Chapter Thirteen
Oh Dwarg, give me some suitable words as to how I feel right now.
“Hiems est trisitia de.” Hmm, you’re getting better at it, but the ‘winter of our discontent’ started two days ago. How about this one... ‘SSJH’.
She walked back into the kitchen. “It’s going to be a long night for me guys...we now have another missing person, Ernie’s Special Forces friend Ken Kain. They found his clothing on the ground, very close to the spot where Professor Lien was last seen. Not a trace of a body, no tracks; seems very likely that it wasn’t a kidnapping.”
“Dear oh dear, things are getting worse, two now? this is a nightmare; when will it end? oh Aggie, it’s all going so bad.”
“I’ve ordered the area to be quarantined until tomorrow. In the meantime I have to go over some data that’s being transmitted shortly, so I’ll have to spend this evening in the office. We’ll just have to keep cool heads and get through it. May I help you with the dishes aunt?”
“Certainly Aggie, and you can dust, sweep and mop the floors, and oh yes, climb up on the roof and knock down the overhanging icicles; perhaps Alex would like his car washed and waxed as well?”
“Do you see how I just love my Aunt Edna, she’s a black belt in sarcasm, a sensei of cliques and a shihan of sophistication. Now about those waffles and syrup aunt, I’ve a Whisp to sharpen up...or to use your wonderful picturesque words, ‘make little shithead earn his keep’.”
“Please let me help you Aggie; my brain might not be as brilliant as yours or Edna’s, but at least I can make you cups of coffee, a few shoulder rubs and some encouragement; promise I won’t interfere.”
“Aw Alex that’s so nice but you’ve got your own things to sort out and come to grips with, my love.”
“I won’t have a hoot in hell relaxing and opening my mind to mysterious entities while I know you’re so upset. I love you, I want to care for you, and don’t want to see you in so much turmoil. Er, yes that’s right, Edna, I’m madly in love with your niece; hang the damn etiquette and niceties.”
“How come everything lately is so bitter-sweet? Of course you do dear; I realized that, back in Cody’s caboose. Aggie perhaps you should let Alex look over your shoulder; he still has a lot to learn.”
“What do you know about ESPO readings, my lovely apprentice?”
“Aha, yes, the good old Environmental Sensitivity Paradigm Oscilloscope. I’ve actually used one back in Huston; we had to identify disturbances within certain areas of the atmosphere and got to learn about footprint shadows.”
“That’s excellent Alex; you really can help me then. We have an ESPO at Reggane. It’s much broader, powerful and delicate than the one you’ve trained on, but basically the same principle applies. The readings for the last month will be coming through shortly; I need to find anything that may be a clue; anything out of the ordinary. The trouble is that it will take some time because it all needs to be printed out.”
“But surely you can see it all on the monitor?”
“Ah, let me let tell you some more about Whisps; they do have a little trouble with the digital age; and colour; and music.”
-oOo-
Aggie and Alex had spent hours, pouring over the data that Aaron had transmitted. It didn’t take them long to find the regular irregularities. The readings showed that at precisely 2445 hours each day, a trace of interference was recorded. This was unusual given that no other detectors had picked it up.
Aggie was finally able to isolate the shadow of the footprint and with working and reworking the profile, came up with a blurry, pixelated image. Alex studied it and said. “Aggie, I’ve seen something like this before; it looks like a satellite, I don’t think it’s one of ours; it’s probably a spy satellite. You know what Aggie? I should call Rob Allen. He’s a whiz at identifying bogies; helped me a lot when I was trying to make sense of ESPO anomalies and flicks. He should still be up. Would that break any of your security arrangements?”
“Go right ahead Alex – but please stand under that ceiling; it’s a security measure.” Aggie continued to study the seemingly endless roll of print-out... well at least I have some clues now.
Later, Alex’s phone rang; it was his friend Rob Allen. “Well what do you know Aggie; it’s a Chinese FOO884; the latest one; it’s still in orbit. It can pick up all forms of radiation, communication and electronic emissions. It can clearly zoom in and display a small freckle off a bald man’s head from there.”
“Aha, right! Now have a look at this Alex. Dwarg has pointed out something. See, I’ve blown it up a bit more, see? Right here, this little line, from the FOO to the XY point of origin – or it may be the other way around. I can only find it on two events; guess when?”
“Hmm when the men disappeared? God Aggie, don’t tell me the Chinese have developed a beam or ray or something that can disintegrate people off the face of the planet?”
“No, I don’t think it’s that simple, there’s something happened, a short or cross circuiting, a miscalculation, a contamination or side effect of radiation emission... according to the ESPO, that FOO had been spying for about 20 days before this happened. It was only after Professor Lien turned on the capacitor for a test trial, that things went askew. I’m sure we’ll learn more when we examine the clothing and sand from the site – there must be some residual radiation to detect and identify.”
“Phew; that’s as far as we can go tonight, or should I say this morning. You should go and rest Alex. You poor man, you still have your own research to tackle; and I have to get up and go to HQ Lebanon first thing in the morning. It’s Sunday and I’m sure Edna would appreciate your company going to the morning yard sales around Putney.”
“Really? I can hardly wait for that – I might even find myself a Stetson, yeeha! So it’s back to the couch for me? Are you sure? It’s awfully lonely in there Aggie, I could use some.. company?”
“You will have company...say hello to Slig for me, I’m jealous already. Good night sweet prince.”
It was a sweet kiss; short, yet quite satisfying.
“Goodnight Doctor Kellor, sleep well.” He had worked out, from that photo in the lounge room, exactly what the crimson lines on her graduation cloak meant. The diploma on her office wall confirmed it as well.
Edna was still awake in the kitchen. She had done all the chores and was just sitting there..holding the Goomeri Pointing Bone.
-oOo-
“Good morning young man, you really must have needed your sleep; why it’s after nine o’clock; the day’s nearly over.”
“Er, morning Edna, I hope you mean nine in the morning; although I feel like I’ve slept for days.” He stretched his arms in the air and yawned loudly. “Ah that’s just what I needed. And you Edna?”
“That’s it? Nothing to report? No gremlin singing ‘Getting to Know You?’ Did you hear any voices at all Alex?”
“Can’t say that I did. I went to sleep as soon as my head hit the cushion; oh wait, I do remember a voice, I thought it was your voice, coming from the kitchen; I wondered who you were talking to, because Aggie went off to her bedroom after we said goodnight to each other. Anyway I was out to it after that. Has Aggie left already?”
“She left just after six. She went with the security patrol. Said she’d have breakfast at the plant but didn’t know when she’d be back. She thought you would be in a ‘bedazzled’ state after you woke up, but obviously you’ve survived.”
“A whole day without Aggie? I think I’ll die Edna. Did Aggie tell you about our discovery last night?”
“Chinese spy planes, meta-whatever-beams and particles; stuff way beyond me, but she’s on the trail now. She was very impressed with you and said that without your input, she’d still be trying to figure things out. By the by, that stuff about the spy, no one else is to know, OK? She’s shutting down the capakatator thingy today. She’s also setting up various machines to test the clothes and stuff from
where the professor and that man had stood. That should arrive later on this evening.”
“So I won’t be seeing her for a day and a night?”
“Hang on now lover-boy, don’t get in a panic. We can go visit her this evening; she wants us to bring a picnic basket and we’ll have dinner in her lab. As for the rest of the day...may I suggest a big breakfast at the Putney Diner and look; I’ve marked a ring around all these places in our local paper; even worked out the route to take to these yard sales...c’mon get those feet into them dar moccasins; bargains be awaitin.”
“Can I drive the Hummer?”
“Promise you won’t lose it in the snow?”
“Aw thanks, yes I promise...Shihan Edna.”
-oOo-
Ernie picked up the phone. “Good afternoon Ernie, did you manage to get some well earned sleep?”
“Managed to doze off for a few minutes ma’am. I see the capacitor has been shut down, and we have choppers in the air. Ken’s parka, trousers, one sock and boot, plus his torch are on the way to you now; Jade is certainly clocking up his hours.”
“Yes he loves flying. Now down to the nitty gritty Ernie. We have detected a Chinese spy satellite looking us over between midnight and one a.m. every day for the past 20. We are still working out its orbit and paths, and exactly what it has been doing. There is a definite connection between it and the disappearance of Professor Lien and Mister Kain, and that’s what I’m working on now – those samples from the site should give me some leads.”
“That revelation is hard to take ma’am, I was assured by our people at AFRICOM that no activity was detected. It must be one smart eye-in-the-sky. Well that certainly narrows things down; do you believe the Chinese have used a ray or something as a weapon? this is damn ugly.”
“Not necessarily, although I am looking closely at particle beam interdiction with interaction of nucleic radiation; there has to be a reason why the men disappeared and not their clothing and effects. Now Ernie, I take it you have continued with the forensics on the site – any news of the professors clothing?”
“My little team of forensic investigators have recovered all of Ken’s clothing and we even found the surgical screw which had been inserted in his little toe years ago; but absolutely no trace of human remains. We have just unearthed a boot; yet to be identified, but there’s not much doubt that it belonged to Professor Lien. We should find more shortly. Er, ma’am, those beams, er, would our people have suffered...er..sorry, never mind.”
“Ernie, let’s not write everything or anyone off just yet; there’s still a lot be investigated. I don’t know if those beams were going to, or coming from the FOO; by the way, that’s what it’s called. Now what I have told you is for your ears only and at this stage, I will have to break my own rule of openness of information and apologize to other parties later.”
“Understood ma ‘am. What else do you want me to do here?”
“I would like you to finish up with the crime scene, especially by midnight; remove all the barriers, tape and signs and smooth over the ground. Make the area out of bounds to unauthorised people. I’ve asked Aaron to continue with his work on the pulsar anchoring, and hopefully our little friends in the sky won’t be scared off. In the meantime please carry on with your investigation so as not to arouse suspicion with the local authorities, in particular Abdul; he’s very wily. Should he learn of the FOO, things may get out of control...internationally.”
“Should we at least look at some form of counter attack...er, counter measures?”
‘Oh most definitely Ernie, but in a very, very subtle way; but first I need to examine the evidence and see what story comes out.”
“Er, if it’s of any help ma’am; that torch of Ken’s; I noticed that the batteries had been fried, before I put it in the specimen bag.”
“Ma’am? Mrs Kellor?”
“Yes yes, I heard you Ernie; that’s very important, extremely important...was it a normal torch?.an LED? a halogen? what batteries were in it?” Aggie was becoming excited.
“LED I’m sure. It was a powerful one, part of his survival kit which he always kept around him – I remember him saying that it could light up half the base. They were lithium batteries; you know the ones that look like the old dollar coins; about ten, but these looked like they’re fused into one blob. And I’ve just remembered...the professor’s torch was LED, about 200 lights.”
“And your torch Ernie?”
“LED; I borrowed one from the KR office here. I broke it after tripping over Ken’s clothes; darn gammy leg of mine. Never got to...to switch it on.”
“Well, your gammy leg may well have saved your life. I’m sure if you had turned that torch on, we’d be looking for your body as well. OK Ernie, a total ban on anything using LEDs between the hours of 2300 and 0200, torches, radios, phones, recorders, even security lights. And Ernie, no air traffic during those hours as well. I’m sure your can come up with a suitable excuse. I’ll get back to you as soon as I have more information.”
“Ma’am, I do have some connections with the Chinese Intel; should I make discreet enquiries?”
“No no no; not at this stage. I’ll let you know.”
That’s what I like about my boss. Intelligent, decisive and you know where you stand. “Right then, I’ll wait for your next call. Oh one more thing ma’am; thanks very much for that lucky charm.”
-oOo-
Come on Dwarg, I know you know about wave particle duality and Einstein’s spooky things at a distance proposal but I think we have to look at some of those hidden variables that keep vexing our physicists. Maybe the notion of Quantum Entanglement and Nonlocality is in play...let’s go over these formulas again; this time using the variation of emitting/ingesting the sub-atomic properties of diodes, then lithium.
Anyone seeing Aggie deliberating, analysing and assessing would be amazed at her style. Instead of standing in front of a whiteboard writing equations and formula, or sitting in front of a huge scientific computer, Aggie would be sitting comfortably on a couch in her office in HQ Kellor Resources, Lebanon, and looking at nothing in particular.
She found that she could best concentrate by being comfortable and relaxed. Now that Dwarg had returned, she felt; no, she knew; that she had a heightened advantage with solving this complex issue. This was a difficult task for Dwarg; Aggie was asking him to calculate and provide an answer to an almost impossible mix of sub-atomic events and outcomes. Their conversation was a mix of internal, external sentences and mutual discourse.
The capacitor had been active at that time and only the professor would have known if the inhibitor was attracting elements from the surrounding field of radio-active ions and particles. The stream of electromagnetic, microwave, x-ray and gamma radiation beaming from the FOO, would have entered and altered the integrity of the inhibiting wave to the capacitor; plus some distortion by our ESPO. That interference would only offer a neutrality to the matrix. However the addition of a third emission confounds it again; yes that emission from the torches.
Hmm...powerful electromagnetic field interference...back in the 1940s, there was a failed experiment to make a Naval Ship invisible to detection, by wrapping it in high voltage cables. That certainly altered its erstwhile electromagnetic field. After the trial, some of its sailors were said to have disappeared; this had never been proven... or indeed, disproven. It was even alleged that the ship had been invisibly transported from one port to another, then back again... ah yes, the Philadelphia Experiment.
Anyway, we now see a new, or extra wave and the properties suggest that it has become a...a carrier wave? Dwarg, could it be possible? Could we have stumbled on that thing like in the Star Trek stories; a transporter of sorts?
Dwarg knew of this false information which was transmitted via a medium he could not see; it was completely untrue, yet Humans were somehow interested in the admitted lies presented to them. They called these false presentations...ent
ertainment. All in all, he finally had an answer for Aggie. The two Humans do not exist...in the world of the physical.
“No no Dwarg; not good enough; they may still exits; within that carrier wave. The Chinese probably don’t even realise it, but attached to their FOO is a beam, maybe two; containing, what the Trekkies would call, an ‘energy pattern’ of our men.”
Dwarg, the foremost possessor of knowledge of all Whisps, now faced the reality that a Human of the Planet had out-thought him. There is a possibility in what you have calculated Aggie – If you intend to reverse the transmission of that carrier wave – (the properties of which I cannot reason); we must be accurate with the perimeters of the vibration of the human cells and the transducer must be amalgamated into some form, in keeping with the frequency of the beam.
Hmm...a simple LASER for a start – yes, let me look at the schematics of the capacitor’s inhibitor..yes, here it is...and it’s possible. Now we need a transmitter – this is where it gets complicated Dwarg; especially where there may be a compromise between those frequencies. Let’s tackle that problem later. Aggie picked up her phone; “Wendy, please contact the people from C5, apologize to them, but we need them to come to the lab ASP. Also please try to find the current location of Professor Nicolades; Melczarek; he’s a physicist; I last heard he was with the University of Singapore a few years ago. Please be discreet if you know what I mean.”
Right Dwarg, help me draw up the circuits.