Storm Killer (5 page)

The doctor shuddered at the subtle hint of mayhem to occur on his person if he failed to deliver. “Report back to our mutual friends, that they should not worry. Our intervention has been in plan for over four years. I have the right people in the right positions to accomplish this!”

Carlos stood and bowed slightly from the waist. “As you say, doctor. I will take my leave and wish you and your team well.”

The doctor let the man out of the front door and quietly closed it behind him. He rubbed his hands together and chortled.
There’s nothing to stop us! Storm Killer will die soon after it’s born!

8

Adam pushed through the security door and entered the office area of CORDEX, the prime contractor of Storm Killer. CORDEX had become the prime contractor because the company had patented the special high magnification optical polymer film that was at the very heart of Storm Killer. He strode down the walkway between the two work areas to the one walled office in this part of the building. His stride was the half walking, half hopping gait of a professional low gravity specialist.

The name plaque on door to the office stated,

ADAM R. SANDS

PROJECT DIRECTOR
STORM KILLER

Someone had written under it in a flowing script,
“Subcontractor killer, too.” This was a touch at humor about the infamous story of how Adam would slice and dice subcontractors that failed to meet his standards.

Adam was raised in upstate New York on a farm that grew apples in a dozen different orchards around the county. The farm had a small stable of several workhorses that were used for furrowing to keep weeds down in the orchards. He loved horses almost as much as he loved his profession.

Adam was such a precocious child that he skipped two grades in his K-12 years, and had graduated from MIT at the age of twenty. He held academic degrees in electrical and mechanical engineering, physics, and business administration. He was a thoroughly professional individual with an extremely dry sense of humor. He had no time for a girlfriend and no wish for a wife. Part of his shyness with the opposite sex was attributed to skipping grades because of his academic accomplishments.

But sadly, his inter-personal relationships had not matured at the same rate as his older high school classmates. He was always several years their inferior in socialization skills development.

He was dedicated to his craft, which was leading technical projects through the toughest of conditions. Adam had successfully led over a dozen top-secret technical projects at Area 51, during his ten-year military career in the Air Force.

CORDEX had personnel involved with almost all of those projects and its executive management had been greatly impressed with Adam’s organizational and problem-solving skills. They prodded and cajoled Adam about accepting a position with CORDEX for several years before Adam finally relented. They finally convinced him to come on board when they disclosed the eyes-only plans to build Storm Killer and they needed Adam to build it. As soon as Adam announced his plan to leave the Air Force, CORDEX officials signed him to a long-term, no cut contract worth millions over the life of the contract.

He was known as a tough project leader. He could forgive human error, but not incompetence. He told all of the subcontractors’ team leaders and department heads that he expected no one to bring him a problem without at least two options for resolving the problem.

The scuttlebutt around the core was that one young woman heading the water and sewer treatment systems construction forgot about that rule and brought him a problem. After stating the problem, the woman sat staring at Adam. Adam waited for a full minute staring at her and simply said, “And?”

The woman replied, “What do you think we should do about it?”

Adam reached in top desk drawer, pulled out what looked like a schedule and opened it. He scanned it for a moment and flatly stated, “13:30 hours tomorrow.” He closed the document and slowly replaced it in his drawer.

The woman looked confused and asked, “What was that? What do you mean 13:30 tomorrow?” Her confused look actually made Adam feel sorry for her.

Adam sighed and replied, “The shuttle to Earth leaves tomorrow at 13:30 hours. Be on it and don’t come back. I will contact your employer tonight and notify them that your services are no longer required nor wanted.”

That story was told to all personnel arriving in the core area. Once they actually met the man of the story and looked into his piercing eyes, they fully believed the story.

Greg Ballard entered his office and drawled, “Things are going very well. Too well, I think. Murphy and his law must’ve taken this month off.” Greg was Adam’s number-two man. He deflected a lot of tedious minutia from Adam and Adam knew it. He was trustworthy to the bone and was an excellent decision-maker.

Adam had known him most of his adult life. He had worked for Adam at Area 51. When Adam moved to CORDEX to take took over the Storm Killer project he managed to convince Greg to join him. Once Adam understood the nature of Storm Killer he desperately wanted Greg’s participation because of his formal education background.

Greg Ballard was another of those southern gentlemen of which Storm Killer seemed to have in abundance. His slow southern drawl was a counterpoint to Adam’s terse talking style. He had obtained several degrees before he was twenty-two. His last degree, a Masters in Engineering in Polymer and Fiber Science, came from Clemson. He was a member of Storm Killer’s Clemson Alumni group. They met regularly and watched the various closed-circuit sports events together to root for their alma mater.

Adam began reviewing the daily status report with him.

Greg reported that all the project’s defined tasks were completed and the station was ready for operational status. The final tweaking of Storm Killer’s optical and magnification panels was complete, as Adam had witnessed, and the station was now functioning at specified parameters. They noted the time at two hundred hours, ten minutes GMT and logged the completion entry on the project file. They electronically dated and signed the completion certificate, and emailed it to Earth Mission Control and to Brad Bolino, the new Storm Killer Director.

Adam breathed an internal sigh of relief. Now that his part of the project was wrapping up, he could think about spending some quality vacation time with his beloved Arabian horses.

9

Brad Bolino was a born and bred southern gentleman that would have been as comfortable in an antebellum southern mansion as he was in a twenty-first century technological wonder. He was an auburn-haired man of stocky build.

Adam pulled his cell phone from his Velcro belt hook. The term ‘cell phone’ was almost a misnomer these days. These communications units, now called Personal Communication Devices, were actually phone, workstation, video camera, and many other devices rolled into a single pocket size unit. While the communications industry called them PCDs, the user community still held on to the archaic term of ‘cell phone’. These ‘cell phones’ were NASA-issued units that were slightly larger than the commercial devices. These had to have a large enough keypad so NASA personnel could manipulate the device to write emails and mission notes, or check engineering drawings and specs while dressed in the clumsy EVA suits with large gloves.

Adam contacted Brad on his cell phone and announced to him that effective at four hundred hours GMT, Brad would assume his role and take over the administration and operation of the station. Brad, as pre-arranged with CORDEX, accepted the transfer of power and requested that Adam and Greg act as his number two and number three staff members for the next forty-five days.

Ballard and Sands verbally accepted the new transition positions and emailed the voice files of their acceptances and congratulations to Brad. While they performed the last administrative duties in the log, Sands chatted with Bolino about current status of the station and systems. Ballard reported that Earth-side weather had reported that Hurricane Edna had risen to a category three storm and was approaching Puerto Rico. Landfall was expected in the next forty-eight hours. 

This storm met all the criteria established by NASA and Washington. The criteria called for a storm that was ninety percent certain to only hit the United States. Other criteria were that the storm would be no more than a category three, and its projected path would take it over a specific section of the Atlantic Ocean where no inhabited islands existed.

Mexico, Costa Rico, and Guatemala had jointly filed strong objections with the United Nations and Washington to “any man made influences on any tropical storm that could potentially impact the sovereign territory of our countries.” These countries were concerned that Storm Killer would fail and cause even more destructive storms that could devastate their coasts. They were calling for a complete ban on full testing against any storms until such time as the scientific community had undisputable empirical evidence as to the possible effectiveness of the Storm Killer technology.

The three countries were involved in intense maneuvering at the United Nations in an attempt to force an emergency session of the Security Council. They were pleading for a resolution, pressuring the United States to cease the operations of Storm Killer until an international scientific committee could render an opinion on Storm Killer’s intended use.

Washington was attempting to stop the Security Council meeting but there seemed to be a ground swell of protesting nations. Therefore, Washington had established criteria that only storms tracking toward the east coast of the United States with more than a ninety percent probability of hitting it would be initial candidates for Storm Killer tests.

If pushed into a Security Council meeting, the U.S. ambassador could show the members the criteria and hopefully quash any vote from being taken. The entire team on Storm Killer had been made aware of this when Washington had decided on this particular course of action.

Adam grinned and glancing at his watch replied, “That’s okay. If what the eggheads say will happen happens, in a little less than sixteen hours we kill Edna. Or, we could destroy Florida, and become the poster child for Central America’s concerns.”

10

The man was sitting at his workstation in his quarters reading the email announcing the completion of the station. A thin smile pulled at the corners of his mouth as he finished reading.

He unhooked the phone from his belt and pressed a speed dial. He unconsciously reached for a pencil and began doodling on a piece of paper as he waited for his call to go through. The NASA mobile phone system worked everywhere. It even worked twenty-four thousand miles above the Earth’s surface.

It was just another technological wonder taken for granted by its users. Of course, these users were now housed in the world’s latest technological marvel.

The call connected with a subtle click being heard by the caller.

A voice said, “Yes?”

“Doctor, the thing is done. Adam Sand will be turning it over, in operational status, to the named long-term management team in a few minutes,” the man reported.

“Alright, my boy, please initiate our disruption plan at once,” the voice ordered.

“Yes, sir. I’ll have our mutual friend get his operative to start the crisis immediately.”

“Good. I’m sure our employers will be glad to hear things have gone awry,” the voice said, chuckling out loud.

“You’ll hear from me soon on how we’re doing at messin’ things up. I have to go to the turnover meeting now,” said the man as he stopped doodling on the paper in front of him. He keyed the phone off and replaced it in his belt as he stood up from the workstation.

He turned to the door and began walking to the management turnover meeting as the Adam Sand email had indicated. He hummed to himself and smiled as he walked briskly to the command center complex.
Nobody has a clue what’s about to happen. I do believe we’ve pulled it off!

Storm Killer’s northern hub airlock was empty and inactive. The last extra-station work crew had re-entered the station at the southern hub airlock twenty minutes earlier. No one was around the northern hub at this hour.

The two indicator lamps above the keypad glowed yellow showing the airlock cycling was in idle status and both the inner and outer doors were secure.

In dead silence, the indicator lamp for the inner door changed to red as the inner door slid open three centimeters. Ten seconds later, the lamp flashed to green.