The Pattern Ship (The Pattern Universe) (21 page)

“Pod, we need to deal with this plot. Can you give me any indication as to who in the Fortress is communicating with the outside parties involved?”

“Zeke, I can only establish that the encryption is occurring at the highest algorithm we set. It indicates it is someone in the command structure of Fortress and at the Pentagon, your Military Command Centre.”

“Ferris!”

“Pardon, Zeke?”

“It’s Ferris, the idiot!”

“I see, you think Ferris might be involved?”

“Pod, I need you to try and and pin down the locations of all of the parties you are able to follow, even if its an encrypted signal, it should be able to give you locations. When you find each of the locations try and track direction using the individual phone signals. We have to see where they are heading. As soon as you have a map of it all, let me know.” Zeke commanded.

“In the meantime beam me over to President Garner, wherever he is located.”

“Affirmative, and done,” responded Pod.

***

As Zeke materialised in a large, well lit dining room, he heard the sounds of dishes and cutlery before being able to see anything. Dammit Pod? he thought.

“Zeke, good to see you, a pleasant surprise, but in the middle of dinner?” Frank Garner was sitting with his wife and sons and some others Zeke didn’t recognise.

“Frank, I’m terribly sorry, the A.I. transported me and I didn’t ask beforehand where you were, it just put me at your location.“

Zeke turned to his wife and the others, raising his hands apologetically as he moved to join Frank who was getting up from the table.

“I’m sorry to intrude Ginny, I must talk to Frank, urgently,” Zeke emphasised, his eyes conveying as much of an apology as he could.

She looked back at him understandingly and he blessed her for it. She knew he would never interrupt them without due cause, and if this wasn’t ‘due cause’ he didn’t know what was, short of an invasion from Space.

The Secret Service Agent standing in the corner had a half drawn weapon even though he had recognised Zeke. The family certainly wouldn’t be using their personal shields in their own home at dinner. Still, he would be alert, but not overtly hostile.

How times had changed. A few years ago he would be face down and half a dozen guns pointed at his head by the time he had fully materialised. Now, it was more protocol and ceremony than it was to do with safety.

Frank took him by the arm as he headed for the study that immediately fed off the dining room. When he closed the door the silence was suddenly total, the soundproofing in this room was state of the art.

“Tell me what’s going on, I have rarely seen you so, ummm, riled up,” Frank murmured as they sat in the leather chairs in front of the open fire that was kept going all winter day and night.

“Frank, we have uncovered a plot from what looks like a fifth column within your command structure... Pod, do we have a map yet? I need locations and players, as much as you have uncovered so far.”

Pod materialised next to Zeke and quickly shifted to a corner where it could observe everything.

“Zeke, I can display it on the wall screen as a 3D plot. Please switch on the TV, President Garner.”

Garner walked swiftly to the screen and pressed the manual ‘on’ button.

“Thank you, Mr President,” said Pod.

As the screen burst into life there was a flat map of the USA angled to give a birds eye view from one corner.

As we watched Pod animated the display so that we could see the movement. There were two clusters and various direction indicators from outlying areas and other states all heading towards the two locations.

“The Pentagon and Washington!” They both exclaimed together.

“Kreeist! Zeke, we have a takeover plot under way. Are you sure of your information?” Frank exclaimed heading to his desk.

It looked like he was heading to pick up a phone, but instead he clawed at the lid of a humidor for a cigar. Taking one out, he cracked it open swiftly with his cutter and stuck it in his mouth. He was lighting it just as Pod changed the picture on the screen.

It came up with three faces and fourteen blanks. The one at the top was Ferris, below that was a blank. there were two others that neither of them recognised.

“The one below Ferris, Pod? Where is that person located?”

“That person is high on the command structure at the Pentagon, Zeke. The encryption was not my only problem, they have scattering technology that diffuses the locator beacons in the phones.”

Frank interrupted. “We need that identity! Ferris might be the leader, but this will be run by a Pentagon General, anyone less wouldn’t have the clout to pull off a coup!”

“Pod, monitor all troop movements over the last seven days. Track any that have moved at all in that time and post their locations then and now on the screen please,” Zeke ordered.

“Yes, Zeke. coming up in a few seconds... These are official troop movements, if there are irregular troops, I am unable to track them without more information.”

Immediately there were fourteen movements, three heading for various airfields, the rest were heading for Washington.

“I am correlating troop movements with locations of signals from the cell phones,” informed Pod.

Suddenly a yellow star appeared on the three heading in the airfield directions and seven on the troop movements heading to Washington.

“Bingo!” Frank exclaimed.

“Well done, Pod, good call!” Zeke complimented.

Frank asked “Pod, can you trace the troop movement orders back to anyone in the Pentagon?”

“All orders are signed by ... General T. Schaeffer, Mr President,” Pod informed him.

“Damn him to hell and back,” Frank growled. “That old bastard, Schaeffer, how typical of that Gung-Ho Idiot!”

The fourteen images were replaced on the screen. Now all except three had been identified.

Frank rushed to the phone.

“WAIT!” Zeke shouted. “Wait, just a minute, Mr President, wait.”

Frank had phone in hand about to dial, he looked up at Zeke.

“We can get the bastard now, before they have time to reach their targets,” he reasoned.

“No, we need to wait, there are three other players we don’t know yet. They could be anywhere. They could be in the Senate, or even members of your own staff in the White House.” He knew he was right,

Something told Zeke this was playing from right at the top. His hunches were rarely wrong once he had facts to lean on.

“Also, how do we know all of them are using the cell-net mesh,” Zeke mused as he thought through what they had just discovered.

“They could be just talking, or on the internal phone network. We might never track them if they meet and talk in person.”

Zeke was pacing now, thinking on his feet, using his enhanced thinking ability to work everything out. Trying to make sure he came up with a the right answers. A lot rested on nipping this rebellion in the bud. Anyone missed now would seed a new rebellion in a few months. They had to know who all the players were before they moved.

“We need a plan before we act. At the moment WE have the element of surprise. We need to use that to draw them out.”

“Zeke is right, Mr President. I detect an 80% probability of at least one other senior member of government or defence involved in this rebellion.”

Zeke turned to Frank, wondering if he had picked up on the pro-active response from Pod. He hadn’t, he was distracted by the events taking place. Zeke began to worry about Pod. He knew it was irrational as the A.I. was not giving out any outward signs for concern, but knowing how A.I.’s could pick up on body language and chemistry he tried hard to disguise his worries.

“Okay, we need to plan things out a bit and we don’t actually know who to trust in this. So, I propose we consider a way of pulling all the pieces together before 8am on Tuesday and I’m going to presume Eastern Standard time, Frank.”

“OK, Zeke, but how on earth are we going to stop a rebellion with just the two of us?” queried the President unbelievingly.

Zeke really had no idea! He looked at Pod just waiting for it to turn around and include itself in the mix. That would just about freak me out, Zeke thought.

- 20 -

MONDAY 05:40hrs.

It was a grey old morning outside the sealed windows of the Pentagon. The open space normally off into the distance was eerily reduced by the morning mist.

‘Schaeff’ was unable to sit, he paced backwards and forwards. All rebel units had been ordered into position. None had reported any problems, yet he still worried. If he lost this gamble he would be tried for treason and probably shot. If he won, it meant power like never before in the history of the USA. It was a big game, the biggest he had played and the stakes were high.

He knew all the risks, everyone involved did. He had at last three men in each unit who knew and agreed with their objectives. They had been cultivated, promoted and positioned with this in mind. To reconnect the USA with its Military heart; to resume operations against enemy forces which now sat laughing at them from the installed security of their own personal and citywide shields. Impervious to any clandestine, or overt efforts to unseat them.

Far from making the USA a major force in the world this freedom of technology agreement had cost the USA its position as world leader. They now just sat in a row along with every other two bit third world country. The American people bridled at that. Schaeffer absolutely simmered with incandescent fury. Wait until he wrested control from that appeasing quisling in the White House.

They had supporters everywhere. It would only take the overthrow of the present administration to put everything back the way it was. The application of the over-ride codes would be perfectly timed to allow them to swoop in and take apart those smiley-faced little terrorist controlled pariah states that had been handed a ‘get out of jail free’ card by the new technology.

There would be nothing that anyone could do. The Security council might bridle and wring their hands, but they would know that despite their perceived security, the USA still held the aces. They would fall into line as soon as they realised that, at the click of a button their perceived security was just a façade.

General Schaeffer was optimistic. The plan they had was a simple one. Disarm the city shield, selectively over-ride the personal shields of all the necessary ‘identified’ individuals, remove them permanently if necessary. Then replace them with his own people. Within a few hours it would be business as usual.

Then slowly but surely, the slide of power pulled back over to control of the people by those who knew best. People like him!

Schaeffer laughed. Ferris thought he was going to be the new President, but he was a real dumb-ass! The only reason he had been promoted at all was because he had been involved in the small group of goggle-boxes that had been instrumental in securing the new technology. Ferris had his uses, but he would be removed at the most expedient moment and that might well be five minutes after the coup was successfully concluded.

Looking at his watch, he realised time was now pressing. The clock was ticking and they needed to get a lot done between now and zero hour. He decided to walk down to the Main office, he needed to update the Chief. It would soon be time for them to move onto Washington. The inauguration was their excuse for the trip, nobody there would be any the wiser.

***

TUESDAY 09:00hrs.

“Pod, I have a really bad feeling about all this I want you to do something for me. I don’t want to have to ask you later as things are going to get hectic, but this is what I want you to do.” Zeke outlined his concern and a way of dealing with it.

He then left it to Pod to manage. It was a trick they had been playing with using a partial D-Field, but not jumping. It could enable you to see and be there, but without substance. The timing would be paramount. A second too fast and the moment would be lost, a second too slow and it would all be in vain. It was not something that could be sustained for more than a few seconds as there would be degradation.

They had so far managed to identify all of the officers that were part of the conspiracy on the ground. They still had one unidentified party near the top that they couldn’t trace. There had been no electronic contact during the whole period of Pod’s monitoring. Pod was convinced it was someone close to the President, but nobody fitted the bill and they were running out of time.

Zeke had told the President not to trust anyone. That even his best friend could be the other party. Garner obviously laughed it off, but accepted that he didn’t know anyone as well as he perhaps should. He had certainly received a few surprises since electing to run for a second term. He trusted Zeke and that was about as far as it went.

Zeke had decided that he was going to take out Ferris. He was the linchpin, he had the codes, it was Ferris handling the shield technology and the Tractor beams.

Zeke knew Ferris had been implanted with the Ferrazite and had the reports back from the scientists which didn’t gel with his awareness of the metals effects. Zeke thought Ferris was involved in manipulating the results and Pod had confirmed there was something going on. The stored content of Ferrazine was too high for the dose he was supposed to be on. Their secret weapon was always knowing what was going on and stepping aside from Ferris’ efforts to neutralise them.

At the right moment, Pod would unlock the shield at the fortress so he could get in. The nanobots would provide the access regardless of any coding changes that had been made. Zeke knew Ferris would need to be properly neutralised at the same time everything else was going down, so that he couldn’t run to a fall-back plan. The only time they had so far was 08:00 hrs. They had to assume that was zero hour for disabling of the shield in Washington.

Pod was struggling with the overload of information and the need to be in multiple places at once. Nonetheless it had prepared everything that Zeke had ordered done. It was now a matter of precise timing. It worried however, that Zeke was underestimating the Fortress security. He hadn’t told Zeke everything, but Pod believed he could neutralise everything given sufficient time.