Sparks of Chaos (8 page)

Chase looked at the documents that had his picture with someone else’s name and asked, “What’s this?”

“Mr. King has used his security connections to obtain these credentials and they are legitimate. There is a cover story that goes with it that you will be expected to memorize before you arrive,” Armstrong answered.  The last items in the box were a ring, plastic wristband and a rectangular metal box with a lid. “The box is a stasis container that you will use to transport the Professor’s body back to us. The wristband will be used to reduce him in size to fit in there and the box will analyze his condition and keep him medically stable until he arrives.” Placing the wristband on Chase he showed the precise sequence of letters to push to trigger the size change. “It is also programmed to incapacitate him, so you are to place him immediately into the box and close the lid.”

“What is a stasis container?”

“The word stasis means to hold something in its present condition and that is what it will do to anything placed inside it,” Armstrong explained.

“It goes without saying that you are not to use this for any other purpose and though it looks likes plastic it cannot be removed from your wrist until you return. That is true for the box as well and you must not do anything that draws the attention of the authorities for any reason. It is of the utmost importance that you keep a very low profile and blend in as they will investigate after the Professor’s disappearance. Also you are not to leave the city for any reason at all until the mission is completed, do you understand?” Tedford said sternly but kindly.

“Yes,” and then it just struck him, “you can track where I am can’t you?” Chase said.

“We will know precisely where you are at all times. You are also forbidden to make any contact whatsoever with any friends or family while you are there. We will be able to monitor the phone and email traffic from there, so do not attempt it,” Armstrong told him a bit less kindly.

“How am I supposed to blend in when I don’t speak or understand German?” Chase asked.

“Oh you can not only understand it but can speak as well as a native with barely a trace of an accent. We have also given you a basic knowledge of chemistry as well; it should be enough to cover any eventuality should it arise to match with your cover story as a traveling American college student taking a year off from your studies wishing to meet the acclaimed Professor Hauptmann. The knowledge has already been transferred to your brain. Everything you need to know about the assignment is here in this data sheet,” Tedford said handing him a clear glassy looking rectangle of plastic.

“How am I to use this?” Chase asked with a befuddled look on his face.

 Demonstrating, Tedford tapped it three times and two small red and blue dots appeared. Tapping the red dot, a written manual appeared with an index and pictures detailing the assignment. The blue dot is for use as a three dimensional display. Simply point it toward any wall or table and it will show the maps and videos you require it is quite easy to use and self-explanatory.  You must spend some time reviewing the information before you leave tomorrow at noon.  A little preparation work will save you a lot of headaches when you are there.”

“One more question, what is the ring for?”

Placing the ring on Chase’s finger, Armstrong told him, “This is important, it’s how you are going to get to Germany. Study your briefing and don’t play with the ring until we see you in the morning.” He motioned for Tedford to follow him and they left without another word, leaving Chase with a surprised look on his face.

Chapter 16

Once they were back in their simply furnished quarters, Armstrong said “I think that went very well.”

“Do you really think he is going to be ready for this mission tomorrow?” Tedford asked.

“No, of course he won’t but I never expected him to be. I am not certain that even a professionally trained intelligence operative could be expected to do this. Right now he is not only the best option we have but the only option,” Armstrong answered.

“What are we going to do if he fails?”

“As far as we are concerned it doesn’t matter whether he succeeds or fails in this mission. It is much more important that the mission go ahead and be attempted for everything to finally be put into action.”

Tedford mused “Rex will certainly care if it succeeds. How are we exactly going to explain a deviation to his plans? You know how much he hates both surprises and disappointment.”

“First, you are confusing Rex’s goals with ours; he was always going to be disappointed, it just depended when that happened in the process. It has always been my opinion that it is better for it to occur sooner rather than later when it is too difficult or too late to change,” Armstrong exclaimed.

“I know we have to do it but it still seems wrong, it feels disloyal.
Do you still think he wouldn’t believe us if we simply told him his plans will fail and why Chase is really here?”

“Rex is a proud and often stubborn man. We discussed this and decided long ago on our course of action; do not backslide on your commitment now,” Armstrong said waving his finger at him. “Now is not the time to waver in our resolve. Secondly, we must have our contingency plan in place. We must be prepared to intervene if the boy faces any danger. We must have him return here, he is now integral to our revised plans.”

“Is that likely? Only a small percentage of the hundreds of most likely outcome scenarios show any possible danger of capture,” Tedford asked.

“We may need to adjust our parameters; the boy could end up being much more volatile and unpredictable than even we expected him to be. We should be prepared for any conceivable situation. One of the real dangers he may face is from Rex himself if it goes spectacularly wrong.”

“I have already put those contingency plans into place. Do you believe we will need them?” Tedford asked.

“A conflict between the two of them is probably inevitable. They are polar opposites in personalities and they are both strong willed. Managing the conflict is going to be the key to all of our survival and quite possibly the survival of the entire civilization,” Armstrong explained.

“Be honest, isn’t that overstating things?”

Walking to Tedford, he looked directly into his eyes and said, “No, it is not an exaggeration at all. Rex is a determined genius with a strong hint of megalomania and something to prove. There may be nothing worse than letting him achieve all of his dreams. Someone must be able to challenge him and tell him when he is wrong. We are not built to stand up directly to Rex, we were created to assist and serve him. With Chase, fate has delivered the perfect foil for Rex.”

“An average teenage boy is the perfect challenger for Rex, one of humanity’s greatest minds? That makes no sense!” Tedford stated.

“Chase may seem average at first but I’m sure he is going to be anything but average. Another scientist would be seen as a direct challenge and Rex would always have the upper hand. He could easily destroy another scientist here on his own turf or he would convert them for his own ends, which is his current grand plan. Chase will confuse and befuddle him; he won’t understand him and find it difficult to vanquish him. That spark of conflict is the key to everything. Our goal is to harness that spark to a positive purpose, if we do our job well that spark will ignite a fire of creativity and growth that could transform the world. However if we do nothing or fail that spark could destroy Surga and the world.”

“Then we must succeed,” Tedford replied.

Chapter 17

Chase had been on the island for only two days now and yet here he was still doing homework. He had studied his briefing as they had asked him to and he guessed he was ready for the adventure to begin. The technology was awesome, he would have loved to have had one of these back at home. It looked like a plain piece of clear plastic and it was extremely light, and he had no idea how it could work. He liked the way it could display on anything a wall, table or just on itself. They would make billions if they sold it on the outside world. He wished there was some tunes or entertainment on this thing though. They said he could have anything he wanted once he got back so he wasn’t too worried about it.

Truth be told, he was a little bit nervous about going to kidnap this old professor. It seemed a bit dangerous, they had told him not to worry that they would make sure he got back here no matter what but he wasn’t completely convinced. There was nothing to stop him from going to the authorities and telling them everything but he was quite sure that was a bad idea for him. Even if he could convince them, they would keep him locked up to study and experiment on. Anything to squeeze as much information out of him as they could. It was also quite possible that with all of his government connections Mr. King would thwart that plan as well. He seriously doubted that they would ever let an eternally young immortal just walk out of there to return to his life.

Just what kind of a normal life could he ever expect to have out there anyways? You could never have any real friends or relationships when they aged normally and moved on through the stages of their life while you would be forever frozen in a teenage appearance. He could imagine that any friends he would have would eventually resent his continual youth and good health as they aged and their bodies failed. It would be difficult if not impossible to fit in anywhere, no one treated teenagers with respect and he would soon enough be an adult trapped in a young body. Adults would resent him or treat him as a child and teenagers would eventually bore him. Forget about ever having a long term girlfriend. How long would you ever have before the apparent gap in their ages drove them apart? Immortality certainly had its downside if you had to continually watch your friends and anyone you cared about wither and die.

No, he really had no option but to go through with the plan and then come back to the island. He wasn’t completely convinced they didn’t have some kind of failsafe mechanism built into him to keep him from going rogue and either blabbing their secrets or escaping. They certainly had the technology to do it and it’s what he would do and he imagined it would be a permanent solution. The idea of getting to play spy with all the gadgets was appealing to him and he was already craving the excitement of it. As he had found with all of the events of the past week in his life, sometimes an exciting life was just too exciting.

That was okay, he was intrigued by the potential for his new life on the island. He hadn’t had a chance to experience any of it yet but since he had all the time in the world, he might as well give it a chance and see how it all turned out. All in all it didn’t seem too bad; he wasn’t sure what to think about the old guys and whether he could trust them. What about this mysterious Mr. King they kept talking about who built this entire world and all this exciting technology.

He needed to focus now on the task at hand. They would be arriving here soon to take him to begin his journey to Germany. He had studied and hopefully absorbed all the information in his mission briefing they had supplied. It seemed to be a fairly well thought out plan but fell short on details in some areas. The program had even helped quiz him on his back story, German language skills and chemistry knowledge in preparation. It was mind blowing that he could actually understand and speak the language without ever studying it. Without even thinking about it he just knew it naturally.

One of his main concerns was if Professor Hauptmann would agree to leave with him or if he would have to kidnap him. The briefing gave him a scenario to explain to a very elderly and probably ill scientist with no family that he could regain his youth and have another chance at a productive life. He had to believe that the professor would almost certainly agree to his proposal.

The most surprising thing of the whole mission was how he was going to get there. The ring that they had given him was a stylish golden piece of jewelry with a rectangular green cut gem. He had wondered exactly how it was going to get him to Heidelberg. Like the wristband, once the ring was placed on his hand it was impossible to remove. No matter how he tried or twisted it wouldn’t come off. That was probably to keep them from ever falling into the wrong hands.

Chase had wondered if it was some sort of magic ring that you rubbed and poof it just took you there, like clicking the heels of the ruby slippers in the Wizard of Oz movie. Of course, that wasn’t how it worked. How it really worked was much more technical and loaded with lots of science. He secretly would have wanted it to work by magic. He didn’t understand science. He wasn’t stupid but math and science were hard, he had tried, it just did not come easily to him. He loved all the things that technology provided but he no idea how it all worked.

Luckily his briefing hadn’t focused too much on how it all worked, just a brief description. He was also lucky there weren’t any tests for him to take on all the information he had to absorb. It was astonishing that he had some knowledge about chemistry now, no studying and no work at all, he just knew it. He still didn’t truly comprehend it, he just knew it and that wasn’t the same thing. This would have been a great thing to have had at school. No studying, no work, just instantly having all the knowledge at your fingertips. It should be enough to get through his assignment but he was glad he would never have to earn a living with it.

Looking again at the ring on his finger, he was still a little surprised that it didn’t have anything to do with how he was going to get there; it was merely a storage place. How he actually would get there, was by a hypersonic rocket jet. It was some kind of sleek looking; really fast plane that could fly at over ten thousand miles per hour. He would be able to fly from the Pacific to Germany in about an hour or so.

Due to the fact that this plane would be extremely small it could fly undetected by radar or other surveillance systems. It would also enable him to fly in and land undetected because of its tiny size. Since it was flying at Mach 15 or 20, whatever that meant, it would break the sound barrier and cause a sonic boom. Again the small size would mitigate any danger of detection the sound would cause.