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GROOM LAKE, NEVADA:
Alex stares out the window of the private Gulfstream jet as it taxies to a small air terminal at Area 51. He enjoyed the drive around Wesley’s mountain, but Martin called thirty minutes later, and a jet was waiting for him in Mount Vernon. He liked Wesley’s company immensely and promised to let him know what is happening.
The jet rolls to a gentle stop and the engines shut down, and since he’s the only passenger, he opens the door and walks down the steps. He recognizes the small, gray-haired man smiling up at him. Doctor Henry Heinz has been working at Area 51 since he emigrated from Germany as a young man in 1958 and helped him during the Dead Energy operation.
“Alex, my friend. It is so good to see you again,” he says with a slight accent.
Alex smiles and shakes his hand. “You look like you’re having fun, Doc.”
“It has been so exciting since your discovery. Lewis is waiting for us inside. Come, come.”
Alex follows him into a small office, and Lewis Norton’s expression is void of emotion as he stands from behind an oak desk and clasps his hands behind his back. He forgot about Lewis’s no-nonsense behavior. Alex notices one change in Lewis’s physical appearance. He’s let his blond hair grow into a short ponytail, a sign he’s loosening up a little from his normally stoic demeanor. Lewis is also an expert on extraterrestrial technology, since he and his brother were brought here to Earth from another solar system as infants and adopted by humans.
“Hello, Professor Cave, I understand you have an issue that needs my attention.”
“I have a problem you may help me with. You told me about some type of device that can clean our atmosphere. What does it look like?”
“Cylindrical. Gray. Twenty-feet in length. Twelve-inch circumference. Weight, one-thousand six-hundred and twenty-seven pounds.”
Alex has his confirmation. That’s the estimated size from Josh’s enhancement of the device in the Pacific. “Mind if I sit down?”
“Of course not.”
Alex sits in front of the desk. “We’ve discovered one of those devices in the Northern Pacific Ocean, and there is probably another one somewhere in the Arctic.” He explains everything that happened. “The problem right now is the one in the Arctic. It appears to be activating on its own.”
“That is a problem. Once they are activated, they are programmed to sample the environment and act appropriately.”
“There is an operation underway to retrieve the device in the Pacific Ocean. If we get it to the surface, what should we do with it?”
“The device will continue to activate on a predetermined schedule that depends on the chemical elements it samples. Once you expose the device to a different environment, you will have approximately twenty-four hours before the next activation. They were designed to resonate in the atmosphere. If you get the device out of the water, it will sample the new environment and determine which frequency will attract the specified elements from the atmosphere. When the device activates, the exterior surface will be minus two-hundred and seventy-three degrees Celsius, so do not touch it.”
“Can we open it up and disconnect something?”
“No. You need the original ship that deployed the device to turn it off.”
“How does it work?”
“Every atomic element resonates at a specific frequency. The device can be programed to attract a specific atomic structure from the environment by creating a complex combination of resonate frequencies. Those alter the atomic structure to create a physical mass in a solid state that can be recovered.”
“Okay, but why does it freeze?” Alex asks.
“The low atmospheric pressure of this planet allows many elements to remain in an excited, gaseous state. When the molecular resonance stops, the gases become a solid, and don’t produce energy. It becomes ultra-cold.”
Alex leans back and sighs in frustration. His only option is to retrieve the devices and keep them out of the water. The task seems insurmountable.
Lewis notices the disappointment in Alex’s eyes. “However, if you retrieve one of the devices, we can identify the control frequency and broadcast the deactivation code through the orbiting satellite system.”
With a new sense of hope, Alex leans forward in the chair. “That’s more like it. How soon can you arrange for my return to Washington State?”
Henry reaches across the desk for the telephone. “I will find out.”
“Have you located the other two devices?” Norton asks.
Alex stares across the desk, his mouth slightly open. “There are four of them?”
“Apparently not. In order to perform efficiently, one device must be positioned in the atmosphere above the northern axis of a planet, one at the southern axis, and two equilaterally, on opposite sides.”
“As far as I know, only the two devices were activated. The others must be out of range for that ultrasound they used to activate them.”
Henry sets the phone down. “Your plane is refueled and waiting, Alex.”
Alex stands. “Thanks. I need a favor before I leave.”
Twenty minutes later, Alex carries a small brown cardboard box onto the jet for the ride back to Washington.
***
MOUNT VERNON:
Alex looks through the side window of the Gulfstream jet as it taxies to the small air terminal. When the jet engines shut down, he opens the door and steps out, noticing the helicopter and pilot are different this time. The blue letters on the white helicopter say Mystic, and the small pilot standing outside the air terminal is a tough-looking young woman with short blond hair. He notices her jaw busily chewing a piece of gum as he walks over to introduce himself. “I’m Alex Cave.”
The woman turns her head, spits out the gum, then reaches out to shake his hand. “Betty Mason, but everybody calls me Bett.”
The woman speaks as if on speed, and Alex grins. “I need to see some people before we leave. Can you wait for me?”
“Yeah, but you’d better hurry. The Mystic is already underway.”
“I will.”
Alex’s car is where he left it. He climbs in and heads to Sparrow Valley.
***
CAVE RANCH:
Kristy climbs onto the motorcycle and crosses her arms as she glares up at her brother in the porch swing. “You are not leaving this ranch, Derek Cave! Uncle Alex promised to see us today, and you are not leaving until he does.”
Derek frowns and tries to look upset, but it’s hard not to laugh at the dirt on her determined little face.
They both turn to look at a car coming up the road and watch a red mustang leaving a cloud of dust in its wake as it pulls into the driveway and stops.
Kristy smiles up at Derek. “Your girlfriend’s here.”
Derek gives her a stern look. “She’s not my girlfriend, okay?”
He thinks Jessica Parker is a snob and tries to ignore her advances, but for some reason, she’s relentless. Maybe it’s because he isn’t interested in her like the jocks that trip over each other for her attention.
Jessica shuts off the engine and climbs out of the mustang, then lightly shakes her shoulder-length brown hair seductively as she smiles at Derek, hoping for a response. Since his first day at school, when he was in one of her classes, she found his bad boy appearance and attitude irresistible.
Derek remains sitting on the porch swing. He thinks Jessica is attractive in her slim blue jeans and tight fitting red tank top, but he cannot stand her attitude. Her father is wealthy, and she is attractive, so she always gets what she wants.
Kristy climbs off the motorcycle and runs up to Jessica, smiling. “Can I sit in your car?”
Jessica has never been to the ranch before, but has seen Derek with his sister a few times down the mountain, in the mall. “What’s your name?”
“I’m Kristy Cave. Derek’s my brother.”
“No, you can’t sit in my car. Your clothes are filthy.”
Kristy crosses her arms and stares up at her. “Is it because you’re a snob?”
Jessica looks down, her mouth slightly open. “What? How dare you call me a snob! You don’t even know me!”
Derek stands and looks at his sister. “That’s enough, Kristy,” he says nicely, before looking at Jessica. “What brings you out this way?”
Jessica shakes her hair as she regains her composure and smiles at Derek. “Everyone’s talking about the strange earthquakes. I know your uncle is a geologist, and everybody in town knows he’s here now. Everyone is wondering what he said about them.”
Derek sits back down on the porch swing. “I’m sure he’ll tell everyone when he’s ready.”
Jessica waits for Derek to say more, but he does not. Damn! I drove all the way out here hoping to have a conversation with him, and that’s all he has to say? She gives him a stern look. “I bet you think I’m a snob, too.” When he grins, it’s all she can take. “Go to hell!” she snarls, then stomps back to the mustang and climbs in. She slams the door closed and starts the engine, then stomps on the gas pedal. The tires throw dirt into the air as the mustang races down the driveway.
Kristy walks up the porch steps and sits beside her brother. “I bet you’d like to drive that car of hers? Her dad’s rich, you know. If you hook up with her, he might buy you a new car, too.”
Derek smiles, thinking how much he loves his brazen little sister. “You talk too much.”
They both hear another car coming up the driveway and Kristy jumps off the porch swing. “I told you he would keep his promise.”
She waits until Alex stops in front of the porch, then leaps over the steps and runs to the car door, yanking it open. “I knew you’d keep your promise.”
Alex climbs out of the car and grabs the small cardboard box from the passenger seat before he closes the door. Kristy grabs his hand and pulls him onto the porch where he holds the box out to Derek.
Derek opens the box, then looks up at his uncle. “This is a satellite phone, Alex.”
“That’s right. It even has GPS capability. I’m going on a boat ride when I leave here, and it’s important that you can reach me. I have that number on my satellite phone, so I’ll know it’s you calling. My number is speed dial one, and Wesley’s is two.”
***
Robert hears another car door close and wonders who’s here, then he hears Alex talking. He pushes himself out of the recliner, walks through the kitchen, and stops to look through the screen door and listen to the conversation.
***
Kristy sits next to Derek on the porch swing. “Why are you leaving so soon, Uncle Alex? You just got here.”
“I’m meeting some people and we’re going to the North Pole. A kind of treasure hunt.”
Derek stands from the swing. “When will you be back?”
“I’m not sure. I have a helicopter pilot waiting for me, so I’d better go.”
Derek gives Alex a short hug. “I’ll take care of Kristy and Robert, so don’t worry about us,” he says softly so Kristy won’t hear him.
“I know you will. Thanks.”
Kristy stands from the swing, and Alex bends down to hug her. “Listen to your brother and do what he says, okay?”
“Why? Is something going to happen?”
Alex gets up and understands what Derek meant about Kristy getting information. She is very perceptive. “Right now, he’s smarter than you, but that will change in a year or two.” He looks at Derek. “I’d better get going or I’ll miss my boat ride.” He walks back to the car, climbs in, and waves out the window as he drives away.
***
Robert stays behind the screen door while he watches the car disappear down the road, then returns to his recliner to watch the updated National News reports.
“Our weather specialist explained the increased expansion of the polar ice cap has changed the climatic conditions across the northwestern United States and Canada. So far, officials do not know the reason for the increase in size and speculate on what effect this will have on the planet. Some of our unofficial contacts think this change could be a benefit, by reducing the temperature of the atmosphere. Our affiliate station in Oklahoma reports that the colder winds now circulating from the north will increase the chance of tornados sweeping up the central plains of North America. Another earthquake shook the Pacific Northwest yesterday. After the recent disastrous seismic activity, they fear Seattle will be next if these earthquakes continue.”