Encryption Saturday, 09:44 pm PST, New York
Chloe was satisfied with the results of her database search for the word Hawkeye.
The program had spat out a list of possible meanings. Among these were two NATO codenames for missiles, one military helicopter type, the USCIS code for a border station to Canada and the Secret Service codename for James Heller.
He had received that codename during his attempt to run for the presidency. Secret Service had given codenames to all presidents and potential candidates ever since 2003.
She grabbed her phone and dialed his number right away.
"Mrs. O Brian, anything new?", he answered her call. He was on the lower floor of the presidential bunker. Heller pushed a door to his left open and found an unused storage room which he could use to make that phone call in privacy.
"Actually, yes. I just received a rather strange call from Jack, with a message for you.", she said.
"Go ahead."
"He said he's got the girl but there was no little boy.", Chloe continued. "Can you make any sense out of that?"
He's got the girl, shot through Heller's mind. He has Audrey. But he didn't want to tell Chloe anything else about it. This was not a matter of national security. "No, can't make any sense out of that.", he replied.
"Strange.", Chloe said. "I could have sworn he meant Audrey."
Heller sighed. "And what about the little boy?"
"That's what I couldn't make any sense of. Does she have a son in the meantime? Or is it her brother?"
"No, can't be. Her brother is far away, he's in Europe.", he said.
Chloe continued. "There's one more thing. He also sent me a message. It reads DCNPP Sector 9 75 read zero. Can you make any sense out of that?"
"No.", Heller answered. He could really not make sense of this message.
"Do you know where he is? If only… approximately?", she urged him again. Chloe didn't let loose. He knew something that could help her decipher this message, she was sure about that. Otherwise Jack wouldn't have mentioned him in it.
Heller stood in the dim light, wondering if he should tell her about where Jack was. "Mrs. O Brian, Mr. Bauer was…", he started, but hesitated.
"Where was he?", Chloe urged again.
"He was somewhere in the vicinity of Bakersfield.", Heller began.
Her eyes widened upon hearing that news. That was a radioactively contaminated area. If Jack had been there it could easily be that he… Chloe didn't even want to think that far. "Why did he go to Bakersfield? Did you send him there?"
"Audrey was there.", Heller answered. He hoped Chloe would understand without any further discussion.
She did, saying nothing for a time. It had been years since she had seen Audrey. The last time she had seen her, Audrey had been in real bad state. "Did she ever… recover?", she hesitantly asked him.
"Yes, she did.", Heller silently answered. Of what use was that now? Prognoses said she wouldn't have a very long life expectancy, even if she returned.
"Sir… does this second message make any sense to you?", Chloe finally asked him again.
"Read it again, please."
"It said DCNPP Sector 9 space 75 reads zero."
Heller thought about it for a minute. "No.", he finally answered. "I must say that I can absolutely make no sense of that."
Chloe was disillusioned for the moment. "Alright, Sir. Thanks for your time."
He kept her from ending the call- "Mrs. O Brian", he hurriedly said.
"Yes Sir?"
"Will you please keep me informed when they call you again?", he asked her.
"Of course, Sir. I will." As she hung up she could nearly understand him. A thought about her own boy came across her mind and lasted, even as she turned back to her screen to work on the message again.
She hoped to see him again soon.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Right as it got dark Jack finally found what he had been looking for. It was a small viller, consisting of only four houses. Each one of them was abandoned.
On one side of the viller was the edge of the forest, on the other side one had a beautiful view over the wide, flat terrain to the east.
He had picked of the houses, which had a parking garage right next to the main building, had broken the lock and had put the car into the garage. By now, he had to admit, that he was really tired and worn out. The last days had been exhausting, and the last two nights not really restful. The last time he had had something to eat had been on the flight to L.A.
Audrey wasn't feeling so much better.
He happened to notice that the surgery wound was giving her more and more trouble. Most likely the medication which they had given her at the hospital – to kill the pain – was wearing off.
He helped her to get out of the car and to get into the house.
The garage was directly joined to the house. As they stepped through the door they stood in a narrow corridor. The last minutes of dusk opened a view at walls, decorated with nice family pictures, children's drawings, nicely decorated wardrobes. This house was abandoned, but one could see, it hadn't been for a very long time.
As they went through the corridor, searching for the living room, Audrey couldn't help looking at all these pictures. A family with two children had been living here. They were probably about ten years old.
She wondered where this family was right now. Had they made it out of this area alive? Had they crashed their car, gotten into one of these civil war-like fights? Or were they even the ones who they had found in this burned out car, some hours ago?
Jack helped her lie down at the couch and covered her legs with a blanket. Since the heating system wasn't working the nights were unpleasantly chilly.
"Try to get some rest.", he silently said to her, "I'll have a look if they have left something to eat here."
She nodded her head yes, eyes already half closed.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Chloe sat in front of an endless list again, filtering the possible acronyms for DCNPP. She had ruled out everything that was outside a parameter of more than 200 miles around Bakersfield and Los Angeles.
One of the acronyms engaged her interest- it had landed at her list because of the word 'nuclear'. Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant. Was Jack there? Unlikely. He would have called her, using the secure lines at the power plant.
But as she looked over the rest of possible meanings, the power plant stayed the only suitable one.
She stood up, took her tablet with her and went over to Wellington's office.
He looked up from his table, not really happy to see her. "Mrs. O Brian?"
"I need you to authorize a channel to Diablo Canyon for me.", she announced, placing her discoveries onto his table.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Jack knelt down right next to Audrey's head. She had dozed off, covered up to her chin by that blanket. For a moment he considered letting her rest, but she had already sensed that he was here. Tiredly she opened up her eyes.
"How are you?", he asked.
"Fine. I'm okay.", she silently answered, but he didn't believe her.
Instead, Jack raised his hand, showing her a small bottle of pills. "I found these. They're probably not the same your doctor prescribed you, but…"
She stretched out her hand and gladly took the bottle. "What is this?"
"Some… paracetamol preparation.", he said and gave her a glass of water. "Take two."
She brushed the blanket aside and sat up, as she saw that he had brought even more things here- anything eatable from all over the house. A half loaf of bread, a few cans, some cheese and a few beverage bottles.
Jack stood up, went around the small table and settled to the couch next to her. "That's all I found, we'll have to live with that.", he said. "There's no gas for the stove, no electricity, not even running water."
Audrey took the bread saw and cut off a piece. "I'm fine with that.", she answered, hoping the painkillers would kick in soon.
He had put a little candle on the far edge of the table, barely lighting the scene. She glanced sidelong at him. He didn't notice. He looks damn tired, she thought, and still he's looking after me. It felt so good to have him here. She couldn't have expressed that in words.
Suddenly the phone, which he had also put onto the table, vibrated. Jack read the message. Conflicting values, confirm, it read.
"They got the grid for the measuring stations back on.", he said to Audrey, and wrote back, Fake, move in.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Chloe now got the confirmation. DCNPP definitely was Diablo Canyon. Sector 9, 75 miles out was a radioactivity measurement station, it belonged to their safety net. Jack had told them there was no 'little boy' – which was a synonym for an atomic bomb. Finally she had realized, that the first atomic bomb ever used by the us army had had a name – little boy. He had most likely derived that information from that radioactivity readout.
But the funny thing was that it didn't read zero.
She had written Jack a short message, asking him to confirm the value. He had answered that the new measurement was a fake, and they should come in.
A few minutes ago the people from Diablo Canyon had been able to miraculously restore power in their safety network. All the sectors around Bakersfield and Fresno had reported extremely high radiation values.
Chloe was in the situation room, together with Lynn and Wellington. President Taylor and Secretary Heller were on the phone. All the facts were on the table. The measured values were disturbingly high.
Jack's message had been right the opposite, telling them the values were zero.
"What do you suggest?", President Taylor asked.
"I suggest to observe the area, but not to go in. That's way too dangerous.", Wellington answered. He shut Chloe down with an angry face at her, as she was trying to say something against it.
"Why did Bauer send a different message?", she asked, "Does he have any reason for this?"
"Well…. He could have seen the station unpowered.", Wellington said. "The gauges do have a battery which keeps them working, but… maybe that one wasn't. Or" he took a deep breath, "He wants us to enter the area to get them out. We can't rule this out."
"That's ridiculous.", Chloe hissed at him.
"No, it' not.", he hissed back.
President Taylor followed their fight over the phone. She sat at her table in her office, Heller on the other side. They had the same situation. "We're standing down. No one enters for tonight. Let's try to get some more significant measurements.", she said.
"Alright, Madam President.", Wellington answered. They ended their call.
Slowly she leant forward, towards Heller. "I'm sorry for your daughter, James.", she said, having a hard time, "But that's the only decision I can make."
He nodded, understandingly.
But from the look in his eyes she could tell that he was deeply sad.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Jack took the phone again, as it vibrated.
His heart sank as he read Chloe's message. Nobody's coming.
He leant back into the couch, then he took the batteries out of the phone. They weren't believing him.
"What is it?", Audrey concernedly asked.
He leant there and closed his eyes for a moment. "They don't believe us. And they're not coming to get us out of here. We'll have to get back to the army checkpoint at North Valley all on our own.", he murmured. Possible routes, possible dangers, ways out and enemies flashed across his mind. Finally he opened his eyes again and wearily looked at her. "I hate to do that to you, but I think we really need to move again.", he silently began to speak, "We used the phone here, if they'd trace us… and find us here, nobody's coming to get us out. We need to wipe out our traces if we want to have a quiet night."
Audrey nodded her head yes. She was extremely tired, too, but the thought of being found here was worse. "Let's go.", she answered.
They took the most necessary things with them and left the house.