Near Future 1: Awakening (15 page)

Jimmy looked at her intently. Some of her deep conviction rubbed off on him a little bit. "I don't know very much about exotic matter, but it certainly sounds dangerous. Just for the moment, assuming you are right and it really is that bad, if we tried to evacuate everyone, I suspect that would cause them to trigger it early, still not a good solution. I can tell you right now that's not going to happen anyway with the limited evidence you have. So what exactly can we do to help you?."

Miranda nodded. She was surprised she had been able to get that much from him. "I need two things. I need access to the Space Tech technicians who designed the bulbs, and I need something from you. I need DHS friendly passes from you for the Sergeant and me. We need to be able to carry our sniper rifles and use them if we find the trigger for this." The man started to say something but she went on before he could. "I have received the full certification from Sarge, who is one of the best in the business. I know you have already checked our records."

"Yes, I could see the Sarge, but why you? You are just a student."

The Sarge looked at him. "You see a student. I see the most accomplished shooter I have ever known. This girl is that good, although she doesn't have any experience. I propose you give it to us both, contingent on me staying with her at all times."

Jimmy stood there a minute. "I know for a fact that I have absolutely lost it, but I believe the two of you. Based on that stipulation, I will agree to do as you ask. I may get in trouble over it, but my career isn't going anywhere, so I don't have that much to lose." He waved to the man handling the DHS passes, holding up two fingers. The man picked up two passes, bringing them over to him. Jimmy held the passes out before them and said, "Do the two of you pledge to carry these in honor, in accordance to our regulations, and swear to obey DHS officers?" They both nodded and said in unison, "Aye Sir!" He looked at Miranda and went on, "Do you agree to the additional stipulations placed upon you, to remain in the company of the Sergeant," and turning back to the Sergeant, "and do you accept full responsibility for her?" Again, the two said in unison, "Yes Sir!"
 

Solemnly he handed the passes to them, and they just as solemnly accepted them. By carrying them, they would be generating at all times a DHS friendly signal, a supposedly uncompromisable signal. It declared to all security personnel that the bearer was accepted by DHS, and not to be subjected to suspicion if seen carrying a weapon, in their case a sniper rifle. Jimmy accessed his VR and sent Miranda a VR link. "That will connect you to the Space Tech technical group. It will only work on a secure VR system."

Miranda looked at the Sarge and asked, "Is it ok if we go to your office to do this work? Then we can go into the armory if we determine we need to put this all to use." When the Sarge nodded, she turned to Jimmy. "Thank you for your help. I really believe this will make a difference."

Jimmy nodded, "I don't mean this badly, but I hope you are wrong and this is all for nothing. Just in case, go with care and God's grace." He hurried back to his station, his queue already backed up, and he immediately began working through the list.

#

Miranda made her new home in the Sarge's office, using his VR system to research the problem. She knew that they were running out of time but still she had to start over one more time. They had been too focused on the bulbs, and what they thought that meant they had available as a triggering system. Instead she needed to figure out what was possible with the amount of exotic matter available in the bulbs, and then look for what could trigger that result. So she needed to start her research over, looking at experiments with exotic matter.

She contacted Space Tech Technical, using the code she had been given. The man who answered was rather skeptical when he heard what she wanted. She knew he saw her as only a student. His immediate response was, "Who are you to be asking for this information? I can't give this kind of information out to just anyone."

 
Miranda had been afraid that would happen. She pointed to the symbol of DHS in their secure VR connection, expanding it out for both of them to see. "You see my credentials as provided by DHS, and you know that they are valid. Please provide me with all the information you have on exotic matter. It is a matter of urgency."

Deciding that she was probably doing the research for someone else, the man finally said, "Ok, I will give you what we have, not that I think you will be able to do anything with it. It is very extensive." He laughed. It was a lot of information. "I expect it will take you days to complete your research, but here it is." He sent it through the secure VR link. "This will take a few minutes. The connection will terminate when completed." He turned off his VR without further comment. Miranda was not very happy with his attitude, but she watched as the information came through.

As soon as the download was complete, Miranda immediately began her research, moving as fast as she could move using the standard VR interface. It was indeed a huge amount of information! A lot of it was completely irrelevant, but she had to dig through it all. They were running out of time. She needed to find something soon if they were going to be able to do something about it. She knew she was stressing too, and she couldn't dare let a headache stop her.

Forcing herself to relax a little bit, she got to work. She had been working several minutes, scanning what would have taken someone else hours, when she found a publication on the amplification of laser energy with exotic matter. Excitedly she began reading it in detail, feeling that she was close.

When she had finished reading the publication, Miranda knew that this was it. When hit with a laser at certain frequencies, the exotic matter would do a state conversion that would absorb the power from the laser. But that state was not stable and would fall back to the original state, dumping the amplified output of the energy absorbed in a tiny, tiny fraction of a second. The amount of power stored was a combination of the duration of the pulse of laser light and the power of the laser. The bigger the two of them, the more energy that would be stored. She now had the trigger! She only had to find where it was located.

She needed more information on the possible infiltration by the Organization in the construction and maintenance at the school. She knew she had to take a chance. She needed information from Jon Rupert, the man in the undercover role in the Organization. She was pretty sure that he was a highly capable computer expert, and so she called Zeke, asking him and Joe to come see her. She went out to see the Sarge, telling him she was getting close, and asking him to go get their weapons. As soon as she figured out where they were located, the two of them would be shooting out lasers.

The Sarge just laughed, "Now that's something I've never done before. Shooting out lasers. I may get in the record books yet!"

Miranda laughed with him but she sobered up quickly. They wouldn't be shooting this time for sport or training. It was going to be a life or death situation for a lot of people, based on the power curves she was seeing.

Zeke and Joe arrived and she showed them the message from Jon. "How do I trace this back to him? And remember, we think he's a computer expert, so the obvious answer will only lead to whoever he wants us to think it is. That would probably be a disaster, so I have to have the real address."

The two took over the VR system for a few minutes and called her back in. Zeke proudly told her, "You were right. The most obvious address is back to some man named Ralph something or another. But he's not really the right person. If I had to guess, that is the second man you saw in the library. The kind of bad guy he would want to set up, based on what you told us about him. Anyway, here is the real address." He highlighted it with a VR pointer.

"I knew you two could do it," Miranda said excitedly. "Ok. Send the following message:
'It is imperative that I know about any activities of your sponsors regarding lasers. This is a very high priority request related to the upcoming event.'
Make sure you send it priority, for his eyes only." She watched as they put it in, correcting them a couple of times. "I hope he doesn't panic because you found him, because we really need to know the answer. And I really, really hope we don't get him in trouble."

Zeke nodded and sent the message. They waited for several tense moments. Finally, just as Miranda was about to give up, the answer finally came.
"Only one instance involving lasers. The telescope project; testing lasers around the building using temporary locations to determine the best installation points. Primary and backup lasers were tested at the displayed locations."
A VR diagram appeared showing the building housing the telescope and the locations around the building where tested.

Miranda quickly determined six locations that would be in line of sight to the soccer field and pointed them out to the Sarge, who had been watching. "Those are our targets. I figure each has a laser installed and between the six of them they would be able to get two shots off each, and thus be able to get the reactions combined. We are talking a huge explosion that would result if they do this. We have got to take them all out. Even a couple would be terrible. And if they are monitoring the status of the lasers, when we start shooting them out, they will probably try to use the remaining ones to set off the ones left so we have to take them all out quickly."

The Sarge nodded. "You take the ones on the right and I will take the ones on the left. Start in the middle and work out. That way if they somehow get a shot off, at least the two would be further apart. Joe, you're with me. You will be my spotter. Grab the laser range finder on the table and follow me. Needless to say, Zeke you are with Miranda, doing the same thing." He stopped for a moment, looking Miranda in the eyes. "Just do what you know to do. Take the shot and move to the next. You are the best I have ever seen, so I know you will get it done."

Miranda gave him the only possible answer. "Yes, Sarge." She knew this time it was for keeps, but she also knew she was up to it.

#

Five minutes later, Miranda was in position on the hillside facing the telescope building. She had a clear line of sight to the locations for each of her assigned lasers. She and Zeke were both lying on the ground facing the building, with her rifle set up in front of her in full extended position. She looked around to her left and she saw the Sarge and Joe settling in too. Seconds later she received a ping from the Sarge, signaling he was in position.
 

Miranda turned to Zeke. "Ok, Sarge is set up. He will send two pings when ready to shoot and we will send two back when we are ready. Your job is to look through the range finder at each target. In this case I have the rifle set up to paint the target so you will be able to see it in the range finder with a red dot appearing to be there. I need you to give me the numbers as soon as you have them and I will take the shot. My rifle will give me a range to set up, but your numbers will be more accurate. Remember, we are starting on the inside and working out to the right. We don't have any wind, so we won't have to worry about determining it. Let me know when you are ready."

Seconds later, she got a ready from Zeke, and immediately afterwards two pings from the Sarge. She sent her two pings back and lined up the first shot. Zeke was right after with the range. Miranda quickly tweaked her setup for the exact range and she fired the shot, perfectly on target. They repeated it on the next laser with the same result, Miranda just following her training. Finally they were on the last one. When the last shot hit home, there was an explosion of sparks and smoke from the laser. Miranda checked the Sarge's targets, all were done. She finally breathed a sigh of relief. She knew that the last laser had been powering up and would have gotten its shot off within the next fraction of a second. She saw smoke coming from the last one of the Sarge's targets too. They had both been very, very close.

#

Less than a minute later, several members of the security forces came running up, reacting to the sound of the shots. They were pretty good, Miranda admitted, tracing the shots that quick. She carefully set the sniper rifle down and calmly spoke to the arrivals. "It's ok. We're the good guys. We just took out the six lasers that were targeting the soccer stadium." She knew they had validated the signal from her DHS pass, but she kept her movements slow until they had relaxed a little. "I guess you had better collect the two of us and the Sergeant across the way there, and have us accompany you back to headquarters where we can explain what just happened."

A few minutes later, the four were in the command tent, standing in front of Jimmy and his boss, Commander Dumont. His rank was the DHS equivalent of a general. The commander looked at the Sergeant for answers, "I was told the four of you just neutralized the threat to the stadium. Is that correct and under whose authority did you do this?"

Sarge nodded and held up his DHS pass. "We have been working with your man Jimmy and received his blessing to follow the leads that we had. That eventually led us to six lasers targeted on the stadium and we took them out with our sniper rifles. What that means, I have no clue. I was just following her instructions." He pointed to Miranda.

The commander looked at Miranda and then turned to Jimmy. "Jimmy, do you want to explain?"

"Yes sir. Since Miss Summerlin's connection with Doctor Ted Randolph is what started all this, I suspect we will want to include him in this too, if that's ok. That way we can do one set of explanations and keep us out of hot water."

The commander nodded. "Proceed. He's the one who warned us about all of this in the first place and I know my boss spoke directly with him. Yes, that would be very expedient."

Jimmy put the call through using the secure VR they had set up. When Doctor Ted answered the call, Jimmy went on. "This is DHS calling from the command tent. In addition to the personnel here you are already familiar with, I have a Master Sergeant John Lewis and several students. I believe you know some of them, Miss Summerlin specifically."