Guardian Program

Guardian Program Ch 13

A novel by R.C.PeterGabriel. All rights reserved.

That same afternoon, the Secretary of Defense, sat looking around the conference table, watching as aides moved in and out of the room, and tried to determine who was missing.

"Would you care for something to eat, Sir?" his aide asked as she set a cup of coffee in front of him.

"No, none for me, at least not just yet. Thank you though.

"On second thought, go ahead and have enough food and drink for fifteen brought in. It is ... Sixteen thirty now, and I'm not sure how long the meeting will last."

"How soon, Sir?"

"Right away, as soon as everyone is here we seal the room."

A few minutes later he watched as SECAF Faning entered the room and took one of the two empty seats. A full bird colonel, and a major close on his heels. "Just have it on my desk first thing, Major. Colonel, the situation never should have gotten to that point. Find out where the ball was dropped and fix it. Dismissed, both of you.

"I apologize, Sir. Were you waiting on me?"

"You and one more, General," stated the Secretary of Defense.

"Anderton, Henderson is your boy, where is he?"

"My understanding is that he's in the building. He should be here in ten minutes or less," stated General Anderton. "It would seem, he came in through the wrong entrance, it's a long walk from there."

The SECDEF allowed himself a few rare minutes of distraction and watched as the staff brought in the food. Six people, four women, and two men moved as a group, almost militarily. Glancing at the clock above them he noticed it took them less than five minutes to set a banquet with enough food for thirty, including a choice of four beverages. He sighed to himself thinking of all of the meetings that had been catered, and that they all had far more food than was needed. He assumed to give people a choice. Every one of them had the food standing by, along with staff to rush it in at a moment's notice. How many millions of dollars had he spent over the years on nothing but food? What had happened to the wasted portions? Were they at least donated to the local soup kitchens? He told himself he would look into it.

As the caterers were exiting the room, a harried thirty-something, wearing an off-the-rack suit, was attempting to enter against the flow. Once inside he nervously approached the only remaining chair, while glancing wide-eyed at the high ranking of most everyone else in the room.

"Sit down Mr. Henderson, I'm not going to have you shot for being a few minutes late."

The SECDEF made a few universally understood hand gestures and one of the overly abundant aides set a glass of water in front of Henderson. "You look like you're about to have a stroke. Relax, we'll get started in a few minutes." The others at the table took the statement to mean, 'Finish what you're doing', and the population of the room began to trickle out in ones and twos.

Once empty except for those at the table, the room was sealed. "Now, is there anyone in this room who is not a member of the Guardian Program?" Several heartbeats went by while everyone visually identified those around them.

"Okay, although this is an informal meeting, we all know we're risking expulsion from the program by discussing it. Does anyone wish to leave?"

No one seemed eager to leave except the latest arrival. "Mr. Secretary, I am not planning on leaving but I would like to state that I think this is a mistake."

"How so, Mr. Henderson?"

"Well for one, it violates our contracts or at least mine and I have a family. I don't wish to leave them fatherless because of a few words on a piece of paper. Could we at least activate our 'Black Knights'?

"The room is hardwired with several Mr. Henderson, but if it makes you feel any better, we all can." With that, the cell phones of everyone in the room came out, and the privacy icons were activated.

"Jack," began Allen McKinney. "It was your reading that proved Smith can't see past the jammers. Do you remember the floor plan I asked you for that had a 'bubble' in what all you readers call 'the white wall'?

"Yes, the al Qaeda warehouse."

"I put a Black Knight in a car, at the exact location you showed to be the center of the 'bubble'. Smith's own tech couldn't see through it. You're safe from him."

"I suspected that but wasn't sure. That, however, doesn't mean we aren't violating the contracts. I want to be on record that I'm here because I was ordered to be here, not because I think it's alright to cheat whenever I know I can't get caught."

"Duly noted Mr. Henderson," replied the SECDEF. "However, this is an informal meeting to coordinate intel. We need to find out more about this tech of Smith's to decide whether or not it's a threat to this country or our allies. That being said, no records are being kept to note your complaint but we all admire your integrity and courage for speaking out.

"While I'm thinking about it, I would like to thank you for the expedient intel. You saved several lives and are responsible for the capture of at least two al Qaeda members who would have escaped if we hadn't known about the tunnels.

"That is the kind of thing that gets non-program members noticed and awarded medals. Unfortunately, our thanks will be all you get."

Jack took a drink of water to hide his embarrassment, before saying, "I appreciate your acknowledgment Mr. Secretary, but I was just doing my job."

The SECDEF smiled and gave Henderson a nod. "Okay, gentleman, we've all had the chance to play with these 'Black Knights', as Smith calls them. Are there any ideas for using the tech for something other than privacy?"

SECAF Faning, spoke up first, "One application we've been working on is stealth. The concept is that we could cover all our aircraft in what would amount to a stealth bubble. This would allow us to fly anywhere in the world and not be concerned with detection, except for visual and to a small extent sounding stations..."

Jack Henderson raised his hand.

"This isn't a classroom Henderson," stated the SECDEF. "Speak up if you have something to say."

"Well, I needed to know why the Air Force felt that sounding stations would be of a reduced concern. My experience is that sound passes readily through the white wall'. Meaning sound isn't affected by the Black Knight."

Faning responded. "From discussions with our reader, we think that what you're hearing is sound that may have originated outside the white wall, but was inside when the file was created, not sound passing through. Although, on the surface, it may be the same thing because every moment of a file seems to be like a whole new file. We've been experimenting with sound using vehicles from cars to F-18s, as well as people. From outside the radius of protection, sound is so reduced in volume and distorted so badly on any recording device that it is more or less unusable. An airplane flying past a sounding station with an active Black Knight is detected but the location is impossible to determine. Our computers show the aircraft as far as twenty-five miles off course and it seems to bounce around so fast in every direction and altitude that the operators were convinced the plane was an anomaly originating within their equipment. They almost always attempted rebooting.

"In other words, if a plane is detected by a sounding station the operator would have to have the presence of mind to go outside and make a visual check, or at least order it done. At that point, if we're flying at night without lights we are as untouchable as the Blackbird was in its day. You may have known it was or had been there, but you wouldn't be able to do anything about it. Does that answer your concern?"

"Yes. It does, and your assessment of where the sound originates from seems to make sense as well, although, I'm not personally convinced. But that isn't really the issue here. I'd think that you've run into a larger problem, haven't you?"

"Yes, Mr. Henderson, communication with the aircraft is of course impossible. This means we either have no recall capabilities or we turn off the Black Knight before final commitment, which of course makes the aircraft vulnerable to detection and being shot down. It also means we can't coordinate with ground troops or other flights of aircraft.

"We were working on a concept of visual tracking by satellite and communication via laser to the aircraft, and the use of digital semaphore between aircraft or as an uplink to the satellite.

"At this point, we've scrubbed the idea of laser uplink, a plane is too unstable for reliable communication, especially when you start introducing refraction due to humidity and air density issues.

"Navigation also becomes a concern but a well-briefed pilot should be able to reach a target without GPS, they just need to be trained in that kind of flying.

"The Navy has come to the same basic conclusions," interupted SECNAV Martin. "But we haven't given up on the laser uplink for shipboard communication. Quite the opposite, we feel even in a rolling sea, we can achieve near-optimal communication downlink and very close to that uplink.

"Of course, saving a ship from a missile is worth any amount of temporary communication blackout. Therefore, I have already ordered every ship not equipped with a Phalanx System to carry at least one Black Knight, and for it to be automatically engaged at the onset of missile detection. Command is to assume activation of the Black Knight to indicate hostile engagement, and order a response.

"However, we fear that the range is too small to be effective against most missiles, so we are experimenting with increasing power and a means of launching the black knights at the missile to interrupt tracking as soon as possible."

"Do the Marines have anything to add?" Asked Lieber.

General Cook responded with his usual concise report. "Landing exercises have shown benefits, but if left on the Black Knights alert the target of our approach, due to rolling communication blackouts. It does work well if our intent is to knock out communications. We simply wait until we're fully in range before we turn them on."

Homeland Security's Joseph Varrientos had been incensed but trying hard not to throw something. After collecting himself enough to speak without beating the SECNAV, he began. "The tech seems to be working for its intent, but quite frankly, if it falls into the hands of drug lords or terrorists and they figure out the stealth capabilities...simply put we would have no defense.

"Unless we want someone to carry a nuke in whenever they choose, these Black Knights must be as secure as our launch codes. I think giving access to tech, classified as 'Above Top Secret' to every E1 in the Navy is a colossal error. Hardwiring them into every ship is an understandable risk, but launching them like so many clay pigeons is begging for a breach!

"No offense intended Martin, but if you don't lock this down now, you're looking at as massive a mistake as Obama Care. The only difference is, you'll be costing a billion lives instead of dollars!"

"I would have to agree, Martin," stated General Cook. "They need to be locked down."

Heads swiveled to SECDEF Lieber, who hesitated only a moment. "I understand our desire to protect your ships and their seamen, but I have to agree also. You need to lock down the Black Knights. The risk doesn't balance."

"Yes Sir. I will give the order the moment the doors open," replied the SECNAV.

"Good. Are there any other concerns or suggestions for the Guardian Program tech?" asked Lieber.

"Most definitely, Mr. Secretary," stated John Deckard. "The reason I requested this meeting is to bring to light some ... concerns. Smith has tech we have no understanding of."

Deckard motioned to Allen McKinney, who started passing out copies of the Sims autopsy that Smith had provided and then the one from the Las Vegas coroner.

"What is being handed out are two autopsies. Both are for one William Sims, who before his death was to be the program's reader for the CIA. The first was not only compiled and delivered to Mr. McKinney by Bridge Security in under two hours after Mr. Sims' death but there is information in it that was not obtainable through normal means. In fact, the Vegas coroner refuted some of Smith's information several times. It wasn't until slides were made of a tiny abrasion on Sims' penis, and the slides were looked at manually could Smith's claims be confirmed.

"What I'm alluding to is the notation of 'recently acquired HIV'. Sims had less than fifty infected cells in his body.

The Director of the FBI, Rudolph James spoke up. "It could simply have been a guess."

"Umm ..." Jack Henderson began. "I haven't had the chance or the desire to do it, but Smith claimed he could read a small enough file at the molecular level. If that is true, reading a cell structure would be a piece of cake."

Chatter broke out in the room, with the implications and subdued denials of belief.

"As unbelievable as that may seem that isn't the scary part gentlemen," Deckard stated with a slightly raised voice. He continued once he had regained everyone's attention. "If you will notice the cause of death. Dissecting aortic aneurysms are rare and don't usually occur in someone without extreme arterial plaque. Sims suffered one at the very second, he had violated security protocols. McKinney and I feel that an automated lethal countermeasure was used to cause his death."

SECDEF Lieber spoke, "So, you're saying that not only can Smith read us to the molecular level, he can manipulate things within the body and use it to kill from a distance?"

Deckard let the question hang in the air for several moments before answering. "Honestly Sir, I believe the answer is, yes. The question, however, is can he do it anywhere, or only in a controlled environment like the reading facilities?"

Once again chatter broke out, but this time voices were rising and an air of concern became obvious.

Standing up and almost shouting became necessary for Deckard to regain control.

"Gentlemen! Gentlemen! Please, that isn't all," he continued while returning to his seat. "I have no way to adequately describe the next issue.

"Along with the autopsy McKinney received a CD with the last hour or so of Sims' life and several minutes after.

"No, I can't produce it. It was required that we destroy it as per protocol, and quite frankly what was on it left me with no doubt as to what would have happened if I hadn't.

"Anyway, the disk started with Sims in the bed of a hooker. We couldn't fathom how Smith could manage to get a camera into her bedroom, then the perspective started to move with Sims ... It followed him from room to room and then outside. We watched the whole route back to the reading facility, while Sims went up to his apartment, and back down to the secure area. We then watched as he set off the lethal countermeasures, his panic, and his execution. After he died, the show continued with a team of very well-trained commandos removing his body from the facility and very publicly presenting it to the Las Vegas authorities.

"I realize from talking to several readers that getting impossible images is the main crux of the Guardian Program's phase two, but no one had yet described what viewing a file was like. However, none of the readers I have spoken to, have ever seen one where the file was centered on a person, and not a location."

All the heads swiveled in Henderson's direction. "Um ... I ... I have never seen a file like that, however, I have taken images from a file and downloaded them to disk for dissemination. Floor plans, as you know, fingerprints, photographs, etcetera so the only difference would be that the file in question was centered on a person.

"I still can't believe I can walk around inside a building and look inside file cabinets and safes without actually being there. The concept that Smith could do what he claimed he could do is still mind-blowing to me. I've watched a file reassemble shredded documents as easily as I can drop something on the floor. So, a file centered on a person is not outside the context of what I've already seen."

Heads swiveled again, this time to the Secretary of Defense. "Okay, so everything Smith said he could do is apparently accurate. On the one hand, I find it rather refreshing for a government contractor to follow through with a promise. On the other, his ability to kill from a distance is something we need to get a handle on."

Deckard spoke. "We don't know yet if that ability is a real threat or not. The only time we've seen it done was inside a facility that may or may not have had specialized equipment designed solely for that purpose. For all we know, it was a complete coincidence. Personally, I don't think so but we simply don't know."

"Very effective deterrent I would say," Pointed out General Cook. "We all sign contracts agreeing to be executed for dispersing knowledge of the program ... Not that big a deal, a little over the top, but similar to all the other top secret information we handle. If we do spread the information we're committing treason. The best we can hope for is the loss of our pension and being sent home in disgrace, or worst case we're sent to Cuba and never heard from again.

"With Smith, we sign because no one believes instant death is possible, and we don't plan on being treasonous anyway, so we have nothing to lose.

"Smith sends a CD that implies he can follow through with the threat. Now none of us are even remotely willing to approach him with questions of whether or not he can do it, because the contract states that attempting to gain that knowledge is punishable by 'removal from the program'.

"If we attempt to detain him or 'remove him from the program', we die. If he feels our tinkering with the Black Knights, is getting too close to 'seeking knowledge of how they work', we die. If we ask him how they work or what he is capable of doing, we die.

"We can't analyze the contents of the CD, because it needed to be destroyed to prevent Deckard and McKinney from being killed.

We simply don't know if the threat is real and we can't find out without sacrificing one or all of us.

"Yes, gentlemen, Smith has come up with the perfect threat deterrent. If he decides to make use of his threat, he could own this country without firing a single shot."

The room went silent for almost five full minutes, while the implications of Cook's statement sank in. Scenarios of all types were milled through the imaginations of the county's top professionally paranoid minds.

"If we can't get the information directly," began SECDEF Lieber, "we have to get it covertly. Deckard, James, these are your areas. We need assets inside Smith's head. What do we have?"

"Nothing," both men stated at the same time.

"Every attempt," continued Deckard. "And I mean every attempt to place someone in or even near Bridge Security, or any of Smith's known businesses, has failed. Smith even went so far as to send the employment rejection letters to the handlers of some of our plants. I don't know how he does it."

"He's accessing your computers," stated Henderson. "Simply put, if you have any reference to your plant as being employed by either of your organizations in any database, anywhere, Smith will know they're plants."

"We'd know if your systems had been hacked," stated Anderton confidently.

"I didn't say 'hacked', I said 'accessed'," countered Henderson. "I don't know how, but he can copy the files from any device without connecting to it. Like reading a newspaper, you don't have to actually touch a paper to read it."

"If that is true, we have no options, and no way of gaining any," stated James.

"I think I may be able to help with that too," Henderson informed them with a grin.