to Kris that he was finished.
“Okay, everyone,” said Kris. “Let’s get this next test started. Krishna, can you load our friend Marcel into his new home?”
Stacey smiled at Kris, who had picked up on the new nickname that she had given the monkey.
The team had a lot of confidence in the first phase of the experiment. After all, forward time travel had been executed many times by the same team. It was the second and third phases that would be new. They had never sent an object back in time to return to its original timeframe – roundtrip time travel. Their previous experience allowed the Tace team to flawlessly implement the pre-operation sequences for the first phase. Then, the countdown began.
Five. Four. Three. Two. One.
The indicator light on the time machine turned from green, briefly to red and then immediately to yellow. It was an indication that the monkey was on his way to the future.
Kris then looked at his watch and calculated the time difference. “We have forty-one minutes until he returns in Barney.”
The monkey was being transported three days into the future, by using Betty, the first time machine. Back in the other lab, Barney, the second time machine, had been preconfigured to bring the monkey out of backwards time travel into the present. The team would have to wait an agonizing forty-one minutes to see the result of the first roundtrip time travel. Silently, Sean asked himself, Will this work? Will we really see a monkey that has traveled to the future return back in forty-one minutes?
Slowly, Sean, Stacey and the rest of the science party passed the soldiers in the hallway and moved back into Lab Nelson, where the second time machine lay in wait. The suspenseful half hour was shortened by Ryan’s stories in North Korea. However, with one eye on Ryan, listening to his horrific tales, Sean kept his other eye fixed on the monitor capturing video inside of the time machine.
As expected, Barney was empty.
The suspense continued to grow as the deadline approached. Even the soldiers in the hallway were anxiously awaiting the final result. Being careful not to cross the doorway into the lab, the army soldiers guarding the room sat outside peering in, waiting for the countdown clock to reach zero. Finally, for the second time in less than an hour, it was time for the countdown.
Five. Four. Three. Two. One.
The indicator light went from green, briefly to red, and back to green again. Just like the backwards time travel experiment, the machine was programmed to return to green after re-acceleration so that the time machine could be unlocked to remove its contents. However, even before the time machine was unlocked to retrieve its contents, it was apparent that the experiment was a success. At the instant that the indicator light had turned back to green, the monitor displayed a wild and crazy monkey, frantically running around inside the sphere.
Cheers spread across the room like wildfire. The monkey had traveled to the future and returned. And by appearance on the monitor, he looked healthy. Sean gave high fives, handshakes and hugs to thirteen team members before finally arriving at his wife. Staring into Stacey’s eyes, he gave her a long, passionate kiss. “We did it,” he said softly.
Stacey knew what it meant. Sean was mentally preparing himself to be next. He would soon replace the monkey.
While the team continued to celebrate, Krishna slowly opened the door to the time machine to retrieve the scared monkey. Suddenly, he realized that there was a note attached to his neck, like the one that the team had placed around the rat’s neck only one-week prior.
“Hey guys, look at this,” said Krishna as he unwrapped the note. “We have another message.”
Fourteen people in the room gathered around Krishna, not knowing what to expect. He read the note.
Congratulations! The monkey survived a day in the future and now we return him back to present time.
Applause filled the room a second time; accompanied by another round of high fives. The experiment was a success!
Chapter 35
Alex Hartley stood outside the arranged meeting venue at exactly 10:00 a.m. Kris and Sean arrived at the coffee shop a minute late to find that their private investigator was already waiting for them. They were followed by two men, who despite their attempt to blend into the crowd, were clearly armed escorts protecting the Tace Technologies CEO. To not be too obtrusive, Kris’ security detail remained ten feet behind him at all times.
Sean measured the man as he walked closer to him. Alex’s big physique matched the husky voice that Sean had noticed on the phone during their first call.
“Good morning Alex,” started Kris. “This is my father. Sean Harrison.”
After an exchange of pleasantries, the three men ordered their morning coffee and took the table furthest from the entrance. Alex removed a folder from his laptop case, placed it on the table and opened its contents.
“I have good news,” said Alex as he positioned four pieces of paper on the table in front of Kris and Sean. “It was not that hard to track down. Thanks to an unnamed friend of mine, I was able to pull the call records for mobile calls made near the south end of Mission Hills Park between six-thirty and seven-thirty the evening that Ryan Graves was kidnapped.”
Sean glanced through the detailed records. There was one line of data for each call that was placed, including the phone numbers, start times and end times for each call. An hour’s worth of calls for the cell sector generated four pages worth of data.
“I immediately narrowed down the list to the general time that you suggested the call would have been placed,” continued Alex. He flipped over the first page to expose a second page with a handful of circled lines. “These are the calls that would have been made about the right time. And if you look at them further, there’s only a few calls that match the approximate length of time that you suggested.”
Sean looked at the circled numbers and noticed an arrow next to a call log recorded at 6:48 p.m. “And what’s the big arrow pointing to this particular call here?” he asked.
“That’s it!” exclaimed the private investigator. “That’s the one.”
“How do you know that this is this one?”
Alex explained, “The other calls about the same time and length seem like legitimate calls. The phone numbers are registered to known users on the sending and receiving ends. But after I investigated this one in particular, it was too easy. The call was placed from an anonymous prepaid SIM card, just like the original phone the FBI found that had called Ryan. When I dug deeper, I found that the SIM card was purchased and activated the same day along with two other SIM cards. Care to take a guess?”
Kris jumped in with the answer to the question. “Was one of them the first mobile phone that was used? The one to call Ryan at the restaurant that was later found in the van?”
“Yes, very good. So that was the nail in the coffin. This is the phone that we’re looking for. How about the second SIM card? Any ideas?”
Kris thought about it for a second, and then answered, “The person that they called with status that evening!”
“Yes!” Alex responded, pointing to the receiving phone number on the highlighted line. “It was a coordinated operation to communicate through these anonymous, prepaid mobile phones. One to call Ryan. And the other two phones to call each other when the mission was completed.”
“Any other calls placed with either of these two phone numbers?” asked Sean.
Alex shook his head. “No, already thought of that. It was just this one call that was made on both ends. The phones were presumably disconnected after that so that their location could not be traced.”
Sean was frustrated. “Well… that doesn’t get us anywhere, does it?”
“Don’t jump to conclusions,” said Alex. “We may not know who purchased the mobile phone, but we do know where the call was received. And it’s not here in San Diego.”
“Where?” Kris and Sean asked in unison.
“Washington D.C.”
“No!” exclaimed Sean in disbelief.
“Specifically, the Hart Senate Building. They have their own cell towers, so we know that the call was received inside the senate building.”
Kris and Sean were speechless. Stunned, they looked at each other in amazement. Sean kept his thoughts to himself. Could our government be behind the kidnapping? A conspiracy? Who?
Breaking the silence, Alex requested, “I’d like to take this to the next step and go to Washington. They should have security logs of everyone that went in and out of the building. It would have been close to ten o’clock on a Friday night east coast time when the call was received. I don’t know what the work hours are like in Congress, but hopefully we’ll find that it’s a short list of people that were in the building at the time the call was received.”
“Of course,” Kris replied. “You’ll have access to any resources that you need. Please, let’s get this resolved. We want to know who answered that call and who was behind the operation.”
Sean interjected, “I’m going to be in Washington next week. If there’s anything that I can do to help, just let me know.”
“Got it,” said Alex. “And thanks, Sean. I’ll inform you as soon as I have more information.”
After reaching agreement on a new plan, Alex Hartley left without finishing his latte. He was already on his way to make reservations to the nation’s capital, leaving Kris and Sean sipping their drinks in astonishment.
Watching the private investigator leave the coffee shop, Sean turned to Kris. “Do you think…”
Sean stopped himself from completing his sentence.
“Think what?” asked Kris.
“Never mind,” he replied. “It’s pure speculation on my part. Let’s wait to see what Alex comes back with first.”
Chapter 36
For a dinner meeting with White House Press Secretary, Meg Jennings, Senator Cordeiros’ assistant had selected a restaurant conveniently located halfway between the Hart Senate Office Building and the White House along Pennsylvania Avenue. The Capital Grille was a terrific fine dining selection for both its proximity and its nationally renowned dry aged steaks.
“Right this way, Senator,” said the hostess, showing Cordeiros and his guest to their seats. In many restaurants, their fame would have offered them convenient perks. However, at the Capital Grille, politicians were a dime a dozen and so the senator and the press secretary were shown to a small, intimate table on the main floor of the restaurant. Any conversation between the senator and his guest was naturally dampened by the sounds from a large party being held in the Wine Room, only twenty yards from their table.
“It’s beautiful here,” said Meg, raising her voice a notch to be heard over the laughter echoing from the party. “I love this place and love the old fashioned decorations and architecture. In these busy times, it’s refreshing to see a bit of the old.”
Cordeiros agreed and then got right to business. Without wasting any time for social chit-chat, he asked, “Meg, I can brief you on the latest from the hearings and then I’d love to get an update from you to get an understanding of what you’re hearing at the White House. Is that okay?”
“I’d love an update,” she replied. “So tell me, what’s the latest?”
“Tomorrow, we’ll complete our second week of the hearings. I think we’ll be able to wrap it up in the next couple of weeks. Perhaps less.” Cordeiros stopped to watch the waiter pour water into his glass.
“That’s great,” said Meg. “And what have you learned so far?”
“Well, at the halfway point in our hearings, I’d say that we’re dealing with very scary technology here. This little machine in San Diego has the ability to change the world. The interviews have been eye-opening and the potential scenarios we’ve been discussing are absolutely mind-boggling.”
“Like what? Can you give me an example?”
“One of the specialists that we interviewed suggested that we could have a mass immigration issue on our hands. With unlimited transport to and from the future, what if people from the future like our present time better than their time? Could we have billions of people migrate immediately to our present time? If our population swelled, we would not be able to support everyone.”
The inquisitive Meg Jennings enjoyed collecting information to distribute to the media. Although the senate hearings were still in progress, getting a head start on the high-profile proceedings was very helpful in her job. It was also helpful that she was single, because her entire life was focused on her work. The tall, blonde and stunningly attractive press secretary would have had her choice of men, if she had the time. But her career came first and she was thrilled to be in the White House. For Meg, dinner meetings to obtain information were quite common. Her ability to extract information from knowledgeable sources and present them articulately to the media had allowed her career to flourish. Using her quick wit, she joked with the senator, “Well, think about the benefits of having a larger population to tax!”
Cordeiros did not find her joke amusing. He was intentionally giving her negative information to feed the public’s hysteria. Yet, she was joking with him. He replied, “That’s just one of many examples. We’ll have a report available with our conclusions shortly, but there’s one thing that I know for certain. This is potentially the largest threat our world has ever seen, and we need to be very, very careful when we decide how it is used and by whom.”
The pair continued to exchange information over a steak dinner and a bottle of chardonnay. With Meg’s unrestricted access to information, she had the ability to brief the senator on the many inquiries that the United States had received regarding its discovery of a solution for time travel. Throughout dinner, she complained about the deluge of questions from leaders of foreign nations that wanted to understand the American government’s position on the matter. Meg also briefed Cordeiros on lobbyist activities – those that represented Corporate America – as they positioned themselves and their clients to benefit from any new laws. And then there was Meg’s favorite – the fanatical cults – who wanted an immediate ban on time travel. It had been a very busy and interesting month for Meg.
Meg summarized their discussions, “The bottom line is that all of these groups have a keen interest in your hearings and the results that you’ll be producing.”
Cordeiros nodded. It was exactly what he wanted to hear to stroke his ego. He was in control and everyone was watching him. Understanding that he was in a position of extraordinary power, he knew that it was an opportune time to suggest his proposal. “Meg, I want to run a potential scenario past you,” he said calmly as he sipped his wine. “The committee is exploring the possibility of a delegation to travel to the future. One that represents our current time.”
“A delegation? Like the delegation that we just put together to visit the Middle East?”
“Something like that,” responded Cordeiros. “Actually it’s a good analogy, come to think of it. Do you typically travel with those delegations?”
“Sometimes.”
“Well, then. You’d be the perfect person for the job. What do you think about accompanying two government officials to the future and to be the first woman to travel in time?”
“Two others? Why two?”
Cordeiros finished his glass of wine and answered the question. “I don’t know if you’ve seen the time machine at Tace, but I’m assuming three is a good number to fit inside the machine comfortably.”
“And who are the other two?”
“Given my history with politics and my knowledge of time travel, I will propose that I lead the delegation. And, since we don’t know what we might run into in the future, I’m suggesting that our military have a representative for the third member of the delegation.”
Meg clasped her hands together and cracked the knuckles in each finger. Before answering, she took another sip of wine. “Well, I have to say that I am flattered. It’s something that I’ve never considered before, so you’ll
have to give me some time to think about it.”
“No problem.”
“Of course, we’d also have to ask my boss, the President, for permission as well. But let’s take it one step at a time. I need to think about it first.”
“Understood. We have at least a few weeks until we publish our findings, so if you can get me an answer before then, I’d appreciate it.”
Cordeiros sat through dessert, unable to tell from Meg’s expressions if she was seriously considering the proposal. Her smile could have meant that she was flattered to be considered for the job, or that she was actually thinking about the possibility of making history.
Meg was halfway through her cheesecake when Cordeiros pushed subtly to get a reaction. “Just think about the history books that will record your name as the first woman to travel in time,” he said, trying to get a positive acknowledgement. “White House Press Secretary is a great accomplishment, but there’s a lot of people before you that have sat in your seat. However, the first woman to travel in time? There can only be one.”
Meg laughed it off. Without giving away her position on the subject, she replied, “How do you know that we’d be the first to travel in time? The U.S. may not necessarily be first.”
“What?” asked a very surprised Senator Cordeiros. “What have you heard?”
“We have intelligence that every industrialized nation is quickly putting together a time travel program. It’s like the nuclear race. You can’t afford to be the country without the technology. And although it looks like a long shot for most of these countries to produce something soon, we have reports that China may be very close behind us.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Remember that according to Tace Technologies, they got their original idea from the Chinese. They were likely already in process before we even announced that we had a solution.”
