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"All right. All right, gentlemen, please sit down and we'll get started. This shouldn't take much over an hour if you'll just come to order, please."
Special Agent Aldridge was happy to be seated in a back corner.
Meetings like this, under the Homeland Security Department, were probably going to be more common, but for now he was happy to just watch. There were people there he'd never seen before and never heard of. There must have been thirty all told, from the CIA, the DIA, the FBI, Customs, and six or seven other agencies. It was a veritable smorgasbord of functionaries.
The highest ranking one, someone he had not only heard of, but knew to be wary of, was Horace Macchia, one of the President's main political advisors, sitting next to the man standing at the podium.
Aldridge was content to be seated in the back. He was very nearly a “senior official” by now, and might have merited a chair at the head of the room. For sure, he was one of the better-informed people present, on this particular case.
Still, until he knew the lay of the land better, it made sense to keep a low profile.
Presiding was some guy named Chastain, August Chastain, an undersecretary to the Secretary of Homeland Security. Aldridge had heard him called Augie. Augie began with a briefing that was totally unnecessary as far as Aldridge was concerned, summarizing the brief career of the extraterrestrial Ana Darcy, from her first detection over Texas by radar to her disappearance from the Olympic games.
Aldridge zoned out, doodling floor plans for a shop he was going to add behind his house, until finally Augie said something that interested him.
"The department does not know the current whereabouts of Ms. Darcy. A number of national assets continue to look for her. One of them has had the law firm representing her, Benning, Bynum, Caxton, Braithwaite, based in Miami, under observation for the last two months. Yesterday, a telephone call was intercepted over the internet. It was a communication between Ms. Darcy and her lawyer, Harvey Braithwaite, a Barbadian citizen and partner in the law firm. I will play part of it for you now."
Aldridge stopped doodling. He wasn't a lawyer, but he thought this kind of thing was illegal without a court order. If there had been a court order, Augie didn't mention it, but maybe that was how Homeland Security was doing things these days. In any case, he would be happy to listen to the recording.
When the audio started, a rich, Caribbean-accented baritone was saying "...quite satisfactory, in fact, well beyond our expectations. Dick Caxton has invested it for you as per your request, and it will remain at interest until you decide what if anything you wish to do with it."
A female voice with pleasant alto overtones replied "Thank you, sir. I appreciate your attention to this matter. What I'm really calling about, however, what I most want to know, is if any action has been taken with respect to those meteoroids. Can you tell me anything about that?"
"Yes, I can, Ms. Darcy. I don't know if you have access to the media where you are, but I can tell you that following any number of meetings of experts around the world, the data you supplied has been substantially confirmed.
“At the present time, the United States and the European Union have each agreed to launch a space probe, and another rocket may be launched by a consortium composed of the nations of Japan, Australia, China, and several others.
“I believe, if I understand what I have read and seen, that all concerned are now plotting orbital data and assembling the required vehicles for launch. It looks to me as if the threat has been taken seriously and that the plans to counter it should more than likely prevent any harm to earth.
“Allow me to congratulate you for your efforts, by the way. Without your warning, it appears the damage to our planet might well have been catastrophic."
"Oh, thank you, Mr. Braithwaite! That's wonderful! I'm so relieved. Now I won't worry about that. But please keep up with the news, sir. I'd like to call you again from time to time for updates, if that's all right."
"Certainly, dear lady. It has been our very great pleasure to assist you in this matter. We are at your service as always, of course. And should you decide to become a more public presence, we will be happy to help smooth your transition in any way possible."
"Yes, sir. Thank you sir. I don't anticipate that, Mr. Braithwaite. I have done what needed to be done, and now all I want is to live quietly and peacefully, if I can."
"By all m...."
A switch clicked and the playback ceased. Augie stepped up to the podium.
"Our lab techs tell us that female voice matches the voice of Ms. Darcy recorded at the Olympics. You may draw your own conclusions from the conversation."
A hand went up.
"Yes?" said Augie.
"That conversation had to have been traced. Where did it come from?"
"Yeah. Well, we know and we don't know."
"What's that mean?"
"Apparently Ms. Darcy was using a repeater."
Horace Macchia looked up at Augie and said, "A what?"
"A repeater. It's a remote transmitter that receives a signal on one frequency and sends it on at a different frequency."
The voice that belonged to the original hand spoke up again. "Well, that can be traced too. Where was it? Did you locate her?"
"We traced it, but we didn't locate her. There was a slight problem." Frowning, he paused. "The repeater is on the moon."
Speaking loudly over the buzz of chatter in the room, he continued, "It's no problem to pick up a signal originating on the moon. We’ve put landers there that still send back data. Even ham radio operators bounce signals off the moon from time to time. But we have no way of detecting what signals are sent to the moon. Probably every electromagnetic transmission on the planet reaches the moon. If Ms. Darcy is using her moon base as a repeater, which is our guess, we'll never locate her that way. We'll have to do it some other way."
Macchia leaned over and whispered something to Augie, who spoke into the mic.
"All of you know Horace Macchia, Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff at the White House. Mr. Macchia has something to say."
As Augie sat down, Macchia stood up and cleared his throat.
"I came here straight from the President's national security briefing. We played the tape you just heard for him this morning. The President has decided, and the National Security Committee concurs, that all attempts to locate Ms. Ana Darcy by whatever means available are to cease immediately. She is not considered a threat to the United States.
"I trust I need not tell you how we would look to the voters if our agents were to haul in, by the scruff of her neck, a tiny photogenic young woman who is the most famous athlete of modern times, the person who saved our whole planet from destruction, and the idol of little girls and men of all ages around the world.
“We will announce to the media this afternoon that Ms. Darcy is no longer being sought by the U. S. government. We’ll issue an invitation to her to come forth and share her knowledge with the world. Let me repeat that phrase: ‘no longer being sought.’"
He looked around the room.
"Are there any questions?"
There were no questions.
Special Agent Aldridge folded up his doodling and stuck it in his pocket.
