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EAST OF DARRINGTON, WASHINGTON:
State Patrol Officer Harry Clemens recognizes the four dump trucks and construction equipment parked in front of his grandfather’s abandoned drive-in movie theatre. As far as he knows, his family doesn’t intend to tear it down. He takes the next off ramp, drives across the over pass, and heads back to the theatre down a side road. He stops near a large motorhome, where a dozen men are sitting under the awning. He studies the men for a few moments before climbing out.
Paul Simms glances at his men, then stands as he waits for the highway patrol officer to walk over. “Can I help you, Officer?”
“I was just wondering why you’re here. Are you staging for a job?”
“Yes, but not for this property. I’m just waiting to hear from my boss. We shouldn’t be here for more than a few hours.”
Clemens is about to ask him more questions when a voice from his portable radio interrupts. He steps away from the group to answer. “This is Clemens. Go ahead.”
“We have a report of a tornado touching down just north of Monroe, and its headed south. We need you to help the local police shut down the exits off the Interstate highway in that area until the storm passes.”
“Are you kidding? We don’t get tornadoes in this part of the Pacific Northwest.”
“Listen, Harry. This is not a joke, now get moving.”
“I’m on my way.”
Clemens glances back at the truck drivers, then climbs into his patrol car and drives to the Interstate highway. He still can’t fathom the idea of a tornado in Waynesville.
When the patrol car drives away, Simms sits down and looks at his crew. “It shouldn’t be much longer now.”
***
NORTH OF DARRINGTON:
Rita Harrow stares up at the pewter-colored cylinder pointed up into space. When the seconds vanishing on the digital clock reach zero, she flips a switch and the device shuts down. She looks over at her partner, Steve Preston, the owner of the DAR Corporation. “The effect should be over.”
Preston walks up to the tall red-haired woman, gently touches her chin, and tilts her head up to give her a kiss. “Are you sure you have this thing under control? I mean, your first test altered the jet stream over the Northern Pacific Ocean, and now California is suffering a massive drought. Will it return to its original course?”
She crosses her arms and stares down at the ground. “I hope so. I didn’t mean for that to happen.”
“Are you ever going to tell me how you know so much about these devices?” He sees the rage in her eyes when she looks up at him.
Her hands clench into fists at her sides. “I was on a research ship off the coast of Washington, when a man named Alex Cave suddenly showed up and I was fired. I couldn’t complete my mission and it pissed me off.” Her hands relax. “A friend did a background check on Cave. It turns out he’s a close friend of Martin Donner, the Director of National Security.”
“And?”
“The ship I was on belonged to millionaire Mike Tanner, who became Cave’s good friend. I figured me being fired meant they were up to something big, and I’ve been keeping track of Tanner’s different ships. It turns out one of them recovered another device like this one and we took it. That’s the one you have in orbit. One of our spies working at Groom Lake told us another one had suddenly arrived there, and that a third one was being shipped from Adak Island in Alaska.” She tilts her head toward the trailer. “You’re looking at it.”
“I see. How did you know what it does?”
“We managed to get our hands on the instruction manual.”
“Don’t tell me. Your spy at Area 51.”
Rita doesn’t reply and presses a button on the control panel. The twenty-foot-long torpedo shaped device slowly drops back down into the custom trailer. When she hears a soft thud, she straightens her shoulders and turns back to Preston. “I can hit anywhere at any time.”
Preston stares back. “I’m not so sure.”
She puts her hands on her hips. “Now that we have one in orbit, I can hit with pinpoint accuracy.” When his eyes remain uncertain, she turns back to the trailer. “Fine. Believe what you want.”
Preston looks at his watch. “I’d better get going. I need to be the first person to sign the contract to do the search and rescue, with a clause that my company gets the contract for the cleanup.” He smirks. “I’m going to make a fortune, controlling the weather.”
She grins. “I know, and I get twenty-five percent.”
Preston’s smile falters for a moment. “Even so, we’re talking millions of dollars.” He turns and climbs into his silver SUV.
When Preston drives away, Rita walks forward to the customized motorhome that tows the trailer, climbs inside, and heads north toward US Interstate 5.
***
MONROE, WASHINGTON:
Mayor Carl Barstow scratches his head through his gray hair as he watches the patrol cars and ambulances arrive from nearby towns. The three-story apartment complex just south of the small town is destroyed. He looks over at his friend, Officer Clemens. “I can’t believe this just happened, Harry. Look how it ripped up the building. Yet just a quarter mile away, there’s no damage. Like it touched down for a minute and then just disappeared.”
Clemens looks down at the dry flakes of blood on his fingers and heaves a deep sigh of sorrow. “I’ve found seven dead, and a lot of serious injuries. Many of the masonry walls held together, so there could be some survivors underneath the pile, but it’s going to take some time before we can get some equipment here to dig through the wreckage.”
Barstow uses his hands to shade his eyes as he looks around the area. “We’re just so ill prepared for such a disaster. Tornadoes just don’t pop up in our neck of the woods, and they definitely don’t just appear out of nowhere. There weren’t even any storms around. It was a perfectly sunny day, maybe a few clouds in the sky.”
Clemens thinks about the construction equipment stationed at the theatre. This is an emergency, and he’s going to put them to work. “I have an idea. I’ll be back in a moment.”
Clemens heads for his patrol car and sees a silver Cadillac SUV leading the way for the construction equipment from the theatre. When the vehicle stops beside his patrol car, a tall man wearing gray slacks and a black shirt climbs out and walks over to greet him.
Preston holds his hand out to the officer. “Do you need some help?”
The Mayor hurries past Clemens and grabs the man’s hand. “I’m the Mayor, Carl Barstow. We sure could. We have people trapped in the debris, so you need to hurry.”
Preston suppresses a grin. “Sorry to hear about that. I’m Mister Preston, owner of the DAR Corporation. My people would be glad to lend a hand. Let’s go to my car and you can sign a waiver of liability for my company so we can get started.”
“You bet.”
Clemens finds it odd that this Mister Preston has his equipment waiting nearby, but there is no way he could have known this would happen. At least, as far as he knows, anyway.
***
GROOM LAKE:
Neither Alex nor Henry speak until they enter the office. Henry sits down and types a command into his computer, and looks across at Alex while they wait. “You did not finish telling me about these devices, Alex.”
“Oh, right. They were designed to attract pollutants from the atmosphere, but whoever is in control thinks it will attract the debris in space.”
“Is that not a good thing? All that rubble has caused millions of dollars in damage to several satellites, spacecraft, and even the International Space Station.”
“You’re right, Doc, if they know what they’re doing. All the information about how they operate is on board our spaceship. How could they possibly know what they’re doing with that device without some kind of instruction manual? They don’t realize they’re meant to work in unison, all connected somehow.”
Henry turns to the monitor. “One of our people here at the base signed for all the devices, but he quit eight months ago, right after the arrival date.”
“That still doesn’t explain how they know about its operating system.”
Henry enters a command. An instant later, he sighs with regret and leans back in his chair. “I had David make a copy and I uploaded the information. Someone hacked into my computer and made a copy of the data.”
Alex remembers meeting David as a young physics student while he himself was an instructor. Since then, David has helped him with several discoveries over the past two years, and lives here at the base. He’s like a little brother, and the only person who has flown the alien spaceship.
Alex stands and pulls his phone from his front pocket. “I’ll call Martin right away.” On the first ring, the Director of National Security’s secretary answers. “This is Alex Cave. Is Director Donner available? Okay. Please have him call me right away.” He looks at Henry. “He’s in a meeting.”
“I wish we had left them in the ocean, Alex. I have a terrible feeling about all this.”
“We didn’t have a choice, Doc. In order to get rid of the devices, they all must be together in one place.”
Henry leans back in his chair and stares up at his friend. “Will you ever tell me your secret?”
“I’m sorry, Doc. If what I suspect happens, I might need to tell all of my friends.”
“Perhaps the Director can find out how they were stolen.”
His phone rings, and Alex recognizes the image of his friend on the screen. “Hey, Martin. You’re on visual and speaker with the Doc.”
“Hi, Alex. Are you getting settled in okay?”
“I’m getting there.”
“What can I do for you?”
“Three of my devices never made it to the base, and someone copied the operation manual. Now one of them is in orbit, called the SV1. Do you know anything about the company who owns it?”
“Yes, they’re a reputable company with several military contracts. Have you ever heard of the DAR Corporation?”
Alex’s posture stiffens when he thinks about his unscrupulous dealings with the owner not too long ago. “I have. I thought they were demolition and reconstruction contractors. Why?”
“That’s only a subsidiary of the main company. Their goal is to collect the billions of dollars’ worth of precious metals from space. In fact, they’re doing the first orbital test tomorrow afternoon, about 4:00 AM your time. The crew on the space station will be sending a live broadcast of the event.”
“You have to stop them, Martin. They have no idea how dangerous they can be.”
“I believe you, Alex. I’ll do what I can. One of these days you had better tell me more about them.”
Alex shoulders slump. “I know. In the meantime, could you send me all the data you have on DAR and the SV1?”
“I’ll have my secretary send it to your private email account.”
“Thanks, Martin.”
Henry waits until Alex puts his phone away. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Yes. Set up a remote video camera on that remaining device and monitor it during the test.”
Henry thinks about it for a moment. “If they are as dangerous as you claim, perhaps we should move it to the surface, away from the base.”
“We’re better off keeping it where it is. They were built to react with the environment, and there is less air in the vault.”
“Very well.”
“I’d better call Okana. I hope that he can have Bett pick me up in Seward.” A moment later, he recognized the voice of his best friend. “Hey, Okana. Where are you right now?”
“We’ve just refueled in Seward, and are headed back out to resume the search. Why?”
“Turn around and go back.”
“All right. How about a little more information?”
“Have you heard about the SV1?”
“Uh, no. Is there a problem?”
Alex tells him about the missing devices and explains his concern. “The problem is the one in the water. When they activate the one in space, the one in the water will freeze the ocean at an incredible rate. You don’t want to be in the vicinity, or you’ll get trapped.”
“How do you know about all this stuff, Alex? Oh, right. It’s super top secret.”
“I’m sorry, my friend. If things develop like I think they will, I’ll explain everything.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
Alex thinks about the Mystic’s helicopter pilot, Betty Mason, a feisty little woman married to Joshua, the ship’s technical expert. “Is Bett on board?”
“Yeah, do you need a ride?”
“As a matter of fact, I do, but not from here. I’ll meet you in Seward.”
“Okay, I’ll be waiting.”
Alex puts away his phone. “I need to borrow the jet. I’m meeting up with the Mystic in Seward, so I can keep an eye on what happens with the device in the Bering Sea when they activate the one in space.”
“Would you like to take David with you?”
“No, he should keep working on the spacecraft. Okana and I can handle it.”
“Of course. Keep in touch.”
“I will.”
***