Linkage: The Narrows of Time

Chapter 12

Monday, December 24

6:33 AM





Lucas was sleepingacross the bedroom from his brother when the wall phone rang, wakinghim up from a deep sleep. He heard Drew rustling around in his bed afew feet away.

“Who the hell iscalling us this early?” Lucas asked in a rusty voice. “It betternot be another one of those damn political polls.”

He stumbled in the darkto the main room and lifted the phone’s receiver. He intended to berude to the caller, but changed his mind at the last second. “Lucasspeaking.”

“Hey, it’s DL. Idon’t have time to explain, but the meeting’s been changed toseven a.m. I’ve already sent a car to get you. It’ll be thereshortly. Make sure you bring Trevor along. Understood?”

“Got it, sir, see youthen,” Lucas replied, before hearing Kleezebee hang up. He did thesame and walked to the refrigerator, which was just outside the doorto their bedroom.

He shouted, “Drew,get your ass up. Kleezebee’s changed the meeting to seven o’clock.”

He picked up the broomnext to the fridge, walked to the center of the main room, rammed itinto the ceiling three times to call Trevor. He put the broom away,opened the fridge, and grabbed a can of grape soda sitting on the topshelf. He tapped the top of the can with his finger five times,before popping the tab. Three gulps later, the can was empty.

“Nectar of the gods,”he said after letting out a thunderous belch that rattled his throat.

“Nice one,” Drewsaid, cruising into the room. “Do you know why they changed themeeting?”

“Nope, not a clue,”Lucas said, tossing the aluminum can in the recycle bin. “Where’sthat notebook?”

“It’s on the desk,right where you left it last night.”

Lucas slid the red andblue spiral notebook into Drew’s backpack and began to wonder whatmight explain the sudden change in Kleezebee’s plan. He halfexpected the police to come crashing through the door and arrest himfor mass murder. Then he shook his head and told himself he wasoverreacting. Kleezebee probably had other things to do today andsimply moved the meeting up two hours to accommodate his schedule.

Lucas quickly dressedand sat down on the couch to wait for his brother. He powered on theTV and changed the channel to one of the network news stations. Therewas an African-American female correspondent standing in a crowdedparking lot filled with emergency vehicles. Superimposed across thebottom of the screen was the phrase NORTH HANOVER, NJ LEVELED.MCGUIRE AFB SPARED.

The broadcast switchedto an overhead feed from a helicopter, which showed afamiliar-looking groove of black destruction several blocks long thatcut through the heart of the city.

“Ah, shit,” Lucassaid, watching a group of firefighters wandering around the scene.“Hey Drew, looks like there was another energy dome reported.”

“In Tucson?”

“No, someplace in NewJersey, thank God.”

Drew came cruising intothe main room. His right wheel slammed into the side of the couchnext to Lucas. “Was anyone hurt?”

“Looks like it. Thedome took out a small town.”

“Did you see anyblack residue?”

“Oh, yeah, it’sthere.”

“I wonder why itmoved to New Jersey?”

“Who knows, I’mjust glad it’s not here,” Lucas answered. “You ready to go?”

Drew nodded, rightbefore Trevor knocked on the door. The three of them went down to thefirst floor to wait for Kleezebee’s driver. They were just outsidethe main entrance, next to the manager’s office, when a four-doorsedan picked them up for their ten-minute commute to the science lab.

They traveled southtoward the cordoned off university and used the driver’scredentials to pass through the north checkpoint. Military troops hadset up roadblocks and checkpoints to limit access to campus whileforensic investigations continued. The driver pulled up to the frontof the science lab to drop them off. Inside, they met up with Bruno,who was guarding the security entrance along with two of his staff.

“Dr. Lucas, I’m toescort you to NASA’s security station. There are several peoplewaiting for you. DL said he’ll meet you there.”

Lucas had never beenwithin fifty yards of NASA’s section of the building. He had oftenwondered what stealthy projects were underway, but never dreamed hewould actually have the opportunity to walk the halls of thetop-secret wing. Despite his exhilaration, he forced himself toremain calm. The meeting’s new location meant the situation hadescalated, and he had better be prepared. NASA would never havegranted them access unless the circumstances left them with no otherchoice.

They made their waypast their own lab and continued on to NASA’s checkpoint. Brunoshook each of their hands and said, “Good luck today. I need toreturn to my station before my guys run amuck. Hopefully, DL willallow me to send them home soon.”

After Bruno left, atwo-man crew of armed MPs frisked Lucas, and then they searchedTrevor and Drew, before instructing the scientists to go through thescanning equipment. Lucas walked through first, holding his breath.He hated these things; always feeling like his organs were beingirradiated. No alarms sounded and he was cleared for entry. A guardhanded him a NASA visitor’s badge, which he clipped to his shirtpocket.

Trevor picked up Drewand carried him through the two screening devices. Once again, thesecurity devices remained silent. Trevor put Drew back in his chairand the guards handed them visitor badges to wear as well.

They were escortedthrough two connecting hallways before stopping in front of ametal-grated freight elevator. Lucas knew there was only one reasonfor the single-story building to have an elevator. They were about totravel underground. He boarded the lift and stood with the small ofhis back pressing up against the rear handrail. Lucas could smell thelingering odor of a cigar; Kleezebee must have ridden the elevatorrecently.

One of the four guardspressed the control panel’s bottom-most button illuminating thenumber 20. As the lift descended, Lucas thought about NASA’slengthy ten-year construction period. There was plenty of gossipfloating around campus, but nobody seemed to know the reason it tookso long. Now he knew: Building a secret, twenty-story subterraneanbunker directly under campus was an impressive feat. It alsocorroborated the rumor that secret, underground tests were being run,which had shaken their lab like a bartender finishing a James Bondmartini. He wondered if Kleezebee had known what was happening rightunder their feet, possibly damaging the science lab’s foundationand putting all their lives in jeopardy.

Lucas felt a body-wideflush when they stepped off the elevator on the 20th floor, and weregreeted by Mary Stinger, Kleezebee’s executive assistant. She hadthe starring role in many of his sexual fantasies.

She smiled. “Hello,Dr. Ramsay. I’m to escort all three of you to the conference room,which is at the far end of this floor. Please follow me.” She heldout her hands in the MPs’ direction. “I’ve got it from here,boys. You may return to the surface.”

Lucas kept a close eyeon Mary as she started to walk down the hallway. She was wearing askin-tight skirt that barely covered her ass. He wondered how shecould sit down without exposing a birds-eye view of her panties,assuming she was wearing any. She swayed her hips with purpose,walking with a distinct bounce in her step, as if she were struttingdown the runway at some New York fashion show. He listened to therhythmic clatter of her six-inch heels smacking the cement floor,which, when combined with the metronome-like stride of her tan legs,was almost hypnotizing. He would gladly follow her anywhere.

* * *

Drewwaited for his brother to step in front of him to follow behind Mary,knowing that Lucas would appreciate the priority view of her figure.When he looked back at the MPs waiting inside the elevator for thedoors to close, he realized his earlier headcount was off by one. Hemust have been too preoccupied with other matters to make such asimple mistake. He vowed to better his concentration.

Drew memorizedeverything he observed along the way to the conference room. He triedto peek inside the various labs they passed, but failed because mostof their doors were closed. Fortunately, on two occasions, he wasable to see inside a room before the door closed behind an enteringscientist.

He saw an elderly womanseated behind a desk inside the first room. She was stirring thecontents of a black coffee mug while leaning forward with her faceunusually close to the computer screen. A pair of glasses hung on achain in front of her chest. A row of five-drawer filing cabinetsstood watch behind her, and there were hundreds of shoebox-sizedboxes stacked up all around the room. Each brown box had a red,white, and blue priority mail sticker on the side.

The second roomfeatured two heavyset men, maybe Native Americans, judging by theirlong black hair and dark skin. They were standing in front of atransparent grease board, scribbling equations in red-and-blue markerink. The board was a good foot taller than they were, and framed inwood with a set of casters for mobility. Drew could only see aportion of their work, but recognized it. They were attempting tocontrol virtual protons in a quantized field, not an easy feat. If hewere not expected elsewhere, he would have stopped to lend a hand.

An overabundance ofMarine personnel were roaming the halls. Drew had not expected such astrong military presence inside a scientific facility. Granted themilitary and NASA were both funded by the Congress and NASA wasnominally a defense agency, it still seemed odd that there appearedto be more soldiers than scientists.

Drew kept track oftheir location as they moved deeper into the facility. He calculatedwhere they were in relation to their own lab on the ground floor eachtime they rounded another corner. He also thought it prudent tomemorize the path back to the elevator. It might just come in handy.

* * *

Theyarrived at their meeting room five minutes later. Lucas saw a seatingarea just to the left of the conference room’s double doors, witheight fabric-covered chairs and a glass coffee table sitting betweenthem. Two stacks of magazines were lying on the table.

“Go ahead and take aseat over there. They’ll call for you when they’re ready,” Marysaid, pointing to the chairs in the waiting area.

Mary was wearing anofficial NASA Photo ID badge, meaning she was not simply a visitor.She had been granted specific security clearance, and by extension,Kleezebee must possess it as well. Obviously, there was a lot Lucasdidn’t know.

“Who are we meetingwith?” he asked her.

“I’m sorry, but Ican’t tell you that. But I can tell you that they’ve been inthere for well over an hour and should be ready for you soon.”

As with every malesince the dawn of humanity, Lucas had been preconditioned toappreciate a beautiful woman’s appearance. Her silky, orange blousewas unbuttoned deep below her neckline to expose a sizable portion ofher upper breasts. He snuck several peeks, trying not to appearobvious, but it was difficult not to stare. Her cleavage was not onlymagnificent, but it acted like a magnet for his eyes. It was apparentthat Mary had chosen her ensemble carefully to maximize her appeal.If Lucas had been a professor, he would have given her an A+ forpresentation.

The three scientistsfollowed Mary’s instructions and found seats in the waiting areaalong the wall to the left of the conference room. Lucas and Drewwere next to each other with Trevor on Lucas’ left. Mary was seatedin the chair directly across from Lucas with her legs crossedlady-like. He was hoping to get lucky and catch that birds-eye view.He did. They were sheer pink with lace seams.

Drew whispered toLucas, “Did you see all the soldiers on the way here?”

“Yeah, it seemed abit odd,” Lucas whispered back, before angling his head in Mary’sdirection. “Did you notice her ID badge?”

“Sure did. This wholething makes me nervous.”

“Maybe the Marineshave some joint venture project with NASA? After all, they’re allpart of our same government. It’s probably not the first timethey’ve pooled their resources.”

Drew looked down at hislap and began to rock back and forth, clutching the leather pouchthat hung from his neck.

Lucas recognized hisbrother’s familiar response. Drew was slipping away into hissecret, dark place, trying to conceal himself from reality. He gavehis brother a small hug. “It’s going to be all right, littlebrother. I’ll take care of it. I always do.”

“Drew okay? Needhelp?” Trevor asked Lucas.

“He’ll be fine.Just give him a few minutes,” Lucas said. “But thanks for asking.You’re a good friend.”

Lucas turned to facehis brother. He hoped that by interrupting his brother’s ritual,Drew would snap out of his funk. He nudged him on the shoulder. “Canyou hand me the notebook?”

Drew stopped rocking,unzipped his backpack, and pulled out the multi-colored notebookthey’d brought from the apartment. He gave it to Lucas. There was afaded purple stain on the lower half of its cover, next to the tornright edge.

Lucas and Drew hadexhausted the evening hours formulating a number of unorthodoxtheories regarding the nature of the energy fields the day before.They knew conventional thinking was not going to provide them withanswers, let alone a solution.

They’d consideredevery conceivable possibility, no matter how irrational orpreposterous. They’d discussed cascading reactions, antimatterannihilation, subspace fractures, micro singularities, quantum rifts,subatomic spacetime turbulence, and even the possibility ofthird-party sabotage. They developed multiple theory paths and mappedthem to an elaborate decision tree, which they could implementdepending on how future events unfolded. It was an ingenious,well-conceived plan that the brothers hoped would impress Kleezebee.Despite their prowess for lateral scientific thinking, neither ofthem was able to explain the energy spike that they believedtriggered the E-121 incident.

“Would you mind if Iran through some of these theories with you, Trevor?” Lucas said,turning to the third page. “We need a fresh pair of eyes to help uscheck their accuracy and make sure our assumptions are valid. You canbe our sounding board.”

“Go ahead. I help.”

* * *

Twentyminutes later, Mary’s digital pager began to beep. She reached forthe unit and disabled its alarm. Lucas wondered why she was usingsuch an antiquated device. Perhaps a dampening field was in place—toblock cell phone reception for security reasons. On the other hand,it may have been due to heavy terrestrial interference. A digitalsignal would degrade significantly having to penetrate twenty floorsof thick cement and rebar. Lucas heard at least two other pagersgoing off, though they sounded distant, possibly down the hall.

“Are they ready forus?” Lucas asked her.

She shook her head witha concerned look on her face. “That wasn’t them.”

“Is something wrong?”

“NASA just orderedeveryone to evacuate the building.”

“Do we need toleave?” Lucas put his hands on the chair’s armrests.

“I’m not sure. Letme check,” she replied before standing up, adjusting her blouse,and walking to the conference room door. She knocked twice, thenleaned through the doorframe, as if she were waiting for permissionto enter. She stepped inside, and was gone less than a minute beforereturning with a folded piece of white paper. She handed it toTrevor. “This is from Dr. Kleezebee. He says it’s for your eyesonly.”

Trevor stood up andmoved away before unfolding the paper and reading the note.

Mary told Lucas,“They’re almost ready for you. Should only be a few minutes.”

“Then I take it we’renot evacuating with everyone else?”

“No, you’re toremain here until they call for you.”

Trevor walked back andwhispered something into Mary’s ear, after which the two of themhurried down the hall and disappeared around the corner.

“What was that allabout?” Drew asked.

“Who knows? This justkeeps getting stranger by the minute. All we need now is for yourfriend Griffith to show up with one of his toxic chemicalexperiments,” Lucas said, sitting back in his chair, thinking aboutthe energy dome that chased them on campus. He was happy to be deepinside a hardened military-style shelter with thick, reinforcedwalls, far below ground where it couldn’t reach them.

Drew clutched hisleather pouch again, and resumed rocking.

Lucas expected the nexthour of his life to be one he would always remember. It was eithergoing to be a career-making meeting—if one of their notebooktheories proved to be the solution to the energy fields—or an hourfilled with gut-wrenching stress; the kind that might destroy hisself-confidence for life.

Kleezebee poked his head out of the conference room door. “Guys,we’re ready for you.”