Secrets in the Sand
New Mexico.
The humid afternoon air made the temperature jump to near record breaking temperature's. The sun baked the scorched sand as several black Suv's and two large semis made they way to a abandoned military base. Hidden deep in the cliffs.
The base was at one time the 3rd most secret place in the United states. It was here scientist experimented with several strange and unusual projects. Some were made for the benefit of mankind. Others were to cause man's destruction. It was closed years ago. Its one such project was left to rot in the search of other grander ventures.
The convoy pulled up as several men armed security personal stepped out of the vehicles. They had received a report that the supercomputer they had here was recently destroyed. How it was destroyed would be determined today.
The security teams wore black Kevlar style swat uniforms. They carried small mp5 sub machine guns and wore a army style helmet that covered the eyes with a pair of thick goggles.
The two agents were wearing fine suits. Pure black. No sign of any other color except for the white of their regular shirts. Even their sunglasses were black. These two were senior officers of the organization they worked for. And were in charge of the situation at the moment they stepped into New Mexico.
"Lets hope these worms get this right this time. Remember Brazil" One agent said to the other.
"If not then their next stop will be 6 feet under." the other agent said.
The two senior agents walked over to a lab technician that was already gathering all the Intel they needed. One of the agents was a short brown haired man with a short goatee. The other was a tall slender man with curly blond hair and sunglasses.
"I'm agent Thompson, This is agent Connors" The slender blond man introduced to the technician, the technician attempted to shake their hands but they just stared at him with a firm look on their face.
The technician was a short man with brown eyes and short brown hair. Wearing a lab coat and Grey button up shirt. The technician was surveying the site. Trying to ascertain as to what happened to cause the supercomputer's crash. Only to find more than what was just a minor computer problem.
"So tell us, what did you find" said Thompson, as he stared at the technician with his cold Grey eyes.
"I'm afraid there is more at work here than a computer malfunction." the lead technician explained as the three walked into the factory room were several mother boards were being placed in large plastic boxes.
"When we arrived this mourning, we found these mother boards were being put together." explained the technician as he pointed to one stack of boxes that were being moved out of the ware house.
"What were they being used for?" Asked Thompson. Looking around the room at the small damage that apparently took place in the room.
"Well these mother boards were originally created to help with the guidance systems of nuclear missiles back in the 90's" explained the techie as he lifted one up to show the agents. "This one however has been altered to control the brain wave patterns of a individual."
"Who created it?" asked Connors as he took the mother board to examine it closely.
The technician began to walk as Connors and Thompson slowly lagged behind. " Who ever it was, is a genius in the ways of computer software and Bio mechanics. This hardware is perhaps years beyond our own."
"Can we use it to our advantage?" asked Thompson as they approached the computer terminal to view its shattered screen
"Unfortunately no The boards apparently fried out from something I can't even describe".
Connors walked over to a bizarre scorch mark on the floor. "Whats these from?"
"That were not sure about either" explained the tech. They are all over the base. Even in the computer room. "I'm not sure but I think their from some kind of intense fire fight". The technician said as he put down the board and walked in front of the duo. "This way please."
The Agents followed the technician as they approached the computer room. The areas leading to the base were scattered with various pieces of debris from the ceiling, walls, and floor.
"What about the video logs". Asked Connors. "Have they showed anything?"
"No. It appears the logs where destroyed when the hack took place." the technician answered as he opened the room with the computer. Their were scientist in the room taking readouts of the area with small laptops and P.d.a.'s " What caused the computer itself to shutdown were these." As the scientist pointed to two large gashes in the systems core block.
"Looks like some one was in a hurry if they sliced through the core block and not the memory circuit." explained the technician as he reached around the side and pulled out a laptop.
"Now how this all started looks like a possible viral hack form an outside source. Maybe a hacker." The technician flipped through the files of the computer and came to the page he had wanted to show the agents when they arrived.
" Its the same hack we saw in other parts of the world. Brazil, Japan, the space station in orbit."
the scientist placed the lap top on the table and faced it to show the agents. " But like France and New York. We found something."
"What do you mean?" said Thompson. Staring at the series of numbers that appeared on the screen.
"Its kinda like a digital fingerprint. The only reason I can think of is because like France and New York. The computer's Internet connection was severed. Thus localizing the computer so that nothing in it could leave. Or enter."
"Okay so whats your hypothesis?" Said the short brown haired man. As he starred at the two gashes on the computer. "Was this a possible hacker, maybe possibly Schaeffer since he knows of our plans, maybe a government agency caught wind, perhaps the feds. Who?
"I believe its an A.I" The tech showed the two agents a number of codes that were still intact but dormant. "Their original signal was disconnected. So before the code could retract back with the source, They were sealed in the memory banks of the computer."
"What do you mean this is a A.I.?" asked Connors "Is it like the one were creating?"
The tech closed the screen on the laptop and brought up another screen. Several numbers and jargeld words filled the screen. The tech highlighted a signal character and enlarged it. It revealed a eye shaped pattern with 4 lines in it. " This program makes our A.I. Look like tinker toys".
Thompson realized what the symbol was. "It is Schaeffer." The tall slender agent pulled out a cigarette from his coat pocket. "He used a symbol like this in all of his work."
"Whats it mean" asked Connors.
"That's between him and his wife." Thompson stated as he lit his cigarette. "What of the finger print? Can we use to our advantage to locate him and the girl?"
"Unfortunately not in its present state." The tech answered. As he brought up the codes again and started to shift through the many different symbols and numbers. "This is only a copy of the original, The A.I. Must of figured out that some one was on to it and decide to create several copies of its self to store through the other supercomputer's." The technician pulled out a P.D.A. and tapped on the file. Videos. A screen came on showing similar labs and Supercomputer's. Their were pictures of robotic spiders and pictures of strange orbs that apperad to be made of liquid metal.
"Their was piece's of it stored in the other 3 computers. The one in New York held the most code that we saw. The one in France held more specifically all of its functions and parameters, What it could do and such." as the technician explained to Connors who had a confused look on his face. "And now we have these. Its main codes."
Thompson took a puff from his cigarette and turned around to face the tech. "Mr. Estrada will want to know if you can extract information from It to learn the location of the rest of Miss Shaffer's family. What do you intend to tell him?"
The tech pulled out a flash drive from the laptop and handed it to the agents. "Thats why you are here." Connors took the flash drive and placed it in a metal suitcase. He then pulled out a pair of hand cuffs and cuffed the suit case to his wrist.
"With those code we can restore the A.I. I also intend to upgrade it to not only remove the bugs, but also use it to not only find Schaeffer and his daughter. But find Both Lyoko and Carthage. The keys to Project Zion."
The two agents and the short fat man started to walk out as other members of the team and the security squad started to pack things away and began to pull away from the base.
A security officer walked toward the two agents and removed his helmet.
"Explosives are armed and ready. When the bombs go off; Not a single piece of evidence will be left of this place."
"And hopefully unlike the installation in New York, no one will notice." explained Connors as he he watched the other members of the team load all the equipment in their vehicles and prepare to move out.
"The F.B.I. Already suspect we exist. It would be a shame to leave more evidence."
The teams loaded into their vehicles and drove off away from the base. Not leaving a single piece of evidence behind.
20 minutes later the base exploded in a large fire ball. The main building and the surrounding labs collapsed and vanished in the shock wave.
When the explosion subsided, their was no sign that the base had been sabotaged. Only that the explosion was caused by faulty wiring in the electrical system...no one would suspect that it was intended to hide the worst threat man would ever know...
--
Washington D.C./ the J. Edgar Hoover building/ FBI headquarters
The office was busy that mourning. Secretary's were walking back and forth filing info for the
bureau. They were filing info from terrorists. To a recent spree of former computer labs around the world exploding with out a trace. Two agents walked toward a board room. One sported black hair and dark tan skin. He also sported a black mustache. The other was a little shorter than the other. He was a muscular, short curly haired man with a light skin complexity. The two walked with a large stack of folders. They were investigating the number of laboratories around the world that were being destroyed one by one. The two walked in the conference room and sat down. The conference hadn't started yet so the deputy director and the director had yet to arrive.
"Well here we are"said the muscular man. As he sat down in his chair. "We don't have nothing or anything to support your theory Travis, and you know that Mr. Mueller will look at you for a reason as to why."
"I know, I know George" said the tall man as he poured him self a glass of water. "After 7 months of investigating and all we come up with is a few possible leads."
Travis took a drink from his water and opened one of the folders marked Brazil. "Forget asking why. He might just go ahead and demote us all the way down to janitor's"
"Well we did find one possible lead between the labs and Mal-tech industries." Said Travis.
George flipped open his cell phone and shut it off as he waited for the senior officials to arrive.
"So how was the date with Kasey??" George asked as he leaned towards Travis.
" I didn't go." Travis said.
"What!? Man thats the 3rd girl in a year I set you up with and you stand them up, why?"
"Well you know I have my reasons." Travis said. "I mean I just feel like its wrong."
"Its been 23 years Travis. I think its time to move on. And I think they would agree." George said as he pointed toward the sky.
"OK MOM!" Travis joked. Causing George to hit him softly in the shoulder.
The bored room doors opened and the director and deputy director entered the room with other senior officials.
Director Robert Swan Mueller entered the room first. He was a slender older gentle man who was nominated as director of the FBI in 2001. just one week before September 11th so he had seen his fare share of what it means to run the F.B.I
Next to enter was deputy director John Pistole a younger man with reddish brown hair. He was a senior official and had done quiet a great deal in his time as second in command.
The director and the deputy director sat down as every one finished with their greetings and hellos
"Okay agent Travis Dalesman, and agent George Knight. You two have had several months to investigate the number of computer labs that have been destroyed in the United states as well as in various other countries.. These labs where property of the U.S. Military, and you were assigned to help other intelligence agency's investigate similar events with similar laboratories. Some areas have included. Lab 781 in the Brazilian rainforest's. The two labs in France, the lab in Russia. And the more recent lab in New Mexico. Not to mention the apparent unsuccessful destruction of the lab in New York."
The deputy director then leaned toward the mike and spoke clearly. "Gentle man as you know the CIA is also currently launching a investigation as is other intelligence agencies around the world. What have you found so far gentlemen"
Agent Travis stood up and picked up a file and started to pass documents down the table to the other gentle meant the end of the room.
"Well were to start. First off as every one knows these labs were used to house several supercomputers that have since maintained different functions ranging from the Internet, to military defense networks. Well so far we have reports of 8 different computer's reporting via their Internet connection, A shut down of some unknown reason, and then about 16 hours later we get a report that the lab and its computer have been destroyed before we can investigate the matter ."
Agent Knight then turned on a projector and showed a picture of several of the labs prior to their random explosion.
"Each lab was constructed and partially owned by Mal-Tech industries. One of the leading computer and electronics developers of the modern age, They have been in business since the late 70's. They claim that they did not receive any indication that one of their facilities had been destroyed. So naturally we felt that they might have been hiding something on the matter. We did find that the computers were originally built by a team of lead scientist from all around the globe. And two of the main scientist were Waldo Schaeffer and Antea Hopper. Waldo was born in Los Angeles , California in 1968. While Antea was born in San Jose California in 1979."
Travis then pulled up a picture of Waldo and Antea. On the screen was a picture of a slim man with glasses and a beard and to his left was a young woman with long pink hair smiling as if she didn't have a care in the world.
"As you know Waldo Schaeffer was the scientist who unraveled the information from the Vorseas project that was discovered in the Alaskan wilderness. He deciphered it using tactics that as far as we know where practically out of this world." Travis said as he switched over to another photo of Waldo in more recent years, a little more huskier and older looking.
"He was later contracted by the US, British, French, and Japanese to help in the development of what would come to be called the world wide web." George than flipped through a file that was sitting next to him and handed it to the director and his board. "He then claimed to of created the first A.I."
"Wait, he claimed to create an A.I.?" the deputy director peered over the file as he stared at the agents.
"You mean a artificial intelligence?" The deputy director had a smug look on his face; He knew that A.I's were only found in science fiction and not in a time like the early 80's he was a little hesitant to believe what he had just heard.
"Thats correct sir. He named it Zeus. After the Greek god."
"Okay enough with the history lesson. Were does the labs, Mal-tech and Schaeffer fit in" said the director with a firm look in his face.
Travis took another drink from his water as he stood up and took over for George. He knew that the director and his staff was not happy. He knew they wanted a name and a reason as to who or what was blowing up the computer labs and as to why.
" On May 3rd 1985, They gave birth to their newborn daughter. Aelita Rose Schaeffer. After their daughter was born, Waldo contacted the FBI and enlisted into the witness protection program. He never revealed why, only that his life and the lives of his wife and newborn daughter was at risk. He claimed that he was working on a project for Mal-Tech and claimed that they were after a goal that might lead to a catastrophe on a global scale" Travis then showed every one the file and the name of the agent who was in charge of hiding the family. And also brought up a picture of the agent.
He was a older looking gentleman about the age of the director. Yet he had a receding hair line, a wrinkled and grizzled face, and also a small mustache. His eyes were wide and full. Like he was staring at a criminal when the photo was taken.
"His name is Frank Morse. He was in charge of relocating the family to the mountains of northern Colorado. They were their for 5 years under Miss Schaeffer's maiden name, Hopper. But then somehow. In 1991 Miss Schaeffer was apparently kidnapped. By who we don't know.."
"She was never seen again?" one of the other men in the room asked.
"Thats correct. She has yet to have been located."
"Proceed Mr knight." The director said
"Around that time the family relocated to a location only the CIA knew, Blaming us for the leak, allowing Miss Schaeffer to dissapear. Two months later Agent Morse retired and has resided in Colorado. Waldo Schaeffer and his 12 year old daughter dissapeard 3 years later. Their were abouts are unknown."
"So whats the point." asked the director. " I enjoyed the history lesson one of of the worlds two most brilliant and mysterious minds dissapearing but whats the catch?"
"Every lab that was destroyed was a lab that the Schaeffer family helped construct. They built them while contracted with Mal-tech. Every piece of metal and circuit he created." explained Travis as he looked uneasy, sweat was dripping down his face as he realized that he wasn't impressing the chiefs of staff.
The director looked at them And frowned. "Jesus Travis. I send you to investigate a possible terrorist act and what you bring me is a conspiracy involving a family?"
George then interrupted, "Well we felt it was a rare thing as well. But we felt we should bring it up either way. I mean.."
"You mean what? That were looking at a case involving A. an artificial intelligence. B the Vorseas project. And C. the biggest leak that both the CIA and FBI have ever had. The dissaperence of a whole family under witness protection."
"Yes I do. We feel that this is a case that has been happening in the past few years. And that further study of the Schaeffer case may reveal something." Explained Travis.
The director looked at the evidence. It was a shot in the dark but what the agents had came up with did have support. But the question was. Was it enough to weigh in.
"Okay heres the deal." The director started in "Study the case and see if theirs any connections but for god sakes.. Please be careful, Most agents call it a cursed file because 2 agents who investigated it died in a car crash and its caused former agent Morse to become a alcoholic. Understood?"
"Yes sir" said the two agents at the same time.
"Dismissed"
In the hall George patted Travis on the back as They both agreed to go to lunch first. Then to retrieve the file.
"You know you and this case have something in common" said George
"Yeah I noticed, May 3rd "
Travis looked down at the blue colored metal ring around his right finger. Had it been that long?