Orbital Disruption Page 27

  “Yeah, I guess so,” Ricky answered.

  “It should be here any minute if the impact we saw earlier was the big fragment. I’m not sure what to look for but right now I don’t see anything.”

  “Me neither,” Ricky replied.

  A few minutes passed.

  “Oh, cool - I’m streaming again!” Ricky explained.

  “Oh really?”

  Mike took his phone out of his pocket and sure enough it showed four bars - full signal strength. Just as he was about to make a call, his phone chimed to tell him that he had a text message. And then another. And another.

  He read them quickly. Then he read them again.

  “Woo!” he shouted. He turned to Ricky. “Tony says someone nuked the big asteroid fragment that was heading for New York! I think we’re going to be ok!”

  “No kidding,” Ricky replied and have Mike a high five. “And check it out - I’ve got over a thousand people watching my livestream!”

  Thirty-Nine

  Dennis Li decided that he liked this beer garden.

  Jessica had suggested this place, a few blocks north of Washington DC’s Logan Circle neighborhood. Beer gardens could be noisy and often filled with obnoxious people like in any bar but at least there was enough space in between that he didn’t have to endure people spitting on him when they told him about their latest stupid blockchains ideas. And the place seemed unusually quiet tonight, Dennis observed, probably due to much of the local population having not yet returned following the evacuation. Dennis carried a large beer stein in one hand and his phone in the other as he looked around briefly, spotted an empty table near the back, walked over and sat down.

  Dennis flipped through news articles on his phone. Several of them carried a grainy but dramatic picture of one of the fragments impacting in the the ocean that was captured by some kind of weather boat. Dennis didn’t read it. He also saw an article about a smaller fragment striking some bank’s backup datacenter in Secaucus, New Jersey. Ironically, they’d always assumed Manhattan would get hit and Secaucus would be safe.

  There was rampant speculation about the bright flashes many people had seen just before the asteroid debris entered the atmosphere. Several news sites quoted anonymous sources that claimed these were nuclear explosions carried out by some part of the US government to save the world but nobody was making official comments.

  There was absolutely no mention of Jovian Resources, himself or any of his teammates. Dennis harrumphed and put his phone back into his pocket. He took another sip of his beer.

  Molly waved from across the outdoor seating area and Dennis waved back. Sitting down across from him, Molly tipped a bottle against his but didn’t say anything. Dennis nodded back. They each took a sip and sat in companionable silence.

  “Denny!”

  Tony and Jessica strolled in and sat down next to Molly.

  “Hey,” Dennis said, smiled and tapped his stein gently against the martini glasses that Tony and Jessica were each holding.

  Tony started to say something but stopped when he saw Molly smile knowingly and gesture toward the entrance. Dennis and Tony looked to see Esteban and Tabitha walking toward them, hand in hand.

  After a brief flurry of hearty hugs, handshakes and back slaps the six sat down.

  “I’ve got to know,” Tabitha asked Jessica. “Was it the Chinese?”

  “Officially? I can’t comment,” Jessica replied and then winked.

  “Holy cow, there must be a lot of folks at DoD shitting their pants right now,” Esteban stated.

  “And NSA and CIA and a dozen other three-letter agencies,” Jessica confirmed. “Nobody had a clue that anyone had an operational space-based interceptor fleet tipped with tactical nukes. Hiding them in commercial satellites was a coup.”

  “Well, even ignoring the blatant ‘67 Outer Space Treaty violation, what does this do to the balance of power?” Tabitha asked. “Nobody’s going to want to cede the high ground to the Chinese.”

  “I think you’d be surprised at how much the prospect of being smacked with an asteroid by a damn Silicon Valley start-up shook some complacency out of the governments of the major powers.” Jessica explained. “We’re actually getting some real cooperation out of the Chinese, the Russians, the Europeans, even the fucking North Koreans if you can believe it. The STETSON liaison office is very, very busy right now. I won’t get my hopes up too much but maybe we can all agree not to blow each other up for once?”

  Esteban opened his mouth to ask another question when a woman he didn’t recognize walked over to sit next to Jessica.

  “Marie, I’m so glad you could make it!” Jessica exclaimed and then turned to the others and said, “Marie Renault is the analyst at the Fed who traced Ruben St. James’s financial transactions and realized what he was planning.”

  “Oh, I just had a small part,” Marie said and bowed her head slightly, “you all are the heroes who stopped this thing!”

  “Don’t let her modest personality fool you,” Jessica interjected. “Marie’s been promoted to run the Fed’s new AI crimes task force.”

  Marie nodded and smiled. Jessica started to introduce the Jovian team to Marie when Dennis shouted out a loud whoop answered by an even louder whoop from Mike as he limped toward the table on crutches, Ricky followed behind him carrying two large beers.

  “Mike!” Tony shouted and stood up to help Mike take a seat. Molly, Dennis and Tabitha took turns greeting Mike and Ricky before everyone sat down again.

  “How is your leg?” Tony asked. “I didn’t think you’d make it down here!”

  “Aw, it’s fine,” Mike laughed. “I wasn’t going to miss the big celebration on account of a little gunshot wound!”

  Jessica introduced Marie to Mike and Ricky.

  Ricky asked Jessica, “So if Marie figured out it was Ruben from his trading, do you have enough evidence to make it stick? It’s not going to be one of those things where the rich dude walks free, right?”

  “Oh yeah,” Jessica replied. “Not only do we have plenty of evidence to put him away for life on terrorist charges, we’ve got him on fraud, tax evasion and a dozen other crimes. The FBI even got him for soliciting a prostitute! He’s not getting away from this.”

  “Not to mention,” Marie added, “that he borrowed hundreds of millions of dollars to make those trades betting on a huge disaster. And now that the disaster didn’t happen, most of those trades lost money. He owes a lot of money to some really shady people. Maybe even some foreign governments. We’re still unraveling it but I’m pretty sure if he ever gets out of jail here he’d need to be looking over his shoulder for the rest of his life. There’s a pretty good chance he’d end up, how do you say it in New York? Sleeping with seafood?”

  “Oh, you mean, ‘sleeping with the fishes?’” Ricky suggested.

  “Yes, ‘sleeping with the fishes’ is such a good phrase for a guy like Mr. St. James!” Marie agreed.

  “Speaking of shady people,” Mike asked, “what happened to that lady who shot me?”

  “You mean Anna Ivanov,” Jessica explained. “After she and her brother Sergey’s attack on Esteban’s boat the police captured Sergey. He’s got a long rap sheet already and will go away for attempted murder at least. They never found Anna’s body,” Jessica continued. “But we’re pretty sure she drowned while trying to kill Dennis.”

  There was an awkward pause while everyone turned to look at Dennis.

  “Good riddance,” he muttered.

  “Amen, brother,” Mike replied. He tipped his glass against Dennis’s and they both took long drinks.

  “Did the police confirm that she was behind Eddie’s death?” Molly asked.

  “Yeah,” Jessica replied. “They haven’t made an official announcement but FBI forensics traced the robotaxi that they blew up to a vehicle stolen a few months earlier in L.A. by a gang that seems to have had ties to Ivanov’s family. I think it’s pretty safe to say she was behind that part, too.”

 
“Poor Eddie,” Molly sighed.

  “To Eddie,” Dennis answered and raised his glass. “Without him, we wouldn’t have had a chance of breaking Excelsior’s communications.”

  “To Eddie!” the others repeated.

  There was a long pause.

  “Well,” Tony spoke up, breaking the somber silence. “There’s some good news, too. I mean besides the fact that we stopped Ruben’s plot and saved the world.”

  “Oh yeah?” Dennis asked, looking up.

  “Yeah, we’re not going to jail, for one.”

  Dennis smiled. “You know, I’d totally forgotten about that part.”

  “It gets better but there’s a, uh, catch,” Tony continued. “Jessica, do you want to explain?”

  Dennis looked up from his beer. Molly, Mike, Tabitha and Ricky all looked expectantly at Jessica. Marie looked surprised but said nothing.

  “Sure,” Jessica replied. “In return for not bringing charges…”

  “Now wait a second,” Dennis interrupted but Jessica continued.

  “...we’d like to make an equity investment in Jovian Resources and bring you all in as consultants to STETSON.”

  Dennis stopped mid sentence, closed his mouth, opened it again and then closed it.

  Finally he replied. “Investment?”

  “STETSON was formed to keep an eye out for for new threats from emerging technology. But we just about missed this one. We’d have had no chance without you. As decentralized and un-bureaucratic as we are, a government agency just can’t be as agile as a startup. So we’re forming an investment fund to take stakes in companies that are at the forefront of the most promising - and most dangerous - tech. To give us an insider’s perspective.”

  “Well,” Dennis said, regaining his composure, “Tony and I would need to discuss the terms with the team, of course…”

  “Of course,” Jessica smiled. “Just don’t take too long. I hear there’s a plan to set up a new agency to enforce space-based commerce rules. And they’ll take a dim view to piracy.”

  “Hey, we’re not pirates,” Ricky exclaimed. “We’re a legitimate business!”

  Jessica laughed and raised her glass, “to legitimate businesses that definitely aren’t space piracy!”

  Everyone laughed and joined her in a toast.

  “And one more announcement,” Tony said after the toast finished. Grinning broadly and holding Jessica’s hand he continued, “Jessica and I got engaged! With everything going on I haven’t had time to pick out a ring but I told her I couldn’t live without her and I couldn’t wait another day to propose.”

  “And I told him I’d marry him if the world didn’t end - so, here we are!” She laughed and leaned closer to Tony to kiss his cheek.

  “Hear hear!” Dennis shouted. “Congratulations!”

  Everyone joined in to a series of toasts after which Dennis found his stein was empty and his bladder full so he excused himself and got up. After stepping out of the washroom he felt a light, warm glow from the beer combined with the release of the stress of the past few years of hard-fought startup business and especially the intense anxiety of the past few weeks. For once, Dennis felt genuinely relaxed, happy and carefree.

  As he stepped up to the bar he noticed an attractive woman step up next to him. He smiled at her and she smiled back.

  “Can I buy you a drink?” he asked her.

  “Sure, why not!” she replied.

  He asked her what she wanted and then ordered that plus another beer for himself. He left a twenty dollar bill on the bar. While waiting for the bartender to bring the drinks, he tried hard to think of small talk but was at a loss for words. Fortunately for him, the woman spoke up.

  “So, what brings you here tonight?” she asked.

  “I’m here with some friends. To celebrate,” he added.

  “Oh really? What are you celebrating?” she asked.

  “Well, we just stopped an asteroid from killing millions of people and I think my start-up just got funded.”

  The woman laughed.

  “No, I’m serious,” Dennis insisted.

  The bartender deposited their drinks. The woman turned around, picked up her drink and then turned back to Dennis. Her smile had been replaced by a sneer.

  “Nice try. You’re only, like, the third guy who’s tried that line on me tonight!” she huffed and walked away.

  Dennis sighed, picked up his beer, told the bartender to keep the change and walked back to the table to sit down with his friends. He saw that Jessica and Marie had stepped away but the rest of the Jovian crew were all there. Dennis smiled.

  As soon as he was seated, Tony asked, “So Denny, we’re finally getting funded! What’s the plan?

  “Long term?” Dennis replied, “I have no idea.”

  He took a sip. The beer tasked good.

  “But tonight I’m planning to get drunk.”

  Epilogue

  Bob Eustace had been retired from the Rhode Island State Police for almost a decade. He’d left the force at the minimum retirement age because he’d gotten sick and tired of seeing how badly people treated each other. Too many sad sagas. Theft. Abuse. Murder. He just couldn’t take it.

  But he hadn’t had enough years to build up a really good pension so six months after retirement, he’d taken a job as a security guard at the Allen Harbor Marina. It seemed like the sort of job he could do with his eyes closed. If kids came around he’d scold them. If a few softies from the big city got drunk and crashed their expensive boat into a dock? He’d call the cops. The real cops. But it wouldn’t be any worse than that. So he told himself.

  He was standing on the end of C dock where the Anne Bonny had been docked for the past month. It was a twenty-six foot powerboat. Big enough to have a little enclosed cabin and sail around Long Island sound in good weather but not big enough to sail far in the open ocean. Probably twenty years old but reasonably well maintained. Somebody had tied it up at the end of C dock and hadn’t bothered to tell the harbormaster. The harbormaster had left a note on the dashboard above the steering wheel. A couple of notes, actually, Bob noticed. The harbormaster was pretty easy going so he’d just kept leaving notes, about once a week. Finally, when they’d gone unanswered for a month, the harbormaster had called Bob. And here he was, with a small crowbar in hand. He’d looked in through the small portholes that faced the dock but couldn’t see anything in the dim interior. He rapped the crowbar loudly against the fiberglass sliding door that led down into the enclosed cabin.

  “Hey, open up! Security!” he shouted at the door. “I need to talk to you!”

  He waited a moment. Hearing no sound and feeling no movement in the boat he rapped again.

  “Hey, open up or I’m gonna break your lock! It’s gonna be expensive, yeah?”

  He waited another moment and then set the crowbar into the thin gap between the lock and the door frame. The frame was lightweight aluminum and fiberglass - not meant to resist the force of a steel crowbar, even if it had been years since Bob had done any strength training. He barely had to strain before a crack appeared in the frame and the door slid open with a sharp popping sound.

  “Coming in!” Bob said and slid the door the rest of the way open. He ducked his head and stepped inside. The cabin was mostly empty, just a small stove, sink and a pair of bunks that met at the bow in a ‘V’ shape. He’d half expected to find a meth cooking kit or bales of marijuana wrapped in plastic bags. But the cabin was empty except for an odd smell and a strange brownish decorative pattern across the seats and carpet. No, something had been spilled here. Or rather, splashed. Paint, perhaps? Suddenly a memory came to him from one of the worst cases he’d worked back up in Providence a few years ago. Two gangs had been fighting a turf war and one of them had raided the apartment where a member of the other gang lived and knifed him, leaving the body to bleed out quietly on the kitchen floor. The neighbors hadn’t found it for days and the smell of the blood…

  Bob was up on the dock, heaving hi
s breakfast into the water of Narragansett Bay when the harbormaster came jogging down the dock, something which his exceptional girth indicated he rarely did.

  “Bob!” the harbormaster shouted as he got closer. “Bob, the cops are on their way, don’t go into the boat!”

  Bob looked up but didn’t speak. His stomach was still clenching and it was all he could do not to faint and fall into the water.

  “Bob!” the harbormaster said, slowing to a brisk walk as he approached. “I called the cops this morning to report the boat and they said it’s stolen - was reported missing from somewhere down near Fairfield a few weeks ago. It’s a crime scene so you shouldn’t go in.”

  “Too late,” Bob finally said, standing up and wiping a bit of something foul from his lip onto his jeans. “And it’s way worse than a boat theft,” he added with a sigh. “I think there’s been a murder.”

  Acknowledgments

  Few things are ever really accomplished by one person on their own. This is especially true of writing one’s first novel.

  Among the many people who have helped me along the way, three stand out: Mike McCool, author of Sleepernet and a fellow software engineer, provided invaluable editing and advice on self-publishing. Chrissy at Damonza.com somehow captured my vision of a cover with just a few words of description. Most of all, this story would simply not exist without two years of enthusiastic encouragement and honest feedback from my dear friend, Bernie Prat. Thank you all.

  Finally, to all of my language arts teachers who insisted that literature would someday be important to me - even though I’d already set my sights on a career in math, science and engineering - you were right. Thank you.

  About the Author

  Andrew Brook is a software engineer with experience in AI, finance, cloud computing and startups. He currently resides in San Francisco with his wife, a structural engineer, and their three cats - all of which are named for Japanese foods that start with the letter ‘M’.