Tripple Chronicles 1: Eternity Rising (8 page)

The major
laughed a low sinister laugh and squinted his eyes at Camden.
 
As he turned to storm out of the room
with his soldiers at his heels, he shot his first look to Aldretti.
 

“Make sure
he stays thirsty!” he ordered. “I will be back in half an hour.” He sneered
back at Camden one more time before the door slammed behind him.

Eight floors
down from where Camden was being held, Colonel Ganesh walked into the officer’s
lounge and sat at a round table.
 
He pulled a toasted ham sandwich out of a paper bag and relaxed his
shoulders for the first time since breakfast.
 
He took a bite and chewed slowly.
 
Moments later, the two other TRU Colonels
walked in, heavy in conversation.
 
Ganesh stopped chewing for a moment to listen.
 
He had taken it upon himself to eavesdrop since he had taken
this new position.

The taller
and older of the two, Colonel Talper was listening to the short and balding
Colonel Cline, who was speaking just above a whisper.

“…
and
Magner has just been in to see him, said he was a real
jackass.”

“I found him
nothing but courteous and helpful when I worked with him on the space flight
simulation project. What has it been? Six or seven years now.”
Talper replied, also barely audible.

Ganesh
swallowed hard and tried to be as still as he could without looking like a
statue.
 

Could they be talking about Camden?
He
thought and wondered how much time he had before he would be sitting next to
him in that interrogation room.

“Well, I
imagine our true colors come out under real pressure,” Talper continued and the
two men chuckled.
 

“He may have
earned his arrogance fair and square, but this government paid for a whole hell
of a lot of it.
 
The fact is, if he
wasn’t hiding something, he would be cooperating,” Cline said.

“True,
true,” said Talper. “Still though, Magner isn’t necessarily the most congenial
officer on this project.”

Cline
chuckled again at this comment while Talper poured two cups of stale coffee for
the both of them.

Talper
looked over his shoulder.

“Afternoon,
Ganesh,” he said.

“Yes it is,”
Ganesh replied, smiling as he said it.

The two men
were still chuckling and Ganesh joined in as they sat down with him at the
small white table.
 
Since Ganesh
thought he might be a suspect in the security breech, he expected the subject
of conversation to change now, as to keep him out of the loop.
 
He was right, of course, because right
away Cline asked Talper how his family was doing.
 
Their small talk continued and Ganesh joined in politely
interjecting concern or happiness at the appropriate moments in the
conversation. He was mostly thinking of their earlier conversation,
though.
 
Ganesh’s thoughts were on
Camden.
 
If, indeed, Cam was being
held upstairs, he needed to come up with a plan…and quick.
 
He trusted Camden with his life, but he
was a man who loved his luxuries and men like that usually didn’t hold up so
well under extreme interrogation.
 

Any type of interrogation would seem extreme
to Camden.
Ganesh thought.
 

Ganesh
finished his lunch quicker than the other two officers, but tried not to seem
in a hurry to his tablemates.
 
He
strolled casually over to the beverage table and sorted through the tea
selection.
 
He pretended to check
his watch, made a selection, poured a cup of hot water and dismissed himself
politely.
 
He hotfooted it down the
hall to his office.
 
He sat
casually at his desk and began to steep the tea he had brought with him.
 
The blinds to his office were just
barely cracked open, so any passersby would not see anything conspicuous about
his activity.
 
He cut a small
square from a blank piece of paper and scribbled something on it.
 
He then put the remainder of the sheet
of paper through the shredder behind his desk.
 
Ganesh folded his little note in half and picked up the
teacup, discarding the used tealeaves, and walked out of his office again.

Ganesh hoped
he could make it to the interrogation
rooms,
eight
floors up on level thirteen, without bumping into that asshole Magner…or anyone
for that matter.
 
He walked to the
very end of the corridor to take the service elevator, which no one ever used.
Riding this compartment would allow him the chance to discretely look down the
corridor on the thirteenth floor before he was noticed. That way, if Mace was
up there, he could duck back inside before a confrontation.

To his
relief, the holding cell corridor was deserted. Ganesh emerged from the
elevator, holding the cup of tea.
 
His shoes echoed on the polished stone floor and he tried to walk
lightly, feeling damn ridiculous tiptoeing and carrying a teacup.
 
If he and Camden got out of this
unscathed, Cam would owe him one!
 
Most of the rooms on this level were dark, but four had lights on.
 
Ganesh peered into the small triangle
window of the first lit room and saw a young heavyset soldier sitting with his
head in his hands.
 
He was cuffed
at his wrists and ankles.
 
Damn fool,
Ganesh thought, assuming
stupidity that sometimes accompanies youth was surely what had landed him
here.
 
The second and third rooms
were empty.
 
Ganesh figured they
would probably be occupied by the end of the day and wondered if one had been
prepared for him.
 
He would know
soon enough.

Ganesh
looked through the window into Camden’s interrogation holding cell.
 
He was sitting with his hands folded on
the table.
 
He looked fairly
relaxed and was talking with the guard that was in with him.
 
To an outsider, it would look as if he
was having a conversation with a good friend, but Ganesh recognized the subtle
expression on Camden’s face, indicating he was bullying the guard.
 
Ganesh chortled and opened the
door.
 
Aldretti stood at attention
and saluted the colonel.

“What’s your
name, soldier?” Ganesh asked with a deep authoritative voice.
 
He did not look directly at Camden, who
stood up as soon as he entered.

“Carl
Aldretti, Sir!”

“Well
Aldretti, go ahead and get out of here and leave us alone for awhile.”

Aldretti’s
face dropped.

“Don’t
worry,” continued Ganesh in a sarcastically sweet voice, “I’ll call you back
when I’m finished.”

“Sir! I
cannot leave.
 
I am under a strict
order not to leave this room under any circumstance. Sir!”

“I see,”
said Ganesh. “Who gave you this order?”

“Major
Magner, Sir!”

“Well don’t
worry about it then.
 
I ate that
pissant for breakfast this morning, SO GET OUT!”

Aldretti’s
face went completely blank.

“Yes sir,”
he answered abjectly and left the room.

Ganesh saw
out of the corner of his eye that Camden was fighting back a smile.
 
Ganesh appreciated the effort and
walked over to the table.
 
The two
men did not shake hands.

“It’s about
damn time,” Camden started, still smiling but with slight frustration in his
voice.

“I came as
soon as I knew.”

“Are you
telling me that that jackass Magner actually told you I was here?”

“Nope.
Overheard a conversation at lunch.”

They both
let out a laugh.

“You know,
these rooms aren’t monitored audibly due to the sensitive nature of the
conversations that take place here, however there is a recorder in the wall for
files and reference. And we are being watched,” Ganesh instructed.

“I
understand,” replied Camden. “Am I to assume that the cup of tea is for me?”

“Ahh,” said
Ganesh “It is indeed.”

He set the
cup and saucer on the desk but did not let go yet.

“The
hospitality is terrible in this place,” Camden joked reaching for the beverage.

Ganesh
leaned forward slightly and whispered, “Drink it…discretely.”

“Of course,”
Camden whispered back with a raised eyebrow.

Camden
picked up the teacup and saw the small folded paper that was hidden
underneath.
 
He sipped the tea,
smiled at the pleasant warm liquid and furtively removed the paper as he set
the cup back on its saucer.
 
He
felt a tiny piece of lead in the crease of the paper when he managed to unfold
the note, one-handed under the desk.
 
His face suddenly contorted into a pained expression.
 
He did this to distract the video
monitors away from his hand.

“What am I
doing here, Ganesh?” he acted. He put his hand on his forehead and elbow on the
desk so he was able to look down to the note in his lap. In tiny letters, it
read:

I am a suspect. Working on a plan.

Is what I gave you safe?

Since the
cameras couldn’t see his face, Camden cringed at the words on the paper. He had
a hell of a time maneuvering the tiny lead in his lap to write back.
 
He finally managed to get seven words
on the paper to give back to Ganesh.

Get to Lee

Use Ari

Not safe

He looked up
to indicate to Ganesh that he was finished with his dramatic act.

“I will try
to come back and see you again,” Ganesh said. “Be strong, Cam.”

He reached
out to shake his friend’s hand and Camden slid the paper back to Ganesh.
 
Camden gave Ganesh a purposeful look to
let him know that he understood what he might have to endure and that he was
not happy about it. But, he would try not to let him down.

Ganesh
walked out of the room to find Aldretti waiting, back against the wall.

“Aldretti!
You never left this room. Do you understand?” It was a command, not a question.

“Yes, Sir!”
Aldretti complied and walked back in the room with the professor feeling that
Major Magner had somehow failed him.
 
Camden sat up straight and returned to his cool and superior posture.

Ganesh rode
the service elevator back down to the fourth floor and was walking into his
office when he heard Mace Magner’s voice call out.

“Colonel
Ganesh.
 
Just the man I’ve been
looking for.”

Ganesh
thought of about ten smart remarks to respond with, but took the high road and
decided it wasn’t worth the effort.

“What can I
help you with, Major?” Ganesh asked Mace as he re-closed the door to his office
and stood in front of it, so it was clear to Mace that he would not be invited
inside.

“I’ve just spoken
with General Pike,” Mace answered. “He has a sensitive matter to discuss with
you.
 
He asked me to pass the
message along.”
 
Mace had a
satisfied look on his face like a child gets after tattling on an older
sibling. “He will call you sometime today on your office line,” Mace
finished.
 

This was a
tactic that the military used when they didn’t want someone wandering the
building or overhearing conversations, the very things Ganesh had been doing
for the past hour.
 
Waiting on a
phone call from a superior officer, a General no less, would conveniently
confine one to their office…for as long as necessary.

Ganesh
nodded in acknowledgement and waited until Mace saluted him before he turned
his back on him and went into his office.
 
He sat behind his desk to wait for the call from General Pike.

General Pike
was the head of TRU and oversaw the entire Myris operation from the space
transport and biomer mining operation, to the robotics and weaponry unit. He
was also the General who had recommended Major Mace Magner for his position
here, which gave him an extra set of hands to work in all the unit
projects.
 
Ganesh had worked
closely with General Pike once before and while they got along just fine
professionally,
their views on politics, science, and ethics
differed significantly.
 
Ganesh
felt sure
he had been put here by the heads of government to
somehow undermine the General’s authority
, a task he felt he was
succeeding at… until today.

He reached
into his pants pocket and pulled out the tiny folded note he and Camden had now
written on.
 
He read Camden’s words
again.

Get to Lee

Use Ari

Not safe

Ganesh knew
for sure now that he was being watched for the biomer theft and because he was
guilty, he knew he couldn’t contact Lee Tripple directly.
 
Camden and Lee were too close.
 
It would make Ganesh’s involvement
obvious.
 

Ganesh
wasn’t sure who Ari was.
 
He
thought he remembered the name, but he couldn’t put a face to it and he
couldn’t imagine what connection this person had to the stolen biomer.
 
Camden had assured him that Lee Tripple
would be the only other one to work with the biomer and it was out of
necessity.
 
Ganesh had accepted
that.
 
Besides, Lee wouldn’t care
about where the material came from or how it was acquired.
 
He didn’t see right and wrong like a
normal person and only spoke to the government when they needed his science to
solve something for them.
 
It
wasn’t in his nature to offer information from a project for which he wasn’t
specifically recruited.
 
This third
person, Ari, however, gave Ganesh a deep sense of unease.