Red to Fade (8 page)

Dennis asks, “Do you really think he's still alive?”

Joel answers, “It's possible. Those RBMs are real tough motherfuckers and they can drive underwater. I want a roadblock on every road that exits LA. I want some men in the LAX airport and in the LAPTS.”

LAPTS is the Los Angeles planet transport station.

“I want you to get as many men as you can to go to every train station and private airport in LA. Make sure you have a roadblock set up near the Mexican border. Also have some men in the PTS-R1 planet transport station.” Joel has some agents in the Big Rock already. “I need someone to watch the road that leads to the CSB-R1 base in the Glass Tomb; there's a possibility he might go there. If he's seen going to the CSB-R1 base, I want him killed on sight. Also I want you to track his cell phone and bank records. Have you got that?”

Dennis says, “Yes, sir.”

Joel isn't wearing his Clandarian ear mic anymore and he's carrying a cell phone and a planet communicator in his pockets. He pulls out his planet communicator from his trouser pocket and dials the number for Michael Gruber. Michael Gruber is an IT guy that works for Joel, and one of the smartest IT guys in the FBI. Joel puts the planet communicator close to his right ear. Michael is in the main server room of the FBI building when he hears his cell phone ring.

Michael answers, “Hello?”

Joel says, “Michael, it's Joel here. Are you able to load the file tracker program to locate the R-1 file?”

The file tracker program is a program that is used to locate downloaded files. If you had the file tracker program running and you typed the name of a file somebody downloaded into the file tracker, the program would show a Google-style map with a red dot. The red dot is the downloaded file. When the red dot is moving that means that the downloaded file is being moved physically, such as when a downloaded file is stored on a hard drive and somebody is moving around with the drive.

Michael says, “No, not yet. Your men really did a number on the main server room. All the computers are fucked; it's going to take a while to get them repaired and get the file tracker program running. I can only load the program from the main server room. Once the file tracker server program is up and running in the main server room you can connect to it in a wireless mode using a laptop with a file tracker application.”

To connect to and use the file tracker in wireless mode with a laptop, the main file tracker server program needs to be running. The file tracker server program is installed into one of the servers in the main server room which have been damaged. File tracker won't run on a wireless laptop if the server is down. File tracker is only used by the FBI; it's a top secret program built by them.

File tracker applications can only be installed on laptops if the laptops are connected to the server that's running the file tracker server program. You can download file tracker applications onto laptops from the server. No backup copies have been made for the file tracker server program and it isn't stored on any USB drives or DVDs. The only place where the file tracker server program is stored is in the server that's damaged. The FBI LA branch is the only branch that has the file tracker server program.

Joel says, “How long will it take you to get the file tracker up and running?”

Michael says, “I don't know, maybe eight or nine hours.”

Joel says, “You call me when it's up and running.”

Michael says, “I will.”

Joel hangs up the planet communicator and goes into an FBI jeep. Charles is in there, waiting for Joel; they're going to go to LAPTS to head for the First Dome. The FBI have a personal transport ship in a hangar in LAPTS. Charles starts the jeep and sets off.

Charles says to Joel, “If Connor is still alive do you really think he'll go to Mars?”

Joel says, “Connor is either going to try to show that file to somebody here or to somebody on the Red Planet. We need to have men in both places looking for him.”

Joel's planet communicator starts to ring. Joel answers, “Hello?”

Vice President Eric Donald is riding along in a limousine with two other passengers and one driver in Washington DC. The two other passengers are National Security Advisor Richard Crosby and Military Chief of Staff Harold Turner. Eric and Richard are Caucasian and Harold is African-American. Harold is wearing a military uniform. Eric and Richard are wearing suits, shirts and ties. Eric Donald's goal in life is to have the most power and the most money.

Vice President Eric Donald is on the phone with Joel. He says in a panic, “I've just heard about a shooting in your building. What the fuck is going on?”

Joel answers, “An agent called Connor Harper has downloaded the R-1 file.”

Eric says, “Shit. Find that son of a bitch and kill him. After you kill him, we'll wait for a while to let things quieten down and we'll find out what the slugs know about us. After about six months, when things might have quietened down and the Clandarians don't have a clue what we're going to do, then we'll go to the Big Rock to carry out our mission.”

Joel says, “Sir, we need to go to the Glass Tomb tonight. If Connor shows the file to morphians in the CSB-R1 base they will find out about Space Drill.”

Space Drill is a top-secret missile weapons facility somewhere in the Nevada Desert. Only a certain number of government workers know about Space Drill. Space Drill missiles are designed to launch and attack the Balaxian ships in space. The facility was originally designed for protection in case the inhabitants of Balaxia ever attacked Earth with rockets from their battle spaceships.

Eric says, “How do you know that Harper will go to the CSB-R1 base with the file?”

Joel says, “It's possible that Connor might have been working with Carlton Jones, Ryan Clarke and Tom Rogan. We know that those 3 dead assholes know about the R-1 file and the CSB-R1 base. Harper might know what they know. If I were Connor I would go to the base with the file. The Clandarians could find out where Space Drill is and they could launch an attack on it before we attack them. If they attack Space Drill we haven't a hope in hell of defeating them. We need to attack them as soon as possible. Send the RBMs to the First Dome right now and I'll get you your DC file.”

Eric says, “It's too risky; if we kill Connor before that file gets out in the open then I'll send the RBMs to the Red Planet. If that file gets into the media we'll have to abort this mission completely.”

Joel says, “Don't worry about the file going public; there is no mention of anybody's name on it. All it contains are maps and diagrams of the CSB-R1 base and Balaxian equipment. There is an auto-erase rule on the file; if somebody opens the R-1 file from any other computer except the computer in the main server room of the FBI LA branch, the file will automatically delete itself in five minutes and if somebody's made copies they will delete at the exact same time as the original file.

“I have also created a print rule for the file. Whoever opens the file will be unable to print it. If Connor tells morphians at the CSB-R1 base about our mission and we're questioned about our mission by Clandarian authorities we can just deny everything. It's one man's word against ours. We don't want the Balaxians to see the R-1 file and find out what we're going to do because we don't want them to be prepared for us when we attack them.

“My main concern is the Space Drill station being destroyed by the slugs. If the Balaxians find out about Space Drill, the chances are they won't attack us; they might try to contact the president for a discussion about Space Drill, or they could try to find Space Drill and blow it away as soon as possible. I don't think that we should leave things to chance. I think that the slugs will only attack us if we attack them first, but if they know where Space Drill is and Space Drill launches a missile attack against them they'll know where the missile attack is coming from and they'll be prepared to defend themselves.

“Like I've said before, if they find and destroy Space Drill, it's game over. If Space Drill is destroyed, the glacitone and RB-7 equipment will be destroyed along with the missiles used to destroy the Balaxian ships. Send us the RBMs.”

Joel is using Connor as an excuse to attack the base because he wants to download the DC file, give the file to Eric and get paid handsomely as soon as possible.

There is silence for a minute. Eric takes a few moments to stop and think about what decision he should make.

After a minute he says, “Right, OK, I'll arrange for a USGTS ship to drop off the RBMs on Mars.”

USGTS is a United States Government Transport Ship. USGTS ships are used to transport weapons and IT technology from the Clandarian spaceships and the glacitone domes to America. They are also used to transport equipment from America to the ships and domes. Inhabitants of Balaxia helped to build the USGTS ships, so USGTS ships have some Balaxian technology. The American government has its own private planet transport station in Washington DC so that USGTS ships can land and take off to export and import equipment.

The USGTS ships are slow compared to the planet transport passenger ships. A passenger ship can get you to Mars in five hours, while a USGTS ship takes thirty-seven hours. The USGTS ship has to travel at a slow speed because of the cargo. One time they did try to make the USGTS ships move as fast as a planet transport passenger ship while laden with large cargos; it was a disaster as the g-force made the cargo smash through the transport equipment doors and everybody was sucked out of the ship.

The ship ended up flying into outer space with nobody onboard. Because of that disaster the USGTS ships always travel at a slow speed. When RBMs are being transported to Earth the USGTS ship lands inside a Clandarian ship and the RBMs are moved from there onto the USGTS ship. Clandarian law states that the USGTS ships are never allowed to collect RBMs from any of the glacitone domes. The reason for this law is for safety, so that no RBM can be used by a group of individuals inside any of the glacitone domes. The law also states that the officers who are working for the Clandarian military are the only soldiers authorised to drive the RBMs in any of the glacitone domes.

Joel says, “Excellent. When the RBM's land in the Big Rock, we'll be waiting at the drop off point.”

Eric says, “Somebody will contact you when the RBMs have arrived.”

Joel says, “That's great, sir.”

Eric hangs up the cell phone and puts it in his inside jacket pocket. He's thinking to himself,
Have I made the right decision? Should I tell Joel to try to kill Connor before he reaches the CSB-R1 base and download the DC file on a later date?

Eric says to Richard and Harold, “We're going to download the DC file from the CSB-R1 base as soon as the RBMs on the USGTS ship reach the Glass Tomb. Richard, get the USGTS ship to deliver the RBMs to the First Dome.”

Richard says, “Do you think it's a good idea to go ahead with this mission, sir?”

Eric says, “If we get our hands on the DC file and are able to create the RB-7 robots we will have the strongest military technology in the world. Also, if we were able to create glacitone and tricadell steel we would be able to build more glacitone domes; we're talking about trillions of dollars to be made here. We could build loads of RB-7 robots and make them build a glacitone dome in a year, beating the Clandarian record of three years.

“We are so close; we have their equipment, we just need to study the DC file to know how to use their equipment. So, yeah, I think we should go ahead with this mission.”

Harold says, “Absolutely.”

Eric looks at Richard and says, “Make the call. Also get on the phone with Lord Grecco and tell him that the FBI are carrying out an investigation to arrest the suspect Connor Harper and that we don't want any Red 1 law enforcement officers getting involved. Tell him as well that we need some weapons and vehicles.”

Lord Grecco is the lord who is in charge of the Big Rock. Eric and his soldiers have the equipment used to build the RB-7 robots, tricadell steel and glacitone stored in the Space Drill station, and they know that you can put any type of liquid into that equipment and it can be transformed by Balaxian lasers into tricadell steel, glacitone or RB-7 robots.

Eric and his soldiers need the programming codes in the DC file to type into the computer of the equipment used to make tricadell steel, glacitone and the RB-7 robots. Programming codes are needed to command the equipment to transform the liquid into tricadell steel, glacitone and RB-7 robots.

Richard obeys Eric's commands and contacts Lord Grecco. Richard and Lord Grecco have known each other for years; they're actually quite friendly with each other. They know each other well from many dealings in the past and present and will often call each other to talk about transporting food, supplies and vehicles from one place to the other. In the glacitone domes they eat Earth food and use a lot of equipment from Earth, like computers, cars, clothes, and so on. Richard tells Lord Grecco about Eric's requests and Lord Grecco grants them.

Lord Grecco thinks that Eric's demands are actually Richard's demands. Lord Grecco has been the lord for the Glass Tomb for many years. After every four-year term in the glacitone domes there is a lord election. A lord election is a formal decision-making process by which the population of a glacitone dome choose an individual candidate to assume the role of lord. The population of a glacitone dome must vote for one individual candidate out of two who are running in the lord election.

The individual lord candidate who has the most votes in a lord election will be elected to run a glacitone dome as a lord. Someone can run as a lord for as many terms as they like. Joel has made arrangements for agents to fly with him to Mars on the FBIPTS. FBIPTS is the Federal Bureau of Investigation Planet Transport Ship. Charles and Joel are still driving to LAPTS. Joel has just realised something.