The Inner Circle (21 page)

I got you this time. This will teach you to come into my home and take over my life.

Earl grabbed a pair of scissors from his wife's basket of hair products and began to chip away the part of the wall where the buzzing was emanating. He dug the scissors deeper and deeper through the sheetrock, tearing the wallpaper along the way. When he finally chipped away a hole the size of a quarter, Earl was satisfied that he should be able to find what he was looking for. He stuck his finger through the hole, feeling around for anything that might be the noisy culprit.

When the doorbell rang, Earl stumbled backwards in surprise, nearly falling on the wet floor in the process. He hadn’t felt his finger press anything before the doorbell rang, a noise that had been a quite surprise to him. After all, the doorbell was all the way on the other side of the house and he couldn't believe the wiring ran all the way to the bathroom. He put his finger back in the hole and tried to find whatever it was he pressed to make the doorbell ring.

"Earl, get down here," his wife yelled.

She must have thought somebody was really at the door, so instead of trying to explain why the bell rang, Earl just pretended not to hear her. He continued to feel around the rough inside of the wall, looking for anything that could have caused that buzzing sound. But he kept coming up with nothing. With his finger still inside, Earl put his ear up to the wall again and found that the buzzing had stopped.

At that moment, the bathroom door swung open and his wife stared at him in disbelief. Before he had a chance to explain what was going on, she shook her head and said somebody was here to see him. He extracted his finger from the wall and left the bathroom, chasing after his wife who was already walking toward their bedroom.

"Who's at the door?" he asked.

She turned around and had tears in her eyes. These were not tears of sorrow though, as the angry look in her eyes was evident to Earl.

"Go see who is at the door and try to tell me that everything is normal," she said angrily, wiping her eyes and slamming the bedroom door in Earl's face.

He did not have time for an explanation, as he wrapped a bath towel around himself and went to the front door. He opened the door and saw two big men wearing black suits and ear-pieces waiting for him. They looked very similar to the Secret Service agents that the president had surrounding him that day behind the pizzeria.

"Mr. Ackerman, you need to get dressed and come with us, sir."

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Neil Peterson had been out of rehab for only a few hours when James Armour's limo picked him up. Armour was glad to see that Neil looked like a new man after only three weeks without alcohol.  Sure, Armour thought Peterson may have just looked better because he shaved and got a haircut, but either way, Neil did not look like the pathetically lost soul Armour had approached less than a month ago.

Peterson agreed to enter the rehab facility three weeks earlier, after Armour promised that he had a job Neil would surely be interested in. The NASA Chief would not go into detail at the time, but hinted at the fact that Neil's previous astronaut training would be a major plus. Neil – who was determined to reconcile with his daughter – knew that getting treatment for his alcohol problem could only help his fight to receive some sort of custody of Emily. Armour even promised to help him with any legal troubles if Neil changed his ways.

"Where are we going?" Peterson asked, staring out the limo window, as the Washington, D.C. backdrop began to fade away the farther they drove. Once the landscape of streets and buildings began to turn into trees and forests, Neil realized they must have been entering the Virginia countryside.

"I can't tell you now, but it won't be long until we get there. Just sit back and enjoy the scenery," Armour said, staring out the window himself.

Neil had the feeling like he should be nervous, but there was no reason that Armour would have gone through all the trouble of getting him help just to do something harmful to him now. After another fifteen minutes, the limousine slowed down and made a right turn onto a dirt road, which seemed to lead directly into the forest. Neil knew they had to be close to wherever they were going, since he did not think the driver would choose this road to drive unless it was important. The limousine was not built for these kinds of roads and every small hole they drove through on this unpaved road jostled Neil around like he was on an amusement ride.

The bumpy ride through the forest lasted ten long minutes until a small log cabin came into view and the car stopped.

"That was exciting," Armour said, throwing open the door before the limo driver had the chance to put the car in park. Neil followed Armour and saw that there was already another limo parked out front of the cabin. "Follow me," Armour said, as he disappeared inside the cabin.

The exterior of the cabin did not do justice to the interior, which looked more like the penthouse suite of a five-star hotel than a log house in the middle of the woods.

"Wow," Neil said. "This place is incredible. I used to go hunting with my dad when I was young, but the cabin we stayed in looked more like the inside of a barn."

Armour hadn’t seemed to take much notice to the interior until Neil mentioned how nice it was. The NASA chief stopped for a moment and looked all around, agreeing that it was quite luxurious.

"They sure did a good job of throwing off someone who doesn't know the main objective of this place," Armour said.

"So you aren't taking me hunting?" Neil asked, a sly smile on his face.

"I wish," Armour said.

The NASA Chief crossed the room and opened up another door, which looked to Neil like some kind of closet. Armour walked inside and beckoned Neil over.

"You have to come in here with me," Armour said, as Neil saw that indeed, it was a small walk-in closet. "This doesn't work unless the door is closed."

Neil raised an eyebrow, but he squeezed into the small closet with Armour, who closed the door and switched on a small light.

"You aren't going to try and make a move on me, are you?" Neil joked, trying to break the awkwardness of their close confinement.

Armour ignored him and pushed a button that was hidden underneath a shelf. Much to Neil's surprise, one whole part of the wall raised upward and revealed an elevator door, which slid open.

"Holy... what is this place?" Neil asked again, this time more out of shock than curiosity.

Armour motioned him into the elevator and pushed the single button inside. Neil could feel the elevator beginning to drop.

"First, I need you to understand that your security level has now been raised and you are on a strict confidential status to the U.S. government. You are not allowed to reveal this location or tell anybody anything about this place or what you’ve seen today. Do you understand?"

"Yeah, sure."

"I need you to be fully aware that
by law
, you can not tell another living soul or make any sort of record that you know anything about where you’re at now. This confidentiality is extremely important and if you were to break it, you would be caught quickly and punished severely."

"I gotcha. My lips are sealed," Neil said flippantly.

"They'd better be," Armour said, suddenly losing his friendly demeanor and appearing very serious to be Neil. "Because if you do break this confidentiality, you will be punished in an ultimate and final manner."

Neil knew a threat when he heard one and there was no doubt in his mind that Armour meant every word he spoke.

"What the hell is going on here?"

Neil felt the falling sensation slow and come to a stop and as the elevator doors slid open, he could not ever remember feeling this curious and anxious in his whole life.

"We're here," Armour said.

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"What do you think would happen if a terrorist were to fire a nuclear bomb toward Washington, D.C.?"

"I would think we'd better start looking for a new president," Neil said, as the two men walked down a long, gray corridor.

"Possibly, but if the president was given enough warning, he would want to get far away from the capital but remain close enough so he could still run things. That's what this place is for.

"It was built three administrations ago for just such a scenario. It’s only ten minutes away from the White House by helicopter, which would be more than enough time for the president to escape immediate death from radiation poisoning if the initial blast did not kill him. We are now ten stories underground, more than enough to protect him from a nuclear bomb. Sounds well protected but it’s still not enough to protect him from..."

Armour stopped speaking, like he was about to let the cat out of the bag.

"Not enough to protect him from what?" Neil asked.

"From other things," Armour answered.

Neil knew he was not going to receive any further explanation, so he decided to ask questions that Armour actually answer.

"What are all of these doors for?" he asked, pointing to many of the doors that they passed.

"Just other rooms," Armour answered. "This place is capable of sustaining twenty people for six months, so plenty of bedrooms and other storage rooms had to be built. The facility is quite impressive, it's a shame so much money was wasted on building it without proper protection for other kinds of catastrophes. Ah, here we are now."

At the end of the corridor was a door larger than the others they’d passed. Armour opened it to reveal a large conference room, which he explained would serve as the 'War Room' in case an event ever happened that called for this facility's usage. The 'War Room' contained a large round conference table with about a dozen chairs, as well as dozens of monitors on the both side walls. At the far end of the room was a large white screen and Neil could see a large projection system built into the ceiling.

A small man wearing glasses sat at a computer on a separate table near the screen,  busily typing away. The man nervously glanced over his shoulder and said a quick 'hello' before returning to his work.

"That's Earl," Armour whispered to Neil. "He's a bit jumpy, but don't worry, he's a good guy. Very important, too. You'll find out why in a minute. Take a seat at the table and we'll be right with you."

Armour walked over to Earl and saw that the science teacher was just bringing up an image from space.

"That's our friend?" Armour asked.

"Yeah," Earl answered. "Took this picture just last night. It's still on a direct path. Who's the new guy?"

"Might be a new member. We have to see how willing he'll be to help with our project," Armour answered. "I'm going back up to wait for the rest of the group. Make sure you don't tell him anything or let him see anything."

"What do you think I am, stupid?" Earl asked, tension apparent in his voice. "I have not said a single thing to anybody yet and I don't plan on doing it now. I know what would happen if I did."

Armour was taken aback by this sudden outburst and wondered why this meek and mild man had exploded. Before he could press him any further, Earl turned back around and continued clicking on the computer keys.

"I'll be back shortly," Armour said, walking past Neil and leaving the room before he could be questioned.

Neil knew something big was going on, that much was apparent by the incredible steps for secrecy. He was still quite nervous and his heart beat faster with every passing moment he was left alone in this conference room with the man on the computer. Minutes passed and Neil found it increasingly difficult to squash his nerves, as the speed of his foot-tapping quickened to the point where he could no longer sit still in his seat.

Neil stood up and walked toward the man on the computer, hoping that maybe he would provide some kind of answer to the thousands of questions that were running through his mind.

"How's it going?" Neil asked, as the small man with glasses heard someone approaching him. "What's that you're working on there? A picture of space? I used to work for NASA."

Earl quickly shut the computer monitor off, offering Neil no sort of explanation for his actions.

"Look," Earl said, "I am not telling you anything so you may as well just go back to your seat and wait for everyone else to get here."

"But I want to know what the hell is going on around here," Neil fired back, clearly frightening the smaller man with his aggressive tone. "I’ve been led out to some cabin in the middle of the woods and left in a secret room ten stories below the Earth without a single explanation of what is happening."

"You better get used to dealing with stuff you don't like," Earl said. "But like I said, I can't tell you anything."

"Then tell me who can," Neil said.

The door on the other side of the room opened and when Neil saw the four men enter, the number of questions he suddenly had increased tenfold.

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