Quantum Times (14 page)

     As often was the case, Gabriela was on the same wavelength as her mentor Jennifer, “That would bring into the discussion quantum entanglement and other strange particle behavior.”

     “Yes, it would. And we know that entangled particles can instantly affect each other regardless of the distance separating the two particles. The limitation of the speed of light does not apply to them.” Jennifer Davies assented.

     “Very interesting. I think we all should get to work,” Responded Dr. Smolin.

     That evening Gabriela returned home eager to share her day’s events with David. She had held her own with some of the best minds in the world of physics. David would downplay it; not to belittle it but because he believed of course she could do it! She still hadn’t heard from him but felt sure he’d call if he wasn’t home already. But when she arrived home he wasn’t there and she could see he had not been there earlier. She realized she hadn’t heard from him in two days – the last time they had talked was the evening before his morning meeting in The White House. It had been bothering her all day that she couldn’t reach either David or Dr. Wheeling but now it really hit her. Where was David?

     She needed someone to talk to but now realized how much she depended on David to be that person. She didn’t really do the girlfriend thing. Most of the people she worked with were men and the few women friends she had had no clue about the work she did – and frankly that never bothered her much. Her relationship with David filled that void. At the end of the day they would usually go out to one of several restaurants they frequented and they’d talk. David understood what she did and she loved hearing about the research he would do as he wrote about some new scientific development.

     They talked about getting married but so far David hadn’t showed up with a ring and she didn’t bring it up. They both said they couldn’t imagine taking time out for children but that wasn’t as true for her now as it had been. They were happy together, and had enough friends who weren’t happy in their relationships, that they told each other that they didn’t want to change anything.

     She loved that David was so even tempered but could get all excited about some new scientific development. At heart he was a jack of all trades kind of guy – no one thing could hold his attention for long. And he was so smart that he could learn the basics of anything regardless of complexity and then be able to communicate the core ideas so that anyone could understand them. That was his real gift.

     Now she really wanted to talk to him and she didn’t know where he was. And the hours were just creeping by. She tried to catch up on her emails but couldn’t stay focused on them. She realized she should eat something though she wasn’t hungry. She microwaved a Boston Market dinner which she ate while watching an old movie on television and then went to bed and slept badly.

     By late afternoon the next day she still hadn’t heard from David. Now she knew she had to do something; but what do you do when your boyfriend goes off to meet with the President of the United States and then you don’t hear from him again? She tried Dr. Wheeling’s number again and just got voicemail again. She realized that whatever had happened to David had probably also happened to Dr. Wheeling. And she also realized that filing a missing person’s report or checking for unidentified males at local hospitals wouldn’t be much use.

     Then she thought about reaching out to David’s uncle, General Mark Randall. She knew David had been in contact with him. It took her some time but finally she found the general’s contact information. But before she tried to call, her phone beeped with a text message.

     The text read, “Don’t worry about David we’ll take care of it” and it was signed Planck.

     Gabriela’s relief was immediate – David was all right! And so apparently was Planck! Then her curiosity hit her.  Where was Planck? And how did he know David was OK? And who was the ‘we’ he referred to?

Chapter Six

“The universe does not exist ‘out there’, independent of us. We are inescapably involved in bringing about that which is happening. We are not observers. We are participators. In some strange sense, this is a participatory universe….Today we demand of physics some understanding of existence itself.”

John Wheeler, Princeton Professor of Physics and one of the most highly regarded physicists of the 20
th
Century

     Hank Scarpetti walked in to see his boss, “Mr. President we have a problem.”

     The President looked up from his desk in the Oval Office. “What’s happened?”

     “The Object just told us to return Dr. Wheeling and David Randall to Planck’s island in The Bahamas unharmed and immediately.”

     Annoyance plain on his face, the President shook his head, “Is it another worldwide blast?”

     Scarpetti could see the President’s stubborn streak setting in. “It appears not. But the message is on my smartphone and on my laptop. Why don’t you check yours – almost no one has access to that.”

     The President opened a drawer and pulled out his phone. For security reasons he rarely used it. He turned it on and looked at it. The message was there too. He nodded to his Chief of Staff. “How would it know we have Wheeling and Randall? No one was supposed to know!”

     “I don’t know sir.”

     “This doesn’t make any sense to me. Why would it care? And why does it think it can just order us around?”

     Scarpetti refrained from saying the obvious. “I think The Object could have put the message out worldwide which would have been much worse for us politically. I think it’s trying to work with us on this.”

     “What the hell is The Object anyway? How in hell does it even know who Wheeling and Randall are – and I repeat, why does it care? …..So you think we have to do it?” The President pulled on his right earlobe, a gesture Scarpetti had seen many times when the President seemed confused about an action to take. “Can’t we just hide them away somewhere and claim to know nothing about them?”

     “Mr. President this isn’t some newspaper with a story. Or some accusation by a Senate subcommittee. Those we can ignore. We can tell them whatever we wish. We don’t know what the consequences could be here. At a minimum The Object could communicate it worldwide – that would not be good for us.”

     “So I have to do it? …I’m tired of the goddamned Object just orbiting around over my head, over my country, and then sending out cryptic text messages worldwide. Why won’t it communicate with me? First it cares about this damn Benjamin Planck. Then it cares about a damn physics professor and a newspaper writer! But the President of the United States it doesn’t care to talk to. What sense does that make?”

     “Maybe it makes sense where they come from.”

     “And where is that?”

     “I don’t know sir.”

     “Admit it. You don’t know shit!”

     Scarpetti remained silent.

     The President continued tugging on his earlobe. “We’ve got to find a way to talk to these aliens. Things always go better once people start talking. Hank, do whatever it takes, but we have to meet with The Object.”

     Scarpetti nodded, “I understand, sir. But right now we have to do something about Randall and Wheeling.”

     “All right. Take them back to the island. We have a Seal team there now, didn’t you tell me that?”

     “Yes sir, we do.”

     “Well when you drop Wheeling and Randall off, let’s leave the Seal team there. Let’s see what happens. Maybe there’s a reason that The Object wants them there.”

     When they came to get David he was relieved to see that Dr. Wheeling was with them too. When the meeting with the President was over, General Greene had them taken back to The Pentagon for more discussion but instead they had been ushered somewhere down in the bowels of that massive building and David had been put in a room that resembled a hotel room complete with the little toiletry bottles in the bath and a white cotton robe in the closet. Except there were no windows and the walls were concrete. Not until they closed the door behind them did David realize he had just been imprisoned.

     In the room was a TV with Basic Cable but no phone and they had taken his mobile.  Food was brought into him and a change of clothes complete with socks and underwear – somehow they knew he wore boxers. Two days went by with no visitors and his guards not saying anything. Where he was could not be permanent and he feared what might come next. He thought they probably hadn’t figured out the next step.

    What really irritated him and he kept coming back to it was that he had known that it was possible that the government would try to restrain Dr. Wheeling and himself from speaking out. Yet he had done almost nothing to protect himself from it. Sure he had half-jokingly told the Washington Post Editor to look for him if he didn’t get back to him in a couple of days – but what good was that really? This was the President of the United States behind this, not just some local politician! And in truth, what they were dealing with could easily be viewed as national security. Until now, David had never truly considered how broad a net could be thrown under the guise of ‘national security’. Somehow he, a writer who covered new developments in science and technology, could be deemed a threat to the national security of the United States.

     He had never taken seriously Gabriela’s dark distrust of government; he considered it just a residue of her family’s bad experiences in post WWII Eastern Europe.  She thought he was naïve. Government everywhere and throughout history was the same. It was a beast that always hungered to get bigger and stronger. Whether it considered itself benign or recognized itself as tyrannical, it wanted the same things. ’Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely’. David had known that quote since he’d been in college and knew it to be true but never acted as if it meant anything.

     Over the slow moving hours David thought about The Object, about Plank’s physics, about the interaction of the two and about how best to go forward. It was all so fascinating to him. His instincts told him he was at the center of the biggest story in the world. And he felt he understood it better than anyone. This was his chance to finally do something. He had to stay with it and not get distracted. If he could just keep from screwing up, this could give him the opportunity to show everyone that he had real ability. He could prove to Gabriela that he was worth it. This time he’d give it everything he had, no quitting on it! Now he just had to get out of the dungeons of the Pentagon!

     When they came in the morning to take him and Dr. Wheeling elsewhere, the guards gave no hint of what was coming next. Looking at Dr. Wheeling it was clear he did not know either. They exchanged weak smiles and followed their captors. As they passed down a long hallway and through a guarded doorway they were stopped at a desk where they were given a form to look over. David read that it was an agreement that they would not divulge publicly that they had been held for two days against their will. It had them agreeing that the national interest was at stake. The professor who was reading an identical document nodded. David and Dr. Wheeling signed it without saying anything. What would have been the point; they just wanted to be released.

     Then they were led into a passageway with a few more people in it including an officer who approached them with a smile. His manner was so casual it was as if he had run into them in the lobby of a hotel. “Dr. Wheeling, Mr. Randall, I’m here to return you to Pirate’s Cay, which I believe is where we first picked you up from. Once there we will leave you on your own.”

     David looked at Dr. Wheeling who seemed to share David’s puzzlement. David said, “Pirate’s Cay? Why don’t you just drop us off in downtown D.C.? We’ll be fine there.”

     The young officer shook his head. “My orders are to take you to Pirate’s Cay. Travel arrangements have been made. You needn’t be alarmed.”

     When David and Dr. Wheeling boarded the executive jet that was to take them to the island they were surprised to find General Greene already on board. The general rose out of his seat to greet them. The general was not in uniform. He had on a sport coat and slacks but somehow looked just as much a three star general. His expression was formal, that of a man determined to do what he knew to be an unpleasant duty. Before they could say anything, Greene said, “I want to apologize for the treatment you have received the last couple of days. All I can say is that these are extraordinary times.”

     “On whose behalf are you apologizing?” asked Dr. Wheeling. The prize winning physicist’s tone was arch and severe. David had never seen him so quietly fierce. David shared his anger at their incarceration but knew he couldn’t match Wheeling’s proud disdain.

     General Greene looked back at them with sorrow but without wilting under Dr. Wheeling’s glare, “Perhaps only for me. One of the reasons I’m here is because I deeply regret what happened to you.”

     “Someone above you ordered it,” David said.

     “I’ve said all I will say.”

     Dr. Wheeling then responded, “You said one of the reasons. What are the other reasons?”

     “You don’t know why you were released, do you?” When neither responded, the general added, “Apparently you have a new friend. A very high up friend.”

     “Who is higher up than the President – because I presume it was he who ordered us to be held in custody.” Dr. Wheeling replied.

     The General’s eyes held a tint of humor when he responded, “Well high up in the sense of ‘high in the sky.’ It was The Object. Frankly The Object seemed to know about you two. It said we should release you and take you back to Pirate’s Cay.”

     “The Object did that?” David asked.

     “So I was told. That’s one of the other reasons I’m on this plane. I want to see why The Object wanted you there.”

     While on the flight down to the small Bahamian island, Dr. Wheeling and David confirmed that each was all right and had in fact experienced the same treatment. David tried to get General Greene to explain the government’s perspective on The Object and what exactly were the national security concerns that had required the imprisoning of David and the professor. The general’s answers were non-committal. Most of the flight was passed with little conversation; each man busy with his own thoughts.

     When they exited the airplane on Pirate’s Cay one of Zen Master Ozawa’s monks picked them up in a Jeep Cherokee and took them to the lobby of the main Retreat building. Though they had no clue how it came to pass yet, they then understood why they were back at Pirate’s Cay. There coming forward to greet them with a big smile was Ben Planck.

     “Planck! How in hell are you here?” David exclaimed with a wide smile on his own face. Planck shook the professor’s and David’s hand and then turned to Greene and said, “General, I’m glad you’ve come. We know you at least are a friend.”

     General Greene shook the proffered hand with a look on his face that was only rarely there, a look of very real puzzlement. “You are the missing Dr. Planck, I presume?”

     Planck just smiled and then turned and waved forward a very tall man with long blond hair and a short cropped beard. His facial features all seemed perfectly proportioned and his skin was clear and without lines or blemishes, yet he did not look young. His eyes could have been a hundred years old.

     “I’d like to introduce to you guys the man who rescued me from the Russians that took me off the island and who just a few minutes ago returned me here to my island.”

     The tall blond man stepped forward. “No need for introductions. My name would translate in English as Plato –the name of one of your most famous philosophers, is it not? And as to you gentlemen, I already know who you are. Dr. Wheeling I am honored to meet you. General Greene, I respect your leadership. And David, I believe your skill and talents are going to be very useful to us all in the coming battle.”

     General Greene recovered from this surprising turn of events fastest. “Mr. Plato…”

     The tall blond man held up his hand, “Just Plato.”

     The general continued, “Plato it is. Well sir, you know who we are, but we don’t know you. How is it you came to rescue Planck?”

     Plato smiled, “Let me answer the first question – then I think you will have many more questions than those concerning my new friend Planck.”

     Dr. Wheeling, the general and David regarded Plato with an equal sense of expectation. Plato’s physical presence was so dominating and his manner was so supremely self-assured that if he had opened the buttons of his shirt to reveal a Superman insignia on his chest, none would have doubted he came from the Planet Krypton. His answer was yet more surprising.

     Actually it was Planck, unable to suppress his excitement, who answered for Plato. “Plato is the leader of an expedition to Earth. He’s the one who is in charge of what we call The Object!”