“That’s pretty damn scary,” Leewood said. He rubbed his temples, “And it said to keep this meeting to a minimum, and after we’d heard what it knew, we could decide who should know?”
“Yes,” Adamarus said, “I got the impression that it was a bombshell.”
Radin nodded, “Yeah.”
Leewood’s initial fury and outrage had turned to resignation…then to dread. “I guess we need to call the boss.” Leewood grabbed his com unit and issued a short message to President Wicker. It simply said, “Urgent. Contact soonest,” and he marked the security level as Red Raven and sent it.
Adamarus had moved to the window. He crossed his arms as he looked out at the spectacle of Cinder’s horizon. “Bugs has maintained all along that we have ‘no chance’ against this alien. I guess we’re about to find out why.”
“Who should attend this meeting?” Leewood asked. “We should have recommendations ready for Wicker. We have no idea what we’re going to hear so…as Bugs said, an absolute minimum for now.”
Adamarus left the window and sat down next to Radin. “But at the same time, we need the right people there to analyze and evaluate this new information, ask the right questions and make decisions.”
Leewood rubbed the weariness from his eyes, “Well…the three of us to start with—we’re already cursed…” both Adamarus and Radin barked a laugh and muttered agreement, “and of course President Wicker.”
Adamarus nodded, “I guess we’ll need minimum coverage for all affected areas…whatever they turn out to be. We have military and political covered, so that leaves science and technology…oh, and definitely a communications expert, the interspecies type.”
Leewood said, “Harrington then.”
Adamarus pinched the bridge of his nose. “Yes, Harrington, and for the sciences and technology…Van Loader, I guess?” Adamarus said this reluctantly. Dr. Gerald Van Loader was considered Amular’s reigning genus, however, the man was the most arrogant, condescending person Adamarus had ever met.
Leewood frowned, “Yeah, I guess that’s a given…but let’s have Donnelly as well.”
Adamarus nodded agreement, “Good idea.” Donnelly could serve as a buffer between Van Loader and everyone else. Also, Donnelly could serve as a translator—Van Loader loved to talk above a person’s head.
Radin, who’d been silent, asked, “What about Woodworth?”
Adamarus and Leewood thought about this for a moment, then Leewood said, “I can’t see any reason to have Woodworth there…not initially anyway.”
“No,” it was Adamarus, “I say we stick to our initial list.”
“Sounds good to me,” Leewood said. They both looked at Radin, who nodded agreement.
Adamarus shook his head wearily, “We have a full day planned for tomorrow, don’t we?” he said giving Leewood a significant look.
Leewood thought for a second then said, “Tomorrow’s meeting agenda includes discussing our strategy for using the mines, and then we planned to move on to the main defensive options and backup contingencies.” Leewood noticed the way Adamarus was looking at him, “Ah shit, perhaps all a waste of time, huh, depending on what Bugs has to tell us.”
“Exactly,” Adamarus said.
At this point, Leewood’s com unit buzzed. It was Wicker. Leewood briefed him on what had transpired and a meeting was set for 6:00 the next morning. The President agreed that some excuse was needed to postpone tomorrow’s meeting. Leewood said they’d take care of it and signed off.
“Well, hell,” Leewood slapped his hands on his knees, “How can we postpone tomorrow’s meeting at this late hour. Damn it!” He stifled a yawn, “We need to keep this whole thing under wraps…so what damn reason could we possibly give for postponing?”
They thought about this for a while, then a smile slowly spread across Adamarus’ face, “Damn, I just might know how to do it.” He pulled out his com unit as Leewood and Radin leaned forward with curiosity. Adamarus winked at them, “Just need to have a word with a couple of new friends… Hello? Please connect me to Master Sergeants Flannery and/or MacAfee.” Adamarus had made a point of getting together with the two Master Sergeants to get briefed on their conversation with Bugs and they had hit it off.
Adamarus got up and walked over to the window again as he waited for the connection to be made. Mac picked up and Adamarus spoke quietly to him for several minutes. When he was done, he disconnected, then turned and said, “Alright, tomorrow’s meeting is taken care of…in the morning and all day if we need it.”
---
Later that evening, Evelyn walked briskly down the corridor, hoping she would not run into anyone. It was late, after 11:00 p.m., and the corridors were as deserted as Evelyn had hoped they would be.
Brandon had been in the thick of it, refining their construction estimates, and she had casually told him she was going over to records to look something up. He had waved his hand at her without lifting his eyes.
She reached Central Records and was relieved to see through the windows that the lights were out and the place was empty. After punching in her code, she entered and considered turning on the lights, but decided against it—the light from the access monitors lit up the room well enough. She walked to the back of the room where there were several additional rooms that contained special access stations which allowed access to secure and sensitive data. She turned and scanned the room—this was ridiculous, she thought, she was not doing anything wrong. But actually…she knew that she was.
Somewhat angry with herself, she looked into the lens on the door, her retina was scanned and a click sounded as the door unlatched and opened a crack. She pushed the door open and walked in.
She glanced at the security camera behind the access station’s monitor and knew that there was another one above the door behind her. But…she also knew that the people monitoring the cameras would think absolutely nothing of her viewing any records she wanted to view.
She sighed and continued in and sat down at the access station. She selected “Personnel Records” and a new screen came up. She selected ”Full Access” then entered her password and yet another screen appeared.
She took a deep breath as she stared at the screen. She was about to do something that she had security clearance for…but she knew that it was completely unethical. Reviewing someone’s personnel file was justified if that person were being considered for a promotion or even if it was just a new person transferring to the shipyard’s workforce. However, what she was about to do was not something she could justify in any way. It was a violation of privacy and she would be abusing her security clearance. She sat there a minute longer then thought, to hell with it, and keyed the name into the search field.
At the bottom of the screen, a progress bar appeared and she watched it, feeling both excited and guilty, and a little scared. The screen cleared then filled with text and various selections. Across the top of the screen in very large lettering was a warning and his name, and she quickly turned and scanned the records room behind her again—it was still empty. She turned back to the screen and read.
“WARNING: Full personnel records for Admiral Adamarus Maximus. Contains classified data requiring an Alpha/Red Raven Security Clearance.”
---
Harrington had been giving Jan a tour of the shipyard’s security and they were now in the monitor room where a security staff member named Rick monitored three panels of eight-inch screens—30 monitors in all. Switching from one camera view to another, the monitors covered a good percentage of all five space docks, at least half. The other half was covered in another room.
They had started talking to Rick almost an hour ago and had forgotten the time. Now Harrington looked at her watch, “Wow, look at the time. Rick, we’ll let you get back to your job,” although Rick’s eyes had never left the monitors.
Harrington and Jan started to leave when Rick said, “Hey, before you go, can you cover for me while I run down and get some coffee? No more than ten minutes
.”
Harrington looked at Jan who shrugged. “No problem,” Harrington replied.
“Either of you want a cup?” Both shook their heads and Rick thanked them then jumped up and left.
Jan asked, “What would he do if we weren’t here?”
“There are at least two people doing this at all times—there’s another room like this next door. The security cameras are equally divided between them. He would have called next door and the other person would have switched all the cameras to his monitors and covered for Rick.”
Jan yawned, “Excuse me, been a long day.” Jan started looking at all the small screens again.
Harrington stretched, “Be another long day tomorrow.”
Jan pointed to one of the screens, “Hey, there’s Evelyn,” she said through another yawn. The small monitor showed Evelyn sitting before an access station. Across the top of the monitor it said, “Central Records—Secure Access Station Three.”
Harrington shook her head and smiled, “She’s always working.”
---
Evelyn had known of Adamarus’ command of the asteroid harvesting project…knew he had a lot of medals and vaguely what some were for…knew he was an ‘ace’ but really knew nothing else about him and her curiosity had gotten the better of her.
She worked backward from the harvesting project and discovered that before that job, he had been a combat flight instructor at Track-One, a military training base near the North Sea. But not just any training base—Track-One was the premiere combat fighter training facility—best of the best—the place that all fighter pilots strived to qualify for and attend. She grinned. So Adamarus was a flyboy. She was impressed.
She continued back through time. He had taught there for five years and been promoted from commander to captain just before leaving for the asteroid project. She reached the beginning of his tour of duty at Track-One and saw an attachment. Pulling it up, a color picture of Adamarus filled half the screen. It was a slightly older Adamarus in a flight suit—well, older than his apparent age now anyway. She found a date, did the math, he was forty-three in this picture…they estimated his age at around thirty now. She looked at the picture for a minute longer then began reading the text on the right side of the picture. It was some kind of an announcement that Adamarus would be joining Track-One.
It said, “We are more than pleased to announce that Lt. Commander Adamarus Maximus, one of the six fighter aces currently in service and considered to be one of the best fighter pilots in active service will be joining Track-One as a combat instructor this fall! LTCD Maximus is the most decorated airman in service. He is one of only two people alive to hold the Presidential Medal of Valor for his now infamous actions in the Southern Canal where he saved the lives of four other pilots. He is also the holder of two Silver Stars, the Badge of Courage, and a Purple Heart.”
Evelyn was stunned. She had heard somewhere that only two living people held Amular’s highest award, the Presidential Medal of Valor! He was one of them? This was incredible! You generally had to be dead to earn the Medal of Valor. He was also a fighter ace! Everyone knew that there were only six “Aces” —there had been a movie, The Six Aces—and of course there was the song The Six Aces and also the candy bar by the same name. An ace was a person who had shot down five or more enemy fighters. But there was even more—the document had said that LTCD Maximus was the most decorated airman in service.” Goodness, why didn’t anyone know these things about Adamarus? Or maybe others did know and she was the only one who didn’t.
She suddenly wondered exactly what “enemy” Adamarus had shot down to qualify as an ace. Amular had had no enemies since the war over fifty years ago. Moreover, what had Adamarus done to win the Medal of Valor? She continued digging.
Before he was a Track-One instructor, he had worked for the intelligence branch as an analyst for five years. Her brows furrowed. How had he gotten to be a Track-One instructor if he wasn’t an active pilot? She read on.
Nothing much had happened during this period. He’d done well and been promoted from lieutenant to commander. She reached the beginning of this posting and found more attachments. She opened one. It was a release form from a Dr. Hatcher, a psychiatrist. The first page contained only warnings about security, limited access and need to know. This was very personal and her guilt spiked again. She could definitely get in trouble reading this! She looked around again to make sure she was still alone then opened it. Again, a picture of Adamarus filled half the screen. He looked about the same as he did now, a little older perhaps, and he seemed to be under some kind of stress.
---
“She’s probably reviewing personnel records of her new people,” Harrington said, looking away from the monitor and over at Jan. “She puts in long hours. You know her and her husband, Brandon, ran Hideaway during the latter part of the war.”
On the small screen, Jan saw Evelyn turn and look behind her. She looked a little guilty to Jan, but Jan shrugged it off. “Yes, I heard about that. You know they must be close to a hundred years old now.” The view on the small screen shifted, showing Evelyn’s backside and the screen she was looking at but the two women paid no attention.
“I’ll have to find out some time,” Harrington said. “The thing I notice sometimes is how mature they both seem. But yes, they both must be close to a hundred years old.”
“I wonder what it’s like being as old as they must have been, then taking a pill, and suddenly being in your prime again. I read somewhere that old couples like that, who suddenly became young again, almost always break up…that new kind of ‘age crisis’ and all. But they seem happy enough.”
Both women again looked at the small screen, which was still showing Evelyn’s back. On the monitor, Evelyn turned and looked around again. “Hm…” Jan said, “if I didn’t know better, I’d say she looks kind of…guilty,” she laughed. “That’s the second time she’s done that. I wonder what she’s looking at.”
Harrington’s brows furrowed. Evelyn had looked guilty—something she had never seen before. The view on the screen automatically shifted showing Evelyn’s face again. Harrington reached up and pressed a small lever next to the screen causing the view to switch back, and again they were looking at Evelyn’s back and also most of the screen, though it was too far away to make out. Still holding the lever, Harrington slid it downward and the camera zoomed in. On the screen was a picture of Adamarus. Harrington felt her insides fall and she closed her eyes.
“Ah ha!” Jan exclaimed. “That’s certainly not one of her new recruits! I thought I noticed something passing between those two.” Harrington’s eyes snapped open and she gave Jan a warning look. “Hey,” Jan said holding up her hands, “none of my business and certainly not my place to say anything to anyone.”
---
Evelyn blinked in disbelief and reread the memo more carefully.
“LCDR. Maximus has shown significant improvement and, in fact, I doubt we could expect to see much more at this stage. Only time will heal this further. I expect some guilt will remain with him for the rest of his life. He no longer wishes to resign. In my opinion, his remaining guilt over the Dark Mountain incident will not impair his performance or judgment unless an identical situation were to arise, which would be highly unlikely. Even if it should, he would only be more motivated to do the correct thing. I also agree with the post POW evaluation done eleven years ago. The scars left over from this ordeal will not hinder him in his duties.”
Evelyn felt dizzy—she did not understand any of this. “Only time will heal this further”! Resign! What was the “Dark Mountain incident”? He had been awarded the Medal of Valor for whatever had happened at Dark Mountain…how and why did guilt, healing and resigning come into play? And how had he been a prisoner of war?
She opened the other attachments and read them, then kept on digging. Slowly the pieces fell into place.
The “enemy” had been El Asfar, a powerful criminal organization that had been involved
in trafficking drugs and committing acts of piracy on both the high seas and in space. Their stronghold had been at Dark Mountain, which lay beside the Southern Canal near the South Pole. Adamarus had been a fighter pilot and involved in actions against El Asfar that spanned a decade.
At the age of 20, Adamarus had graduated from college with a degree in engineering and joined the Navy. The following year, he’d graduated from OTS getting his wings. And on his twenty-fourth birthday, he’d finished Advanced Arial Combat Training at the top of his class, just in time to get pulled into what was then called the Southern Pole Conflict—an all-out effort to stop El Asfar’s pirating operations.
However, the Navy had underestimated El Asfar’s strength and had taken a beating in the initial encounters. Among the Navy’s losses had been Adamarus, who had been shot down and captured.
He had been a POW for ten months before organizing a breakout leading 33 prisoners to safety. For this remarkable feat, he had received his first Silver Star, the Badge of Courage and a Purple Heart. At 27, he had come home a hero and married his college sweetheart, Grace Bonnet. They had gotten two months together before he returned to duty and was put back into action.
The Southern Pole Conflict dragged on, more as a cat and mouse game than anything else. Five years later, for acts of bravery during the defense of the Reliant AC Carrier, he got his second Silver Star.
Adamarus was thirty-five when the Dark Mountain incident took place. The Navy had just established a secret airport and staging area on Clark Island just a half mile off the coast from the city of Miranee. This was done in preparation for a major offensive against El Asfar’s Dark Mountain stronghold—Miranee was only eleven miles from Dark Mountain. El Asfar somehow found out about the secret base and launched an attack, sending eighteen fighter/bombers to destroy it.
Adamarus was leading a training mission which turned out to be the only asset available to intercept the surprise attack. The squadron caught them just after takeoff and engaged them over rugged slopes of the mountain. A savage dogfight ensued between the nine older Navy fighters and eighteen state-of-the-art El Asfar fighter/bombers.
Encounters (The Spiral Slayers Book 1) Page 32
