Terminal Connection (18 page)

C
ut!” Jamie said. The image of the Chinese carrier disappeared as Jamie’s crew materialized, running about, digitally removing the virtual set. She glanced at her watch. It was 4:55 p.m., five minutes until the hour’s news.

“Damn it!” she said.

Hearing her remark, the cast members nearby hesitated only briefly before continuing with their work.

She would not have enough time to sell the piece before 5:00 p.m. That pushed the airing of the clip out until 6:00 p.m. She hoped that the other freelancers would not beat her to the story, as trivial as it was. The Chinese constantly ran military exercises, and Jamie was but one among thousands of freelance reporters trying to cover the story. Every hour the networks would bid from their long list of reports. This was risky stuff. In this business, whoever got the story first would sell it exclusively to all the other stations. That meant several other freelancers, like her, would get nothing for their efforts.

She had been unlucky over the last couple of months. She had a real shot with that Warscape report. Ed Davis and Shen Guofang were key interviews, but her daughter ripped out the best part and the network had rejected the story. “Not sexy enough” was the networks’ terse email reply. It was an expensive gamble that did not pay off.

Despite the automation, it took an entire cast to make a report, and she competed with at least a dozen other reporters. Of course, even if she had landed the sale, the story would not have lasted the day or even the afternoon. VR news reports had the shelf life of lettuce. She shook her head.

Jamie watched as her crew scrambled, removing virtual tools and clearing remnants of the set from the lobby. Why had she gotten into this business? As much as she would like to blame it on someone else, she knew she had entered of her own free will. She even knew at the time what it would be like, but she couldn’t help herself.

The industry had seduced her along with thousands of other people, all for the same reason. Like everyone else, she dreamed of hitting it rich. It was the modern day gold rush and like the explosion of the World Wide Web at the turn of the millennium, it was open to anyone and everyone.

When her husband died and the income disappeared, she latched onto the VR dream. A year later, she still searched for her big story. The Warscape story should have been it, but her daughter had fixed that.

Jamie sighed. One day she would find something, some report or idea that had persistence. Such a story would transform her life and allow her to live in the manor she deserved. The promise of money was not the only reason she stayed in the game. An artist at heart, this was her calling. VR was the ultimate in creative expression. These were not inanimate sculptures or lifeless images on a flat screen or canvas. In here, she created new worlds, rich with emotion and human experiences. If she wanted to, she could create mountains of wealth, transform landscapes, and enable the viewer to walk in another person’s shoes—literally.

Indeed, she had altered people’s perspectives, changed their minds, and evoked strong emotions ranging from euphoria to lust to rage. Yes, in here she was a deity, albeit a minor one. That is, if she could air her VR clips.

She could not believe how her daughter had shut her down, robbing her of her big break. It wasn’t right. Her daughter was acting more secretive than usual. What was she hiding? Whatever it was, it screamed the words ‘breaking news.’ She had keys to her daughter’s apartment, and Allison was out of town at the moment. Perhaps she would visit, water her plants and such. Besides, Allison owed her.

“Did you contact Davis?” Allison asked.

Vinnie looked up and stared at his boss. This time she had insisted on meeting him at his home in San Ramon, but reality suited him just fine.

Vinnie watched her closely. Why was she focused on Austin’s murder? No, Syzygy was a much greater threat. He shook his head in annoyance. He was not used to anyone meddling into one of his assignments
—
especially if that person was the Director of DARPA. What was her motivation?

Turning his attention to more important things, Vinnie stared at his coffee mug. It had been a week since he could take the time to just grab a
real
cup of java. The VR coffee experience mirrored that of reality but Vinnie could tell the difference.

Vinnie breathed in deeply and savored the subtle nuances: the thin steam rising from the cup, the warmth it generated, the rough texture where the mug was chipped. These minute details separated this experience from its virtual counterpart. Vinnie was in his element again.

“Vinnie, answer me.”

He frowned, watching her squirm. Something was definitely up. Her hands shook even as she smiled at him. What was she hiding? Vinnie decided to lie.

“If you must know, Mr. Davis actually contacted me.”

“What did he want?”

He set down the mug and lit up a Marlboro. Taking a long drag, he leaned back and pretended to contemplate the question.

“Vinnie!”

“He said you weren’t worthy to lick the mud off my boots.”

“What?”

Vinnie suppressed a smile playing on his lips. “Oh, don’t worry. I defended you. I said, yes, you were!” He waited.
Not even a chuckle.
Instead, she fixed him with an icy stare.

“Answer the question.”

He laughed. “Really, he didn’t ask much and I didn’t say much.”

“Let me be the judge of that. Now tell me. What
did
he say?”

“He wanted to know how my work was going.”

“So, what did you tell him?”

“I told him there was nothing to worry about, or something vague but positive like that.”

“What else?”

“That’s it. He seemed to buy it and he went away.”

Allison relaxed.

“You worry too much.”

“Well, what would you do in my position?” Allison asked, crossing her arms.

“I’m not like you. I don’t get into those positions.” He put a hand to his mouth and made a puckering sound.

“Knock it off,” Allison said.

“The way I see it, there are young people who want to control the river and older people that want to be the river.”

“And so you think I’m trying to control the river?”

Vinnie nodded.

“And I should become the river, like you. Is that it?”

“No, people like me get smart. We swim to the side and watch the river go by.” He laughed. “Why don’t you tell me what this is all about?”

“It’s not important. I gave you this assignment Wednesday. What have you been doing all this time?”

“As you asked, I’ve been sitting on my butt watching Austin. That is, until you killed him. Now that he’s dead. There isn’t much to see.”

“Did you find anything out watching the place? I expected more from you, Vinnie.”

Vinnie took another drag. Her quick response surprised him. She did not flinch when he accused her of murder.
He knew Davis would grill her for that.
Something else scared her—something big.

“Well, if you must know. I did find one curious thing.”

“Oh, what’s that?”

“Do you know Ron Fisher?”

She nodded. “The Nexus CFO.”

“He’s never been convicted of anything, but he was playing with the company’s numbers. Apparently, Ron is under a lot of financial pressure, yet his pocket book is not showing the strain. I think he was doing some covert business with Austin that may have not been on the level.”

“What about the other victims? Did Ron know any of them?”

Vinnie shook his head. “No, I haven’t found a connection.”

“You just have a gut feeling then?”

Vinnie shrugged. “Yeah.”

She nodded, contemplating what he had said. A perplexed look came across her face.

“How did you know that I killed Austin? The surveillance got cut off before I arrived there.”

“Actually, at first I thought Steve killed Austin. I detained him and asked a few questions. He became upset when he learned you were DARPA’s director.”

She rose from her chair. “What? You idiot! You’ve blown my cover!”

Ah ha.
She did not want him talking to Ed or Steve, but she assigned him to watch Nexus Corp. Why? It clicked. Vinnie took another drag and snuffed out his Marlboro.

“Ed Davis doesn’t know about this investigation or the defect, does he?” Vinnie took another drag.

“Vinnie …”

“Last year when I wrote that informational report on the Nexus, you didn’t claim it was a complete evaluation, did you?”

“Just remember, I’m still your boss!” she yelled.

Not for long
. He locked his gaze with Allison’s. She had duped him.

“Ed Davis never sent those emails to Austin; it was you. That’s why you had me watch the place. You wanted me to see them, so I would think Davis was in the loop. Somehow Austin found out about your charade, so you killed him.”

“There are forces at work here you don’t understand!”

Vinnie took a hard drag and exhaled. He removed his gun and set it on the coffee table.

“Listen, Allison. I get the dirty work done for a lot of people, including Ed Davis. Do you think you’re my only project?”

She glanced at his gun.

Vinnie smiled. He pulled out a cloth, picked up the gun, and polished its slide.

“I don’t care about Austin. I had my orders. If you hadn’t killed him, I would have; but Syzygy and the Nexus defect are another matter entirely. Either you tell Ed or I will. He’s going to find out one way or another anyway. It’d be better coming from you.”

Resurrection

“All our lauded technological progress—our very civilization—is like an axe in the hand of the pathological criminal.

“[Our] problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them.”

—Albert Einstein. Physicist, 1935.

Sunday, June 14, 2020

F
or the second time that morning, Ed Davis’ shoulder bothered him. He felt it even in VR. It had started when he arrived in Hong Kong, and staying on Pacific Standard Time had not helped.

His trip was a short one—only five days. It made no sense to alter his schedule. Besides, he worked in VR almost the whole time anyway, occasionally jumping out to change planes and participate in a few interviews with local officials. Why should he convert to Hong Kong time?

Ed sighed. He took his job too seriously, working nights and weekends, and for what? The departments under him hated I2 Corp, the newly created fifth branch of the military.

Ed had his own doubts. Still, the plan did solve two problems. Fiscally, the consolidation of the twelve existing intelligence agencies into one conglomerate saved billions of dollars. Strategically, I2 Corp filled the informational warfare void in the Department of Defense.

Before, the DoD was setup for only physical confrontations—Army for land, Navy for sea, Air Force for sky and space, and Marines for miscellaneous; but there had been no provision for Information Warfare—battles online or in VR. The I2 Corp filled that void.

Yet, the change was radical and politically shaky. Every affected agency fought him on this. He wasn’t sure if the President could make it stick. Ed rubbed his brow. The stress was unimaginable. If he were not careful, this new appointment would kill him.

Ed ran a hand across his graying goatee. He was only fifty-two. If he were not dead by the end of this year, he would retire. His body felt old and broken. Government service had long since sucked the life out of him. Now it gnawed on his dry bones.

He remembered when he was younger, before the gray streaks appeared in his hair and the lines of stress had permanently scared his face. He had entered the military full of integrity, ambition, and hope for the future, but as he climbed the military hierarchy, he quickly outgrew his naiveté.

He learned the ropes and adapted to his new political environment. Ed traded his integrity for political savvy, his ambition for ambivalence, and his hope for the party line. Today he lived his reward as the Assistant Secretary of Defense, the leader of the Information and Intelligence Corp.

Ed looked around the hexagon room. Virtual copies of accolades he had collected over the years broke up the room’s dark, dithered walls. It did not matter where Ed went. This was his home away from home. Ed shook his head at the irony.

Everyday this week he had flown to some new and exotic place. Even now, his body was in a helicopter heading toward the second Warscape on
U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln
in the South China Sea. Yet, regardless of where he flew, he always spent his days cooped up in here, in his virtual office. Maybe that was the problem, the reason he was so melancholy.

Use your head old man, Ed told himself. If you can’t enjoy the exotic places you’re visiting in reality, then bring the exotic places to yourself!

“Computer, open the windows to Seven Waterfalls.”

Four sides of the hexagon room dissolved into window views from the side of a mountain, overlooking a sweltering tropical valley. Across the valley, a crimson cliff resonated in the sun, showing complex strata, consisting of layers and layers of sedimentary rock. The wall of rock did not conform to a straight line as it ran across the valley. Instead, it meandered westward, occasionally turning sharply north or south for a hundred feet before continuing west, making a slow progression toward the horizon. This created twenty or so facets. From seven of these, waterfalls plummeted toward the valley floor, disappearing into the rainforest’s canopy.

Out of all the office backdrops on the market, this was Ed’s favorite. He smiled. Ed got up and paced in front of the windows, rubbing his chin. After a few minutes, he sat back down, feeling a little better, even perhaps invigorated.

Ed called up his calendar. “Computer, who’s my next appointment?”

“Jamie Hwang, a reporter.”

Ed smiled.
How could I forget Allison’s feisty mother!
He remembered the interview he had with her earlier in the week. He checked the time: 4 a.m. That made it 8 a.m. in California.

“Computer, did she say what it was about?”

“No.”

Great, just great
! If it were good news, she would have mentioned it to guarantee a foot in the door. She probably was still sore about Allison gutting her piece. But all was fair in love and war, especially with the way she had grilled him.

He thought about blowing her off, but his job was to sell the President’s plan, court the media, and taint the press coverage with his spin. Through them, Ed would cajole congress into voting the bills and initiatives required to make I2 Corp a success.

“Show her in.”

Ed painted on a smile as Jamie entered the room. He stood and extended his hand.

“Jamie! It’s good to see you again and so soon! To what do I owe the honor?”

She politely shook his hand. “I’m doing a story on the Nexus and how it has changed the virtual landscape.”

A red flag went up in his head. “So why are you talking to me? Why don’t you talk to the folks over at Nexus?” He sat down and Jamie sat in the chair opposite.

“Well, I wanted to map the history of the Nexus, from its conception to its approval, to its eventual release. Obviously, one of the agencies under you, DARPA, played a pivotal role by reviewing and approving this product for the Internet. They say you actually took a personal interest in that project. Is that true?”

“I know what Allison said. I’m rather busy, so if you could get to the point. What is it that you need me to do?”

“Is there any way I can talk to someone else at DARPA who worked on this project?”

Ed thought for a moment before shaking his head. “I’m afraid that I disbanded the group some time ago. All its members have been reassigned to other projects. I cannot afford right now to pull anyone from the field. I can offer you the final report created after the Nexus Transporter’s approval.”

“You know Allison already gave me that.”

“I’m sorry, but that’s all I can offer you right now,” Ed said, hiding behind his smile.

“So you’re telling me every single person that was on that team is not available?”

“That’s right.”

“I just need one hour with just one of them.”

“That’s one hour more than I can give you right now.”

“I’m asking this as a favor, Ed.”

“Jamie, I’m sorry. Remember, we’re a public company, not a private one. Funding was cut last year during the Department of Defense consolidation. I simply don’t have the extra manpower … I mean people power.”

“Then consider it an investment in public relations. This could be good publicity for you,” she said.

Ed gave her an incredulous look. “Really?”

“I mean, it would look a lot worse if I had to say that you had no comment.”

“About what?”

“About the deaths surrounding the Nexus.”

Ed laughed. She couldn’t be serious! He was surprised she used such a weak ploy. “Jamie you never change! I suppose you can give me their names, too?”

“Of course. Camille Anderson, Shannon Pierce, Skip Harvey, Brooke Donovan, and Mike Burns.”

Ed stopped laughing. She was serious. What had Allison done? The Nexus project was hers. She had assured him that everything was fine.

“Either way your name is going into the article,” Jamie pushed.

Her words jolted Ed from his thoughts. He did not tolerate personal threats coming from anyone, even his dead friend’s widow. He stood.

“Thank you for coming, Ms. Hwang, but I’m going to have to ask you to leave. I’m late for my next appointment.”

Behind her a portal opened up, the same one she walked through to get there. She stood, not saying anything.

Ed could almost see her mind whirling, trying to salvage the situation, searching for something in their personal relationship; but this was business.

“Goodbye, Ms. Hwang,” Ed said, turning to view the scenery once more.

Getting up, she sighed. “If you change your mind, you have three days before I run the report.”

Ed remained silent.

She stepped through the portal. It closed behind her.

He rubbed his brow. If what she said were true, the President’s plan was dead. There was no way it, and for that matter Ed, could survive. She was probably bluffing, but he would check into her story anyway. Either way Allison had better have a good explanation for this.

His mind drifted back to when he had visited Allison’s father after her birth. His friend was so proud as he bounced little Allison on his knee. They had both laughed when she spat up all over Ed’s uniform. Things had changed.

The smile that had crept across his face faded as he came back to the present. Allison had lied to him. He had promised he would take care of her. Now, he would have to break that promise. She had given him no choice. He was so angry with her.

Three days.
Ed glanced at the time and paged Allison and Vinnie. The helicopter would be landing soon and he would meet with the Admiral. He would have to resolve this situation before then.