Chapter 38: More Marines and a Sister

Len Davis, CEO of MSI, escorted the three Marine officers into the main MSI conference room. They hadn’t toured the faculty but came directly from the security office where they had gotten security passes.

Colonel Thomas immediately focused on the teenage girl and another woman who were discussing a piece of electronic equipment with Marine Lt. Colonel Mosi Begay. He strode directly over to them. “Begay, why are you here? I thought this was to be a meeting about why my people were working for the Navy.”

“Colonel Thomas, we found it convenient to use your request to get you here. Cat was just told there was new communications equipment that her Battalion was to evaluate. I’m Ashley Sawyer, and this is Dr. Teresa Schultz, MSI Director of Advanced Manufacturing Engineering. She is responsible for the development of most of the new equipment that you will see today. Teresa, the other officer you don’t know is Lt. Colonel John Atkinson. He commands the 3^rd Battalion and is Captain Brenner’s commander.” Ashley turned towards the table. “In case you don’t recognize him out of uniform, General Ryan McCausey is here from Washington to get firsthand knowledge of our operations here.”

Jonas Thomas had been surprised when the teenage girl who he had seen a number of times on the news the past few months took command of the conversation. He had thought of her as some teenager forced into the media spotlight after inheriting a lot of money. Between the unexpected incursion into his meeting of Begay and now this girl’s actions, he had started to get angry. The mention that the Marine Commandant was there in civilian clothes caused him to whip his head towards the table. What is going on here? He listened quietly as the others were introduced.

When Ashley took the seat at the head of the table with General McCausey next to her on the military side and the other teenager, Sarah, on the other side, he realized that he was completely confused about the purpose of this meeting.

“Let me start the meeting by answering Colonel Thomas’s question of why Captain Brenner’s company had been assigned to a multi-service group under Captain McRae and why he and the 5^th Marine Regiment will be supporting Captain McRae’s people.” She paused. “We know who gave the orders that led to the North Korean attack. We don’t know the reason that was given to the North Koreans to get them to commit an attack that would end up destroying their nation and killing so many people. We do know that the attack was successful in accomplishing most of what this person intended. Four of the five people who were the primary targets were killed. The fifth survived because the attacks on California were almost completely stopped.”

“The attack was aimed at killing five people. Millions died. The President wasn’t even on the West Coast.” Colonel Thomas looked at General McCausey to see what his reaction was to this ridiculous statement, but he saw no sign of disagreement by McCausey.

“The President wasn’t a target. Five women were. I will get into who they were later. First, I need to give you some proof that history isn’t as you were taught. We have two sites with high technology in advance of our present-day technology that we are investigating. The one in Hawaii is the crash remains of an alien spaceship. The second is a bunker built by humans to defend themselves from attack by the aliens. Both sites are thirteen thousand years old. The age was determined by archaeologists before we had verification from another source. We are having trouble investigating the bunker because it has an active EMP weapon that shot down an A-10. Since then it has disabled any electrical device that gets near. That has included an Army helicopter, a chainsaw, phones, computers, and other items. We expect to gain entrance to the bunker this weekend.”

“Are you saying an alien ordered the North Korean attack?”

“No, there have been no signs of the aliens since shortly after their attack on the bunker. We don’t know why they disappeared, but man might not have survived further attacks. The aliens are something that we have to consider after we take care of the current problem. What happened is the leader of the humans died in the bunker, and the remaining humans that were defending Earth against the aliens grew apart over time and started fighting among themselves. The North Korean attack was aimed at killing off the surviving members of one group of defenders by the last defender on the other side.”

“Wait, you are saying that some of the people that were defending Earth from the aliens thirteen thousand years ago are still alive.” Cat Begay had immediately caught the implication of what Ashley was saying.

“That’s impossible!” Colonel Thomas again looked at General McCausey to see how he was reacting. McCausey knew this already.

“Yes, an ancient conflict between ancient humans who don’t age was behind the North Korean attack.” Ashley continued to explain while Sarah continued to watch the Marine officers interspaced with what she was doing with her computer.

After explaining everything except the ancients and the Young Again treatment, Ashley looked at Sarah.

“No indications.” Sarah told Ashley.

“General McCausey, would you explain why the event that led to General Smith’s appointment required us to test these three officers?” Ashley was looking at the officers as she spoke.

“General Kevin Whitman smuggled a non-metallic pistol into a meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff with the President. Prior actions by Whitman had led Admiral Kyser to suspect him. He was subdued. Under questioning, we confirmed that he and two others were working for the man that ordered the North Korean attacks. Similar three-cell spy rings were discovered in China and Russia. The Chinese Admiral that was part of that spy group was able to arrange the timing of the attack so that he was the only surviving Chinese Admiral. The PLA Ground Forces is again in control of the Chinese Navy. The number of officers that the President is confident of their loyalties is very small. The rumor attacks on General Smith convinced the President that he wasn’t a member of a spy ring. We know that there are probably very few spies, especially in the military, but the ones that exist are being drawn to the activities here.” Ryan looked directly at Colonel Thomas. “Your requesting more information about Captain Brenner’s company’s assignment made us wary of you. After I am done here, I will be visiting General Moore since you indicated that he was also interested in what was happening.”

“Sir, I___” General McCausey raised his hand and stopped Colonel Thomas’s words.

“Jonas, if we still suspected any of you, I wouldn’t have said anything, and this meeting would be very short. Sarah was monitoring you, John, and Cat. You all passed. And no, they wouldn’t tell me what they were using, so you won’t find out either.” He looked over at Sarah and smiled.

“Let us take a break, and then I will get to the interesting portion of what we have to tell you.” Ashley stood up as one of the SEALs standing guard opened the door, and Maria wheeled in a cart with drinks and snacks. “This is Maria Cuervo, my assistant. We are keeping this meeting very secure. Only people with knowledge of what we are discussing are nearby. Restrooms are across the hall.”

“How come a bunch of teenagers are cleared for this information?” Colonel Thomas leaned towards General McCarthy and quietly asked.

“Because the government has learned most of what they know about this from the group here. Though we have senior military and FBI leading their own subgroups, much of what is being done overall is being directed by Ashley, Sarah, and Mark. The President is OK with it that way. I’m here to learn why as well as what is going on. My understanding is that they are very connected to what is going on, even if they didn’t know anything about it prior to the North Korean attack. The interesting thing is that we will now have more people like them on our side.”

Sarah touched Ashley’s arm, then nodded towards the laptop screen. When Ashley finished Josh Williams’ email, she asked. “What information did you find on them?”

“Orphaned in the crash that cost Josh the use of his legs. They don’t have the money for the operation needed to fix them. Both were homeschooled by their parents and have passed at an early age the tests needed to get them out of the public education system. Josh is nineteen. Katie is fifteen. Their parents had a number of advanced degrees, but they make May look almost normal in her views. My thought is for you to offer to fund the operation for Josh here in the US. Fly them both over for that and talk to them while they are here. We can have May go over and present the offer and talk to them about the theory. She’s not a physicist or mathematician, but she will be able to tell if they really have something of interest. Even if they don’t, it will be a good thing to do. I expect at the very least Stanford would offer them scholarships. They may be interested in a program like the one we have there.”

“OK, that sounds good. Sent a message to Secretary of State Santry asking for visas for them. Explain the medical situation and that I’m going to cover their costs. Don’t mention their theory.” Ashley turned and took the tray of juice and sandwiches from Maria. “You and your mother are determined to see that we eat right. Take a look at this email.” She set down the tray and moved out of the way so Maria could see the computer screen.

“Do you get many emails like this?”

“Some, but his short description is well thought out, and what he is asking for funding is no more than what he and his sister need to live on so they can continue to develop the theory, which is much less than what they need to start experimentation and for Josh’s medical needs. We want to send May with Jason in charge of protection to talk to them. We will see about getting them a visa to come here to have Josh operated on. He lost the use of his legs in the accident that killed their parents. Contact May and Jason and tell them that we want them to go to Australia to meet with them. Let Helen Page know so that she can handle the travel arrangements. They should fly into Brisbane. Tell Sandy to hire more people; we will probably need to send more people places, and the military will be too busy to provide security as they did for Jinghua, Kay, and Fred. Tell Helen and anyone else that the trip is to see about bringing Josh and Katie to the US for an operation on his legs. We will let May and Jason know the real reason at the airport.” She shook her head. “Sarah, I guess we should let them know that May and Jason are coming and that I will fund the operation for Josh.”