AMPED (15 page)

She checked her watch. It was noon. Connelly was driving back with the Rosenblatts and would arrive in an hour or so. He would deposit the RV and the family in a nearby trailer park and come immediately back to headquarters.

She picked up her cell phone and dialed a number Griffin had given her. It was answered after the fourth ring.

“
Hello?
” said a deep voice questioningly, clearly confused as to why his phone had failed to identify the caller.

“Admiral Hansen, this is very important. Don’t hang up.”

“Who is this?” he demanded. “How did you get this number?”

 
It was one thing for a stranger to dial the closely guarded private cell phone number of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by mistake. It was another for a stranger to call it and
know
who was at the other end. He would attempt to trace the call, but it would be a waste of time.

Kira ignored his questions. “I need you to deliver a message to a Colonel Morris Jacobson. It’s a national security matter of extreme importance.” Jake’s first and last name had never been spoken while their bug was in range, but since the bug had revealed he was working with a major named John
Kolke
, Griffin was able to use his amplified intellect to learn the colonel’s true identity almost immediately.

“I’m not a messenger and I’ve never heard of this colonel. Contact him yourself. If you can find my number, you can find his.”

“You’d think so, but no,” said Kira. “He’s in charge of a group that carries out black operations. You’re the high profile Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Your information may be heavily protected, but at least you’re a public figure. He isn’t.”

“Black-Ops are performed independently. I don’t know this colonel of yours, this . . .” The admiral paused, obviously having forgotten the name Kira had given him already.

“Morris Jacobson.”

“Right. Morris Jacobson. I have no idea who he is.”

“Maybe so, but if you expect me to believe you can’t find out, you must think I’m a fool. How many people have managed to hack your private number, Admiral? Don’t you think you should be taking me a little more seriously?”

“If I wasn’t taking you seriously, we wouldn’t still be talking.”

“It’s a matter of national security, Admiral. And it’s a simple message.”

There was a long pause. “What’s the message?”

“Tell him to call Kira Miller. That’s a code name,” she lied. “But he’ll know who it is.”

“That’s the entire message?”

“Yes, and he has to make a computer to computer connection. The call has to be video as well as audio. I’ll text you with the exact time and instructions for making contact.” She paused. “I can’t possibly overstate the importance of this. Even you can’t be in the loop on everything, Admiral, but trust me, this is big.”

“Okay,” said the admiral. “Send your text.”

“Thank you, sir,” said Kira. “It should be there any second.”

***

Colonel “Jake” Jacobson appeared on Kira’s large computer monitor precisely at the time she specified. She had expected nothing less. She studied his lean face, black hair, and dark five o’clock shadow that looked as though it was perpetual, burning details of his appearance into her memory.

He looked a little wary, but mostly intrigued.

“Thanks for calling, Colonel,” she began.

He nodded slowly. “Well, you did extend an invitation I couldn’t refuse. The great Kira Miller. Since I consider you to be the most remarkable woman who ever lived, having the chance to speak with you in person is impossible to pass up under any circumstances.”

“Remarkable for my accomplishments? Or remarkable for what you think is the blackness in my soul?”

“Both,” admitted Jake without hesitation. “By the way, how did you discover my name?”

“Lucky guess,” said Kira.

The corners of Jake’s mouth turned up into the hint of a smile, which quickly vanished. “Look,” he said, knowing that pressing this question further wouldn’t get him anywhere, “I’m on camera like you asked. How about letting me see who
I’m
talking to? It seems only fair.”

Kira shook her head. “Didn’t your mother ever tell you that life isn’t always fair?”

Jake frowned, but she could tell he wasn’t surprised by her response. “Nice trick getting Admiral Hansen to contact me,” he said. “But for someone of your capabilities, far less surprising to me than it was to him.”

“Did you tell him what this is about?”

“Of course,” replied Jake immediately.

On the bottom of Kira’s screen two words appeared.
He’s lying
.

She glanced at Jim Connelly inside the enhancement room, who was watching Jake and monitoring the conversation on his own screen, and nodded her thanks. They had timed things so Connelly would be enhanced throughout the call, diverting a tiny portion of his amplified focus to act as a human lie detector.

Those who were enhanced learned immediately that they could read the combination of facial expressions, body language cues, and vocal intonation in normals so well they could predict what they would say next with an accuracy that bordered on mind reading. And as far as determining the truth or falsehood of anything a normal actually
vocalized
, their accuracy was absolute.

Kira welcomed learning Jake’s statement was a lie. The last thing she wanted was for the Admiral to be brought up to speed and enter the game.

“So let’s cut to the chase,” said Jake. “What can I do for you?”

“I believe you’re holding a few friends of mine.”

“
Friends?
Plural? My understanding from the one
friend
I’m holding is that the other one is
more
than just a friend. Word is you’re in love with him.”

Kira’s heart ached just thinking about David Desh, but she couldn’t afford the slightest sentimentality. “Really?” she said. “Can a person with a soul as black as you think mine is fall in love?”

“In their own fashion, maybe. I understand that even Adolf Hitler had a girlfriend.”

Kira sighed in frustration. “I trust both Seth and David are in good health?”

“Desh is still unconscious and hasn’t been touched. Rosenblatt couldn’t be healthier.”

A message scrolled onto her screen faster than she could read, put there by someone with superhuman typing skills.

He’s hedging. Rosenblatt is fine physically, but Jake is worried about his psychological state after the stunt with this daughter. He continues to feel quite guilty about that, and regrets the damage he felt forced to inflict on someone he believes is an innocent man
.

How fucking pathetic
, added Connelly coldly, an editorial sentiment that his normal self would never have shared.

Jake’s eyes narrowed and he checked his connection, no doubt wondering why Kira was taking so long to respond.

“The reason I wanted you to contact me,” continued Kira finally, having finished reading Connelly’s note, “is to propose a trade.”

“A trade?”

“That’s right. Me for the two of them.”

As good a poker player as Jake was, he couldn’t hide his surprise.

He expected you might bribe or threaten him to attempt to get them back, but he never expected this
, wrote Connelly unnecessarily.
His mind is racing, weighing the offer, weighing possibilities, with a high level of excitement.

“I give up two prisoners and I only get one in return?” said Jake, sounding almost bored. “Doesn’t sound like a fair trade to me.”

Kira laughed out loud. “Come off it, Colonel. Either we deal with each other honestly or I’m rescinding the offer and hanging up.”

The corners of Jake’s mouth turned up once again into the slightest of smiles. “Okay,” he said. "I won’t deny it. I’m interested.” He raised his eyebrows. “I’m just having trouble believing you’d really put yourself in my custody.”

“Believe it,” said Kira. “But I need something from you. I need your absolute assurance on a few matters. Your word of honor.”

Jake looked at the screen in disbelief. “You can’t be serious.
My word of honor
? Why would you possibly believe anything I told you?”

“I’m a good judge of character, Colonel. If you give me your word, that’s good enough for me.”

He doesn’t believe this for an instant, but sees no point in arguing further.

“Okay,” said Jake. “I’m listening.”

“First, I want your assurances that you’ll let me live once I’m in your custody. Don’t answer immediately. Think it through. Be absolutely sure you’re willing and able to honor your commitments before giving your word.”

Jake pursed his lips in thought for an extended period. “I won’t kill you,” he said finally. “You have my word. But I won’t promise anything else. And if you resist or try to escape, all bets are off.”

He’s telling the truth
, typed Connelly.
His plan was always to kill you
—
just to be sure the threat he thinks you pose is nullified
—
but he’ll honor his word now that he’s given it. His new plan is to interrogate you thoroughly and then lock you away in a high-security cell for the rest of your life.

“That’s acceptable,” said Kira Miller to the colonel. “Second. I need your word that you won’t interrogate Desh when he regains consciousness and that no harm will come to either prisoner.”

Jake considered again and then finally nodded. “You have my word,” he said.

He’s telling the truth
.

“Finally,” said Kira, “I want your word that you’ll hold up your end of the bargain. That if I give myself up, you’ll let Desh and Rosenblatt go, in perfect health, and not try to follow them. And neither will any of your men. Or your satellites. Think very carefully about this one, Colonel.”

Jake paused, and rubbed the back of his head, as though this would help in the thinking process. “Okay,” he responded finally. “You have my word.
If
you give yourself up—which I’m still not convinced you’ll do—I’ll release them in perfect health. And I won’t have them followed.”

He’s telling the truth, but he’s trying to deceive you in his own way. Good for him. I didn’t think this giant pussy had it in him,
wrote enhanced Connelly callously
. He’ll let them get away, but he’ll use what he gets out of you to do everything in his power to recapture them as soon as possible.

Kira caught Connelly’s eye and nodded. This was good enough for her.

“I’m counting on you to be a man of honor, Colonel, and not decide later to go back on your word.”

“I won’t,” said Jake.

He won’t
, typed Connelly.
But he still doesn’t believe you really trust his word. He’s convinced he’s missed something. So he’ll be exceedingly cautious and prepared for anything.

“While we’re at it,” added Jake. “How about giving me your word that you’ll hold up
your
end of the bargain.”

“What prompted
that
?” asked Kira. “My word means
nothing
to you, and we both know it.”

Jake smiled. “You have a point. Even if I thought I could trust you, I’m a firm believer in the trust-but-verify process anyway.”

“Don’t worry,” said Kira. “I won’t jeopardize my friends. You’ll have me on a platter.” She paused. “But I do have one other condition before I agree to the trade. Once this is met, you can call back in thirty minutes and we can hash out the details of the, um . . . personnel exchange.”

Jake’s expression was easy for Kira to read, even without Connelly’s help. He had been thinking this was too easy, and he expected this final condition to be an unpleasant surprise that would mean she had no intention of giving herself up, and that this had been an elaborate tease for unknown reasons. “Go on,” he said guardedly.

“I need you to tell Seth Rosenblatt that little Jessica is alive and well. That what he saw was concocted by your special effects wizards.”

Jake’s eyes widened.

He’s wondering how you have any fucking idea that this happened
. There was a pause.
Now he’s putting it all together. He’s figured out you must have been listening in, although he can’t imagine how you pulled it off.

“Gladly,” said Jake at last.

“Then we have an agreement,” said Kira. “Go talk to Seth.”

Jake nodded. “I’ll call you back in thirty minutes.”

18

Madison Russo could barely breathe. She had never suffered from stage fright before and was comfortable in front of large crowds, but in addition to the many hundreds of reporters in the massive convention center ballroom, well over a hundred million more were watching on TV.

She had sent her findings out to the gravitational wave astronomy community at the speed of the Internet. This was too important to wait, even until morning. Within hours her findings had been confirmed at a dozen centers around the world.

The governments of almost every nation instinctively tried to suppress the data. After all, information this explosive needed to be analyzed endlessly before a determination could be made if the hapless citizenry could handle it. But governments quickly realized that the genie was out of the bottle and there was no way to cram it back in. They’d have better luck trying to stop the eruption of an active volcano with their bare hands.

As it was, Madison’s discovery caused sleepless nights around the world and a flurry of activity the likes of which had never been seen. If the entire Earth were an anthill, her findings had just kicked it like a planetary-sized boot, and seething masses of its inhabitants were scurrying every which way.

Dr. Eugene Tobias, the head of NASA, was at the podium first. Across the world similar press conferences were taking place, headed by government officials and scientific luminaries. In the United States, dozens of politicians and scientists had jockeyed all night to be the featured speaker, but since one of their own scientists had taken the shot heard ‘round the world—which wasn’t surprising since the majority of work in this field was being done in America—Madison Russo was the obvious, and fair, choice. Also because she was still a grad student, it would make the press conference less formal and intimidating, and enhance the human interest angle.