Tripple Chronicles 1: Eternity Rising (4 page)

Colonel Ganesh
walked down a long stone corridor lit with artificial overhead lights.
 
On both his left and right there were
uniformly sized, empty square offices that belonged to the unit administrators.
He walked by them aiming for the elevator straight ahead.
 
It was early and most of the offices on
this main floor were empty, as their occupants would not arrive for at least
another hour.
 
Ganesh was dressed
in full military garb with his rank proudly displayed on his right arm.
 
His large boots were heavy against the
stone floor and with the quietness of the
building,
the few early arrivals were alerted to his presence. He pulled out a
maximum-security clearance card and shoved it into the slot over the elevator
button with a scowl. He had always worn his feelings transparently on his face,
but since he had started working alongside Major Mace Magner, he tried to erase
them before he entered the elevator.
 
Ganesh had made up his mind that if Mace did not know how much he
disliked him, he might have some influence over his pretentious new
colleague.
 

Even though
Ganesh outranked Mace Magner, there were two other Colonels working closely
with the project who looked at Mace as their golden boy.
 
His solid drive and ruthless dedication
were seen as the key ingredients necessary to advance the military to the next
level of robotic weapons technology. It was clear why he was chosen for this
assignment, but Ganesh’s views on this new technology were not in line with
those of the others involved.
 
He
could only assume he was there because someone at the top of the government
wanted him to balance the direction of the new technology.
 
He had not been on the project long
enough to single out the team members he could truly trust, so thus far his
thoughts about the work going on here had been shared with Camden Riles alone;
and even that meeting had not gone as well as he would have liked.
 
He felt alone.

There was a
harsh “ding” announcing the arrival of the elevator that would take Ganesh down
to basement levels four through nine.
 
These Maximum Security access levels housed the Robotics, Scientific
Research, and Weaponry Units of the military along with comfortable offices for
the higher-ranking officials.
 
Ganesh stepped into the elevator and said “Level Four”.
 
The voice activation system quickly
processed his request and the doors began to shut.
 
Ganesh faced the closing doors, standing with his feet
shoulder width apart and his right arm crossed over his left wrist in front of
his large body.
 
When he reached
his floor, he held his chin high and stepped out and looked left and
right.
 

Good
, he thought.
No Mace.
 
Maybe I can make
it to the coffee lounge and back to my office before I see him…that little,
puffed up, son of a ...

“Good
morning, sir,” said a young scientist who was almost as tall as Ganesh and a
little flushed in the face.

He must have
jogged down the stairs to catch up to him.
 
Ganesh’s mind shifted away from Mace and looked at this
young man.
 
He wore a wide smile
and seemed to be a little star struck.
 
Ganesh had seen this blatant admiration from young people before.
 
A few times during his time as a new
recruit’s trainer and often when he was in public with Camden.
 
He was always fascinated with the way
fresh young minds flocked to Camden like he was a superstar.
 
He felt this fascination again as this
eager young man now looked at him with those same wide hopeful eyes.
 

“Good
morning,
er
…”

“Bearden,
sir. Um, I mean, Sergeant Bearden Leitner, Botany specialist for the science
team.”

“Well, good
morning Sergeant Leitner,” Ganesh crisply replied.
 
“What is so urgent that can’t wait until a man has had his
first cup of coffee?”

“Huh? Oh,
sorry, sir. I um, was on my way for coffee, too,” Bearden lied.

“I see,”
Ganesh said, smiling unwittingly.
 
“Well, on to the lounge then.” He motioned with his hand down the hall
toward the officer’s lounge.

“Thank you,
sir, I mean, yes, coffee.”

Bearden
stood as straight as he could when he walked beside Ganesh nervously glancing
over now and then.
 

“You know,
Colonel, you were the reason I joined the military.”

Ganesh
stopped and looked at him.

“Is that
so?” he asked.

“Yes, sir. I
was on my way to being a non-governmental scientist, but I read a book in
school about the War for Peace, and you were in it.
 
The lives that you saved, how nothing scared you or
distracted you from your mission; it was inspiring.
 
Of course as soon as I finished recruitment training, I was
pulled out for the special ops science unit, but I only signed up for four
years.
 
I’m not even supposed to be
on this project, but,” he laughed confidently, “when you got it, you got
it.”
 

Ganesh
glanced at him sideways and raised his eyebrows.
  
Bearden kept talking.

“When I
found out you were joining this team, wow, I just had to meet you
face-to-face.”
 

Ganesh
chuckled under his breath.
 
It
amused him the way Bearden spoke so matter-of-factly of the way he was
recruited to special ops, science unit.
 
He was certainly confident of his brainpower, if nothing else.
 

“Well it is
very nice to meet you Sergeant Leitner,” Ganesh said as he opened the door to
the senior officer’s coffee lounge.
 

“I will be
right out,” Ganesh said as the door closed in Bearden’s face.

“Oh, right,
sir.
 
I will just wait here.”

“Really?”
Ganesh asked.

“Actually,
Colonel, I was hoping to discuss something rather important with you about my
future with this project.”

Humph
, thought Ganesh. Something about
this kid intrigued him.
 
Maybe it
was the over the top flattery, but maybe there was something more to him.
 
Anyway, he was looking to make sense of
why he was here, so he decided to give this young scientist a little of his
time.

“Meet me in
my office in half an hour,” Ganesh said.
 
“Number 459. This floor.”

“Yes, sir,
thank you, sir,” Bearden said as he turned to walk back down the hall with a
slight skip in his step.

Twenty-five
minutes later, Sergeant Bearden Leitner stood anxiously outside of Ganesh’s
office.
 
Ganesh was sipping his
coffee and leaning back in his chair staring at a small fish tank in the corner
of the room.
 
Two colorful Purpoin
fish with bulging yellow eyes swam circles around each other nipping at the
food that Ganesh had dropped in moments earlier.
 
His office was neat, but not as militant as some of his
colleagues.
 
The walls were painted
in muted red and mahogany tones. A dark red and cream-colored area rug covered
most of the wooden floor.
 
A large,
well lit painting of an ocean hung behind his desk in an attempt to compensate
for the lack of windows in this basement facility.
 
He was thinking about Camden, wondering what he had done so
far with the sample he had given him two days ago.
  

There was an
anxious knock at the door.
 

“Yes, yes,
come in Sergeant Leitner.”
 
He set
his coffee on his desk and sat up straighter in his chair.
 
“Please sit down and tell me what it is
you would like to talk about.”

“Okay,”
replied Bearden.
 
“Did you know it
was me who discovered the catalyst?”

Ganesh
leaned forward crossing his arms on his desk. His attention was immediately
captured.

“Really….”
he said.

“Yes. It was
my idea to explore the fungal species before the bacteria.”
 

Humph
, thought Ganesh.
 
This
kid has to show me up right away with his science talk.
Ganesh was a
specialist in working with computers and flight technologies.
 
Not biology and botany.
 

“I see,” he
said aloud, as if he knew just as much about science as this smarty-pants
sitting across from him.

Bearden
continued.

“It could
have been another two or three years if we had gone through the bacterium
first.”

“Well then,
congratulations on your insight,” Ganesh said.
 

“Thank you,
sir.”

“Now, what
is the question you have for me?”

“Right,” he
said. “I was hoping for some guidance.”

“Okay.”
Ganesh wasn’t sure what was going to come out of this kid’s mouth or if he
could help at all, but it was in his very nature to try.

“I received
a phone call early this morning from a private sector science recruiter.
 
Apparently, I have been selected to
interview with the renowned Lee Tripple for an assistantship in his genetics
program.
 
And, since my term with
the military is up next month, I was considering going.”

Whatever
Ganesh was expecting this young man to say, it wasn’t this.
 
Thoughts began to race through his
head. If Lee hired him, he was likely to find out about the stolen sample.
 
The one that ‘mysteriously’ found its
way into Lee’s hands, by way of Camden, by way of Ganesh himself.
 
Could this kid be trusted?
 
If not, Ganesh would surely have to
discourage him from accepting the interview.
 
If Bearden’s loyalties remained with the military after his
departure, he would most likely share information.
 

I would be accused of conspiracy.
 
And Bearden, leaving a top-secret
project
like
this…he is surely going to be pushed to
extend his contract.
 
His choice in the end, though.

Bearden
fidgeted nervously in his chair as Ganesh was having this inner dialogue and
sitting silently. Finally, Ganesh spoke.

“When is the
interview?”

“Two o’clock
this afternoon.”

Ganesh’s
eyes widened a little in panic.

“Not much
time to think about it, eh?”
 
He
tried to appear relaxed and speak coolly in an attempt to hide his anxious
feelings from the young soldier.

“No, sir.
And no time needed. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime.” he replied. He then
offered a little softer as he leaned forward, “Sir, I understand you have a
friendship with Professor Camden Riles.”

Ganesh
raised his eyebrows at him again.

“Yes, that
is no secret.
 
We have worked
together time and again over the years.
 
What about it?”

“Well, I
also know that Professor Riles is a close associate of Lee Tripple’s.
 
I was hoping you might put in a good
word for me…if I decide to take the interview…if you think it is a good idea at
all.
 
You know, the military wants
me to renew my contract here.”

“Yes, I
figured this much,” Ganesh replied. “You know son,” he said a little
condescendingly, “It’s awfully presumptuous to ask such a favor of me, seeing
as I have known you for less than an hour.”

“Yes, sir, I
know sir.
 
I should have come by a
week ago.”
 

Ganesh
chuckled in his head at his naiveté.
Young
people.

“I just
thought,” Bearden continued, “that if you met me and saw my work first hand
that you might…” he paused and humbly dropped his head a little.

Ganesh could
see that this kid was digging himself in a little hole with every word out of
his mouth. He decided to let him off the hook.

“You thought
that you would immediately impress me enough to make a phone call to my friend
on your behalf?”
 
He skeptically
raised just one eyebrow at Bearden this time,
who
replied.

“It’s just
that I heard Dr. Tripple does not generally...like people, and as you can see,
I have a habit of putting my foot in my mouth.”

Ganesh
laughed out loud.

“That’s
true! I have known you long enough to know that,” he said and Bearden
grinned.
 

“So may I
show you some of my work here?”
 
Bearden asked.

Ganesh
glanced at his schedule for the day to see how many items he could blow off to
spend more time with this kid.
 
He
hadn’t given him any advice yet and he wasn’t sure he would really take it
anyway.
 
Plus, he knew he
would
be making a call to Camden later,
either on Sergeant Leitner’s behalf or to give him a red flag.
 
One way or the other, he needed some
more time to decide.

“Humph,”
Ganesh said.
 
“I do have a little
more time free this morning. Why don’t you show me the lab up close and explain
further what you have done here for us.” He was hoping to gain some further
insight into this acquisitive young prodigy.