by S V Hurn
“I guess as good as can be expected. The detectives are here just about every day asking the same damn questions. I can’t wrap my brain around this; no sign of a struggle, nothing stolen, his car still parked in the lot. The two men that no one seems to be able to locate on any database—facial recognition, the prints they lifted—all show nothing. I don’t know what to think, Dora, I just don’t get it. Stu’s record is clean, they can’t find any reason for his disappearance, and there’s nothing anyone can put their finger on.”
“I’m so sorry, honey. I wish I could be there for at least some support. I must get the final stages of this project completed then a firm date for launch can be set. I’m looking at another two weeks, I think.”
Alex said in a tired voice, “Good, because we really need a break. I’ve got Mark up to speed on the business end and have hired another physician with a Ph.D. from Stanford to fill Stu’s shoes. He’s completely on board, but we have to go over every aspect of the freezing and reviving procedures.”
“It sounds like things on your end will come to a close soon. Please tell Tracey that if she needs anything at all to let me know. The wire transfer went through today, so she won’t have to worry there.”
“That’s great, Dora, thank you. She’s a great gal and a good mom. With Stu still listed as a missing person, and we all hope he’s just missing, a claim against the insurance policy can’t be made for quite some time. So that’s a huge help to her and little Andrew.”
“Look, we’re all in this together, so if I can be of any help just let me know.”
“You’re an amazing lady. I love you and everyone here loves you. I’ll be home soon and then we’re going to our little strip of sand for some well-deserved R and R. In fact, the governor of Arizona has indicated that he would like to be here for the opening of our new branch of ‘Funerals in Space’ since he’s paid the fees for his own future service.”
Dorathy chuckled for a moment and said, “’Dead in space’ is where all politicians need to be.”
“That isn’t quite politically correct, but I don’t disagree with you.”
“All right, baby, let me get back to work here. The faster I can get this done, the sooner we can leave on a little vacation.”
“I love you, darling, and I promise to be home soon.”
“I love you too, honey. I’ll call again in a couple of days, but if you need to talk, I’m here, okay?”
“Okay, ‘bye baby.”
“’Bye.”
As Dorathy ended the call, Lucy popped her head in. “Hey there, how’s Alex doing? They have any new developments with Stuart? You know, I was thinking about the description of the two men that were there that day, don’t you think by the sounds of it, that they match the description of those two guys that were here from CERN?”
Eyes wide, Dorathy stared at Lucy for a moment before speaking. “Shit, you’re right, Lucy.” The more the two women thought about it, the more it made sense. Dorathy put her hand over her mouth and gasped, “They were here the day before Stu went missing. “Oh crap, Lucy, you could be right, all the interest in cryogenics. But why? I keep asking myself, ‘Why?’ I don’t want to say anything to Alex just yet, let me pass this by Hugo first. Shit, you might be on to something!”
Lucy said, “Just saying. Anyway, have you seen the new guy who started here from Deep Space Industries?”
“What guy? Roger? Lucy, NO! As your best friend, I forbid you to even talk to him. The ink on your divorce papers isn’t even dry yet! NO!”
“Ah, you’re no fun,” Lucy proclaimed. “Well, just let me know what Hugo thinks about what I said.”
“As soon as he gets back from his meeting, I’m going to have a sit down with him. I don’t know why I didn’t see that.”
“Dora, you have too much on your plate right now, but it should be interesting. It could be an international cover up! I love intrigue.” With that, Lucy was off, saying as she left, “I’m going over to talk to Roger.”
Dorathy called after her, “You’ll regret it!”
As soon as Alex ended his call with Dorathy, he called Athena. “Hi Alex, how are things going over there, any new news?”
“No, unfortunately. But the reason I’m calling is that your mom is almost done with the project and I want to run something by you. It’s been on my mind a while and I want to know what you think.”
“Sure, shoot. What’s going on?”
“Well, you obviously know I love your mom to the moon and back, so what if I were to propose to her while we’re at the beach house?”
“Oh My God, Alex, I love it!”
“Okay, here is the part I need to know. Which do you think she would prefer: a private ceremony on the beach with a few close friends, or a big wedding there in California?”
“I would say a private ceremony at the beach house. We could use the jet to fly a handful of people over and there are plenty of accommodations with the little bungalows. We have a small staff that lives on the other side of the island. I can arrange to have everything we need brought in from Fiji and then have a big reception back here afterwards. I really think she would like that.”
“Okay, good, I was hoping you’d say that. Can you help me plan it, because I want it to be a surprise?”
“That sounds great, Alex. I love it and I know Mom will be thrilled.”
“All right,” he said with excitement. “As soon as we get a firm date set for the test launch, we can move forward. I’ll leave it up to you to make a small guest list and inform folks about travel arrangements and accommodations. I’ll take care of the wedding arrangements on the island and for the reception afterwards.”
“Awesome, Alex. You’re such a great guy and I really love you and I KNOW Mom loves you. We’re going to have such a great time. I love weddings! So, when do you think you’ll be home?”
“I’m shooting for the end of next week. Hopefully there’ll be some kind of breakthrough on Stu’s case.”
“I know, this is so crazy! His poor wife and kid! Sorry, I’ve gotta get going to my next class. Love you.”
“Love you too, Athena. Bye.”
Alex leaned back in his chair and thought about his future wife. He said out loud, “God, I love that woman! A special lady needs a special ring.” Determined to make sure that happened, he thumbed through his file of contacts and found what he was looking for. “It’s always good to have a jeweler for a friend.”
Stuart woke with throbbing pains in his neck and head, eyes blurred, and lips chapped from dehydration. He was lying on a cot in a small, windowless room with a heavy steel door. The room also held a nightstand on which there was a pitcher of water and a single plastic cup, and a sink and a toilet which were tucked into a corner. His clothes had been removed and he saw that a khaki, military-style jumpsuit had been left neatly folded on a chair against the wall. As he sat up the pain in his head became almost unbearable. He struggled with the pitcher of water, but managed to fill the cup and drink, spilling some of it over his bare chest.
He sat on the edge of his cot attempting to clear his head, desperately trying to remember the chain of events that led him to this small room. His memories were scattered and broken. He muttered, his words slurred, “Where the hell am I?” He clutched his head, wishing the ringing would cease its constant bombardment of his senses. He drank more water in hopes that it might help. A memory flashed to the forefront of his mind. In this fragment of memory, he recalled meeting with two men and standing in the prep room at Lifecor. Another fragment flashed of him on a small jet, landing and arriving in a cave. He could hear voices, there were dim lights, he was lying, no sitting . . . his thoughts drifted for a short while. At the edge of his consciousness, he could make out a craft . . . some kind . . . he lay down and lost consciousness, his hand losing its grip on the cup of water which fell to the floor.
The jet landed on a private landing strip that ran directly into the side of a mountain. The taxiway curved into a huge cave th
at had been excavated years ago. It was in the Alps out beyond the outskirts of Geneva. The jet taxied through the foggy, starless night into the cavern through an opening in the mountain that was camouflaged from all but the most intense scrutiny. It came to a halt next to a second small jet, in a well-lit area on the concrete apron. The heavy steel doors of the huge hangar closed behind them.
Dimitri had passed out from an abundance of good vodka and was dreaming of his new life in Moscow, not realizing the direction of his flight path.
“Waking up groggy, and still half drunk,” he stuttered. “Where am I? What is this place? There must be some kind of mistake. I am supposed to be in Moscow! I demand an explanation!”
The flight attendant and pilot opened the jet door and two large men dressed in black combat gear walked up the steps into the luxurious cabin to accompany the new arrival off the jet.
“What is the meaning of this? Do you know who I am?” The two men were uninterested in his protestations, and forcefully jerked Dimitri out of his seat and hauled him out of the jet, almost throwing him down the steps to the concrete apron. One of the men pulled out his sidearm and pointed it at Dimitri’s head. He said, with no hint of humanity, “Walk ahead and don’t try anything. I won’t hesitate to shoot you.”
Dimitri put his arms up as he was ordered, but said to the man, “When this is sorted out, I will have you thrown back under the rock from which you crawled.” The two men exchanged amused glances as they escorted him into an unmarked elevator.
When the elevator doors opened at the end of their descent, Dimitri could see the scope of what was unfolding. A large underground cavern that looked to be a huge ancient sinkhole was now a hangar that held the most advanced aerospace technology known to man. Hundreds of men and women were scurrying about finishing what looked to be some kind of spaceship.
Dimitri was escorted past the ship towards the back of the wide open space. Passing the ship on its starboard side, Dimitri looked up dozens of meters and could see that the gap at the apex of the cavern was covered with camouflage netting. A hazy moon shone through its holes.
How can this be? he thought to himself. What on Earth is going on here? And then he knew it must all stem from his long ago discovery. His thoughts ran wild. “They kept me contained in that frozen hell, so I could finish all my work and they could construct this, a means of reaching the destination. Yes, it all makes sense now.” He said to no one in particular, “My God what have I done?”
When they reached the back-rock wall, one of the guards held his eyes close to a monitor. It swept a red glow over his retinas and the door next to them automatically unlatched. They entered through the steel door and it shut with a heavy clang. Dimitri could hear the automatic latching system taking hold. They were in a long, dimly lit hallway that led to another heavy steel door. It opened to a space that held what appeared to be offices. There was the familiar damp coldness scented with mildew that Dimitri had grown so accustomed to over the years. Just beyond the smattering of offices there was yet another door leading to a type of living quarters. Dimitri hesitated, but the men shoved him in, the door shut, and the automatic locking system engaged, trapping him in his new home.
Dimitri screamed at the top of his lungs, “You can’t leave me here.” As they walked away, all the men could hear through the heavy door was the muffled sound of his screams.
Hours more had passed, and Stuart came to, but this time a jolt of fear had startled him awake.
“Oh, God”, he said to himself. “I remember . . . I’ve been kidnapped! Those men!” He reached for the side of his neck where he remembered a sharp pain before the darkness enveloped him. He felt a lump and could sense that a bruise had formed in the area.
His thoughts were clearer, and he couldn’t think of any reason someone would find value in him. He decided a cooperative state of mind would best suit his situation, if he were ever to leave this place. He put on the flight suit that had been left and drank almost all the water in the pitcher. Then he sat calmly and waited.
As minutes ticked by and became hours, his thoughts were of his wife and son, and how worried they must be by now. Wherever he was, he could only assume he had been missing for quite some time.
Just then he heard a man shouting, and a thud vibrated through the small room. Muffled by the thick door, he could not make out what the man had said, but he thought it was reminiscent of Russian. A sudden fear crept into his gut that he was certainly, as the saying goes, not in Kansas anymore.
Dimitri kicked the door hard with his heavy snow boot, knowing no one was going to come back and release him from the clutches of yet another hell.
He looked around at his surroundings, trying to calculate where he might be and who had put him there. He pulled out a chair from a round table that appeared to have been used as a gathering place for possibly a couple of people, as there were crumbs of food and stains of coffee on its surface.
There was a small fridge and a sink with cabinets. In desperate need of a beverage, Dimitri stood to open the fridge. He was disappointed to find only a few cans of soda; he needed a real drink to calm his nerves. He yelled, hoping someone would respond to his request, “I need some fucking vodka!” With a heavy sigh, he grabbed a can of cola and opened it as he sat, swinging his boots up to rest on the table. He strung together a few Russian words, muttering to himself, “Why does this shit keep happening to me?”
He leaned back in his chair, staring up at the ceiling tiles when he heard voices approaching. Through an adjacent door Hans Grobler entered the room accompanied by Edgar. With a smile that did not give Dimitri any feeling of reassurance, Hans said, “Welcome to the beginning of your new life.” Dimitri thought for a moment that perhaps he could fight his way out but noticed that the men were carrying very large guns holstered inside their suit jackets.
Hans said in his thick Austrian accent, “I trust your flight was comfortable. My daughter said you had much time to reflect on the past.” Dimitri’s thoughts went immediately to the buxom young flight attendant.
“I apologize if I offended her.”
“We will discuss your lack of manners later. What I need now from you is your commitment to your discovery. As you can see, we are planning, for a mission of true importance. My colleague will now escort you to your room.”
Dimitri remained seated, not budging from his chair. “So, you expect me to just follow along with what you have planned for me?”
“Simply, yes.” Hans’s mood changed suddenly, and he offered a bit of advice. “You will comply, or you will be disposed of.”
Dimitri contemplated his options for a moment and said, “Since you put it that way, I will play along.”
“Good, but please remember you are expendable at this point in the game.” Dimitri could only nod his head in agreement, for his choices thus far were limited.
Edgar said, “Follow me. I will show you to your room. Don’t try anything, and do not underestimate me.”
They entered the adjoining hallway where he saw several steel doors. Edgar pressed his thumb against a blue screen that must have read fingerprints and the door automatically unlatched. “I trust you will find everything you need.”
Dimitri entered without quarrel and the door locked behind him. “Hey, what about some decent vodka?” His request fell on deaf ears. He looked around at his small space and sat on the edge of his cot. He thought, “I must have been a real prick in my last life.”
He lay down on the bed and fell instantly asleep. His head was swimming with dreams of his discovery. How could a simple ancient relic of the past so dictate the Earth’s future and finally reveal the answers to all of mankind’s questions about our existence: our place in the universe.
CHAPTER 19
Dorathy woke with another splitting headache. Rubbing her eyes, she figured it was time to have them checked. She said, acceding to reality, “Well I guess it’s probably time for a complete overhaul since I’m approaching yet another damn b
irthday. Where the hell has the year gone?”
She sat in the backyard with a cup of tea, enjoying the early morning chirping of birds, and pulled her wrap around her shoulders to avoid a chill. It was starting to look like spring, and she could feel the warmth of the sun on her face. Her mind wandered back to the time before she met Alex. The loneliness she had lived with was never evident until now. She thought if not for Athena living at home and her career keeping her busy, she would have been completely solitary. Looking at the time, she was jolted from her pondering and her thoughts shifted to the present situation—hoping Lucy’s theory was correct. She stood to stretch, wishing her head would stop pounding and feeling the strain of the last few weeks. Today was crunch day with a final push to finish the project and set a date for the first launch of the prototype. She yawned said out loud. “Damn I need a vacation.” She headed indoors to get ready for what was going to be a very interesting day.
Dorathy’s first order of business at the office was to share with Hugo the clues that may give a bit of insight into the mystery of Stuart’s disappearance. After hearing what Dorathy had to say, Hugo sent the video feed from the JPL security cameras and was able to get a positive ID from Lori. The investigation was now in the FBI’s hands, in a joint effort with Interpol. Hugo was adamant that he would do some digging of his own and was going to call in some favors from friends higher up.
“I can smell some serious trouble here, Dora. This needs to go to the top. I have a buddy from college that works at the Pentagon. If anyone can find those pricks, he can.” Dorathy felt confident that they would soon to get to the bottom of this. She called and told Alex the news since he was part of the ongoing investigation. He had been placed under protection by the authorities, as he too could be at risk. Alex listened carefully to what Dorathy had to say and was shocked to hear the news, struggling to ascertain the connection to Stuart’s disappearance. “Why would anyone go to such extreme measures to the point of kidnapping Stu? The only thing I can think of is they, for whatever reason, needed his knowledge of cryogenics . . . but still, why, to what end?”
