PART TWO: THE SPUR*
It's four whole days later before Brains finally pokes his head out of the lab. Only the special chute Grandma insisted her grandsons build ensures Brains ever eats a thing, and the small bedroom and full bathroom halfway up the steps to the door allows Brains to catch one or two winks and keep himself presentable, at least.
Unfortunately, Dev finishes up his review of the information at about the same time. They wind up on conference with each other, John and Brains in one of the Lab's anterooms, and Dev in his office at HAARP.
The news isn't looking good, but Dev refuses to believe the experiments he's involved with are doing what John's data says they're doing.
"I-I'm afraid there is no other explanation," Brains says matter-of-factly. "The signals your, er, array, are sending into the ionosphere have broken through the outer layer and are causing massive changes in, er, jet streams, ocean currents and the, er, very crust of the planet."
Dev's grim-faced. So is John, because he's been hoping and praying he was wrong.
Hours later, Brains and John have brought Jeff up to speed on the situation. Jeff's going to put in a call to his friend Colonel Hicks who helms the majority of HAARP's operations. In the meantime, John asks for a short leave from International Rescue to head for Alaska so he and Dev can work the problem from closer to home.
Jeff isn't keen on the idea, but says he'll think about it, which is good enough for John. He calls Dev back from his private bedroom suite vidphone and tells him his plan.
"You want to what?" Dev asks with a shake of his head. "Are you crazy, we're lucky if Mt. McKinley reaches minus thirty degrees this time of year, why are you so hell-bent on wanting to climb her?"
John says, "The challenge, partially. I've always wanted Denali under my mountain-climbing belt. But also because I'm sure there's something else pushing a much stronger signal out there. You yourself said HAARP's array signals couldn't possibly reach the frequency that's required to burst through the outer edge of the ionosphere, Dev."
"That is true. And I continue to refuse to believe the array is capable of that."
"Which means there's something else helping your signals, or sending its own, making it all worse."
"What makes you think there is anything on the peak of McKinley? And why must you insist upon calling it Denali, is that the language thing you are always playing with?"
John laughs. "That's the Native American word for it, and they were there first, my friend."
"This is true. Very well, I shall humor you with your Denali. I still want to know why you think whatever is causing the more powerful signal is atop her."
"I've triangulated three possible locations for a signal origin based on the trajectory required to pinpoint that particular bulge caused by your current array. Here, look." John pulls up a file on his holographic laptop and spins the display in a one-eighty so Dev can see the map with John's three spots marked.
"Your first location would have to be just the other side of the Interstate from Denali."
"Exactly, and it'd be far too easy for someone to stumble across in those woods, even if someone managed to cloak it somehow."
"Cloak it? John Tracy, are you working on cloaking technology?"
John laughs. "Moving on. What about my second location?"
"Graying Lake? The water would muffle the signal far too much for it to be very effective."
"My thoughts exactly. And that leaves us with Denali."
"Surely satellite images would show if something was sitting on top of that mountain!"
John nods, then pulls open another file and shows Dev a 3-D satellite image of the peak of Denali.
"I do not understand. There is nothing there, which seems to negate your theory altogether."
"Look closer, Dev. Here, I'll pull out the noise," John says, tapping a few keys and the mouseball in the keyboard of his holocomputer. "There. What do you see now?"
Dev peers closely at the image and frowns. "It would appear a section of the imagery is…phased, somehow. How is this possible?"
"Cloaking technology."
"You have got to be kidding me."
"Nope. And that's why I'm scaling Denali." John looks his friend in the eye. "I want you with me."
"And once we have risked life and limb to scale the mountain, and reached the peak at last, what will you do if there is something cloaked sitting there?"
John's face grows hard. "Disable it."
"You cannot! If it does exist, it's likely to be government property!"
"I don't care if it's got the personal stamp of the U.S. president on it, Dev! Nobody has the right to destroy the ionosphere and the planet; whether they realize they're doing or not is irrelevant. Dad's got a call in to Colonel Hicks, a man he was in the Air Force with who—"
"John, he's my direct supervisor, I know who the man is."
"Good. Whatever Dad finds out, though, if Hicks knows about it, I won't believe anything he says about what the extra signal's for. I have to find out if there's something sending that signal out and shut it off."
"Just you and me."
"Sure. We've climbed a few hills before. If I'm wrong, Dev, if there's nothing on top of that mountain, then at least we have a good vacation together like the ones we used to take in the old days."
"Oh, yes. Frostbite is something I have always wished to bring home as a souvenir," Dev deadpans.
John laughs. "You won't, I've got the best cold-weather gear you can find anywhere. I'll bring everything with me in your size. Be there in about three hours."
"You must have very fast transportation."
"I've got a Tracy jet," John grins.
"Of course you do. All right, fine, fine, I'll put in for a short leave, but if you get me thrown off this research team, your father's hiring me."
"Deal. See you later."
John hangs up, thinks about telling his father his true plans, and decides against it. He knows Jeff will try to stop him, will rely on whatever Hicks tells him. Will want to get Hicks to investigate John's claims, gather more data.
Waste more time, in John's not-so-humble opinion. If his calculations are correct, the fault line that created Mt. McKinley – Denali – to begin with, is going to become unstable real fast. And the erratic weather patterns forcing International Rescue out on more and more calls to the northern hemisphere are only going to increase.
More people are going to die needless deaths, and John's not about to let that happen. He's never been real good with red tape. So as he tends to do, he's just going to take a pair of scissors to it and do things his own way.
And hope he comes up with a good explanation for his dad when Jeff eventually figures out what the hell John's actually doing.
*Spur: A rock or snow rib on a mountain; a lateral ridge.