Chapter 26

“You are to take the message that’s attached to the email we just sent you. Hand it to the colonel. When you have done that, come back. I have further instructions for you.”

“Uh ... who am I speaking to?”

“I am General Stroganoff. Is enough. Follow your orders.”

“Yes, General. Be right back, sir.” The major printed the attachment, glanced at it, and had time to think Holy shit! as he carried it down the hall. The American phrase seemed particularly apt, considering what the attachment said. More than a simple email, this one had the supreme leadership’s emblem across the top of the page. Would the colonel follow the orders? He had to know what this meant, what was unstated but a virtual certainty. The colonel’s family would at least get a pension for the service he’d rendered as a junior officer, before he began to rise through the system. Before he’d turned into a bureaucrat and forgotten what operations were about. Reaching the colonel’s door, the major knocked once, then opened the door. The colonel stood with his back to him, just turning around. The glass of vodka spilled, his face darkened toward purple, the colonel opened his mouth to roar at this insignificant clerk who dared barge in...

“I have received a priority message, Colonel. You are to read it and follow the instructions. I am to respond, to say that I gave you the message. I have done so. Good day, Colonel.” There was just time enough to see the colonel’s face turn white. The instructions were clear. He was to report to New York and catch the first flight home for ‘debriefing’. The major didn’t envy him; such debriefings were sometimes fatal, and always bad news for the debriefee.

Back in his office, he picked up the phone. “Sir ... still there?”

“Of course I am! I’ve been waiting for you to respond!”

“Yes, General. Sir, I printed out the message and placed it in the colonel’s hand myself. He was reading it as I left.”

“Very good, Colonel. That’s the good news. There is better news, you are in charge of the office for now. The promotion is permanent, the assignment is not. You will be joined soon by General Oleff. He will take over. If he cannot be released from his current assignment, I’ll take the job myself.”

“Sir, is there a problem?”

“Perhaps. We shall see; it appears that the Americans have something we urgently need.”

“Sir, we don’t know what they have. They think it’s important, but there’s no way we can be sure. We’ve made one attempt, but the Americans destroyed their device. We ... that is, the colonel ... decided to monitor the situation. We may try again.”

“We have information you lack, Colonel. It appears the Americans may have a working antigravity device.”

“General, my agent saw no evidence...”

“Speaking of that, how much does he know?” General Stroganoff asked.

“Not much,” the new colonel replied. “I gave the instructions myself, only that we wanted to capture their barge and tow it up the lake. He didn’t know what we were looking for, just that we wanted the barge.”

“Are you certain he knows nothing?”

“I don’t see how he could know more than what we’ve told him, General. Unless the colonel, my predecessor I mean, told him.”

“Do not use the man again. If further action is necessary, we will handle it from here. Your task is to gather as much information as possible. There is a list of names attached to the message, see what you can find out about them. General Oleff will take charge when he arrives, but at the moment he’s unable to turn his own project over to his replacement. It may take time, but I expect you to have the information he will need when he arrives. I suppose if you should somehow stumble over this antigravity device, we want it. Not that I expect this to happen.”

“General, my agent said nothing about the barge floating. He said his men reported that it moved under its own power, but if they had antigravity, wouldn’t the barge have been floating in the air?”

“Not necessarily, although your thinking is commendable. Suppose this device is not yet perfected, that it’s not powerful enough to float the barge, but only make it lighter?”

“I ... see, General. Yes, that could explain what our agent reported.”

“Follow your orders, Colonel. There have been too many failures already!”

“One question, General. You mentioned other evidence?”

“Yes. I suppose it can’t do any harm; I’ll send you the relevant satellite photos via the secure link. Are you able to interpret such photos?”

“I believe so, sir. If the photos are clear.”

“They’re clear enough. It appears that the Americans have refitted one of their shuttles with the device. They also have two other flying craft, smaller, that accompany the large craft when they fly it. They only fly at night, so the photos are unclear, but you can clearly make out the shuttle and the other two. They have no wings and fly slowly, so the only possible explanation is antigravity. We must have this, the chairman himself has commanded it, so you will assist General Oleff to see that it is done. One additional task; you will go to the airport to ensure your predecessor makes his flight. Do not allow him to remain in America; he must return home for the debriefing. Do you understand?”

“Yes, General. I’ll see that it’s done.”

“You will do it yourself, Colonel!” the general snapped. “Report to me when you have carried out your orders.”

“Yes, General. I will not fail.”

“See that you don’t, Colonel.” The dial tone indicted that the general had hung up.

Chuck said nothing, content to watch the new arrivals as they sorted themselves out after entering. He was at the meeting to provide technical expertise if needed and the lawyer was there to keep Frenchy from being impulsive. That said, the meeting was Frenchy’s.

“Come in, Gentlemen. My name is Fuqua; I’m the chief executive officer of the New Frontiers Corporation. You’ve already spoken to Mister Sneyd; the other gentleman is our lead corporate attorney, Mister Hazzard.”

“Thank you, Mister Fuqua. I’m Brigadier General Fuller, US Air Force, and I’m chief of the delegation. Colonel Ponder, US Army, is my deputy. We’re currently detached from our various services and assigned to DARPA. Colonel Warren represents the Air Force, Major Hooke is a Marine, Colonel Tindall is Army, and Rear Admiral Sessions represents the Navy and Coast Guard.”

“You’ve got us outnumbered, General,” chuckled Frenchy. All were in civilian clothing, so there was no way to tell if any were pilots; they might have been staff weenies. The marine looked familiar, although Chuck couldn’t recall ever serving with him. Maybe he’d shown up in Fallujah at some point. Things were confused most of the time, and painful at the end.

“We have various interests, Mister Fuqua, and considering how promising the device appears the services wanted to see how useful it would be.”

“I understand, General. I wonder why Morty never mentioned contacting you?”

“I can’t answer that, Mister Fuqua. At the time, his letter was too vague for us to take seriously. If he’d had a working model, that would have been different. We see any number of proposals, frequently several during the course of a month. Most of them range from impossible to impractical. So Mister Sneyd’s letter was scanned and a file started, but that was as far as our interest went. Keeping records is routine, because you never know what might turn out to be useful. But that was then, and now things have changed.”