Young Again
Copyright© 2018 by Edward Douglass Patterson
Chapter 9: What the Government Wants
The Defense Department officials and officers entered to find more people than they expected at the meeting. Lt. Commander Stanley was the one who drew the most attention. Mark spoke before they could comment.
“I requested Lt. Commander Stanley attend the preliminary meeting today. He attended a meeting we held yesterday. His attendance was helpful then, so I thought his attendance may again be helpful.”
“Preliminary meeting?” Albert Simpson, the Secretary of Defense, asked.
“Yes, we have a number of things we want to present and discuss before we get into the requests you want to make. Let me make introductions first, then we can begin. I am Mark Sawyer, chairman of MSI, and vice chairman of Sawyer Holding. This is my granddaughter, Ashley Sawyer, chairman of Sawyer Holding, vice chairman of MSI. Next, we have Sarah Pierce, she is a board member of both MSI and Sawyer Holding. The last person on our side of the table is Leonard Smith, CEO of MSI, he is also a board member of both MSI and Sawyer Holding. Behind us is Ruth Lessner, she is our legal counsel. She is also Ashley’s aunt. Next is Cynthia Wong. Cindy is an advisor and instructor of Ashley and Sarah. Next is James Pierce, Vice President of Quality for MSI and Sarah’s father. Last is Doctor May Flower.”
“Heading up your group is Albert Simpson, Secretary of Defense. Rita O’Neil is Secretary of the Navy. Admiral Lawrence Kyser is Chief of Naval Operations. The last person at the table is Captain Sheila McRae of Naval Intelligence. Sitting behind you is Charlotte Helms, senior advisor to the Secretary of Defense. Next is Brent Conway, Security Advisor to the Secretary of the Navy. Lt. Commander Barnaby Stanley is the Naval doctor who led the medical examinations I underwent in Hawaii. The last member is Lieutenant Commander Nathan Whitner of SEAL Team 5.”
Captain McRae was surprised at the revelation at the end of the presentation, not that they knew about it but that Admiral Kyser had tried to get a SEAL past them.
“Captain McRae, this is a list of the computer security problems we have found in the Department of Defense computer networks in the past few days. We have forwarded this list and recommendation to the website to which we sent the previous information. Let us know if you wish us to continue to inform you of the problems we find.” Sarah passed the list over.
“Captain McRae, you are having them invade the Department of Defense computer network.” Al Simpson acted surprised.
“Mr. Secretary, you acknowledged the value of having outside resources testing the security of the DOD computer network in a memo on Thursday. You requested funding be transferred for that and you requested it as a black line item for the coming years. We would like to be considered for such a contract.” Ashley said without a smile, but there was a twinkle in her eyes.
Al shook his head. “They said you were good. Aren’t you afraid of not being able to find out what we are doing?”
“No, we want to build a trust so we can work closely together in a number of areas. We have a number of goals which aren’t in conflict with the Department of Defense or other divisions of the government. Some mesh with ones you already have. Others may be ones on which you will want to cooperate with us. Our preliminary presentation will go over these.” Ashley told him.
“Sarah and Ashley, I see I have underestimated you. Captain McRae was very explicit in her reports and emphasized it again when we talked earlier that you could both mine data and interpret the data and make use of it. I look forward to your presentation.”
“Mr. Secretary, what we present here is more than the work of the two of us.” Ashley nodded at her grandfather. “One of the abilities which helped grandpa Mark build MSI was the ability to find the right people to do the job. The two of us are learning this from him, while he is learning how to more fully utilize the internet. His presentation will credit those individuals.”
Al Simpson nodded to Mark to proceed.
“First, mine and Ashley’s interests in MSI are being transferred to Sawyer Holdings. We plan to take MSI public. Ashley will be the majority shareholder when all the inheritance paperwork is cleared up. There will be four other companies under Sawyer Holdings. We haven’t named all of them yet, so I will just describe them. The first will be a consulting company. Sarah and Ashley have done work for MSI, the Navy, the FBI, the Honolulu Police Department, and the Coast Guard so far. You came today to request that they do additional work. Since they are just entering high school, we thought we needed a way to regulate what work they took on. They, Sarah’s parents, and I agree on this. We will be looking for someone to head up this company. We plan to add other consultants.”
“The second company will coordinate the work looking into the cause and reason for my growing younger. Sarah will be CEO of Young Again, Inc. We expect it will be a number of years until this work gets fully underway. Sarah will take over full-time when she completes medical school.”
“Why do you think it will take that long?” Rita O’Neil, the Secretary of the Navy, asked.
“We will carefully screen all those expressing interest in conducting this research. We will choose from those who we find qualified for those who are willing to work in a cooperative arrangement with us and all the other researchers. We feel this will give us the best long-term success while ensuring the results will be available to everyone.”
“How will you enforce this?” Al Simpson understood how competitive medical research was.
“Through tight contracts which we are ready to vigorously enforce and by the fact that there is only one test subject, me.” Mark’s intensity was shown in his voice and expression, but he only took a second before continuing to the next company.
“The next company will be headed by Ashley since she has very strong reasons to see the mission of that company succeed. It’s also the company whose mission matches closely to what you came here to ask the girls to do. This company will look into why no major country knew what the North Koreans were planning and look into what is needed to ensure the world never has a surprise attack like that again.”
“Yes, that matches closely what we were planning to talk to you about, but we have a more immediate view.” Al Simpson wondered about the wording Mark had used. He had defined the company’s objective very broadly. “It sounds like there is more you want to discuss with us.”
“Yes. We will also need to find someone to run the last company and we expect finding the right person will be extremely hard. I will head this company until we find that person.” Mark paused and looked at the four people sitting on the other side of the table. “To better allow you to understand the next company, we have three objects and a presentation by Doctor Flower. This is the first object.”
Mark presented the ancient objects as he had at the meeting the previous day.
“The necklace and the knife could have been faked but unless you have come up with a very revolutionary new material, this green sphere is definitely not something you can produce.” Al Simpson was impressed.
“My ring did not scratch it.” Rita O’Neil handed the green sphere to Admiral Kyser.
“The person who discovered it identified them as ball bearings. We are working with her to recover the housing she found them in.” Mark added.
“That would definitely give us more information. Where is the location?” Al Simpson seemed very interested.
“Hawaii. I think you will be more interested in Doctor Flower’s presentation. May, if you would.”
Doctor May Flowers went to a podium next to a projection screen. “Barnaby, would you dim the lights?” She selected the first slide. “These three plants have been found to have multiple medical properties which exceed those of widely used medicines, both prescription and over-the-counter. The odd thing about them is that different portions of the plants are used for different treatments. Two or three different compounds in a plant are not uncommon, such as plants which have poisonous portions as well as edible portions. The plants have four to seven different medically useful compounds, which have been identified. Some of these compounds in the same plant are even more unlikely than poisonous and edible portions. For these plants to develop like this throws most evolutionary theories out the window. Yesterday, Sarah asked if there had been any studies of these plants to show predecessor species or gene shift over time. I was only able to find one study which identified two plants from different regions, which each produces one compound which is similar to the ones these plants produce, and they aren’t as effective. One plant comes from Ireland. The other comes from Yemen. The only way I know to have two compounds which are nearly identical to the widely separated plants could be produced by one plant is gene manipulation. The problem is this plant has been used in Southern Asia for over a thousand years.”
“That sounds like it is even more definite proof than the ball bearing. Having four, no, it is actually six things, which require an ancient, advanced civilization makes me believe there was such a civilization. How does that relate to what we came here to discuss today?” Al wanted to return the discussion to what he had come here to discuss.
“Yesterday, Sarah asked me, ‘How likely is it that a mutated biological warfare agent would cause something so beneficial?’ She was referring to Mark’s fountain of youth. I told her it was very unlikely. She then suggested the cause might not have been the mutated biological warfare agent but something reacting to the biological attack. Could those who did the gene manipulation on these three plants have also done gene manipulation on a plant which reacts to a biological attack by enhancing or making changes in a person?”
Their guests thought this over. Captain McRae was the one to ask the question. “Why modify a plant to respond to a biological attack?”
“Because you anticipated one. Wouldn’t the possibility of such hostile action be a reason we have seen so little indication of such an advanced civilization?” Mark only did a short pause before going on to his next point. “The next question is, was this conflict between two Earth groups or was one or both of them from somewhere else?”
“You want us to believe in little green men?” Brent Conway laughed.
Al Simpson turned around and looked at Charlotte Helms, his aide. She shrugged her shoulders.
The interplay was not lost on Mark or the two girls.
“Our plan is to seek out other indications of advanced civilizations. We expect some of these may already have been discovered. With more information, we will seek to determine if what caused the end of this previous advanced civilization poses a threat to us.” Mark looked at Al.
“Yes, the government has been studying such things. I’ll have to get back to you, but my recommendation will be that you should be brought in on this work. You have learned much in a short time and have arrived at new conclusions which appear valid given what you know. To have you continuing on this search outside of our program could leak this to the public. Would you consider holding off on doing any more work on this until we can get back to you?”
“We will continue to seek out the site from which the ball bearings were recovered and collect the housing and anything else which is visible at the location. We will continue to do research into the objects we have. I believe having Doctor Flowers continue to look for information on these plants also will not cause a problem. She has a reputation for such endeavors. Similarly, for Ashley and Sarah looking into information on the internet. What I think we need to do is ensure we won’t have any leaks from our end to the public. The fact that the government is interested in this type of enquiry shouldn’t go beyond those in this room. I see no benefit to this information going public. Should we expect some word back within the next month?”
Al laughed. “I see you realize how difficult making this decision will be. I don’t expect a resolution in that time, but you will have some word back from us. Your plans for your continued operations make sense since a hard stop would send the message we shut you down because there is really something we aren’t ready to tell the public.”
“Good. After we have lunch, we should come back and talk about what you came here to ask Ashley and Sarah. I think we would only require them and myself on our side. If the rest of you would wait until that meeting is done, we should have more we need to discuss.”
“Rita, Larry, Charlotte, and I.” Al looked over at Captain McRae. “I agree everyone else should be available to discuss what we have heard here. I think we need more insight into these topics. It might be useful if you were to discuss things among yourselves while we have the next meeting. Mark, do you have a room they could use?”
“Len, could you see to that?”
At lunch, there were a number of discussions on what Mark Sawyer was planning, but Nat hadn’t joined in any of the conversations. He was able to tune in on any of the conversations by concentrating, but they were mainly rehashing what had been covered. He was mainly concentrating on the young woman who had been identified as an advisor and instructor for the two girls. He decided to go over and talk to her. When he sat down next to her, she looked up and smiled.
“May I ask you a couple of questions?” He didn’t want to seem like he was hitting on her. She was very pretty, but she was at least ten years younger than he was.
“Yes, if I can ask some also.” Cindy continued to eat.
“In what are you instructing Ashley and Sarah?”
“Martial arts.”
“Why did they feel they needed you at this meeting?”
“You mean ‘why did the government feel they needed a SEAL?’”
“I have some knowledge of what happened to Mark Sawyer.”
“Yes, your team helped in the search. Did you learn anything there which might be important, or were you just brought in for muscle?”
“They must have known that wasn’t why I was here, or they would have countered it.”
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