Protocol 1337 (6 page)

“Like I said before Sir, it's nothing that solid, just some anomalies in the email system. The first thing I looked for were email addresses that have been logged into within the last six months. Then, I filtered it even more and removed any email address that has never forwarded an email. I still got plenty of results, so I tweaked it a bit more. I removed all addresses that have fewer than 25 contacts. Only three addresses came up, two were fantasy football leagues, but the last one stuck out. I reviewed all messages sent from this address. The content of the messages is mostly random crap, but that wasn’t what held my attention. It was the frequency. Emails sent every 13 days, not once deviating, regardless of holidays or weekends. The kicker of it all is the emails weren’t always sent from the office, but from phone, and home PC.” I explain.

“Interesting.... What do you think is happening here? Hunches don’t count in this industry Haus, results do. It isn’t a game of he said, she said, either you got them red handed or you don’t. I can't unleash a fire storm unless it's signed and dated by the offender. So if you are asking me to go out on a limb, based upon a fantasy football league theory, you are seriously delusional.” Reese explains.

“It's more than just that Sir why would someone use three different computers to communicate with someone? Especially every 13 days? Unless you wanted your communication to seem normal from the outside but really there was a lot more going on? I am currently tracing each IP address. I suspect the sender is using some kind of encryption.” I say.

“Well, I hear your point, but you have to see things from my perspective. Unless you have a smoking gun, I can't put my reputation on the line for analytics. I wish I had more time today, but my 15 minutes are up, and we are about to be recorded. We will discuss this later. For now, exit the elevator and go back to your room. I have things to do.”

I exit the elevator and head back to my room. I walk past the central desk. Eve was not there, and I thought for a moment to head to the break room for some food, but I decide against it. I’m not really hungry anyways. Food doesn’t sound that appealing to me, the only thing I can think of is Eve. Her eyes are still haunting me as I walk down the hallway. Always followed by her image, I glance back hoping to see her, but find myself alone in an empty hallway.

My head slams into my pillow, and I throw my arms behind me. I try to relax, but it doesn’t really happen. My head is a cluster of emotions, and I try to sort them all out. Eventually I give up, and let the sweet embrace of sleep overwhelm me. I dream of Eve's face, her burgundy hair, the scent of cinnamon.

In the middle of the night, I feel soft hands run across my chest. I wearily arise from my slumber to see Eve's face in the dim light. She is straddling me slightly below my belly button and staring me directly in the eye. She leans forward and kisses me tenderly. I remove her white tank top and kiss her gently on the neck. My hand reaches for her face and falls across her cheek. I rest my index finger under her chin and draw her close to me for a passionate kiss.

It doesn’t take long before we are both fully naked. She thrusts her hips against mine and rests her hands against my chest. Slowly at first, ever increasing in tempo, our hearts beat in unison, faster with each thrust. Faster and faster, our breathing growing even more intense. I playfully pull her hair, and she bites my neck.

A few minutes later, she collapses onto me. Sweat trickles down her body as she rests her head on me. She gathers my chest hair into her fingers and twirls it around. Her right ear positioned directly above my heart. She sits upright in front of me. I can see her beautiful body in front of me. She removes her necklace and places it around my neck. It's a single leather chord with mother of pearl, shaped into a cross.

“I wanted to give you something to remember me by.” Eve says.

“To remember you by? How could I ever forget you?” I say.

“I know this seems sudden, but I wanted you to know.... I have felt connected with you. Something special, something that I have felt since I first met you. I want you to wear this always, and forever till the last breath you take. Do you promise me?” Eve says.

Eve sinks into my chest and falls asleep. I cuddle her for a few minutes until I fall asleep myself. When I awake a few hours later, I am alone in my bed. I roll back over and decide to sleep a little longer. I have the necklace she gave me and some memories that wont fade anytime soon.

CHAPTER FIVE

The Other Side

Life is full of advice and sometimes it comes from unlikely sources. One late summer day, years ago, David and I were at the local pool. We never went to the pool because we loved swimming. We went because of the girls, seeing them in their swimsuits was the closest thing 14 year old boys have to porn. Well, that was before the invention of the internet. The other reason was because the pool was right next door to the Wade's house.

The Wade family was wealthy, and old man Wade spared no expense for his 15 year younger wife. They had a private pool in their back yard, and Victoria Wade was always out back sun tanning. Needless to say, she had every male within 30 miles dyeing to get a chance to see her. On this particular day, she was tanning topless and forgot to cover up when she rolled over onto her back.

David and I were treated to the best show of our lives that day as we waited for the bus to pick us up. The groundskeeper saw the look on our faces and decided to investigate. He strolled up next to us and enjoyed the view. After a while, he spoke up and said,“The grass is always greener on the other side until I found out what fertilizer they are using. Then my grass becomes the greener.”

He was a migrant worker from Rio Verdes. His English was terrible, but no truer words were ever spoken. Like all good proverbs go, they are always spoken from the heart. Ironically enough, his name was Jesus.

I am shaken from my sleep by the sound of rapid explosions. Flashes of light fill my room and survival instincts take over. I flail myself to the floor and scramble for cover. I find my way under my bed and then flip it over to give me some sort of a shield. While I am hunkered down in my makeshift bunker, the fire alarm sounds and the room starts to blink with red flashing lights. Between the explosions, I hear an out of place sound.

The lights in my room come on and reveal director Reese laughing hysterically. The smell of black powder permeates the air, and smoke has filled the room. I see director Reese holds a cigarette lighter and an empty firecracker wrapper in his hands.

“Sweet Jesus boy! You shoulda' seen your damn face! You looked like a cat on a hot tin roof trying to cover up shit. That's priceless right there, I almost pissed my pants. Give me a minute, I gotta stop laughing...” Reese bends over in a laughing fit.

After I realize that this wasn’t the start of world war three, and that I was the center of a well-played prank, I calm down. At first I was angry, but after a few minutes I realize how funny it was.

“Well played sir...” I reply.

“Normally, Eve would be in my place, but unfortunately she is feeling under the weather. She told me she was up late last night and was projectile vomiting. Poor girl, getting sick is never pleasant. So I took the opportunity to do some rookie hazing, and from what I have seen, it worked flawlessly!” Reese says.

“Thanks for the heart attack sir, but if you would give me a few minutes to get ready, I can meet you at CCC.” I reply.

“SURE! I can give ya a bit to find your manhood, and change your underwear. I wish I could put that on the web, it would go viral in a heartbeat.” Reese says.

I walk into the CCC, Reese is standing next to my station. The room is still barren aside from the countless monitors and well-worn work stations. A few straggler coffee cups adorn the room. Reese motions to me to sit down.

“You know Haus, I am a man of my word, and I have yet to break a promise. That being said, I want to talk to you about a promise I made a very long time ago. Back in Nam, it was raining like hell, so we got a chance to sit around under some trees for a bit. My battle brother and I were talking about back home. Old Bennie told me to promise him that if he ever had any kids and something ever happened to him, I had to do whatever I could to take care of them. A week later, five of us got separated from the rest of the troops and god damn Charlie found us.”

Reese's lip begins to quiver, and he bites down on it hard. I can see the tears start to develop in his eyes. His confident aura breaks down, and I can clearly see he is struggling. Then he makes a loud sniffle.

“Give me a minute here, I haven’t told anyone this in my entire life. Not even those sons a bitches at the VA. I haven’t told anyone because it hurts too much, and I never really had a reason to. Maybe I am growing soft in my old age, or maybe it's my fear of dying, but hear me out on this one.”

“Sir, I understand the hell your generation went through in that war, and if you don’t want to talk about it, well, I understand, and respect your right to not speak of it.” I reply.

“When they caught us all, they wanted to know who our commander was. That dumb son of a bitch Schlitz piped up and said he was. They put a bullet in his head before he even finished his sentence. The rest of us got hauled off to the Hilton. When they took Bennie away to be tortured, he screamed at me... YOU PROMISED TOM! Those words haunt me every night of my life....”

Reese regains his composure a bit. He looks down silently at the floor and exhales deeply. I try to put myself in his shoes, but I can't even fathom an attempt. What would I know about sacrifice? I get butthurt if someone gets my food order wrong, let alone being held captive and tortured for days on end. Not to mention watching my friends being executed in front of me.

“Which brings me to Eve; a few of us survived, and after what seemed like decades, we're freed. Old Bennie did have a child and he named her Eve. I’ve been watching her grow up, silently in the background for years. I would have had an active role in her life, but that bitch Bennie married hated my guts. To make a long story short, I wasn’t welcome in his life anymore, and I resorted to using my government satellites to monitor the situation.”

“Eve has no idea how much her father loved her. He lived only for her from the day she was born. Sure he got wrapped up in work like most men, but at the end of the day, it was all about her. Then the accident happened and everything changed. I tried to intervene but the bitch shot me down. Eve got involved with some bad people, dealing drugs, and using them as well. That’s how she got that tattoo. Some junkie needed a fix and didn’t have any cash. So she traded the drugs for it as payment.”

“I don’t know when the moment of clarity hit her, but finally it did. She decided to clean her act up and enrolled in college. It worked out great for a bit, and she received some anonymous donor giving her money. Once she graduated, I saw an opportunity and I decided to take it. Evelyn was no longer on this planet, and Eve was securely under my wing. Call it mission successful, if you will, I prefer to call it operation promise fulfilled.”

“So whatever happened to Eve's mother? Is she still alive?” I ask.

“Oh she's still alive, she was pretty young when she gave birth. Aside from an accident, or strange disease, she is most likely still living. I don’t really care if she is alive or dead. Doesn’t matter anymore, I fulfilled my end of the deal.” Reese explains.

“Well, that explains a lot sir. I have an update for you about those emails. I traced the IP addresses back, and they belong to a medical research facility. It is funded by the government and staffed by the US Army. Also, what appeared to be gibberish I believe is actually a cypher of some kind. Cyphers have never been a strong point for me but I think the email account sending the cyphers is a smurf account.” I say.

“A private defense firm sending coded email messages to a US medical research facility? I would be willing to guess that this is gonna get a lot more complicated than a simple rogue contractor trying to score a quick buck. I suppose you already know the location of this facility.” Reese says.

I slide a small piece of paper over to director Reese. Scribbled in terrible handwriting are the words: Homestake Mine, LEAD, SOUTH DAKOTA . The look on Reese's face told me everything I needed to know. I had struck gold with my investigation. The mine had ceased production in 2001 citing poor gold prices, and high costs as the reason to discontinue production. Then two years later, they claimed it was costing too much to pump the water out as a reason to completely seal the mine even though it had yielded over 40 million ounces of gold.

Then in 2009, it was announced that the former mine would be reopened for research even though the spot price of gold had tripled. What had happened during those six years? What was so important to ignore almost record gold prices? What needed to be hermetically sealed in the deepest gold mine in North America? Not to mention, in 2007 the National Science Foundation designated it as a place to conduct research into dark matter, neutrinos, and biology. I had done my homework, and Reese was very unnerved by my findings.

“This is all very sensitive material you have gathered here. Haus, I need to know exactly what those emails entail. We are dealing with a very delicate subject here, and I can't tell you again how much we need to know. Your life, as well as mine, might be on the line on this one. I was expecting this to go down as a pin one guy and watch him fry kinda operation. This is not even remotely close to that, and the ramifications are astronomical to say the least. One thing is for sure, we had best get our shit on straight. I’m calling in Rednek to crack that cypher.” Reese seems very on edge and about to go crazy.