Starfire

by B. V. Larson

  After identifying themselves, they spent another twenty minutes trying in vain to talk their way in.

  At long last, a familiar face met them at the gate. A car had rolled up, and when the passenger window slid down Jackie recognized Sandeep in the driver’s seat. He greeted them tiredly. He had a few fresh bandages on his face, and he walked with a limp, but Jackie thought he didn’t look much worse than they did.

  “You sent us on a wild trip but took a shortcut yourself?” Jackie demanded.

  “I thought you would be glad to see I’d survived,” Sandeep said, with a hurt expression Jackie wasn’t entirely certain was contrived.

  “I am glad. Have you got any food?”

  “Yes, come with me.”

  They climbed into his government-issued car, leaving the truck with the guards at the gate.

  “We will fingerprint it,” Sandeep said, “but the trail will lead nowhere. The enemy is using fools—dupes paid highly for a single task. They throw them at us like jackals, paying with dead-drops and online deposits. Very difficult to trace—and really, we don’t have time for interrogations in any case.”

  “Why not?” Detective Perez asked. “What’s the hurry? The law always has time on its side. We often don’t solve big cases for years, but we win in the end.”

  Sandeep looked at him. “That’s true in domestic criminal cases. But we’re dealing with a low-level war today. A war of spies and assassins.”

  “What are they after?” Jackie asked him.

  “You, or whatever information you have on your laptop.”

  “But why?”

  Sandeep looked at her. “They must suspect you have the hard drive. Do you?”

  “Yes,” she said, handing it over to him.

  “Good,” he said. He carefully wrapped it in a gray, plastic anti-static bag before slipping it into his pocket. “I’ve been going over your projects at Blue-Sky Labs, Dr. Linscott. One of them stood out to me.”

  Jackie nodded thoughtfully. “The new propulsion system. It has to be that.”

  “Yes,” Sandeep said. “I’m glad you aren’t trying to hide things.”

  “I wouldn’t do that, not now. People are dying.”

  “You’d be surprised how many citizens turn into amnesiacs when danger threatens.”

  Detective Perez had been watching the two of them closely. “I’m in the dark. You have some kind of secret rocket? For satellites?”

  Jackie looked concerned. “It’s a defense contract. We can’t—”

  “It’s all right, Dr. Linscott,” Sandeep said. “Since I first became aware of the two of you and your involvement, I’ve run every clearance check. You both had low-level clearances before this entire episode began.”

  Jackie didn’t consider her secret clearances to be “low-level”, but she didn’t say anything. In matters of national security, clearances were complex. One didn’t simply get a score, such as “secret” or “top secret”. A given worker was normally cleared on a per-project basis. Everything was need-to-know. Just because you were cleared to work on nuclear weapons, for example, didn’t automatically mean you were given a list of U. S. agents on foreign soil. Quite the opposite, in fact.

  What did surprise her was the idea that Detective Perez had a clearance at all. She looked at him, frowning.

  “What kind of work have you done, detective, to get yourself onto the Homeland Security lists?” she asked.

  The detective smiled. “I’m ex-military, remember?”

  “He’s being modest,” Sandeep said. “He’s done a lot of field work under hazardous conditions. And he’s been in combat many times, most recently in the Iran campaign. Anyway, let me just say before the next step that you both have had your clearances upgraded, and you’ve been cleared to work on the current project. It was necessary just to debrief you properly.”

  Jackie and the detective exchanged glances. “What’s this project about?” she asked.

  Sandeep shook his head. “The briefing itself isn’t my job. I locate and retrieve. I make arrangements to get the right people into the right spots where they’re needed. Think of me as a concierge.”

  Jackie laughed tiredly. “A briefing? Now? I’m so tired I’m sick.”

  “Yes—the human factor. Our bodies must be attended to. A shame, when one thinks about it. When we most need our faculties at their sharpest, we’re drooping and out of fuel.”

  Detective Perez shook his head. Jackie could tell he was as bemused by the man’s way of looking at things as she was. “Look,” he said. “Did you just say we’re getting to rest or not?”

  “Sorry for the imprecision. The truth is Secretary Clayworth will decide the matter. I’ll relay the request.”

  “Secretary?” Perez asked.

  “Yes—do you vote, detective?”

  “Ah,” Perez said, catching on, “you’re talking about the Homeland Security Secretary? A member of the President’s Cabinet is here?”

  “Yes, she’s in from D.C. to supervise personally. She’s my boss, by the way, so I’d appreciate an attitude of cooperation and respect.”

  “I’ve got your back, Sandeep. It’s the least I could do after clobbering you on the street in Aptos.”

  “Right... Perhaps we could leave that detail out of the discussion?”

  Perez laughed.

  Sandeep stopped the car in a parking lot outside a large, fenced building and began tapping on his phone. Jackie felt herself falling asleep. She let her head nod back and closed her eyes.

  There had been so much going on, and she’d been running all night on nervous energy. She realized that she felt safe now, in a government car, in a government facility, surrounded by fences and armed guards. Under normal circumstances, she’d have been nervous inside such a place. But after the events of the last twenty four hours, she was comforted.

  Jackie’s car door opened. She blinked in the pink light of dawn. Detective Perez had opened her door, and he smiled at her as she reached a hand out to take his. She found herself trusting him above all the others—even Sandeep.

  Moving painfully, Sandeep led them to a set of glass doors. Beyond was a building surrounded by a chain link fence. Rather than a simple gate, a guardhouse had been built as the only entrance through the fence. The construction looked new to her. Even the chain-link had the bright silvery hue of new metal.

  They walked up a short flight of concrete stairs and stepped inside the guardhouse. Grim-faced guards stood behind thick glass. Wire ran through the glass in a pattern of diamonds, and she could see guns on the wall behind the men inside. Automatic weapons, shotguns—it was quite intimidating.

  “This is TA-112,” Sandeep explained, “that’s Technical Area 112. The lab is broken up into facilities like this one, but most have much lower levels of security. Could you step forward to the metal detector?”

  A setup that looked just like an airport screening station waited for them. Armed people who resembled TSA guards watched them approach. No one was smiling. They seemed to be on high alert. She could imagine why.

  They were asked to empty their pockets onto trays that went through an x-ray machine. When Detective Perez drew his gun, he did so very carefully. The guards tensed and watched him with unblinking eyes. He placed the weapon in a tray, but the conveyor belt stopped before it went inside.

  “I’m sorry,” Sandeep said. “I didn’t explain. You can’t be armed here. You were barely cleared overnight to enter this place.”

  “Right. Can you check it for me?”

  A guard took the gun, holding it pinched with gloved hands as if it were evidence of a crime—or a dead fish—and placed it into a plastic case. He snapped the case shut and locked it.

  “It will be here when you leave,” the guard said.

  Once they passed security, they reached an open area beyond the layered chain-link fences. Detective Perez eyed the fencing critically.

  “That’s electrified, isn’t it?”

  “Not the chain-link,
but the wires in between, yes,” said Sandeep.

  Jackie squinted at the fences. Between them, she could see what looked like a barbed wire fence without the barbs. There were insulating connection points, keeping the wires suspended and away from any grounding. She realized that if a person were to get over the first chain-link fence—which she now noted was topped by razor wire—they would be greeted with electricity, and then another fence.

  “This is pretty heavy security. What is this place?”

  “As I said, it’s TA-112.”

  “That doesn’t tell me anything.”

  Sandeep shrugged. “It is not supposed to be descriptive. You’ll learn more as soon as you’re briefed. To tell you the truth, I don’t know all the details. It’s not my place to know everything.”

  “Need to know only,” Detective Perez said.

  “Exactly.”

  Jackie was the last to walk through the next set of doors, entering a much friendlier atmosphere. There weren’t many people around as it was very early in the morning, but a receptionist was on duty. He nodded to them and had them sign in on a tablet. Their fingerprints were taken—again—and they were finally ushered to a room full of medical equipment. There were beds, curtains and cupboards full of supplies.

  “We aren’t a hotel, unfortunately,” Sandeep apologized. “But if you would like to rest here, this is an infirmary. There aren’t usually many personnel on duty until eight, but—ah, there you are Dr. Walker!”

  A nicely dressed man appeared and smiled at them. He had an accent—it wasn’t British, but Jackie thought it was something like that, maybe Australian. Sandeep made introductions and explained that Dr. Walker was the physician who would be treating their injuries.

  The thought of a medical bed sounded pretty good to Jackie right then. She climbed up onto the nearest of them and asked for water. A nurse appeared a few moments later with a drink and a plate of cafeteria food. After Jackie devoured the tasteless stuff, she dozed until it was time for her examination.

  Dr. Walker pulled the curtain shut and performed what she thought was an overly thorough exam. She realized he was looking for more than bumps and scrapes.

  “What do you think might have happened to me?” she asked.

  “Sorry?”

  “I’m asking why you’re checking everything.”

  Walker’s face tightened. “There have been subtle efforts,” he said. “Poisonings, tricks.”

  “Like what?”

  “Bullets laced with radioactive substances or liquid metal cores. You weren’t hit, fortunately?”

  “No…” she said, alarmed. “They’re poisoning their bullets? They really want to make sure, don’t they?”

  “I believe so. After your blood-work gets back, we’ll have a better idea. You didn’t imbibe any substances that were offered to you by an assassin, did you?”

  “No, not that I’m aware of.”

  “I see from the reports that you were close to an explosion. Was it a clean one?”

  “Yes. I mean—I’m really not sure. No one told me there was anything special about it.”

  He smiled thinly. “I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about.”

  When he left, she found she couldn’t sleep. The man had worried her all over again. She’d assumed she was safe. That here, in this place, nothing could reach her. But what if she was already dying and didn’t even know it?

  She fretted about these things over the next hour, while the facility slowly came to life. She heard increasing foot traffic out in the hallways and the rising babble of indistinct voices. Now and then a PA system announced something she found incomprehensible.

  Finally, in the second hour she fell asleep, exhausted.

  * * *

  Jackie woke up to a gentle touch. She opened her eyes and saw Detective Perez standing over her. His hand retreated from hers.

  “You feel better?” he asked.

  “I need a shower.”

  “Agreed. Already had mine. Just ask the nurse, she’ll show you the way. Don’t get hung up on the weird plumbing.”

  Frowning and uncertain what he meant, she did as he suggested. Once she stood in the shower room, she understood.

  The room was meant to handle burn victims—or perhaps chemical decontamination. There were stainless steel sinks and spritzers everywhere. Some were cupped and close together, meant to wash out a person’s eyes. Others were large-headed in enclosed chambers. The nurse directed her into one of the latter units.

  Enclosed in an air-tight capsule with metal all around and a half-circular sliding door, she could feel the change in pressure when it closed over her. The nurse watched her bathe while pretending to do something else. This was creepy enough, but Jackie also suspected that she couldn’t get out of the shower by herself. She tried experimentally as she finished up.

  Pressing a button that looked like a release, she found it only caused a buzzing sound. The nurse came to the call and opened the capsule, handing her a towel.

  Jackie eyed her suspiciously. “What’s this unit for? Decontamination?”

  “Yes,” the nurse said unapologetically. “We rarely have to use them for their intended purpose.”

  “I felt negative air pressure inside. It’s being ventilated and sucking the air out to the roof?”

  The nurse nodded vaguely. “I think so.”

  Jackie had some experience with nuclear materials. “This place handles plutonium, doesn’t it? Can you lock someone in this thing if you want to?”

  The nurse shrugged, but her smile tightened. “You’ll get your briefing soon. Can I help you get ready? We don’t want to keep Secretary Clayworth waiting.”

  “We don’t, no,” Jackie said. She told herself to stop being bitchy. She was tired and shaken up, but that was no reason to take it out on a nurse. “Sorry,” she said. “Long night.”

  “We’ve all had a lot of those lately. Come to my desk when you’re ready.”

  She left then, and Jackie did her best to make herself presentable. Her hair did nothing to cooperate. The “shampoo” the nurse had provided was probably something akin to borax. She didn’t have a hairdryer or any makeup in her purse.

  Tying her hair back tightly, she did what she could. At least she was clean and awake.

  The nurse led her to a meeting room. A red placard on the door read: Uncleared Visitors Present.

  Jackie joined the meeting, which already seemed to be in progress. Detective Perez was there. His hair looked the same as before, and she felt slightly jealous. She took a seat, and Secretary Clayworth stopped speaking. Clayworth came around to her and clasped her hands around Jackie's.

  Jackie stood up again, surprised. “Nice to meet you, Madam Secretary.”

  The woman stared for an overly long moment into Jackie's eyes, as if she were analyzing her speech. After two full seconds had passed, she smiled and nodded. She had blonde hair—real blonde, the wispy kind that leaves a face pink and freckled. Her blue eyes were dark and piercing.

  “You are the person I really wanted to meet today,” Secretary Clayworth said. “Please, sit down.”

  The woman let go of Jackie’s hands and moved back to her side of a large, steel desk.

  “I’m familiar with your work,” Clayworth said.

  “You are?”

  “Well, only your most recent efforts. Tell me, if you will, about the EM-drive?”

  Jackie froze. This woman certainly did get straight to the point. She felt a little uncomfortable. Detective Perez and Clayworth were both staring at her as if she were a particularly interesting bug on a plate.

  “Uh, there are certain non-disclosure agreements that I’m reluctant to break,” she said at last. “I brought the disk since it's evidence in a criminal case. That’s a loophole in the agreement.”

  “You like to follow the letter of the law, don’t you?” Clayworth asked.

  “Yes. Yes, I do.”

  “Good. We like that here as well,” Clayworth said. She n
odded and turned her attention to a tablet on her desk. She tapped at it in silence for a few seconds. Jackie watched her, confused.

  “Here we are,” Dr. Clayworth said. She pushed the tablet across to Jackie, who picked it up, still confused.

  “What’s this?”

  “It’s an immunity agreement. You’ve agreed to break your non-disclosure for the purpose of aiding national security. You cannot be prosecuted criminally, nor sued civilly, for this action.”

  “I haven’t agreed to anything.”

  “Well, as soon as you sign your name in the electronic signature box and type in your social, the matter will be taken care of. See there, at the bottom? You can use your finger. No pen is required.”

  Jackie paged through the document, frowning. She didn’t trust her government. She didn’t like the way they did whatever they wanted to whomever they wanted, but then pursued to the letter of the law anyone who displeased them. That said, she considered herself to be an upstanding citizen.

  “I…I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t know if I can sign this.”

  “I’m disappointed. Why did you come here? Just for refuge?”

  “Yes, that. And I thought you could get what you wanted from the hard drive.”

  “We don’t have enough time for that. We have smart people in this building, Jackie. Perhaps a few who are even as smart as you are. But what we don’t have is time.”

  Jackie sighed. “Okay, what do you want, exactly? What do you need from me?”

  “You want money?” Clayworth asked suddenly. “Is that the crux of the issue? I’m sorry I skipped that part. Here, look at this page.”

  Clayworth took the tablet from Jackie and ran her finger over it. She returned it to Jackie’s hands.

  There was an amount on the screen, and Jackie recognized her bank account number beside it. A transfer could be made with a few more taps, she had no doubt. The amount was the part she couldn’t take her eyes away from. She could pay off her house. As Blue-Sky Labs was no more, she needed something. This would last for many years.

  “That’s very generous.”