Chapter 7 – Noodles
Monday, June 22, 2308 7:31pm
Major Ross, Chief Warrant Officer Reid and the rest of the crew were stunned, watching the real-time feed being streamed from Kojima Station.
“What the hell?” Ross asked no one in particular.
“Holy shit,” Reid echoed.
On the monitors, the Fox family was seated at the dining room table, having dinner. Ashley was engaged in her camp point counter-point.
A phone rang in the background.
Ross pulled up the network transcript. “It’s Carlson up on Kojima, dialing the doc’s home line.”
Ross picked up an amplifier and projected Dr. Fox’s feed onto one of the inactive monitors.
Ross and the lab crew watched as Fox answered the phone and listened as Carlson informed him of Epsilon’s destruction. They watched his vitals remained calm and cool. Of course, how could he be surprised by something he must have already been aware of?
“Sir…” Reid drew Major Ross’s attention from Fox’s charts. “We’ve got server crashes at farms two, three, five, seven, eleven, thirteen… It’s prime numbers all down the row.”
“The mirrors?” Ross asked.
“Looks like one for every three of the lost originals.”
“Take us completely offline and build a new grid from scratch. Partition a disk image and initialize all the other drives. Archive half the unaffected stock and hard start replacement procedures. Vault all unaffected mirrors and replace them.”
“Storage facilities?”
“Sink the vaults and split the archives into thirteen partitions, spread them through the belt. I want two additional black boxes on the poles of Ceres, Vesta, Pallas, and Hygiea.”
“Copy that. Sinking vaults in the Atlantic and the Pacific, Mirrors in the twelve houses, plus one in Ophiuchus. Dropping cubes on Charlie, Victor, Papa and Hotel. We are one-eighty on the vaults, with seventy-two on the mirrors and an additional twelve on the cubes.”
“I want the vaults underwater in ninety minutes.”
Reid punched in the calculations. “That will add an additional five hours travel time.”
“I don’t care if it adds five weeks, get them out of the atmosphere.”
“Yes, sir.” Reid ran a couple more options. “I can get them wet in twenty, if you like, but that is a two-week cruise.”
“Better still.”
“Copy that.” Reid went to work.
Ross pulled up Fox’s conversation with Dr. Te.
"I've been working with the interface," Fox said. "I think the Micronix can do more than just communicate."
"Such as?" Dr. Te asked.
"I think it can be detonated," Fox answered.
“This is going to be a serious problem,” Ross said.
The analog phone in the lab began to ring. Ross lowered the master volume and answered it. “What’s the word?”
“Hey, boss. We outta get some noodles tonight, like ASAP.” Ross recognized his old friend’s voice, First Sergeant King. “I have something you have just got to see to believe.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Ross said, disconnecting the call and turning to Reid. “Chief, go analog and prep backup numbers for all nine.”
“Copy. We are disconnecting, and we are analog. Prepping backup numbers for the nine.”
“Don’t burn the house down while I’m gone.”
“Aye, aye, sir.”
Ross exited the lab, his progress toward the parking garage displayed on the overhead security monitors.
Dr. Andrew Fox landed his transport in the bottom of the depression that had been Project Epsilon. What had formerly been pale, off-white sand had now been stained with an inch of black soot. The black spread outward, in a radial gradient, fading away from his central position. The heavy black particles swirled and settled around him, hovering above the sand.
Fox knelt in the thin layer of soft dust. He appeared to be tying his shoe. When his hand touched the item, a shock went through him. The device was unique, different; it felt angry. Unlike the original device, the Micronix, this one announced itself. It told Dr. Fox, it was the Metachron.
He lifted the small device from the floor of the crater and dropped it into his pocket. The moment the device left his hand, he felt relieved.
He stood in the center of the crater for several minutes, pondering the implications of this new development.
Several miles overhead the operators aboard Kojima chuckled. "He's good," Carlson said. "I didn't even see that. Did you see that?"
"I didn't," Bryce replied. "Smooth."
"Even the cameras didn't see it. Very smooth," Wilkins laughed.
"Too bad the new spectrometer got him," Carlson said. "Oh, what? It's not recording? Fellas, we may have a glitch with the new spectrometer, it seems it has a habit of turning the record function off."
"Noted," Bryce and Wilkins laughed.
Fox knew these men personally. They were trusted agents of the highest caliber. They had each been issued their own amplifiers, albeit with limited permissions, and the orbiting lab was composed of Micronix-formatted terillium. There was no doubt where their loyalties lie.
Ross finally arrived and made his way through the crowd outside the Noodle House. The Chinatown restaurant didn't have a proper name. The symbol simply read 'noodles' and so that was what they called it.
Despite the throng flowing past the doors, the restaurant was rarely more than half full. The lack of a wait combined with the incredibly poor service, in a foreign-speaking part of town, made Noodles a winner for the quick and dirty parlay. Throw in the fact that no windows faced the street and Ross was satisfied, regardless of the menu.
King and Snow were already seated when the major arrived. Both had ordered and been served. He waved to Jenny, the manager, who waved back. Almost as soon as he'd settled into the booth, a waiter arrived with a small cup of green tea and steaming bowl of the house specialty.
“Where have you been?” Captain Snow asked, blowing the steam from her own bowl of noodles.
“Your food is still hot, what are you crying about?” Ross replied.
“We’re on seconds,” First Sergeant King smiled. Even dressed in civilian clothes, the sergeant’s sharp flattop and massive build identified him as a cop, active military or private security. He’d retired after serving twenty years with Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children and immediately been snapped up by the Secret Service.
Still serving in the Corps, Captain Snow, though female, looked equally dangerous. Her broad shoulders and powerful arms offset her natural feminine beauty. Ross never got used to seeing her in two places at once, as one of Snow’s copies had married Dr. Fox and was now raising two kids. Ross’s nine-to-five was as commander of the primary security team for this woman’s other self and her children, Ashley and Geoff.
Major Ross was, himself, just as obvious; standing over six feet, carrying two hundred and fifty pounds of lethal muscle. He also had several handguns concealed about his person. There was no way he was ‘just another guy.’
“Sorry it took me so long. I grew a couple of tails this afternoon, so I had to stop for a quick shave.”
"What have you got against good food, anyhow?" King asked.
Captain Snow laughed.
“Since when do you have a problem with Noodles?” Ross countered. "This place is great. No crowds, half the lights don't work."
"That's so you can't see what you're eating," King laughed.
"Oh come on. They stopped serving dog years ago," Ross answered.
"That's not funny," Snow smiled. "What's the emergency, anyhow?"
King sat up. "Didn’t you hear? Epsilon? Boom, gone daddy gone.”
“What?” Snow looked shocked.
Ross and King both nodded.
“It gets worse. Seems your boyfriend…” King started.
“My husband?” Snow corrected him.
“Whatever.” King rolled his eyes.
“It does
sound weird, doesn’t it?” Snow smiled.
“Well, earlier today…” the first sergeant gave a newsman’s delivery.
“Can you believe I haven’t seen him in five years?” Snow asked.
“You see him every day,” Ross said.
“Only in my dreams, when we sync. But not Me. Her.”
“You can’t be jealous of yourself,” Ross said.
“Can we get back to why I called this meeting please?” King asked.
“To be continued,” Ross said to Captain Snow.
Snow waved a hand and looked away, laughing.
“About…” King looked at his watch. “Four hours ago I got called into the Deputy Chief’s office. The buzz was that the Intel desk was all hot and bothered by something they picked up. I’m still not sure how they got it, but I got a copy of what they got…”
King pulled out a stream player and set it on the table. “This has been making the rounds upstairs. And this is not good. But when you throw in the explosion of Epsilon a couple of hours later, after they were already wound up about this…”
“Come on already,” Snow said.
King pressed play.
Ross rolled his eyes, well aware of what was coming.
The monitor lit up with the images of Doctors Fox and Te.
"You're telling me that an equation can be used to detonate, what? That little chunk of metal you carry around? Or a gravity disk?"
"Dr Te, I think this equation could detonate any sort of deposit you feed it to, a vehicle, a building or an entire district. It could burn the stagnant terillium in the air around us," Fox said.
Captain Snow hit the pause button. “What the hell?” She shook her head in shock and confusion.
“That was 4:37.” King pointed out the date-time overlay.
“And this…” He switched the player to another stream. “This is nineteen-thirty-one, pacific standard.
The player showed a satellite image over the western Mojave. Ross immediately recognized it. The flash from the Epsilon location was unmistakable.
The camera zoomed in, but there was only smoke and dust.
The footage scaled up and was examined in slow motion by an operator. There was no warning.
One moment the buildings were there, and over the course of a few frames, a bright light spread outward, engulfing them.
The singular light then contracted, leaving only dust and smoke. In real-time, the flash lasted only a fraction of a second.
“They are saying Fox can do that, at will,” King said.
“God help us all.” Ross stared at the ceiling. “If Fox could do this, at will, do you really think this would be how he announces it?” Ross answered his own question, “No. This was an accident, plain and simple.”
"It could have been sabotage," Snow suggested.
“That’s exactly what they’re saying downtown,” King said.
“It’s not sabotage.” Ross shook his head. “It’s project failure. You don’t have to read anything into it.”
“Stanwood is saying it was deliberate. He’s saying this is Fox putting the Fed on notice. This is his shot across the bow as it were, and he’s got a lot of people onboard already. Half of the cabinet is buying into it.”
“What’s Croswell doing?” Ross asked.
“I didn’t talk to him, but I’m pretty sure he’s aware of it all. From what I hear, Stanwood has the Chief of Staff, the Attorney General, the DOJ and Homeland in his pocket. Secretary Croswell holds the Joint Chiefs, the DOD and the Agency. But if our names get leaked, the game is up. He can’t bail us out if we’re all in the same cell.”
“How did you hear about this?” Ross asked.
“You’re gonna love it. I was called in for a joint-training mission, between the Secret Service, Homeland and the Bureau. They even have reps from the Coast Guard and the DEA, to collaborate on a Dr. Fox Worst-Case-Scenario. Right now, it’s a what-if, but that’s always how it starts.
“If they force the issue… If Fox decides he isn’t interested in surrendering… If he decides to run with this, just for shits and giggles, it will destroy this administration and the country.”
“They can’t beat him,” Snow stated.
“They don’t have a hope in hell,” King agreed. “But if they throw the entire weight of the government at him, and he removes the players… Even one at a time… If he decides to take it personal and political…”
“The world will be a better place? What?” Snow asked.
“They’ll be calling him emperor, and offering him a golden crown, is what,” Ross concluded.
“That sounds nice,” Snow said.
“It’s usually followed by a series of stab wounds,” Ross said.
“But they don’t know what we know,” Snow said.
“Which is what?” Ross asked. “For all we know, he could nuke Angel City if he has a nightmare.”
“Yeah, well, I never liked this place much anyhow,” Snow said.
“Are you kidding? I Love AC! Can’t get enough of this town.”
“That’s because you’re never here,” Ross smiled.
“It’s Stanwood, man. He’s all over this. I told you, we need to handle him. If we don’t, it is just a matter of time till he gets our records, and when he does, it’s gonna be Goodnight Gracie, for all of us,” King made a circular gesture, but Ross and Snow both understood that he was including the six absent members of their team as well. “If we don’t get proactive here, and I mean right quick, we’re not going to have a chance.”
“He’s the National Intelligence Director. What are we going to do, go after the entire cabinet? Kill everyone who disagrees with us? Take out a bunch of intelligence directors and politicians? A coup? Are you talking about a coup? That is treasonous,” Ross pointed out.
“What about this, what about just Stanwood?” King offered.
“We can’t kill Stanwood. He’s hands off, Andrew said so,” Snow stirred her noodles.
“Yeah, well, he’s not sitting at this table,” King stated.
“They have known each other since they were kids,” Major Ross said. “Fox, Stanwood and Croswell all went to school together. We’re not killing him. If he’s gotta die, that’s for Fox to decide.”
“What about exposing him?” King suggested.
“We have to get him to break the law first,” Ross said.
“I mean to the operating system, dose him with Mike.”
“What?” Ross asked, dumbfounded.
“We know Stanwood has never been exposed to the Micronix. So… Let’s expose him.”
“That’s no kind of solution,” Ross asked. “Give our enemy our secret weapon? Why not just give him access to all our gear too? Just open up our whole operation and invite him in? Make him one of us? I don’t like the sound of that. Not one bit.
“There’s no guarantee it won’t make him worse,” Ross added. “He’s not stupid. If anything, it might make him a much bigger threat than Fox. You would essentially be giving him everything Fox knows, to use in any way he saw fit.
“If there is a way to detonate terillium, Joseph Stanwood is the last person we want to give that to. Like giving Stalin or Hitler the nuke instead of Groves and Roosevelt.” Ross stirred his noodles. “Let’s not forget exactly ‘who’ the bad-guy is here.”
“Okay,” King said. “Just playing along here… a bad guy who might actually have a point, who we cannot kill and cannot convert. Stanwood is going to have to come to Jesus on his own? That’s our plan here? He needs to see the light, and we are just waiting for him to open his eyes?”
“How did you not see this coming?” Ross asked Snow directly.
“Don’t blame me. I can’t predict the future any better than you can.” She dug at the noodles but didn’t eat any. “I suppose we can take comfort in the fact that he can’t really kill us, and that, as of yet, they still don’t know who we are. And Fox also gave us ALL our gear.”
“Yeah, but aside from the blue
goo, the phase cam, and the gravity harness, the six months speed-bump, sure,” King said. “But the idea of being hunted forever or imprisoned isn’t very appealing either. We are not immortal. We might be backed up, but this could all come crashing down.”
“Mister Optimism over here,” Ross said.
“Do you have any ideas, Sir?” King asked.
Major Ross shook his head. “Give me a couple of minutes.”
"Why would he call Dr. Te and tell him that?” King asked.
“Maybe he can’t guess the future any better than any of us,” Ross suggested, nodding to Snow with his eyes. “Regardless, he’s really in their crosshairs this time. They’re not going to let this go. I had to shake two guys to get here.”
Snow sighed and pushed her noodle bowl away.
Ross leaned forward. "As you so elegantly put it, we are in the wind. Per protocol, run backups every 12 hours, full satellite transmission."
Snow and King groaned in annoyance but nodded.
"It's just a few days," Ross said.
"What are you going to do with Reid and the lab?" King asked.
"We're gonna double them. We'll put one in the stratosphere and drop a mirror to Davey Jones."
"You can never be too redundant, huh?" Snow asked.
"It's served us so far," Ross said. “Reid is getting the local decanters loaded and prepped, we're seven deep each.”
"But those still need six months to cook?" King asked.
“It does us no good if Fox or Stanwood nuke Angel City,” Snow said.
“That is not going to happen,” Ross said. “What about BDU’s. Do you have any that are mission ready?”
“I’m on my last legs,” Snow answered.
“I’ve got another,” King replied.
"I’m down to one myself, and it looks like I might have to use it tonight. If Stanwood has that," Ross gestured to the player. “I know he’s going to pay me a visit soon. May as well give him a show.”
"I'll shadow you, if you want," Snow offered.
“Naw, let them have their fun. If they don't show their hand, we've got nothing, and no idea exactly who is after us.
"We know exactly who is after us," King said.
"Fox is pretty sure Senator Miller is pulling Stanwood's strings. He wants to get the roots with the weeds," Ross said.
"We should go scorched earth on these idiots. Epsilon is completely their fault in the first place," Snow said. "They never should have been testing it on prisoners. They're lucky a big crater was all they got. It could have been a lot worse."
"If he didn't make a point of sticking it in their faces every chance he got, we wouldn't be in this mess," King said.
"Yeah, well, we wouldn't be backed up on interstellar satellites and you wouldn’t have a clone on ice either," Ross pointed out.
"To-may-toe, To-mah-toe," King replied.
"You know you love it," Ross smiled.
"I live for it, which is why I agree with the Captain. We should take the fight to them. All Enemies, Foreign and Domestic."
"Be careful what you wish for." Ross sipped at the cooling tea. "Oh! One other little problem; we still have no idea Who the residential sleeper is, and after the last few calls we caught, it's clear they might have someone inside."
“What do you mean might?” King asked.
"So, Epsilon might have been sabotage after all?" Snow asked.
"No. That's not the issue. Reid is sure there is a local asset, disguised as a civilian, living on your block." Ross shook his head. "Sorry, on the doctor's block."
"Oh come on," King said. "The most logical candidate is that freak living right down the street. He was assigned to Bergstrom's unit. There is no way that's coincidence."
"Well, it's damn clumsy, if he is. It's completely obvious," Ross said.
“If who is?” Snow asked.
“Martin Dunkirk.” King answered. “He’s nightshade.”
“As in a lethal plant? But he has three kids," Snow said. "He's been living there almost as long as we have."
"Almost, " King said. “And there may be more than one.”
Ross touched his nose and then pointed to King.
"Dunkirk was a battlefield surgeon, and his record is totally sealed," King said. "Why would a surgeon's record be sealed?"
"Half of Bergstrom's unit was medical. They’re all sealed.”
"The other half were well known wet-workers," Ross added.
"And now one of those freaks is living right down the street from you? That is no coincidence," King said.
"Well, the DOD unit, Faulkner's team, I think the leak is somewhere over there, but Fox and Croswell swear those guys are clean," Snow said.
"Sounds like time for a good old fashioned mole hunt.”
"I just don't want my kids getting hurt," Snow said.
"I don't know how you do it," King said.
"It's not that hard. You ran doubles for a while, didn't you?"
"Yeah, but I hated it. I never knew who I was in the morning."
“If you were a parent, you’d understand.” Snow picked at her food.
“Anyhow, I gotta be getting back,” King said. “If they come for me, you know what I’m going to do.”
“Don’t make it too easy for them,” Snow replied.
“Ha. Very funny,” King said.
“Really make them work for it,” Snow laughed.
“Not like I haven’t done a thousand times,” King said.
“Right.” Ross and Snow said together.
“You should go out the back. They’re only looking for me.”
“Are you kidding me? I’m staying on this,” Snow said.
“Fox wants you on double over-watch tonight. I got this. And if they really are coming, we absolutely can’t afford to let you get pinched. You’re our secret ace.”
“Don’t bullshit me,” Snow answered.
Ross smiled, “Stow it, Marine.”
“Yes, sir.” Snow replied, laughing.
“Now, get outta here, the both of you.” Ross nodded, smiling.
King and Snow exited the booth and made their way to the back of the restaurant. As Snow reached the door, she and King set their opacity to zero and became invisible.
The door opened, and Ross, capable of vision in the infrared spectrum, watched his comrades levitate up into the night sky. He turned back to his noodles and took his time finishing them.