“Brigadier General Knight,” the man said. After dealing so long with the booming voice of General McGregor, this man’s voice seemed absurdly weak.
Donovan fought the urge to laugh at him.
“I’ve been expecting you. Please sit down,” the past—present—General said as he took his own seat behind the desk.
Donovan sat, having an intense sensation of déjà vu.
“I am General Cornelius Umar, predecessor to General Hesekiel McGregor. It is my understanding that you will be briefing me—and a small team that I will personally select—about this case. I received a message from General McGregor, but I’m afraid he didn’t give me very many details. All I know is that there is a biological threat that needs to be prevented.”
“I’ll be briefing the both of us, sir,” Donovan replied. “I don’t know much, myself. I was sent here on the condition that I know nothing about the mission until I arrived. Speaking of which, what year is this?”
“2180.” General Umar said.
“Eighty-two years.” Donovan could not comprehend that he had actually travelled back that amount of time.
“Yes. Quite a long time ago, eh?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Shall we get started?” General Umar looked expectant.
“Oh—yes—the information is here on my watch, sir.”
“Your watch?” General Umar said. “They still have watches eighty-two years from now? I would have thought they’d come up with something new by then.”
“They have,” Donovan said. “They’re called Liao Inserts—a watch inside your body, basically. It requires a minor surgery—they insert tiny pieces into your hands and ear. The screen appears on your palm—or palms, if you hold them together to get a bigger screen.
“Inserts are connected to everything, but so is my watch—it’s my phone, the key to my car and my house, my credit card, my full time nurse, and my black clearance card that enabled me to be sent back in time.”
Those last words felt absurd coming out of his mouth. Sent back in time.
“We still use watches for all that, too—except the nurse thing. We don’t have that kind of technology yet. What does it do, monitor your heartbeat?”
“Yes, and my blood. It can do that without breaking the skin. So it catches illnesses before they fully develop. With technology like that, I don’t think Inserts are all that necessary for me.”
General Umar’s eyes were round like a child’s. “Fascinating. I would love to learn more about 2258, but I’m afraid this isn’t the appropriate time. We have more important matters to attend to. Can you send the brief to me?”
“Sure.” Donovan scanned through the screen on his watch until he found the brief in his inventory. He pulled up his email and typed in the address that General Umar gave him. He hit send and waited for the high-pitched ping that meant it had gone through. Instead, the watch beeped rapidly three times. A notice appeared:
ACTION RESTRICTED
General Umar nodded. “I guess General McGregor doesn’t want that stuck in the past for someone to find. Fair enough. You have text reader on that watch I presume?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Let’s hear it. Then I will decide who would be best to assign to this case.”
Donovan selected the file and expanded it until a 3D version floated in front of him. He would read along with the audio.
He hit the play button. General McGregor’s voice came through clearly, as if he were standing right next to them.
Good evening, General Umar, Brigadier General Knight. I’m General Hesekiel McGregor, four-star general in command of the United States Army and Space Force in the year 2258.
This is a highly classified information brief. No one outside the addressees may know the contents of this file except by the disclosure of General Umar. No copies shall be made of this brief for any reason. The purpose of this briefing is to bring you up to date on the investigation of the biological attacks on the United States, which spread to the entirety of the human race between the years 2223 and 2258.
The years 2223 to 2258 marked the exact time that Donovan had spent in the army.
This investigation has its roots in the discovery of a benign virus that attached itself to the genes of one Private Donovan Knight.
General Umar gave him an accusing look. Donovan didn’t meet his eye. If General Umar didn’t like that, then he certainly wouldn’t like what was coming next. It seemed General Umar was willing to wait patiently until the recording finished—he didn’t make a sound, though his face became stonier as each word spilled out of Donovan’s watch.
We kept an eye on Donovan from that day forward. For many years it seemed that the virus would remain harmless. However, in 2228, we began to find affected genes in other soldiers. We called for an immediate quarantine, but the virus continued to spread in spite of our efforts.
Donovan remembered that. He had been infuriated when the army soldiers burst into his home, frightening his children with their alien-like masks. They lined the walls with a biologically impenetrable plastic and sealed them off. They were stuck there for weeks. The army provided cheap groceries when their food ran out. They ate beans and vegetables out of cans for a month before they were allowed to leave the apartment again.
There were reports that doctors were discovering it in the genes of civilians as well. In a matter of weeks, thousands of people were infected. It was clear that the quarantine was pointless so we terminated it.
Top government officials, including myself, consulted on the issue and we decided that there would be an ongoing investigation into the source of the virus. The first known case was Private Donovan Knight, who had since been promoted to Staff Sergeant. We kept a very close eye on his movements and on his blood, but there was nothing suspicious about him or any of his acquaintances. We’d thought that an enemy of Donovan’s had possibly done this to him—maybe the person was hiding in plain sight, pretending to be his friend. But we found nothing. The virus remained dormant.
Donovan was a little disturbed that General McGregor had had him spied on for so many years, that he hadn’t told Donovan that the virus had spread. Didn’t the General trust him?
Staff Sergeant Knight was cleared as the source of the virus when I received a message in the time machine in 2233. It read: “It’s not Donovan. Investigate Tobias Knight.” It was signed “Code T.M.A.C.P.U.—May 31, 2258”
Donovan paused the feed. He stared at General Umar, who gave him a quizzical look.
“Tobias Knight? Are you two…?”
Donovan didn’t want to say it out loud, didn’t want to believe what he’d just heard, but the words came out of his mouth as if of their own accord. “He’s my grandfather.”
The General frowned. “Your grandfather? If that’s true then why did General McGregor assign you to this case? You’re too close.”
Donovan just shook his head. What the hell was going on here? “I don’t know. Like I told you, I didn’t know what the mission was about until now. I don’t know what General McGregor was thinking. Maybe there’s an answer somewhere in the brief. There has to be an explanation.”
“Are you all right?” General Umar said. “You look like you’re going to be sick.”
Donovan was. He felt his stomach churning with nausea. He didn’t feel like himself. He wasn’t usually this reactive. He took a deep breath and gathered his emotions under control. “I’m fine.”
General Umar looked skeptical.
“I’m okay. I just—that was unexpected.”
“I daresay.”
“It can’t be true. My grandfather would never do this.”
Where was the proof? If they were going to accuse his grandfather, they had to at least present evidence.
“We can continue when you feel ready. But if it gives you any comfort, your grandfather will be okay for now—he’s innocent until proven guilty. He would still have to go to trial.”
“It’s not his safety I�
�m worried about, it’s his name.” His grandfather was no longer in a position to defend himself.
The General raised his eyebrows. “The best way to defend his name is to get to the bottom of this virus. I know Tobias personally—I never would have guessed he’d do something like this. But they wouldn’t send a message to the past for nothing. We have to complete the mission. Then we’ll know what’s what.”
Donovan, seeing no way around it, pressed the play button, trying his best to listen objectively. He had to come up with his grandfather’s defense. Whatever evidence they had—it was wrong. He would find some way to dispute it.
As General Umar already knows, the acronym stands for Time Manipulation and Catastrophe Prevention Unit. The members of this Unit at all times are the President of the United States, the Four-Star General of the U.S. Army and Space Force, the Lieutenant General of the U.S. Marines, the Admiral Chief of the U.S. Navy, and the U.S. General Air Force Chief of Staff.
Brigadier General Knight, the second you became aware of the existence of time travel, you were inducted into this unit. There are strict laws governing the use of time travel, and I expect you to familiarize yourself with them A.S.A.P. I attached another file to your watch for this purpose.
I had no idea at the time, but now I can only guess that the T.M.A.C.P.U. message was sent to me by a future version of myself—it’s dated only a few weeks from today—which means that I’m going to be running into trouble really soon.
When I received the message twenty-five years ago, I assembled the T.M.A.C.P.U. We followed the order on the message. We investigated Tobias Knight and pretended to still investigate Staff Sergeant Knight for the sake of appeasing the nation’s leaders, who had no knowledge of the message. We didn’t find anything at first. Tobias led a completely normal life—for a genius scientist. For years we almost convinced ourselves that he was innocent. But the message from the future couldn’t have been a mistake. We kept investigating.
In 2232, Tobias began to lose his memory. He faltered for long minutes when he gave talks and speeches around the world. Sometimes, he wouldn’t even recognize his own family.
In 2238, Tobias was admitted to the permanent psychiatric ward at Providence Saint John’s Hospital. The doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him. We became ever more doubtful that Tobias was the source of the virus. He came up clean everywhere we looked.
It took years of digging. We had to track down old friends, who were few, and family, who were all dead. The clues finally led us to what we were looking for.
In 2241, we discovered Tobias’s secret lab. In it, we found documents that revealed that he experimented with cloning and the creation of human-friendly viruses, both of which activities are illegal. In addition, we discovered underdeveloped relatives to the benign virus that now plagues us. There were detailed design plans and manuals for Liao Inserts. That’s how he did it—he hacked those systems and programmed them to construct the virus directly inside the body. Those who had Inserts, which was nearly everyone, had the virus. Those who didn’t were virus-free. We suspect that he gave it to Brigadier General Knight directly.
It was certain that Tobias Knight created the virus and infected the human race with it. We didn’t know its purpose at the time, but it couldn’t be anything good considering the message from the future. The option of revealing our investigation to Tobias and interrogating him was lost due to his illness. So we had to go on what we had.
We confiscated everything from Tobias’s old lab and began studying the materials. Someone came up with the idea of putting the old virus into an isolated time machine. It doesn’t actually send anything through time but speeds up or slows down time only within the space of the machine. When the virus had experienced a simulation of thirty years, it began destroying human cells.
We don’t know why Tobias did this—we can’t question him now—but he has attacked the entire human race. He is now facing charges of treason and conspiracy. It won’t do much good—he won’t even know that he’s been caught.
There is, as yet, no cure for his invention. Everyone on the planet may very well die if a solution isn’t found.
Brigadier General Knight, you were selected for this mission because you know your grandfather better than anyone. The two of you were very close before he became sick. We’re hoping that you will have an edge, will have insights into the way his mind works. We sent you back to find Tobias in his right state of mind.
If he has already created the virus, then you are to interrogate him and discover the potential whereabouts of a cure, or, failing that, you are to stop him from creating it in the first place—at all costs.
Succeeding at this, you will return to your proper time period.
I know this will be hard for you, Donovan. This is the reason I made you accept the mission before telling you about it—I was afraid that you would not agree. I would have gone myself, but I already exist in the year 2180—in fact, I should be a Colonel in the A.S.F. I can’t risk running into myself.
You’re the best we’ve got. This is for the sake of the world—don’t forget that.
Find a cure, Donovan, or the human race will become extinct.
Chapter 5
“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?”
“Who will guard the guards themselves?”
—Juvenal
May 4, 2176
Fort Belvoir, VA
Donovan Knight
With shaking hands, Donovan hit the stop button to prevent the brief from playing all over again. His insides had turned to mush. He felt like he was going to vomit.
How could this be happening?
There was no way this could be real. It had to be a setup. There had to be a reasonable explanation. The Tobias he knew was strict, maybe even ruthless at times, but this was ridiculous. To say he was a psychopath out to destroy the human race was just… crazy. The grandfather he knew wanted to help the human race, not destroy it. Maybe the whole thing had been an accident. Maybe the virus was meant to help people but had gone wrong.
Donovan stared into his lap.
Breathe. Stay calm. Don’t panic. Think objectively.
After a few long minutes of complete silence in which General Umar just looked at him, Donovan spoke.
“I’ll agree to investigate my grandfather,” he said. “But I’m not going to hurt him. He’s going to tell me the truth. Then this whole charade will be over.”
General Umar didn’t respond to his words. His face said that he thought it would do him no good.
“I’ll have you escorted to your quarters now. You can review the laws of time travel and get some rest. If your mind will let you. We’ll reassemble tomorrow and decide what to do.”
General Umar pushed a button on his desk. A voice came through some hidden speaker.
“Yes, General Umar?”
“Will you please escort Brigadier General Knight to his quarters?”
“Yes, sir.”
The speaker turned off with a click. “He doesn’t know where you’re really from. No one does except me. Everyone here has been led to believe that you’re an Army Specialist from this time period brought in to help on a special case. They don’t know what the case is about, but they know it’s important enough that you teleported directly into my office.”
The General pointed into the corner. There was a narrow tube large enough to fit one person. It was teleportation machine. It looked much like the time machine that was hidden in the wall.
“Keep your watch on. I need to be able to communicate with you at all times.”
General Umar gave Donovan his phone number and told him to memorize it.
“Yes, sir.” More than anything Donovan just wanted to get out of there and have time to think to himself.
The Private, whose name Donovan was too preoccupied to remember, led him to what would be his room for however long it took him to meet with his grandfather and get the necessary information out of him. He didn’t expec
t that it would take long. In 2176, his grandfather was fifty-four years old—already a well-known scientist for having created teleportation in 2157. It was odd to think that he was older than his own grandfather.
The government had already recruited Tobias so Donovan would have no problem finding where he lived. It was just a matter of knowing how much he could tell his grandfather without breaking any time-traveling laws.
The Private sent Donovan’s room key to his watch. Donovan waved his wrist over the scanner under the doorknob and it beeped green, unlocking.
“You’ll find that you have rather extensive accommodations, fitting someone of your rank. There is a map and directory of the base inside your desk drawer.”
“Thank you.” Donovan quickly dismissed the Private, assuring him that he didn’t need any assistance.
When he was gone Donovan went straight for the twin bed in the right corner, which was unusually comfortable. He lay on his back and stared at the smooth white ceiling. It was his habit to thoroughly examine his living quarters when on a mission—get settled into the place, check out the base if he hadn’t been there before—but right then he needed quiet. He needed to lay there and do nothing.
He still couldn’t truly believe that his grandfather was at fault. He played through the brief again, letting the facts run through his mind:
They had found an older version of the virus in Tobias’s lab.
They found other human-friendly viruses, the purposes of which they didn’t know.
They found design and operation manuals of Liao Inserts.
They found various paraphernalia indicating that his grandfather had experimented with cloning.
These were the facts, but what did they mean? Certainly, they were suspicious. Certainly, they required some type of government punishment, but had they fit all the clues together accurately?
Yes, maybe his grandfather did create the viruses, but did that mean for sure that his intent was to destroy the human race? Wasn’t it possible that he had created the virus to cure common illnesses? To strengthen the human body rather than harm it?
The Legend of Things Past (Beyond Pluto SciFi Futuristic Aventures Book 1) Page 6
