Project Aura (13 page)

"They're going to kill us anyway," Pinello said. He had to restrain from grabbing the officer's shirt and shaking him. "I want to go down fighting when it comes to that."

The fifth man in the room, Sergeant Buhler, spoke up. "We never should have surrendered. We could have taken a hell of a lot of them with us. Made them pay. It's what we agreed on."

"I'm the team leader," Scott said. "It was my decision. My command. My responsibility."

"Everybody just calm down." Sergeant Lambier stood, hands covered in Granger's blood. "The captain's right. They'll try to find us and then they will come for us. But in the meanwhile, we count on only ourselves. So if anyone has a bright idea how to get out of here, you better start talking."

"Sergeant-" Scott's voice cut across the room. "I am the team leader. And I'm ordering you not to do anything. We wait. They'll come for us."

"Sir-" Lambier began, but then he paused. "Yes, sir."

Dalton greeted Sergeant Barnes as he entered the bunkroom. "Welcome back."

Barnes had on the black one-piece suit that they wore when they went into the isolation tanks. "Sergeant Major, how they hanging?"

"Low, real low," Dalton replied as he opened his locker and pulled out his suit. "Ready to go back in?"

"What's the mission? I just got told by one of those agency dinks to get my stuff on and be ready to go."

Dalton quickly briefed him on the current situation. Barnes's next question was a bit unexpected.

"That Feteror dude is really gone, right? We aren't going to run into him on the virtual plane, are we?"

"The Russians shut down SD-8," Dalton assured him.

"And Feteror?"

"The Russians say they turned off the life support to his brain. So Feteror's dead."

"What about Chyort? His avatar?"

"If Feteror's brain is dead, we have to assume his avatar is gone also."

"That means we're the only ones out there, right?"

"Are you worried?"

"Hell, yes," Barnes said. "We got our butts kicked last time. And the other guys, our teammates..." His voice trailed off

Dalton paused in his dressing. "We're not giving up on them." He looked toward the door, then leaned toward Barnes. "When we go over, I want you to search for the team. Go back to the site of the battle in Russia. Jackson and I will take care of the recon."

"Won't Hammond know through Sybyl that we're separated?" Barnes asked.

"What are they going to do?" Dalton asked. "Kick us out of here? Besides, Hammond's not as sure of herself as she used to be."

*****

Professor Souris had the complete attention of the surviving members of the Ring. Alarico's body had been removed, and after a short break, Souris had returned to finish her briefing.

"With our current configuration we can generate an Aura field about a mile in distance from the computer’s transmitter. We have three working computers. One is fitted on board Senor Cesar's yacht. One is located here in our operations center. And one, the latest generation, and the smallest, is transportable using two SUVs.

"Along with making the transmitter smaller, we are working on increasing the distance transmitted and the size of the field. We have also been doing simulations considering the possibility of generating a virtual field by retransmitting from orbital satellites. This was something my comrades at HAARP were working on when I left. I have continued that work here."

"Satellites?" Naldo said. "And how would we launch a satellite?"

"We already
have
launched one," Cesar said. "From Kouro, in French Guinea. It's the launch site for the European Space Authority and they were willing to launch because we were willing to pay. We've put up a small prototype with an Aura retransmitter and power booster on board."

"We've launched a satellite?" Naldo was shaking his head.

"Last week," Souris confirmed. "We have contact with it, but we haven't attempted to retransmit yet. We're saving that test until other elements are in place."

"So we will be able to use this weapon from space?" Naldo asked.

"Our prototype is rather basic," Souris said. "We can use it once, maybe twice before depleting the onboard power supply. Also, to be honest, there is some question how far the transmission will penetrate the atmosphere."

"I don't understand," Naldo said. "What good is it then?"

"Our satellite is there for us to test whether our uplink can generate a tight enough, and powerful enough, beam," Souris said. "Once we have confirmed that we have a plan for the next stage. The Americans have already done us the courtesy of launching a worldwide network of satellites called MILSTAR that they have been upgrading with appropriate virtual retransmit technology that we can appropriate for our own use if our test works and we can develop a sufficiency powerful transmitter field."

"What are the Americans planning to do with their satellites?" one of the other Ring members asked.

"They are trying to develop a weapon system similar to Aura called HAARP," Cesar said. "This is another reason why we must be successful. If the Americans are successful with their HAARP before we are with Aura, I have no doubt that they will use this weapon against us. They will be able to attack us from space with complete immunity. Think of something many times more powerful than a Predator drone attack, capable of striking anywhere on the planet."

"Aura is a better version of what I was working on for the Americans," Souris said. "HAARP is based in Alaska, at a fixed site. They've been experimenting for several years now with it but they haven't been able to get their transmitter as compact as Aura, and since it's line of sight, it's pretty useless unless they can uplink to their MILSTAR satellites, which they haven't attempted yet. However, once the HAARP-MILSTAR system is operational, they can cover the world with their weapon."

"How close are they to achieving that?" Naldo asked.

"They are very close to their first test of the system," Souris said.

"We plan to beat them to it," Cesar said. "Once the test using our satellite is successful, we'll know we can transmit Aura on their MILSTAR. The Americans are launching the last piece of their MILSTAR network in two days, which means the satellite system will be in place for us to use and we'll be ahead of them, already having tested our transmitter. Then we have them in a difficult position. If they shut down the satellites, they lose their worldwide secure military net and billions of dollars of equipment becomes useless. If they don't shut them down, anything we do will be tracked back to the Americans and not us."

"You plan on blackmailing the American government?" Naldo asked.

"Yes," Cesar said. "What we have to do next is acquire a more powerful transmitter to make the uplink, and we will be ready."

"And I assume you have a plan for that?" Naldo asked.

"We are in negotiations for a solution to that problem," Cesar said. He opened a file folder and pulled out a photo, which he passed to Naldo. It showed a large ship, the most striking feature of which were the four massive dishes on the deck

"The
Gagarin
," Cesar said. "A Russian research vessel. In fact the largest research vessel ever built. Forty-five thousand tons displacement. Seven hundred and seventy-three feet long. Two large dishes amidships and two smaller ones forward. Souris assures me we can readily convert them to transmit Aura. The ship is available for purchase, as the Russians need hard currency more than they need to do research. The ship's primary purpose had been to maintain contact with their space station, Mir, but since that was shut down, they have little use for it. The cost, however, is not insignificant."

Naldo passed the picture on to the next man. "How much?"

"Eight hundred million in U.S. dollars."

There was an exchange of glances around the table.

"We are rich," Naldo began, "but-"

Cesar interrupted him. "Do not concern yourselves about the cost. We have another way to get the money, which we will discuss later. Aura has many uses."

"You just said the Americans are working on HAARP," Naldo said. "What about the Russians?"

Valika provided the answer. "The descendants of the GRU and the KGB both have experimented extensively with psychic weapons and reconnaissance. I don't know what the KGB has done, but the GRU developed a generator similar to Aura which they used against the American embassy in Moscow for many years."

"Even the current version of that generator is very inferior to Aura," Souris said. "It is more a directional microwave antenna, and its effects are mainly headaches and nausea among those it is targeted against."

"Recently,” Valika said, “the Russians used a different type of psychic weapon but were defeated by the Americans. The details of what happened have been kept very secret but all the world knows about the nuclear detonation in Moscow."

"That involved this type of weapon?" Naldo asked.

"In some manner," Valika answered. "I have tried to gain more information but have discovered little. The Americans and Russians are keeping whatever happened very secret."

Naldo raised a finger, pointing toward Souris.

"Yes?"

"How did you kill Alarico?"

"I directed an Aura field at him and then changed the frequency slightly so that it was disruptive to his normal brain patterns," Souris said. "His brain stopped functioning. Both the autonomic and parasympathetic nervous systems. So he actually could have died of several things at once. It would be difficult to tell which was fatal. His heart stopped beating, he also stopped breathing, he lost all motor control; he probably also suffered several aneurysms in the brain."

"It is what we did to the crew of the Coast Guard cutter trying to intercept our shipment" Cesar said. "Think of the power we will have if we have such a weapon orbiting overhead. It is what the Americans are trying to do."

"Aura is more than a weapon," Souris said, her eyes burning in her gaunt face. "It is another world completely. A better world. There are things out there beyond what you can conceive."

*****

Hovering in the virtual plane, Raisor couldn't agree more with the professor. His existence was beyond what this Ring was playing with; but they were headed in the right direction. And with some help, they could perhaps rival what had been accomplished at Bright Gate. And if they could do that, then the real world could be his once more and he could wreak his vengeance.

He found the information on HAARP interesting. That there was another program besides Bright Gate working with the virtual world meant he had been kept in the dark by his own agency. And the fact that Souris had yet to say anything about Bright Gate meant either she didn't know about it, which he doubted, or she had a reason for keeping it from the Ring.

*****

The meeting broke up, the leaders following Professor Souris to view the underground lab where the work on the Aura computers and generators was being conducted.

Naldo stayed behind to have a private word with Cesar, Valika, as always, in the background.

"Very impressive, my old friend," Naldo said.

Cesar had been in business-- and in bloody competition until the forming of the Ring-- with Naldo for decades. The old man had something on his mind.

"There are some things that concern me," Naldo continued as they slowly walked across the tile floor.

"And they are?"

"What about the Americans? Will they not attack us first?"

"They already have for years," Cesar said. "With Aura we finally have a weapon that they will fear. The key is that we must get operational before them."

"There's something else."

Cesar paused and waited.

"The American woman; why did she come to work for you? She does not seem interested in money. I am always suspicious of a turncoat."

It was a question that Cesar had also pondered at length when he was first contacted by Souris, and he could only relay what he had learned from her. "I give her more freedom to do what she wants. When she worked for the Americans, she had to do what they directed her to. She had to constantly justify her funding. Her research was very restricted. Here, she can do as she desires."

Naldo nodded, but Cesar could tell his old friend was not satisfied.

*****

The President's National Security Adviser was known to both friends and foes alike behind her back as the Pit Bull. To her face she was called Mrs. Callahan. She'd known the President since college, where they had been classmates. She'd served with him since he was a junior senator after her own career in the Marines, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel and commanding a battalion before answering his call for assistance in the political field and leaving the service that she loved. She'd found Washington to be a much more dangerous place than Iraq or Afghanistan.

Her Marine bearing came through in her posture and her gruff manner of dealing with those around her. She was the point person for the President in all national security matters, and in a tradition that had started in the mid-sixties, she had been the first one in his administration to be briefed on Nexus. She, in turn, had briefed him. He had then appointed her to take care of all matters dealing with the group, which in effect made her the head of it, among her many other duties.

Frankly, the President had not been convinced that Nexus's fears were grounded in reality, and Callahan had agreed with him. The Nexus representative had not produced any evidence of his fantastic claims about the organization he called the Priory. Only the fact that the manpower and budget allocated to Nexus were so small and that Eisenhower's Presidential Directive establishing it was real had kept him from phasing out the group.

Right now Nexus was the furthest thing from Callahan's mind. She had just returned from a trip with the President to the Middle East, and dealing with the egos that had been crammed into one room had left her exhausted. Her limousine was taking her directly from Andrews Air Force Base to her home.

She was leaning back in the deep leather, leisurely skimming through various reports her aides had handed her when she got off Air Force One. She knew she should have gone directly to the office, but today was her thirty-fifth wedding anniversary. She'd missed far too many in the past, and the President had been insistent that she go straight home, with no detours.

She was surprised when the smoked glass dividing her from the driver slid down with a whir.

"Mrs. Callahan."

All she could see of the driver were his eyes, dark black in the rearview mirror. His hair was white, his frame slight.

"Yes?" she replied, her irritation at the interruption clear in her tone.

"General Eichen is dead."

She sat up straighter. "Eichen?" She searched her mind and then remembered. The military officer who had accompanied the head of Nexus to the initial briefing. "What happened?"