Orbital Disruption Read online

  “No,” Dennis replied. “Eddie had kids and was always talking about them. But I didn’t, I just had…”

  Dennis looked up. “Mittens.”

  “You had a kid named ‘Mittens’?” Tabitha asked, one eyebrow raised.

  “No, I had a cat named Mittens. That was Eddie’s joke - he told me Mittens was my kid when I gave him grief about his.”

  Tabitha typed on her keyboard.

  “Yep, ‘Mittens’ worked,” Tabitha declared. “It’s decrypting.” She added, “Big file, gonna take a while on this slow-assed piece of junk.”

  “Mittens,” Molly repeated. I didn’t know you had a cat named Mittens.”

  Dennis shrugged.

  Dennis walked to the kitchen to refill his coffee mug. When he returned he found Molly and Tabitha staring at the monitor.

  “Whoa, Dennis,” Tabitha said, still looking at the screen. “You need to take a look at this.”

  Dennis walked over and looked at the screen. A list of file names were scrolling by as they were decrypted and uncompressed from the archive.

  “That looks like someone’s source code repository,” Dennis muttered.

  Tabitha launched a second terminal window and opened one of the files in a text editor. It was obviously a source code file. And prominently featured at the top of the page was a notice that started “Copyright Excelsior Launch Systems” and included a full page of legal disclaimers.

  “Holy shit, I think Eddie just sent us Excelsior’s source code,” Molly whispered.

  “Jesus. This is nuts,” Dennis replied. He swept his hair back from his face. “Why would he do this?”

  “Maybe he’s defecting - he wants to leave Excelsior and thinks we’ll hire him if he brings us their source code,” Tabitha suggested.

  “What? And get sued into oblivion? We’d never do that’. I’d never do that. Eddie knows I’d never do that. And I can’t believe Eddie Morton would steal their code. That’s not like him.”

  “Well,” Tabitha replied. “That’s what it looks like to me.”

  The mind had left the convoy an hour ago when it took the exit for California State Highway 152 to Gilroy. It ignored the large sign announcing that Gilroy was the home of an annual garlic festival. When it merged onto the 101 it found traffic too thick and with too many human drivers to be able to safely form a new convoy. Instead it travelled with the traffic, a single fish in a large undulating school.

  Now as the giant hangars of Moffett Field came into view, it left the highway for good. It was close to its destination.

  Another riff of drums and guitar. Dennis picked up his phone. It was Eddie. This time he accepted the request for two-way video.

  “What the actual fuck, Eddie! Are you nuts?” Dennis exclaimed.

  “Listen, Dennis. I need to talk to you but it’s not safe right now,” Eddie said, his voice a harsh whisper. He was walking along a sidewalk, his eyes scanning from side to side.

  “Not safe?! No shit, Eddie!” Dennis shouted. The rest of his colleagues looked at him with concern.

  “Did you seriously just send me all of Excelsior’s source code? What is this? Are you trying to sell them out to me?”

  “No,” Eddie objected. “I mean yes. I mean, yes, that’s our code but I’m not selling them out. It’s something bigger than that.”

  “I don’t understand, Eddie. What the fuck is going on?”

  “I didn’t either, Dennis. I just thought we were losing ships. Harsh conditions and all.”

  “What?” Dennis asked.

  “We launched almost 50 ships, Dennis. And two thirds were lost. That’s a high attrition rate, yeah?”

  “Yeah, but what…” Dennis started to ask but was cut off.

  “But they weren’t lost, Dennis.” Eddie interjected. “There’s something much bigger going on.”

  The mind knew it was close to its rider. It had reached the pickup address but its queries to the dispatch server were still being rejected. The mind wasn’t worried, though. It had fallback options. In the passenger profile was the device identifier for the passenger’s smartphone. The mind knew that the identifier would be broadcast to the mobile phone network regularly so it listened and… yes, there it was. The passenger was just a few blocks away. The mind stopped at an intersection, waited for a woman pushing a stroller to clear the crosswalk and turned right. There along the side of the road, walking away from it was a person whose location closely matched the direction that the cellular signal was coming from. The mind couldn’t be certain, though, so it flashed its headlights to get the pedestrian’s attention. After a few flashes the pedestrian turned his head and the mind was able to see his face. Yes, this was the passenger. The mind rolled up toward the pedestrian and sent a signal to unlock its doors.

  “I don’t understand why that’s so important,” Dennis said. “Or why you felt the need to send us a very illegal copy of Excelsior’s code. What’s going on, Eddie?”

  “I don’t know everything, Dennis, but I know it’s really big. I can’t tell you everything right now. It’s not safe. But the code is proof that Ruben is up to something. His own private fleet. He ran it right under all of our noses, Dennis, hidden in plain sight.”

  “I need a little more than that, Eddie,” Dennis said.

  “I know, but I can’t tell you over the phone,” Eddie stopped walking and held the phone up to his face. “I need to meet you.”

  “Ok, where are you, Eddie,” Dennis asked.

  “Not far from home,” Eddie replied. “But I can’t meet here. I’ll tell you more soon but I need to know you believe me.”

  “Ok, Eddie. I believe you,” Dennis said without hesitation. Eddie was a lot of things, but he wasn’t a bad guy and he wasn’t a bullshitter.

  “Thank you, Dennis. I knew I could trust you,” Eddie said, visibly relieved. “I’ll be in touch again soon.”

  Despite the shaky video, Dennis could clearly see a light blue taxi pull up behind Eddie and blink its headlights.

  “Sure, Eddie. I’ll wait to hear from you.” Dennis reassured. “Now, I think your taxi is here.”

  A look of confusion crossed Eddie’s face. “But I didn’t…”

  Eddie turned around, the screen briefly flared with static and the call stopped.

  “Eddie?” Dennis asked. He hit redial but the call went directly to Eddie’s voicemail.

  Dennis shrugged his shoulders.

  “What was that all about?” Molly asked.

  “I don’t know. Eddie is pretty worked up about something that Excelsior’s up to. It has something to do with their source code and some of the ships they lost but it didn’t make any sense. And he’s acting really paranoid - he wouldn’t tell me much just now. I guess we’re going to have to wait until he calls me back.

  Mike and Ricky returned to their workbench. Molly resumed the orbital calculations she was performing. Dennis noticed that Tabitha was still poring over the Excelsior source code and walked over to join her at the burner PC.

  “Any idea what Eddie might have been trying to tell us?” Dennis asked Tabitha.

  Tabitha gave a monosyllabic “sh!” but otherwise ignored Dennis.

  Dennis knew better than to try to distract Tabitha when she’d decided to focus on something. He shrugged his shoulders and went back to his desk.

  Twelve

  Marie Renault walked up the broad concrete steps of the C Street entrance of the Department of the Interior building in Washington, DC. Just inside the lobby she was approached by a tall woman with black hair, a dark suit and a wide smile.

  “Dr. Renault?”

  “Yes, please call me Marie,” she answered and extended her hand.

  The other woman shook her hand and replied, “I’m Jessica Stewart. Please just call me Jessica.”

  Jessica handed Marie an ID badge. “Welcome to the Department of the Interior and welcome to STETSON.”

  Marie clipped the badge to the end of a lanyard she wore around her neck where it joined
her Federal Reserve badge. Jessica turned and walked toward a security station with a metal detector and Marie followed.

  After passing through security in silence, Marie looked again at her new badge with a bison seal prominently displayed in the background.

  “Why Interior?” Marie asked. “Wouldn’t STETSON belong in Defense or Commerce? I thought Interior dealt with indigenous people and wildlife?”

  Jessica smiled. “STETSON doesn’t actually sit under any of the executive agencies - we’re a cross-agency function that reports directly into the National Security Council. But several of us have offices here at Interior. It helps with the cover story, too.”

  “Cover story?” Marie asked as they stepped into an elevator.

  Jessica started to answer but then a man stepped into the elevator with them. They rode up in silence.

  After reaching their floor, and walking down a quiet hallway, Jessica stopped at a plain door. Marie noted that the sign plate said “Rural Technology Initiative”. Jessica held the door open for Marie.

  Once inside, Jessica continued. “Welcome to my office. As I was starting to say earlier, we’re not a clandestine agency like the CIA but it’s best if we keep a low profile. Part of our funding comes through an initiative to use unmanned aerial vehicles - drones - to help ranchers manage cattle out west. That program is run out of Interior so in addition to some money, we also get a little office space here. And it’s the sort of cover story that doesn’t attract attention.”

  “I see,” Marie said with more than a trace of hesitancy in her voice.

  “Don’t worry,” Jessica reassured her. “You’ll get used to it. Being away from the spotlight is quite liberating - we can actually get shit done. Pardon my French.”

  Marie raised an eyebrow.

  “Sorry! Just a figure of speech,” Jessica quickly clarified. “No offense!”

  “None taken,” Marie laughed.

  “Ok, then let’s get down to business,” Jessica suggested, taking a seat. “Please tell me what it was that you said to Caroline O’Rourke that got her so worried.”

  Marie took her laptop out of her bag and powered it on.

  “It’s best if I show you, I think.”

  “Wow. That’s disturbing indeed. I can see why Caroline wanted you to come talk with me,” Jessica said after Marie finished her presentation.

  “Caroline told me you were involved in the aerospace industry,” Marie said. “If someone is planning to drop a hypervelocity object into the Atlantic Ocean then they would almost certainly require some exceptional aerospace capabilities, no?”

  “Indeed,” Jessica agreed. She steepled her fingers and thought for a moment.

  “It would have to be one of the asteroid mining companies. They’re the only ones who could get an asteroid of any significant size into a near-Earth orbit without arousing suspicion,” Jessica concluded.

  “Are there many such firms?” Marie asked.

  “There are a dozen companies that claim to be doing asteroid mining,” Jessica answered, “and more starting up every month. But only a handful are serious. Mitsubishi is the biggest and best known but we don’t believe they’re planning to actually bring an asteroid back to Earth.”

  “They’re not bringing back an asteroid?” Marie asked.

  In response Jessica tapped a few keys on her laptop and then turned it around to face Marie. It was a photograph of a dark grey oblong sphere against a field of stars. It was grainy, probably due to extreme magnification, but Marie could clearly see geometric shapes on one part of the asteroid. It was hard to get a sense for scale but she assumed it was large.

  “Mitsubishi has established a significant automated industrial presence on this big asteroid,” Jessica explained. “At over thirty kilometers in diameter it would be a planet-killer if it ever hit us but it’s far too heavy to move. Instead we believe they’re planning to do the mining and refining in place and just bring the finished metals and water back to Earth orbit.”

  “Oh really?” Marie replied. “I hadn’t heard about any of this.”

  “Mitsubishi hasn’t announced anything publicly but my counterpart in the Japanese Defense Ministry keeps us up to date.”

  “I see,” Marie nodded.

  Jessica turned her computer around again. “Excelsior Launch Systems recently succeeded in capturing a smaller asteroid and started adjusting its orbit but then they lost it due to some kind of accident. And the asteroid they picked, at two hundred meters in diameter probably wouldn’t be quite big enough to cause the destruction your model is predicting.”

  Marie nodded again. “Correct. Close, but we’re probably talking about something three to four hundred meters or above.”

  “The other firms like MinerPlanet, Jovian Resources and Toronto Orbital are all capable in theory but they’re much smaller,” Jessica continued. “Jovian is the only one of the smaller start-ups to get spacecraft to the belt reliably but their fleet lacks the thrust to move a large asteroid around. They don’t have deep pockets so we suspect they’re a technology demonstrator and will sell out to a larger firm soon.”

  “So what do we do next?” Marie asked.

  “You’ve predicted an event that would happen less than a year from now,” Jessica replied. “Given the distances involved that means that whatever is planned is probably already in motion. So we need to redouble our surveillance of the most likely suspects in the industry and hope that someone slips up.”

  Marie nodded and added, “Yes, and I can dig further into the finances. Given the magnitude of the transactions, there’s bound to be a paper trail we can unravel eventually.”

  Jessica started to reply when her phone buzzed. She glanced at the screen. Her facial expression changed from scowl to horror.

  “Oh jesus.”

  “What is it?” Marie asked.

  Jessica scrolled down and then handed her phone to Marie.

  Marie’s read the news headline: “Silicon Valley Rocked by Car Bomb, 1 Dead in Suspected Terrorist Attack”. She looked up at Jessica and asked, “Is this connected?”

  Jessica nodded. “Scroll down. The victim was Eddie Morton. He worked at Excelsior. Someone just assassinated a senior engineer at an asteroid mining firm. Yeah, I’d say it’s connected.”

  “Merde, that’s awful,” Marie muttered, skimming the rest of the article. She handed the phone back to Jessica.

  “Please go next door and see my assistant, Albert Wong,” Jessica said, gesturing in the direction of the next office. “He’s expecting you and will get you set up with access to our shared data folders, chatrooms and wiki. He can also get you a temporary desk here at Interior if you want or you can remain at the Fed if that’s easier for you.”

  “I think it’s best if I stay at the Fed,” Marie replied. “I’ve got a good workstation there which I’ll need if I’m going to continue my analysis.”

  “That’s fine,” Jessica concurred. “You’ve got access to this floor here if you need it but we’re a distributed organization so we’re mostly online anyway.”

  Jessica’s phone buzzed again. She glanced at the screen and then stood up.

  “Sorry, Marie, but the shit’s hitting the fan. I’m going to need to make some phone calls.”

  “No problem, Jessica,” Marie answered and stood up as well. The two women shook hands and then Marie turned to leave.

  As Marie was reaching for the door knob, Jessica called after her, “Welcome to STETSON!”

  Thirteen

  Tony’s phone rang. It was resting face down on the conference room table. He pressed the button on the side to silence it.

  Tony’s phone rang again and again he silenced it.

  Tony’s phone rang a third time. Tony flipped the phone over and saw who was calling.

  “Sorry, gentlemen. I’m afraid I need to take this call.”

  The two men on the other side of the conference table nodded. Tony slipped a wireless earpiece into his ear as he left the conference room
.

  Tony had worked for weeks to arrange this meeting with the large Swiss commodities trading firm whose managing partner and head trader were sitting in that conference room. If Jovian was successful, they would bring large quantities of refined metal to low Earth orbit. They would need buyers who could afford to pay in advance, take delivery of large quantities and then resell it without collapsing market prices. The Swiss firm was an expert in this sort of transaction and had a reputation for secrecy. Their managing partner in particular was a hard man to get time with. And Tony had just walked out the door.

  Tony found, however, to his own surprise, that he wasn’t upset at the interruption. Somehow the thought of speaking with Jessica simply outweighed his business concerns. Tony briefly pondered this strange turn of events as he walked down the plush carpeted hallway of the law office and stepped into an empty conference room. Once inside he pressed the “call back” button under the “missed calls” menu.

  “Hello, gorgeous,” Tony said as soon as the line connected.

  “Hi Tony,” Jessica Stewart replied. “Sorry to bother you but this is serious.”

  Tony heard the tone of Jessica’s voice and his smile faded.

  “What’s wrong, Jessica.”

  “Do you remember Edward Morton?” Jessica asked.

  “Edward…. um…” Tony paused. “Oh, Eddie!” he said suddenly as the memory came back. “Yes, Eddie Morton. The skinny, nerdy guy at Excelsior. Sure, I remember Eddie. What’s up with Eddie?”

  “Eddie’s dead, Tony.” Jessica stated in a flat tone. “Someone killed him yesterday.”

  “Oh shit. Wait, what? Why would anybody want to kill Eddie?!”

  “It looks like an assassination, Tony. A car bomb.”

  “A car bomb?! Holy shit! Where was this?”

  “Sunnyvale,” Jessica replied and then added, “California.”

  “Jesus. A car bombing in California? To kill Eddie? That’s… fucked up.”