The Twelve Stones (21 page)

“
Dammit,” Scott whispered to himself as he frantically began looking through his pockets.

“
What is it?” Alex asked, alerted at Scott’s tone.

“
I left my pass in my car at home.” Scott double checked his pockets, his heart sinking in his chest. He was sure of it.

“
We’re not getting in without that pass,” Scott said flatly
.
“I’m sorry
,
buddy
.
I totally screwed up.”

“
Stop it,” Alex replied, “I’m the one who didn’t want to leave the Suburban at your place. There might’ve been another tracker on here that I didn’t know about and it would’ve led Kline and his men straight to you. That’s the last thing I want. I need you here, close, where I know I can keep you alive and safe with the Stone here.” Alex paused, rubbing the stone as he talked, “Kline’s already shown me that he doesn’t care who gets in his way.”

Alex patted his friend on the shoulder. “Relax; we’ll get past the guard.”

“
I’m in awe of your mighty soothsaying,” Scott intoned dramatically
.
“
W
hat
,
pray tell
,
does the mighty Alexad
amus see next for him and his faithful companion?”

Alex’s brow furrowed as he struggled to think. “You don’t know the guy? What about all that Scott™ brand charm we’ve heard so much about?”

Scott smiled at the compliment, reveling in it for a moment, before
coming back to the conversation.
“No, the rules are for real. They worry about international spies and stuff.”

Alex’s right eyebrow rose.
“You’re serious?”

Offended, but trying hard not to show it, Scott replied instantly. “W
ell sure, we do have some super-top-
secret stuff here.”

Alex waved his hand ove
r the valley that JPL rested in.
“It’s not like you’ve got guard towers and sniper positions here. I mean, from what I can see
—
and I’ll be honest here
;
I’ve done this for a living
—
your security setup sucks. I mean, you’ve got what, an aging guard with a security cap and a radio?” Alex waved out his arms mockingly, “Woooo, back off
,
Chinese ninja spies…”

Scott was angry
;
his friend was defiling his institution
.
“I will admit, our security system lacks a little
…
” he cleared his throat, “
…p
izzazz
, but, you’re just not seeing the cool stuff.”

Alex looked skeptical at his friend, “Cool stuff?”

Scott stopped the truck and opened up his window.

“
Gimme your bottled water.”

Alex clutched his water protectively. Scott grew impatient, and stuck his hand out again
.
“Gimme the water bottle
.
W
e’ve
got more in the back. Just…come on, I need something with a little heft in it.”

Confused, but curious, Alex handed him the water bottle. Scott pointed at a fence several yards away.

“
See that fence?” Scott asked as he opened his door stepping out to get a better angle. Alex nodded, interested to see what happened next.

Scott casually tossed the water bottle over the fence. Alex’s eyes followed it as it arced up towards the top.

Before it got on the other side, it caught in mid air, hanging as a brilliant blue crackle exploded from the top of the fence. The bottle instantly exploded, drops of water raining down on the neatly maintained grass below.

“
That’s why we’re not hopping the fence.”

Scott smiled at Alex’s white face. He jumped back into the truck closing the door gently to avoid alerting the security guard a few hundred yards down the road.

“
All right, so we’re not going over the fence.” Alex decided. He closed his eyes and began to think.
This is supposed to be my specialty
,
and I’ve got nothing.
Alex was tired, and it was affecting his abilities and judgment. The road behind him had been long enough,
and
the last twenty four hours hadn’t been much better.

“
I’ve got it
,
” Scott said suddenly. He pushed the heavy truck into gear, the tires spinning as they frantically tried to respond to Scott’s acceleration.

Alex’s eyes opened and he looked at his friend confused, “What…?”

“
Just keep it quiet
.
I’ll do all the talking.” Scott smiled
.
“You’re about to see that Scott Brand Charm™ in action.” He slowed the truck, flashing the bright lights on the truck to alert
the guard to his approach.
“Do not indulge more than twice a day, or else be subject to all sorts of awesome side effects.”

Carl Jimenez, t
he security guard
,
looked up from his Maxim magazine at the approaching vehicle. His nights were generally long and uneventful
,
to say the least. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena California was the preeminent science facilities for space exploration.
Even with all the exciting science going on inside, and even with the institution’s 24-hour schedule,
there were few latecomers at this hour.

Not
many things made
Carl
nervous about this job
.
H
e
was in the middle of the ‘burbs of Los Angeles. It was about as safe as
a job
could get, but one truly never knew.

The academic world had developed into one that thrived on competition. Many scientists were often working on similar projects at the same time
,
and they all wanted to be first to publish verifiable results, all for the glory
of being
immortalized in history with greats like Einstein, Bohr, and Newton.

T
hat was t
he interesting dichotomy about science
;
many of the greatest breakthroughs mankind made while attempting to understand their place in the universe often came as a result of collaborations. In a “publish or perish” world, sharing research with colleagues was discouraged, and for good reason. It could sink your chances at being first. Many labs, both private and government
-
controlled
,
had become
incredibly
suspicious of visitors to their lab; some even had stricter security protocols than Fort Knox. NASA’s JPL was no exception.

Alex worried
at the thought of Scott’s “plan
”
;
he didn’t like being out of control. But this was Scott’s home turf
,
and he knew the protocols. Besides, it was too late
to back out.

The Suburban rolled to a stop next to Carl’s shack
.
Scott rolled the window back down.

“
Heeey,” Scott tilted his head forward to look at the security man’s badge, “Carl
!
H
ey
, man, how are you?”

The Hispanic man raised his heavy lidded eyes with disinterest at the two men before him.

“
Professor Ermy, you are aware that visitors to this complex are not allowed past the hours of…”

Scott waved him off as Alex mouthed, “Professor Ermy?” and winked quickly at him.

“
Right, yeah I know, but the thing is,” Scott paused as he struggled to improvise
.
Alex shook his head
.
This might be rough
.
“This is Dr. Hfurfur, from CERN in Switzerland, and he needs to get into my lab to observe a critical set of conditions that are developing right now.”

Over the years, Alex had been trained to avoid displaying and expressing emotion in high
-
tension situations. At this moment, it took every ounce of that to restrain the impulse to throttle his friend for referencing a Steven Martin movie at a time like this. An old
,
childish game between the two
;
between the two of them growing up, they had watched well over 500,000 hours of television, most of it
Star Trek
, animated cartoons,
The Simpsons
,
and movies by Adam Sandler and Jim Carrey.

Their parents (never all that hip to pop culture) struggled to understand the boys as they talked about girls and
school parties
in parable forms in front of their parents. Scott’s greatest pleasure was derived from making those random references in front of clueless strangers, and it was Alex’s job to play along, having to correctly guess Scott’s reference. It became a game, a secret that the two of them could share at any given moment. Listening to his friend snow the security guard now using their childhood game, his heart glowed,
knowing
that
even in the most serious of circumstances
,
his friend was trying to make him laugh.

“Fantastic,” the uninterested security guard replied
.
“Where’s his pass, and for that matter, where’s YOUR pass
,
sir?”

Scott’s face fell.
T
he charm was not working.

“
Carl, it’s me, Scott
.
Y
ou
know, Scotty bo botty, banana fanna…” Scott trailed off as he noticed he wasn’t making a dent in the man’s resolve.

The security guard tilted his head back towards the monitors as he began a well
-
practiced speech cultivated to defend from insistent professors demanding lab use during inappropriate hours over the years.

The rules were written for a reason
,
and Carl figured it wasn’t up to him to violate them. If Professor Ermy wanted to get this man into the lab, he would have to make the appropriate calls and wake someone higher on the food chain for permission. Until then, Carl continued his speech, completely oblivious to Scott’s presence.

“
You have been well briefed on the protocols involved in such an exception request. I can’t
,
under any circumstances, allow anyone into this complex without prior authorization from either a Board Member or a Vice Chairman in charge of…”

Scott interrupted, “Right, yes, I know the rules
,
Carl, but this is a time
-
critical experiment and lives could be lost if we don’t get to it right away.”

“
Professor, if it were critical, I would have received a call,” Carl replied, completely unconvinced.
He turned back to his magazine
in an attempt to indicate the discussion was over.

Scott turned helplessly and shrugged at Alex. Thinking for a moment, Alex smiled and began to speak flawless German to Scott. Carl’s brow furrowed.

“
What’d he say?” Carl asked suspiciously his eyes narrowing.

Scott’s eyes moved back and forth in his eye sockets as he wildly tried to come up with something. “Ahh, I’m having a little trouble with the translation, because you know,” he said pointedly to Alex, “I haven’t taken German since HIGH SCHOOL.”

Alex rolled his eyes and started again. This time, Scott caught more than a few words, as he haltingly translated for Carl.

“
He’s saying
,
umm…” Scott struggled, “that the atmospheric conditions are more perfect now than any other time in history for a snapshot of the troposphere and its reaction to
g
lobal
c
limate
c
hange
so far
…
”
Scott said slowly, but
picking
up speed as he waited for Alex to make his point. “The problem is
,
the longer we wait, the harder it will be for us to track this data.”

Alex continued on in German
,
ending with a large waving of his arms, making a “WHOOSH!” sound
,
which Scott faithfully nodded along to.

“
It’s a reaction to the recent eruption in Southern Sri Lanka. You might have heard about it.”

“
Sri Lanka?” Carl asked, bemused at the strange, fast talking German in front of him.

“
Yes, tragic situation really,” Scott said sadly, his eyes pointing towards Heaven, mourning the lost souls. “It was a village of two thousand, right on the edge of a
c
aldera that’s been just waiting to erupt for millions of years.” Scott i
mitated Alex’s movements poorly.
“Whoosh, gone, just like that.”