Chapter 8:

The supersonic troop transport that Sam and Jack were riding in arrived in Washington D.C. at exactly 5:00 PM EST. Jack checked the date on the overhead viewscreen: it was the Fourth of July. Independence day. It was also five days after the day that Jack had been sent to assassinate Huo Yangwueruo.

The drop ship touched down on a landing pad on the top of a tall skyscraper. Jack, Sam, the squad of Special Forces soldiers and the pilot got out and stood in front of the transport. Jack surveyed the city around him.

DC was a big city, filled with soaring government skyscrapers and thousands of buzzing smog cleaner bots. On the ground there was a sprawling mass of traffic: hover cars and container trucks, motorcycles and hoverlimos. Because of all this, the government had been forced to create walkways for the pedestrians. There were also elevated roads for those who could pay the tolls. Helitaxis hovered everywhere, flying down now and then to pick up passengers. On the top of most buildings there were synthetic plants, solar panels and COM dishes. Jack tore his eyes away from the view as the metal that they stood on began to descend and the entire landing pad entered the skyscraper. When the landing pad had finished its descent a metal alloy covering slid over the open top of the skyscraper, blocking out the light.

Bright lights flickered on from the walls. There were three doors leading out of the garage and all of them had bright red signs saying, ‘Employees Only.’ Just then, one of the doors slid open and a bot with a large head and rather spindly arms and legs walked out. “I have orders to bring Mr. Andrill and Mr. Spirenzi to my master,” it said. Jack and Sam walked towards it.

The bot then turned to the Special Forces squad and the pilot of the transport, “You are to go to Briefing Room 17,” it said as it keyed in the access code for the door and motioned Sam and Jack to follow it.

- - -

The Commander-in-Chief and Mr. Spiron both sat at the metal alloy table in the small, metal meeting room where they would meet Andrill and Spirenzi. The Commander-in-Chief was typing on his wrist computer and Mr. Spiron was talking to someone on his earpiece. They both stopped when a mechanical voice said, “Mr. Andrill and Mr. Spirenzi to see you.”

The Commander-in-Chief sighed and motioned for Sam and Jack to take a seat, which they did. The bot left the room, closing the door behind it.

“First, let me introduce myself: I am the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and the man next to me is Mr. Spiron, who is head of the ATSF,” said the Commander-in-Chief, “You are, of course, probably wondering why you were brought here of all places. The answer is long and complicated, but it would suffice to say that it is a matter of the highest importance to the US government. I trust that whatever we say in this room will not leave it. Are we in agreement?”

Sam and Jack nodded.

“Very well. I have decided that you need to know this because I think that you probably have a lot questions about why certain things happened. After all that you have gone through, it would be an insult for me not to answer those questions. And now to begin: When you were taken captive on the Chinese orbital space station, Mr. Spirenzi, I trust that you wondered why they did not keep you there as they had originally planned? Yes, I thought so; the reason is that when they tried to interrogate you, they saw evidence of something in your brain that surprised them very much. So much, in fact, that they decided that you were more important than any normal prisoner of war and shipped you to a high security establishment where they could examine you more closely. Luckily for us, Mr. Andrill stopped them and they never got a chance to run a Neuro test on you. If they had, they would have discovered something we call a Recordadicium Implant or an RDI for short. RDIs are something that we just recently learned how to do. Basically, an RDI is a piece of information stored in someone’s brain. It is the ultimate protection for something, because the only way to get the information back is to know the exact metabolism, weight and vital statistics of the patient and you must have a facility that can do brain surgery.” The Commander-in-Chief paused for a moment, “Do you get what I’m saying so far?”

Jack nodded and Sam said, “So, basically, I have information of some kind in my brain?”

Mr. Spiron spoke for the first time, “Yes,” he said.

“I have three questions then: what is the information in my brain, why did you choose me for it and when did you put it in my head?” asked Sam.

“To answer your second and last question, we chose you randomly. It had to be that way for the information to be kept in the highest secrecy. We put it in your head about a month ago when you went to the doctor to fix a broken arm.”

Sam frowned; the things that the Commander-in-Chief had said so far were making him annoyed. “Are you saying that you put something in my brain without asking me?” he said angrily.

“Yes. I’m sorry it had to be that way, but, as I said earlier, this information is of absolute importance to us.”

“What is it about then?”

“For that you should ask Mr. Spiron, as he was one of the people who designed it,” said the Commander-in-Chief, nodding at Mr. Spiron.

Mr. Spiron sighed. “What we implanted in your brain are blueprints of something several people from AFETD (Armed Forces Experimental Technologies Division) intend to create. Something we call, ‘Sunstrike.’ Sunstrike is an experimental orbital weapon that harnesses the power of the sun; basically it’s like a giant lightgun. You know how they work, I’m sure: a special kind of light magnified so it’s super hot and the resulting beam can cut through almost anything. Sunstrike takes this technology to a new level; it magnifies sunlight to such a high degree that it would be capable of taking entire countries off the map. Also, the beam that Sunstrike would generate could be changed in size: we could successfully decimate entire cities or just one single human being.”

Sam didn’t like what he was hearing. In fact he didn’t like this entire meeting at all. The Commander-in-Chief and Mr. Spiron had implanted something in his brain without his consent and they now seemed to think that he was fine with it!

Sam was about to say something when Jack suddenly spoke, “That seems like a great idea and everything but wouldn’t the orbital platform be pretty easy to detect and destroy?”

“ Yes, it would, and that is the reason that something like this has not been developed earlier. However, new advances in stealth technologies enable us to make Sunstrike invisible to any known kind of radar and nearly invisible to the human eye. The only way to know where it is in its orbit around the earth is to know the exact trajectory of its launch, which, of course, we would keep secret. Also, Sunstrike gets power for its magnifier from the solar panels that cover it, so it’s completely self-supporting.”

The anger that had bottled up in Sam suddenly burst out. “Are you telling me that I was chased around China by a bunch of rabid Chinese people just so you guys could build a new super weapon?!” shouted Sam. “What the heck is your problem!? I almost died, you hear that, died!”

“We’re sorry for your inconvenience,” said the Commander-in-Chief.

“Inconvenience!” snorted Sam angrily.

The Commander-in-Chief paused for a second and then continued, “But with all due respect, let me remind you, if the Chinese had not seen something strange in your brain they would not have taken you off their orbital space station and you would probably still be there, a prisoner of war.”

Sam swore loudly. He could, however, see that the Commander-in-Chief was right. He contented himself with savagely kicking the chair next to him. “So what happens to us now?” he asked.

“Both of you will receive a medal for your service to the United States government and money equal to the amount of salary you would have gotten had you been present at your jobs in the last six days. We can then arrange a brain surgery for Mr. Spirenzi and after that, free transportation for you to wherever you want to go.”

Jack shrugged. “I’m about ready for that,” he said. Sam nodded his agreement.

“Very well, when you leave this room turn right and a bot will be waiting to show you where you can get transport back to your homes.

- - -

Two days later the security camera recorded another meeting between the Commander-in-Chief and Mr. Spiron. All that you have to do to find the record of this meeting is search the archives and click the fourth item that comes up. The meeting went something like this:

“Ah, sweet, sweet victory, Mr. Spiron.”

“The war is hardly over.”

“It will be soon. We will eradicate the Chinese like rats once we have Sunstrike.”

“An interesting metaphor, Commander.” (Brief pause) “But remember, Sunstrike still needs to be built before we can use it.”

“Of course.”

“How are Spirenzi and Andrill fitting back into their old lives?”

“Very well. In fact, Andrill has been promoted and Spirenzi has successfully delivered another cargo to the moon colonies.”

“That’s good. I have gotten rather fond of them.”

“I know what you mean, Spiron, I know what you mean.”

“When should we meet again?”

“I think after the first stage of Sunstrike has been built. After all, Sunstrike is the very reason we set up these meetings.”

“Very well.”

This recording ends.

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