The Tranquillity Alternative (3 page)

“Get that thing out of his mouth before he suffocates,” someone else says. The cloth is tugged out of his jaws, leaving his mouth dry and sore. He tries to speak, but the words just can’t make their way from his brain to his tongue.

“Water,” he manages to whisper after a few moments of considerable mental effort. His request is ignored.

“All clear on the street.”

“Okay, let’s get him out of here before—”

“Problem.” This voice comes from somewhere above him. “He’s got someone on-line right now … they’re waiting for an answer.”

“Shit.” A long pause. “Okay, no problem. The new guy can take care of it. He’s coming in right now. Get the bag over his head.”

Mr. Grid
, he thinks, although thinking is very hard to do just now. The Countess is waiting for him. Strangely enough, this is a comforting notion; she appears in his mind’s eye as a pale goddess surrounded by a nimbus of soft light, her arms reaching out to hold him against her bosom, casting aside all evil and making the bad men go away.

Someone kneels beside him, lifts his head once again. In the last instant before a loose cotton bag closes around his face, he sees the motel room open once more …

And he watches himself walk into the room.

Then all is darkness and thick silence, and he falls asleep.

He waited until the team was gone, then quickly checked the room. They had done a good job, all things considered; the snatch had taken less than three minutes, and aside from the table lamp and the trampled remains of the pizza, there were no apparent signs of struggle. No bloodstain on the carpet; that was important. The murdered bodyguard had been wrapped up in bedsheets and spirited away before he could make too much of a mess.

A second man walked into the motel room. He had been standing outside, lingering in the shadows until the snatch team was gone and he was certain that the area was secure. He held the dead man’s wallet in his left hand; all he had to do was to substitute his carefully prepared identification card and driver’s license for the ones contained in the billfold.

The delivery boy from the pizza place down A1A had already called in sick from a nearby pay phone. He was so sick, in fact, that his vital signs had all flatlined, but that shouldn’t bother the gators who would soon be discovering his corpse in an Indian River orange grove.

No one else had seen or heard anything.

The only loose end was a line of type on the screen of a laptop computer.

Hey, what’s taking so long?

He walked over to the table and gazed down at the computer.

U
pig … you’re leaving nothing for me!!

“Clean up that stuff,” he said, snapping his fingers and pointing to the table lamp and the ruined pizza. “Put some fresh sheets on the bed, too.”

He sat down at the table, hesitated for a moment, then typed on the keyboard:
Sorry about that. The kid wanted a tip and the pizza was cold.

He hit
ENTER
and waited for a reply. Behind him, the security man’s substitute was setting the lamp upright and cleaning up the remains of the pizza. He had carefully studied his quarry for several months now, watching hours of surveillance videotape in order to imitate his mannerisms, listening to covertly recorded phone conversations to learn his verbal style. It hadn’t been easy for his organization to unearth the on-line relationship between Thor200 and Mr. Grid, yet countless time spent on Le Matrix had finally put that missing piece in its proper place.

LOL
! That figures! Did you cut me a slice?

He thought for a moment; then his fingers dashed across the keyboard:
^ ^ ^ Here you go. Watch out, it’s sort of drippy.

A short pause, then:
Mmmm! (Crunch.) Just the way I like it!

He typed:
I have to go now … gotta eat and catch a few winks.

OK
… see you tomorrow night!

He sucked in his breath as he read this unexpected response. Mr. Grid was expecting to hear from him again within the next twenty-four hours, presumably from the Wheel; whoever this dink was, he was unlikely to accept no for an answer. Yet he had no other choice except to reply.

Okay … May be late, but I’ll see you tomorrow night. Goodnite.

Nite … have a safe flight.:)

Mr. Grid’s logon disappeared from the top of the screen a moment later, leaving him alone in the private conversation room. He backed out of Le Matrix, closing cyberspace windows until he reached the opening screen, then signed off the service.

He took a deep breath as he settled back in the chair. The bogus security man was busy remaking the second bed with spare linen he had found in the closet. “Everything okay?” he asked, looking up from tucking in the corners.

“Everything’s cool.” The doppelganger glanced at his reflection in the wall mirror above the bureau, once again admiring the results of the extensive plastic surgery he had undergone for this role. He was a perfect twin to the man who had just been abducted; tomorrow morning, no one would know the difference when he arrived at Merritt Island to take his place aboard the
Constellation
.

There was only one small detail remaining. He pulled a pocket phone from his jacket and laid it on the table next to the laptop computer. Then he tapped at the keyboard, entering the computer’s hard disk, searching the files until he located an encrypted subdirectory.

Now he only had to wait.

“Turn on the tube, man,” he said, practicing his new voice. “Maybe we can find a
Star Trek
rerun or something.”

Transcript of closed hearings before the Armed Services Committee, United States Senate; June 15, 1950, Washington, D.C. Declassified by White House executive order; October 1, 1993.

From the testimony of General Omar Bliss, U.S. Army Air Force and former director of Operation Blue Horizon, and Dr. Wernher von Braun, Technical Director, U.S. Army Guided Missiles Development Group, Huntsville, Alabama.

Sen. Clayton J. Ewing (D., IA):
The chair recognizes Senator Nixon.

Sen. Richard M. Nixon (R., CA):
Thank you, Senator. General Bliss, Dr. von Braun, thank you for taking time away from your busy schedules to be with us here today …

Dr. von Braun:
You’re welcome, sir.

Gen. Bliss:
The pleasure is all ours, Senator. We’re glad you invited us.

Sen. Nixon:
I’m certain that you gentlemen, along with your colleagues at the Huntsville facility, are aware of the great interest in manned space flight that has been generated recently within this country. I’ve read a book that was published last year … um,
The Conquest of Space
, by Willy Ley and Chesley Bonestell, which I understand was something of a bestseller … and my children have been bothering me to take them to see a new motion picture which has just opened. I think it’s called
The Race to the Moon
….

Dr. von Braun:
It is called
Destination Moon
, Senator. With all due respect.

Sen. Nixon:
Uh, yes, that’s what I meant … Anyway, these forms of, ah, popular entertainment, along with the wartime success of Operation Blue Horizon under General Bliss’s command, has led many people to believe that we could send men to the Moon within the next few years. On the other hand, there are just as many people who claim that putting men on the Moon is highly unlikely. This includes President Truman, who has called it … and I quote from yesterday’s
Washington Star
… “that crazy Buck Rogers stuff.” So I ask you gentlemen, which is it?

Gen. Bliss:
Senator Nixon, when our military space program got started nine years ago under the late Dr. Robert H. Goddard, a number of people here in Washington who were cleared for Blue Horizon believed that it was impossible to put a manned payload into orbit at all. Dr. von Braun met similar skepticism from certain officials of the German High Command. Less than three years later, skeptics on both sides were proven wrong when the
Amerika Bomber
and the
Lucky Linda
were launched on the same day.

Now, I won’t pretend to claim that we could send men straight to the Moon, using present-day technology. Both the book and the motion picture you mentioned presuppose the existence of atomic-powered rockets, and we simply do not have those yet. But even at our current stage of astronautical know-how, we do believe it is possible to build a fleet of large, three-stage manned rockets, which in turn could be used to build a permanent orbital platform—a space station, if you will—which would enable us to construct vessels to take men to the Moon at some point in the not-so-distant future. The position paper given to the members of this Committee gives the details of our proposal.

Sen. Nixon:
I’ve only had a chance to skim your report, General, and it’s quite impressive. So is the estimation of the costs involved. Ten billion dollars is a considerable amount of money.

Dr. von Braun:
This is only an approximation, Mr. Senator, but it includes costs for building three ferry rockets and the space station. It’s also a long-range program spread over the next ten years, with completion of the space station—the Space Wheel, we call it—scheduled for 1960. This means that outlays for each fiscal year would average only one billion dollars.

Sen. Ewing:
Thank you, Dr. von Braun. The chair recognizes Senator McCarthy.

Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy (R., WI):
Talking about flying to the Moon is just fine and dandy, gentlemen, but I’m much more alarmed by new developments in Russia. Just three weeks ago the Communists announced that they had launched their first satellite—a Sputnik, they call it—into outer space. This seems to me to be much more critical than putting some people on the Moon, as laudable a goal as that may be. Dr. von Braun, can you tell us whether this Sputnik poses a possible threat to the security of the United States of America?

Dr. von Braun:
The satellite the Soviet Union has launched does not, in itself, pose an imminent threat, Mr. Senator. The satellite contains little more than a shortwave radio transmitter. However, it does demonstrate the potential ability of the Soviet Union to place larger satellites, or even manned spacecraft of their own, in orbit above Earth.

Sen. McCarthy:
And in your opinion, Dr. von Braun, could one of these … um, satellites … carry an atomic bomb?

Dr. von Braun:
Yes, Mr. Senator, it is possible that it could do so. Former members of my rocketry group at Peenemunde are now working for the Soviet government in Russia, and I can attest to their technical expertise in these matters.

Sen. McCarthy:
Then what good does it do for the United States to spend ten billion of the American taxpayers’ money to build rocketships or a giant wagon wheel in outer space? The logic escapes me, Dr. von Braun.

Gen. Bliss:
Senator, if you’ll permit me to explain … One of the major purposes of the proposed space station would be to conduct high-altitude military surveillance. As you can read in the position paper, the space station would be placed in an equatorial orbit 1,075 miles above Earth, where it would complete a full orbit once every two hours. Although we feel it’s unwise to position the station so that it could pass directly over the Soviet Union and the Iron Curtain countries, this means that station personnel could easily monitor naval activity in the southern Atlantic and Pacific oceans, as well as ground activity in China, the Philippines, and the Indonesian subcontinent.

Sen. McCarthy:
So you believe we can use this space wheel of yours to keep tabs on what the Communists are doing in Southeast Asia?

Gen. Bliss:
Yes, sir, I believe we can. Additionally, an orbital telescope aboard the space station, similar to ones presently being used at ground-based observatories for astronomical research, could be deployed for spying on Russian military activities. We believe that space telescopes like this could detect the presence of heavy-armor convoys, or even be refined enough to see their air bases.

Dr. von Braun:
But this would not be the only purpose of the Space Wheel, Mr. Senator. It could also be used as a … uh, a stepping-stone, if you will, to the exploration of the Moon. In twenty-five years, perhaps less, we could use it for the construction of ships for a lunar expedition. In time we could even use the Wheel for the purpose of sending men to the planet Mars….

Sen. McCarthy:
That’s fine and dandy for kiddie movies, Dr. von Braun, but right now this Committee is far more interested in the military uses of outer space. And for the record, I’d like to know whether your fellow Germans at the Army’s Huntsville facility have been checked for possible ties to the international Communist conspiracy.

Gen. Bliss:
I assure you, sir, the backgrounds of my men have been thoroughly examined by the FBI, as part of their admission to this country under Operation Paperclip….

Sen. McCarthy:
I want positive proof of this, General Bliss.

Gen. Bliss:
And I’ll be more than happy to provide it, Senator. For the record, though, I’d like to repeat something I said over a year ago to the House Committee on Science and Technology: Military advantage has always rested on taking the high ground, and space is the new high ground. America must take this hill, lest it risk losing its freedom.

Sen. Nixon:
I quite agree, General….

2/15/95 • 1947 EST

T
HE HOUSE WAS ALMOST
forty years old, and nothing about it seemed atypical of Florida beachside cottages built in the fifties. Made of weatherbeaten pine whose boards had warped and been replaced and repainted many times, it was a two-story red split-level with a garage and a storage area on the ground floor and two bedrooms, a den, and a small walk-in kitchen on the second floor. A TV antenna rose from the slanted flat roof; sliding glass doors led to a wide porch elevated on stilts above a crushed-seashell driveway. The house was isolated from the rest of the island by low marshlands, and the white sands and dunes of the vacant beach lay only a few yards away from the back door.