The Traveler Read online

  Virginia greeted Niles and Jack as they escorted a grumbling Jenks to the quay lining the expansive dry dock area.

  “Okay, we’re here. I see Slim and a bunch of idiots standing in the fog. I’ve got simulations I need to run. In case you haven’t noticed I still don’t have any damn power. And thus far in simulations we have killed everyone on the team sixteen times before they even step through the gate. Those damn lasers will cut people to shreds if this thing doesn’t work to everyone’s expectations. Remember, Slim, these are Argon light-emitting lasers, the most dangerous light outside of the sun.”

  Niles smiled and then shook his head as if he were listening to a complaining school child. Engineers, he thought.

  “Harold, will you shut up while we take care of that power problem you keep going on about?” Virginia said as she stepped closer to the river side of the dock and looked as if she was waiting for something. She raised a radio to her lips and the elegant woman half turned and saw Jenks looking on curiously. She smiled. “Harold, what were you before you became our worst nightmare and an engineer?” She spoke softly into the radio to someone, and then turned and faced the three men on the dock. She saw Henri join the group with a questioning look on his face. Jack nodded toward the confrontation between Jenks and Virginia—a confrontation Dr. Pollock was about to conclude rather dramatically.

  “You know damn good and well what I was,” Jenks said as he chewed on the cigar and stared down the smiling nuclear scientist.

  “Oh, yes, that’s right, something about a career navy man, wasn’t it?”

  A sour look from the master chief answered for him.

  “Then I hasten to question, sir, why in the hell did I have to think of this for your power solution?”

  “What solution?” Jenks asked, spitting the cigar out and walking forward to join Virginia. Niles, Jack, and Henri followed. Will Mendenhall hung back grinning, knowing the master chief had finally met his match, of which said information would be spread throughout the Group in a matter of minutes.

  Virginia touched his whiskered cheek and then took hold of his chin and forcefully turned his head toward the fog-enshrouded East River and the entrance to the navy yard.

  “This is why the president is now murderously curious and worried beyond measure that our little mission is spreading out rather wide. The Department of the Navy is going to start throwing a fit when they find out what it is we have stolen,” Niles said as he leaned on his crutch. “A lot of strings were pulled. I only hope it’s not enough string to hang us all.”

  Suddenly Jenks saw the waves of rolling fog pushed aside as a hulking black form slowly emerged from the white undulating veil. Jenks heard commands being given as the giant sail and conning tower eased slowly out of the river proper. The giant moved as gracefully as she ever had. The maneuver was dangerous in the darkness and fog without a large naval docking team. However, Virginia, who had been employed by the General Dynamics Electric Boat Division in the early eighties, knew the skipper well and knew him to be the best retired boat captain in the U.S. Navy.

  “I’ll be damned and go to hell,” Jenks said as he slapped Virginia on her backside, making her jump and yelp.

  “You people never cease to amaze the unenlightened,” Farbeaux said as he showed his shock at what was slowly approaching like a monster from deep-sea lore. He looked at a worn and tired Niles Compton. “Kudos, Mr. Director, I’m sure you made one or two enemies with this little party favor.”

  “Colonel, you have no idea.”

  Out of the fog came the black silhouette of one of the most famous vessels in the history of the U.S. Navy. Jenks smiled at the white numbers on her enormous sail tower. Her rounded bow moved the dark water out of her path with ease and efficiency. This was the class of boat that had scared the old Soviet Union to disastrous decision making in the seventies and eighties, and this was the lead boat in that particular class. Jenks smiled as the USS Los Angeles, the matron of her submarine class, eased into the softly moving waters of the docking area as the men on shore grabbed lines tossed to them by the civilian crew of the fast attack submarine. The numbers on her towering sail claimed that SSN-688 had arrived at her temporary berthing station.

  “The old girl looks good, don’t she?” Jenks said, and then slapped Virginia on her ass once more as he paced forward to watch the old lady tie up. He was joined by the others.

  Gone were the massive sail planes that once shaded her deck from the enormous conning tower. The finlike diving planes had been replaced to make the boat more streamlined, but other than that the 688 lead boat had not changed in outward appearance since her deactivation in 2010, until she was finally decommissioned on February 4, 2011.

  “Why is she out of her retirement barn?” Jenks asked.

  “She was turned back over to General Dynamics for use as a test platform.” Virginia turned and faced Jenks. “As a naval engineer I thought you would have been in the know.” She smiled and then turned to watch the crew tie up the 362 feet of rolled steel. “But I guess some things slip by the old master chief, huh?”

  Niles looked down to keep Jenks from knowing that Virginia had set him up from the beginning. His doubting her engineering prowess was starting to get on his assistant director’s nerves.

  “Okay, give,” Jenks said as he looked from the men who seemed to be in on this little joke to Virginia.

  “That, Master Chief, is your portable power source.” She turned to walk away but stopped and faced Jenks once more. “Since her retirement she has been fitted with a new General Electric S6G reactor, capable of generating 242 kilowatts of power in an experimental power source scenario for disaster relief. She is now back in the hands of the men and women who had built her and is privately owned, and no one from the city power grid”—she looked at Niles—“or the president’s other curious agencies will ever be the wiser. At least until General Dynamics reports her missing and overdue.”

  “Son of a bitch,” Jenks mumbled as electrical cable started to be strung from building 114 to the submarine’s engineering spaces. Others of Jenks’s staff had been ordered to start spreading camouflage netting over the giant boat. He was too taken aback to face Virginia.

  Each man turned from the boat and then Niles walked past the master chief first. “Yes, sir, that is one brilliant lady.”

  Then Jack walked by. “I knew I liked Virginia from the start.”

  It was Henri’s turn. “What she sees in you, my salty old friend, I know not.”

  Will just stopped and looked at Jenks, who stood waiting.

  “Now you see what us everyday mortals face around here.” He laughed and then walked away.

  Jenks lit another cigar as he saw Charlie Ellenshaw walk up and stare at the large submarine and the crew scrambling over her blackened deck like ants. He smiled.

  “Great idea, Master Chief.”

  “Is that what you think, Nerdly?” he grumbled at a shocked Charlie and then turned and left. No one saw the gratified smile on his face as he thought about the woman he called “Slim.”

  * * *

  The meeting started without Virginia Pollock, Anya Korvesky, or Sarah McIntire. While the master chief explained that Virginia was with Madam Mendelsohn working on the new power grid, the whereabouts of Sarah and Anya were yet unexplained. Will Mendenhall had reported that even though the two had not answered their cell phones, Europa narrowed down their geopositioning markers as somewhere between Brooklyn and Upstate New York heading south. Will could see by the looks on the faces of Niles and Collins that the two men were not amused in the least that two members of the planning staff were not present for the final Antarctica brief before powering up the doorway.

  “Okay, I was expecting the geology report from Lieutenant McIntire, but it seems that she and our new head of foreign intelligence decided to head north of here for some unknown reason,” Compton said as he looked at Alice, knowing she knew something about the disappearance but was being mum on the subject.
<
br />   Charlie Ellenssaw spoke up from his spot at the far end of the table. “I have been in contact with the geology department at Sarah’s request and have combined the zoology report and the geological reports. If I may?”

  Everyone saw the scar rise above the eye patch covering the damaged right eye of Compton. He took a deep breath and then nodded at Ellenshaw.

  “I will start with what we know zoologically. For that it would be best to hand it over to Dr. Morales and Europa.”

  “Doctor?” Niles said, looking over at the large monitor where Xavier Morales sat waiting to divulge everything they had come up with. The technical genius had finally moved permanently from the clean room and privacy and into the far more expansive computer center to be with his tech people. He could see the young Morales was starting to feel at home.

  “Yes. With direction from the natural history museums in Denver, Oslo, Denmark, and several more in the United Kingdom, we can honestly say with any certainty that we know absolutely nothing about the animal life at that time on that particular continent. It’s hard to survey prehistoric remains when most are situated under two miles of solid ice. We can assume that at the time of the separation of the supercontinent eighty million years ago, that a mass abundance of animal life went with Antarctica when she decided to head south. From the time frame we can almost guarantee”—he almost looked sad upon delivering the news—“that if Mr. Everett survived the wormhole transit he would be faced with unknown and terrifying animal life of that time.”

  “Humanoid factors?” asked Dr. Dwayne Anderson of the anthropology department.

  “Unknown. Europa has not come across any evidence on the current fossil record from the region. Again, two miles of ice is a deterrent to discovery. Europa has made an ‘educated guess’ as to the migratory pattern of early man and the odds are that Mr. Everett will more than likely run into humanoid life. What kind? We can’t say.”

  “You have Europa making guesses?” Jack asked as he tried to keep his worrying mind from thinking about what Sarah was up to.

  “Her educated guesses are like those of Mr. Spock, she’s usually never wrong.”

  “Doctor, go ahead and give them the good geological news,” Ellenshaw said as he pushed his own written reports aside.

  Everyone in the room watched Charlie for a brief moment. He had been acting strange since the loss of Pete Golding. It was as if the good humor had gone from the man and he was no longer the easygoing and friendly crazy Charles Hindershot Ellenshaw III.

  “The use of the words ‘good geological news’ was obviously an attempt by Professor Ellenshaw to lessen the dangers to anyone on that continent at that particular time,” Morales said as he sat in his old-fashioned wheelchair in Nevada.

  “I appreciate the attempt to soften anything you have to report, but we are precariously short of time, gentlemen,” Compton said as he rubbed the bridge of his nose.

  “Yes, of course. It seems Mr. Everett may have far more trouble than originally thought, if that’s possible,” Morales said. “Europa, report number 45454, please.”

  On the second largest of the newly installed monitors a map showed the current status of Antarctica. Europa then focused more specifically on the southern region of the frozen continent.

  “Ross Island, its current state. Home of Mount Erebus, an active volcano.”

  “Yes, it’s been active continuously throughout recorded history,” Niles said.

  “Yes, it has, but very active since 1972. The problem here is”—he looked away momentarily—“Europa, next slide please.” The picture changed to show Ross Island without the ice covering. All eyes saw immediately that Mount Erebus had been joined by three other volcanoes.

  “Four volcanoes in the same area?” Mendenhall asked from his chair next to Jason Ryan.

  “Yes, and through deep ice core drilling and back-scanner ice intrusions we are more than sure these four volcanoes were extremely active during the time frame we may be looking at. So much so that three of the volcanoes, Mounts Terror, Bird, and Terra Nova, vented so heavily they became extinct. Mount Erebus is the only one to survive and live on.”

  “What are you saying, Doctor?” Niles asked, becoming increasingly angry at his head of the geology department for not reporting this herself. Yes, he was angry with Sarah just as much as Collins.

  “Europa estimates that all four volcanoes were in eruption in the same time frame as Mr. Everett’s disappearance.”

  “How does this affect the survival possibilities for a man?” Jack asked.

  “Not very good,” Morales said, and they could all see he was a patient and knowing teacher who answered in a way that the simplest mind could understand. The Event Group would have to be patient with the new man. “Europa does not agree with the proposed speculation of other noted geologists. She believes this eruption of four volcanoes simultaneously brought on a massive ice age the world over. The world as we know was mostly a barren landscape of ice and snow. What Mount Erebus did was deliver the coup de gras to not only the more exposed northern land masses, but effectively killed the entire continent of Antarctica. This killer eruption was the death sentence for the continent and its overabundance of animal life, which conservative estimates place at ten thousand times the amount of life in Africa at its height.”

  “Jesus,” Jenks said, whistling.

  “The air will become poisonous and the world will turn freezing if it hadn’t already by the time of Admiral Everett’s arrival there. We just don’t have enough information to go on.”

  “So, if Carl survived the exit through the wormhole, and also the reentry of the escape pod, his chances of surviving the animal life and the eruption of these four monstrous volcanoes are not very good.”

  Morales nodded sadly into the television monitor at Compton. “Europa estimates the odds of survival at”—Morales changed tack when he saw the expectant and knowing faces around the table—“well, you said it yourself, Director Compton: not very good.”

  The room was quiet enough that most could hear Alice Hamilton as she tapped her notes on her electronic pad.

  “Colonel,” Niles said, trying to get the room back to some form of activity to keep them from thinking about the possible horrible fate of their friend, “how are you and Colonel Farbeaux coming with your team?”

  “They’re assembling now,” he said with his eyes carefully avoiding Jason and Will, who exchanged concerned looks. Was the colonel really considering leaving the two men behind on this one?

  “Master Chief, are the components ready for the portable doorway?” Compton asked, knowing Collins had some explaining to do to his security department over the choices for the doorway mission team.

  “Two complete sets. I have to admit that Slim’s, er, uh, I mean, Dr. Pollock … her division has been pretty damned impressive as far as reverse-engineering that damn time machine. Of course, it was my newly acquired engineering staff that pieced the portable doorway together in record time. But that is not my concern.” The master chief pulled the unlit cigar from his mouth and looked at the director. “I’ll say this, though, if anything happens to our only portable power unit, we’ve all had it. We’d end up dining with the cavemen if that power generator is lost”—he looked over at the monitor and Dr. Morales—“and I guess choking on volcano farts also.”

  “Well-worded, Master Chief,” Morales said with a smile.

  “That cannot be helped. The only other portable power generator is owned by the Russians and I don’t think they have a current superpower loan department,” Compton said, losing patience with the same arguments from the master chief.

  Jenks was about to say something when he saw Collins lightly shake his head, telling Jenks that he had said enough for the time being.

  “Niles,” came the voice, and the image of Virginia appeared on the monitor next to Morales. “We’re as ready as we’ll ever be for the power-up and test. Europa has reworked the old programming and brought it into this century. We
are now completely digital. Power source is hooked up and the Los Angeles is capable of giving us one hundred and fifteen percent of her reactor power.”

  “Very good.”

  Niles stood with difficulty and then placed his hand on Jack’s shoulder and with a final look at Mendenhall and Ryan, nodded his good luck.

  “Let’s adjourn and see if we have a mission or not, shall we?”

  As the group filed out to witness history, again, Jack waited on Will and Jason as he gathered his notes.

  “No,” was all he said when they approached him. He finally looked up and into the angry faces. “The team has been set and you two are sitting this one out.”

  “Look, we—”

  “Sitting it out,” Collins said with a stern look at Ryan.

  “No disrespect, Colonel, but we have a right to go,” Will said.

  Jack placed his case down and then fixed the men with the look that said, “The order has been given, and that’s that.”

  “If no disrespect is intended, why are you doing it? You have your orders, both of you. You will secure the building and the grounds. If that’s too much then I’ll assign Sergeant Rodriguez to the job and then send you two back to Nellis.”

  “Sir,” Mendenhall said when he saw Ryan was too angry to say anything.

  “Look, the odds are not that good for a return trip on this one. You two are not essential to the team and will therefore stay behind. We’ll only be risking personnel that we feel can be lost without it devastating the Group.”

  “And just who in the hell would that be?” Ryan asked not too politely.

  “Dismissed, gentlemen.”

  “Jack—” Ryan said, but stopped when Collins turned back to face them.

  “We’ve already lost too much. You two are far more than just men in my department, you’re my friends, and Carl would never allow that friendship to be placed in jeopardy to get him home. This is my job and yours, gentlemen, is to make sure everything you have learned from the both of us is carried on at Group. We’ve come too damn far to lose what we’ve learned over our years together. I’m sorry. And, Jason, you were right the other day, you did exactly as I would have done in Mexico.”