Chapter 11 – Summer Days
Tuesday, June 23, 2308
The beagle woke Fox at dawn, barking downstairs. He knew the house was secure; the early-warning systems would have roused him before floppy-eared Jack became aware of any threat.
Down the back stairs, Andrew found Geoffrey and Jack nose to glass, staring out through the glass panel doors, into an earthbound cloudbank.
The house was enclosed in a dense fog. Jack was probably barking at nothing, but the black rectangle warmed under the doctor's anxious grip.
Across his mind, the security displays filled his visual awareness with data. It was clear that the house was secure.
All the doors and windows were sealed and there were no heat signatures revealing recent human activity, other than those of his family. The house had undergone extensive security retrofitting. It was watertight and structurally reinforced. The sort of explosive necessary to breach it, would also destroy it, so if something were to go wrong on that scale, there would be little advance warning.
Across the canyon, the security residence displayed a bit of activity. Even under the fog, the satellite feed revealed the investigators, combing through the scene. The house hadn’t been destroyed, only slightly damaged. However, the gunplay required a thorough investigation, despite its top-secret status.
Over the Micronix, Dr. Fox located his replacement security teams, parked in strategic locations on nearby roads and drifting along with the local Angel City traffic. Feeds from local satellites and municipal alert units all flowed to the Micronix. It was beyond undetectable, it was… Un-susceptible. How could these nitwits suspect something they’d never heard of, never imagined? Fox laughed.
Geoffrey looked up at his father.
Dr. Fox blinked the Micronix menus and pallets away and looked back at his son. He smiled.
Behind them, watching from the stairs, Ashley gasped, staring into the fog. Ana was with her, sitting on the step next to her daughter.
The fog before them looked so thick, the windows appeared to be frosted. Yet it billowed with a heavy texture and something dark flashed just beyond their ability to make it out.
Jack barked.
A bird struck the window.
They all jumped.
The family watched the heavens pass by as birds played the role of angels, fluttering through the clouds as they journeyed to wherever clouds, and birds lost in them, go.
As the day grew brighter and the sun continued to rise, warmth penetrated the heavenly vapor and it vanished.
Within a few minutes, breakfast was ready and the backyard was visible again, covered with the dewy remnants of the clouds. The sky grew dark, and as the family ate, it rained.
Ashley’s Journal, Tuesday, June 23, 2308
Something woke me up last night. I don’t even remember sitting up, but that was how I woke up. One of the houses across the canyon was on fire, the house with all the windows.
There’s something strange about that place. The way the windows are. In the afternoon, it looks like a face. When the windows were on fire, it looked like it was growling at me.
In my dream, I saw the long white cords in a deep dark place again, with those huge knots in them. The knots were made of pain.
Geoffrey talks in his sleep.
Thursday, June 25, 2308
All over the city, people rose and prepared for their day. Yet somehow, today was different. People drove more cautiously, and there was less traffic than usual. The headlines weren't good; the war was threatening to start up again.
From the front lines in San Diego to San Antonio, the Christian Communist Peoples Party had been pushing north, mounting strikes deep into the heartland. Not to mention the mujahideen coming down from Canada on horseback, harassing federal outposts all across the border. Meanwhile, the government fought internal corruption scandals in the headlines of every major news outlet.
Early that morning, intelligence agents met their handlers at safe houses. Today everyone was working; today there was heavy chatter. Interested parties assembled in loose convoys, out on the fringes of municipal airspace. In locked rooms and tinted vehicles, mercenaries cleaned their weapons and loaded magazines. Directives were confirmed and memorized.
Dr. Fox listened in on the transmissions. The briefing location would be released over two minute intervals, first to federal officers, cascading down to the juniors. The traffic would be screened for leaks, all branches were ordered to participate.
Fox’s driver arrived to escort the doctor to the briefing. He said goodbye to his wife and children.
Once the vehicle lifted off Andrew placed the call. The briefing would be held aboard the Fuji Dozo, docked at the heart of the city. The boarding times had been carefully segregated. When the Department of Defense wants to know if you're a security leak, they don't just ask you, they tempt you. Hungry fish get caught. Operation Rusty Bucket was concerned with plugging leaks; the briefing itself was secondary.
The Fuji Dozo didn't even exist. Andrew had created the name, and then researched it, just to be sure. When he made the announcement he was confident that no one in North America had ever before put those two words together as the proper name of a restaurant.
The dock numbers and loading times were all that mattered. Giving the location an exotic name was the key that allowed the analysts to track the leaks. Any unauthorized transmission of those two words between the hours of ten and noon was a crime punishable by death.
Two minutes after ten, the first group of attendees was informed. Composed of high-level government personnel, on the inside, all well aware of the mole hunt in progress. Among this group, no leaks were detected.
At 10:04, the second docking appointments were revealed to interested private banks and corporations.
The volume of chatter instantly spiked. The first moles had exposed themselves. Andrew listened as one group after another leaked the information, and then denied it.
Operation Rusty Bucket was in full swing. The returning data streams were undeniable. Within minutes of a leak, offices were stormed, suspects arrested and interrogated on the spot. Several administrations would find themselves a few pounds lighter by the end of the day.
Andrew believed the explosion that destroyed Epsilon was an accident. However, without supporting evidence, the possibility of sabotage couldn't be ignored. A round of whack-a-mole now and again was good training. The government had always been a disgrace when it came to secrets, but Andrew knew his department was secure.
The briefing was a waste of time, but it had to be done. Andrew needed to explain what had happened. The interface was an egregiously expensive failure, and someone had to answer for all that red ink. He smiled at the irony of it all, and realized he had an ace up his sleeve. This time, he could just tell them the truth.
Ashley’s Journal, Thursday Morning. June 25, 2308
Today starts our one real week of summer. Rivendell is closed for renovations, and we still have a week before we leave for camp.
I can’t imagine having three whole months to do whatever I want.
I don’t know what I would do. I would just practice, probably.
I already did two hours this morning.
Geoff was in the backyard, playing with Jack, whose energy propelled him all over the yard. Geoffrey would try to catch him, only to have Jack leap away, excited to for him to try again.
"Want to go down the canyon?" Geoffrey asked Jack, who dashed around the yard, excited by any mention of the great adventure beyond the property line.
"Hey, Ash, want to go down the canyon with us?" Geoff asked his sister, finishing her breakfast in at the dining room table.
"Geoff, you shouldn't go out there by yourself."
"I never go by myself," he answered.
"Jack doesn't count."
"Then why did you make Bobby shake his hand?"
"Because I'm a jerk," Ashley said. "It was mean, and someday I'm going to hell."
"Is t
hat where bad people go when they die?" Geoff asked.
The children's parents hadn't raised them with any sort of religious background. Geoff had no concept of a spiritual afterlife. Ashley had only recently encountered the phrase at school.
Ash nodded. "Where'd you hear that?" she asked.
"Vid streams," he replied.
"What have you been watching?"
"Wooden Stakes. You know you can make a wooden stake from almost anything?"
"Really?"
"Yeah. Chair legs, broom sticks and stuff."
"That so?"
"Listen to this! One time, Simon Timex, that's the hero... "
"Simon Timex?"
"Yeah! 'Time Waits for No Man!' He rolled up this piece of paper all pointy like, and he stabbed the one vampire with it, right in the chest!"
Ashley laughed.
"Don’t laugh! It could work. A piece of paper, it's made of wood! Get it?" Geoff asked.
"I get it," Ashley smiled. "But I doubt it would work?"
"If the vampires come, we just might have to find out," he answered, dead serious.
Ashley laughed again.
"It could happen. If it was a plague, or a disease, or a virus."
"Those are all the same things," Ashley smiled.
"Yeah, right, sure," it was Geoff's turn to laugh. "Then why are they different words?"
His supreme confidence pushed his sister into a fit of hysterical laughter. "They're the same.”
Geoff snorted. "Do you want to go down to the canyon or not?"
"Get the leash," Ashley replied.
"All right!" Geoff dashed into the house. "Mom, we're going to take Jack down the canyon!" he shouted.
"Take your sister with you. And don't forget the leash,” she said.
Geoffrey grabbed the leash from its peg and ran into the back yard.
Ash looked out at the green waves of forest. Since vacation started, they had gone down the canyon every afternoon. Often they would be gone the better part of the evening, chasing Jack through the lush vegetation and around massive trees, standing like pillars in a leaf-domed cathedral.
Jack set the pace. Once off the hated leash, he couldn't be corralled until he was exhausted. Ashley laughed as Jack caught Geoffrey's contagious excitement, and leapt into the air, chasing after a yellow butterfly that had drifted into the yard.
"Come on, Jack!" Geoff said. The puppy licked his face as Geoff slipped the choke chain over the beagle's head, where it rattled against his collar. Then the boy and his dog were running down into the canyon. Ashley followed her brother and Jack from the yard, down the path, and into the overgrown wilderness.