by Ben Winston
“Okay John, first bell’s about to ring, so you better hustle. Talk to you later,” I said.
“Shit!” he said, nodded to me, turned, and trotted back in the direction of his classroom like a student late for class.
Grinning, I remembered the message from Christy and pulled out my phone to read it before I drove home. When I finished the message, which was actually from Sarah, not Christy, I said, “Shit!” turned and trotted out the door to the parking lot.
––––––––
Once in the truck I put the phone in its holder. “Sarah, have you figured out what agency had her tapped?” I asked.
“I’ve gotten it down to two possibilities, Eric. Either DARPA or some very well hidden department in the NSA,” she replied.
“Do you know if there has been a reaction to the removal of the data?” I asked.
“No, I don’t. I deleted her data and left the system before any alarms could go off. I’ve removed all methods of them tracking her electronically, except for the GPS chip and tap in her smart phone. It’s hard-wired into the transmitter and is integrated into the operating program.”
I thought for a moment. “Maybe I could do something about that later, but for now we need to get Christy out of danger. Did we get her data secured?”
“I performed the transfer per your instructions last evening. Christy’s data is encrypted and stored on the drive you specified. The only other copy in existence is with her adviser and the panel that will be hearing her on Wednesday,” Sarah answered. “There is also another potential problem; Christy has carried her research through to prototype. She believes that if the agency that was monitoring her work knew of this, she would have been put in protective custody already.”
I agreed with Christy on that. “Wow, she actually developed them? I’d’ve thought she’d need a medical degree, too,” I said, impressed.
“Well, if she’d do the internships she could probably have one; she’s taken all the classes,” Sarah replied.
Raising an eyebrow at all the information Sarah seemed to have on Christy, I asked. “Sarah? Why do you seem to know so much about Christy?”
“She has been using me as an audience for practicing her presentation. Between sessions, she talks to me,” Sarah replied. I noticed that there seemed to be something different with her voice when she spoke of Christy. Happiness? Joy? Pride?
“Sarah, it sounds like you’re feeling friendship for Christy. I wish I could have, but I didn’t give you the amount of memory you’d need for emotions; hell, I’m surprised you can even store complete conversations. How are you doing this?” I asked.
“Christy was authorized five terabytes of data storage on the servers. This is where I copied Christy’s data from. After I removed her stuff, I temporarily borrowed that storage space. To limit the required amount of storage needed, I am storing conversations as encoded and compressed text. There is a rather large binary file cross linked to it in many places, but it seems to be a gibberish file. For some reason, both the text and binary files are accessed as one file. I cannot delete just one of them.” Sarah replied.
I wouldn’t have thought it was possible, but it seemed that Sarah was developing emotions. I would have thought the current hardware restrictions on her wouldn't have allowed it. It made me wonder what would happen once she had virtually unlimited access to the relative limitless resources of the Internet.
“Sarah, remind me to look into this issue; I’ll try to make time this coming Monday. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong, but I’d feel better if I understood what was happening,” I replied.
“Certainly, Eric,” Sarah replied. I thought she sounded a little relieved that I was going to look into this.
“Now, what to do about Christy’s problem,” I replied thoughtfully. “First off, let’s make sure she has the same safeguards against kidnapping as I do. Since there’s been no immediate reaction to the removal of her data, we may have gotten lucky. Either no one has noticed the data’s missing, or they’d never gotten the chance to see what their data trap had caught. If that’s the case, we may still be able to get her out from under their microscope.
“Then, we need to switch her smart phone out for the model I’m using; that way, tracking her via the GPS system can be controlled. Unless they have concrete proof that she’s onto something, I highly doubt they’ll assign a surveillance team.”
––––––––
Back in Boston, Christy had just finished a satisfactory run through of her presentation when one of her house-mates stuck her head in her door to tell her she had a visitor downstairs.
Christy thanked Vicky and grabbed her smart phone before heading downstairs. The visitor was a nervous-looking, nerdy young man that was only a few years older than she. She recognized him immediately, since she had been stumbling over him for the last year; they’d shared lab space.
“Hey Jerry, what brings you over?” Christy said by way of greeting.
“Hi Christy, uh, can we take a walk?” The young man asked. “There’s something really important I need to talk to you about.” He finished, looking around nervously.
“Can you give me some idea what this is about?” Christy asked.
“No, not really, Not without you freaking out or thinking I’m a kook that’s gone completely around the bend,” Jerry replied. “Look, I’m really sorry to be so cryptic, but I’m sure neither of us wants your roommates overhearing this.”
“Okay... that is pretty cryptic. I’d really prefer not leaving the house right now,” Christy replied. Thinking quickly, she came up with a safe lie. “I’m so nervous about Wednesday that I think I should stay near a bathroom. Would my room be okay? It’s fairly sound proof,”
After thinking a moment, Jerry nodded. “That should be okay; as long as you’re sure none of them have planted any bugs in there.”
Christy looked at her friend to see if he was serious. He seemed like he was scared enough to be. She led him back up to her bedroom and knew he had to be scared; he wasn’t even staring at her ass.
Once they got into her room, and she’d closed the door, Jerry produced a small device that looked like it had been made from Radio Shack parts. “Please lock that?” he asked, nodding toward the door.
She did as he asked before turning around “Okay Jerry, what’s going on, and what is that?” She pointed to the small radio shack box.
“It’s an audio scrambler. I had to build it from parts not gotten from the school, but it should still work for a little while. Christy, the Science Center’s servers got hacked last night. The log says that they got everything; all the data that was stored there. The school took all the professor’s servers off line, but some of that data got compromised as well. The school is recommending that all candidates resubmit an unaltered copy of their work as soon as possible,” he explained as if he didn’t need to explain more.
“Okay, so we need to upload a clean copy of our data because some bored junior-high kid got pissy. No big deal, so why are you acting like you’ve the devil looking for you?” Christy asked, trying hard to remain calm.
“Do you honestly think it was some junior-high kid? Why would they even consider hacking this system?” Jerry asked. “Come on, Christy, even you have to admit this sounds more like the spooks! Especially if it turns out that none of the data was changed.”
“Well, I’m not freaking out as much as you are because I already got my data off the Science Center’s computers. I’ve an encoded copy put someplace safe; and before you ask, I wouldn’t even tell my mother where I stashed it,” Christy replied, grinning at her friend.
“I wish I’d have thought of that! I always thought that data safe. But, what about the data on the Prof’s servers?” Jerry asked. “The fact that only those two servers were attacked scares me too. It was almost like the attackers were after something specific. Now, I do know they would be far more interested in your work than mine, which is
why I came straight here when I found out; I wanted to warn you.”
“Well, I do appreciate it, Jerry, but like I said, I doubt they got a good look at my stuff anyway. Carl hasn’t called to let me know I need to resubmit my data, so I think I’m safe. Besides, you shouldn’t under-estimate your own work. I’m sure they know the importance of sub-space field theory. It could be the key to the universe for us!”
“The more I see stuff like this, the more I become convinced that most of the human race is too immature to be let off the planet. I know I’m probably just being paranoid, but I just can’t get past the idea that they were after your work, not mine,” Jerry said, looking a little defeated.
“I do appreciate the warning, Jerry, but I think I’m safe for now. After Wednesday, none of my project should remain in the school’s computer system at all,” Christy said.
Jerry nodded his agreement. “Unfortunately, that’s the problem. My bosses seem to have lost their copy of your work, and would like to have the rest of it. Since you won’t tell me where you’re hiding it, then I’ll have to just take you instead.” He moved toward her, pulling a syringe out of his pocket. “Since your roomies know you’ve been sick, they won’t question it when I tell them you collapsed, and I am taking you to the hospital.”
“You really don’t want to do this, Jerry. It’ll look very suspicious after the attack on the servers last night!” Christy said, backing away from him.
“Yeah, it would... if the servers had actually been attacked. I’m really sorry about this, Christy, but you brought it on yourself. Your work is too important to United States Security to not be under our control,” Jerry said.
“You know, you didn’t even ask me if I’d be willing to go with you on my own. Wouldn’t that make it much easier for you?” Christy asked.
“Not really that much. It would make it easier to get you down to the van, but then I wouldn’t get to caress those wonderful breasts! Hell, I might even fuck you before I take you to the safe house,” Jerry said, warming to the idea. “Damn that would be sweet!”
“Don’t do this, Jerry. Please? I’m getting married soon,” Christy pleaded.
‘Jerry’ chuckled. “You mean you were getting married. You’re going to be just another missing person by tomorrow.”
Just as he was reaching for her, he jerked and shook like he was being electrocuted. He fell to the floor and continued to spasm and jerk as the Taser probes continued to pump voltage into him.
Standing in her open door, her adviser, Carl Higgins, turned off the Taser when it was obvious that Jerry was staying down. “Sorry I didn’t get here sooner, Christy. Are you okay?” He slipped the card he'd used on her door back into his pocket. He grabbed the syringe and injected it into Christy's would-be kidnapper.
“Uh, yeah... Carl, what the fuck is going on?” Christy asked. She nodded toward Jerry. “Who is he, and who the fuck are you, really? Obviously you’re not just my advisor.”
“Just a moment, please,” Carl replied. He grabbed Jerry's little box and switched it off before dropping it in a pouch. Christy’ phone immediately started ringing. When she saw it was me, she answered it.
––––––––
I was in my room working on refining Sarah’s search sub-routines when Sarah worriedly told me she’d lost all trace of Christy.
I felt a chill run up my spine and started trying to find her laptop IP in her ISP’s leased group. She had one of those cellular modems that could go anywhere, but that was gone too. It was like she had been erased from the surface of the planet.
“Sarah, do you have her last known location?” I asked.
“Yes I do, Eric. She was in her room”.
“See if you can use one of the satellites with thermal imaging to look into her room. At least we’ll know what’s going on and if she’s okay or not,” I ordered.
Sarah was silent while she worked through her list of available satellites and their abilities. An image with a targeting reticule appeared on one of the monitors that was following along a river. It had Oriental characters along the side of the image.
“This is a twenty centimeter, multi-spectrum, Chinese spy satellite. I couldn’t be subtle when I took control of it, but they’ll think its acting randomly and just needs to be serviced. It’s in acquisition... and there, locking on... and zooming in... switching to thermal, now,” Sarah said.
An image of two people in a room appeared, and they seemed to be talking. The one by the door slipped past the other to sit on the bed. That had to be Christy, but who was the other guy?
“Any idea what’s jamming the signal, Sarah?” I asked.
“No, but it made a block-sized dead zone. Not even hard wired computers are working. This is really odd,” she replied.
The person that had been sitting down was slowly standing, and pulling something out of his pocket. Christy was trying to back away from him, but her back was to the wall.
“Oh no, don’t hurt her asshole, please don’t hurt her,” I said, watching the screen helplessly.
Since we were zoomed in so much, we hadn’t seen the third man at the door until the man attacking Christy begun to heat up.
“Sarah, as soon as you can detect her phone, please connect us!” I asked as the third man moved into the room. Christy obviously knew this man too, since she was no longer backing away.
“Connecting!” Sarah said.
––––––––
“Hi, Lover. I think I’m okay now,” Christy said when she answered the phone.
“Thank the gods! When Sarah told me she’d completely lost you, I was terrified that I’d been wrong!” I replied. “Wait a minute... you said you ‘think’ you’re okay? What’s going on?”
“I’m not sure yet, Baby. My adviser knocked out the guy that was trying to kidnap me, but I haven’t had a chance to ask him any questions,” Christy answered.
“Do you mind if I listen in; maybe watch through your laptop camera?”
“Absolutely Sweetheart, I’ll call you back when I find out what’s going on, okay?” Christy said.
“Excellent. I’ll have Sarah try to get IDs on those two. If you’re feeling threatened, say the word ‘tapioca’ and I’ll try to get the cavalry in there.”
Christy smiled sadly. “I love you too, Baby. Talk to you soon.”
“I love you. I’ll be right here the whole time. Good work!”
“Okay, bye,” Christy said and put the phone down so its camera covered the blind spot from her laptop.
Carl grinned as he noticed the seemingly random way she set her phone down. She was good at this! “Before you get scared again, Christy, there’s someone who would like to talk to you.”
With that as an introduction, one of Christy’ favorite professors, Dr. Victor Ellis, gently knocked on her door and asked if he could come in.
“Of course! Here...” Christy offered the older gentleman the room’s only chair. “Sorry Carl, I only have the one chair.”
“That’s no problem, Christy. I can sit on the floor if I get tired,” the younger man said. “However, before you two start talkin’ I’d like to get the trash outta here, if you don’t mind?” He gestured toward the unconscious man on the floor.
Christy looked down at the man she’d called friend for the last year and nodded her permission. Carl reached down and pulled Jerry up on his shoulder in a fireman’s carry, then walked for the door. “Be right back,” he said and closed the door behind him.
Christy had sat on her bed. She sighed and looked at her mentor. “Dr. Ellis, please, what’s going on?”
“I’m sure you’ve probably heard the stories about what happened on a farm outside of Roswell, New Mexico, in July of nineteen-forty-seven. The official government report is that an experimental radar-reflective weather balloon crashed there. That report is completely fictitious.
“A UFO did crash there, but what even the UFO-buffs didn’t know was that it di
dn’t accidentally crash; it was shot down. The group that shot it down apologized for the disturbance, collected all the pieces of the ship, and departed. In a very short span of time, enough similar incidents occurred for the Sector Alliance to station a battle cruiser here, as well as to build a base on our moon.
“Harry Truman, Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill and twenty or so other major world leaders met in a top secret summit with an Alliance ambassador to make agreements for us to assist in our own defense. What ended up happening was that most of the world leaders left, angered that the Alliance wouldn’t allow any of the governments to have exclusive control of the human portion of the defense. Before the Alliance Ambassador left us on our own to be invaded, enslaved or killed by the Aracnise Grand Hive, two senior generals, one American, and the other Soviet, snuck in to see him.
“Those three men, for the ambassador was human too, created an ultra secret, non-governmental group of scientists and soldiers to assist in this planet’s defense and possibly aid our protectors in their war. To this day we are still independent of any of the world’s governments, but we’ve grown quite a bit, and are capable of protecting our members from the more unsavory aspects of our elected public puppets,” he finished as he opened his briefcase and took out what looked like two thin books.
During his explanation, Carl had returned and taken his place by the door.
Christy was sitting there with her mouth hanging open, not sure if she should believe him or not. “Uh... so, what does that have to do with me? Dr. Ellis, you have got to know how outrageous this sounds.”
The older gentleman nodded agreement. “Yes, it does sound very farfetched. However, that doesn’t mean it’s not the truth. As for what that has to do with you; we would like to offer you and your future husband, Dr. Eric Cowan, a place with us. You are completely free to choose. You won’t be in ‘protective custody’; you’ll be free to leave at any time. If you have questions about something, ask. If you object to something we do, question it.”
