Chapter 1
The White House; Washington, DC; USA.Thursday; 6:37AM…
“…Madam President, Dr. Greene has arrived,” the young aide informed; yet clutching the doorknob as she only partially opened the door to the Oval Office.
“Thanks, Justine,” President Brenda Diaz curtly said.The sixty-ish politician looked the classic, political part:professional blouse-suit with a pearled necklace, hair manicured to the shoulders…
The scruffy-looking hipster scientist-agent with the thick glasses walked through the door that the young aide held open.President Diaz got up from behind the famed Oval Office’s desk and rounded it to shake Dr. Greene’s hand.
“Madam President,” he said with a slight smile; his laptop satchel on his person.
“Dr. Greene…”The president gave him an inquisitive look.“Doctor, of all the times I read or hear about you from the Department, it’s always and only ‘Dr. Greene’...”
“Yes, Ma’am,” Greene affirmed; indicating that was how he preferred it, apparently!Even the president of the United States wasn’t going to push him on the matter.Still…
“Doctor, I finally read your report on your last mission when you were out in Chile,” she said after indicating she wanted him to sit in one of the chairs opposite of hers, that was behind the Oval Office’s desk.Dr. Greene took note that she did not sit, however.
“Madam President, is there a problem with the report,” he asked after a bit of a pause in the conversation.
She began to pace toward one of the windows; finally looking out of it when she got there.This was a behavior that the news media noted about the American president, and that it sometimes had put off foreign officials when she did this.Some speculated that it was a psychological tactic she used.
“Oh, no…nothing wrong with the report…Agent Dark Horse, as always, was very detailed and accurate in her own report she filed—”
“We visually documented the dismantling of the bi-pollices’ ship while capturing several—”
“And there, my young scientist, is where we have a problem!”She walked her way back to the desk and placed two fists atop it.“Did you not understand what Agent Dark Horse explained to you about the bi-pollex?America is at war with those things!I don’t care how they do things at the damn United Nations—we are not some hippies trying to get along with an alien species that’s out to commit genocide upon the human race by poisoning Earth’s waters!Why the hell did you order your security detail to detain the pollex instead of killing them like your superior told you to—”
“No disrespect to Agent Dark Horse, but she’s not my—”
“Son, anytime a Dark Horse is on the field with any agents of the Department, that agent is your superior…now that’s Congressional authorized policy, my friend!”
Dr. Greene thought it wise to hold his tongue at that point.She glared at him.She seemed to cool down a bit then took her own seat behind the huge desk of the Oval Office.
“Good job in figuring out how their ships operate, by the way, Agent,” the president said, begrudgingly, with a smirk!
Truth was, President Diaz and Dr. Greene were professional friends—which explained why he felt so comfortable interrupting the president in the first place!They met several years earlier, before the situation with the arrival of the bi-pollex, during her campaign when she ran for the US Senate.He did not share her political philosophy, but they became friends during town hall meetings and academic panels throughout the United States.Dr. Greene was always called upon by the American and foreign media companies to add as a counter-weight of classic scientific ideals against many of the more traditionalists in the US congress.Even back then, she’d only known him as Dr. Greene!
“Madam President,” he went on, after nodding a thanks to her on the compliment, “just like the Department is able to reverse engineer the pollices’ ship we found at Santiago, we can basically do the same with the rest of the captured pollex…without taking them apart, of course!”
She looked at her old friend with suspicious eyes.“Of course not…Greene, we already have several pollex in custody!And the Feds already have specialists studying the pollices’ language, their morphology…hell, even a bit of psychological experiments that some citizens would be out in the streets by the hundreds of thousands if they knew what we were doing!Look, I get where you’re coming from, Doc, but we’re now at war!We got what we need to reverse engineer those two-thumb-freaks; it’s time to utilize some of that science stuff for practical things now!”
“Your inter-galactic bigotry never ceases to amaze me—President Diaz,” Dr. Greene sardonically put.
That last line gave her a thought.“Speaking of which; did our agents playing astronomers out at MIT figure out where the pollex came from yet?”
Dr. Greene was already shaking his head.“Not that I’ve heard…this is the real world, Madam President.It’s not like in those sci-fi movies and books where your local aliens just pop up in our solar system from ten galaxies away!It would take, literally, over two million light-years to reach our Milky Way galaxy from the closest galaxy…and that’s just one way, Madam President!”
She froze and stared at him.“So, even if the pollex did all that science fictiony stuff with lightspeed, it would take them two-million-plus years just to reach our solar system—”
“Actually, the edge of our galaxy.But, yes!The way it works with Science, Madam President, is one works with Possibilities versus Probabilities, versus Likelihoods…now, I know you like to remind the public that you went to the old school of hard knocks, but I know even you can deduce from what we’re talking about seconds ago:The likelihood of the pollex flying a spaceship from the Andromeda system—two and a half million light-years, remember?—is, or is not likely?”
Dr. Greene’s informal classroom science lectures was the main reason why President Diaz had instructed her political aides to seek out and hire him for her government.His ability to breakdown complex subjects into manageable concepts stuck with her from years ago during those public debates before the bi-pollex arrival!
“I get your point, Greene…Listen, besides talking with you about what happened on Ramon mountain, there’s another reason why I asked you to come to DC…”
Now it was Dr. Greene’s turn to freeze!
She laughed.“It’s ok, Doc.Nothing bad, I promise.In fact, it’s something we talked about just a few minutes ago.How would you feel about heading up a new division within the Department that specializes in the research and application of bi-pollex technology?”
Dr. Greene’s head snapped out of surprised.“Madam President, I’m sure you remember that I’m an astrophysicist.I pretty much stumbled into figuring out the bi-pollices’ ship-designs and their resources because that Dark Horse agent and the rest of my team helped me through it!”
“Yeah, but you all were the first on the entire planet, Greene!First to find one of the pollices’ ships; first to get one working!”
Dr. Greene chuckled.The president was askance.“Aren’t you glad I convinced Agent Dark Horse not to blow it up, but try to use our enemy’s weapons against them?”
She held her palms up playfully in a surrendering gesture.“You definitely won that tussle, Dr. Greene.And that’s why I think you’d be the perfect person to head up this new division within the Department.You don’t have to be an engineer, in this case.You’ll be in charge of them.Plus, with your astrophysics background, you’ll be able to figure out what those damn disks can do in Earth’s atmosphere as well!
“And I say disks because, like you said, Dr. Greene, what’s the likelihood that ship hiding in Ramon mountain in Chile was the only ship the pollex used to get here?”
That got Dr. Greene’s attention.“You mean humans plan to use pollex-tech for our own usage?”
The politician slowly shook her head with a knowing grin.“Not, humans, in general, Dr. Greene…Americans in particular!”
She knew Dr. Greene’s politics where the opposite of hers.She watched for his reaction and was not disappointed.He was already vigorously shaking his mop-head.
“Madam President…I, I don’t think that’s such a good idea—”
“Why not, Greene?Look, the US has been working with other nations on this pollex-issue for years!Now that we’ve finally cracked their tech-code—thanks to you, we’ll—”
“Yeah, and a Chilean and a Russian helped this American to figure that code out, Madam President!And let’s not forget we gained access to that ship in Sierra de Ramon in the first place because the Chilean government gave us permission to set foot in their country!”
Just as Dr. Greene said that last word in his rebuttal, two burly White House guards came through a disguised door from one of the Oval Office’s walls!Armed and their countenance looked none too pleasing!
“Madam President,” the shorter of the two spoke, while his cohort walked closer to where Dr. Greene was sitting, “is everything alright?”
She seemed to relish in Dr. Greene’s obvious discomfort at seeing the officers.And seemed to purposefully let the situation linger…
“We’re doing great, Officer…in fact, you two can thank this young man, here, for doing a big service for America…he and some friends of his just advanced our country’s military superiority by decades!”
Both guards’ eyes cut to the hipster; slight in the chair he was seated in and avoiding the officers’ eyes.
“Thank you, Madam President,” the same officer said as the two men departed to the same, concealed door they had come from!
The Oval Office was awkwardly silent.Dr. Greene kept his head lowered while the president’s eyes were looking though one of the other windows.
“Greene, we’ve never been buddies or anything like that, but I still consider you a friend…I know you don’t see this, but, believe me it’s true.Other presidents we’ve had at this very desk would’ve had those very same guards arrest you for insubordination and posing a threat to the president—” He looked up at her from his stupor, and she continued, “—yes, raising your voice while in a confined space can be considered a threat to the president…but I’m letting this one go, Greene.
“All I ask, in exchange, is for your hand at helping me—actually, helping our fellow Americans, defeat the bi-pollex, and in the process secure America’s supremacy in the world…”
She looked upon him as if he were a wounded animal.Indeed, maybe it was not too far off!He wondered if she had pushed an emergency button, or if the guards were somehow monitoring their conversation and decided to step in.At that point, it didn’t matter.
“The water,” Dr. Greene said; his head yet lowered, not wanting to even look at the president at this point.Indeed, he felt betrayed.For, now, the president of the United States of America was basically blackmailing a scientist into producing a counter-defensive technology.A defensive project that said-scientist wanted nothing to do with!It was an old conflict between the sciences and those of the governance that went back, at least, as far as the Second World War!
At first, President Diaz frowned at Dr. Greene’s words.She, then, realized what subject he was switching to.
“What was the substance the pollex had been putting into bodies of water throughout various parts of Earth?”She got up from her seat and began to pace again.All the while, the president’s proper hair stiffly jolting as she shook her head.“Damn, I was kind of hoping you’d found out!Guess even geniuses have their limits, huh?”
He finally made eye-contact with her since her entrapping him.She had the nerves to smile at him.Dr. Greene’s head went back to its hiding place.
“Don’t worry, Dr. Greene, we have a full division devoted to that problem within the Department…they’ve made some progress, but…”
There was a phone call.President Diaz made the decision, upon her election, to never use a landline nor cordless phone.She always used encrypted smartphones…and this was another important meeting she had to conduct.Geo-political in nature.It was time for Dr. Greene to leave the Oval Office…
Hours Later… Baltimore-Washington International Airport…
Dr. Greene’s flight to Hawaii, by way of Los Angeles, finally made the boarding call for passengers.He retrieved his only luggage, a duffle bag, and joined the stretching line of passengers.It was an impromptu getaway he decided to treat himself after his failed-meeting with President Diaz!On his way out of the White House, Dr. Greene had received an encrypted text from the Department that he would be called on when needed, now that his job-description had changed.
His meeting with the president had already impacted the nature of his career all in a matter of minutes!Technically speaking, Dr. Greene was no longer a Terrestrial hunter, but now headed a division of engineering within the Department.Totally made up by President Diaz just hours ago!
Dr. Greene finally made it to the circulation desk for checking onto a flight when the clerk informed Dr. Greene of a change in his itinerary!
He argued with the clerk, ignoring complaints from the passengers behind him!That is, until she printed out an e-ticket for him to see for himself…
“Ankara, Turkey,” Dr. Greene said aloud!He studied the hard-copied e-ticket; making sure there weren’t any mistakes.He stepped out of the line, so the other passengers could finally board the flight to LAX, where he was supposed to be going for his defuncted getaway!
“Dr. Greene,” came an Eastern European, female voice.
He looked up from the ticket to find a young woman holding a professional-looking sign with “Dr. Greene” ascribed on it.She was around thirty and dressed in an old-school limousine driver’s uniform.He must have had one of those inquisitive looks he often did, because she chuckled at his reaction upon seeing her.
“I am your driver, Dr. Greene, per the Department’s order.”
He winced.When Dr. Greene had gotten the text about being contacted later for his new position, he figured he’d have a couple of days off…at the most!
He gave up and simply followed the young woman as she guided him to whatever new flight—
“Wait a minute,” Dr. Greene exclaimed as he had an epiphany!“Why the hell do I need a driver when I’m supposed to be flying to Turkey?”
His eyes were hard-set on the young woman; all those years of working as a clandestine agent making Dr. Greene’s natural instincts automatically suspicious!
“We are going to Ankara, Doctor.”
Again, he gave a puzzled look.She tsked while shaking her head and gently took him by one of his elbows.
“Dr. Greene, this airport is but one square on a chessboard…I am your Dark Horse-piece on that board!”
His head whipped in her direction as they walked toward another terminal.She grinned.
“Perhaps you weren’t informed that I am no longer a Hunter?”
“Oh, we know, Doctor.”
They, now, went down a long corridor; pedestrians populating the airport at every venue.
“Then, I don’t understand why I’m being sent to Turkey!”
She glanced around their surroundings then looked at Dr. Greene straight in the eyes.“We have fresh disks that have fallen from the sky in Turkey and Europe, Doctor…we’re in desperate need of The Engineer!”
fin
